In this cool and cool autumn, Yicheng District Commissioner Qiu Haiyang and Xiao Jingzong, who was promoted to Yicheng County Mayor, parted ways in Huatai Township, and each went to a local inspection work. Xiao Jingzong wanted to go to some places in Huatai Township to see the local agricultural development situation, and to learn about the recent losses in the conflict between the local and Tongjia blacks. This is also the most concerned thing for the county government today, because the "need for land and not people" policy of the East Coast people was destined to have no space for peaceful coexistence with the indigenous people from the beginning.

Speaking of this, it is also necessary to mention that Yicheng County, a county established at the beginning of this month (April), has four townships, Yicheng Town, Sanyuanli Township, Lingchang Township and Huatai Township, with more than 9,800 residents, among which the exiled Tupi people, Guarani people, and non-nationals who have become regular non-nationals account for one-third. If we include the same large number of Sakarava people in the county (they have not yet obtained national qualifications, and there is a lot of controversy about whether to accept them in the local area), the population of the 63rd county-level administrative unit in the country will probably have to go to another level.

Although the population has increased, strictly speaking, the establishment of Yicheng County is actually a problem, because its economic level is still a bit low and not very qualified. If it weren't for some veteran cadres helping Xiao Jingzong and Qiu Haiyang to act, the establishment of Yicheng County would have to be postponed for about two years. The economy here is really bad. Until now, there are some problems with food self-sufficiency, so I have to ask New Huaxia Island for a long time. Now, the new official Xiao Jingzong needs to solve the first problem, probably the problem of agricultural production, and the second is the transportation problem (the second-class national highway leading to the Chenggao Township area). However, this seems not to be solved in a short time.

After Qiu Haiyang and Xiao Jingzong parted in Huatai Township, the Commissioner, surrounded by a large number of followers, headed west along the Yicheng Second-Class National Highway toward the direction of the Lanzao Township. Their team was walking very slowly, mainly to see how the construction progress of this crucial highway was. Of course, Qiu Haiyang was already mentally prepared, because the regional administration allocated only more than 40,000 yuan in funds and some building materials for this highway, which was pitifully small. To be honest, it helped the most.

The New China Development Team Government may also be the government, because the thousands of Malays they sent here really solved the labor troubles. You must know that at the moment when the grain in Yicheng area cannot be completely self-contained, Qiu Haiyang wishes to devote everyone to the countryside to build reservoirs, dig canals, and open wastelands. But on the other hand, he wants to enter the inland Chenggao Township area and develop local mining resources. Therefore, if there is no external subsidies and assistance, the nonsense of the industry and mining industry before it is done, it will naturally not be able to continue.

However, now it seems that even with the continuous assistance from the outside world, the weak family in Yicheng area still cannot fully support Qiu Haiyang's ambitions. This can be seen from the extremely slow construction progress of Yicheng Second-Class National Highway. As of the end of April, basically, each settlement was only part of it, and it was still early to be connected to the entire line. Among them, the fastest ones may be Yicheng Town (actually a deep-water river port in the western suburb of Yicheng Town, namely the later Matola Port) to Huatai Township. The journey of about 30 kilometers has been continuously repaired one after another, and the remaining part has been roughly rectified, which is about several months before completion. Therefore, during the journey from the county town to Huatai Township, Qiu Haiyang and Xiao Jingzong both rode large four-wheeled carriages. This kind of carriage is relatively stable on the rough stone road, at least it is more comfortable than riding a horse, right?

Except for this section that is well-built, the other sections are simply messy and there is no hope of completion in the short term. For example, the 55-kilometer journey of the sash-Taiwan-Zhuzao section is only less than ten kilometers, which is very cold; but this is actually quite good. The 35-kilometer journey of the sash-Guancheng section is about 35 kilometers, because it is located in the Lubangbo Mountain District, and it is good that the completion mileage of 3.5 kilometers is good. Whether it is the government of the Lanzao Township or the Guancheng, they have not worked hard on this matter at all, because their top priority now is to support themselves, and everything else is secondary, not to mention that they are facing many military security threats.

The last section of Guancheng-Chenggao section is similar, but because the local township chief Wang Wei attaches great importance to it and is also on the flat ground, it has only been built a little more. However, it is only seven or eight kilometers long, accounting for only one-quarter of the total mileage of the 32 kilometers of the section, which is pitifully short.

To sum up, the so-called Yicheng Second-Class National Highway has a total design mileage of 152 kilometers, and it is only about one-third of the completed one-third. If you want to complete it all, you still don’t know that it will be the year of the Monkey and Horse Month. This has made Qiu Haiyang, a commissioner of the Regional Administration, very worried. You must know that he regards this second-Class National Highway connecting the inland coal-producing areas (also in good conditions) as a pre-equipment facility for the future Yicheng Railway. If this road cannot be opened to traffic as scheduled, how should a large amount of railway equipment, labor tools, materials and food be transported in? This railway is suitable to be truly opened to traffic? Therefore, Commissioner Qiu Haiyang is really anxious now.

Of course, some people may denounce Qiu Haiyang for being very fond of merit, which is the so-called "advanced development" and like to develop "political achievement projects" regardless of reality, because now, except for the navy that has a lot of demand for high-quality white coal, almost no other units or enterprises in the east coast have too much demand for this kind of coal. You must know that the inferior coal produced locally is not unusable. The steam engine can even burn firewood, let alone coal?

Besides, the coal produced by local Heijin Coal Mine and Heishui Coal Mine is still well-known. Although the output of Tacheng Coal Mine in Xinhua Island has reached its peak and the transportation distance is relatively long, the coal is of good quality and has occupied a certain market share in the local area. Therefore, the competition is so fierce and the market demand is so low. Qiu Haiyang is still thinking about building the railway to the inland coal mine area. He is really confused. He can be said to have completely ignored the cruel reality that even agricultural and sideline products in Yicheng area cannot be completely self-sufficient in agricultural and sideline products. If this is not a great success, then what is a great success? With the current situation in Yicheng area, this railway has no possibility of recovering investment for a period of time.

Of course, it is impossible for Qiu Haiyang to know these open and secret criticisms, but he still insisted on carrying out such projects. He also relied on the privilege of intercepting immigration in the Yicheng area of ​​the Central Government, and repeatedly asked for materials and assistance from the Hezhong area and the New China Development Team, which made the officials in the two places feel helpless. At the same time, they were also complaining in their hearts how much this guy wants to achieve political achievements? But there is no way. Qiu Haiyang is too tough in the backstage and has a big background. The superior has clearly stated that he should try his best to take care of the Yicheng area. So what else can the two landlords say? Help within their ability, and see what that guy who is so happy about can do.

At this time, Qiu Haiyang and his group had passed Huatai Township. Apart from the hundreds of meters of gravel road left, the rest was endless wilderness. Weeds, shrubs, ruts, watery pits were dotted on a vague road, and there was nothing else. Even animals were too lazy to get close to this area where horses were often sluggish. It was really desolate.

"For such a large land, even a village can't be seen in the wild. Tongjia people don't know how to develop and waste natural resources. How can we waste the East Coast people? Alas, there is still insufficient money and people. Otherwise, a large number of immigrants will be transported, the houses are built, the reservoirs are repaired, the ditches are dug, the roads and railways are built, and the weather in the wild will be different." Qiu Haiyang rode on the horse, put on a pergola in his hand and looked forward, murmured to himself: "The crux of everything now lies in money! With money, more immigrants can be intercepted, more troops can be raised, and more militias can be trained. The development speed is not the same as now. Where can I make money? The high-quality white coal in the inland hinterland can be exchanged for a little money.

, but not enough! Could it be that I would develop gold mines in the west mountain? I heard from Wang Zhijie's expedition team that exchanged gold from the natives for dog heads, which was obviously picked up, but the specific location was unknown, which is a bit regrettable. And I heard that there was still sand gold in those rivers. When the early trade was not cut off, the natives also used this thing to exchange daily necessities. This was definitely washed down from the upstream area. There must be gold mines in the high areas of the upstream, but I don't know where it is, what is the reserves, and whether it is convenient to develop, it all requires sending people to explore step by step. Of course, before that, road construction is the basis of everything, and only when the road leads to the Swazi territory can we talk about the next step."

In the planning of Qiu Haiyang, the commissioner of the Yicheng Regional Administration, the core of the Swazi region in the future is the location of the coal mine in the future, if any, and all transportation facilities should be designed and built around it. Although the East Coast people do not have detailed information on the later Swaziland economy, in terms of vague impression, after World War II, Swaziland's main export commodities were meat products, coal, asbestos, wood, pulp, sugar and iron ore (up to millions of tons per year), and the secondary export commodities were cotton, tobacco, fruits, livestock, wool, leather, etc. In addition, some gold, aluminum minerals, and mineral salt exports were exports, but the total amount was not very large.

Qiu Haiyang naturally learned about this export structure from secret channels. After years of experience in power here, he did find that this is in line with the real geography, that is, the Swaziland region should also develop in this way. In addition to a slight difference, the Yicheng region may establish an industrial system before South Africa, which has not yet developed, so that it will have a considerable first-mover advantage. It is very likely to suppress the development of the eastern half of South Africa in the future and make it its own raw material supply and commodity dumping place.

The prerequisites for all this depend on whether the Yicheng Second-Class National Highway and the future Yicheng Railway can be completed as scheduled! Once the railway trunk line is completed, all export goods from the entire Swazi region can be transported to Yicheng Port, which is the best-in-class port on the entire Indian Ocean west coast, and then transported from here to other places to sell it in later Swaziland. After the completion of the railway to Maputo, Swaziland exported 2.6 million tons of cargo through this trunk line, most of which were iron ore (coal was exported less because it could not compete with the coal industry group in South Africa). This shows the key role of this railway.

At present, Qiu Haiyang has submitted an application for additional funds to accelerate the completion of Yicheng Second Class National Highway. I don’t know how the superiors will approve it, but I hope it can be passed. After the construction of Yicheng Second Class National Highway is completed, the construction of Yicheng Railway can also be included in the agenda. However, in the current environment of reducing or even stopping railway investment, whether he can turn the tide can be achieved enough support from the Executive Committee now seems to be quite difficult, and this is exactly what Qiu Haiyang himself is worried about.

After thinking about it, his best ally is probably the Navy, and there is no one else. Well, maybe the Immigration Department is also half of his ally, because once this coal with a high burning calorific value is stored in large quantities in various ports on the east coast, the amount of coal needed to carry by the immigrant ship will be greatly reduced, which will undoubtedly allow their ships to carry more cargo (on the trip) and population (on the trip). This is somewhat beneficial, but I don’t know if the Immigration Department will appreciate it.

"The road is long and arduous..." Qiu Haiyang sighed softly, and then led his followers to run carefully on the grass with a very bad road condition, especially after a rain, it took more than two days to arrive at Chenggao Township, the westmost part of the township government compound.

Today is April 30, 1666. The autumn grain in the fields has almost been harvested. Chenggao Township had just received a large number of corn and cured meat transported from Yicheng Port. At this time, the fields have harvested a lot of sorghum, potatoes, alfalfa and other crops. It was the time for the abundant food and grass. Qiu Haiyang estimated that this time, he could almost summon all the militias in Chenggao Township to distribute weapons. The 400 army led by Mao Jun and Tang Moyu were about to go on a battle to harass several hostile Swazi clans. These militias were just staying at home to defend the city.
Chapter completed!