Chapter 169: Farmland Reclamation Plan (3rd update, please subscribe)
Colorado River.
It is not the one in North America, but the one that originates from the eastern slope of the Andes Mountains. Although to a certain extent, it is the dividing line between the Patagonia Plateau and the Pampas, it is also an endless grassland between the Colorado River and the Negro River.
This land can be roughly divided into three zones. The first zone is from the Colorado River to the north, covered with dense grassland all the way to Buenos Aires. The second zone is along the banks of the Negro River, just like the land they are walking on now, which is full of large tracts of alfalfa and Atractylodes macrocephala. Starting from 200 kilometers south of the Negro River, the altitude continues to increase, extending to the Strait of Magellan. At the beginning, there are grasslands and not very dense trees and bushes. The further south you go, the more desolate the desert becomes.
In Zhu Xianhai's plan, the prairie between the two rivers will be the most important agricultural reclamation area and the most important buffer zone in the future of Nanhua. In this case, the Colorado River, which is hundreds of meters wide, also known as the North River, became the location of Nanhua's northern defense line.
The Colorado River, which is hundreds or even thousands of meters wide, is a natural fortress. All we need to do is build fortresses, trenches and barbed wire in key areas, and use coastal defense artillery to prevent the enemy fleet from breaking through. This is enough to turn the North River Defense Line into an insurmountable line of defense and become a veritable gateway to South China.
Just like in the simulator, relying on just a few fortresses, the Argentines have not made any progress for years. After all, the possibility of breaking through the river and landing operations these days is almost zero. Of course, it is not to say that there is no possibility.
"The fortress should not only consider itself, but also the defense of the river..."
Standing in the unfinished fortress, Zhu Xianhai said to engineer Angelo.
"Although forts seem to be very useful, the Colorado River is so long that we can't build forts along the entire riverbank. Therefore, in addition to the land forts, we also need an inland fleet."
"River Fleet?"
Angelo was puzzled.
"What does this have to do with the fortress?"
He was just a fortress engineer.
"Of course it is related. Can we consider building a dock with a certain degree of defense near the fortress?"
Zhu Xianhai smiled.
Although the fort is very strong, the North River is too long. If only the fort is used, only a small area can be guarded. But building a defense line along the Colorado River for thousands of kilometers like the Great Wall is tantamount to a huge waste. It is not only unrealistic in terms of financial resources, but also in terms of manpower.
Moreover, in the simulator, the Argentines did try to bypass the fortress and break through the North River through landing operations. However, their repeated attempts were thwarted - there were mobile troops deployed behind the fortress, who used trains and horse-drawn carriages to maneuver and were always able to repel the Argentines before they broke through.
However, considering the risks involved, Zhu Xianhai decided to build an inland river fleet. To put it bluntly, he used dozens of small inland river gunboats to stop the enemy. What are landing craft now? They are small wooden sampans. They can be sunk by Gatling guns, let alone cannons.
The Gatling gun was readily available - the Nanhua Arsenal had already achieved production, and even designed and manufactured a 20mm caliber five-barrel Gatling gun to support the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Although it did not fire artillery shells but ordinary lead bullets, the effect of 20mm lead bullets hitting a wooden-hulled ship was absolutely catastrophic.
The Taiping sold to the Taiping Army was equipped with two 20mm Gatling machine guns. Such a powerful weapon could be used.
"Add a dock..."
Angerson thought for a moment, then spoke.
"Sir, this will probably increase the construction time and require more manpower."
"That's no problem. It doesn't matter if the construction period is a little longer. As for manpower, a group of new immigrants will come here soon. Don't worry about that."
The new immigrants must be settled in the reclamation areas. Considering that with the commissioning of several immigration ships such as the "Great Eastern", the immigration speed has doubled, which will lead to a surge in the population of South China and a sharp increase in demand for food, it is imperative to reclaim these lands into planting areas.
However, it is not that simple to carry out agricultural production. Currently, the population of Nanhua mainly comes from Zhejiang. After all, they were all obtained by guns. Even with the Taiping Army occupying Hangzhou and surrounding areas, according to Li Fugui's letter, the Taiping Army has a million people available for trade. The only problem is the lack of transportation capacity.
As long as there are ships, millions of immigrants can be brought here!
This seems good, but in fact, these farmers from Zhejiang only know how to grow paddy fields, not dry land. For them who lack dry land planting experience, they even need some training before they can grow wheat. As for changing to paddy fields, it is not that no one has mentioned it, but it is definitely unrealistic. First, paddy fields require a lot of manpower - from transplanting to harvesting, a lot of manpower is needed, and second, the natural conditions here are not suitable for growing rice. Of course, the most important thing is manpower. For Nanhua, developing dryland field agriculture that is more convenient for "mechanized agriculture" is the future direction of agricultural development.
But in this case, the immigrants' production experience will conflict with the direction of agricultural development.
"It seems that we still need to increase the efforts to bring in immigrants from the north!"
As he left the fortress, Zhu Xianhai muttered to himself while looking at the vast grassland.
Once again, Zhu Xianhai thought of the previous conversation with Sun Muli.
"Perhaps we can send a recruitment team to places like Shandong and northern Jiangsu to give it a try."
Nodding, Zhu Xianhai started to think in his mind. It was true that there was war in the south now, but life in the north was not easy either. The Nian Rebellion was in full swing. The people in Shandong, Henan, northern Anhui, and northern Jiangsu had never had a good life since ancient times. If he sent out recruiters, he would definitely be able to attract a wave of workers over.
Of course, the arrival of this wave of workers can also solve a problem - the diversification of immigration sources. At present, people from Jiangsu and Zhejiang dominate Nanhua. It seems that there is no impact now, but as time goes by, it will definitely have a certain impact on the development of Nanhua.
“It seems that we need to increase the number of immigrants from other provinces!”
Having made up his mind, Zhu Xianhai gave instructions to Fang Zhanbo.
"When we get to the telegraph station, send a telegram to Buffett in London."
With the resumption of communication on the Atlantic telegraph line, it only took thirty hours to send a telegram from South China to London, which was simply a "miracle"!
This telegram was not sent to Buffett, but to Li Fugui, but the transfer speed through London was faster. After all, in the past ten years, Britain has built a telegraph line from London to Singapore. After the telegram arrives in Singapore, it takes at most two or three days to be forwarded to Shanghai by a fast mail ship.
Even at this speed, it was a miracle in this era, after all, it was the 1860s. Science was changing the world rapidly, but it was still a long way from becoming a global village.
Thinking of such a "long" communication time, Zhu Xianhai couldn't help but miss the convenient communication in another world.
"When the money comes in, wireless telegraphy may be put on the agenda."
In fact, it’s not that Zhu Xianhai was unwilling to work on wireless telegraphy. The most crucial reason was... yes, he was a layman in radio communications.
He only had some knowledge about electron tubes, and he knew nothing about radio stations that did not require electron tubes. After all, the technology gap was too long, and he had never read any knowledge about it in books. Of course, this was not the most important reason. The most important reason was that he needed to make a lot of money using the Atlantic Cable. How could he miss the opportunity to make a lot of money?
(End of this chapter)
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