"The area around Niulan Mountains (Tandillia Mountains) is now gathering more and more people." Zhu Heng rode a group of docile mares with the help of his servants, intending to conduct on-site surveys on the Niulan Mountains. There, a large amount of limestone, marble and quartz stone tightly grasped his heart, making him feel that he was not at ease without looking at it.

Before they set out, they invited the herder of Gao Qiao who lived in Silver Harbor (Mar del Plata) as a guide and promised a generous bounty. As a result, they barely recruited a guide of Gao Qiao who was familiar with the situation there until the day before they set out. Perhaps because they were from the East Coast, they encountered many obstacles in the process of hiring the guide. In the end, only two people were willing to accept the employment. One of them was afraid of being kidnapped or killed halfway; the other one was said to be very timid, because even if he saw an ostrich from afar on the grassland, he would think it was an Indian and escape, but there was no other choice at this time, so he could only use him.

From here to Niulan Mountain, there is only a day trip if you ride a horse. There is no place to rest in the middle. It is all a deserted wilderness. However, for this group, it is not a tourist, so this is not a problem. They changed horses twice in the middle, and then arrived at their destination at Niulan Mountain at three or four o'clock in the afternoon. This is also the name of a spontaneous settlement at the foot of the mountain (located near the city of Barcas, Argentina in later generations).

Niulanshan Township has a small population, with only a few more than 300 people living in it, mainly farmers, butchers, cobblers, winemakers, chefs, blacksmiths, veterinarians, and merchants, and mainly serves cattle catchers who temporarily rest. At present, the East Coast government has not appointed any official to manage it.

When Zhu Heng and others arrived, a market was taking place outside the village, that is, local residents flocked to six or seven caravans, while asking for a price and selecting goods. Not far behind these people, dozens of cattle catchers who were resting here were smoking high-quality Virginia tobacco while pointing at more than a dozen Italian prostitutes posing behind the caravan, and from time to time, a nasty laugh broke out.

On the right side of the caravan, there were rare more than a dozen men in jeans working attentively. Zhu Heng looked carefully and found that these people were probably digging wells. This made him a little confused and relieved. He felt that this place should be the same as Yancheng Port where he had been. Although there was a lot of rainfall, there was a lack of large runoff on the surface, so the precious water disappeared into the grass, bushes and rock cracks. If you want to find them and use them, you naturally had to dig wells. Fortunately, the cost should not be too high, because the groundwater level here is not very low.

"I'm sorry, there is only one hotel here, but it has been taken away by someone. I heard that it was a group of guys who discovered a bison when they first came. I was so lucky. Look, the strong Spaniard with a musket was one of the people who took over the hotel." Guide Gao Qiao pointed to the houses built with broken wooden boards dozens of meters away and said, "I asked, and I heard that the man was named Inigo. He was originally active in the Niuzhuang Port area, but I don't know why he came here suddenly. This man is good at swordsmanship. He has fought three times in just half a month after coming here, but none of them failed. He is also amazing."

When Mr. Zhu Heng looked closely, he saw a man with messy hair, a sword on his waist and a musket on his left shoulder. He was probably what the guide mentioned. Perhaps he was hired by the cattle hunter on the east coast from Mar del Plata. As for the so-called hotel, I'm sorry, Mr. Zhu felt that it would be better to sleep like most people here, like the ones here, and that might be a little more hygienic.

"Will there be an attack from Indians tonight? Zhu Heng once again confirmed to the guide. His entourages have already started to build tents, but Mr. Zhu is used to his usual days and attaches great importance to the threat of Indians, so he asked.

"It shouldn't be too worried, sir." Guide Gao Qiao seemed to think seriously before saying: "In fact, the local Indians originally lived here, with hundreds of people, but they were wiped out half a year ago. I also participated in the battle at that time. I only remember that the large group of riders waved sabers and muskets to rush the Indians into pieces. At the end, many Indian women and children escaped to the mountain. They would rather die than surrender and resisted with stones. In the end... we killed them all!"

"All were killed?!" Mr. Zhu asked in a speechless voice. For people like him who have lived in the core area of ​​the local area for many years, killing some natives is not unacceptable, but he still felt that it was a bit unbearable for catching cattle on Niulan Mountain, even women and children to eradicate roots. Of course, he also knew that in this war for the so-called living space, it was really difficult to avoid the fact that the fight between the two sides was cruel. Thinking back to the Indians who took advantage of the Assumption Day to launch a sudden attack on Spanish settlements and slaughtered all the elderly, weak, women and children, there was no mercy, so Zhu Heng could not blame anyone, but just expressed his surprise appropriately.

"All of them were killed." Guide Gao Qiao turned around and said in a muffled voice while helping to set up the barbecue rack.

Mr. Zhu sighed softly, looked at the Niulan Mountain with the setting sun, and seemed to see countless Indian women and children using stones to make the final desperate counterattack. However, he quickly shook his head, threw these unnecessary emotions out of his head, and then sat on a stool brought by his followers, waiting for supper with peace of mind.

Supper was naturally barbecue. The followers went to the countryside for a walk, and then came back with a few large pieces of beef and half an ostrich leg. Guide Gao Qiao took out a knife to help cut the meat. Because there was a lack of trees, they could only cut some stems of thistle that spread from the north to here to penetrate the meat. Some of them set fires, some prepared spices, and some took out a few cowhide bags filled with wine from under the saddle. In short, they were very busy.

After dinner, there was another fierce quarrel in the city. Guide Gao Qiao seemed to be interested in this kind of gossip. After running over for a while, he came back and said with a smile: "The Inigo clashed with people again. It is said that he was arguing about who first discovered a herd of bison with hundreds of cows that he had captured before. Later, Inigo asked to fight with muskets or swords. As a result, the man who was fighting with him was cowardly and forced to leave here and go to other places nearby."

"Why are there other places nearby? Is it also a settlement like this?" Mr. Zhu Heng was a little surprised, not knowing that the people of the East Coast have expanded so rapidly on the Pampa Plain.

"Of course there is." Guide Gao Qiao said naturally: "And it is said that it was a stronghold established by the people of the East Coast, which is also for the cattle hunters. I have been there once, and it seems to be called Niushou Township (located near the city of Loveria in later generations). There are not many people, and the ones that live in Niulan Mountain all year round are less than half of Niulan Mountain. But the number of cattle seems to be dozens of times that of people, and it is stink all day long. I don't like it there. However, there are many bisons there, so there are still many cattle hunters willing to use it as a base to find traces of bison. Those who set out overnight to gallop south must have gone to Niushou Township, unless they are willing to live in the wild for the next few days."

In fact, in addition to the Niushou Township mentioned by this guide Gao Qiao, there are two other colonial strongholds on the East Coast that have emerged due to the cattle hunting industry. They are Huoniu Township near the later town of Colonel Vidal and Yedianzi Township near the city of Arroyos in Teres. It is already a cattle hunting relay station in the inland area. From this, you can also see the depth of expansion of the East Coast people on the Pampa Plain. It is no wonder that the Spaniards were so anxious that they jumped.

They still clearly remember that when the East Coast people crossed the Wujiang River to reclaim wasteland on the west bank, they were very afraid that the Pampa Plain, which was fertile for thousands of miles, was swallowed by the East Coast people. You know, this place is close to the Patagonian platform controlled by the East Coast people. It is very convenient to penetrate and there is no obstacle. Furthermore, the Spanish have always regarded the bison wandering on the grassland as their own private property. This actually makes sense, because the original source of these bisons was just domestic animals lost by Spanish colonists. As a result, they were willing to catch them or because of lack of manpower, the buffalo caught in the market actually made the shameless East Coast people cross the border and hunt. How can they bear it?

But it seems that they can't do anything, and they can only continue to turn a deaf ear as before. Don't you see, the French have now repaired military stations, roads, hoarded war preparations, and stored weapons in China. The Spanish government is extremely afraid that because the South Netherlands is once again involved in the war with the French, they rely very much on emerging powers like the East Coast Republic of China and dare not offend them at all. Therefore, the people above are so cowardly, are you still counting on how strong and unyielding the people below?

"There are so many settlements, and the Spanish are not moving at all? Ah, I'm sorry, I forgot that you are also a citizen of the Kingdom of Spain." Mr. Zhu Heng looked at the guide awkwardly and said embarrassedly.

"It's okay, they are them, I am me." Guide Gojo, who sounds fluent in Chinese, said indifferently while eating beef: "General Constantine de Ovando, a general of Buenos Aires, seems to be a coward. Many people think that he has in fact indulged your country's cross-border reclamation behavior, and the situation has become worse and worse. However, those people have no actual power, so they can only criticize them for their words. For the supply points of your country's cattle catcher in the inland, I think the only possibility of losing in the future is the attacks from the Indians, not other reasons."

Zhu Heng nodded slightly when he heard this, and said nothing more. Instead, he focused on dealing with the ostrich meat in front of him.

The next day, surrounded by his guide and followers, he rode his horse to the depths of the Niulan Mountains and inspected the local situation on the spot. He found that this place was indeed a treasure house of limestone and marble. The resource reserves were extremely amazing, and the prospects for future development were limitless. The only thing that seemed more troublesome was probably that this place was still dozens of kilometers away from the port terminal. Once the quarry and cement kiln were established in the future, the cost of whether it was the transportation of raw materials or the transportation of other materials would be extremely high. It was necessary to have a large horsepower and a large freight volume of trains, but how could this be possible?

You know, this place is not even local! No way, at that time, you can only build a small-scale quarry first, polish the mined stones and sell them nearby to the cattle catchers, cattle dealers or other merchants who have become rich nearby. There should be certain market demand.

However, Zhu Heng was not sure if any colleagues who operated building materials like him would come to grab business. At least in other industries such as hotels, soap making, leather tanning, shoe boots and other industries, a large number of local investors have started a shirtless competition. There is no reason why there is no competition in the building materials industry, which is unscientific. Therefore, the matter of investing in building a quarry cannot be too delayed, and we must seize the opportunity.

After all, such a mountain range composed of high-quality stones such as limestone, marble, quartz stone is an unparalleled wealth, especially when a giant enterprise like East Coast Building Materials Company has monopolized most of the domestic stone resources. If we cannot take advantage of the favorable situation where the Pampa Plain is not yet local to the East Coast and the state-owned enterprise Dongjian Company is inconvenient to come forward, how can we compete with others in the future? Thinking of this, Zhu Heng decided to recruit non-national labor workers as soon as possible and come to Pampa to build a quarry.
Chapter completed!