The Zhongzhou Kingdom (formerly Ecuador) and the Fuyuan Kingdom (formerly Peru Cession) toured for 8 days, one day more than originally planned, and the situation was mixed.

The Chinese population of Zhongzhou Kingdom is 96.7%, with a total population of 652,000. The Chinese population of the Fuyuan Kingdom is 73.5%, and the total population is 789,000, all of which are small population vassal states.

The level of economic development here is far inferior to that of Colombia, and it is still dominated by agriculture and plantation economy, and the urban construction is not satisfactory, which inevitably makes some small countries feel cramped.

Most of the industrial goods of these two vassal states were imported from the empire itself or Colombia, and the limited industries were only lumberjacks, rice mills, flour mills, and a few mines, and the strength was much weaker.

After Emperor Richard inspected the area, he rewarded the two small vassal states with a thermal power plant, all located in the capital of their kings, with an investment of about 450,000 Tang Yuan per power plant.

Unlike the three large dam projects in Colombia, the thermal power plant rewarded by Emperor Richard was ultimately owned by the vassal family, which can be regarded as a subsidy.

Every year, a thermal power plant will earn tens of thousands of Tang Yuan, which can maintain the decent royal life needs of the Zhongzhou Kingdom and the Fuyuan Kingdom.

These two feudal states had small populations and few factories, so they naturally had fewer taxes, and the local royal government had very little to share except for administrative expenses.

These feudal kings were equivalent to going out to live separately independently, and the Imperial Interior Office no longer bore the annual fixed money and the four seasons of the festival, and had to rely on themselves.

Fortunately, both feudal states had local garrisons, and Pinsuri would also help maintain local law and order, saving a lot of police expenses, and the financial expenses were barely balanced.

Even if you are the supreme of the empire, Emperor Richard can't make a bowl of water equal to the prince and the prince, so he can only subsidize some expenses a little.

After a tour of the three countries in South America, Emperor Richard led a royal fleet to the Kingdom of Cuba on October 26, where it was warmly welcomed by hundreds of thousands of local people on the docks of Havana.

The Kingdom of Cuba was given to the eighth son of the emperor, Tang Li Zhun, who was the second son of the late Emperor Zheng (Zheng Xiuniang), and his brother was the second prince, His Royal Highness Tang Li Geng, who was crowned Duke of Panama.

Love the house and Wu, Emperor Richard is grateful for the companionship of Emperor Zheng for more than 30 years, and treats the second prince and the eighth prince The two brothers are also very kind, one of the vassal states is sealed in Oklahoma in North America, and the other is sealed in Cuba.

To know

The four princes in North America are all special favorites of His Majesty the Emperor, and the four vassal states are all pro-kingdoms, namely the eldest prince, the second prince, the fourth prince and the eleventh prince, which are far more noble than the other feudal kings.

His Royal Highness Don Li Dian, Duke of Alaska, the fourth prince, has a dignified and steady personality, and he was the first to be willing to go to the small Amami Kingdom to become a vassal and have been deeply involved in the local area for more than ten years.

When the Tang Empire expanded again, in order to make up for the regret of the original fief, Emperor Richard deliberately took out Massachusetts, a coastal state in eastern North America, and granted it to His Royal Highness Tang Li Dian as a fief of his vassal king, in order to show his contribution to promoting the emperor's education.

The Tang Li Dian family is of royal blood, owning the Kingdom of Amami and the Kingdom of Massachusetts, which is unique among the princes.

It can be described as the emperor's grace is vast, and the saints are rich.

His Royal Highness Don-Li Xin, the eleventh son of the emperor, was named King of Ohio, occupying the eastern part of North America with a long history and a high degree of development, which is also a powerful vassal state with economic strength enough to rank in the top three, and His Majesty the Emperor made up for his inability to inherit the imperial throne.

In the perception of the imperial family and the courtiers, the closer the feudal state is to the empire itself, the more favored by His Majesty the Emperor, and its influence and discourse power are heavier, and vice versa.

Kingdom of Cuba

The royal capital is Havana

It is strategically located on the banks of the Almendares River in the Gulf of Havana in the northwest of Cuba Island, guarding the gateway from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean.

Havana, the largest port in the Americas during the Spanish colonial era, has a long history, and the old town has countless Spanish buildings and dozens of Catholic churches, making it a city with strong Spanish architectural characteristics.

Wandering through it, it is really a mistake to think that you are located on the coast of the Mediterranean, and it has left a deep imprint of the Spanish colonizers.

After the eighth son of the emperor, Tang Li, directly turned the former Cuban Governor's Palace into a royal palace, and moved into it after a little tidying up, which was the most convenient and concise among the vassal states.

There are many palaces in Havana, and there are many noble manors and castles, and there is a lot of room for selection, and there is no need to build new palaces on a large scale.

Havana is known as the "Pearl of the Caribbean", with a beautiful and romantic Caribbean scenery with a clear coconut breeze, a blue sea and a silver beach.

Emperor Richard planned to stay in Cuba for half a month, going deep into the following provinces and cities (Note; refers to the provinces and municipalities to which the Kingdom of Cuba belongs) to learn more about it, not to pass by by a dragonfly.

The population of the Kingdom of Cuba, which reached more than 2.47 million at the beginning of the 20th century, recovered to a large extent after the war, and the vast majority of the new population were Chinese immigrants, accounting for more than 6 and a half of the total population.

There are also two and a half white Hispanic descendants, making it one of the most white vassal states.

A few days later

The central region of the Kingdom of Cuba, Kawaigouan

In the endless tall sugarcane fields, seven "Fengshou" brand sugarcane harvesters produced by the Tang Empire are lined up, harvesting sugarcane on a large scale.

Under the shade of the trees on the edge of the field

Emperor Richard, surrounded by his courtiers, was watching the sugarcane harvesting operation, and from time to time he pointed and asked a few questions, and his expression seemed quite serious.

The function of this harvest brand sugarcane harvester is relatively simple, that is, a rotary reamer is hung on the front end of the 4-wheel tractor, and the cut sugarcane is poured to one side like a wave.

Next

It also took the manpower to cut off the sugarcane leaves, remove the bales, and move them to the tractor captain's bucket that came later, and then the job was done.

So in the sugarcane fields, dozens of plantation workers wearing big straw hats and holding slender scimitars in their hands beat the leaves and heads of the sugarcane, bundle them up and throw them in the field, waiting for the tractor to come and carry them away.

Tractors deliver the newly harvested sugarcane directly to the sugar mill, where inspectors check the quality of the sugarcane and remove the leaves thoroughly, which affects the selling price.

After the inspection, the sugarcane will be weighed and the plantation owner will be able to get the bill, and finally settle the cost of selling the sugarcane according to the bill.

It's harvest time

Sugar mills throughout Cuba are operating at full capacity, and the new cane sugar will soon be shipped to the port, where the traders will arrange for it to be loaded onto ships and sold in North American ports and even European markets.

Cuba, Hawaii, Colombia and Luzon, together with the Paradise Province, are the five major sugar producing regions in the world, accounting for more than ninety percent of the world's sugar production, and have the pricing power of the sweet business.

The price of cane sugar is formed by the Chicago Agricultural Futures Exchange, which is also the main part of the pricing mechanism of bulk agricultural products in the world today, including wheat, soybeans, rice, oats, cane sugar, coffee, cocoa, natural rubber, spices, tobacco, cattle, sheep and poultry, frozen meat, cowhide, wool and other categories, almost all-inclusive.

Among these major agricultural products, the Tang Empire is an out-and-out major producer, firmly occupying the position of the world's largest agricultural power.

As a result, more than a dozen large multinational grain and oil trading companies and hundreds of medium-sized companies have been formed, and the annual trading volume is very impressive.

The medium-sized sugarcane plantation in front of you is run by a retired army lieutenant surnamed Tian Fuman, a typical Chinese plantation owner's family.

Tian Fuman runs an 831-acre sugarcane plantation, or more than 5,000 acres of land, which is a medium-sized plantation that is very representative of the local area.

He has a wife and three concubines, and a total of 27 children, the eldest child is 32 years old, and the youngest is only 4 years old.

Now that it is the busy farming season, the son, daughter-in-law and son-in-law are all relatives in battle, and the sugarcane harvester and tractor are all self-purchased machinery, which can greatly save labor.

The family planted 4,500 acres of sugarcane, in addition to 270 acres of soybeans, 50 acres of rice, more than a dozen acres of vegetables, more than 130 acres of alfalfa, more than 70 cattle, 22 fat pigs, hundreds of chickens and ducks, and more than 20 strong horses.

The planted alfalfa and soybean meal after oil extraction are the main feed for cattle, horses, pigs and poultry, and the milk produced by more than a dozen cows and the eggs laid by chickens and ducks can ensure that a family is not short of meat, eggs and milk, and can be completely self-sufficient.

Most of the local plantation owners and farmers are similar, raising fat pigs to kill meat to eat, chickens, ducks and poultry to lay eggs, in addition to eating themselves, you can also go to the town to exchange some money, but the number is different.

Milk is similar, in addition to being enjoyed by the family, it can be sold to the milk station in the town to earn some pocket money.

no doubt

Tian Fuman's family's main income comes from the sale of sugarcane and soybean oil, which they need to buy fertilizer, seedlings and agricultural machinery, diesel fuel and other necessities.

For example, cloth, kerosene for lighting lamps, all kinds of new pots and pans, mirrors, shotguns, saddles, bicycles, books, etc., the cost of a family of dozens of people is not small.

When Emperor Richard asked kindly, Tian Fuman, who had already made a fortune, had a ruddy face full of happy smiles, and thanked the royal kindness one after another.

Think back to the beginning

He was just a desert escapee with no food and clothing, he was selected into the new barracks in Weihaiwei, crossed the ocean to North America alone, and participated in the Second North American War in 1860, and was an out-and-out veteran.

After retiring from the army, he settled in Cuba, and with his past exploits and a sum of money he had saved, he founded this plantation belonging to the Tian family, which developed step by step.

Now the family gathering place is called Tianjia Village, and there are intermarriages with more than a dozen nearby villages, which are some former comrades-in-arms, most of whom are people who know their roots.

Over the years, a deep-rooted local force has been formed, and Tian Fuman himself is also a member of the Kawaiguan City Council, and a squire who has been commended by the Kingdom of Cuba.

He is very satisfied with this kind of life.

Therefore, I always teach my children and grandchildren over and over again that they must know how to be grateful, be loyal to the Tang Empire, and always be ready to fight for the empire.

Retired officers and soldiers, who widely existed in the empire and various vassal states, were one of the beneficiary groups of foreign colonial expansion, with conservative and stubborn political ideas, and were loyal supporters of the royal family of the Tang Empire.