Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 301 The Track of Combat Preparation ([-])

On December 1641, 6, light rain.

While picking his teeth with a toothpick, Sergeant Hans walked out of the gate of Zhenyuan Township Railway Station and walked north.The stewed beef with radish at noon was made by someone who was paid a thousand dollars. The meat was not rotten at all, and the gaps between his already thick teeth were filled with shredded meat.If I had known earlier, I should not be greedy for this free working lunch. Instead, I should go to the city to eat a bowl of hot pepper and mutton vermicelli soup. It is fragrant and spicy, and it is much more delicious than this beef stew that is as old as cotton.

"Damn it, this South African cattle is not as tasty as the La Plata cattle, and it's not as good as the hump cattle brought over from New China. It's so fucking unpalatable." Sergeant Hans turned over and rode on while cursing. A war horse tied to an oak tree next to the railway station, after checking its gear, rode towards the construction site ahead.

Last year, both he and Fabian retired from the 4th Company of the Army with the rank of sergeant or above, and Fabian returned to his hometown Dingyuan Township as the Minister of Armed Forces as he wished. This was originally a predetermined thing, you know Fabian But what about the cadres that the top focuses on training.As for him himself, the former Sergeant Hans was assigned to Zhenyuan Township as the Minister of Armed Forces because he had some old friendship with the "noble" Ouyang Township Chief of Zhenyuan Township.

To be honest, Zhenyuan Township only has a population of 2000, and most of them are herdsmen who live by raising sheep. The job of the Minister of Armed Forces is actually very leisurely.Just go to the countryside once a year to check the number of militiamen in each village with the local militia director, and then inspect the training status of the militiamen.At other times, it doesn’t matter if you just lie in the office all day long and sleep. Of course, if you are caught sleeping by the disciplinary police, you will be in trouble, and you may lose your position because of it.

Zhenyuan Township and Muchang Township are the recruiting places for the cavalry company. There are many Cossacks and Tatan herdsmen in the two places, and they have excellent riding skills. The monthly cavalry training is Hans' favorite event to watch.But since the beginning of the year, his sole pleasure has been canceled.A large number of herdsmen in the two places were expropriated, and they had to go to the Mianmei Line railway construction site at a fixed time every month to participate in the railway construction with the workers of the Fourth Bureau of Communications and Construction.

Now the southern section of the Mianmei Line Railway has been repaired to Zhenyuan Township, and a station has been set up here, and then the road construction team continued to go north, and repaired another seven or eight kilometers in length. The efficiency is quite good.Hans strolled slowly on his war horse, the tiny raindrops hitting his face made him feel cool and very comfortable.Next to the road is a straight railway built on a subgrade that is almost flush with the ground. The 12.5-meter-long steel rails are fixedly connected together with iron connectors. Perhaps these rails have been produced for a long time. , the surface is somewhat rusty.However, it still looks quite strong and durable. Compared with the iron-clad wooden track he had seen in the mine back then, it was so strong that he didn't know where it went. The load-bearing capacity was not at the same level at all.

A sleeper is fixed at intervals under the rail, which is said to be used to evenly distribute the heavy pressure on the rail to the entire roadbed.Most of these sleepers are hardwoods harvested from the New China region, and a small part is imported from La Plata. After being fumigated and dried, they are perfect for use as sleepers.However, the Ministry of Communications really took up too much hardwood resources to repair the railway, which made Ding Canlin Ding, the boss of the Nanhai Transportation Company, which was planning to build a large merchant ship, extremely annoyed. How nervous.

A large amount of irregular gravel, called ballast, is scattered next to the sleepers. It is said that it can effectively absorb the noise produced by vehicles passing by, and it is also good for drainage.

Hans soon came to the construction site. At this time, a large number of disgraced South African laborers were working under the supervision of the police from the Ministry of Internal Affairs.Under the command of the staff of the Fourth Bureau of Communications and Construction, they chanted rhythmically in groups of several people, and rammed the heavy stone rams in their hands to the ground.With their efforts, the originally soft mud suddenly became denser and firmer, and the ground became much smoother.Next to the foundation they rammed, some black laborers are using a sledgehammer to break stones. After breaking a large stone, someone next to it will sweep it into a dustpan with a broom, and then dump it on the foundation where the sleepers are fixed. , and spread evenly.

Below the foundation are excavated drainage ditches. Under the leadership of the foreman of the Fourth Bureau of Communications and Construction, black laborers are cleaning up the accumulated water in the ditches, and then transporting red bricks, sand, gravel and cement to build a leak-proof permanent drainage ditch.However, the rain all over the sky destroyed a lot of the fruits of their labor. They had to keep draining the accumulated water in the ditch, and then quickly leveled the bottom of the ditch before building the canal.

Because it is close to a small river, the annual rainfall is usually a lot, about 1000 mm, so the groundwater level is very high.In addition, it has been raining since last night, so the accumulated water in this section of the ditch has covered the ankles and is not far from the knees.South African laborers waded through the icy rain with bare feet, and then took wooden spoons to scoop the accumulated water in the ditch into wooden barrels placed next to them.It was raining harder and harder outside, and many of them had blue lips from the cold, and their feet, which had been soaked in the water for a long time, were also whitened and peeled off in large areas. Many people's feet were soaked and they walked with a limp. A crutch.

However, these laborers did not dare to be lazy or complain, because the policemen from the Ministry of Internal Affairs who were wearing oilskin ponchos and sabers around their waists were staring at them coldly.They were also very cold, and the hot breath from many people's mouths condensed into white mist in the air, but they seemed to vent all their grievances on the South African laborers who were working in front of them. It seemed that these people caused them Still tossing in the wild in this cold rainy weather.

In the morning, several South African laborers who were not active in their work or complained were dragged aside by the police officers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs who acted as supervisors and beat them violently. The screams could be faintly heard hundreds of meters away.Now these blood-stained unlucky guys are being thrown aside like rags by these policemen, and they don't know if they are dead or not.Several military dogs walked around them, sniffing their bodies from time to time, which made the laborers who were working beside them feel terrified, and the movements under their hands couldn't help but speed up a bit.

Hans threw the reins of the horse to a policeman from the Zhenyuan Police Station next to him, and then he carried a food box and went straight to a wooden canopy next to him.There were several people sitting under the canopy, and the leader was Wang Dajian from the Zhenyuan branch of the Northwest Reclamation Bank.Since the Government Affairs Council issued a document requiring government officials and employees of Dingyuan Township, Miannong Township, Zhenyuan Township, Meilingang and other places adjacent to the railway to take turns to participate in labor on the road construction site, it is not at all to see Wang Dajian here. Strange.

Wang Dajian was sitting on a grand teacher's chair with a carefree attitude, and his two subordinates were also beside him.Among them, Zhou Dahe held a piece of paper in his hand, and seemed to be reporting something to him, while another young man, Anderson, held a knife and cut open a coconut shipped from New China for him.

"On-site work, Supervisor Wang, you are really dedicated." Hans said with a smile in Chinese with a German accent, then put a wooden food box in his hand on the table and said, "I brought it from the city. Mutton vermicelli soup, steamed dumplings, grilled lamb chops, I came here on horseback, they are all hot, eat them quickly."

The teenager Anderson, who was cutting coconuts, cheered, snatched the food box, opened the lid, sniffed at the steaming dumplings, and said intoxicated: "My favorite leek and fresh meat dumplings, um , there are shrimps and meat dregs in it, it is really delicious."

Wang Dajian slapped Anderson's neck and scolded with a smile: "You son of a bitch, you just know how to eat. It's the same problem as your father...cough cough..." After finishing speaking, he smiled at Hans again: "Then I will eat it." You're welcome, grandma, bear. In this broken place with air leaks everywhere, my whole body is as cold as ice, and the cold wind whizzes through my collar. It's better to eat a bowl of hot soup to warm up and feel comfortable. Xiao Zhou, come together Eat it, or you'll be eaten up by that bastard Anderson. After you two finish eating, go dig some drainage ditches. We've only finished one-third of today's task, so don't delay until tomorrow."

Zhou Dahe responded, brought a wooden pier and sat down, and then had lunch with Wang Dajian and Anderson.Sergeant Hans smiled, took out a pipe from his pocket, and lit a bag of shredded tobacco from Supervisor Wang's bag on the table, then leaned against the wooden beam of the awning and stared into the distance .

A rail carriage pulled by two horses slowly approached on the southern horizon.The carriage was walking steadily on the track, and the heavy steel rails were placed on the flat carriage. The speed was about ten kilometers per hour, neither fast nor slow.The steel flanged wheels rubbed against the rails and made rumbling noises, and every time they crossed the gap between the two steel rails, they made a "clang" sound.The carriage quickly reached the finish line, the driver pulled down the hand brake, and there was a harsh metal friction sound between the steel wheels and the steel rails.After gliding for a certain distance, the rail carriage stopped precisely on the last laid steel rail, showing the driver's superb skills.

On the side of the roadbed ahead, Officer Ronald and Bogdan Assistant Police commanded dozens of South African laborers to start unloading the heavy steel rails on the carriage.The whole scene seems to be in full swing. The more than 80 kilometers of railway on the Mianmei Line has been gradually improved bit by bit under the hard work of the cadres and masses along the line, hundreds of employees from the Fourth Bureau and the Fifth Bureau of Communications Construction, and more than [-] South African laborers. extending forward.

(End of this chapter)