On October 30, 1664, the ground west of Fort Pedro in Hejian.

Inigor de Balboa walked easily on the plain lowlands in the central Hejian region. Behind them was a large team of mules and horses, with about hundreds of horses. The livestock were packed with bags of supplies, mostly of which were flour, cheese, rice, soybean oil, butter, vegetables, cured meat, salted fish, wine, etc. In addition, there were some daily necessities and weapons and ammunition, but the quantity was not large.

It can be seen that this is a team of transporting supplies. According to the direction they are moving at this time, they should have come from the reclaimed area of ​​the East Coast people on the east coast and go to the west. In fact, it is almost the same. You can see from the composition of the team that the grooms are almost all of the Ming people, but the soldiers guarding them are Spanish, to be precise, the Spanish mercenaries stationed in Fort Pedro are also shocking. After all, the East Coast people are openly traveling through the territory of the Spanish Kingdom to traffic in goods. The Spanish soldiers not only do not strictly prevent them, but on the contrary "helping the evil". If King Philip knew about it, he would have lamented that he had not officially handed over the river, and this would have been penetrated into a sieve.

But there is nothing we can do! Who made you, Your Majesty, don’t like to pay military pay? Although you have paid twice before, the problem is that everyone is still owed more than ten months of military pay. In addition, the Hejian area is not rich in resources (except for the actual control area of ​​the East Coast people), and the cost of living has become very high, which has led to the increase of fleeing sergeants. These people have gone to the East Coast people to work in the East Coast people’s control area. Some even crossed the Wujiang River to go to the East Coast grassland. General Portillo has worked hard for many years and collapsed under the impact of the financial crisis. It is also ironic.

In such a difficult situation, Inigo had to come forward to accept the employment of the East Coast people and guard them to transport a large amount of supplies from the agricultural area on the west bank of the Wujiang River to various shipping supply nodes on the east bank of the Parana River. Of course, other sections of the road were responsible for other Spanish mercenaries, and they were only responsible for the sections of Anxi Township, Torch Township, and Liziyuan Township to the sections of Ronggang, Ximian Town. Except for some left-behind soldiers, the rest were divided into two shifts and dispatched once every half month to escort the mule and horse team carrying food to the supply port on the west, earning a little profit so that they could support themselves.

At this time, the team had arrived near the Castle of Shaosai (the town of Shaosai in later generations). Inigo and more than fifty soldiers rode their horses with a relaxed expression. In this wilderness, except for the unknown Guarani, Crandi, and Quechua, there was almost no invisible person who would come to harass such a team. Although they carried a large number of food and supplies that everyone was very eager for, you must consider the consequences of doing so.

The officers of the Castle of Sauce did not participate in such large-scale commodity trafficking, but they would not stop others from doing so. On the contrary, when Inigor's team arrived in the countryside outside the castle, they would trade with them, that is, exchange their own leather, animal fat, and linen for some daily necessities. This is extremely important for the Spanish estate owners or self-cultivated farmers in nearby troops. Therefore, the garrison in the castle could only see these East Coast caravans, not to mention that they had already collected a certain amount of gifts for closure fees.

After passing Shaosai Castle, it is more than 100 kilometers away from Zhenrong Port. This is only a few days away in the central area of ​​Hejian, where the terrain is not very undulating. Apart from the water, swamps and rivers, there are no dense forests or mountains that hinder the journey. It can be said to be a flat mountain, which is very conducive to material transportation and of course it is more conducive to the advancement of the army.

"Most of the area south of Coriantes is a flood plain with striped swamps and lakes, just as I saw around the Castle of Shose." During the break, a geological official who followed the team to conduct an inspection trip quickly recorded in his diary: "The swamp area is a low plain with a small drop. Like the flow of the Parana River tributary here, most of the land is tilted southeast. The swamps are the same, mostly in the northeast-southwest direction.

The long shape of the swamp area is erected by some sandy hills with various characteristics of soil in dry areas, which shows a change in modern climate. In the last geological period, the climate here must have been dry, so this dune-shaped sandy surface was formed. Since the end of the dry climate, since the river network has not yet been fully formed, a large amount of rainwater cannot be discharged, and it has accumulated to form a swamp and lake, thus forming a unique landform of the plains in the middle of the river."

"There is no doubt that these soils have development value." Officials from the Ministry of Geology continued to record: "Whether it is sandy, white, clay or alluvial soil, there are places that can be used. The soil here is mainly slightly reddish and some places are pink, but in those basins that are well-maintained and well-drained, the soil is black, and crops that are planted here often achieve good harvests. This has been well proven on the white water pond and the hilly lowlands with bare hard rocks in the north. In short, this is a pretty good land, but the level of development is unexpectedly low. It is recommended that the State Development Administration immigrate a large number of people, set up new settlements, and swallow it completely."

Of course, what geological officials don’t know is that even without his reminder, the State Council has formulated new plans to immigrate to the Hejian area under the instruction of the Executive Committee. For example, they have recently planned to set up some new settlements here. Anyway, according to the terms of the "Eastern Secret Agreement", these places are sooner or later from the East Coast, so what is the purpose of making some plans in advance? These new settlements are: Xuchang Township, near the city of Mercedes in later generations, Juye Township, near the town of Mariano (Mariano), Lihu Township, near the town of Perugoria, and Leize Township, near the city of Carlos Pellegrini. There are a total of four new settlements, and more than 6,000 immigrants from Huaian Prefecture, Ming Dynasty.

From the establishment of these new settlements, it can be seen that the people of the East Coast have basically no longer had any concerns and began to expand to the inland areas openly. This may be the psychological impact on the Executive Committee’s public after the signing of the secret agreement. Therefore, they are becoming more determined in cross-border reclamation, and are no longer as timid as before. You see, the new settlements are all set up on the edge of the Ibera swamp, and the determination to swallow the Hejian area is quite obvious.

Naturally, the Spanish could not be indifferent to this, but the time is still short, and they have not reacted yet, or they are waiting for instructions from their superiors, and they don’t know how to react. However, the East Coast people are not worried about this at all. First of all, their strength here is strong, and the military forces of the Spanish Kingdom have basically turned against each other. For example, why should Portillo prevent the East Coast people from crossing the border? Since they dare not take action against the East Coast pioneers who crossed the border on the military level, then they can only report them layer by layer, and let the Governor of Peru and even King Philip make a decision. These two people know the specific content of the Secret Agreement of the East Coast, and you can imagine that they will turn a blind eye to the accelerated reclamation operations of the East Coast people in the Hejian area. Who made them all plan to send this land out?

On November 4, 1664, after a trek, the caravan escorted by Inigor and his men, finally arrived at a supply station established by the Spaniards on the east bank of the Parana River, mainly for supplying food, fresh water and coal, and targeting all the inland river boats passing through the place.

There are currently about dozens of people in Zhenrong Port, including technicians who repair ships, dock laborers and labourers. At the same time, there are also seven or eight police stations armed police officers, responsible for the security work of the entire "one-shot land" supply station. Generally speaking, there is no threat to public security, except for the indigenous people who occasionally wander around.

There is a roughly built wooden wharf in the port. Next to the wharf is a small coal storage warehouse, which is piled up with a large amount of coal transported from the local area. In order to reduce the weight of fuel carried by ships and increase the transportation space, these coals are formed by mixing refined coal transported from overseas and local coal. There are also food warehouses, arsenals, ship repair facilities and other facilities. It is suitable for maintaining the supply of passing ships and the facilities operated by the dock itself.

"Ah, it's technician Zhang, you're here again!" The police station director who was patrolling the dock shouted loudly. 》≠》≠》≠》≠》≠》≠,

"Yes, this time the teacher delayed something else and couldn't get rid of it, so I asked me to come and take a look. How about it, Zhenrong Port has been operating for a long time, everything goes well? I heard that a flood broke out last year, and you are not flooded, right?" Technician Zhang jumped off the back of a mule, and said while unloading his luggage: "I heard that Weirong, further south, both places in Baosai were flooded, and the property damage was considerable. I don't know how you are here."

"We are okay here. Maybe it's because of the high terrain and the flood is not big." The police station director responded with a cigarette, "The flood flooded and soaked the dock underwater. Fortunately, everyone was fine, but the fields were destroyed. Everyone took the time to work hard for a season and all the vegetables were flooded, and the losses were quite large."

"It's already good. It's said that the flood last year has not been encountered in more than 30 years since its founding. The terrain on the east bank of the Parana River is relatively high, which is considered good. The Spanish built towns such as Santa Fe and Rosario on the west bank. The flood almost wiped out most of the city buildings, all the farmlands were flooded, and the loss of people and livestock was quite considerable. In comparison, we were lucky enough. After the ruthless floods overflowed the docks, they were basically digested and absorbed by swamps, lakes, and rivers spread across the river area, causing

The impact is quite limited. I always think that in the future, the lakes in the Hejian area must not be reclaimed, and legislation must be prohibited from surrounding the lake to build fields, and the river network must also be expanded, dredged and deepened regularly. This is not only conducive to shipping and irrigation, but also conducive to flood control and discharge. This flood is not only a lesson, but also an opportunity, an opportunity that can provide more guiding significance for our next work." Technician Zhang said a lot, which made the police, laborers and technicians on the dock stunned.

"Your statement is somewhat similar to the technicians of the Ministry of Agriculture. They are all cultural people." The police station director put the big cap under his armpit and said with a smirk: "The technician came over to check the orchards, vegetable gardens and farms that were affected by the supply station, and then told us not to plant these near the docks. He asked us to go to the inland areas and use the terrain there to build the Zhuanggang system, just like the Baishuidian side. Plant some fruit trees, melons, beans, vegetables and other things on the Zhuanggang embankment. The depressions in Zhuanggang can be reclaimed and planted some grains because the land here is relatively fertile. Of course, there is a lot of water there now, and only aquatic or semi-aquatic crops can be planted in the modified Zhuanggang depression, and even fish are raised. We cannot do anything else. We don't have a steam pump, so it is too difficult to drain the Zhuanggang depression..."

"Constructing Zhuanggang agriculture is an effective way to resist floods, but this is only a symptom and cannot cure the root cause." Technician Zhang nodded slightly after hearing this, and then commented: "In the long run, a large-scale flood control dam must be built on the east bank of the Parana River to effectively resist the periodic flood invasion and completely develop this fertile Mesopotamian Valley. But it is so difficult and difficult!"

Speaking of this, technician Zhang shook his head. There are only a few people in the Hejian area, which is so economic value. Why do you let the Executive Committee spend astronomical manpower and material resources to build a flood control dam on the east bank of the Parana River? They will not do this even if they are full. There are so many places in China that need development. With this ability, the Beining area has been rectified. Who will still miss the flooded Palana River?
Chapter completed!