HCB Chapter 421 Immigration Matters Need to Be Taken Seriously
Chapter 421 Immigration Matters Need to Be Taken Seriously
The remaining Japanese army, with the Osaka 4th Division as its main force, basically retreated to Laos, Cambodia and Annam.
Even in the 21st century before Zhang Chi traveled through time, Laos and Gao were extremely poor countries, and there were not many local Chinese. Therefore, Zhang Chi did not consider them as the next direction of expansion. He only sent small troops to infiltrate there occasionally, to bleed the Japanese and puppet troops there, and continue to accumulate jungle combat experience.
As Singapore was almost completely liberated, the sound of gunfire and artillery on the Southeast Asian continent ceased and fell into a brief silence.
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"The cost of acquiring our population is a bit too high."
Chief Secretary Zhang Guangsong's words successfully attracted Zhang Chi's attention, causing the latter to raise his head from the mountain of books on his desk.
"In the past August and September, we registered a total of 560,000 new people, of which 110,000 were newborns and the remaining 450,000 were immigrants.
Excluding the old overseas Chinese who fled from other parts of Southeast Asia and those who came through the border ports on their own, the number of refugees sent by our personnel in the Republic of China alone is over 40."
Zhang Chi smiled and said, "11 newborns? Isn't that a good thing?"
Unlike later generations, Chinese people these days don’t care much about contraception. A family may have as many as seven or eight children, or as few as three or four.
The condoms produced by the Nanhua Rubber Factory are mainly exported to Baiying to earn foreign exchange. The men and women of marriageable age in the territory controlled by the Anmin Army have nothing to do at night, so they might as well have sex.
The babies being born now were all conceived before the An Min Army liberated Pegu. Zhang Chi estimates that there will be a large baby boom next year. As for the post-war period, the peaceful period and the period of rapid development, there will be a super baby boom.
"Whether they are indigenous, mixed-race, or Chinese, if these newborns are well educated, they will undoubtedly be the backbone of the great development in the 6s and 70s..."
Zhang Chi has a good vision for the future, but for now, the improvement of the population ratio still depends on immigration. Zhang Guangsong handed over a form that listed the detailed expenses.
In fact, under the instruction of Zhang Chi, the administrative team led by Zhang Guangsong sent a total of thousands of staff members into the Republic of China. While transporting goods for sale, they also hired people to set up transfer camps in various places and used trucks, trains, airplanes and other tools to transport immigrants to the areas controlled by the Anmin Army.
Especially in Henan Province, nearly 10 million people were affected by the disaster and millions of people were displaced, which was the main source of immigrants for the Anmin Army.
However, considering geographical factors, in order to prevent immigrants from the same region from forming groups and becoming rebellious, Zhang Chi specifically requested that immigrants from all over the country be accepted, including those from the north, the Central Plains, and the southwest.
As for the traditional Southeast Asian regions, such as Fujian, Guangdong and Guangxi, after the local ordinary people and big clans learned that the Anmin Army had completely established a foothold and controlled the regimes in Pegu, Siam, Chittagong and other places, they organized themselves and took the initiative to migrate here with their families.
What Zhang Guangsong said about the high cost of population acquisition was actually mainly the cost of gathering and relocating refugees from the Central Plains, Hunan, and Hubei. Due to natural disasters and man-made disasters, these victims were almost penniless, and some of the expenses had to be provided by the Security Army.
After reading it carefully, Zhang Chi found that the cost of bribing those local officials on this form was still a small amount of money.
The big expenses are hiring local people, the gasoline and truck mileage consumed in transporting supplies, and the food and supplies for hundreds of thousands of immigrants along the way.
Even with the profits from transporting goods north and selling commodities as subsidies, the average cost of transporting a disaster victim to Bago and settling him/her in and reclaiming wasteland is close to $30.
This was the knife music of the newly established Bretton Woods system in 44, not the knife music of crazy over-issuance and devaluation after the nuclear-powered printing press was turned on in the 21st century.
According to the regulations, every 35 dollars can be unconditionally exchanged for one ounce of gold from White Eagle, which means that the gold content of each dollar is 0 gram of gold.
40 immigrants would cost $1200 million, and Zhang Chi was planning to immigrate more than 49 million people from the north before 1000.
That’s almost 3 million yuan, and this is just the gathering and transportation costs, there are also resettlement costs to be calculated.
Thinking about this large-scale population migration, which is almost going against the will of heaven, Zhang Chi could only sigh: "The road ahead is long and arduous."
As an excellent subordinate, after raising the problem, Zhang Guangsong naturally began to talk about solutions.
"We discussed it and, based on the actual situation, we believe there are three ways to reduce this high expenditure."
Zhang Chi changed into a relaxed posture, nodded, and signaled Zhang Guangsong that he could speak.
"First, we can increase publicity. Many families here have been allocated new land or found jobs in the city. Furthermore, many clans have invested in building small factories and made money during this round of light industrial development.
These families and clans have intricate ties to the Republic of China. We can mobilize them, through writing letters and other means, to encourage their relatives and friends in the Republic of China to voluntarily immigrate to us in pursuit of a better life."
Zhang Chi tapped the table with his fingers. He had thought of this method before and said calmly:
"This method is feasible. We can also ask those Italian experts and teachers we invited from the Republic of China to write letters back and try to lure talented people from their social circles over. I believe our current offer is still very tempting."
Zhang Guangsong took out a small notebook and quickly wrote down Zhang Chi's new idea, then continued:
"The second is to negotiate with General Long in western Yunnan and try to build a railway. Even if it's just the simplest narrow-gauge railway connecting Myitkyina and Chuncheng, it can greatly improve transportation efficiency and indirectly reduce immigration costs."
Zhang Chi thought for a moment and frowned:
"This method will be slow to take effect, right? Building a transnational railway is such a big deal, so even General Long's words may not count. We still have to see what the person in the mountain city thinks. And even if it can be built, the border is full of mountains, so it won't be easy, right?"
"About this..." Zhang Guangsong had obviously considered these two issues in advance. "The Allied military aid to the Republic of China is currently mainly shipped by sea to Chittagong and Yangon Port, and then connected to the Stevenson Highway. Trucks are definitely not as efficient as trains in transporting goods. Both the White Party and the White Eagle Army need to build a railway."
"Indeed." Zhang Chi nodded. "As long as we take advantage of the situation, the probability of success is not small."
Zhang Chi thought that about a year later, with the surrender of the Japanese, Tianjin, Guangzhou and Shanghai would be liberated. At that time, the immigrants would set off directly from the port and take cruise ships for sea transportation, which would greatly improve efficiency and cost.
Of course, building a transnational railway and maintaining land connections was also a must, so Zhang Chi made the decision, "Okay, let's put the railway on hold for now. While you're at it, contact the north and find someone to survey the area to see if it's possible and how to build it..."