Nanyang Storm 1864

Chapter 195 Population and Policy

more than a month later
The Provisional Prime Minister's Office at the Makanan Palace
Prime Minister's Office

Since Li Hezhang took office as interim prime minister, he has taken over a large number of government affairs, allowing Zheng Guohui to free himself from trivial matters and focus on thinking about the next strategic direction.

At this time, Zheng Guohui was listening to the recent reports. He looked calm, slept well, and looked much better.

The family members who were stranded at the Davao headquarters arrived in Manila half a month ago and moved into the Ganquan Palace in the royal city. This was the former site of the Spanish Governor's Palace and is now renamed "Ganquan Palace."

Originally, Li Hezhang was strongly opposed to concubines such as Qiao Yue taking over Ganquan Palace, believing that "the concubines took over before the real master arrived", which was "unjust and unsound, and would not be a stable and long-term move."

Zheng Guohui disagreed. He believed that these family members and concubines had to have a place to live, and Ganquan Palace was not a royal palace, but only a temporary residence.

His idea was very correct, so Li Hezhang had no choice but to submit.

With the careful care of his lovely wife and family, and having been relieved of most of the trivial matters, Zheng Guohui has been living a happy life these days.

Since the provisional government officially confirmed the preparations for the founding ceremony, officials at all levels have changed their addresses to "His Majesty the King of Chu", "Our King", "Greetings to the King", and "Long live our king, long, long live our king!"

Don't say yet

The title "King of Chu" is more inspiring than "Marshal". Although the founding ceremony has not yet been held, Zheng Guohui acquiesced to the officials' spontaneous change of title.

While listening to the report, Zheng Guohui drank tea leisurely, with a thoughtful look in his eyes.

Li Hezhang's report on the work of the interim government mainly focused on five aspects, all of which were supported by detailed data.

The first item is the resettlement of Chinese immigrants and the marriage situation of traditional Chinese in Manila. The situation is very encouraging.

In September and November, the provisional government increased its transportation of Chinese immigrants from the mainland, importing a total of 17.36 Chinese, of which % were male immigrants.

Two years
The number of overseas Chinese in the Hainan Islands (Note: formerly the Luzon Islands) has rapidly increased from 85.52 to , showing a good momentum of doubling.

The number of Chinese resident families originally living on the island has rapidly increased from less than 7.7 at the beginning to more than 82 households today, an eleven-fold increase, greatly expanding the population base.

In particular, the policy of buying money on credit from indigenous women, which was vigorously promoted by the provisional government, not only brought great surprise to 28.65 traditional Chinese male residents in Manila who ended their bachelor lives, but also won the love and loyal users of the Chinese people.

on the basis of

The provisional government intensified its propaganda efforts on loyalty to the Great Chu, loyalty to the king, and loyalty to the State of Chu, strengthening the national identity of the Han Chinese and achieving significant results.

The number of newborns born to Chinese immigrant families, mainly from Tongzhou Island (Note: formerly Mindanao Island), reached 4.37, presenting a huge baby boom.

Nowadays, the number of new babies born each month is between 3100 and 3200, maintaining a steady growth.

Until the end of October
The total population of the Hainan Islands is 178.76 million, including members of Chinese families (mainly Chinese men and their indigenous wives, including newborn babies in Chinese families), 45.5 indigenous male convicts and more than 110 million uncleared population (Note: that is, the number of residents in indigenous areas who have not completed the "emptying the cage and replacing the bird" process, mainly in inland towns and remote islands).

Under the jurisdiction of the Great Chu Kingdom

Only the Chinese had full citizenship of the kingdom, enjoyed the sacred and inviolable rights of person and property, and enjoyed the rights to do business, join the army, participate in politics, receive education, marry and migrate freely. The rest of the population did not have this right.

In Chinese families, Aboriginal wives can only be subordinate to the Chinese head of the household. If they leave the family, they are regarded as refugees and can be sheltered and redistributed.

Indigenous wives also have no right to seek divorce, divide property, live independently, or take their children away, and the status of husband and wife is seriously unequal.

This is also a characteristic of the current era, and it is also true in Europe, America and Asia. It is not surprising.

Therefore, in statistics, the indigenous wives of Chinese families are part of the Chinese family, but not independent individuals.

Overall
The military garrison cooperates with the civil affairs department in the resettlement of Chinese immigrants, and the work has always been carried out in an orderly manner according to plan. Although there have been twists and turns, it has not affected the overall situation.

Recently, more than a dozen indigenous riots have occurred in various places. Under the severe suppression of local garrisons, they have been properly resolved. The indigenous people who participated in the riots were either eliminated or sent to mines to perform labor.

The second item is the mine resource survey and mining progress.

The provisional government organized a comprehensive survey of the resources of the Hainan Islands and sent more than 10 expedition teams into the mountains and jungle areas, receiving continuous good news.

In Davao Province, Cebu Province and the surrounding areas of Manila, 7 copper mines, 21 coal mines, four iron mines, one gold mine, one silver-nickel mine, as well as bauxite, lime, sulfur and other minerals have been discovered. It can be said that the resources are extremely rich.

There is nothing surprising about this. The archipelago ranks third in the world in gold reserves, fourth in the world in copper reserves, fifth in the world in nickel reserves, and sixth in the world in chromium reserves. It also has rich coal and iron resources. It can be said that it is a country sitting on a treasure trove of resources.

The Hainan Islands (Note: formerly the Luzon Islands) possess 13 types of metal minerals and 29 types of non-metallic minerals. These minerals not only have large reserves but are also highly abundant, easy to mine and transport, and offer unique conditions for industrial development.

This place is originally an archipelago with a shallow hinterland and numerous coastal ports, providing particularly favorable shipping conditions.

These discovered Guangshan are as far as 70 or 80 kilometers away from the nearest seaport, and as close as only a few kilometers, unlike the mines on the mainland which are often hundreds or thousands of kilometers away.

The transportation alone saves a lot of manpower, material resources and money.

The Provisional Government attached great importance to the exploitation of mineral resources. Among the total of 45.5 convicts, 26 were focused on and large-scale construction began on more than a dozen mines that were easy to exploit.

Build mine roads and bridges, construct ports, mine residential areas, cut down forests, level the land, lay rails to prepare mine cars, and steadily advance mine mining.

Traditional copper smelting furnaces and traditional iron smelting furnaces were under construction, and a large amount of manpower and material resources were invested in the construction of the Quezon Steel Plant, mainly in the construction of roads, foundations and factory buildings, as well as the laying of docks and horse-drawn railway tracks.

Zheng Guohui strongly supports this construction and has dispatched thousands of troops to garrison the mines and maintain tight security in these areas.

In today's era

Gold, silver, steel, iron, and copper are equivalent to monetary value and are the most hardcore resources, not to mention precious metals such as gold and silver.

Just talking about copper, steel and iron, copper can be used to cast copper coins, iron can be used to cast iron coins, and steel can be made into steel coins. They are highly accepted in society and are also necessary supplements to currency circulation.

Since there is no advanced blast furnace equipment at the moment, we will use the traditional steelmaking furnace and smelt on the top of the furnace. Although the efficiency is low and the cost is high, the advantage is that we can exploit the indigenous convicts.

A mine has dozens of traditional iron-making furnaces, and the total production volume is not low.

For daily expenses, a middle-aged convict only needed a few rice balls with kelp shreds, and his labor was almost free.

The beginning of kingdom building
The accumulation of wealth is based on the exploitation of the blood and tears of hundreds of thousands of indigenous convicts. If some people enjoy a peaceful life, then there must be others who carry the heavy burden and move forward.

Zheng Guohui chose to let the indigenous people carry the burden, which is not to be blamed anywhere, because due to cultural and historical origins, he was born with a crooked butt.

The third item is a summary of the grain harvest in the last quarter of this year, and the data looks very encouraging.

This year's third grain harvest was a bumper one, with a total rice output of 465 million dan, or 1.96 dan per mu. More than % of the rice came from Tongzhou Island (Note: Mindanao).

For the last quarter of grain, a total of 248.3 million dan of tax was collected and stored in the warehouse, with a tax collection completion rate of 98.7%. The remaining part can also be completed within one month.

The bumper harvest of grain in the third quarter of Tongzhou Island strongly supported the Northern Expedition Army's military operations against the Cebu Islands and Hainan Islands, and met the needs of high-frequency and large-scale Chinese immigration, which is of great significance.

Tongzhou Island is transferring large quantities of grain to the Cebu Islands and Manila to stabilize the supply of grain in the market.

Next, the interim government plans to build grain warehouses in various prefectures and counties to store grain, oil, wheat, soybeans and cereals in a planned manner to regulate the social food supply needs.

Zheng Guohui knows

These are all debts owed in previous governance, although the natural conditions here are excellent and grain can be harvested three times a year with considerable output.

However, due to the continued promotion of Chinese immigration, the provisional government was burdened with a heavy burden. Each group of Chinese immigrants that arrived had to bear at least 3 to 4 months of food supply.

So until now, there is not much food stored, and basically everything produced is eaten and spent.

Li Hezhang was an experienced official, particularly good at managing logistical and administrative affairs.

He knew that this wouldn't work. He needed to have emergency food reserves. If the government couldn't provide food for emergencies due to typhoons, rainstorms, earthquakes, locusts, or the like, wouldn't that be the end of it?
The interim government plans to establish grain reserves in its subordinate prefectures and counties over a period of one year, starting from November until the end of next year, and to store grain in batches during the harvest season.

As the Great Chu Kingdom conquered the entire Hainan Islands (note: formerly the Luzon Islands), the area of ​​arable land increased rapidly, and the intensity of the introduction of Chinese immigrants increased accordingly, reaching an average of more than 9 people per month in August and September.

Fortunately, the third quarter grain was put into storage at this time, which was able to fill the huge gap in demand.

For newly arrived Chinese immigrants, after they started a new family with an indigenous woman on credit, they could buy two loads of food on credit, which would be enough to last until the next rice season.

A few months later, when the crops in the rented fields were ripe, the tenant had to pay back the two loads of grain in addition to the taxes, and also offer two chickens weighing more than three pounds as interest.

Taking four months as an example, the number of Chinese immigrants could reach between 4 and 36, and the provisional government spent nearly 38 dan of grain.

Besides
It was also necessary to supply the army, mines and factories across the country, and hundreds of thousands of convicts. 248 million dan of grain were collected in one quarter, leaving almost nothing.

If you don't budget carefully, it may not be enough.

The Hainan Islands have extremely favorable geographical conditions and are rich in tropical fruits such as bananas and pineapples. In addition to meeting the needs of the people, they can also export large quantities in exchange for silver.

The interim government's Ministry of Agriculture expects

After the second quarter grain harvest next year, the sown area of ​​the entire Hainan Islands will reach 600%, the number of fields will exceed 1200 million mu, and the total output will exceed million dan.

Based on meeting the needs of the island, there is already about 10% of wealth.

Assuming a 72% tax rate, that would be 3.6 dan, equivalent to tons, which is not a small number.

With sufficient food, the provisional government can plan to develop the animal husbandry industry, raising cattle, horses, donkeys, mules, sheep, and poultry such as chickens, ducks, and geese, to further enrich social supplies and improve people's living standards.

These large animals are good helpers in agricultural production and material transportation, and of course the more the better.

"Prime Minister, the officials of the provisional government have a very good idea. Since the people have surplus food, we can encourage them to raise more poultry and livestock. Families can eat meat, and the society will also have more meat, eggs and milk." Zheng Guohui nodded in agreement.

Li Hezhang put down the documents in his hand, picked up the teacup and took a sip, cleared his throat, and then answered slowly;

"Reporting to the King
Today, most of the officials under the structure of our Great Chu Provisional Government are young and knowledgeable people with great ambitions and determination to build a beautiful homeland in Southeast Asia. They are enthusiastic about their work.

The king has been benevolent to the people and has allowed them to rest and recuperate. This is an unparalleled achievement.

The people are able to accumulate wealth, engage in business, become rich through hard work, marry, have children, and live and work in peace and contentment. Naturally, our Great Chu is widely loved.

A fair trading environment has been established, with no extortion by corrupt officials, no bullies running rampant in the market, and the people are in harmony with the government, which has created the current good situation.

This is something the mainland court has longed for but has yet to achieve, and it is also a good time for these young officials to showcase their talents.”

"That's quite reasonable." Zheng Guohui nodded in agreement, leaning back in his chair and speaking thoughtfully.

“In terms of governance, it is particularly important to establish a fair and transparent social environment, which is the foundation of all prosperity.

Since the Manchus entered the Chinese mainland, they have been enclosing land on horseback, expanding and plundering at will, and exploiting the Chinese people. The clan nobles are corrupt by nature. How can they govern such a great country?

A lesson from the past, a teacher of the future.

As a newly emerged regime in Southeast Asia, our Great Chu Kingdom is a blank piece of rice paper that can be painted and planned at will.

If you plan well, the road ahead will be smooth.

It went astray from the beginning, and no matter how hard you try, it's hard to fix it."

These words were profound. Li Hezhang paused, holding the teacup in his hand. After carefully pondering them for a moment, he asked cautiously, "Your Majesty, may I ask what else, besides fairness and transparency, do you think our Great Chu should focus on?"

This is the discussion about the way of governing. Zheng Guohui thought about it and replied;

"Looking back at the dynasties of China and referring to the political experience of Europe, we can draw the following conclusions.

Establishing a fair, free, transparent and rule-of-law social environment is the foundation for social prosperity and development.

England has done very well in this regard, using the judicial system to ensure a fair and safe social environment. Law enforcement must be strict, and violations must be punished. The emperor and the common people are equally guilty.

The freedom and romance of France have created a good environment for political participation and discussion, promoted public supervision of government officials, and promoted township autonomy, and its role is not small.

Since the Yuan Dynasty, the outdated Chinese approach of "people can be made to follow what they want, but not to understand what they want" has completely fallen behind the times and is no longer feasible.

This set of political ideas that fool the people is based on a small group of elites in society.

Other people can be treated like cattle and horses and can be driven at will, but they are not allowed to "make irresponsible remarks about the court, slander ministers, deceive and disrupt the government" so as not to break the rules of the court.

This is not the ideal enlightened Chinese society, but a slave mentality imposed on us Chinese by the Manchus and Mongols. It is a historical regression and the extinction of humanity.

Sadly
There is always a small group of corrupt scholars who quote classics in their eight-legged essays to advocate for the Manchu and Mongolian invaders. They use this set of theories to paralyze the Chinese people and corrupt the blood of the Chinese people.

Look at the world today

We have entered the industrial steam age. Machines have replaced human labor and played an important role. Ten thousand tons of iron wheels are sailing on the ocean, and steam locomotives are pulling hundreds of tons of cargo along the rails. The world is changing with each passing day.

Strengthening public education, enlightening people's wisdom, opening their eyes to the world, and enriching themselves with rich knowledge is the way to face the future."

This brilliant opinion was so enlightening that Li Hezhang had already sat down at his desk and written down every word of the order from King Zheng Guohui of Chu.

This will become a well-documented core policy of the interim government in the future, and this may be the origin of the saying "words come true".

(End of this chapter)