Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1451 He Jian (Seventeen)

The big river was rolling south, and Ventura felt refreshed seeing the indomitable momentum.

Here is the Parana River, the second largest river in the La Plata area, second only to the vast "freshwater sea" La Plata River. The main logistical support of this fertile land in Hejian can be seen from the increasingly intensive investment of the state-owned inland water transport company in the nearby area-in three years, the company has invested more than 250 72 The ton-level small steamer accounts for almost a quarter of the company's transportation capacity, which is really an astonishing proportion.

The reason why most of the ships sailing on the Paraná River—at least the middle and upper reaches—and its tributaries are 72-ton inland steamboats is mainly because after passing the upper reaches of Corrientes, the water depth of the river It is getting smaller day by day, and the tonnage of navigable ships has also decreased sharply. Not to mention big ships, even a 150-ton inland river steamer is a bit choking, because there are dangerous beaches and shoals everywhere, and they can only make do with 72-ton ships. boat.

The courier liner company that Captain Ventura works for is currently using 72-ton inland river steamers to run transportation along the Paraná River. The State Development Bureau must give priority to the state-owned inland water transport company, a large trust enterprise.Obviously, private courier liner companies can only grab some leftovers when their shipping capacity is fully occupied, or go to the market and compete with inland water transport companies in the small private shipping market.

Moreover, in this private shipping market, many customers also prefer inland water transport companies with higher quality sailors, newer ships (meaning low failure rate and on-time delivery) and larger inland water transport companies, rather than choosing them, which mostly eliminate old ships. It is a private company composed of boats and Malay sailors. Therefore, Captain Ventura has been very unsatisfactory in the past two years. He even regrets that he left the inland waterway transportation company. Although the messenger gave him a certain share, But it's always frustrating not to make much progress in career.

Captain Ventura's ship is one of the company's few new ships. At this time, this small 72-ton steamer full of flour and bacon, together with three other old ships belonging to the Messenger Liner Company, has just passed After leaving Tongxing Port, head towards the final destination, Puerto Iguazu.All four ships in the fleet sailed very slowly, maintaining a low speed of two knots, and they were getting slower and slower, because there was an almost ninety-degree turn on the river not far ahead, and the current was fast, The shoals are densely covered, and if you are not careful, you will run aground. It has always been a "gateway" for sailing, and Captain Ventura and the others can't help but ignore it.

"Be careful and steer the helm, and nothing will happen, or you will go home and grow potatoes for the rest of your life." After stuffing his pipe with some fine Virginia tobacco, and lighting it with a match, Captain Ventura smoked Said on the side.

In fact, he was right in saying that no one would hire a crew who caused an accident because of carelessness and sloppiness, even if there was a shortage of crew.Therefore, once an accident occurs due to his serious mistakes, in addition to facing criminal and civil liability, his career will basically be ruined. It is considered luck to be able to go home safely and farm. Generally speaking, he may have to go to jail. This is no joke!

And the match that Captain Ventura brought to light the cigarette just now also blinded everyone's eyes.The Crocodile brand of matches (famous for the huge crocodile head on the match shell), produced by the newly established state-run Duck Lake Match Factory, is still in the trial production stage because many raw materials cannot be stabilized or scaled. Therefore, the output of this nationally-exclusive commodity known as "the first generation of matches" is also very unstable-to be precise, the output is not large-it can only be sold to the market in small quantities, making the Duck Lake Match Factory Weng Guang'an, the elder, was furious.

But in any case, this epoch-making invention still brings countless conveniences to the lives of people on the east coast, just like gas lamps, which can be seen from the high price of such matches in the market.Many people who are not short of money will spend a lot of money in order to get a box or two of matches. Captain Ventura is one of them. He can even imagine the excited expressions of the bureaucrats of the national taxation department. The future of the match market in China is promising, but it is a big source of money!

After lighting the pipe, Ventura threw the matchstick into the river. After thinking for a while, he took out a few expired lottery tickets from his pocket, sighed, and threw them all into the river.He spent a dime to buy these lottery tickets in Jingjiang County, but he didn’t win the lottery. It was a waste of money for the country’s canal business—oh, by the way, this kind of thing, commonly known as the “traffic lottery ticket”, is also a state-exclusive commodity just like matches. , It can be called a huge profit, it is a big treasury jointly managed by the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Communications, it is appropriate to have an annual income of more than 10 yuan, and it seems that there is still a lot of room for growth, which makes many people envious.

According to the plan formulated in advance by the Government Affairs Council, all revenue from the transportation lottery will be used to build and repair domestic transportation infrastructure such as roads, docks, railways, and canals. In principle, the previous batches of funds were mainly invested in canal projects.To put it more bluntly, it is for the dredging, widening, and straightening (if possible) of the upper reaches of the Wujiang River and the upper reaches of the Parana River, so as to facilitate the smooth transportation of these two arterial-level rivers.

As for Yihe River, another arterial-level canal in China, to be honest, because of siltation every year, and insufficient water in dry seasons (requiring water transfer from steam pumping stations), maintenance costs are too high, and the Department of Canals of the Ministry of Communications (which has been officially upgraded from a department to a department) ) originally did not intend to continue investing.However, due to the transportation needs of the Changshan Iron Mine and the grain-producing areas along the way, they still have to send a large number of dredgers to open up wasteland and dredge the river every year. , to further improve the navigation conditions of this canal, so the Yihe River is getting bigger and bigger now, and it can't be stopped even if it wants to, otherwise the huge investment in front will all be in vain, which no one can afford!

Under the reminder of Ventura and the careful driving of the crew, the four transport ships passed three dredgers of the "Qingtang Army" series that were being dredged, and then continued to go northward along the river, and on September 9 Arrived at Puerto Iguazu, which is quite large in scale, the seat of the county seat of Iguazu County.

And this Iguazu County has not yet been formally established, but the Government Council has approved it.The county has jurisdiction over Iguazu Township, Tongxing Township, Chaoyang Township, Baima Township (located near the later town of San Antonio) and Lexing Township near the later town of Andresito (Andresito). With a population of 9000, it is the 65th county-level administrative unit in the country, which belongs to the Hejian area and is theoretically also under the jurisdiction of Deputy Commissioner Chen Kechen.

The geographical conditions of this county are very special. The county covers a very wide area, but most of the area is covered by dense forests on the Xuanwu Plateau (Misiones Plateau). The backward Guarani tribe didn't have to develop into the inland forest for the time being, so the people on the east bank didn't bother to clean them up for a while.

In fact, after all the calculations, the best land in Iguazu County is probably the low hilly area on both sides of the plateau.Only here can people be sent to open up wasteland and cultivate land. As for those primeval forests, the planners of the State Administration shook their heads when they saw them. There may not be a chance to develop them for decades.

After several hours of waiting (there is no way, the port is not big enough, and there are too many ships), the boats of Captain Ventura and others finally docked in a In the small creek full of jacarandas, and then anchored, waiting for the employees of the Port Authority to come to unload.

The goods they transported were basically grains. Flour, rice and some bacon were ordered by the Yuedong restaurant owned by the famous catering businessman Xu Hao. Su County and its surrounding areas have become famous, and many passers-by will come here to spend their money, not to mention the many companies and construction teams that are concentrated in the vicinity to carry out infrastructure construction.For example, many middle-level cadres of the Goshkin Construction Company, which is building the Yinan Railway nearby, like to come to Yuedong restaurants to drink, drink and eat in their spare time, and then find some Italian girls to "adjust their lives", which can be regarded as contributing to the local economy. Of course, it greatly enriched the purse of Xu Hao and Boss Xu.

"The section of the Paraná River close to you is really difficult to walk! I think the Ministry of Communications should send more dredgers to dredge the silt. In addition, if possible, it is best to summon tens of thousands of people to dig the river. For some large curved rivers Cut the bend and straighten it, and if the rocks at the bottom of the river can be removed, it is best to find a way to get rid of it." After sitting in a tea shed near the pier, Captain Ventura complained to the familiar tea shed owner: "Old Zhou , I remember that you led the way for the masters of the Ministry of Communications and guided them to survey the river, what do you think of what I said?"

"This is a commonplace question for you." "Old Zhou" is not old in fact. He looks like he is in his thirties. After a quarrel with a second-generation mayor in Iguazu Town, he resigned in a fit of anger and went to open a tea shop near the Port Authority, and slowly drifted away.

After hearing Ventura's complaints, he rolled his eyes and said, "Actually, according to what I heard from my comrades-in-arms, the Government Affairs Council has planned to substantially rectify the waterway of the Paraná River, accelerate the development of the inter-river area, and further radiate The Yi-Nan Railway is further upstream. The county seems to have received a notice that more than [-] dredgers of the "Qingtang Army" series will be dispatched to rectify the river, and at the same time let us find a way to capture them. The Guarani people went to the river for construction. Well, this may have to go to the missionary area of ​​the Spanish next door to find a way. Alas, it is an inevitable fight. I hope to send miscellaneous troops such as the National Defense Army to avoid Our own lad got hurt."

"Twenty dredgers? What a big deal!" Captain Ventura was a little surprised when he heard the words, and only heard him say: "No wonder why you can't order new ships recently? The co-authors are shipbuilders from major shipyards. I'm too busy, small river steamers, dredgers, whaling ships, fishing boats, frigates, light cruisers, large clipper cargo ships, immigration transport ships, flute-shaped merchant ships, darling, the number of orders held by the five major shipyards should be Surprisingly high, it is estimated that the queue will not stop until the end of next year, no wonder your logging farm business is so booming, the demand is indeed huge."

"The lumber mill business here is very prosperous, but it really has nothing to do with shipbuilding, Captain Wen." Lao Zhou made a pot of yerba mate tea from Hejian for Ventura and the others, sat down and said: "Most of the wood produced by these lumber mills is used to build houses and repair docks. In addition, railway sleepers are also in great demand. As for shipbuilding, hehe, how to transport the wood? The Paraná River is so long and so hundreds Turn around, what a fart! But when it comes to shipbuilding, a new shipyard may be established in Puerto Iguazu soon. Well, it is probably the sixth large-scale shipyard in China. It is rumored in the county that it will be invested by the Ministry of Communications Construction, the name is Hejian Shipyard, which specializes in the production of various inland river steamers, barges, flat-bottomed boats, etc., and the market is mainly for the upper reaches of the Paraná River."

"This is a very good thing!" Captain Ventura became energetic when he heard this, "Now the shipbuilding industry is really hot, especially after the policy of vigorously developing the inter-river area has been set, the inland river transport ships, barges The demand for , small fishing boats, and dredgers has soared several times, and even the business of the logging farm is in a mess. Waves of non-national laborers have been brought here. I heard—Ghoshkin recently Three whole boats of people were transported from Russia?"

"Isn't it!" Lao Zhou said disapprovingly: "This guy is also a capable guy, and he is quite kind. I heard that many of the [-] Russian laborers were sold this time. You I also know that Russia has always been in chaos. I heard that peasant uprisings broke out in the past two years. People are coming in continuously. Compared with him, Batino and Mendes are slightly inferior, and of course, these two people are also more black-hearted."

"Hejian has developed so suddenly. Alas, it was half-dead a few years ago. Why did it start shaking all of a sudden? You know, strictly speaking, this is the territory of the Spaniards. How can it be conservative and prudent? Why are the members of the committee acting so aggressive all of a sudden? I really can't figure it out..." Captain Ventura took a sip of yerba mate tea, and said to Lao Zhou with a wry smile.

(End of this chapter)