Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 159: Population Doubles

After successfully acquiring the San Javier iron ore, the war between Paraguay and Argentina had little to do with Rio Grande do Sul, and Li Mingyuan also turned his attention more to domestic regional development.

The rubber industry is a planned pillar industry. After the wild rubber trees were discovered, a group of workers with experience in working in plantations were selected to take care of the rubber forests distributed in various places, and to select suitable fields near the rubber discovery areas as bases for artificially transplanting rubber trees.

The development of the rubber industry is a gradual process. Li Mingyuan first planned to introduce wild rubber trees and carry out large-scale artificial planting within two years to form a dense rubber planting area, replace Brazil's monopoly, and make Rio Grande do Sul a major supplier of rubber raw materials in the world. Then, while introducing rubber industry technology from Europe, he trained Rio Grande do Sul's own rubber industry technicians and established an independent rubber industry system. By upgrading and processing rubber raw materials, various types of industrial products were made to obtain greater economic profits.

After two months of hard work by the Chinese, most of the industrial equipment purchased from Prussia are in the factory construction and installation stage. Some of the light industrial machinery and equipment related to the production of daily life products have been installed and started producing products due to their relatively low technical requirements.

All industries in Rio Grande do Sul are in a state of bustling construction, and the transportation of Cuban Chinese workers is also coming to an end. On February 4, the last batch of Chinese workers set off from Cuba's Isla de la Youth, marking the end of the transportation operation.

The transport operation lasted for more than three months, hiring a total of more than 270 ships of various types, plus more than 120 ships of more than 500 tons dispatched from Rio Grande do Sul. In total, more than 400 ships were mobilized, with a transportation cost of US$7 million, and 120,000 Chinese workers were transported.

From the end of the 1869th century, when the first group of Chinese set off from the Philippines to the American continent, by February , approximately Chinese workers had been transported to America. Due to factors such as death during the voyage and overwork, only about Chinese workers survived.

A total of 150,000 Chinese workers were rescued from Peru, about 20,000 died in battles, 120,000 Cuban Chinese workers arrived in Rio Grande do Sul, and 500 Caribbean Chinese voluntarily immigrated to Rio Grande do Sul. After the large-scale immigration, the total number of Chinese in Rio Grande do Sul exceeded 250,000, accounting for more than two-thirds of the Chinese in North and South America.

The number of Chinese workers in Cuba is more than 120,000. Due to various factors, about 20,000 Chinese workers still remain in the country. Some of them participate in the rebel armed forces, hoping to overthrow the Spanish colonial rule, and then the Cubans will give the Chinese normal national status.

Some of them were free Chinese who worked for the Spanish colonists. They had suppressed their own people in the past in exchange for employment by the Spaniards. They were worried that they would be held accountable after coming to Rio Grande do Sul. In addition, generally speaking, people like them had considerable land wealth in the local area, and the thirty to one hundred acres of land offered by Rio Grande do Sul could not impress them.

The third group is the largest in number and their experiences are the most tragic. In Cuba, some plantation and farm owners treat the Chinese as slaves and private property. They are unwilling to let the Chinese leave. Therefore, many Chinese have to stay in Cuba and continue their slave-like lives.

Life has not only a bright side but also a dark side. For the entire society in the second half of the 19th century, interests were what European countries valued most. In their eyes, Africans and Asians were just inferior races, and killing them did not require legal trial. As European whites, people of different nationalities would also be treated differently. Ireland was part of the British Empire, but the Irish did not enjoy the benefits brought by the prosperity of the British Empire.

From 1845 to 1850, a great famine occurred in Ireland. Although Britain had ample food, it did not provide aid to the hungry Irish civilians and watched more than one million people starve to death in Ireland. After the famine, the penniless Irish poor immigrated to the United States on a large scale and, like more than Chinese workers, became the main force in the construction of the Pacific Railway.

The heavy labor exhausted the Chinese and Irish workers, and tens of thousands of Irish workers died on the railway tracks.

During this period, although the status of white people was higher than that of Chinese, as railway workers, Irish and Chinese workers undertook the same amount of labor.

During this era, Li Mingyuan tried his best to help Chinese workers in America, but some places that were beyond the reach of Rio Grande do Sul had to be put on hold temporarily, leaving the country to help the Chinese workers there when it became stronger in the future.

The population census work has been ongoing. After Sun Bin returned from Prussia, Liu Pu, Zhao Yan and Sun Bin were responsible for managing immigration work while handling other affairs.

In the study room in the backyard of the castle, Liu Pu and the other two took out more than ten notebooks and placed them on the desk one by one.

"After the Rio Grande do Sul mopping-up operation, I arranged for personnel to continue recruiting women of marriageable age from Paraguay. Before the outbreak of the Misiones conflict, I recruited 2,000 women of marriageable age. In December, after our army reached an agreement with Paraguay to exchange population for weapons, the pace of recruitment increased rapidly. As of two days ago, from December to early February, a total of 11,000 women of marriageable age from Paraguay were recruited, paying 1.7 million silver dollars and 300 tons of food."

Zhao Yan opened a notebook with dense numbers on it and said.

"Little Lopez received the weapons and ammunition we delivered, as well as a batch of silver dollars and food. It seems that they can hold out in Misiones for a while longer." Li Mingyuan thought to himself.

"Your Highness has misunderstood. The 1.7 million silver dollars and 300 tons of grain are compensation paid to Paraguayan women and will not fall into the hands of Lopez Jr." Zhao Yan explained.

"That's not necessarily true. The Paraguayans are fighting in Misiones Province and need a lot of money and food support. One million seven hundred thousand silver dollars is not a small amount. Little Lopez is likely to exploit this money."

The condition for the Chinese to recruit Paraguayan women was to pay 150 silver dollars and one month's food. One month's food was worthless in the past, but in post-war Paraguay, one month's food could help them survive the critical period of food shortage and wait until the new grain was harvested. One hundred and fifty silver dollars could support ordinary people for ten years, allowing them to live a good life.

In order to attract Paraguayan women to marry Chinese, Rio Grande do Sul offers very generous prices and attractive living conditions.

Once the Paraguayan women agreed to immigrate, food would be immediately distributed to their families, and silver dollars would be delivered personally to them for them to handle.

After receiving 150 silver dollars, most Paraguayan women left the money to their families and kept a portion for themselves as private money. In Rio Grande do Sul, the Chinese who were able to marry wives were generally meritorious soldiers and officers, who generally owned a large amount of land. Therefore, the Chinese who recruited Paraguayans often used land as a sign to attract Paraguayan female immigrants, promising that after marrying a Chinese, they could become landlords and would not have to worry about being oppressed by the big landlords in their hometowns.

Using land to attract Paraguayan women did not work well at first. They did not believe that they would have more than 300 acres of land after marrying a Chinese. However, as the first batch of Paraguayan women who married Chinese returned home to visit their relatives, their real life in Rio Grande do Sul was also known by other Paraguayans. Therefore, driven by the dual attraction of having enough food to eat and not starving to death and obtaining a large amount of land, more and more women of marriageable age chose to immigrate.

What Li Mingyuan was concerned about was to immigrate enough women to balance the gender ratio in the country. As for whether Lopez Jr. would annex the silver dollars and food left by Paraguayan women to their families, that was none of his business.

The call for a monarchy in Paraguay is growing louder and louder. Concerned about his reputation, Lopez Jr. may not exploit the "sell-body money" of Paraguayan women under his rule. However, ordinary Paraguayan officials will definitely take no action when faced with a group of civilians who have become rich after being poor for a long time.

"Paraguay's overall strength is not as good as Argentina's. Even if Lopez Jr. plunders the silver dollars we gave to the families of Paraguayan women, he can only sustain the offensive of the troops for a period of time, and cannot change the overall situation."

Li Mingyuan said softly, and put his eyes back on the thin book on the desk. He glanced at it briefly, feeling a little strange, and asked, "There were 15,000 naturalized women in the previous period. Adding the number of immigrants this time, it should be 28,700. The data recorded in the book is 34,000. What's the matter with the extra 5,000 people?"

"It's like this. After we occupied Santa Catarina, most of the captured Brazilian troops were locals. When we exchanged prisoners with Brazil, they were sent out of Rio Grande do Sul like other prisoners. This reduced the number of local young and strong men by more than 4,000. The number of white women in Santa Catarina far exceeded that of white men, so many white women chose to marry Chinese, and the number of naturalized women also increased a lot."

Liu Pu explained.

"Well, not bad." Li Mingyuan nodded with satisfaction and said with a smile: "Han men are no worse than white men. It is a wise choice for them to take the initiative to marry the brothers.

Sun Bin, you are responsible for promoting the advantages of Han Chinese to neighboring countries and encouraging women of marriageable age in other countries to marry Han Chinese. "

"I understand." Sun Bin responded by bowing while standing aside, but his expression seemed unnatural.

"Sun Bin, you have been silent in the study. Is there something wrong?" Li Mingyuan noticed his abnormality and asked directly.

"Your Highness, I have a question in my mind, but I have never dared to ask you."

"You can say whatever you want." Li Mingyuan waved his hand.

"The number of Chinese and naturalized women in Rio Grande do Sul has reached 285,000, and there are 30,000 unnaturalized Brazilians. The total population exceeds that of Paraguay, and it is a large country in the La Plata region. However, the vast majority of the population of Rio Grande do Sul are Chinese who have moved in from other regions. We lack roots here. Purchasing machinery and equipment and transporting Cuban Chinese consumes a lot of gold reserves, and a large amount of money is needed to resettle the 120,000 new immigrants.

I believe that the current population size of Southern Rio Grande has reached its limit, and I implore His Majesty to temporarily postpone the plan of immigration from the mainland and Southeast Asia. "

"The mainland and Southeast Asia are far away from Rio Grande do Sul. The cost of transporting Chinese is much higher than the cost from Cuba to Rio Grande do Sul. Your concerns are not unreasonable."

Li Mingyuan closed the book and explained slowly in a gentle tone: "The strength of Rio Grande do Sul is limited. Ignoring the national strength and sending a large number of immigrants will lead to national financial bankruptcy and national unrest. Although I want to help Chinese brothers from other places immigrate to Rio Grande do Sul, I will not do it blindly.

The imbalance in the sex ratio of men and women in Rio Grande do Sul is still very serious. The action of obtaining female immigrants from outside cannot be stopped. After the Cuban immigrants, the immigrants from Southeast Asia and the mainland will be mainly female immigrants. In addition, considering the current tight gold reserves, the scale of mainland and Southeast Asian immigrants has been reduced by half, and the first batch of mainland and Southeast Asian immigrants will be postponed to one month later. "

After completing the Cuban immigration, the plan to send a fleet to the mainland to transport immigrants was made before the founding of the country. However, the atmosphere that had just emerged in Rio Grande do Sul to use the transportation of mainland immigrants to fight back to the mainland made Sun Bin feel dangerous.

Less than five years had passed since the fall of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The Hunan Army, Huai Army and other troops equipped with Western weapons, which had risen from the ground up to suppress the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, were large in number and powerful in strength, and were far from something that the current National Defense Army could provoke.

Not only would the large-scale transportation of mainland Chinese workers be beyond the capacity of Rio Grande do Sul, it might also arouse the vigilance of the Qing court in advance. Rio Grande do Sul was far away from the mainland, and the Qing army could not possibly attack it. However, for the sake of immigration, it would be extremely dangerous for the National Defense Army to fight a war with the Qing army in the mainland. Far away from Rio Grande do Sul, the National Defense Army could not get effective supplies. Moreover, the Western powers viewed the mainland as an economic colony and certainly did not want the National Defense Army to endanger the rule of their good slaves. As a result, the possibility of the National Defense Army winning the battle with the Qing army on the mainland was extremely low.

It was a risky thing for the Chinese to establish a nation in Rio Grande dolls. Now that they have a base to settle down, Sun Bin does not want Rio Grande dolls to face the crisis of national destruction because of his risky behavior.

Li Mingyuan felt fortunate that he listened to Sun Bin's advice, but after the conversation, he was left alone.

(End of this chapter)