Nanyang Storm 1864

Chapter 247 Tianji County

Going south along the Qingshui River for more than 240 kilometers, the terrain gradually rises and the average altitude has reached more than meters.

The convoy arrived at their destination, Tianji County.

Xi'an Prefecture now has one prefecture and two counties, both named after the Big Dipper. One is Tianji County, located in the upper reaches of the Qingshui River.

One is Tianshu County, which is located on the bay further west of Xi'an Prefecture and is a typical coastal city.

Tianji County was approved by the Chu government and has been established for only more than four months. There are only two cross-shaped streets in the county town and a population of just over 4. It is an out-and-out small agricultural county.

There are sawmills, brick kilns, oil presses and a rice mill on the outskirts of the city. There are several small restaurants in the city, a police station, a telegraph station, two department stores at the crossroads, as well as some grain and oil shops, breakfast stalls, teahouses, brothels and other businesses, which support the commercial facade of the county town.

The county government office was located right at the entrance of the granary. It was a simple residence with a front yard and a backyard. If the inspection carriage team had not stopped at the entrance of the county government office, they would have just walked past.

The county government office had only three doorways. King Zheng Guohui of Chu got off the carriage and saw the magistrate Peng Hao, who had dark skin and wet mud on his feet. He accepted his respectful greeting.

This county magistrate, Peng Hao, was from Guanzhong. He was twenty-eight or twenty-nine years old and very energetic. He was one of the disciples brought by Minister of Commerce and Culture He Ruilin when he went to Southeast Asia, and was also one of the more outstanding ones.

"Your Majesty, I pay my respects to you and wish you the best of luck and happiness!"

"No courtesy, stay on your own."

Zheng Guohui looked at the small county government office, then turned around and looked at the two-story teahouse opposite the county government office, and then gave the order:
"We have a lot of people, so let's use the teahouse temporarily and settle down first."

"Yes, Your Majesty." Zheng Shan, deputy commander of the Imperial Guard, immediately led his men to carry out the order.

The place was cleared out quickly, and the King of Chu and a group of important officials were invited to sit in the teahouse, which was packed with people.

The palace guards set up a cordon in front and behind, preventing curious people on the street from approaching.

After a few pleasantries, County Magistrate Peng Hao was asked to introduce the county's land reclamation and resettlement situation.

Tianji County is a newly reclaimed county. All the fields were reclaimed by Chinese immigrants. Because they were planted late, the early rice was not harvested until the end of June, and the autumn rice was not harvested until early November.

What worries me most is that the rainy season comes early this year.

If a few heavy rains come down, the mature rice will be ruined.

There's no one to ask in this damn place. The natives can't even remember the months, let alone profound topics like farming seasons and rainfall. There's not even a single opinion to refer to.

A total of 4 towns and 27 villages have been developed in the county, with a total population of 1.52 people resettled. The average arable land per household is 17.3 mu, and people's lives are generally stable.

The new settlement villages and towns have been allocated residential land, with an average of 6 mu of land per household. During the slack season, villagers help each other build houses. Currently, all villages are in the midst of a construction boom.

About half of the new houses have been built, and the rest will be basically completed before the end of the year.

In addition to farming, the current main labor force is mainly invested in villagers helping each other build houses. The construction of some rural roads, irrigation ditches, bridges, etc. is relatively lagging, and many areas are inaccessible to horse-drawn carriages.

After introduction
King Zheng Guohui of Chu also had a general understanding of the situation in this newly reclaimed county. There was a lack of indigenous convicts here, so all the burning of wasteland, farmland construction, road construction, bridge construction, and house building had to be done by the Chinese immigrants themselves, so the progress would naturally lag behind.

“What about Aboriginal harassment?”

"Your Majesty, they've basically been eradicated. In Tianji County, during the June harvest, there were several incidents of native remnants breaking out of the jungle. The remnants who dared to show up were basically killed or injured by the Chinese militia, and haven't been seen since."

"Well, the situation in Tianji County will become the norm for colonization and settlement in the region in the future. We have to rely on ourselves for everything." King Zheng Guohui of Chu nodded and said in agreement.

There were originally not many indigenous people on the Shangri-La Islands, and after the organized sorting out by Chinese immigrants who landed on the island, they became even sparser.

The indigenous people in the Xinxi'an area are not the terrifying headhunters and cannibals, but rather the more primitive local Pacific indigenous tribes, which are much better than those in the Donggang area.

But it is indeed difficult to drive these indigenous people to work.

These indigenous people were very lazy, had low labor efficiency, and were prone to rebellion and work stoppages, so the number of casualties was also relatively large.

It is almost the limit for the new Xi'an Prefecture to be able to force them to build the road to Tianji County.

Those bridges, canals, houses and the like that required slightly higher levels of technology were all built by new Chinese immigrants, and the indigenous convicts were not relied upon at all.

This requires Chinese immigrants who migrate to Shangri-La Island to display the Chinese nation's traditional spirit of diligence and hard work, build their homes from scratch, reclaim wasteland, and turn this land into a rice granary filled with the fragrance of rice.

After a brief imperial meeting

The ministers and dignitaries who accompanied His Majesty on the inspection were divided into four groups and visited villages throughout Tianji County. Those who could pass by carriages rode in carriages, and those who could not pass by carriages rode on horses.

King Zheng Guohui of Chu also led a team of elite soldiers on horseback, deep into the southeastern villages. Led by the magistrate Peng Hao, who was familiar with the local conditions, the group of dozens of riders quickly reached the remote new village of Chinese immigrants.

along the way
Many roads are just paths formed by frequent footsteps, and when you encounter streams and rivers, you can just wade through them.

Passing through the woods, you can see large areas of charred marks left by fire along the way. The charred woods burned by the fire have sprouted new green buds.

on the ground

You can vaguely see the charred marks left by the fire, which have been covered by dense green weeds, showing nature's tenacious ability to repair itself.

According to the introduction of County Magistrate Peng Hao
Local fires are typically organized during the dry season, without isolation zones. Due to the humid climate and frequent rainfall, large-scale fires often die out naturally. Three, five, or even more repeated fires are required to spread the fire and reach a scale that affects the surrounding mountainous areas.

This is the arid area of ​​the island, so burning can basically continue.

In areas with an average annual rainfall of more than 2,000 mm, burning becomes very difficult. The tropical rainforest is too humid and there are many swamps and rivers, so it is impossible to burn at all.

King Zheng Guohui of Chu and his entourage stopped in a relatively remote Chinese immigrant village.

Their arrival caused a sensation in the village, and almost all Chinese people put down their work and rushed to see the novelty.

When someone recognized His Majesty the King of Chu, almost all the villagers knelt on the ground and shouted, "Long live our king, long live our king, long live our king!"

After the initial restraint and uneasiness, several brave and steady Chinese immigrants were selected to follow His Majesty and be questioned and answer the corresponding questions.

"Do you think... can we eat enough now?"

"In reply to your Majesty, we now have three meals of white rice a day, and plenty of vegetables and fruits. The only drawback is that we don't have any meat. We're saving it for the babies, and no one is willing to eat it."

"I see your clothes are all rather worn out. Do you have no money to buy new ones?"

"Your Majesty, how can that be possible? We are busy building a house every day. After the house is built, we still need to build animal pens and sheds, and repair the village roads. Wearing clothes would be wasted. Anyway, no one in the village will see them."

"Do you have new clothes?"

"To answer your Majesty, not many people in our village have new clothes. Villagers don't care about that. They just want something that doesn't show their buttocks. If we have money, we can buy some farm tools and catch some piglets. That's the real work. We still have a long way to go."

"Well, do you feel that there is hope for the future?"

"In reply to your Majesty, we think this place is great. There are no wars or disasters, the climate is warm year-round, and the crops grow vigorously. It's truly a wonderful place."

"Do you miss home?"

"To answer your Majesty, I do want to... why not? There are nests of gold and silver outside, but what's the point of wanting? I can't go back, so I'll just put down roots here."

King Zheng Guohui of Chu led his men around the village, directing the county magistrate Peng Hao as he walked, and said:
"Look at this village. The road in the middle is too narrow. It's totally unnecessary."

"It's not like there's no land here. Let's make the roads in the village wider. Double or triple them, and the village will be more spacious to walk on."

"The private plots in front of and behind every household must be planned in a unified manner. They can't be scattered here and there like graffiti on a picture. It's just ugly."

"The houses in the village are well built, and the rows are quite neat."

"From now on, every farmer must have a yard to raise chickens, ducks, and other poultry so they don't wander around. The barns must be unified. We can't have some houses in the front and some in the back, leaving livestock and poultry manure everywhere and filling the air with smog."

"We must unify this. Raise poultry in front of the house and large livestock behind it. The livestock's manure must be cleaned up promptly and put into the manure pile for fermentation, so that it can be used to fertilize the fields in the future."

“The village committee must be established and play its role. A capable clerk must be sent to the village to serve as the village head and unify the village’s development.”

"We need to arrange for people to pave the main road in the village in a while, or at least make the environment cleaner."

King Zheng Guohui of Chu said as he walked that there are still many problems encountered in the settlement villages and towns. These problems cannot be solved by hard work alone, but also require guidance.

This is a layer of window paper, once you poke it open, everything becomes clear.

From the current point of view

After harvesting a season of rice, there is no shortage of food in the immigrant villages. These Chinese immigrants are well-nourished and are no longer as pale and thin as when they first arrived.

Many people have become fatter and stronger, their complexions have become rosy, and their eyes have become brighter. This is a good sign.

As for the temporary hardship of life, all new Chinese immigrants have to go through this stage.

There are no mature indigenous towns on Shangri-La Island, and the original indigenous tribes were just some straw and mud enclosures, which could not be called houses.

Everything had to be built from scratch. The closer the villages and towns were to Xi'an Prefecture, the better and more complete the construction would be.

Therefore, for these remote Chinese immigrant villages and towns, the government office must uniformly train colonial officials, and then dispatch them to various villages to lead the Chinese immigrants in the villages to build their homes in an organized manner.

How can this work instead of just doing whatever you think of?

In this remote village, a group of people would be organized to burn the surrounding lush forests every ten days or half a month.

This will reduce mosquito bites, scare away birds and animals in the forest, and improve the local environment.

Secondly, it is to prepare for subsequent immigration and settlement, which is also a necessary measure.

Of course

These nearby Chinese immigrants would not disturb the lush forests on the hills and mountains, but would choose relatively flat and open areas for burning.

Hilly and mountainous areas are not suitable for agricultural production, so why bother?

(End of this chapter)