Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1622 Hue's Cannon Fodder

"If you want to ask where the number of non-national laborers is the largest in the country, it must be the area around Brazil!" said the owner of a Huaiyang restaurant in the Hue Port wharf area, who came to the wharf to "pick up goods" on behalf of the owner. Xuan Hao was listening attentively to a young man's speech.

"Look at how many old forests here, look at how many farms here, look at how many plantations here!" The young man held a wine glass in his left hand, waving his right hand in front of him, and said imposingly: "It can be said that here It is one of the regions with the most dynamic local economy. Not only the remaining funds from the local area have poured in here, but also the remaining funds from the Dutch West India Company, the Republic of Genoa*, and the Duchy of Tuscany have all flowed here. Ah, By the way, now there is the Republic of Venetia. I heard that several Venetian merchants have just arrived in the capital by boat and are applying for land approval to establish a coffee plantation in Hue Port. Hehe, look, there are so many people If you come to invest in the Hue area, how can there not be many non-national laborers here?"

"Yeah, compared with here, the Namib Desert area where we live all year round is really too desolate and too backward." Another older man also picked up his glass and continued: "Sea Blue Harbor, Whale The Wangang area has a small population, a lack of supplies, and nothing for entertainment. It really can’t be compared with this place. To put it bluntly, it’s just a place for us to make money. If it weren’t for the rich fishery resources and seals If there are groups of people, who would like to go there? After I earn a few more years, I will leave the boat and the company to the boys, and I will return the shares and take the money back to Luocha’s hometown to retire.”

It is said that the area around the Namib Desert has almost become a paradise for fishermen, fishery merchants, leather merchants, and tallow merchants on the east coast.Probably because of the severe desertification of the land, no matter whether it is the British, Portuguese, Dutch or other colonists, they have no interest in this vast arid land.After all, there are still a lot of land with fertile soil and suitable climate on this planet waiting for them to occupy and colonize. Why squeeze such a barren and arid desert?

Ever since, the Namib Desert (between the Orange River where the East Coasters mined diamonds and the Angolan Portuguese territory in the north) has become the exclusive colony of the East Coasters.There are a large number of "gold diggers" who come here to look for diamonds, there are fishermen who are attracted by the rich fishery resources, there are hunters who hunt sea animals for tallow and fur, and of course there are also businessmen who buy the above-mentioned special products, such as from Merchants from the Hezhong area who came to buy tallow (partly for food, partly for making soap) and leather.

In short, in Hailan and Walvis Bay, the only two spontaneously formed settlements on the east coast of the Namib Desert, apart from a few farmers grazing cattle and sheep and growing vegetables, most of them are lawless and wealth-seeking people. up.These people are either from the local area or from the river region. A common feature is that they only regard the Namib Desert as a place to make a fortune, not a place to settle. A buddy who is drinking and chatting.

"Uncle Zan, what are your plans? I feel a little nauseous now because I smell the smell of fish on the boat, and sometimes I want to go ashore to live a stable life. The one who went to the coast of the Namib Desert with us to engage in fishing Old folks, how many are left now? There are not many! Those who died in storms, were captured by pirates, died of sudden illness, or died in fights, can go home smoothly with large sums of money There are really not many people. We are lucky, and now we still have to pay for the full tail. It is true that we can accept the money as soon as we make it.” The young man who spoke first turned his eyes to the table sitting at the Eight Immortals table. A middle-aged man inside asked, "Actually, if it weren't for Uncle Zan, you are getting older. This time, it would be a good opportunity for the higher-ups to form a brand new loyal army in Hue. Uncle Zan, haven't you always been right?" Do you never forget your military career, this opportunity is really a pity."

"It's a pity, Ximen! You've blown too much sea breeze and you've been fooled? What kind of army is the Zhongguo Army? Anyone with a little more qualifications here knows it. Can it be called an army? What's the difference between it and the mob! Let's talk , Who is the opponent of the Zhongguo army this time? The French! The French army has been in Europe for almost 30 years and has almost no rivals! They can mobilize more than 20 troops casually, are you afraid? Just rely on Zhongguo Those crooked melons and jujubes of the * Army, I am afraid that they will collapse in the first battle, and they will fight a fart. Didn’t you see that Mr. Cornelis of the West India Company once visited the Zhongguo in the temporary barracks outside the city? After returning from the training of the * army, I have been black-faced all the time, which means that I am obviously dissatisfied!" The older young man curled his lips, looked at the young man, and said disdainfully: "We, Uncle Zan, are now He is also a rich man, so how could he get involved in such a mess? It would be okay if he was beating the natives in the mainland, but now he is going to Europe to fight the French head-on, and no one with a little brain will know Do you want to do this? Are the French so easy to mess with? It’s not worth it if you lose your life in a daze. Let me tell you, the thing we talked about before is more reliable, that is, to withdraw shares and start planting in Hue Although it is impossible to get rich overnight, it is always a steady and stable business, which is much more stable than our days of chasing cod in the Atlantic Ocean, right?"

Xuan Hao, who was sitting at the table next to him and eating roast goose, nodded secretly when he heard this.Speaking of which, he, Xuan, hated the superior's decision to form a loyalist army in the Hue area.There is no other reason, the main reason is that too many bitter people left the logging camps, wood processing plants, farms, plantations, and brick kilns where they worked, and went to nearby recruitment sites to seek opportunities to enroll in the Zhongguo Army.To put it bluntly, even they feel that going to the battlefield to fight is better than working in the dreadful tropical jungle, especially when most of these places are still wild lands, it is too easy to swallow their lives And damage people's health, not even much worse than the battlefield.

But for entrepreneurs like the declared proprietors, it is always a very depressing thing that the non-national laborers who have finally been fooled have gone to serve as soldiers, because there is no one to work!In particular, most of them usually treat their laborers very harshly. Violations of wage arrears and payment of wages in kind abound. The laborers have been dissatisfied with them for a long time.This time, they have the opportunity to jump out of the contract openly and get out of the sea of ​​suffering. How can they not be happy?Therefore, even though they knew that they were likely to go to Europe to fight against the French, there were still a large number of non-national laborers who resolutely signed up and decided to try their luck.

Xuan Hao came to Hue Port this time, in addition to routinely bringing in some goods - daily necessities for the daily consumption of workers and their families in logging camps and wood processing plants - what is more important is to look at the offices of several major labor service companies on the wharf. Whether there are any redundant laborers to hire is a matter that the proprietor has repeatedly asked.

It's just that things don't seem to be going very well. Now that the route of Russian immigrants has been cut off, and the number of Irish and Italian immigrants has become increasingly rare, there is a gradual shortage of laborers doing dirty and rough jobs all over the country. Whenever there are some newcomers on the market Faces will basically be snatched up.In this fast-growing country on the east coast, on the one hand, a large amount of labor force is bound to the land by artificial policies, and on the other hand, the market is extremely thirsty for labor force. This contradiction has made non-national laborers very popular for many years, and has gradually become a stable profession. Big business, but now the business is obviously impossible!

"Of course I support the establishment of a plantation, otherwise you would not have agreed to it when you asked me about it. And I have some official connections, so you don't have to worry about applying for land and licenses. Xiao Zhu Your old man is also number one in Luocha County. He has many business partners and can purchase construction materials, labor tools, draft animals, food, cloth, medicine and other necessities at a relatively low price. But these alone are not enough , we are still short of people! To put it bluntly, there is a lack of non-national laborers who can accept low wages! Where do we get this?" The middle-aged man put his wine glass heavily on the table made of Parana pine boards, sighed He said: "You have also seen that the labor force in this labor market is getting scarcer day by day. It has been a long time since no ship has transported people here. This will not come singly. It will catch up with the country to form a loyal army in Hue to fight against the French." , which has greatly exacerbated the tension of the labor force on the market, what can we do? We can’t just hire our own nationals to start plantations, let alone whether we can hire them, the cost alone will make our products useless Competitiveness, what a pity!"

This was telling the truth, and for a while, several people had nothing to say, only helpless sighs.Xuan Hao felt a little bit pained when he heard it, and he no longer had any big expectations in his heart for the arrangement of the proprietor to recruit 32 non-nationals in the labor market of Hue Port to make up for the shortage of employees in forest farms and board factories.

There was a sound of passwords on the pier outside the window. The people who were drinking and chatting followed the sound and looked out the window. They saw a long-lost merchant ship transporting non-citizens just docked. Hundreds of ragged, unkempt men and women got off one by one. I got off the boat, and then entered the quarantine station next to the wall, preparing to accept a fifteen-day quarantine and learn some rules by the way.

The sudden arrival of these people made Xuan Hao and the others a little excited for a while, thinking that the labor problem that had troubled them for a long time seemed to be solved, but they were soon disappointed again.A carriage with the logo of the East Bank Construction Materials Company painted on the outside of the carriage also drove into the quarantine camp next door at almost the same time, apparently to negotiate and go through the formalities.

This recognition made everyone realize that these new non-citizens may not have their share, because they are obviously already "people of the country" and have no other share.You must know that those who can compete with the giant enterprise East Coast Construction Materials Company must have such a background, and these people here obviously do not have it.

After sighing heavily again, several people looked at each other, shook their heads with wry smiles, and began to think in their hearts: when the political consultative conferences of the counties are held at the end of this year, they must encourage the representatives of their township or industry to attend the meeting. At the meeting, it was suggested that the state should step up the introduction of non-national laborers. It doesn’t matter even if they pay more money for this, and must ensure sufficient manpower.As for asking the country to change its major policies, abolish the national treatment of newly arrived oriental immigrants, and let them start as non-citizens (in this way, more than 6 laborers can be released every year, and most of the problems can be solved at once), sorry, these People are not so courageous yet, without him, I am afraid of being shot black by the army!

……

And when Xuan Hao and others were sighing because of the shortage of labor force, more than 700 officers and soldiers of the Nationalist Army who had been recruited in the Hue suburban barracks not far away were undergoing restorative training.The War Department only sent a young second lieutenant staff officer over to serve as a training officer. Obviously, they did not take these people seriously. It is no wonder that Cornelis, the representative of the Dutch West India Company, was disappointed when he saw it, and hurried to Dongfang Port made a small report to the Dutch ambassador Hieronymus van Beveninghe - at that time, this gentleman came to Hue Port to discuss a black slave business, and he was authorized before departure to check the troops who were said to be going out One of the training conditions of the infantry battalion of the National Army of the Loyalist Army, the result was immediately speechless. Isn't this the normal state of troops temporarily recruited by many countries in the Old Continent without standing armies?Beggars, hooligans, bankrupt businessmen, and serfs filled the area. They barely learned a little discipline under the officers' whips and batons, and then went to the battlefield and became the locust army that everyone feared. They had no sense of honor and no mission. No sense of responsibility, no sense of responsibility, such an army is undoubtedly unable to fight tough and bitter battles, and its combat effectiveness is not even comparable to that of German and Swiss mercenaries. Therefore, Cornelis will report to Mr. Ambassador as soon as possible.

But Mr. van Beverninghe may be doomed to disappointment.Because of the continuous instigation of the army system, there is some confusion within the executive committee. Some executive committees really don't think it is necessary to send 4-6 mixed battalions with full personnel and long-term training to fight in the United Provinces, because once If it is lost, the backbone of the East Coast Army may also be crushed, and it will not recover in ten or twenty years.

Based on this consideration, some executive committee members also acquiesced to the army's small actions, intending to send some no-name cannon fodder troops to the United Provinces to replace some of the regular troops that were originally planning to go out to reduce the risk, and they also prepared for the Dutch to blame them for this. The preparations were made, and it was calculated that as long as there were one or two regular battalion leaders, the Dutch would have nothing to do with it in the end.

In this way, the Zhongguo* Army and the Baoguo* Army (currently being trained in Jiaohe Port), two armies rated at about 2000 people, were quickly formed, and they will soon transfer to the Eastern Cape Verde Islands for further training. train.After all, it is closer to Europe, and if something happens, they can help the United Provinces as quickly as possible. Although most of them will not be of much use if they go there, they must make some gestures and show them to the Dutch sponsors-according to the According to the latest agreement reached by the Dutch ambassador Van Beverninghe, starting from next month (July), the Dutch will pay for the Zhongguo Army and the Baoguo Army. After repeated bargaining between the two parties, it is confirmed that it will be a monthly one-time payment The cost of 7 dong is at least half of the price of [-] dong per battalion per month for the regular army.

(End of this chapter)