Chapter 691: Reclamation

Galicia in 1846 was actually one of the poorest provinces of the Austrian Empire. At this time, the Austrian Empire could not blame the local nobles for anything.

The same was true in Galicia, where the local nobles still maintained the production model of the 18th century.

Agricultural efficiency was low, industry was almost zero, and the mining industry was dominated by a few old families who were idle.

Due to the lack of foreign immigrants, the entire region was like a stagnant pool of water. Everyone was used to poverty, while the nobles were used to relative wealth.

The previous Governor of Galicia was an outstanding military strategist, but he was extremely distrustful of the Galicians.

At the same time, as a veteran who had participated in the Napoleonic Wars, the Governor felt that his mission was to completely destroy this terrible disaster.

So under the guidance of this idea, Prince Lorenz began to build fortresses in the Galician region, demarcate no-man's land, and suppress and crack down on dangerous elements.

In order to facilitate control and prevent contact between dangerous elements, he divided Galicia into grids so that problems could be discovered and solved in the shortest time.

Although the railway built by Franz received his full support, the entire railway line was built along the military fortress, so its role in economic development was very limited.

The Free City of Krakow ushered in its second spring because of the construction of the railway. Factories sprang up one after another, and a large number of workers and businessmen poured in.

Coupled with its special geographical location and superior free city qualifications, Krakow's development speed was terrible, and it even replaced Warsaw's position in Poland for a time. The population reached nearly 300,000 at its peak.

Although Count Stadion carried out a series of "effective" reforms after taking over as governor, he had no choice but to miss the best time for development.

In addition, the local nobles' lip service and the ignorance of the serfs led to the fact that these reforms did not bring much change.

It was precisely because of this that Franz was so confident that he could directly digest the one million refugees locally.

In the middle section of the Dniester River that runs through Galicia, there is a large area of ​​floodplains that has been barren for many years.

The local land price is very low, but this does not mean that these lands are not fertile. On the contrary, this land that has been eroded by floods for many years is a famous agricultural base in later generations.

It’s just that the Galician nobles in this era have almost zero ability to transform the land. In fact, even if they have this ability, they are unwilling to pay the corresponding price.

In fact, even if they are willing, they can’t afford this price. Historically, it was the Austro-Hungarian Empire that completed the regulation of the Dniester River, thus opening up a large number of farmlands, which led to a 57% increase in the population of Galicia in the 30 years from 1880 to 1910.

Franz’s behavior of buying land on a large scale not only did not cause any dissatisfaction among the local nobles, but also received considerable support.

In particular, those nobles who still had connections with the Polish Restoration Army tried their best to promote this matter. After all, in their hearts, as long as they won the Restoration War, these lands would still be theirs.

Moreover, there is no meaning in keeping these uncultivated lands in their hands, especially in this era when animal husbandry and firewood businesses are declining.

The deal was a hit, and the price per hectare of land was finally settled at 10 florins. Although this price was twice as expensive as the Hungarian land purchased by Franz, it was still much lower than the land price in Netalenya.

In the end, Franz bought 2 million hectares of land for 20 million florins, which was definitely a crazy move at the time.

Domestic nobles and various forces had different opinions on this. Some people thought it was a manifestation of benevolence and royal responsibility, while others thought it was a complete waste of money. People in other countries should be saved by monarchs of other countries.

However, Franz did not care about what others said or thought. He gathered refugees who had been confirmed to have no signs of infection and went to

In addition, the Dniester River in Galicia began to build dams and regulate the river. Ensuring safety was a top priority. The next step was to deal with the wasteland and wasteland.

At this time, the heavy tractors developed by Franz could finally be used. Although they had been repeatedly improved, the weight of these tractors was still more than ten tons.

In fact, these tractors were not called tractors in the Austrian Empire at that time, but full-covered crawler locomotives.

In fact, this is a very down-to-earth name, because at that time, the Austrian tractor was like a locomotive with tracks, and there were two huge coal boxes on both sides of the steam, as well as a huge water tank, so that workers could add coal and water to it at any time.

Each of these huge steel monsters can pull 15 heavy plows at the same time and move forward at a speed of eight kilometers per hour. Almost nothing can stop these guys.

Normally, each heavy plow requires two cows or three strong draft horses to pull it. This time, the newly modified steam tractor directly used the configuration of the train, and the horsepower was greatly increased. If it was not for deep plowing, it could pull 26 heavy plows.

However, considering that this is land reclamation, stones, tree roots, and vines will become obstacles. For the sake of safety, Franz reduced the number of heavy plows to fifteen.

Although there is the help of the steel monster, the use of manpower is still indispensable. Rather than saying it is indispensable, it is better to say that a large amount of manpower is needed to do the preliminary work.

People need to try to clear the trees and large stones on the ground so that the steam tractor can pass.

As the first batch of refugees who passed the inspection, Harry Chan was assigned to the cleaning team. Compared with the "difficult" work of repairing dams and dredging rivers, he prefers to use shovels and pickaxes to clean up debris.

Harry Chan was originally a serf from Little Russia, and his best skill was to clean up the weeds in the landlord's house.

But unfortunately, the original master sold him to a Jew, which was nothing. Although the Tsarist government expressly prohibited the sale of slaves alone, there were always smart people who would find a way.

At this time, Russian serfs and land could not be sold separately, but they could be mortgaged, and then after a series of complicated transfers, the sale of some serfs could be realized.

Just like Harry Chan was originally called Malev, but after the transaction was completed, he became Harry Chan.

Harry Chan wanted to show his farming skills in front of his new master, but the Tsar's military police arrived before spring came.

The soldiers hanged the man and dragged the woman into the house. A soldier asked Harry Chan's name with a book and drove him away.

Harry Chan walked aimlessly on the road, but he was not alone. There were many people walking on the road like zombies.

Some people cried and cried, some shouted excitedly "Freedom!", but more people were silent. They had no purpose and no ideas.