June 10, 1632. The 1,000 acres of farmland of the 1st Production Team of the Development Brigade of Dingyuanbao Reclamation Area have achieved a huge harvest, and more than 900 tons of potatoes have been included in the grain reserve warehouse of the East Coast Company. This batch of potatoes is enough for everyone to eat together for half a year, and the lingering food shadow hanging over everyone's heads has finally subsided temporarily.

To this end, the Executive Committee organizes large-scale celebrations and designates June 10 as the Harvest Festival every year.

Blanco Sosa de Almeida and his entourage walked in the midst of the bustling crowds, and the streets were full of reveling crowds. A few rude Germans sat at a small table in the street, drunkenly drinking unknown spirits in small barrels, while talking and laughing loudly as if no one was around.

There seemed to be free food being handed out on street corners, and large crowds of people crowded there. A few black-uniformed policemen were there to maintain order, with brass whistles around their necks and short sticks pinned to their waists, and even the most vulgar Irishman had become well-behaved when they saw them.

As one of the most erudite scholars of San Vicente, Blanco found many things interesting to him. The pedestrians who walked through the streets were clearly from many different countries, the majority of whom were Germans, followed by Czechs, Norwegians, Finns and Irish, as evidenced by the language in which they spoke to each other. People from different countries seemed to be conversing with each other in a different language, and Blanco was a little ashamed, he didn't know which language it was, maybe it was Tatar?

But Father Simão Pérez da Silva, from the Society of Jesus, offered a different opinion, arguing that the language seemed to be very similar to the language used in the Ming Empire in the East. Fr. Simão, who had spent many years in Macau, was fluent in the Ming language and spoke the dialect of the southern Ming region, so his words have a great deal of credibility.

Moreover, he quickly found evidence to support his arguments. At the intersection ahead, there is a row of newly built Oriental-style red brick and green tile houses, and under the eaves of the houses hangs a wooden sign with a row of words written on it in some kind of black dye.

"What is written?" Blanco looked at Father Simão.

"For... Pin... Society. Father Simão was at a loss, he knew all three words, but he had no idea what they meant together.

"Maybe it's a store." Father Simão looked at it for a moment and said uncertainly.

"Let's go, let's see." Blanco turned his head and said, "Ricardo, Carlos, let's go over and have a look, maybe we'll make new discoveries." ”

The four of them crossed the intersection and entered the "supply and marketing cooperative". The clerk looked at the well-dressed four people with a slight surprise. But she was only slightly surprised, for ships from various nations were often moored at the wharf, and dirty and rude sailors, well-dressed gentlemen, and even some beautiful ladies would take advantage of the mooring time to enter the city. She had seen a lot of people of all colors, and although the combination of these four gentlemen, priests, merchants, and officers was rare, it did not arouse her much interest.

The space inside the store is not large. There is a long counter at the door, and several shelves are placed next to the wall behind the counter, and the variety of goods on the shelves is not very rich. Blanco approached the shelves in the middle and looked at the door, and found that most of them were common European goods, such as cotton, linen, wine, sugar, salt, olive oil, and so on. Blanco judged that only the salt was produced by the Tatars, and the rest was probably imported from Europe.

A "bang" came from the left, and Blanco turned his eye to see Captain Ricardo pulling out a saber that was on the left shelf.

The movement attracted the attention of the two guards inside the door, each carrying an arquebus and an identical saber from his waist. The clerk also walked over, and she hesitated, as if she didn't know how to speak, perhaps because she didn't know what language to use to talk to these people.

"Good day, sir. How do you need help? Alessia Bastien asked cautiously in French, the four customers looked to be Spanish in their attire, hoping they could understand French.

"Good day, beautiful lady." Captain Ricardo replied, "I just wanted to try this sharp saber, and I'm sorry to disturb you." ”

"Sir, this saber is forged from high-quality steel, which is of better quality than similar sabers, and is perfect for your use." "Trust me, he's a partner you can rely on, both on the battlefield and in the dueling ring. In fact, we've sold over 1,000 of these knives. Today in Sweden, Russia and the Brandenburg region, our sabres are synonymous with reliability. ”

Ricardo groaned for a moment, stroked the inscription on the knife, and asked, "How much does this saber cost?" ”

"2 yuan and 5 jiao, sir." Alessia immediately replied, "Do you need it?" ”

"Yes, I need it." Captain Ricardo paid and hung the knife around his waist. He exchanged some Tatar currency at the wharf, and 2 yuan and 5 jiao were equivalent to 20 Spanish riyals. The price is neither expensive nor cheap, but this knife Captain Ricardo really loves, and men always need some special toys.

"Sir, do you need to look at anything else?" After finishing a business, Alessia began to sell other goods, "The tools and farm tools produced by our East Coast company are also very good. Shovels, sickles, pickaxes, forks, axes, nails, hammers, butcher knives, etc., are also made of high-quality steel and are very cheap. ”

Ricardo didn't speak, but Blanco did. It is well known that the overlords had strict restrictions on the industrial development of the colonies in the New World. Every year, the royal family or large corporations that monopolize trade bring all kinds of production and living materials from the mainland to the colonies and sell them at high prices, and then transport special products such as cotton, sugar, cocoa, and coffee from the colonies back to the homeland to sell them, earning high profits.

In the first half of the 17th century, Brazil's main export trade was either plantation crops such as sugar, tobacco, cotton, and indigo, or animal husbandry products such as leather, animal fat, horse (cow) hair, horns, furs, feathers, and sweet wine. Corresponding to the export of trade goods, Brazil's imports are mainly vinegar, ironware, linen, cotton, silk satin, medicinal herbs, oil, hats, wine, cured ham and machinery and other production and living materials, mainly from Portugal.

It can be seen from this that the colony exported a large number of primary agricultural and animal products, and imported production tools and consumer goods. Due to the monopoly of trade, the Brazilian notocracy of the native plantations and the nobility of livestock would lose a great deal of profit every year. This made them extremely angry with the Portuguese merchants in the big cities, but they had no choice but to rely on them.

Blanco Sosa de Almeida, the son of the owner of the hacienda of the "sugar aristocracy" in southern Brazil, is all too clear about this situation. Now I can't help but think when I see that the Tatars have such a complete range of farm tools and hardware products here. If they produce enough, they can smuggle it back to Brazil through their family's boats, and then sell it either for their own use or re-export.

Moreover, these Tatars seem to be very lacking in Brazil's abundant livestock products and cash crops such as sugar, tobacco, cotton, and indigo, and the two economies are very complementary to each other. Thinking of this, Blanco was quiet on the surface, but he had his own thoughts in his heart.

The four of them looked at it for a while, and when they saw that there was nothing new, they left the store. In the store just now, they had already asked where they were going and how to get there, and now they went straight to their destination as soon as they got out.

After a few minutes of walking north along the intersection, past two waves of celebratory crowds, you came to a walled three-story red brick building. It's the tallest building in the city, and the only high-rise building, made of red brick and precast cement panels, reminiscent of the rural buildings that could be found everywhere on the land of early 90s China.

This is the newly built Executive Committee Administration Building. After the original office log house was demolished, the construction company built the building on the original site, and used the latest reinforced concrete prefabricated panels from the cement prefabricated panel branch of the brick kiln yard. The building has three floors and eighteen rooms, and contains almost all the administrative bodies of the Crossing Public.

At the entrance to the wall, a squad of 8 policemen from the Ministry of Internal Affairs was stationed, and there were three scattered squads with a total of 24 policemen, which could be regarded as heavily guarded. There was a reception room at the door, and in it was a traverser with an interpreter by his side.

The interpreter was a Frenchman, and after listening to Blanco's introduction, he relayed it in English to the traverser.

"You say you're Brazilian? Coming here to buy weapons and equipment? Li Le asked, "What equipment do you want to buy?" ”

"We need your high-quality plate armor, powerful light guns, and, of course, sharp sabers." "I have a mandate from the Governor of Bahia and we can have a long-term relationship. ”

"I can't do this." Li Le took out a piece of paper, wrote a few strokes, and then said: "The sale of plate armor and cannons requires the joint permission of the Army Commissioner, the Navy Commissioner, and the Material Commissioner. Unfortunately, they all went to the west to attend the ceremony. So, take this list and go to the port authority upstream of the dam, and they will arrange for you to take a boat to your destination. Go for it! ”

The four Blanco had no choice but to take the list all the way to the port authority in the city. A "Tatar" officer at the port authority doubled the slip, then filled it with a few more lines and handed it to Blanco, instructing him to give it to the next official he met. Then, after collecting a dime for the ferry ticket, he arranged for them to take a small river wooden boat to transport supplies to the 1st production team of the pioneer brigade.