Nanyang Storm 1864

Chapter 239 Development of the Tobacco Industry
Early July
Various parts of the Hainan Islands have entered the summer rice harvesting period. In the rice fields with rolling waves, farmers are everywhere busy harvesting.

Four-wheeled carts loaded with rice drove to grain storage depots in various places in an endless stream, forming long queues outside the depots. The scene of harvest was everywhere.

After presiding over the grand ceremony of opening the harvest season, King Zheng Guohui of Chu led an elite team to inspect the countryside of the prefectures and counties under Manila and listen to the voices of the grassroots people.

His journey was from Quezon Province to San Fernandos Province, and then continued north to Angeles Province, going deep into the hinterland.

After more than 10 months of large-scale implementation of the "Dragon-Replacing-Bird" policy, the entire Hainan Islands has fully achieved its pre-planned goals, with Chinese immigrants spread across the archipelago, including some remote locations.

The king's carriage convoy passed along the wide tree-lined road, passing hundreds of bridges of various sizes along the way. Whenever there was a slightly larger bridge, King Zheng Guohui of Chu would order it to stop and examine it carefully.

What kind of river is this?

Where does the river originate, where does it flow, how long is it, and how does the amount of water vary seasonally?

When was the bridge built?
How much work was involved and how long did it take to build?
Who designed it? Who supervised its construction? What strange events occurred nearby? Which indigenous tribe originally owned this site? Where did the convicts go?
The King of Chu's inspection was never just a superficial glance. The secretaries in the attendant room and local officials who followed the king had to make extremely detailed preparations in advance, and they were really walking on thin ice, so that they could answer every question.

It is precisely this pragmatic attitude of His Majesty the King of Chu that has led to the down-to-earth style of officials from all levels of the Chu State to go deep into the grassroots level, and no one dares to be perfunctory in their work.

No matter whether it is the prefect or the county magistrate, if they do not go deep into the fields, investigate and verify each bridge like screening them through a sieve, and have no idea of ​​all the data, they will definitely not be able to answer.

During the inspection
There were countless bureaucrats that His Majesty the King of Chu was dissatisfied with, and more than a dozen of them were deposed on the spot. Isn't it a pity that their bright future was ruined?

Therefore, every time the King of Chu made an inspection, officials from the prefectures and counties he passed through would walk back and forth several times first, check for omissions and fill in the gaps, and repeatedly implement the details.

More than ten days later
Angeles City

King Zheng Guohui of Chu stood on a small hill, from where he could overlook a large area of ​​newly reclaimed farmland. More than half of the rice had been harvested, and countless farmers were still busy in the fields.

Looking at the bountiful harvest before him, King Zheng Guohui of Chu seemed very happy. He pointed at the fields before him and asked, "Is this newly reclaimed land?"

"In reply to your Majesty, this is the land newly reclaimed by the Chinese immigrants who settled here in early February. This bumper harvest of rice is the first crop of rice."

"Oh, it looks like the yield is good."

"In reply to your Majesty, this area covers a total of over 7200 mu (approximately 2 hectares), and the average yield per mu is a little over dan (approximately hectares). This is mainly due to the diligent cultivation of the Chinese immigrants, which has resulted in such a good harvest."

"Not bad, not bad. A yield of two dan per mu is considered above average on the island, and we can achieve such a high yield in the first crop. This is thanks to the hard work of the immigrants and the officials. Only by working together can we achieve such a good harvest."

"Thank you for your highness, Your Majesty. We are willing to serve you to the bitter end."

"Ah."

King Zheng Guohui of Chu snorted and suddenly changed the subject, asking, "The military reports that there are still some indigenous people who have escaped the forests and mountains of this prefecture and are harassing the villages from time to time. Is this true?"

"Reporting to Your Majesty, this is indeed the case." Angeles Prefect Wu Qingfeng was originally the deputy chief of staff of His Majesty's secretariat. He was a Jinshi who passed the imperial examinations twice and had served as a county magistrate, a prefectural governor, and a joint censor in the mainland. He was indeed a capable official.

Wu Qingfeng knew the King's habits well, so he spoke confidently and answered with a fist clasped.
"The group that fled into the mountains is a group led by the indigenous chief Mahmoud, numbering between 450 and 500 people, and it has been six months since then.

These bandits gather and disperse from time to time, have no fixed place to live, make the vast jungle their home, eat wild fruits, and live by streams. They often gather together to attack villages, and are a hidden threat.

Local villagers were organized to set up checkpoints on roads and bridges, and patrolled day and night for prevention, which had dealt heavy losses to the enemy on many occasions.

According to the statistics

Mahmoud's bandits attacked the village 11 times in total, but were all repelled by my militia. About people were killed or wounded, and another were captured.

Fifty-nine local villagers were killed or injured in the attack, including 21 deaths and the rest were injured to varying degrees.

During the slack season

Our government would also organize militia to go into the mountains to encircle and suppress the bandits, but unfortunately the bandits were familiar with the mountains and forests, and we failed to suppress them after repeated attempts, resulting in many casualties.

plan for today
The Mahmoud bandits have been trapped in the mountains and forests for many years, with neither food nor weapons. They are like savages, most of them are haggard, with tattered clothes that are about to fall apart, and they don’t have much time left.

According to reliable confessions from captured bandits, many members of Mahmoud's gang died of starvation in the mountains, and there were less than 50 people left. They had only a dozen usable knives and guns, and could only use pointed wooden sticks as spears.

I plan to continue to defend the area with utmost vigilance, block the main roads in the mountains, strengthen the checkpoints, starve them to death in the mountains, and prevent them from launching a counterattack in desperation."

After listening to Wu Qingfeng's statement, King Zheng Guohui of Chu nodded in agreement and said encouragingly, "As long as this thief is not eliminated, we must not take it lightly. Remember this, remember this."

"Your Majesty has instructed us to do this, and Qingfeng will never slack off." Prefect Wu Qingfeng replied solemnly.

"Ah."

King Zheng Guohui of Chu snorted and nodded with satisfaction.

Once these scattered indigenous bandits escape into the vast tropical jungle, it is extremely difficult to capture them. The tropical jungle is so densely covered with foliage that once you enter, you can't see anyone within a dozen meters.

No matter where he hides, even if there are hundreds or thousands of people inside, they won’t be able to find him. They can only block the mountains and roads, forcing him to run out because he can’t stand the hunger anymore.

Although there are many wild fruits in the tropical jungle, many of them are not in season and are not ripe, so they cannot be eaten. In fact, they are poisonous if eaten raw.

Three, five or ten people can live in the jungle for a long time, but if there are more people, it will not work, and food will not be a problem.

On the island of Sumatra, the Dutch army repeatedly suppressed the local indigenous people, and the two sides fought for decades without any result.

The main reason was that when the Dutch army launched a siege, the local natives hid in the mountains and forests, and could not be found or defeated.

Moreover, there were many indigenous tribes living and reproducing in the area for generations, which provided the resistance forces with food supply guarantees, enabling them to persist in long-term fighting and engage in guerrilla warfare against the Dutch whites.

The situation in the State of Chu was different. After the "empty cage and replace bird" policy was thoroughly implemented, all villages and towns were occupied by Chinese immigrants, completely cutting off the indigenous people's source of food.

Moreover, Chinese villages and towns generally have militias and militias that block roads and bridges on a daily basis and set up checkpoints to prohibit unauthorized personnel from coming and going freely, and also prohibit indigenous bandits from roaming around.

There are checkpoints in this village and town, and there are checkpoints in the next village and town. These indigenous people have to undergo inspections when going back and forth, and there is no way to hide.

The indigenous people and the Chinese do not speak the same language, and theirs is difficult to understand, so the truth is revealed after just a few questions.

The reason for implementing such harsh measures was, firstly, to completely wipe out the indigenous bandits hiding in the forest, and secondly, to search for the indigenous convicts who escaped privately, the latter being the most common case.

Under this national system, the indigenous bandits who fled into the mountains could only survive for a short time before eventually perishing.

Zheng Guohui saw that the situation in the fields was good, so he stayed at the Angeles Prefecture headquarters at night. This was a headquarters built in every prefecture and county to accommodate inspecting officials.

The State of Chu was not yet extravagant enough to build dozens of palaces specifically for His Majesty. These palaces were more like guesthouses. The palaces in the prefectures were larger, while those in the counties were smaller and simpler.

after dinner
The King of Chu summoned Angeles Prefect Wu Qingfeng, Co-Prefect Wang Yan, his staff He Xian, Zheng Shouxu, Guan Qiren, Dong Baoshan and other civil affairs officials for a small meeting in front of the emperor.

The key topic is the development of tobacco plantations in Angeles area and the demonstration and deployment.

Tobacco cultivation in the Hainan Islands has a long history. During the Spanish colonial period, tobacco was introduced from the Americas for widespread cultivation. The Angeles region has the largest number of tobacco plantations in the Hainan Islands (Note: formerly the Luzon Islands) because of its suitable geographical climate and the high-quality tobacco leaves it produces.

Zheng Guohui's idea is not to double or triple tobacco cultivation, but to expand it more than tenfold and make it a core product for export to Southeast Asia, North America and Europe.

Of course, this is a long-term plan.

The main variety grown in the Angeles area is flue-cured tobacco, which is native to Virginia, USA, so it is also called Virginia tobacco.

This is a process of placing mature tobacco leaves in a drying room equipped with hot air pipes, providing suitable temperature and humidity conditions to cause biochemical changes in the components of the tobacco leaves, and then drying the leaves after they turn yellow.

Therefore, flue-cured tobacco is also called fire-tube flue-cured tobacco. This variety of tobacco is the main tobacco in the mainland in later generations. It is also popular in Europe and the United States and is famous for its mellow taste.

The processing technology is ready and only needs slight improvements.

The new thing that King Zheng Guohui of Chu could give was rolled cigarettes. Without any further ado, he directly took out dozens of finished cigarettes.

This type of cigarette has no filter and is similar in size and thickness to later cigarettes. 20 cigarettes are packed in a paper box, which is amazing enough to be seen in front of everyone.

Everyone has seen pipes, snuff bottles, sniffing tobacco, chewing tobacco, and hand-rolled cigarettes, but no one has ever seen this kind of machine-rolled cigarette.

Is it difficult to make?
It's not difficult at all. With the help of a small curtain made of thin bamboo strips, a skilled female worker can make more than 1 cigarettes in an hour, and more than 100 boxes of cigarettes a day, with 20 cigarettes in each box.

Many people light up cigarettes and smoke them, feeling that they are indeed very convenient and novel, but they don’t know whether there is a market for this kind of cigarettes and who would spend money to buy them?

Zheng Guohui instructed the prefect Wu Qingfeng to personally handle this matter. First of all, he had to select the best tobacco and mix the flavor to make it mellow and not choking.

It is also necessary to widely solicit opinions from smokers, carefully formulate and adjust the flavor, and finally put it into production.

As for whether it will be popular among the masses and whether anyone will buy it, we will know after we put it on the market and see the reaction.

Regarding the pros and cons of the development of the cigarette industry, everyone spoke enthusiastically at this small meeting, adding to the missing points and soon more than a dozen opinions were collected.

Everyone was very enthusiastic about participating, and the prefect Wu Qingfeng also felt that he had gained a lot.

After the meeting, he and Wang Yan left while discussing, their emotions quite high.

If it succeeds, the economic development of the Ancles region will not have to worry about it, and it will be considered as having a killer weapon.

One trick is enough to conquer the world!
(End of this chapter)