Southern Patagonia region has entered midsummer in December. ※%

Outside the castle wall, a group of new Ming immigrants are busy working hard. Beside them is a railway that extends to the distant sky. This railway rushed to the east like a long dragon and disappeared into the vast Gobi Desert.

Li Dayan, a senior editor of Pravda, came to the Nanci Railway and its affiliated areas again after more than a year. As for the content of the interview, his direct superior, deputy editor-in-chief of Pravda and director of the news department, did not have any rigid regulations, but just asked him to come here to interview, find out the hot topics, and then come back to write a documentary interview.

Li Dayan thought about the explanation from his superiors and had a deeper understanding of some of the Executive Committee's ideas - the executive committee's officials are really looking forward to the Nan Railway Company! Although the financial support is limited, the support for talents, technology, materials and personnel is not bad. For example, the construction of the fourth phase of the local Northwest Railway (from Tieling Fort through Linxi Fort to Daxing Port) was delayed by a considerable number of construction personnel's South-Sichuan Railway, which was transferred to the South-Sichuan Railway, which had just been built, is even more out of date. It is estimated that the Nanxi Railway will have a large-scale start-up only after the single line is opened to traffic.

In addition to providing a large number of skilled workers in building railways - they have been working on the Northwest Railway construction site for several years and have extremely rich experience - the Executive Committee also provided a lot of assistance to the Nanci Railway and its affiliated areas in terms of personnel. For example, more than three months ago, the Executive Committee sent more than 400 Greek female slaves to Qingniwa Fortress. They acted as daughter-in-laws for the newly immigrants from Shandong and Zhejiang, which made some local towns extremely dissatisfied.

You should know that although the purchase of Polish female slaves from Cossacks and Tatars for two consecutive years (of course, the purchase of female slaves from the Ottomans was still going on, but the number was far less than that), the proportion of men and women among the immigrants brought from the Far East was still extremely different. Therefore, although the number of male bachelors in the East Coast has dropped, there are still 18,000 people. If such a thing is not done well, it will actually easily cause dissatisfaction among old immigrants in the East Coast. From this, it can be seen how difficult the Executive Committee made the sending of Balkan female slaves to the Nancone area! How great the pressure was to withstand!

The Executive Committee has also made great efforts in immigration ships! Without further ado, the 1,200-ton sailboats sailing on the Circular Immigration Route in the South Pacific have officially reached seven ships. All the early immigrants will be resettled by the South Railway Company on-site. The local immigration department will not ask them for any population, but will subsidize some of the population here - for example, many Livornians who immigrated at their own expense were guided by the government to settle here.

According to the latest statistics from the Nanzhi Railway Company this month (December), the total population of settlements in the southern cones (Alaucan Port, Montenegro Coal Mine, Qingniwa Fort, Sand Castle, from Xinbao and Xingnan Port) has reached 24,500, an increase of almost 50% in one year, which is shocking. Of course, in the short term, this number growth has almost reached the limit of the Nanzhi Railway affiliated area. This area with a poor natural environment urgently needs some time to settle and build to afford more people.

I believe that after the second half of next year, the Southern Railway Company will have to divert and resettle some of the Eastern Ming countries to the northern land. Unless they are willing to risk being discovered by the Spanish, destroy the explicit provisions in the Treaty of Valladolid and expand the settlements to a vast area outside the Southern Railway's affiliated areas - this will naturally not work in the short term. However, Li Dayan also deeply doubts whether the Southern Railway Company is willing to send precious population back to the mainland. Perhaps they will send a large number of Ming people to the Kingdom of Araucania (not supported by the Kingdom of Spain) to divert the population that cannot be afforded in the Southern Railway's affiliated areas?

It was noon, and the midsummer sun shone dry. Li Dayan handed the pack horse to his entourage, and then several large parts stepped onto the banks of the Montenegro River (the Montenegro River is the later Turbio River, a seasonal river with the Andes mountain melting snow as the main source), picked up the cool snow melting water and drank it. After drinking, he took off his shoes and socks, and rudely put his feet into the cool river.

The river water here is beautiful blue, with very clear water quality reflecting the deep blue sky. The river water flows very fast, with some milky white waves coming from time to time. Compared with the thick gravel on the surrounding Gobi Desert, the bottom of the river here is mostly smooth and fine pebbles, which seems to be because the river water is polished and carved all year round.

The water plants on the river are quite lush, including the nearby green mud wetlands. The banks of the river are covered with green moss and large dense reeds. Small ostrich (slightly smaller than the three-toed ostrich, it is another subspecies and mostly lives in Patagonia), swamp deer, wild duck, and guinea pig are the most common animals here. Jackals, foxes, and puma are common ferocious predators. Of course, we must not forget the Andean vultures of the genus Vulture. This kind of ferocious animal is everywhere - well, it seems that the pattern on the East Coast Army flag is this animal.

Of course, in the eyes of the officers and soldiers of the Nan Railway Company's road protection team stationed in the local area, the largest number of "animals" in the local area are probably the Yuancao and the Tevech people. The Yuancao is a group of dozens to more than a hundred, and it is full of Gobi, grassland, and oasis. The number is unimaginable, and it is not afraid of people at all. It often rushes to Qingniwai to eat alfalfa or vegetables grown by residents, which is annoying.

The Tverches' harm to the East Coast residents is even more than that of these native camels. They are very unfriendly indigenous people and often rob the property of the East Coast residents, which makes people hate them. On the way to come, Li Dayan encountered an indigenous attack. The Tverches had some horses. God knows how they came from - of course it is not surprising that there are many wild horses in Pampas and Patagonia, and they are descendants of the horses left by the Spanish on the grasslands. To be honest, as far as Li Dayan saw and heard, many Indians' equestrian skills were quite good, and of course the best one was the Gauchos. Li Dayan suspected that the Gaauchos' equestrians' equestrians were even better than the Tatars of the Old Continent, because they could ride horses without saddles and make various incredible actions.

The Qingniwa Station of the Nanci Railway is built not far from the north of the wetland. The two-story brick and tile houses serve as the solid main building of the station. There is a vacant land with sparse weeds in front of the station, which is the platform. Of course, there are no guests on the platform at this time, but there are some engineering and technical personnel who are making final efforts to merge a section of branch railway extending from the Heishan Coal Mine into the east-west trunk line in front of the platform.

After the merger of these two sections, the coal from the Montenegro coal mine no longer needs to be transported on slopes through carriages. The massive amount of coal can be transported to Qingniwa Station by train, and then turned around and transported to the west to the Port of Araucan. As for the railway to the east, it has only been extended for a short section and has not been built at all - even the roadbed is still far away.

Of course, the railway construction process to the east will be accelerated, because the Nantec Railway Company's road protection team launched an attack in the inland area of ​​Yancheng Port a while ago: Yancheng Port mobilized only hundreds of militias, and the Nantec Railway Company dispatched two cavalry squadrons (220 people, the army was removed from sanctions). This mixed force suddenly attacked two Tverche tribes that came to drive away the Crandy small tribe on the east coast, killing and wounding more than 300 enemy troops in one fell swoop, and capturing more than 1,000 men, women, young and old. The captured Indians have been sent to the outside of Qingniwa Fort, supervised by local patrolmen and Patagoni foremen, and began to level the foundation and build the railway.

As for the local residents, of course, they built reservoirs in the Qingniwa area (built with natural wetlands) to open up wastelands. The residents have reclaimed some fertile and wet land on the edge of the wetlands, and have planted alfalfa modified soil in advance. Don’t underestimate the development speed of Qingniwa Fort. This midway node town of the Southern Cone Railway has been connected by the railway and the Montenegro coal mine and the Araucan Port, which is destined to develop faster and faster in the future. Li Dayan believes in this!

After taking out a dry towel and wiping his feet, Li Dayan put on his shoes and walked towards the township government surrounded by his followers. When he first arrived at this settlement, he heard something that interested him: Since a considerable number of the first batch of immigrants in the local area came from Guanhaiwei and Cixi County, Ningbo Prefecture, Zhejiang, the newly arrived Zhejiang immigrants proposed a plan to build Qingniwa into a beautiful "Shangshangjiangnan" under the agitation of the energetic young cadres of the Corps Fort. They will dig ditches here.
Chapter completed!