Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 817 South Patagonia ([-])

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"Listen up, everyone, immigrants from the Ming Dynasty are coming from the west! The higher-ups told you to prepare for the reception within two hours. There must be no mistakes." From outside the mixed-structure wall of the new castle, several people dressed in East Bank The former Eight Banners soldiers in padded jackets were braving the bitter westerly wind, accepting orders from an East Coast patrolman in black police uniform.

After the patrolmen gave the order, they confirmed that the settlers from Newcastle knew what they were going to do, so they didn't stop any longer. After turning their horses around, they headed west along the Xingnan Highway.Although the wind was biting outside and snowflakes were flying, although the former settlers from Newcastle tried their best to persuade the herald to take a rest, he still had to hurry back to return to his orders and dared not stay here for a while.The East Coast has only been established for 20 years, and the laws and regulations are strict and the orders are strict. Few people dare to violate various regulations.

"Unexpectedly, those Nikans in the Ming Dynasty are shaking now. I think I killed as many as I wanted to, but now... well, I don't need to say anything!" Immigrants from the Ming Dynasty were so busy that they couldn't restrain their grievances.In fact, it is no wonder that the weather is so cold now, and they have to go to work on the railway construction site. They are as tired as dogs every day. , the police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, whose uniforms are mostly black) came to issue orders to them to boil water, cook for those Ming people who used to be like two-legged sheep in their eyes, feed Matthews and repair cars, and even put the quilts that they didn’t have enough , Make some beds out for them, every time I think of this, it makes these former Qing army prisoners feel sad-this is too aggrieved!

"Why are you complaining at this time..." A bannerman who was born in the white flag glanced at the Han army banner soldier, and said disdainfully: "If you are brave enough, go kill that black skin and take the horse , that will impress me. Like now, you only dare to hide behind your back and whine, what kind of hero are you? Hurry up and boil water for me. The superior has just approved five acres of land for me and lent me money to buy it. Auntie, I will follow our Dadong’an from now on. You Nikan also got the land, but you are still full of complaints. You really don’t know what’s going on, so get out of here!”

The Manchurian Eight Banners around could more or less speak some Chinese, and most of them burst into laughter at this moment.In addition, those settlers who were born as captives in the green camp also had a lot of contempt for these soldiers of the Han Army Banner who had surrendered to the Qing Dynasty in Liaodong, so they had no intention of helping at this moment, which made this Han Army Banner soldier who was born as a close friend of Shi Tingzhu blush with shame.

"Okay, don't stick around here, let's go to work!" An official from Niu Luerzhen couldn't stand it anymore, and began to assign tasks to everyone, so as to save them from fighting in the end: "Bring out the cow that broke its leg in the bullpen. It has been approved by Xingnan Port, and it can be killed! Don't hide the radishes, cabbage, onions, potatoes, etc. in the vegetable cellar. Take them all out to stew a large pot of meat. Take out some of the new seafood, um, unpack a bucket of cod, a bucket of squid. In addition, put some sorghum rice on it for cooking, which is almost enough! Granny drops , get involved with this gang of nuns... the people of the Ming Dynasty are all gone, let's also have a tooth sacrifice."

After assigning each person's task, the official took seven or eight armed followers, kicked up a group of Kelandi squatting on the side of the road in a daze, and escorted them to the construction site.It's still an hour or two before dark, so we can't be idle, we should hurry up and do some more work. After all, the construction period is tight, and no one can bear the consequences of not completing the work on time.Do not believe?The well-armed, wolf-like guardsmen of the Southern Railways will show you that.

This group of seventy or eighty dejected Krandi workers walked slowly westward.On their left is the Xingnan Highway, and on their right is the Southern Cone Liangyang Railway, which is under construction. At present, a long distance of rail tracks has been laid. Standing on the Gobi Desert, it is almost impossible to see the end at a glance.

Although it was approaching evening—it was rainy and snowy today, and it got dark earlier—the Xingnan Highway on the left was still relatively busy, with freight wagons of different loads passing by them from time to time.Of course, they couldn't see the situation on the road very clearly, because in order to prevent accidents caused by people and animals entering and exiting at will, there were large wooden fences of different heights on both sides of Xingnan Highway, with gaps only left in specific places.However, they have lived here for more than a year, and they can hear what kind of vehicles are walking on the road. Besides, except for a few immigrant buses, most of them are freight carriages, and the people who are pulling from east to west are also A carload of goods, which also shows from one side the importance of the traffic artery connecting the two oceans, as well as the importance of the Southern Cone Railway and its future profit prospects.

"This Xingnan official road seems to be getting more and more dilapidated. No wonder, since it was opened to traffic for less than a year, there are more and more horse-drawn carriages on this road. It's really evil. There are so many goods. Why not?” Walking on the road, the leading official from Newcastle pondered: “A while ago, two high officials came from the west and asked us to repair some damages on the road. Alas, it seems We can't delay this matter, we won't be able to afford it if the superiors blame us. Let's forget about it today. Tomorrow, we will arrange for these Kelandi savages to work overtime at night and fill in some obvious potholes on the nearby road first. Seeing the continuous rain and snow in winter, the road is more prone to damage, so hurry up."

In fact, the South Railway Company was somewhat insufficiently prepared for the Xingnan Highway at the beginning.Especially long after reaching a smuggling trade agreement with Peru, they are still hesitant to upgrade this temporary sandy road to a high-grade road, because once the 300-kilometer Xingnan Highway is upgraded and refurbished, About 70 million yuan in cash is needed, and it will also take up a lot of manpower and material resources. This undoubtedly discourages the Southern Railway Company, which has suffered huge losses for years and is not well-off in finances.

But now, it was obvious that they couldn't drag it any longer, and the complaints of the drivers of the thirty or forty heavy-duty carriages that Gein drove on this road every day were almost loud.Poor road conditions not only increase the failure rate of trucks, reduce the service life of vehicles (including the horses that pull the carts), and even cause a lot of material loss.For example, the loss of many fragile items such as tiles, glassware, cans, and wine (the loss is quite high in the high wind and rough sea transportation), the amount accumulated over a few months is also amazing.Coupled with the expected official opening of the Southern Cone Railway, I am afraid it will take four or five years to wait—if there is no additional investment (whether it is investment in cash or investment in materials and personnel)—the senior management of the Southern Railway Company can no longer be right. The bad road condition of Xingnan Highway has been indifferent, so Mo Ming made the decision to squeeze out part of the investment in Xingnan Port and Araucan Port, and issue a batch of bonds in Qingdao Port to make up the funds for the road construction. , and strive to completely upgrade this road to an asphalt permanent road within one year.

As for whether this expensive high-grade highway is suspected of being wasted—after all, there is a road under construction next to it—South Railway Company thinks it is not a big problem.Because after the construction of the Southern Cone Railway is completed, it is conceivable that the trains passing on this railway will basically not stop in inland towns with few people and few products except for supplying coal and water. The admiral mainly focuses on cargo transportation, supplemented by immigration transportation. The train runs from the beginning to the end, and basically has nothing to do with the stations along the way.But along the way, Newcastle, Sand Castle, and some settlements that the Southern Railway Company will develop along the railway line in the future also need to communicate with the outside world. They also export their products to the outside world and then import goods from the outside world. needs, and this naturally depends on the Xingnan Highway.

For example, farmers and herdsmen who live scattered in a wide area of ​​the wild often need to gather their products to a specific town for sale, and then reprocess them by local processing companies, and finally contact wagons to produce the final product Ship to the port to organize export.But before that, a lot of short-distance transportation still had to be carried out by road, so this high-grade road really couldn't be saved.If you look at China, you will know that the first railway in China, the Luomei Line, has a total length of 180 kilometers, but there are hundreds of kilometers of county roads, township roads and even village-level dirt roads running parallel to or intersecting with this railway.It is also these roads of different grades that actually serve as branch lines of the railway, connecting vast rural areas, making the flow of materials and people more effective and faster. After all, trains do not stop everywhere.

In addition, there is another very important reason, that is, even if the entire line of the Southern Cone Railway is opened to traffic in a few years, it will only be a single track.In the case of more and more frequent trade with the Peruvians, it is still a question of whether the railway capacity can keep up at that time. Everyone knows how troublesome the single-track railway transportation is.Maybe the Southern Railway Company will want to double-track this key railway again—this is almost inevitable—and it will obviously take time. At this time, a Xingnan Highway in good condition can play a big role Worked.All in all, the cost of building this road is really inescapable, not to mention that the roadbed was already leveled when the sandy road was built. If it is abandoned in the future, the previous investment of 30 yuan will be in vain, which is really a pity.

On the evening of July 1650, 7, 4 Ming immigrants from the Far East arrived in Zixinbao safely, only two days away from their final destination, Xingnan Port. (The novel "The Rise of South America through 174" will have more fresh content on the official WeChat platform, and there will also be a 1630% lucky draw gift for everyone! Open WeChat now, click the "+" sign on the upper right to "add friends", Search the official account "qdread" and pay attention, hurry up!)

(End of this chapter)