While Alvin and other merchants were waiting for the arrival of the Tang fleet in South Africa City, Hu Qiaokun, the magistrate of Western India in the Tang Dynasty and the co-organizer of Western commerce, was also waiting for the arrival of the fleet.
Unlike those merchants who were simply waiting for the goods on the fleet, Hu Qiaokun paid more attention to the nearly 10,000 immigrants in the fleet.
According to the letters he had previously obtained through the fast communication ship, he knew that the empire was also making great efforts to colonize South Africa this time.
The number of immigrants in the first batch has reached 10,000, and there will be multiple batches of immigrants in the later period. The total number of immigrants in the early stage will reach 50,000.
These 50,000 people are organized into family units, which is different from the immigrants in many places who are mainly young adults.
In order to ensure the life of these 50,000 immigrants in South Africa, Hu Qiaokun started making preparations early, not to mention building a large number of residences in the city.
Moreover, the military was directly commissioned to build villages in areas not far from the city.
Nowadays, the African Expeditionary Force stationed in South Africa is basically doing nothing. According to the Datang Army's tradition of self-reliance, in addition to maintaining the security of South Africa, these troops also carry out reclamation activities.
However, the military's reclamation is different from the civilian reclamation. The military's reclamation is just a incidental task for them. In the future, these troops will definitely be deployed for defense, and it is impossible to be stationed in South Africa all the time.
Because even though the African Expeditionary Force is doing nothing now, in fact they still have many tasks. What tasks are naturally for the empire to expand its territory in Africa.
The settlement of South Africa still needs to be mainly based on immigrants.
Hu Qiaokun is eagerly waiting for the arrival of immigrants. As long as these immigrants come, the reclamation activities can be carried out. As long as the South African plains are initially developed, let alone other things, at least the food problem can be solved without having to fight with others.
As it is now, it has to be transported thousands of miles from other places.
In addition, with the population, militia troops can also be recruited from immigrants.
According to the consistent tradition of the Tang Dynasty, the militia forces in the colonies were very important. In addition to assisting the garrison in combat during wartime, the militia forces in the colonies were also important.
More importantly, these militias were also an important military force in the colonies of the Tang Dynasty. In normal times, they served as the main defense force of the colonies and fought against the local indigenous people.
During the process of settlement, conflicts and contradictions between the immigrants and the local indigenous people will inevitably occur. At this time, the role of the militia force can be reflected. They can guard against the attacks of the indigenous people and attack the indigenous people at the same time.
In the Nanyang region and the colonies in the Americas, the militia forces in the Tang Dynasty colonies played a huge role, and their strategic position did not even belong to the regular army.
After all, the number of regular army troops is limited. In many colonies, the number of regular armies is only a few hundred or a few hundred people. So when the regular army conducts combat operations, it often mobilizes local militia troops to coordinate operations.
Just as the merchants from South Africa City, Hu Qiaokun and other officials were waiting for the fleet to arrive, a huge fleet came across the sea from Mada City in the north of Madagascar and entered Mada City, the capital of the Tang Empire.
The most important transit point in Africa.
The fleet is too large and naturally cannot all enter the port and dock. In fact, only a small number of ships can enter the port and dock, and they are mainly warships or supply ships.
Most immigration ships and cargo ships anchor offshore outside the port!
On one of the merchant ships, a thin, medium-sized young man wearing a blue robe stood on the deck, holding on to the railing and looking at the port ahead!
The sea breeze kept blowing over this young man, carrying the unique fishy smell of the sea breeze.
Lu Zhenjiang has long been accustomed to this fishy sea breeze. He has been drifting on the sea for several months. If he can't get used to it, then he, Lu Zhenjiang, will not be able to come here alive.
Lu Zhenjiang is different from most other people in the fleet. He is not an immigrant, but an employee of Azure Trading Company as a clerk. This time he came to South Africa to trade with the company's merchant ship.
Lu Zhenjiang was from Taiyuan, Shanxi. His family had been farmers for generations. When he was a child, because of his intelligence, he attracted the attention of an old boy in the village and taught him how to read and write.
Later, he was admitted to the county primary school and became the first serious scholar in the Lu family in a hundred years.
It's just that Lu Zhenjiang's talents are in liberal arts, not science.
In the contemporary Tang Empire, although liberal arts are also very important. If you want to be an official, you must be able to write beautiful articles. However, for students from ordinary families, if they focus on liberal arts, it means that it is difficult to obtain scholarships.
And Lu Zhenjiang was even more partial to subjects. His grades in science subjects were not even half-performing, and he even failed in the monthly exams on weekdays. That is to say, his grades in liberal arts subjects were really excellent, which prevented him from being dropped out of school.
However, it is naturally impossible for him to get any scholarship.
In the Tang Empire, regardless of whether it was college or preparatory school, middle school, primary school, or liberal arts, the scholarship ratio was relatively small, and the competition was extremely fierce.
Lu Zhenjiang failed to win a scholarship in all six years of primary school. When it came time to apply for middle school, although his grades were seriously biased in subjects, he did well in liberal arts and managed to get into Taiyuan Middle School.
But although he was admitted to Taiyuan Prefecture Middle School, he never went there for even one day!
Because in the spring of that year, his family's old house in disrepair collapsed due to a heavy rain, and his father unfortunately passed away.
This also meant that the Lu family had lost its backbone. As the eldest son of the Lu family and the only adult male in the family, he naturally had to give up his studies and take on the important responsibilities of the family.
In fact, even if he did not need to support his family, given the situation of the Lu family, he would not be able to continue to afford Lu Zhenjiang's education expenses.
The Lu family is just an ordinary peasant family. Even after the founding of the Tang Dynasty, the Lu family's life has become much better. They pay less taxes. As long as they work harder, they can barely have enough to eat. And Lu's father also does it during the slack time.
Looking for work everywhere, his mother usually does some embroidery at home and waits for help. Even Lu Zhenjiang's younger sister and brother are busy every day.
Such a family of five lives frugally every year and is reluctant to even repair the house. This can barely provide for him. Lu Zhenjiang completed six years of primary school. If he wanted to continue studying, given the Lu family's family background,
It's impossible.
At the age of sixteen, he took over the burden of his father and began to support the family!
But at least he is a man who has studied and has an elementary school diploma. He does not have to be like his illiterate father, who can only bury himself in the farmland and do hard labor in his spare time. Lu Zhenjiang relies on his elementary school diploma, plus
He was good at handwriting and found a clerical job in the county. The income was not high, but it was still much better than ordinary farmers.
After a few years of this, his younger brother also grew up and was able to share the farm work for the family, and his younger sister also successfully got married. Although she did not marry a rich man, she was still from a well-to-do family.
At this time, he breathed a sigh of relief, straightened his waist, raised his head, and looked out at the vast world outside.
Although he only went to elementary school, he was not willing to be trapped in this small county for the rest of his life.
He is going to the outside world, the wider world!
Having made up his mind, he bowed down to his mother, begged her to forgive him for traveling far away, and asked his brother to take good care of his mother. Then he ran all the way to Shanghai.
During this long journey, he took the first train in his life, and also took the first steam ferry in his life on the Yellow River. When he saw the trains and ships that were only described in words in the past,
The excitement inside is indescribable.
But after arriving in Shanghai, he realized what it meant to live in a big city.
Prices in Shanghai are high, and everything costs money for food and accommodation. The savings he has are simply not enough for him to take root in Shanghai.
So like many young people nowadays who go to Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangzhou, Jinling City and other big cities to find their dreams, the first thing he did when he arrived in Shanghai was to find a job.
Fortunately, Lu Zhenjiang is well-educated and has an elementary school diploma. Although this elementary school diploma is not a high degree of education, Lu Zhenjiang can also write good calligraphy and write ordinary articles well. In addition, Lu Zhenjiang can also write well.
Zhenjiang is no longer a newcomer. Before he left his hometown, he had already worked in a business firm in his hometown for four years.
Therefore, he did not encounter any difficulties in finding a job, and soon found a clerical job in a trading company.
But after working for half a year, he found that although the salary of the job in Shanghai was higher, it was not outrageously high. More importantly, the cost of living in Shanghai was too high. After half a year in Shanghai, he actually had no salary.
Save an extra penny.
You know, when he left home, he promised his younger brother that he would send money to his family after he arrived in Shanghai to work.
Now let alone sending money, he found that he couldn't even move out of the slum housing area.
Just when he thought his future was dark, he accidentally saw the recruitment information in the Shanghai Commercial Daily!
It was a recruitment information from an overseas trading company, recruiting captains, sailors and various other positions, and the salary offered made Lu Zhenjiang unable to move his eyes.
An ordinary sailor can earn a high salary of more than ten yuan a month!
The chefs, craftsmen, etc. who accompany the ship all start at more than ten yuan a month, and some positions even cost tens of yuan.
Then among the many positions, he saw one of them, recruiting shipboard clerks, with a fixed monthly salary of thirty yuan, and generous bonuses.
When he saw this, he ignored the persuasion of his colleagues, saying that the people recruited by these overseas trading companies were all going overseas. If they went overseas, their life or death would be uncertain.
You may encounter storms on the road, you may be acclimated to the climate, and more likely you will contract an illness. In short, there are various ways to die!
But Lu Zhenjiang made up his mind on the spot, he was going!