Wind Rises in North America 1625

Chapter 316 Slow Progress vs. Rapid Progress
"In fact, the development of human civilization is just like the laws of the universe. It must expand continuously and there must be such a driving force. If one day the expansion stops, it will compress inward. When the compressed space gradually shrinks, it will explode again and extend outward once more."

"This was true of the Ming Dynasty, and it was true of all the dynasties before it!"

On January 7, the Founders' Conference had entered its third day, and with the various agendas drawing to a close, the delegates' attention was focused on the next key issue—the direction of colonization.

New South Wales currently has a population of nearly 40,000, making it a force to be reckoned with in the Pacific region of the Americas.

If we add the 21,400 people controlled by the colonization team on Beiying Island (now Hokkaido), then the total population under the control of the entire Xinzhou would exceed 65,000.

This is more than double the original ten-year population growth target of 30,000.

It's important to understand that at that time, the British colonies on the east coast of North America had only been established in four places (Virginia, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maryland), with a population of just over 20,000, and their strength was not much greater than that of New South Wales.

In the population competition between the east and west coasts of North America, New South Wales arrived a little late, but it has now gained a slight advantage.

It is foreseeable that with the unwavering support of the New South Wales government and the continuous growth of Pacific shipping capacity, the speed and scale of immigration to New South Wales will expand year by year. The surging influx of Chinese immigrants will eventually fill the entire west coast and then extend and expand to the central and even eastern regions.

With a slightly wealthier population, in addition to prioritizing the needs of industrial and mining development, it is natural to expand outwards and seize more territory.

The current principle of Xinzhou government's external development is to prioritize the south and slow down the north.

Since there were no powerful external forces or local tribes in the north, the main strategy was a soft approach, primarily based on economic infiltration and secondarily on political control.

By establishing trading posts on key coastlines, islands, and strategic locations where rivers converge, they exerted influence over the new continent and indirectly expanded its sphere of influence.

In the south, due to the presence of the Spanish, they adopted a rapid approach, using armed settlements and seizing territory as their main means. Along the winding coastline, fertile river valleys, and open plains, they established a series of fixed strongholds, quickly extending their influence southward and building strong fortresses at key locations.

Three years earlier, before the outbreak of war, the New South Wales government established a warning outpost—North Point (now Ernibay)—on the Qinglan Peninsula (now Olympia Peninsula, Washington State). Last year, the New South Wales government set up the New South Wales Bay Development Team and established several outposts in the area, including Fort Gu'an (now Port Townsend), Fort Haiyan (now Everett), Fort Huaan (now Edmunds), Fort Xuanhamburg (now Seattle), and Fort Fu'an (now Tacoma), relocating more than 700 people.

In addition, the New South Wales government also established two supply points along the Pacific coast: Zhenlongbao (now Westport) and Zhaoyebao (now Astoria, on the south bank of the Colombian estuary).

It is worth mentioning that Zhaoyebao is located on the south bank of the Columbia River, which has crossed the "boundary line" of the two sides' spheres of influence stipulated in the original peace talks with the Spanish.

But the New Zealand government doesn't care about the Spanish people's "opinions" at all.

Because, to date, the Spanish had not even brought California under their actual control, let alone the extremely distant Oregon region.

Several years ago, the San Diego Fortress and the mission station of Alcalá, which the Spanish had painstakingly built in San Diego Bay, lost their necessary support and replenishment with the end of the war, which plunged the local colonization efforts into difficulties.

It is said that of the more than eighty immigrants who were originally sent there by the Mexican colonial authorities, some died and some fled, leaving less than fifty people struggling to survive. Moreover, supplies were intermittent. If it weren't for the persistence of the Catholic Church and the assistance from the surrounding indigenous tribes, they would have been wiped out long ago.

Despite the fact that maintaining such an outpost cost only a few thousand pesos a year, the Mexican colonial authorities still couldn't find any "extra" funds to invest in this most remote colony.

Perhaps, at some point in the future, whether due to a plague or a conflict among indigenous tribes, this colonial outpost, which the Spanish had placed such high hopes on, will suddenly disappear like a bubble.

Therefore, within Xinzhou, from the decision-making committee to ordinary residents, there was basically no objection to the established strategy of southward expansion.

The only difference is whether to proceed slowly or rapidly.

From the perspective of the moderates, New South Wales' current sphere of influence extending to the Columbia River—oh, this great river has been named the Meridian River by the people of New South Wales—is already the limit of the government's control.

Therefore, the most important task at present is to gradually digest and absorb this large territory, connect the previously established scattered settlements into one area as much as possible, and work hard to consolidate the local agricultural foundation. After we have completely established a foothold, we can then slowly advance southward.

After all, with a mere 40,000 people, not even enough to fill the small Qiming Island, there was no extra population to send to the more expansive and distant southern regions.

It should be understood that in the early days of colonization, there was little production for several years. Food, cloth, tools, and other production and living materials all had to be transported across the sea from the core base on Qiming Island, putting immense pressure on logistical support.

But the radicals raised their voices and cried out that time was of the essence!

The Spanish are now mired in the European war and unable to extricate themselves for the time being, which is the best opportunity for us in New Zealand to take advantage of their weakness.

If, at this juncture, one hesitates and misses the initiative, and waits for the Spanish to recover and free themselves from the European war, any attempt to expand southward will likely be met with strong resistance.

Besides, back in August of last year, after more than a year of careful preparation, didn't I, Xinzhou, already establish a secret base in the San Francisco Bay Area?

In that case, why not set up five or six more outposts along the coastline from the mouth of the Ziwu River, connecting them with the one in San Francisco?

In the future, whether merchant ships travel north or south, or if conflicts break out with the Spanish again, they will be able to obtain sufficient supplies from the aforementioned strongholds.

"Therefore, whether it is to gain a strategic advantage or for future practical needs, we need to establish two or three settlements along the Ziwu River to San Francisco." Han Jian looked at everyone with a hint of fanaticism on his face. "As for the concerns that the settlements are far from the core base of Qiming Island, that supplies will be difficult to obtain, and that there is a possibility of another conflict with the Spanish, I think these concerns are unnecessary."

"The Viceroyalty of New Spain has yet to completely quell the Indian rebellion in the Sierra Madre Mountains of the Northwest. In addition, the resistance forces of the Tarahumara tribe in the north continue to harass Spanish settlements and missionaries. The Spanish have a lot of troubles to deal with, so they are willing but unable to stop us from penetrating deeper into California."

"We're taking too big a step; it's easy to make a mess of things!" Zhang Ruosong said helplessly. "The California region is just there; we're not going to lose it. Is it really necessary for us to rush to occupy it?"

"At this moment, we should concentrate all our human and material resources and give full play to our relative scale advantage in order to accumulate our own strength in the shortest possible time. Whether it is agricultural production or the gradual expansion of industrial scale, both require a massive population to support them."

"If we scatter our limited human resources like pepper, throwing a few here and a few there, leaving all the hard-won immigrants scattered across the vast and barren southern region, not only will we be unable to form a cohesive force, but we'll likely need the Qiming Island core base to continuously supply us with food and other resources for the next three to five years. This will severely restrict our development speed!"

Expansion, expansion, but you can't always think about taking over more territory; you have to first assess your own capabilities!

Our Xinzhou currently has a population of over 40,000, which is considered densely populated in the vast west coast region, but compared to a slightly larger town in later generations, it is probably not enough.

Not to mention, among these 40,000 citizens, there are more than 12,000 local indigenous people.

Despite the fact that the New South Wales government has spent nearly a decade implementing the "reform of local administration" policy, placing hundreds of indigenous tribes under direct rule in an effort to convert them into usable manpower.

However, the vast differences in civilization, as well as the distinct religious traditions and customs, still pose a significant challenge to the assimilation policy in New South Wales.

Moreover, transforming an indigenous tribe that has lived a nomadic life of hunting and gathering for thousands of years into a docile agricultural people is no less difficult than taming a pack of wolves on the northern grasslands into "vegetarian" sheep.

Even after several years of schooling, the indigenous children still struggle to shake their "free-spirited" nature and are reluctant to engage in hard farm work or heavy factory production.

In fact, from the perspective of social behavior, both farming and assembly line production are extremely anti-human activities.

Such anti-human economic activities require hundreds or thousands of years of imprinting to be implanted deep into the human brain's memory, thereby overcoming various negative emotions such as anxiety, impatience, fatigue, and boredom.

Although humanity has a strong desire to pursue a better life, and tens of thousands of years of social development have proven that agricultural life is superior to primitive life based on fishing, hunting and gathering, and industrial civilization far surpasses all previous stages of civilization.

However, it is clearly beyond the capacity of an indigenous tribe that has followed a traditional way of life for hundreds or thousands of years to transition from the carefree and happy life of the past to a somewhat arduous agricultural life, or even a cruel and mechanical industrial mass production model.

Even if you use whips, sticks, or even threats of death, it is still difficult to make them adapt to this "new life".

The transmigrators once thought that they could assimilate a large number of indigenous people in the shortest time through continuous education and the lure of good things, or, as a second-best option, tame them and turn them into a human resource that the New Continent government could utilize.

Expectations are beautiful, but reality is cruel.

The long and profound Eastern civilization has demonstrated strong cultural inclusiveness throughout its thousands of years of history, and tends to integrate different ethnic groups through cultural fusion rather than forced assimilation.

The former Northern Di, Southern Man, Western Rong, and Eastern Yi, along with countless other ethnic groups that appeared throughout history, eventually converged into the Eastern peoples after a long period of integration.

Not to mention, religions in Eastern civilizations are generally more tolerant and open to the spiritual beliefs of the indigenous people of the New World.

Of course they do!
The more than 12,000 indigenous people who were incorporated into Xinzhou have not been fully integrated into the tens of thousands of Ming Dynasty immigrants after seven or eight years of continuous influence. They always seem out of place, both in terms of life and work.

In the villages and settlements of Xinzhou, the crops in the fields of the local indigenous people never grow as well as those cultivated by the immigrants.

In factories and mines, the indigenous people, driven to work as laborers and coolies, were never as hardworking or efficient as the immigrants from the Ming Dynasty.

When the mighty Han Dynasty defeated the Xiongnu, there was a saying that "one Han was worth five Hu."

Within Xinzhou, there is a saying that "one Han man can defeat five barbarians" in terms of labor production.

Therefore, the productivity of the more than 10,000 indigenous people under the rule of Xinzhou was really not as good as that of the three or four thousand hardworking immigrants from the Ming Dynasty.

This shows that the human resources of Xinzhou are extremely valuable and cannot be carelessly scattered in the desolate land of Xinzhou.

It's important to understand that any production process must consider economies of scale.

Rather than needlessly relocating large numbers of immigrants to the wild south, it would be better to concentrate them as much as possible in the core base, thereby expanding the scale of production and accelerating industrial development.

As long as our New South Wales possesses strong industrial capabilities and ample food reserves, whether it's the nearby Oregon region or the fertile California, it's all within our grasp. We can take it whenever we want.

After all, this period was still a colonial era where strength reigned supreme. As long as our fists were strong enough, even if the Spanish occupied the entire American continent at this time, we could take it all back after defeating them.

Although, with the emergence of our new continent, the Spanish in Mexico set their sights on the north more than a hundred years earlier.

But the Spanish were constantly plagued by troubles, one after another, and they kept making a mess of things, making it impossible for them to focus all their attention on the Americas.

In the end, with the complete collapse of the Spanish American colonies, the Spanish never established actual control over California, and in the end, it all benefited the US.

"Therefore, we have ample time to conquer the vast New Continent." Zhang Ruosong ignored the still-unwilling Han Jian and turned to the many representatives present, speaking earnestly: "Currently, we need to calm down, be down-to-earth, and do our work well. We shouldn't be overly ambitious or eager for quick success, but rather continuously strengthen our foundation and hone our skills..."

At this moment, the meeting room fell into a brief silence as the delegates pondered Zhang Ruosong's words.

Outside the window, the sky over Xinzhou was as blue as a jewel, and a gentle breeze carried the scent of the distant sea.

This newly developed land carries the hopes and dreams of countless people, but it also faces many difficult choices.

The road ahead is full of both opportunities and thorns. Only by taking one step at a time can we build a new world on this rich and vast continent.
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(End of this chapter)