It stands to reason that the way back is always faster than when you go, but Chen Mu's luck is not very good.

On the way back to Panama City from Qilinwei, Chen Mu and his party caught up with the rain, and the road that was not easy to walk became more southward, and it took him ten days to return to the other side of the isthmus.

The humid air made Chen Mu's heart irritable, and the first thing he did when he returned to Panama City was to boil hot water and take a good bath.

"This ghost place is definitely not the right capital of the Ming Dynasty, the right capital of the Ming Dynasty should be in Mexico City, not here."

Hearing the news of Chen Mu's return, Deng Zilong rushed to the military mansion in Panama City as soon as possible, but he didn't expect to open the heavy Western-style gate carved with complex religious patterns, and what caught his eye was Chen Mu sitting cross-legged on the Ottoman carpet with his bare spine and rubbing his arms constantly, his whole body was red like a steamed prawn.

His face was full of hysteria, like those desperate fanatical believers that Deng Zilong had seen in the mirror, and he couldn't stop chanting words in his mouth, as if he wanted some god to give him power.

Sensing Deng Zilong coming in, Chen Mu stopped his movements, supported his elbows on his knees, and turned his wrist meaninglessly as if he wanted to grab something, gritted his teeth, and then he said with a little tiredness and unknown embarrassment: "I'm just a little annoyed." ”

Deng Zilong was speechless, picked up Chen Mu's middle-single plain robe on the back of the seat and handed it out, and then asked, "Have you seen Panama." ”

Chen Mu nodded one after another, took the short robe and put it on his body, did not mean to get up, supported his chin and said with his eyes blank: "I have been soaking in the rain for two days, and my body smells of dampness, which is different from what I imagined." ”

There are two problems in front of Chen Mu, the first is where Youjing is located, and the second is to build a canal, which of these two things is different from what he imagined.

"I know that the Westerners built a road here, but I don't know that they built a road on a mountain ridge, which is hot and rainy and full of miasma, and originally I wanted to build a city in the middle of the isthmus, as the right capital of the imperial court, and the north and south are sixty or seventy miles away from the coast, and I also plan to lay wooden tracks on the road...... It's all bullshit, this place is high and low, and there are endless forests and mountains everywhere, and nothing can be cultivated. ”

"And the canal, your report."

Chen Mu raised his head to look at Deng Zilong, raised his finger and pointed to a thick stack of letters on the table, and said, "Are we going to dig a mountain?" ”

At this stage, the whole Panama region does not have the possibility of having large cities, although there is an isthmus that can bring extraordinary commercial transportation, and although it connects the two oceans of the north and south, it is only a slight possibility of prosperity at the two ends of the coast.

In the middle of more than 100 miles, there was no possibility of building a city.

This problem can be explained by the report submitted to him by Deng Zilong's department after surveying the topography of the left side of the road.

You can imagine the whole isthmus as a mountain, the south of the mountain is the Gulf of Panama in the Pacific Ocean, the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean in the north, the mountain in the middle is very high, this road is from the south of the mountain to the north of the mountain, there are not many turns, turns, basically from the south foot of the mountain to the top of the mountain, and then from the top of the mountain down to the north foot of the mountain.

It's just that because the terrain is elongated and the altitude of the mountain is not too high, people will not realize that they are climbing the mountain during the climbing process, they will only feel tired and slower than usual, but in fact they are climbing the mountain.

But this mountain is made up of small hills, and the mountains in front are only a little higher than the mountains behind, but this little by little adds up, much higher than the sea.

Chen Mu thought that digging a canal is not to repair a canal, two thousand years ago Wu Zixu was the first person in the world to build a canal, the Spaniards have the idea of building a canal is very good, but until now Europe has not dug any canal or canal that can compare with the Xu River, what the Spaniards can't do, Chen Mu doesn't think he can't do it.

As a result, you tell me, I'm not building a canal, I'm digging mountains?

The Isthmus of Panama is very close to the north and south, and digging a river like this is not a big problem even for the current Oriental military government, let alone the Ming Dynasty behind the military government.

The two river basins gave birth to a splendid Chinese civilization, but the big river in the mouth of the ancestors did not have the slightest benevolent appearance, no day and night to send a big water, the first person to control the river became the founding monarch of the Xia Dynasty, meritorious service to the public, so that China from the tribe to the country.

They have the largest number of water conservancy experts in the world and the most abundant experience in the construction of water conservancy projects in the world, so is it difficult to build a canal with a total length of up to 200 miles in Asia?

Deng Zilong's report explained to Chen Mu that it was really difficult.

Because the ground is uneven.

If the difficulty of digging a canal in the plain area is one and the amount of work is two, then the difficulty of digging a canal here is ten, and the amount of work is between two hundred and five hundred.

Chen Mu was deterred by such a huge project, shook his head and said to Deng Zilong: "I'm afraid that in the future, you can only take the land route here, what about Master Xu, let him come back." ”

"Do you really want him back? Seven days ago, he sent a message back from Dahu to the west, asking me to send him a few carpenters, and also to Changshengzhi County, asking him to send a few skilled pearl divers from among the people. ”

Deng Zilong sighed, then smiled easily, and said: "No matter what, Panama is a battleground for soldiers, even if there is no canal, why not let him try?" ”

"Pearl divers?"

Chen Mu pondered, pearl divers are poor people who dive into the sea to take pearls for a living, this profession has a high probability of accidents, sometimes people don't come up in one breath and they are gone, Xu Zhenming wants carpenters, pearl divers, and also pointed out that those with strong diving ability are next to the big lake.

Then his purpose is about to come out to Chen Mu.

He wants to be like the ancient Dayu, planning to open mountains and build embankments in the mountains and depressions in Asia.

Chen Mu shook his head slowly, and said: "This canal is not necessary to be repaired, at least not now, even if we really have to do this, it is difficult for our generation to see the canal completed, without the canal, the interests of the Ming Dynasty will not be damaged much, XCMG is very old......"

Before Chen Mu finished speaking, Deng Zilong continued: "He will do this, maybe he can only do this one thing in his life." ”

"XCMG can serve His Majesty for another ten years, right? Ten years later, what status will he have, the squire of the Ministry of Works or the squire of the Ministry of War? Maybe three or five years later, he will be transferred from the Beiyang Branch to the Ministry of Industry to be the head of the department, even if it comes to an end. ”

As he spoke, Deng Zilong's words turned sharply, and he didn't see any regrets, but looked excited, and said: "Since ancient times, there has been no shortage of people in the world who have made contributions to the great cause of the present and the future!" ”

"I don't understand water control, but there must be an opportunity for Deng to seize the opportunity to become an official, don't say that it is only ten years, even if he fights hard, Deng does not want to miss it - at least give him a year and a half, let him measure the terrain, terrain, water, mountains and heights, and if there is no other way, it is not too late to recall him."

Chen Mu pondered for a moment, he was not a short-sighted person, and he knew better than anyone what Panama would bring after repairing the canal, but after knowing the difficulties and the sharp increase in the amount of work, he didn't think that he had to rush to do it.

His resources are limited, but there are many roads, and any one of them is good, it will not be bad, and the return will be faster than building a canal.

However, Deng Zilong was right, before Xu Zhenming found out everything, he didn't need to invest too much in this, and he could let Xu Zhenming try.

"If a person can really do one thing well in his life, it is worth it, let him try."

Chen Mu rubbed his chin, he also had to use the same spirit to do one thing well: "I, I have to find a way to hold Mexico City in Daming's arms." ”