Nanyang Storm 1864

Chapter 241: Continue to Expand Northward
Starting from Manila, Zheng Guohui inspected the summer rice harvest in three provinces to the north. The bumper harvest scene he saw on the spot made him quite satisfied.

According to government estimates

After this summer harvest (Note: There is no distinction between spring, summer, autumn and winter in Southeast Asia. It is the dry season now. Following the custom of northern China, "summer harvest" is for easy distinction, and the subsequent "autumn harvest" is similar), the food delivery route to Mindanao can be stopped, ending the situation of continuous blood replenishment.

By the end of July, statistics showed that;
向海南群岛大马尼拉地区先后输送了共计413282人，向宿雾群岛输送了179455人，两者合计59.3万余人（注；不包含1月和2月向外岛输送者19万余人）。

These settled Chinese immigrants increased the grain production of the Chu State by about 110 million dan, which was enough to meet the needs of the next five months and there was still a lot of surplus.

Even if we welcome more Chinese immigrants in the second half of the year, an average of 10 people per month can still meet the needs.

Before the rainy season in December each year, the next season's autumn harvest will be completed, and the total grain output will undergo a surge.

King Zheng Guohui of Chu stood at the gate of the granary and saw a convoy of cars coming to deliver public grain that stretched as far as the eye could see. While he was instructing the accompanying officials to improve efficiency and open more channels for collecting grain, a trace of worry emerged in his heart.

The worry is not that there is too little food, but that there is too much food.

This situation has already shown signs in the prefectures and counties he has inspected, and it must be taken seriously.

Now, every week, large grain-carrying fleets from Mindanao enter the ports of Hainan Islands to unload goods, fully supporting the "emptying the cage and replacing the bird" immigration process and providing a solid food guarantee.

In the more mature Chinese immigrant settlement counties in Mindanao, early immigrants took out their surplus food and sold it to the government, getting a good price for it.

Almost every household can sell two to three thousand kilograms of grain. According to the current grain price, a load of 150 kilograms of grain can be sold for one silver dollar, which is worth about twenty to thirty silver dollars.

This money was returned to the Royal Nanyang Bank, and by selling some chickens, ducks, pigs, oil, fruits, etc., it was easy to raise forty or fifty silver dollars in a year.

This paid back half of the 99 taels of silver for the boat ticket to Southeast Asia.

Add to that the money for buying a wife, and the money for buying farm tools, seeds, calves, lambs, piglets, etc. on credit, and in a good year, all the money lost in the famine can be paid off in three years.

But it didn't take long before they couldn't laugh anymore.

Once the government notifies that it will stop shipping food to the Cebu Islands and Greater Manila, it will become a problem for every household to digest the extra food.

Don't think it won't happen, it's a problem that is very likely to occur.

In the memorial submitted, Zamboanga Governor Dong Qingnian spoke of this serious problem with great concern and listed four solutions.

First, deepen the development of the grain processing industry, including the production of rice flour, rice noodles, rice cakes, support for various agricultural and sideline industries, sell rice cakes, fried dough sticks, steamed buns, baked pancakes, kang cakes, and naan cakes, etc., to digest grain production in many ways.

Second, develop rural animal husbandry. This does not refer to chickens and ducks. Raising some chickens and ducks by each farmer does not consume much food.

Instead, the focus is on large livestock such as pigs, buffaloes, donkeys and mules, encouraging farmers to raise more cows and pigs, increase meat production and enrich the market.

These large animals are not only the main force in agricultural and transportation production, improving production efficiency, but can also digest large amounts of straw, rice bran, soybean meal and broken rice from miscellaneous grains, killing two birds with one stone.

The third is to export to overseas markets.

In the future, immigration routes to the mainland and northern trade routes such as Fuso and Ryukyu should use grain as ballast for immigration fleets. This is the main channel to alleviate the pressure of grain harvest.

Fourth, appropriately increase the food rations for indigenous convicts, improve their living conditions, reduce the current high mortality rate in convict camps, and avoid unnecessary loss of a large number of laborers.

Prime Minister Lee Hak-chang signed his opinion at the end of the memorial, stating, "To prevent disasters before they occur, as a minister of state, I respectfully request Your Majesty's instructions. This is a matter of urgency at this time."

Li Hezhang was indeed an experienced and loyal minister. He had coordinated food, money and stockings for tens of thousands of Hunan troops. He had a deep understanding of logistics production and could see the problem at a glance.

He wrote in his memorial;
"...

In my opinion, this is by no means alarmist.

Huguang in China has always been a place with abundant grain.

The rice yield per mu is about two dan, and the rent is 6%. A family of five or six people cultivates ten mu of land, which is just enough to make ends meet every year. During the spring famine, they still have to pick wild vegetables to survive.

If it is a year of drought or flood, the whole village will beg.

Our Chu State is located in Southeast Asia, with a mild climate and abundant rainfall. It is also a fertile land with three harvests a year, and the rice yield per mu is about six stone (note: three harvests a year).

A family of three, with two adults and one child, assuming a 10% rent, can get 24 dan of surplus grain from mu of land after paying the public grain tax, which is more than enough to spend in any case.

The former has Hainan Islands and Cebu Islands that need assistance. Farmers can sell their surplus grain and exchange it for silver to repay debts and buy daily necessities. They can be happy!

However, once the immigrants in the above two places settled down, food production quickly recovered and even surpassed before.

The situation in Mindanao where there is an abundance of grain but it is difficult to sell it will inevitably happen again, at the earliest after the summer grain harvest next year, or at the latest after the autumn grain harvest next year. The situation in the Hainan Islands where low grain prices have hurt farmers will inevitably happen again.

It is wise to plan ahead.

I am a foolish and ignorant person, and I only have a few humble opinions. I respectfully ask for your judgment..."

Looking at the grand harvest scene in front of him, Zheng Guohui thought of this and couldn't help but smile bitterly and shook his head.

Having too little food is not good, and having too much food is not good either.

Specifically
In Tongzhou, Zheng Guohui's hometown, and the Jiangbei region, only one crop of rice is produced each year. Each farming family has an average of five or six people, and after a year's work, they can support three soldiers.
In the Hainan Islands (note: formerly the Luzon Islands), three rice crops can be produced each year. Each farming family of three, consisting of two adults and one child, can support 11 soldiers with a year's work.

With grain in hand, don't panic in my heart.

It was precisely because of sufficient support that the State of Chu was able to vigorously develop industry, maintain more than one million indigenous convicts, and carry out large-scale infrastructure construction and mining.

The Chu King's chariot team consisted of more than ten carriages. Under the escort of more than a hundred palace guards, it moved forward quickly along the wide road, and vehicles and people along the way dodged.

The State of Chu was a small country in Southeast Asia. Its king and officials traveled with a small entourage. There was no grand scene like the one where Emperor Qianlong brought tens of thousands of people to the south of the Yangtze River. The King of Chu was accompanied by only a few hundred people.

Generally, ministers and dignitaries would travel with only two or three carriages and seven or eight people accompanying them. There would not be a large entourage, and there would be no talk of "avoiding" or "welcoming". Everything was kept simple.

"Your Majesty, Dagupan is ahead, look..."

"Let's not go back to town. Let's go directly to the port and board the ship to Batangas. This will save us some time on the journey." "Yes, Your Majesty."

After receiving the order from the King of Chu, the Deputy Chief of Staff Zheng Shouxu, who was waiting in the carriage, immediately turned around and opened the window of the carriage. He gave a few instructions to the captain of the guard, Zheng Shan, who was galloping towards him. Then he retracted his head and closed the window of the carriage.

Lieutenant Colonel Zheng Shan immediately ordered the cavalry to turn around, and the escort carriage team galloped towards the port.

It has been a few days since the inspection in Angeles City. Now we are in Dagupan, on the west coast of the central Hainan Islands, more than 170 kilometers north of Angeles City.

Dagupan is already the northernmost area where Chinese immigrants have been resettled. Further north, there are large areas of lush pristine tropical forests, which occupy nearly half of the area of ​​Hainan Island (note: formerly Luzon Island) and are in an undeveloped state with no one setting foot there.

In later generations

The vast forests and lands in the north have been developed gradually, but they have always been in a relatively backward agricultural state, which seems to be a different world from the developed big cities such as Manila and Quezon.

After a detailed investigation, the Chu government has begun to deploy some of its forces to cut down and burn large areas of virgin forests and shrubs in the north.

Chinese immigrants will be arranged to enter the area and vigorously develop and cultivate it. This is an undeveloped area of ​​4.2 square kilometers that can accommodate a population of up to millions.

At present, tens of thousands of convicts were driven into the jungle, cutting down forests all the way north, building roads and bridges, and extending the three main highways deeper into the north.

When Chinese immigrants arrive in the future, they can develop wasteland along both sides of the highway, build immigrant villages and towns, and settle down as quickly as possible.

The cavalry escorted the carriage team all the way to the dock. At the dock, the tall sailing ship "Guangming" was already waiting there, and the royal flag hanging on the ship fluttered in the wind.

The palace guards were spread out on the dock, looking alert and vigilant.

The carriage team stopped, and King Zheng Guohui of Chu and his entourage got off the carriages one after another, stretched their legs, breathed the salty sea breeze, and chatted in a relaxed manner.

The commander of the large sailing ship "Light" came up to pay his respects, and then directed the sailors to quickly lift the carriages and war horses onto the ship in preparation for His Majesty to board the ship.

Dagupan Wharf is located in a bay in the central part of Hainan Island. The vast sea it faces is no longer the Manila Bay, but the endless South China Sea.

More than 100 kilometers west of Dagupan Pier is the NSQD where the nine-dash line is located, and the famous Huangyan Island is nearby.

King Zheng Guohui of Chu stood on a sturdy pier built of stone slabs. He looked to the north and saw faint plumes of thick black smoke rising up, covering half of the sky in the north.

That was a large-scale burning of the land. This unreasonable first-time burning did not require the establishment of a buffer zone.

When the north wind blew, a few fires were lit directly, and the whole fire spread along with the wind and spread towards the north.

Without rain, such forest fires could burn for days and nights, reducing large areas of bushes and forests to ashes, revealing a dark and gray world like the end of the world.

The fields were burned every week, all the way northward.

After the initial burning, the indigenous convicts entered with tools, felled the charred trees and piled them on both sides, then dug out the roots one by one, continuing this process to the north.

The convicts following behind began to build roads and bridges, and constructed three main roads extending to the north.

The convicts following behind, under the command of the Correctional Administration personnel, opened up one strip after another in the relatively flat forest terrain planned for development on both sides of the road and carried out a second burning.

Secondary burning generally does not allow the fire to spread uncontrollably because of the firebreaks, but there are exceptions, and it is not a major incident.

In the tropical marine climate of the Hainan Islands, forests and green are the permanent main colors, so it doesn't matter even if the land is burned every five or six months.

Within a dozen days, or after a rain, large patches of tender weeds will emerge from the ash-covered ground, and the gray-black tree stumps will grow new shoots, and after a month or two, they will be covered with green again.

In the arid forests of the north or south, a large, spreading fire can cause irreparable damage.

However, in a mild climate like that of the Hainan Islands, restoring vegetation, shrubs, and forests does not require human intervention at all.

It won’t be long before the place becomes lush green again.

King Zheng Guohui of Chu withdrew his gaze and looked with interest at the steam crane at the dock. It was working hard to lift the carriages and war horses one by one and put them on the ship.

King Zheng Guohui of Chu also contributed to the design of this steam crane, and its actual principle is very simple.

It is equivalent to the two ends of a weight. In the iron frame at the shorter end, there are dozens of huge stones with a total weight of 2 tons as counterweights.

The slightly longer end is a boom, which is driven by a steam engine to drive a steel cable. It can lift a weight of 1200 kilograms, and can easily lift an entire cow, a horse or a carriage.

When lifting goods, use rattan net to cover the bottom and place the goods inside the rattan net.

After it is full, the hook extends down to lift the four corners of the rattan net and lift the entire net into the cabin for placement, which greatly improves the efficiency of dock operations.

At this time, several heavy movable decks on the "Light" sailing ship were lifted up, revealing the dark passage space underneath.

The war horses lifted by the steam crane can be directly lowered from this passage space to the bottom cabin, which is the live cabin for raising cattle, horses, pigs, sheep and other livestock.

There are more than a dozen independent livestock pens built in the bottom hold, which can transport large livestock of different breeds without interfering with each other and can be transported at sea in a short time.

The cavalrymen carefully blindfolded the horses and locked their four hooves to prevent them from kicking and injuring people after being frightened, and then hoisted them onto the ship.

Fortunately, these cavalry horses had experienced many sea transports and were not as violent as at the beginning. Most of them were hoisted onto the ship obediently.

But a few horses seemed restless, causing great trouble to the transportation work.

It took nearly three hours to finally lift all the war horses and carriages onto the ship. King Zheng Guohui of Chu had already boarded the ship to rest, and his entourage and palace guards all boarded the ship one after another.

At the captain's command, the white sails were lowered with a "whoosh". The sailors on the ship were busy casting off the ropes and setting sail, manipulating the sails to catch the sea breeze. The sailing ship lightly left the dock and headed towards the depths of the vast ocean.

The next destination is Batangas Province in the southern part of the Hainan Islands.

This is a heavy industrial base built by the Chu government. It is larger than Jinsha County, has more complete supporting manufacturers, and ranks first in the country.

(End of this chapter)