"The application was rejected, Mr. Goshkin, it's a pity." In the Baoyi County Government Office, the county magistrate Zhao Ke asked the secretary to make a pot of tea for the two of them, then spread his hands, and said helplessly: "It's a sensitive period, and it's really too difficult to apply for the purchase of such heavy machinery. So, I will purchase steam plows, horse-drawn rollers, steam crushers, steam pumps and some small machinery with 7.5 horsepower in the name of the county agricultural bureau. This will quickly evade the review and prevent the project from being shut down for too long. What do you think?"

"That's all, County Magistrate Zhao." Goshkin sighed, understanding that at this critical moment, the superiors would not risk approval of the sale of construction machinery. If they want to blame, blame the English for the spy case. Although Goshkin has been naturalized in the East Coast, he has a lot of non-national labor workers. If there are some spies hidden in it, who will take responsibility? Besides, from some unspeakable perspectives, Goshkin is a former Russian who has been naturalized for a short time, so it's not easy to forget it. At this moment when the news is relatively tight, he is still vaguely guarded. Whether it is the superior authorities or Zhao Ke and Goshkin who are sitting here, they understand this very well, but they just won't say it out.

The reason why Goshkin wanted to buy these machinery was mainly because Goshkin Construction Company, which had just finished the Iguazu County project, took over part of the construction project of the Baoyi River embankment. This undoubtedly requires the help of some engineering machinery, otherwise the cost will increase sharply, which is not good news for the Baoyi County Government and Goshkin Construction Company.

As a county chief, Zhao Ke was also the party who invited Goshkin Construction Company to take over the project. He had been trying to find a way to help their company purchase these steam machinery, and he had already made some initial predictions. But who would have thought that a major spy case broke out a few days ago, and the sensitive steam machinery project was completely frozen and waiting for the Mei agency to review. The machinery ordered by Goshkin Construction Company also belongs to this. It is currently stopping on the Daxing Port Wharf and is in the wind and sun. I don’t know when the inspection will be completed. If the delay is too long, how can I know that after the review is passed, what is no longer a pair of broken copper and iron. The most tragic thing is that Goshkin has paid the full payment for these machinery.

Now Zhao Ke plans to purchase some steam construction machinery in the name of the county agricultural bureau and the transportation bureau to avoid the qualification review of sensitive enterprises. It is a way to say that. In the absence of a better solution, Goshkin also recognized it. However, Baoyi County has no budget to buy these things. The money for buying machines is still required to pay for Goshkin. The method is to lend it to Baoyi County Agricultural Bureau in the name of interest-free loans. After the purchased machines are obtained, it will rent them to Goshkin Construction Company at a symbolic price to avoid the policy obstacles formulated by the superiors.

To be honest, it is very difficult for Zhao Keken to do this, because it is equivalent to using his political future to guarantee Goshkin Construction Company, guaranteeing that they will not have any spy cases during the construction period. Goshkin is naturally very grateful for this, thinking about making all the foremen under his command cheer up, and to guard against the foremen in the coming days, and must not cause any trouble. Of course, his job must be done well. The Baoyi River embankment is a project that the county has finally raised funds. At the same time, it was started by borrowing the Dongfeng of the National Parana River Basin Comprehensive Remediation Project (the legendary "15 million central investment in 50 years"). There is indeed no mistake.

Of course, with the source of the labor workers of Goshkin Construction Company, it is basically impossible to have any spy cases. This probability is too low, because the main component of the non-national labor workers under his command is that the Russians are not necessarily Russians, but they mainly come from the Russian Empire. In the eyes of Goshkin, he can mess up anything except doing physical work like animals! If you want them to be spies, you are simply too low on the qualities required for the profession of spies and their abilities!

In addition, Russia itself does not have the ability to send spies to steal theft technology, and the technical level of the East Coast is a bit high for them, which is not very suitable, because they have not even played the most basic things yet. Haven’t you seen that the Russians have been recruiting second and third-rate European craftsmen through Dutch merchants and English merchants to help them improve Russia’s poor industrial strength, but because the foundation is not solid, the progress has been limited over the years. But if you haven’t played with such a superficial thing, do you want to learn the steam engine technology of the East Coast, chemical dye industry, railway locomotives, and 200-ton hydraulic press? You can’t even play with brick and tile kilns, right? So, for non-national labor workers from Russia, the East Coast people are more at ease, because the probability of spies is not high, but you still have to be guarded against, there is no doubt about this!

Speaking of which, with the strengthening of local control by the Russian Empire and the continuous outbreak of complaints in some northern provinces, some Russians wanted to visit their relatives in prisons, but were told by the warden that their relatives were dead or simply ignored them. Refusing to visit them made the bureaucratic system of the Russian Empire finally start to move, strengthen local control, and severely investigate and punish some reselling people, causing some wardens who did too much to be imprisoned. These policy changes undoubtedly gave Goshkin Construction Company a heavy blow, reducing their ability to recruit immigrants a lot, and the number of labor workers under it also showed a significant downward trend (after all, many people are turned into regular every year), which is a headache.

You should know that in the construction industry of the East Coast Republic, in addition to sufficient funds, the amount of manpower is also an important manifestation of strength. Originally, Goshkin relied on a large number of people and power in the competition with Battino and Mendes, and the capital was not very outstanding. Now the scale of its labor force is actually showing a downward trend. How can this not make Goshkin worry? How can he undertake projects in the long run!

In order to reverse this passive situation, Goshkin sent a large number of people back to Russia and tried to re-establish relations with money, he also cooperated with institutions such as the General Administration of Intelligence on the East Coast, sending capable personnel to go deep into the grasslands of the Don River Basin with intelligence personnel on the East Coast, trying to contact the Racine Uprising troops who are currently fighting there to see if there is any advantage to take. By the way, he also caused some population to return to the East Coast to be in chaos in the local order. There are many immigrants who are willing to leave, not to mention that life there is already hard, and most of the people are descendants of Mongols and are often exploited by Russians. There should be many people willing to leave.

The basis for the implementation of this plan is that the troops of the Racine uprising have been galloping around the local area and defeated the local Tsarist Russian troops who came to encircle and suppress it many times. Otherwise, if the local order was complete and the Tsar's rule was strict (of course, the Tsar's rule had not been very strict since the first day of conquest). How could you go deeper without being known to the Russians?

However, the plan of the people on the east coast to penetrate deep into the middle and upper reaches of the Don River seems to have suffered a little setback, because the first group of people they sent out has not been heard back for a long time, and they almost never return. The person in charge of the State Administration of Information stationed in Haji Port has reason to believe that these people may have unfortunately died in the Don River Basin. After all, the local situation is chaotic, there are many horse bandits, and various people are fighting again. Their group is unfamiliar with the place, and the probability of accidents is not low.

Goshkin was also very sad about this, because among the people who had lost contact, there was a young translator who was the son of his cousin. This time, it was probably unexpected. However, Goshkin didn't have much time to grieve because the people from the State Intelligence Administration were not very satisfied with the previous operation. It is said that these people were planning a second operation and would select fifty elite soldiers from the more than 400 guards in the Haji Port. In addition, fifty good players will be recruited from nearby Tatar gathering places, and then gather a 100-strong escort force. They planned to escort a new group of personnel from the State Intelligence Administration and the guides and translators sent by Goshkin to go deep into the Don River Basin for the second time, looking for the legendary Racine uprising troops that were fighting in the local area and contacting them.

Goshkin was also helpless about the second operation of the State Intelligence Administration, but he could only keep up with it, otherwise he would be very sad in the future. Now, Goshkin only hopes that their luck is good enough to avoid all the forces and numerous bandits along the way, and successfully meet Racine himself, and then establish a solid connection to gain enough benefits from this peasant uprising that swept across southern Russia. By the way, as an important participant in this operation and an insider, it is best that Goshkin Construction Company can obtain a part of its population from it to supplement their smaller and smaller construction troops, but these are funerals. At least so far, Goshkin found that his company can only rely on the crooked melons and cracks at hand to continue to undertake projects, such as the Baoyi River embankment construction project that he had obtained steadily this time.

The projects obtained together with the Baoyi River embankment also have some affiliated housing construction projects, but this is not Baoyi County, but the exclusive project of the Ministry of Water Resources, and the funds were allocated by the water conservancy department. It is worth mentioning that the construction of the Ministry of Water Resources project this time will be the first time in history that the East Coast has introduced large cast iron parts into the engineering construction field, such as columns, beams, window frames, etc. The reason for this is mainly for fire prevention. In addition, the price of iron products is indeed relatively cheap on the East Coast today, and cast iron parts can also be made of many decorative objects of different styles. Compared with stone carvings, although there is a lack of aesthetics, it is better because of the large quantity. After all, not everyone can afford a stonemason to carve window lattice at home. Cast iron parts have begun to replace some wooden structures, which may reflect the many choices of people in the East Coast in building materials.

"You also know the Baoyi River embankment project, including the embankment itself, some annexes, and a few tributaries and scattered water guide wall projects." Zhao Ke, who was sitting behind the desk made of Acacia Mu, looked at Goshkin and said in a deep voice: "You have done a lot of the first two and know them very well. I think it is necessary to talk to you carefully about the water guide wall behind..."

Speaking of the Baoyi River (Paranaguazu River) is one of the main streams in the lower reaches of the Parana River. The water volume, riverbed width and depth are naturally suitable, and large ships can also be used for navigation. However, for some nearby tributaries, the situation is much more complicated. Some are OK, some are not OK, and they must be dredged or even water guide walls are built. For example, the several projects obtained by Goszkin Construction Company are.

The so-called water guide wall refers to the stone wall built on both sides of the estuary. Its function is to concentrate water flows and deepen river roads, so that ships with deeper drafts can pass through. It has a great effect for the shipping industry, especially in the season when the water volume is not abundant. Building a water guide wall is also a troublesome. First, you need to wait until the dry season to divert or cut off the small amount of water flowing in the riverbed, and then use steam to plow the dry sand at the bottom of the river to deepen and widen this section of the river, and then build stones on this basis.

The wall and project volume are actually quite large. As for some shallows covered by river water or rivers with large amounts of water that cannot be cut off, equipment can only be installed on the spot. For example, installing a manual winch on the river bank to drive a special rake or plow, and then the loose mud will gradually be taken away by the river water. Of course, you can also rent a steam dredger, but not to mention how difficult it is to rent such a ship, just talk about the situation at the bottom of the river, it is not suitable to use a dredger, and you can only use the above stupid methods.

So, we saw that the water guide wall project undertaken by Geshijin Construction Company actually includes dredging and silt tasks for the attached river section and the transportation of the cleaned silt (of course, these silts can be sold to local farmers or transported by themselves, and people should be moved). Otherwise, why do you think the budget given by this project is so high? Are the Baoyi County Government, the Regional Administration, and the Ministry of Water Resources all over with full food?

Through these projects, we can also see from a glance how much energy the East Coast Republic of China has invested in the construction of water conservancy facilities in the Xinde Hejian area. In 50 years, 15 million central investment, as well as the investments of local governments, and the manes and cofferdams built by private people themselves, the capital has been soaring. It can be imagined that when the investments of these water conservancy facilities begin to show results in fifty years, the Hejian area, which has become a land of fish and rice, has the convenience brought by the developed shipping industry. It is difficult to remember the economy, and its potential may not be much worse than the East Coast grassland. (To be continued.)
Chapter completed!