As temperatures rise, the East Coast is gradually entering the early summer. The rural peasants who were busy with their farm work had nothing to do, and they had to squat in the countryside with nothing to do, except for the increasingly intensive militia training, waiting for the weekly tour of the propaganda team while they were busy with their farm work.

The performance of the propaganda team is worth looking forward to, because in addition to some drama performances, there will also be people who will broadcast the recent hot events and the new policies of the state. Among them, the most interesting is naturally the current situation in La Plata. The citizens of the East Coast, whether from the Old World or from the East, never imagined that a war waged by the old men would be closely related to every inhabitant of the country.

In a world of growing economic ties with Europe, and at a time when a storm at sea affects domestic price fluctuations, everyone – whether he wants it or not – is forced to get involved in the war. Unlike at this time, when the princes and nobles of the European continent were fighting back and forth, but the living conditions of ordinary people did not change qualitatively, the war between the East Coast and Spain profoundly affected the fate of the country, and also the fate of everyone. Not to mention anything else, at least their food and clothing have been affected by this war to a certain extent.

According to the propaganda team, if the East Bank is defeated, then the Spaniards will inevitably occupy the entire East Bank region, and the East Bank Republic of China, which has been established for more than ten years, will collapse with a bang. Factories, ships, cattle and sheep, land, and forests will be occupied by the greedy Spanish aristocracy, and then everyone will return to the life of serfs in the Middle Ages, and a little sweet potato every day will be a great blessing for the nobles. You don't believe it? Let's see the life of the people of La Plata. Living examples are there!

After listening to the preaching team's account of the miserable life of the European peasants at this time. The people of the East Coast are finally scared. They were afraid that they would never be able to eat cured meat, that they would never eat flour, that they would never eat any more fruit, that they would never drink beer again, that they would take most of their annual income from the nobility, that they would be thrown into prison for offending the nobility, in short, that they would be afraid of the rule of the Spaniards.

Since they did not want to be ruled by the barbaric Spanish aristocracy, they could only hope that the country would win the war, and they had only this expectation. At this time, they have never realized so deeply that they belong to this country, and this country means a qiē of their own. They are nationals of the East Coast Republic of China. The serfs under the rule of the ignorant princes and nobles of the old continent were completely different from the people of the two worlds, who did not want to live a precarious life, so they desperately wanted the country to win the war. Naturally, the propaganda team will not let go of this excellent opportunity for patriotic education, and if they do not take the opportunity to strengthen the sense of identity and cohesion of the immigrants at this time, then they simply don't mix.

Of course, in order to improve everyone's sense of belonging and identity to the country and the collective, the necessary benefits must not be given, and this is the war dividend. To this end, the Council ordered that half of the large number of cattle and sheep seized in La Plata be divided and sold publicly throughout the country. The selling price was lower, probably more than a third lower than the market price before the outbreak of the war. At present, the news has been brewing and publicized in China for a month. Pretty much everyone already knows about it.

On December 20, the statistics on the subscription of war booty (mainly cattle) in Dongfang County were basically completed, and almost every household of more than 2,000 farmers in the county subscribed for a cow. The peasants, who lived a frugal life on weekdays, took out the silver coins that had been treasured for many years from under the boxes containing their clothes, and went to the village office to pay the money and deliver the goods with one hand. Adult vegetable cattle are 10 yuan a piece, which is very cheap, which is nothing for the East Coast farmers who have a decent income level, and they are very happy to pay the money and then take the cattle home to raise.

What are you kidding, 10 yuan to buy an adult cow, how can there be such a good thing now? Didn't you see that before the war, the beef cattle imported from La Plata cost 15 yuan a head? Recently, I heard from those cattle dealers that the price of vegetable cattle sold from Brazil is 18-20 yuan a head! Damn the Portuguese, you know that if you take advantage of the fire to rob, sooner or later you will look good!

In fact, the East Bank attacked La Plata and successively attacked Buenos Aires, Santa Fe, Corrientes and other cities, and the amount of "enemy property" confiscated by the East Bank army made the members of the Executive Committee extremely moved. It turned out that he only knew that La Plata was rich, and that there were more than ten or even dozens of times more cattle than people, but he didn't expect that this wealthy Cheng dù was even higher than the people on the east coast imagined. However, they found excuses around Buenos Aires and other three cities to confiscate the property of more than a dozen big merchants and ranchers, and together with some "filial piety" sent by the rebellious Klandians, they collected more than 16,000 head of cattle, more than 40,000 sheep, 2,500 horses, more than 2,000 tons of grain, more than 20,000 bags of wool, more than 20,000 cow and sheep skins, and some other property, with a total value of more than 1.3 million yuan. If we include the various gold and silver coins worth more than 600,000 pesos seized, the total harvest of this battle is close to 2 million yuan.

How much is the East Coast now spending on the war compared to the harvest? First of all, the army will not talk about it, the cost here is very small, and it has spent more than 100,000 yuan more than usual in the past few months. For example, the three major shipyards built seven logistical auxiliary ships such as supply ships, troop carriers, and repair ships for the war, with a total cost of about 300,000 yuan; With the addition of one battleship and two frigates, the total cost of all ten ships is only a little over 500,000 yuan. If we take into account the additional expenses such as the settling-in allowance and training fees for the sailors, as well as the extra spare parts and ammunition that have been prepared, the total expenditure is only about 550,000 yuan. And these ships are not disposable, they are not there after the spending. As long as they are not sunk by the enemy, these ships will always remain in the battle sequence of the East Coast Navy, and will always be able to serve the East Coast Navy.

Of course, most of the captured "enemy property", except for the gold and silver coins, is difficult to convert into cash in a short period of time. Without cash, it is naturally impossible to procure all kinds of materials, and it will be difficult for the war to continue. Therefore, the Government Council arranged such an activity of subscribing to vegetable cattle in China, in order to return a part of the private funds to support the war, and at the same time, it was also to give the people a little dividend brought by the war and improve the morale and cohesion of the people.

By mid-December 1646, the Government Council had sold more than 8,000 beef cattle in China, and returned more than 80,000 yuan. The rest of the cattle, horses, sheep and other livestock are all managed by the state-run ranch in the ranch township, where a large number of black laborers are doing work such as grazing, shearing sheep, milking cows, etc. It is believed that after these tens of thousands of cattle, sheep and horses are handed over, the livestock scale of the state-owned pastures on the east coast will usher in a period of rapid growth. At the same time, more than 2,000 tons of La Plata wheat were hoarded in the warehouse of the Bulk Trade Center in Port Rocha, waiting for Dutch ships to come and buy it, and it is estimated that this will return 1670,000 yuan. The remaining logs, cattle and sheepskins and wool are allocated free of charge to the relevant state-owned enterprises, which are processed into finished products and then exported to foreign markets in exchange for funds.

All in all, judging from the situation in the three and a half months since the outbreak of the war, the people on the east coast have at least not lost money financially, and have even made a lot of profits, which cannot help but greatly encourage the military department and even the officials in the government. If the Argentine region is so rich, how rich will Asunción, which is known as the Pearl of La Plata, be? How rich is the densely populated and producing-rich Paraguay region? If you go and grab a handful, how much will it take?

After the end of the Cainiu subscription, the Government Council auctioned a batch of high-end furniture, leather clothes, clocks, bonds (issued by the Bank of Amsterdam, bearer), works of art and other objects used by the wealthy people of La Plata in Dongfang County, Zhenhai County and Ping'an County, and returned more than 30,000 yuan of funds again. According to Xu Wenxuan, director of the Xu Ji Oil Mill who participated in the auction, he later recalled that the participants were all workshop owners, military officers at or above the intermediate level, senior technicians, and businessmen who had a certain amount of wealth. The atmosphere of the auction was warm, everyone sang the national anthem collectively before the auction, and the bidding process was enthusiastic.

In the process, there is no noise. A Dutch mirror technician living on the East Coast was fed up with the frenzied war atmosphere on the East Coast, and he publicly derided the Republic of China as "a robbery gang disguised as a state." As soon as this statement came out, Henan Glass Factory immediately settled his salary, terminated the employment contract ahead of schedule, and asked him to leave the country within a time limit. The Dutch technician had no choice but to pack his bags, give up his lucrative job, and return to Amsterdam on a returning Dutch ship.

Encouraged by the dividends of the war, on December 20, Minister of War Liao Meng ordered that about 1,000 Polish and Tatar mercenaries (recruited for the Far East operations) who were currently staying in the port of Vostok be gathered at the dock to stand by. On the 25th, after some officers were sent to train them, the unit, which was mixed with 1,000 militiamen from Zhenhai County, was transferred to Buenos Aires in batches, and then to the city of Corrientes, which was currently under the control of the people on the east coast. They will join the Chang Kaisheng detachment in the city of Corrientes, and then wait for the next order from the military headquarters while retraining. (To be continued......)