January 1, 1653, Port of Araucan.

Xu Gang, who had just been promoted to the head of the road protection team of the Southern Railway Company for a few months, had just commanded a group of soldiers to transport the corpses of hundreds of Araukan people to a mass grave in the suburbs for public incineration. The deaths had all been caused by a recent epidemic that had struck the Araukans, the exact cause of death was unknown - and no one was trying to find out all about it - and who cared if the Araukans died no more, anyway, on the east coast.

Not to mention, there was a thought, but not to mention, that the sick Araukans were a group of people who had been in close contact with the new immigrants - or their family members - and that they would soon become ill and die, and the reason for this seemed to be easy to find, but no one wanted to say it. Even if you think about it from some of the darker angles, the people of the East Coast may not be reluctant to see the mass death of the Araukans who live next to them, because that would mean that more of the living space in the southern cone will be occupied by the people of the East Coast.

Nowadays, the Araukan people have become more and more involved in the economic activities of the east coast, such as the miners of the Black Mountain Coal Mine, the laborers of the wharf of the port of Araucan, the construction workers of the urban area, etc., all of which are active in the presence of these Araukan people. They worked hard to obtain all kinds of production and daily necessities sold on the East Coast, after all, they did not have as much land and a variety of cattle and sheep as their leaders to exchange with the East Coast people to maintain their relatively comfortable life. They can't, they can only sell their health and labor in exchange for a meager salary to improve their lives and that of their families.

But then again. This state of economic colonization that took place in the Kingdom of Araucania. It is rare to see it in Zhejiang and Shandong in the Far East. The local Ming people were still more willing to buy cheap village cloth - or simply spin and weave it themselves - for their own use. Especially for those families with a large number of people, the labor consumed in the process of spinning and weaving cloth is completely not included in the cost, so the cloth transported from the east coast across the sea (the freight is 15-20 yuan per ton, if the insurance premium is included) cannot be sold to them at all, and can only be sold to the Shandan people, whose civilization level and productivity are quite low.

This situation also amply illustrates to the East Coasters that in countries without strong commercial traditions, the willingness of residents to buy is generally relatively low. Their smallholder nature makes everyone more willing to be self-sufficient rather than go to the market to solve their own needs. In addition, the outrageously low labor costs, as well as the extremely low logistics costs in the hometown -- this point is extremely crucial, the small peasant economy at the end of the Qing Dynasty was crushed by foreign goods, not so much because of the cost factor, but because of the large-scale exploitation of domestic goods in the process of transportation, the cost of zhì soared, you must know that no one came to collect these harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes on foreign goods -- this qiē made it difficult for goods on the east coast in Shandong, and it was even more difficult to open the market in Zhejiang, so they could only be slowly guided and slowly found a way to solve it later.

"More than 1,200 people have died of illness one after another in the past year, which has caused great panic in the kingdom of Araucania. Some of the guerrillas who followed Vicente Sr. in his early years to fight the world openly accused them of bringing a divine curse to the Ming immigrants brought them by the company. Therefore, we are asked not to migrate to the southern part of Chile. Fortunately, little Vicente is a person who understands, and he knows who he depends on to live. Thus the noise of opposition was silenced for the time being. However, Captain, I feel that with more and more immigrants, the situation will continue to deteriorate sooner or later, and sooner or later little Vicente will not be able to suppress it. The person in charge of the medical department of the Southern Railway Company, who had just finished arranging his subordinates, said worriedly.

"I can't suppress him, he will ask us for help, a puppet country of 20,000 or 30,000 people, what's so terrible. To put it mildly, this bullshit little court of Vicente was able to gather so many Araucans, and it was a long time for us to help them collect them. Xu Gang waved his right hand with white gloves in front of his nose, as if the smell of burning corpses over there made him very uncomfortable, only to hear him continue to say disapprerovingly: "Besides, we have now stuffed so many East Coast expatriates into his country, these people help him cut wood, help him farm, help him herd sheep and cattle, help him make goods, and even pay him taxes, are they more valuable than those stupid Araukans?" ”

In addition, President Mo had promised him a long time ago that as long as he acted according to the orders of the Southern Railway Company, the company would definitely protect their interests. Now that he and some of his henchmen and the children of officials are studying on the East Coast, it is a good signal that they have saved enough money in the secret account of the Qingdao Commercial Clearing Bank, so what are they not satisfied with? The retreat is ready, and all that remains is to work boldly and confidently to fight for the interests of the Southern Railway and the East Coast. Xu Gang said.

The person in charge of the doctor nodded, knowing that Xu Gang was telling the truth. With the increasing number of migrant ships participating in the South Pacific route, there are now more and more Ming immigrants entering the Southern Cone area, and how to settle these people has almost become a problem for the Southern Railway Company. The kingdom of Araucania was vast and encompassed almost the eleventh and twelfth regions of southern Chile in later generations, which was enough to accommodate many people. As a result, the Southern Railway Company sent about six or seven people into the territory of the Kingdom of Araucania in batches, accounting for 20% of the permanent population of the kingdom today, and it is still increasing year by year.

This state of affairs naturally aroused the dissatisfaction of some knowledgeable people in the kingdom of Araucania, especially in the case of a large number of deadly diseases brought by the immigrants from the east coast, who believed that sooner or later the immigrants from the Far East would have a demographic advantage in their kingdom, and then completely wash their kingdom of the Araukans into the kingdom of the east coasters.

I can't help but say that there is some truth to their statement, but so what? The middle and upper strata of this country (the hundreds of followers who initially followed the old Vicente to fight guerrillas) have been infiltrated by the East Coast, many people have even converted to Taoism, many people have been developed into spies by the East Coast in Magellan's intelligence station, and many more have been bought by the Southern Railway Company with interests, coupled with their sparse population and weak national strength like a candle in the wind, there is simply no opposition, can only be driven by the East Coast people like a marionette, and then hold a sign of "Araukan Free Home", Indirectly affects the Araucan natives of the Spanish-controlled district. And this seems to be the only value they have in their existence.

After dealing with the sick and dead, the two simply chatted about local development issues.

"Now more and more ships are coming back from the north every day, and a large amount of Peruvian wheat, dried fruits, cane sugar, cocoa, and timber are pouring into the port. Especially those wheat, the production line put into operation of the Nantie Flour Mill is now at full capacity, and it is simply producing day and night. The last time I met President Mo, he told me that the 12 industrial windmills ordered from the local area will soon arrive in Hong Kong, and the next step is installation and commissioning, when the existing flour production capacity will increase by 50%, which is almost enough to cope with in a short time, this is a very lucrative business, and many people who did not dare to invest before now regret it. Xu Gang raised his eyes to look at the raging fire burning in the distance, and chatted casually.

"Now the smuggling trade with Peru is getting more and more prosperous, and I don't know how many businesses and workers in the country are being fed. In any case, as far as the large number of shops, warehouses and car dealers in the two cities of Araukan and Xingnan Port are concerned, the smuggling trade is the basis for their survival. Without this big industry that connects millions of people in the two places, they all have to lose their jobs and go home to grow rye. Alas, my kid is only 18 years old, and he was not happy to let him study medicine at the beginning, so he had to go to the import and export trade. The middle-aged doctor, who is almost 40 years old, said with a sigh: "Last month, a doctor in our department used a combination microscope (the lens is handmade) to discover a bacterium suspected of being able to cause disease in trout and salmon farmed in marine water, which caused a sensation in the whole system. The Ministry of Health even approved 3,000 yuan of research funds for him, in addition to an additional 500 yuan bonus, which can be described as fame and fortune. ”

Xu Gang also heard about the middle-aged doctor, because this thing is so famous, the Southern Railway Company just planned to carry out artificial cage breeding of trout and salmon in the Salmon Islands (later the Jons Islands, so the salmon fish are so numerous), the doctor found a germ that can pose a threat to these two kinds of fish, and it cannot but be said that he has made a great contribution. This is clearly the case that will allow the company to take timely measures to isolate diseased salmon (usually sepsis) and to monitor the health and excreta of the fish in each cage (the first phase of which is intended to be cultured with trout, which is extremely rich in Chile's native resources), in order to have a general idea of the condition of the fish and reduce the damage caused by the disease.

Trout and salmon have extremely perverted requirements for water quality, and only like cold-water waters, and the Southern Railway Company finally found a large area of natural excellent aquaculture waters in the southern island group, but did not want to cause undue losses to themselves because of diseases. Therefore, they were very concerned about the fish diseases produced by artificial farming, and subsequently gave the doctor a reward of 2,000 yuan to support him to continue his research, which obviously made many people envious and jealous.

"Haha, it's not too late, the discovery of germs is just the beginning, and then studying the mechanism of this germ and formulating strategies to deal with this germ is also a great opportunity for you medical workers to gain fame and fortune. Work hard, there are at least three patents in this, and people with a little ambition should fight for it. Xu Gang patted the middle-aged doctor on the shoulder and said in an encouraging tone. (To be continued......)