Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1356 The Monarchs of South Africa ([-])

The rain was getting heavier and heavier, until the whole sky was completely white.

Wearing a bamboo hat and a raincoat, McKinley inspected carefully in front of a built embankment to see if there was any problem with the quality of the project.This is a section of reservoir embankment, and it is also the road from the township government to the river wharf and the military camp. The total length is only a few hundred meters, and all roads are paved with gravel and fine sand to ensure that the quality is above the horizontal line.

It was a group of nearby black tribal people who built the dam. After being conquered by immigrants from the east bank, they were naturally caught on various construction sites as coolies and consumables.I don’t know whether it’s because the environment in Yicheng area is too harsh or because the work is too heavy and the living conditions are too poor. The death rate of the local black laborers is quite high. Diseases, servitude, and snakes and insects are the main reasons for their deaths. As a result, the slave escape incident broke out every three days, which caused a lot of headaches.

December is definitely the rainy season (and hot season) in Mozambique, with 70% of the year's rainfall concentrated in this season.The Ue Seng area established by the Dongan people is under the influence of the humid southeast trade wind, and the precipitation is characterized by torrential rain, which is not very favorable from the point of view of soil water absorption.Torrential rains wash away the surface of the soil, destroy buildings (mainly adobe thatched houses and wooden houses in the early colonial period), and flood lowlands—especially in coastal areas, where the heaviest rainstorms are often concentrated, accompanied by thunder and strong winds (Ni Seng Port About one-third of the rainy days are thunderstorm days), and sometimes a heavy rainstorm can reach 200 mm of precipitation, which is amazing.Fortunately, the heaviest rainstorms are often in the second half of summer (often not in the month with the most precipitation), and the current Nyi Seng Port is still under a relatively "gentle" prelude. In this regard, I have settled here for a year and a half of East Coast immigrants already know something.

This is Huatai Township, which is located near the small town of Boane in later generations, on the north bank of the Huahe River (that is, the Umbrucci River). It is the most inland stronghold in the Yicheng area.

Although the latitude of Huatai Township is subtropical, the surrounding terrain is undoubtedly a typical savannah. The soil is red brown soil, which is a variant of non-leaching soil or calcareous soil. The temperature is 26 degrees Celsius and the rainfall is about 800 nautical meters.Although the organic matter layer of this kind of soil is not thick, it is fertile because of its high mineral content, which can be seen from the sorghum harvest grown by the local natives.

There are some swampy soils and alluvial soils on both sides of the river, but they cannot be used effectively for farming. Unless you build infrastructure to repair reservoirs, canals and dams, you can only use them for grazing in the dry season—the difference from the swamps in coastal areas is that , these inland swamps are mostly seasonal, muddy in the rainy season and grassy in the hot sun in the dry season.These swamps themselves are actually the products of river flooding, which in turn become natural runoff regulators. The people on the east bank have a lot of land, and they are not yet embarrassed enough to reclaim the swamps.

Today is December 1663, 12, Christmas in the West. However, in the hot Yicheng area, the local residents have just prepared the corn in the field, and then hurried to the Taoist temple in the village—the merciful Taoist priests are distributing free medicines to people, including common medicines such as aspirin, as well as new medicines such as Fengyoujing, qingliangyou, and wind-dispelling oil. The latter three are especially popular in the Nghe Seng area.

McKinley had just finished receiving his share in the Taoist temple, and thanks to the generosity of Tianzun, these poor people living in remote and wild places can also get a little comfort.As a cadre exchanged from Xinhua Island, the acting mayor of Huatai Township, McKinley, is the highest official in the locality. He is also the Minister of Armed Forces of the township. In addition to arranging the normal reclamation affairs of the township, he can also command the [-] islands stationed nearby. The soldiers of the Eight Banners—these Malays have also converted to believe in Tianzun on a large scale in recent years. For this reason, their trust has increased by a level, and their equipment and treatment have also improved. Correspondingly, their morale and combat effectiveness are naturally not the same as before. comparable.

In fact, to be honest, on the African continent like the Yicheng area, people on the east coast still dare to use these natives of Xinhua Island, because they are not local aborigines, and their skin color is similar to that of people on the east coast. The local Tonga blacks (a branch of the Bantu people) are not all the way at all (on the contrary, they are closer to the east coast in terms of race and skin color), so it is perfect to act as the thugs of the east coast people's expansion in the Yicheng area .

However, generally speaking, the Eight Banners native soldiers on the island are not often used. The local Tonga people live scattered and have a low level of civilization. Compared with the Xhosa people, their combat effectiveness is far behind. After the second time, they have now consciously moved away from the vicinity of various east bank settlements and given up the land.

Facts have also proved that the Tonga people occupying such fertile land is itself the biggest waste.These people's agricultural skills are extremely poor, and there are almost no water conservancy facilities. Therefore, after driving them away, the people on the east coast only received some rough and tidy farmland (there are also many stones and tree roots in the farmland) , They have to spend a lot of manpower and material resources to build reservoirs, otherwise, once the dry season comes when the precipitation is low and evaporation is strong, there is a high probability that there will be troubles in farmland irrigation. In many cases, there may even be problems with drinking water for humans and animals. During the dry season, the blacks would go to the bottom of the dry riverbed to find the remaining pools of water, and would anyone even drink the stinky water in the cave?Therefore, in order to develop agriculture in areas like Yicheng, where precipitation varies greatly in seasonality, it is inevitable to build large-scale water conservancy facilities, and this is obviously the focus of McKinley's work for a while.

"It rains in the rainy season and the sky is dark, but a lot of it is wasted. It's a pity. Once the dry season comes, the rainfall drops sharply and the evaporation increases greatly. We need to build a reservoir." McKinley plunged into a wooden post, looked at the whiteness outside, and said with a sigh.

Before the rainy season, the people on the east bank used a large number of captured Tonga slaves to dig a lot of cisterns. The cisterns were opened up using some natural swamps or miniature lakes. The main reason is the lack of building materials— —To be more precise, it is the lack of lime, cement, and masonry—at this time, the rainwater pouring down from the sky has filled the bottom of the reservoir, and the large swamp between the slide and the river is gradually occupied by water. Sliding River, it seems that sooner or later it will be integrated.

"Although the reservoir has not been completed, at least a considerable part of the water body will be left. The scattered corn, banana, and rice fields will not be unsustainable in the dry season." McKinley sat down on a pine log. On the made chair, he said while calling for the people below to serve him tea.

"Someone is coming, someone is coming, it's Lieutenant Mao Jun Mao!" The watchman on the sentry tower suddenly shouted, and McKinley, who was drinking yerba mate, jumped up when he heard the sound, and rushed up the watchtower After looking at it, I saw a troop coming from a distance. They were struggling on the slippery river in a small wooden boat. The draft of the wooden boat was not shallow, and it seemed to be fully loaded with various supplies.

"Take someone to meet him." McKinley casually ordered one of his subordinates, then put on his bamboo hat again, and rushed into the rain.These are the fleets that transport materials from Yicheng Port to Huatai Township (usually when the river floods the large swamps on both sides of the river in the rainy season and the water level rises), which is what hundreds of residents of Huatai Township most look forward to seeing during the rainy season. As the highest local official, McKinley had to greet him both emotionally and rationally.

"Captain Mao, it's hard work for you to come here under such heavy rain." After seeing a man get out of the cabin, McKinley immediately stepped forward and said sincerely: "I heard that you were in the The area around Lingchang Township (the newly established settlement, located near the small town of Bellavista in later generations) was injured, how is it going, how is your body recovering?"

"I'm not recovering well, can I escort you supplies?" Mr. Mao laughed when he heard this, stepped forward to hold McKinley's hands, and said with a smile: "The Zulu people on the banks of the Matola River can't do anything to me yet. , They are not qualified to take my Mao's life. However, that spear did almost kill me. Damn, brothers also killed or injured dozens of people. It's really unlucky. Now there are only The main thing is to stick to the defense. More than 700 local residents have been rushing to build the fort day and night, and they don’t even care about reclaiming the farmland. Commissioner Qiu Haiyangqiu has already brought a thousand soldiers of the Eight Banners of the island. There should be no major problems there hinder."

Mr. Mao is in his twenties this year. He graduated from the Infantry Department of the Dingyuan Army Military Academy. He was born in the second generation and has been developing in the army system. The Chenggang garrison (tentatively set at 300 people, and the military salary and supplies are "sponsored" by the New China Pioneering Team) can be regarded as officers with real power. It's too much happiness.

However, last month, this gentleman arrived in Lingchang Township with 52 newly recruited officers and soldiers who had not been trained for a long time to assist them in driving out the local Zulu-speaking black tribe. Casualties were heavy ([-] people were killed, missing or injured successively), even the captain of the garrison, Mao Jun, was stabbed with a spear (fortunately, he didn't get tetanus), which was regarded as a blow to the people on the east coast.Now the administrative commissioner Qiu Haiyang also rushed to the place to take command, and asked the Xinhua Island to dispatch "hundreds" of experienced officers and soldiers to support, so as to quickly defeat the ancestors entrenched near Lingchang Township. Lu tribe, so as not to affect the people on the east bank's pioneering and reclamation there.

"These Zulus are so fierce?" McKinley sighed a little, it was the first time he heard about this, and he found it a little inconceivable, "Yicheng, Sanyuanli and the Tonga people on our skating platform are easy to deal with. There are too many, as long as the number of people in the frontal battle is not very different, the Eight Banners of the Island can basically win every time. Not only has the threat of war been lifted, but even many prisoners have been captured as labor. Comparing the hatchback, it really is ours It’s cool, Lingchang Township, hey, let’s take your time. On both sides of the Matola River, I remember that there are all Zulu-speaking tribes. If these people are some organized and fighting tribes, then They're in big trouble, and they have to think of another way."

"Actually, it's not as fierce as I imagined. The main reason is that the training time of the soldiers in the garrison is still short, and their physical fitness and strength are not even as good as those of the Zulu blacks. Those Danjia fishermen had poor physical fitness when they were in Guangdong. The hard life has emptied the body, and it is really not suitable for enlistment into the army. There were even many who could not persist in the training. In the future, the defense team will gradually replace these people. Try to use good families as the army, and this should never happen again. The second army collapsed." Mao Jun said with some embarrassment and helplessness, "Don't stand here, unload the goods quickly, Mayor Mai, there are quite a lot of supplies."

This fleet has a total of more than 50 small boats, most of which are loaded with construction materials (shipped from Xinhua County), in addition to a small amount of grain, cured meat, salted fish, and 108 medicinal wines. Even on the last two boats, sharp-eyed wheat Jinlai also found a lot of military boots, water bottles, ammunition bags, bayonets, gun barrels and gunpowder.

"How come there are so many ordnance?" McKinley was a little puzzled. He was never told to accept such a batch of ordnance. Could it be that they have to form a garrison here in Huatai Township?It shouldn't be. There are only more than 800 immigrants here. They simply cannot form a large-scale garrison, and they cannot afford these full-time soldiers. So what are these ordnance used for?

"It's not for your use. First unload it and put it in the warehouse. Later, you will have a group of Ottoman Gani Shari officers and soldiers with a number of about 80. Most of their families are scattered in Sanyuanli, Yicheng, and Ling." Chang and even the Comoros Islands, well, you will also place [-] to [-] people here." Mao Jun looked at it and said casually, "They are all poor people who came in exile from the Ottoman Empire, and their fighting skills are still there. Commanding. The meaning of the above is to send them to the Yicheng area and let them help us fight against the Tonga and Zulu people, so as to gradually clear up a large area of ​​land for more and more immigrants to settle and open up wasteland in the future. .”

Speaking of this, Mao Jun also subconsciously looked around, and then said mysteriously: "This time when tens of thousands of local immigrants arrived in New China, Captain Ma Wanpeng ordered to detain more than 5000 immigrants from Huai'an Prefecture, many of whom were A person with a strong body. What Captain Ma means is that the overseas territories have paid so much, so they will naturally get some benefits. In the past two years, the whole island has not intercepted immigrants, but now he can’t continue to suppress them. Therefore, this year, 5000 people have been detained. Among the 1000 people, as far as I know, more than 200 people will come to live in Yicheng area, plus the [-] immigration quota that can be legally detained in Yicheng area, the total will exceed [-]. Therefore, continue Expansion to the inland area has become inevitable. The [-] officers and soldiers of the Ganisari Army who came this time are just here to fight the front station, and these ordnance are actually for them, and have nothing to do with you, don’t think too much about it.”

"It's good, why did you suddenly think of expanding to the inland areas? Didn't the previous opinions of the regional administrative office say that the coastal areas should be developed first? The surrounding area of ​​Yicheng Port is suitable for growing coconuts, cashew nuts, sugar cane and rice. Lingchang Township is also known as Cashew nuts and rice are mainly planted. Our side grows bananas, sugar cane, cashew nuts and corn. Sanyuanli mainly grows cashew nuts, sugar cane, rice and tobacco. Commissioner Qiu said this more than once at the regional work conference Right? He also asked us not to be so ambitious, but to be steady and steady, and not to cause unnecessary losses due to excessive expansion. How will this change the direction of the wind? There are only more than 800 immigrants in Huatai Township, and the food is still scarce. If you can’t fully yourself, why do you have to welcome so many immigrants all of a sudden, and you still want to continue to expand to the inland areas, what’s the matter? What’s going on?” McKinley just heard Mao Jun Having said that, he suddenly became a little uneasy, so he asked each other.

"Actually, it's nothing to tell you. To put it simply, coal has been discovered about a hundred kilometers west of your place, and the expedition team has issued a report, clearly pointing out that the coal seam there is extremely shallow and easy to mine. And The most important thing is that the coal there is high-quality anthracite and bituminous coal." Lieutenant Mao Jun, who was sorting out the wooden box containing the bayonet, said helplessly to McKinley.And his words undoubtedly made our Mayor Mai Da fell into a sluggish moment.

(End of this chapter)