Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1869 Central Valley ([-])

The east coast in late October is already the season of warm spring and flowers blooming. Even in relatively cold and humid places like southern Chile, there is already a hint of warmth in the wild.The fishermen started to fish in the lake, the farmers started to prepare for the spring sowing, the loggers returned to their long-lost forest cabins, and the merchants began to purchase goods for the next stage of their business plans, and so on.In short, everyone has accelerated their work and life rhythms, and the entire southern Chile region has suddenly become full of vitality, even the prisons set up by the East Bank people north of the boundary river are no exception.

As of the middle of this year (1682), according to the joint calculations of various departments based on the data, the total population of the East Coast Republic of China should be 510.47 million, breaking through 500 million for the first time in history, which excited the whole country.Among them, the proportion of nationals born in the native land has reached 54.4%, which is also the highest record in history, because it means that people who have the highest identification with this land and regard it as their hometown have begun to occupy the mainstream among the nationals, although other The overall age is still relatively low, but in time, he will surely become the real backbone of this country.

Correspondingly, the proportion of Ming people has dropped to 32%, which indicates that the importance of foreign immigrants to this country is getting lower and lower. Although they are still indispensable, they are not as dependent as before.The number of non-nationals has also declined slightly, now barely below 30, which is still huge.However, the number of non-citizens is closely related to the international situation and the situation of the slave trade, and it is normal to fluctuate, and it may rise again next year.

More than half of the newly added large population was sent to settle in the Pampa Plain (scattered in various pioneer villages east of the Yanbu Railway). It can be seen that Chairman Liao was not ambiguous at all in the matter of developing the Pampa Plain, and continued to be firm Keep throwing resources there.It seems that he really regards the Pampa Plain as the core elite land in the future, and he did not hesitate to invest a lot of resources for this, so that many cadres in Brazil are somewhat dissatisfied with this.

In the current new population distribution ratio, except for the Pampa Plain, which is far ahead, the Brazilian plateau and the river are actually similar, while the priority of southern Chile is even lower.However, this is the case. This year, there are still about 5000 immigrant populations allocated here (realized through the public land allocation indicators). At the same time, a large number of exiled prisoners are still being sent here, which is still quite a lot. of.

When it comes to exiled prisoners, some people in China have already accused them of being "too harsh". Gein, after the superiors set the general principle of increasing the proportion of prisoners exiled and enriching the "disputed areas" on the border, in recent years, the county and township courts, districts The number of cases of exile judges in the circuit court increased greatly, and the number of exiled prisoners surged.When the counties held political consultation meetings at the beginning of the year, many representatives responded to this problem and thought it was not humane. The central government thought about it, approved their opinions, and ordered all localities to carry out rectification and not to exile for the sake of exile.

But no matter what, in the past few years, more and more exiled prisoners have come to the area north of Jiehe for various reasons, and the four prisons of Shihezi, Batten House, Luyuan, and Tuerling have also reached "full capacity". To a certain extent, the management ability has reached its limit, so that a new Red Flag Prison (located near the later Chilean town of Panguipuy) had to be established in the middle of this year, which governed many prisoners and established many colonial villages.

The establishment of this red flag prison suddenly hit the Spaniards at the critical point, making them anxious again.In fact, we can see from the map that this red flag prison is in a triangular shape with Valdivia and Villarrica, the important towns of Spain in southern Chile, although it will not cut off the traffic between Villarrica and Valdivia The transportation line, but it is already a big threat, no wonder the Spaniards reacted this way.

Some people may think that the Spaniards are making a fuss, but it is not.As long as anyone who has a little knowledge of the central and southern regions of Chile knows that there is a mercury mine with a large amount of mining near Villarrica, the tax silver value of its output is extremely high, except for supplying some small gold and silver mines nearby. , and also exported a large amount to Potosi and other places in the Chalcas Prosecutor's Court District for use in the silver mines there-the Spaniards used the amalgam method to extract silver, and the consumption of mercury was naturally not generally large, although Mexico and other The land can still provide a lot of mercury (even the annual treasure fleet will bring mercury from Europe), but if there is really one less output from Villarrica, it will definitely disrupt the Spanish silver production plan and affect As for the final output, this is what they are worried about.

So, now you know that when the people on the east bank set up the Red Flag Prison and some pioneer villages established by exiled prisoners near Lake Panguipuy, the Spaniards immediately sent cavalry over to set up the people on the east bank. Some of the fortifications and tents were dismantled, and the personnel were sent out of the country with gifts. The attitude can be described as very firm.

But the people on the East Coast did not intend to stop there.At the end of last year, they sent another working group from Boling County to set up a base near Panjipuyi Lake.This time, the Spaniards sent troops from Valdivia and Villarrica at the same time, and once again resolutely blocked the people on the east coast.At that time, an East Coast militia platoon leader who led the escort was dismissed after returning because he was not tough enough at the critical moment.

In June of this year, the South Chilean Garrison Command recruited soldiers and horses in the counties under its jurisdiction, and organized a militia reserve team with a number of about 6 people. With several cannons, they set off from Boling County with great arrogance. The land crossed the boundary river and arrived near Panjipuyi Lake, and set up a stronghold for the third time.

This time, the attempt by the Spaniards to drive them away failed, because the army on the east bank even fired two shots at them. Although no casualties were caused, the group of people were deterred, so the stronghold was successfully built.Now, this stronghold called Hongqi Prison has been standing there for four months, and a total of six colonial villages around it have been established one after another. The Spaniards have visited several times, and all of them have been stationed here for a long time. They were driven away, indicating that the invasion and penetration of the relatively fertile Central Valley of Chile by the East Coasters has entered a new stage.

Of course, the people on the east coast also understand that this time the bottom line of the Spaniards has indeed been touched, so the long-term presence of a paramilitary organization (such as militia or mercenaries) of an appropriate size is inevitable, and this undoubtedly means that the High maintenance costs.Therefore, the future development of the Red Flag Prison depends on the struggle between the East Coast and Spain.

"Although the Hongqi Prison has been established, you can't relax, understand?" In Boling County, in the guest house where Zhao Chuyan, the North Korean Wang Guodong, once lived, Zhao Ke, the commissioner of the Southern Chile Regional Administration, was giving some cadres a lecture: "You can see what is in this place. There is a small Spanish silver mine dozens of miles away from the Red Flag Prison, and there are a total of seven small silver mines between Valdivia and Villarrica. Silver mines, 7 small gold mine, 1 small copper mines, and 2 mercury mine. Although the output of these mines has not been very good after years of mining, the number of mines is large, and the sum is still not a small number. The port of Corral sends silver to Callao twice a year, adding up to more than 1 million pesos. I think many of you know this. This time, we have hit the bottom line of the Spaniards, and they will not fail limited retreat, because they have nowhere to go."

Indeed, as Zhao Ke said, the Spaniards have nowhere to go.Once they withdraw, these minerals may be gone, and the people on the east coast will happily take over gold mines, silver mines, copper mines, mercury mines, and even sulfur mines and stone mines that the Spaniards are not interested in. Take it away, so they can't retreat.

"I have no way of knowing how the Spaniards will react, but I know that this matter is definitely not over. They have demolished our stronghold twice before, and they will definitely try to demolish the third time in the future. I am not worried about the Red Flag Prison anymore. It is relatively strong there, and there are a lot of prison guards, enough to hold on. What I am worried about is that the surrounding villages have relatively weak defenses, and most of the villagers are exiled prisoners serving sentences, so their morale and fighting will will not be high. Once If the Spanish manpower is darker, I am afraid that it will be an avalanche. You are all cadres who have been operating in the north of the Jiehe River for many years, so please share your opinions." Zhao Ke looked at the management cadres in front of him and said.

These people are basically high-level managers of the five prisons north of the Jiehe River. They have pioneered in that land for many years and have dealt with the Spaniards. Therefore, Zhao Ke specially summoned them this time to see What kind of charter is it.According to the plan made by the superiors, a group of immigrants will soon arrive at the beginning of next month—well, this time they are not exiled prisoners, but serious immigrants with clean backgrounds—arriving to settle in the north of the boundary river to enrich the population there. At the same time, the people on the east coast have more thorough control over the land occupied by cross-border.

If there is no accident, more than half of these new immigrants will be placed in the slat house prison area with a relatively high degree of control, enriched in various villages, and mixed with the exiles.The remaining half will be distributed to Luyuan, Tuerling and Shihezi. In principle, Hongqi Prison will not be allocated to new immigrants this time-this level of immigration enforcement will inevitably require a better local prison. The external environment, otherwise it would be very unfavorable for the immigrants to gain a firm foothold in the early stage, so this meeting was held by Commissioner Zhao Ke Zhao.

"Red Flag Prison must be resisted. Its existence now is not just a bridgehead for our future northward expansion. In fact, it is now a target that attracts the hatred and vitality of the Spaniards. Red Flag Prison will exist for a day, Spain People's eyes will always be fixed here, and the threat to places such as Shihezi, Tuerling, Luyuan, and slatted houses will be much smaller, which is undoubtedly conducive to the pioneering and development of these places." Several prison system officials The cadres look at me and I look at you. In the end, the warden of the slat house prison with the most qualifications came out to speak first.

"I understand what you mean. The establishment of the Red Flag Prison originally had this meaning. The question is how to maintain it now, whether it is necessary to send more people, and if it is necessary, how many people are appropriate, or even whether it is necessary Please send regular troops over here." Zhao Ke said immediately after hearing the words.In fact, he now really has the idea of ​​asking the higher-ups to send regular troops over, because the benefits are obvious. All the expenses of any regular battalion are borne by the military department, compared with militiamen who need to prepare their own expenses. , that was so much better.

"At present, there are 85 prison guards in our prison. The six settlement villages can probably gather hundreds of strong guards, but these people can't be counted on. Being exiled to these wild places, their perception of the government is not very positive. It’s okay to let them do the work and work, but if you fight with your head up, the problem will be too big, and I won’t worry about it.” Seeing that he was talking about his head, the warden of Hongqi Prison couldn’t keep silent anymore. , So he stood up and said: "So the 6 militiamen currently stationed on our side are very important. They cannot withdraw, and they will be finished as soon as they withdraw. Even the 300 people are not enough, because they have to take care of them." The place is really too big! If possible, I think this number should be doubled at least to 600, and it would be best if one third of them should be cavalry, so that it would be easy to maneuver and rush around to help."

Hearing what the warden of Hongqi Prison said, Zhao Ke frowned a little.The cost of [-] militia stationed abroad for a long time cannot be considered low.This part has to be counted on the head of the regional administrative office, which is quite painful. Although the central and local governments have implemented the tax sharing system reform, the local government's fiscal revenue has increased greatly, but there are more places to spend money, [-] people a year It would cost at least tens of thousands of yuan, and his family also needed appropriate subsidies from the local government as appropriate, so the financial expenditure was not small, enough to build a good reservoir, so Zhao Ke was a little bit reluctant.

But no matter how reluctant he is to give up the money, he will have to spend it, unless he can really apply for the regular army to come over to sit in charge.The future of the southern Chilean region still has to go north, that is, to continue to encroach and expand north along the Central Valley to obtain as many grain-producing areas and mineral areas as possible.Otherwise, they could only stay in the south forever, relying on fishing and whaling for a living, with little potential.

"We still have to fight for it." Zhao Ke thought to himself: "I heard that because of the increase in population and the continuous expansion of overseas colonies, the number of cadre gaps in various places is also increasing. A brand-new student training institution called the Four Forts of the Corps was set up in Chile. I had to find a way to run away and ask the Executive Committee to set the Four Forts of the Corps in the area north of the Jiehe River (Zhao Ke initially planned to set it in the later Shilan It is near the small town of Valdivia and Villarrica, which is undoubtedly an act of intensifying the conflict), so that the Army Department can justifiably send a battalion of troops to station here, so that the regional administrative office It might save a lot of money.”

(End of this chapter)