"Here, try this lobster, it's very good." In a very beautiful villa in Xinhua Port City, Shao Yaoguang, the captain of the island's development team and the commander of the security guard, is recommending a dish to his second brother.

Lobsters are grown off the coast of Xinhuaxia Island and are very large. Because immigrants from the east coast and the residents of the local island of Eight Flags do not like to eat (they prefer inland fish such as tilapia), the lobsters in the offshore waters grow almost freely without any natural predators, so they are very large.

Crabs had a similar experience. Because there are many rivers entering the sea and the water flow is fast, the nutrients carried by Xinhuaxia Island are very rich, so many large and small fishing grounds are formed around the island. Although a single fishery may not be comparable to the large fishing grounds on the mainland of the East Coast and the Blackwaters of the Far East, it is superior to the large number of fish that add up to a large annual catch.

Therefore, the supply of seafood in Xinhuaxia Island is still very sufficient, lobster, meat crab (the first two are mainly eaten by the middle and upper class people on the east coast), grouper, and shrimp have the largest output, followed by tuna, eel, flounder, shark production is also a lot, in addition to meeting their own needs, but also a large number of exports to the Yicheng area, and the seafood in the river area has launched a fierce competition.

Today, Shao Yaoguang entertains his younger brother with traditional Chinese dishes, lobster, prawns, steamed grouper, grilled halibut, braised crocodile and hump beef. The last one, in particular, has almost become one of the island's signature dishes, and now Shao Shuguang has one in front of him: a stew made with the stems and leaves of a local plant with hump beef and pork, with some spices, and it tastes very good, and even a canned version is made under the strong recommendation of the navy for military supplies.

"It seems that the eldest brother is having a very comfortable time here." Shao Shuguang put down the glass containing the South African Elephant River wine, and the servant brought the processed lobster, and said with a smile: "This house is quite cool, and it seems that hard work has been put into the design." The dishes are even more abundant, and they have a unique flavor, my brother is in Ningbo, and I can't eat this flavor of food, which is good, not bad. ”

This villa was bought by Shao Yaoguang from Huang Yi, the former captain of the New China Pioneer Team. Later, he spent a lot of money to renovate it, using several medium-sized pumps to pump out the groundwater, pass it through the heat exchange system set up in the room, and then flow out into a reservoir for drinking water and irrigation water for people and animals inside and outside the villa. This system, known as the "earth air conditioner", has been popular in New China Island for some years, but because of its complex design and high cost, only the wealthy can afford it.

Shao Yaoguang is undoubtedly rich! Therefore, he spent money to design such a system, not as cool as the ether refrigeration device on the refrigerated ship, but only to be about the same temperature as the groundwater, and this cooling performance requirement is undoubtedly able to be achieved, which is enough!

It can also be seen that after so many years of development in the East Coast Republic, the dignitaries and nobles have also put forward higher requirements for the quality of life. This air conditioner is just one example, and there are many others, in short, if you compare it with a few decades ago, it is simply unimaginable, after all, people have the urge to pursue a better life.

"Eat more if you like." Shao Yaoguang said with a smile: "But brother, I have also heard that you live a luxurious life in Ningbo, and there are often dozens of people in and out. At that time, I was still serving as a commissioner in Baoding, and the news was so widespread that it was really scary. It's not that I said you, second brother, you are now in the mainland to take up a post - well, either a state-owned department store or the general manager of the Nanhai Group - there is no better restraint than overseas colonies, where every move is watched. You have too many cooks, musicians, painters, guards, etc., and you will be dismissed after returning to China with a sum of money, just keep a few people, lest others keep pointing fingers at our old Shao family. ”

In other words, as a veteran family in the political arena on the East Coast, the Shaw Brothers are indeed on the cusp now, especially after the death of the big tree of former Central Executive Committee member Shao Shude, and now it is supported by Shao Yaoguang alone in the political arena, compared with other families, it seems a little weak. Today's Shaw family has shifted more resources to the business world, such as the famous Bank of Taiwan, where the three brothers Shao Yaoguang, Shao Shuguang, and Shao Zhengguang (who are engaged in painting and music in China, and also invest in some art and antiques) have a combined shareholding of nearly 20%. At a time when the development of the Bank of Taiwan is getting better and better, the appreciation of this asset is also increasing, which makes many people red-eyed, so Shao Yaoguang asked his second brother to keep a low profile and not to excessively stimulate people from other families and add resistance to his career.

Shao Shuguang sighed lightly after hearing this, and nodded in agreement. Now the most important task of the Shaw family is to escort Shao Yaoguang, who is the captain of the New China Pioneer Team, and do everything in their power to push him to the throne of the executive committee member in the future. He is not young now, and if he is in his early fifties and does not seize the opportunity, I am afraid that he will really have no chance to enter the cabinet, and this is undoubtedly bad news for the Shao family, which they cannot accept no matter what. In ancient and modern times, at home and abroad, there is no family that lacks political protection, and those who can develop steadily and continue to make progress are certainly not good on the East Coast!

"Talk about the development of New Huaxia Island, this is the step of your future advancement, big brother, how is it now?" Shao Shuguang drank a glass of wine and changed the subject.

"It's okay." Shao Yaoguang said: "It's just a little deformed, the advantages of agriculture are becoming more and more prominent, and other aspects are not developed at all, and this too single industrial structure will exist for a long time in the future, of course, this may be what local political and business people unanimously want." ”

In fact, to expand on it, that is, under the requirements of the local people, let Xinhuaxia Island run all the way on the road of tropical cash crop plantations, focusing on the development of sugar, coffee, cocoa, pepper and other crops that are popular in the international market, as well as sisal, cotton, rubber and other crops that are very much needed for domestic industrial and agricultural production. In short, it seems that it is an economy with agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery and resource extraction as its main components, and completely dependent on local imports for industrial products and daily necessities, which has become an important part of the colonial economic system of the Great East Coast.

Based on this consideration, the leaders of all the new Huaxia development teams for decades have been responsible for the development of these industries, so that the production of cotton, cane sugar, coffee, cocoa, sisal, tobacco, peanuts, vanilla, pepper, rubber, oil palm, coconut and other tropical products on the fourth largest island in the world is increasing day by day, and the scale of labor employed is also increasing, providing a huge amount of profit for a large number of local distribution enterprises on the island and the east coast. At the same time, the industrial development of this large island has been extremely slow, because countless funds have poured into the plantations, very little has been invested in the industrial sector, and because of cost and technical factors, this very little industrial capital has also developed relatively hard, except for timber, shipbuilding, mining and construction, everything is not ideal, almost everything depends on imports, and is heavily exploited by local industrial products. Otherwise, why do you think that when the new Huaxia Island side thought that a large number of enterprises distributing the island's products were registered in the mainland, so that profits and taxes were intercepted in the mainland, why would the local government give in easily? It's not like people have the means to counter you! The scissors of industrial exploitation of agriculture have always been very useful.

"Now there are more and more Italians, and the Geno*a Africa Company, the Delta Company, and the Marco Polo Company, founded by the newcomer Venetian, are all constantly enclosing wasteland on the island for exploitation under the stimulus of profits, and building one cash crop after another. In particular, the newcomer Marco Polo Company, because of its political dealings with them, gave the company great convenience, not only allowing the Banco de la Circulars of Venice and the Banco della Riato (which had reopened after the East Coast Company had a 20% stake) to open branches in Xinhua Port to provide financial services, but also produced more than ten 650-ton flute ships in the country at preferential prices. After such a big predator pours in, the tropical planting industry in New China is bound to be more prosperous. But seriously, I don't have data from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, so I don't know what kind of impact the island's production will have on the world market now, but in terms of the Mediterranean market that we have access to, the prices of pepper, sugar, coffee, etc., have indeed fallen quite a bit, and at the same time, the Dutch, British and French 'Caribbeans' have been squeezed out a lot, although they have a huge advantage in terms of transportation costs. Shao Yaoguang continued: "Of course, in order to get more land, we are also continuing to fight against the natives. However, it was not a one-time battle to destroy the country, but a warm boiled frog to bleed them little by little, focusing on the shores of the quicksand lake and the southeast mountainous area, the problem was not big, and the progress was very fast. ”

In other words, without the intervention of external forces, the colonial expansion behavior of the people on the east coast on New Huaxia Island was really pleasant. On the shores of the quicksand lake, the people of the east coast have established a number of fixed villages and towns, and vigorously carried out rice cultivation to supplement the food shortage on the island. The situation here is now relatively stable, when the new Chinese infantry battalion fought here so frightened that the people of Melina still dare not peep, so farms and villages were quickly opened, and the railroad was slowly being built, and everything was developing in a good way.

To the southeast of the island, the people of the eastern shore have eliminated the original two major powers, namely the Antai Faji and the Bala, and completely controlled most of the southeastern mountains and the Mahafali plateau. Only a few disobedient natives are still putting up their last resistance, but it is only a matter of time before they are completely wiped out by the East Coasters.

At the end of last year (1685), the New China Pioneer Team set up several settlements in this direction, namely: Yangzhou Township near the later Andruka Town, Xiangle Township near the later Anpanich Town, Zhenning Township near the later Beluha Town, Heshui Township (the former French colony) near the later Ambuwenbei Town, and Lepan Township near the later Bekitlu Town, a total of five new settlements, with more than 6,000 settlers. They were basically located in areas with water in order to develop agricultural and pastoral production as quickly as possible – in fact, it was not cost-effective to establish such purely agricultural towns in terms of developing a tropical plantation economy, but the land occupied had to be consolidated, and the preference of some leaders for territorial expansion led to the establishment of these five settlements.

Compared with these five settlements in the arid zone of the south, the settlements established by the people on the east coast in the northwestern part of the island, in what was later in the county of Ambanga, Madagascar, were much better. Lunan Township, which is located near the town of Antunibey, Lidong Township, which is located near the small town of Anchuxixi, Danchi Township, which is located near the town, and Xiangwu Township, which is located near the town of Mandia on Malu, not only has sufficient precipitation, but also has a lot more fertile plains for farming, and the only drawback is probably that it is too humid and hot, and there are too many diseases. However, with the Marco Polo Company set up by the Venetians in full swing, these wastelands were naturally conquered by the overpopulated colonists of the Italian peninsula, and the people on the east coast had to sit back and enjoy the success of it, and provided them with some medicine, food, or necessities such as tarpaulins, mosquito nets, axes and saws, so that they would not be too afraid of hardship.

In this way, the Genoa Africa Company, the Delta Company, and the Marco Polo Company (representing the three forces headed by Geno, Tuscany, and Venice respectively) contracted a lot of wasteland in the four counties of Xinhua, Lidong (not yet established), Ningguo, and Qingtian (just established at the end of last year) in the north of New Huaxia Island.

This model, for both the East Coast and the Italians, is a win-win model. The people of the East Coast were able to provide them with a security that they could not get in the Caribbean – and this was very important, in the highly competitive Caribbean, where many islands often changed hands, and investment security could not be fully guaranteed – and even a large number of cheap tools, medicines, and daily necessities that they could simply send labor from overpopulated Italy to clear the land. The East Coast people are also very generous with the profits obtained from tropical cash crops, except for requiring them to be transported to designated refineries and processing plants for processing (processing fees), basically only charging reasonable taxes, leaving a lot of profits to these Italian consortiums, and the cooperation between the two sides is still very pleasant.

This close binding of economic interests will inevitably gradually penetrate the political level, so that the influence of the East Coast Republic of China in the Mediterranean region will be greatly increased, and there will be more cards to play. And this influence itself, of course, can also be translated into economic benefits through various channels (such as the sale of industrial goods in the Italian market of the Eastern Coast Republic, and the maintenance of the stability of Ottoman and Black Sea trade, etc.), which is unquestionable.