Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1716 Pampa Storm ([-])

April 1676, 3, sunny.

A passenger and cargo ship from the local Dongfang Port to Nanzhuixing South Port slowly anchored in Yancheng Port. A group of men in blue and black Chinese tunic suits slowly walked out of the cabin on the deck with briefcases. Behind them , and there were seven or eight police officers from the Ministry of Internal Affairs in black leather, who looked like they were guarding them, which made some passengers subconsciously keep a distance from them, for fear of being caught as suspicious by those eyeing police officers.

"The government is now heavily in debt, and it still wants to spend money to repair the railway in the Pampa Plain. I'm afraid it's crazy?" A middle-aged man walking in the front greedily breathed the fresh air outside the cabin, and followed closely. A young man beside him said.

The person who spoke was Chen Youcai, who had been with the Central Railway Company and the State Administration of Railways for many years. After many old people gradually receded, he has finally climbed to the position of the head of the State Administration of Railways. He is the well-deserved No.1 of the railway system.The young man who followed him was named Chen Jia, the son of Chen Tingmei, the vice minister of the Ministry of Education. He started a business when he was young, and made a small fortune by buying goods with two boys from the Xu family in the Hejian area.Unable to withstand his father's persuasion, he finally abandoned business and went into politics, and worked in the State Administration of Railways for many years. Now he is a fairly capable Mesozoic official in the ministry.

This time Chen Youcai came to Yancheng Port for a business trip, and he also took this young man (actually not young, he is 40 years old) with him, intending to add more burdens to him, and check his ability by the way. In order to decide whether to focus on training in the future-at their level, although they are not one of the top nine elders on the east coast, they are enough to form a small group by themselves, so it is important to support and promote capable and loyal junior officials. an urgent matter.After all, these old people will eventually retire in the future, so someone must protect the interests of small groups or factions, which involves the cultivation of reserve talents, and Chen Jia is obviously one of the focuses of their investigation.

"Director, the Ministry of Finance has not been taking measures recently. It has issued two rounds of 20-year national bonds, and in order to ensure that these national bonds can be sold in this way, it has also shot down many overseas investment projects. Hehe, Yanbu Railway (That is, the railway from Yancheng to Buenos Aires) Although the cost is huge, it may not be an unbearable burden. Anyway, I am quite optimistic. At worst, it is always possible to repair part of it, right?" Chen Jiali mentioned Holding two huge briefcases, he followed Chen Youcai step by step, and said with a smile, with a relaxed tone. It seemed that he was appreciated by Chen Youcai on weekdays, and the relationship was unusual.

The government he just mentioned issued two new rounds of debt, which happened just last month. The Ministry of Communications and the State Railway Administration received a total of 160 million yuan in cash for this.So far, the government of the East Coast Republic of Huaxia has also been burdened with various debts of more than 500 million yuan, and the annual repayment of interest alone costs more than 20 yuan, which is no one.

At that time, in order to allow the two national bonds to be sold smoothly (of course, for the convenience of issuing bonds in the future), the government suspended the approval of many overseas investment projects, such as the investment of the three Liang brothers in the North American Free State, and the investment of the Ma brothers in the New China Rubber Plantation. A loan of 50 yuan obtained by Qiang Xiaoman, the head of the Qiang family, to Latvians in New Courland was also frozen, and failed to pass the approval to leave the country.The various actions of the government are quite different from the fear that the accumulation of funds would cause inflation in the country many years ago. It can be seen that the government has made great efforts to alleviate economic difficulties in the past two years.

"Of course I know that as long as there is determination, this railway can still be built. It's just that it can't be used! When the track was laid, it took ten days and a half months for a train to pass. The loss is astonishing." Chen Youcai, whose hair was already grey, gently descended to the pier with the support of his entourage. After looking around, he found that no one came to greet them, so he could only shake his head annoyedly, and continued to chat with Chen Jia Get up: "I have worked on the railway for many years, and I have a lot of affection for the railway. What I hate the most is that the rails are exposed to the sun and rain and rust. Alas, in fact, some domestic railways are not profitable at all. The cable telegraph is subsidizing the family, and now it is necessary to build such a north-south artery-level railway on the Pampa Plain. It is really a loss to my grandma's family. What is the use of this railway, transporting cowhide, tallow, and salt Meat, live cattle, or soldiers? I can see that the possibility of loss of this railway is 99%. or in the name of the road protection team), it will be convenient to pass troops in the future. But the problem is, if you really want to occupy the Pampa Plain, just let the navy cooperate with the army to land near Buenos, so why bother. Alas, executive The members of the committee are getting old, so they are overjoyed, and they do some stupid things."

Chen Jia coughed a few times when he heard this, and then said to Chen Youcai with a wry smile: "Director, be careful, be careful! The higher ups want to build this railway, so we just cooperate. Anyway, if we lose money in the future, we will report it with our belongings." Just go to the Ministry of Finance and ask for money, can the Ministry of Finance not give it? Can you still watch the Yanbu Railway be abolished? Impossible! Besides, the Spaniards may not necessarily agree to our condition. To be honest, this has touched their bottom line, and it may not be possible. In short, let’s take a step at a time, let’s go and build the office first, and do some preliminary exploration and surveying work.”

"That's the only way to go." Chen Youcai sighed, and said, "Actually, I want to use this money on the Northern Railway, extending this railway southward to Merlot County, where it meets the Northwest Railway. More urgent. Although this railway also has special funds, if there is more money, multiple places can be started at the same time, and the progress will be faster. Alas, what a pity, what a pity, to run to such a place where no shit Come to repair the railway, hell!"

The two talked and laughed, and quickly waved for a few horse-drawn railcars from Yancheng Street Car Company, and then went all the way to a certain house in the city.The house is the property of the State Administration of Railways. It was just bought in the second half of last year. It is planned to be used as the preparatory office for the express railway for wool transportation. There are not many people at present.Of course, it seems that the funds for the wool transportation special line railway have not been approved, and it is just a hot spot in Patagonia. Therefore, this house will probably be used as the preparatory office for the Yanbu Railway in the future, which is also true. Nothing is wasted.

But when Chen Youcai ordered the only two or three staff members in the office to tidy up and clean the room, the army captain Pei Dade, who had heard the news from somewhere, came to the door, and Chen Youcai was startled when he opened his mouth: "Director Chen , I met the liaison officer you sent to the county government on the way, so I learned that you have come here. Why, is there any new action this time? Could it be that the Dingyan Railway has been established so soon? No It should be, the road has only been repaired for a while, why did you approve the money so quickly?"

"What are you thinking about?" Chen Youcai shook his head lightly, not intending to explain further, but considering that he will need to send people to assist their railway personnel in activities on the Pampa Plain, after thinking about it, He also said tactfully: "We are here to do some exploration and surveying and mapping work in advance, of course not for the purpose of establishing the Yanyan Railway. As for the specific location, I am inconvenient to explain now, anyway, everything will become clear after a while. You will naturally receive a new action order at that time."

"Well, aren't you resident in Dingnan County? Why did you come to Yancheng County so far? Have a mission?" Chen Youcai suddenly thought of something and asked.

"I received a little mission, but it's nothing serious, and it doesn't matter. In fact, the superior asked me to take the Independent First Cavalry Battalion to Niuzhuang and Yinhai. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was negotiating with the Spaniards recently. There has been no response for a long time, and no reply has been made. Therefore, the Ministry of War ordered the Independent First Cavalry Battalion to enter the Pampa Plain to "suppress bandits" urgently by land to put some pressure on the Spaniards. Our department arrived at Yancheng Port two days ago. At present I’m waiting for a batch of supplies, and we can set off in a few days.” Pei Dade, the acting battalion commander of the First Cavalry Battalion, said without hesitation: “Actually speaking, this mission is quite to my liking. The days of being a 'security guard' on the salt line are really boring. Compared to that kind of ordinary life, I prefer to go to the vast Pampa Plain to meet the Spaniards, ha ha."

After hearing this, Chen Youcai and Chen Jia looked at each other, knowing that the executive committee seemed impatient with the Spaniard's delay in responding, and wanted to use some means.On the Pampa Plain, only the half-baked mestizo cavalry from Spain bullied the cattle catchers on the east bank. This time Captain Pei Dade led the well-trained independent first cavalry battalion (also the only independent cavalry unit on the east bank) 550 Famous elites go north, if they are really not afraid of tearing their faces and making a real move, they may make Spain cry.

But the two turned to think about it, but they also felt that the Spaniard was completely to blame.The conditions put forward by the people on the east bank during the last meeting, such as dismantling the military outposts, stopping attacking the merchants on the east bank, compensating for losses, allowing the construction of the railway, etc., have been barely fulfilled by stopping the attack and expelling the merchants on the east bank. There was no movement on the other few items, so the members of the Executive Committee were a little dissatisfied. After discussing with the Joint Staff Headquarters, they decisively ordered the Independent First Cavalry Battalion to set off immediately from Dingnan County and Luyang County, where they were stationed. Passing through Yancheng County (where supplies are obtained) and going north into the Pampa Plain, on the one hand, it protects the safety of the merchants on the east coast, and on the other hand, it looks for an opportunity to give the Spaniards eye drops and urge them to make a decision as soon as possible.Otherwise, when this procrastination continues, when will it be the head!You know, the foreign affairs department on the east coast is also very busy now, and it is really hard to spend too much energy on the Spanish side for a long time, because their negotiations with the Dutch have officially kicked off.

Speaking of negotiations with the Dutch, in fact, the most important thing between the two parties is the ownership of the Dutch Cape Town colony.Although this colony is owned by the Dutch East India Company, it seems that the young Prince of Orange does not intend to make easy concessions in this regard, so he made rumors that he would leave this colony for the United Provinces, which gave rise to negotiations between the two parties. It cast a heavy shadow, and it came to the brink of rupture almost before it started, which made the heads and brains of the foreign affairs department hurt their bodies, and they didn't know how to talk to the United Provinces ambassador Van Beveninghe.

That is to say, the east coast diplomacy is now basically a legendary two-line operation, and the appetite is also amazing: after swallowing a colony with such a critical geographical location as Dutch South Africa, it turned its attention to Spain. On the Pampa Plain under human rule, they want to take a bite of this piece of fat and lay the foundation for a full-scale annexation in the future.This kind of ambition and this kind of operation can indeed show that after decades of hard work and courageous development, the current East China Republic is becoming more and more aggressive. Of course, this is also due to the international situation and its own national strength. matching.

Chen Youcai and Chen Jia, as mid-level and high-ranking officials of the government, certainly felt deeply about this, but they also took it for granted: the people on the east coast are so good, they should naturally occupy more land under the sun!

After sending away Captain Pei Dade of the First Cavalry Battalion, the liaison officers sent by Chen Youcai and Chen Jia to the county government also came back, saying that the county government will hold a welcome banquet for them later, and everyone can Let's get to know each other together. After all, the cooperation of the local government will be indispensable in the future on the railway.

Of course, on the other hand, the Yancheng county government is also very surprised that the terminus of the two railways (Dingyan Railway and Yanbu Railway) are located here.If they also consider that they have recently received funds from the Yancheng Deepwater Port Renovation Project specially allocated by the Ministry of Communications, the degree of surprise will be even higher!Because this directly shows that the government is building Yancheng Port as a core logistics hub, and its future development should not be underestimated. It is almost certain that it will become a regional central city.Naturally, the attention of local officials from their superiors will also increase, which naturally overjoys those officials who are still somewhat self-motivated.

In the evening, Chen Youcai took Chen Jia and other seven or eight entourages to have a meal with the officials of Yancheng County Government.After finishing all this work, Chen Youcai left Chen Jia here to preside over the work, while he took a passing naval transport ship and returned directly to the capital.At this time, it was time for the first round of consultations between the East Coasters and the United Provinces on the issue of Dutch South Africa.

(End of this chapter)