Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1638 Central Valley ([-])

December 1672, 12, in the central valley of southern Chile.

The cloudy and rainy weather has been going on for a while. Xu Xiangdong looked back at the already somewhat muddy water of the Jiehe River—it has been rainy for days, the water level has skyrocketed, and the sediment content in the river water has also greatly increased—then he turned his horse's head and continued to move forward. go.As the newly appointed Southern Chile Regional Security Commander, Major Xu Xiangdong decided to secretly cross the river to the north bank of the Boundary River today in order to investigate the local geographical environment and census population data by the way.

Yes, you heard that right, Major Xu Xiangdong brought a few agents from the State Intelligence Bureau this time, intending to conduct an investigation on the people on the east bank who "illegally cultivated" along the north bank of the Jiehe River, that is, to see how many people are there Reclamation here, in order to be targeted when formulating policies later.

"This village is a reclamation village established by exiles, and it is also one of the first villages we established on the other side of the river. For this reason, these exiles also had a hard time with the local indigenous Araucans. Then they got a firm foothold in the local area. Oh, yes, there are very few Spaniards here, and most of them migrated north, maybe they are afraid of the Indians, maybe they are afraid of us, who knows.” A young man The elder non-commissioned officer led the way, and said in a rambling manner: "There are 72 residents in the village, of which 53 are men and 19 are women. It is worth mentioning that only about half of them are landowners. Owners, the remaining half have no land and work for slave owners. Well, although the surrounding land is very vast, each slave owner can only get less than ten acres of land, which means that they can no longer get enough land. land, at least for now."

The old non-commissioned officer who spoke was the head of the village and one of the exiled prisoners.As for the reason for his crime, it is said that he was too strict in the training of recruits, and accidentally beat and killed a recruit with a military stick, so he was sentenced to imprisonment.The old non-commissioned officer chose to serve in exile at that time, because it could be equivalent to a one-and-a-half year sentence, and his family also moved with him to live in exile. This is also in line with the policy, provided that it is voluntary.

The old non-commissioned officer is 45 years old this year. Perhaps it is due to his hard physical labor all year round. He looks very old, with obvious gray hair on his temples, but at the same time, his hands are also amazingly strong, and he can move a frightened horse. It is also a skill to hold and comfort the child.

"There's an old soldier in the village who was sentenced for manslaughter—well, I don't know the length of his sentence, I'm afraid he forgot. Here, the one in the old uniform standing on the hillside herding sheep At the same time, he was also in charge of keeping an eye on the enemy. His skill was very good, and even young people could not beat him with a bayonet. It is said that when he attacked the enemy at night in the northern expedition to Brazil, he killed three people. It is a pity that he killed him in the end. I killed my brother because the two sides had a dispute over the scope of the homestead." The old non-commissioned officer pointed to the hillside and said in a somewhat mournful tone.

Xu Xiangdong looked up, and saw a short, stocky figure walking up and down the hillside, with a majestic appearance.The military uniform on his body has long been washed white, and only a little bit of the blue of the year can be vaguely seen. Xu Xiangdong wondered in his heart, should he be pardoned when he goes back, so that he can restore his status as a normal person, anyway, his The family has also moved here, and it seems that they will not return to the East Coast Prairie.

"There are two brick kiln workers, a plasterer, and a carpenter in the village. It is very difficult to do anything." The old sergeant led Xu Xiangdong and others through a wooden lookout post at the head of the village—they didn't plan to stay in the village. Only one person was left here to count the population and economic situation - and then continued north, still talking about some aid for the village, although this seemed extremely unlikely.

After walking north for more than ten kilometers, they came across a small village on the banks of Lake Lanco.The scenery here is very beautiful. There are wild flowers and green grass everywhere on the roadside, and butterflies are flying among them; There is a scent of grass in the air, occasionally mixed with some rotting algae, reminding everyone that this is the Lake District.

There is a tattered wooden boat floating on the lake at this moment. It looks like two people on the boat, one old and one young, are casting nets, and they don't know if they can catch fish. I hope they are lucky.At this time, some convicts on the lake were dragging their feet in the knee-deep water, dragging behind them a log tied with a rope, probably transported to a nearby small timber factory for processing—— Not surprisingly, the lumber factory was founded by local adventurous businessmen. They stared at the pressure of the Spanish seizure, snatched the forest farm from the Indians, and built these properties under thorns and thorns.

The village head of this village knew the old non-commissioned officer. He raised bees, herded sheep, and farmed land in the village. He was a wealthy family.He married a widow who had died—she was also an exiled prisoner—and the two of them worked together and saved a lot.It is worth mentioning that her wife was once a descendant of a small Polish nobleman (in fact, about 20% of Poland's population is so-called nobleman, which is worthless). This is something that the village chief has been bragging about in front of everyone.

There are 46 people in the village, including 17 women and 26 land owners.The old non-commissioned officer introduced to Xu Xiangdong that the people here are all down-to-earth "good people" (the problem is that good people can be exiled to this place where no shit...), they farm, they herd, they fish, At the same time also fight against the harsh environment.The Spaniards pretended not to see them, and the Indians were driven to flight. They were all good men, and they were expanding the territory for the country.

Xu Xiangdong's people disagreed with the first half of his sentence, but they didn't have much objection to the second half.Because as far as he observed, the residents of this village have opened up a lot of fields and raised some livestock at the same time, which can be seen from the haystacks that can be seen everywhere in the village.

There are also a few dogs in the village, more than a dozen old muskets eliminated by the army, many bayonets, spears and other equipment, which are kept by some powerful and healthy villagers to guard against the Indians at any time .After all, they occupied other people's land, grassland, forestry and fishing grounds, and conflicts were inevitable, and everyone was used to it.

Seeing that it was almost noon, the old sergeant suggested that Xu Xiangdong and others should rest and have lunch in this village. Xu Xiangdong agreed after thinking about it, and asked the villagers to help feed the horses with some fodder and beans, and they could bring some wine to the horses. As a reward, the villagers happily agreed. Wine is a rarity in this place!

Different from what most people imagine, every exile prisoner actually has a food allowance during his sentence, that is, each person has a daily ration of flour, broken rice and bacon, which is sent by Boling County within half a month. Once, it can be regarded as a kind of support for the exiled prisoners to expand the country. Anyway, if these villains and scumbags are in prison, they have to eat, and the food allowance is really unavoidable.

Naturally, the residents of the village did not dare to entertain Xu Xiangdong and others with maggot-infested corned beef and extremely smelly salted fish.In desperation, the village head—he is also the richest man in the village—let his eldest son take a sheep out of the pen, intending to slaughter it on the spot and cook it; He ran out the door, and it was said that he was going to the fisherman by Lanke Lake to ask for some of the fattest trout to entertain the distinguished guests, which made Xu Xiangdong very satisfied.

He is satisfied not only with the respectful attitude of the exiled prisoners and the residents of the land reclamation to the officials from the mother country (which means many things), but also from the bottom of his heart for the decent quality of food of these residents.What's more, Xu Xiangdong feels more and more in his heart that the advantages of the prisoner exile system outweigh the disadvantages, at least it is much better than concentrating in prisons.He has been to the prison of the Southern Railway Company several times. The food in the prison is really bad. After the bread is broken, the water droplets that are still smiling in the sun stick to his fingers, like a lump of dirty and greasy powder. It is very disgusting - there is a reason for this situation, because the Southern Railway Company strictly stipulates the standard of prison food subsidies, and the size and portion of each pancake are also fixed, but this regulation cannot be handled Therefore, it is normal for the noodle cakes to be mixed with a large amount of water during the production process, because this can make the amount of flour used in the production process of each noodle cake far below the quota.

In fact, it is kinder to add water to the noodles.As far as Xu Xiangdong knew, the bread provided in some prisons in Spain and Portugal contained not only water, but also a small amount of fine clay, which was nothing.The reason why these officials dare to cheat and embezzle so brazenly is that the supervisory department at the higher level cannot sit in the kitchen to monitor all day, let alone monitor every food. Of course, the more important thing is that the complaints and grievances of the prisoners will never be passed on. into their ears.

Of course, in the place of exile, the situation may not be so bad, because the people here are all lawless people, fierce and hard to control.There used to be a chef in the Southern Railway Company who gave food subsidies, but was killed by a local convict because too much water was mixed in the bread.Therefore, although there is quite a lot of money to be made in it, not everyone has the guts to do it.

"It's really not easy for you here." After learning about the situation in the village for a while, Xu Xiangdong stirred it from the big iron pot with a wooden spoon, then picked it up and saw that it was some thoroughly boiled broken rice and potatoes. Tasted it, it was very salty, it seems that there is not much lack of salt here.

There were still some vegetable leaves, fish and mutton floating in the pot, and spices such as pepper, cinnamon, and fennel were not added, perhaps because these materials were too extravagant in this place of exile.While happily eating the broth, the old sergeant said to Xu Xiangdong that if he wanted to eat more delicious food, he had to go further north, where there was a Taoist temple where some apostles of Heavenly Venerable lived.The food supply of those people is relatively sufficient, and the living conditions are also more suitable, not as difficult as here.

Xu Xiangdong politely declined the old non-commissioned officer's kindness. He came to investigate the population and economic conditions of the place of exile, not to go on vacation, which is still clear.This time, he has already arranged the work at home, and plans to spend a month or even longer to walk around this area, trying to go to every reclamation village to get a feel for the situation.Although the support that the government can give them now is limited (because they can't provide supplies and support with great fanfare, they can only hide their eyes and ears under the banner of a caravan), at least they must declare the existence of the government to these people, otherwise after a long time, how can they Who knows if these lawless people will forget how many catties they have!

"How's the banditry here? Are the people of Araucan still making trouble?" After eating two bowls in a row, Xu Xiangdong put down the wooden bowl in his hand, and asked the question he was most concerned about: "Are you having trouble coping?"

"It's okay. There are dozens of cavalry and some prison guards at the Slat House Prison. It is not a problem to arm the prisoners in the prison in an emergency. Such a force is not something that ordinary Araucans can handle. After all, they are not the time when the Kingdom of Araucania still existed. Those who can fight and have experience have gone to South Africa or New China to live a stable life, and the remaining crooked melons and dates will not cause too much trouble. Otherwise, can they browse through the Patagonia region in the Andes to make a living, hehe." The village chief smiled and showed his ugly big yellow teeth, but his words are very refreshing: "We have guns , With knives, it’s not a problem to deal with some indigenous people, unless they come to hundreds of people at a time, but how can there be an Indian tribe of this size nearby? It’s long gone!”

"Very well, your determination is what makes me most gratified." Xu Xiangdong said happily: "Compared to you, the people of Boling, Liucheng, Maolin and other counties are like weak little sheep. Not bad , Very good, I hope you can continue to develop your own style and gain a foothold on this land. Among other things, once settlements are formed here, you will all be pardoned and become the first batch of local residents.”

The two counties of Boling and Liucheng mentioned by Xu Xiangdong just now were newly established this year. Among them, Boling County has jurisdiction over Boling Town, Lucheng Township, Xinchu Township and Wangdu Township, a total of four settlements, which is the 100th in the country. County-level administrative unit; Liucheng County has jurisdiction over Liucheng Town, Beitiao Township, Shenze Township, Beixin Township and Lunu Township, a total of five settlements, and is the 101st county-level administrative unit in the country.

These two counties, together with Maolin County, which had been established long ago, established the basic territory of the East Coast people at the southern end of the fertile Central Valley of Chile.However, it seems that they are still very dissatisfied at present, and they are still trying to find ways to expand northward. Even if it is not possible on the bright side, they will continue to exile prisoners secretly. This determination is strong enough.

(End of this chapter)