Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1441 The Monarchs of South Africa ([-])

In this autumn season, Qiu Haiyang, the Commissioner of Yicheng District, and Xiao Jingzong, who was promoted to be the magistrate of Yicheng County, parted ways in Huatai Township, and each went to work in a supervision area.Xiao Jingzong is going to some places in the countryside of Huatai Township to see the status of local agricultural development. By the way, he will learn more about the losses caused by the recent local conflicts with the Tonga blacks. This is what the county government is most concerned about now, because Dong The shore people's policy of "holding land but not people" was doomed from the very beginning, and there was no room for peaceful coexistence with the aborigines.

Speaking of this, we also need to mention that Yicheng County, which was established at the beginning of this month (April), has jurisdiction over four townships, Yicheng Township, Sanyuanli Township, Lingchang Township, and Huatai Township, with more than 4 people. Residents, among them exiled Tupi, Guaraní, and non-nationals combined accounted for one-third.And if you count the Sakarava people who are also a large number in the county (they have not yet obtained national qualifications, and the local people have great controversy over whether to accept them), the population of the 9800rd county-level administrative unit in the country is about Gotta go up another level.

Although the population has increased, strictly speaking, the establishment of Yicheng County is actually somewhat problematic, because its economic level is still a bit low, and it is not qualified. If some veteran cadres helped Xiao Jingzong and Qiu Haiyang to do activities In other words, the establishment of Yicheng County will probably have to be postponed for about two years-the economy here is really bad, and there are still some problems with food self-sufficiency, so I have to seek help from Xinhua Island for a long time. The first thing Jingzong needs to solve is probably the problem of agricultural production, followed by the traffic problem (the second-class national road leading to Chenggao Township), but it seems that none of these can be solved in a short while.

After Qiu Haiyang and Xiao Jingzong parted ways in Huatai Township, the Commissioner, surrounded by a large number of entourages, headed west along the planned Yicheng Second-Class National Highway, heading towards Suanzao Township.Their team moved slowly, mainly to see how the progress of the construction of this vital road was going.Of course, in fact, Qiu Haiyang has already been mentally prepared, because the regional administrative office has allocated a total of more than 4 yuan in funds and some building materials for this road, which is pitifully small. The National Highway will help the most, and it may be the government of the New China Pioneering Team, because the thousands of Malays they transported here really solved the big trouble in terms of labor. Unable to be completely himself at the moment, Qiu Haiyang wished to devote everyone to the countryside to build reservoirs, dig canals, and open up wasteland. But on the other hand, he also wanted to enter the inland Chenggao Township and develop local mining resources. Therefore, if there is no foreign subsidies and assistance, this kind of bullshit behavior that thinks about industry and mining before agriculture is done is naturally impossible.

But now it seems that even with the continuous assistance from the outside world, the weak family background in the Yicheng area still cannot fully support Qiu Haiyang's ambitions, which can be seen from the extremely slow construction progress of the Yicheng second-class national highway.As of the end of April, basically all the settlements have built a part of themselves. It is still early before the whole line is completed. Among them, Yicheng Town may be the fastest to be repaired (actually it is a deep-water river port in the western suburbs of Yicheng Town. From Matola Port) to Huatai Township, more than half of the 4-kilometer journey has been successively repaired, and the remaining part has also been roughly tidied up. It is only a few months before the completion of the project, so this During the journey from the county seat to Huatai Township, both Qiu Haiyang and Xiao Jingzong took a large four-wheeled carriage. This kind of carriage is relatively stable on the rough gravel road, at least more comfortable than riding a horse, isn't it?

Except for the fairly well-built section, the other sections are simply a mess, and there is no hope of completion in the short term.For example, the 55-kilometer distance between Suanzao and Suanzao was completed in less than ten kilometers, which is very shabby; but this is actually not bad. The distance between Suanzao and Guancheng is about 35 kilometers, because it is located in In the Lubangbo mountain area, it would be good to have a completed mileage of 3.5 kilometers. Neither the Suanzao township government nor the city management have put much effort into this matter at all, because their top priority now is to support themselves, and everything else is secondary , not to mention that they are also facing many military security threats.

The last section of Guancheng-Chenggao section is similar, but because the local township head Wang Wei paid more attention to it, and because it is on flat ground, it was built a little more, but the length is only seven or eight kilometers, which only occupies A quarter of the total mileage of this section is 32 kilometers, which is pitifully short.

To sum up, the current so-called Yicheng Second-Class National Highway has a total design mileage of 152 kilometers, but only a little over 50 kilometers have been completed, which only accounts for about one-third. If we want to complete the project, we don’t know that it will be the year of the monkey. , which made District Administration Commissioner Qiu Haiyang very worried.You know, he regards this second-class national road connecting the inland coal production area (and also an agricultural area with good conditions) as the pre-facilities of the Yicheng Railway in the future. If this road cannot be opened to traffic as scheduled, So how should a large amount of railway equipment, labor tools, supplies and food be transported in?Is this railway suitable for the real opening to traffic?Therefore, Commissioner Qiu Haiyang Qiu is really anxious now.

Of course, some people may reprimand Qiu Haiyang for his great success, that is, the so-called "advanced development", and likes to develop "achievement projects" regardless of reality, because now except for the navy's demand for high-quality white coal, there are almost no other projects on the east coast. Units or enterprises will have too much demand for this kind of coal.You must know that the low-quality coal produced locally is not unusable. Steam engines can even burn firewood, let alone coal?

Besides, the quality of coal produced by the local Black Gold Coal Mine and Heishui Coal Mine is not bad. Although the output of the Tacheng Coal Mine on Xinhua Island has reached its peak and the transportation distance is relatively long, the quality of the coal is good and it has occupied a certain market in the local area. share.Therefore, the competition is so fierce, and the market demand is so low, Qiu Haiyang is still concentrating on building the railway to the inland coal mining area. The cruel reality of complete self-sufficiency forced the project to be launched.If this is not great joy, then what else is great joy?Given the current situation in the Yicheng area, there is no possibility of recovering the investment in this railway for a period of time.

Of course, it is impossible for Qiu Haiyang to be ignorant of these overt or covert accusations, but he still insists on carrying out such a project, and he also relies on the central government's privilege to intercept more immigrants in the Yicheng area, and has repeatedly sent to the Hezhong area, The New China Pioneering Team asked for supplies and assistance, which made the officials of the two places somewhat helpless. At the same time, they were complaining in their hearts. How much does this guy want to make political achievements?But there is no way, Qiu Haiyang's background is too strong, his background is too big, and his superiors have clearly stated that they should try their best to take care of the Yicheng area, so what else can the chief officials of the two places say, help within the scope of their ability, see What can that overjoyed guy do.

At this time, Qiu Haiyang and his party had already passed Huatai Township, and apart from the hundreds of meters of gravel road out of the village, the rest was endless wilderness.Weeds, shrubs, ruts, puddles, and small potholes are dotted on a vague road, but there is nothing else. Even animals don't bother to approach this area that is often rutted by cars and horses. It is extremely desolate.

"With such a large land, there is not even a village in the wild. The Tonga people don't know how to develop it, and they are reckless. How can we waste it. Alas, there are still insufficient money and people. Otherwise, a large number of immigrants will come and the houses will be built. , the reservoir is repaired, the ditches are dug, and the roads and railways are built, the weather in the wild will be different." Qiu Haiyang rode on the horse, set up a pergola and looked forward, muttering to himself: "The crux of everything now is In terms of money! With money, more immigrants can be intercepted, more troops can be raised, and more militias can be trained. This development speed is not at the same level as it is now. Where will the money come from? The high-quality white coal in the inland hinterland can be exchanged for a little money, but it is not enough! Is it possible to develop the gold mine in the west mountain? I heard from Wang Zhijie and his group of expedition members that it is obvious that the dog’s head gold was exchanged from the natives It was picked up, but the exact location is unknown, which is a pity. And I heard that there is gold placer in those rivers. When the trade was not cut off in the early days, the natives also used this thing to exchange daily necessities. This is definitely washed from the upper reaches After coming down, there must be gold mines in the upper reaches of the highlands, but I don’t know where they are, what are the reserves, and whether the development is convenient, all of which need to send people to explore step by step-of course, before that, road construction is the basis of everything , and only when the road leads to the territory of the Swazis can we talk about the next step."

In the planning of Qiu Haiyang, Commissioner of the Nghe Seng District Administrative Office, the core of the Swazi region should be located at the coal mines—from a long-term perspective, the coal and iron industrial zone (if there is one)—where all transportation facilities should be located. Designed and built around it.Although people on the east coast do not have detailed information on the economy of later generations of Swaziland, they have a vague impression that after World War II, Swaziland’s main exports were meat products, coal, asbestos, timber, pulp, sugar and Iron ore (up to millions of tons per year), the main export commodities are cotton, tobacco, fruit, livestock, wool, leather, etc. In addition, some gold, aluminum-containing minerals, and mineral salts are exported, but the total amount is not very large.

Such an export structure, Qiu Haiyang naturally learned about it from secret channels, and after several years of experience in power here, he indeed found that this is in line with realistic geography, that is, the Swaziland region should also develop in this way, Except for a small difference - it is possible for the Yicheng area to establish an industrial system before the undeveloped South Africa, so that it will have a big first-mover advantage, and it is very likely to suppress South Africa in the future. The development of half of the region has made it a place of raw material supply and commodity dumping.

The prerequisites for all this depend on whether the Yicheng Second-class National Highway and the future Yicheng Railway can be completed as scheduled!Once the main traffic line of the railway is completed, all the export commodities in the entire Swazi area can be transported to Yicheng Port, which is the port with the best conditions on the west coast of the entire Indian Ocean at this time, and then shipped to other places for sale. This is the case for Silan. After the railway to Maputo was completed, Swaziland exported 260 million tons of goods through this main line of transportation, most of which were iron ore (because coal could not compete with South Africa The coal industry group with less exports), which shows the key role of this railway.

At present, Qiu Haiyang has submitted the application for increasing funds to speed up the completion of Yicheng Second-Class National Highway. I don't know how it will be approved. I hope it will be approved.After the construction of the Nyi-Sheng Second-class National Highway is completed, the construction of the Ng-Than Railway can also be included in the agenda. However, in the current environment of reducing or even stopping railway investment, can he turn the tide and get enough support from the Executive Committee? , Now it seems that it is actually quite embarrassing, and this is exactly what Qiu Haiyang himself is worried about.

After much deliberation, his best ally at present is probably the navy, and there is no one else.Well, maybe the immigration department can be regarded as his half ally, because once this kind of coal with high calorific value is stored in large quantities in various ports on the east coast, the amount of coal that immigration ships need to carry will also be greatly reduced. Undoubtedly, their ships can be loaded with more cargo (on the outbound journey) and more people (on the return journey).

"The road is long and long..." Qiu Haiyang sighed softly, and then led a group of entourages to gallop cautiously on the grass in the bad road conditions—especially after a rain—it took a long time. It took more than two days to reach Chenggao Township in the west, and then lived directly in the township government compound.

Today is April 1666, 4, and the autumn grain in the field has just been harvested. Chenggao Township has just received a large amount of corn and bacon transshipped from Yicheng Port, and now the field has harvested a lot Crops such as sorghum, potatoes, and alfalfa are the time when food and grass are plentiful.Qiu Haiyang reckoned that this time almost all the militiamen in Chenggao Township could be summoned to distribute weapons. Immediately, the 30 troops led by Mr. Mao and Tang Moyu were about to go out to harass several hostile Swazi clans. Just stay at home and guard the city.

And this time, Qiu Haiyang intends to stay here for a longer period of time, urging the officers and soldiers to fight bravely, and it is best to severely damage or even wipe out those hostile black tribes.After all, borrowed troops and equipment must always be returned, and Xinhua Island itself has many combat missions, so it cannot support the Yicheng area without restrictions.

(End of this chapter)