Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2381 Florida and the Bahamas

On August 1699, 8, in the Florida seaport city of St. Augustine, a merchant ship flying the flag of the east coast had just docked.

St. Augustine is now the capital of Spain's Florida colony, but the port is small and broken. The river is full of messy boats. There are vegetables, dead fish and other garbage floating on the river. The official offices on the shore are also inconspicuous. The soldier yawned all over his mouth, as if he hadn't woken up.

Gao Yi boarded the pier carrying a large suitcase, and with the assistance of an employee who came to pick up the boat, he hired a carriage and drove towards the Palm Tree Primary School on Dengzhou Street.Palm Tree Primary School is a school for the children of East Coast expatriates living in St. Augustine and nearby villages and towns. Gao Yi of the clan was the first headmaster.

Gao Yi is the third generation of the Gao family in a diplomatic family, but instead of working in the diplomatic or trade system, he joined the National Intelligence Agency and used his ostensible identity as a teacher as a cover to collect various intelligence about the country he was in.It was also arranged by the National Intelligence Agency to serve as the principal of Dengzhou Street Palm Tree Primary School this time.Maybe the other teachers in the school didn't know about it, but the investors who were the school managers knew it very well. After all, they needed their help in many operations of the General Intelligence Agency.

Dengzhou Street is a well-known commercial street in St. Augustine. At present, there are more than 60 shops, hundreds of people from the east coast live, and nearly a thousand local residents are employed. It is the first-class wealthy place in St. Augustine. It is also one of the main tax sources of the city government.

Dengzhou Street is mainly engaged in import and export trade, that is, it transports and sells commodities produced on the east coast—from daily necessities to industrial equipment, and then buys Florida’s specialties locally, such as palm oil, dried fruits, Seafood, honey, wood, crocodile skin and other commodities.The scale of these trades was not very large at first, but after decades of development, it is now very large, reaching as high as one million yuan every year.Otherwise, there would not be a commercial street like Dengzhou Street in St. Augustine, where merchants from the east coast gather together.

And since there are so many expatriates living here, it is only natural to build primary schools to provide the necessary basic education.As a result, wealthy local businessmen contributed funds, and the state provided people, and Palm Tree Primary School was established in this way.This elementary school is a complete elementary school, with a one-study system and curriculum that are almost the same as those in the mainland. It is the only one in the North American continent. Even the Sioux City Pirate Group, which is currently flourishing, does not have such a complete elementary school.Because of this, some local Spanish officials or wealthy businessmen also tried their best to send their children in, and they did not hesitate to pay high admission fees for this. This greatly eased the financial pressure on the school and allowed the school managers to maintain it without investing any money. School operation - To put it bluntly, the current mode of operation of the school is that the Spaniards pay to support the children of the East Coast to study.

As the principal of the school, Gao Yi naturally has enough knowledge, and his teacher qualification certificate is also obtained through serious examinations, which can stand the test completely.However, due to his other identity, Gao Yi obviously will not focus on teaching and school management in the future.His main job is to use the school principal as a cover to contact the parents of Spanish students in the school, and take the opportunity to influence them, making them follow the baton of the East Bank consciously or unconsciously.As for the operation and management of the school, it is mainly in the charge of Teacher Bai, the director of the Academic Affairs Office - her husband is a cloth merchant in Dunley Street, and has a wide relationship, which is very suitable for her to carry out her work.

"Principal Gao, this is your dormitory. I'll help you bring your luggage in." The carriage stopped in front of a two-story villa, and the young man who picked him up said as he took the box courteously.

Gao Yi nodded and said nothing.The two-story "dormitory" is a bit extravagant for him, but this is a favor from a local businessman, and there is no need to refuse it.What's more, this place is relatively remote, which is very suitable for a conspirator like him to plan various events, which is very ideal.

There are already two servants, a man and a woman, working in the villa.There is no doubt that they are all employees of the National Intelligence Agency and belong to Gao Yi's direct leadership.Therefore, after a hasty lunch, Gao Yi called the two of them together for a short meeting in the study, focusing on the current situation and the focus of work in the next stage.

"...The colony of Florida has developed very rapidly in the past few decades. It currently has a white population of more than [-], which is relatively large. There is no statistics on the Mestizo people, but there are still ten times that, mainly engaged in Agricultural work, a small number of them joined the army. As for the Indians, there is no exact statistics, but they are certainly not as many as the Mestizos. The number of black slaves is even less, which is strange. The Spaniards don’t like to use black slaves very much, it seems So traditional, probably because they can drive a lot of Indians."

"The local native white nobles have a bad impression of the peninsula people. They don't intend to submit to the will of Madrid. As far as we know, once the members of the Bourbon family enter Madrid, they are likely to declare independence. The only obstacle may be The more than 1000 soldiers from the peninsula stationed on the outskirts of St. Augustine are loyal to the royal family."

Gao Yi silently listened to the conversation between the two, and wrote a few sentences in his notebook from time to time, while thinking silently in his heart.His mission in coming to Florida is actually very clear, that is to instigate the independence of this colony, make it break away from the control of the Spanish royal family, integrate into the political and economic circles of the people on the east coast, and become a pawn of the east coast government in the North American continent.Given the current population of hundreds of thousands in the entire colony, Florida actually has great potential. Once developed, it is bound to become a very influential country in North America.

In fact, the local nobles are also very happy about independence.After all, in order to make up for the financial deficit, Madrid has collected a lot of taxes locally.At the same time, businessmen from the peninsula often have great influence. Even in Florida, it is difficult for native white nobles to compete with them, resulting in the loss of a lot of benefits.And once independent, then the situation is different.The newly established government agencies must be dominated by local people, and the outsiders from the peninsula will lose their privileges overnight and lose their competitiveness.Moreover, this country can be deeply integrated into the East Coast economic circle, which is also of great benefit to the business of native white families.In short, what is lost is "a shackle" and what is gained is "the whole world". There is no reason for them not to be independent.

"Closely follow the movements of several big families to ensure that they will not change their minds. St. Augustine's army is not a problem. Let them pay for weapons from us, hire instructors, and develop their own armed forces. Well-trained, can't it be Compete with those loose Spanish soldiers?" Gao Yi put down the pen in his hand and said, "In order to avoid attracting the attention of the Spanish colonial government, the place of the transaction should be in the Bahamas."

It is said that although Air Canada has been deeply involved in the Mobile River area of ​​the North American continent in recent years, the operation of the Bahamas Islands has also been put on the agenda.The reason was not because of the resources on the island, but because he could not bear the infestation of the pirates hiding in the archipelago, so he mobilized ships and manpower to go to the island to clean up the pirates' lair.At present, they have occupied Grand Bahama Island and established a stronghold on the island for shelter and repair of ships.

However, it is said that they want to transfer the island to the navy.Because they hardly have any interests here, and they can't see the prospect of profit, they have been subsidized financially.Instead of this, it would be better to sell it to the Navy who is interested in taking over.Anyway, as long as it doesn't fall into the hands of pirates, and they don't let them continue to use this as a base to make waves and disrupt the trade order.It's too late for them to colonize the banks of the Mobile River, who has time to play with you on the island!

In fact, the Navy's interest in this island is not as great as imagined.However, considering that the entire archipelago is still unowned, except for New Providence Island, which is controlled by the British, most of the islands are in a state of unowned—or without a fixed owner—and have become a paradise for pirates. So if you don't take it for nothing, let's talk about it first.The Huaiyuan Island (Trinidad) currently controlled by the government is somewhat southerly after all. If the Bahamas can be controlled so that it is one south and one north with Huaiyuan Island, then the control over the entire Caribbean Sea will be greatly enhanced. The situation is unstoppable. Same day.

Gao Yi has a clear understanding of the navy's psychology, but he also has a deeper view, that is, once the people on the east coast control the Bahamas Islands, then the monitoring of Florida will be stronger.The country's foreign trade lines - if it succeeds in independence - will also be under the control of the east coast navy, and the benefits of this are also very large.Considering that people on the east coast are likely to use Florida as a "trash can" in the future and receive a large number of mestizos who migrated from Paraguay, Chalcas, Peru and other places, this is likely to arouse the resentment of the local people, so firmly It made a lot of sense to have a firm grip on the Bahamas and hold Florida east and west with the Air Canada territory around the Mobile River.disobedient?Don't want to accept more people to grab resources?Aren't you afraid that I will march on both sides of the Great East Bank and destroy your new regime?

"Florida's independence must not go wrong." After listening for a long time, Gao Yi concluded: "The Sioux City Pirates Group, the Free State, the Air Canada territory, and Florida are the major pawns for us to deeply control and influence the southern part of the North American continent. No one can go wrong. Starting tomorrow, you will contact the staff scattered in various places, strengthen ties with native white nobles, and then try to bribe and instigate Spanish colonial officials and soldiers to prepare for the return of righteousness on the battlefield in the future. This The colony, we have secured it!"

(End of this chapter)