Zhou Dahe and Anderson walked one after the other on the side of the railway line being paved, and this was the last day they had been here, because the railway officially began operations today. And the staff of the organs, who had been transferred to repair the railroad in turn, also returned to their respective units.

This is not the Cotton Plum Line (Cotton Farmer Township - Meilin Port) that they had built before, and the road was completed at the end of last year. At the beginning of this year, the Ministry of Communications, after obtaining the approval of the Executive Committee, decided to extend the Mianmei Line Railway to the south, passing through the Corps Fort and reaching the Luoqia Port Wharf. The additional 60 or 70 kilometers of railway were connected with the original 80 kilometers, and became a land transportation artery running through the southern part of the Republic of China on the east coast of China, and the Ministry of Communications officially named this railway the Luomei Line. With a total length of nearly 150 kilometers, the railway has five stations: Luoqia Station, Bingtuan Station, Cotton Farm Station, Zhenyuan Station, and Meilin Station (one more station may be added in the future), linking the densely populated capital area, Xiling area, and Yihe area in the south with the Yazihu area in the north through the developed inland river and lake water system, and no longer fearing the enemy's naval blockade.

"Brother Zhou, will you go back today?" Anderson asked boredly as he kicked the stones scattered by the railroad and asked angrily.

"yes, I'll go back today." Zhou Dahe said absentmindedly as he walked towards a small shop next to the railway station.

The small shop is a red-brick and blue-tiled spire house, standing alone opposite a few houses at the railway station. There are three rooms: a shop, a storeroom and a bedroom, typical of the East Coast. The owner, a weather-faced Frenchman, sat behind the counter. Sipping tea while looking through the lackluster ledger. Fort Corps is not a bustling place. There are only a few scattered farmers who grow cotton and raise goats. Such a small shop is opened here, and the business can be imagined, so Zhou Dahe really doesn't know what accounts the owner of Lu Dao has to calculate all day.

"Mr. Zhou is here, and Mr. Anderson." The shopkeeper said with a smile. Zhou Dahe and Anderson had been digging a drainage ditch near the Corps Fort for a while, and had come to the store a few times to buy things, so they knew the owner well.

The owner's name is Luca. Ruiz, a veteran of the army due to injury, has served in South Africa for a long time. Later, he also participated in the local suppression of the Guarani people, fought bravely, and won many commendations from his superiors. Later, he was wounded in a battle with the Guarani, and his left lower leg had to be amputated, and he was forced to leave the army. Today's small shop is arranged by the military department, and the supply of goods never has to worry about it, and the rail carriages that regularly deliver all kinds of materials to the corps fort will bring the goods from the big city for them, and the price is also surprisingly low, which is a kind of welfare given by the military department to the disabled soldiers.

The owner's nine-year-old son, Lu An, was going back and forth between the storeroom and the shop, constantly carrying things with his young hands. His mother, who is from Mingguo, is also on the side to help. As soon as the young woman from Haimen saw Zhou Dahe coming in, she greeted with a smile: "Xiao Zhou is here." Buying things for your daughter-in-law again? ”

"Sister-in-law is busy?" Zhou Dahe also hurriedly smiled and agreed, "I'm here to buy some cotton cloth, sugar, and salt, and I'm going to go out soon, I want to buy all these things for my family before leaving." ”

Ruiz also sighed after hearing this: "Your daughter has just been born for less than three months, and she is going to transfer you to a place so far away from Xinhuaxia, I heard that it is quite hot over there and there are many diseases, in short, you can do it yourself." If you go there for a few years, and strive to be transferred back to a half-time official position, it will not be in vain to endure this hardship. ”

"Hehe, I'll try." Zhou Dahe smirked. In fact, where is he going to be transferred to the New China region, he was actually transferred to the side of Heishui Port, which is 108,000 miles away from New China. The reason why Ruiz and others were told that they were going to New China was mainly because the caliber of publicity given to them by the superiors was to be transferred to the supervision of the Xinhua Branch of the Northwest Reclamation Bank. In fact, his real position is the supervisor of the Heishui Management Office of the Northwest Reclamation Bank, and he intends to gradually infiltrate, win over, and control the local Sakhalin barbarians through economic means, so as to better serve the people on the east coast, so the Northwest Reclamation Bank, as the largest financial institution in China, is naturally going to be a pioneer. Zhou Dahe hadn't been to Blackwater Harbor before, but he had recently attended a training organized by the National Intelligence Administration and learned a lot about it. Therefore, he soon learned that this place was close to the Ming that he had fled back then, and sometimes, you have to admit that fate has been pulling the trajectory of some people.

"Pick whatever cloth you want to buy." Ruiz said with a snug on the shelf.

Zhou Dahe nodded, went directly to the shelf and took a bundle of packed chintz, and said, "I want this, how much is it?" ”

"It's still the old price, give two dollars and two dimes." Ruiz said after a casual glance. This bundle of cotton cloth is exactly one horse, and the new goods that have just been brought over are priced at two yuan. At present, it is very popular in the market, because the color on this calico is very bright and dark, which is a notch higher than the color of the previous cotton cloth. Such a good cotton cloth is said to be sold for 4 yuan a horse in Europe, and it is still in short supply. Every time a ship carrying cloth arrived in Bordeaux, Livorno, and Smyrna, it was empty, and the market was so hot that the British, Dutch, and Venetian cloth merchants hated it.

The color of this cloth can be so good, it is said that it is because a thing called sodium sulfate produced by the northern chemical factory has helped a lot. With this thing, many dyes that could not be dyed on cotton cloth can now be dyed, and the color is bright and uniform, which is very popular with consumers.

"How does this work?" Zhou Dahe was stunned for a moment, then quickly took out two one-yuan silver coins and a five-dime silver coin from his pocket and put them on the counter, and said, "How can this work?" The two corners are the price of the old calico before, this is the new cloth, both the color and the quality are much better than the previous one. The purchase price of the state-run store is two two yuan, uncle, are you not making money or what? ”

"Uncle, my purchase price is two yuan, and I also earn you two dimes. Don't talk nonsense, say that two yuan two angles are two yuan two corners, what's wrong? Do you look down on your uncle? Uncle is not short of this money now, and he is not so depressed that he goes to the Invalides Farm to make a living. Ruiz said nonchalantly.

The Invalides Farm he mentioned was located on the banks of a small river twenty kilometers northeast of the Corps Fort, near the town of April 19, not far from Dayu Lake, but it was administratively divided into the Xiling area. The name of the place is Invalids Farm, and as the name suggests, it is naturally home to a group of disabled and retired soldiers. There are about 100 of these disabled soldiers, and they have basically become families, and the government has given them 30 acres of land for free there, and has also given them a large number of cattle, sheep, piglets, and so on. These disabled soldiers receive a disability allowance of five yuan a month, which is 20 years at a time, and they can do some work within their capacity in their spare time, and some of them even hire some southeastern Europeans and Guarani people who have crossed the border to farm the land, and the income is not bad.

A few years ago, the Ministry of Civil Affairs wanted to give official registration to the smugglers hired by the Invalides Farm and demanded an increase in their wages, but then the military department obstructed the matter, and the smugglers later worked for more than a year before they obtained official status. Originally, the Ministry of Communications was reluctant to set up a railway station there due to its scarcity of residents, but a group of Qiu Ba who heard the news immediately smashed the gate of the project department of the Fourth Bureau of Communications and Construction, which was forced to be helpless, and decided to build a railway station there.

The two were caught between them, and with the screeching sound of brakes, a passenger rail carriage stopped steadily on the side of the platform of the Corps Station. A middle-aged man wearing a sky-blue navy uniform and a tubular navy cap got out of the car, followed by a young boy. The little boy was black-haired and blue-eyed, wearing a large cap, a dark green military uniform, and cowhide boots.

"Luan, I'm here, let's go back to school together." The little boy stood in the middle of the station and shouted.

Lu An, who was busy in the store, dropped the cotton cloth in his hand when he heard the sound, jumped out of the store like an arrow, and responded loudly: "Li Zemin, I've been waiting for you for a long time, if you go back a little later, you will be punished by the instructor." ”

Zhou Dahe was stunned, but he heard Ruiz's face happy, and said: "It's Li Yi and Chief Li, he has come here a few times to send off the child, and he has also chatted with me." He was an easy-going man and generous, always leaving the bulk of the booty to his brethren. Although he is in the navy, he is really a very good person. Alas, it's a pity that you are going to New Huaxia, if you go to the Oriental Blackwater Port, you will be able to mix under the hands of Chief Li. It's a pity that you don't have this blessing. ”

"Uncle, do you also know about the Blackwater Port?" Zhou Dahe was a little stunned.

"Of course, who are you uncles? Uncle is well-informed, a few old brothers who fought together in the past have now gone to the 102nd Company of the Army as officers, and they have recently been conducting field training nearby, and it is said that they will board a ship to Blackwater Port soon. Ruiz said with a look of disdain.

As he spoke, there was a look of remembrance and sadness on his face, and he still muttered in his mouth: "Chief Li Yi is a good person, a good person." We went to the Caribbean together to ......" (to be continued......