Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1416 Chile's Progress ([-])

It is said that after parting with Guo Zili in Xingnan Port, Mao Desheng returned to Araucan Port by train.The previous trip was quite satisfactory to him, and he basically achieved his goal, that is, he got an order from the Ministry of the Navy for the construction of a "Polaris" class light cruiser and an "Osamu" class frigate , which is crucial to Pacific Shipyards, which has been trying to catch up and surpass the three "predecessors" in recent years.After all, whether or not a military ship can be built is, in the eyes of many people, a watershed in the technical strength of a shipyard. If the Pacific Shipyard can successfully complete the construction of two warships and pass the acceptance of the Ministry of the Navy, it will be of great importance to the future development of the factory. Sex cannot be exaggerated no matter how high it is.

The factory has also prepared the materials for the construction of the two ships. The keel is made of tropical wood imported from Peru. It has strong toughness, high hardness, and the core material is resistant to corrosion and insects. It is quite good. It has been dried in the shade for many years, and it can be used just right.As for the ship's ribs, ship boards and interior materials, they are almost ready. There are all kinds of pine and fir, but the most is beech-this is also a specialty of Fuego and the cold mountains in southern Chile. It is very suitable for shipbuilding, and it is also the Pacific Ocean. Shipyards have been the material of choice for shipbuilding over the years.

Considering that these ships are likely to perform various tasks in tropical seas in the future, the Admiralty has put forward new requirements for the design of the bottom of these ships, that is, they require that the bottom of the ship be wrapped with thin fir boards coated with hair or wood tar, In order to prevent the bottom of the ship from being attached by weeds and barnacles, which will cause sea maggots to damage the bottom of the ship, Pacific Shipyard is also planning to invite technicians from Dayuhe Factory to teach them and strictly follow their procedures.As for wrapping the bottom of the ship with thin copper plates to prevent these problems, it is not impossible, but the cost is a little high, so it is not popular in the east coast of China, and it can even be said to be very rare.

The train that Mao Desheng took stopped and stopped, and finally it took more than two days to arrive at the port of Araucan-this is much faster than the dangerous 8-15-day voyage across the Strait of Magellan-and then in Accompanied by his entourage, he inspected the Pacific Shipyard, an enterprise under the Southern Railway with nearly [-] technicians, craftsmen and apprentices.

The factory has benefited from the heavy investment of the Southern Railway Corporation in recent years, not only the rapid growth of technical strength, but also the replacement of this equipment is quite unusual.Not only did they import a number of machines from the No. 1 Heavy Machinery Factory, including the first to third generations of the "Blacksmith" series, but they also specially asked people to help design a lot of wind power machines to make use of the explosively abundant wind resources in the Southern Cone region. This can be seen from the industrial windmills scattered all over the southern cone-grinding, wrought iron, smashing stones, sawing wood, and lifting water are almost everywhere without using industrial windmills.

There are now four large-scale industrial windmills in the Pacific Shipyard's factory area, all of which are more than 60 horsepower. They are mainly used for sawing wood and draining seawater in the dock. The efficiency is not lower than that of steam power, but the cost is much cheaper.Of course, their industrial windmills are not easy to copy elsewhere, because apart from the southern Patagonia region, the wind in other places on the east coast is not only not strong enough, but also quite unstable, which is not as strong as it is blowing all year round. Araucan County, which is in the westerly wind, undoubtedly greatly limits the application and promotion of industrial windmills in other areas.

Mao Desheng looked at the whirring industrial windmill, and when he became interested, he led someone to push open the low wooden door and entered the central shaft room inside the industrial windmill.This industrial windmill is now rumbling, driving five huge saws to cut logs back and forth. Mao Desheng observed that the sources of its parts are complicated, but most of them are wooden structures, perhaps for the sake of cost savings.Only some of the pole core components are steel, but the pivots are made of the finest American greenheart hardwood pulled from Porto Seguro because it is hard, wear-resistant, and cheap, which is great for the industry. very critical to production.

The technician who manages the industrial windmill introduced to Mao Desheng that this kind of industrial windmill is used for sawing wood during the day, and can be used to drain seawater in the dock at night, and it can also draw fresh water from deep wells and supply water through fire hoses (made of rubber). Duandi has multiple functions, low price and good quality-compared with the system driven by steam power, the total investment is 10-20% cheaper-and the daily operation cost is lower, after all, it is driven by wind and does not need to burn coal or firewood.

In addition to timber, the Pacific Shipyard cannot produce too many other parts and can only import from the local area, because the industrial base of the southern cone area is not as good as that of the northern core area.There are a large number of these parts, from heavy anchor chains and ballast stones to relatively light skins, cables, canvas and other equipment, and even compass, candlesticks, tableware, and hammocks have to be purchased from Luocha County one by one. It is also troublesome.However, for the Chilean region, there is a large-scale and high-end shipyard, which is more important than anything else, especially when there are extremely rich fishery resources in the area, isn't it?

After visiting the Pacific Shipyard, Mao Desheng did not delay too much. On the second day, he took a whaling ship of the Southern Railway Company and headed north to Maolin Port. On the way, he inspected the cultivation of improved potato varieties at the Seed Cultivation Center of Qingfeng County. (the local potato genetic resources are very rich, after all, it is the original birthplace of potatoes on this planet) - and arrived at Maolin Port, a famous Southeast Pacific trading port city, on the afternoon of September 1665, 9.

The development of Maolin Port over the years cannot be said to be bad, but it is indeed not very good, and it is gradually showing signs of stagnation.On the one hand, this is due to the slowdown in the business growth of the Southern Railway Company, and on the other hand, due to the opening of other ports, Maolin City has lost the monopoly trade status it relied on to make a fortune, so it is normal for it to gradually decline.And once this former smuggling trading city built in a barren land declines, the popularity here will be lost quite quickly. Don't you see, a large number of Spanish and Mestizo businessmen packed their bags and returned to Valparaiso, Lima, Kiev, etc. After Duowai continued to do business, the number of colonists here dropped by [-] to [-]% in a few years, which is extremely shocking.

The Spaniards and Mestizos have decreased, but the East Coast has not decreased at all.For example, Maolin Port, which was originally occupied by a large number of people from the east coast illegally crossing the border, after a large number of Spaniards left, the gap left by them was quickly filled by people from the east coast. The Vonia people poured in here, while opening up wasteland, logging, and fishing, they also continued to extend the tentacles of the Southern Railway Company to nearby areas——

According to the latest data from the Southern Railway Company, in recent years, immigrants from the east coast have formed a number of settlements nearby, namely Lutai Township near the later Calbuco Port and Beijo near the later Cochamo Township. Township, Anling Township near the small town of Rio Negro in later generations, Zaoqiang Township near Puerto Ramirez in Later Mountains, and Gonggao Township, a settlement formed spontaneously inland. ——Located near the later town of Los Muermos.

These five newly established settlements are all new territories that have been gradually expanded by the Southern Railway Corporation's immigrants under the noses of the Spanish colonists over the years (except for Zaoqiang Township, they are all located within the territory of the Kingdom of Spain).The Spaniards also once wanted to control the unscrupulous cross-border reclamation behavior of the East Coast people, but with the continuous efforts of the Southern Railway Company and the government of the China East Coast Republic behind them, these cross-border reclamation behaviors still persisted tenaciously, and it seems that the In the immigration competition with the Spaniards, they won a complete victory. In the south-central region of Chile, the population of Spaniards and Mestizos is undoubtedly a negative growth, while the population of the East Coast is a positive growth.

In all fairness, although the climate in southern Chile is humid and cold (this can be seen from the widespread coniferous forests, there are very rare temperate coniferous forests in southern Chile), with more precipitation, and the British Isles in the northern hemisphere Some are similar, but the fertility of the soil is really not low.This is probably due to the densely packed volcanic groups in Chile. The eruptions of the volcanoes over the years have brought sufficient nutrients to the soil in the central and southern regions of Chile, and the crops planted have extremely high yields. Therefore, although it is relatively humid and cold all year round , but as far as the Southern Railway Company has been investigating over the years, the yields of wheat, rye, barley, potatoes, sweet potatoes, alfalfa, radishes and other crops are not low, and it can definitely be called a good agricultural area.

And this is the cold and humid south of Chile. If it is in the sunny central valley—such as Santiago, Chillan, and Temuco—the fertile soil, the beautiful environment, and the meandering river, everything, everything, All of these have created excellent conditions for agricultural production and development, and it is indeed the main producing area of ​​Chile's famous grain, fruit, wine and livestock in later generations, which is quite famous.It's a pity that the Spaniards never took such a fertile land well. Except for a few small silver mines in Chile, they felt that everything else was insignificant.But the people on the east coast are farmers, not miners. They care more about the agricultural areas that can bring grains, fruits and meat to everyone. Therefore, it is conceivable that in the future, immigrants from the east coast will erode from southern Chile to the north step by step. The meaning is, who told you that the Kingdom of Spain has few people at all in such a vast land?The land in the world is originally home to "virtuous people". This is also the philosophy that people on the east coast have always upheld.

It is conceivable that if the East Coast Republic of China wants to become a complete two-ocean country in the future (although it is almost there now), it is impossible to give up the relatively fertile central and southern regions of Chile.Moreover, because of the control of the Pacific Ocean, the Chilean region will also develop a relatively complete industrial system to support the grand ambitions of the people on the east coast towards the Pacific Ocean.It can be said that Chile is also one of the core areas in the future east coast territory. Although it may suffer from earthquakes and volcanic eruptions from time to time, you can’t initiate investment and construction in Chile just because of these, right? Otherwise, how can you dominate the Pacific Ocean?

"The settlements in the southern part of Chile can be set up step by step. It doesn't need to be too dense, and the local environment and climate must be taken into account. Regarding this aspect, the National Development Bureau is an expert, and they will give us sound suggestions." Stayed in Maolin City In a small villa in the suburbs, Mao Desheng, the president of the Southern Railway, took off his coat and scarf, opened the wine cabinet, poured himself a glass of wine imported from Chile, and said to his subordinates: "This is not in line with the Spaniards. It is done on our own land. Southern Chile is densely covered with islands and rich in fishery resources, whether it is whale, horse mackerel, salmon or freshwater trout, the output is very large, so don’t think that there is barren land, the design Settlements still need to be set up, but the number of people should not be too large, and a few hundred people in each settlement is about the same.”

As soon as Mao Desheng came up, he proposed the programmatic things for the future development of the Southern Cone region, so everyone put down their busy things and listened carefully, only to hear President Mao continue to say: "Our most important human resources , or put it on the Maolin Port side! Now Qingfeng, Qinghe, and Guanhai counties are struggling initially, and there is a certain amount of output that can support external expansion, so we will gradually spread our immigrants to Maolin The area around the mouth of the river, and even continue northward beyond Puerto Barrios (later Puerto Montt) and deep into the southern valley suitable for farming, are the goals we should work hard for. I don’t know how many people the Kingdom of Spain has in Chile, but after After so many years of war, especially when the Araucans suffered a large number of losses, the total number must be less than 20, and the number of Peninsulars and Mestizos is even smaller. Facing such a good situation , I think we no longer need to hide our attitude. The pace of cross-border reclamation must be accelerated. The local Spanish colonial officials will buy what they can, and leave them alone if they can’t. They are not a threat to us at all. What really restricts our development in Chile is the relatively small population here. At least in the short term, we don’t see the possibility of sending people here on a large scale. But even so, we have to Try our best to do a good job here, and once we completely take over this land in the future, we can immediately start a large-scale immigration operation."

Mao Desheng's words actually revealed from one aspect the dilemma that the Southern Cone region is facing today, that is, the number of immigrants allocated is too small.If it is said that two or three thousand immigrants from the mainland occasionally migrated to Southern Patagonia many years ago, it has almost completely stopped in the past ten years. The immigration in the Southern Cone region is supplemented by South Pacific immigrants who are almost entirely supported by themselves. The route, and the degree of difficulty of this route, probably only those who have been running this route all year round can understand.

(End of this chapter)