After a long hot rainy season, the dry and cool dry season finally came on time, which made many soldiers and civilians on the east coast who worked and lived on the shores of Liusha Lake (i.e., Lake Alautra) happy, and this annoying day finally came to an end for the time being!

Today is May 22, 1684, and it is the great day of the grand establishment of Shangdang County. The county has jurisdiction over Shangdang Township (located near the small town of Ambu Hila Liwu on the shore of Lake Alautra in the later generations), Gaoqi Township (located near the small town of Ambu Aburi in the later world), Tongdi Township (near the town of Anbatu Sulata in the later generation), Changzi Township (near the town of Andreba in the later generations), Xiangyuan Township (near the small town of Amparafalaula in the later generations), Huguan Township (near the small town of Ambatong Drazaka in the later generations) and Licheng Township (near the small town of Andi Ranatubi in the later generations), a total of seven townships. Over the years, about 12,000 pioneers have been settled, and there are still about 9,000 people, and Xinhuaxia Island is not a small county.

This Shangdang county, to be honest, is not up to the conditions for the establishment of the county, whether it is population, economy or other aspects, there is a considerable distance from the establishment of the county, so the county is actually the establishment of the new Huaxia development team, in order to be extremely important geographical location and agricultural conditions here.

A map printed and published by the Xinhua County Paper Mill (controlled outflow) shows that Shangdang County is a vast area that resembles an irregular polygon that encloses the lake in between, while the periphery is undulating hills and mountains. In other words, the county can be roughly divided into three types of land, one of which is naturally the famous large lake and its swampy floodplains, the second is the outer hills and mountains, and the third is the plain area along the lake.

Of these three types of land, the quicksand lake (named because of its relatively turbid waters) is a resource that can be exploited because of its vast area, vast smoke and waves, abundant fishery resources, and great potential for aquaculture. The outer hills and mountains are a bit of a chicken, and the terrain of this "Savoca" is relatively dry, although there are some forests, but they are not afraid to cut down, because if they are not well protected, there will be disastrous consequences, that is, the short-grass sparse hills will be degraded into semi-arid grasslands, which has been taught before, so similar ecological protection policies have been introduced.

However, in addition to the above two types of land, there is also a considerable lakeside alluvial plain in Shangdang County. These plains, because of the nutrient-rich soil, are very fertile, as evidenced by the fact that many animals like to nibble on the juicy pastures that grow on them, and this is indeed a very suitable place for agricultural production.

Moreover, even those swampy and semi-marshy lands that are a little and a half closer to the lake are not impossible to develop. In fact, the people of the East Coast have a lot of experience in this regard, whether it is the mainland of the river area, or the Yicheng region of South Africa, or the east coast of New Huaxia Island, there are countless swamps that have been drained of stagnant water and developed into fertile land, orchards or cash crop plantations, such as the "Oil Palm Action" on the East Coast, which is currently thriving under the leadership of Yang Jie.

Therefore, the potential for the development of plain farmland in Shangdang County is very broad, and it is no wonder that the higher authorities regard this place as the grain production center of the east coast and even the whole island. Therefore, without waiting for what the local officials in Shangdang County could say, Shao Yaoguang, the leader of the pioneer team, directly issued instructions to formally establish Shangdang County and transfer some relatively capable cadres from the Daqing Basin on the west coast to take charge of the preparation and construction of the county.

The reason why Captain Shao is like this is actually related to the increasingly "deformed" agricultural production situation on the whole island. Because of the advent of the so-called "sugar bull market" and the massive demand for other cash crops such as rubber, sisal, cotton, coffee and other cash crops by local industry and commerce, more and more farmers in New Huaxia Island are now being driven by economic interests to abandon the traditional cultivation of rice and corn, two staple foods, and instead seek the cultivation of cash crops to increase their incomes.

This situation is particularly predominantly in the irrigated areas of large rivers in the north and west coasts, where the climate is relatively humid. Those places were built earlier, and trade with the outside world was very frequent, and the peasants generally saw the world and knew that growing grain was not good for their wallets, but still growing cash crops to make money. Even if you can't grow popular crops such as sugarcane, cotton, and coffee, you still have to engage in some gardens, nursery gardening, beekeeping, etc., and even if you can't do it, you can also graze or fish, in short, it is more cost-effective than growing food.

Therefore, in these densely populated areas on the west coast and in the north, except for some dry farming in the interior of the Daqing Basin, there are really few people growing grain, which undoubtedly leads to a great shortage of staple food in Xinhuaxia Island, which has to be imported from the Portuguese across the sea, which in disguise promotes the development of colonial estates in the Zambezi River basin, making it move forward at a speed far beyond history.

But will the East Coast leadership tolerate this for long? The answer is clearly no. The previous leaders of the pioneer team from modern China in later generations had a deep-rooted awareness of food security in their minds, and they had been trying to reverse this situation for many years, but the great development of trade on New Huaxia Island had greatly reduced the effectiveness of their efforts. But no matter what, after so many years of hard work, the efforts to open up a new grain planting area on Xinhuaxia Island have finally borne fruit, and that is the grain planting base in Shangdang County on the shore of Liusha Lake.

At present, the government of the pioneer team has also written a report to the local Ministry of Agriculture, and has secured a considerable amount of financial subsidies and technical assistance for the rice planting and fishery production base in Shangdang County - in other words, Xinhuaxia Island is the base camp of agricultural officials, and it is naturally very simple to get subsidies from the Ministry of Agriculture - which has laid a good foundation for the next stage of the county's work.

The acting county magistrate of Shangdang County is a "young man" who just turned 30 last month, and he is not a small man, the grandson of Shi Qinjie, a tycoon in the agricultural department, and also the grandson-in-law of the first minister of agriculture and a disciple all over the world, named Stanley, who graduated from the capital's youth cadre school. He worked in the countryside on the outskirts of the capital where the commercialization was very deep, then he went to the Ministry of Agriculture, and finally before coming to New Huaxia Island, he served as an agricultural township chief in tropical Brazil for a long time.

Stanley clearly knew what his mission was in Shangdang County, that is, to do his best to reorganize this grain production base on the shore of Liusha Lake. If the results are seen in a short period of time, then everything is easy to say, and someone in his history will also take this as a step forward and continue to climb up. And if it has been delayed for a long time and no results have been seen, and a large number of people have died due to war or disease, then his resume will probably be written in disgrace, so that even if he has a deep background, it will not be easy to speak in the future. After all, in today's East Coast, everything is still based on results, and the relationship has a role, but it can only play a role when the hard indicators of the two people are about the same, that's all.

Therefore, as soon as Stanley Fu arrived, he immediately convened a meeting of cadres at and above the deputy section level in the county, comprehensively unified their thinking, and formulated a work plan for the next stage. The plan is very detailed, and basically breaks down every aspect of the work down to the individual, so that it is impossible to pass the buck or delay.

Of course, there is no opposition at the bottom, but Stanley doesn't care about these people, and only emphasizes that the Xinhua Port side is watching, and more than 270,000 soldiers and civilians on the island are watching, and there is no reason for everyone to relax. This reason is so unassailable that everyone can only go back with a bitter face, desperately rolling in the mosquito-infested mud.

Considering that Shangdang County is deep inland, located in the transition zone between the central plateau and the eastern coast, transportation is not very convenient, so the construction plan of the Tadong Railway began on the new Huaxia Island several years ago, and it was officially implemented in 1682.

The Tadong Railway connects Shangdang County with Tacheng County, an important seaport in the east, and shoulders the important task of transporting rice, pasture and dried salted fish, which will be produced in large quantities in the future in the area of Liusha Lake, and plays a very critical role. At the same time, as one of the important seaports of New Huaxia Island, Tacheng Port will also transport industrial products and daily necessities from the outside world into the inland plateau for the production and living of local people.

Of course, we must not forget that the Tadong Railway also has important military significance! The Melinans, though now temporarily repulsed by the East Coasters, were only a force of theirs. The native kingdoms of the Central Plateau are now in the late stages of a fierce annexation war, and the kingdom that had fought against the people on the east coast has been destroyed by the enemy, and the originally divided Central Plateau is gradually becoming unified. It is unknown what kind of attitude this unified kingdom will adopt towards the Republic of East China in the future, and how it will treat the pioneers on the east coast on the shore of Liusha Lake. Therefore, the people of the East Coast need to be ready for war at all times – not now, of course, but certainly in the future, because the East Coasters themselves covet the cooler and more pleasant climate of the Central Plateau.

The builder and operator of the Tadong Railway are both the New China Railway Company. The island-based railway company has been successfully operating the Daqing Railway on the west coast for some years and has accumulated a lot of experience. The construction of the Tadong Railway has also been prepared for many years, and more than 100,000 yuan has been spent on preliminary exploration, preparation, and personnel recruitment, which is very amazing. In order to subsidize this local railway company, which is not very financially well-off, the two successive captains of the pioneer team of Xinhuaxia Island have given the company a cumulative subsidy of about 200,000 yuan, and requisitioned a lot of people to help them build roads and work free of charge, just as the Far East Denglai Pioneer Team used their strength to help the Southern Railway Company build the Jiaoyan Line Railway.

This time, after Captain Shao Yaoguang Shao took office, he also gave great attention to the Tadong Railway, and gritted his teeth and squeezed out about 30,000 yuan in cash and 50,000 yuan in materials from the government's finances, and presented them to the New Huaxia Railway Company to encourage them not to be afraid, persevere, and complete the construction of this arterial level railway no matter how difficult it is.

The basic route of the Tadong Railway is to go around Liusha Lake first, connecting the major agricultural production areas in the future. After that, the Tadong Railway will extend from the lakeside plain into Huguan Township, an important pass in the mountains, through Licheng Township, along the winding flat valley of the mountain range, all the way out of the winding valley, basically after a circle that is not close, and finally along the coastline to the north to the Tacheng Port Wharf.

This line is roughly marked on the outer wall of the construction site of the Shangdang County Railway Station. Anyone with a modicum of common sense understands that the Tadong Railway is not close at all, and the conditions of the area through which it passes are complex, with swamps, hills, forests, sandbars, and there may be a number of bridges to be erected in the meantime - although the production cost of the East Coast Railway Bridge has been greatly reduced with the development of construction technology, but if there are many of them, it is still a large financial burden - and the cost must be very huge. It is no wonder that many people say that the construction cost per unit mileage of the Tadong Railway will greatly exceed that of the Daqing Railway, and even two to three times as much, in fact, it is not without reason.

But no matter how difficult it is, this railway must be built, not only as an economic necessity, but also as a political task. Ma Xiaoling, the president of the New Huaxia Railway Company and a famous strong woman, has been running around the island in the past two years, and even returned to the mainland once, in order to raise enough funds, attract sufficient sponsorship, and hire enough technical personnel at the lowest possible price.

Ma Xiaoling knew in her heart that this railway would have a far-reaching impact on the company's future development, and she would have to get on board even if it was difficult. This is not only for many units and individuals from the central to the local government to help them reduce their burden, but also to provide a relatively good starting point for her ambitious railway plan to communicate the whole island in the future. For a strongman who aspires to be the queen of the new Huaxia Island railway, what are the difficulties in front of him? The main railway roads, cable telegraph lines, and railway annexes are the three major weapons of the New China Railway Company to reap the interests of the whole island in the future, and Ma Xiaoling is optimistic about this for a long time. Now that she has initially tasted the sweetness in the Daqing Basin area (although the total profit is not very large, it is better than the long-term flow and stability), and naturally wants to copy it to the east coast.

The Tadong Railway must be completed as quickly as possible!