Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1639 Central Valley ([-])

Although it has entered the early summer season, the land where the Slat House Prison is located, the weather is still a little cold in the morning and evening, so that the guards and soldiers of the prison have to wear duffel coats.

The exact location of the Slat House Prison is probably located near the small town of Futrono in the Chilean Lakes Region, on the northern shore of Lake Ranco, a scenic resort. Of course, the guards or prisoners here may not think so. , especially a reserve cavalry platoon affiliated to the Southern Chile Regional Police Command and more than 30 armed guards from the Southern Railway Company.

"Look at those convicts and exiles, they can receive a duffel coat every year, and the quality is not bad. As for us, the workload is not much less than those exiles, but a uniform needs to be worn for three years. It takes two years to wear a military overcoat; exiles are given two pairs of boots a year, and we have only one boot shaft and two pairs of soles, which is really bad." A guard, not young, stands in the Slat House Prison On a watchtower inside the wall, he complained to his colleagues.

"Yes." Another guard, who was slightly younger, had a 32-c flintlock rifle on his shoulder and a pipe dangling from his mouth. Looking at the lush woods outside the prison, he said casually: "And they only need to Come back to report once a month, let us confirm that they are still there, the rest of the time is free, you can work hard for your own little life.Compared with them, I think we are more like prisoners, because most of the time You have to stay in this prison."

The young guard's words elicited a wry smile from his companion.Yes, apart from better sanitary conditions, better living conditions, and decent income, they are really not much different from those prisoners.Although there are very few prisoners in the Slat House Prison (most of them were dishonest during the exile), there are a lot of supplies here, such as medicine and cloth, food and drink, weapons and ammunition, sulfur and silver, etc., and they still need guards.

"The only advantage is probably that the work is relatively easy. At least you don't have to endure mosquitoes like those exiled prisoners who travel through the virgin forest, soak in stagnant water for half a day, and work hard to reclaim wasteland. In addition, the income of serving here is high. I can send more money home." The elder guard took a sharp puff on his cigarette, sighed and said, "Okay, don't complain any more, there's someone over there, he seems to be a high-ranking official, The warden went out to greet him in person, so let’s be more energetic and don’t relax.”

The visitors outside the Slat House Prison were Xu Xiangdong and his group. After inspecting several surrounding reclamation villages, they finally arrived at the Slat House Prison, the core of the reclaimed land, on the last day of 1672.The reason why this prison is the reclamation center of this area is actually very understandable, because most of the surrounding reclamation villages are composed of exiled prisoners and hard labor prisoners, and they are all under the jurisdiction of the Slat House Prison—in fact, the management It is also relatively lax, no one cares about what you do, you just need to come to the prison to report once a month to prove that you are still alive.

The prison registers each prisoner, formulates land reclamation plans, and distributes various subsidies and allowances at the same time.The most important thing is that there is a cavalry platoon with strong combat effectiveness, and more than 30 other guards from the Southern Railway Company.

Therefore, for the sake of reason and reason, Xu Xiangdong must come to the Slat House Prison for investigation and inspection, listen to the report of the prison, and see how they develop step by step amidst the harassment of the Indians and the continuous protests of the Spaniards. grew, and eventually formed the current pattern.

"Very good. There are walls, ditches, sentry towers, barracks, and warehouses here. Is it really a prison?" It has been a month since he set off, and Xu Xiangdong has changed a pair of shoes and horses. He bought one, his beard grew a lot, and he felt a little tired physically, but his spirit became better and better. At this meeting, some of his followers, accompanied by the warden, rode their horses into the so-called Inside the stronghold of the Slat House Prison.

In fact, to be honest, the Slat House Prison really cannot be regarded as a prison in a simple sense, because apart from the normal cells (in fact, there are not many cells, and the maximum number of prisoners in custody is seventy or eighty) There are also grain depots, material depots, weapon depots, barracks, stables, etc., and even a small yard for storing sulfur and wood, which are regularly transported to the opposite side of Boling County through Lanke Lake. Through this lake, the reclamation materials and subsidies sent over there are received.

Therefore, to be precise, this place is not so much a prison as it is a colonial government agency, because the guidelines for more than a dozen surrounding villages are basically issued from here.After all, the vast majority of those people are exiled prisoners who have not yet served their sentences. Of course, they must be managed by the prison.

"Of course it's a prison. I'm the director of the prison, but I'm appointed by the Southern Railway Company and filed by the Ministry of Justice. I'm not from a wild way..." The director of the prison was a little humorous, but he said: "The prisoners are all genuine. Yes, all criminals with a sentence of more than 15 years have the opportunity to be sent here. To be honest, these old brothers are all talents, and they are all so stable in this wild place full of crises. But if you think about it, it’s impossible for them to work part-time jobs for lazy, cunning and fierce people like them, and it’s impossible for them to work in this life, so it’s impossible to send them here to reform through labor.”

"Hehe." Hearing what the warden said, Xu Xiangdong also laughed, and then wandered around the prison at will.There are no residential buildings in the prison, but there are many residential buildings separated by a wall. It seems that there are more than 100 households.This also proves that the area around Slat House Prison itself is the largest reclamation point in the vicinity - this is actually very easy to understand, it is close to Lake Lanco and has abundant aquatic products; there is a dense forest nearby, and there is no shortage of wood; the soil is also very good. Fertile, not to mention anything else, potatoes are no problem at all; last, but also the most important, there is a sulfur mine nearby, and there is a real centralized labor camp with more than 300 people in it. The exiled prisoners or heretics are doing heavy physical labor day after day, and the Slat House Prison has the obligation to send some food to this hard labor camp.As for the output of sulfur mines, they are transported across the Andes by mules and horses from Patagonia every summer and autumn (there are just a few passes that are easy to walk nearby). The means of living and production were also transported through this road.

"What do the Spaniards think of you? It's been a few years. I don't believe they are so stupid. People who are close at hand can't see them." Xu Xiangdong and the others entered a somewhat dark corridor. There are many wooden partitions on both sides of the corridor. Open rooms, he knew, these were cells, used to detain prisoners who really did not repent or who violated the rules.

"They're not really stupid, they're just pretending to be stupid." The warden patted hard on the door of a cell, calming down the screaming people inside who were suffering from illness or injury, and then turned his head. Chao Xu Xiangdong said: "It is less than [-] kilometers away from the Spanish ports of Corral and Valdivia, and there are some small silver mines developed by the Spaniards for many years in a place closer to us. Now its output is very average, but a silver mine is a silver mine, and there are still a lot of Spaniards and Indians working in the surrounding area. How could these people not know our existence? They just pretended not to know! Not to mention, there are still some daring merchants trying to come here to trade, such as merchants who sell tobacco, sugar, wine, and dried fruits. Unfortunately, we are too poor here and have nothing. They only value sulfur, high-grade fur, Food, aquatic products, etc., but sulfur is the property of the public, and the quantity of fur, food and aquatic products is very limited, so the scale of this kind of trade is very small. But still the same sentence, no matter how small the trade is, there are Spanish merchants who have come , They must have told others about us and even the existence of the Slat House Prison Reclamation Area, but so far no Spaniards have come to make trouble. Doesn’t this mean that they are guilty and want to pretend not to see it? Hehe, we can It is said that they have tested their bottom line, that is, exile prisoners in this area to cross the border for reclamation, no problem!"

In fact, many people have long known the incompetent, powerless or cowardly attitude of the Spanish colonial government in the face of the pressing cross-border reclamation behavior of the people on the east coast.The fact that the warden can say that is because he has seen through their aggressive nature and just doesn't care.Compared with Spain and Portugal, which are declining day by day, the expansion of the East Coast people in South Africa and other places is much more honest, because they know that the Dutch will take all means to prevent the East Coast people from crossing the border. This courage, coupled with the fact that the expansion of the East Coast people is not the territory they value, so they backed down step by step.

Of course, then again, the area where the exiled prisoners of the Slat House Prison crossed the border has actually slowly touched the edge of the Spanish American colony. You must know that it is less than [-] kilometers away from Valdivia. The distance to several small silver mines in the interior is even more exaggerated, less than [-] kilometers, although these small silver mines have been exhausted day by day.

Therefore, the Slat House Prison, speaking of it, also has a hint of a deep strategic test for the Spaniards.That is to say, if the Spaniards continue to play dead, then it is not ruled out that after swallowing this land—or even just swallowing it hastily, without intending to digest it—go further north, devouring land including Valdivia, Corral, The rest of the Central Valley, including Villarrica and Temuco.

There are quite a lot of Spaniards and Mestizos living on the above-mentioned lands, and they produce quite a lot of grain, fruit, livestock, timber and even silver. "Looking at it, these places are not without the slightest value, so one can imagine the resistance that people from the east coast will encounter when they expand northward in the future.

"It's good for the Spaniards to be quiet, and it's good to be quiet. In this way, you can concentrate on dealing with the threat from the few Indians who are not very smart, and the pressure will be much less." Xu Xiangdong looked at the guards on the left and right as he spoke. House - he can guess without looking, the dark cell is full of rats, parasites, moss and other dirty things, the prisoners inside wear musty smelling clothes and sleep on wet beds , Live like a ghost.But these people are not worthy of sympathy, because they committed crimes while serving their sentences outside, either they did not come to report according to the regulations, or they committed a second crime, or they escaped. In short, they are not good birds, let them rot in prison Bar.

"The Indians are indeed troublesome, but they do not pose a major threat. Over the years, with the persuasion of the remnants of the Araucanian Kingdom, many Araucanians were naturalized and relocated (usually to South Africa, New China , and sometimes send a batch to Australia), many of the remaining people do not want to be hostile to us (in fact, there are also reasons why they cannot fight), and they cross the mountains and go to the Patagonian Terrace to survive , so staying in this area really doesn’t embarrass us much.” The warden said nonchalantly: “But Commander Xu, if you are willing to send someone over to clean up, it will definitely help us a lot. It's not easy to find these people, after all, the forest here is complex and the environment is complicated, and they always like to hide in the mountains as savages."

"Hehe, it's not impossible to send people over, but it's not okay to have too many people, and it's meaningless to have too few. After all, the environment here is too complicated. So, everything still depends on you." Everyone walked to the place while talking. At the end of the corridor, there is a rather large hall, with the word "canteen" written on a wooden sign hanging on the top of the wood.

It would be meal time, and some of the guards were already eating.Lunch is a traditional feature nearby, clam tofu soup, potatoes, it is quite rich, and the taste is not bad.It is worth mentioning that the chores in the prison, including cooking, are all done by exiled prisoners with relatively minor crimes, and they can’t help them to be inattentive. After all, the guards are not easy to talk to. There were no less than this and was hanged and beaten by the guards all night.

Xu Xiangdong's entourage brought a few bottles of Daqu in the River and poured half a glass for everyone. Seeing this lively scene, Xu Xiangdong felt a little turbulent in his heart: Our Dadong'an's development on the Chilean side of the Central Valley has also It's time to come to this point!

(End of this chapter)