Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2253 Central Plateau ([-])

The dry and cool dry season has lasted for two months. Due to the construction of shallow water conservancy projects, the farmland beside the Quicksand Lake (Lake Alautra) is not in danger of lack of water for irrigation.

Because it is an important food producing area, there is a railway from Tacheng Port to Liusha Lake.Yes, that's right, that is Tadong Railway!This railway, which was planned as early as ten years ago, has finally opened to traffic after going through a lot of delays!Now there is a train from Tacheng Port basically every two or three days.The trains were second-hand goods bought from the mainland. Both the locomotives and the carriages were old. After some repairs at the Meilin Railway Machinery Processing Factory, they were transported across the ocean to Tacheng Port and handed over to the Xinhua Railway Company for use.

The current Xinhua Railway Company operates two "broken railways". One is the Daqing Railway on the west coast, which is mainly used to transport agricultural and sideline products such as cotton, wheat, corn, peanuts, sesame, wool, leather, etc. A large amount of cotton is exported locally, contributing to the vast majority of the transportation share of Daqing Railway.

It’s just that in recent years, with the rise of the local cotton planting industry on the east coast and the rapid increase in wool production (which is bound to divide the market share of thin cotton textiles), the cotton industry on the west coast of Xinhuaxia Island has begun to enter a slow decline. , the export volume is decreasing every year.In the past few years, the government of the New China Pioneering Team has successively ordered the closure of several state-owned farms on the west coast, reducing production and maintaining prices, and protecting the interests of ordinary local cotton farmers as much as possible.And because of the closure of the farm, the large number of laborers (basically non-national laborers) were given freedom by the Malays, and they were sent to South Africa across the sea, and incorporated into the island's Eight Banners system.As for those blacks (basically Comoros and Swahili), they plan to send them to Lamu and help them gain a foothold for the future.

In fact, Lamu was originally controlled by a Tubang prince, and he had traded with the east bank, so it was peaceful.But I don’t know what happened to their monarch named Mahathir, who even forged a family tree, claiming that he has Arab noble blood, and wants to rule the entire Swahili coast.To this end, he sent several groups of envoys to the nearby ports of Pat, Malindi, and Mombasa, demanding that the local monarchs and even the Portuguese colonists surrender.

If he just did these things, it's really nothing. People on the east coast heard it as a joke at most.But he should never have deserved it, and even dispatched his own soldiers to rob and kill many foreign businessmen who were doing business in Lamu—including Portuguese, Indians, Arabs, Persians and people from the East Coast—will get The money and goods were used as military expenses.This kind of behavior is tantamount to stabbing a hornet's nest. As soon as the people on the east bank and the Portuguese combined, they immediately dispatched a joint fleet, directly broke into Lamu Port, bombarded it severely, and smashed the palace of that stupid prince. It was a mess.

Of course, the people on the east coast did not intend to stop like this.After politely informing the Portuguese—the reason for this is that the Portuguese believe that the Swahili coast from Mogadishu to Cape Delgado is ruled by them. Several port city garrisons—people from the east coast directly organized a wave of militiamen, and with the cooperation of the navy, landed on Lamu Island, completely smashing this brain-dead force.Subsequently, they organized a group of pardoned black non-national laborers to go ashore, and gave them weapons and proper training, helping them establish rule over the entire Lamu Island.

It should be said that this policy is actually good.In order to develop the plantation industry in the early years, Xinhuaxia Island used many Comorians, Swahili, and Mozambicans to work.Some of these people died because of the harsh living environment, and some persisted and had children. Now the number is quite a lot.How to deal with these people has gradually become a very troublesome problem for the government of the New China Pioneering Team. After all, the people on the east bank still want to save face, so they can't kill them all, right?

It's all right now, the prince of Lamu's Tubang twitched his head, and actually provoked the people on the east coast, so he took the opportunity to wipe him out, and sent all the black people on Xinhua Island to help them establish a country controlled by the people on the east coast. The regime is simply a good thing that kills two birds with one stone.People on the east coast have evaluated the combat effectiveness of the local natives, and feel that if there is no intervention from foreign forces, then they can gain a firm foothold and continue to develop, which is enough.

The Portuguese acquiesced to what the East Coasters were doing on Lamu Island.They don't want to and dare not object. There are too many things they can ask of the East Coast people on the East African coast.Don't talk about the far, just talk about the near.They have recently had a very unpleasant quarrel with the Ottoman Turks because of the contention in northeastern Africa.It is said that the Turks were very angry and had successively increased their troops in Egypt and the Arabian Peninsula. They planned to sail across the sea to Mogadishu and Mombasa to besiege the Portuguese fortress.

Of course the Portuguese did not intend to actually fight the Turks.They're here for business, not war.What's more, the distance between its homeland and Mombasa is tens of thousands of miles, and it is quite inconvenient to support. On the contrary, the Turks can conscript troops on the spot in Egypt and the Arabian Peninsula, and then besiege the above two castles.Therefore, the Portuguese now desperately hope that the people on the east bank can stand up and help them mediate in order to avoid the outbreak of war-in history, in 1696, the Turks gathered an army of more than 2 people and besieged Mongolia across the sea. Fort Bassa, and finally broke it after a two-year siege.

The people on the east coast still took the Portuguese's request for mediation seriously.They are now pulling the Portuguese to make trouble in northwest India, so naturally they can't let the Portuguese's backyard catch fire.But as a relatively close quasi-ally of the people on the east coast, the interests of the Ottomans must also be considered.Therefore, the final result is nothing more than a step back for both sides. The Portuguese can stick to the south of Mogadishu and stop trying to extend their tentacles to the north.Didn't you see that the Djibouti Management Committee of the East Coast has not expanded much for many years?The Portuguese are also clueless, and the small country pretends to be a big force, so it's time to give a good warning.

It can also be seen from this that, relying on their huge economic and military strength, the influence of the people on the east coast on the west coast of the Indian Ocean is really very strong, playing the role of arbitrator faintly.Whether it is the Portuguese or the Ottomans, they must give face to the people on the east coast, otherwise they may cause a series of troubles.As for the local Dutch (Mauritius Island), French (Reunion Island) or English (Port Beira) colonial forces, they are simply younger brothers, without any cards, quietly hiding in a corner and developing silently, otherwise they will have to Get a taste of the hammer of sanctions, it's no joke.

Another railway operated by the New Huaxia Railway Company is the Tadong Railway.To be honest, this railway is actually quite difficult to produce. From planning, exploration to final completion, it took 12 years before and after, which really makes people wait for it.However, although the construction took a lot of time, the huge role played by the railway after its completion made everyone feel that it was worth it.The reason lies in the great success of the construction around Liusha Lake, which is positioned as a grain planting base!

Liusha Lake has been established as a county (Shangdang County) for almost ten years.After years of governance, the local area has now developed an agricultural production model that focuses on rice planting and supplemented by multiple planting. It can produce a huge amount of grain every year, and then transport it to Tacheng Port by train and sell it to various places on the island. place.

Considering that the cultivation of cash crops in Xinhuaxia Island is very popular nowadays, such as pepper, palm, coffee, cocoa, sisal, rubber, vanilla, cotton, cinchona, etc., the area of ​​food cultivation has not increased for many years (even if there is an increase, the state farm credit), and the population of the island has grown rapidly from less than 30 to more than [-]—then it may enter a period of slow growth again, because the population resources will be tilted towards the Yicheng area—from the old continent The number of non-national laborers in China is also increasing day by day (mainly Italians), so there are more and more mouths to eat.

When there are more people eating, the price of food will naturally stabilize, and growing food will become profitable. It is against this background that Shangdang County by the Quicksand Lake developed extremely rapidly.The most convenient means of transportation to transport grain out is undoubtedly the railway. The Tadong Railway operated by the New Huaxia Railway Company was completed and opened to traffic at this time. No matter from any point of view, it is of great importance to the economic development of the whole island. beneficial.

After seeing the great success of the two railways, people could not help but start talking about the possibility of building a third railway on Xinhuaxia Island.Yes, although Xinhuaxia Railway Company is still in debt repayment period, Xinhuaxia Island is now an economic hotspot, various industries are developing vigorously, and the government's fiscal revenue is rising steadily.As the second largest shareholder of New Huaxia Railway Company, they have the strength to provide it with additional capital to re-plan a new railway in the next year or two, so as to provide new impetus to the economic development of the whole island.

As for where the new railway will be built, there are different opinions now, but the relatively mainstream view is to continue along the Tadong Railway, climb over some low mountains, and enter the core area of ​​the Central Plains Plateau.The climate of the Central Plains Plateau is cool (obviously, the altitude is higher), the precipitation is suitable, and the soil is fertile. It is very suitable for the development of agriculture, industry and commerce.Otherwise, why do you think the Melinas, the descendants of the Malays who first colonized New China Island, set up their core ruling area here?The conditions are really excellent!

Of course, if we want to build the railway forward, we must first solve the obstacles of the Melina people.Fortunately, these guys are not unified at present, they are divided into several forces, attacking and killing each other.In addition, two years ago, the people on the east bank assembled tens of thousands of militias and reservists, and began to squeeze inward from four directions. While attacking the Melina people, they also covered the immigrants for reclamation, occupying a lot of territory.Taking Liusha Lake as an example, they established several new settlements in the west of Shangdang County, namely: Huangfu Township (located near the later town of Andrea Mena), Longde Township (located in the later Ma near the town of Nakenna), Jishi Township (located near the later town of Murafenu), Jianghe Township (located near the later town of Bertland Draka), Fengshi Township (located in the later Tsaratana Township) near that city).

These five immigrant settlements are all lands conquered by the Melina people. They are currently guarded by some militias from various counties in rotation, reclaiming wasteland and farming, building forts and building roads.They are not afraid that the Melinas will come to retaliate, because through the previous series of battles, they have figured out the weight of these natives, and know that they cannot be the East Coast without the weapons and ammunition provided by the foreign colonists. human opponent.The reason why we don't continue to attack them now is that it's not worth it. After all, it's the cheapest way to stabilize a piece of land first.

The future extension of the Tadong Railway will basically start from the Xiangyuan Township Railway Station, all the way west, and enter this area.Once this railway is completed, it will basically lay the foundation for the east coast people to go south to attack Antananarivo, the core area of ​​the Melina people.

The days of Melina should not be too long!

(End of this chapter)