A gunshot sounded, and a sound came from the woods in the distance, and then it became quiet.》A commander with a saber sent someone to search, but found nothing, and ordered to continue moving forward.

"Secretary Chen, don't worry. In fact, there have been much fewer attacks recently. The local Guarani barbarians have not been able to complete the climate. If it weren't for this incident today, I would even think they were all dead." An active second lieutenant officer of the Army explained, "To be honest, I don't think these attackers are targeting us today. Maybe they were just hungry in the mountains and forests and stole sweet potatoes, and they ran away after we found out."

"Haha." Chen Ke smiled when he heard this, "Our army is still very brave. The Xinbo River (the name of Italian labor workers who developed this place has been adopted by the Ministry of Geology) has been almost wiped out after four years. It is not bad, and it is worthy of being the country's cavalry."

It is said that since Xu Xin invited a large number of Italian investors to conduct field inspections in 1654, in order to improve the local investment environment, the Army Department, under the instruction of the Executive Committee, mobilized nearly 10,000 militias from various southern counties to go north to clear out the natives in the next four years in the slack season every winter. The results were great. Not only did they grab a large amount of developed farmland, livestock and food, but they also obtained a large amount of labor. Of course, these Guarani laborers died one after another in the next few years due to their physical fitness, work intensity and disease resistance. They became a country for construction.

The farmland that was stolen will naturally not be given to the Italian laborers who came here to develop. This is allocated to the newly arrived Ming people immigrants. The livestock will be uniformly allocated to the Northwest Reclamation Bank, and the bank will lend it to the new farmers to support them to resume agricultural production as soon as possible and take root completely.

"Chief Chen, in fact, it's ashamed to say that our army has to mobilize tens of thousands of militias to carry out a dragnet-style clearance every year after autumn. But over the years, the most killing of the enemy is not the bullets of our army. It's the disease and the famine caused by displacedness. These two are the main reasons for the sharp decline in the population of the natives and the almost completely extinction." The second lieutenant officer was really an honest man. After Chen Ke praised them, he waved his hand and expressed his embarrassment to take credit. This made Chen Ke almost laugh.

After experiencing this little episode, there was no more trouble along the way. The group successfully arrived at Banqiao Township, located south of the town of Restinga Seka in later generations, on the north bank of the Xinbo River (named for a wooden board bridge across the Xinbo River). This Banqiao Township is a newly established town with farmers on the east bank and implementing a small-scale farming system. From here, it is up to ten kilometers east along the river. It is a series of logging sites and the logging process has been completed. The farmland that was difficult to develop on the forest was the territory of the forest development company. They obtained the right to operate the land from the East Coast government for 30-50 years (there is a priority renewal right after the expiration), and then transported a large number of labor from the old mainland, purchased a large amount of materials, and took a lot of time (nearly three years), before finally making the company's colonial and reclamation industry improve, and no longer just spend money in it.

The settlement in Banqiao Township is not established for more than one year, with a population of more than 2,000. Therefore, even if there are some farmland stolen from the Guarani people, the grain in the area is still not self-sufficient. Chen Kelai Banqiao Township, who has been transferred from the Ministry of Agriculture to the head of the National Grain Reserve Depot, was to coordinate the grain distribution plan with the people of the State Development Administration. That is, this year, the Government Council plans to add five settlements in the Jiaohe River Basin, namely Tianliu Township near the small town of Sao Pepe, Hualong Township near San Maria, Zhongying Township near the southern San Pedro, Houying Township near the small town of Sao Gabreel, and Qianying Township, a forefront stronghold located on the plateau (near the small town of Julio de Castillos).

According to the plan, these five settlements will accommodate more than 8,000 new immigrants and 2,000 new generations from the east. Considering the arduous nature of pioneering (the first three years have been relying solely on state subsidies), in order to reduce costs, the State Development Administration plans to purchase and transport grain nearby, which involves the coordination issue with the giant monopoly enterprise of the National Grain Reserve Depot, so Chen Ke went on a business trip to the Jiaohe area.

When purchasing and transporting grain nearby, we naturally cannot avoid the forest development company that has gradually become well-known in the Jiaohe area in the past two years. This company was jointly funded by 13 Italian investors from Genoa, Lucca, Florence, Mantua, Parma and other places. The general manager is Luciano. It mainly engages in forest logging, grain planting and the construction of some transportation facilities in the Jiaohe area (Qingshan Township Wharf, Forest Railway, etc.), and its strength is quite strong.

The reason for the initial establishment of this company is also traced back to mid-1654. Xu Xin, a specialist in Jiaohe District, invited 24 Italian investors to visit the local area. At that time, Xu Xin promised to give these Italians a land management right ranging from 30 to 50 years. In addition, a certain amount of credit support was given, on the condition that Italians must transport materials from the Old Mainland to develop materials. In order to reduce investors' concerns, Xu Xin also signed a premium repurchase clause with the Italians with the authorization of the central government, that is, if Italians see no hope of profit, they can sell them back to the East Coast government at a pre-agreed price (generally a premium of 30-60%). This fully guarantees the interests of investors, so 13 out of 24 people were willing to come to invest, and the forest development company was also officially established in Jiaohe Castle in mid-1655.

The Forest Development Company has been operating for three years and three months since September 1658. It has a total of 19 logging farms, 8 farms, 2 ranches and 1 orchard (under construction). More than 9 million bank lira has been invested successively. More than 6,000 workers from Naples, Sicily and Southern Germany have sent more than 6,000 workers from the Old Mainland (70% men) to work, making great contributions to the development of the Jiaohe area.

There are nearly 5,000 workers in the old continent (tired and more than 1,000 deaths from illness), scattered in Mupai Township, Qingshan Township, and Nanwotou Township (developed from an east coast military post) at the intersection of Jiaohe and Xinbo Rivers. They are constantly logging, clearing up land, grazing, and building roads day and night, and are busy and gradually developing a small piece of this wild land that had been sleeping for thousands of years.

However, if you really want to calculate it carefully, the most important asset under the company's name is undoubtedly two wharfs, namely Qingshan Township Wharf and South Wharf. These two river transport wharfs are connected to Jiaohe Wharf, forming a transportation trunk line that radiates nearly 100 kilometers. Whether it is the Jiaohe Navigation Federation (a guild organization of private boat owners) for a few years or the ships of the state-owned inland river transport company, they are now starting to enter and exit the three wharfs in large quantities, transporting various materials, making these two wharfs already profitable and have very promising prospects. After all, it is certain that the East Coast government will continue to explore the upper reaches of the Xinbo River, which undoubtedly means the long-term prosperity of the local inland river shipping market.

In addition to these two wharfs, there is also a half-laz railway under the name of the Forest Development Company, that is, a forest railway connecting Mupai Township and Qingshan Township, which is no more than 60 kilometers long. Due to the policy of preventing technological outflow, this railway will be responsible for daily operations and management in addition to the construction process. At present, this railway has not been fully opened to traffic for three years, which is also intoxicating. The reason for this is that the Italians have devoted their main energy to building the wharf and opening up farmland along the river. They are not very interested in this railway, which may cost millions of bank lira for the time being.

However, their delayed style made the people on the east coast who had been staring at this railway very anxious, especially the regional commissioner Xu Xin, who sent personnel to urge the Italians to build the forest railway as soon as possible. The Italians could not do anything but could only deal with it, but they would always draw the manpower to the south after a short while. This naturally led to the intermittent construction of the railway. It took about 40 kilometers to be built in three years, and one-third of it was not completed, which was extremely troublesome.

In order to urge the Italians to repair the railway and some branches along the route as soon as possible, Xu Xin has obtained the approval of the Executive Committee and plans to issue a project completion award of more than 150,000 yuan to the Italians (mainly in the form of physical objects such as building materials, which happens to be needed by the Italians), to encourage them to work hard to complete the last 20 kilometers of railway, which is only 2 million lira. It is really boring to delay it. At present, the Italians have verbally agreed to the matter and have begun to draw personnel to go north, striving to complete the forest railway by the end of this year.

To get off the ground, Chen Ke’s major task to come to Jiaohe area this time was to sign a grain purchase contract with the forest development company on behalf of the National Grain Reserve Depot, that is, to purchase part of the grain from the forest development company at a price slightly higher than the market (the Italians are encouraged to continue to develop in depth), and then transport it to Banqiao Liu Township in the west for food for new immigrants to eat. As for the part that is insufficient, it will be allocated by the divisions of Yiling, Dingxi, Shenwu, Taiping and Ping'an counties in the national Grain Reserve Depot, and then transported to Jiaohe River through the inland transport company and the small steamer of the Jiaohe Navigation Federation to the terminals in the Xinbo River, which is very convenient and fast.
Chapter completed!