Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 312 Tacheng Coal Mine ([-])

"Old Xu, where is he? Old Xu!" Standing outside Shi Qinjie's office, Zhang Xiao grabbed Xu Gang, the commander of the 101st Company of the Army, who had just finished the meeting with Shi Qinjie and others.

"What's the matter? In such a hurry?" Xu Gang raised his eyes on the bridge of his nose and asked in confusion.Even in the temperature of [-] or [-] degrees, Xu Gang was wearing a neat military uniform, and the gloves on his hands were spotlessly white.

"I want to ask you something." Zhang Xiao wiped the sweat off his forehead and said, "Did you go on an expedition to the south in July this year?"

"We have been going to the south once or twice a month since April. We have attacked at the beginning and end of July. I don't know which time you are asking?" Xu Gang said seriously, his hair He combed it meticulously, just like his always serious face.

"It was the time when you went to the cape to the south. I couldn't tell. Anyway, it was the cape to the south of St. Mary's Island." Zhang Xiao still couldn't tell where it was after talking for a long time.

"Oh, you are talking about that place." Xu Gang reacted quickly, and then nodded: "I arrived there with the entire company on July 7th. There are some indigenous villages over there, which should be Betsy Misalaka people, these people make a living by fishing and planting rice. On that day, we conquered five villages in the adjacent area and captured more than 4 slaves. This is also the time when we captured the most slaves in a single time. Some of them are still in the local area to build the city wall, and some have been shipped to Hezhong Port to replenish the Eight Banners. After I came back, I studied the map drawn by the staff and found that the cape should be Tamata in the east of Madagascar later. husband's port."

"It's a port? That would be even better!" Zhang Xiao happily slapped his thigh and said with a smile, "Did you bring back a lot of coal?"

"Coal? There is a little." Xu Gang nodded affirmatively, then he turned around and told the deputy company Changshou Taoist behind him: "Go and get the battle records."

Taoist Shou quickly brought over the battle records, and then turned to the records on July 7th: "Destroyed a resistance force of the Bezimi Saraka people, killed and wounded 4 enemies, and captured 166; captured the hump 847 cattle, 122 catties of rice, 3 pieces of swords, bows and spears, and more than 205 catties of coal..."

"By the way, this is it!" Zhang Xiao snapped his fingers with his right hand, and said, "Did you ask these natives where they got the coal?"

Taoist Shou turned the battle records to another page, and here is the interrogation record of the captives after each battle: "The natives explained that there are several places in the small hills about ten kilometers away from the coastline. Burning black 'stones'. They found that this kind of stone is particularly resistant to burning, especially in the rainy season when the firewood is all wet. They use this kind of stone as fuel. But they also found that this kind of stone Black stone is not suitable for smelting metal, because it will make the iron more brittle, and the knives made by this method are easy to break, which is far less good than iron smelted with charcoal."

"This is high-quality hard coal. It would be too wasteful to use it for cooking." Zhang Xiao immediately said, "There must be a coal field near Tamatave Port. I don't know how much the reserves are, but it must be enough for our current use. Yes. Company Commander Xu, I suggest that we send troops to occupy that place immediately! This is too important to our country, as you know, the quality of coal produced by our local Ping’an Coal Mine is really poor, even if it is used for fire, it is too gray. Now There is such a ready-made coal field in front of us, why do we hesitate? Go ahead, the executive committee will definitely approve it! Now we almost spend tens of thousands of precious foreign exchange funds every month on imports to Europe High-quality coal, now we can finally mine coal by ourselves and get rid of external energy dependence, so why are we hesitating? Even better, this coal field is near the seaport, and the transportation is very convenient. I also know the port of Tamatave , the average water depth in the bay is [-] meters, and it is fully capable of mooring large transport ships, which is much more convenient than going to the inland of South Africa to mine coal!"

Xu Gang fell silent.He is not very clear about the coal resources in Madagascar, but he also vaguely knows that the Sakua coalfield in the southern part of Malaysia has huge reserves. Although it cannot be called a world-class coalfield, its reserves must not be underestimated.At that time, it also attracted many countries including China to come to explore and mine. The coal in this coal field is mainly buried in the inland area of ​​the southern part of Malaysia, which is about [-] kilometers away from the coast. There are many other countries along the coast. extension strap.

In addition to this large coal field, there are also some small and medium-sized coal fields in the southern and northern parts of Malaysia. Because the coal reserves of these coal fields are not large enough, it is difficult to attract foreign funds, so they are generally mined by locals themselves and supplied to users. Most also come from surrounding areas.However, the fact that some large coal companies in China look down on coal fields in later generations doesn't mean that the cross-country crowd also doesn't look up to them.The industrial scale of the East Coast Republic is only so large today, and a small and medium-sized coal field that everyone looks down on in future generations can definitely kill the appetite of the East Coast people at this moment.Not to mention that this coal field happens to be located near a good port, and the mined coal can be shipped directly to the ship at an extremely low cost, which is much more reliable than some people in the Ministry of Industry and Commerce who are trying their best to mine coal in the interior of South Africa.

Thinking of this, Xu Gang also nodded, and said in agreement: "I also suggest that this area can be taken down. The country's industrial development is booming, and the demand for high-quality coal is also increasing. If we don't solve the bottleneck of coal, especially high-quality thermal coal , What kind of development is this talking about, what about the steam age! How about it, Mr. Zhang, you and I will go in and find Captain Shi, and talk to him about the situation. It is up to him to make up his mind on this matter. It depends on the two of us alone. No, it’s better to report to the executive committee in the name of the Madagascar Pioneering Team, otherwise the local bureaucrats won’t pay attention!”

"Okay, let's go in and talk to Captain Shi. This matter is very good for expanding the sphere of influence and influence of the New China colony, and its importance to the national economy is self-evident. I think Captain Shi will make the right decision. It's up to you." Zhang Xiao said without hesitation, and then returned to Shi Qinjie's office with Xu Gang.

Several people immediately discussed behind closed doors in the office, Taoist Shou consciously stood up outside the door, preventing all idlers from approaching.More than an hour later, Zhang Xiao came out with a happy face, and said as he walked, "Company Commander Xu, there are no other forces over there now, right? Well, even if there are, we will wipe them out! This coal field is a threat to the country. It is of great significance, we will kill whoever stands in our way! It is rare for Captain Shi to support our work so much this time, I think it is better to get this matter done as soon as possible. It just so happens that the officers and soldiers of the 3rd Company of the Army who are taking over are also there, The two companies will work together to occupy that place first."

"Alright, I'll discuss it with Company Commander Liao, it shouldn't be a big problem." Xu Gang nodded and didn't speak any more.

……

On October 1641, 10, with the support of Shi Qinjie, the captain of the Madagascar Pioneering Team, Xu Gang, the company commander of the 7st Company of the Army, brought all the officers and soldiers of the company, and half of the 101rd Company (3 platoons, 6 people), headed south on the multi-functional ship "Polang" which had just finished simple maintenance in the Xinhua Ship Repair Institute.

Due to the southeast wind blowing on the sea, "Breaking Waves" lowered the sails, the steam engine on the ship had started, and the billowing black smoke from the flat chimney amidships quickly dissipated into the sky under the blowing of the sea wind.The whole ship was sailing south at a speed of about 5 knots (following the ocean current) amidst the sound of the stern paddle wheel's "squeaking" sound. Anyway, there were nearly 190 tons of coal in the cabin, so Zhang Xiao didn't care, so he just burned it. Well, it's not like the ship can't sail without coal.

On October 10, Breaking Waves passed through the narrow channel between St. Marie's Island and the western coastline.Here, they encountered two galleons of three or four hundred tons, and the masts of these ships were hoisted with a variety of flags with strange patterns.Xu Gang, who had been hanging out here for nearly a year, told Zhang Xiao that these were European pirate ships gathered on St. Mary's Island.When these European pirate ships were few, there were five or six, and when they were many, they reached a dozen or so, and there were hundreds of people gathered.

Regarding the existence of these European pirates, the people on the east coast of Xinhua Port held a neutral attitude of neither friendship nor hostility.After all, the main target of these European pirates is the Dutch merchant ships passing by here. To some extent, the two sides actually have a common language on this matter.In fact, this is also the case. These European pirates opened up wasteland and farmed on the island, and many of them married local aboriginal women. Agricultural products or catches come to exchange, and sometimes some stolen goods that are not easy to sell come to exchange.

Under Shi Qingjie's instruction, the people on the east bank did not deliberately lower the stolen goods in the hands of these pirates every time they exchanged.They also gave fair consideration to the agricultural products and fish catches they brought, so they won the goodwill of these pirates.Coupled with the strong force of the people on the east coast (180 musketeers, more than 400 militiamen, and more than 200 Eight Banners supervisors), these pirates did not dare to think anything wrong, so the two sides got along peacefully for a while.Later, after the people on the east coast built strong forts and fortresses, these pirates completely gave up their attempt to plunder the people on the east coast, and instead used Fort Xinhua as a place for supplies and transactions.After all, pirates are also human beings, and they also need to enjoy the goods of the civilized world, and also need to live a life in the civilized world. Otherwise, they rob so desperately that they carry wanted warrants from several countries on their backs. What is the plan?

(End of this chapter)