Since ancient times, Fujian has said that "seven mountains, two rivers and one branch of fields". The mountains and hills are scattered on the land of Fujian. There is no more flat land except for a few mountain basins and river valleys washed out by rivers.

Such a situation is undoubtedly very insufficient for grain production. Even when new crops such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, etc. can be planted on slopes, Fujian still cannot raise the millions of people. There is no way, Fujianese can only turn to business as much as possible, and at the same time vigorously develop the cultivation of forest economic crops to make profits and then import grain from the outside world.

Quanzhou and Mawei are the two largest grain import ports in Fujian. A large amount of grain from Beiyang (mainly North Korea) and Nanyang (mainly the Dutch East India and Siam) are traded here, and all kinds of specialty commodities from Fujian are transported. The largest of them are tea, dried fruits, porcelain, and silk.

However, even though foreign trade is so prosperous, life is still very difficult for the four million Fujian people. People in the East Coast have carefully examined the social conditions of the eight prefectures in Fujian and pointed out that the nutritional status of local children is very worrying. Not to mention proteins such as fish, meat, milk, and even the intake of grains is seriously insufficient. Their health status, which relies on corn, sweet potatoes, and potatoes, is not on the same level as children in the East Coast ruling region such as Denglai and Ningshao. This is the case for children, and the conditions of adults are not much different, and there are various chronic malnutrition.

Insufficient nutrition will undoubtedly cause the degeneration of the race, and the problem will be serious in the long run. People from the Zheng Kezang regime of Fujian Province have also read books from people from the East Coast and know the reason. Their solution is to immigrate to the outside world, export the population, reduce the intensity of competition in the eight prefectures in Fujian, and allow everyone to obtain more resources as much as possible.

In the early days, they had no choice but to colonize Taiwan with the support of the East Coast people. After years of hard work, several counties in Taipei Prefecture now have a population of 200,000, and the economic and social development level has also improved rapidly. They have leap from the ignorant era of the natives to the civilized era with a few modern industrial facilities. Among them, the investment and technical assistance of the East Coast people, and the population and financial assistance of the Fuzhou area are indispensable and important factors. After all, it is Zheng Kezang's "land of dragon development". It is unreasonable to spend money without spending money!

However, the environment in Taiwan is undoubtedly harsh. The incidence of malaria far higher than that in general tropical areas and the complex terrain have brought great trouble to the colonists. The earliest Fujian immigrants who colonized Taiwan can be said to be one in ten, and many subsequent batches of immigrants also had extremely high mortality rates. In other words, Fujian's living conditions were poor and the persistence of the people on the east coast, the Zheng family of Fujian persisted in colonizing Taiwan Island and finally created Taipei Prefecture, which enabled the power of the Zheng group to truly jump out of the mainland for the first time and entered a wider area.

Now, Taiwan's colonial activities are still in progress. The successive establishment of Lanyang County (roughly located within the later Yilan County, named after the Lanyang River in its territory) and Nantun County (roughly located in the area of ​​Taichung City today) has enabled Taipei Prefecture to have six counties, Taipei, Zhuqian, Keelung, Pingnan, Lanyang and Nantun, with a total population of more than 90,000. At present, Zheng Kezang also attaches great importance to Taipei Prefecture and constantly gives money and goods. At the same time, he transferred a new army from Fuzhou to Nantun to fight against the people of the indigenous Dadu Kingdom to further consolidate the occupation of Nantun County (now there are still a large number of indigenous people in the fourth field that are still resisting). Zheng Kezang once made it clear to the people of the East Coast that he was confident that he would develop the six counties of Taipei Prefecture within ten years and expand the local settled population to more than 200,000 people, which shows his determination.

The representatives of the Taiwan Bank who are in charge of contact expressed appreciation for this. They have considerable economic interests in Taiwan, so they naturally hope that Zheng Kezang will invest more resources in his "Dragon Rise Land" and obtain greater output. To this end, they will do everything possible to help the Zheng Group to relieve the pressure from the Dutch East India Company, so that they can develop, digest Taipei with peace of mind, and build it into their own rear base in the eight Fujian prefectures in mainland China. They are not very safe and are always facing the threat of Dashun's military front. As the saying goes, cunning rabbits have three holes, and it is impossible not to set a retreat.

Of course, Zheng Kezang's retreat was not just Taipei Prefecture, but Shijingwei located at the southern end of Mindanao Island. To a certain extent, the development speed of Shijingwei (one acropolis under the jurisdiction and three thousand guards) was even higher than that of Taipei Prefecture. At least in terms of population size, Shijingwei, a mere four large and small cities, has a population of about 20,000. Although there is a gap between the 90,000 people in Taipei Prefecture, the growth rate is fast enough, and there is a hope of catching up in the future.

However, Ishiiwei is not a place to develop. Although the terrain is even more gentle than Taiwan, and there are many plains, which is conducive to the cultivation of crops such as grain. But after all, it is still tropical. There should be no shortage of tropical reclamation, but it is not as serious as Taiwan. After the Zheng family established one and three bathrooms, it should not expand in a short period of time. They are like a python that has just swallowed its prey, lying there and unable to move. Now the first thing is to digest, consolidate existing places, consolidate the foundation, enrich the population, and develop the economy. In ten years, they will be able to find other things.

Zheng Kezang and Shijingwei commander Zheng Sandao listened to the opinions of the East Coast consultant. At present, they are trying to recruit immigrants who go out to sea to make a living in Fujian. Each household will give subsidies, those who go to Taipei will give five taels of silver, and those who go to Shijingwei will give eight taels of silver. In short, they have made great efforts and are full of sincerity.

Ishii Wei currently has a fairly modern port. Don’t doubt it. This port was contracted to Heishui County Transportation Bureau for upgrading and renovation. The funds required also come from Taiwan Bank loans and have begun to export some timber through this port. This is also the only commodity that Ishii Wei can take at this stage.

The three ships including the Hawthorn arrived at Ishiiwei under this background. After captain Lin Xiaoqi showed his identity and paid the entrance fee, he led people to conduct a few days of investigation into the economic and social conditions of the entire Acropolis. The results of the investigation were very disappointing. This place was really poor and had no trouble.

Well, there is indeed wood to be exported here, and standard boards were made according to the requirements of the people on the east coast. Moreover, the wood provided by Shijingwei is a tropical giant with excellent density, flexibility and corrosion resistance. The Far Eastern vassals on the east coast have considerable demands. But the problem is that they cannot do this business! Wood must be used to make enough money. How stupid is the transit ship like them that dock temporarily to transport a pile of wood to Ningbo? This business can only be affordable for Taiwanese banks with rich wealth and sufficient transportation tonnage, and no one can do it!

However, there is no good news at Ishiiwei. After accepting bribes from Lin Xiaoqi, a local businessman mysteriously told them that in Hanyang Port, which is a few days away from this northeast, there is rough copper for sale in the local area, and the price is quite cheap, so it should be a big deal.

Copper is really scarce in mainland China, and the demand on the east coast is also very large, and a lot of money is needed to be imported every year. Especially, the power industry is about to develop slowly, and the price of this thing may have to soar. In fact, the copper price in Europe has risen for several rounds. After all, the cloud of war is overwhelming everyone. It is not surprising that the price of copper, an important raw material for casting cannons, will rise at all. If you can get along with the locals, it will be a good business.

Lin Xiaoqi and others agreed with this. Therefore, after purchasing some grain, fresh water and live poultry in Shijingwei, the three ships immediately set sail and sailed to Hanyang Port. On July 16, 1700, they arrived at Hanyang Port at the mouth of the Xinhan River, a colonial city under the rule of Chaozhou General Li Yuanyin.

Because Li Yuanyin only has the territory of Chaozhou, Hanyang Port now has only a few thousand people, and is scattered in the new city at the mouth of the sea (the city is still under continuous construction and is currently only a prototype) and the island opposite. The island was named Haidong Island by Li Yuanyin. It has a large area and many plains. Some of it has been developed, mainly logging and agriculture.

There are also some cultivated land in Hanyang City, mostly located near the city. Because of the river irrigation, these are all high-quality rice fields and distributed to the soldiers and their families who came to settle down. The colonists were very happy to be able to come to Hanyang from Guangdong, which has many mountains and few fields, and regard these fields as their lifeblood. They treated them so hard that they could do their best.

Of course, the people on the east coast are not interested in their rice fields. What they are interested in is actually the copper mines found nearby, which is the most valuable thing. Li Yuanyin is not very ambitious and has no intention of monopolizing the copper mines. He has already negotiated with the Bank of Taiwan to package the few small copper mines currently discovered into a joint venture. The Bank of Taiwan accounts for 60% of the shares, the Li family accounts for 20%, and the remaining 20% ​​is for the public offering (generally to locals in Chaozhou and Hanyang) in exchange for a loan of 300,000 yuan provided by the Bank of Taiwan to build Hanyang's port terminal, port road, coastal defense fortress and important roads inside and outside the city.

In the future, the company will also form a large-scale prospecting team to conduct a careful investigation of the surrounding areas. Taiwan Bank is sure that there must be a large-scale copper mine in the local area. Although the natives did not find it, it does not mean that the people on the east coast cannot find it. The technical gap is here.

The mining rights of the copper mines discovered will naturally be under the name of this company. According to regulations, this company called Hanyang Mining Company must produce the crude copper smelted to enterprises or individuals on the East Coast. When selling them to foreigners, they must submit an application and can only be traded after approval.

After the "Hawthorn" arrived at Hanyang Port, the captain Lin Xiaoqi quickly found out the news. He found that there was actually not much crude copper circulating on the market, and most of the copper was supplied to several very powerful traders at an agreed price. However, he was not discouraged because the locals were also trying to explore, and there were occasional discoveries of new copper ores (but the reserves were not very large). These coppers were not under the control of Hanyang Mining Company, and there were still some business operations.
Chapter completed!