Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1907 Terrace (26)

On August 1684, 8, the westerly wind was blowing and it was icy cold.

The Patagonian plateau is in the most difficult winter of the year.At this time, the grass on the land withered, the human population disappeared, and even the perennial sheep disappeared. They returned to the shepherd's sheepfold, shivering and huddling together to keep each other warm to survive the harsh winter.

There was a sound of "boom, boom, boom" in the gust of wind, and those who were familiar with the situation did not know that it was the sound brought by the tireless rotation of industrial windmills.This kind of sound is very kind to the shepherds, because it is this mechanical and monotonous sound of leaf fans that bring them the flour they need to survive, bring them water from the deep valley, and provide them with various tools for processing. , The power of the device.

Gale is not only a tribulation faced by people living on this land in winter, but is it not a kind of gift?

"I heard that Commissioner Ma Wenqiang will return to serve in the central government soon." After the hard physical labor, the two young soldiers from Bingtuanbao sat opposite each other, chatting about political gossip while drinking fragrant milk tea.

The "Commissioner Ma" just mentioned is Ma Wenqiang, who worked in Patagonia for many years, and was later transferred to the captain of the Southern Exploration Team.Now in Dongfang County, the capital, many senior officials are exchanging the list of members of the executive committee of the new Founders Assembly. The second-generation backbone officials such as Ma Wenqiang, captain of the Southern Pioneering Team, and Liu Jianguo, captain of the Denglai Pioneering Team, are all of this one of the members on the list.

It has been more than 50 years since the founding of the East Coast Republic of China, and the older generation has withered away. It is time to recruit new members into the cabinet.The second generation, like Ma Wenqiang and Liu Jianguo, who started from the grassroots step by step, are not too old, have plenty of energy, and don’t lack experience. The transitional government is also what it should be.

This is Mayue Township, located near the small town of Rio Mayo in later Patagonia, on the south bank of the Mayue River (Mayo River), an inland settlement mainly engaged in agriculture and animal husbandry.The Mayue River is one of the tributaries of the Ronghe River (Senker River, which means the fusion of two rivers). Its source is the melted ice and snow on the Andes Mountains. The riverbed is not wide and the flow is not large, but it is enough to support Mayue Township. Of these more than 2000 settlers were made.

Although the east coast government has continued to develop fertile lands such as the Pampa Plain over the years, its expansion in Patagonia has never stopped.This is not because they attach much importance to this place, but because there is not much resistance to expansion here. Neither the Thuelche people nor the Araucan people are opponents of the people on the east coast. Therefore, in this vast land, Expansion will not encounter any strong obstacles at all.The organized aboriginal resistance forces were wiped out many years ago, and now the remaining ones are just lingering. It is difficult to protect themselves, let alone fight with the army on the east coast. They are not even as good as the aboriginal forces in Africa and New China , is already a completely weak **** Tagonia region can be allocated thousands of immigration quotas every year, in addition to continuing to fill the population in the old town, after many years, finally decided to continue to expand The control area was pushed to the south, and several settlements were established again.Among them, Mayue Township, which was established in the later town of Rio Mayo, and Honghe Township (located on the banks of the Hong River), which was established in the later town of Rio Senger, will be connected with Shuanghu Township, Nanding Township and Houtu Township. Together, together form Shuanghu County.The county has four townships, one town and five settlements, with a total population of more than 130. It is the 46th county-level administrative unit in the country.The county was established at the beginning of this year, which means that the people on the east coast have moved the edge of the control area further south to the [-]th parallel of south latitude. Although this kind of control seems to be relatively weak, it is already very good.

The economy of Mayue Township is the same as that of most inland towns on the Patagonian platform. It is dominated by the wool industry, that is, residents earn income by grazing sheep and wool. Against the background of the fire, it seems to be pretty good, not much worse than those traditional farmers who focus on the grain planting industry, and even slightly surpassed.

However, if many inland towns in the platform, including Mayue Township, want to achieve further development, a railway connecting various settlements and major wool producing areas is indispensable.Just like the later British invested in the construction of a special railway for wool transportation in Patagonia in the 19th century, today's East China Republic also needs such a railway to communicate with the inland hinterland. It can not only transport wool, meat, and leather, but also Transport daily necessities.Moreover, this railway plays a very important role in communicating the two oceans. It cannot be viewed purely from an economic perspective. It is still necessary to better communicate the economic and trade links between the two places, and send goods to the west side of the mountain through various passes.

The wool transportation line can really be regarded as a low-profile backup version of the Southern Cone and Ocean Railway to a certain extent!

"I don't know if Commissioner Ma—ah, I'm afraid he will be called Commissioner Ma in the future—after he joins the cabinet, will he remember the place where he fought. Alas, Patagonia is really too far away. , is too poor, as long as Commissioner Ma makes a little effort to let the central government’s massive investment leak through the fingers every year, it will be enough for us for a long time.” A cadre sprinkled various spices into the milk tea while With a wry smile, he said, "Actually, it's not necessary for Committee Member Ma to be selfish. The conditions in our Shuanghu County are actually quite good. Both Houtu Township and Nanding Township are important fishing ports, and kaolin is also produced nearby. Mayue Township, Hong Kong Township He Township is next to a big river, with rich water and grass, a large number of sheep that can be herded, and a large wool production. Needless to say, Shuanghu Town, if it is well developed, it can completely cultivate a large area of ​​fertile land. It’s rare in the whole of Southern Patagonia, and it’s really worth the investment.”

In fact, as the cadre said just now, there are two large lakes near Shuanghu County, with a vast area.Among them, the lake on the west side (Musters Lake) has an area of ​​434 square kilometers, a depth of more than 100 meters, and a huge water storage capacity.The lake on the east side was formed when the west lake was full and overflowed. Although the average depth is only a little over 4 meters, its area has reached 803 square kilometers, and it is even one of the largest lakes in Argentina in later generations.

This kind of lake area and this kind of water storage—even in some dry years, these two lakes have never dried up and still have a considerable storage capacity—are enough to support a certain scale of agricultural activities, and now the two lakes Everything the town government has done has proven this point: almost every year, they organize manpower to widen and dredge the channel where the river melts into the lake. At the same time, they also clean up the overflow channel from the West Lake to the East Lake. It has become several standard artificial canals, so that the lake will not flood too much during the high water season.

In the future, the government of Shuanghu Town also plans to further clean up the land, rivers and small lakes in the floodplain, open up more fertile fields on these alluvial soils, and grow more food.The scale of this kind of desert oasis agriculture does not need to be too large, but the value is very large.Apart from other things, the large amount of grain it grows can be supplied to pastoral areas hundreds or even thousands of miles away, which saves a lot of transportation costs, which is a great contribution.

But in the final analysis, Shuanghu County and even the entire Patagonia region are indeed insignificant in the eyes of the superiors.Their positioning of Patagonia is probably to serve as a good country's wool supplier, fishery base and dairy product supplier, and nothing else.Therefore, the number of immigrants and the amount of investment allocated here each year are counted, but the budget belongs to the lowest level. There are only thousands of people and a few hundred thousand yuan of funds each year, which is also pitiful.

Therefore, the two cadres just mentioned that they hope that Ma Wenqiang will invest more in the cabinet after joining the cabinet executive committee, which is a bit wishful thinking.In the budget formulated by the central government, every penny has a place to go. If you have more, others will naturally have less. Especially in the current situation where military expenditures have increased sharply and various civil affairs expenditures have been greatly reduced, it can maintain your old quota. If it remains unchanged, it is already very good, let alone others.

"It is unlikely to increase investment in our Shuanghu County." Another cadre said in a slightly melancholy tone: "Even if the central government agrees and the money is allocated to the lower levels, the local government has the final say on how to use it. If it is not guaranteed, it will still be detained by the regional administrative office. I heard that those people want to continue to set up two counties in the south of us, that is, south of 46 degrees south latitude. The establishment of these two counties is probably also marked With the complete digestion of the Patagonia region by the Chinese government—at least on the surface, it is true—the gang of gentlemen in the regional administration pay great attention to this, and they have been planning for several years, but it has been It has not been implemented, and now it seems that it is going to be serious. So, you should save yourself, it is unlikely, and the money will not fall on our heads."

"The latitude in the south is so high, the climate is cold, dry and lacks water, and the soil texture is not as good as ours. The regional administration actually wants to delimit two more counties there. This investment is not worthwhile at all. What are you doing?" The cadre suddenly Dissatisfied, he raised his voice and said, "Why don't we build up our Shuanghu County well? Isn't it better than throwing money into the yellow sand? This news is really frustrating. There is not much money in the first place, but there will be more money in the future." Divided into two counties, these days are extremely difficult. Is it really so important to expand the pasture and collect more wool? Is the market for the woolen wool market really so hot now?"

(End of this chapter)