The sky is blue and the air is fresh. On the boundless grassland, a straight road extends into the distance and gradually disappears into the sky.

The grassland is beautiful, with delicious and juicy grass, colorful wild flowers, and leisurely cattle and sheep, but that is just a distance view. In fact, if you look closer, you will find that there are also a lot of gray sand and uneven pits between the grass and wild flowers. The existence of these pits is often a potential threat to riders galloping on horseback. If it happens to rain for a long time, it will also cause irreversible damage to the carriage. The so-called flatness of the grassland is always relative, and that's all.

In order to better develop the La Plata Plata Plain that has been obtained, the East Coast government has planned several trunk roads in the Pampa area, one of which is to start from Yancheng Port, travel westward, and finally arrive at Luoyi District, the new capital Luoyang Prefecture. The level of this road is also very high, and it is a first-class national highway. Not only is the road surface wide and flat, but the drainage ditches and street trees on the side of the road will also be complete, which will fully interpret the style of the first-class national highway.

According to the current plan, the road surface will be paved with asphalt to adapt to the rapidly developing East Coast transportation industry. Part of the asphalt is produced by itself, mainly from by-products of the coal chemical industry, but not in large quantities, and most of them still rely on imports. As for the source of imports, it is actually very simple, mainly Huaiyuan Island (Trinida Island). There is a huge asphalt lake on that island, filled with seemingly endless viscous asphalt, and there may be some oil, but it should not be of great value.

The activities of people on Huaiyuan Island on the east coast were originally limited to the coastline. Occasionally, there were some adventures or conquests that went deep into the inland jungle, but not many, and there were no plans to settle down. In other words, with the rapid development of fishing, logging, sugar, and tobacco cultivation, people on the east coast began to move inland, and the population here became slightly larger. According to a statistics at that time, the population of Huaiyuan County should be around 8,000.

However, after asphalt resources were introduced into the east coast to build highways, thanks to the Ministry of Transportation's improvement of road standards, the population of Huaiyuan Island only used asphalt to pave roads. A large number of merchants, engineering and technical personnel, non-national labor workers, soldiers, religious people flocked here, and the asphalt mining industry flourished and brought a lot of wealth to the local area.

The Huaiyuan County Government organized a rough population in 1690, and finally estimated that the population of the entire island had exceeded 20,000, which had caught up with the scale of some local counties, which shows the speed of economic development. Here, this number does not include the Indian natives on the island, but only includes the East Coast people and foreign non-national labor workers. The number of Indians on the island is unknown, but it should be very few. It is scattered in the jungle deepest of the island, and it will almost inevitably die in the future.

Asphalt is specially transported by ships from the South China Sea Transportation Company. There are twelve of these ships, almost only used to transport asphalt. The transported asphalt is sent to various ports for unloading and then sold out. Most of them are used for road construction and a small part are used as waterproof materials, which plays a huge role in the construction of the national economic development on the east coast.

The first-class national highway from Yancheng Port to Luoyang Prefecture is a joint venture between Sino-foreign investors. Among them, the East Coast government invested 70%, and foreign capital from the Netherlands, Italy, and Kurland invested 30%. In the future, toll stations will be set up at several necessary passes to recover construction funds. To be honest, these foreigners are not very willing to invest in this highway. They are more willing to invest in the East Coast enterprises and various commercial facilities. But some things are not that simple. Do you want to buy land and build a store? Yes, come, spend money to invest in this national highway first, and then you are qualified to do something else. Just like Oleg Nareshkin, he bought stocks of the Yanbu Railway and built the Nareshkin Building with a daily gold-fighting gold. Other foreign investors who are interested in the East Coast market must also follow this routine, otherwise they will not want to do business.

Of course, some people complain that the East Coast government did not implement an equal trade policy on them. After all, East Coast merchants did not have these rules and regulations when investing in Europe, but they had various requirements when entering the East Coast, so they were not convinced. But what should I do? This is the case with the East Coast people at this moment, and the people in the country are generally rich, and their consumption enthusiasm has been slowly established through decades of continuous induction and cultivation. It is no longer the powerful armed forces and the booming economic strength of those who only know how to save. Coast people now tend to consume more than ever.

What’s interesting is that while these European businessmen complained about the “unreasonable” policies of the East Coast government, they finally opened their wallets and invested in the East Coast infrastructure after a “painful choice”. After all, in their opinion, the East Coast Republic has a stable political situation and a strong economy. Although the investment in infrastructure is low and the cycle is long, it will not lose money if it flows slowly. Highways, railways, docks and even more popular commercial real estate are good places for safe-haven funds. Haven’t you seen a businessman who claims to be “half city” in a certain island in later generations likes to invest in infrastructure and spend a long time on business? For merchants with huge assets, obtaining stable returns is more important than anything else.

In addition to some officials from the East Coast Ministry of Transport and Foreign Affairs, there were also some foreign investors. The most surprising of them were actually several investors from London. Of course, they were not the rich people who paid the money, but their family members or agents, representing the Spencer family, Hicks family, Clifford family, Hampton family, etc. in the upper class of London.

In addition, the figures of the old nobles Chamberlain, Churchill, Montagur, Montgomery, Salisbury, Thatcher and other families were also vaguely visible. Although they did not send people directly, they also secretly entrusted some representatives to check it out, but all this was done secretly and didn't want to be too high-profile. The reason was actually easy to understand. Their King William III had no good impression of the East Coast people. After all, the East Coast people's army and navy destroyed his dream of serving as the heads of Britain and the Netherlands at the same time, so they failed to successfully sit on the throne of the only overlord of the anti-French alliance. They had to pinch their noses and negotiate with Van Boyningen of The Hague to negotiate and work together, which was a blow to his dignity.

The trade volume of the United Kingdom and the East Coast is really different from the past. After the second-generation leaders of the East Coast took full control, they also changed their policies to England in a certain way. They began to focus on cultivating their strength and then acted as the best tool to influence the European situation in the East Coast. Just like the later British-Japanese alliance, Japan was a tool to deal with the ambitious Russia. England naturally also looked like a dog who saw the rise of continental European countries England seemed to be willing to play such a role, especially when Louis XIV was madly expanding its territory.

Of course, many of the above families have also invested heavily in British North American colonies. With the rapid development of various industries in Britain, North American resources are becoming more and more important to this country. Especially in Virginia, Carolina and other places in the south, more and more people have poured in in recent years, and the output of cotton, tobacco and grain is also increasing. The annual income from it has long exceeded one million pounds, which shows its development speed.

Similar to Britain, France is also. Because the East Coast people have an absolute advantage in the Indian Ocean, no rational decision-maker will bet on one place. The vast North American colonies have become the best place for capital in the continental countries. They have no choice but to do so.

At this time, I don’t know if the Dutch and Swedes would regret it. They gave up a large area of ​​land in North America easily, but it would be even more difficult to get in again. If it really doesn’t work, they can only exchange interests with the upper class of these countries in the future to see if they can gain a foothold, but it seems really difficult.

Of course, they can also choose to cooperate with the East Coast people. The famous Caribbean shipping company on the southern coast of North America has a large colony, and the level of development is currently slightly insufficient. If they can get the population and funds, they may also get a share of it, but this seems to require them to obey the East Coast politically.

When Li Zheng and Charles were leveling the foundation of the road, they saw this group of well-dressed Englishmen. Li Zheng didn't understand where these big noses came from at the time, but Charles whispered that these were all Englishmen and that he "can smell them with his nose."

Although the two East Coast farmers who were wielding shovels and shoveling soil did not participate in these investment projects, they have seen many people from the Old Mainland who come and go these days, and they know in their hearts that they are afraid they will come to invest money again. Thinking of this, they are even more motivated! Why are you guys so powerful? If you have power and power in the Old Mainland, don’t you want to come over and give us money? Our country, let one hand support you, hehe.

The road continues to extend, investors continue to investigate absent-mindedly, and ordinary workers such as Li Zheng and Shire are also continuing to work. The heaven-given plain of Pampa will sooner or later become a huge economic hotland under the connection of these traffic arteries. There is no doubt that this economic hotland will continue to provide the East Coast Republic with the necessary nutrients to maintain their unique advantages on this planet.

Whether it is ordinary people like Li Zheng or big names from London, they seem to believe it.

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Chapter completed!