"In terms of shipping value, the Tiete River is not a good river, and it can even be said to be relatively bad." Wang Zhijie, wearing a woolen coat, stood beside the bushes on the south bank of the Tiete River and said in a rather regretful tone.

It will be the middle of August. Even though the latitude of Beining is not high, it is actually cold in the so-called 39th season of the year because it is located in the plateau. Therefore, almost everyone in this expedition team wore relatively strong and heavy clothes. Wang Zhijie even added a woolen coat to keep the cold because of a cold.

"This river is not very good." Meng Xiaohu, who was sitting on the ground, smacked his lips and shook his head, "The river channel is twisty and difficult to move, and the dangerous shoals are dense. Even the riverbeds in many places are not deep enough. The problem is really big. In the past two years, it has been raining a lot the year before. It has flooded once in the outskirts of Beining County, which has been harshly rushing the roads that have been built there with a lot of effort. I still remember the speechless expression of the old commissioner Xu Yu and Xu. Haha, the blow is too big. It is not easy to build a road in Beining..."

The flood in 1665 was actually not very large in terms of damage, at least not too much damage to people, livestock, and houses, fields, orchards. The reason for this situation is that it is actually related to the fact that the population of Beining County is not enough and the area is not large enough (after all, it is not the super metropolis in Brazil with a population of more than 20 million in later generations). In addition, the Portuguese chose a very good location when establishing towns, and most of them were in relatively high terrain. Therefore, even if a flood occurred, the adverse effects had been minimized. This is probably a blessing in disguise.

But no matter what, the objective fact that the Tiet River floods still exists. If the population here increases greatly in the future and urban areas, fields, pastures, orchards, and factories begin to expand to the periphery, it will inevitably be affected by the Tiet River floods, which must be observed. Therefore, the dredging, deepening and widening of the Tiet River channel are necessary in the future, otherwise the hidden dangers will be great when the city develops in the future. In addition, the construction of the coastal embankments and flood discharge areas (usually swamps, lakes and other tributaries) that are suitable for it cannot be left behind. We must invest vigorously. Only by taking two-pronged approach and taking multiple measures can the Tiet River be turned into benefits and benefit the people of the Beining region.

However, this is not a matter of overnight success. Like the water control project in the Hejian area, it is a long-term and arduous task. It is necessary to make plans for continuous investment and transformation for fifty years, a hundred years or even longer. Only in this way can it be possible to manage this river well. For the Beining area with a population of only more than 90,000 and more than ten townships in four counties and more than ten towns, take it step by step. The comprehensive management of the Tiete River should be consistent with the speed of economic development, and of course it should not be too advanced, and of course it should not be too late. In short, everything is done step by step, but you must not give up halfway. After the reform and opening up in later generations, China's investment in water conservancy construction for thirty years and the consequences and lessons it has brought will not be unknown.

"Check the supplies. I've been out for so long, and I don't know when I can go home." Wang Zhijie tightened his clothes and said. As the captain of the expedition team, he was very dissatisfied with the progress in recent times. It has been several days since the last time he replenished supplies in Yitu Township, but they have not gone far at all. They are still struggling along the tortuous Title River. I don't know when to complete the goal of successfully reaching the junction of the lower reaches of Title River and the Parana River.

"It seems that there are quite a lot at the moment, but I have to save some food and food. Moreover, I think we should start to resume hunting operations. When we go out and explore, it is impossible to rely solely on the materials we carried at the beginning. This is unrealistic, especially in a place along the Title River where birds do not shit. In fact, I am very puzzled and annoyed. These Portuguese people have been colonizing here for more than a hundred years. So what have they done in the past year? Basically, most cities are concentrated in coastal areas, with inland towns small in scale, and some even some

Large manors are no worse than that, I really don’t know what to say. These birds have been colonizing the inland for more than a hundred years, which has been wasting this good land.” Meng Xiaohu grabbed his knotted hair and said in a tone of inconvenience: “Now the inland area is deserted, and most of them are abandoned when I see some manors occasionally (this seems to be the stolen person of the East Coast...). Even the Indians couldn’t see them. No one provided us with food. Everything was only dependent on ourselves. The transportation conditions were so poor. Alas, this adventure will probably be next year!”

Meng Xiaohu's words made the team's grooms, veterinarians, kids, surveyors, guards, cartographers, botanists, doctors and others resonate, but they soon stopped Wang Zhijie's glaring eyes. Meng Xiaohu made a haha, got up from the grass, and ran to the other side to help cook. The kids there were building iron pots, making tea, and boiling water. Several fresh fish caught from the Tiet River have also been processed. The kids are preparing to make fish soup for a while to help the two people with sick feet in the team to supplement nutrition.

In addition, the guards also stood on the periphery and stood guard with their tired bodies. They were all the best recruited from retired veterans, supplemented by some Shandan people who were free to move in the mountains and forests (all those who lived in the Parish of St. Paul and had a little adaptation to the climate). Indians who were familiar with local conditions and surrendered Mameluko ​​people formed the inspection team's alert and reconnaissance forces.

After seeing that everyone was doing their own duties, Wang Zhijie leaned on a big tree and began to write an adventure diary: "...I believe that if we don't start decisive action immediately, we will all starve to death, because the Beining Regional Administration only gave us enough food until early October, and the remaining sugar, tea, cigarettes, wine, etc. can only be eaten until September 1. There are only a few boxes of canned food left, and it is very bulky, which is inconvenient for us to carry. It is impossible for us to transport supplies from Beining region to ship, because as far as we have seen along the way, there are quite a few dangerous shoals and upsurges, not to mention many sections with large gaps. The difference in shipping conditions is the only one I have seen since my adventure. Even many rivers on the Patagonia platform have navigation conditions that are greater than the Title River..."

"Since the river is blocked, the hope of transporting supplies by mules and horses through land is slim, because the distance is too far and the road is too difficult to walk. In order to cope with this difficult situation, I have planned to leave ten people at the No. 1 location marked on the map to establish a post and temporary camp, and give them half of the remaining flour. For this reason, they must receive several patients who have suddenly fallen ill these days and take good care of them until we return to the place again. If possible, they still need to hunt nearby and send people to Yitu Township to deliver letters. They do not expect that poor township can give us much help, but at least they can get some vital salt, wine and medicine."

"Yesterday I wrote my third report since I set out. In this report (August 16, 1667), I first explained the importance of the results of this investigation along the Title River and the changes in the next action deployment proposed. My expedition was now in a difficult situation due to the unexpected disease attack, but we still did not intend to give up. Along the way, we took advantage of the favorable opportunity of lowering water levels and looked westward through the bark boat. The focus of our inspection was first of all, how likely this place would be to be flooded, and secondly, the soil conditions of this place and whether it would be convenient for agricultural settlements to be established. Finally, we investigated the terrain, that is, where places are suitable for building military outposts, and then based on this, we announced to the Indian residents who may encounter around that they are now protected by the East Coast Republic of China, and we will properly arrange their future lives."

After writing these, Wang Zhijie picked up another notebook and took stock of the supplies counted by the people below. He did not look at the food and other things carefully because he knew how many of them were, which was also the thing he paid the most attention to every day. At this time, he valued some other supplies and recorded them in his diary: "There are 65 healthy members of our expedition team so far. We have an ultra-light cannon that can fire small shells, four barrels of gunpowder, six barrels of projectiles and sixty flintlock guns (one ten of which cannot be used). In addition, there is a three-seat animal hide boat, a bark boat with also three seats and several wooden oars. Both ships were built on the spot by skilled craftsmen in Yitu Township."

"The above is the current combat equipment and transportation of our expedition team. I am worried that once we encounter a slightly larger Indian tribe (the possibility of this kind) we will likely fall into their siege. They are many times more people than us. Once someone is angry and thinks we have offended their territory or property, or once we take wrong, cowardly steps, they will rush up and try to tear us apart. They are many, strong, and may also have some stock of muskets and ammunition, which may be overwhelming in the battle. We cannot hold any hope for assistance or retreat, because the stronghold of Yitu, the nearest stronghold, is still far away..."

After writing these "annoying" diaries, Wang Zhijie sighed a long sigh. It was hard to explore the banks of the Title River, which was even far beyond that of the Orange River Basin in South Africa where he worked before and some tropical grasslands in the Yicheng area. The main reason was probably the complex terrain and dense forests here. The difficulty of transportation was even better than that in South Africa. Many times, you have to open roads when you encounter forests and build bridges when you encounter water. It is very hard.

As for the threats of the Indians, there is no need to mention it. Because the relatively good living environment along the Title River, the existence of Indian tribes, mainly fishing, hunting and trestling, is a high probability of the existence of Indian tribes, even after years of search by the Portuguese, there should still be many. What's more, there were quite a few "free Indian tribes" (of course freedom is only theoretical) that received the naturalization of the Portuguese. After the Portuguese retreated, there were no time to control the East Coast. Therefore, the area where these tribes are located has returned to anarchy. The current attitude of these Indian tribes is also suspicious and must be treated with caution. You must know that the statement that the East Coast people cruelly treats Indians is now spread more and more widely among the Indians, which undoubtedly increases the difficulty of the East Coast government to naturalize and rule these indigenous people. At the same time, it also brings many unnecessary trouble to the farmers and expedition members who have been relocated to the outside world.

But what should I do? Are you complaining about the country's policies? How is that possible! Wang Zhijie shook his head helplessly.

"After eating, take a good rest, and then help the left-behind personnel build a simple outpost, the name is Post No. 1, which will be our prospective base for controlling the Tiet River in the future. If people in the Beining area want to develop here, they only need to enrich the economic strength of Yitu Township, and use it as a base to continuously send immigrants here. Over time, they will almost occupy it, assuming that the bandit suppression work must be in place." Wang Zhijie sat down next to Meng Xiaohu and took it from him

A bowl of hot-cooked tea was drinking comfortably, and said, "Just leave ten people, and the cannon is left for them. Anyway, we are also a burden to carry it. Give them seven guns, two dogs, some gunpowder, projectiles, and a little flour. They usually hunt and will be enough to maintain our return. And if they leave the great fortune and send people to use a mule and horse team to transport a batch of supplies, then they will be happy."

"I hope so. The Beining region is now a hot moment of excitement and hard work. I can't help you with it if we work hard." Although Meng Xiaohu said that, he didn't have much hope in his heart. After all, the road is too difficult to walk. It would be great if the Tiet River could be opened to navigation, alas!

After lunch, everyone started logging and building a simple outpost, and then dispatched left-behind personnel. After all this, most of them set off again the next day. It was still the same rule, and they explored and measured while opening the road. The riverbed of the Title River is the top priority, but there has been no exciting news.

Wang Zhijie estimated that he had to go a long way forward. When the main stream of the Tiete River gathered the water from many tributaries, the river channel was washed deeper and wider, and then it could only be opened to ships of a certain scale, instead of the animal-skinned boats and bark boats they carried. However, when they really arrived at those places where they could navigate, they almost reached the lower reaches of the Tiete River and the middle and upper reaches of the Parana River. That was really not good news for the Beining area, which was determined to find a road to the outside world.
Chapter completed!