Chapter 995: Changing the Cage and Changing the Birds (Third update, please subscribe)

People leave the city every day, and of course people arrive.

There were many people in the station. After getting off the train, the passengers from other places all looked at the city with curious eyes. Many of the passengers were Chinese in shirtsleeves, carrying suitcases, with women and children standing beside them.

They look full of expectations and are typical Chinese people: a decent job, a dedicated wife, five or six children, an income of 30 yuan a month, and living in a long-term rental apartment that costs only 3 yuan a month in rent.

Most Chinese people live a life where they work for a company for their entire lives - after completing school education and starting to work, once they enter an organization, they will work until retirement, and the organization cannot fire them for improper reasons.

Of course, this is only limited to Chinese people.

While people were leaving Huizhou for work, hundreds of thousands of Chinese came to this strange city every day for work. Newly built companies needed workers, technicians, and supervisors.

Of course, our own people should take care of our own people. This is a matter of course.

The people coming and going are changing the city bit by bit.

"What we need is to use job opportunities to gradually relocate more than 4 million people from Rio, Sao Paulo, Minas Gerais and other places!"

Cheng Dingkang, standing by the window, looked at the city in the heavy rain and said in a faint tone.

The director of the Post-War Reconstruction Committee of the Empire's Northern Twelve Provinces has been responsible for promoting the empire's post-war reconstruction in the Brazilian occupied areas over the past few years.

In fact, the Reconstruction Committee is the so-called occupation authority, which is specifically responsible for the "post-war reconstruction" of the northern twelve provinces, which is actually the specific occupation policies.

"Director, this may be a little difficult."

As the director's secretary, Zhao Gongkui certainly knew what the core of this plan was. It was to reduce the number of Latino population in the area and eventually achieve a certain balance. To be more precise, it was to make Chinese the majority in the northern twelve provinces.

"Work permits. From now on, the Occupational Registration Office must strictly follow the 8:2 ratio to issue work permits for other provinces. Don't worry, those people don't mind going to other provinces for a living. Don't be afraid to provide them with jobs. Farms need workers, mines need miners, and even eucalyptus plantations need workers. Disperse them to various provinces in Daming. Eventually, they will completely integrate into us and become one of us."

Cheng Dingkang was full of expectations for the future. Like many officials of the empire, he was full of confidence and believed in all of this. After all, the history of Chinese civilization was itself a history of the integration and eclecticism of civilizations. The four barbarians of the Spring and Autumn Period were integrated into China under the policy of "pacifying the barbarians and bringing them back to China."

Maybe some people will resist now, but time will eventually change everything.

"Director, last month, the clearing troops discovered 23 more "Kilombo" villages in the rain forest. Should we handle them according to the old rules, or?"

The Quilombo people are escaped slaves and their descendants. In the slave era in Brazil, there were always slaves who took advantage of lax supervision or when the rainforest was being cultivated to escape to the hinterland of Brazil. These escaped slaves would gather together and attack the indigenous primitive tribes in the rainforest, killing men and robbing women. Over time, they formed secret communities. These communities are often located deep in the jungle or in places with complex terrain, so they are always far away from the civilized world. According to military estimates, there are at least thousands of such secret communities deep in the dense jungle, and there may be more in fact.

Originally, they would live quietly in the depths of the jungle, far away from civilized society, but because the rebel guerrillas entered the jungle, the army's cleanup would always encounter such villages.

"As in the past, we recruited them to participate in the cleanup. They have lived in the depths of the rainforest for a long time and know it better than us. They are more adapted to it. Moreover, most of them are hostile to white people. You know, many of those rebels are slave owners and overseers on the plantations."

Cheng Dingkang said directly.

"Don't be afraid to use them. The rain forest... is a place that eats people!"

It is a simple truth that I would rather die than let my friend die.

"As for the future resettlement, those people will eventually be sent back to Africa, where they can also help the empire's rule."

"Yes, I understand."

Cheng Dingkang met with several groups of junior officials throughout the morning. They had been discussing various issues, from local law and order maintenance, to material control, to industrial construction, and infrastructure projects such as railways and ports. In fact, compared to the former, construction is Cheng Dingkang's most important job here.

After all, industrial construction means more job opportunities, and more job opportunities are a tool to appease resistance and win people's hearts. Of course, it also means the arrival of more Chinese residents.

"In a word, we need to attract as much investment as possible from all over the world and completely change the past plantation economy based on cash crops such as sugarcane and coffee."

Cheng Dingkang said this while taking a long puff of his cigarette.

"The plantation economy is the least suitable economic model for the empire. It requires too much labor, and the empire cannot waste too much labor on the land. Of course, those Europeans are happy to work on the plantations, and that is their business, but our people should try to work in factories."

The income in a factory is higher, the job is more stable, and if nothing unexpected happens, the employment is lifelong. So working in a factory is of course the best choice for Chinese.

"Of course, land is an extremely important production resource, and the principle remains the same as before. As long as they can't pay taxes, as long as they let the plantations fall into ruin, they will be immediately confiscated, auctioned, and then handed over to our people."

Cheng Dingkang said, flicking the ash off his cigarette as if nothing had happened.

"Being a tenant farmer is not the best choice, but being a farmer is acceptable."

Since the occupation of Brazil, the Ming Dynasty easily destroyed Brazil's plantation economy by taking the opportunity of liberating slaves. Sugarcane plantations and coffee plantations, which required a large amount of labor, immediately went bankrupt without cheap slaves. Of course, this was also the reason why the plantation owners rebelled against the Ming Dynasty, but their bankruptcy allowed large tracts of land to be redistributed. While millions of landless tenants obtained land, large tracts of land were allocated to retired soldiers. Of course, they obtained far more land than ordinary farmers. This also made the northern twelve provinces of the Ming Dynasty form a more distinctive feature - the cities were rebelling, but there were many farmers outside the cities who supported the Ming Dynasty's rule.

Essentially... they are the beneficiaries.

"What the director said is very true,"

Taking over the conversation, Zhao Gongkui said:

"However, there is generally a labor shortage problem on those farms now. After all, one hundred acres is too much for a family to farm. A family simply cannot handle it all."

"300 acres, is that a lot?"

Shaking his head, Cheng Dingkang said.

"How big were those plantations in the past? 300 acres, just a small peasant economy..."

(End of this chapter)