Wind Rises in North America 1625

Chapter 93 "Population Recruitment"

"Crack!"

Li Liang swung his long knife violently, and a piece of wood as thick as his wrist was immediately split into two pieces. The cut was extremely straight, which fully proved the sharpness of the blade and the hardness of the blade.

"If this sword is brought to the Ming Dynasty, it will be considered a treasure sword, right?" Li Liang lowered his head and looked at the blade carefully. There was no gap or curling.

"It's probably a precious sword," Zhang Ruosong said, shaking his head. "However, during this period, the Ming army should have also equipped its soldiers with steel swords. However, the steel swords they used were probably made using an inlaid steel process, so their strength was limited, probably not as strong as the swords we forged."

"However, fighting on the battlefield only takes a few rounds of confrontation, and life and death are almost always decided. It's not like the dozens or hundreds of moves in martial arts novels. Therefore, these swords don't have much advantage in the Ming Dynasty. Unless they are sold to generals and officers so that they can show off. In the army, having a sword that can cut through iron like mud is still very cool!"

"How much does a steel knife like this cost?"

"I haven't calculated it yet." Zhang Ruosong said with a smile: "Why, you want to sell the steel knife to Ming Dynasty?"

"We can't always use fur as our main export product!" Li Liang said with a wry smile.

"Why not?" Zhang Ruosong took the steel knife from him and gently wiped it with the cloth in his hand. "When the United States was first founded, it relied on fur exports to accumulate a lot of original capital. And Russia, relying on the fur trade in Siberia and Alaska, actually supported one-third of their treasury revenue."

"Western North America has a long coastline and abundant animal resources. At our current hunting scale, it can sustain us for at least several decades or even hundreds of years, which is enough to provide us with the necessary capital accumulation."

"But we want to develop industry," Li Liang said. "Only by achieving industrialization can we accumulate powerful forces in a very short period of time, thereby promoting our expansion in the American continent."

"Tsk!" Zhang Ruosong couldn't help but laugh when he heard this. "With our current population, how can we achieve decent industrialization? Look, just making steel consumes almost two or three tons of pig iron. And this pig iron was purchased from the Ming Dynasty. If we were to make iron ourselves, I don't think we would even have enough iron ore."

“We don’t have many people mining!”

"Actually..." Li Liang hesitated for a moment and said, "Actually, there are still quite a few people on Qiming Island."

"You want to capture Indians?"

"It's not about capturing, it's about recruiting."

"Oh, what's the difference?" Zhang Ruosong said sarcastically, "Isn't it just kidnapping the Indians scattered on the island and forcing them into labor, or simply turning them into our free slaves?"

“…” Li Liang kept silent.

"Why do we have to impose the suffering we have endured on others?"

"Because we need to survive and develop..." Li Liang whispered, "and to accumulate strength in the shortest possible time, there is no quicker way than to recruit local Indians."

"Aren't we accelerating immigration? The two ships heading to Ming this time will bring back at least 600 people, bringing our population over 1,000. If we keep at it, we'll definitely be able to gather 10,000 people in less than ten years."

"But how many decades can we have?"

"..." Zhang Ruosong's expression froze, a bitter look on his face. "Could it be that driving more Indians will speed up our development?"

"At the very least, it can alleviate the manpower shortage we're facing as we move forward with our various projects." Li Liang took a deep breath. "Furthermore, I believe we should free 'our people' from the heavy and menial labor and allow them to do something more valuable."

"..." Zhang Ruosong looked at him steadily, was silent for a while, and asked softly: "Do all the trainees think so?" "..." Li Liang did not avoid his gaze and looked at him calmly.

"Then why don't you make this suggestion directly to Director Li."

"We're worried..." Li Liang said hesitantly, "We're worried about being reprimanded and scolded by Director Li. This suggestion is, after all, a little... a little..."

"It's a bit inhumane, isn't it?"

"..." Li Liang paused after hearing this, then continued, "Human nature can sometimes be selfish. To put it bluntly, in this world, the only people who can empathize and be relied upon are the fifty-seven of us who remain. We can't let the pursuit of moral purity lead the entire group into danger."

"A dangerous place? ...Isn't that a bit alarmist?"

"We have plundered Spanish American colonies for two consecutive years. Even if the Spanish react slowly or behave foolishly, we will take necessary measures to deal with them."

"The Spanish will send a search fleet to find us?"

"That possibility cannot be ruled out," Li Liang nodded. "Although the Pacific coastline of America is long and the terrain is complex, no one can guarantee that the Spanish will discover the existence of Shixing Fort at some point in the future. If our strength is still so weak by then, how will we respond? We can't just hide in the deep mountains and forests of the inland hinterland!"

"Slavery has been proven in history to be a bad system," Zhang Ruosong sighed. "When the time comes, we may suffer backlash and be burdened with a heavy historical burden and moral stain."

"It's the seventeenth century."

"Yes, the seventeenth century was an era of colonization. Now it seems that the development and progress of any civilization must go through a cruel and bloody period of primitive accumulation, without exception."

"The process of primitive accumulation must be either external or internal. You have to choose one." Li Liang spoke seriously. "Although we now call Indians Yin people, we all know that they have almost no relationship with us Chinese people. They just look a bit similar."

"In other words, instead of exploiting our own people, why not shift our focus to these Yin people who have nothing to do with us?"

"It's just a temporary solution..."

"After capturing... oh, recruiting a large number of Yin people, will we be able to feed them?" Zhang Ruosong questioned. "Besides, in August or September, we will welcome another batch of immigrants."

"Captain and his men will definitely purchase a large amount of food when they bring back the immigrants to replenish our inventory." Li Liang smiled. "Besides, it's not like the Yin people we recruited here are incapable of producing food."

"We can better organize them, hunt in the forest, fish at sea, and force them to reclaim more wasteland, cut more wood, and build more houses. If we leave those Indian tribes hidden in the jungle valleys to fend for themselves, they will still live a precarious life, repeating their primitive and ignorant lifestyle. It is actually very cruel for them to face the harsh natural environment alone and be unable to cope."

"Haha... So, you're saying that we enslaved them, drove them around, and exploited them, but that actually gave them a better life and a more advanced civilization?" Zhang Ruosong gave him a long look. "Why do I feel like your rhetoric is no different from the high-sounding claims of later Western colonizers?... Could it really be that the environment changes people?"

"Instructor Zhang, when it comes to survival and development, it doesn't really matter what you stand for."

"Perhaps, you are right." Zhang Ruosong nodded. "Development is the hard truth, right?"

"Another point is that we need to let the new immigrants experience a certain degree of 'battlefield atmosphere' to prepare for emergencies." Li Liang continued: "If the Spanish come one day, we must mobilize all our forces, arm all the immigrants, and prepare to face the invasion of foreign enemies with a posture of everyone as a soldier."

"So, the action of 'recruiting' the surrounding Indian tribes can be considered as training and seeing bloodshed."

(End of this chapter)