"beep……"
Accompanied by the sound of the train's whistle, a train loaded with various goods made a "clang, clatter" sound on the railway.
Between the front of the train and the freight car, there are two passenger cars and a dining car. The passengers in the car are all wearing military uniforms, but their military uniforms are not the green military uniforms of the empire, but dark blue military uniforms.
They came from the Tang Empire and were a military inspection team sent by the Tang Dynasty. They appeared here to visit and inspect the French battlefield, and of course to study.
For safety reasons, after Datang's merchant ships sent them to Kenya, they took a train to Tunisia, and then entered France from Tunisia. Compared with the Atlantic Ocean, the control of the Mediterranean Sea is now under the control of France and Rome.
Being in the carriage, Yuan Shikai would often cast his sights on the vast desert outside the carriage. The undulating sand dunes looked very spectacular.
“It’s really beyond people’s expectation to actually build a railway in the desert!”
The reason why Yuan Shikai had such emotion was because ten years ago, when the Imperial Railway Company and the French African Railways signed an agreement to build a railway from Madita at the mouth of the Congo River to Tunisia, the whole world thought it was unfair.
Possibly, in the eyes of many people, this is simply a joke.
If you hadn't seen it with your own eyes, who would have thought that you could cultivate in such a vast desert.
"This railway is a joke. Maybe they can build the railway to Mali, but then what? The Sahara Desert will block their ambitions..."
In the UK and Europe, almost everyone thinks this is a joke. After all, it is simply impossible to build a railway across the desert. The most difficult section of this railway is to cross the largest desert on earth - the Sahara.
The railway passes through deserts along the way, and there is no water or coal supply on most of the road. What is more deadly?
Sandstorms will push huge sand dunes across the road for many years, and it is normal for the railway to eventually be swallowed up by the sand dunes, rendering it inaccessible to traffic.
Therefore, in the eyes of the whole world, building the Sahara Railway is simply a joke.
But in the end, with the joint efforts of the two empires, after nine years of hard work, a "China-Africa Railway" starting from Madita at the mouth of the Congo River and ending in Tunisia was finally completed. In the year when the railway was completed, more than
One million French immigrants entered French colonies such as Niger, Chad and Central Africa through this railway. Tens of thousands of French immigrants even entered the colonies of the Ming Empire. According to the immigration decree signed by the empire and France, the imperial colonies can accept 300,000 French immigrants every year.
migrant.
Why did the Ming Dynasty and France build this railway with huge investment?
Just to facilitate the entry and exit of immigrants?
Indeed, the construction of the China-Africa Railway and its extension lines made it easier for the French to immigrate to inland colonies. They built plantations there, drove cheap African labor, and immigrated to the colonies, and even increased France's fertility rate.
——This has long been proven. In the colonies in the Middle East, the fertility rate of French immigrants is 2.3 times that of the natives.
"Before the war broke out, no one knew what this railway meant. When I was inspecting it in the UK, many people said that this railway was France's ambition to get involved in Africa. But now it seems that this railway is not part of France's ambition to get involved in Africa.
, but the key linking France with the vast African colonies!"
Just at this time, the railway was winding through the sand dunes. Yuan Shikai pointed to the towering railway bridge between the sand dunes outside the carriage and said.
"With this railway, food, meat and minerals from the African colonies will continue to enter France. With these materials, the French can continue the war, and the empire's reinforcements will also continue to pass through the railway.
Entering France, if it weren't for this railway, how could the Empire's Afrika Korps arrive in France as soon as the war started?"
Yuan Shikai's words made Duan Qirui agree with him deeply.
"That's true. This railway is of great military significance, that is..."
Pointing to the towering railway bridge, Duan Qirui said.
"Look at Weiting, the part of the railway that passes through the Sahara Desert is almost always built with wooden railway bridges that are more than ten feet high. The wooden beams of such wooden bridges are easily destroyed. If the British send elite teams,
"It's easy to be"
When building a railway in the desert, it does not mean that everything will be fine once the track is laid in place. You must know that sand has strong fluidity. If the wind blows a little, the track may be covered, making it impossible for trains to pass. In order to prevent the track from being blocked
Covered by wind and sand, part of the road through the Sahara Desert was built by building viaducts to allow the railway to leave the sand surface. However, this also led to a significant increase in railway construction costs. In order to reduce costs, Imperial Railway engineers fully learned from the American Pacific Railway.
Based on experience, wooden bridges were adopted.
The reason why the bridge is built with wood instead of steel is mainly because there are a large number of forests in central Africa, and the required wood can be obtained locally. Not only is the construction process relatively easy, but the cost will also be lower compared to steel materials.
, after all, there is only the cost of logging.
"Oh, if it's damaged, just repair it. It's easy to build a wooden bridge..."
The speaker was Cao Yunda, an army colonel who graduated from the Imperial Army Military Academy. He pointed at the wooden bridge that came into view due to its obvious curvature outside the car window.
"Several of my classmates participated in the construction of the Sahara Railway. They said that if the railway is destroyed, it will only take two to three days to rebuild, and the natural environment of the Sahara Desert is also very suitable for wooden bridges. Although according to the United States
Their experience is that the life of wooden bridges is very short. If they are not maintained, they can generally only be used for about 20 years. But in the Sahara, there is very little precipitation, so the life of wooden bridges is very long. According to their estimates, the life span should be
In about 40 years.”
This is true. After all, with little precipitation, wood decays naturally very slowly.
After that, Cao Yunda said in an admiring tone.
"I heard that the highest wooden bridge on the Sahara Railway is over 63 meters long. It's really hard to imagine..."
In fact, such tall wooden railways are very common in North America, but for these new Tang officers, such tall railway bridges are indeed very rare.
"It's obvious that the empire's engineering is well developed!"
The officers couldn't help but let out a sigh, staring at the desert outside the car window, listening to the admiration of their colleagues. Yuan Shikai suddenly had a feeling that perhaps as early as ten years ago, the empire had been carefully preparing for this war.
This railway bridge is proof of that!
Suddenly it was as if he remembered a joke. Yuan Shikai said.
"France can transport supplies through the China-Africa Railway, but what can the British do? Their supplies need to be transported from India and Africa to the British mainland, but whether in the Indian Ocean or the Atlantic, there are imperial and French fleets
.How can the British merchant fleet bypass them?"
Although his question is somewhat unfounded, it is true that Britain does face difficulties in this regard...
The old group has died and a new book club group has been established: 739209015. Everyone is welcome to join and discuss and deduce the plot together.
(End of chapter)
This chapter has been completed!