Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2141 Development Wave ([-])

"Be careful, don't fall behind. The Army has not cleared this area, and it cannot strictly guarantee safety." Captain Xiao Guang walked in the mountain area west of Jinghu District, and urged the people behind him.

He just finished his expedition work in the Tuanjie River Basin at the beginning of this year.Now that the army has fully taken over that area, they have a large number of people, strong strength, and a professional scouting team. It is true that Xiao Guang and his half-army, half-civilian team are no longer needed to continue exploring.Therefore, after paying all the money, Xiao Guang announced the disbandment of the team, and Captain Xiao, who was once famous in the Tuanjie River Basin, patted his ass and returned to the south.

Holidays at home are boring.No, in less than a month, Captain Xiao Guang took the initiative to ask for a new mission, that is, to lead a team to conduct expeditions in the area called the "Pampa Mountains" by the East Coast Department of Geology.The Ministry of War has promised him that if this task is successfully completed, then he can be promoted to the first rank of Xiao Guang, and then transferred to an overseas colony to serve.

Serving in overseas colonies is actually the dream of every army officer.This is not only related to income issues, but also closely related to the relative ease of doing meritorious service there.To be honest, the East Coast has been at peace for many years now, and it is becoming more and more difficult for soldiers to make meritorious service. If you don't go overseas to make meritorious service, is it possible to work hard for qualifications in China?That's too slow!

Xiao Guang was quite satisfied with the promise made by the Ministry of War.After all, he is a student who graduated from a regular military academy and has always been eager to lead the army.But look at what kind of work he did before?Either work as a staff officer in the Ministry of War, bury your head in the paperwork all day, and occasionally go on a business trip to the local army to be happy for a long time.

Later, he went to the Tuanjie River Basin to lead several expeditions.To be honest, although this is more dangerous - not only because of the hidden enemies, the environment here is also very dangerous - but compared to the boring staff work in the Ministry of War, Xiao Guang is still very satisfied, and his performance is also very Excellent, was affirmed by the superior.

This expedition led the team to the Pampa Mountains area. On the surface, it was a joint order from the Ministry of Geology and the Ministry of Army, but the funds and equipment were all allocated by the New Capital Development Leading Group. It can be seen that this operation and the construction of the new capital in the future It is not unrelated to development, which makes Xiao Guang even more concerned.

There are more than 80 people in their team, nearly half of them are veterans recruited from the people, engaged in security work, and the remaining half are not all frail people. Not too alarming, that's enough.

The Pampa region generally includes the later Argentine provinces of Córdoba, San Luis, Santiago de Estero, Tucumán, Catamarca, La Rioja, and parts of San Juan The region has a total area of ​​24.7 square kilometers, including two major parts, mountains and plains.

The vast land of more than 20 square kilometers obviously cannot be explored with their team of less than 100 people. In fact, they mainly focused on exploring the mountains west of the new capital and the plains near the capital.To put it bluntly, it is mainly the province of Córdoba in later generations. As for other places, we will talk about them later when we have time, or they will be handed over to other teams.Otherwise, how do you think the nearly [-] million yuan of exploration expenses listed by the East Coast government every year are spent?

"Mr. Su, is there any value in developing this plain?" After walking forward for about half an hour, the team was resting on a gravel beach, and Xiao Guang walked up to the geological expert in the team and asked.

Their current location is north of Mingjing Lake, near the small town of Koskin in the later generations.The terrain here is a bit strange. There are many cone-shaped gravel piles on the flat mountain valley. This is the impact cone formed by the gravel rolled down after the disintegration and fragmentation of nearby mountains.In the center of the impact cone, there is a plain formed by sand and soil, and in some places, sand dunes are even formed because the soil contains too much sand.There are rivers flowing through the plain.Fortunately, this river flows outward, so that no salt marshes will be formed due to stagnation of water bodies, which is very critical for agricultural cultivation.

"It's not bad, it can be developed." Teacher Su lit a garden brand cigarette and said while smoking: "The soil fertility is quite satisfactory, not too good, but not too bad. If you take good care of it, you can produce a lot of food. It serves the capital area. It’s just that the area of ​​this plain is a little small, and it’s a little unsightly.”

"Hehe, Mr. Su. There are plains near the capital, so what can't be planted, and you still count on the mountains?" Xiao Guang also came over with a cigarette to build a fire, and said with a smile: "Of course the land in the mountains can be planted, to a certain extent It may not be too bad in terms of water resources, because the water resources here are too rich, and rice and other crops that consume a lot of water can be grown. But don’t you understand the style of our country? You must find a way to draw water from the mountains to the plains ah!"

"Actually, although I think it is possible to grow crops here, I personally don't support it." Teacher Su took a deep breath and said, "Although our country positions the capital as a purely administrative city, we don't want to do it. Too many people make the city bloated. But to be honest, no matter how I think about it, I don’t think this kind of thing is possible. The population of Luoyang Prefecture will definitely increase rapidly in the future, and then reach a scale that makes people feel scary. Captain Xiao , Think about it, with so many people living in the capital, isn’t there a lot of pressure on domestic water use? If agriculture takes up too much water resources, what will happen to people’s domestic water use?”

Xiao Guang opened his mouth wide. He really didn't think about the problem from this angle. He subconsciously thought it was wrong, but when he thought about it carefully, he felt it was right, which made him a little confused.

"Hey, I'm also worried. Look, our capital has six districts. Assuming that one district has 100 million people, then there will be 600 million people in the future. This is still a settled population. What about floating population? I'm afraid it will increase the population by one Doubling is possible! And there are actually two reliable water sources in Luoyang Prefecture, one is Mingjing Lake, and the other is Lily of the Valley Lake (later Molinos Lake, located in the mountains in the southwest of Yuquan District, because The lake is named after lilies of the valley all over the lake), these are the two basins of water on the head of the capital, the only two basins of water! The area of ​​these lakes is actually not too large, and the source of water only needs to be melted water from the mountains , I am very worried about whether it can supply the living needs of millions or even tens of millions of people." Teacher Su said with a smile.

"There are only 750 million people in our country. Mr. Su, your idea is really far-sighted!" Xiao Guang swallowed the words "worries", but still said in disbelief.Several soldiers caught a salt marsh rabbit (palo rabbit), which was originally Xiao Guang's favorite food, but his mind was no longer on it, but thinking about the pressure on the water resources that the capital may face in the future.

"It's not possible now, but it will be possible in the future. People always have to look forward." Teacher Su still insisted on his opinion, but he didn't want to argue, but changed the subject, saying: "Let's not talk about the water issue for now. , the mineral resources in this mountain are actually quite rich. Not to mention far away, in the mountains near the capital, there is a tungsten mine with large reserves (distributed from Condores to Córdoba in the later San Luis Province , La Rioja, Cajamarca and other places), a rhodochrosite mine (located in Capitalis) and a small amount of copper mine. Tungsten is a relatively late research in our country, and basically no tungsten has been found so far. What kind of mineral deposits, the reserves in the nearby mountains are estimated to be not small, which is a great benefit. The value of rhodochrosite is also very high. The manganese ore reserves on Tieling are not very large. The local people complain that the further they go down, the lower the taste. A new source has been developed. The scale of the copper mine is not large, but it can make do with it for now, the only thing I don’t know is whether the country is willing to mine it. At present, there are a lot of copper strips pulled back from the Far East and Europe to ballast the bottom.”

"Mr. Su, you forgot the most important resources in the mountains, marble and granite! The quantity of these things is extremely large, and it is extremely important for the construction of the new capital, and its value cannot be underestimated. If possible in the future, we can even blow up some mountains Come to mine stones, which are excellent building materials. By the way, we also found a lot of high-quality onyx, and the value is not low." Xiao Guang said, gesturing with his hands.

"You can't blow up the mountains!" Teacher Su was anxious when he heard this, and said, "Cordoba can now maintain a precipitation of 600-700 mm a year, thanks to these mountains. The existence of mountains blocks the humid east wind. , so that rainwater can fall nearby to form the so-called orographic rain. It can be said that the existence of these mountains is very important to Córdoba, don’t mess around.”

"Hey, of course you can't mess around. I'm just making an example. Who has the ability to mine all the mountains over 2000 meters? We're not Spaniards, so the altitude of the entire Silver Mountain is lowered by tens of meters... "Xiao Guang said with some embarrassment: "Our country's brick-making technology has developed rapidly in recent years, and the degree of automation is also very high. There is still a large amount of clay in this mountain, which is just used to burn bricks. Is it needed?"

"Well, I don't trust some people in the Ministry of Construction." Teacher Su snorted twice, and then said, "Actually, I don't even agree with the development of the mining industry nearby. It will cause too much damage to the environment. The de-industrialization plan is contrary. The Pampa Mountains area should mainly develop fine intensive agriculture, such as medicinal crops, spice crops, essential oil crops, etc. In suitable places in the mountains, you can also develop animal husbandry, goats, sheep Camels and camels are fine. These are not problems. Of course, tourism is the most suitable for mountainous areas. There are still many scenic spots in the mountains, and the climate is also very good. Especially in the hot summer, it can provide leisure and sightseeing places for the residents of the capital. You can build hotels and sanitariums here. The spring water in the mountain is clear and transparent, and there are many hot springs. The attraction is still very good, not much better than any industry? At worst, there are many large salt marshes on the eastern plain , can also be mined, why bother to go to the mountains?"

"This—there should be a comprehensive plan from above, and there will be no mess. Everyone has learned the lessons of random planning and barbaric growth from some disharmonious issues in the eastern coastal areas." Xiao Guang said insincerely He said, but he was 100% sure in his heart that the people in the government would never let go of those mines in the mountains, and the possibility of mining them was extremely high, even if the capital Luoyang Mansion was nearby, they would not be able to stop them!

(End of this chapter)