Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 793 Trade and Colonization ([-])

The time entered the beginning of 1650, and at this time the banks of the Xingnan River were at the hottest time in summer.

Outside the sandcastle (the confluence of the Xingnan River and its tributaries, the small village of Bella Vista, Argentina later)—named because the castle wall was built with adobe—the thunderous sound of horseshoes came from far to near, and finally Shi Ran stopped under a few bushes outside the fort wall.The riders on the horses talked and laughed loudly and got off their horses. The leader was a young East Coast non-commissioned officer in a dark blue military uniform and red breeches. Judging from his military rank, he seemed to be a sergeant.

If there are acquaintances nearby at this time, they will definitely recognize that this extremely young non-commissioned officer is the eldest son of Major Xu Yu, the highest officer of the East Coast Cavalry: Xu Xiangdong.This gentleman is 18 years old this year. He graduated from the cavalry department of the Dingyuan Military Academy. He is currently seconded to the Southern Railway Company to train local militiamen.You know, in this desolate part of southern Patagonia, it is simply unthinkable for patrolmen and militiamen to not know how to ride horses.

He led a dozen or so cavalrymen outside to capture escaped slaves. Four of the six escaped Polish bonded slaves were captured. One was hacked and killed on the spot for resisting, and the other ran into the south bank of the Xingnan River in a panic. In the swamp and mud flats, he was drowned and died.Several Gaucho patrolmen threw the four captured Polish indentured slaves to the ground, causing the four of them to scream.

Two middle-aged Polish men rushed out from the castle wall, and then walked towards Xu Yu with flattering smiles.Xu Yu looked at these two Slavic men, who were almost twice his age, and scolded them impatiently, to the effect that they were not strict with their orders, and some contracted slaves fled without permission.I hope they will clean up the interior, and if someone escapes next time, they will cancel their supply of beer and kippers for this month.

The four captured Poles looked very young. At this time, they were pushed to the ground by helpers summoned by two middle-aged Poles. These people kicked and beat them while cursing in Polish The buttocks and waistlines of these escaped slaves.The four escaped slaves just held their heads in their hands and did not beg for mercy, as if they were waiting for these "compatriots" to vent their anger enough to stop.

Xu Xiangdong glanced at these Polish contract slaves contemptuously, lit a pipe for himself, and smoked leisurely.These Poles were resettled here through Xingnan Port a while ago, and they were all slaves bought from Ukrainian Cossacks and Crimeans by European trading stations on the east bank.If it is more accurate, these people are Polish prisoners of war who are not difficult to manage and not so digestible-because they are basically officers of noble origin.

The New China Colony has no interest in these Polish nobles and officers. They are only willing to absorb ordinary, homeless and low-level Polish soldiers. Therefore, these noble thorns were sent back to the east coast, and finally allocated by the government. The Southern Railway Company sent them to receive "re-education" on the construction site of the Liangyang Railway.

According to regulations, they have to do heavy physical labor in southern Patagonia for seven years before they can get a meager severance pay, apply for citizenship on the east coast, and officially settle down and grant land.However, they are all nobles, so they may not be willing to settle in the pagan country of the New World on the east coast. Otherwise, wouldn’t the manor in their hometown be cheaper for others?

It may also be for this reason that these Poles have staged "prison escape" events almost every day since they were collectively placed in the sand castles that don't shit.For example, this was the case with the gang escape of six people that happened yesterday. They escaped the sight of the guards (the Poles manage themselves) after nightfall, and then quietly left the station under the cover of night.Xu Xiangdong and others received the report at night, but they didn't take it seriously at all. They just asked the patrolmen to keep an eye on the material warehouse and stables, and then insisted on waiting until dawn after breakfast before getting on their horses and searching along the river.

In fact, in a place like Sandcastle, which is deep in the Gobi, and the food supply is all imported from the outside world, you only need to control the food and horses, and don't care about the rest at all.If anyone wants to let him run, there are no horses that can't run fast, and there are no scattered farmers and herdsmen on the east coast here. Where can they get supplies?The final end is nothing more than dying on the endless Gobi Desert.Besides, their escaping route is also very fixed - walk along the Xingnan River, otherwise there will be no water to drink - it is very easy to find, and it doesn't make much difference to go out and arrest them sooner or later.

Xu Xiangdong and others captured several dying Polish fugitive slaves west of Sandcastle this time, and they followed the river all the way to find them.These people were hungry and tired at the time, and judging by their appearance, they were willing to be taken back, otherwise they might starve to death in the wild.They are really stupid Poles. It's ridiculous that they don't know how to save more food if they want to flee!

However, it is not without reason that these Poles want to escape. It is one thing to miss their hometown. The bigger reason is the relatively harsh living environment here in Sandcastle and the heavy manual labor, which they have never experienced before. Yes, so escape incidents emerge in endlessly.Among the nearly 50 local Polish indentured slaves in Sandcastle, more than 300 have "disappeared" so far, and most of them may have died in the wild; there are more than [-] people who have escaped records, but were either captured or killed themselves. Walking back, in the end, they obediently returned to Sand Castle, the only place in the wasteland where they could survive.

After 1650, the construction of the Liangyang Railway has gradually entered a period of acceleration.A large amount of materials were transported from Xingnan Port to Zixincastle, Sandcastle, Montenegro Coal Mine and Araucan Port, and then the construction of sections began quickly.Among these sections, the construction near the sand castle is the most difficult. The main reason is that it is deep in the hinterland of the wilderness, the place is extremely remote, the population is sparsely populated, and the material transportation distance is long.

For example, these Polish indentured slaves are responsible for the foundation of the railway from Sand Castle to the east, and the task is very heavy.According to the estimation of the engineering department of the Southern Railway Company, the work area needs to fill 1636 million cubic meters and excavate 307 million cubic meters, totaling 1943 million cubic meters.Relying on their [-] people alone, in the absence of mechanical equipment such as steam plows, roller rollers (animal power), gravel rollers, and steam hoes (generally used in coal mines), it will take until the year of the monkey to complete it.

However, the Southern Railway Company did not intend to put all the work on them. Steam machinery is very difficult. The State Security Administration has not yet allowed the Southern Railway Company to use these machines in front of these Poles.Of course, this is nonsense. These Poles will know about these devices sooner or later, and rumors about steam engines, trains and some steam devices on the east coast have been slowly circulating in Europe at this time.For a country like the East Coast Republic, which has close trade ties with the outside world, it is impossible for any technology to be kept secret for a long time. Other countries will gradually develop these things—or even steal them by sending spies.

The machinery and equipment are not available for the time being, but it is not impossible to increase the number of manpower.For example, next month, more than 400 Klandi slave laborers will be relocated near Sandcastle. In March, it is said that there will be [-] to [-] black South African laborers coming to report.The arrival of these people will effectively alleviate the shortage of manpower and greatly accelerate the progress of the project.

In fact, fortunately, the area where the Liangyang Railway passes is the Gobi desert, without high mountains, and this avoids the time-consuming, laborious and extremely costly project of digging tunnels.Moreover, there is very little precipitation here (less than 300 mm a year), and it is mainly concentrated in winter, which has little impact on construction.Otherwise, like the Northwest Railway under construction in China, the progress of the project will be seriously affected when there is continuous heavy rain in summer and autumn, and the living and working environment on the construction site will suddenly fall into an extremely difficult situation.In spring, the impact on construction should not be underestimated due to snow melting and soil thawing.And this is also the reason why the mainland has invested so much money, so many people, so many machinery and equipment on the Northwest Railway, and it took several years. This traffic artery, which is not much longer than the Liangyang Railway, has not yet been fully connected. .

The Southern Railway Company has a huge demand for labor force. Ming people, Europeans, Indians, blacks, Malays, they don't pick anyone, as long as they have hands and feet, they can use them to build railways.Among these people, the treatment of Indians, blacks, and European indentured slaves is the worst, and the work is the heaviest.This is the case with the Polish indentured slaves in Sandcastle. Fortunately, they are now in the roadbed construction period. When the roadbed is completed and the railroad tracks are laid, they will use their own hands to lay the railroad tracks little by little, and then reinforce them.This kind of work is undoubtedly extremely hard, and it is also the time when work-related injuries are most likely to occur.And on a small section of roadbed where railroad tracks have been laid in the direction of Xinbao from Xingnan Port, the gang of railway construction workers who migrated from the Ming Dynasty are said to have begun to lay railroad tracks with the help of 1649-type railcars, which undoubtedly greatly eased the problem. It reduced their workload, so that laying rails is no longer a high-risk and heavy physical work that makes people look pale.

But this kind of good thing is destined to miss them. They are not Ming people, and they cannot get citizenship, houses, land and even women as soon as they enter the country—God, they are still Polish women! —they're bloody white indentured slaves on the same level as those Guarani monkeys and stupid black laborers.They can only use their own hands to complete their work bit by bit.

Almighty Lord, you must have forgotten your people trapped in the middle of the desert, right?They lingered on, precariously, under the cruel enslavement of the yellow-skinned pagans, and fell into an extremely miserable and extremely helpless situation.Could it be that the Taoist temple built outside the fort wall has tarnished the glory of the Lord, and thus caused us to fall into trouble together?Some Poles who were torn apart by their work thought numbly.

(End of this chapter)