On 18 February 1648, after a high-speed voyage, the two ships finally arrived at the middle of the river in the middle of the river, located in the lower reaches of the Berg River.

In fact, South Africa's development has been lagging behind in recent years. As the earliest foothold of the East Bank in Africa, the walls of the Port of River have been expanded to their current size. There are no industrial facilities outside the city, except for a brick kiln and a lime factory, there is no breath of industrial civilization here.

However, the population has been growing steadily over the years, and as of mid-February this year, the population of the two towns in Hezhong has exceeded the 10,000 mark. The population of Hezhong Township is 8,500, and the population of Gaoda Township is 3,400, and the total population of the two is close to 12,000, and in the next month or two, another 3,400 people will be intercepted by the Hezhong area -- usually handicraftsmen or Langzhong.

Of the 12,000 population, about 50% are Ming, mostly young and middle-aged males; Indians (including Charuas and Guarani) account for about 10%, and these people once accounted for nearly 30% of the population, but due to their lack of adaptation to the environment of the Old World and other reasons, they now account for only about one-tenth of the mass deaths, and most of these people are women; In addition, about 20% of the remaining population were Persian and Baloch slave girls, and the rest were newborn mixed-race children and a small number of European immigrants.

It can be seen that the proportion of Ming people in the Transoxiana region of South Africa is a full 10% higher than that of the mainland, coupled with the origin of the local residents, so the physical characteristics of the newborn children are more oriental, and there is a certain difference from the native. Moreover, whether it is Hezhong Town or Gaoda Township, its residents' culture is also more oriental. Or rather, the culture of the colony, which has been neglected by the mainland, is more like a mixture of Eastern and Western cultures: the area is full of big Central Asian girls and daughters-in-law with thick braids. Although the clothing worn was forbidden by the superiors several times. However, it still retains many of the distinctive characteristics of the Central Asian peoples.

The accent of the language is even stranger, both like Shandong accent and Xinjiang accent, and the local Ministry of Civil Affairs researchers have corrected it several times, but the effect is not great, and finally they have no choice but to give up. If the voice problem is only one aspect, then the atmosphere of the local residents is even more painful.

Not to mention anything else, most of the Ming people in South Africa are young and middle-aged men, including Shandong horse bandits and bandits. There are orphans of the intrusive army, and there are prisoners of the Qing army, these people are not good men and women. Let's just say that those immigrants who were born from horse bandits were lawless lords, and in Shandong back then, even more lawless people like Mo Dashuai could suppress them, but now they have arrived in South Africa, where the emperor is far away, and they are all suddenly shackled, and they are relaxed.

In view of the harsh natural environment and law and order in South Africa, the South African pioneer team often organized these strong militiamen to carry weapons to the Dongshan River Valley to "suppress bandits". The militia of more than 2,000 people is often dispatched at a time in the two townships, and local troops such as the River Security Regiment, the South African Cavalry Company, and the South African Artillery Company are responsible for the formation. Clearing the black herders along the valley - there is no black farming settler in the area anymore, only a few herders who covet the abundant water and grass here to graze.

For these herders from the Kama tribe. The policy of the East Coasters has always been to arrest them. The captured people were sent to the Eight Banners tribe attached to the east bank, and the cattle and sheep were taken by themselves. In addition to these officially organized purge operations (often thunder and rain, and the blacks who heard the news had long since fled), there were also some actions organized by the private sector. These operations are often carried out in groups of three or five, carrying equipment to find extra money during the off-season - to this day, the South African pioneer team has not canceled the bounty for the head of the Khosa tribe of the Kama tribe.

In addition to the head bounty, if you can also snatch some cattle and sheep, then you can immediately get rid of poverty and become rich and live a well-off life. Of course, there were some brave men who went to the pastures in the village to borrow a horse, and after stepping on the sword and gun, they rode alone to trouble the Xhosa, and often with great success, which made more people eager to try and imitate their actions.

The South African Pioneer Corps government does not prohibit guns from the civilian population, and the guns and ammunition used by the militia during training can be taken home for safekeeping, and the village militia chief and the township armed forces chief regularly inspect them. The reason for the ban on guns is mainly that it is far from optimistic, and although the black people of the Kama tribe have reached an agreement with the people on the east coast to end the war, small conflicts have continued over the years, and they have become more and more frequent. Perhaps in a few years, another war of great scale will break out between the two sides - for the land under the sun.

Zhang Jinhua felt such a strong folk atmosphere in South Africa when he got off the boat, and saw that the wharf was full of militiamen in disheveled clothes, but with rifles on their backs and a strong face on their faces, and these people were obviously the garrisons who maintained order here.

Major Chang Kaisheng, who had been the new leader of the South African pioneer team for less than a month, decided to come to meet Zhang Jinhua and others as soon as he had returned from leading the army out to "suppress bandits" after hearing of the arrival of Zhang Jinhua and others. It just so happened that the two boats also carried some daily necessities to the river area, just in time for the soldiers of the army to unload these things on the spot.

"Captain Chang, long time no see. The last time I saw you was before I left for La Plata, and in the blink of an eye, I was promoted from captain to colonel, which is really gratifying. Zhang Jinhua's expedition boat was moored on the calm waters of the Berg River, and he himself took the opportunity to go ashore to recuperate, and after a whole month of shuttling through the waves, he is now very tired.

"Nothing to congratulate." Chang Kaisheng smiled bitterly and said, "There is no place to place me in the mainland, so you can only send me to South Africa." It just so happened that Liu Ang, the former captain of the South African pioneer team, had also been operating here for many years, and the executive committee recalled him in accordance with discipline, so he asked me to come here and play with the black people. ”

"That's a good thing." Zhang Jinhua laughed and said: "Now I have heard many people say that people like you who have been 'envoys of other towns' are more likely to enter the central decision-making circle, and it is very common for them to be members of the Standing Committee. The so-called generals and generals are talking about people like you. Don't talk about it far away, just look at what position Mo Ming's guy will take when he comes back this time, grandma, I can't find out how the executive committee arranged him, and the news is kept secret. ”

"That's it." Chang Kaisheng said disappreciatively, "There are many people in the Government Council who look at me unpleasantly, and I know that it is too difficult to enter the central decision-making circle. Since there is no hope of making an inch in my career, I still have to make some money honestly and become a rich man. ”

"It's good to be a rich man, but now the government has been dragging on because of the ongoing war, and many people are already making trouble in it, and the water is very deep, so it's better not to mess around at this time." Zhang Jinhua sighed a little embarrassed and said, "Don't you see that I was also sent out?" Grandma's, let me go to sea to find overseas fairy mountains. ”

"Haha." Chang Kaisheng laughed twice, then put his arm around Zhang Jinhua's shoulders and said, "Let's go, go into the city to play, there will be no shortage of wine and food." Let the brethren also get off the boat and rest and have a good meal. I'm going to vomit when I eat those cans all day long, and we have ostriches, lions, antelopes, and everything delicious. Well, and the cod, unlike the native cod, and the abalone and the excellent wine......"

Chang Kaisheng said that these foods are all South African specialties. Among them, the Hezhong town government has set up an ostrich farm outside the city, specializing in breeding ostriches and ostrich eggs for meat and exporting them locally. These ostrich meat, ostrich eggs and ostrich skins, along with South Africa's agricultural products such as sorghum, peanuts, watermelons, wool and cattle, are the largest commodities exported to the country, and they are very profitable every year.

Of course, South Africa now exports a lot more domestic goods. Except for a small number of seal skins, most of them are fishing that has gradually emerged in the past two years. The Benguela Current, which flows through the waters off the river and the port, brings abundant nutrients to the local coastal waters, and the nearby large rivers flow into the sea, which also attracts a large number of fish and forms the famous fishing grounds of South Africa.

With the approval of the local government council, the shipyard in Hezhong Port began to expand a few years ago and was eventually officially upgraded to a shipyard. However, the shipyard is still very limited in terms of manpower, technology and materials, so it can only build a small number of offshore fishing boats on a regular basis.

These fishing boats are generally only a few dozen tons in size, all of which use sail power, and usually catch some cod, herring, swordfish, abalone and even tuna in the offshore waters, and the harvest is good, and their production is also increasing year by year. For example, when South Africa's fishing industry first emerged in '44, the catch was only 80 tonnes that year, but it rose to 150 tonnes the next year, 240 tonnes in the third year, and an unprecedented 300 tonnes last year (the total local fishery production was 1,800 tonnes last year). More than 90% of the fish caught in South Africa's fishing grounds are exported to the mainland, and the price is low, in this era of scarcity of materials due to the war, a large number of pickled fish and dried fish from South Africa have greatly enriched the local commodity market, so that the living consumption expenditure of the people on the east coast will not rise too fast.

The fishing industry has developed rapidly, and the viticulture and winemaking industry in South Africa has also developed rapidly with the help of many Gascony and Provençal immigrants. They planted their first vines in 1640 in the port of the river, and the year before that they began to make wine, which is said to be of acceptable quality.

However, the climate here is not ideal, so before the departure of the former leader of the South African pioneer team, Liu Ang, a small number of men had been sent to explore the Kranwilliam area, and a settlement was built there to divert part of the population of the town of Hezhong to farm, grow grapes and make wine. When Chang Kaisheng took office, he inherited this policy from Liu Ang, and then named the new settlement Elephant Fort, meaning fortress on the banks of the Elephant River, and sent half of the cavalry of the South African Cavalry Company to protect the small number of early pioneers there.

It is believed that after the development of South Africa's wine industry, the situation of Xiangshan dry red market in Zhenhai County will be greatly impacted. (To be continued......)