Nanyang Storm 1864

Chapter 377: Marching to the Patagonian Plain
The bronze Taotie incense burner exudes the lingering fragrance of dragon's birthday, which has a magical effect of refreshing the lungs and leaving a long aftertaste.

After considering the possible response measures of the British, King Zheng Guohui of Chu had a clear idea in mind.

These few years

Through the trade of crude oil and bulk commodities, the State of Chu established a solid relationship with the British royal family and several influential top aristocrats, which was the source of its confidence.

This kind of relationship based on mutual interests is completely trustworthy as long as the interests continue.

No one will say "no" to benefits of up to hundreds of thousands of pounds a year. This bond of interest is far more solid than clan, blood and historical origins.

At least when disputes arise between Chu and the Netherlands, Britain can maintain an objective and neutral attitude. This is the power of potential interest ties.

Through the channels of London's upper-class aristocrats, King Zheng Guohui of Chu knew that the British bottom line was on Java Island.

As long as the State of Chu does not lay hands on Java Island, Britain will not react violently, nor will it form an alliance with the Netherlands and France to launch a military attack on the State of Chu.

King Zheng Guohui of Chu could clearly feel

Britain is pursuing a policy of regional balance of power in Europe, Southeast Asia and other parts of the world.

in Europe

In a typical "balance of power on the continent" policy, Britain supported the Kingdom of Prussia to compete with France. Now a situation of confrontation between the two powers of Germany and France has been formed, which is in line with Britain's fundamental interests.

Seeing that France's strength has been weakened, Britain's current policy has been subtly adjusted, turning to supporting France and restricting Germany. All of this is due to interests.

In Central America
Britain's support for the Chu State to expand the influence of Chinese people in Central America and curb the southward invasion of American forces was also due to the policy of balancing power in Central America, rather than favoring the Chu State.

In Nanyang

Britain supported the Dutch and French forces, and firmly held a dominant position based on the Straits Settlements, restricting the expansion of Chu's power in many ways, and was particularly wary of Chu's power moving north.

This includes the linkage between the Chu State and the northern Shenzhou Continent, its influence on the Ryukyu Kingdom, its infiltration into the Fuso State, etc., all of which are of great concern to them.

A very vivid example is Britain's recent aggressive development of trade relations with the Ryukyu Kingdom and its strengthening of its presence in Naha Port.

From an international strategic perspective

The British's actions were undoubtedly very appropriate, which was also what King Zheng Guohui of Chu admired. The British were worthy of being the world hegemon, possessing a global strategic vision and a large number of conspirators.

It is based on this

The current development policy of the Chu State is to strengthen trade ties with the West and the North (note: including the British Straits Settlements, the French Indochina colonies, the Northern Shenzhou and Ryukyu, as well as Fuso and the Korean Peninsula), focusing on expanding colonial power westward while taking the South into consideration.

With large immigration ships opening the Pacific and South American routes for a long time, a steady stream of Chinese immigrants have arrived in Central and South America through this channel.

Only on Pacific routes

The Chu government and royal family provided an average annual subsidy of one million silver dollars to this route, mainly in the form of coal prices, tax concessions and sugar subsidies.

In particular, sugar subsidies to the Hawaiian Islands accounted for nearly half of the amount.

Operating trans-Pacific routes, there was no need to worry about the number of Chinese immigrants traveling from west to east. Every immigration ship was full, allowing shipping companies to make money.

However, the return goods were very few, mainly North American cowhide and Hawaiian sugar, which were two bulk commodities.

Out of vigilance against the growing influence of Chinese in Hawaii, the US government gradually tightened its policy on importing sugar and shifted its focus to Cuba and Brazil, which are also the world's two major sugar producing areas.

The interests of white American plantation owners on the island of Hawaii were greatly damaged by this policy.

He had to sell the sugar plantation at a very low price and return to the United States with the money.

They were basically taken over by Chinese businessmen, who now occupy the vast majority of sugar plantations in the Hawaiian Islands.

Most of the white sugar and high-quality old rock sugar produced were transported back by immigrant ships of shipping companies operating on the Pacific route and sold to the northern continent and Southeast Asia.

The ship will be empty anyway, so it is better to load some cargo as ballast and make some profit.

The Chu State subsidized the price of this batch of sugar, keeping it within a reasonable range overall, which was conducive to sales to the vast market in the north and maintaining the two-way flow of goods on the Pacific route.

The large amount of imported North American cowhide is processed domestically and made into various cowhide products for sale, which can also drive the development of the domestic leather industry.

The route from the Hawaiian Islands to the Pieno Islands in South America mainly transported saltpeter and copper ingots on the return trip. The copper ingots were basically sold out in the port of Panama, and the main export destination was Europe.

In order to process copper ore, the Chu government has invested in the development and construction of several copper mines on Pieno Island and built a large copper smelter with the capacity to process more than 100,000 tons of copper ore annually.

These Pieno copper ingots exported to Europe were transported from Panama City on the Pacific side to Colon City, 68 kilometers away. This trade line was basically dominated by Chinese trading companies, and the goods were shipped from Colon City on the Caribbean coast to Europe.

The saltpeter was transported back to the port of Hawaii, from where it was loaded onto the returning Pacific immigrant ship and transported thousands of miles back to the mainland of Chu, mainly for use in making gunpowder.

It is precisely because of this reasonable arrangement that the prosperity of the trans-Pacific routes and South American routes was promoted, ensuring the continuous influx of Chinese immigrants into the above two places.

In South America
A tide of Chinese immigrant adventure teams, totaling hundreds, are crossing the Andes Mountains and advancing towards the vast, fertile and flat Patagonia Plain, plundering the local Indian tribes like locusts.

Through military conquest, captured male Indians would be brought back and sold to copper mines at a corresponding price to subsidize the weapons, ammunition, and casualties consumed in the adventurous expedition.

And replenish horses and supplies, recruit personnel, and carry out the next adventure expansion.

The captured young Indian women, cattle, sheep and horses could be used by the Chinese adventure team themselves or sold, depending on their needs. There were no fixed rules.

The vast Patagonian Plain is also the location of the southern part of the Negro River Province, Chubut Province, Santa Cruz Province and Tierra del Fuego Province in southern Argentina. It is now the territory of the Mapuche people from the Indian tribal era.

The vanguard of the Chinese armed adventure team has reached the Atlantic coast and crossed the Patagonian Plain.

At the end of August, the Chu State's Colonial Department established a colony in Bahia Blanca on the Atlantic coast and issued land titles to Chinese adventure teams there, which has attracted the attention of the Argentine government.

Bahia Blanca is only 900 kilometers away from the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires in the north. It is located in the southernmost part of the later Buenos Aires Province and is an extremely important port.

Because Argentina has focused its attention on the war with Paraguay in the north in recent years, it has not taken care of the southernmost region.

When the Chinese forces arrived, Blanca was just a small town with more than 130 white people and a small wooden pier for exporting locally produced wheat.

The Chinese forces occupied this place without hesitation, and the local white people disappeared.

After just over three months of development, Blanca has become a purely Chinese town with a population of over 3700, and a large number of Chinese adventure teams frequently come and go.

They exchanged supplies here, sold Indian captives in exchange for horses, guns, canned food, blankets and other supplies, and invited colonial officials to survey land ownership.

Colonial officials would not make the trip in vain. They would generally gather three or four or more adventure teams with corresponding needs, give them additional generous rewards, and then ride on horseback to follow them to the inland areas where rights needed to be confirmed.

According to the Colonial Office
Blanca and the area within 200 kilometers around it belong to the royal family, and no Chinese adventure team will be accepted for land title registration. However, it is allowed outside this area.

This means
The local colonial officials responsible for confirming land rights had to travel at least hundreds of kilometers each time and it would take at least one or two weeks to return.

The process is simple.

After confirming that the occupied area of ​​the Chinese adventure team does not overlap with the originally registered area, they will be granted a copper rod and a copper plate for land title confirmation, which will be engraved with the Chu royal emblem and land number.

Each copper staff engraved with the emblem of the Chu royal family is worth 1000 silver dollars. Land rights confirmation is charged according to the area, 5 silver dollars per hectare of land. Loans can be made and debts can be owed, but interest must be calculated.

Only by obtaining the copper rod for land title confirmation can the Chinese adventure team realize their final harvest and avoid unnecessary fighting among each other.

The Colonial Office doesn't care at all how much territory these Chinese adventure teams occupy?
Occupying 1 hectares would cost 5 silver dollars, occupying hectares would cost silver dollars, and occupying hectares would cost silver dollars.

As long as you can pay the money, the land is yours.

This land title registration fee can be loaned out for 5 to 10 years with an annual interest rate of 10%, and repaid in installments.

If the huge land title registration fees cannot be paid off, then sorry, the land will be taken back and auctioned off, and the Colonial Office will not suffer any loss anyway.

It is precisely based on such colonial policies that many Chinese adventure teams will carefully measure their own reclamation capabilities and will not occupy land indefinitely.

Decades later, many Chinese families regretted their timidity in occupying less land, only a few thousand hectares.

The land was then distributed among the armed team one by one, with each household receiving only tens or hundreds of hectares, which was at most a medium-sized ranch.

There are some large Chinese adventure teams that dare to occupy tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of hectares of land, but they are not many.

King Zheng Guohui of Chu withdrew his gaze, feeling a little proud.

During the Paraguayan War, the Argentine government was busy with the military occupation of Paraguayan territory. Issues concerning Paraguay filled the Argentine court, but it had no clear understanding of the changes taking place on the Patagonia Plain in the south.

It was only because of the Americans' loud calls that some Argentine politicians took notice.

But what’s the point of paying attention to it?

Argentina's current population is about 150 million, and its strength is limited to the Buenos Aires Province. It has not yet reached Bahia Blanca in the south, and its focus is in the northern region.

Due to the delay of the war, the calls for conquering Indian tribes and expanding into Patagonia, which were once clamored for in Argentina, have not been heard for several years.

This vast plain has become an area neglected by Argentina.

The focus of all efforts fell on the Paraguayan war in the north. This was a victory that Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay had worked so hard to achieve after six years from 1864 to 1870.

The Triple Alliance lost hundreds of thousands of troops, with more than 10 killed in action. Argentina alone lost more than 27000 troops, which was close to 1.8% of Argentina's total population.

The deaths of these young and middle-aged white Argentine men were a heavy loss in any case.

In response to the Americans' loud cries, "The Patagonia Plain is being occupied by Chinese forces", "If urgent action is not taken, the vast Indian plain will become the home of the Chinese", "Tough measures must be taken to deal with the invasion of the Chu State", "Although South America is large, it is difficult to accommodate Chinese forces", and so on.

These calls were full of urgency, helplessness and sadness, but did not attract widespread attention from the Argentines.

In today's Argentine society, everyone is celebrating the end of the war. The war has been won, the nightmare is over, and now we can live in peace.

The US call was fiercely refuted by many Argentine politicians who opposed the war. They believed that:

With Argentina's current population, it already has vast enough pastures. After the victory of the war, Argentina harvested tens of thousands of square kilometers of fertile land in eastern Paraguay and lived a life of plenty.

Tens of thousands of Argentines are migrating to eastern Paraguay to occupy and cultivate this vast area.

They called for peace and opposed war. They had no great interest in the almost endless wilderness of the South, and were even less willing to engage in another war.

some of

There was also a public opinion storm instigated by the Chu State, which once again demonstrated the subtle power of public opinion and affected the general cognition of Argentines.

This is exactly what King Zheng Guohui of Chu was particularly proud of. To achieve this goal, he only spent thousands of silver dollars and bribed some prestigious Argentine politicians and cultural celebrities. The cost was insignificant.

This is the second time since the Hawaii incident that the power of public opinion has come into play. No one, including Americans, realized that public opinion was being quietly changed through public opinion.

The only people who might pay attention would be the British.

Fortunately, the British did not pay attention to the vast Indian land in South America, and at most they frowned at the large-scale invasion of Chinese forces.

I have to say: "How come these damn Orientals have such a strong interest in land?"

Then, no more...

The international principle promoted by the British in the 19th century was that whoever discovered, occupied, and owned...

Since the southern part of South America was originally a barren area, and the Argentines and Chileans did not occupy it, it would not be a bad idea for the Chu people to occupy the area on a large scale.

The Mapuche, the indigenous Indian tribe in this land, was naturally ignored in the British considerations.

Not everyone is equal in today's world. Weak nations do not have equal qualifications. They are backward races that are conquered and civilized, and no white people will care about them.

If they care about it, take it seriously, speak out loudly for it, and even resort to violence, it is not for the benefit of the local indigenous people, but because they are eyeing their territory.

Facing the large world map, King Zheng Guohui of Chu smiled confidently.

His strategic decision to move eastward was very correct. The new growth pole of Chu State in the future was the vast Patagonia Plain, a vast territory full of hope.

The resistance is minimal and the benefits are maximal. Only the Americans are getting anxious but have no other options.

(End of this chapter)