Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1702 Large Infrastructure ([-])

"This is what a thriving country looks like." Winter has passed, and spring is approaching. In the wilderness outside Dingnan Town, Pei Dade, who has just been promoted to a cavalry captain, is wearing a woolen officer's winter uniform. Looking at the distant horizon, said.

On the bank of the river not far ahead, a large group of moving "clouds" appeared. Pei Dade knew that they were sheep grazing on the local state-run pasture.The breed of sheep is the famous "Wujiang sheep", which is resistant to disease and foot rot, and the wool yield is not so good, so it is very suitable for grazing in places with relatively humid climates, such as the Ludang River Valley with abundant water and grass.In the dry areas away from the valleys, some other breeds of sheep and goats are grazing. Affected by the shrinkage of the woolen wool industry, the proportion of goats used for meat is now increasing, and the proportion of wool-producing sheep has begun to decline. There is no way. Everything is market-oriented.

In fact, there were some small-scale cattle breeding along the Ludang River, mostly developed from catching domesticated bison.However, when the cattle-catching industry on the Pampa Plain in the north became more and more prosperous, the cattle-raising industry in the Patagonia region collapsed in an instant, and it was completely unable to compete, so now everyone has turned back to raising sheep obediently. Make use of your comparative advantages.

In the past few years, thanks to the hot market in the domestic market and the unique climate conditions in the Patagonia region, the number of sheep flocks has gradually increased sharply, and the production scale of wool, sheepskin, mutton, and dairy products has also increased day by day. Workshops for leather shoes, fur coats, fur hats, bacon, cheese and other commodities also sprung up, and the economy of the entire Patagonia region showed a thriving trend.

At that time, the rapid economic development made Yang Mingyang and Cai Huaze extremely emotional, and they began to clamor to build a railway in Patagonia to transport wool, fruit, leather, meat and dairy products (as in the later 19 In the same way as the British invested in the construction of the wool transportation railway in Patagonia in the century), further explore the economic potential of the entire Taiwan region and create benefits for the country.

But the tragedy is that this plan was affected by the reduction of railway investment at that time, and it was shot down as soon as it was submitted, leaving Yang and Cai very speechless.And this time, seeing the government's expansion of investment in infrastructure, the two of them excitedly submitted a new railway construction plan for the "wool transportation line", but it was still rejected by anyone. It is very difficult for them to understand, how much do the members of the executive committee dislike this railway plan?

For this reason, Yang Mingyang, who also serves as the administrative commissioner of the two regions of Southern Patagonia and Northern Patagonia, has already returned to the capital by boat. It's unreasonable to see who is obstructing him and not let the last major event in his life be done well!

Captain Pei Dade, as an officer who has been fighting in the northern Patagonia region for many years, naturally heard about this incident.Now that he has brought his wife and children to live in Dingnan Town, he is considered a part of it, so he really hopes that this railway can be built, because it is really crucial to the local economic development.

Of course, Captain Pei also knows that it is difficult, because it is the low tide period of the wool industry, and the money from the executive committee is not blown by the wind. There is a general framework for money and which projects to set up, and they will not come randomly. Even if an old cadre like Yang Mingyang makes a fuss, it probably won't be a big deal.

However, the railway plan was not approved, and the projects related to the construction of urban water supply and drainage systems in Dingnan County and Luyang County were approved easily, which makes people feel a little surprised.You know, many local veteran counties queuing ahead of the two counties are still struggling to wait for central investment, but in the end, Dingnan and Luyang, two remote counties, jumped in line and robbed the funds. It's pretty amazing indeed, it looks like central compensation for Northern Patagonia for not approving the wool railroad.

And I have to mention here that Dingnan and Luyang counties were also just established this month (August 1675).Among them, Dingnan County has jurisdiction over Dingnan Township, Suixi Township, Yanlu Township, Shanlu Township, Sheyan Township, Honghua Township, Changze Township and Ningshuo Township, a total of eight settlements with a total population of nearly 8. It is not a small county in the mainland, and it is undoubtedly a "first-tier city" in the Patagonia region; while Luyang County has jurisdiction over Luyang Town, Xibao Township, Changlu Township, Baoxing Township, Baoxi Township (located near the later Duval Gaoguan Town), a total of five settlements, has a population of about 2. It is indeed worse than Dingnan County, but not too much.

The above two counties are respectively the 117th and 118th county-level administrative units in the country.Established in the same batch, there is also a county called Pule, and just next to them, it has four settlements under the jurisdiction of Pule Township, Luqu Township, Huile Township and Yitun Township, with a combined population of only a few Qian, mainly based on animal husbandry, is the 119th county-level administrative unit in the country. Both in terms of economy and population, it is not as good as Dingnan and Luyang counties, which are located in the Hecheng oasis.

After the establishment of these three counties, plus the six counties of Hai'an, Jincheng, Shangluo, Shuofang, Xuanwu, and Daliang that had been established earlier, the vast land of Northern Patagonia was divided up by these nine counties.In addition to the large undeveloped land in the south of the entire Patagonian platform, the framework of the north has basically been determined. The economy of more than [-] local people is mainly based on animal husbandry, fishing and fruit planting. It seems that it can continue to be maintained in the face of the market tide, and it seems to be living well, which is enough.

Let's turn the topic to Dingnan County's approved urban sewage renovation project.The project budget is tentatively set at 15 yuan, all allocated by the Ministry of Health (if it exceeds the budget, the local government will make up the difference), and the famous Goshkin Construction Company (this is the first time the company has entered this type of project) and the transportation An engineering team from the Third Bureau of Construction jointly built it together.

Similar to the urban sewage facilities in some core counties in the old districts—such as Dongfang County, Luocha County, Qingdao County, etc.—this project includes two sub-projects of tap water supply and urban sewage discharge, and also includes a subsidiary project of sewage treatment plant.As the name suggests, this factory was established mainly to maintain the sewage treatment system. It belongs to the county health bureau. Its main tasks include cleaning sewage discharge pipes and regularly transporting sludge from sewage pools. task of things.

The government of Dingnan County also attaches great importance to this project, because in recent years, with the increase of the domestic population on the east coast and the frequent foreign trade, some epidemics have broken out in the country from time to time, killing a large number of people and at the same time affecting production and operation. had a great impact.Although Dingnan County is located in the inland hinterland, the population of the county with better conditions is still quite dense, and the possibility of large-scale infectious disease outbreaks is not low. Urgent, so after getting 15 yuan from the Central Ministry of Health this time, the county government plans to contribute an additional 3 yuan, plus the additional 2 yuan allocated by the regional administrative office, to make up 20 yuan, and strive to make this project a success. Better than the original plan.

According to Pei Dade's understanding, the investment of 20 yuan is mainly used for sewage discharge and treatment, including: at least ten outdoor public toilets in the urban area, a complete underground river (this place is somewhat different from other places, due to local Relatively short of water, rainwater and sewage are discharged separately, which means that one more line needs to be repaired, and the cost will increase a lot), sewage treatment plant (sedimentation and filtration system).

To build ten outdoor public toilets in an urban area where thousands of people live is a big deal.You must know that in this era, even the palaces of some European countries do not have an outdoor toilet, and the hygienic conditions are quite worrying.Speaking of the ten public toilets in Dingnan Town, they are actually not enough, but there is no way, the investment is only so much, and we will find a way to make up for it later.

According to the regulations, the public toilets are cleaned by the transferred manure transporters of the sewage treatment plant.These people are mainly non-national laborers from Poland and Italy. They usually come to clean public toilets between 6 am and 10 am every day. The reason for this is probably to ensure that there is enough light to carry out their work-of course I heard Dingnan County is also preparing to build a gas lighting system covering the entire county. Once this project is completed, the work of cleaning public toilets can be carried out at night, which will greatly avoid the impact on ordinary people.

Of course, public toilets are basically used by ordinary citizens, and rich people like Pei Dade use a new thing called a flush toilet.It is said that this kind of thing sells quite well in old areas such as Dongfang County in the capital. Many dignitaries flock to it, buy it and install it on the closet at home. It is also an indoor toilet.

However, this kind of flush toilet still has a fatal shortcoming at present, because it is installed in a closed closet and connected to the cesspit through an unventilated pipe, which is undoubtedly very unsanitary and is one of the main sources of many diseases.Moreover, the bad smell can often be transmitted back from the cesspit built in the basement (connected to the underground river that acts as a sewage pipe), making the smell in the house very touching, and the windows have to be often opened for ventilation.

Captain Pei Dade vaguely heard that a technician in the capital had invented a patent called "water-sealed anti-odor valve", which could completely isolate the very unpleasant smell from the sewers, sewers and septic tanks. It seems that this technology is still in the verification period and has not yet been widely promoted.However, if this technology proves to be effective, it is basically certain that the patent holder will get rich overnight in the future, because with the continuous advancement of the urban sewage facility renovation project, the consumption of flush toilets is bound to increase. A brand new level, at that time, almost every toilet sold will have to pay him a certain patent royalty, which is a lot of money.

Renovation of urban sewage facilities, these projects are not small and cost a lot of money. It may cost more than 1000 million yuan to reform one by one across the country, which seems quite worthless.But if you look at the outbreaks of infectious diseases and the death of a large number of people in the European continent and ancient Chinese cities from time to time, then maybe you can easily understand that the governments at all levels on the east coast have always been short of money, but they are squeezed out every year. The reason why money comes and goes to invest in this area.

For example, this time, although the original intention of the government’s large-scale investment in infrastructure was to develop domestic demand due to blocked exports, it seems that there is no need to invest in these sanitation facilities, but as the saying goes, only people can create wealth and demand, and the improvement of urban sanitation conditions must It will greatly reduce the risk of infectious diseases, reduce people's mortality rate, and keep more consumer groups, which is also closely related to the domestic demand market.Otherwise, if you look at a certain city on the east bank where the drinking water source of the city was polluted, which led to a large-scale cholera outbreak, the city was almost paralyzed, and all industries were dying, you can deeply understand this truth.

Urban water supply and sewage discharge, outdoor public testing and the application of flush toilets, and the cleaning of street dirt are often the dividing line between civilization and barbarism.When people from the Old World came to the cities on the east coast, they would definitely be impressed by the clean and tidy roads, the reciprocating streetcar system, the clean and safe drinking water, the efficient and stable sewage discharge system, and the bright gas lamps at night. I can't be more shocked.This is the huge change brought about by new science, new technology, and new ideas, constantly showing the advancement and civilization of the East Coast.

Captain Pei Dade returned to the barracks after walking around outside.His old boss, Lieutenant Colonel Guo Handong, is leading people to happily bully Uncle Hei in South Africa, and he is basically in charge of the military defense affairs on the Patagonian platform (veteran Lieutenant Colonel Zhu Liang has returned The capital has gone to "rehabilitate"), he intends to reorganize his men and horses in the next few days, take out all the recruits, and transfer them to the southern wasteland to practice in battle, to see if he can find Indians and fight them. These lads practiced hard.

However, just when he had prepared various military supplies and horses and was about to lead the team to set off, he received an order from the Ministry of War: to cooperate with an engineering team to build a road in the Taiwan area.This order made him a little puzzled, but after a little inquiring, he found out that after Yang Mingyang went to the capital to make a fuss, the plan for the Patagonia wool transportation railway was not approved, but the higher-ups might be annoyed by him Unbearable annoyance, he finally gave in and said that he would first build a national road along the planned railway, which would not only improve the local traffic conditions, but also provide convenience for the transportation of various equipment and materials when the railway is launched in the future.

Yang Mingyang was quite dissatisfied with this muddy thing, but he also knew that this was probably the limit of the superior's concessions, so he decisively decided to accept it as soon as it was good, and go back to implement the road first.As for the railway, anyway, he doesn't intend to give up, and he will go to it later to improve it.

Now Yang Mingyang has been back for three weeks. At this time, the order from the Ministry of the Army was also sent to Dingnan County through the postal transmission system. Captain Pei Dade had to cancel the original battle plan urgently, planning to ensure the safety of the road construction first.

(End of this chapter)