"The Executive Committee has agreed in principle to the establishment of 'New Iron', and will soon organize a group of personnel to explore the terrain and plan the route. This work is expected to be completed within three to five years. The railway is optimistically estimated to start construction in five years. New China Island will likely have the first railway to open to traffic before 1660." Shi Qinjie, who is getting fatter in a magistrate chair made of precious wood, sipping tea while whispering.

The full name of the "New Iron" he said is Xinhuaxia Railway Company, and is currently under construction. The company is controlled by local capital, of which the Central Railway Company holds 40% of the shares, Nanci Railway Company holds 20% of the shares, New Huaxia Development Team holds 20%, and the other 20% of the shares will be sold to the whole society.

To be honest, the company's operating prospects are not optimistic about many people. The biggest reason is the extreme shortage of manpower on New China Island - which means that the level of economic development is not high. In addition, the frequent local diseases and hot climate are also a major reason that many people are deterred. In short, many people want to wait and see the local development prospects in the next few years. However, no one subscribes to the shares, and the sales of the 100,000 yuan corporate bonds of the New Railway Company guaranteed by China Railway and Nan Railway are still stable, because anyone knows how rich and powerful these two railway companies are in the East Coast Republic; in addition, the Genoese's sensitive sense of smell and good connections have played a role again. They used their idle funds to quietly purchase 50,000 yuan registered bonds, which is considered to be the investment in the East Coast to the end.

However, the funds for the built railways are easy to raise and materials are also ready. However, it is difficult to raise manpower. Now the construction of the Northwest Railway and the South Cone and the Two Oceans Railway in China are steadily underway. The Southwest Railway has also begun to lay the foundation. The Transportation Construction Bureau and the Railway Company trained every year are not enough talents to grab them everywhere, so they asked them to draw technicians to go to New China Island, the "terrible death place" to survey and plan the railway line, which is simply a waste of their lives.

If the transfer of engineering and technical personnel is difficult, then ordinary labor will be even more difficult to raise. You should know that due to policy reasons, there are no indigenous people in the East Coast control area today. If you want to obtain a large amount of ordinary labor to build railways, you must start a war - or instigate the indigenous people to engage in war - and there is no other way.

"Of course. A small section of railway was just a good wish for us. Now it seems that the real difficulties are quite large." Shi Qinjie smiled bitterly at Ma Wanpeng. They were in their private house outside Xinhua Port at this time, so they spoke casually: "The French in later generations were also distressed when building railways in Madagascar. In addition, the local natives were relatively lazy and impatient. Therefore, they introduced a large number of piglets from China to build railways in late Qing Dynasty, which was the famous Tadong Railway (the railway from Antananarivo to the East Coast). These people were also the ancestors of the Chinese group in Madagascar. Could it be that we also wanted to introduce a large number of people from the Ming Dynasty to build railways? However, the Chinese in the late Ming Dynasty may not have been hard-working as the Chinese in the late Qing Dynasty..."

"Let's talk about it then. When building roadbeds in the early stage, locals should be used more. The railway travels through forests, grasslands, swamps, and deserts. After thorns, the most dead people are often the ones that need a large number of lives to fill the bottomless pit. At this stage, people are just a consumable, so try to use more natives. If it really doesn't work, you can go to Comoros to catch natives. Don't look at me with this look. At the beginning, you ordered the slaughter of slaves, but once in a while, you just catch some slaves and build railways, and you're just consumables. It's a pity." Ma Wanpeng picked up a cup of coffee and said with a smile: "This coffee is really hard to drink. The introduction of Robusta coffee beans seems to have failed..."

"Don't talk nonsense, I'll give you the best coffee from Naturalis Island to export Ottoman's fist products." Shiqinjie looked at Ma Wanpeng with contempt and said: "The coffee plantation has been relatively successful in Naturalis Island. The production of Robusta coffee beans has increased year by year. Unfortunately, the Ottomans' acceptance of this kind of coffee bean is not high enough. In addition, the quality of most of our products is not good, so the export volume is limited. Fortunately, the market response was good when we tried the water sales in Persia's Port Abbas, and although the locals have a special liking for tea, they are not repulsive of coffee, which makes us feel relieved."

In fact, Shi Qinjie said it easily, but among the large number of coffee plantations developed by people from the East Coast in Xinhua Port, Tacheng Port and Guihua Port, only one of the most successful coffee plants was Guihua Port. The coffee trees in the other two were not growing as satisfactory, and the quality of the fruits produced was also a problem. It seems that the environment here is not suitable for the growth of coffee trees.

However, the "stout coffee trees" (Arabica species) planted by the Ministry of Agriculture in Tachenggang was unexpectedly successful, which made Shi Qinjie and others realize that the problem lies in the variety, that is, the slopes along the eastern coastal area of ​​New China Island are actually more suitable for planting Arabica species coffee trees. The coffee beans grown in this environment have very good texture and are judged as the top product by the Ottomans, and the market prospects are very promising.

Based on this judgment, the East Coast people immediately decided to expand the scale of coffee plantations on the inland slope of Tacheng Harbor and fully plant Arabica coffee beans. In addition, later generations were the most important lilac cultivation area in Madagascar, and the environment was very suitable for the growth of this spice crop that was monopolized by the Dutch at this time and was extremely precious in Europe. It can be said to be a god-given place.

"Haha, I know, I know, just kidding." Ma Wanpeng laughed indifferently, and then said as if he suddenly remembered something: "By the way, I heard that you just sent away a group of Melina messengers last month? And he also agreed to sell muskets and cold weapons to them?"

"It's true." Schenjie nodded and confirmed: "The Andrina dynasty of the Imerina Kingdom established by the Melina people is located in the central plateau area. It currently looks like one of the most powerful feudal and slave kings on the plateau. Their king is Andria Qi Takatlandriana - Damn, the name is really hard to say - is the fourth king of this dynasty. Their territory is relatively large, reaching the edge of the plateau in the east. It connects with the territory of the Bezimisalaka people; it goes to the grassland in the west. It fights with the Sakarava people all the time - in fact, they were beaten by the Sakarava people.

Grass Valley. In addition, this kingdom had just occupied Antananarivo (the meaning of 'thousand land' to commemorate the 1,000 soldiers stationed here) and moved its capital here. Now this is the economic, political and military center of the kingdom. They built palaces, trenches, water conservancy and irrigation facilities here, and developed terraces to grow rice. The army used their own javelins, scimitars, iron spears and axes as their main weapons, and continued to annex other small countries around through war and marriage, and the rise on the central plateau is becoming more and more obvious..."

"Damn. Why do we sell weapons to these rising countries? They have already gained the upper hand in the fight with those countries. Now that they have muskets, wouldn't they be like a tiger with wings and can quickly wipe out the central highlands of the princes and unify the central highland?" Ma Wanpeng shouted as soon as he heard this and said loudly: "Shouldn't we contact the small countries in the local area? Selling weapons to small countries to offset the advantages of Imerina's Kingdom is serious!"

Shi Qinjie was a little embarrassed by Ma Wanpeng's robbery, because he made this decision, so he could only explain at this moment: "We cannot contact other countries on the central highlands. At present, only the Kingdom of Imerina sent envoys to communicate with us. In addition, they had a feud with the Sakaravas of the Kingdom of Monaber and agreed to attack us from both sides and destroy the Sakaravas who were fighting guerrillas with us on the grasslands and hills. This is a great thing for us. Furthermore, they agreed to sell a piece of territory with sovereignty disputes with the Bezimisalakas to us to offset the accounts of the arms."

Speaking of this, Shiqinjie pulled out a carefully preserved map of New China Island from the bottom of the drawer, pointed to a slope inland Tacheng Harbor and drew a circle, saying: "From the east coast to the second step of the central highland - about fifty kilometers east of Antananarivo, the straight line is less than ten kilometers left, the second step of the central highland - to the east is the traditional activity area of ​​the Bezimisalaka people, but the Imerina Kingdom had sovereignty claims and sent troops to conquer many times, but unfortunately, none of them established a stable rule; to the west is naturally the territory of the Melina people, and the Tacheng Harbor has figured out that area for so many years.

The complex historical ownership of the land, so I took the opportunity to ask the Melina messengers to purchase the land east of this straight line. Well, the rough area is north of the Tadong Railway, south of Lake Aratra, and east of the straight line. The basin and mountainous land were the main terrain. As a result, after several negotiations, the Melina messengers decisively sold the land that did not belong to them to us. They exchanged six hundred muskets, one thousand sabers, two thousand spears and five hundred pairs of leather armor. I think this business is actually not a loss-if we ignore the idea of ​​the Bezimisalaka people living on this land..."

"This land is very fertile, with abundant animal and plant resources, and its climate is very suitable for planting cloves, coffee, pepper, vanilla, sisal, cocoa and other economic crops, so it is of great value." Schenjie added, "In addition, Lake Alautra was the most important mechanized rice production site in Madagascar in later generations. The agricultural conditions were not good, but it was not well known in this era. The French planned and built the Tadong Railway, Antananarivo-Tamatav (i.e. Tacheng Harbor), in the late 19th and early 20th century, built a northward branch line directly to Lake Alautra, in order to transport and export the rich agricultural and fishery resources in this god-given land, and this is exactly what we can imitate."

"The prospect sounds good, but we still have to build railways on the west coast. You have to build the railway to Lake Alautra again. It feels unreliable to blossom everywhere, and our manpower is still so short of people." Ma Wanpeng said powerlessly, "Forget it, the business has been negotiated, and it's useless to regret it. It seems that our New China Development Team will prepare for extraordinary development in the next period of time, right? Otherwise, it will take until the year of the Monkey and Horse Month to complete such a grand plan? The first step is to tidy up some people first, Captain Shi, Commander Shi, Brother Shi?"

"People must be cleaned up." Shi Qinjie said, "In recent years, the materials exported to the local area of ​​our New China region have grown rapidly. In 1651, the total amount of seafood, wood, sisal, cocoa, coffee, vanilla, rubber, cotton, coal and other agricultural and mineral products exported throughout the year has reached more than 630,000 yuan, of which the taxes and profits attributable to local finances are still quite large. Therefore, I am planning to expand the fleet size of the East African Transportation Company and then organize immigration and trade fleets to the Ming Dynasty. Of course, this requires local people to help us coordinate with the Dutch, because our route must pass through the Strait of Malacca..." (To be continued...)

ps: Continue to recommend the fan "Looking from China to the East Coast" written by book friend Liang Xiangjian, which is really well written.

Chapter 196: The Land of Heaven (Three:
Chapter completed!