Chapter 903 The South Wind (1)
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In order not to let his heart be crushed by a huge guilt, Silence numbed himself with crazy work. Just a few days after handling Si people's affairs, he began to investigate Luzon. He didn't want to see any official data. He just wanted to see it for himself to understand what the living conditions of Chinese people in Luzon and what the development prospects were. Can Luzon be incorporated into the royal world and truly become a part of China. Therefore, he refused Chen Jing and Zheng Ruozeng's accompanying him and hired only a few native Chinese guides. If he hadn't been worried about being attacked by the indigenous people, he would not even plan to lead the guards.
The winter in Nanyang is also very warm, and the wind blows from outside the car window, without feeling cold at all. Looking around, there are lush rainforests everywhere, and the tropical plants and flowers that cannot be named are backed back from the car in batches and were left behind far behind. The depressed mood for several months finally felt a little relaxed at this time.
This is his first time to set foot in this hot land. Although many people have heard about it before, only when they come and see it in person can they experience the magic of it... Wherever the car passed, he found that besides the starry plantations, there were large and vast land still in their original state, endless, as if it could never be developed. And even in the deep winter, it is still lush, abundant water and fertile soil, which is mouth-watering.
Chen Laoshuan, who was the guide of him, was an old immigrant who had been to Luzon for more than 40 years. Now that he is old this year, his life is better. His children let him enjoy a peaceful life at home, but the old man is still tough and quiet. He heard that a high-ranking official from the mainland wanted to find a guide, so he signed up despite his family's objections. Silence also requires an old man who has experienced historical changes and has a lot of experience to summarize the main points. After a brief conversation, he happily made the decision and used this old man.
Seeing Chen Laoshuan, who came out of the barren mountains of Fujian when he saw silently watching the land outside the window, smiled with understanding. He remembered that when he saw the fertile land here for the first time, his eyes were about to pop out. He was a little at a loss and could not understand why no one went to cultivate and cultivate this boundless fertile land? What a pity!
When they were in China, farmers worked hard all their lives, but in the end they still couldn't get a piece of land that really belonged to them, and there were heavy taxes that forced people to have no way to survive. What was the land here? It was really that cheap and so worthless? Is it the farmers here unwilling to farm, or the governments in Nanyang did not allow farmers to develop it? Chen Laoshuan, who had just arrived in Luzon, was full of suspicion... Oh no, it was not Laoshuan at that time, and people called him Chen Dashuan.
But no matter what, at that moment, Chen Dashuan, as a farmer, was extremely moved, and it was no less excited than the excitement of a scholar when he was on the list of the scholars! He thought in his heart with the simplicity and wisdom of a farmer that if he could develop here and then plant rice, or some mulberry trees, tobacco, etc., it would not take many years to become a big landlord and manor owner.
When he returned home, he told his wife the excitement and told his plans. He said he did not plan to make a living at the dock again... The reason why he and his family came to Luzon before the official was to bless the Age of Discovery. Forty years ago, the route from Quanzhou to America was already open. The huge ship departed from Quanzhou and would sail to the Port of Manila in Luzon, after some rest, and then enter the desperate American route.
At that time, the Japanese pirates in Fujian were in trouble. In order to recruit soldiers, the government sent more and more to the wealthy households. The wealthy households passed on them again, and eventually forced Chen Dashuan's family to bankruptcy. Seeing that the family had no permanent property and his wife and children were waiting for feeding, he made up his mind to sell three thatched huts for two taels of silver, and respected his fellow villagers who were taking the boat. He got a place to stay in the cargo warehouse of the sea boat. He did not want to recall his experience at sea anymore, because his youngest daughter died on the way and his son almost lost his life.
After arriving in Luzon, Chen Dashuan was on the dock to support his wife and children, but this kind of work was hard, tiring and could not make money. Later, he heard that many people made money by farming and became big landlords. He was also moved and ran outside the city to see that there were indeed large plantations, but there were also large areas of wasteland that were not cultivated. When he returned, he decided not to carry the bags for others and to take the whole family to camp outside the city to open up land.
At first, his wife was worried that this place was the land of Luzon after all, and it would allow you, a foreigner, to open up land at will? But Chen Dashuan had fallen into his dream of landlords and said that there was nothing wrong with it. Anyway, it was also abandoned. If you don’t open up land, wouldn’t it be different?
Having said that, he actually didn't know anything about it. He thought maybe his wife was right. If Luzon agreed to let someone develop it casually, how could it be that so much fertile land would be abandoned in the long haul of long-term? It would have been too late for someone to snatch it all?
Later he realized that their worries were redundant. Because the land of Luzon was vast and the population was very sparse, compared with the country, both economic and cultural, they were still very backward and were still in a primitive state.
Seeing that the Han people continued to expand their planting area through land reclamation, they produced more and more grain, tobacco, raw silk, cotton... These precious agricultural products can be sold at a good price in the port of Manila... After gaining more and more wealth, the King of Luzon also tried his best to force their people to open up land and farm. However, the tropical rainforest brought sufficient food here. The local indigenous people did not need to work every day, just pick them in the mountains and forests. Therefore, the indigenous people couldn't understand why the Han people were so self-defeating. They obviously had food and drink, but why did they have to open up land and farm without any white or black? How could they sleep in the shade of trees?
He had no choice but to do anything to his own people, and the King of Luzon had to stipulate that anyone could obtain Luzon's land free of charge and to develop the land on his own, of course, he would have to pay a certain amount of tax every year. After learning this news, Chen Dashuan not only did not worry about paying the tax, but was ecstatic, because collecting taxes on you means that you own the land legally!
For farmers who regard land as life, land is the foundation and life of farmers. As long as farmers have land, they have everything! Chen Dashuan never expected that when he was at home, he lost the land and had to leave his hometown. Now he can get the land back, and he has as much as he wants, for fear that you can't plant it.
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However, the life of pioneers always has to be with blood and tears. The hard work of digging out the land is needless to say, but they also have to face disturbances and threats from local indigenous peoples. For those natives, everything grown on the earth and born under the sky is their food source, and the crops and fruits grown by the Han people are obviously much better than those of the wild ones.
So when Chen Dashuan's family worked hard and finally the rice ears in the fields were golden and the branches were full of fruits, the monkey-like natives with dark skin, short stature and uncovered clothes emerged from nowhere, and came to the fields with great swagger and picked and harvested without hesitation.
In Chen Dashuan's eyes, this is Chiluo's robber behavior. However, the natives are numerous and powerful, and they have swords and guns in their hands. Chen Dashuan's family can only watch as these robbers plunder most of the production, then clean up the mess with tears, and carefully gather the remaining harvest. Life must continue...
Chen Dashuan went to the government to complain, but Luzon naturally protected the natives of Luzon and would not protect him. In order to fight against the shameless indigenous robbers, he joined the "brotherhood" established by overseas Chinese and agreed to help each other and protect his home together. However, at that time, the number of overseas Chinese was too small and the land was too vast, so he still could not effectively resist the robbery of the locals.
However, life can still go on, at least better than in China. Until the war of Spain invading Luzon started, in order to raise military funds, the King of Luzon Laga Suleiman announced that all the land was state-owned. If the Chinese want to continue farming, they must pay for redemption, and the amount is extremely high, and many people are desperate.
However, the development of the situation was unexpected. This incompetent country was actually dealt with by the red-haired ghost, and even the king was killed. Then the Spaniards were driven away by the Ming navy before they could even sit in Manila.
The story afterwards was like a fairy tale. The army of the motherland did not withdraw, and Chen Dashuan once worried that they would capture themselves back to their country or execute a sentence in Luzon. Fortunately, the army announced that they were here to protect overseas Chinese, and all descendants of Yan and Huang would be protected by them. Chen Dashuan then felt relieved.
Later I learned that the army that came to Luzon was not an official army, but a security force of the Nanyang Company. Chen Dashuan was a little worried, it would be that he would not be rebelling, right? But then he thought, what is the difference between we have left the Ming Dynasty and rebellion? So he became calm and continued to plant his land.
This year, because of the protection of Nanyang Company, he reaped all his achievements for the first time. From then on, Chen Dashuan became a loyal fan of Nanyang Company, and there was no problem with rebelling...
The next year, the Luzon Xuanwei Envoy Office was established, and the imperial court sent officials here to achieve rule, which made Chen Dashuan nervous for a while. However, Xuanwei Envoy Office quickly dispelled his doubts. The first thing after the founding of the government was to establish household registration for all Chinese people. From then on, Hua Laoshuan's identity was not an overseas Chinese, but a citizen of the Luzon Xuanwei Envoy Office of the Ming Dynasty. Later, Xuanwei Envoy Office was changed to the commander commander, and Chen Dashuan didn't know what to do. But what he knew was that since then, the Han people turned their backs and became the owner of this land.
The local indigenous people face two ways to go, either enter the Chinese plantations to work, learn Chinese and the customs of the Han people, give up their original language and customs. Or they go to those uninhabited islands and are not allowed to appear on the Luzon Islands. For those things that are unchanged, the Nanyang Company and the Luzon Governor's Office have no kindness, and they always use muskets to show their attitude.
New immigrants always don’t understand such cruel ethnic policies, but Chen Dashuan always loudly reminds them that if they are not my race, their hearts will be different, and those indigenous people cannot live in peace with us!
In any case, Chen Dashuan's happy life has arrived, and he no longer needs to worry about what to plant this year. After the harvest of the previous year, the orders of Nanyang Company were delivered to his hands. He only needed to follow the guidance and plant crops that meet the standards. Nanyang Company would go directly to the ground to purchase them, and he always paid for the goods and never defaulted.
What makes people even more fantastic is that the Governor's Office stipulates that every family has two thousand acres of tax-free land, which means that less than two thousand acres of cultivated land is completely tax-free. In Chen Dashuan's view at that time, he would never have to pay taxes. How could a family grow two thousand acres of land?
But this year, Nanyang Company's orders were difficult to break, and he wanted 200 tons of tobacco leaves...tons were the weight unit of Nanyang Company. One ton was equal to two thousand kilograms, and two hundred tons was 400,000 kilograms!
Chen Laoshuan had to say that I couldn’t take it. Nanyang Company’s manager asked, why can’t I take it?
Chen Laosun said that 400,000 kilograms of tobacco need to plant 2,000 acres of land, and my family only has eight people, which kind of land has so much land?
"Are the big landlords in your hometown all farm their own land?" the manager smiled.
"I know, the little landlord works by himself, and the big landlords work by him." Chen Laosun said depressedly: "If this is in Fujian, not to mention two thousand acres of land, even twenty thousand acres, I can find people to grow it. But this is Luzon. There are too many lands and few people, and every family can't be busy with their own land. Who will work as a long-term worker for me?"
"Aren't there still indigenous people?" said the manager.
"Those Nanyang monkeys!" Chen Laoshuan suffered enough of the natives' suffering. Hearing this, his head shook like a rattle: "I'm stupid, lazy, greedy and fierce. I dare to hire them, but I'm not angry enough!"
"I can't say that your brother is so honest." The manager smiled and said, "If they are disobedient, can you hire supervisors!"
"Supervisor?" Chen Laoshuan said with wide eyes.
"Well, I'll just stare at them. If I don't work hard, I'll have no food to eat. Let's see who they dares to be lazy." The manager said: "You can find it yourself or you can hire it from our company. I suggest hiring it from our company. Our supervisors are very professional. If you get two hundred natives, you only need ten supervisors, so you can't escape or rebellion. You can only work honestly. If you look for it from outside, you have to hire twenty."
"Since there are such good conditions?" Chen Laoshuan said a little disbelief: "Why do you still have to be a supervisor? It would be great to be a direct local owner."
Chapter completed!