"How is Paul doing recently?" Somewhere upstream of the Bian River, Shao Ruping, who had just become the county magistrate of Yinguo County, asked the visitor opposite with a kind expression.

The Bian River is the official name of the Parana River. It was promulgated and confirmed by the Ministry of Geology to commemorate the Song Dynasty in history. After all, the people of the East Coast must be politically correct. In contrast, the broad and vast La Plata River was renamed the Song River to declare the sovereignty of the new land of the East Coast people.

Shao Ru is usually the youngest son of Shao Yaoguang, the current chairman of the Executive Committee. He is just in his early thirties this year. After graduating from the Corps Fort, he first joined the Ministry of Civil Affairs and his grades are pretty good. During this period, because of rumors of having an affair with Anne Korzka, the daughter of the Polish ambassador, his father kicked to Yinguo County, which had just been established in the middle of the Brazilian Plateau as the county magistrate.

There is no doubt that the conditions for Yinguo County, which has a population of less than 10,000, are very difficult. There are no roads or trains here, and transportation depends entirely on the Bian River, which is extremely stressful. But when the Bian River reaches the upper reaches, there are huge drops, rapids and shoals, which pose a great threat to shipping safety.

Not to mention Yinguo County, even in Jiangbei, even in the south, it is very difficult for ships to come. Generally speaking, large ships will definitely not be able to pass. The 150-ton small steamer also comes. Only the 72-ton small steamer with very shallow draft can be carefully sailed for a period of time, and then pass through the locks, lifts, etc., which is very troublesome.

Therefore, the upper reaches of the Bian River are basically sailing in sections. After actually inspecting the hydrological conditions of the upstream, the Ministry of Transport divided the upper reaches of the Bian River into several sections. The navigation conditions between each individual section are quite good. The locks and lifts are used to communicate between the sections, and all efforts are made to utilize the river.

In addition, the Ministry of Water Resources also sent personnel to merge with the Ministry of Transport. Their task is to plan reservoirs and artificial lakes in the upper reaches of the Bian River. The advantage of this is that when the reservoir stores water, some shallows can be artificially submerged to facilitate ship navigation (of course, they will blow up some reefs in the water before this). At the same time, these reservoirs also have the function of regulating flood peaks and irrigating agricultural and animal husbandry land in the two places, which is still very necessary.

There is no doubt that the cost of building such a route and accompanying water conservancy facilities is extremely huge, and even if you put all your efforts into it, the construction cycle will be very long. The Ministry of Water Resources and the Ministry of Transport once jointly formed a research team. After two years of careful investigation and demonstration, it was believed that the construction of the routes in the upper reaches of the Bian River, cleaning reefs, building reservoirs, widening river channels, cutting bends and straightening, building ship locks, ordering machines and other engineering projects may require a total of more than 20 million yuan.

And this is a conservative estimate. Anyone who has done the project knows that when the actual construction is in place, there will definitely be many unexpected things, which often require financial expenditures. In addition, the delay and delay of the project are also a sure thing, which means additional expenditures. Therefore, it is highly likely that the overall project cost will reach more than 30 million yuan.

Even the wealth of the East Coast people is unable to bear such financial expenses. The people from the Ministry of Finance even ridiculed them, saying that rather than doing this, it is better to build railways and roads, which would save more money. After they said this, the people from the Ministry of Transport really thought about it seriously and believed that extending the existing Iranian Railway to the north and connecting to the Beining region might have a greater effect, and the radiation area is larger and the population is benefited.

However, the construction cost of this railway is also very high. With the development of the La Plata Plain soon, there is no possibility of taking out large amounts of funds to build the railway when the large land purchase fee has been paid. In fact, the Ministry of Railways has a lot of funds inflows now, that is, it is necessary to use designated projects, and there is no living money at all. Therefore, it is unlikely that the Iranian Railway will extend northward in a short period of time.

If you can't afford to build shipping and do not have money to build railways, then for the residents of the newly opened land north of Beining and even the Zhuo River, transportation has become one of the most deadly factors that hinder their development. When everything in the south and eastern coasts arrives here, the prices will double, especially important agricultural tools, machinery parts, medicines and other necessities. Not only are there few goods, but the prices are also expensive, which makes people sigh.

A batch of medicines brought by Shao Ruping when he took office was almost sold out in just two hours, which made him fully understand how shortage of supplies here. I believe that if the residents here were not willing to spend money to buy the land they would have run away long ago, and it would be better to go anywhere than to stay here.

It is precisely because of the arduous conditions here that the State Administration of Development plans to place more non-national labor workers who have become regular here. Anyway, these people can endure hardships and have low expectations. It is simply crazy to have a piece of land of their own. They will not pick and choose at all. It is much easier to use than the relatively difficult-to-serve youth. This is naturally very important for early development work.

In addition, considering that the number of non-national labor workers who become regular every year is limited and that localities are competing for it, it seems that it is appropriate to introduce so many people to develop. In particular, the construction of necessary highways passes through the prosperous areas of Beining, with a standard of third-class national highways to save costs. Upgrading and transformation will require a large amount of labor, and this will definitely require external introduction.

Based on this consideration, the superiors have issued instructions to New Courland and South Africa to transport more black non-nationals to work on the Brazilian plateau. In addition, increasing the import of external immigrants has become the top priority. In addition to the increase in the import of Eastern immigrants proposed by Shao Yaoguang, the introduction of continental immigrants has also been put on the agenda. According to unwritten regulations, the number of continental immigrants must be less than that of Eastern immigrants, and they are not introduced every year, so that they will not have an excessive impact on the domestic population composition and cultural traditions.

At present, they have negotiated with the Poles about the introduction of road construction workers. As another source of European immigrants on the east coast, the Italian Peninsula naturally cannot be spared. The Italian Claudio, the Italian who Shao Ruping met in Yinguo County today is the special envoy of Paul, a member of the ruling family of Toria. The two discussed the introduction of 3,000 Savoy laborers to build a road. Thanks to Louis XIV, the French army ravaged the Duchy of Savoy, and many people were forced to flee to the asylum of Toria, so they were targeted.

Shao Ruping and Paul Doria also knew each other, so after talking about the main story, Shao Ruping asked about his recent situation. However, the envoy's mind was obviously not on this. After a few perfunctory words, he turned to inquire about the opinions of the East Coast people on the establishment of the Northern Italian Federation.

The Genoa Asians looked very enthusiastic. Perhaps the two defeats of the Principal of Savoy were stimulated by the French. The Genoa Asian upper class, including the Dorian family, began to become more enthusiastic about forming a federation and hoped to see results as soon as possible. Originally, they were counting on the East Coast people to promote it, but who would have thought that in recent times they had turned their attention to Britain, France, and the Netherlands and did not make much efforts on the Italian Peninsula, which disappointed the Genoa Asians.

Before coming to Yinguo County, Claudio met with diplomatic officials on the East Coast at the Oriental Harbor. They believed that the Genoese need to put in more effort than waiting for it. For example, they suggested that the Genoese find a way to completely control Sicily. Although for now, Genoese capital has controlled the economy of the large island, this is far from enough! They pointed out that if the Genoese Republic can also have a positive political influence on the island, then things might be easier.

Of course there is a huge obstacle here, that is, the Kingdom of Spain that lies across it. After all, Naples and Sicily are nominally the territory of the Kingdom of Spain, although the local area has long been in the form of aristocratic autonomy.

Claudio was very interested in this suggestion from the East Coast people, but he was not sure how much the East Coast people would support the Genoa-Asian Republic in this matter. It is well known that only the East Coast people can settle Spain. The Genoa-Asians do not think that they can obtain Madrid's understanding by themselves, and then put the Genoa-Asian flag on Sicily.

The officials of the East Coast did not answer Claudio's doubts directly. They only promised to mention this matter to King Carlos II of Spain at the right time. Claudio was not satisfied with this. In fact, he wanted to get a more accurate promise, but in the end he failed to get what he wanted.

After leaving Oriental Port in a depressed mood, Claudio began his series of journeys on the Brazilian Plateau and finally arrived at his terminal, Yinguo County. After realizing that he might have some news from Shao Ruping, he immediately tried his best to get something out of his mouth. However, Shao Ruping was strict with his mouth and said nothing. He was forced to do it in a hurry. Finally, he only told him that the future of Gena*a is in Sicily. The island is large in area and has a population of millions, which is twice that of Gena*a. If Gena*a can completely control it, the future of the country will be completely there.

Shao Ruping finally reminded Claudio that controlling Sicily does not necessarily have to be effective through military means, economic or diplomatic means. Anyway, Carlos II does not receive any taxes from the island every year, and even invests resources and money to protect the island from the French, which is a bit of a loss for him. If the Genoa*sea people had the right means and were sincere in their attitude, they could gain full control.

This is true in Sicily, and Sardinia, the Genoa people can work hard in this regard. The East Coast people may intervene at the right time to help them complete this seemingly impossible task.
Chapter completed!