Just as Earl of Sebastian, Huang Hanhua and He Yuan were discussing the situation in the Pampa Plain and Spain, far outside the city of Buenos Aires on the other end of the Yanbu Railway, Chen Jiazheng, director of the Yanbu Railway Preparatory Command, had a conversation with Meng Xiaohu who had returned from the survey.

"I heard that the Spaniards collapsed in the Old Continent, and the ten southern Netherlands provinces were occupied by the French and six provinces. Franche Conte and Lorraine were also divided into white land by the French and German coalition forces. Sicily is still in a tug of war. The French army has not been driven away, and the local nobles have ulterior motives. Oh, by the way, their Pyrenees defense line is almost impossible to defend. After throwing away Roussillon and other places, Catalonia and other places are not safe, and the situation is very critical." After lighting a cigarette for Meng Xiaohu with a match, Chen Jia said with a smile.

Their current location is Buenos Aires Railway Station - yes, they no longer use commercial stations to cover up, because there is no need - after the surprise construction of Goshkin Construction Company, the main building has been completed, with only some cargo yards left, and warehouses and other annexes are still under construction. Therefore, Chen Jia has moved his command from Yancheng to here in order to receive local supplies and personnel nearby and direct railway construction - of course, he also set up an office in Yancheng and sent Deli's subordinates to supervise it. After all, Yancheng County is currently the only area where railway tracks are laid.

"If it's not critical, how can you take advantage of the situation and robbery?" Meng Xiaohu was breathing mist, looking at the busy Russian construction workers outside the window, and said, "Actually, this is pretty good. We are a civilized country, at least we won't do that too much. What I'm more worried about is that if the Spanish King Carlos died and a war broke out, I don't know how many places will be white and how many people will be buried in the war."

Chen Jia couldn't stand it when he heard Meng Xiaohu's remarks like "Holy Mother". Moreover, they were of different origins after all, so he couldn't openly argue with each other over some issues, so he brought the topic to other places: "Ah, by the way, Teacher Meng, I vaguely heard that the newly-adulted king of Spain, Carlos II, would not be able to give birth to children. This is troublesome, and war may be inevitable."

"Who said no?" Meng Xiaohu frowned even deeper after hearing this. After sighing, he said, "I'm afraid the Executive Committee's masters also realized this problem. How can I say it? I'll just talk about it as a rumor. Don't take it seriously, let alone talk about it. I heard that the Ministry of Health intends to send an expert team to Spain secretly to take a boat to see King Carlos to see if it can regain its strength. After all, our Chinese civilization has a long history and there are many rare ancient gadgets. This new continent in the south also produces some rare grasses, which may not be impossible to achieve results."

Chen Jia almost laughed when he heard this, but finally he held it back. He thought to himself that the lives of European nobles have been decaying since the Middle Ages, and some magical potions or pills are not lacking, and the means may not be bad. They still have no choice but to do so, so there may be no choice. This is fate, and we must accept it. However, the above are all rumors and may not be true. The Madrid court has always denied this matter. This can be seen from the fact that they actively recruited King Carlos's wife. Perhaps His Majesty's illness has been cured or greatly improved? These are all things that are difficult to say.

"But everything must be prepared for both hands, and we cannot pin our hopes on one thing. Now, the officials of the Executive Committee have also begun to reform the tax system. To put it bluntly, isn't it for making more money? And where does the extra money be used? At least part of it is clearly used for the army! To be more precise, it is used for the navy. The Executive Committee's game of chess is very big, and I'm afraid it's not for preparing for the possible future war of inheritance of the Spanish throne." Meng Xiaohu said again: "When it comes, we will definitely strive to protect Spain. Maintaining the status quo is our greatest interest. Once France or Austria annexes, everything will be over, so we will definitely send troops at that time, unless someone can fully meet our interests. I just hope that this day will come later, and there will be fewer casualties in the people."

Chen Jia also agreed with Meng Xiaohu's words. Spain is a forbidden body on the east coast, so it is not too much for others to get involved. If the French or Austrians are not tactful, then the equipment is gradually being updated. The navy that has added new ships will teach them to be human beings! Of course, no one knows what the future situation of King Carlos will be. Maybe he will die suddenly tomorrow, maybe he can live to the age of sixty or seventy, maybe there are no descendants, maybe there are several descendants, who can say this accurately? Let's be more concerned about the present and do your own work well. It's too far away to talk about it later.

Meng Xiaohu and Chen Jia then talked about the construction of the Yanbu Railway, such as the route choice, and then had lunch together before they dispersed. After leaving Chen Jia's preparation headquarters, Meng Xiaohu first went back to his camp to arrange work, then called his guard captain Inigo, and asked him to take a few elite cadres to go to Buenos Aires with him, intending to discuss with Constantine de Owando, the top chief of Spain and the president of the Procuratorate Court, on the final route choice of the Yanbu Railway. If both sides have no objection to the route, the matter can basically be settled, and both parties can also sign and sign the attachment to the agreement to completely complete the matter.

However, when he visited the office of Ovando in the city, he was told that General Ovando (or the president) had left Buenos Aires and went to the countryside manor to recuperate because he was seriously ill and was extremely uncomfortable and could no longer perform his duties. Moreover, the most important thing was that he had sent a messenger to Lima a week ago and asked His Excellency the Governor of Peru to resign from General La Plata and President of the Prosecutorial Court of Buenos Aires, because he admitted that he was mediocre in the incident where the 5,000 troops on the Pampa Plain last year, which made the kingdom lose face and was no longer qualified to continue working, so he resigned resolutely.

Meng Xiaohu was also very shocked when he heard the news and sighed. General Owando knew that he had been working hard to run La Plata for many years, and at the same time he was careful to deal with the East Coast people, doing everything possible to avoid conflicts with the East Coast people, so as to avoid interrupting the construction of La Plata. He was once criticized by the conservative nobles and priests, and secretly ridiculed by the East Coast people. However, now it seems that after the matter of the Pampa Plain was a foregone conclusion, this person actually resigned from this senior position in the Peru Governor's District. It seems that he was really discouraged and did not want to do it anymore. This made Meng Xiaohu feel sympathy again and felt very sad.

The same sick person may also be the Spanish ambassador to the East Coast. The man's reputation is probably ruined now. He signed a boundary Exploration Treaty with the East Coast people. This stain cannot be washed away no matter how he was. Even though he was ordered by his superiors, he would definitely be "seen to another eye" in the aristocratic circle. There is no doubt about this. Meng Xiaohu vaguely heard that this man planned to resign from his position as ambassador after finishing his work (in fact, he could not continue to do it without resigning) and returned to his hometown in Iberia.

The territory, relying on the wealth accumulated over the years, purchasing machines, operating industry, and teaching the Hidalgos in Spain with practical actions, not donating their wealth to the church anymore, but doing something meaningful, such as developing industry, because this may make the declining Spain rejuvenate. After being bullied by the East Coast people for so many years, the Castiles with a glorious history should learn some of the advantages of the East Coast people. This is the most important idea of ​​the Earl of Sebastian.

Meng Xiaohu was not good at evading whether Earl Sebastian's move was good or bad. He could only analyze from an economic perspective. At this time, the Spanish Kingdom had a very poor operating environment, and the possibility of investment wasted is not small. It is really hard to say whether the road to saving the country could be achieved through industry. However, even from the most pessimistic perspective, even if Earl Sebastian's industry was best lost, it could at least leave a little positive spark for the conservative Castilla, although I don't know how long this spark can exist.

After Owando and Sebastian left their posts at the same time, it would inevitably lead to the Yanbu Railway boundary survey and postponement of the contract contract, which made Meng Xiaohu a little annoyed. After all, he had been in this place for too long and could not continue to stay here, so what he had always thought about was to finish the matter quickly, but it was obviously not possible now.

After leaving the office of the president of the prosecution court with great concern, Meng Xiaohu, under Inigor's escort, braved the rising snow, returned to the camp of the expedition team, a rented Spanish manor. Surprisingly, they met Alvarez Rodriguez, who had just returned from Nancun Harbor near the manor, and immediately started chatting.

Speaking of which, the Rodriguez family has really "struggled" in the past few decades. In the early years, they traded with the East Coast, developed very quickly, and made a lot of money. Later, the East-West War broke out and they were affected. Under the pressure of the Spanish colonial government and the church, they cut off trade with the East Coast people for a long time. They once disappeared from the list of important foreign agents of the East Coast Trade Ministry, just like the Almeida family back then.

However, later, they could not bear it anymore and began to contact the East Coast and gradually restored a certain amount of trade. In particular, they cooperated with Zhao Ke in Baoyi County, Hejian area to supply large quantities of specialty goods such as tallow and cowhide, importing various East Coast industrial products and daily necessities. The scale of business grew stronger and gradually recovered and exceeded the previous scale. This was why they re-listed in the foreign business list of the East Coast Trade Ministry and obtained a certain degree of discount (mainly due to bank credit convenience).

Now, Alvarez, the head of the Rodriguez family, has seen it clearly. In the face of the increasingly powerful East Coast people, neither Hidalgo nor the church forces, they had no good solutions, and they could only give in step by step. Therefore, he decisively adjusted his family's strategy and focused on the trade with the East. After years of development, he used their family's pretty good distribution network and personal connection network in La Plata, and once again became the number one trader for East Coast goods, and had a great influence among the Creoles.

For such a native white elite family, the General Administration of Intelligence of the East Coast will definitely not miss the opportunity to infiltrate and win over. This is true, with their persistent efforts for many years, the relationship between the Rodriguez family and the East Coast is now inseparable and inseparable. Much of the intelligence of the East Coast government comes from the first-hand information of the family. Many things that are inconvenient to do will also be handled by the Rodriguez family. It is still very important - according to the words of some intelligence officials in the East Coast, it may be too much to say that Alvarez Rodriguez is a "Western traitor", but if they are punished with a crime of damaging the interests of the Spanish Kingdom and being familiar with foreign countries, it cannot be said that they have wronged them. This shows that.

Meng Xiaohu and Alvarez had several encounters, but their relationship was not very deep, so the conversation between the two was mostly polite and general. Through his conversation, Meng Xiaohu also learned that in addition to providing food and building materials to the East Coast construction team near Buenos Aires, the Rodriguez family has put more energy on the west, that is, agents of East Coast goods and sells them to the densely populated Santa Fe in the west.

Dova, Larioja, Tucumman, Jujuyi, Salta and other places. Even the mule and horse caravans leading to Potosi, the core city of the northern Chalkas Procuratorate District, are many second-level agents under the Rodriguez family. They transport various East Coast hardware products, medicines, cloths, leather goods, weapons and other goods to Chalkas, which is rich in silver, and then transport a large number of silver ingots, tin ingots, cinchona frost and other goods. The business is really amazing.
Chapter completed!