Sunday, April 12, 1626, Guadeloupe Butterfly Island.

In the past North American winter, when the whole country was shrinking in the snowstorm, the development of the twin ports continued to accelerate in a hot climate all year round.

In April, the population of the entire city of Twin Ports has exceeded 1,500, and the second phase of construction in the city has officially begun. Caribbean prisoners of war, which once totaled 3,500, have now been sold by local capitalists in the past few months, and the number of "foreign hired laborers" brought in by Zhang Mingcheng, the acting mayor of Twin Ports, has soared to 500.

"Black hired laborers" from Portuguese colonies in West Africa, "exiles" from Europe, and "Indian rebels" from Brazil or Venezuela became the main components of "foreign hired laborers" on Butterfly Island, most of which were "black hired laborers".

According to the "foreign employment contract" signed between the capitalists led by Zhang Mingcheng and the European businessmen, the laborers who paid an "labor commission" of $100 per capita were to "work" on Butterfly Island for 10 years. The wage rate will be calculated at 30% of the Huamei plant in the Azores, but all these wages will be collected by the "employer contract provider" on an annual basis, and after 10 years, all of these labor will be "discharged" and returned to the original place, and in the case of accidental death "during the contract period", the "employer contract provider" will be paid 50 US dollars per person.

In the port, in the plantation, in the forest, in the saltworks, in the chemical plant...... Hundreds of shackled, topless "hire-workers" work at least 14 hours a day, all year round. When night falls, they are sent to the rudimentary labor camps by the overseers of the various enterprises.

Such a cheeky slave input to use. It is estimated that Zhang Mingcheng can do it. A group of human rights fighters in Congress are staring at each other. I wanted to say something, but I couldn't find a place to speak. But the capitalists, who were supplied with cheap labour, praised the Twin Ports government's policy of "benefiting the people". Under this blatant and perfectly packaged policy, all walks of life on Butterfly Island began to gradually get rid of the situation of insufficient primary labor, and all of them worked hard to get back their money within half a year.

When the first coffee tree was planted in the Western Hemisphere. A full 100 years ahead of history, it is no longer home in the historical island of Martinique. As many as 1,000 coffee trees have been carefully transplanted from the first phase of the private farm of COSCO International Trade Group on Butterfly Island, and a variety of agricultural plants, including cotton, have also appeared in the fertile central plain of the East Island.

The forestry company and Huamei Wood Company under the state-owned Agriculture, Forestry, Fishery and Animal Husbandry Group. They also completed the construction of the first phase of timber processing plants and forest farms, and the first batch of precious iron pear wood and mahogany that had been coarsely processed began to be transported to the local area.

The first phase of the cement building materials plant on Butterfly Island, which is no less than the local Zhang's building materials company, has opened the prelude to the mass production of cement building materials, and the pressure on the supply of cement building materials from the local cement building materials has been reduced a lot in an instant, and a large number of maritime capacity has been liberated.

Taking advantage of the convenient crude cane sugar purchase channels and the local natural climatic conditions, the Butterfly Island Branch of the Bermuda Salt and Sugar Company, the only independently operated by immigrants of Chinese descent, produced their first batch of refined salt and refined sugar, and became the first batch of "export and foreign exchange" commodities in Twin Ports City.

As for Xinhua Chemical Company's Butterfly Island Chemical Plant, which uses imported high-quality natural asphalt as raw materials, it paid the first commodity logistics tax and industrial tax for Shuangzi Port half a year ago.

In the port, ships from Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands from the Caribbean, West Africa and South America have lined up. Large quantities of industrial and agricultural raw materials began to flow into the warehouses and warehouses of the Twin Ports, and then tons of refined salt sugar and some industrial products were pulled away.

Butterfly Island's role in the Atlantic Checkers Project. The development of the place, which began to enter a healthy operation, and the large amount of money that was thrown into it finally paid off.

……

"Historically, every nation that has fallen into a low period has always been looking for ways to strengthen itself. In this process, it is inevitable that the series of means that the opponent has used for itself will be regarded as the root cause of victory and defeat and the highest efficiency, without truly understanding that the means are only the means to achieve the end.

"In every age, there is an optimal means to achieve an end. In the extremely backward barbaric era, manpower was the decisive factor in the output of social wealth, so the plundering and control of labor under the slavery system became the most efficient means of social development. Slaughter has also become the most effective way to limit the development of opponents, eating skin and flesh.

"In modern times, with the application of a large number of new technologies and machinery, productivity has increased countless times, manpower is no longer the bottleneck of social wealth output, and the market and raw materials have become the key, so the great powers have opened the country of backward nations with warships and cannons, and they no longer rob every village in a piece of land like the Spanish or Portuguese, but need these villages to buy their products, provide them with raw materials, and drink blood.

"In modern times, the social productive forces under the domination of high technology and financial capital are even more highly developed, and the great powers have even stopped working their own factories and machines, but only use money capital and monopoly technology to knock on the door of their opponents, formulate rules of the game to play with their opponents, occupy the opponent's social production, circulation, and consumption chains, and quietly achieve their goal of occupying the output of their opponents' social wealth, sucking the bone marrow.

"When I was a kid, I thought the fist was the most powerful; When I was in junior high school, I knew that knowledge was the best; I went to college and thought money was the most effective; After participating in the work, I found that the power is the most invincible. Our perception of power and means is changing.

Now, by what means do we use to achieve the goal of our national rejuvenation? Massacre and enslavement? Market & Raw Materials? Or capital and rule-making? ”

……

In the temporary apartment of the Shuangzigang City Government, Su Zining slowly closed the diary, stood up and moved his arm that had been writing for a long time, and turned his head in the direction of the port.

Under the bright sun, blurred figures were busy, and teams of thin, dark-skinned laborers could be seen struggling to carry heavy loads or push carts between the docks and the warehouse area under the supervision of the dock foreman.

Then look to the northwest of the city. The depths of the bay. The narrow, saltwater estuary that separates the east and west islands of Butterfly Island. The outline of the construction of a concrete-timber bridge is faintly visible, and more than 100 construction workers and an equal number of Caribbean prisoners of war are busy on the construction site.

If you pricked up your ears again, you could vaguely hear the sound of artillery coming from the far inland direction of the West Island.

"Brother Su. Zhang Mingcheng sent someone just now, saying that at noon at the mayor's mansion for you to pick up the wind and wash the dust and see you off, hehe! The door opened, and Dai Botong walked in. He still has an invitation in his hand.

This time, Dai Botong served as Su Zining's deputy to San Salvador, the capital of Portugal's Brazilian colony, and Luanda, the West African colony, in order to familiarize himself with Portugal's high-level political leaders in these two regions and to make preliminary preparations for serving as the first "Consul General in Brazil and West Africa" in the future.

"Hehe, Zhang Mingcheng is really ......quick to enter the role" Finally, glancing out the window, Su Zining walked back to the desk and began to pack up his pen and paper, "He invited us to dinner so face-saving, and he was a pick-up and a send-off, but he didn't want me to stay here for too long?" ”

"He's counting on you to get him more 'hired hands' this time!" Dai Botong sat opposite Su Zining with a smile and pointed in the direction of the port. "He has always said that he wants to fulfill the 'mission' given to him by the cabinet. By the end of next year, the twin ports will be built into a rear base for the second phase of the 'Atlantic Checkers Project'. ”

"Hehe, I made him 'embarrassed'." Su Zining smiled awkwardly, and changed his expression to Yan Sù as he spoke, "Xiao Dai, the Caribbean, South America and West Africa are the core and critical places for the country's development in the next few years, and the European colonial invasion activities are also the most chaotic, your burden is much heavier than Shi Wenbo, you must be mentally prepared." ”

"Before leaving, Brother Yan had already taught me a lot." Dai Botong hurriedly straightened his attitude and appeared very serious, "Brother Su, listen to Brother Yan, you proposed to the cabinet and suspended the European agent plan?" ”

"......" stopped in his hand, the pencil rolled to the ground, and Su Zi quietly looked at the fellow student in front of him.

"Brother Su, Zhou Kemin's matter was really unexpected, everyone was in a bad mood at the time...... Didn't you say before that this year is a good opportunity? Seeing that the other party's expression was different, Dai Botong quickly lowered his head, but after a few seconds, he couldn't help muttering.

"In fact, even if we had not intervened, wouldn't the war in Europe have lasted for thirty years?" Su Zining calmed down, sped up the tidying up work in his hand, and his tone was very flat, "We have already stirred up enough butterfly wings, and slowing down is not a bad thing." ”

"But Qingqing, she ......" Dai Botong said this, and lowered his head again, as if he was quite concerned.

"Women are always stubborn...... You're more stubborn than she is. Looking at this big boy who was born in the nineties with Zhou Kemin and had a crush on Dai Qingqing in private, Su Zining frowned secretly, "She needs time to calm down, and you need time to continue to exercise herself." ”

"Actually, if the European surrogate program can continue, I can help......" Dai Bo Tongyan squirmed insincerely, and what thoughts were already clearly visible.

"Let's finish the job at hand." Su Zining sighed, got up and walked out of the room. Looking at the back of his idol for a long time, Dai Botong showed a disappointed expression.

……

After last year's practical training of the road and a number of small bridge construction projects in the mining area of West Point Town, the Oriental Construction Company in China has now become the only private engineering company with "mature" road and bridge construction experience, and Zhou Kai, the company's CEO and second knife road and bridge engineer, has also become a "road and bridge engineering expert".

In order to ensure the military clearance of Butterfly Island West Island and for the future development of mineral resources in West Island, the construction of a bridge over the saltwater river has become the core project of Butterfly Island's great development.

The narrowest part of the river at the mouth of the saltwater river is about 100 meters, if a bridge spanning 100 meters is built in later generations, basically a township-level construction enterprise can do it, but in this 17th century, in the absence of modern construction machinery, modern engineering and technical personnel and modern building materials, to complete such a job, it really makes Zhou Kai a little worried.

However, Zhou Kai also thought that he was the assistant engineer of the road and bridge of the former municipal construction company, and after a field investigation, according to the water depth and water flow, Zhou Kai decisively adopted a "rough" plan.

Several old river barges that have been eliminated in China were towed to Butterfly Island, then reinforced with iron bars, filled with stones and cement slurry and sunk into the river at intervals of 20 meters, and then reinforced with sand, concrete and stone little by little, and then the supporting part of the bridge deck was erected with steel bars, and finally the wooden bridge deck was laid. The entire project will cost $100,000 and will take more than four months.

Now it has been 3 months, the construction of the bridge has only been carried out more than half of the time, many of the progress rework caused by the rough quality of the project has made the workers tired, and because the quality of some steel bars is not up to par and the engineering accident has caused several Caribbean prisoners of war to die in the collapse accident, not only Zhou Kai himself is extremely annoyed, but even the ordinary construction workers on the construction site are a little dissatisfied.

But in reality, it is not the officials, businesses or citizens of the city of Twin Ports who are more in demand for the completion of the Saltwater River Bridge, but the army that is currently engaged in a clean-up operation in the West Island.

Lieutenant Colonel Feng Bin continued to serve as the commander-in-chief of the West Island Cleanup Operation. Although Feng Bin's military talent is much more mediocre than that of Lieutenant Colonel He Yu, chief of staff of the army, Feng Bin is one of the few senior commanders who are familiar with the combat environment of Butterfly Island, so this time the army commander Major General Chen Liwen still issued the appointment of Lieutenant Colonel Feng Bin as the acting commander of the "mixed brigade" last month.

Unlike last year's refueling and the increase in the strength of the East Island Army on Butterfly Island in batches, this time the Army Command has put in three light infantry battalions and one brigade-affiliated combat engineer company at one time, with a total strength of more than 1,200 troops. Nearly one-third of them belonged to the 1st Battalion of the Foreign Legion. In addition, there are 5 sail light cruisers of the Navy to provide coastal fire support.

Feng Bin's task is to continue to purge the entire Caribbean natives of the West Island of Butterfly Island, but the time of the battle is not clearly limited. After the tragic battle on the East Island, the Army Command and even the Congress, while praising the Army's will to fight, were also apprehensive about such mass casualties. Although there were no casualties among the core members of the cross-legged identity, when it comes to the rainforest mountains of the West Island, which is more complex than the terrain of the East Island, no one with a brain will insist on the reckless decision to kill the opponent "within six months". (To be continued.) )