Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 732 Northwest Railway ([-])

Jiang Nanqi, who has been transferred to the head of the Circuit Court of the Northwest Reclamation Bureau, walked hard on the muddy grass. The sky was still splashing with spring rain, and the ground was full of potholes full of muddy water.A discerning eye can tell at a glance that these potholes are the ruts pressed by heavy freight carriages. The freight carriages traveling to and from this busy route have completely destroyed this simple road.

Jiang Nanqi had already got off his mount, and then he was wearing heavy whale skin rain boots, trudging with one foot high and the other foot low.His entourage were all wearing oilskin raincoats, pulling the neighing draft horses, and walked forward with their heads bowed wearily.

"It is said that spring rain is as expensive as oil, but too much rain is not a solution." Jiang Nanqi wiped the dense raindrops on his forehead, thinking a little worriedly.From November to the end of December and the beginning of January, the precipitation on the entire east coast has increased by one-third compared to before. This not only brings considerable trouble to agricultural production, but also affects the current situation of the East China Republic. The domestic infrastructure projects that are in full swing have brought a lot of trouble, accompanied by a large number of frequent slave escapes and crime cases - because the bad weather obviously increased their work intensity, and at the same time made them The working environment is even worse.

This time Jiang Nanqi went to Chengshan Fort and Tieling Fort to deal with some cases.Of course, according to regulations, the Circuit Court of the Northwest Reclamation Bureau will also work in Chengshanbao from this month.As the president of the Circuit Court under the jurisdiction of the Northwest Reclamation Bureau, Jiang Nanqi, a cadre of the legal department, is now beginning to make his mark on the political stage on the east coast. It is rumored that when the Spanish war officially ended and the government began to re-election, this monarch is extremely It is possible to enter the Ministry of Justice to serve as the hot minister, and it is not impossible to even compete for the throne of the Central Executive Committee.

"Dean Jiang, the rain has been too heavy in the past two months, and the water level of the Heihe River (Negro River) has skyrocketed. It is getting late now, so I don't think we should rush to cross the river today. Let's rest in Hejinbao for a night first. Let's take the ferry tomorrow morning." The captain of the bailiff, whose trousers were covered in mud, led his horse and chased after him, asking Jiang Nanqi for instructions.

"Alright, everyone is almost tired, let's rest at the ferry for the night." Jiang Nanqi nodded in agreement, and then walked forward first.There was a thunderous roar not far ahead, and Jiang Nanqi knew that maybe there was another torrent coming down from the upper reaches.The urban area of ​​Hejinbao is still about two kilometers away from the ferry. In addition, the area is densely covered with swamps, creeks and wetlands, and has a strong water storage capacity. Therefore, the local residents are not worried that the Heihe River, which has been very docile in previous years, will bring you Come disaster.

However, Jiang Nanqi and the others did not plan to live in Hejin Castle, they planned to live at the ferry by the Black River.There is a railway station and river port terminal, several small villages, where two or three hundred villagers live here and there. At the same time, the General Administration of Railways has also built a large warehouse here to store all kinds of materials transported here by the Northwest Railway.

It's a pity that today's China East Coast Republic is not strong enough in technology and does not yet have the ability to build large railway bridges.Especially in the Hejinbao section of the Heihe River, where the water potential is turbulent, the flow has certain seasonal differences, and the span is more than 40 meters, the east bank that lacks modern steel rolling technology (which can be called another industrial flower and has many technical difficulties) is only It is shameful to repair the Northwest Railway to the ferry, and then honestly use the original river branches and miniature lakes on both sides of the ferry to rebuild the river port and its affiliated storage facilities to accommodate and transfer various materials and personnel.

That is to say, things transported by the Northwest Railway—whether it is people or goods—have to get off at Hejinbao Ferry Station, transfer to a ferry boat to the opposite bank, and then transfer to a train to Chengshanbao and Tielingbao.It is very troublesome and very speechless, but the reality is like this, what can I do? The 40-meter-long railway bridge is really beyond the current technical level of the people on the east coast, so it can only be solved gradually in the future.

Jiang Nanqi and his party finally arrived at the ferry after it got dark, and successfully borrowed a few empty warehouses from the station master for the night.The bearded stationmaster even boiled a pot of hot water for Jiang Nanqi and others with a wink, which made everyone in the reclamation bureau's inspection yard very grateful.

"Thanks to the repair of the railway to the ferry, there is plenty of fuel here now. It doesn't take much trouble to boil some hot water, it's a trivial matter." Standing in the dry and warm warehouse, the station master rubbed his hands and said with a smile.

The Northwest Railway has been officially repaired to Hejinbao before the end of December, and now a large number of railway construction workers have already crossed the Heihe River, entered the other side of the river, and began to build the Hejinbao-Chengshanbao section of the railway with a total length of more than 12 kilometers. It is expected to be completed by the middle of this year (1649).However, with the massive use of Kelandi slave labor in the La Plata area, it is not impossible to advance the construction period.

After the railway is built, all kinds of commodities produced in the coastal areas can be transported unimpeded. This is also the biggest dividend brought by the railway.In addition, various constructions along the railway will also be accelerated. Heavy machinery, massive materials, and a large amount of labor will be continuously transported to the inland area by the railway, which is also profoundly changing the cities and towns in the inland area. production and living order.

"It's been raining for the past two months, isn't it very hard to build the railway?" Jiang Nanqi took two sips of hot water, and the warm feeling hit his heart.Some rainwater had accumulated in his boots, and his cotton socks were wet. It was the time when he was shivering from the cold.

"Isn't it!" The stationmaster of the railway station opened his mouth at once, only to hear him say: "I have also built railways before, but there were not as many machines as there are now, and it all depends on human and animal power. You have worked hard. It is better now, with more machinery and more people. What is more important is that a large number of Krandi slave labor is used. The original black road builders have also been promoted to foremen, large and small, and their enthusiasm has increased. So it's a lot faster than before, but it's still hard work."

Hearing what the station master said, Jiang Nanqi nodded slowly in agreement.In fact, the road construction workers are not the hardest ones, but the hardest ones are actually those responsible for the preliminary route survey.They did not have a detailed map of the east coast area at all, nor did they lack some auxiliary exploration methods of later generations (such as aerial photography), so they could only measure the land inch by inch with their own feet.Fortunately, the terrain on the east coast is not complicated at all. Basically, most of the areas are suitable for building railways. Therefore, they only need to consider the location of the railway line from an economic point of view, and do not need to worry about the difficulty of the project. thing.

After surveying the line, the railway department will send a large number of survey teams.These surveying team members also worked extremely hard. With supplies and tents, they rushed to various places on the railway line, braving the scorching sun in summer and the severe cold in winter, stepping on the muddy grassland, eliminating the interference of diseases and barbarian attacks, Work hard to complete various tasks in harsh environments.The degree of hard work is beyond the imagination of those young artists who sit in the city and attend banquets, play music, write poems, and shout a few slogans all day long.

Hard work is hard work, and it's not romantic, it's not cute, but it's a deadly serious thing.You can gracefully despise these miserable people who are fighting in all fronts in obscurity, but the superior and decent life you can maintain is created by them bit by bit. They are the soul and backbone of this country.

"The biggest difficulty in building the railway is the lack of labor, right?" Jiang Nanqi asked suddenly while sitting there.When he goes to Chengshan Castle this time, he will personally review the cases of some captured Kelandi fugitive slave laborers.

These Kelandi people were all brought in by the East Coast Army through semi-forced means in the La Plata area. They were forced to contribute their own strength day in and day out on the construction site of the Northwest Railway.However, the heavy labor, harsh working conditions and raging diseases made them flee continuously - some even attacked and injured their foremen (a few were Kelandi, most were black) before fleeing.Most of these fugitives were captured by the East Coast Mounted Police who were tailing them, and then they were put in jail one by one, waiting for the judicial offices in various places to try them.

In December alone, the Chengshanbao District Court sentenced nine Kelandi road construction workers to death on charges of repeated flight, destruction of public property (destruction of machinery, livestock, etc.), serious injury (assault on foreman) and so on.Since the death sentence needs to be reviewed and approved by the president of the court at the district level, Jiang Nanqi was lucky enough to see the files of these people, and also learned a little bit about the hard work of the road workers, especially the Kelandi slave laborers. .

As far as what he saw, it can only be said to be shocking.

The Hejin-Chengshan section of the Northwest Railway was jointly undertaken by the powerful Fourth Construction Bureau of the Ministry of Communications and the newly established Construction First Bureau of the General Administration of Railways. These two road construction armies used as many as 3818 Kelandi slave labor.But only two months later, a quarter of these Kelandi people died due to diseases, escapes, riots and other reasons, and then a large number of slave workers died or escaped almost every month in the following months.By January of this year, only more than 1 of the original 3800 Kelandi were still alive, and their health and mental state were very poor, but this was the distance from the time they came to the Northwestern Railway from La Plata. Only nine months have passed since the construction site, what an astonishing loss!

The difficulty of building railways in this era can be seen from this!

(End of this chapter)