(0868) Summer 1660 A.D., Panama Region, Latin America.

Xu Canlei, Xu Xingxia's forty-fifth son, that is, Zhu Yilan's second son, is sweating like rain on the construction site of the Panama Canal, busy directing the workers to work. Despite his young age, the workers around him were quite cooperative. Because, on the excavation site of the Panama Canal, Xu Canlei is also an old qualification.

Xu Canlei is a trainee engineer who has been at the Panama Canal construction site for five years. He has been dealing with the Panama Canal project since its design. He is also one of the oldest qualified engineers and technicians. Although, his age, is only twenty-eight years old.

In 1655, after the joint efforts of hundreds of thousands of workers, the Suez Canal was officially opened. The opening of the Suez Canal marked a significant shortening of the distance between the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean. From then on, merchant ships from the Mediterranean and Indian Oceans did not need to circumnavigate the Cape of Good Hope. Ties between Asia and Europe have been further strengthened.

After the successful excavation of the Suez Canal, Xu Xingxia proposed the opening of the Panama Canal to shorten the navigation distance between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Beginning in 1656 AD, the Panama Canal was officially excavated. This time, the federation still invested a lot of manpower, material and financial resources. And the commander-in-chief of the project is still Xu Xingxia himself.

At the beginning, when the Suez Canal was being excavated, Xu Xingxia came to the scene and directed the excavation work. He spent three months on the Suez Canal construction site, solving practical problems for technicians and engineers.

All the construction workers knew that Xu Xingxia was by their side. Therefore, they were very motivated and completed the task ahead of schedule. The Suez Canal, which was originally designed to take ten years to open, was officially opened in only six years.

Unfortunately, when the Panama Canal was being excavated, Xu Xingxia was not present in person. It's not that he doesn't want to, it's that he can't. At this time, Xu Xingxia was already in his sixties. The years are a ruthless knife, cutting the outline, cutting the beauty, blackening the fungus, purpleing the grapes, and softening the banana. Whether it is a hero or a beauty, they can't escape the ravages of time.

No matter how brilliant Xu Xingxia's past was, his body could not be as strong as before. Three stone hard bow, he is impossible to pull again. If he goes to the ocean again and appears in the Panama Canal, it will be a great harm to his body. Therefore, everyone was clearly opposed to his presence in person.

In fact, this kind of work on the scene does not need Xu Xingxia to continue to do. When the Suez Canal was first excavated, the technicians, engineers, and workers were inexperienced and needed Xu Xingxia's personal guidance. Many practical problems need to be solved by Xu Xingxia using the knowledge of later generations. His existence is to solve problems.

However, after the construction of the Suez Canal, the Federation has accumulated enough experience and enough technicians, engineers and workers to cope with the various difficulties encountered during the excavation of the Panama Canal. In a sense, they no longer need Xu Xingxia's personal guidance. Of course, if Xu Xingxia really wants to come, they also express a supreme welcome.

As Xu Xingxia's son, Xu Canlei actually came with his father's ardent expectations. In him, his father's deep expectations for the Panama Canal were pinned. Perhaps, for Xu Xingxia, this is the last major thing he needs to pay attention to personally. As he grew older, Xu Xingxia had delegated most of his powers.

Of course, Xu Canlei knew his father's expectations of him, so he was also full of effort to make some achievements and show his parents. After the establishment of the Earth Federation, the profession of an engineer was quite popular. Xu Canlei's brothers are all fighting in this emerging industry, and everyone's competition is also very fierce. Who wants to admit defeat?

As Xu Xingxia's son, they have no other privileges, and they still have the privilege of enjoying high-quality education. From a very young age, they are well educated. They were the first to receive a new type of education, and they were much better than others in physics, chemistry, mathematics, etc. This is a prerequisite for them to be able to become engineers.

In the past, during the war years, their eldest brothers Xu Canxu, Xu Canhuai, Xu Xiangfeng, Xu Xianghua, Xu Xiangtian and others all chose to serve in the army. By the time these little brothers grew up, the war was over. There is no longer any need for them to serve in the army. In times of peace, it is the most popular talent for construction.

The common people, who have experienced more than ten years of war, are very tired of war. The only hope for ordinary people now is to live a better life. Specifically, it means that you can live in a blue brick house, eat white rice or white steamed buns, and often eat meat. Of course, it would be better if you could live in a building made of reinforced concrete and have meat for every meal.

Those who are more demanding should dress appropriately, pay attention to the quality of food, have spacious and bright mansions in their residences, and have trains and ships in and out. Some of the families who became wealthy first also asked for upstairs and downstairs to have electric lights and telephones. The army, which used to be the focus of public attention, is, in a sense, indeed forgotten by the common people for the time being.

After the end of the war, all parts of the world are desperately trying to develop their economies and improve their living standards. Who doesn't want to have a better life? Who doesn't want to make their family a little more decent? To achieve this goal, we need to redouble our efforts. The thirty years since the establishment of the Earth Federation have been the fairest, most transparent, and most open era. As long as you do it, as long as you work hard, it will definitely pay off.

After the war was completely over, the world was unified and the economy developed quite rapidly. This can be seen from the trend of stocks.

In 1648, the first shares were issued. At that time, the stock index was less than 500 points.

By 1650 A.D., the stock index had gone to more than 3,000 points.

By 1655 AD, the stock index exceeded 10,000 points.

By 1660, the stock index had exceeded 20,000 points.

The vigorous development of the economy is first reflected in transportation. The epitome of transportation is the railway. In the 30 years since the establishment of the Confederation, the railroads have continued to expand wildly. Basically, wherever there is a need, all railways have been built.

In 1648, the total length of railways around the world was only more than 13,000 kilometers, and most of them were concentrated in the area around Xi'an. These railways were all funded and built by the White Army, and the objects they serve are naturally the strategic needs of the White Army. The purpose of building these railways was simple, purely to meet the logistical transportation needs of the White Clothes Army.

By 1650 AD, the total length of the railway had increased to more than 33,000 kilometers, mainly distributed in the eastern coastal areas of the Ming Empire. This was to meet the needs of maritime trade. In order to transport goods from the mainland to coastal ports, or to transport foreign goods to the mainland, the railways continue to stretch and intersect to form a tight railway network.

By 1655 AD, railroads were in full bloom all over the world. Asia, Europe, Africa, South America, North America, Oceania and other places have built or are building a large number of railways. The total length of railways in the world is more than 200,000 kilometers. Railways have also been opened in Siberia and other places.

By 1660, the total length of railways in the world had exceeded 500,000 kilometers. Basically, as long as the population is relatively concentrated, or the resources are relatively abundant, railways have been opened. Even, some more remote and barren places have opened railways ahead of schedule. This is mainly for the needs of immigrants.

By about 1680 AD, the total length of railways in the world reached a staggering 800,000 kilometers. In most places, the railways are almost saturated, and there is no room left to build more railways. At this time, when investing in railways, it is also necessary to consider the issue of input and output. At this point, the crazy development of the railway has slowly decreased.

As a result, some of the obsolete railways were demolished in order to allocate the lines more rationally and save resources. Some of the railways were retrofitted with new fuel locomotives to improve the speed and comfort of the trains. After all, coal-fired locomotives are always dirty, and after a long journey, the passengers are all black. Some of the railway lines with heavy traffic began to be double-tracked to improve operational efficiency.

At the same time as the rapid development of railways, maritime trade has also developed by leaps and bounds. In the past, there was excessive competition in maritime trade, and the threat of piracy, so that the development of maritime trade was always inadvertently curbed. The establishment of the Confederation expelled all these risks, and in just three or five years, there was a blowout of maritime trade and transportation.

According to the Federal Maritime Administration, in 1650 AD, there were a total of 657.9 million tons of merchant ships registered in the world. Based on the average of about 1,000 tons per merchant ship, that is more than 600,000 merchant ships. That's a huge number. Besides, there are still many merchant ships that have not been officially registered!

In Xu Xingxia's harem, if you want to talk about the smartest women, Namu Zhong must be on the list. Don't look at her usual inconspicuousness, but her grasp of opportunities is unmatched. From Xu Xingxia's conversation, she clearly felt the vitality of the shipbuilding industry. Therefore, as early as 1639, she took out her own private money and used the name of her relatives to build a civilian shipyard in Huludao, specializing in the construction of merchant ships.

With the explosion of maritime trade, orders from the shipyards of Namu Bell were lined up from 1650 AD to after 1660. The steady stream of orders has brought her a steady stream of profits. Among all the sisters, she is the one with the most upright income, the least afraid of the investigation by the Anti-Corruption Bureau, and the most generous.

In times of peace, heroes are always easy to forget. Even if his name is Xu Xingxia. Since 1660 AD, Xu Xingxia's name has rarely appeared in public. On the one hand, Xu Xingxia didn't want his old age to be disturbed. As an old man, it is indeed an unpleasant thing to be disturbed.

On the other hand, he wanted to see what would happen in a world without himself. For example, see if there are a few "careerists" who want to jump out. In fact, nothing happened. The whole world is developing steadily and orderly according to a certain track. The so-called careerists, for the time being, did not see any of them.

In fact, there are contradictions within the federation. Where is there no contradiction? As long as there are more than two people, there must be contradictions. This is the old saying that where there are people, there are rivers and lakes. With a huge federation, there are naturally more contradictions of all kinds.

In fact, the Federal Parliament quarrels every day. The discussion and passage of every bill is accompanied by the noisy noise of the parliamentarians. When the argument is intense, there will even be a full-fledged martial arts. Xu Xingxia quietly visited the parliament several times, and saw with his own eyes the members of different factions, ignoring Sven, and beating each other.

In fact, many local councils are also quarrelling. If parliamentarians don't quarrel, it seems that they can't explain their weight. Fortunately, quarrels have the benefit of quarrels. It is better to vent any grievances through quarrels than to solve problems elsewhere by means of war. It turns out that parliamentarism may not be the best, but it is the fairest.

Xu Xingxia's era is gradually passing. By 1670 AD, Xu Xingxia was already in his seventies. The traces of time are evident on his body. When there are no outsiders, he is an old man. Fortunately, my memory is not bad, and my eyes are not bad, so I won't lose anything, and I don't even remember the people I know best.

His wives and concubines also passed away. In 1677, Zhu Yilan also left this world. Outsiders are speculating that Xu Xingxia's words are estimated to not be long. In fact, Xu Xingxia himself thinks so. Life is rare for seventy years, and he has lived to be eighty years old, and he can almost be satisfied. Estimating that he didn't have many children, he had a plan to leave a lot of wealth to his descendants.

The most of his legacy is books. These books were dictated by him and compiled by his daughters. Perhaps, these books should be called whimsical. Because, a lot of information in it is also incomprehensible to his daughters. They can only call it the Book of Heaven. In fact, these are all bits and pieces recorded by Xu Xingxia in his later years. Inside, most of it is about the idea of the future world.

In Xu Xingxia's later years, his greatest wish was not to live forever or live forever, but to return to the 21st century through his own efforts. An era when there are computers, televisions, Internet games, airplanes and ships, and spaceships, and an era when you can stay at home and be a comfortable otaku.

In fact, the elderly Xu Xingxia misses his life in his previous life even more. After all, his surname is biased towards otaku. When he traveled to this world, he used the memories of his previous life to do a lot of things that went against the development of the world. However, he didn't feel too proud. Not even, there was not even a feeling of joy at all. Compared with heroes, he prefers to be an otaku, an otaku who comes to reach out for food and opens his mouth without leaving home.

However, it is a pity that Xu Xingxia's wish is obviously not possible. Because, in his lifetime, there was still no way to make airplanes, not even gliders like the Wright brothers. Cars and ships are only a prototype. They are still a lot of time away from true maturity.

As for computers, they are still basically written from heaven, a concept that stays on paper. In the seventeenth century, the study of physics, chemistry, mathematics and other applied sciences had not really started. There are even fewer people who are proficient in this knowledge. Even if Xu Xingxia created a perfect education system and strengthened research in physics, chemistry and mathematics through his own efforts, it would be unrealistic to train a large number of scientists at once.

Thirty years is too short a time, after all. Ten years of trees, a hundred years of people, if you want to make this world, a large number of physics, chemistry, and mathematics talents appear, at least a hundred years later. It's a pity that Xu Xingxia will never see this scene.

The only thing to be thankful for is that the development of science and technology has found the right direction. The improvement of the education system will also greatly help people master relevant knowledge. The combination of the two will greatly accelerate the progress of science and technology. As long as people in the future continue to work hard, they will be able to step into the modern world as soon as possible.

As for whether there will be strife in this world after he dies, there will be divisions, and wars will break out, Xu Xingxia has no ability to control it. After all, the world is so big and there are so many contradictions, even if he is a traverser, it is impossible for him to completely take care of it. He has left a relatively perfect system to the world, and he has avoided the occurrence of war as much as possible. But if war broke out, he had nothing to say.

He believed that even if there were disputes, divisions, and wars, someone would definitely come forward to put them to rest. This world has always been a world of heroes. It is said that the times create heroes. However, on the other hand, how can heroes not deeply influence the world? If he can cross over, who can guarantee that no one else will cross over?

Only science and technology, only to improve human life, will never change. Human life is always changing. Human beings are forever in pursuit of a better, more comfortable and healthier life. This is the greatest driving force for the progress of human society and the greatest driving force for mankind to safeguard world peace. As long as this does not change, peace will always be the mainstream in this world.

In 1688, Xu Xingxia died suddenly at the age of ninety.

His era officially ended, and a new one began.

That's a new story.

『End of the book』