On February 18, 1648, after experiencing high-speed navigation, the two ships finally arrived in the Hezhong Port located in the lower reaches of the Berg River.

South Africa's development has actually lagged behind in recent years. As the earliest destination of the East Coast in Africa, the city wall of Hezhong Port has remained at its current scale after an expansion. There are no industrial facilities outside the city, except for a brick and tile kiln and a lime factory, there is no atmosphere of industrial civilization here.

However, the population here has been growing steadily over the years. As of mid-February this year, the population of the two towns in Hezhong area has exceeded 10,000 people. Among them, the population of Hezhong Town is 8,500, and the population of Gaoda Township is 3,400. The sum of the two is close to 12,000. Moreover, in the next one or two months, three or four hundred people will be intercepted by the Hezhong area - generally handicraftsmen or doctors.

Among the 12,000 people, Ming people account for about 50%, mostly young and middle-aged men; Indians (including Chalua and Guarani) account for about 10%, and the population proportion of these people was once close to 30%, but because they were not adapted to the old continental environment and other reasons, they now accounted for only about one-tenth of the number of deaths, and most of these people were women. In addition, about 20% of the remaining population were Persian and Balochi female slaves, and the rest were newly born mixed-race children and a small number of European immigrants.

It can be seen that the proportion of Ming people in the Hezhong area of ​​South Africa is 10% higher than that of the local people. In addition, the source of local residents makes the physical characteristics of newly born children more towards oriental people, which is already a certain difference from the local people. Moreover, whether it is Hezhong Town or Gaoda Township, its residents' culture is more towards the east. In other words, the current culture of this colonial area that is not managed by the local area is more like a mixture of Eastern and Western cultures: there are large Central Asian girls and wives with thick and long braids everywhere. Although the clothes they wear are prohibited by superiors, they still retain many of the bright characteristics of Central Asian nations.

The accent of the language is even more strange, like the Shandong accent and Xinjiang accent. The local researcher of the Ministry of Civil Affairs has corrected it several times, but the effect is not great, and he finally gave up. If the pronunciation problem is still only one aspect, then the atmosphere of the local residents is even more painful.

Not to mention anything else, most of the Ming people in South Africa were young and middle-aged men, including Shandong horse bandits and bandits, as well as orphans of the rebel army, and included Qing army prisoners. These people were not good men and women. Just say that those immigrants from horse bandits were lawless masters. In Shandong, only lawless people like Mo Dazhi could suppress them. Now, when they were in South Africa, where the emperor was far away, they were all relieved and relaxed.

In view of the harsh natural environment and security situation in South Africa, the South African pioneer team often organizes these strong militias to carry weapons to the Dongshan River Valley to "suppress bandits". The two townships often dispatch more than 2,000 militias at one time, and local troops such as the Hezhong Security Corps, South African Cavalry Company, and South African Artillery Company to suppress the black herders in the valley area. There is no black farming settler in the local area, and only some herders covet the abundant water plants here and come to graz.

For these herders from the Kama tribe, the East Coast people have always been to arrest them without any other words. The people caught are sent to the Eight Banners tribes that depend on the East Coast, and the cattle and sheep are accepted by themselves. In addition to the official organization's clearance operations (often the thunder and rain are small, and the black people who hear the news have actually fled all of them long ago), there are also some private actions organized by the people. These actions are often grouped in groups of three or five people, and they carry equipment to find extra money during the slack season. To this day, the South African pioneer team has not yet cancelled the bounty to the black people in the Kama tribe of Xhosa.

In addition to the bounty of the people, if you can still grab some cattle and sheep, you can get rid of poverty and become rich immediately and live a well-off life. Of course, there are also some brave guys who go to the countryside to borrow a horse, and after taking swords and guns, they will ride alone to trouble the Xhosa people, and often make a lot of achievements, which makes more people eager to try and try and follow their actions.

The South African pioneering team government cannot ban guns from the people. The bullets used by militia during training can be taken home for custody. The village militia director and township armed minister regularly inspected them. The reason why the guns are not banned is that the situation here is far from being optimistic. Although the black people of the Kama tribe have reached an agreement with the East Coast people to end the war, small-scale conflicts have been constantly and are becoming more and more frequent in recent years. Perhaps in a few years, another large-scale war will break out between the two sides - in order to compete for land in the sun.

Zhang Jinhua felt such a strong folk custom in South Africa when he got off the boat. He saw that there were some militias with messy clothes on the docks, but with rifles on his back and strong spirit on his face. These people were obviously the guards who maintained order here.

After hearing Zhang Jinhua and others' arrival, Major Chang Kaisheng, who had just returned from "suppressing bandits", decided to come to see Zhang Jinhua and others. The two ships also carried some daily necessities for the Hezhong area, so they were just asking the soldiers of the army to unload these things on the spot.

"Captain Chang, long time no see. The last time I saw you, I was before going to La Plata, and I was promoted from captain to school official in the blink of an eye. It's so gratifying." Zhang Jinhua's expedition ship was moored on the calm Berg River. He himself took the opportunity to go ashore for a rest. After a whole month of traveling through the waves, he is now very tired.

"There is nothing worth congratulations." Chang Kaisheng smiled bitterly and said, "There is no place to place me in the local area, so I can only be sent to South Africa. It just so happened that Liu Ang, the former captain of the South African pioneer team, has also been here for many years. The Executive Committee recalled him according to discipline, so he asked me to guard this place and play with the black people."

"This is a good thing." Zhang Jinhua laughed and said, "Now I have heard many people say that people like you who have been the "Guardian of the Foreign Town" are more likely to enter the central decision-making circle, and it is very common to be a member of the Standing Committee. The so-called generals and ministers are talking about people like you. If you don't say it far away, just look at what position that guy Mo Ming will take when he comes back this time. Grandma, I can't find out how the Executive Committee arranges him. The news is well kept confidential."

"That's it." Chang Kaisheng said disapprovingly, "There are many people in the Government Affairs Council who dislike me. I know that it is too difficult to enter the central decision-making circle. Since the career of the government is hopeless, I should make some money honestly and be a rich man."

"It's great to be a rich man. Now the government has been dragging on the change of leadership due to the continuous war. Many people have been doing the wind and rain in it. The water is very deep. It's better not to trek around at this time." Zhang Jinhua sighed a little sigh and said, "Didn't I also be sent out? Grandma, let me go out to sea to find overseas fairy mountains."

"Haha." Chang Kaisheng laughed twice, then hugged Zhang Jinhua's shoulder and said, "Let's go and have fun in the city. You will not miss yours. Let the brothers get off the boat and have a rest and have a good meal. You'll eat the canned food all day long and you'll almost vomit. We have ostrich, lions, antelope, and everything. Well, there are cod, which is different from the local cod, as well as abalone and high-quality wine..."

The foods Chang Kaisheng mentioned are all South African characteristics. Among them, the Hezhong Town Government set up an ostrich farm outside the city, which specializes in breeding meat and exporting it to the local area. These ostrich meat, ostrich eggs and ostrich skins are the largest export commodities in the local area, together with South Africa's sorghum, peanuts, watermelons, wool, yellow cattle and other agricultural products, and make a lot of profits every year.

Of course, there are many more local commodities exported to South Africa. In addition to a small number of seal skins, most of them are fishing industries that have gradually emerged in the past two years. Because the Bengra cold current (rise compensation flow) flows through the sea outside the river and port, it brings rich nutrients to the local offshore. In addition, there are large rivers nearby, so nutrient baits are even more abundant, which has attracted a large number of fish and formed the famous Southwest African fishing ground.

After obtaining the consent of the local government, the ship repair yard in Hezhong Port began to be expanded a few years ago and was finally officially upgraded to a shipyard. However, the shipyard is still very limited in its strength, and it lacks manpower, technology and materials, so it can only build a small number of offshore fishing boats regularly.

These fishing boats are generally only a few dozen tons in size, all of which are powered by sails. They usually catch some cod, herring, sailfish, abalone and even tuna offshore. The harvest is good, and their output is also increasing year by year. For example, when the fishing industry in South Africa first rose in 1944, the catch was only 80 tons, and the second year rose rapidly to 150 tons, the third year was 240 tons, and last year it reached an unprecedented 300 tons (the total local fishery output was 1,800 tons last year). More than 90% of the catches in South African fishery were exported to the local area, and the prices were low. In this era when materials were scarce due to the war, a large number of pickled fish and dried fish from South Africa greatly enriched the local commodity market, making the living consumption expenditure of the people on the east coast not too fast.

The fishing industry is developing rapidly, and South Africa's grape planting and winemaking industry has also achieved relatively rapid development with the help of many immigrants in Gascone and Provence. They planted the first vine in Hezhong Port in 1640, and began to make wine the year before yesterday, and the quality is said to be OK.

However, the climate here is not ideal after all. Therefore, before Liu Ang, the former captain of the South African Development Team, left office last year, he had sent a small number of people to explore the Crane William area and built a settlement there to divert part of the population of Hezhong Town to farm, plant grapes, and make wine. After Chang Kaisheng took office, he inherited Liu Ang's policy and then named the new settlement Xiang Fort - meaning a fortress on the banks of the Xiang River. At the same time, he also sent half of the cavalry of the South African Cavalry Company to protect the small number of early development residents there.
Chapter completed!