Sainte-Marie's Island, 15 November 1647.

St. Mary's Island is the rainy season this month, and it is also the season of disease. Hot and humid weather, occasional hurricanes sweeping the coast, and frequent downpours make this beautiful tropical island the most uninhabitable area in almost the entire eastern republic of China.

In fact, it's pretty much the same. In the territory of today's East Coast Republic of China, the annual mortality rate of residents in the four towns of the New China Region (Xinhua Port, Xixiang Peninsula, Tacheng Port, and St. Mary's Island) has remained at about 10% all year round, which has become a wound on the East Coast Republic of China with slow and continuous blood loss. Malaria is the number one killer of local residents, accounting for almost 60% of deaths, in addition to dysentery, cholera, yellow fever and other major causes of death.

Even in Xinhuagang, which was the first to be developed and has the best living and sanitary conditions, it is considered a great achievement and a great fortune that the government has controlled the death rate of residents at 9% last year. On the mainland of the East Coast Republic, the New China Island has always given people the impression of the dual attributes of death and abundance. An issue of Pravda newspaper once reported that of the dozens of families in a certain village in Xinhuagang, one-third of them gave birth to four children but only one survived, while the rest were slightly stronger, basically living one out of two or three children.

With such a health record, it is no wonder that after so many years of development, the population of Xinhuagang has never been able to rise. You know, the country exiles an average of 500 Indian pioneers a year to settle here, and the local government often withholds immigrants from the Far East -- not only those who are too weak to continue their voyages, but also those who are able-bodied and able to work at first glance. In addition, the New China Pioneer Team insisted on asking Muscat merchants for many years to buy Persian and Balus female slaves. The total population of the Xinhua Port and Jiaxixiang Peninsula will not exceed 4,500 by the beginning of this year. The total number of people in the four towns of the entire colony was just over 8,000.

With such a small population, it is very painful to do anything. For example, the current port of naturalization (Ambu di Fututra) - named after the hundreds of local pirates and their families who accepted the rule of the people on the east coast - has just exceeded 1,000 in terms of population plus the hundreds of Ming and Greek people who have moved in the past two years, and the economy is mainly based on corn cultivation and logging. Even fishing is scarce because they lack adequate fishing gear.

Although this is not the traditional fishing area of Xinhuaxia Island -- the richest fishery resources in Xinhuaxia are obviously on the west side of the island, within the Mozambique Strait, where lobsters and various economic fish are abundant, and even sperm whales can be seen occasionally, which is much richer than here -- but there are many large rivers flowing into the sea on the mainland on the west side of the island, and the fishery resources are relatively rich. But for a variety of reasons. The inhabitants of this area have not been able to take advantage of it.

Liqun, who took the regular flight of Xinhua Port-Naturalization Port-Tacheng Port to go ashore, saw such a scene at this time. The dilapidated low-rise wooden houses, the unkempt urban buildings, the blistered gravel streets, the bare-bottomed children leaning against the doors, and the domestic pigs scurrying in the streets from time to time all tell people how remote and backward this is an area.

Li Qun was in a trance when he first saw this scene, and vaguely he seemed to have returned to the Ming Dynasty that he had galloped back then. At that time, what I saw when I was wandering around Fengyang in Nanzhili was not the scene in front of me. Liqun shook his head, dispelling the illusion in his mind, and then looked intently at a man in a cotton shirt in front of him. This person was a dock clerk who was going through the formalities for them, and Li Qun took a closer look and saw that his skin was slightly dark. The facial features on his face clearly indicate that he is a mixed descendant of European pirates and local natives. He was also wearing a dyed tunic that Liqun recognized. This is a uniform issued by the government to grassroots officials and clerks.

As soon as the Xinhuagang officials who came with Li Qun and the others came ashore, they braved the heavy rain and walked to a two-story wooden house, and after shouting twice, a middle-aged man almost crawled down the stairs and then had a conversation with the official. After the conversation, the two walked together under the canopy of the dock where Liqun and the others were standing.

"Let me introduce myself, my surname is Wei, my name is Weicteau, my father is from Nantes, he was a great navigator." The man who didn't look very old said in an introduction, "Now I'm the local mayor, and Captain Shi of Xinhuagang was just appointed last month. ”

After hearing the interpreter translate the local native language, Li Qun nodded, and then said to the officials who accompanied them: "Then Section Chief Yu, let's go visit the plantation now?" Time is a bit precious, and we don't want to waste too much time. ”

The bearded man, who was called Section Chief Yu, looked up at the rainy sky above his head as if it had broken a hole, sighed and said, "Okay, let's go now." Before I came, I transferred a map of the plantations near the port of naturalization from the Natural Resources Bureau, and there are currently six vacancies: the 1st, 4th, 5th, 12th, 16th, and 20th plantations, so let's start with the first one. You are the first batch of businessmen who are willing to come to New China to open up, Captain Shi said, I want to give you some discounts, and we will try our best to help you solve any difficulties. So without further ado, let's go. ”

After Section Chief Yu finished speaking, he turned his head and said a few words to the Mayor Wei. After finishing speaking, Mayor Wei nodded, and then quickly ran to the two-story small wooden building, kicked up a group of local natives sitting idly, and after one of them stuffed a copper coin in his hand, these natives rushed over very doggedly and raised umbrellas for everyone.

Liqun thought they were short, so he directly grabbed the umbrella and started to fight himself, and the native was not annoyed by the umbrella, he still said something with a smile, and pointed to the shoulder basket on his waist as he spoke, which contained some tropical fruits that were not very good-looking, and it seemed that he wanted to sell them to local tyrants like Liqun.

Liqun ignored him and strode forward. After the rain, the gravel road has softened so much that the road is full of puddles of sewage, which Liqun can see when he looks closely, most of them are rutted marks by trucks. When the rainy season begins, it is full of water. Occasionally, a toad will jump out of a puddle. Then let out a nasty chirp.

The road is overgrown with weeds, and the green life seems to be vigorous, and a small area on the edge of the road has gradually been eroded by these weeds, which seem to grow into the middle of the road if not removed regularly. A drainage ditch was also built on each side of the gravel road, and at this time the drainage ditch was also full of water and was making a noise downstream. On the outside of the gutter is a large field of corn, and the verdant corn stalks are even more delicate under the rain.

Mayor Wei told everyone. These corns were planted by the newly arrived Ming and Greek immigrants, and they could be ripened three times a year, and a lot of grain could be harvested. Now some of their older European pirates or descendants of pirates have also begun to grow high-yielding crops such as corn and sweet potatoes with the help of agricultural technology stations to increase food production. However, the few natives on the island are reluctant to grow these things, and they insist on planting traditional rice, regardless of the fact that growing rice may increase the breeding of mosquitoes and lead to the spread of malaria.

Through the impermeable rain curtain, everyone came to a small hillside. Looking down from the hillside, there is a large plain stretching far into the sky. The plain was neatly divided into many small squares, some large and some small. Isolated by a ring of small bushes.

"This is the plantation." The road had reached the end of the road, and Mayor Wei instructed everyone to be careful not to slip and fall down the hillside. "Out of a total of 32 plantations, six are now vacant and we have replaced them, all six of which are located on the edge of the plantations. In the future, if you want to expand the scale of the plantation, you can simply burn the land on the edge and expand, of course, provided that you get permission from the government. At this, Mayor Wei couldn't help but straighten his chest, because he was the "government" here—although the power to approve the expansion of the plantation area was not in the hands of the town level.

"It's all sisal here?" Liqun stepped on the soft grass that had soaked up the water, and looked intently at the endless plantations in the distance. The growth of sisal is very gratifying, and it can be harvested in less than three years, according to the current domestic and foreign market conditions, the profits in it are extremely objective, and very stable.

Whether it is fishing nets, cables, textiles (special high-strength fabrics), or paper (high-grade paper), there is a great demand for sisal, and according to previous data, if there is a medium-sized sisal plantation, the income of more than 500 yuan a year is appropriate. And this is only for simple sisal growers who have no distribution channels, if it is a businessman with a deep background like Zhu Heng and Master Zhu, then this profit may have to roll over a few times - after all, a large amount of profits in the intermediate links have also fallen into their hands.

After looking at it for a while, Li Qun walked down the stone steps that had been repaired on the side. This was the plantation, and Liqun carefully went to the six vacant plantations to observe, and the pouring rain almost soaked him with the wind, but he didn't mind at all, and still watched carefully. There are also some growers in the plantation - all immigrants from the Ming Dynasty, some children holding dogs and watching Li Qun the outsider curiously; On the plantation, many Malay hired workers are braving the rain to drain the water.

Two hours later, Liqun was back on the steps, and it was obvious that he was satisfied. I only heard him say very bluntly to Section Chief Yu and Mayor Wei: "Two, I've finished reading it, and in general I'm personally satisfied." As for the final decision, I have to go back to Xinhuagang to discuss with Mr. Zhu. By the way, are there usually pirate raids here? Or will there be a ship of the Spaniards here? ”

Pirate? Everyone looked at each other, isn't this island a gathering place for the pirates who have returned to them, and they themselves are pirates or descendants of pirates. Therefore, Mayor Wei said embarrassedly: "Of course there are no pirate attacks, and the Sino-Portuguese combined fleet will patrol regularly." As for the Spaniards you mentioned, there is absolutely none, the Spaniards have not been here for hundreds of years, they are very safe here, and there will be no war with the Spaniards, don't worry. ”

"Yes, a place without Spaniards is a good place and we can live quietly." Liqun smiled and turned to the crowd and said. Well, since there is no risk of war here, it is equivalent to putting a safety lock on the "risky" behavior of everyone who comes here to invest in plantations.

The only uncertainties now are probably the environment and the source of labor. There is no way to solve the environmental problem, the tropics, and St. Mary's Island is a so-called backward area, and it will take time to improve the sanitary situation. And the labor problem is indeed a headache, where to get it? (To be continued......)