Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1510 Jiaohe ([-])

Cai Youguo finally made a trip to Jicheng Town.

This town is a newly established settlement. Perhaps it is more appropriate to call it a big village. The supplies from the southern waterway-railway-waterway have only built a few limited buildings by the riverside wharf, which is pitiful. very.The reason why it was able to win the name of the city is probably because the area circled on the map above is large enough for him - Jicheng Town, which will undoubtedly be a county in the future.

To the east of Jicheng Town is a small soil bag without trees, on which there is only a solitary lighthouse, which is used to guide ships sailing at night; to the west, there are many wastelands that have just been reclaimed, and some of them have been sown with corn, potatoes, etc. Some of the crops are still deserted—to be honest, the agricultural conditions here are still good, the meanders are well developed, and the running water has become relatively gentle so far, which is conducive to agricultural irrigation and flood control.

On the other side of the river, there is a village belonging to Dashikou Township, which is quite large and probably houses hundreds of people.The farmers planted fragrant fruit trees there, and the plowed farmland made people feel relaxed and happy. Sometimes there were some white goats walking around on the ground, which looked like a comfortable village.For this kind of village that has existed for some years, the people on this side of the river are also envious. After all, the early land reclamation was also very hard, and they also survived from hard times.

Cai Youguo vaguely heard that there are quite a few regularized non-national laborers from the Italian region who live on the opposite side.These people are kind of lazy as many people say they only bring their produce to the market when they need to buy something like salt or other necessities, otherwise they just stay at home and enjoy themselves , doing nothing, loafing about, at most doing a little more work in the fields.

These people from the narrow and densely populated southern Italy insist that as long as they have food in their hands, they have everything and can sleep peacefully.As for other things and what will happen in the future, they don't worry about it.If these Italians have nothing special to buy at the market, the grain he sells there is often only enough for him to buy salt, which is also very speechless—to a certain extent, They were no different from some Qing immigrants who had just arrived on the east coast, they were just bumpkins.

The Jiaohe area where Cai Youguo is currently acting as an agent once bought a batch of grain from here—in fact, Jicheng Township is still buying grain from them to reduce the transportation pressure—and found that they were very dishonest, because they sold everything. It is a relatively crude raw grain, which is often mixed with many weeds, grass seeds, dust, leaves, small stones, etc., in order to increase the weight and get away with it.Especially when they sell relatively expensive wheat and rice, this kind of thing is not uncommon. The purchasers in Jicheng Town have complained many times, but they refuse to correct them after repeated admonitions, and they are very helpless.

"The number of residents in Jicheng Town is 32, including six retired military officers and non-commissioned officers (their family members include one male and eight females), 85 cadres, and four Taoist priests (their family members include two males) There are 62 engineers belonging to the construction system (their family members include five males and 160 females), 31 officers and soldiers in the military and police system (their family members include seven males and 67 females) ), 150 ordinary veterans (without family members), 2000 nine former soldiers of the Nationalist Army who returned from the front line (without family members); the rest are ordinary immigrants, totaling less than [-] , basically all come from the Huai'an Prefecture of the Ming Dynasty, and a few are free immigrants from the Ningbo Prefecture of ZJ, and the total number does not exceed one hundred." Lang Sheng introduced the general situation of this settlement to Cai Youguo, only to hear him continue: "At present, due to the lack of various materials, the conditions of the settlers are still relatively difficult, and the main reason for the lack of materials is the inconvenience of transportation. Don't It is close to the Wujiang River here, but the existence of the Daxing Waterfall is really the worst thing for those of us upstream, because it greatly limits the efficiency of transporting materials from the old downstream areas to our new lands. ..."

The mayor said while pointing to the residential houses built nearby.I saw that the houses were very simple, with crooked roofs, slanted gates, fences woven with branches, dark windows, etc. All of these showed that the residents who came here to develop were very difficult, and most of them were naked. A penny—in fact, even if you have money, you may not be able to buy enough desirable things—but it is said that the pioneers are very friendly, which may be because they helped each other and supported each other in the collective farm of Sakhalin Island. Because of the cold winter, their social circle has been extremely stable due to years of friendship. They are united with each other and face difficulties together, which is undoubtedly an extremely important spiritual attribute for pioneering.

Of course Cai Youguo noticed those dilapidated houses—to be honest, they were better than the dimples he had imagined to live in, perhaps because the underground water table here was so high that it was impossible to dig dimples? ——But his attention at the moment is obviously more attracted by the transportation problem.Yes, as the cadres here said, the existence of the Daxing Waterfall is a heartbreaking fact. After a large ship arrives at the Daxing Port wharf, it has to stop and unload the cargo one by one. to the wharf, and then transported to the nearby railway station with a flat rail car, and transported to Xintang Port through the branch line of the Northwest Railway.

After the goods arrive at Xintang Port, there is still a lot of tossing, that is, the goods on the train need to be unloaded, and then loaded on the small inland river steamer with a shallower draft and more flexible navigation, and go up against the Wujiang River to transport all kinds of materials. Shipping to many ports on both sides of the strait.Such a transportation method is indeed inefficient and costly, because loading and unloading goods twice in the middle is time-consuming, laborious and expensive, but it is essential.Unless, you can persuade the executive committee to invest huge sums of money to transform the large waterfall into a large ship lock, so that ships can cross the waterfall and freely travel between the upper and lower reaches of the Wujiang River, but how is this possible?Not to mention the problem of construction cost, there are many technical problems that cannot be solved. Therefore, the construction plan of Daxing Ship Lock is really only a beautiful dream for the current east coast.

This cognition also made Cai Youguo a little frustrated.The Jiaohe area desperately wanted to develop westward and obtain a key port, but found that the utility of this port was really painful.So, is it worthwhile for the district administration and tens of thousands of people in the three counties to tighten their belts to build railways and ports?Will this railway (if it can be built) really bring much benefit to the region?You must know that although the Jiaohe area has a lot of public land reclamation indicators at hand, and the income from land sales is not bad, there are more places to spend money.If a large amount of funds is invested in the construction of the extension of the forest railway, it will inevitably reduce other expenditures. Is such a fund allocation plan really beneficial to the people in the region?Cai Youguo is really a little uncertain now, but this is a project promoted by the veteran cadre Xu Xin when he was in office. For this reason, he even helped to get a lot of subsidies, and the China Railway Corporation also gave sponsorship. This project should be irreversible Even now, you shouldn't look back, otherwise, what will Mr. Xu think of you?

Perhaps, the idea of ​​extending the forest railway eastward to Dingjun Town suggested by Luciano, the general manager of the forest development company, is really beneficial to the Jiaohe area.Because in that way, all kinds of commodities produced by the large-scale handicraft industrial park in Jiaohe County, which has been painstakingly managed by him, can be transported by railway to the counties in Baoding on the plateau, which can be quite a big deal. market.Instead of going eastward through the Jiaohe River as it is now, through Yiling and Dingxi counties to reach Ping'an Port, an important northern industrial town, the market that can be radiated is so broken, and if it is exhausted, add some Beiyazihu The county of the region.

As for going north to sell the goods to the Baoding area, I'm sorry, I can only watch. The merchants in PA County will not let you stretch your hand so long, unless you are willing to sell the goods to them first, and let them resell them to the northern inland plateau, but in this way, the profits will be greatly reduced, which is really worrying man!

It's a pity that the Italian birdmen from the forest development company are unwilling to increase investment in the construction of the railway, which makes Cai Youguo feel quite regretful.Perhaps it is because these shrewd Italians have learned enough lessons in the construction of the Southwest Railway (the famous 6000 million lira railway) many years ago, so this will only be based on the existing investments The facilities collect money on the ground, rather than taking the risk of additional investment, what a bunch of guys who got into the eyes of money!

"We also have an extreme shortage of handicraft craftsmen here. Most people only know how to grow crops and know nothing about handicrafts. In fact, I am also wondering whether all the handicraftsmen among the immigrants from Huai'an Prefecture in the Qing Dynasty were picked away? As a result, we are left with people who can only grow food and vegetable gardens.” The young acting mayor is still complaining about the “sarcasm” above, only listening to him talk: “There are not enough tailors, there are no There are enough shoemakers, there are not enough small furnace makers, and there are not enough blacksmiths and carpenters, let alone those high-level painters, stonemasons, etc. No craftsman is willing to come from such a difficult place as Jicheng Town. In fact, I From the facts I have seen in some places, I am very worried that the lack of enough craftsmen will make the social atmosphere worse. Because once a certain group lacks enough capable people, it is conceivable that this group will be Maintained in a state of poverty, this can easily lead to a highly contagious ethos of inactivity and decadence, which eventually makes the society lack of vitality and lifelessness, just like many ancient feudal countries-the old continent of Europe The Middle Ages are an example."

"Stop complaining, young man." Cai Youguo interrupted the other party's chatter, and instead said in a warning tone: "Every settlement came here at first, maybe your side is a little bit different than other places. It’s a little bit harder, but it’s nothing. Think about the pioneers who explored and conquered the jungle and wilderness step by step in the Beining area. They have to fight with nature and Indians every step forward. There The transportation conditions are equally bad, and the supplies are equally scarce. They may disappear into the boundless forest on the plateau like fallen leaves in autumn at any time, or disappear without a trace like snowflakes under the scorching sun under the attacks of Indian savages. Lost forever in that fertile soil of rotting leaves, unknown to anyone, but they didn't, they made it through."

"When the Spaniards first conquered the New World, they splashed the American soil with the blood of the savages who were the victims of their religious fanaticism and greed for gold and silver; Our own blood and sweat have established our dominion over these lands. Over the past 30 years or so, we have made brilliant achievements in this area, and we have gained a lot. The places that took a lot of time to reach are also connected by railways, roads or canals, and many barbarian residents who were originally hostile to us have also become residents of our overseas colonies, have you forgotten all these?" Cai Youguo said again: " Don't be afraid of difficulties, let alone let them overthrow you, as long as you have determination, nothing can't be changed."

After finishing his inspection in Jicheng Town, Cai Youguo returned to Jiaohe County on horseback under the escort of his entourage, and then quickly summoned officials at all levels in the county to the district administrative office for a meeting.At the meeting, he and the cadres focused on examining the future development route of the Jiaohe area, and focused on discussing how to break the current predicament and the difficult situation in the mainland.However, this is destined to be an extremely advanced topic for the cadres in the Jiaohe area. Some of them proposed to continue to build railways, some proposed to dig canals, and some proposed to build cheap roads. The huge investment still can't do anything.After all, the size of the Jiaohe area is too small, and the project to be built is so huge that it would be impossible to complete it without the government's large-scale infrastructure investment-this cognition, in fact, everyone has already known Yes, it's just that Cai Youguo is more impatient and wants to make a big effort and develop quickly.

To develop the local economy, in fact, it is best to follow the objective laws, otherwise it will be counterproductive!The same is true of the development of the Jiaohe area, and the clamoring demands of the country to increase investment and build an important commercial port city in the area of ​​Jiaohe Port in the north are also true.

(End of this chapter)