On March 18, 1677, after a series of activities at Camp Willow – including a groundbreaking ceremony for a timber mill – Qi Wangping and his party boarded the La Plata Star train again and began their journey north to the Brazilian Altiplano.

From the area of Dingjun Town into the southern tip of the Brazilian Plateau, the mountains are gentle and the terrain is relatively open, so the northern railway, which was urgently repaired before the Portuguese War many years ago, went north from here. Qi Wangping's special train stopped for a day in Dingjun Town, a key node city connecting the north and the south, and took the time to meet with Luciano Jr., the head of the Forest Development Company, who was building a railway here, and an agent of a consortium of Italian families.

Luciano the Younger, the youngest son of Luciano Sr., the first commercial representative of the Forest Development Company, was originally engaged in the silk business in Italy. His father, Luciano Sr., was unlucky, and a few years ago he was shipwrecked in the waters of the Canary Islands while returning to China for his duties, so he abandoned his business (which was already in trouble) and came to the east coast of the New World to manage the forest development company.

As the first foreign-funded enterprise to enter the interior of the East Coast with the East Coast as its main market, the current operating conditions of the Forest Development Corporation are still good. This company has introduced a lot of Neapolitans and Sicilians from the densely populated southern Italy, and operates a number of industries such as grain planting, forest harvesting and processing, and orchards in Jiaohe County and Hualong County. In particular, in recent years, they have actively studied the food industry of the people on the east coast, and built a medium-sized canned food factory by using their own orchards, specializing in the production of canned fruits, which are supplied to more than 10 counties in Jiaohe, Beiyahu and Baoding.

The East Bank Government also appreciates the Forest Development Corporation, which started as an enterprise that started in the Jiaohe area, and Qi Wangping once said at the meeting that it is necessary to let this kind of enterprise share the dividends of national development for the East Bank Wasteland, even if it is a foreign-funded enterprise! As a result, the forest development company has been very smooth in terms of access to finance for many years, and not only have loan applications been basically met, but the interest rate has never exceeded 6%, which is not a small benefit.

However, these benefits are not taken in vain, while enjoying the benefits of low-interest loans for so many years, the forest development company must also bear certain obligations, when it was forced to build a railway from Jiaohe County to Hualong County, which once drained the company's cash flow, not only six or seven years did not have the strength to build new projects, but also failed to pay dividends to shareholders, but also unlucky. After many years of steady development of the company, the "bad luck" once again fell on the head of the forest development company: Cai Youguo, the former head of Jiaohe County, who had been promoted to the commissioner of the Jiaohe District Administration, together with the North Yazihu area, found the head of Little Luciano and jointly pressured him, asking him to build a railway from Mupai Township to Dingjun Town, that is, to connect the forest railway with the Northern Railway, so that the railway could play a greater role and prosper the local economy.

To be honest, little Luciano is quite resistant to this, because it will obviously affect the normal operation of the company, because they have recently ambitiously planned to open a small stone processing factory to take advantage of the abundant stone resources in the Dingjun Mountain range. To be fair, this business is very profitable, because whether it is the Jiaohe area or the adjacent Yazi Lake basin, it has been developing at a high speed for many years, and the demand for various building materials, including large stones, is very large, so it is normal for Luciano Jr. to take advantage of this large infrastructure to export a large number of stones, stones, and timber.

However, now they are in trouble, and the leaders of the local government on the east bank have asked them to build a railway to the east that can connect to the town of Dingjun, which is fatal. There is no doubt that once the request of Cai Youguo and others is agreed, then with the current situation of the forest development company, it will definitely not be able to invest in building materials projects, not only will there be no money to repair the road to the mountains, but there will also be no place to pay for recruiting people and purchasing necessities in southern Italy, which will be difficult!

Luciano Jr. wanted to delay, but Cai Youguo did not give him this opportunity, and he joined forces with his colleagues in the North Yazihu area and Baoding area to put pressure on the forest development company, and finally made them give in and agreed to take out their own funds and an additional loan of 800,000 yuan to build the railway. Of course, they later received a railway equipment subsidy worth 80,000 yuan from the State Railway Administration on the East Coast, which was a comfort for them to build roads.

Qi Wangping, who met little Luciano in Dingjun Town this time, praised the company, saying that the Forest Development Company played an unparalleled role in the early development of the Jiaohe area, which made the development costs of the east bank government drop sharply. At the same time, this time, the construction of the railway connecting to Dingjun Town has made the forest railway, which has been running smoothly for many years, no longer a lonely road, and has been connected to the national railway network, which is a great contribution and worthy of commendation.

Little Luciano could only force a smile at this and nodded yes. However, then Qi Wangping promised that the forest development company could enter the brewing industry The news still made him feel a little happy, because this is a lucrative industry, and the licensing of foreign capital has always been very strict (to be precise, there has not been a case so far), this time Chairman Qi Da actually promised to let them enter the development of this industry, which is really a big reward, because the fruit in the orchard is useful.

Therefore, now little Luciano is finally relieved, and he should be able to redeem the impression of some of the heads of merchant families in Italy, so that he will not lose too many points because of the construction of this railway, which is a great benefit to his future and future.

After being a little Luciano of the Forest Development Company, Qi Wangping and others continued to move forward, and on March 21, they arrived at the phased end of the Northern Railway, a small station in Xingguo County on the south bank of the Wujiang River, opposite a wharf in the Jiangbei area, belonging to Anyuan Township, Langya County.

As Qi Wangping had seen, the existence of the Wujiang River prevented the Northern Railway from continuing northward, so the railway became a dead-end road here, unless a railway bridge across the river was built. The State Administration of Railways did not fail to consider building a railway bridge across the north and south here (the narrowest point of the Wujiang River here is only more than 500 meters) in order to continue the northern railway into the depths of the Brazilian plateau in the north, but when they carefully calculated the cost, they suddenly died down because the cost was too great.

In addition, such a long railway bridge was also a challenge for several companies in the construction industry on the east coast, because they had never tried a bridge of this size, and there may have been technical obstacles, so in the end they had to abandon the plan. Subsequently, some people in the General Administration of Railways also raised the question of whether a specially designed ship could be used to load the train, so that the train could cross the Wujiang River and reach the north bank.

This bold idea attracted a lot of attention and discussion, and it was thought that here the train carriage could be split into two or more parts so that ships of limited length could be accommodated. When the ship approached the north shore (where a railway trestle needed to be built, it didn't need to be too long), the locomotive was used to pull the carriages out on the north bank, then assemble them and continue to run on the tracks.

This idea is theoretically good, but there are still many technical details that need to be realized, and the design of such a big-bellied flat-bottomed ship also needs to be taken over by specialists, so this idea of being able to load a whole group of trains and reach the north shore safely has not yet been realized.

On the morning of March 22, Qi Wangping, who arrived on the north bank by small steamer, got on a train coordinated by the Jiangbei District Administration and then drove into the Chengyang Township Railway Station. This is really the final point of the Northern Railway, and further north, the rails are still being laid, and many road construction armies, including the Goshkin Company, the Batino Company and the First Construction Bureau of the General Administration of Railways, are using their own hard work to extend the railroad tracks meter by meter to the north, so that the control of the East Bank government continues to extend into large areas of undeveloped wild land.

Working hard with these road construction troops, there were also a large number of new immigrants and non-national laborers who were told that they could get 30 acres of land for free (under normal circumstances, each person can only get 5 acres of land for free), but they needed to work for the headquarters of the Northern Railway Construction Project for a certain number of hours, and these newcomers had no choice but to agree.

They were originally residents of some newly established settlements in the north, which also belonged to the Jiangbei region, namely Shilai Township (located near the later Palmas Town, currently under the administration of Langya County), Jiping Township (located near the later Casador Town, currently under the administration of Pingyi County), Feinan Township (near the later Timbo Grande Town), Linjian Township (near the later Tres Barras Town), Feibei Township (near the later Port of Uniang), Beiqiu Township (located near the later South São Bentu Town), Xinfu Township (located near the later Curitiba City), Changshou Township (located near the later Ponta Grossa City), Jinglong Township (located near the later Guala Puava Town), Cuiwu Township (near the later Pinyan Town), Xiqiao Township (near the South Larangeras Town), Waterfall Township (near the Iguazu Falls Town), Long Spoon Township (near the later Pitanga Town), Xianggou Township (near the later Campo Morang Town), A total of 17 new settlements were set up in Jinguo Township (near the later town of Francisco Bertrand), Yanya Township (near the later town of Patublanco), and Goqu Township (near the later town of Reareza), with a total population of almost 30,000, demonstrating the strong determination of the East Bank government to gradually advance to the north of the Brazilian Altiplan.

With the establishment of these 17 settlements, the Jiangbei region naturally has to provide money, food, and materials without shirking it, and the neighboring counties of Xinba, Nansheng, Fuxing, and Iguazu on the east bank of the Paraná River cannot escape their obligations, so they must also pay for food and send people to assist, so that the more than 30,000 people in these 18 settlements can settle down as soon as possible.

After hearing about the situation here, Qi Wangping, chairman of the executive committee, insisted on going north along the planned Northern Railway to see this large area of wild land sandwiched between the Bac Ninh area and the Jiangbei area. In desperation, the Jiangbei District Administration and Langya County had to find a specially modified luxury carriage, and then sent a team of cavalry to escort them, trying to pick a relatively smooth and easy-to-walk road to the north, and look all the way.

In this process, Qi Wangping, an old man who is over the age of old, is like a child, constantly asking this and that to the local officials who accompany him, and he seems very interested in everything, perhaps because after this trip, his national tour tour has basically come to an end (Qi Wangping basically does not go to places far away in the north and south).

On March 30, after arriving at the place marked on the map with Feinan Township, Qi Wangping delivered a speech here, focusing on the hardships of the development of the East Bank in the past 50 years and the foreseeable future will have more rapid development, encouraging them to continue to work hard to build the country.

Subsequently, Qi Wangping even visited the local natural scenery with great interest, and was very fond of the lush forest, and even touched several ancient trees that reached into the blue sky with his own hands, accompanied by guards. Of course, he was also slightly sad then, saying that this may be the last time in his life to touch the precious wealth of these countries, and the cause of building the country will be passed on to young people in the future, hoping that they will not have any slackness, and will continue to inherit the banner of their fathers, so that the East Coast Republic of China will be "forever great".

After finishing his inspection in the Jiangbei area, Qi Wangping left the land accompanied by his attaché, and then returned to Ping'an County by the same route, where he finally returned to the capital Dongfang Port directly on a 150-ton inland river/offshore general-purpose small steamer.

On April 20, 1677, Qi Wangping, chairman of the Executive Committee, convened a meeting, at which he made it clear that one of the important tasks in the second half of the year was to prepare for the opening of the National People's Congress in December, at which the nine permanent members of the new Executive Committee would be elected. Many people expect that the new members of the executive committee elected in December will probably be the last to be composed of all time-travelers, and after that, even the youngest time-traveler will be over seventy years old and no longer suitable for front-line leadership positions.

At this point, an era is finally coming to an end!