Nanyang Storm 1864

Chapter 361: Gambling Prohibited
For more than ten days
King Zheng Guohui of Chu and his entourage traveled from Cagayan to Zamboanga, then followed the main thoroughfare of the coastal highway to inspect the prefectures and counties along the way, and finally arrived in Davos Province, exhausted all the way.

Although it was hard work, the harvest scenes he saw along the way still made King Zheng Guohui of Chu happy.

The Tongzhou Islands were the first area to be colonized by Chinese. The population on the island has grown to 174.55 million (note: excluding children under 7 years old), and has developed into five prefectures and 21 counties.

The two new provinces, Santiago and Rosario, are both located in the vast newly developed area north of Davao Province.

In prefectures and counties where Chinese immigrants have settled more maturely, the local economic level is obviously higher than that in Santiago and Rosario, and life is more affluent.

In the vast rural areas
Almost every household raises pigs and chickens. Some farmers have two or three pigs, while others have more than ten pigs. It is not uncommon to see large households raising dozens of pigs.

Most of the sheep farmers are in remote areas. It is not uncommon for each household to raise dozens or even hundreds of sheep, and they mainly raise them in the free-range mode.

Fewer people raise large livestock such as cattle and horses, especially horses, which are delicate, prone to illness, and require a lot of work to do, so it is difficult to raise them without sufficient professional knowledge.

The several large horse breeders that King Zheng Guohui of Chu had visited were all local landlords and aristocrats, former military officers. They owned at least a thousand acres of farmland, forests and hilltops, and employed professional grooms to raise horses.

After two rounds of large-scale rewards after the founding of the country, Chu nobles and knights were almost everywhere in all prefectures and counties. After thousands of officers and 2.5 veterans retired this year, the number will be even greater.

Retired military officers who return to their hometowns and are still willing to work will be arranged to hold positions in villages and towns, or work in the local port authority, tax bureau, police bureau, correctional bureau, telegraph office, post office, etc., to greatly enrich the grassroots level.

Most retired soldiers returned to farming. These soldiers were rewarded with a lot of land, and after managing it well, they became small and medium-sized landlords.

In the countryside

You can often see some eye-catching buildings, both Chinese and Western styles. Most of them are mansions built by local Chinese aristocrats and gentry according to their personal preferences.

As long as it's on your own land, you can build whatever you want.

This was the scenario that King Zheng Guohui of Chu wanted to see. The State of Chu was a feudal constitutional kingdom. Under the king, there were some nobles such as dukes, marquises, earls, viscounts, and barons, who formed the upper aristocratic class of the kingdom.

On the edge of the nobility, there is also a lifetime honorary title of "Sir". For example, civilians and landlords who do good deeds and make outstanding contributions in their daily lives will be awarded the title of Sir by the royal family.

Together with the large and widespread number of large, medium and small landlords, a stable pyramid structure was formed, which was beneficial to the rule of the kingdom and was an effective measure to stabilize the grassroots villages.

No matter in any era

The landlords and the aristocracy generally support the royal family and are the main beneficiaries of the current feudal system.

To maintain the rule and majesty of the royal family is to maintain the legitimacy of one's own property, and to maintain the rationality of the aristocracy and landlord class. When one prospers, all prosper; when one suffers, all suffer.

In the vast Tongzhou Archipelago, in addition to the main island, some uninhabited islands around it have also been reclaimed.

There may be as many as several thousand people or as few as three to five hundred people.

Now the reclamation and development of the Tongzhou Islands is entering the next stage, which is to gradually advance to "full-area development" and go deeper into the central hinterland of the island.

For example, Rosario Prefecture is a rare non-coastal prefecture under the rule of the Chu State. It is located in the heart of the island north of Davao Prefecture, connected to the north and the south by a winding Davao River.

The Davao River became the lifeline for the export and import of supplies to Rosario Prefecture.

On the Davao River

King Zheng Guohui of Chu saw hundreds of cement ships busy coming and going, carrying grain, livestock such as pigs, cattle and sheep, fruits and poultry, as well as various means of production such as bricks, cement, wood and coal.

A cement ship can usually carry forty to fifty tons of cargo, equivalent to 30 mule carts.

Only one strong man is needed to row the boat at the stern, and the advantage is obvious when traveling in inland rivers with relatively calm waters.

Judging from the reports from officials from various places
In the three provinces of Zamboanga, Davao and Cagayan, which were developed early, farmers who have now paid off their immigration loans and various agricultural support loans account for more than 70% of Chinese immigrants.

Many wealthy families who took advantage of the situation to develop were no longer content to make a living from the land in the countryside. They moved freely into the cities, bought houses and properties, ran businesses, transportation or handicraft workshops, and effectively promoted the development and prosperity of the cities.

Other farmers who stayed in the countryside began to use their spare money to buy land. As long as they had spare money, they would continue to buy land and develop into large-scale farmers.

Since the farmland in the villages and towns belonged to the kingdom, those who left the countryside could move freely into the city as long as they repaid their loans and returned the land to the village.

The government has set no limits in this regard.

However, some people who have not paid off their immigration loans and various loans remain in cities, do not return to the countryside for a long time, and do not cultivate or manage the land.

This part of the population would be arrested by the police and brought to justice. After being identified, they would be directly sent to hard labor camps, where they would suffer a minimum of three years and a maximum of ten years of hard labor.

The maximum sentence for hard labor was ten years, and it was extremely rare for someone to survive ten years in a hard labor camp, perhaps only one in a hundred.

Just like the convicts detained by the State of Chu today, without any large-scale external expansion, the number has dropped from a peak of nearly 200 million to over million, which is half the number in a few years.

This figure can only be maintained if the nearly 50 indigenous people in the three states of East Malaya are included.

Years of hard labor not only destroyed the bodies of the indigenous convicts, but also severely destroyed their will, resulting in a high mortality rate.

There is a shortage of manpower in mines across the country today.

They were forced to switch to using some steam machinery and railroads, and added some mining machinery to assist in labor. The mining labor camps were also deliberately improving the lives of the prisoners, at least to ensure that they had enough to eat.

The construction of docks, roads, bridges and reservoirs across the country continued without interruption year after year, and the national infrastructure construction continued to be strengthened, which was inseparable from the hard work of the convicts.

Such harsh measures are necessary to deal with Chinese immigrants who evade their debt repayment responsibilities.

This ensures the smooth operation of the current immigration system and also ensures the Royal Nanyang Bank's generous immigration loan principal and interest income. It is a necessary measure to maintain the current system of the Kingdom.

The Royal Nanyang Bank was the royal family's purse, contributing tens of millions of silver dollars in revenue every year to support the Chu royal family in maintaining the army, building ironclad warships, vigorously promoting industrial development, and advancing the construction of roads, bridges, reservoirs and cities across the country, all of which consumed a huge amount of the budget.

Without this huge income, the finances of the royal family and the government would be stretched to the limit, and there would be many things they wanted to do but could not do.

Therefore, the government will not show any mercy to those Chinese who fail to fulfill their loan repayment obligations.

In the provinces of Santiago and Rosario, dark clouds often cover the sky, indicating that large-scale burning is continuing, turning vast tracts of tropical forest into endless fertile fields.

Chu officials were highly experienced in reclaiming wasteland, having developed a comprehensive and effective process. Wherever roads led, they expanded their efforts. They built roads, bridges, cleared land, felled trees, cleaned up land after fires, measured fields, and established villages and towns—all in an orderly and focused manner.

The Tongzhou Islands and the Hainan Islands have always been the main areas for receiving Chinese immigrants, while the newly reclaimed state capitals are the key areas for the resettlement of Chinese immigrants.

In more mature areas such as Cagayan, Zamboanga and Davao, the Ministry of Colonies only arranged for a small number of immigrants to enter on a monthly basis based on the number of vacancies reported by various prefectures and counties.

We will not arrange for thousands or even tens of thousands of Chinese immigrants, as that would cause local conflicts.

In Jinsha District, Davao Province, there is a clear trend of local Chinese immigrants moving to factories and enterprises, and the vast villages and towns often need constant replenishment due to insufficient population.

Jinsha County is another heavy industrial base of the Chu State. The county's total population has grown to 31.1. It has a large steel plant, a large copper smelter, and a large number of heavy industrial enterprises such as rolling mills, foundries and machinery plants. The city's population is catching up with Davao Province.

Jinsha County's industrial development momentum is rapid, especially in the coastal areas, where chimneys are everywhere, spewing out large amounts of thick black smoke every day, turning the sky over the entire area gray and black.

This is exactly the characteristic of the steam industry in today's era. The rapid development of Jinsha County's industrial economy has attracted a large number of farmers from several surrounding counties. After repaying their immigration loans, they moved to the city to seek new opportunities.

The agricultural economy in several counties surrounding Jinsha has not developed, which has a lot to do with this point.

Due to the large-scale migration of rural population to cities, more than 3.4 people have migrated to Jinsha and several surrounding counties since the beginning of this year, making it the area with the largest number of immigrants among the three mature prefectures.

This situation is also reflected in Cagayan, where the rapidly developing glass and ceramic industry has also attracted a large number of Chinese immigrants from rural areas, with an average of four to five thousand people per year.

It’s just that it’s not as obvious as Jinsha County.

Davao Palace
King Zheng Guohui of Chu sat behind the imperial desk, burying a large number of memorials to be read for the first time. These were memorials from various places that had accumulated in recent times and had been dealt with without any incident during the inspection.

I happened to be resting in Davao for a few days, so I dealt with it all at once.

King Zheng Guohui of Chu executed 71 death row prisoners in succession. After seeing all kinds of heinous crimes, he finally breathed a sigh of relief after executing the last death row prisoner.

He put down his pen, picked up a cigar, lit it, let the strong tobacco smoke dissipate, and quietly recovered his mood.

After seeing so many ugly things, I feel so upset.

With large-scale immigration over the years, it is impossible to conduct detailed background checks.

As rivers flow, it is inevitable that mud and sand will mix in.

Most of these death row prisoners had a long history of evil deeds, especially those involved in gambling crimes, which were rampant and accounted for more than half of the death row prisoners. This attracted the attention of King Zheng Guohui of Chu.

He was considering whether to implement a nationwide anti-gambling measure.

Gambling is an industry with a long history since ancient times. There are endless crimes related to gambling, such as setting up gambling schemes to make people lose their fortunes and sell their children.

There are illegal forces that collude with each other, bully the market, kill people, and their evil deeds are notorious.

This thing is like a piece of rotten meat, a breeding ground for illegal activities, attracting an endless stream of flies to gather around and bite.

But King Zheng Guohui of Chu also had concerns. The interests of many nobles and local tycoons were involved in gambling, and the resistance would be considerable.

The Chu State's strict policy of banning opium had already caused a lot of controversy, and Britain had been complaining about it repeatedly, and the issue was always mentioned in international occasions of all sizes.

The Chu State was extremely resolute in its policy of banning opium. Seeing that it was useless to talk and there was nothing they could do, the British opium merchants basically gave up.

This is not to say

There was no opium in the State of Chu. Some greedy Chinese businessmen had been secretly trafficking opium into the State of Chu through various secret channels, forming a shameful underground opium market.

The Chu State always maintained a high-pressure crackdown on such criminal activities. Once discovered, they would be cracked down. Whether it was selling opium or smoking opium, they would be severely punished, and at least thrown into a hard labor camp.

Those who hold the title of "Sir" will be stripped of their honors. Those who are nobles and knowingly commit violations will be stripped of their titles and exiled to a remote island in the Pacific Ocean. Their titles will be inherited by other sons of the family.

If there are no other heirs, the House of Lords (Upper House) will take back the noble title and fiefdom and deal with it in the same way as an extinct noble family.

It was precisely because of the crackdown with various harsh measures that although opium was banned repeatedly in Chu State, it was hidden very deeply and on a small scale, making it difficult to cause widespread harm to society.

in today's world

There are very few countries that explicitly ban gambling. The same is true for European countries led by Britain, France, Prussia and Russia. The law does not prohibit gambling, but leaves it to the people to decide for themselves.

"Around the World in 80 Days", written by the famous French writer Jules Verne, describes a bet between two experts from the Royal Society of London with the stake being 2 pounds.

After taking a few puffs of his cigar, King Zheng Guohui of Chu couldn't help but look at the large map of the Chu territory in the imperial study. This hand-painted map, half a person's height, almost occupied the entire wall and was placed in the imperial study of each palace.

Looking at the bright yellow territory of Chu on the map, which looked like a giant scale weighing the earth, a confident and domineering smile appeared on the face of King Zheng Guohui of Chu.

He made up his mind
Gambling dens, gambling houses, gambling houses and all gambling activities for profit must be explicitly prohibited within the territory of Chu. In view of the Chinese people's gambling habits, the kingdom can uniformly issue welfare lottery tickets, implement prize redemption and public welfare gambling.

This can firstly serve as a supplement to the government's fiscal expenditure; secondly, it can reduce the resistance to the anti-gambling policy; and thirdly, it can meet the people's demand for gambling. It is a more appropriate method.

Besides
A suitable location can be selected in a satellite city near Manila to implement a horse racing club, thereby implementing a healthy and controllable betting and gambling industry and bringing it under orderly management.

After taking a few deep puffs of his cigar, King Zheng Guohui of Chu stood up and walked forward.

I came to the window and looked down at the city view in the distance. My determination to ban gambling was unchangeable.

What you see

The city's buildings of varying heights, set against the backdrop of coconut trees and green plants, stretch far out to the end of the sight, like a beautiful painting.

Today, Davao City has expanded four and a half times its original size. Straight and wide avenues run through it, dividing the huge city into well-organized small grids.

Thanks to the perfect urban sewage facilities, there is no flooding in the rainy season and the city is still covered with green trees in the dry season. It is also a beautiful coastal city.

How can such a beautiful city be polluted by gambling?
(End of this chapter)