March 3, Petroli City, North São Francisco County, Royal State of Pernambuco.
The areas of Petrolina and Juazeiro on the banks of the San Francisco River have now become a large construction site, bustling with people and shouting loudly.
Slogans such as "Build Brazil", "Strive for the construction of the São Francisco River Reservoir", "Strive for the largest hydropower station" and "Strive for modernization" can be seen everywhere on the construction site.
These slogans are in various languages, including Portuguese, Italian, Japanese, and Oriental languages.
Tens of thousands of workers gathered at this construction site. There were very few local Brazilians and many were foreign immigrants.
Most of these immigrants come from East Asia, Italy, Greece and other places.
Tens of thousands of workers gathered here to build the São Francisco River Reservoir, one of the thirty-six key projects in the first five-year plan.
Brazil is a country with a mainly tropical climate, and 80% of its land is controlled by tropical rain forests and savannah climates.
In terms of precipitation, Brazil’s precipitation is undoubtedly abundant, especially in the Amazon rainforest area. Although Brazil’s savanna climate also has a lot of precipitation, it has a disadvantage: it is divided into dry and wet seasons, and the rainfall is uneven.
"The First Minister of the Ming Dynasty"
Most of the San Francisco River Basin is grassland desert, and the climate is generally hot and dry. The average maximum temperature is 33℃, the average minimum temperature is 19℃, and the highest temperature recorded is 42℃. Southeasterly, easterly and northeasterly winds prevail here. Most areas receive little rainfall and droughts occur frequently. The average annual precipitation in most areas in the central basin is 510-1020 mm. The source of this river and the Paulo Afonso Falls are below 1016-2032 mm. The annual precipitation in most areas of the waterfall area is below 508 mm, with a few below 254 mm. Precipitation is concentrated in summer (December to March), and winter (April to November) is dry.
As the third longest river and the fourth largest river in Brazil, the São Francisco River has a total length of 2,914 kilometers. The largest river in Brazil with its entire drainage basin, it has a wide drainage basin and is located on the main transportation route between the coastal and western regions of Brazil, and between the northeastern and southern regions, so it is called the "River of National Unity".
Industrialization is inseparable from electricity, agriculture is inseparable from water, and Brazil's industrial and agricultural development is inseparable from this river of unity.
Such a large river has a high status in Brazil and has great potential. Its development will definitely benefit the country. Therefore, in its first five-year plan, the Kingdom of Brazil decided to launch a major project here to develop it.
The São Francisco River flows through the driest region of Brazil, with seasonal water levels varying up to 9 meters, and all tributaries almost drying up during the dry season. It is imperative to build a reservoir.
This river has a large height difference. When building a reservoir, you can consider building a hydropower station at the same time. After a rigorous investigation, with the help of German and British technicians, Brazil selected the Juazeiro and Petroli areas between Brambuco and Salvador to build reservoirs and hydropower stations.
This area is located in San Francisco and the middle and lower reaches. The riverbed above here is staggered and the river below is gentle. It is the best choice for the project.
In the Petrolina and Juazeiro areas, dams are currently under construction, while a coordinating project not far away is the Sobradinho Reservoir Project and Power Station.
The whole project is vast and consists of individual projects, not only in the areas of Petrolina and Ruazeiro, but also in other places.
The most important resource of the São Francisco River Basin is its abundant water energy resources. 17 cascade hydropower stations are planned to be built in the entire basin, with a total installed capacity of up to 20 million kilowatts.
Of course, it is not possible to launch them all at the moment. We can only take our time and build the largest one first.
In order to cooperate with this large-scale project, Brazil has specially established the "São Francisco River Basin Commission", which is responsible for plan setting, technical construction and management of tens of thousands of workers.
The San Francisco River Basin Commission has formulated the "San Francisco River Basin Reclamation Plan" that includes regulating river runoff, developing water energy resources, improving navigation conditions, promoting and developing large-scale irrigation, flood control, promoting industrial and agricultural development, and improving sanitation and immigration conditions. ".
First of all, the first and currently under construction is the Sobradinho reservoir and hydroelectric power plant project in the downstream Petrolina and Juazeiro areas.
In addition to this, the Commission plans to build the Tres Marias Reservoir upstream to regulate runoff, and the Formosa Reservoir near the city of Pirapora (the southernmost point of the navigable stretch of the middle reaches).
The purpose of these two reservoirs is to control the upstream basin with a heavy rainfall of 1,400 millimeters. If successful, it will play a role in improving navigation conditions in the middle reaches, mitigating periodic floods downstream of the dam, increasing the guaranteed output of downstream cascade power stations, and increasing irrigation capacity. played a considerable role.
Tapela is a small town that is at the heart of the construction of the Sobradinho reservoir in the Petrolina and Juazeiro regions, where many workers are currently struggling.
Three young men with tanned skin shoveled the soil vigorously with shovels and packed it into sacks. After giving birth to more than a dozen shovels in a row, they stopped the shovels.
The two men bent down and stabilized the sack. Wang Dasheng quickly pulled out a rope from his waist and tied the sacks filled with soil tightly together.
After tying a sack of soil and tying the rope, Wang Dasheng subconsciously moved forward and saw three people riding a tricycle, driving towards here.
"Xu Laosan, hurry up. The tricycle is coming quickly. There are already many sacks piled here. We have finished this batch, so hurry up and transport them out!"
"Come on, brother!" the leader replied.
After a while, Xu Laosan arrived first. He stopped the car, then braked and stabilized. Then, he took a bucket of water, a bag of steamed buns, and thirty sacks from the car.
A young man collected the things that Xu Laosan had put down, and Wang Dasheng and another person quickly loaded the dirt onto the tricycle.
"Hey, Wang Dasheng, please let me come."
The two people who arrived behind him parked the car and said.
"Three brothers, this is what we should do!"
"You're quite tired from what you're doing. Let's take a rest and let us come over!"
Wang Dasheng said nonchalantly, "Third brother, we are all brothers, why should we divide this?"
"Hey!"
"Hey!"
…
"Brother Wang, you have a very good relationship with Foreman Xu."
A slightly immature young man asked his group leader Wang Dasheng after drinking the water vigorously.
Li Dazhuang sat down on the sack, took a bite of the steamed bun and said, "Of course, we are all fellow villagers from Huaishui, and they are all from Huaidong, fellow villagers among fellow villagers."
"Almost all the people I meet here are from the Huai River area.
I don’t know if there are any of my Luzhong fellows here? "
"Xiao Bai, there are some in Lan Ran, but most of them are assigned to the higher reaches."
Wang Dasheng took a sip of water, sat down, and rested.
“The land of Eastern Shandong and both sides of the Huai River are places that God loves, especially these days.
In the past ten years, there have been almost four years of floods, two years of drought, one year of locust plague, and only three years of peace and stability. "
"Brother Wang, Brother Li, are you also Germans, sent to Brazil?"
"I was sent here by a British guy. It's hard to explain this journey. Fortunately, the Brazilians are kind and gave me a month of light work to support my health."
Li Dazhuang gritted his teeth when talking about the British.
"Brother Wang is more lucky than me. He was lucky enough to take the Wen family's boat to Brazil."
“I do have good luck, my brother is not so lucky.
Those foreign devils who brought the victims and poor people here, whether they are British, French, German, American, or Japanese, are all bastards. They simply do not treat the victims as human beings, but as animals.
Had it not been for the changes made at the request of the Brazilian Emperor, many people would not have been able to go to Brazil.
If things go back to the past, at least half of the ten people who are transported here will die, and the remaining three or four will soon die of illness. Only three of them will be fine! "
"Are they so cruel? Are the Germans who sent me here also so cruel?" Xiaobai asked in surprise.
"Of course they are cruel, and the Germans are no exception."
Li Dazhuang took a sip of water and answered Xiaobai.
"Before I got to Hawaii, I was almost killed. The British didn't know how to get better in the second half. I was still confused at the time, but I didn't understand until I got to Brazil.
The Brazilians raised the price once and required those who sent it to meet the requirements. If they failed to meet the requirements, they would return it and pay liquidated damages. "
