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While Count Sebastian, Huang Hanhua, and He Yuan were discussing the situation in the Pampa Plain and Spain, far outside Buenos Aires at the other end of the Yanbu Railway, Chen Jiazheng, director of the Yanbu Railway Preparatory Headquarters, was talking with Meng Xiaohu, who had returned from the survey.

"I heard that the Spaniards collapsed in the Old World, the ten provinces of the South Netherlands were occupied by the French, and Franche-Comté and Lorraine were also divided by the French army and the German coalition forces, almost a blank field, Sicily is still in a stalemate of see-saw, the French army has not been driven away, and the local nobles are also suspicious. Oh, by the way, their Pyrenees defense line is almost untenable, after losing Roussillon and other places, Catalonia and other places are not safe, the situation is very critical. After lighting a cigarette for Meng Xiaohu with a match, Chen Jia said with a smile.

The place where they are now is the Buenos Aires railway station - yes, they no longer use the merchant station to disguise it, because it is not necessary - after the surprise construction of the Goshkin construction company, the main building has been completed, and only some freight yards, warehouses and other ancillary buildings are still under construction, so Chen Jia has moved his headquarters from Yancheng to this side, so as to receive local materials and personnel nearby, and direct the construction of the railway - of course, he also set up an office in Yancheng and sent his right-hand men to supervise there, After all, Yancheng County is currently the only area where railroad tracks have been laid.

"If it's not critical, how can I let you take advantage of the fire to rob?" Meng Xiaohu swallowed the clouds and spit out the fog, while looking at the busy Russian construction workers outside the window, and said: "Actually, this side is quite good, we are a civilized country, at least we will not do that too much." I'm more worried about the Old World, if King Carlos of Spain dies and a great war breaks out, I don't know how many places will be turned into white ground, and how many people will be killed in the war. ”

Hearing Meng Xiaohu's remarks as such a "virgin", Chen Jia was also a little unbearable, and after all, the two of them had different backgrounds, and it was not easy for him to have disputes with each other on some issues, so he led the topic to other places: "Ah, by the way, Mr. Meng, I vaguely heard that the king of Spain, Carlos II, who had just come of age, was afraid that he would not be able to give birth to an heir, which would be troublesome, and war might not be avoidable." ”

"Who's to say it isn't." Meng Xiaohu's brows furrowed even deeper when he heard this, and after hearing him sigh, he said, "I'm afraid that the princes of the Executive Committee are also aware of this problem." I heard that the Ministry of Health plans to send a team of experts to Spain to secretly take a boat for King Carlos, and see if he can regain his strength, after all, our Chinese civilization has a long history, and there are many strange and ancient gadgets, and the southern New World also produces some rare and exotic grasses, which may not be effective. ”

Chen Jia almost laughed when he heard this, but he finally held back. He pondered in his heart that the life of the European aristocracy had been rotten since the Middle Ages, and some magical potions or pills were not without them, and the means were not necessarily bad. They can't help it so far, then there may really be no way, this is fate, and they can't be dissatisfied. However, these are all rumors, which may not be true, and the Madrid court has never denied this matter, which can be seen from the fact that they began to actively recruit daughters-in-law for King Carlos, and may his majesty's illness have been cured or greatly improved? It's all hard to say.

"But you have to be prepared for everything, and you can't put your hopes on one thing. No, the executive committee has also begun to reform the tax system now, isn't it to put it bluntly to make more money? And where is the extra money used? At least part of it is already clear to us that it is for the military! More precisely, it was used in the Navy. The executive committee is playing a big game of chess, and I am afraid that it is not preparing for the war of the Spanish succession that may break out in the future. Meng Xiaohu said: "When the time comes, we will definitely try to protect Spain, and it is in our best interest for this country to maintain the status quo." Once France or Austria were annexed, everything would be over, so we would certainly have to send troops at that time, unless someone could fully satisfy our interests. I just hope that this day will come later, and there will be fewer casualties. ”

Meng Xiaohu's words made Chen Jia also think so. Spain is a forbidden country on the east coast, and if the French or Austrians are not interested, then the navy, which is gradually renewing its equipment and adding new ships, will have to teach them how to behave! Of course, no one knows what the future of King Carlos will be, and who can say for sure that he will die violently tomorrow, that he may live to be sixty or seventy years old, that he may have no offspring, or that he may have several descendants? Let's still care about the present, do our own work, things that are too far away, and talk about it later.

Meng Xiaohu and Chen Jia then chatted about the construction of the Yanbu Railway, such as the choice of routes, etc., and then had lunch together before they dispersed. After leaving Chen Jia's preparatory headquarters, Meng Xiaohu first went back to his camp to arrange work, and then called his own escort captain Inigo, and asked him to bring a few elite subordinates to Buenos Aires City with him, intending to negotiate with the highest governor of the Spanish side and the president of the prosecutorial court, Constantin de Ovando, on the final route selection of the Yanbu Railway, and if both sides have no objection to the route, then the matter can basically be decided. Both parties can also sign the annex to the agreement and complete the mess.

However, when he visited the official office of Owando in the city, he was told that General Owando (or the dean) had left Buenos Aires to recuperate in a country manor because of a serious illness and extreme physical discomfort, which made him unable to perform his duties. And, most crucially, a week earlier he had sent a messenger to Lima on horseback to ask His Excellency the Viceroy of Peru to resign from his posts as General de La Plata and President of the Court of Prosecution of Buenos Aires, because he had resigned because he had disgraced the kingdom by the inaction of the 5,000 troops on the east coast of the Pampa last year, and was no longer qualified to continue his work.

Meng Xiaohu was also very shocked when he heard the news, and at the same time sighed. General Ovando, as he still knew, had been running La Plata for many years, and at the same time carefully maneuvering with the people of the East Bank, doing everything possible to avoid conflict with them, so as not to interrupt the construction of La Plata, so that he was once rebuked by the conservative nobles and clergy, and at the same time secretly ridiculed by the people of the East Bank. It's just that now it seems that after the matter of the Pampa Plain has become a foregone conclusion, this person actually resigned from this high-ranking position in the Peruvian Viceroyalty, and it seems that he is really disheartened and does not want to do it anymore, which makes Meng Xiaohu sympathetic again and feel embarrassed.

Also likely to be sympathetic is the Spanish ambassador to the East Coast, Count Sebastian. I am afraid that this man's reputation is ruined now, and the stain of signing a boundary survey treaty with the people on the east coast cannot be washed away, even if he is ordered by his superiors, there is no doubt that he will definitely be "looked at differently" in the aristocratic circle. Meng Xiaohu vaguely heard that this person planned to resign from the post of ambassador after finishing the matter at hand (in fact, he couldn't do it without resigning), return to the territory of his hometown in Iberia, rely on the wealth accumulated over the years, buy machinery, run an industry, and teach the Hidalgos in Spain with practical actions not to donate their wealth to the church anymore, but to do something meaningful, such as developing industry, because this may be able to rejuvenate the declining Spain - has been bullied by the East Coast for so many years, With its illustrious history, it's time for the Castilian people to learn something about the strengths of the Easterners, and that's what Count Sebastian is thinking about at the moment.

Meng Xiaohu is not good at evaluating whether Count Sebastian's move is good or bad, he can only analyze it from an economic point of view, at this time in the Kingdom of Spain, the environment for operating industry is very poor, the possibility of investment is not small, and it is really difficult to say whether the road of industrial salvation can be passed. But even from the most pessimistic point of view, even if Count Sebastian's estate had fallen at best, it would at least leave a little positive fire for conservative Castile, though it is not known how long it would last.

After Owando and Sebastian leave at the same time, it will inevitably lead to the delay in the demarcation and signing of the Yanbu Railway, which makes Meng Xiaohu a little irritable. After all, he had been in this place for too long, and it was impossible for him to stay here, so he had always wanted to finish it quickly, but now it was obviously not possible.

After leaving the office of the president of the prosecutor's court with a heavy heart, Meng Xiaohu returned to the expedition's camp, a rented Spanish manor, under the escort of Inigo and braved the falling snow. Somewhat surprisingly, they met Álvarez Rodriguez, who had just returned from Minamimura Port, near the manor, and immediately struck up a conversation.

In other words, the Rodriguez family has really "struggled" too much in the past few decades. In the early years, they traded with the East Coast, which grew quickly and made a lot of money. Later, when the East-West War broke out, they were affected, and under the oppression of the Spanish colonial government and the power of the Church, they cut off trade with the East Coast for a long time, and for a time disappeared from the list of important foreign agents of the East Coast Trade Department, just like the Almeida family.

However, later, they finally couldn't bear it anymore and began to make contact with the East Coast side, and gradually restored a certain amount of trade quota. In particular, later cooperated with Zhao Ke of Baoyi County, Hejian Prefecture, supplied a large number of special commodities such as tallow and cowhide, and imported all kinds of industrial products and daily necessities on the east coast.

Now, the head of the Rodriguez family, Alvarez, can see clearly that in the face of the increasingly powerful East Coast people, whether it is Hidalgo or the church forces, there is no good way, and they can only retreat step by step, so he decisively adjusted the family strategy, put the focus on the East trade, and after years of development, using their family's distribution network and network in La Plata, once again became the number one trader dealing in East Coast goods. It was very influential among the Creoles.

For such a native-born white elite family, the General Intelligence Directorate of the East Coast will definitely not let go of the opportunity to infiltrate and co-opt. No, with their years of persistent efforts, the relationship between the Rodriguez family and the East Coast is inextricably linked. A lot of the intelligence of the East Coast government comes from the first-hand information of the family, and many inconvenient things will also be handled by the Rodriguez family, which is still very important - according to the words of some intelligence officials on the East Coast, it may be too much to say that Álvarez Rodriguez is a "traitor to the West", but if they are accused of harming the interests of the Kingdom of Spain and communicating with foreign countries, it cannot be said that they have been wronged, which can be seen.

Meng Xiaohu and Alvarez have had several encounters, but the relationship is not very deep, so the conversation between the two is mostly polite and general. Through talking with him, Meng Xiaohu also learned that now in addition to providing food and building materials to the East Coast construction team near Buenos Aires, the Rodrigues family has put more energy into the west, that is, acting as an agent for East Coast goods and selling them to Santa Fe, Córdoba, La Rioja, Tucumán, Jujuy, Salta and other places in the west. Even the mule and horse caravans leading to the core city of Potosí in the Chalcas Inquisition District to the north were many second-tier agents under the Rodriguez family, who transported all kinds of hardware products, medicines, cloth, leather goods, weapons and other goods from the east coast to Charcas, which was rich in silver, and then transported back a large number of silver ingots, tin ingots, cinchona and other goods, and the business was really good.

At the same time, Meng Xiaohu saw that with the strong behavior of the East Coasters on the Pampa Plain, more and more native whites saw the gap between the Peninsula and the East Coasters, and gradually began to become cooperative, and the colonial officials and the Church also became more and more powerless with the strength of the East Coasters. So, if this is the case, if the people on the east coast digest the eastern part of the Pampa Plain in the future, and then have ambitions for the western half of the Pampa Plain, as well as the Chaco Plains and Paraguay, it is conceivable that the resistance will be much smaller than imagined, and it may not be able to destroy the decay, which is another invisible benefit brought by the Pampa Plain. 1

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