Chapter 640: Happy Times of the Plantation Owner (First Update, Please Subscribe)
What did submarines look like in the 19th century?
It looks no different from the submarines in old movies, except that it is smaller and more cramped. There is not even a toilet in the submarine. After all, in the 19th century, it was not possible to build a toilet that could be used to defecate on the seabed, so the submariners could only solve the problem on the deck. As for when they were on the seabed, they could only hold it in. If they really couldn't, they could use something like a can. Fortunately, even the 002 submarine with hundreds of batteries could only sail on the seabed for a few hours.
The cabin was filled with a pungent smell of gasoline. Standing in it, Emperor Zhu finally understood why submarine soldiers had the highest food expenses in the navy. It was because the environment in the submarine was too harsh. Fighting in such an environment... was really not easy!
"Mr. Liu, the food for submarine soldiers will be increased by 20% in the future, and the sea allowance will also be increased by 20% accordingly. The environment in the submarine is poor, and it is not easy for officers and soldiers to fight."
In this way, Emperor Zhu was touring in the narrow cabin while emphasizing the improvement of the submarine force. In the end, he was still not satisfied and even asked Liu Tiansheng to drive the submarine to the sea. In the semi-submerged state of the submarine, Emperor Zhu stood on the bridge, just like the most powerful three fat men, observing the sea with a telescope. It seemed that at this moment, he saw British warships and merchant ships sinking into the sea under the wolf pack attack of the Ming Dynasty.
Just as Emperor Zhu put down the telescope, Liu Tiansheng, who was standing beside him, said.
"Your Majesty, I heard that the ironclad ships Brazil bought from Britain will be returning to Brazil in the near future. Should we shoot them down on the way? If they are sunk, they will probably just be lost."
Missing!
In this era without radio - in foreign countries without radio, if a ship disappeared while sailing on the sea, it was gone, just like the Japanese armored cruiser Mubang, which disappeared in the South China Sea on December 3, 1886 on its way back to Japan.
Sunk... that is missing!
Seems like a good suggestion!
Liu Tiansheng's suggestion made Emperor Zhu think about it, and then he said.
"Not yet. Even if we sink it, the British insurance company will pay for it, and then they will build a new ship. The new ship will definitely be more advanced than the old one."
Shaking his head and handing the telescope to Liu Tiansheng, Zhu Xianhai naturally thought of the neighbor of Daming. In recent years, Brazil has been winning without effort. As the only rubber producer in the world, European powers represented by Britain and France have built airships and armored vehicles. Both airships and armored vehicles are inseparable from rubber. The price of rubber has risen several times. Although Daming's plantations have also made a lot of money, it is not as good as the rubber mined by slaves in the Barben rainforest. The wealth brought by rubber has given the Brazilian government sufficient funds to strengthen its armaments.
In response to the two "Friendship-class ironclads" owned by the Ming Dynasty, Brazil purchased two 10,000-ton ironclads from the United Kingdom. This was of course something that the United Kingdom was happy to see. Even the Ming Dynasty's "Nanhua-class" was seen by European countries as part of the arms race between Brazil and the Ming Dynasty.
Brazil!
In recent years, Brazil has made a fortune from rubber exports, and its military has been strengthened to a certain extent. It is time to bring down the price of rubber!
Emperor Zhu sneered. After ten years of development, it was almost time for Ming Dynasty to start large-scale rubber harvesting in its rubber plantations in Congo and Guinea.
Emperor Zhu did not care at all about this neighbor who had developed by exporting agricultural products such as rubber. What kind of threat could a country that even had to import rifles pose?
Moreover, it is a slavery country - the logging of rainforest rubber has even strengthened slavery in Brazil. After all, harvesting rubber trees in the rainforest requires a lot of labor.
But it’s better this way. When needed in the future, we can send troops in the name of liberating black slaves.
Free the black slaves and send them back to their hometowns. Well, by then, the Ming Dynasty will definitely still be on the moral high ground.
This is a legitimate reason.
…
The city of Madita on the Congo River is the headquarters of the Ming China-Africa Company. Although this colony belongs to the Ming Dynasty, it was occupied in the name of the company. After nearly ten years of development, this riverside city has become the most prosperous city on the west coast of Africa. Thousands of Ming people live in this city. There are also thousands of Japanese workers and tens of thousands of local natives in the city.
Most Ming people had plantations outside the city. This city was called the "City of Palm Oil". There were oil palm plantations everywhere outside the city. The palm oil produced here was processed primarily in local factories and then shipped to Europe for export, or shipped to Nanhua to be made into margarine, cream, chocolate and other commodities for export to Europe and the United States. This allowed ordinary people in Europe and the United States to finally enjoy cheap butter, cream, chocolate and other products, even if they were artificial. All of this was entirely due to the advanced food technology of the Ming Dynasty.
Of course, the people of the Ming Dynasty still eat natural food. After all, Europeans like science, so let them enjoy the food science from the future.
This is also the biggest difference of Ming Dynasty as a major exporter of agricultural and animal husbandry products - a considerable portion of the exported agricultural products are modern industrial products, unlike Argentina in the past which only exported primary agricultural products.
Among the numerous plantations here, there is a rather inconspicuous small plantation. At the gate of this plantation, there are two sturdy natives holding wooden sticks. If any outsiders approach, they will definitely beat them with sticks.
Of course, these outsiders must be referring to the local natives.
When a carriage approached from a distance, the natives only saw the license plate number of the carriage and hurriedly opened the door to let the carriage drive into the plantation. They actually took the initiative to bend down and bow when the carriage passed by.
This is the master's carriage.
The carriage drove for more than ten minutes and stopped in front of a Chinese-style wooden building deep in the plantation. More than a dozen maids were already standing in front of the building. As soon as the carriage stopped, a black maid in a maid's skirt came forward and gently opened the door.
"Welcome home, sir."
The maid whispered.
After getting off the carriage, Chen Erqiang walked towards the mansion.
A dark-skinned maid, about eleven or twelve years old, was leading the way.
"Master, you are back."
Accompanied by a burst of fluent Chinese, a tall woman with long hair came over, and then hugged her tightly, and the strong smell of perfume came into her nose. Chen Erqiang hugged the woman's waist.
When he touched her, he felt her waist was soft and he rubbed it lightly with his fingers. The woman just hummed twice, her voice very charming.
"You little bastard, you missed me!"
"Of course I did!"
"What did you think about it?"
"I want to..."
The woman's words made Chen Erqiang very proud. This foreign woman was really attractive. Apart from anything else, her charm was something no man could resist.
He bought this woman from a Moroccan human trafficker. A few years ago, a Moroccan human trafficker had done business in the Ming Dynasty. Of course, it was limited to the colonies. A charming woman like this only cost a little over 100 yuan. Speaking of not cheap, it was hard to resist such a charming woman! The natives were cheap and didn't charge money, but apart from the Japanese, only the white prisoners of war in the plantations would be attracted by them.
He said quite proudly.
"Help me take a bath first. I am so exhausted from this journey."
"Master, are you tired of riding the train?"
"Tired, how can I not be tired? Don't you know that I work in the garden myself? If it weren't for the money, who would suffer that pain..."
When saying this, Chen Erqiang did not feel the slightest bit of discomfort in his heart. In fact, when he first came here seven years ago, he was just an ordinary laborer. Six years ago, after learning the skills, he bought a piece of land with a bank loan and rented hundreds of native laborers from the government to open up this plantation.
But after two or three years, he became the legendary "local rich man" and naturally stopped working in the garden. After all, there were local laborers working in the garden. With food and accommodation for only a few cents, how could he not use such cheap labor?
But some things still need to be done personally, just like when he went to learn to plant the rubber tree this time, he stayed there for more than a month, which made him very tired.
But fortunately, I finally learned how to plant rubber trees and tap rubber. In the future, I will plant another patch of rubber trees in the garden. After ten or eight years, I can just take care of the rubber trees and count the money.
Soon, the two of them arrived at the bathroom. As soon as they entered, a servant came to help them wash and change clothes. Seeing the woman taking off her dress without any concealment and stepping into the bathtub, Chen Erqiang also followed. There was no need to hide anything in this bathroom. When the two of them were enjoying a mandarin duck bath, the native maid stood beside them. When the woman dived into the water, looking at the hair floating on the water around her waist, Chen Erqiang couldn't help but close his eyes. While enjoying the woman's service, he couldn't help but sigh in his heart.
"In the past, I could never have imagined this day, even in my dreams..."
(End of this chapter)
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