Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1606 Pampa ([-])

"There are more and more people gathering in the area around Niulan Mountain (Tandilla Mountains)." With the support of his servants, Zhu Heng rode a group of docile mares and planned to head towards the area of ​​Niulan Mountain. Go on site survey.Over there, a large amount of limestone, marble, and quartzite tightly gripped his heart, making him feel uneasy if he didn't look at it.

Before they set off, they hired a gaucho herdsman living in Silver Harbor (Mar del Plata City) as a guide, and promised a generous bounty, but it was not until the day before the departure that they reluctantly recruited a person who was familiar with the area. The gaucho guides in the situation—perhaps because they are from the east coast, they encountered many obstacles in the process of hiring guides. In the end, only two people were willing to accept the employment. One of them retreated because he was afraid of being kidnapped or killed halfway. The other one is said to be very timid, because even if he saw an ostrich from a distance on the grassland, he would think it was an Indian and run away, but this time he had no other choice but to use him.

From here to the Niulan Mountain area, it takes less than a day to ride a horse. There is no place to rest on the way, and it is all a deserted wilderness.However, for this group of people, they are not going to travel, so this will not be a problem.They changed horses twice in the middle, and then arrived at the destination Niulan Mountain at three or four o'clock in the afternoon-this is also the name of a spontaneously formed settlement at the foot of the mountain (located near the later city of Balcarce, Argentina).

Niulanshan Township has a small population, with only a few more than 300 permanent residents. They are mainly farmers, butchers, cobblers, brewers, chefs, blacksmiths, veterinarians, and businessmen, and they mainly serve cattle catchers who take a rest temporarily. The East Coast government has not yet appointed any official to manage it.

When Zhu Heng and others arrived, there was a market going on outside the village, that is, local residents flocked in front of six or seven caravans, haggling over prices and picking goods.And not far behind these people, dozens of cattle catchers who were resting here, while smoking the finest Virginia tobacco, pointed at more than a dozen Italian prostitutes posing behind the caravan, bursting out from time to time. A wretched laugh.

On the right side of the caravan, more than a dozen men in denim uniforms were working intently.Zhu Heng looked carefully and found that these people were probably digging wells. This made him a little puzzled, but also a little relieved. He felt that this place should be the same as the Yancheng Port he had been to. Although there was a lot of rainfall, there was no large-scale runoff on the surface, so Precious water is lost under grass, bushes and rock crevices.If you want to find them and use them, you can only dig a well. Fortunately, the cost should not be too high, because the groundwater level here is not very low.

"I'm sorry, there is only one hotel here, but it's already taken. I heard that it's a group of guys who found a bison when they first arrived. It's lucky. Here, look, that strong Spanish man with a musket He is one of the people who booked the hotel." Gaucho guide pointed to the houses built with broken wooden boards ten meters away, and said: "I asked, and I heard that the man was called Inigo, who was originally in Niu I don’t know why they came here all of a sudden because they are active in the area around Zhuanggang. This man is good at swordsmanship. He has already fought three times in less than half a month since he came here, but he didn’t lose a single one, which is amazing.”

Master Zhu Heng took a closer look and saw a man with disheveled hair, a stabbing sword on his waist, and a musket on his left shoulder. He was probably the Inigo mentioned by the guide. Hired from Mar del Plata.As for the so-called hotel, I'm sorry, Master Zhu thinks that instead of living there, he might as well sleep in a tent like most people here, which might be more hygienic.

"Will there be an Indian attack at night? Zhu Heng confirmed to the guide again. His entourage has already begun to set up tents, but Mr. Zhu is used to living a peaceful life and attaches great importance to the threat of Indians. So he asked.

"I shouldn't worry too much, sir." The gaucho guide seemed to think about it seriously, and then said: "In fact, the local Indians originally lived here, and there were hundreds of them, but it has been more than half a year. It was wiped out before. I also participated in the battle at that time. I only remember that a large group of riders brandished sabers and muskets, and rushed the Indians to pieces. At the end, many Indian women and children fled up the mountain, preferring to die rather than surrender. They resisted desperately with stones, and finally...finally...all of them were killed by us!"

"They were all killed?!" Master Zhu asked in a voice.For a person like him who has lived in the core area of ​​the local area all year round, it is not unacceptable to kill some aborigines, but he still thinks that the behavior of the cattle catchers on the Niulan Mountain, including women and children, is a bit unacceptable. I can't stand it, I think it's too cruel.Of course, he also knows that in this kind of war for the so-called living space, it is really hard to avoid such things as cutting grass and roots, because both sides fight very cruelly.Back then, the group of Indians who launched a surprise attack on the Spanish settlements on the Assumption Day and slaughtered all the old, weak, women and children did not show mercy, so Zhu Heng couldn't blame anyone, he just expressed it appropriately A little bit of my own surprise.

"They were all killed." Guide Gao Qiao turned around and said in a muffled voice while helping to set up the barbecue grill.

Master Zhu sighed softly, looked at the Niulan Mountain where the setting sun was like blood, and seemed to see countless Indian women and children making their last desperate counterattack with stones.However, he quickly shook his head, shaking off these unnecessary emotions from his head, and then sat on a horse tie brought by his entourage, and waited for dinner with peace of mind.

Dinner is of course barbecue.The entourage went to the countryside for a stroll, and then came back with several large pieces of beef and half an ostrich leg.The gaucho guide took out a knife to help cut the meat skewers—because of the lack of trees, they could only cut some stalks of large thistles that spread here from the north and used them to pierce the meat—others made fires, prepared spices, Some took out a few cowhide water bladders full of wine from under the saddle, and they were very busy.

After dinner, there was another fierce quarrel in the city. The guide Gao Qiao seemed very interested in this kind of gossip. After running over to inquire for a while, he came back and said with a smile: "That Inigo and A conflict arose between them, and it is said to be arguing over who had first discovered a herd of buffalo that had been captured earlier, with several hundred head of cattle. At the end of the quarrel, Inigo demanded a duel with musket or sword, and the man who fought with him Cowardly, I was forced to leave here and go to another nearby place.”

"Why are there other places nearby? Is it also a settlement like this?" Master Zhu Heng Zhu was a little surprised, not knowing that the people on the east coast are expanding so rapidly on the Pampa Plain.

"Of course there is." The gaucho guide said as a matter of course: "And it is said that it is a stronghold set up by you people on the east coast, and it is also for the cattle catchers. I have been there once, and it seems to be called Niu Shou Township (located in the later Lowery. Near Yacheng), there are not many people, and the number of people living in Niulan Mountain is less than half of that here. But the number of cattle seems to be dozens of times that of people, and the stench is stinky all day long. I don't like it very much. However, it is said that there are a lot of bison over there, so there are still many cattle catchers who are willing to use it as a base to go out to find traces of bison. Those who set off overnight and galloped south just now must have gone to Niu Shou Township, unless they are willing to go there in the next few days. live in the wild for days."

In fact, apart from the Niu Shou Township mentioned by the gaucho guide, there are two other colonial strongholds on the east bank that emerged because of the cattle catching industry. Yedianzi Township near the city of Res Arroyos is already a relay station for cattle hunting in the inland area. From this, we can also see how deep the people on the east coast have expanded on the Pampa Plain. It is no wonder that the Spaniards are in a hurry. Gotta jump.

They still clearly remember that when people from the east bank crossed the Wujiang River to reclaim wasteland on the west bank of the river, they were very afraid that the fertile Pampa Plain would be swallowed up by the people on the east bank.You know, this place is very close to the Patagonian Terrace, which is controlled by the people on the east coast. It is very convenient to infiltrate, and there are no obstacles.Furthermore, the Spaniards have always regarded the bison wandering on the grassland as their own private property-this actually makes some sense, because the original source of these bison was the livestock lost by the Spanish colonists-but they were reluctant to catch or Due to the lack of manpower, the buffaloes caught in the market have actually caused the shameless people from the east coast to hunt across the border. How can this be tolerated!

But for now, it seems that they can't do anything, they can only continue to turn a deaf ear as before.Don't you see, now the French have overhauled military depots and roads, hoarded war supplies, and stockpiled ordnance in the country. The Spanish government is very afraid that because the Southern Netherlands will be involved in the war with the French again, it will treat them like the East Coast Republic of China. Such an emerging power relies heavily on it, and dare not offend it in the slightest.Therefore, the people above are so cowardly, do you still expect the people below to be strong and unyielding?

"There are so many settlements, and the Spaniards have not moved at all? Ah, I'm sorry, I forgot that you are also a citizen of the Kingdom of Spain." Master Zhu Heng looked at the guide with some embarrassment, and said embarrassedly .

"It doesn't matter, they are them, and I am me." The guide Gao Qiao, who sounded fluent in Chinese, said indifferently while eating beef: "General Constantine de Obando of Buenos Aires He seems to be a cowardly person. Many people think that he actually indulged your country's cross-border reclamation behavior and caused the situation to worsen. But those people don't have any real power, so they can only accuse them of having fun That’s all. With so many supply points inland for your cattle catchers, I see the only possibility of future loss being raids from Indians, and nothing else.”

Zhu Heng nodded slightly when he heard the words, didn't say anything more, and turned to deal with the ostrich meat in front of him wholeheartedly.

The next day, surrounded by his guide and entourage, he rode a horse to the depths of the Niulan Mountains, inspected the local conditions, and found that this place is indeed a treasure house of limestone and marble, with amazing resource reserves and promising prospects for future development. Unlimited.The only thing that seems more troublesome is that this place is still tens of kilometers away from the port terminal. Once the quarry and cement kiln are established in the future, the cost of transportation of raw materials or other materials will be extremely high. , there must be a train with high horsepower and large cargo capacity, but how is this possible?

You know, it's not even a local here!No way, at that time, we can only start a small-scale quarry first, polish the mined stones and sell them to nearby cattle catchers, cattle dealers or other businessmen who have become rich. There should be a certain market demand.

However, Zhu Heng is not sure whether there will be colleagues who deal in building materials like him coming to grab business.At least in some other industries—such as hotels, soap making, leather tanning, footwear, etc.—a large number of local investors have already competed directly bare-chested. There is no reason why there is no competition in the building materials industry ,This unscientific.Therefore, the matter of investing in the establishment of a quarry here really cannot be delayed too much, and we must seize the opportunity.

After all, such a whole mountain range composed of limestone, marble, quartz stone and other high-quality stone materials is an incomparable wealth, especially in a giant enterprise like East Coast Building Materials Company, which has monopolized most of the domestic stone resources. Even more so.If you can't take advantage of the favorable situation that the Pampa Plain is not a native of the East Coast, and the state-owned Dongjian Company is inconvenient to come forward, how can you compete with others in the future?Thinking of this, Zhu Heng decided to recruit non-national laborers as soon as possible to come to Pampa to build a quarry.

At this time, if we look at the entire macro level, then the Pampa Plain, a fertile land, is precisely because of the continuous investment of a large number of individuals or groups stimulated by wealth, the population and economy have begun to explode. Sexual growth, and gradually occupied more and more land on this ridiculously flat grassland.I believe that when the population increases to a certain level in the future, the East Coast government will officially come forward to negotiate with the Kingdom of Spain on the status of the Pampa Plain. The Spaniards face the fact that the Pampa Plain has been firmly occupied by the East Coast people It is a fait accompli, and there is probably nothing to say. In the end, I can only accept a large amount of benefits and hold my nose. Of course, this requires the cooperation of the international situation, and it also tests the ability of the specific operator. Both are indispensable.

(End of this chapter)