Chapter 381: Captives are the pioneers of colonization (first update, please subscribe)

For ordinary people, the war is over and life goes on.

But for some people, the war is not over.

When the women of Buenos Aires, either due to the pressure of life or because of love, threw themselves into the arms of South Chinese soldiers or ordinary South Chinese people.

In the desolate bay of the Patagonia Plateau in southern South China, the captured prisoners of war were being pulled one by one onto the immigration ship.

These prisoners of war will be sent to Congo across the ocean, where the company owns large plantations. The rainforest there needs manpower to be reclaimed and planted.

Prisoners are the best human resources. After all, working in the rainforest will face the threat of various diseases.

Like all prisoners, after being captured at the front, Captain Wesley boarded a train with the soldiers and went to a prisoner-of-war camp.

Just when he thought the prisoner-of-war camp would end, they were stuffed into the ship again. After a few days of bumpy ride on the sea, they arrived at the port of Madita at the mouth of the Congo River. A few years ago, in order to give freedom to black slaves, Zhu Xianlie sent thousands of black slaves he rescued from the Brazilian gold mine to Congo. In order to settle them, he specially bought a large piece of land in the estuary area. The vast Congo River and its hinterland are tropical rainforests, swamps, and the resulting malaria and other diseases such as sleeping sickness, making it difficult for Europeans to settle. Due to the lack of obvious economic benefits, Western countries at this time were reluctant to colonize the region.

This also allowed Nanhua to "pick up" an opportunity. Since the day when Madita Harbor was built in 1865 to accommodate more than a thousand freed black slaves, Nanhua has been carefully planning and building this colony.

But in just a few years, a brand new city appeared on the banks of the Congo River. Of course, the price paid in the process of urban construction was also extremely tragic.

When these Argentine prisoners of war arrived at Porto Madita, they saw an oriental city. In addition to a few European-style buildings, Chinese-style brick and wooden buildings were common in the city. In this exotic city, in addition to the yellow people, there were also many black people.

"Captain, do you know where this place is?"

When getting off the boat, Fernando looked at the unfamiliar city and asked a little nervously.

"We sailed on the sea for eight days. There are coconut trees and tropical rain forests here. There are also many black people. I think we should be in Africa..."

Wesley was not only an officer, he was also a geography teacher in a middle school. There were coconut trees and plantations on the edge of the city, and what seemed to be the trees planted were coffee trees.

Just as he was trying to figure out the area he was in from the limited information, they, who had just got off the ship, were once again driven by black soldiers onto a train.

The whole process was so fast that they didn't even have time to breathe.

"Have they all been put on the train?"

Standing on the balcony in front of the company building, Li Wende used a telescope to look at the newly arrived prisoners from afar, watching them being crammed into the carriage like sardines.

"Yes, sir. Once they arrive in Kinshasa, they will be loaded onto ships as planned and then distributed to plantations along the Congo River."

Major Ding Quan, who was standing next to him, laughed.

"Sir, we in Nanhua won a great victory this time. I heard that we captured nearly 50,000 people. With this manpower, the area of ​​the plantation can be expanded by at least twice this year!"

What is the most important thing for South China Central Africa Company?

Of course it is the plantation. Five years ago, when Li Wende first came to Madita, it was just a small fishing village. But now? Not only is it a prosperous city, but also a large tropical plantation has been built nearby, where rubber trees, coffee trees, oil palm, sisal and other tropical crops are planted.

In order to expand inland, while sending expeditions upstream along the Congo River, he even built a railway leading to the inland. This was because the Congo River below Kinshasa had fast currents and many waterfalls that made it impossible for ships to navigate. A railway had to be built from Madita on the Atlantic coast to Kinshasa.

In order to build this railway, the company recruited hundreds of thousands of laborers from various tribes in the local area through forced labor. In the end, it paid an extremely tragic price to build this railway in the tropical rainforest.

Although the cost was extremely tragic for the locals, with hundreds of thousands of people dying on the railway construction site, after the railway was opened to traffic, the company finally reached into the heart of the Congo River.

It was also from that time that the light of modern civilization finally shone on this dark continent. For the first time, the local indigenous people felt the convenience of modern civilization such as railways, steamships and electric lights. Plantations and towns built along the rivers appeared in this wild land, bringing them modern civilization.

"We need to triple the plantations... important as they are, we need more than plantations, but to establish our dominion over the heart of Africa through those plantations scattered along the rivers."

After a pause, Li Wende said,

"By the way, is there any news about Captain Zhao Lifeng?"

Captain Zhao Lifeng is the leader of the company's expedition team. They set out at the beginning of the year, but no news has been received since then.

"Not yet, but I imagine he's doing what he did in the past—driving his steamboat up the Congo River and doing business in every village they pass through: offering glass beads and ironware in exchange for the chiefs signing documents legally transferring their lands to the South China Company."

The so-called "exploration" was actually conquest, but it was not a conquest at all. The so-called "kingdoms" in the area were actually tribal alliances that had long since perished. The entire Congo River Basin was just a few independent indigenous tribes. The expedition team only needed to coax and deceive the chiefs along the way to sign contracts and easily obtain large tracts of land and labor.

Of course they will encounter resistance, but in the face of modern weapons, such resistance is so insignificant that it is not worth mentioning.

At the same time, the expedition team would also establish many outposts and trading posts along the coast, and the company would then enter the outposts and establish plantations based on the outposts. Thanks to the efforts of the company's expedition team, they have penetrated more than 600 kilometers into the hinterland along the Congo River and established many towns including Kinshasa.

“It’s just our job.”

Standing under the parasol, Li Wende looked at the port and spoke in a rather calm tone.

"The Europeans have already divided up the entire world. It was not easy for the Marshal to lead us to establish that foundation in Nanhua. For the sake of our descendants, we must expand our territory as much as possible and lay a foundation for the future before the Europeans pay attention to Africa!"

As he said this, Li Wende looked at the city.

"Why do Europeans like colonization? Look, here, even the most ordinary South Chinese can live in a spacious mansion, not only can they live a life of luxury, but they can also have at least five or six local maids. Only the colonies can provide them with such a life. In fact, all this is the reward that the colonies provide to their pioneers."

This reward was not without price. When they first arrived in Madita, the first thing they planned was the cemetery. The hot climate of the tropical rainforest and the widespread diseases such as malaria made these colonial rulers who came from afar pay a high price from the very beginning. Even Li Wende's wife died of childbirth one day after arriving at the port of Madita.

But they successfully created this colony from scratch. Although they paid a heavy price, everyone was richly rewarded.

"Not to mention us, even the prisoners of war will enjoy a life in this land that they cannot enjoy in Argentina."

Looking at the train that had already left the train station and the carriages being towed by the steam locomotive, Li Wende's lips curled up slightly.

Those people were the pioneers in developing colonies in South China, and developing colonies would definitely result in casualties.

It's better to kill others than yourself...

(End of this chapter)