On September 1, 1651, with the sound of a whistle, Araucan Port Railway Station arrived.

A large group of soldiers in the yellow military uniforms, armed with guns and ammunition, walked out of the carriage one after another, and then firmly occupied key positions in the railway station. After the two officers wearing horse boots checked alternately, Mo Ming, the president of the Nantie Company, slowly walked out of a well-decorated carriage surrounded by a group of followers. Behind him were the leaders of all major departments of the Nantie Company, with smiles, some were wearing Zhongshan suits, and some were wearing army uniforms. While scanning the now-large Araukan Railway Station, they looked at the rows of shops, warehouses, factories and residences on the main street on the coast ahead.

Today, the Port of Araucan is getting more and more beautiful!

"President, please have a meal here." The stationmaster of the train station limped over in a white-washed military uniform and said with a little nervous look.

Mo Ming looked at the left leg of the webmaster who had a prosthetic limb, stepped forward and helped him straighten the big black cap on his head (rail system staff work hat), then patted his shoulder affectionately, and said, "It's noon, let's have dinner together."

The lunch in the railway station restaurant decorated with colored broken glass has been arranged neatly. According to the requirements of the Nan Railway Company's presidential office, everything is based on the working meal standards of the company's branches in various places, and this standard is based on the average living standards of local residents. In the Port of Araucan, due to the dual impact of smuggling trade and the opening of Pacific immigration routes, the market is still very prosperous today. Of course, this so-called prosperity is limited to the northern half of the Port of Araucan occupied by the east coast. The coastal area here was bought by the people of the east coast. Then a modern port with a large scale (a investment of more than 3 million yuan in ten years) was built. Close to the port are lined up with commercial facilities and residential areas, and its prosperity has even come from behind, which has vaguely surpassed Xingnan Port, where the headquarters of the Nan Railway Company is located.

The Arakan people's urban area, which is only a river from the east bank's business area, looks like a gray tone, that is, there are grey thatchs, gray reeds, and dilapidated houses made of gray branches. Occasionally, there are buildings that look better, and are usually houses of nobles (guerrillas and their descendants who followed the old Vicente to fight against the Spanish). They exchanged the cattle and sheep at their hands for some construction materials from the East Bank, and then hired some bricklayers who immigrated from the Ming Dynasty. They slowly built some east bank-style houses with flying eaves and cliffs to show their differences in identity with ordinary Arakan people - class is really everywhere.

The leading position of the East Coast people is of course not just in these aspects. In fact, their biggest lead is the construction of farmland water conservancy facilities. They use their hard-working hands and relatively sufficient labor (a large number of Ming people who came from the Pacific immigrant route), and the limited technical and material assistance provided by the South Railway Company has tried their best to use rivers, streams and lakes in the wilderness to build a series of artificial lakes scattered as a source of water for life and production.

The reason why they spent a lot of effort to do this is mainly because of the relatively special geographical conditions here. Although it is known as "drought", the average annual rainfall is actually not very high. It is generally between 500-1,000 mm, and many places even exceed 1,000 mm, which is almost the same as the local area of ​​the East Coast. The reason why so much rainfall is said to be drought is that, first, the lack of large surface runoff (which is somewhat similar to the prairie on the East Coast), and second, the special soil structure here makes the shallow surface unable to store moisture, and a large amount of water leaks deep underground, thus causing the so-called "drought".

There are indeed not many ways to deal with water shortage caused by this surface factor. We can only use a stupid trick, namely, find areas with less water leakage (such as swamp wetlands and natural rivers and lakes), expand them and build them into artificial reservoirs, and find ways to save the water. The people on the east coast did this, and they have built more than a dozen reservoirs outside the port of Araucan, and the farthest one is even dozens of kilometers away from the urban area. In order to divert the water from these reservoirs to urban areas and villages outside the suburbs, people on the east coast also had to build a large number of brick and stone anti-seepage canals. At present, this work is in full swing.

After the water conservancy facilities begin to take shape, agricultural production can flourish. Although the local latitude is not low, due to the marine climate, the temperature in winter is not very low, usually around minus ten degrees, and at extremes it is only minus twenty degrees. But what is painful is that the local summer temperature is also not high, and it is generally difficult to exceed 25 degrees, and often it is only in the early 20 degrees, which brings trouble to agricultural production. The risk of planting crops such as wheat and rice is too high. Therefore, in the planning of the Nantie Company, the local area mainly focuses on rye and potato planting, that is, after the harvest of the first season of rye, immediately plant a crop of potatoes or radishes to increase farmers' income.

However, today, when the grain market in the jurisdiction of the Nantik Railway is about to be fully opened to the Spanish, the income of local farmers will be affected to a certain extent. But this impact is limited, because the products of local farmers are mainly rye. This kind of thing is not planted by Spanish people, but there are still many people who like to eat in the east coast and South Patagonia. Especially some local travelers with a high standard, they often consume rye, oats, and barley, and have led a large number of followers, which greatly increased the price of rye. In addition, this thing can be used to make wine, especially in South Patagonia. Residents are very sure of the taste of the spirits made from rye - they do not like the river daqu imported from South Africa, but prefer local rye soju, which further protects the interests of farmers.

Today's main meal is President Mo's favorite mutton noodles. It is made of goat meat carefully grazed in the beautiful water and grass on the Xingnan River, as well as rye noodles ground from the wind mill of the Araucan Port South Iron Flour Mill. It has a unique taste and is also loved by President Mo. In addition, there are pickled steamed buns made from rye flour, mushroom fish soup, high-quality trout produced in Maolin River, grilled steak, and a bottle of snow-capped beer made from beech burger barley.

"The specifications are a bit over, but they are still within acceptable range." Mo Ming looked at the food on the table, thinking that Chilean trout in his usual working lunch was definitely not available. This was obviously collected by the people below for flattery, but the entertainment fee should not exceed the standard seriously. Just don't take the example, it's not a big deal.

Speaking of the vast and sparsely populated place in Southern Patagonia, the living standards of ordinary residents (especially those who have been settled for several years, have jobs, families, livestock, and ID cards of the East Coast Republic of China) are really not bad. Just as the Goggs in Argentina often ate meat in the early 19th century (they are even very picky about meat in different parts of the beef), although the East Coast residents in Southern Patagonia are not as exaggerated as the Goggs, eating meat is really not a big deal for them. Those who save some money eat cheap whale meat, those who have a little money eat beef, and those who have the richest can eat mutton, venison, and ostrich meat. They eat rye as their staple food, and often consume some seafood such as Chilean horse mackerel or Horse Island calamari, and sometimes they buy some meat to eat.

Frequent intake of high-energy grains and animal proteins have greatly alleviated the health problems caused by long-term malnutrition (chronic hunger) after several years of settlement, and their work efficiency has also increased greatly. Adults who have been damaged in the Old World are like this. The "New East Coast people" born in the New World are naturally strong and strong. According to incomplete rule, the heights of children born in the East Coast are generally greater than their parents when they grow up. You should know that there is no significant difference between the heights of the Ming people and Europeans at this time. Children on the East Coast can grow so tall and strong, mainly because of sufficient nutrition, such as sufficient supply of meat, dairy products and grains.

This statistical result once made some people from the East Coast traveling, thinking that China could only eat sweet potatoes, potatoes, corn and barely survive due to the surge in population during the "Qing Dynasty" period in history. However, Europeans discovered a new continent with abundant resources and overseas colonies, which made their living standards circling up. The height and body shape between the two races gradually widened the gap. Now people on the East Coast enjoy the dividends of few people and rich resources, and the living standards of domestic people have also increased year by year. In time, this body shape and height will inevitably be far higher than that of Europeans and Ming people. Perhaps only Indians in southern Argentina are taller than those of the East Coast, because they are purely genetic.

The lunch ended in a silent voice. After eating, Mo Ming picked up the hot towel handed over by the servant and wiped his mouth. Then he looked at the officials of the Nantie who were sitting upright on both sides of the long dining table, smiled and said, "The specifications of the meal we eat today are not bad. Count it, there are dozens of beer bottles alone? There are only a few people in the Beech Castle, and they can't produce much barley a year. The beer produced is even more limited. Now that we have killed so much, the pressure is really great."
Chapter completed!