Australian Storm 1876

  Chapter 133 Take care of your own sheepfold

  The vast wilderness around Songjiang Town is endless. There are no roads everywhere and there are roads everywhere. The gangsters deliberately want to avoid the encirclement and suppression and go all the way. It is not difficult to do it under the cover of the tree wasteland.

  A few days later

  The gangsters who were panicking like bereavement dogs just fled the boundary of the Red River Valley, they became fierce and staged a tragedy of destruction. A white rancher not far from the southernmost pine town in the Red River Valley was murdered.

  The news comes out

   Immediately caused great panic among the surrounding white ranchers. Many people took their families and hid in Pine Town, Red River Valley, which is always safer than other places.

  Songshu Town is the southernmost farming and animal husbandry town of Red River Valley Ranch. A wide seasonal river passes by the town, surrounded by boundless mountains and hills and wasteland grasslands. There is nothing surprising.

  All the immigrant towns of Red River Valley Ranch are all built next to natural lakes and rivers. This is to solve the drinking water problem of the herds and small town residents, as well as to consider long-term development.

  Leave the water, nothing will work.

one week later

  Wolf Cavalry Guard A hundred-man cavalry team arrived late and settled in Pine Town. This is already the largest defense force that Red River Valley can produce.

  From Songjiang Town to the south, it will pass through Gusu Town, Hangzhou Town, Ningbo Town, Wenzhou Town, Fuzhou Town, Xiamen Town, Shantou Town, Chaozhou Town, Foshan Town until Songshu Town, arriving at the southernmost border of Red River Valley Ranch.

  A discerning eye can see that these series of pearl chain farming and pastoral towns are the names of famous coastal cities on the mainland. They are arranged all the way from south to north, and they are filled with Chinese people’s longing for their hometown.

  This naming method is also commonly used by the British, French and Spanish in the colonies. Naming a new colonial city with the name of the city in the hometown will feel very different.

  Why is Pine Town so unique?

  Songshu Town is located in a hilly mountain area. There are thick coastal larch forests everywhere. The geographical environment and vegetation are very unique and vivid, so it was named Pine Town.

  Continue 170 miles south from here to arrive at Sydney, the capital of South Wales, now Australia’s second largest city and the city with the longest colonial history.

  Huo Xiaohu is the commander of the third company of the Wolf Cavalry Guard, with more than a hundred elite cavalry stationed in Pine Town, and is responsible for defending the border of the ranch.

  The southern boundary of the Red River Valley extends from the coastal area to the inland for more than 70 miles, almost 230 miles wide.

  With just such a few people, it is an almost impossible task to guard the vast southern territory.

  More rely on the militia forces organized by small farming and animal husbandry towns. Their herds are spread across the mountains and plains, and they have certain armed forces themselves to resist the invasion of small groups of bandits.

  Huo Xiaohu led the cavalry into Pine Town, and was warmly welcomed by the town elder Mike and RCMP garrison Sergeant Li Houyuan, and properly arranged accommodation, right next to the largest wool warehouse in Pine Town.

  The cavalry’s beds consisted of a few large woolen bales. Although the smell was a little bigger, they could be covered with a blanket to sleep on which was soft and comfortable.

  Mayor’s Office

  Huo Xiaohu walked in with a whip in his hand. Old Mike and Li Houyuan were already waiting here. A pot of water was burning on the iron stove in the room, and it was steaming "grumbling".

  "Welcome to Mr. Commander, sit down and have a cup of hot tea. We have many things to discuss." Old Mike said hello first.

  "Thank you, I really need a cup of hot tea." Huo Xiaohu came over and sat down, watching Li Houyuan carrying a teapot to make a big cup of tea, and quickly took it with both hands, and said, "Thank you, old monitor."

   "Blindly be polite."

  Li Houyuan patted Huo Xiaohu on the shoulder, then filled the glass with old Mike and himself, and then sat down on the edge of the table.

  Li Houyuan was an old man of Dragon Cavalry. He was not selected to the officer training class because of his poor culture. After his three-year term expires, he was assigned to Pine Tree Town and became the sergeant of the Royal Mounted Police Station. The military quality is nothing to say.

Old Mike is the oldest white cowboy in Irving Manor. Li Fushou came in soon after taking over. Over the years, he has contributed a lot to the development of the ranch for the suppression of bandits. Arranging to serve as the mayor here can be regarded as an accomplished person.

"Huo, the current situation is that the Billy Boys gang has been wandering around, making the ranch more than a hundred miles around. The ranch is panicking. The North District Sheriff Roster Coburn from Sydney has arrived with a team of people, hoping to be with me. Fang took joint action to jointly encircle and suppress this gang of gangsters." The mayor of Old Mike briefly introduced the situation.

  Huo Xiaohu thought about it, and replied; “Before coming, I received an order to act cheaply. The first priority is to protect the law and order around Pine Town and act with cameras. So how is our own defense work done?”

   "I'll explain this." Li Houyuan took the conversation. Now all the RCMP in the Red River Valley belong to the direct force of the Earl of Queensland, and they are the closest confidants. Of course, they are doing their best to safeguard the interests of the ranch.

  "After the Songjiang town tragedy, all towns along our southern route received red card-level bandit reports, and organized militias to take precautions accordingly.

  The originally scattered nomadic sites have been integrated, and each wild grazing site has no less than 100 people. Special personnel have been arranged to conduct intensive military training for militias, focusing on counter-ambush and counter-attack.

  In addition, dozens of capable militias were selected to accompany the Royal Mounted Police to form a patrol team to conduct continuous patrols in the surrounding areas to effectively prevent bandit raids.

  It should be said that these measures are still very effective. Seeing that the Billy kid gang sees no gaps, they can only leave our territory to harm the white ranchers, ha ha ha..."

  Speaking of this, Li Houyuan smiled.

   is not gloating, but proud of his excellent work.

   "Well, old squad leader, I know." Huo Xiaohu turned his head to look at Mayor Old Mike and asked; "What does it mean in town, do you want us to attack or stay behind?"

"Of course I don't want you to leave. Sydney's affairs have nothing to do with us. We just need to guard our sheepfold, and let them have their own headaches." Old Mayor Mike still has a straight temper as always. , Lit his pipe and took a sip, and then said again;

   "The respectable Lord Earl once explained that our border towns must take care of the feelings of the surrounding areas, not just our own bowl.

  Master Earl is kind. From this perspective, we have to help a bunch of poor ranchers in the south.

  But the problem is that our ranch is also short of people and is also facing a serious threat from gangs.

  To know where they were found last time, it was less than 50 miles away from us. This endless wilderness outside, if the Billy kid gang drove with all their strength, could travel 200 miles a day and a night.

  Who can guarantee that they will not take a bite? "

  Who can guarantee? Of course no one can guarantee.

  Huo Xiaohu felt a headache for this ambiguous statement. He looked at Li Houyuan with inquiring eyes and said, "Old squad leader, what do you mean?"

   "The military action of the wolf flag guard is not something I can interrupt." Li Houyuan shook his head.

  "Just to discuss, I want to hear the views of the old squad leader."

   "Well, this is fine."

  Li Houyuan, as an old man of Dragoon Guard, is no stranger to military operations and has participated in countless encirclement and suppression operations against bandits.

  The gangsters on the Australian wasteland are like weeds. They cut one crop and crop again, and their vitality is surprisingly tenacious.

  Li Houyuan thought for a while and said; “The Billy Kid Bandit is different from other horse bandits. Each is a veteran who has experienced countless blood battles. They are extremely cunning and cruel, and have rich combat experience.

  Furthermore, Billy is a capable man of the famous bandit leader "Wild Wolf" Birken. He once followed Birken to fight for thousands of miles, and has developed an extremely keen fighting intuition. He is a very difficult guy to deal with.

  Wolf Cavalry Guard participated in the last encirclement and suppression of bandit gangs, you must know that our lances played an important role in the battle, causing a lot of damage to the enemy.

  Now the Billy Boy Bandit gang has borrowed from this, and is also equipped with a large number of lances, which is better than ours in combat experience.

  Under the current circumstances, it is inevitable to pay the price of blood for annihilating this group of bandits.

  I just want to ask you, are you ready for this? "

  These words were like a pot of cold water, which completely chilled Huo Xiaohu's thoughts that had been eager to move.

  The so-called fame will be taken immediately.

  If you want to get ahead, you can only enter the master’s eyes with the majestic military exploits.

  But the Billy boy gang is not a weak one, but a hard iron lump. You must be prepared to break a few teeth before you want to gnaw it off.

   Obviously, Huo Xiaohu is not yet mentally prepared for a **** battle, at least without a clear order from the peak, he dare not act rashly.

"Shangfeng did not give a clear order. I can't take the lives of my brothers to risk it. Now it seems that I can only decline the goodwill of the other party." Now that he has made up his mind, Huo Xiaohu no longer looks forward and backward; "Mayor Mike, then trouble. is you."

Old Mike dangling his pipe, his whole body covered in blue smoke, the room was filled with a strong smell of tobacco, he replied nonchalantly; "Let those guys in Sydney have a headache, sheriff Roster Coburn, I will naturally deal with it. He, a little sheriff wants to command the people in the Red River Valley. I'm afraid he hasn't woken up before sleeping. Let's eat shit."

   "Hahahaha...that's right."

Mayor Mike’s words made the other two laugh. It’s hard and dangerous to track the gang in the wasteland. It’s like finding a needle in a sea. It’s much easier to deploy defenses in Pine Town. Hard work.

  Let go of this big event in their minds, and all of them seemed a lot more relaxed.

"Huo, there have been a lot of white families in town recently, but there are a lot of beautiful girls. If you have the opportunity to strike up a conversation, just go to the Tom Tavern next to you. Maybe you can meet them. You know, these girls are very beautiful. It's amazing." The Mayor of Old Mike was rather disrespectful, smiling very ambiguously with a pipe in his mouth.

   "Mayor Mike, do you mean the white rancher family who recently fled?"

   “Yes, there are more than two dozen white ranchers, and the price of wool is very low. Their life is not easy now.”

   "These idiots are still holding on, and sooner or later they have to sell the ranch." Li Houyuan did not sympathize with them at all.

  The business of white ranchers is indeed very difficult. Their flocks are only sheared twice a year, instead of the 4 times in the Red River Valley. The main reason is that there is not enough manpower to hire more hired workers to shear the wool.

  Every shearing season

  The white ranchers nearby will drive the sheep to Pine Town, where they are cut and then drive the sheep back to the pasture.

  They only accept the wool price given by Pine Town, and they can't drive the flock back again. The tossing back and forth can cause big losses.

  Queensland, the wool price in South Wales affects Victoria, and there is generally a situation of volume increase and low price. Ranch operation is regarded as a thankless job and it is very difficult to maintain it.

  Since the implementation of equal pay for equal work in the Red River Valley, ordinary sheep shearing workers work at one shilling 5 pence a day, and the weekly salary is between seven shillings 11 pence and eight shillings six pence.

  While the price of wool dropped from two pounds and one copper penny to 2.5 pounds and one copper penny, the cost of workers rose, and the price of wool continued to fall, making it increasingly difficult for white farmers to operate, and many of them fell into losses.

  In the Red River Valley, the herd has continued to increase significantly, which puts the current weak wool prices under tremendous pressure, and there is no sign of a price rebound in the short term.

  White ranchers seem to be walking in a cave of boundless darkness, not knowing whether they lead to **** or heaven, 90% of them may be hell.

  Under the strong competition and oppression of the Red River Valley, hundreds of southern ranchers went bankrupt and had to sell their ranches at low prices.

  The rising Red River Valley

   seems to be a huge gluttonous beast with a huge appetite, constantly eroding the surrounding pastures. In this desperate situation, the white ranchers have no way at all, and even if they unite, they cannot fight the Red River Valley.

   In the final analysis, the output of white ranchers is too single, and only wool is the main source of income.

  If the Red River Valley is outrageously exerting its power, all white ranchers will have to go bankrupt and close their ranches.

  In fact, hundreds of ranchers have now retired and sold their ranches when they could sell some money.

  Although there are all kinds of buyers, everyone knows that only the huge force of Red River Valley Ranch dares to take over secretly. Others will not even consider it unless they think that they have too much money in their hands.

  What's the joke?

  After finishing the wool of the Red River Valley, it is spun into pure wool yarn and exported overseas in large quantities. Now it has begun to develop wool blankets and quilts, as well as pure wool carpets and dyeing and weaving industries. The confidence to fight a price war is not ordinary enough.

  In the face of strong competition in the Red River Valley, there is a pessimistic atmosphere of hopelessness among the thousands of rancher groups in Australia.

  They don’t know what methods they should use to protect their rights?

  In this era of primitive capitalist competition where there is no specific concept of antitrust and antitrust, people cannot use legal weapons to protect their rights.

  Like a Smith rancher at best, thinking of assassinating Lord Queensland, nothing more.

  The Smith rancher is the British guy who once buried two large barrels of black powder on the road and wanted to kill Li Fushou.

  Fortunately, he slipped fast, otherwise the weeds on the grave would be one foot high now.

  (End of this chapter)