"Fire trees and silver flowers are combined, and the iron locks of the star bridge are opened. The dark dust follows the horse, and the bright moon comes to each other. The wandering tricks are all plums, and the songs are all falling plums. Jinwu can't help but the night, and the jade leaks do not urge each other." In August 1695, Cape Town Port, South Africa, sunny.

As the largest city in southern Africa, Cape Town has always been synonymous with prosperity. A large number of ships are at the port and countless merchants trade here. As long as you do not violate the law and do not conspire to overthrow the East Coast government, you can do anything here and no one will take care of you. The loose environment and almost no tax rate make this a holy place for free trade. Rolling money flows on the streets and alleys of Cape Town, making the whole city seem to be covered with a layer of gold even at night.

Of course, today is Lantern Festival, and prosperity is even better than the past. As this Tang Dynasty poem says, the lights in the streets and alleys are bright all night, gas lamps, arc lamps, and even bonfires lit by people on the beach, lanterns hung in the garden, and salutes set off on the fortress all make the night of the city bright and beautiful.

On this grand night, no one would go on a night out in bright clothes. Everyone wore brightly colored and gorgeous clothes, and went out to play with family or friends in groups. The shops were not closed either. They seized the rare opportunity of this year to make the shops beautifully inside and outside, and at the same time prepared tea for customers entering the shop, and gave some small gifts to enjoy the joy.

The hotels and hotels in the city are also full of suburban residents who are visiting the city. They are not going to go home in the dark at night, and plan to have fun in the city for a day and then take the purchased goods home. Of course, there are also some foreign merchants who buy goods in the hotel, including Catholics, Protestants, Greens, Hindus, etc., which are also infected by the joy of the East Coast people, and they join in either actively or passively. Some merchants even arrived in Cape Town half a month before the Lantern Festival to cross two important festivals of the East Coast people, which shows the strength of this cultural output.

According to data from the Ministry of Civil Affairs of the East Coast, after reviewing household registration statistics and analyzing the consumption of various daily necessities, they concluded that the total population of the country has reached 9.182 million. Among them, the proportion of locally born citizens has exceeded two-thirds, which is the well-deserved backbone. Among these 9 million people, there are about 500,000 living in the eleven counties of Hezhong area, which can be said to be a very important area. After a period of debate and game, the Government Council finally decided to merge some townships that were originally managed by the Hezhong area into counties and officially confirmed that they were under their jurisdiction. Among them, Zhongshan Town, Wenshu Township, Tuobei Township, and Pioneer Township were merged into Zhongshan County, which is the 166th county-level administrative unit in the country, Qisi Town, Liangting Township, Huang'an Township, Hutaopu Township, and Lukou Township were merged into Qisi County, which is the 167th county-level administrative unit in the country.

In addition, I heard that the Government Council will formally submit a document to include six districts under the new capital Luoyang Prefecture in the national economic control system, so that there will be six more county-level administrative units in the country, reaching 173, which is not far from the red line for the establishment of 200 counties and provinces set at that time, and may be seen within ten years.

As the largest city in South Africa that has surpassed Hezhong County, the total population of Cape County has exceeded 100,000, and among them, more than 60,000 people live in Cape Town. Even in the local area, this is one of the largest cities, which shows that the changes brought to the city by the prosperity of commerce are almost all-round.

However, it is said that the eleven counties in the Hezhong region are also facing the pressure of population outflow. To put it bluntly, it is that the Yicheng region has a fatal attraction to the population in the Hezhong region. The Yicheng Port in the Yicheng region is constantly expanding, intending to challenge the status of Dayuan Port as the largest port in Africa; after the Yicheng Railway was put into transportation at full capacity, it has now begun to become a marching railway due to a large number of immigrants north to the Yellow-Black Dividing Line. Large amounts of funds from the local area have been poured down, and the construction industry has accelerated its development; Chenggao Coal Mine, Yicheng Steel Plant and other enterprises have also developed very well in recent years, and gradually it has become a heavy industrial base in the southern Africa; in addition, in the wilderness of the western hinterland of Yicheng, the number of gold diggers with dreams of getting rich is more than a day, and the related service industry has also developed accordingly.

Therefore, to sum up, the Yicheng region has made progress in all aspects and developed steadily in recent years, which has created a large number of jobs. Moreover, the salary of these positions is not bad and the development space is very large. Therefore, it has caused a strong siphon effect in the eleven counties in the Hezhong region, making local funds, talents and technologies begin to be irresistibly attracted, promoting the economic development of the Yicheng region, and also weakening the thousands of miles of the Hezhong region, which is very distressing.

However, the Hezhong region has a relatively strong foundation. Even when industrial development is relatively weak and there are not many high-paying jobs, it still relies on its first-mover advantage to steadily overcome the Yicheng region. Although it is hard to say which of the two will be better in the future, for now, the lives of the people in Hezhong are still OK, although they are quickly approaching.

The Hezhong Regional Administration once studied that if the region wants to develop, it must be based on the word "business", that is, to make full use of its geographical advantages and develop commercial networks that communicate with various places. For example, a mature commercial network leading to Portuguese Angola and New Courland is a good example. They resell local industrial products, local food, and building materials to the above two places, then purchase local specialty goods and sell them to the local area, and then purchase industrial products from the local area and return to South Africa, thus completing a cycle.

It should be said that although this kind of trade cannot make the people in the river rich, it is also a considerable profit. Especially New Courland, dominated by Latvians, now has a population of tens of thousands, and seven or eight colonial cities have been built. Processing enterprises targeting tropical commodities are one by one, and overall they are relatively wealthy. In addition, the local management has basically had experience studying in the East Coast, and the lower-level people also know who the buyers of their own commodities are. Therefore, they are generally obsessed with various East Coast products, and are slowly moving closer to culture, which is basically a very stable market.

Of course, people do not have to go through the Hezhong area to buy things. Now the local all-steam powered ships are beginning to emerge. The largest shipping company, Nanhai Transportation Company, has ordered many such ships and has used them to open many new regular liner routes. In the future, this trade route may change. If the Hezhong area does not want to lose profits, it is best to plan it well, and at the same time increase investment in infrastructure, clean up the port, expand the capacity of coal-water stations, and keep up with the maintenance capabilities. Only in this way can we continue to use geographical advantages to be a good middleman.

In addition, the people of Hezhong were not hung on a tree. Now the Port of Cape Town has also opened a regular trade route to Australia and has begun a new attempt. In the past, the trade between the local government and Australia was mostly cargo carried by immigration ships, with few quantity and many restrictions, which seemed inappropriate. Now, with the gradual development of Australian society, its population and economic scale have reached a new stage, and the desire for foreign trade has increased greatly, which has given the people of Hezhong.

At present, the end of the route from Cape Town to Australia is Gushan Port, which is also a strategic location that can communicate with East Australia and the East Indies to the north, which is of great value. Unfortunately, there are mostly the sea in the middle, and there are no other cities that can trade, which makes the yield of the entire route unable to increase. The company that operates the route is East African Transportation Company, but the Hezhong region wants to set up a shipping company on its own to replace the East African company that has slowly shifted its business focus to the Indian subcontinent. Officials of the Hezhong Regional Administration insist that as the Hezhong region with a "great free port" Cape Town, it is indeed necessary to establish an ocean shipping company under its control to better protect its own interests. Later, Hong Kong re-export trade was at its peak, but it had a large fleet, but unfortunately it could not continue to develop later.

In addition to continuing to expand the fleet and renovate the ports, the money earned from trade is naturally to be invested in the development of inland areas, especially in the development of inland arid areas, which urgently requires a large amount of money. In fact, in the past ten years, the Hezhong Regional Administration has done some development work in the local area and established some new settlements, such as Shengxixiang, Fuyuanxiang, Shengzhongxiang, Shengbeixiang, Shengnanxiang, Hanhaixiang, Shengdongxiang, and a seven settlement, which has placed about five or six thousand people.

These new settlements, or animal husbandry towns, provide raw materials for the textile industry in the Hezhong area where the land is always struggling with difficulties, or mining towns, mining some small coal or metal mines, provide raw materials for port supply and ship maintenance. In short, they are indispensable resources to maintain local economic operation.

In fact, according to the original intention of the Hezhong region, they wanted to continue to go east and develop humid coastal areas. Unfortunately, the local area has already drawn lines, and those places are all part of the region. They cannot cross the line, so they can only operate arid inland hinterland. In addition, the local National Development Administration also suggested that they "actually control" the inland areas as soon as possible. After all, the yellow-black dividing line in the north is in full swing. In the future, the local area may invest in a railway network starting from the Cape Town Port and winding all the way north to the yellow-black dividing line. They urgently need to build the local area first.

Therefore, there was no other way. The Hezhong region could only march inland. Using the wealth accumulated in business, with the unfavorable situation of talent and continuous outflow of funds, he gritted his teeth and extended his tentacles to the arid inland hinterland, and began his own arduous development work.
Chapter completed!