I want to be emperor

Chapter 770 Development of the Northeast
On August 29, [-]th year of Chengshun, Shanhaiguan, Yongping Prefecture, Hebei Province.

The huge fleet of imperial special trains stopped here to supply coal and fresh water. Taking advantage of this time, Luo Zhixue also got off the train and visited Shanhaiguan, a famous pass in the world.

Feel the grandeur of the world's famous customs!
This place has been a strategic location for transportation since ancient times. Yuguan was built in the Sui Dynasty. However, if it really wants to become a famous pass in the world, it still has to wait until the early Ming Dynasty to start building the Great Wall of Ming Dynasty in order to fight against the aliens in the Northeast and outside the Great Wall.

However, the easternmost end of the Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty went all the way to the sea. The Ming Dynasty felt that the location of the ancient Yuguan was not good, so it moved [-] miles eastward and built a new pass, which is Shanhaiguan.

From this time on, Shanhaiguan has become the throat connecting North China and Northeast China. At the same time, after the Ming Dynasty moved its capital to Youzhou, Shanhaiguan became the east gate of the capital area of ​​the Ming Dynasty, and its strategic position has been further improved.

Of course, in the middle and early stages of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty was on the offensive against the Northern Parallel Capital and the Northeast. Strictly speaking, Shanhaiguan was in the hinterland, and its strategic position seemed to be important, but in fact it did not experience any war.

After the mid-Ming Dynasty, the territory of Beipingdusi gradually lost, and Duoyan Sanwei also changed from an ally of the Ming Dynasty to an enemy, and the strategic position of Shanhaiguan was further strengthened.

In the late Ming Dynasty when the Dongyao people rose, the importance of Shanhaiguan reached an unprecedented level... Well, it was at this time that Shanhaiguan truly became the No. 1 pass in the world.

In other words, when the threat comes from the northeast, this place is so important!

In the long history of China, the threat from the Northeast region was only in the late Ming Dynasty, and the strategic position of this place was actually the same at other times.

How should I put it, what is important is what is needed.

When it is not needed, it is just a place of interest and historical sites, just a conventional military station.

Just like in the current Great Chu Empire, Shanhaiguan is important and important, but it is not that important, at least the Chu army did not garrison a large number of troops here.

In normal times, there is only one infantry regiment with a standing second-class division and an artillery battalion stationed here, which are still not full of numbers, and the total number is only three to four thousand.

The places where the Chu army stationed heavy troops in North China were Tianjin and Youzhou. In fact, there were not many troops stationed in other border cities.

The city where heavy troops are stationed in the Northeast is Shenyang, the new provincial capital of Liaodong.

All of this is because North China, Northeast China, and even the Monan region are no longer borders, but belong to the hinterland of Zheng'er Bajing...

In this kind of hinterland area, although some troops will be stationed at some important checkpoints, more of them are just to be prepared. More troops are actually stationed in big cities and transportation hubs.

For example, the Great Chu Empire deployed heavy troops in Xuzhou and Zhengzhou, which were not well-known in the past, throughout the Central Plains.

why?
For no reason, because these two places are railway hubs, Xuzhou is also a river transport hub by the way.

Through railway and river transportation, troops deployed in Xuzhou can be easily and quickly transported hundreds or even thousands of kilometers away.

The Chu army deployed a large number of troops in Tianjin in North China, also because this place is a transportation hub.

Similarly, in the Northeast region, the Chu army also deployed its main force on Shenyang, a transportation hub.

Shenyang, why is this place important?
Because it is the cross railway hub in a series of northeastern railway plans of the Great Chu Empire.

The railway network in Northeast China has a very simple direction of the main line railway, which is a cross!

The Hengzi Railway is the Northeast Railway starting from Tianjin in the west along the Liaoxi Corridor, passing through Jinzhou, and then arriving in Shenyang, then extending eastward from Shenyang all the way, crossing the Yalu River into the Koryo Peninsula, and entering the territory of Donghai Province, and finally all the way to the most On the sea to the east is Busan.

The Zongzi Railway starts from Lushun Port in the Liaodong Peninsula in the south, and extends northward through Gaizhou, Hekou, Liaoyang, and then continues northward after arriving in Shenyang. After entering Liaobei Province, it passes through Changchun, the city of Liaobei Province, and then continues northward Go to Songhua River and arrive at Shuangjiang City, the provincial capital of Heishui Province.

These two main-line railways are the most important railway network in the Northeast Railway Network, but they have not been fully completed yet. Only the section from Tianjin to Shenyang, the section from Hekou to Shenyang, and the section from Shenyang to Changchun have been completed.

The cost of railway construction is too high and the cost is high. In the Great Chu Empire, there are not many railways in the eastern plains where the economy is good and the population is large. Naturally, it is more difficult to build railways in cold places like the Northeast.

In addition, in fact, the waters of Liaohe River and Heilongjiang in Northeast China can also provide a certain amount of river transport capacity, and the demand for railways in some areas is actually not as great as imagined.

The Liaohe River in this year is not as strong as it was in the later generations due to silting and other conditions. The Liaohe River Basin in the period of the Great Chu Empire had a fairly good river transportation capacity. Although it could not pass large-tonnage ships, it was still navigable. Some flat-bottomed ships of several hundred tons are still not a problem.

When the Great Chu Empire developed coal and iron resources in Liaodong, it used the Taizi River, the Hun River and other rivers in the Liaohe waters for external transportation. North transportation, grain is also transported to the estuary through the river, and then shipped by sea.

And this situation became more obvious after the high-pressure ship-borne steam engine of the Great Chu Empire was successfully developed and quickly put into use for inland river transportation.

Of course, river transportation also has great limitations. For example, many river sections in the northeast will be frozen in winter and cannot be navigable all year round. Therefore, railway transportation is also very necessary.

It is necessary to vigorously develop railway transportation in Northeast China, and Shenyang is the center of this railway network.

The reason why this place can become the center of the Northeast Railway Network is naturally because the governor of Liaodong Province moved here.

In fact, at the very beginning, the governor of the Liaodong Province of the Great Chu Empire was not based in Shenyang, but in Liaoyang... After all, at the beginning, Shenyang was still the capital of the capital that was captured by others!
After killing the Dongbao, the governor of Liaodong was still stationed in Liaoyang for quite a long time, but the east bank of the Liaohe River was no longer the place with abundant water and grass in ancient times.

Due to the long-term reclamation of the Liaohe area, the ecology has degraded, the grassland has become sandy, the lower reaches of the Liaohe River have been silted up, and floods often occur, and a swamp-like place has gradually formed in this area, that is, Liaoze, where Liaoyang City is located. in the area.

The Taizi River, Hun River and other areas have large water flows, and floods often occur in summer, and Liaoyang City is one of the important victimized areas.

After the founding of the Great Chu Empire, although the local government continued to control these rivers, they did not cure the symptoms.

In the tenth year of Chengshun, a large-scale flood occurred in Liaoyang. After the flood even rushed into the urban area, Liaodong Province began to prepare to relocate the provincial capital. After many considerations, it chose Shenyang along the Hun River but with a relatively high terrain. as the new provincial capital.

This place was formerly used as the capital of the East Captives, and there are relatively complete cities and administrative buildings, and the cost of relocation is relatively low.

In addition, it is very important that the Great Chu Empire continued to attack the north at that time, launching a war of conquest against all kinds of messy natives in the area, and simultaneously launched a large-scale reclamation operation, among which the surrounding areas of Shenyang were important at that time. Reclamation area.

As the political, military, and economic center of the Northeast, the Liaodong governor's garrison can be moved northward to better coordinate with the military's various actions.

Finally, after several years of deliberation and preparation, the governor of Liaodong moved from Liaoyang to Shenyang in the 16th year of Chengshun, and many administrative agencies also went there together. As a result, Shenyang became the new provincial capital of Liaodong Province.

When the railway was built later, Shenyang was naturally regarded as a railway hub. After the railway hub was established in this place, the political, military, and economic center status of the place was further strengthened.

This place is also an important inspection city for Luo Zhixue to visit the Northeast.

After all, apart from the political and military centers, this place is still the most important industrial city in the Northeast, although there is still an estuary on the Liao River estuary in the south.

However, Hekou also has its own limitations. It is mainly engaged in mechanical processing, agricultural product processing, trade, etc., and the real steel city in Liaodong is actually Shenyang.

After all, transportation requires cost. If the coal and iron ore are directly transported to the river mouth for smelting, the transportation cost will be relatively high.

And smelting iron ore into iron or steel on the spot can save a lot of transportation costs.

Therefore, most of the time, the site selection of steel plants is generally based on comprehensive consideration of coal production areas and iron ore production areas, and the distance will not be too far.

Of course, there are exceptions, that is, there are no iron ore or coal mines around, and they can only rely entirely on foreign ores, so they generally choose coastal port cities with convenient transportation. After all, sea transportation has the lowest cost among many transportation methods.

This is how the Songjiang Iron and Steel Works came about.

Many factors have led to the rapid rise of the city of Shenyang in just over ten years, and it has become the most important industrial city in Northeast China.

When Luo Zhixue came here, he felt the industrial atmosphere here!

The sky was gray and the air smelled faintly of charred coal.

A glance at the past shows that it is heavy pollution... However, behind such heavy pollution is the large-scale iron and steel smelting and other heavy industries.

So as soon as Luo Zhixue got off the train, he smiled!

Just looking at the gray sky and the smell of coal burnt in the air, one can tell that the heavy industry in this place is developing very well.

As for environmental protection and the like, the Great Chu Empire is not qualified to engage in these things these days.

In the early days of industrialization, environmental protection was ignored.

The productivity is only so low, if you still do anything to protect the environment, you can only eat dirt...

In modern history, London was a city of smog...but it was also the city with the most developed economy and the most powerful industry in the world.

In the early days of the development of the United States, there were various large-scale construction projects, and all kinds of industrial sewage were directly discharged into the rivers. Even more than 100 years later, the fish in many rivers in the United States cannot be eaten, because the pollution in the past was too severe, and the heavy metals exceeded the standard. !

Luo Zhixue is also very clear about these things, don't care about the others, first increase the productivity, and then slowly manage it after the productivity increases.

Governance after development may sound bad, but in fact it is a necessary stage for every industrial country.

Of course, this is only limited to other places, and it is definitely not possible to do this in Jinling City where he lives, and he does not want to live in the smell of coal burns every day.

This is also the reason why there are no factories in Jinling City!

Today, the 29th year of Chengshun, Jinling City, the capital of the empire, still doesn't have any large factories worthy of praise, at most, it is just some small factories that have little impact on the environment.

The development orientation of Jinling City has always been a political and cultural center, never an industrial center, or even an economic center.

In the Pan-South region, the industrial centers are Dangtu and Susong.

The economic center is in Songjiang Shanghai.

In fact, there are not many permanent residents in Jinling City... After all, there are no labor-intensive industries such as factories in the area. The permanent residents are not only soldiers and administrative officials, but also faculty and students, corporate headquarters and R&D personnel, and some services. industry.

In addition to the family members of the above-mentioned people.

Without labor-intensive industries, it is difficult to gather a large number of people... After all, you can't find a job and you can't live.

This population size is in the Great Chu Empire, and now it can't even enter the top [-].

The urban center of Songjiang Prefecture, that is, Shanghai, has a population of more than 200 million, and Tianjin and Guangzhou are also more than one million and tens of thousands.

Even Shenyang in the northeast has a population of more than 70.

Luo Zhixue is personally very satisfied with the development orientation of Jinling City. Anyway, the huge Chu Empire does not necessarily require Jinling City to provide economic data.

It's good to be a political center.

I live comfortably by myself.

So over the years, although the residents of Jinling City have also begun to use a large amount of coal as coal for heating and heating, because the overall population is small and the population is relatively scattered, the density is not high, and there are no factories.

Therefore, the water and air quality in Jinling City is still good, and the greening is also very good.

On the other hand, in Shenyang, although the new city has only been developed for more than ten years, the environmental pollution is quite serious.

Development requires a certain price!

After Luo Zhixue arrived in Shenyang, he did not go to the so-called imperial palace built during the Eastern Captivity period. The so-called imperial palace of the Eastern Captivity had long been destroyed by the war. After all, the two sides fought fiercely here.

Later, the Chu army cleaned up the ruins and moved in here, and used some of the remaining buildings as military camps, and a large area as a training square, which has been used as a military camp for many years.

When the Liaodong governor’s office decided to move here, after coordination with the military, the military also planned to move the barracks to a wider area outside the city, so the Liaodong governor’s office built a new governor’s office on the basis of the military camp. Yamen and other administrative buildings.

Therefore, the so-called imperial palace that was exiled to the East in the past has long since disappeared in the dust of history. After several transformations, this place has become the location of the Liaodong Governor's Yamen and other administrative agencies.

As for Luo Zhixue's inspections, he never lived in the office buildings of the local government... It's not because he didn't want to, but because these office buildings are purely office buildings, they can't live in them!

The yamen of the Great Chu Empire are purely office buildings, which are different from the yamen buildings in other traditional dynasties and have backyards for officials to live and live in.

Of course, in order to facilitate the commuting of officials and the living of foreign officials, a number of residential buildings are often built behind the office buildings.

Therefore, it is impossible for Luo Zhixue to live in some governor's office.

And the Royal Assets Division does not have any royal resorts, palaces, etc. in Liaodong, and there are no suitable luxury houses for wealthy businessmen in the local area.

Luo Zhixue ordered before that it was forbidden to inspect the places along the way for the purpose of building palaces.

In the end, there was no other way. The Royal Assets Division had no choice but to requisition a newly opened local luxury hotel: the Hunjiang Hotel, which was refitted and used as a temporary palace.

It is worth mentioning that the main building of this hotel is five stories high, and the decoration is not only extremely luxurious, but also installed steam passenger elevators that have only appeared in the eyes of the public this year, and most of them do not know what they are.

(End of this chapter)