September is probably the last relatively dry month before the rainy season comes. Huang Yi and Huang, who recently took office as the captain of the New China Development Team, came proudly to the northwest of New China Island, which was conquered for a short time, to inspect to see what the fertile soil that he will be in power for many years in the future.

As of the end of 1663, the trade volume between New China Island and the local government was 3.304 million yuan, of which about 1.39 million yuan of various commodities were imported from the local government and 1.914 million yuan of various commodities were exported to various commodities. The trade surplus reached an unprecedented 600,000 yuan, which is the number one treasure island of the East Coast Republic of China and the jewel in the crown. It is not an exaggeration to enhance its position in the East Coast economic situation.

Among the goods exported to the local area, cotton is naturally ranked first, with a total of 489,000 yuan. The second place is sugar that has emerged in recent years, which has reached 356,000 yuan. The third place is the champion wood of the previous year, with almost no increase compared with previous years.

After removing these three items, the rest are relatively fragmented, namely 122,000 yuan for pepper (11 times in the past six years), 121,000 yuan for sisal, 102,000 yuan for coffee (5 times in the past six years), 100,000 yuan for refined coal (20% decrease due to capacity and price factors), 95,000 yuan for cocoa (3.5 times), 87,000 yuan for rubber (3 times in the past six years), 71,000 yuan for vanilla (3 times in the past six years), 40,000 yuan for seafood, 25,000 yuan for dried fruits, and the others total about 30,000 yuan.

From the data, we can see that the economic structure of Xinhuaxia Island has changed very rapidly in recent years. The export economy dominated by wood, cotton and refined coal six years ago has gradually been replaced by sugar, pepper and other products in recent years. The export volume of some emerging commodities has grown very rapidly, and there is a trend of replacing traditional commodities. According to the government research of the New China Development Team, in the next five years, with the gradual development of the market, the export figures of Xinhuaxia wood, refined coal and other commodities will decline, the export growth of cocoa and coffee will slow down, sisal, dried fruit, and seafood will grow steadily, and the growth rate of vanilla, rubber, pepper and other commodities will continue to soar until new changes appear in the local market again. The colonial market is always subordinate to the market of the sovereign country, which will never change.

Of course, although the local trade with New China Island is so prosperous, Huang Yi, who has been in charge of commercial affairs in the Far East for many years, also understands that since the registered locations of enterprises in New China, which operate various commodities such as wood, cotton, sisal, dried fruit, coal, seafood, coffee, cocoa, pepper, sugar, etc. are mostly local in the East Coast, a large amount of profits and taxes have been left in the local area. Over time, this undoubtedly led to general dissatisfaction among the local governments of New China Island and all sectors of society, and wrote to the Executive Committee many times, demanding that this unreasonable method of wealth distribution be changed and the opening of more resources for the New China Development Team government to better build a place.

It is said that the local government has initially agreed to make some concessions, that is, to tighten the relevant provisions of the Company Law in the future, such as those who only have a few staff members in the local area and may have hundreds of staff members in Xinhuaxia Island, but the registered place is local, and may have to set up branches in Xinhuaxia Island to transfer some business taxes, export tariffs and other taxes to this place to appease the dissatisfaction of the monarchs of Xinhuaxia Island. Of course, if they pursue the profit transfer law, there is no way. After all, this is a legal means under the legal framework.

On September 30, 1664, Huang Yi, who took office as a new official, came to Marenjia Port on a ship and inspected the city that had been occupied by the East Coast people for two and a half years. After two years, Marenjia, a city that changed hands many times in recent years, has been deeply imprinted by the East Coast people. A large number of soldiers, merchants, officials, and religious figures flocked into the city. They regarded themselves as victors and easily manipulated the entire city, and built official offices, forts, warehouses, docks, and Taoist temples here.

And the market, the city of Marenga, which was originally relatively messy in its layout, also changed little by little under their transformation, a large number of messy and lack of aesthetics were directly flattened. The Sakarava people living there were either concentrated to the local, Australia, South Africa, Djibouti, or were stuffed into a large number of state-owned plantations on the island for various reasons, which just alleviated the difficulties caused by the shortage of black labor and created its own value for the government of the East Coast Republic of China.

There are also some buildings left behind in the Arab era in Marenga City, including public buildings including mosques, bathhouses, hospitals, and private buildings such as merchant houses. Without exception, these buildings are all made of bricks and stones, which are relatively sturdy. After years of reconstruction and repair, they have now become part of the urban style. It is much stronger than the messy shacks made by the Sakaravas later. Of course, this also correctly reflects the differences in civilization levels between them and the Arabs and Persians.

However, compared with the buildings they left behind, there are very few descendants of the Arabs and Persians in the city. They had already suffered a large number of casualties when they were broken by the Boyra Kingdom. More than two years ago, Xiao Baitu led his army to recapture Ma Renjia City. After several twists and turns, there are only a few hundred living Muslims in the city, which is also inauspicious. But who did not have strong self-protection force? In this 17th century, insufficient force was the biggest original sin.

A mere hundred Muslims naturally cannot prevent the East Coast people from taking over a large number of buildings, such as mosques, from their own. What's more, their status has not been determined. They will probably be scattered and exiled to Australia, Blackwater and South Africa, and are submerged in the vast sea of ​​people. Therefore, they dare not have any objections to the East Coast Taoist Association taking the mosque for themselves and renovating it. They dare not have any objections to the houses of many Muslim merchants (regardless of whether they are still there) being confiscated and distributed to officers who have made military achievements. After all, in the face of such a powerful power in the East Coast who likes to speak with bayonets, they are all a group of pitiful worms and cannot effectively protect their poor worms.

Surrounded by his entourage and guards, Huang Yi spent a long time to visit the entire city. Then, at the invitation of the Taoist Association, he attended a grand dinner in the Marenjia Mosque. Most of the people attended the upstart officials, Taoists, merchants and officers in the city were drunk and drunk. The guests and hosts all enjoyed the fun. The Yangzhou chefs who followed Huang Yi from the Ming Dynasty to New China Island tried their best. They urgently transported several large fat pigs from the Xinhua County Gunpowder Factory, slaughtered and cooked them on site. Many delicacies, including braised lion heads, were unanimously praised by everyone.

The next day, Huang Yi and others went deep into some inland villages and were set up in the past two or three years for inspection. In the vast hinterland of Marenga City, in addition to the coastal and riverside areas, the characteristics of the surface vegetation have basically given way to the savanna. A few East Coast colonists settled here "shy" and scattered. They have already understood the local climate and agricultural characteristics. The obvious dry season here forces them to build irrigation facilities, but it is obvious that this is not something they can do independently, so they live a rather unsatisfactory life. But if you want them to give up the land here and go out to work in the city, they are unwilling to do it. After all, this is the land they have obtained after life and death on the battlefield, and they will never give up easily.

"The population density here is too low." Huang Yi said at a glance, "Aren't some new immigrants coming this year? First, some of them are intercepted and more places are placed here. The vast alluvial soil plain near the estuary is not sent to cultivate them. What does this mean? Our New China Island is not all plantations, and there are so many self-cultivated farmers, and their interests cannot be ignored. When the population is too high, irrigation and water storage facilities will be built here to facilitate residents' lives and agricultural production."

However, the estuary plain near Marenga was obviously not Huang Yi's final destination. Under his insistence, everyone then took a boat to follow the Bezibuka River and finally stopped the boat to land in the later Maluwuai Plain. Strictly speaking, the ownership of this land is currently vague, because there are also a large number of Melina and Chimieti people living here. They have never been conquered by the Sakarava people. Therefore, the East Coast people who claim to be the inheritance of the Kingdom of Boyra have always had great questions about whether this land has jurisdiction.

But who are the people of the East Coast? They never regard the Melina people and the Zimieti people as civilized people. They naturally cannot tolerate such a critical land as the Maluwuai Plain. Therefore, hundreds of officers and soldiers of the Xinhua County Security Corps landed here soon. After several infrequent battles, they expelled the local indigenous people and firmly classified the land to their own names. Of course, they also aroused hostility from the Melina people. But who cares about this? There are only some natives on the left!

The Maluwuai Plain was a dense forest in ancient times, but later due to wildfires, the forest gradually degenerated into a pasture, where livestock could find fresher and more juicier grass than the steppe; later, with the settlement of humans (immigrants from the Malay Peninsula and Indonesia), the rice cultivation industry developed greatly, and the local area became a relatively wealthy area.

Huang Yi saw through his own eyes that after the endless flow of the Ankara Fangzika Mountains, before it was divided into many ports and injected into Marenga Bay (Benbetoka Bay), the Beschibuka River and its many small tributaries (including the Maruwuai River) built a wide alluvial plain with many natural lakes. It is a very good reservoir during the rainy season, which regulates the flood disasters of the entire plain. Under the natural state, this swamp provides fertile soil, which is due to the flooding of every flood over the past few hundred years. Over time, it has added countless nutrients to the Maruwuai Plain, which can be seen from the vigorous growth of local natural herbs.

There is no doubt that such fertile land will not be unknown in later generations. In fact, the Maluwuai Plain has always been one of the barns in Madagascar in later generations. After digging a major irrigation canal network (using rivers and lakes) of about 100 kilometers long, in Madagascar without any good varieties, fertilizers, and pesticides, the locals have also created an average rice yield of 4.2 tons per hectare per quarter based on traditional backward agricultural production methods, becoming a nationally renowned grain production area. This can be seen from the large area of ​​flat rice fields in the local area.

If the East Coast people want to develop this fertile plain at this time, what they need to do is exactly the same as later Madagascar. They are to first use local rivers and lakes to build a series of water conservancy facilities to make full use of the river water rushing down in the mountains during the rainy season, and adjust the water level of each river through the lake during the dry season to irrigate the water level of the canals so that they can also have a stable flow during the dry season and provide maximum assistance to agricultural production.

There is no doubt that this is not a small project, requiring a lot of capital and manpower. The manpower may not be short of time. Because the Sakarava people, Zimieti people, and Melina people have not yet been cooked, it doesn’t matter if necessary. The funds were a little hindered before, but after the local government was about to transfer some of the taxes of import and export enterprises to the New China Development Team government, the problem may not be very big. Moreover, Xinhua County itself has considerable lime, cement, brick and tile production, and transportation capacity are sufficient. It doesn’t seem impossible to develop the Maluwuai Plain. It depends on whether you have the determination.

"I heard that rice is planted here for three seasons a year, and it can be planted anywhere?" Huang Yi stood on the soft grass and said in a question and answer: "After the flood recedes, the rice on the floodplain, the rice on the terraced fields, and the rice in the dry season irrigated. Look, how diverse and the production cost is very low, which undoubtedly guarantees the high profit of planting."

"I have decided!" After a while, Huang Yi waved his right hand suddenly and said in an unquestionable tone: "The rice cropping area in the Maluwuai Plain must be developed as soon as possible. More indigenous labor workers can be transported to help weed, clean up gravel, and dig canals, but trees are not allowed to be cut down! Where suitable for planting grain crops, do not force food where it is not suitable. Peanuts, tobacco, sisal, Brahma, oil palm, cotton, sauerkra (casket tree) and other economic crops can be planted. Don't be limited in thinking, use your brain more."

Of course, after saying this, Huang Yi did not forget to station a member of the Xinhua County Security Corps here for a long time to resist the possible counterattacks of the Melinas on the plateau. After all, they have always been very jealous of the Maluwuai Plain seized by the East Coast people. There is no such excellent rice-farming plain on the plateau. The entire Madagascar can be compared with it, and it is called a granary agricultural area. The only thing that Alautra Lake is here is currently the East Coast people purchased from the locals at a tiny price. It is simply too profitable! (To be continued.)
Chapter completed!