Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1531 He Jian (23)

"The application has been rejected, Mr. Goshkin, I'm sorry." In the Baoyi County government office, the county magistrate Zhao Ke asked the secretary to make a pot of tea for the two, then spread his hands, and said helplessly: "Now is a sensitive During this period, it is really too difficult to apply for the purchase of such heavy machinery. Let me purchase steam plows, horse-drawn rollers, steam breakers, steam pumps and some small machinery with 7.5 horsepower in the name of the county agricultural bureau. You can quickly circumvent the review, so that the project will not be suspended for too long, what do you think?"

"That's the only way to go, County Magistrate Zhao." Goshkin also sighed, knowing that at this juncture, the higher-ups will not take the risk of approving the sale of construction machinery. If you want to blame, you can blame the British spy case Bar.Although he, Goshkin, has been naturalized on the east coast, there are a large number of non-national laborers under his command. If some spies are hidden among them, and something happens, who will take responsibility?Besides, from some unspeakable perspectives, Goshkin is a former Russian who has not long been naturalized, and it is fine in normal times. At this moment when the rumors are relatively tight, he is still faintly guarded.This point, whether it is the higher authorities or Zhao Ke and Goshkin who are sitting here, are very clear, but they will not say it.

The reason why Goshkin wanted to buy these machines was that the Goshkin Construction Company, which had just completed the project in Iguazu County, also undertook part of the construction of the Baoyi River Embankment. This undoubtedly required the help of some construction machinery, otherwise the cost would be huge. The sharp increase is not good news for Baoyi County Government and Goshkin Construction Company.

Zhao Ke, as the chief official of a county, was also the person who strongly invited the Goshkin Construction Company to undertake the project. Before that, he had been trying to find a way to help his company purchase these steam machines, and he had already made some preliminary plans.But who would have imagined that a major espionage case broke out a few days ago, and the sensitive steam machinery projects were completely frozen, and each one is waiting for the review of the May agency. The machinery ordered by Goshkin Construction Company also belongs to this, and it is currently parked at the Daxing Port Wharf It's windy and sunny, and I don't know when the inspection will be completed.If the delay was too long, it would be no longer a pair of broken metals to get after passing the review—the most tragic thing is that Goshkin has already paid the full price for these machines.

Now Zhao Ke intends to purchase some steam engineering machinery in the name of the County Agricultural Bureau and the Transportation Bureau, so as to avoid the qualification review of sensitive enterprises. It is a way to say, and Goshkin also agrees when there is no better way. of.It's just that Baoyi County, which is suffering haha, has no budget to buy these things. Goshkin still has to pay for the machines. The way is to lend them to the Baoyi County Agricultural Bureau in the name of interest-free loans, and wait for the purchased machines to be available. After that, it will be leased to the Goshkin Construction Company at a symbolic price to avoid the policy obstacles set up above.

To be honest, it was very difficult for Zhao Keken to do this, because it was tantamount to using his political future to guarantee the Goshkin Construction Company that they would not have any espionage cases during the construction period.Goshkin is naturally very grateful for this, thinking in his heart that he must cheer up his foremen, and in the next few days, he must strictly guard against death, and resolutely do not make any mistakes. Of course, he must do his job well and keep The Yihe embankment is a project that the county has managed to raise funds for. At the same time, it started construction with the help of the national Parana River Basin Comprehensive Improvement Project (that is, the legendary "50 million central investment in 1500 years"). There really cannot be any accident.

Of course, given the source of the laborers of the Goshkin Construction Company, it is basically impossible for any espionage case to occur. This probability is too low, because the main components of his non-national laborers are Russians—not necessarily Russians, but Primarily from the Russian Empire—these fools, in Goshkin's opinion, could screw up anything but manual work like cattle!Let them be spies, you simply underestimate the qualities required for the profession of spies, and overestimate their abilities!

In addition, Russia itself does not currently have the ability to send spies to steal technology, and the technology level on the east coast is a bit high for them, which is not very suitable, because they have not even played the most basic things well.Don't you see, the Russians have been recruiting second- and third-rate European craftsmen through Dutch businessmen and English businessmen for many years to help them improve Russia's poor industrial strength, but because the foundation is not solid, the progress has been limited for so many years.And if you haven’t played well with such superficial things, do you want to learn steam engine technology, chemical dye industry, railway locomotives, and 200-ton hydraulic presses on the east coast?You can't even play with brick and tile wheel kilns, can you?Therefore, for non-national laborers from Russia, people from the east coast are more at ease in using them, because the probability of spying is not high, but what should be guarded against is still necessary, there is no doubt about it!

However, with the strengthening of local control in the Russian Empire, and the concentration of complaints in some northern provinces, when some Russians wanted to visit their relatives in prison, they were told by the warden that their relatives had died. Or simply ignore it and refuse to visit—the bureaucratic system of the Russian Empire finally started to move, strengthened local control, severely investigated and dealt with some human trafficking, and made some wardens who went too far were also arrested. Dang goes to jail.These policy changes have undoubtedly dealt a heavy blow to the Goshkin Construction Company, which has reduced their ability to recruit immigrants a lot, and the number of their laborers has also shown a clear downward trend (after all, many people become full-time workers every year. Well), it's a headache.

You must know that in the construction industry of the East Coast Republic, in addition to sufficient funds, the number of manpower is also an important manifestation of strength.Originally, in the competition with Batino and Mendes, Goshkin relied on the large number of people, and the capital was not very good.Now the size of its labor force has shown a downward trend. How can this not make Goshkin worry?If things go on like this, how can we contract the project!

In order to reverse this passive situation, Goshkin not only sent a large number of people back to Russia, trying to use money to re-open the relationship, but also cooperated with agencies such as the East Coast National Intelligence Agency to send elite personnel to cooperate with the East Coast intelligence personnel. Let's go deep into the grasslands of the Don River Basin together, try to contact the Racine uprising troops who are currently fighting there, see if there is any advantage to take advantage of, and bring some people back to the east bank by the way-the local order is chaotic, and there are no immigrants who are willing to leave There are a small number of people, not to mention that the life there is hard. Most of the people are descendants of Mongolians and are often exploited by the Russians. There should be many people who are willing to leave.

The basis for the implementation of this plan is that the troops of the Racine uprising have been galloping across the local area and have repeatedly defeated the local Russian troops who came to encircle and suppress.Otherwise, if the local order is complete and the tsar's rule is strict (of course, the tsar's rule has not been very strict since the first day of conquest), how can you go deep without being known by the Russians?

It's just that the current plan of the people on the east bank to go deep into the middle and upper reaches of the Don River seems to have suffered a little setback, because the first batch of personnel they sent out has not been heard back for a long time, and it almost looks like they are gone forever.The person in charge of the National Intelligence Agency in Haji Port has reason to believe that these people may have unfortunately died in the Don River Basin. After all, the local situation is chaotic, there are many horse bandits, and people from all walks of life fight back and forth. Unfamiliar, the probability of accident is not low.

Goshkin was also very saddened by this, because among the people who lost contact, a young translator was the son of his cousin, and it seemed that this time it was probably an accident.However, Goshkin didn't have much time to grieve, because the people of the National Intelligence Agency were not very satisfied with the previous operation. It is said that these people are already planning the second operation, and they will choose from more than 400 people from the Haji Port escort. Fifty elites will be selected, and fifty horsemen will also be recruited from nearby Tatar gathering places, and then a 100-member escort force will be assembled. They plan to escort the new batch of personnel from the State Intelligence Agency and Goshkin The guides and translators sent in the past went deep into the Don River Basin for the second time, looking for and contacting the legendary Racine uprising troops who were fleeing and fighting in the local area.

Regarding the second operation of the State Intelligence Agency, Goshkin was also very helpless, but he could only bite the bullet and keep up, otherwise he would have a very difficult life in the future.Now, Ghoshkin only hopes that they are lucky enough to avoid the canine forces and the plethora of bandits along the way, meet Racine himself smoothly, and then establish a solid connection. Get enough benefits from the peasant uprising.By the way, as an important participant and insider of this operation, the Goshkin Construction Company should also get a part of the population from it to supplement their dwindling construction army-but these are all things for the future, at least So far, Goshkin has found that his company can only rely on those crooked melons to continue to undertake projects, such as the Baoyi River embankment construction project that was successfully won this time.

The project obtained together with the Baoyi River embankment, and some ancillary housing construction projects, but this is not Baoyi County, but an exclusive project of the Ministry of Water Resources, and the funds are also allocated by the Ministry of Water Resources.It is worth mentioning that this housing construction project of the Ministry of Water Resources will be the first time in the history of the East Bank to introduce large-scale iron castings into the field of engineering construction, such as columns, beams, window frames, etc. made of cast iron.The reason for this is mainly due to the consideration of fire prevention. In addition, the price of iron products is indeed relatively cheap on the east coast today, and cast iron parts can also make many different styles of decorations, compared with stone carvings. Although it is lacking from an aesthetic point of view, the advantage lies in the large quantity and low price. After all, not everyone can afford a mason to carve window lattices in his home.Iron castings began to replace some of the wooden structures, which may reflect the various choices of building materials for people on the east coast.

"You are also aware of the Baoyi River embankment project, which includes the embankment itself, some ancillary buildings, and the diversion wall project for a few tributaries and branches." Zhao Ke, sitting behind a desk made of acacia wood, looked at the Goshkin said in a deep voice: "You have done a lot of the first two, and you are very familiar with them. I think it is necessary to talk to you about the water guide wall in the back..."

It is said that the Baoyi River (Paranaguasu River) is one of the main branches of the lower reaches of the Parana River. The water volume, width and depth of the river bed are naturally suitable, and it can also navigate large ships.However, for some nearby tributaries, the situation is much more complicated. Some can, some cannot. They must be dredged, or even build water diversion walls, such as the few projects that Goshkin Construction Company won this time.

The so-called water guide wall refers to the stone walls built on both sides of the estuary. The function is to concentrate the water flow and deepen the river road, so that ships with deeper drafts can pass. It is more important for the shipping industry, especially when the water is not abundant. season.The construction of the water guide wall is also troublesome. First, you need to wait until the dry season to divert or cut off the little water flowing in the river bed, and then use a steam plow to loosen the dry sandy land at the bottom of the river to deepen this section of the river. , Widen, and then build stone walls on this basis, the amount of work is actually quite large.As for some shoals covered by river water or rivers with a large amount of water that cannot be cut off, equipment can only be installed on the spot, such as installing a manual winch on the river bank to drive a special rake or plow, and then the loosened mud The sand will be gradually taken away by the river water - of course you can also rent a steam dredger, but not to mention how difficult it is to rent such a boat, let alone some river bottom conditions, it is not suitable to use a dredger, only by The stupid ways mentioned above.

Therefore, we can see that the water guide wall project undertaken by the Goshkin Construction Company actually includes the dredging and dredging tasks of the attached river section and the transportation of the cleaned silt (of course, the silt can be sold to local farmers, or let They will carry it away by themselves, someone should be tempted), otherwise why do you think the budget given for this project is so high?Are the Baoyi County Government, District Administrative Office, and Ministry of Water Resources all fed up?

And through these projects, we can also get a glimpse of how much energy the East Coast Republic of China has invested in the construction of water conservancy facilities in the Xinde Hejian area. The 50 million central investment in 1500 years, as well as the local government's cooperation investment, as well as the mounds and cofferdams built by the folks themselves, the cost of this will be gone.It can be imagined that after 50 years, the investment in these water conservancy facilities will bear fruit, and the Hejian area, which has become a land of fish and rice, will have the convenience brought by a developed shipping industry. How much worse is the prairie.

(End of this chapter)