Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2123 Local Will ([-])

On November 1690, 12, Xiaoxue.

Nan Yimin stepped on the creaking snow and listened to the sound of the train whistle next to him, quite satisfied.

This is Taocun Railway Station, one of the busiest areas in Denglai. All kinds of goods gather here, people gather here, and ideas blend here, which makes Taocun, a little-known village full of peach blossoms, full of people. Angry, a kind of vigorous and upward anger!

Today's Taocun can basically be said to be brought by trains!On both sides of the railway station, there is a north-south street, called Tiedong Street and Tiexi Street respectively.There are many shops on each of the two streets, and there are many types of shops. In addition to traditional inns, restaurants, brothels, department stores, etc., there are also a large number of handicraft workshops such as blacksmith shops.Obviously, these workshops mainly make a living by processing mechanical parts and supplying them to the railway purchasing department.Of course, with the prosperity and development of commerce, there are more and more people making ordinary handmade goods here. After all, someone will come to buy them after they are finished, and then sell them to other places through Taocun's well-connected transportation channels. The business is still very good.

In other words, the number of workers in Taocun is quite large, only a small part of them came from industrial cities like Yantai, and most of them were absorbed from the local labor force—in fact, farmers from various villages— They constitute the group of industrial workers who have begun to take shape in Taocun, and live in nearby public rental housing provided by the government.

To be fair, the string of four-story apartment buildings built by the Denley Pioneering Team behind the two avenues is quite imaginative and forward-looking.It is said that it refers to some designs of local industrial cities. Each of these apartment buildings has 20-30 houses for a worker and his family to live in. The per capita resident area is about 15 square meters, which is not bad.

The rent of these apartments is undoubtedly very low, which can be regarded as the welfare provided by the government for the workers, and at the same time, it is also a necessary condition for industrialization.

Of course, the number of apartments provided by the government must be insufficient, and due to funding problems, they have recently stopped the construction of such residential projects.However, the government has stopped construction, but it does not mean that private individuals have also stopped construction.In fact, in places farther than apartment buildings, there are also some bungalows or small two- or three-story buildings built with private investment. This is a residence for several families to rent together. It is also very cheap, although the per capita living area is somewhat small.

There are some living facilities near the apartment buildings and shared houses, such as shops, restaurants, pharmacies, etc., which have appeared one after another in recent years, which are very convenient for the daily life of residents.

I heard that Taocun will be promoted to a town under the direct management of the pioneering team recently, and the higher-ups will also allocate funds to build slaughterhouses, water supply plants, gas lighting systems, sports playgrounds (for the new army), hospitals, schools, streetcars, and parks. Buildings such as the library are completely built by treating this small village as a city.After all, this is not only the intersection point of the Jiaoyan Line and the Pingrong Line (this line has not yet been built), but also the division headquarters of the New Army with a large number of personnel. In the future, let alone a town, it is possible to further upgrade to a county .

Nan Yimin carefully observed this slightly messy town when he was on the train, and he is also very proud of its development from a small village to its present scale. This is all thanks to the railway and their Southern Railway Company!The railway has brought the circulation of goods and people, and has the effect of turning decay into magic, and can develop a remote inland village into a new city known all over the world.

Nan Yimin brought a dozen people this time, and they all waited for the bus in Yantai to set off.After arriving at Taocun Railway Station, they had no intention of resting. Instead, they hired some horse-drawn carriages at a higher price near the station, and then headed west in the direction of Pingdu Prefecture in the snow.There, they will participate in a meeting held by the local government to talk about the possibility of building the Pingrong Railway.

To be honest, Nan Yimin didn't have much expectations for this fair, the reason is very simple, no money!The plastic smoke line was built by the company at a huge cost, and the local local government and even the development team government also used a lot of manpower to help (these are all free or semi-free), so that this traffic artery that runs through the entire peninsula was built. .Since then, Jiaozhou and Yantai, the two most important cities in Denglai, have directly connected fast lines, and people and materials flow here.If the schedule is right and there are few stops in the middle, you can go from one end to the other within two days.

This efficiency is undoubtedly unmatched by road and sea transportation.What's more, when it comes to the twelfth lunar month of winter, the sky is freezing and there is heavy snow. Not only is the sea frozen (mainly in parts of the Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea) and navigation is not possible, but even land transportation is extremely difficult and the cost increases dramatically.At this time, the advantages of the railway are undoubtedly very bright, so the governments of Pingdu Prefecture and other places are very active in building the Pingrong Line (Pingdu Prefecture-Rongcheng County), believing that it is very important for the development of the local economy.

But the problem is that the Southern Railway Company not only sold a lot of assets in order to build the plastic smoke line, but also issued a lot of debts and borrowed a lot of money.Although the Jiaoyan Railway is making stable profits, the company has also entered a period of concentrated debt repayment, and the financial pressure is very high.Otherwise, do you think they don't want to build the Shangding Railway independently so that they can keep it firmly in their hands?It's not that I'm out of money!

Therefore, when they arrived in Pingdu Prefecture in early January to start negotiations with the local government, they soon ended without any results.Pingdu Prefecture is a county with a large output and a large population. It does have a very urgent desire to build a railway.But they are still undertaking the task of building the Jiaolai New River—yes, you read that right. The Jiaolai New River has been built for many years, but it has not yet opened to navigation. The main reasons are the huge cost, many technical difficulties, and local The supply of equipment such as ship locks and ship lifts was slow—there was no extra energy to subsidize the Pingrong Railway, so Nan Yimin took his people away after perfunctory.

After leaving Pingdu Prefecture, he did not leave in a hurry, but received a mission from the Qing Dynasty in the west in a hotel in the city.The size of the mission is not small, but its behavior is low-key, as if it does not want to be known.They crossed the border at Haicangkou at the northern end of the Xinhe River in Jiaolai, and then, led by a small group of east coast policemen, they secretly came to Pingdu Prefecture to meet with people from the Southern Railway Company.

Now Denglai and the Qing Dynasty are at peace, and the businessmen of the two countries have relatively close contacts. The trade volume has also expanded steadily over the years, which makes the businessmen of the two places very happy.This time the Qing mission was affiliated to the governor of Shandong—because of the proximity of the land to the east coast, the governor of Shandong, who was in charge of the military and government in the Manchu Qing Dynasty—they came to Pingdu Prefecture and specifically named Nan Zhui. The people from the railway company surprised Nan Yimin, the vice president of the company.

And after hearing the other party's request, he was even more surprised. It turned out that Man Qing wanted to purchase a large number of four-wheeled heavy freight carriages.They didn't know where they heard that the carriage builders and the train builders in Dongguo belonged to the same family, so they approached the Southern Railway Company, hoping to purchase some such vehicles to improve the transportation capacity of Manchuria—last year At that time, the Qing Dynasty focused on renovating the road from Beijing to Zhangjiakou. Now it is very wide and flat, and the road surface is well hardened. It is already possible to take this kind of heavy cargo carriage.

Nan Yimin was a little hesitant when he heard the request from the Manchu envoy.Strictly speaking, the Qing people were right.At present, the best horse-drawn carriage and the largest production in the east coast of the country is still the Southern Rolling Stock Factory in Meilin County. This factory is adjacent to the Meilin Railway Machinery Processing Factory and supports each other. Similarly, they all belong to the enterprises of the railway system, so it is not a big mistake for the Qing people to say that they belong to a group.

Moreover, the price given by the Qing people is quite good. A 1.5-ton heavy-duty carriage is willing to pay 1000 taels of Pingxue pattern silver, which is equivalent to 1200 East Bank silver dollars. 1:1 exchange, high-purity Kuping silver has a certain level of premium—it’s simply huge profits!The South Railway Company has maintenance centers in Yantai and Jiaozhou, and recently set up a railway machinery processing factory in Taocun, which will have certain maintenance, processing and assembly capabilities in the future.He thought, if he can take down this business from the Qing Dynasty, and then import parts from the South Vehicle Factory at a low price through internal relations, transport them to Denglai for assembly and sell them to the Qing people, this business should not be too easy to do, and in the future If it becomes a long-term business, it can create more jobs and tax revenue for Denglai, which is of great significance to the prosperity of the local economy.

Nan Yimin has already moved all his family members to Denglai, and the property of his hometown on the east bank is sold off, and some are given away to others. Basically, there is nothing left.Therefore, he now regards Denglai as his home, and is very concerned about the development of the local economy in Denglai. From the bottom of his heart, he is willing to facilitate this deal with Manqing.

It's just that there are still some political risks in it, which made him hesitate.Although this heavy-duty freight carriage is not a controlled export commodity, and now the trade with the Manchu and Qing is in a stage of steady development, but just selling them a hundred freight carriages like this, I always feel that it is not the case!What's more, the political direction of the top management is also subject to change. Now is the time for the general election of the local executive committee. What if the new leaders are not satisfied with this and veto the deal?

Thinking of this, Nan Yimin's heart became colder, and at the same time he became even more resentful. There are so many restrictions on Denglai in this country!This can't be forbidden, and let people not develop well?They never really considered Deng Lai's interests, they only knew to ask for it blindly!A while ago, they even forced those military households who were unwilling to settle down at sea to leave, and even caused some small troubles, which made the local officials feel a little bit sad. The common people, officials, and military households really paid too much!

Of course, the local side also has reasons.For example, your Denglai technology is basically transferred from us, and many weapons and equipment are also sold cheaply locally.And most importantly, the maritime defense of the five feudal domains in the Far East is under the responsibility of the local Navy Department, and all naval ships serving in the Far East are paid for by the local government. This support is not small!

Everyone has their own reasons and difficulties, so we can only have a dialogue and compromise with each other.Nan Yimin thinks that the ideal way is to follow the example of Heishui and other places, change the pioneering team system to the management committee system, absorb some local officials into the management committee, and give the local government certain political power and voice channels. Only in this way can sustainable development be achieved. The model is the only way to prevent the soldiers of the servant division from making trouble.

(End of this chapter)