Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2190 Central Valley (24)

On November 1692, 11, a team of dozens of people was walking on the vast field north of the Wa River.

Here, there are already sporadic colonists on the east bank doing pioneering work.They are all members of paramilitary organizations that are half-soldier and half-civilian. Among them are veterans of the regular army and non-nationals who have participated in government mercenaries such as the Anguo Army and the Baoguo Army.There are probably more than a thousand of them, equipped with old weapons issued by the government, with combat skills, firm will, and rich experience, they are the best pioneers for cross-border reclamation.

Wang Zhijie stopped at one of the strongholds.This is a military outpost. Seven or eight immigrant families built their own residences around the outpost, opened up some land, and grew potatoes and vegetables.There are no professional soldiers stationed in the outpost, and it depends on these seven or eight immigrant families to take care of various affairs, and even work part-time as postmen.

There is a well behind the outpost, which may have been invested and built by the Ministry of War. The well has a wide mouth and a deep well, which is used for the living and agricultural water needs of the immigrants near the outpost.Wang Zhijie is very interested in this well. Because it is located in a traffic node, it is far away from the river, and the water for living and production depends on well drilling.The water in the well is abundant, which fully shows that there is no shortage of water here as a whole, although the Spaniards have not developed this side.

"The amount of water in an area is firstly determined by the amount of atmospheric precipitation in the form of rain and snow. Part of the precipitation evaporates immediately, another part flows away, and some part seeps into the soil and returns to the surface runoff system in the form of spring water. Seeps into the soil The amount of water in the soil depends partly on the vegetation and climate, but most importantly depends on the water permeability of the soil, that is, the higher the water permeability of the soil surface, the more water will seep into the soil, and the less water will flow away and evaporate." Pointing to this well, Wang Zhijie said to the students he brought: "Agriculture is a very water-consuming production activity. Crops such as wheat, potatoes, and alfalfa are all "drafts". This is fine in humid areas, but if In semi-arid regions where there is no surface runoff, the only way to irrigate agriculture is by pumping groundwater."

"The southern section of the Central Valley is okay. Overall, the precipitation is relatively rich, and there are many rivers and tributaries. Except for a few places - such as the land in front of us - which are relatively short of water, most areas have developed large-scale agriculture and animal husbandry Conditions. But from the south to the north, the precipitation gradually decreases. The middle section is still barely enough, and the precipitation is generally quite a lot, but some areas are relatively dry, and a large number of aqueducts and irrigation systems need to be built. The northern section is relatively poor , there is a little water in the precipitation, and there are not many rivers, and it must be artificially transformed before it is possible to develop agriculture on a certain scale." Wang Zhijie continued: "And this is the most important thing I told you about this well. Reason. Once we colonize the middle and northern parts of the Central Valley in the future, it is almost inevitable to use land water (groundwater), otherwise we may not be able to develop large-scale agriculture.”

"Yes, sir. According to the expedition report of the Ministry of War, there are still a large number of mineral resources in the northern part of the Central Valley. Coal mines and copper mines are the main ones. There is also an astonishing amount of saltpeter in the desert, which is an inexhaustible resource." Inexhaustible wealth. Of course, we can ignore the desert for the time being, it is too difficult to get water there, but the development of those copper mines and coal mining areas cannot be given up. These industrial activities also need water, and it is really difficult to have no groundwater.” A pimple-ridden boy chimed in.

"Xiao Lin, what you said is very good. In fact, the Ministry of Geology and the Ministry of Coal are also very concerned about the development of those mining areas, and have sent joint expeditions to conduct many explorations. Your two senior brothers were also honored to attend the meeting, come back Afterwards, I talked to me about the specific situation there, and it is generally optimistic.” Wang Zhijie responded: “There are a large number of submerged layers there. Not a problem."

The so-called submerged layer is actually water seeping into the soil layer, and then encounters various permeable and impermeable soil layers and rock layers. After part of the water is retained, part of the water continues to infiltrate until it encounters a completely impermeable rock layer. Then hide deep underground.There is no doubt that this water is good water, very clean, because it has been filtered in the soil layer for a long time.

The Ministry of War, the Ministry of Geology, and the Ministry of Coal have organized four large-scale expeditions in the past five years, mainly focusing on the northern section of the Central Valley.They found that beneath the land that looked a little dry, there were often abundant aquifers.These deep good waters float above impermeable rock depressions and are abundant.In summer and autumn when there is more precipitation, the phreatic water level rises rapidly due to the confluence of a large amount of rainwater from adjacent areas.The people from the address department drilled a small well with simple equipment, and found that the water level of the well was much higher than that of another well in the same area last spring, and it was basically good water, which made them very happy.

In addition, because of years of operation in arid areas such as the Chubut River, Ludang River, and Baoxing River, the people on the east bank now have a set of effective and mature experience in finding water in the wild and digging wells. With systematic theoretical guidance on the distribution, composition and flow of groundwater, I don't know how much better than the Spaniards.

For example, the Artesian Well Theory, which was published in an internally controlled journal last year, is a synthesis of some phenomena discovered by the ancient people and research results under the guidance of modern theories.This theory points out that the groundwater accumulates between the cushion and the caprock (impermeable rock formation), because the water-accumulating impermeable rock layer is exposed somewhere, and the water overflows automatically, forming an artesian depression.

As soon as this paper was published, it was immediately praised by geological, agricultural, industrial and military systems.When they were looking for water outside, they broke away from the original method of relying on experience to try their luck. Since then, they have theoretical guidance and can find water more efficiently and accurately.The first practical application of this theory was in the inland mountain area of ​​the Djibouti Management Committee. The local garrison carefully studied the bottom layer and roughly determined a rich area of ​​underground diving, and then drilled wells to obtain water by breaking the rock formation. Great success.Although there are also people who accuse these people of accumulating for an unknown number of years, it is not easy to have the current scale, and the wanton exploitation of the people on the east coast may slowly dry it up, but in the Djibouti area where there are quotas for drinking water for humans and animals, who The fuck still cares about you so much!As long as there is enough water to drink, you can let them kill people, don't talk about other nonsense about protecting resources, it's impossible!

Now the Australian colonies are also using this theory to find water. The main driving force is not agriculture and animal husbandry, but the search for mineral resources such as gold.It has to be said that most of Australia's gold is in the inland arid desert area, where the environment is harsh and water is extremely scarce, which is very unsuitable for human survival.If they find the abundant and good water hidden underground through the theory of artesian wells, then this problem will be solved, and the gold resources in the inland arid areas can also be utilized.Even places that were not very convenient for grazing in the first place seem to be able to make such an attempt.

Therefore, the development of science and technology is the primary productive force.If the scientific theory makes a breakthrough first (this is the most difficult item), and then the applied technology catches up (this step is relatively simple), then the actual productivity will achieve a jaw-dropping leap forward.Djibouti is an example, and so is Australia!

It is a pity that the Ziliujing theory does not have a patent, and the researcher who proposed the theory only received a symbolic reward of [-] yuan, but the theory he created has benefited too many people.It is said that in the dry Pampa and Chaco, where there is no large surface runoff, many immigrants far from the river rely on artesian wells for water.The characteristics of the new capital, Luoyang, are more obvious. It can be said that at least half of its residents will live on diving and artesian wells in the future, and the water source of its water supply plant will not be entirely dependent on river water like other areas, but part of it will be taken from mountain lakes , some rely on relatively deep diving and karst water, and the rest rely on artesian wells to obtain water.

It is indeed a pity that such a large contribution only received a few hundred yuan in bonuses.I hope that in the future this dear friend can make a steady rise in the sky, and use this to get promoted step by step within the system, otherwise it will be too bad.

"Okay, just take a look at these things, it's not the focus of our trip." After resting for more than half an hour, Wang Zhijie got up and clapped his hands, and said to the students and entourage: "The northern section of the Central Valley is still far away from us." It’s a little bit far away. The leased land south of the Wa River has basically been developed, and we can only go north again after a stage of cross-border reclamation is successful. I’m afraid it will be a few years before we finally expand there. For now, let’s Concentrate more on the original task of plant domestication, which is also very important and is related to the well-being of future generations, so it must not be sloppy."

The students nodded again and again.Before the discovery of the Spaniards, the New World was a completely closed continent, so it developed its own unique species and ecological circle.And because of the relatively low level of civilization of the Indians, they have not fully domesticated these animals and plants.For example, they domesticated vicuna and alpaca, two relatively large species (buffalo never succeeded, and horses were wiped out by themselves...), and they didn't even know how to use their milk and blood.Animals are like this, and plants are also very similar.Many of the things that often appear on the tables of people on the east coast are actually discovered and domesticated by the Spaniards after they arrived in the New World. It is an exaggeration that the Indians have lived here for thousands of years and have not used them effectively.

Therefore, Wang Zhijie felt that it was necessary for people on the east coast to conduct a thorough statistics of the plants in the entire southern New World, and pick out suitable ones for domestication and planting.In addition, the re-domestication of species from the Old Continent is also very important. This has been confirmed, and it is also one of the important tasks of Mr. Wang's trip.After all, medical classics such as "Ming Dynasty Medical Records Test" and "Song Medical Records Test" are now national textbooks. It would be a pity if the various prescriptions in them could not be used properly due to the limitation of the efficacy of medicinal materials.Therefore, this work still requires a lot of effort from them.

National construction has never been achieved by someone with an idea or a slogan, but with a steady work step by step. People in the East Coast have a deep understanding of this!

Well, it's the end of the year, and the emperor has issued an edict to congratulate the New Year. I also wish everyone a happy New Year!

(End of this chapter)