June 12, Changxing Island, Sindu (now St. John's, Newfoundland).

It is also speechless that during the more than 100 years that the Kingdom of England controlled the island of Newfoundland, their government never encouraged its own people to emigrate to the island. For a long time, the English used Newfoundland as a seasonal fishing ground. When the fishing fleet leaves in the fall, a large number of sailors who have been contracted to work for two or three summers are left behind on Newfoundland for the winter, processing and storing the catch in addition to the task of guarding the catch.

In the small town of St. John's, the largest settlement on the island, when the Qi State received it, there were only about 500 permanent residents, including about 60 or 70 women and nearly 100 children.

The town has a few shops and is the most important centre of activity, but the presence of cattle and sheep between the houses and behind the jungle suggests that it is still a humble fishing village.

It can be seen that although England fought with France for Newfoundland very early, it never wanted to seriously run the place until it was completely in control.

However, after the Qi people came, they showed a completely different attitude, and they attached great importance to the construction of Newfoundland, wanting to turn it into a real colonial territory, rather than a pure fishing ground.

By the way, the Qi people not only renamed Newfoundland to Changxing Island, but also changed the eastern name of St. John's to Xindu, and appointed a formal governor to replace the previous model of being managed by the captains of fishing boats.

On the north side of the highlands of Xindu, a fortress covering an area of about ten acres is under construction, a huge log is driven into the ground, a piece of stone is built into a solid city wall, warehouses, military camps, official houses, and residential houses are slowly taking shape, and more than 200 young men and half-grown teenagers who have been hired to work hard under the guidance of professional craftsmen are working hard day and night.

In the past, this is a busy time for cod processing and pickling, and there will never be so many "idle" laborers who come here to build the city.

Gain, the remuneration given by the people of Qi is really difficult to refuse.

Adult labourers pay 8 shillings a day, and half-grown teenagers earn 4 to 5 shillings a day, which is a "frenzy" for the island's inhabitants who have never seen a lot of money.

It is important to know that even in a big city like London, the average worker is paid no more than 4-5 shillings a day, and no more than 10 pounds a month (1 pound = 20 shillings = 240 pence).

And the remuneration given by the people of Qi is 50% higher than that of England itself!

In the past, it used to process and marinate cod for those fishing boats, which was 3-4 shillings a day, and the working hours were more than 13 or 4 hours. Prolonged exposure to salt can lead to dryness, itching, peeling, and even skin inflammation or ulcers in severe cases.

Of course, building a city and building a house for the people of Qi is also a hard work, carrying a burden on your shoulders, and the sweat of the day has not stopped, and you may even encounter the risk of work-related injuries.

But in order to earn a good pay, a little exertion is nothing. Poor people, isn't there only a handful of strength left?

Ten days ago, a Qi merchant ship arrived at Xindu Port, and in addition to bringing a large amount of food and daily necessities to this town, it also brought more than 60 Qi immigrants, all of whom were young and strong men, without women and children.

The Governor of Newfoundland was very generous in giving the settlers a large tract of land in the north for free, as if each settler had been given more than 30 acres (1 acre = 6.07 acres) of land, and some of the higher scholars, artisans, and soldiers would receive additional land on top of this.

After a short two-day break, the men did not participate in the construction of the city, but instead built a transitional collective hut on the west side of the fortress.

They need to build themselves a shelter to withstand the cold before the fall and winter cools, and they also need to clear some of the fields and plant a small number of potatoes to replenish the island's food reserves.

Yes, Newfoundland has never been self-sufficient in food, and most of its supplies are imported from New England, except for a small part from the territory of New France.

"None of the land allocated to these immigrants is ready-made arable land, but forest land that has to be cleared first. It could take them a lifetime to clear all the land they belong to and build the perfect home. Xiao Lizhi, the right governor of Chen Wangfu and the governor of Changxing Island, stood on a hill, looking at a piece of woodland that was planned as an agricultural planting area, and sighed slightly, "However, after a generation's struggle, a small family farm will basically form a scale, which should ensure that this family can live a more relaxed and comfortable life in the future." ”

"Yes, a hundred acres of arable land, a small pasture, a barn, a stable, a slightly larger house, a road in front of the door, and a neighbor who has known each other for many years, a full stomach every day, a change of clothes in all seasons, it is desirable to think about it!" Zuo Zhichao, the civil affairs officer of Xindu, nodded and agreed: "However, to achieve the above development goals, I am afraid it will take at least twenty or thirty years. By then, we'll either be in the middle of the fashion years, or we'll be buried in the ground. ”

"Since ancient times, colonization and development have been extremely difficult, and it is impossible to make contributions unless one or two generations do it." Xiao Lizhi said: "In the past, I Qi Guojihanzhou, after 20 years to gain a firm foothold, barely self-sufficient. Now, King Chen has established a vassal and founded Chenzhou, even if there is local support, he can protect himself within ten years, which is the work of our greed. In time, Chen Guo will be able to enjoy a hundred years of wealth with the honor of founding the country and auxiliary protection. ”

When Emperor Jiawang's dream was completely shattered, they had lost all their political future in the country, and even after the new monarch succeeded to the throne, they might have to be liquidated.

In view of this, they had no choice but to tie their fate firmly to King Jia, and followed Qi Weijun, who was crowned King Chen, to Chenzhou to take up the domain.

When King Chen first arrived in the domain, he was depressed for a while, and for nearly half a year, he hid in that slightly simple palace and drank and went crazy, resented the ruthless resentment of Emperor Taiping, and hated the superior of the emperor's grandson, and lamented his own tragic fate continuously, and almost ignored and disposed of the local affairs of Chenzhou.

Fortunately, after the persuasion of Shi Hao Zongzhang, the governor of the palace, and Xiong Weicong, the father-in-law of Chen Wangyue, Wang Chen gradually recovered a little from the blow of debasement, and cheered up a little and began to pay attention to the affairs of Chenzhou.

But it was in September last year that His Royal Highness King Chen really ignited his endless ambitions and was determined to make a big difference in the domain. At that time, a Qi merchant ship from the Mediterranean Sea unexpectedly arrived at the port of Royal.

In addition to bringing a large number of daily necessities, this merchant ship also brought a lot of news from China and Europe to Chen's palace. One of them was that Emperor Yonglong, who had just succeeded to the throne, sent a diplomatic note to all countries in the world, inviting members of the royal family and government representatives to attend the enthronement ceremony of Emperor Daqi in June of the next year (1730).

Obviously, in this way, this young emperor wanted to show off his prestige and prestige in addition to showing off the strength of my Great Qi Empire, so as to further consolidate his position as emperor.

Hehe, the heart of a teenager is to love to be in the limelight!

When His Royal Highness King Chen heard the news, he locked himself in the palace and closed himself for a long time.

Just when many royal officials thought that his fragile psychology had been hit again, he was about to fall into a slump from then on. But he never thought that after two days of King Chen's "retreat", the whole person broke out with a raging war spirit, gathered everyone together, and announced that he would take Qingguo as an example to build Chenzhou into a strong domain in the northeast of Yinzhou (North America). The people in the royal mansion present here will also enjoy the wealth and prosperity with King Chen and his family, and rest with the country.

Subsequently, King Chen gave a large area of land in the southwest and southeast of Qingchuan (now Xinkeshe) to all the subordinate officials and servants who followed, and the most of them were hundreds of thousands of acres, and the few were more than 1,000 acres.

In order to calm the hearts of the people and gather all the subordinate officials, scholars, and craftsmen, King Chen also very generously gave 100,000 yuan to everyone for the purpose of settling down.

As a result, the morale of Chen Wangfu was greatly shaken, and everyone was a little heroic, making meritorious contributions, and creating a century-old family, at this time.

King Chen sat in Qingchuan and summoned troops from Qi to suppress the local forces in Arcadia. As the old man of the palace, Shi Xiao Lizhi, the right chief, was appointed as the governor of Changxing Island, presiding over all the affairs of the palace.

Xiao Lizhi came to Changxing Island with more than ten officials and servants, and for most of the year, there was not much action, and everything was as before.

After a period of exploration and understanding, Qi Guo also has a little understanding of this big island that thrives on cod.

Changxing Island covers a very large area, about more than 100,000 square kilometers, controlling the mouth of St. Lawrence Bay in the west, facing the Labrador Peninsula of the French territory across the Belle Island Strait in the north, Royal Island (i.e., Cape Breton Island) and St. Shang Island (i.e., Prince Edward Island) controlled by the French in the southwest, and the French Saint Pierre and Miquelon Islands facing Changxing Island in the south.

If we add that there are still scattered French settlements on the west side of the island, it can be said that the island is surrounded by French on the north, west and south sides.

In addition, in the eastern part of the island, with Sindu as the core, there are one or two thousand permanent residents of England and short-lived fishermen, and an unknown number of Indians and Inuit in the central mountains.

And they, the Qi people who came to the island for the first time, belong to an absolute minority.

If you want to control the island, in addition to occupying the law, it is natural to carry out a strategy of division and disintegration.

First of all, it is necessary to use the strength of the English on the island to exclude the French forces as much as possible, and it is best to expel them all, so as not to let these French people rely on the territory of New France, exert all kinds of influence on Changxing Island, and make trouble and rain.

And for the English, who are the most numerous on the island, it is not impossible to divide them. At the very least, those permanent residents and a large number of foreign fishermen obviously have no way to stir food in one pot.

Every year, when the fishing season arrives, thousands of European fishermen flock to the nearby fishing grounds to catch boatloads of cod and then haul them to the island for salting, and all the islanders become workers in these fishing boats, working with the fishermen to process the cod harvest.

As the parents of the island's permanent residents, the attitude of the shipowners and fishermen towards them must not be warm.

In order to ensure that the cod caught ashore can be salted and processed in the shortest possible time, so that the shipowner can bring more cod back to Europe for sale, all the hired local residents are forced to work more than ten hours, scolding, scolding, and deducting wages, which is a common thing.

Even, some bastard fishermen and sailors, in order to vent. Lewd. If you want, you will infringe on the women of the island, whether they are adult women or young girls, and do some bestial acts that are the wrath of people and gods.

You must know that the management of the island was previously granted by the English government to the captains of these fishing boats, and naturally connived at some of the "excesses" committed by fishermen and sailors, or even did not pursue them in any way.

Well, the inhabitants have been suffering from foreign fishermen for a long time.

The English, French, Dutch, Danish, and Swedes, because they come from different countries and regions, are naturally full of contradictions and have their own thoughts. Sometimes, they will fight each other over a certain cod-rich area.

Even if everyone is an English fisherman, there is still a point of who is from England itself and who is from the New England colonial territory.

The endless cod in the sea, that is, the jumping silver and gold coins, need to seize every minute and every second, and catch as many as possible, so that you can collect these riches into your arms.

The people of Qi want to collect a fishery tax, which sounds particularly uncomfortable. Cod, this is a gift from the ocean, why should I pay you an extra sum of money to Qi State.

However, the fishing tax of £5 to £10 per vessel in a fishing season is not very high. A fishing boat full of cod can easily earn hundreds or even thousands of pounds on returning to the continent.

If you don't pay this small amount of money and annoy the people of Qi, I'm afraid that some of the gains outweigh the losses. Not to mention that it will force people to send a few warships to violently enforce the law during the fishing season, that is, the Qi people prohibit fishing boats from landing on Newfoundland Island to obtain fresh water supplies and process cod, which is enough to make all fishing boats extremely uncomfortable.

After the Qi people issued the fishery tax order, when the fishermen of Britain, France, Denmark and other countries were still hesitating, the Dutch fishermen who knew the opportunity took the lead in saying that they would abide by the regulations of the Qi people, and took the initiative to pay the tax and obtain the fishing license from the newly established Fishery Administration Department.

Subsequently, fishermen from Sweden, Portugal and other countries also arrived at the port one after another, paid fees and received vouchers in accordance with regulations.

When the English and French fishermen saw this, they could not help but curse them, accusing them of being cowards, cowards, and willing to submit to tyranny.

If you succumb to the people of Qi today and pay the fishery tax according to their regulations, he will usher in more charging items in the future, do you have to choose to obey?

Do I need to pay for berthing at the port?

Is there an additional tax on processing cod?

Will there be an increase in the price of various daily necessities on the island?

Also, since this fishing tax has made a start, will the tax rate continue to rise in the future?

……

Not long after, the Qi people brought an army of more than 50 men from Novoskshe into the port and began to inspect any fishing boats that entered the harbor.

To the horror of the English fishermen, the soldiers were all Irish!

They weren't very friendly to the English.

In this situation, some English fishermen also coaxed, and with all kinds of resentment, lined up to go to the Fisheries Management Department to pay taxes and obtain fishing permits.

Unfortunately, not only did the Qi people pay a lot of money to hire nearly half of the town's inhabitants to build forts and houses, so that there were a lot fewer people to handle the cod, but they also pretended to be good people and suggested that all the fishing boats that came to the port to handle the cod increase the wages of their workers in order to improve the living conditions of the local population.

Nima's, the people of Qi are too shameless, and the cod processing fee is not up to you, so you will open your mouth to increase the wages of workers. You're taking the profits we deserve and selling them to the local population!

In response to the call of the Qi people to increase the wages for cod processing, these permanent residents also took the initiative to register their details with the municipal management department, cooperate with the government's civil affairs statistics work, and apply for a piece of land of their own.

The Qi people colonized Newfoundland seriously.

(End of chapter)