Wind Rises in North America 1625

Chapter 132: Shixing Fort Experiences

On October 1629, 10, Barreto de Noronha and several Portuguese sailors walked among the bustling crowd, feeling the hustle and bustle of the small town.

The once deserted crossroads were suddenly crowded with people in the afternoon, bustling and noisy.

This is the tenth day off for all residents of Shixing Fort. After working hard for ten consecutive days, people take a good nap and then take advantage of the good time at noon to go out for a stroll and have fun.

In fact, this small town is not big, with a radius of less than one-tenth of a league. It may take less than ten minutes to walk from one end to the other. The population is estimated to be only six or seven hundred people.

Some have Indian faces, some have European faces, but the vast majority of them look like Ming people with oriental faces.

Well, it should be this group of immigrants who called themselves Chinese and were recruited from the Ming Dynasty.

The layout of the small town is actually very simple. A cross street divides the town into four parts.

To the north was the administrative agency of the small town. Half a month ago, he had visited several Chinese leaders there and reached a preliminary cooperation agreement with them on the subsequent immigration transportation.

To the east, there seems to be their workshop production area. When passing by there, you can hear knocking sounds, and sometimes thick smoke will come out of the tall chimneys there.

The south and west sides should be residential areas, with dozens of rows of houses neatly arranged in them, including red brick houses and quaint and rugged wooden houses.

After living in this small town for more than half a month, Nolonya found that there were not many commercial facilities in the city. There were no restaurants, taverns, grocery stores, hotels, clothing stores, or even art galleries. It was extremely boring.

It is said that everything here is under strict and unified management. Ploughing, farming, manual production, and the distribution of daily necessities are all carefully coordinated by an organization called the Planning Management Committee.

In other words, this small town does not yet have a real private business environment, which is somewhat similar to the situation described in "Utopia" written by English scholar Thomas More more than a hundred years ago.

All working-age people in Shixing Fort had to work, working more than twelve hours a day. The products produced were collected by a powerful organization and then reasonably distributed according to the needs of the residents without having to exchange them for money or other items.

Just as described in "Utopia", the residents here are almost non-idle people. They do their best to produce all kinds of daily necessities they need.

However, unlike the society in "Utopia", some residents here have some private property.

Their earliest residents should have been free people. They not only had their own houses, but could also obtain a certificate similar to paper money after working.

If they need it, they can use this certificate to exchange for corresponding goods at the material management office in the city - uh, this should be the Chinese material warehouse.

There should not be many goods, mainly cotton cloth, sugar, silk fabrics, veils, thread, ink, colored paper from the Ming Dynasty, as well as daily necessities such as iron pots, ceramic pottery, shovels, sickles, axes, etc. produced by themselves.

It has to be admitted that if you look at the prices in the gentry, many of the commodities that can be traded here are quite expensive, which makes many free people very cautious and hesitant when "purchasing" them with certificates.

Oh, what a poor bunch of people.

Not many materials can be produced here, just like the former Portuguese Brazil or the Spanish American colonies. Decades ago, the prices of all production and living materials were several times, or even dozens of times, higher than those in continental Europe.

By the way, the prices of goods in America do not seem to be low now, otherwise it would not attract so many European smugglers to come.

However, the Chinese people's lack of supplies may be good news for us Portuguese.

Because, when we cooperate in immigration later, we can load some goods produced in the Ming Dynasty into the bottom of the cabin. I believe that the Chinese people here will be very happy to purchase them.

Many people gathered in the central square, where free drinks were being distributed, with each person limited to one bowl, attracting many residents to line up.

Some residents who love drinking, after receiving a bowl, squeezed out of the crowd and drank it all in one gulp impatiently, then looked back at the place where the wine was distributed, licking their lips with satisfaction.

Several armed militiamen in blue-gray uniforms, with long knives slung around their waists and short sticks in their hands, walked around the streets, trying their best to maintain the slightly chaotic order and prevent residents who were not good at drinking from causing trouble.

"Captain, would you like a taste?" A sailor excitedly squeezed through the crowd and brought a bowl of wine to Nolonya. "How does it taste?" Nolonya took the bowl, seeming a little hesitant about whether to take a sip.

"It has a rich aroma and is quite smooth on the palate." The sailor smacked his lips and said with a smile, "All in all, it tastes good, a bit like the soju produced in northern Ming Dynasty. ... Uh, a bit strong!"

"Really?" Nolonya took a sip carefully, and a pungent taste of alcohol immediately rushed into her throat, then flowed down her esophagus into her stomach.

"Hmm, seems pretty good. ...What is this stuff made of?"

"Potatoes," the sailor replied. "I faintly heard a few Spanish words in the crowd, seemingly saying that this wine is made from potatoes. This is the first batch of wine the Chinese brewed just a few days ago. They don't have much in stock, but on their day off, they're giving it away for free to all residents to try."

"Potatoes?" Noronha seemed to have thought of something. "Are there any Dutch people here?"

"Oh, sorry, Captain, I don't know if there are any Dutch here." The sailor scratched his head. "But, we haven't heard anyone mention the Dutch appearing here in these days."

"Potato wine is one of the main daily drinks of the Dutch. I don't know how the Chinese here learned to make wine with potatoes."

"Perhaps, a Dutchman passed this method on to the Ming people, and then happened to be recruited by the Chinese here, and thus also learned to use potatoes to brew alcohol."

"That's possible." Nolonya couldn't help but feel a hint of regret. "We had originally planned to bring alcohol here from the Ming Kingdom. I didn't expect them to brew their own. This means we've lost a very profitable commodity."

"Captain, they can not only brew alcohol, they can also refine iron and steel." The sailor watched with regret as Nolonya finished the remaining potato wine in one gulp. "Did you know? Their farmers make all the farm tools they use themselves. In addition, they also create many amazing agricultural machines that can save a lot of labor."

"Really?" Noronha was surprised. "They can really refine iron? ...And even steel?"

"Captain, do you see those armed militiamen maintaining order?" the sailor pointed to a few militiamen standing on the street corner. "The knives they carry on their waists are real steel knives. A few days ago, a few of my companions and I personally verified that their knives are indeed made of forged steel."

"Wow, amazing Chinese!" Nolonya glanced at the armed militiamen over there, then handed the empty wine bowl to the sailor. "Even in Europe, steel is an extremely scarce material. You know, in this world, only the Ming Dynasty can refine steel on a large scale. I can't believe that on this desolate island, these Chinese people can actually refine steel. It's incredible!"

"Captain, you probably don't know yet... They're even planning to build their own ships!"

"Build a canoe or a small fishing boat?" Noronha was very unimpressed when he heard this.

With such a small population, they don't even have a decent shipbuilding supporting industry, so they probably don't have the ability to build large ships.

I guess we can only build some small coastal fishing boats like the indigenous people.

"Captain, judging by the shape of the keel they've laid, they're probably building a ship of a somewhat larger size. Perhaps a transport ship capable of sailing across the ocean."

"Um?……"

Noronha said gently, and couldn’t help but be stunned.

They opened up a large amount of farmland to meet basic food needs.

They can produce a small amount of production and daily necessities, smelt steel, and even make various farm tools and knives to meet production needs and necessary safety and self-defense.

They are also trying to build large ocean-going ships to expand their maritime capacity.

It seems that these Chinese people are quite powerful!

If they could build more ships, they could transport more immigrants. In time, when they had accumulated a strong enough force, they might be able to give the Spanish a hard kick in the ass and make them fall flat on their faces.

(End of this chapter)