It is not uncommon for the Shanghe tribe to attack the settlements of the Chu people, and then be counterattacked and even the tribe is destroyed. This kind of thing is not uncommon in the western part of North America. In fact, it happens very frequently, basically several times every year.
Otherwise, how do you think the Xiayang, Jinshan and Luhe mansions that the Chu people now control and develop and cultivate on a large scale came from?
It's not like the local indigenous people gave it to the Chu people.
The three North American lands of the Great Chu Empire were all mined, without any adulteration.
The whole process also seemed very cruel. From time to time, a small settlement in the Chu Kingdom that was remote and deep in the hinterland would be attacked by the indigenous people, resulting in heavy casualties and even the massacre of the village.
It also often happened that some indigenous tribes were wiped out by the Chu army.
There is no hatred between the two parties, and there is no situation where you are worse or I am worse. Everyone is just competing for living space.
The immigrants from the Chu State needed a large amount of developable farmland, so they continued to move deeper from the coastal areas to the inland, especially places suitable for farming and with convenient transportation.
It is mainly flat land on both sides of the river, such as the Golden Valley.
The governor's office of North America attaches great importance to this valley, which is tens of kilometers wide from east to west, five to six hundred kilometers long from north to south, has flat terrain, numerous rivers, and a mild climate, because this place is almost the most likely to be developed on the entire west coast of North America, and it is also the most Plain farmland that is easy to develop on a large scale.
Therefore, immigrants were constantly organized to go deeper along the river. After a large amount of gold was discovered in Shuanghe County, the scale of immigration became even larger. There were not only a large number of official immigrants, but also a large number of self-funded immigrants.
The arrival of a large number of Chu immigrants also continued to crowd out the living space of the local indigenous tribes.
The survival mode of these indigenous tribes is still stuck in the very primitive fishing, hunting, herding and gathering mode. This survival mode requires a large amount of land to hunt, such as North American bison. In addition to eating the bison, they will also sell their hides to the Chu State. The merchants exchanged matchlock guns and other cold weapons or other survival supplies.
At the same time, the existence of horses and matchlocks also greatly improved the local indigenous people's hunting ability of large animals such as bison. They were no longer satisfied with hunting bison just for food, but also hunted them on a large scale for their fur. bison.
At the same time, after the immigrants from Chu State arrived, they would occupy the local living space and hunt bison on a large scale.
The hide of bison is a very good leather-making material. Many immigrants from the Chu State, after settling in the fields, would bring guns and hunt large animals such as bison in the surrounding areas in groups. This was not only to hunt bison for their skins but also to Eating meat is also to prevent these large and ferocious animals from destroying crops and causing casualties to people.
This also led to large-scale hunting of large animals in the western Americas by the Chu people and local indigenous people, and their numbers decreased sharply.
After the number decreased, conflicts began to arise between the two sides. The indigenous people in many places became hostile and even expelled the Chu immigrants, thinking that they had robbed the bison.
Similarly, in the eyes of the Chu people, the barbaric and unreasonable indigenous people are also a huge threat, and these indigenous people also occupy a large amount of high-quality developable land.
When there are more conflicts between the two sides, mutual attacks and even wars will naturally occur.
Behind many contradictions, in the final analysis, it is still the struggle for living space.
This competition for living space is very cruel.
Of course, this situation is not only true for the Chu people, but also for Spanish, Portuguese and other European colonists in the Americas.
Even the Spaniards and Portuguese went too far. These people also played slavery. They would capture a large number of indigenous people as slaves for farming, and they did not care about property at all when using slaves, so that the indigenous Americans quickly A lot disappeared.
Even after the indigenous people in some areas such as South America were not played much by them, they were forced to introduce black slaves from Africa.
This gave rise to the infamous Atlantic Triangular Trade, also known as the slave trade.
But Chu State does not engage in slavery.
As for the large number of indigenous prisoners of war from various regions who worked on the estates of Chu State's Western Trading Company and Eastern Trading Company, they were military prisoners of war, not slaves, and the two are not the same.
It would be bad if the prisoners of war captured in the war were slaughtered en masse, but it would not be possible to let these indigenous people become potential rioters, and it was even more impossible to let them eat and drink for free...
So prisoners of war also need to work.
This is not only true for prisoners of war, but actually the criminal prisoners within the Chu State also need work.
In the Dachu Empire, there was no such thing as a person who could live in prison and eat and drink freely with taxpayers' money after committing a crime. Criminals all needed to work to support themselves.
However, in the previous battle between Songxi Village and the Shanghe Tribe, the militiamen in Songxi Village did not capture many prisoners. They killed too hard and defeated the opponent in one fell swoop. When they wanted to capture the prisoners, the indigenous soldiers retreated. They have almost run away.
And during the pursuit, many indigenous people fled into the mountains and forests in order to survive.
In order to avoid unnecessary losses, Wu Jintang did not order the militiamen to enter the mountains and continue the pursuit.
So there were some other seizures, but not many prisoners, and those few prisoners were also handed over to the military.
After this battle, Songxi Village returned to peace, but two families did not recover. Although this battle was a great victory, casualties were inevitable in wars.
In this battle, one of the militiamen in Songxi Village was shot in the chest by an indigenous matchlock gun. A big hole was punched in his chest on the spot. He was killed without even a chance to rescue him.
Another person was seriously injured by an arrow. Although he received emergency treatment on the battlefield, he was unable to survive and died on the way back. This was still a young man of sixteen years old. He rushed too far ahead when chasing the enemy. , and before he knew it, the natives fired an arrow back at him, piercing his chest and seriously injuring him.
There were seven or eight other people with minor injuries. Even Zhao Gaantong himself suffered a minor injury due to carelessness, but it was not a big problem, just a small scratch on his arm.
After the battle, disinfect it with medical alcohol and then bandage it with medical gauze. You don't even need stitches.
In war, casualties are normal.
Since two members of the Songxi Village militia died in battle, the superiors and other villagers naturally would not sit idly by.
Soon, people from the county garrison came over, distributed pensions to the two families of those who died in the war, and explained to the families a series of preferential treatment conditions for the family members of the deceased soldiers, such as the unified agricultural tax exemption for a limited time, and discounts on children’s education, etc. .
At the same time, Songxi Village also organized internal donations to collect some money for these two families.
Although the families of the fallen militiamen were grieving, they softened a lot after accepting pensions and donations, as well as subsequent preferential treatment policies from the government.
In fact, they also know that resettlement and reclamation itself is risky... Needless to say, there are only more than 200 people in Songxi Village, and there are more than 70 militiamen. Even the old, young, women and children can use firearms to protect themselves. You can see it.
It is because there are risks, and the risks are not small, that why so many militiamen and firearms are needed.
If there were no risks, there would be no need for so many guns!
The land in North America is good. Anyone who comes can get dozens or even hundreds of acres of free land. If you give some symbolic money, you can get more land.
You can also get interest-free land reclamation loans. Even if you come to North America with nothing, you can directly transform into a small landowner with hundreds of acres of land.
Such a good thing naturally comes with a price!
Aboriginal attacks, acclimatization, disease attacks, etc. are all costs.
This is still a place in Jinshan Prefecture where the Chu people have relatively strong control. If it is in some wild places, the cost is higher, and of course the profit is also greater.
Some brave Chu people have even broken away from the actual control area of the North American governor's office and went further inland along the river to cultivate.
In those places, the North American government agencies have no control. It is a truly lawless place. You can do whatever you want, as long as you don't die.
Relatively speaking, Songxi Village is only close to the edge of the indigenous control area. Not only does it have the ability to protect itself, it is attacked by large-scale indigenous people, and it can also receive support from regular troops. The situation is much better.
What's more, the Shanghe tribe that poses the greatest threat to Songxi Village has been wiped out. There are no large-scale indigenous tribes within 20 to 30 kilometers nearby, and the safety factor has been greatly improved.
Within a few days, Zhao Gantong received news that the superiors had decided to develop the Songxi Village area on a larger scale and were preparing to organize more immigrants to come and colonize.
Some old immigrants who are familiar with the situation in North America say that their Songxi Village will become Songxi Town in a few years.
This was also a common practice of the Chu State when it was colonizing overseas. It would first send an official immigration team to open settlements, and then gradually increase the number of immigrants at their own expense. After the number of immigrants increased to a certain level and the surrounding indigenous people were wiped out, the original Based on the settlements, large-scale immigrants began to be organized for settlement development.
Village-level settlements will also gradually expand into towns and even counties, effectively taking full control and development of the surrounding areas.
Many towns and counties in the Jinshan Prefecture area basically come from this way.
Shuanghe County is an exception. Under normal circumstances, Shuanghe County has developed to the size of a town at most. However, due to the emergence of gold, this place has experienced explosive growth. In the end, it has grown from a town in just a few years. The village-level settlement developed into a county town and even had a very large population.
After Zhao Gantong heard that his superiors would increase development of the Songxi Village area, he felt that this was an opportunity.
At that time, the newly arrived immigrants, even if they have land and official loans for reclamation, will still need food and other consumer goods.
You can increase the planting area, or you can raise some cattle, horses, sheep and other livestock, and then sell the grain, meat and livestock on the spot to make a profit.
Even if the local area cannot digest it, it can still be sold to purchasers.
In fact, crops such as grain and cotton are sold to merchants, and then these merchants organize transportation to coastal ports such as Jinshan Port, and then load them on returning ships and transport them back to the mainland for sale. This was originally the rule of North America and other overseas countries under the Chu State. An important economic model of the territory.
Overseas territories have a lot of land and produce large crops, but the local areas cannot consume so much.
The ships traveling at the same time, after transporting domestic goods to overseas territories, must return. The empty ship will definitely lose money if it returns, so even if the freight is cheap, it will return with the goods.
This formed a material transportation channel between the local and overseas regions.
If nothing else happens, the cotton grown by Zhao Gantong will eventually be transported back to the mainland through this channel, enter a spinning factory to be produced into cotton yarn, and eventually woven into cloth, becoming part of the huge textile industry of the Great Chu Empire. One of countless raw material suppliers.
The textile industry of the Dachu Empire has maintained a rapid growth trend until now. Not only is overseas demand huge, but a large amount of cloth is exported.
At the same time, with the gradual development of the Chu State's internal economy, people's consumption level of textiles is also gradually increasing, which has led to huge consumer demand for textiles, and domestic demand for textiles actually far exceeds overseas demand.
Regardless of the fact that the Da Chu Empire's machine-made fabrics are conquering cities and territories overseas, in fact, 90% of the large amount of cloth produced by the Da Chu Empire is consumed internally, and only about 10% of the textiles are exported.
An empire that has completed preliminary industrialization and currently has a population of more than 300 million has extremely strong internal demand and its consumption capacity far exceeds the sum of other feudal agricultural countries in the world.
Therefore, export trade is actually not that important to the contemporary Chu Empire!
And these export trades are basically concentrated in some vassal states, puppet states, and colonies controlled by the Chu State, mainly in the Southeast Asian countries and the Indian Peninsula.
As for trade with West Asia and Europe, although the total amount is greater than in the early days, the overall proportion has dropped sharply. It can even be said that this export volume has no real impact on Chu's economy.
In the early years, in order to maintain export trade, the Chu Empire generally maintained a certain degree of restraint towards the Dutch and Portuguese. After all, they were needed to help export and transport a large amount of goods.
But now, the Chu people see you unhappy and beat you.
Trade with European regions became less and less important, which also made the Chu Empire's attitude towards these European colonists become more and more radical.
After all, if you want nothing, you have nothing to worry about.
Of course, if one day it directly attacks Europe and turns the European region into its own colonies and a dumping ground for goods, that would be another matter.
This is also what Chu State has been doing in its overseas expansion policy.
Seizing South Africa was not only about gold, but also about controlling the sea lanes to Europe.
In this process, the Portuguese suffered great misfortune.
Because when the Chu people opened up colonies in Africa and established coastal supply ports, they basically faced off against the Portuguese.
This is not because the Chu people are hostile to the Portuguese, but simply because the Portuguese control a large number of colonies on the east coast of Africa, and the East African region is an important stronghold of the Portuguese in the African colonial system.
The Portuguese were in East Africa, and the Chu people had to pass through East Africa if they wanted to fight their way to South Africa.
what to do?
What else can I do? Just call him directly.
After the expansion in Northeast Africa, especially in Somalia, the Chu people carried out large-scale construction here, mainly building the port city of Mogadishu, turning this place into the Chu State in the Northeast. Important military bases and supply bases in non-regional areas.
After initial construction, the Chu State had accumulated thousands of troops here, a huge fleet, and a large amount of logistical supplies.
The Chu Empire turned these into its base camp in Africa.
In the autumn of the 31st year of Chengshun, Chu State's expansion and construction in Northeast Africa came to an end. At the same time, the Great Chu Empire officially established the African Governor. The governor was based in Mogadishu and governed the affairs of Africa and the West Asian Peninsula.
The establishment of the African Governor also heralded the beginning of the Chu Empire's next round of large-scale expansion in the region.
In the autumn and October of the 31st year of Chengshun, Mao Yuanhang, former deputy director of the vassal affairs department of the Ministry of Rites and Education of the Great Chu Empire and in charge of European, African and West Asian affairs, officially took up the post of governor of Africa in Mogadishu.
After taking office as the governor of Africa, Mao Yuanhang's first order was to order the already prepared military to go south to seize East Africa, including Mozambique Island, the Portuguese stronghold in East Africa.
In fact, before this, the Chu State occupied the Pemba Port in East Africa in the name of the Western Trading Company, and built ports, forts and other facilities here, making the place a nail in the Chu Empire's East African region.
After the Portuguese later discovered that the Chu people had occupied Pemba Port, they once wanted to send troops to regain the area, but they failed in the end.
They couldn't fight or drive them away. In the end, the Portuguese could only pretend they hadn't seen them.
Now, after the Chu Empire officially launched its expansion into the entire East Africa region, Pemba Port immediately became the bridgehead and logistics supply base of the Chu Empire in the region.
In the past few months, many batches of Chu fleets arrived at the port, transporting a large amount of logistical supplies and more than 4,000 ground combat troops.
This made Pemba Port the largest military base in Chu State with the second largest number of troops in Africa.
Of the more than 4,000 reinforcements, more than 3,000 of them are from the third regiment of the Indian Army. The Chu army's regular army only has one battalion.
After the Chu Army used the Indian Legion in the Somali region before, they found that the Indian Legion was particularly easy to use.
First of all, it is a non-citizen soldier. It is not painful to use. The casualties in the battle will be casualties. There is no need to worry about the negative effects of excessive casualties.
The cost of use is low. The salaries of these Indian Legion soldiers are very low, and they don’t even need to pay pensions when they die...
The weapons and equipment are basically second-hand goods that have been replaced by the regular army, and they are very cheap.
Moreover, these soldiers of the Indian Army are particularly brutal when fighting in this poor place in Africa... These people do not have the concept of civilized people. When the soldiers of the Chu Army performed combat missions, although they were not very good, they were not good either. Will take the initiative to do some outrageous things. After all, as civilized people, most of them still have some basic moral concepts.
But the soldiers of the Indian Legion don't have so many thoughts and scruples. When performing combat missions, in order to save trouble, they often engage in various massacres. Sometimes, in order to conduct live-fire exercises, they will find an indigenous village to conduct live-fire exercises... ...So much so that some people within the Chu army couldn't stand it. They reprimanded the Indian Army many times and told them not to mess around. They had killed all the natives. Go there and capture prisoners of war. There are no prisoners of war. How about you build the port yourself?
But the effect was not great. The Indian soldiers of the Indian Legion were from untouchable backgrounds. They did not regard themselves as human beings, let alone the indigenous people.
Sometimes they even feel particularly aggrieved... I'm not doing this just to complete the task better. As for killing a few groups of local indigenous people... it's just a few indigenous people, that's nothing.
However, this kind of Indian Legion has also had some positive effects, that is, it has killed more people, and its reputation has become bigger and bigger.
Nowadays, the indigenous people in Northeast Africa fear the Indian Army more than they fear the regular Chu army.
After all, the regular soldiers in the Chu army are still normal people, more or less civilized, and occasionally reasonable.
But those Indian soldiers of the Indian Legion will not talk to you about civility... let alone reason, and they will engage in massacre at every turn.
After encountering the Indian Army, many indigenous people did not even dare to think about resisting. They either ran away or surrendered, for fear of being directly massacred after surrendering.
Such an Indian regiment also made the upper echelons of the Chu army sigh and had to strengthen their use.
Although this knife is a bit vicious, it is really easy to use!
No, the Indian Army, which performed well in Northeast Africa, soon received additional troops. The Chu Army recruited thousands of untouchable soldiers in the Indian area, and then organized transportation to Africa.
By now, the Indian Army in Africa has four regiments, organized into the Third Regiment, the Fourth Regiment, the Fifth Regiment, and the Sixth Regiment. The total strength is tens of thousands of people, who are stationed on the front lines in various places and merged with various places. The natives fought.
The Third Regiment of the Indian Army, due to its rich combat experience and strong combat effectiveness, strengthened its artillery and even cavalry and logistics forces, and was dispatched to Pemba Port as an advance force.
If nothing else happens, this regiment will serve as the main force in operations in East Africa.
The third regiment of the Indian Army was collectively transferred to Pemba, East Africa. Lieutenant Laihar, who served in the third regiment, naturally followed the team to Pemba.
As one of the very few in the Indian Army who was awarded the rank of 'Common Lieutenant' exclusively for indigenous officers, Laihar was also one of the very few indigenous soldiers who knew that his own army was about to face a war.
But he didn't feel scared about it, he even felt excited and looking forward to it.
Only by fighting in battles can military merit be achieved, only then can there be trophies, and only then can there be more gains.
He has heard that with the expansion of the Indian Army, more indigenous officers are needed to assist Chu officers in handling various matters. After all, you cannot let Chu officers directly command the indigenous soldiers, because they do not understand the language... …
The superiors have prepared to carry out certain reforms for the indigenous officers, and expand the single lieutenants to second lieutenants, lieutenants and even captains to assist Chu officers in managing the larger Indian regiments in Africa.
He hoped that he could catch the first batch of soldiers and have the same military rank as second lieutenant or even lieutenant.
But if you want to be promoted, in addition to your qualifications and abilities, you must also not lose your military merit.
The Chu Army has always attached great importance to military merit when it comes to promotions. You can't get promoted just by spending time without having military merit.
This is true for the regular army, and the same is true for the servile Indian Army.
