Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1506 Terrace (Seventeen)

Nahuel Huapi Lake, named "Amber Lake" on the east coast today, originated from Wang Dali, a famous geographical figure on the east coast and the famous expedition leader.At that time, he arrived at the lakeside in the evening glow, and saw that the entire lake surface showed a lake-colored beauty under the sunset glow, so he took this name.

The name of Amber Lake is also very popular with the locals - a group of immigrants from the direction of Jincheng, Shangbao, and the neighboring Chilean area came through the mountain tunnels. There are about [-] people who have just arrived last month. Looks poor and white.

In fact, whether it is the immigrants from the Jinshang area, or the immigrants who are spreading to the agricultural areas suitable for reclamation in the Amber Lake area, not to mention all of them, at least most of them came through the mountain tunnels in the Andes. A small part are regularized non-national laborers.

Immigrants from the Andes generally move in summer and autumn (because there may be heavy snow in winter and spring).After arriving in Chile by boat from the Far Eastern mainland via the Pacific route, they rested for a while, and then, under the leadership of officials from the National Development Administration, they crossed the mountains and arrived at the Patagonian platform.

Adding up these people every year, there are about 6000 people, plus some non-national laborers who come over from the top of the hair, barely able to make up [-] people, and the above is the entire Patagonia region (including Tierra del Fuego south of the Strait of Magellan) has lost its share of immigration throughout the year.

The five to six thousand migrants each year, except for a few who graze on the vast platform grasslands, most of them either work in coastal cities, engage in the marine industry, and the wool textile and ceramic manufacturing industries that are gradually emerging; or they live in rivers—— They are mainly engaged in agriculture on the banks of the Chubut River, Ludang River, and Baoxing River, less in the areas around the Huangyang River and Tierra del Fuego—and in areas with rich rainfall near the Andes Mountains. The former is mostly engaged in fruit planting and deep processing, and the latter is mainly engaged in Grain cultivation is the mainstay, livestock breeding is supplemented, and there are occasional wood processing industries. In short, the economy is really mediocre.

It can be said that if these people were not resettled by the government, God knows where they would go. Maybe Hejian, maybe Duck Lake, maybe the east coast prairie, in short, it is unlikely to stay in this remote and desolate place.You know, this place is located at the SD foot of the Andes, separated from the Chilean region at the west foot by the whole mountain, and to the east is the Patagonian platform, which spans thousands of miles. A human figure—living in such an extremely remote and lonely area requires great endurance, but it seems that these immigrants from the Qing Dynasty from the East have a lot of endurance, and they were very few in their entire lives before they were taken captive by the East Bank. Those who left the village were already accustomed to the boring and monotonous life of working at sunrise and resting at sunset. They were very concerned about the amount of arable land of one mu and five mu and the number of grasslands of more than [-] mu (in fact, the grassland on public land There are a lot of pastures, no one will stop you if you want to graze), it is very surprising and inexplicable.Therefore, at least in their area, they are still able to take root in the Taiwan area and take this peaceful and monotonous life at ease.As for whether their descendants can be like their ancestors, that is a problem that the local government needs to face. The household registration problem can only be postponed for a while, but it cannot fundamentally solve the problem of population outflow, but this will only need to be faced after many years. The trouble is not worth mentioning now.

However, living in the area of ​​Amber Lake, apart from being lonely, is not such a disadvantage.This place is located in a series of cross-cut depressions at the SD foothills of the Andes. There are many lakes and fertile soil. It is not as water-scarce as other places in the Patagonian platform. The weather is not too cold, and the annual precipitation is More than 700 mm, very modest.As far as agricultural conditions are concerned, this place is indeed a very suitable place, and this is undoubtedly the basis for accommodating a large population, although the population here may not be too large in future generations.

The cavalry of the three companies led by Guo Handong stopped at the place where some white lines were drawn on the ground, a few flagpoles were erected, and some foundations were laid.Under the command of the officers, the soldiers brought the horses to the beautiful lake in twos and threes, let the horses drink by themselves, and also prepared to wash some horses later.

The intelligence staff found officials in this newly established town called "Suofang" (located near the later city of San Carlos de Bariloche in Argentina) and asked them about the fleeing Tehuelche people.As a result, there was no surprise. These people looked at a loss. They didn't know what happened in Dingnan Town before, let alone pay attention to the movements of the natives and barbarians.On the contrary, the intelligence staff's question also caused them a burst of tension, because these guys haven't built any defensive facilities yet, and the personnel are all living in tents or simply lying in haystacks in the open air (it's summer, but Nothing), if some ferocious natives came to kill them, the five or six hundred pioneers might all kneel down.

Under the dominance of this worry, the officials of Shuofang Town immediately stopped what they were doing, and instead focused on building houses and defense facilities.For example, they took out tools and went to the nearby forest to cut down some trees, planning to build military outposts and stockades after rough processing to defend against possible attacks by the natives—in the relatively sparsely vegetated Patagonian Terrace area Cutting down trees is not allowed, because it is likely to damage the fragile local ecological environment, but in the foothills of the Andes Mountains where the vegetation is relatively rich, logging can be conditional with the approval of the superior.After all, in this remote place, it is quite inconvenient and unrealistic to transport all building materials from other places. In addition, there is a lot of rain here, so it is not suitable to build earth nests and adobe houses. They were allowed to cut down a certain amount of trees (with standard specifications) and register them in the register, and replant them when conditions permit in the future, so as to prevent the fragile local ecological environment from being artificially damaged, and ultimately harm the people on the east coast. Own.

The felled trees are common local evergreen and wet-loving species. There are mainly two types, namely Araucan fir and larch.These trees are tall, strong, transparent and straight, and they are the best materials for building houses, warehouses, sentry towers, and fortresses. With the weak force and poor equipment of the Indians-many years ago, they might still get the Spaniards. A few aids of horses, rapiers, or muskets, but these have been cut off for several years now that relations between the two countries are good--it is absolutely impossible to break a fortress of this magnitude.

In addition, they also cut down a considerable amount of Zhu Sigui bamboo in the nearby bamboo forest.This kind of strong South American local bamboo is extremely flexible and has always been the first material for making various containers. Therefore, the officials of Shuofang Town also organized the villagers to go out and cut some back, intending to process them into various tools.They even transplanted some around the towns planned in the future, to beautify the environment, and to be able to use them at any time, which serves multiple purposes.

People with combat experience among the pioneer residents were also selected. They were mainly non-national laborers who had become regular workers. Occasionally, there were some Qing army prisoners, but not too many.At this moment, these "crooked melons and dates", regardless of their level, were gathered by the township armed minister, and then temporarily entrusted with important tasks as small militia officers, and they didn't have to work. The young and strong men who worked in the village were conducting military training to deal with the possible Indian attack—although everyone knew that the possibility was unlikely, but it was always right to be prepared, and Shuofang Town could not afford to make mistakes.

Guo Handong and others admired the prudence of the residents of Shuofang Town, and at the same time saw their pitiful appearance, so they gave them many things that they didn't need or had surplus, as small as a bag of shredded tobacco and half a bag of sugar , As big as some knives, ammunition, medicines and so on, all that can be left is left to them.

In addition, they also gave some suggestions, that is, due to geographical reasons, it is difficult to transport materials from the Atlantic coast to the SD foothills of the Andes, and the cost is also extremely high, so make good use of the land leading to the Pacific coast. Roads in Chile are very important.Judging from years of surveying, surveying and mapping by the intelligence officers of the gendarmerie, as well as the combined materials of the Ministry of Geology, the lakes in the mountains near Shuofang Town—in fact, most lakes in the Andes are similar—the lakes are generally very cold. Deep, and the topography of the lakeshore is also modeled on a natural harbor, so these mountain lakes are actually particularly suitable for boat navigation.

Therefore, based on these considerations, in the future, Shuofang Town and even all the pioneer towns in the SD foothills of the Andes should pass the barrier of the Andes Mountains more conveniently, less labor-saving, and faster through a combination of water and land, so as to be compatible with convenient transportation, developed economy, Populous Chilean regions get connected to support their own sustainable development.

Of course, the large number of lakes in the Andes can not only be used for navigation or watering crops - more than 20 mountain lakes near Shuofang Town are the source of Shuoshui (Limai River) and the main water source of Ludang River Land - can also be used to develop fisheries.Later generations of Argentines introduced trout into these mountain lakes (of course, the Chileans next door did the same, and also gained a lot), because the environment and water body here are very suitable for the growth of trout, a relatively rare fish. And breeding, Argentine investors have obtained very good economic benefits by farming these freshwater fish, which are not only sold in large quantities in the country, but even exported to other countries and regions, which is extremely impressive.However, these things are all industrial planning for future development. For now, their first priority is still to gain a firm foothold and survive. Only after solving these things will they have time to do other things. .

The suggestion of Guo Handong and others to connect land and water transport to the Chilean region attracted the attention of officials in Shuofang Township. They said that they would try this possibility in the future after finishing the big task at hand and gaining a firm foothold.Guo Handong and the others expressed their understanding, and then saw that a lot of time was wasted, so they ignored these people's persuasion, and galloped towards Shangbao Town and Danfeng Township in the south that afternoon, trying to get there as soon as possible to get supplies.

When they left, they first went south along the shore of Amber Lake, turned southeast after reaching the edge of the flat bottom, walked south along the remnants of the Andes Mountains, and arrived at Shangbao Township (later Elbor) on January 1668, 1. near Pine Township).Shangluo County (is the 4th county-level administrative unit in the country, under the jurisdiction of Shangbao Town, Danfeng Township, Shangluo Township, Fengyang Township and Sanshan Township, with a total population of about 75, mainly agricultural and animal husbandry It seems that the founding meeting of the county government was specially approved by the executive committee.Otherwise, relying on these cats and dogs in Shangluo County, it will take a year of the monkey to reach the tough standards of the county!

Guo Handong and the others directly approached the new head of the county security team and asked him to approve some supplies from the warehouse, and at the same time asked about the local "bandits".The head of the security team of Shangluo County said frankly that there was no major banditry, because they were all expelled by them (otherwise, why would Shangluo County be established...), but because their own strength is still very limited, they cannot move farther away, and they lack qualified Therefore, in the mountains, forests, and wilderness, there must be a large number of Thuelche barbarians.

As for what to do in the future, the head of the county's security team said that it would take several chief officials in County H to discuss together to find out, but in general it was nothing more than a policy of suppression and appeasement.It depends on whether those Indians are not on the road. If they are on the road, they will surrender, and they will end up going to overseas colonies to start anew; There is almost no doubt that the living space will eventually be wiped out in the inevitable conflict.

After encouraging the officers of the security regiment of Shangluo County and checking the training of the local militia (Captain Guo Handong is now fully in charge of the military affairs in the Northern Patagonia area, which can be said to be extremely powerful), Guo Handong and others He obtained some supplies here, and then left Shangluo County, which was in high spirits, and then returned on the same road, went northward through the Amber Lake and Shuoshui River system, and arrived at Dingnan Town, the starting point in the early morning of January 1668, 1. ——On the way, they suddenly encountered a migrating Tehuelche tribe near the reservoir on the later Limai River. After a slightly "relaxed" battle, they killed and injured more than a hundred of them, and then sent The rest of nearly a thousand people are all captured, and they are currently being escorted by follow-up troops, heading towards Dingnan Town.

At this time, Guo Handong received an order from his superiors, asking him to send someone to escort a group of captured Indian captives to the mouth of the Ludang River.This made him quickly understand that someone seemed to be eyeing the results of their previous battle and wanted to use this batch of labor for free before they were exiled to overseas colonies.

(End of this chapter)