On October 8, 1689, light rain was drizzling in the suburbs of Zhangwu Township.

Zheng Dalin, the battalion commander of the Fifth Mixed Battalion of the Army, was smoking. He was in a bad mood now. The humid and hot environment, bad weather, difficult conditions and numerous bandits all challenged his nerves. What was this? The elite field troops were actually transferred to do the work of the security army. They were exhausted all day long, but they didn't even see the bird hair of a bandit. Do you think it's annoying?

Oh, okay, the bandits still saw some, and quickly wiped out them out quickly and neatly. But the problem is that this kind of wipeout is always in progress, not in completion. At any time, bankrupt gold diggers may join the ranks of bandits, and even those who are not bankrupt do not mind making a guest appearance. In a gold digging holy place like Tuanjie River, human nature has been greatly distorted. Even a young man who is pure and kind will become cruel and aggressive after a year of fine sand in the riverbed, and his values ​​are completely blackened. It is only a matter of time before he becomes a reserve for bandits.

In the outer land of Tuanjie River, the East Coast government and military are now working hard to ensure the safety of the five newly established townships, Yifeng, Renqiu, Taihe, Zhangwu and Xiande. In other words, their focus is to ensure the daily production and life of nearly 10,000 people in the above five places, prevent them from being threatened by bandits and robbers, and produce enough food as soon as possible to reduce the amount of food transported.

Just like the Fifth Mixed Battalion, its battalion headquarters is located in Zhangwu Township, and technical troops (artillery company, baggage company, engineering platoon, etc.) directly under the battalion headquarters are also stationed nearby, as the local Dinghai Shenjian. In addition, in Renqiu, Taihe and Yifeng, they also stationed an infantry company and a cavalry company in Xiande Township to protect the safety of the township government and various villages.

After doing this, the entire battalion was basically spread out, with its troops tightly tightly and nothing could be done, which made people very troubled. Considering that it is the busy farming season, the militias in the five counties south of Zhuo River cannot be transferred without restrictions. Basically, more than 1,000 people can be guaranteed to be on the side at the same time. They have to send people to follow the expedition team, escort the transportation convoy, and go to the Jinchuan River - Velias River and the Tuanjie River tributary. Recently, more and more gold mines have been found here, even more than the main stream Tuanjie River - patrol, and even have to undertake some construction work, and basically have no room for other things.

To solve the problem of the Tuanjie River Basin, the only way is to increase the troops. Not only should the regular army be transferred to a battalion, but it is best to mobilize some militia reserves from other places, so as to slightly curb the deteriorating public security situation. Of course, if you do this, a prominent problem is that the materials and money consumed in the Tuanjie River Basin will rise in a geometric manner, with a large investment and not very economical, so the superiors have not yet made up their minds.

Someone once asked that the latest batch of Russian prisoners of war had arrived at the local area from Haji's loan. Can some people who seemed obedient to choose from them and form a temporary armed force similar to the Zhongguo Army that year, and go to the Tuanjie River Basin to strengthen public security operations. However, some people are worried that with the attitude of these Russians towards the East Coast government, it is impossible for these people to degenerate into bandit gangs after they go. At least they are very likely to engage with bandit robbers and steal the country's gold mine resources. This is not worth the loss, so the proposal is quickly abandoned.

However, the government may have to make up its mind soon. Because according to the work plan at the beginning of the year, more than 7,000 immigrants will be allocated to the Tuanjie River Basin in the second half of this year (but in principle, no settlements will be set up because they cannot be taken care of). If this situation is not cleared up, how can new immigrants live with peace of mind? Moreover, with the increase in the number of random immigrants, the frequency of transport convoys will also increase sharply. If you don’t take action at this time, wait until the bandits stage a shocking robbery at that time? Where can you put the government’s face?

Major Zheng Dalin, the battalion commander of the Fifth Mixed Battalion, is an old subordinate of Director Lan Feilan, one of the army's senior generals. He also has some connections in the army's headquarters and is very familiar with the current situation. A senior official in the department revealed to him that he would not be impatient and that the superiors would send people soon. At the same time, he would draw a large number of militias from the south to launch an iron-clad security and strengthen the security battle against the Tuanjie River Basin. At that time, their elite field troops can be gathered up and do more important things. As for what is the more important thing, the superiors did not disclose it, but Zheng Dalin could also guess some of it, just walking down the Tuanjie River and causing trouble for the Portuguese. This was the old blackmail routine when Mo Dajian was still alive, but it was easy to use.

However, Zheng Dalin was impatient. He was tortured by everything about Tuanjiehe and was really unwilling to continue to be his security captain. He now was extremely eager to lead his troops downstream and cause trouble on the Portuguese territory. He felt that this was what the chief officer of a field force should do, rather than being an exhausted guardian.

To be honest, the view of the gold mining area is not very good. The weather here is hot (fortunately the plateau offsets part of it, otherwise it will be even hotter), the environment is harsh, there are snakes, insects, rats and ants everywhere, and dense forests that are prone to disorientation. If you want to develop it, the first thing is to cut trees and keep cutting trees! Just like the British and French who came to North America in the early days, cutting trees and cutting them all collapsed, and then some land can be opened up for agricultural planting.

Of course, all the above can be tolerated. The most unbearable thing is actually the harsh transportation conditions. Although the Tuanjie River basin is very wide and winding, it finally goes out to sea in Bahia with an unstoppable momentum. But to be honest, this river is not suitable for shipping, and it is good to build a small hydropower station in the future, because the river is larger than the drop, with small cliffs, small waterfalls, and many rapids and dangerous shoals everywhere. After people from the state-owned inland river transportation company came to inspect, the conclusion was that it was "not suitable" for shipping, so the transportation of houses and personnel here were all by land, and a broken road that was barely built was very difficult.

"If there is no gold, jade, diamonds or something in this bird place, who will come!" After throwing away the remaining smoke, Zheng Dalin stood up and left, and walked towards the countryside.

The foggy and silky rain floated in the sky, making people feel a little cool. The village is just one kilometer away and arrived soon. Looking around, there are about twenty stores here, all of which are made of thick logs. The style is rough, but it is also quite solid and durable.

Half of the shops sell food, which is easy to understand. What people in the gold mining area lack the most is not money, but various consumer goods. Therefore, these shops sell various grains and prepared cooked food for the wealthy gold diggers to consume. I don’t know how much it is to make. It is worth mentioning that the things sold in these shops are quite high-end, including chocolate, cream biscuits, wheat milk essence, black tea, green tea, coffee and cocoa, coconut flour, etc., and even various alcoholic products are available. It can be seen that merchants shipped from the outside at a huge price. Correspondingly, the prices of these goods are about 5-10 times more expensive than those on the outside, and only gold diggers with pockets of gold beans can afford it.

The two major chain stores of state-owned department stores and Sun Chunyang South Carolina Stores also opened branches here. However, they mainly sell clothes, shoes, hats, daily necessities, hardware and tools, and also sell some medicines and medicinal wines on behalf of others. The business is also very popular. Who among gold hunters does not need various labor tools? Which one does not need medicines to treat diseases? Especially the potions for bruises and damage, medicinal wine for preventing malaria, and cinchona cream for treating malaria is like onions in rural Indian countries. It can be used as hard currency. How can this business be bad?

Although Zheng Dalin is a soldier and does not know how to do business, he can easily draw a conclusion based on his own observations, that is, these shops set up in the countryside are powerful tools for money-making, and they do not know how many gold particles and nuggets brought from the mining area are recycled every day. These gold nuggets that have not been finely smelted are often deprecated by the bosses, and then reduced to one-third or even one-fifth of their actual value to be purchased, and exchanged for gold diggers with all kinds of goods they need. The huge profits needless to say.

However, these bosses were not very happy. Because privately casting gold coins is a serious illegal thing, if they don’t want to hold the dog-headed gold for the rest of their lives, they still have to sell it to the State Administration of Precious Metals. It is obvious that they will be peeled off. They will recycle it and then smel, purify it, and cast it into gold coins to be stored as the country’s strategic gold reserves.

The other half of the shops in the village are quite complicated. There are laundry rooms on the surface, but in fact they are places with half-closed doors (of course, they do provide pulp and scrub services). There are clinics and pharmacies run by doctors who practice alone, bathhouses, hotels, and bodyguard services, and the functions are relatively complete.

These shops or enterprises have almost no government mobilization or guidance, and they come here. This may be explained from a financial perspective, because those who eat crabs first than them make a fortune here, and the good demonstration effect has led others to follow up quickly, ultimately leading to the abnormal prosperity here.

After all, everything is a turmoil in gold!

"Battery Commander, letter from the Army Department." When he was about to go to the township government to find someone to sit, a messenger riding a war horse chased after him and handed a confidential letter to Zheng Dalin.

Zheng Dalin took the letter with some confusion, looked at the seals on the envelope, and saw that it was intact, he put the letter in his pocket and turned back toward the camp. The camp was just a hundred meters away from the edge of the village. Zheng Dalin walked in like a gust of wind, then withdrew everyone, and opened the letter alone.

The letter was actually just a letter of order, but because the content involved was sensitive, it was sealed with something outside and sent it to Zhangwu Township in a low-key manner. Zheng Dalin repeatedly read the content of the order three times, and carefully confirmed the authenticity of the seal of the Army Department and the minister's private signature in the lower right corner of the order. Then he folded the letter, carefully put it away, and laughed.

This letter was really timely! Zheng Dalin slapped his thighs excitedly. The ministry actually ordered the addition of Li Zhixin's troops from the 11th Mixed Battalion to come to the Tuanjie River Basin. The security regiments from three southern counties were also coming together to enhance their strength. After the 11th Mixed Battalion arrived, the Fifth Mixed Battalion could gradually gather its troops and go forward to Xiandexiang, and then wait for the supplies sent by the Army Department.

According to the plan, once the Fifth Mixed Battalion received the supplies, the entire army set out and headed downstream along the Tuanjie River to "an attack on the places where the bandits might hide" and "go straight to Huanglong" if necessary. In addition, this order also pointed out that Captain Xiao Guang would follow with several prospecting teams, because the superiors had reason to believe that there might also be gold mines in the lower reaches of the Tuanjie River, and there was no reason not to explore.

Zheng Dalin combined these two orders and savored them carefully, and immediately found it very interesting. Isn’t it in Portugal Brazil sent people to come out to Xiande Township? If you are more serious, it is suspicious whether the location of Xiande Township is on the east coast. You must know that the agreement signed by the East Port was to the south of the Portuguese Port (16°26′ in south) and to the east coast and to the north of Portugal. However, the latitude of Xiande Township was 15°57′ in south, which obviously had crossed the boundary and occupied the territory of the Portuguese Kingdom. The reason why the Portuguese had not come to protest was mainly because they did not know where the establishment of Xiande Township was. Maybe they would come to negotiate again after a year and a half. However, it cannot be ruled out that the Portuguese knew it now, but they gave up negotiations because of timidity and cowardice. This is all possible.

Okay, let's come back and think. Xiandexiang, a settlement with more than 1,000 pioneers, has been set up in Portugal. Now the Fifth Mixed Battalion, a thousand and hundreds of people, still have to go forward to Xiandexiang to suppress the bandits, which is completely unconscious of the Portuguese. Or, this is to further test the Portuguese's bottom line, which is suspected of causing trouble. And he also follows a large-scale prospecting team. This not only requires occupying land, but also wants to occupy gold resources belonging to the Portuguese. This is completely the rhythm of treating the Portuguese as dead people, and I don't know what their reaction will be.

Zheng Dalin estimated that even if the Kingdom of Portugal is familiar with each other and is respectful to the East Coast, he still has to struggle when it comes to land and gold. Haven’t you seen that the purchase of the Portuguese Cape Verde Islands between the two countries is being stolen back and forth? The Portuguese are actually reluctant to throw away this very important archipelago, but under the huge pressure of the people on the East Coast, they are a little embarrassed. Therefore, they have reacted to the negotiation process that they have worn out their mouths. They have made a little bit of a move, and the price in the end is still very high, which is a bit annoying.

Now the Tuanjie River Basin has been proven to have the largest gold mine belt in the world, with the largest reserves and the highest grade, and it also comes with many diamond mines (this seems a bit valuable on the east coast). Jade mines are all very valuable—the small copper, iron, lead, and tin mines are no longer discussed, and they are "automatically ignored" by everyone at this stage. Therefore, the Portuguese are now paying more attention to the places where this river passes through, and want to see if they can find some of their own gold mines.
Chapter completed!