Chapter 22 Colony Development
Hexingen Consortium, the first town in Tanzania, rows of sisal seedlings that have just been buried in the soil are planted on the low hills in the southwest, and agricultural workers are turning the soil.
In the aisles on both sides, the aborigines pulled the iron plow purchased from Europe to turn over the soil in the aisle, and the Chinese were responsible for the soil around the sisal seedlings. It can only be planed by experienced and meticulous Chinese agricultural workers with hoes.
On the completed land, the Germans, under the guidance of Hispanic agricultural experts, commanded and supervised the indigenous digging of drainage ditches.
The wheat seedlings that spread from the high **** to the flat ground are already planted. In order to ensure the water supply of wheat, new aqueducts are being built.
With the arrival of more and more Chinese immigrants, the scale of agriculture has been considerable. These new immigrants will be assigned by the company to the old people who have already had some experience here to participate in the reclamation work, and the Germans are the leaders. Supervision management and force.
In order to prevent some blind native tribes and slave hunters, the remaining German mercenaries will patrol the surrounding territories in groups.
The large army continued to explore inland, draw maps, and sometimes when they came back to rest, they would grab some labor along the way and clear the land around the first town.
The entire first town is expanding to the west at a speed visible to the naked eye. As long as the follow-up personnel are in place, new strongholds will continue to appear in the interior of Tanzania.
The entire colonial team has already started planning for the second stronghold, which is located on the banks of the Little Rhine 13 kilometers southwest of the first town. In order to facilitate statistical management, the name this time is still as plain as before. The second town (Lufu), In addition, a third town is also planned.
The third town (Kitunga) is located in the north of the first town, with a straight-line distance of about ten kilometers. Construction will start after the follow-up personnel are complete.
Such a prototype of an East African colony centered on the first town, connected to the port of Dar es Salaam to the east, and radiated to the west, appeared, with an area of about 150 acres.
Sisal prefers high temperature, humidity, and high **** environment with uniform rainfall, especially the climate with high temperature, dryness, full sunshine in the daytime and foggy and dewy nighttime is the most ideal.
East Africa just meets the above conditions. During the day, the sun is strong and the temperature is high. At night, because it is located on a plateau, the atmosphere is relatively thin, the insulation effect is poor, the heat loss is fast, and the moisture in the air is easy to condense. Therefore, the diurnal temperature range in Africa is greater than the annual temperature range.
The temperature suitable for the growth of sisal is 27-30°C, the upper limit temperature is 40°C, and the lower limit temperature is 16°C. The temperature difference between day and night should not exceed 7~10°C, which is in line with the temperature conditions in East Africa.
The suitable annual rainfall is 1200-800mm. It has strong adaptability, resistance to barrenness, drought, and waterlogging, but has strong growth ability and a wide range of adaptability. It should be planted in loose, well-drained, low-water level and fertile sandy loam, poorly drained, and often humid places. should not be planted. Low cold resistance, prone to physiological leaf spot.
These are the data provided by Ernst’s agricultural Hispanic experts invited from Mexico. Sisal is native to the Mexican plateau and was later brought to the world by Europeans.
This Hispanic expert is a farmer engaged in sisal planting in Mexico. Although his education level is not high, his grandmother is from the German region, so he can also speak German, which is why the East African colony hired him.
The Mexican plateau is similar to the East African plateau, both are near the equator, and the environment is somewhat similar. The difference is that East Africa is closer to the equator, and the equator passes through the middle, while Mexico is between the Tropic of Cancer and the equator.
The distribution of precipitation in Mexico is uneven. Some areas are tropical rain forests, while other areas are tropical deserts. The conditions in East Africa are better, and the south of Ethiopia and Somalia are basically savannahs.
All immigrants are divided into different working groups to develop the land in East Africa in a planned way, and finally the work efficiency of each group determines the food supply.
The management of the colony will send someone to inspect the labor results of the agricultural workers. The acceptance criteria include workload and time, the quality of farmland development, and subsequent crop growth.
Theoretically, these agricultural workers can get wages, but at present, no one gets it, and the Chinese agricultural workers don’t care. The main purpose of coming here to work is to make ends meet. In the Far East, most of them lose their fields or go bankrupt due to force majeure. There is no way to survive. Travel across the ocean to East Africa.
The East African colony encourages such people to come to East Africa to make a living, because the most lacking thing now is people. After using the Chinese and the aborigines for comparison, the high-level colonists also found that the work efficiency of the Chinese is much higher than that of the aborigines and is convenient for management.
Most of the natives need the colonial team to send someone with a whip to supervise them, so they will work lazily, although they are affected by the factors of the Heixingen consortium.
But I am afraid of comparison in everything. The Chinese on one side are working hard without complaining, and they obey the arrangement, and do what they are asked to do. There is no reluctance at all. Why can't you local slackers do it.
In this way, the high-level colonial officials gradually "understood" the boss' painstaking efforts. These Chinese are indeed natural and high-quality workers, and they are not inferior to the Germans.
However, the appetite of these Chinese workers is indeed not small. It is difficult for ordinary Germans who can mix food and clothing in Europe to understand the desire of the Chinese to eat.
And the more work in the East African colony, the better, and the more food you can eat, the better, so naturally work hard.
Because of colonization and reclamation, the animals on the East African grasslands suffered catastrophe, wildebeests, lions... all large animals were hunted and killed by the colonial team.
Most of the meat of these animals entered the stomachs of Chinese laborers. For many Chinese laborers who have not seen the taste of meat all year round, it is almost the Chinese New Year.
Even in this era, many low-level people in the Qing Dynasty can't see any oil stars during the New Year. It's not like now, as long as they work hard, they can make a living, and occasionally they can eat meat. Although it is hard every day, happiness and satisfaction are the first time. on the faces of these people.
After the basic survival problems are solved, some families have started to make babies. Yes, there are Chinese families in the East African colonies.
The East African colonies encourage family immigration. After all, forming a family is a stable condition for maintaining rule. Of course, that kind of big family and clan are not included. In Ernst’s eyes, big families and clans are unstable factors. It's not fun to make a fuss, and it's not fair to the development of society.
So Ernst strictly forbids big families and clans to intervene when recruiting people in the Far East. Maybe these families and clans will not think of coming to East Africa, but Ernst still has to guard against the incipient.
As for the kind of small family of two or three, Ernst welcomes it, not to mention other things, as long as they start a family in the East African colony or have already married, they will be assigned a separate residence. As for the bachelors, most of them can only live in Datongpu .
At present, the ratio of men to women in the colonies is seriously unbalanced. Few of them start families, and they have already started families in the Far East, and even fewer female workers are recruited separately.
It will be Ernst's shoulders to solve the marriage problems of these bachelors in the future, but Ernst doesn't have the energy to do these things now.
Ernst is now more concerned about the development of the industry and changes in the European situation.
(end of this chapter)