"This is the county seat of Shuanghu County? It's really good, and it's pretty in the Patagonian area. On February 12, 1687, on the shore of the beautiful West Lake, Meng Xiaohu, who had already served as the Minister of Water Resources, said with emotion while wandering freely in the grass overgrown with wild flowers.

Fifteen years ago, he led a sizable expedition to the Twin Lakes region (i.e., Lake Corvehuapi and Lake Musters), where he spent a long time exploring thoroughly. During this time, they measured the area and depth of the lake, estimated the amount of water it could store, examined the fertility of the surrounding soil, and recorded vegetation and animal resources. Before leaving, a rudimentary weather station was also set up, and it has been working ever since, making outstanding contributions to the economic development of today's Shuanghu County.

Shuanghu County was only established at the end of last year, under the jurisdiction of Shuanghu Township, Nanding Township, Houtu Township, Shanghe Township (located in the vicinity of the later Shangli Orsenger Town), a total of four townships, only a population of 6,000, with agriculture and animal husbandry as the main economic model. Together with the establishment of Dejing County and Yanfu County, the former has jurisdiction over Dejing Town (located near the later Little Chilean City), Qiwu Township (located near the later Perito Moreno City), Mihun Township (located near the later Lago Posadas Village), and Xixi Township (located near the later Grigores Gaoguan Town), a total of four townships, the population is even more sparse, only about 5,000 people, also mainly agriculture and animal husbandry; The latter has three townships under its jurisdiction, Yanfu Township (located near the later city of Deseado), Dabin Township (located near the later Pico Trencado Town), and Yihe Township (near the small village of Tres Celos), a total of three townships, with a population of only more than 2,000 people, which is not even as small as Qingfeng County of the southern Chilean island group, which is the smallest county in the country.

Shuanghu, Dejing, and Yanfu counties, all of which belong to the Southern Patagonia region, are the 145th, 146th, and 147th county-level administrative units in the country, respectively. After the establishment of these three counties, the vast area of Patagoniatai was basically developed, and there was no longer a blank area that was not touched by the people of the east coast.

Of course, this so-called development is actually quite large. First of all, this is just the completion of the "opening of the territory" on the map, the geographical demarcation line of the counties and townships, there is still a certain distance from the real actual control, the most direct evidence is that this land still lives in the Tverche and Araukan tribes, and has not been wiped out by the army on the east bank. Secondly, even in those places where settlements have been established, the population is very sparse, the infrastructure is very poor, and the residents of most places actually make a living by selling sheepskins, mutton and wool, and occasionally some places with abundant water and grass will raise some horses, cattle and other animals, or grow some grain, fruits and vegetables, etc., and the common people generally do not have a high income, and life is relatively hard.

It is worth mentioning that, due to national policy, the first batch of land reclamation in Patagonia was basically non-national laborers. They benefited from the Homestead Law, and after five years of service and passed the Chinese language test, they became official citizens of the East Bank and were assigned to the Patagonian terraces. They are mainly Slavic (Italians are mainly assigned to the hot and humid Brazilian regions to open up the land), more precisely Russians, supplemented by some Mongolian and Shandan immigrants sent from the mainland, forming the main force of the Patagonian Terrace reclamation.

On the whole, there is not much dissatisfaction among these Russian-origin East Coast nationals. Although it is cold, dry and desolate, the land, cattle and sheep allocated to everyone are not fake, the government taxes are also very light, and the prices of various daily necessities are relatively low, so the lives of these people are quite good, at least much better than in their hometown in Russia, so they are all very peaceful, silently transforming the land of Patagonia.

Shuanghu County is also home to a large number of ethnic Russians, and the city's architecture has a bit of Russian character. In particular, the conspicuous two-storey villa with a large number of religious reliefs was designed and built by Goshkin's son Goivan himself as a courtyard for his family. Goivan, who graduated from Qingdao Road and Bridge School, also designed many facilities for the city, such as the county government administration building, such as the wool merchants' hall, such as the barn of the national grain reserve, etc., which is still very well-known in the city, and is also a capable person and hero in the eyes of all local Russians.

Today, Goivan happened to be on vacation in the city, and after meeting Meng Xiaohu, an old acquaintance, he was dragged together for a stroll. Meng Xiaohu is now the Minister of Water Resources, and he can be regarded as a high-ranking power. Considering the huge investment in water conservancy on the east bank today, Meng Xiaohu does not know how much special construction funds he receives every year, which is extremely attractive to Goshkin Construction Company, so Goivan must be by his side in both public and private affairs, and maintain this hard-won relationship.

"In terms of urban construction, Shuanghu County actually has a lot of investment." Goivan followed closely behind Meng Xiaohushen, half a step behind, and he only listened to him: "Especially the government's investment. For some reason, the state has invested three times more infrastructure investment in Shuanghu County than in other southern Patagonia counties, not only is the road from Shuanghu Township to Nandinggang a second-class highway (normally it should be a third-class highway), but also the two places have built complete water supply plants, sewage pipes and treatment facilities, gas lighting systems, and relatively good office buildings. In addition, there are many special facilities, such as the canal and irrigation system connecting East Lake and West Lake on the outskirts of Shuanghu Town, and the slightly more advanced wharf port facilities at Nanding Port, which is a bit confusing. Is it worth allocating so much money to such a county where wool is the main export commodity? But no matter what, this is a good thing for the people of Shuanghu County, a great thing! The sheer number of construction projects has given them more job opportunities, especially since many of the residents have been working on construction sites for at least five years. ”

"yes, I have a lot of faith in their professionalism. You see, this canal is very well built, and it should last for many years. The irrigation canals were also okay, no corners were cut, and valuable water was brought to several state farms. I think the next step can be to award them the construction of the reservoir, at least their construction quality is still guaranteed. Meng Xiaohu nodded and said, "But your Goshkin company doesn't look down on these projects now, right?" Compared to these projects that are not very oily and watery, your company prefers railway projects now, right? I heard that your father has been living in Beijing recently, and when I meet people, I inquire about the news of the wool transport railway, hehe, it seems that he is eyeing this piece of fat. ”

Goiwan could only smile when he heard this. Now the Goshkin construction company is not the same as before, and with its dwindling number of employees, they can no longer take on a project with such impunity as in the past. Goivan, who is also involved in the company's decision-making, knows the situation best and knows that his company's favorite thing now is the various road and bridge projects that the central government has directly invested in, especially the lucrative railway construction projects.

At present, the company has only one non-railway project in hand, and the sewer pipeline reconstruction project in some sections of Ping'an County is left, and the rest of the resources are basically on the railway construction project. They now have three project departments, one of which is the forest railway project department located in the area of Dingjun Mountain in the north, the second is the Yanbu railway project department, and the third is the northern railway project department.

The forest railway was built by the Italians, and the construction of this pit dad project was stopped because of the funds, and it was never repaired, and it has only reached the left town so far. When they were asked to continue to repair and arrived at Houqiu Town on the bank of the Wujiang River, the Italians pushed back again, and they couldn't bear it anymore, so they took out a hundred and twenty thousand yuan, repaired it a little further, and then stopped work until the next urging of the people on the east coast, so it was very cheating, and the Goshkin Construction Company was also exhausted, and they didn't even want to cooperate with the Forest Development Company.

Both the Yanbu Railway and the Northern Railway are not bad. The former is a national key project, although the funds can not be said to be abundant, but the government will inject money into it as soon as it has money, compared with some other domestic projects that wait for rice to be cooked, I don't know how much better, so the Goshkin construction company has been keeping the elite soldiers here and doing its best to repair the railway.

Compared to the Yanbu Railway, the Northern Railway is not so high-priority. In fact, the railway, which runs through the elite of the East Coast, has been built either with local government advances (but they have little money) or with government bonds, so much so that it still hasn't been fully connected. The Goshkin Construction Company has contracted the most critical section of the road in Hengtang County (including a branch line to the Chengji Coal Mine), and has been repairing and stopping for many years, during which the team has even been pulled to the Hejian area to repair the flood control levee and reservoir, and there is no one left.

However, I heard that the central government is also a little unable to see the ultra-slow progress of the Northern Railway, and plans to issue another debt in the near future, and at the same time withdraw hundreds of thousands of yuan from the transportation lottery prize pool to complete the railway completely, so that it can be linked with the Damei Railway (Daxing-Meiluo, formerly the Northwest Railway), the Xiaqing Railway (Xiayihe-Qingdao), and the Xiajing Railway (formerly the grassland railway) to form a huge railway network and give full play to the effectiveness of these railways as much as possible. As a person in the industry, Goivan had naturally heard about this, and in fact he was a little surprised that the government was still insisting on building a railway that was not very profitable despite such huge military spending, and this determination was too strong! However, this is also a good thing for their company, presumably some of the arrears that have been in arrears for several years can also be paid, and the company's finances will not be so tight, so they have to go to the bank for a loan, which is also sad.

Recently, there have been rumors from the State Railways that the Inter-American Railroad is about to start the construction of a special line for the transport of wool on the Patagonian plateau, when the Yanbu Railway has not yet been fully opened. This railway is actually a big project, with two branch lines, one of which is from Jincheng Town in Jincheng Valley, all the way through Jincheng, Shangluo, Shuofang, Pule, Xuanwu, Daliang counties, and finally to Yancheng Port; The other route starts from the fertile Hecheng Oasis of Dingnan County, passes through Luyang County, and finally arrives at Yancheng Port, which is shorter than the first route, but passes through a richer area and more populated.

From here, it can be seen that this wool transport line (in fact, it is a copy of the wool transport railway built by the British in Patagonia in the early 20th century) is actually a big deal and has a long mileage. Therefore, Goshkin and his son were a little puzzled by this, and some did not believe that the central government would have the money to repair it. However, this kind of major event has always been preferred to believe in its existence rather than its non-existence, so Goshkin does not dare to slack off, and now he is soaking in the capital every day to inquire about the news, just in case it is true, he can get the project one step ahead, which is crucial for the future development of the company.

"The wool transport line is basically inseparable, not only to transport wool and sheepskin, but also to strengthen the connection with Chile. At present, our technology is not mature, and once it is mature in the future, this wool transport railway will actually cross the Andes Mountains, directly to the central valley of Chile, and go to sea there. Meng Xiaohu looked at Goivan, who was following the same pace, and nodded: "However, the central government is now vigorously investing in naval construction, and the various expenditures are huge, coupled with the aggressive expansion strategy implemented now, there are more places to spend money, so the two lines of the wool transportation line cannot be started at the same time." The tendency above is to build the section of Dingyan and Luyang first, and you can do it yourself. ”