Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 33

This is a ship transporting building materials, and the entire cabin is filled with blocks of red bricks.The four of Blanco sat on the bow, looking at the scenery on both sides of the river.

It is already late autumn and early winter in South America.The farther you are from the city wall, the more desolate the banks of the river will be.

When we first left the city wall, we could also see many temporary wooden houses built along the banks of the river.Blanco had sharp eyes, and he found that most of the people living in the wooden house were Indians, and there were also a small number of Nordic whites.These people reclaimed wasteland outside the city walls, relying on the built aqueducts or rainwater collection ponds to irrigate and grow vegetables.

"They are slaves serving the Tartan nobles in the city." Carlos, a businessman who had been silent all this time, suddenly said, "Perhaps they captured these Indians themselves. Maybe we can consider buying some slaves from them, Brazil There is a perpetual shortage of labor on the plantations, and lately the number of blacks who have escaped is increasing."

"Indians are not suitable candidates for slaves." Ricardo interjected, "In fact, they advocate freedom, are aggressive by nature, and are not physically strong enough. They are far worse than blacks."

Blanco had no interest in intervening in their conversation. "What's that?" He suddenly saw a strange building, surrounded by many people, including Indians and whites, as if some kind of ceremony was being held.

"God! Heretics!" Father Simao recalled a moment, exclaimed in horror, and then kept crossing his chest.He has stayed in China for many years, so he naturally knows Taoist temples, which are very common buildings in China.

"It seems that they are not Tartans, but from the East." Blanco is not a priest, and his beliefs are not devout enough, so naturally he will not make such a fuss like Father Simao.

As the boat went further and further away, the farmlands and Taoist temples gradually disappeared, and the scenery on both sides of the river began to change into unchanging weeds.There are many salt-resistant pear trees, jujube trees and locust trees planted along the river bank. The trees are not big, and it seems that they have been planted for a short time.Occasionally, some flocks of sheep can be seen in the wild grass, other than that, it is full of desolate colors like a virgin land with no trace of people.

The ship continued to sail slowly.It was nearly noon, and the two German boatmen on the boat started to light a fire and cook on board.They invited Blanco and others to taste their food together, and the four of Blanco, who had long been hungry, readily agreed.

The staple food is still the unpalatable steamed potatoes, and the unappetizing salted fish. Blanco is very happy to eat the last one: some unknown vegetables and some unknown white lumps Soup cooked together.Father Simao told Blanco while eating that these two are traditional Chinese food, cabbage and tofu.

After lunch, everyone was a little drowsy, and while Blanco was half asleep, he suddenly heard cheers faintly coming from a distance.Blanco lifted his spirits and looked up, only to see that the original desolate scenery on the side of the road had disappeared at some point, replaced by large stretches of flat farmland.The farmland has been harvested, and there are two neat rows of houses with red bricks and blue tiles standing on the edge of the farmland in the distance.The house is surrounded by a circle of wooden walls, and there are two watchtowers built inside the wall.

There were many people sitting around the open space on the bank of the river outside the wall.These people seem to be gathering or performing some kind of religious ceremony, and there are bursts of applause from time to time.

The wooden boat is docked on a simple wooden trestle on the bank of a river.There was a cabin on the trestle bridge. Two militiamen with matchlock guns and sabers came over. After talking with the boatman for a while, one of them left to report to his superiors.

Soon, the soldier who had left came back, and this time he was accompanied by an oriental man.After looking at the list given to him by Blanco for a while, the Oriental asked in English, "Mr. Blanco Sousa de Almeida?"

Blanco nodded reservedly: "Yes, honorable sir, I am Blanco from San Vicente."

"Then come with me, gentlemen." The Eastern said, "With all due respect, I am not optimistic that we can conclude this transaction. The transaction with you is too sensitive. Gentlemen, this way please."

On the drying ground of the No. 1 production team, a grand harvest celebration ceremony is coming to an end.Due to the great significance of this bumper harvest, all members of the Executive Committee were present.The procedure of the celebration ceremony was the same as that of a traditional Chinese conference. The climax occurred at the awards ceremony. Ma Ganzu, chairman of the executive committee, awarded three yuan bonuses to each of the five households with the highest output, and solemnly announced that they would be granted free citizenship.

After hearing the words translated by Grote on the spot, the five families burst into tears of joy, making other people jealous, secretly regretting why they didn't put their heart into farming.The sense of loss in these people's hearts is even stronger when they think that the neighbors of these five households who live together day and night will be able to receive wages and buy land immediately.He could only secretly encourage himself that he must work hard in the next planting season, and strive to obtain the status of a free citizen as soon as possible.

After the celebration ceremony, Ma Ganzu and other members of the executive committee met with Blanco and his party in the headquarters of the production team.

"Mr. Blanco, I heard that the governor of Bahia is having a hard time thinking about how to deal with the Dutch. The Dutch have already captured a large part of Bahia. It is difficult to say what they will do next to Rio de Janeiro or the Marañon area. Is there any interest?" Foreign Affairs Commissioner Gao Mo naturally did his part to be the first to fire on this occasion, "I think we should strictly abide by the principle of neutrality at such a sensitive moment and impose an arms embargo on the two warring parties. Rush to intervene in such a situation It would be extremely unwise to start a war that is of no benefit to us."

"We can sell slaves to you. I know you are very hungry for labor. We can ship black slaves from Congo, Angola and Mozambique to your ports." Blanco's face remained unchanged, and he knew that it was time for the two sides to bargain.These Easterners are really not very keen on selling weapons to their side, especially when Sao Paulo and Uruguay are not far away.But nothing is absolute, Blanco felt that he should at least try hard to persuade these Orientals.

"Do you still have surplus black slaves for sale?" Gao Mo looked at Blanco mockingly: "The black fugitive slaves hiding in Palmares even established a country. They attacked your army and farms behind the scenes, and took over plantation Slaves run away and make alliances with the Indians, ha, I don't see how many slaves you have left to sell us."

Blanco's face turned pale all of a sudden.Damn Orientals!How did they know so well about the fugitive black slaves hiding in the Palm Grove (Palmares)?Did the Dutch tell them?How close are they to the Dutch?No, not right!They may have just heard some rumors from some sailors.

Blanc tried to calm himself down, and then smiled at Gao Mo: "As you know, those escaped slaves formed the so-called loose alliance of Palmares. However, this does not affect my commitment to you. Portugal Merchant ships sail through the whole world, we have sailors with the most experience in the ocean, and we have ports all over the route to the East. Even if you don’t want black slaves and want to immigrate from Ming, I don’t think it’s impossible.”

Now it was the turn of the executive committee members to be speechless.

The latest population of the Crossing Congregation is 2852 (excluding slaves).Among them, there are 567 people who have traveled through the country, accounting for 20%; then the second most are Germans, accounting for 18%; followed by Czechs, accounting for 13%; Norwegians, accounting for 11%; Finns, accounting for 9%; 7%; Ukrainians, 6%; French, 5%; Estonians, Latvians, and Samogitians each accounted for 3%; the remaining 2% had a more dispersed population.In addition, there were 497 slaves, including 305 Chaluya slaves and 192 European POW slaves.

Although the traversing people have used various means to erase the original national and national colors of the immigrants, they have indeed achieved some results and enhanced their cohesion.However, if someone tells you that there is now an opportunity to immigrate to Uruguay from the Ming Dynasty, then it is really self-deception to say that everyone is completely unmoved.

"From Macau to Goa, to Lorenzo Marquez, and then across the Atlantic to the port of Tatan. The route is difficult and extremely dangerous. You have spent so much money and energy just to ask us to sell you some weapons?" Gao Mo looked at Blanco with incredible eyes, meaning don't take us for idiots.

"Of course, you need to pay for this, and we can discuss the specific price later." Blanco said, "Of course, this is just my personal opinion. I can suggest it to my superiors, but it does not mean that the Governor will approve my suggestion. "

"Of course the Governor will not agree to this ridiculous suggestion!" After calming down, Gao Mo analyzed it a little, and felt that as long as the Governor of Bahia has a normal IQ at this stage, he would not be so convulsed that he would go to the East to transport immigrants to America.You must know that this kind of thing is not only risky at sea, it may also anger the Ming government.If the Ming government banned trade with Macau in anger, the Portuguese would suffer a lot.Therefore, Gao Mo feels that this can only be a beautiful legend at present, unless something major happens to change the governor's mind.

"I can persuade the governor to open trade in Brazil. We can open up the export of meat products, cheese, tallow, fur, sugar, tobacco leaves and other materials you urgently need. Similarly, the products you produce can also be sold to Brazil. So far, Only some British companies can enjoy this kind of honor." Blanco put forward another condition.

Damn, another blank check!Gao Mo wondered if this Blanco was here to make trouble.Although this proposal sounds very good, God knows whether the Brazilians will go back on their word at that time. The executive committee only believes in tangible and tangible benefits.

"Maybe we can add another condition." After the members of the executive committee discussed in low voices for a while, Gao Mo suddenly said: "We can clarify the geographical boundary between Brazil and the East Coast Company. Patus Lake To the west, to the south of the Taquari River, and to the east of the Gran Cucilia Mountains, must be legally recognized as the legal territory of the East Coast Company."

"Sorry, I can't decide the territorial issue." Blanco quickly replied.

(End of this chapter)