Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 551 War Years ([-])

The rooster in the chicken coop crowed loudly early in the morning, Shao Yuanyi sat up from the bed helplessly, and then fell to the ground sleepily.Last night, he treated a number of sick militiamen in the township clinic, and he ended very late, and then walked a few miles of dirt road overnight to return to the village. Right now, he only slept for less than four hours, but he was caught by the cock crowing again. He was very annoyed at being woken up by the sound.

The back door of the main room was wide open, and Shao Yuanyi looked at it. His Russian wife was washing clothes by the small river in the back, chatting with a few village women in the neighbors in Chinese with a strange accent while washing.Well, what kind of people are they... Slavs, they can be regarded as fellow countrymen, no wonder they are so chatty, and they don’t know how to finish their work and go mowing the grass, Shao Yuanyi thought resentfully.

His youngest daughter, who was just a few months old, was lying quietly on a small bed in the main room, and was soundly asleep at the moment.Shao Yuanyi gently touched her tender little face, with a gentle smile on her face.The peach trees in the yard were in full bloom, and a swarm of bees was buzzing and circling.Under the tree, a huge hound was lying on the ground boredly, its ears were trembling, and it was staring at a group of laughing and joking children outside the yard.These children all looked about seven or eight years old, and they carried a basket in their hands. In the basket were freshly cut sweet potato vines, which were going to be taken back to feed the pigs.

At this time the sun has just risen, and there are many farmers working in the fields.However, if you observe carefully, you will find that most of the people working in the fields are women, and there are very few men. This is mainly due to the outbreak of war and too many men were transferred away.

With the deepening of the fighting in the La Plata area, mobilization has already been carried out in many areas of the country.At first, it was the capital area, where the first mobilization of 250 militiamen participated in the offensive and defensive battle of Buenos Aires; not long after that, Rocha County, which was newly established for a few months, also mobilized once, with [-] militiamen Shipped to the Paraná River to take part in the offensive against Santa Fe.After being mobilized in these two places, it is now the turn of the towns in the Duck Lake Basin. Mocaoling Township has also received a mobilization order. [-] militiamen have been transferred to West Lake Fort for training and are ready to join the La Plata battlefield at any time.

The village where Shao Yuanyi lived had 30 people recruited, plus the men involved in building roads, irrigating canals, and logging. Most of the male labor force in the entire village was assigned to work and could not spare time to go to the fields.Fortunately, the mobilization order came after the busy season of spring planting last month. At this time, there was not much farm work in the fields, and women could barely support it.Of course, those seven or eight-year-old farm children can't be idle either.They had to go to the field to cut some sweet potato vines when the morning was cool, and then cut some grass in the wild grass by the river behind the yard, and then mixed some old corn kernels and the like to cook a pot of pig food on the stove. .After cooking, I have to feed the pigs, the chickens and ducks after the pigs, and fill up the water in the bucket at home, so that I have time to eat breakfast by myself. In short, it is also extremely hard.

After breakfast, the friends will meet to go to school together.The place to go to school is quite a distance from the village, about two or three miles away. There is a complete primary school with students from several nearby villages.There is only one teacher in the elementary school, which adopts double-entry class education and teaches all courses in five grades including Chinese, mathematics, nature, and geography.

This is the real life in the rural areas of the East Coast Republic of China during the war.Although the army on the east bank is in full swing on the front line, the continuation of the war still has a certain impact on everyone's life, and it is expected that as the intensity of the war gradually escalates, this impact will become greater and greater.

There are not a few people who have this kind of prediction. At least recently, Shao Yuanyi has been hearing that the familiar English tailor in the village complained that the cloth was not easy to buy, and another cobbler from Ireland in the village also complained that the familiar ones that were easy to buy in the past were also complained. The supply of cowhide is also limited now, it is said that it is because the Dayuhe Armory bought too many at one time.After all, the war broke out in a hurry, and there was no time for a large-scale reserve of many materials. Those who started the war at will should be held accountable.

Speaking of this, I have to say that there are a large number of Italians and Hungarians influx in the southern part of the East Coast Republic, and in the north, there are also a large number of English, Irish, and Scots who escaped from the Portuguese and Brazilian colonies.Many of these people are indentured slaves who cannot be enslaved by local plantation owners, because they are not sure whether they can survive the six or seven years of inhuman slavery in a healthy way, but their daily work is heavier than that of black people, The poor food and the dark and damp living environment made them very unhappy about this, so they decided to flee.

These were mostly bachelors who had come to try their luck in the New World as a result of the years-long war in the British Isles.Of course, most of the people who left the British mainland still went to the British North American colonies, but a considerable number of guys who believed in the Portuguese's rhetoric came to the legendary and rich Brazil.But the cruel reality disappointed them. When they signed a labor contract and came to Brazil because they could not pay the ship fare, the captain sold them on the spot at the dock.Labor-hungry Portuguese planters groped them like horses, then bargained with the captain and bought their five- or seven-year labor contracts and became their indentured masters.

The next step is extremely heavy labor, because it is not the owner's complete private property, and their life is worse than those of the blacks.Whether in logging camps, cotton plantations, sugar cane plantations, tobacco plantations or coffee plantations, life is equally difficult for them.In addition, when they first arrived, they were not very adapted to the hot climate in Brazil, so these people began to flee wave after wave.

The best destination for fleeing is of course the Eastern Republic in the south. The police officers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs who are on duty at the eastern border may have been instructed by their superiors to give these fugitives a certain degree of asylum, that is, as long as they successfully enter the East Coast within the territory of the Coastal Republic, they would no longer be handed over to the Portuguese who hunted them down.

After entering the east bank, they can find jobs in towns or villages in the north of the east bank, because there is also an extreme shortage of labor.Skilled people such as tailors, blacksmiths, stonemasons, locksmiths, cobblers, brewers, etc. can work decently in towns and earn a lot of money.And those ordinary laborers without special skills can only go to work in places with low technical requirements, such as coal mines, brick kiln factories, construction teams, logging camps, docks and farmland.

At this time, a group of Scottish farmers were active in Shao Yuanyi's village. They were working hard on the slopes of the mountains, sorting out the bunches of pasture that had been cut down by horse-drawn pasture harvesters, and then tied them up and put them on the flat carriage. , and then pull these pastures back to the village.Some of them are also responsible for drying grass, cutting grass, feeding cows, herding sheep, milking cows, etc. In short, they are very busy.

What the peasant families on the east coast who employ them only need to pay is to provide them with three meals a day and accommodation, and pay a salary of one yuan and fifty cents a month.Of course, the farmers on the east bank usually only hire some helpers for a short period of time during the busy season. Usually they are extremely frugal and wish to spend every penny in half.After the busy farming season, these outsiders can only go to other places to look for work. They usually go to logging or road construction, so that they can be assigned to some new settlements and obtain precious houses after obtaining official identification. and land.

After Shao Yuanyi finished washing, he took a few fires from the kitchen stove, then took out a large glass jar from the cupboard, carefully cut a few small pieces of marinated whale meat from it, and put them in the fire to chew. up.Sighing while eating, this whale meat is not as delicious as beef, not to mention the meat is thick, and there is not much oil. If it is not for the sauce when it is marinated at home, it is really unpalatable.

But he suddenly laughed again while eating. He had only lived a good few years, and he started to pick and choose.Thinking back to the past in Daming, let alone eating meat, even the kind of millet mixed with sand was a rare delicacy for him.Now I am living a fairy-like life on the east coast. Not only have I found a wife, although I can’t eat beef, mutton, pork, whale meat, chicken, duck and fish every day, it’s not a big deal if I eat it every now and then. Difficult.Moreover, after meals, sometimes he would be extravagant, drink some wine or beer, and smoke a bag of cigarettes. In the Ming Dynasty, even ordinary small landlords could not afford to enjoy these days, and they were incomparable.

But when it comes to tobacco and alcohol, the supply of these two materials seems to be starting to tighten up now.For example, the price of shredded tobacco produced in Virginia has risen by 30% compared to before the outbreak of the war. At this price, you have to find an acquaintance to buy it. Those small wholesalers don’t want to sell it at all, and they are all hoarding it on hand. What a price increase!The wine situation is better, because there are many local grape-growing places on the east coast, especially Xiangshan Township and Sanpaotai Township in Zhenhai County. Increase.But beer is not enough. As the government banned many small workshops that brew privately in Xihubao and Dafengbao, and the brewers were exiled to Australia, now with the outbreak of war, the price is changing every day. I have to go grab some and stock up.

War really hurts people!Shao Yuanyi thought helplessly, why should he fight a war when he is living a good life?But his thoughts can only wander around in his own mind. If he speaks out, he will be charged with a crime, at worst a fine and detention, and maybe he will be exiled overseas. This is not the life he wants.

(End of this chapter)