Chapter XXXII Population and Agriculture
Since Yu Xiaotian was appeased, the sea wolf has established salt drying fields for private salt in many places along the coast, and a large number of salt drying fields have also been established on the island of Taiwan, and a large number of illegal salt smuggling has been secretly smuggled in large quantities.
Illicit salt has always been a monopoly of the imperial court, and it can even be compared to silver, which is used as another common currency, and the sea wolf also operated illicit salt in the past, but after all, this thing was investigated by the government, and the risk was relatively large, and it could not be sold too much.
Now Yu Xiaotian has a heavy army in Fujian, and wants to do the trade of illicit salt, which is simply blessed, who dares to check the army under Yu Xiaotian, no matter how much illicit salt they transport, whether it is by land or water, as long as there is Yu Xiaotian's order flag, I dare not say that the gods have to retreat, at least ordinary officials do not dare to find a little trouble.
With the protection of this layer of identity, when the sea wolf does the private salt business, it can be said that it is invincible, as long as someone wants it, the sea wolf dares to guarantee that the private salt will be sent directly to their designated trading place, and there will never be any trouble, plus the price is fair, those little salt lords, are happy to do business with the sea wolf, although the sea wolf requires that it must be paid in cash, and must not be in arrears, but the risk of doing business with the sea wolf is much smaller than that of trading with other people, and it is easier to make a profit, so the salt lords around the country are willing to take the goods from the sea wolf.
The quality of the private salt produced by the sea wolf is much better than that of the ordinary salt lord, and the quality of the same price is good, so you can sell it at a higher price and get more profits.
Since Yu Xiaotian was appeased, in addition to showing its strength on land in Fujian, Seawolf Group's various undertakings on the island of Taiwan can also be said to be making great progress.
Freshwater City has been built by the sea wolf for many years, and now it has become a fairly large city, with a population of nearly 100,000 people in the city alone, which is a fairly large city on land, at least the scale of a high-class county at the top, although it is not as good as some large prefectures, but in the past, on a barren land, in just a few years, such a city was built, which is already commendable.
In the past few years, the number of immigrants from the entire sea wolf to Taiwan Island has reached 700,000, and the number of immigrants is in Tamsui, Keelung, Kaohsiung, Yilan and other places.
At the beginning of the large-scale immigration from Fujian in the first year of Xiaotian Chongzhen, he officially renamed Dagou Port as Kaohsiung Port, and built a city in Kaohsiung, called Kaohsiung City, with Kaohsiung as the center, radiating to the surrounding areas, and placing a large number of immigrants.
At the same time, Yu Xiaotian took into account the increase in immigration, the labor force and manpower were much more relaxed than before, and he wanted to use Taiwan as his nest in the future, and although the Yilan Plain is not large, the land is fertile, which is most suitable for planting rice in a large area, and the southerners mostly take rice as their staple food, and grow rice in the Yilan area, with two harvests a year, which can supply a large amount of rice to the sea wolf.
Therefore, after the second year of Chongzhen, Yu Xiaotian ordered the Seawolf Group to start stationing in the Yilan Plain, still using the old method, first sending a large number of hard laborers to the Yilan Plain to burn the wasteland and level the land to improve the environment, and then after the local environment was improved, a large number of immigrants began to farm in the Yilan Plain.
In the three years of Chongzhen, more than 30,000 migrants were resettled in the Yilan Plain alone, a large number of paddy fields were reclaimed, and more than 50 new resettlement villages were built for the resettlement of new migrants.
Although every large-scale expansion will consume a large number of hard labor, resulting in a large number of hard labor deaths, but for these hard labor, the sea wolf has never hesitated, after all, among these people, either the pirates got the black-skinned monkeys from the South Seas, or some criminals, especially these criminals who have committed serious crimes, each has a way to die, it can be said that death is not a pity.
Although this is cruel, it has greatly reduced the mortality rate of a large number of immigrants and a lot of undeserved losses, and of course, the incidence of epidemics such as malaria has naturally decreased a lot.
It cannot be said that the migration of the sea wolf has always been smooth sailing, and in the second year of Chongzhen, there were two large-scale malaria outbreaks in the Keelung Fort and Kaohsiung areas.
However, fortunately, Yu Xiaotian was prepared in advance and organized many medical officers to use Artemisia annua as the basic medicine and have been carrying out tests on the treatment of malaria with Artemisia annua.
Over the years, these tests have also achieved considerable results, and the medical officers of the sea wolf have basically found several more effective prescriptions for the treatment of malaria, although they dare not say that they are very effective, but they still save many people infected with malaria.
In addition, under the words and deeds of Xiaotian, the medical officers of the sea wolf have a clearer understanding of the contagiousness of malaria, and have taken more effective measures to control the epidemic.
In addition, Yu Xiaotian ordered local administrative officials in Taiwan to focus on persuading farmers in various places, introducing various policies, and supporting agricultural development, and gradually formed a situation in which rice is mainly planted in the Yilan Plain, fishing is mainly carried out in Keelungbao, and dryland crops are mainly cultivated in the area of Tamsui City, plus a small amount of sugarcane is planted, and a large number of sugarcane are planted in the Kaohsiung area in addition to rice, and several large sugar houses have been opened.
Localities near the sea have vigorously developed the fishery industry to provide a relatively sufficient supply of protein for the members of the sea wolf, including those in the rice fields, and also look at stocking freshwater fish, raising ducks, etc., in addition to fertilizing the fields, you can also eat a lot of harmful insects.
In addition, the sea wolf has always attached great importance to the problem of fertilizer accumulation and the selection and breeding of improved varieties, focusing on the promotion of high-yield grain crop varieties, and also attaches great importance to the construction of water conservancy.
Although it is far from the grain output of the farmland in later generations, the yield of one acre of rice fields has basically reached the yield of seven or eight stones in two seasons a year, and in addition, the fish that can be harvested twice a year in the paddy fields make the income level of farmers far exceed that of the land.
Although the taxes collected by the Seawolf Group on the land are not light, the Seawolf does not have a messy increase, and there is no messy tax such as drenching and kicking, fire consumption and other harsh taxes, although the farmers have to pay a lot of grain every year, but there is still a lot of surplus.
In this way, after spending the initial period of discomfort and panic, the immigrants saw that life here was getting better day by day, so they naturally felt at ease, and the people were relieved, and naturally there were many fewer people looking for trouble, and the folk customs were naturally much simpler, and the society was relatively much more stable than on land.
In addition, the Seawolf Group has always carried out a high-pressure policy against all kinds of criminals in its jurisdiction, and gradually cleared out some restless and self-conscious people among the immigrants and sent them to the hard labor camps for so-called labor reform.
By the time of Chongzhen's fourth year, the sea wolf basically achieved a benign state of food supply in several large resettlement areas on Taiwan Island, and the self-produced grain could almost meet the needs of the immigrants on the entire Taiwan Island.
So in just a few years, the island of Taiwan is basically firmly controlled by the sea wolf, although the local natives do not welcome them these so-called invaders, but they are already helpless, the sea wolf group for these indigenous tribes, but also take a soft hand and a hard carrot and stick method, on the one hand, let them know that the sea wolf can not be provoked, on the other hand, it also makes them feel that with these outsiders, their life is better, At the very least, they can exchange their prey for a lot of useful things from these settlements.
Yu Xiaotian also specially instructed to export more basic daily necessities such as cloth, ironware, porcelain, tea and salt to these natives, so that they can experience the benefits of these things, and they will not be able to do without these things in the future.
And for some indigenous tribes that maintain good relations with the sea wolf, teach them the skills of land reclamation, and gradually integrate them into the social system established by the sea wolf in the future, which will play a very good role in the long-term stability of the sea wolf on Taiwan Island in the future.
Although when trading with the natives, the sea wolf must still squeeze a lot of benefits from the natives, but on the whole, this kind of squeezing is not harsh, the sea wolf in the profit at the same time, but also pay attention to fair trade, so that these natives feel that they are not too disadvantaged, gradually some indigenous tribes found that as long as they do not take the initiative to attack the immigrants, these outsiders are not very unreasonable, gradually more and more natives, they gradually eliminated the strong hostility to the sea wolf, began to tentatively go out of the mountains and forests, and these immigrants began to deal with.
Of course, for some fierce and unreasonable headhunter tribes, the sea wolf will never be soft, and has sent a large number of troops many times to carry out bloody blows on these tribes that seriously threaten the safety of immigrants, and eliminate them one after another, but on the whole, they are also rushing to catch alive if they can, and for the captured indigenous women and children, they will be placed in various immigrant villages for supervision, and gradually integrate them into the social system of the sea wolf.
The young men were captured and sent to some labor camps for reform, and the natives who adapted to it were gradually absorbed into the army and used as auxiliaries or formal soldiers.