Chapter 159: Double the population

After the successful acquisition of the San Javier Iron Mine, the war between Paraguay and Argentina had little to do with Rio Grande do Sul, and Li Mingyuan also turned his attention to the development of the domestic region.
The rubber industry is a planned pillar industry. After the discovery of wild rubber trees, some workers who have worked in plantations were selected to take care of the rubber forests distributed in various places, and select suitable fields as artificial labor in the areas near the found rubber. Transplant the base of the rubber tree.
The development of the rubber industry is a gradual process. Li Mingyuan first planned to introduce wild rubber trees for large-scale artificial planting within two years to form a dense rubber plantation area, replacing Brazil ’s monopoly position, and making Rio Grande do Sul the world ’s main Supplier of rubber raw materials. Then, while importing rubber industry technology from Europe, while cultivating the rubber industry technicians belonging to Rio Grande do Sul, establish an independent rubber industry system, and through upgrading and processing rubber raw materials, make various types of industrial products and obtain greater Economic profit.
After two months of hard work by Chinese people, most of the industrial equipment purchased from Prussia was in the stage of factory construction and installation. Some of the light industrial machinery and equipment related to the production of daily life products have been properly installed and started to produce products.
Various industries in Rio Grande do Sul are in a state of vigorous construction, and the transportation of Cuban Chinese workers is also coming to an end. On February 4, the last batch of Chinese workers departed from the Cuban Youth Island, meaning that the transportation operation was put to an end.
The transport operation lasted for more than three months. In total, more than 270 vessels of various types were employed. In addition, more than 120 vessels with a tonnage of more than 500 tons were dispatched by Rio Grande do Sul, and more than 400 vessels were used. It cost US $ 7 million to transport 120,000 Chinese workers.
From the end of the 16th century, the first Chinese who set off from the Philippines to the American continent counted. By February 1869, more than 700,000 Chinese workers were transported to the Americas. Due to factors such as death during voyages and death from overwork, living About 300,000 Chinese workers came down.
The total number of Chinese workers rescued from Peru was 150,000, and about 20,000 died in previous battles. Cuban Chinese workers arrived in Rio Grande do Sul, and 120,000 Cuban Chinese volunteered to emigrate to Rio Grande do Sul. After large-scale immigration, The total number of Chinese in Rio Grande do Sul exceeds 250,000, accounting for more than two-thirds of the Chinese in North and South America.
There are more than 120,000 Chinese workers in Cuba. Due to various factors, more than 20,000 Chinese workers remain in the local area. Part of them is participating in the rebels' armed forces, hoping and overthrowing the Spanish colonial rule. Then the Cubans gave the Chinese normal. National status.
Part of it is the free Chinese responsible for the Spanish colonists. They used to suppress their fellows in exchange for the appointment of the Spaniards. They were worried that coming to Rio Grande do Sul will be accounted for after the fall, and in general, people like them have No small amount of land wealth, 30 to 100 acres of land from Rio Grande do not impress them.
The third part has the largest number, and their experience is also the most tragic. In Cuba, some plantations and farmers take the Chinese as their private wealth, and they are not willing to let the Chinese leave. Therefore, many Chinese have to stay in Cuba and continue. Slave-like life.
Life is not only bright but also dark. For the entire society in the second half of the nineteenth century, interest was the most valued thing in European countries. Africans and Asians are just lowly races in their eyes, and they do n’t need to kill them. The trial of the law, and as white Europeans, people of different nationalities will also be treated differently. Ireland was part of the British Empire, but the Irish did not enjoy the benefits brought by the prosperity of the British Empire.
From 1845 to 1850, there was a great famine in Ireland. In the case of ample food, the British did not help hungry Irish civilians. They watched over one million people starved to death in Ireland. After the famine, the Irish poor, who had nothing, migrated to the United States on a large scale. Like more than 10,000 Chinese workers, it has become the main force for building the Pacific Railroad.
Heavy labor exhausted Chinese and Irish workers, and tens of thousands of Irish workers died on the railway.
During this period, although white people were in a higher position than Chinese, as railroad workers, Irish workers and Chinese workers bore the same amount of labor.
In this era, Li Mingyuan tries his best to help the Chinese workers in the Americas, but some places that Rio Grande South cannot reach, can only be temporarily put on hold, and will help the Chinese workers there when the country is strong in the future.
Demographic work has been going on. After Sun Bin returned from Prussia, Liu Pu, Zhao Yan, and Sun Bin were also responsible for managing immigration while handling other matters.
In the study in the backyard of the castle, the three of Liu Pu took out more than ten record books, one on the desk next to the other.
"After the Rio Grande do Sul, the staff arranged to continue to recruit women of the right age from Paraguay, and to recruit 2,000 women of the right age before the outbreak of the Misiones conflict. In December, our army and Paraguay reached a population exchange weapon. After the agreement, the speed of recruiting the population accelerated rapidly. As of two days ago, from December to early February, a total of 11,000 women of Paraguayan age were recruited, paying 1.7 million silver dollars and 300 tons of grain. "
Zhao Yan opened a notebook with dense numbers and said.
"Little Lopez received the weapons and ammunition we delivered, and another batch of silver dollars and food. It seems that they can persist for a while in Misiones." Li Mingyuan whispered secretly.
"Shizi misunderstood that 1.7 million silver dollars and 300 tons of food are compensation fees paid to Paraguayan women and will not fall into the hands of Lopez." Zhao Yan explained.
"That's not necessarily true. Paraguayans are fighting in Misiones province, and need a lot of funds and food support. The 1.7 million silver dollars are not a small amount. Lopez Jr. is likely to stare at this money.
The condition for Chinese to recruit Paraguayan women is to deliver 150 silver dollars and a month's worth of food. A month's worth of food is usually not valuable, but in post-war Paraguay, a month's worth of food can help them through the critical period of food shortage. Until the harvest of new grain, one hundred and fifty silver dollars can be used by ordinary people for ten years, enabling them to lead a good life.
In order to attract Paraguayan women to marry Chinese, Rio Grande do Sul offers excellent prices and attractive living conditions.
As soon as Paraguayan women agree to immigrate, the food will be distributed to their families immediately, and the silver dollar will be distributed to them personally and handled by themselves.
After receiving one hundred and fifty silver dollars, most Paraguayan women leave their money to their families, leaving some of them as private house money.
In Rio Grande do Sul, the Chinese who can marry a daughter-in-law are generally meritorious soldiers and officers. They generally own a large amount of land. Therefore, Chinese recruiting Paraguayans often use land as a sign to attract Paraguayan women immigrants and promise that they will marry Chinese. You can be a landlord, and you don't have to worry about being oppressed by the landlord in your hometown.
Attracting women in Paraguay with land has little effect at first. They do not believe that there will be more than 300 acres of land after marrying Chinese. However, with the first Paraguayan women marrying Chinese to go home to visit relatives, they are in Rio Grande do Sul. Real life is also known to other Paraguayans. Therefore, more and more women of the right age are choosing to emigrate due to the double attraction of not having to starve to death and getting a lot of land.
Li Mingyuan's concern is that there are enough immigrant women to balance the male and female ratio in the country. As to whether Lopez Jr. will annex the silver dollars and food left by the Paraguayan women to their families, it is not his concern.
Paraguay's domestic call for monarchy is getting higher and higher. Regarding its reputation, Lopez Jr. may not exploit the "sale money" of Paraguayan women. However, ordinary Paraguayan officials will never act in the face of a group of civilians who are long and poor.
"Paraguay's overall strength is not as good as that of Argentina. Even if Lopez Jr. robs the silver dollar that we handed over to the female family members in Paraguay, it can maintain the offensive of the army for a period of time and cannot change the overall situation."
Li Mingyuan said lightly, and re-positioned his eyes on the thin book on the desk. He glanced briefly, and felt a little strange. He asked, "There were 15,000 women who were naturalized in the early stage, plus the number of immigrants. There should be 28,700 people. The data recorded on the thin book is 34,000. What's the problem with the extra 5,000? "
"Yes, after the occupation of Santa Catarina, most of the captured Brazilian troops were made up of locals. When exchanging prisoners with Brazil, they were sent out of Rio Grande do Sul, like other prisoners, and reduced by more than 4,000. There are more young men and women in Santa Catarina than white men, so many white women choose to marry Chinese as wives, and the number of naturalized women has increased. "
Liu Pu explained.
"Well, yes." Li Mingyuan nodded with satisfaction and smiled: "The Han boys are no worse than the whites. They can take the initiative to marry their brothers. It is a wise choice.
Sun Bin, you are responsible for publicizing the advantages of our Han people to our surrounding countries, and encourage more women of other ages to marry Han people in other countries. "
"Understand." Sun Bin responded with an arched hand, but his expression seemed unnatural.
"Sun Bin, you haven't spoken in the study. Is there anything wrong?" Li Mingyuan noticed his abnormality and asked directly.
"Shizi, there is a question in my mind. I have never dared to ask Shizi."
"It's okay to say anything." Li Mingyuan waved.
"The number of Gran Chinese and naturalized women in Rio South reaches 285,000 and 30,000 are unnaturalized Brazilians. The total population exceeds Paraguay and it is a notable country in La Plata. However, Rio South Most of Gran's population is Chinese immigrated from other regions. We lack the foundation here. The purchase of machinery and equipment and the transportation of Cuban Chinese consume a lot of gold reserves, and the 120,000 Chinese workers of new immigrants need to spend a lot of money for resettlement.
His subordinate believes that the current population size of Rio Grande do Sul has reached its limit, and urges Shiko to temporarily postpone the immigration plan from the mainland and Nanyang. "
"The continent and the South Ocean are a long way from Rio Grande do Sul, and the cost of transporting Chinese is much higher than the cost of travelling from Cuba to Rio Grande do Sul. Your worry is not unreasonable."
Li Mingyuan closed the book with a gentle tone and slowly explained: "South Rio Grande has limited strength, and a large number of immigrants regardless of national strength will lead to national financial bankruptcy and national unrest. Although I want to help Chinese brothers elsewhere immigrants to South Rio Gran, he won't do it blindly.
The imbalance between the gender ratio of men and women in Rio Grande do Sul is still very serious. The action of obtaining female immigrants from outside cannot be suspended. After Cuban immigrants, the immigrants in Nanyang and the mainland will be mainly female immigrants. Considering the current tight gold reserves, The situation, the scale of the mainland and Nanyang immigrants has been cut by half. The first batch of mainland and Nanyang immigrants was postponed to one month later. The previous plan, but the atmosphere that has just emerged in Rio Grande do Sul to transport mainland immigrants and return to the mainland has made Sun Bin feel dangerous.
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was destroyed less than five years ago. With the number of troops equipped with Western weapons such as the Hunan Army and Huai Army that destroyed the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the number and strength of the troops were far from what the current National Defense Forces could provoke.
The large-scale transportation of mainland Chinese workers not only cannot afford the national strength of Rio Grande do Sul, but may also arouse the vigilance of the Manchu dynasty in advance. Rio Grande doo is far from the mainland, and the Qing Army cannot fight over it. However, for immigration, the National Defense Forces The Qing army fought a great battle, but it was very harmful. It was far away from Rio Grande do Sul, the Defense Forces could not get effective supplies, and the Western powers regarded the mainland as an economic colony. They certainly did not want the Defense Forces to crisis the rule of their good slaves. As a result, the Defense Forces were on the mainland. The probability of victory in combat with the Qing Army is extremely low.
The establishment of a nation by the Chinese in Rio Grande do Sul was a risky victory. Now that there is a base to settle down, Sun Bin does not want to lead Southern Rio Grande to a crisis of dying because of adventure.
Li Mingyuan was pleased to hear Sun Bin's suggestion, but he was left alone after the conversation ended.