Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 238 The Foundation of Hegemony
ps: Thanks to Xiaobaicaidui Mushroom and Gongyang1573 for the reward and support!

There will be another week of interruption.

In Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and four southern provinces of Brazil, agriculture is mainly based on animal husbandry. Millions of economic livestock such as cattle, sheep, and horses are grazing on the La Plata Plain, which stretches over an area of ​​150 million square kilometers.

In the eyes of ordinary people, pastoral areas where livestock are raised are water-scarce areas with precipitation below 400 mm. Because of the harsh local natural conditions, people adopt an inefficient agricultural production method such as grazing. However, as long as the local natural conditions are suitable, the Chinese living there will reclaim the occupied land into arable land and plant crops such as rice and wheat. In southern Xinjiang, as long as the local annual precipitation reaches more than 350 mm, the inland people who have moved there will show the characteristics of an agricultural nation, reclaim the barren and water-scarce land into precious arable land, and invest a lot of energy to carefully raise it.

The Han people missed out on the global colonization period of the Age of Discovery. More than 400 million people were crowded on the land that had been cultivated for thousands of years, and they were very eager to possess the land. The white people in South America, who were the descendants of the colonists, had a rich heritage left by their ancestors, but faced with a large amount of fertile land, they did not cherish it as much as the Han people did.

The La Plata Plain, which is mainly distributed in four provinces of Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and southern Brazil, covers an area of ​​150 million square kilometers and has an annual precipitation of about 1000 mm, which is nearly twice the area of ​​China's four major plains.

Among the four major plains, the Northeast Plain covers an area of ​​35 square kilometers and has an annual precipitation of 350-700.

The North China Plain covers an area of ​​31 square kilometers, with an annual precipitation of 500-1000.

长江中下游平原面积16万平方公里，年降水量1000-1500、关中平原面积4万平方公里。年降水量300-600。

The four major plains with a total area of ​​86 square kilometers carry more than half of the mainland's population. The four major plains bases, which were originally the main grain-producing areas, have too many people. Only the Northeast Plain still has the ability to export grain. The other three major plains areas have changed from grain exporting areas to grain importing areas.

A vast land area and abundant fertile arable land are necessary conditions for a country to become a great power. The La Plata Plain has a vast area of ​​arable land, and its precipitation and natural climate are similar to those in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, making it a very suitable place to live. At the same time, even the Patagonian wilderness, which is regarded as a desert by white Argentines, has an annual precipitation of about 350 mm, and has all the natural conditions to be developed into a livestock breeding area.

The white people in Argentina had a treasure trove but did not know how to use it. After the northern region was occupied by the Han people, millions of penniless Chinese immigrants often took a hoe and a few axes issued by the government and carried a few days' worth of dry food and entered the undeveloped forests in southern Argentina. Then, following the tradition of the Han ancestors of preventing sand from flowing into fields, cutting down forests and filling mountains to create farmland in the Loess Plateau, the northwest desert and the southeastern hills, they reclaimed the land that the white people in Argentina were unwilling to develop into square plots of farmland.

Before 1876, the Chinese government stipulated that every adult Chinese immigrant could purchase 1876 acres of land. After May 5, in view of the sharp increase in the number of immigrants and the large labor force required for domestic industry, Li Mingyuan adjusted the area of ​​land subscribed by Chinese immigrants, reducing it from acres per person to acres per person.

Ten acres of land are generally fertile land located in the plains. For Chinese immigrants who choose to live in inland mountainous areas, the government relaxed restrictions on their land ownership, stipulating that each person can own three acres of flat land and thirty acres of mountain fields. As for the mountain and hilly fields privately reclaimed by the Chinese, as long as the area does not exceed fifty acres and does not damage the local natural environment, the government defaults to them having the right to use the reclaimed land for ten years. After ten years, the government will reconfirm the ownership of the privately reclaimed land based on the number of descendants of the immigrants.

Stimulated and helped by low-interest land loans and a large number of agricultural machinery provided by the government, groups of organized Chinese immigrants reclaimed the first piece of land of their own with their own hands and put down roots on the land that originally belonged to the white Argentines. From 1870 to 1878, among the 530 million Chinese people in China, 300 million lived on the 70 square kilometers of land seized in the First Argentine War, forming thousands of settlements of all sizes, completely cutting off the possibility of the white Argentines fighting back to regain the northern territory.

The La Plata Plain was the foundation for the rise of the Han Kingdom in South America, and the end of the 170th century was the most appropriate time to seize the La Plata Plain. In the s and s, Argentina and Uruguay missed the opportunity to receive Italian and German immigrants due to the continuous harassment and attacks by the Han troops. The population was less than million due to factors such as war, death from disease and fleeing foreign countries. Compared with ten years ago, the population not only did not increase, but decreased by about people.

Apart from the changes in the strength of Argentina and Paraguay, Brazil, having experienced two defeats in the war, would not rashly attack the Han State. The United States was still busy fighting the Indians in the west at home and had neither the energy nor the strength to interfere with the actions of the Han State. Therefore, Li Mingyuan planned to launch an attack while the Han State's population and military strength had an absolute advantage over Argentina, quickly occupy Argentina and Uruguay, and lay the foundation for the rise of the Han State.

The intensive and detailed combat readiness meeting lasted until noon and had not yet ended. When Li Mingyuan was carefully arranging various combat readiness tasks, a guard officer walked into the meeting room and whispered something to Li Mingyuan.

"Let him in." Li Mingyuan nodded and temporarily suspended the meeting.

"Tap tap tap!" Ye Chenglin, wearing the gray-green school-level uniform of the National Defense Army, stepped into the conference room, raised his hand and saluted, saying, "I, Ye Chenglin, am here to report!"

"Is the journey going well?"

"I encountered an Argentine patrol boat once, but I managed to avoid it." Ye Chenglin said as he took out a letter from his military uniform pocket, stepped forward, and handed it to Li Mingyuan with both hands, saying, "The Mapuche people invite you to be the king of their tribe. This is a letter from thirteen chiefs to you."

"Did the Mapuche people know about Antoine's death?" Li Mingyuan asked, looking down at the letter.

"Yes, Your Highness. The Mapuche people believe that after Antoine's death, they need to choose a new king who can lead them to fight against the oppression of Argentina and Chile."

"Very good, you go back and tell the Mapuche that the Han Chinese and the Mapuche are one family, and I will defend them from the invasion of the white people just as I do the Han Chinese."

Li Mingyuan said happily after reading the letter of allegiance from the Mapuche chief.

"Congratulations, Your Highness, for conquering the Mapuche people. With the Mapuche people holding Argentina back, our operation to occupy the Plains of La Plata next year will have a better chance of success," said Liu Pu.

The Mapuche people are the main Indian tribe in Patagonia. Based on the important role of Patagonia in the immigration route of the Han Dynasty, Li Mingyuan sent several Chinese teams into the local area. On the one hand, they traded with the Mapuche people, and on the other hand, they tried to win over the Mapuche people to join the Han Dynasty. However, due to the influence of white colonists for hundreds of years, the Mapuche people had great differences in religion and living customs from the Chinese. The various tribes also refused to join the Han Dynasty due to their lack of understanding of the Chinese.

"The Mapuche are good at nomadic warfare. If they refuse to accept the rule of the Han Dynasty, it will cause a lot of trouble to occupy Patagonia in the future."

From the letter of allegiance written by the Mapuche chief, Li Mingyuan realized that they were willing to surrender to the Han Kingdom not only because of the help provided by Ye Chenglin and others to the Indian tribes, but more importantly, the continued advancement of Chile and Argentina into the Patagonian desert had caused heavy losses to the Patagonian Indian tribes. In order to survive, they chose to rely on the Han people who looked similar to them.

Trust between two different races cannot be established overnight. Li Mingyuan did not intend to gain the trust of the Mapuche people completely, because after hundreds of years of fighting with the white people in South America, the brave and warlike Mapuche people had a population of less than 30,000. The 30,000 Indians were very limited in front of the Han country with a population of more than 5 million. After decades of active or passive integration, the Mapuche people, who looked similar, were easier to integrate into the Han population than the white people.

Li Mingyuan was a little happier after receiving the loyalty of the Mapuche people. After thinking for a few minutes, Li Mingyuan arranged for Ye Chenglin, "Patagonia is a foothold for the strategic occupation of Argentina. I authorize you to form a mixed corps of less than 6,000 in Patagonia to cooperate with the main force. The weapons and ammunition of the mixed corps will be supplied by the country, and you need to recruit soldiers from the Indian tribes."

"Your Highness, although the Patagonian Indians are brave in battle, they generally have not received formal training. I hope that some officers will be sent from the country to strengthen the organizational structure of the mixed corps."

"Okay, I will send thirty lieutenants and four colonels to support you."...

(End of this chapter)