5 July 1647, Port of Omarari.

As the morning sun broke through the mist that had shrouded the city overnight, Wei Boqiu sat on the balcony of a small two-story stone building, watching the Ming people lining up to work in the fields in the distance, while eating fragrant cereal porridge. The oatmeal in the porridge is made of oats, and after the oats soaked in milk are made into oatmeal, supplemented with cane sugar and dried fruits to make porridge, this breakfast of Deputy Commander Wei Boqiu Wei is still relatively luxurious in the Heishui area.

After breakfast, the orderly came to clean up the dishes, and then his student Chen Shuo appeared on the balcony.

"Teacher, the Matsumae clan has recently recruited more than 100 women from Japan, and Kim Go-kyu of Busan has also brought more than 200 family members of Korean prisoners, and with the addition of these people, the size of the women's team has almost reached more than 600 people." Chen Shuo stood straight beside Wei Boqiu, opened a small notebook in his hand, and then began his daily routine report: "The number of six hundred people, the number of daily pick-ups is limited to ......"

"That's it!" Wei Boqiu stretched out his hand to interrupt Chen Shuo's embarrassing statistics, then lit a pipe for himself, and took two puffs before he said: "These people can recover 100,000 yuan of currency for us almost a year, but this is not enough, the channels for recycling currency must be diversified, and it is not enough to just open a brothel." ”

In fact, the side effects of opening a brothel are quite severe. For example, the soldiers of the First Wing who frequented the Women's Stand Up Team were not easy to maintain in the long run. Loot the property to get the booty, and then spend all the time to find a woman, and after spending the money, go out with the army to loot. And so a vicious circle. In the long run, this army will degenerate into an army of locusts lacking a sense of honor. Just like the European ** teams in the 3o year war at this time, as well as the Manchu Qing and Southern Ming armies. They may be better than those people in terms of tactics and organization, but they are on the same level as them in terms of maintaining morale and a sense of honor in combat effectiveness.

On the contrary, several regular companies of the 6th Army from the east bank, as well as some black infantry battalions, were not involved in such operations because of the strict prohibition of the officers. In particular, the Xhosa blacks, who had three infantry battalions, were not allowed to patronize the Women's Advance Brigade under the orders of the standard commander Liu Zhong. Liu Zhong was both their superior and the banner master of many of them, because no one dared to oppose it. They honestly remitted the looted money to their relatives in the country through guò banks to improve their lives, and the ships that came from the mainland every year would bring bundles of letters. And letters from South Africa are naturally an important part of that.

Although the content of the letters seems very ridiculous, it is often a litter of piglets in the house today, a baby will be scratched by a branch tomorrow, and I miss you again the day after tomorrow. The heavy infantry battalion from South Africa was the unit with the highest combat effectiveness and the most tenacious fighting will among the units under the jurisdiction of the Far East Army at this time, except for the 6th Army on the East Bank. When they were tall and heavily armoured, and stood still in the face of enemy cavalry, anyone would have admired that they were a fighting force.

The black South Africans of this era were simple and belligerent, and once conquered, they were a good source of soldiers. Later, when the British colonized South Africa, they recruited a large number of black troops, and their combat effectiveness was quite good. And their opponents, the Zulus, are even less so. At this time, blacks were still in the early days of slave society, and they could make metal farming tools. The level of civilization is not low, but after the arrival of the Europeans, their civilization and society have continued to regress, from an agricultural civilization to a gathering and hunting civilization.

However, after the arrival of the people on the east coast, their society and culture became highly organized and militarized, and their discipline was greatly strengthened in the original way.

"With the increasing number of ships every year, the number of goods brought from the mainland is also increasing, such as sugar, tobacco, spirits and other goods, which can also be extremely good for recycling the currency in the hands of soldiers." Chen Shuo continued to report.

"Relying on these recoveries is not a long-term solution, after all, there is still no hematopoietic function in the local area." Wei Boqiu stood up and walked to the railing, looked at the brick and wood mixed structure houses lined up on the seaside in the distance, and then said: "See, there are only 2,000 officially settled residents in such a good place as Dabo, and there are all the old, weak, sick and disabled, either the old and frail Ming people who are unable to sail far away, or some mercenaries who have been discharged due to injuries, although they have all married daughters-in-law, and some of them even have more than one, but the population will not be able to reproduce in a short period of time." Without a population, our own hematopoietic function will never be able to develop, so how can we build an effective and sustainable economic system here? ”

"Blackwater has 5,000 inhabitants, but the economy is still not effectively established. The local Executive Committee and the Government Council have put a lot of restrictions on the Heishui area, the rules and regulations are too restrictive, and there are red line minefields everywhere, how can we let go of the economy. After all, expanding domestic demand and recycling the currency in the hands of soldiers is only an expedient measure, and what we really have to do is to figure out how to make this cake in the Great Far East. Wei Boqiu crossed his arms, and outside the balcony was a large beautiful poplar forest, and some small animals could be faintly seen foraging in the forest, "Such a beautiful and rich land, if there is no population, it will all be taken away by outsiders, how can I be willing." ”

In fact, the current Blackwater area is also quite embarrassing. Although the local pioneer operation has been going on for four or five years, the food gap is still very large, and a large amount of fish is needed every year to make up for the shortfall - which is not enough, and they still need to rack their brains to buy some from Japan and North Korea. Rao is like this, if he doesn't come back from looting some more grain and livestock from the big 6 every year, I'm afraid it will still be difficult to feed everyone.

Of course, since the defeat of the Koreans by the East Coast and the occupation of Jeju Island and the port of Busan, the food shortage has been alleviated somewhat. Judging from the current intensity of reclamation, in another five or six years, the grain problem may be completely solved. But five or six years is a lot of luxury, and I am afraid that the Manchu Qing Dynasty will hit Yungui in Sichuan.

"We still have to expand the population." Wei Boqiu took a puff of his cigarette and said fiercely: "All colonies along the way are intentionally or unintentionally intercepting populations, and it is necessary to do this in the Heishui area, so let's start with Dabo first." Dabo, an important commercial port, still has no city walls, no decent permanent wharves and coastal defense forts, what is this doing? This year, a few thousand people will be intercepted to repair the infrastructure. In addition, the Shandan trade with the Matsumae Domain of Japan is becoming more and more prosperous, and the trade volume for the whole of last year has exceeded more than 70,000 yuan. Horses, high-quality leather, animal fat, and medicinal herbs in Manchuria are commodities that the Japanese urgently need, and the goods we resell on the east coast are sold out by the Japanese every time, and it seems that this year's trade volume will reach **10,000 yuan is not a problem. In addition, the purchase price of tea, silk, porcelain and other things that we snatched from the Big 6 is too low, so it is better to keep some more and sell them to the Japanese, so that we will be more profitable. ”

Hearing his teacher say this, Chen Shuo was a little speechless. Which of these is not in danger of stepping on the red line of the Executive Committee? If you really want to do this, I'm afraid that the government is very risky. But the executive committee is really, since the teacher is allowed to revitalize the economy of the Blackwater area, but there are so many restrictions and regulations, then let people not work? The Executive Committee is doing this, which can only show that the Executive Committee itself is also very contradictory, hoping that the Heishui region's own hematopoietic ability will improve, but also not wanting to see the Heishui region show too strong, which is really speechless.

"Don't worry too much." Wei Boqiu turned to look at his students and said with a smile: "It's not a big deal, since the executive committee has given me full power, I naturally have a certain degree of freedom. Construction in the Dabo area must be on the agenda, and infrastructure projects such as clearing waterways, building lighthouses and permanent docks, building brick and tile kilns, building a large number of winter houses, and clearing more wasteland must be at the forefront. If this is not done, a lot of work will not be carried out. Of course, the most important thing for us at the moment is to expand our financial resources, one by recycling the currency in the hands of the soldiers, and the other by trade. Walking on two legs, going hand in hand, and in the long run, trade will have a greater impact on us. ”

"Can trade with the Dutch also be expanded? After all, they have at their disposal a lot of food that we desperately need. Chen Shuo asked at this time. Not long after the Dutch left, when they came to deliver rice, they had asked Wei Boqiu very bluntly whether the people on the east coast could sell them a large number of people, and Wei Boqiu agreed at that time, because there were still more than 30,000 Koreans on Jeju Island, which happened to be sold to the Dutch in exchange for valuable grain.

In fact, it is not a secret that the Dutch lack population, they need a large number of people in South Africa and the East Indies to develop new spice cultivation areas. In South Africa, for example, they heard that the peasants were very good at farming, so their Batavia High Court exiled a large number of Ming people scattered in their districts to Cape Town to grow food and fruit for them.

After the introduction of these peasants in Cape Town, they were now industrious and docile, and they continued to ask Batavia to exile more Ming people. But Batavia doesn't have enough manpower on its own, so how can there be more for South Africa? However, in this way, the introduction of a large number of people from the Ming Kingdom to open their own colonies was on the agenda of the Dutch. And it happened that at this time, the Dutch wanted to open the inaccessible Moluccas, which required a huge amount of manpower, so they moved the idea of buying population from the East Coasters, because they heard that the East Coast people were very good at fishing for people on the Big 6.

"It can be expanded, and the Dutch can sell them whatever they need, and we only need their grain." Wei Boqiu said as a matter of course: "But in the short term, I am afraid that only the population can be sold to the Dutch." Well, this has to be done quickly, and I will go to Jeju and Busan to implement this matter as much as possible. (To be continued......) u

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