Spring is already in season on the east coast in late October, and even in relatively cold and damp places like southern Chile, there is already a hint of warmth in the wilderness. Fishermen are starting to fish in the lake, farmers are preparing for spring planting, lumberjacks are returning to their long-lost forest huts, merchants are buying goods for the next stage of their business plans, and so on. In short, everyone quickened the pace of their work and life, and the whole of southern Chile suddenly became full of life, even the several prisons set up by the people on the east bank north of the boundary river.

By the middle of this year (1682), according to the joint estimation of various departments based on data, the total population of the East Coast Republic of China should be 5,104,700, which exceeded 5 million for the first time in history, which made the whole country excited. Among them, the proportion of people born in the country has reached 54.4%, which is also the highest in history, because it means that the people who identify with the land the most and regard it as their hometown are beginning to dominate the national population, and although their overall age is still on the low side, they will become the real backbone of the country over time.

Correspondingly, the proportion of Ming people has dropped to 32 percent, indicating that immigrants are becoming less important to the country, and while still indispensable, they are no longer as dependent as they once were. The number of non-nationals has also declined slightly, and is now below 300,000, which is still very large. However, the number of non-nationals is closely related to the international situation and the slave trade situation, and it is normal for them to fluctuate, and it may rise again in the next year.

More than half of the new population was sent to settle in the Pampa Plain (scattered in various pioneer villages east of the Yanbu Railway), which shows that Chairman Liao is not ambiguous at all in the development of the Pampa Plain, and continues to unswervingly throw resources there. It seems that he really regarded the Pampa Plain as the core essence of the future, and did not hesitate to invest a lot of resources for this, so that many cadres in Brazil were a little dissatisfied with it.

In addition to the Pampa plain, the Brazilian Altiplano and the Transocons are about the same, while southern Chile is even lower. But this year, about 15,000 immigrants have been allocated here (through the commons distribution index), and a large number of exiles are still being sent here, which is quite a lot.

After Gain's superiors laid down the general principle of increasing the proportion of prisoners to be exiled and enriching the "disputed areas" on the border, the number of cases of exile by judges of county and township courts and district circuit courts has greatly increased in the past few years, and the number of exiled prisoners has soared. When the political consultative conferences were held at the beginning of the year, many deputies in various counties reacted to this problem, believing that it was not humane, but the central authorities considered it, approved their opinions, and ordered all localities to carry out rectification and not exile for the sake of exile.

But in any case, in recent years, more and more exiled prisoners have come to the area north of the Jiehe River for various reasons, and the four prisons of Shihezi, Plankwu, Luyuan, and Tuerling have also reached the level of "fullness", and their management capacity has reached the limit, so that a new Hongqi Prison (located near the later Chilean town of Panjipui) has to be set up in the middle of this year, which has jurisdiction over many prisoners and set up many colonial villages.

The establishment of this Red Flag Prison stabbed the Spaniards in the eye at once, making them anxious again. In fact, we can see from the map that this red flag prison is in a triangular state with Valdivia and Villarrica, the important Spanish towns in southern Chile, although it will not cut off the communication line between Villarrica and Valdivia, but it is already a big threat, no wonder the Spaniards reacted in this way.

Some people may think that the Spaniards are making a big fuss, but this is not the case. Anyone who knows a little about the south-central region of Chile knows that there is a large mercury mine near Villarrica that produces a very high value of tax silver, and in addition to supplying some small gold and silver mines nearby, it is also exported in large quantities to Potosí and other places in the Chalcas Inquisition District for use in the silver mines there - the Spaniards used the amalgam method to extract silver, and the consumption of mercury is naturally not ordinarily large, although Mexico and other places can still provide a lot of mercury (even the annual treasure fleet will bring mercury from Europe) But if there was one less Biarrica production, it would definitely disrupt the Spaniards' plans for silver production and affect the final production, which was what they feared.

Therefore, now you know that when the East Coast people set up the Red Flag Prison near Panji Pui Lake and some pioneer villages established by exiled prisoners, the Spaniards immediately sent cavalry over, demolished some of the fortifications and camp tents set up by the East Bank in the early stage, and sent the personnel out of the country with a very resolute attitude.

But the East Coasters didn't intend to stop there. At the end of last year, they sent another team from Boling County to set up a base near Panjipui Lake. This time, the Spaniards sent troops from both Valdivia and Villarica directions, once again resolutely blocking the easterners. At that time, a platoon commander of an East Coast militia who led the escort was dismissed after returning because he was not tough enough at the critical moment.

In June of this year, the South Chile Garrison Command requisitioned troops and horses in all the counties under its jurisdiction, organized a militia reserve force of about 300 people, and set out from Boling County with several cannons, and crossed the boundary river with great dignity and arrived near Lake Panjipui, where it set up a stronghold for the third time.

This time, the Spaniards' attempt to drive them away failed, because the East Bank army even fired two shots at them, and although there were no casualties, it also deterred the group, so the stronghold was successfully built. Now, this stronghold, called the Red Flag Prison, has been standing there for four months, and a total of six colonial villages have been set up one after another, and the Spaniards have visited several times, but they have been driven away by the East Bank militia stationed here for a long time, indicating that the invasion and infiltration of the East Bank people into the relatively fertile central valley of Chile has entered a new stage.

Of course, the people on the east coast also understood that this time the Spanish bottom line had been touched, so a long-term presence of a moderately sized paramilitary group (such as militias or mercenaries) was inevitable, which undoubtedly meant high maintenance costs. Therefore, the future development of Hongqi Prison will depend on the process of wrestling between the East Coast and Spain.

"Although the Red Flag Prison has been set up, you can't relax, understand?" In Boling County, in the guest house where Zhao Chuyan used to live in the eastern part of the Kingdom of Korea, Zhao Ke, commissioner of the South Chile Regional Administration, was giving a lecture to some cadres: "Just look at what there is in this place. A few dozen miles from the Red Flag Prison there is a small silver mine of the Spaniards, and between Valdivia and Villarica there are a total of 7 small silver mines, 1 small gold mine, 2 small copper mines, and 1 mercury mine. Although the output of these mines has not been very good after many years of mining, the number of mines is still not a small number, and the port of Corral sends silver to Callao twice a year, which adds up to more than a million pesos, which I think many of you know. This time, we have hit the bottom line of the Spaniards, and they will not retreat indefinitely, because they have no way back. ”

Indeed, as Zhao Ke said, the Spaniards had no way back. As soon as they retreated, these minerals would probably be gone, and the people on the east coast would happily take over the gold, silver, copper, mercury, and even sulphur mines, stone mines, etc., which were not of interest to the Spaniards, and take all the benefits, so they could not retreat.

'I don't know how the Spaniards will react, but I know it's not over yet. They have demolished our stronghold twice before, and they will definitely try to demolish it a third time in the future. I don't have to worry about Hongqi Prison anymore, it's relatively strong, and there are quite a few prison guards, enough to hold on. I'm worried about the surrounding villages, where their defenses are weak, and most of the villagers are exiles serving prison sentences, so their morale and will not be high. Once the Spaniards are a little darker, I am afraid it will be an avalanche. You are all cadres who have been operating north of the Jiehe River for many years, so let's give your opinions. Zhao Ke looked at the management cadres in front of him and said.

These people are basically the high-level managers of the five prisons north of the boundary river, who have pioneered that land for many years and have dealt with the Spaniards, so Zhao Ke specially gathered them all this time to see what kind of charter it is. According to the plan drawn up by the superiors, at the beginning of next month, a group of immigrants will soon arrive—well, not exiled prisoners, but innocent immigrants—to settle north of the Boundary River, in order to replenish the population there, and at the same time to give the East Coasters more complete control over the land that has crossed the border.

Barring any incident, more than half of these new arrivals will be placed in the precincts of the slather-house prisons, where they will be enriched, and they will be mixed with the exiles. The remaining half is scattered to Luyuan, Tuerling and Shihezi, and Hongqi Prison will not be assigned to new immigrants in principle this time - this level of immigration action will inevitably require a better external environment in the local area, otherwise it will be very unfavorable for the immigrants to gain a firm foothold in the early stage, so there is this meeting convened by Commissioner Zhao Ke and Zhao Da.

"The Red Flag Prison must be withheld. Its present existence is not just a bridgehead for our future expansion to the north, in fact it is now a target for the hatred and vitality of the Spaniards. As soon as the Hongqi Prison exists, the eyes of the Spaniards will always be fixed here, and the threat to Shihezi, Tuerling, Luyuan, Slatted House and other places will be much smaller, which is undoubtedly conducive to the development and development of these places. "A few cadres of the prison system, you look at me, I look at you, and in the end, it was the warden of the oldest Slatted House Prison who came out first to speak.

"I understand what you mean, the establishment of the Red Flag Prison originally had this meaning. The question is how to maintain it now, whether it is necessary to send more men and horses, and if so, how many people are appropriate, and even whether to ask the higher authorities to send a regular army over. Zhao Ke said immediately after hearing this. In fact, he really had the idea of inviting the regular army to come over, because the advantage was obvious, and the military department would bear all the expenses of any regular battalion, which was much better than the local militia, which needed to prepare its own expenses.

"At present, we have a total of 85 prison guards, and the six tunken villages can probably make up hundreds of strong people, but these people can't be counted on. Exiled to these wild places, their perception of the government is not very positive, and it is fine to let them work and do work on weekdays, but if they fight with their heads, then the problem is too big, and I will not be relieved. Seeing that he was talking about himself, the warden of the Red Flag Prison could not be silent anymore, so he stood up and said: "So the three hundred militiamen currently stationed on our side are very important, they cannot be withdrawn, and they will be finished as soon as they are withdrawn." I don't think even these 300 people are enough, because the place to look after is too big! If possible, I think the number should be at least doubled, i.e. six hundred, preferably a third of whom would be cavalry, so that it would be easier to maneuver and rush to help. ”

Hearing what the warden of Hongqi Prison said, Zhao Ke's brows furrowed a little. The cost of stationing 600 militiamen abroad for a long time is not low. Although the central and local governments have now implemented the reform of the tax sharing system, and the local government's fiscal revenue has increased greatly, but there are more places to use money, 600 people need at least tens of thousands of yuan a year, and their families also need appropriate subsidies from the local government as appropriate, so the financial expenditure is not small, enough to build a good reservoir, so Zhao Ke is a little reluctant.

But if he doesn't give up this money, he will have to throw it down, unless he can really apply for a regular army to come and sit in the town. The future of southern Chile will have to go north, that is, along the central valley and northward, to get as many food and mineral regions as possible. Otherwise, they will always be confined to the south, fishing and whaling for a living, and their potential is not great.

"We still have to fight for it again." Zhao Ke thought silently in his heart: "I heard that due to the increase in population and the continuous expansion of overseas colonies, the number of cadre shortages in various places is also larger, and the Executive Committee intends to set up a new cadet training institution in southern Chile called the Four Castles of the Corps. I had to find a way to get the Executive Committee to set up the four forts of the Corps in the area north of the Boundary River (Zhao Ke's initial plan was to set it near the later town of Ranco, just between Valdivia and Villarica, which was undoubtedly a move to intensify the conflict), so that the War Department could send a battalion of men and horses to be stationed there, so that the regional administration office might save a lot of money. ”