Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1480 He Jian (21)

Inigo looked at his new residence with satisfaction, unwilling to look away for a long time.

Houses are made of stone, which is quite a luxury in the Hejian area, because there is not enough labor in the local area, and these polished standard stone materials need to be imported from other places, which is very expensive.The stone used in Inigo's house was imported from the quarry operated by Mr. Zhu on the east bank of the Wujiang River. There is a lot of marble in it. It can be seen that Inigo has strong financial resources and an attitude of not sparing money when building houses.

The house is two stories high, and there is a balcony on the second floor. What Inigo likes to do most is to stand on the balcony and watch the mighty Paraná River and the hurried pedestrians on the street below. .He thinks this is much more interesting than fighting and killing in the Southern Netherlands and Germany. The comfortable life seems to have gradually worn down his fighting spirit, and he can't even remember the last time he picked up a rapier. How many months has it been?

There are some kettles and flowerpots such as rue and tansy on the balcony, and some plants or flowers are planted in the open space around the villa, especially the passionflower brought from Spain, which may be very adaptable to the climate. Climb to the second floor window.This is all the work of the hostess, the daughter of a poor Croatian immigrant living in the river area, of course she is now a native of the east bank, and she chose the east bank with her husband Inigo before the river handover Nationality, now officially disassociated from the Kingdom of Spain.

The room was very high, at least three meters long, rough painted with lime, but lacked decorations such as tapestries and murals, and of course they couldn’t afford to decorate them, so there were only some ordinary landscape paintings hanging on the walls, obviously A batch of crudely made products for the painters of the St. Luke's Guild in the Netherlands who came to the east bank to seek a living.Among so many paintings, the only one that paid some money was probably the portraits of himself and his adoptive father, Captain Aratrist. Because it was a custom painting, it was expensive, but it seemed worth it.

The stairs and the roof are made of bricks and tiles, the stairs are covered with straw mats, and the rafters, slates, and roof tiles are all exposed. The money was used for renovations.There is a small steeple-shaped attic on the roof, which is probably the only part with Spanish elements in the whole villa. The view from the attic is good, and you can see far away.Moreover, it is ironic that because the attic of Inigo's house is the tallest building in Qingyuan Town, a newly established town, and faces the big river, the officials in the town forced an east bank flag to be planted on the ground. This is very eye-catching.

Qingyuan Town is the county seat of Qingyuan County specially approved by the executive committee. The county has jurisdiction over Qingyuan Town, Yongfu Township, Dali Township (located near the small town of Nogoya in later generations), and Yongli Township (located near the small town of Aranguren in later generations) ) four settlements and is the 68th county-level administrative unit in the country.The county has a small population, a poor economy, and a lot of waste. It is not qualified to be a county. However, with the help of the handover of the Hejian area, the State Development Bureau is determined to increase investment in this area, so as to build it into an eastern city. Because of the large granary on the coast and the land of fish and rice, several counties were set up in one go. This is the case in Baosai County, and the same is true in Qingyuan County.

Of course, in the north of Qingyuan County, the people from the east coast also established Weirong County, which will reach Santa Fe City, the hub town of the Spaniards in the La Plata area.Weirong County has four settlements under the jurisdiction of Jiacheng Township (located near the later city of Paraná), Weirong Township, Tongchang Township (located near the later town of Crespo), and Jiaochuan Township (located near the later town of Viale) Point, the county seat is in Jiacheng Town, the population and economy are the same as Qingyuan County, maybe even a little worse, it was established entirely by taking advantage of this Dongfeng, and it can be regarded as the 69th county-level administrative unit in the country, but the water is too big. up.

On the other side of the sub-region of the delta, that is, along the west bank of the Wujiang River, the State Development Bureau also established some new settlements this time, including Yizhen Township (located near the later town of Urdinarrain), Hongmiao Township (located in the later Gobernador Mansilla Township) Town), Qingmen Township (located near the later city of Rosario del Tara), Baisha Township (located near the later town of Herrera), Guihu Township (located near the later city of Biaguay), a total of The five settlements are expected to house more than [-] second-generation nationals, non-nationals and new immigrants in the first batch. In the future, some county-level administrative units will be established according to the division of regions to accelerate the development of this fertile estuary delta sub-region , making it a land of fish and rice for people on the east coast as soon as possible.

From the dense establishment of these settlements above, it can be seen that the executive committee is probably serious about developing the newly acquired land in Hejian, because the land here is so fertile and the climate is really suitable for doing business. It is agricultural, and the traffic conditions are really superior. Apart from the great potential for flooding, everything is fine.

As for the flood, which is a sharp sword hanging over the heads of the people in the river, the Executive Committee does not have a plan. They intend to increase the previous 50-year plan of investing 1000 million yuan in water control funds by 50%, that is, the average annual investment The funds for water control in Hejian have been increased from 20 yuan to 30 yuan, and the above is the appropriation from the central government.In addition, they will guide local governments to invest in the construction of flood control and conservancy facilities through policies (for example, based on the large number of public land reclamation indicators in the counties in the Hejian area, which undoubtedly means money). 1000 million yuan, plus the appropriation from the central government, is quite a large amount. If it continues to be spent for 50 years, it can basically bring a new look to the Hejian area, making the flood that everyone fears now usable. In this way The development of Hejian could not be worse—in fact, to put it bluntly, the essence of the development of Hejian lies in water control.

The topic is far away, let us go back to Inigo's home in Qingyuan County just now. At this time, the former Spanish mercenary officer is worrying about how to make money.Building such a beautiful villa was naturally costly, and it almost wiped out all the money and goods he had shared with the people from the east bank in the past few years to infiltrate the river area.What's more frightening is that the valuation of this building is not low, and it will definitely hurt people's hearts when the real estate tax is levied. Therefore, Inigo, who has lost his job due to the disbandment of the army, must find something to do. , such as re-employing himself as a soldier, after all, what he has learned on weekdays are all the "crafts" of beating and killing, and nothing else is nonsense.

In fact, there are quite a few people who have the same idea as him, especially those mercenaries who have fought all their lives. If you let them use their hands accustomed to holding swords to hoe the ground, it would be as awkward as possible.These days, Inigo has heard a lot of complaints like this in his ears, but he can't solve it. The East Bank government treats them "unstable elements" very strictly. What news did they come up with.

However, things seem to have changed recently.The Minister of Armed Forces in the town actually brought an interpreter to his home and asked if he would like to join a military organization called the "Loyalty Army" and act as an instructor to train a bunch of vulgar and illiterate Russians, Italians, Malays, Krandis and red-haired Irishmen so that they could go overseas and fight for the good of the East Coast.

The Minister of Armed Forces said that since Mr. Inigo is proficient in swordsmanship and musket shooting, he has also participated in more than [-] battles with Germany in the Southern Netherlands and has rich experience.Therefore, the remuneration is not bad, basically based on the salary of a second lieutenant officer, plus some subsidies for overseas operations, which is quite a lot. It is already a proper standard for the upper middle class on the east coast. For those who are currently in financial difficulties For Inigo, it was like sending charcoal in a timely manner, so he agreed after a little consideration, just like his adoptive father, Captain Alatrist, promised to go to Patagonia to train the militia, and Mr. The old aristocrat "goes to Australia to act as a bodyguard, all for the sake of making a living!"

Inigo is about to leave these few days. According to the arrangement in the town, he will take a small steamer at Qingyuan Port to Qingdao, and then transfer to a large ship to arrive at Jiaohe Port, the northernmost part of the east bank, to train soldiers. When the time is right, they will go to sea to fight.Inigo vaguely heard people say that the so-called Loyalist Army he wanted to participate in the training was going north to Trinidad to replace the more worn-out Fengguo Army, so as to take on the task of attacking French Santo Domingo and Martinique. rule over the occupied part of the island.

To be honest, it wasn't a good job, because it was the tropics, the tropics that used to eat people's lives.This point, Inigo, who has fought old battles and known many people, naturally knows it, but he has no choice. Now he needs money, but he doesn't know other skills, so he is doomed to be a knife head and suck blood of making a living.Fortunately, he is only the instructor of these people, and war is inevitable, but an officer is an officer, and his chances of survival are much higher than those of the cannon fodder soldiers. It shouldn't be a problem to come down and return to the mainland on the east coast.

On July 1667, 7, Inigo, who bid farewell to his pregnant wife, carried his luggage on his back and wore the rapier sword he had fought for many years, and went to the pier of Qingyuan Port to board a ship and leave.It was mid-winter in Hejian at this time, but the scenery was still charming. Inigo took a breath of the cool air, then looked around, and saw many peninsula people with their families standing in the distance.

Inigo understood that these were immigrants from the Old World who chose Spanish nationality after the handover of Hejian. They listened to the "persuasion" of Hidalgo and the priests, and were deeply afraid of the pagan rule on the east bank, so they scrambled to leave. Living in the river area for some years, he plans to settle in Santa Fe, Rosario, Buenos Aires and other places to enrich the population there and maintain the rule of the Kingdom of Spain in La Plata.

Regarding the choice of these people, Inigo can only say that he wished them good luck. After fighting for King Philip for so many years, he really knows the virtues of Hidalgos, and this is why he chose to stay in Hejian to become The reason for the nationals on the east coast is that at least the east coast country also has a Catholic church, and it will not default on the salaries of soldiers, will it?That's enough, to hell with unpaid King Philippe and his Hidalgo lackeys!

It was Colonel Torres who came to pick up these immigrants from the old continent to the Spanish-controlled area on the other side of the river. I hate everything about the east coast, and I probably lost the few people who were most wary of and hated the east coast in the entire Buenos Aires prosecutor's court district.

Colonel Torres also saw Inigo in a long-distance posture. He knew this young veteran (Inigo, who joined the army at the age of 14, can really be said to be a veteran). He was an infantry training officer and also came to Putrajaya to collect salary on behalf of Captain Alatrist.At that time, he still had a good impression of this man, but later he heard that he and his adoptive father served the people on the east coast in exchange for rewards. Pay attention, but now it seems that he has chosen to play for the pagans on the east coast?

Really fallen!Colonel Torres snorted coldly, didn't say anything more, and turned his head to supervise the resettlement, gathering, and transportation of immigrants under his command.These people are precious wealth, the Buenos Aires Procuratorate District wants to fight against the East Coasters, every gentleman from the Old World is extremely valuable, especially many of them have fighting Experienced soldier.These people have pious beliefs and have a high degree of identification with the Kingdom of Spain (of course, it is more likely that the wages are paid in a timely manner), unlike Inigona and other mercenaries who have experienced hardships in society and have no integrity, so Captain Torres is still very Those who value them intend to take them back to re-form a group of gentlemen to fight against the possible invasion of the East Coast, although his homeland is now exactly like the East Coast pagan country, like Miri Tiaoyou, and many of Buenos Aires Merchants are also planning to expand business contacts with people on the east coast.

Inigo soon left Qingyuan Port on a southbound ship, and after he left, a formation of several 72-ton inland river steamers also stopped here for a while to replenish some food, fruits and vegetables , coal water, and unloaded a large amount of construction materials for the county (this is used to build reservoirs and flood control dams), and then continued northward with black smoke, passing Weirong, Zhenrong, Wuxin, and Wuping successively. Puerto Iguazu, which is located in the plateau sub-region, is the northernmost point of the river region and the most prosperous city in this region. A hub-level city for public and water transport.

(End of this chapter)