The roar of a steam plow sounded in the field, which was a machine leased by the Great Wilderness Farm to dig ditches and drain water.

It's the fourth day, and the work of leveling the land and digging ditches is still going on here. Feeling that he could no longer see anything new, he packed his bags, said goodbye to these pioneers, and continued westward, towards his next destination, José? Batlley? The town of O'Dones is near the bush farm.

A shrub farm, as the name suggests, is a farm that has been cleared out of the bushes. The farm was set up a little earlier than the Great Wilderness Farm, and the investment was even greater: the farm brought in more than 40 investors, including veterans, big businessmen and traversers, and raised more than 30,000 yuan. They jointly registered a unit called the Shrub Agricultural Development Company, and on this basis, issued a total of 10,000 yuan of corporate bonds to the deep-pocketed East Coast Company as a reserve fund for agricultural development in the early stage.

From this, it can be seen that the shrub farm is well capitalized, and the development prospects will be quite good.

In fact, since the shrub company leased the land here more than five months ago, a series of large-scale development operations have begun. First, they used a gravity drum machine pulled by multiple bulls to crush all the bushes in the wasteland, and then set them all on fire. Of course, this rough action is certainly not complete, and there must be many stakes left in the ground, but it does not matter, after two years of cultivation, the root system in the ground will be completely destroyed. And after the first crop is harvested, the cultivators can set fire to the land again, so that the remaining tree shoots in the soil are completely gone.

The Bush Company is currently not recruiting many people. There were only about eighty or ninety people. They were all poor people from Scotland and Ireland. They were introduced by Mendes, a well-known Portuguese agent active in the Gérard Mountains. It seemed that they could endure hardship, so they negotiated a five-year employment contract at a salary of four yuan a month, and after five years, the shrub company could apply for citizenship of the East Coast Republic of China for these people.

Since arriving here on August 1, Li and others have been attracted by the hard work of these Scottish and Irish. Every year, they nibble on black bread in the morning, eat some sorghum rice at noon – an extra salted fish or a bowl of broth if they are alive, and black noodles with vegetables in the evening. The food conditions are not good, but the life is so difficult that Li Dayan can't figure out what supports them to work here.

One of the farm's managers revealed the answer to Lai's question: First. Most of the pioneers came from overpopulated areas of the Old World, where they had a low standard of living, who may have been very poor in their hometowns, and who themselves lacked the necessary labor skills to work in the construction industry except for agricultural work.

Second, the policy of obtaining East Coast citizenship and thus obtaining five acres of free land is very attractive to them. They work for the farmers, and they are paid four dollars a month for food and housing, which means that they can theoretically have 48 yuan in cash left over a year, which is decent enough even in a city like London. They can be compared to a craftsman, but they are just the most humble farmers.

At last. They don't have to worry about being drawn into the war at any time, and they don't have to worry about being heavily taxed by the kings and nobles who are on the verge of bankruptcy because of the war. Most of them came from Scotland and Ireland, and they were fed up with the greedy nobility and endless wars, so life in the New World made them feel extremely comfortable, especially when they hoped to acquire a piece of land of their own.

"All of this is the direct reason why they are willing to work hard." "And when they settle down, they will undoubtedly bring the news back to the Old World, which will attract more landless farmers to come to our country by boat." As far as I know, our East Coast Republic seems to be the only country in the world that provides land, houses, and even women to new immigrants, and I heard my cousin who works in the capital say that there seems to be a legislative process within the government to codify these things and fix them in the form of law. Oh, the name seems to have been thought of, it's called "Homestead Law". ”

Of course, Li Dayan knows about the Homestead Law. As a senior editor of Pravda, he is very concerned about the various policies that the government has introduced and those that have not been introduced. To be honest, there is a lot of controversy about the Homestead Law at present, and whether it can be launched smoothly is still between the two. The main content of the law is that any person who has resided in the territory of the Republic of China for five years and has acquired nationality will receive a piece of land with an area of 30 mu free of charge in the undeveloped area of the government (tax exemption for the first five years), and if he continues to cultivate the land for five consecutive years, then he will own the land in perpetuity.

The Homestead Law changed the government's free gift of land to new immigrants from five acres to thirty acres, but it also confined itself to undeveloped areas of the government, which in the case of the eastern shore generally referred to the vast grassland area west of Xiling. In today's increasingly strict approach to European immigration, this law is almost the only way for male European immigrants to acquire land. After all, in terms of the immigration policy of the East Coast in recent years, in addition to the automatic acquisition of nationality by the Ming people in the East and the purchased female slaves, it was very difficult for European immigrants, especially male immigrants, to obtain nationality.

At present, the Republic of the East Bank is recruiting only a small number of immigrants (both men and women) in Livonia, and these people go through the channel of the government's unified arrangement, that is, the government arranges them to new settlements, allocates five acres of land free of charge, and provides a house (mortgageable loan) at a flat price. As for the spontaneous influx of European immigrants into the territory of the East Coast, apart from the shortcut of obtaining nationality by marrying East Coast nationals, the only way to obtain citizenship is to wait for five years to live in the country honestly - of course, the introduction of special talents is not included, and citizenship is granted on the spot.

There is currently a lot of resistance to the introduction of the Homestead Law, and most of the people who want to implement the law are business owners, large farm tenants, construction companies and other entities or individuals, who are desperately hungry for labor. It can be said that if it were not explicitly forbidden by the government, these people would dare to bring in black slaves to work, they only need labor, and they do not care about anything else, so they are very enthusiastic about the introduction of the Homestead Law, which seems to attract more immigrants.

On the other hand, conservatives or nationalists are the main ones, who are wary of the likely increase in male European immigrants over the years, believing that the influx of these people will lead to a "change of color" in the eastern Republic of China, so they strongly oppose the promulgation and implementation of the Homestead Law. It's just that in the current situation, it seems that they are slightly at a disadvantage, and they are not very optimistic, mainly because of the great development of domestic industry and commerce, and many people who have invested heavily through the public, and it is not difficult to understand which side of the ass is under the influence of interests.

"If the Homestead Law can be introduced, the impact should be extremely far-reaching." Li Dayan sighed, in fact, he didn't know if this was a good thing or a bad thing. On the surface, it seems that the government can sit back and wait for the influx of new immigrants to open up wasteland for free, but in reality, the excessive introduction of foreign population will definitely pose a serious threat to transportation, medical care, education, and even security in the East Coast, and it is also likely to change the ethnic composition of the people. On the other hand, however, this will undoubtedly play a tremendous role in accelerating the development of domestic industry and agriculture on the east coast, and at least the manpower gap of the large farms in the west and the road construction armies active in various parts of the country will be greatly compensated.

"Actually, as a farm manager and shareholder, I would love to be able to bring in a lot of cheap labor from the Old World, which goes without saying." "But from a personal point of view, I don't want a lot of aliens to flood around my environment, even if my parents and mothers used to do that. My father is from Ming and my mother is from Switzerland, but I don't feel very affectionate to people from these two countries now. Well, I'll admit that I'm such a contradictory combination. ”

Lai Tat-yen was keenly aware of the national sentiment in the words of the young farmer, who may have received a complete education in East Coast Doctrine since childhood, and perhaps there was a group of people around him who shared his knowledge, all of which made Lai vaguely realize that perhaps a new ethnic consciousness or even national consciousness had taken root in the minds of these new generation of young people. At this time, if there are people who are willing to cultivate it and insist on implementing it for two or three generations, a new East Coast nation will be completely formed here.

Perhaps, some wars with foreign countries will speed up this process.

After saying goodbye to the young farm manager, Li Dayan finally remembered his mission, so he and his men began to be active around the farm, observing and interviewing as much as possible to obtain first-hand information. You must know that the interviews they are writing are to be submitted to the senior officials of the Government Council and the Executive Committee as internal references of Pravda. Nothing is certainly not enough, there must be something to say.

On August 8, after a week's stay on the farm, Li Tatyan and his party finally said goodbye to the area, and then headed for Ningjin Fort, the nearest settlement, escorted by a group of cavalry who happened to patrol the area. Once at Ningjin Fort, they will continue on horseback riding to Xiayi River Fort, and then take a river steamboat and train back to the capital, Dongfang Port. (To be continued......)