Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2307 Unromantic Turkey

"This trip is really an eye-opener, an eye-opener!" Qiu Daye, who had just arrived in Turkey, said with emotion.

He is now in the mountains north of Erzurum.There is a winding road leading directly to the Black Sea coast in the northern Rize Mountains, which plays an important role in material transportation.Of course, the Joruh River in the east and the Halsit River in the west are more traditional external channels.These two rivers cut deep through the surface of the plateau, bringing supplies and people from the interior to the shores of the Black Sea to communicate with the outside world.

Uh, well, in fact, there are not many people here, but there are really a lot of supplies.Even in Erzurum, an important military town that can be called a gateway, its population is only tens of thousands (excluding soldiers). It is enough to reach a million, but the area of ​​these areas has reached 25 square kilometers, which is already 2-3 provinces in mainland China.

But size isn't everything.In fact, the proportion of cultivated land in eastern Anatolia is only one-eighth. There are hills and mountains here, and people can only open up cultivated land and build cities in river valleys or a few mountain flats.The most important thing is that there is not much rainfall here, but it is prone to floods (it is also a dog...), which is very unfriendly to agricultural production.Especially in recent years, the situation of the Ottoman Empire was difficult, the taxation was heavy, and the rural situation was chaotic. Therefore, there was no extra funds to invest in the construction of reservoirs and canals.The wheat, fruit, vegetable, cotton, sugar beet, and grape growing areas that had been well tended in the flatlands have shrunk a lot, and the Armenians who run them have been taxed double and are almost on the verge of bankruptcy.

Compared with the Armenians, the life of the Kurds, whose main livelihood is animal husbandry, is relatively better.People graze cattle and sheep on these lava plateaus, and then sell them to Rize, Trabzon and other places, and spread to other regions through these port cities on the southern coast of the Black Sea.

But whether it is Armenians, Kurds or local Turks, the standard of living is actually not good.The Ottoman Empire was not so good in its heyday, let alone the present with frequent wars and financial difficulties.Qiu Daye once talked with several people through an interpreter. They only hoped that the war would end as soon as possible, and then the tax burden and prices would come down, which made them breathe a sigh of relief.It's just that what they don't know is that the current life will be the norm in the future. Now that the Ottoman Empire has shown signs of fatigue, it is unlikely that it will crawl out of the quagmire of war, especially when it is surrounded by vicious enemies who are staring at it. In the case of neighbors.

Qiu Daye is the youngest son of Qiu Lin, the former Gaozhou general of the Southern Ming Dynasty. He just turned 30 this year.Because the Gaozhou Mansion was handed over to the Nanming government by the Lianwu Management Committee, the Qiu family who had been in cahoots with Dashun couldn't get along in the local area anymore.Therefore, under the persuasion of the East Coast Navy, the Qiu family sold all their properties in Gaozhou and even Guangzhou, together with cash, a total of more than 6 taels of silver, and deposited them in the Qinzhou Branch of the East Coast Agricultural Bank.As for the people, more than 300 people from the whole government boarded the immigration boat and came to Bahrain Island, which had just been bought by people from the east coast.

According to the plan, Bahrain Island is currently taken over by the Navy.They built a large-scale port here (80% of the docks are used as military ports), coastal defense forts, land defense forts, navigation lighthouses, sailor barracks, naval hospitals, clubs, ship repair yards, arsenals and other necessary facilities. Everything is available, it should be said that it cost a lot of money.

The construction of the city also took a lot of thought.Originally, the only city on the island that could be called a city was Manama. After the rule of the locals, the Portuguese and the Persians, it is now the turn of the east coast.The Navy invited experts from the Local Construction Bureau to plan the city, and the preliminary construction has already begun.The city was named Ganquan Port by the Navy, named after the sweet spring water that can be seen everywhere in the area.

The original population of Ganquan Port, except for a few people who need to be wooed, most of them will be sent to South Africa in batches to settle down along the yellow-black dividing line.When the Navy counts the population of Ganquan Port, it does not count these people.According to statistics, there are currently more than 1800 immigrants from mainland China in Ganquan Port, who basically make a living from farming and animal husbandry.In the future, the navy will also recruit a considerable number of personnel engaged in logistics maintenance and service, together with the families of naval officers and soldiers, the future urban population will definitely experience a period of rapid growth.

Qiu Daye's family is currently residing in Ganquan Port.According to the family division agreement made by his father before his death, the eldest brother took half of the family property, and Qiu Daye divided the rest with his brothers and sisters.Therefore, Qiu Daye is now a rich man even in the east coast, because he has tens of thousands of yuan in cash, and not many people can reach this level.

After discussing the future business with his family, and spending money to buy the land of some local people-these people are about to leave and have to sell the land for urgently needed money, so the land price is not high-he handed these over to two managed by a son.There are springs near these fields, which can be used for drinking and irrigation, which is very good.However, due to the shortage of manpower, they only bought a few hundred acres of land, which did not even reach the upper limit stipulated by the law.Not only that, but only a small part of these hundreds of acres has been reclaimed, and the reason is still insufficient manpower.

After the locals are driven out, it may be difficult to hire labor on this island!Except for the old servants from Guangdong when Qiu Daye and his family came over (the young servants all left), they only hired two seventeen or eighteen-year-old boys from Ningbo.But they also made it clear that if they have no money at hand, they will help you for three years, and they will leave after three years.

Such a situation forced Qiu Daye to have no choice but to grit his teeth and spend money to order agricultural machinery and develop large-scale mechanized agriculture.But even so, the land can only be cultivated roughly and cannot produce much profit.But that's the only way to go. First collect some food to meet your own consumption, and at the same time provide some supplies to the navy.This is a long-term business, and although the rate of return is not high, it is better than nothing.

As for the future development of the Qiu family, they can only focus on business.Therefore, Qiu Daye participated in a team from Basra Port at his own expense, all the way to eastern Turkey via Baghdad.This team is not small, it looks like there are hundreds of people, about a dozen of them are army officers on a staff trip, and the rest are either diplomats or businessmen—well, businessmen and their escorts account for a large part of the team. part, and the travel expenses of the army and diplomatic personnel are also paid by them, paid for by the goods they carry.

Qiu Daye stayed in Basra Port for several days.It turned out that there was not much business to do here, and the local business station opened by the East Bank government was not doing very well.This does not mean losing money. In fact, some goods provided by the people on the east coast are still very popular. The main reason is that the local people are too poor, and the things they can sell are limited, so this business station cannot make too much money.But it is said that the army likes this place very much and plans to take over the commercial station from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but they don't know how they plan to manage it.Will Wu Fu also do business?Qiu Daye expressed doubts.

Traveling all the way north through Iraq was tedious.After passing through the initial fresh period, Qiu Daye was very disappointed with this place.In addition to the Turkish soldiers, there are Arabs wearing turbans. The main products produced here are wheat, camels, dates and wool. I don’t know where they are sold. Maybe in the future, when there are more people in Bahrain, I will buy some from them. Bar.

Compared with Qiu Daye, the army staff officers are very interested.They visited several tribal chiefs they knew on the way, and it seemed that they had been planning for a long time.In addition, along the way, they carefully recorded the location of each town, population size, specialty products, and made detailed records of the terrain. Sometimes they even asked the team to stop and wait for them to complete the survey and mapping before going on the road, which was very delayed. up the itinerary.But what can I do?Without the organization of the army, it would be difficult for them to reach Turkey safely all the way.At least, can you ask the local Turkish garrison or tribal chiefs to send escorts for some road sections that are said to be chaotic?I'm afraid it will be difficult.

After entering the mountains of Anatolia, the scenery slowly changed.And it changed so much that it made him a little dazed.First of all, the desert plain has turned into a plateau mountain range, and secondly, there is a lot of green on the mountain, which makes Qiu Daye, who has eaten enough sand along the way, very happy.

After the army arrived on the Anatolian plateau, it suddenly became honest.They only surveyed and recorded secretly, it seems that because this is the core area ruled by the Ottoman Empire, it can't be as arrogant as the colony ruled by the governor in Iraq.Qiu Daye chatted with some Armenian businessmen with the help of an interpreter here, but it was not for business, but to understand the local customs.His hands are not that long, and he won't be able to reach here in the short term. It would be nice to be able to do a little trade in Basra and Baghdad.To Anatolia?Dream it!

"I heard that the Turkic country has had a bad year, and there are wars everywhere, and now it is in financial difficulties, and it owes us a lot of debt." After hearing Qiu Daye's sigh, another businessman who was traveling with him came over and said.

Qiu Daye was not very used to the word "we" for a while.However, he also understood that he was no longer from the Ming Dynasty, but a resident of the overseas colony of the East Coast Republic of China, so he quickly responded: "What Turks! Hehe, I heard that they are just people under the rule of the Turkic royal court who would rule the prairie in the Sui and Tang Dynasties. Hu, you are ashamed to call yourself a Turkic descendant. Doesn’t it make people laugh? After all, there is no foundation, so there are wars everywhere, and the people’s lives are difficult, and the business is depressed. In fact, there is not much business here. If it is not possible to open up Vision, if I myself like to travel, I definitely won’t come this time.”

"Huh? Brother Qiu, do you want to go back now? Don't you want to go to the Black Sea?" The businessman who was traveling with him wondered.

"Where! I will still go and have a look. Besides, if we don't go with the army, can we go back? Let's finish this trip first. Brother Huang, I heard that the navy will organize a Persian business tour next year." , I’ve signed up, brother Huang, what do you think? Persia is just outside the door, so it’s a pity not to go and see. There are a lot of benzoin, saffron, ginger root, pepper, and fennel, and there are also a lot of porcelain and silk. There’s a lot to do here, don’t miss it!”

"Why don't you go! I've already signed up." "Brother Huang" laughed and said, "The navy has really worked hard to build a commercial pearl in Bahrain. Not only will it help us go to Persia to expand business, it is said that it will also Go to India to have a look. You have seen it from the army side. It is said that they want to open up a trade route from Basra to Turkey. They will not rule out building roads in the future. Maybe it’s possible to do it. Well, to be honest, when I was kicked out of my home by my elder brother and settled in the hot place of Bahrain, I wanted to die. I’m not afraid of embarrassment. After a while, I wanted to move to New China, but was stopped by the navy, hehe. Now that I think about it, it’s not like I can’t live in this life, so let’s take it one step at a time.”

"Yeah, it's not hard to survive these days." Qiu Daye said: "Let's go to the Black Sea first to see how the local scenery is. It is said that there is a county called Haji, and the business is very prosperous. It's a pity."

(End of this chapter)