Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 864 On the Bank of the Wujiang River ([-])

At the end of April 1651, at the construction site outside Shipu Castle—the junction of the Shipu River (Sanchez River) and the Heihe River, less than 4 kilometers east of the later New Berlin—a large group of river slaves were working for the black foreman (all in the east) Under the supervision of a more reliable black laborer who has served on the shore for more than three years, and will basically be promoted after returning to South Africa), naked to the waist, he is working hard for the construction of the city wall of this new settlement.

The building materials were brought in from Guide Port in the west—the later city of New Berlin on the Uruguay River, so named because most of the first settlers were sold by the Elm Garden Army to Guide Farm farmers on the east bank. .In Guide Port, a town that has just been established for less than two months, a number of small inland steamboats brought piles of construction materials and supplies through the crude wooden docks, and then transported them to other places by carts, providing strong support. development of these areas.

Shipu Castle is located at the bend formed by the confluence of the Shipu River and the Heihe River. There is a rare forest on the prairie on the east bank—the sufficient water source at the bend ensures that the trees can thrive even in the slightly dry summer—— The shore people cut down a forest and used it as building materials in the early stage.Below the forest is brown forest soil. A thick layer of humus suitable for plant growth has accumulated on the inaccessible land for thousands of years. If you clean up the remaining shrubs and weeds on the ground, you can’t say it in the past one or two years. , starting from the third year, the output of this field will reach a surprising number.

The city of the people on the east bank is planned above the felled forest, and the area is not very large. Fortunately, most of the land here is flat, which can save a lot of time in leveling the land.At present, the city has just entered the initial construction stage, and a large number of Hejian slaves are working hard to build the city wall.They struggled to carry bricks, lime, cement, and gravel. If they were lazy, they would be whipped by the black foreman. They did not dare to resist, because the group of patrolmen who were maintaining order outside were not vegetarians.

The slaves in Hejian built the city walls and buildings in the city, while the [-] Guide Mansion farmers who had just immigrated by boat were not far outside the city under the leadership of soldiers from Bingtuanbao and some veterans. Water infrastructure—dams and reservoirs, to be precise—has been built everywhere.

As we all know, Shipu Castle is located at the confluence of two major rivers, and the nearby forest area is relatively large, and swamps and wetlands are also dotted around. If you don’t spend a lot of effort to improve the environment, let alone farming here, I’m afraid it’s not even suitable for people to live in—because The environment is conducive to the reproduction of germs; of course, looking at it from another perspective, if we spend a lot of effort to rectify it and build complete farmland and water conservancy facilities, then it will be an agricultural production base with great potential, almost comparable to the Duck Lake in the north watershed.Therefore, the root of all problems comes down to the farmland water conservancy facilities that need to be built, and this is exactly what the people on the east coast are currently working hard to build.

In the lower reaches of the Heihe River (flowing into the Wujiang River), the river is not only wide and deep, but also plentiful, and the flow speed is not as fast as usual. This is undoubtedly a valuable asset, and it would be a pity not to make good use of it.What the East Coast people are currently planning is to use the existing river channels and wetlands to transform them into an artificial reservoir with a large capacity, and then build irrigation canals extending in all directions around the reservoir. This will provide a good foundation for agricultural development. .

To the south of the dam of the reservoir is a large-scale city wall produced by the Jingjiang Branch of the Building Materials Company (currently only a brick and tile kiln, and only partially completed and put into operation). make.The dam type system is a buttress dam, that is, the dam consists of a retaining wall and a large number of buttresses supporting the retaining wall.At the beginning, technicians from the newly established Ministry of Water Resources suggested using special cast iron piers to support the retaining wall, but considering the cost and difficulty of installation, this design was rejected and replaced by reinforced concrete piers. pier design.

This kind of reservoir is an extremely advanced design in this era, and it is also an idea given by a traveler with many years of experience in rural life based on what he has seen and heard. It is very suitable for small and medium-sized reservoirs like Shipu Reservoir.In history, no one built this type of dam in India until 1800, which shows its advanced level.

There are many scuppers on the retaining wall of the reservoir. The biggest function of these scuppers controlled by the sluice is safe flood discharge, so as to ensure that when the water level of the reservoir reaches the warning line, the excess water can be drained to a low level through the scuppers. on the riverbed above the reservoir.But then again, with the current cement grades, steel strength, and other engineering construction or material problems in the East Coast Republic, the warning water levels and spill holes of these reservoirs must not be set too high, otherwise it is very likely to happen. Tragic embankment breaches have affected downstream farms or industrial workshops, causing undue losses.

Of course, the Shipu Reservoir has only just begun, and most of it only exists on the design drawings.Just kidding, the only reservoir construction work done by the more than 1000 settlers in Shipubao is probably planting trees around the reservoir.Some of these trees are transplanted trees from nearby forests (mainly acacia trees), and some are introduced exotic species, such as oak trees that people on the east coast plant in almost every settlement (for shipbuilding, although growing The cycle is very long...), such as eucalyptus, known as the "plant water machine", and some fruit trees.

The purpose of afforestation is firstly to beautify the environment, and secondly to balance the water volume in the reservoir area, maintain water and soil, and reduce pollution. At the same time, it can also prevent large livestock from entering the reservoir area to eat grass.Experts from the Ministry of Water Resources once suggested that it is better to plant some coniferous trees in the reservoir area. The Wujiang District Administrative Office has seriously considered this suggestion and has contacted the Spaniards to import some coniferous forest saplings from Chile.

But with such abundant water power resources, if we don’t do anything to make full use of them, then is this still the style of the East Coaster who wants to spend a penny in half?Obviously not!Therefore, people on the east bank built many machines powered by flowing water near the reservoir according to local conditions. Don’t look down on hydraulic machines. In principle, they are the same as steam engines, but they are usually limited by unstable flow speed and Due to the multiple adverse effects of lower water levels during the dry season, it appears to be somewhat inefficient.But in Shipubao, where there are reservoirs and fixed weepholes, all these unfavorable factors have been greatly reduced. In this place, water power is a high-quality energy source that can be used stably.

Not to mention the small hydraulic presses that use hydraulic power and the water trucks that lift water. This is not new. No matter in the east coast or the old continent at this time, these hydraulic machines are still very common. Let’s talk about the people on the east coast. Water turbines with in-depth research on technologies such as stone mills.The rudiments of this kind of machine appeared very early, and it can be said that water mills, waterwheels, etc. have used this principle, and the people on the east coast are also based on this technology, supplemented by a small amount of theoretical basis (knowledge of this aspect of knowledge) There are really not many) and the vague impression of later generations, began the development of water turbines.

To put it bluntly, a water turbine is to use the kinetic energy of water and then convert it into mechanical energy so that it can be used by humans.Generally speaking, the greater the energy of the water flow (potential energy, kinetic energy), the greater the force generated by impacting the blades of the water turbine, and the faster the speed of the water turbine (impact water turbine). At this time, through a series of mechanical transmission devices, make full use of With these mechanical energies, many things can be done.At the beginning of the 19th century, the British and the French used these water turbines to grind flour, and in the middle of the century, Americans began to use these water turbines in mines.

After more and more people began to use water turbines to work, the performance and efficiency of this kind of machinery have also been continuously improved. The axial flow water turbine invented in 1843 has an efficiency of 83%, which is amazing.According to experimental estimates by technicians from the Ministry of Water Resources, if the Shipu Reservoir is normally impounded, when the water flow from the flood discharge hits the turbines (buried under the outlet of the flood hole), each turbine is likely to generate more than 1000 horsepower.

The concept of 1000 horsepower is extremely amazing to East Coasters!This number is so large that they can't think of where such a large horsepower output is needed. Is it necessary to use a powerful machine with 1000 horsepower for grinding noodles?This is too ridiculous, because it can almost wipe out the wheat in the entire Wujiang area and it is more than enough.As an example, it can be seen that a 500-horsepower water turbine was used in a mine in Alaska, the United States. As a result, the water turbine drove 240 ore pounding hammers, 96 ore mills and 13 ore crushers. This shows that 1000 horsepower is a kind of amazing power, and what a huge wealth!

Perhaps a series of small factories can be built near Shipu Reservoir, such as mills, weapons processing workshops, mints, water pumping stations, and so on.The armor manufacturing workshop of the Dayu River Arsenal in Dongfang County, the capital, has long been tired of the appallingly smooth flow of the Dayu River, so it should not be difficult to persuade them to relocate to the vicinity of the Shipu Reservoir as a whole; Oil mills and other workshops can also be moved here to take advantage of the abundant and stable water resources here throughout the year (the lower reaches of the Heihe River maintain abundant water almost all year round, and the Shipu Reservoir is almost in danger of drying up, unless it encounters years of drought extreme climate).

Of course, the most suitable battlefield for high horsepower is hydraulic irrigation.The large pumps driven by water turbines can completely pump fresh water to other places, and then flow into the dense irrigation canals (the water will lose kinetic energy in the canals, so water needs to be continuously pumped in), especially the planned orchards on some nearby highlands. In the dry season of summer, it is necessary to pump water for irrigation.

All in all, although the Shipu Reservoir is only a small reservoir with a storage capacity of only 200 million cubic meters, the experiment is of great significance.If the Ministry of Finance plans to invest 35 yuan in the reservoir and its affiliated water turbines and hydraulic machines (to provide power for hoists, cranes, etc.) systems are fully completed and functioning well, the executive committee may even invest 350 million yuan, 500 million yuan, or even 1000 million yuan in the future. Yuan, to build larger reservoirs and turbine systems in the Neiheluo Reservoir not far upstream and in the waterfall area near Daxing Port in the north to provide more sufficient power for this growing country.

(End of this chapter)