The railway is built on narrow gauge, which is 1000 mm wide track.
There is a reason why narrow gauge is used instead of the standard wide gauge.
The first is to consider the actual situation.
The standard track is 1435 mm, which is 435 mm wider than the narrow track.
Although the 435 mm is not much, the track is built in the mountainous area west of Luliang Mountain. The extra 400 mm means that it will be much more difficult to build a wider railway in the mountainous area.
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What's more, what Yan Laoxi built in Shanxi was also narrow gauge, which facilitated the seamless connection of the Eighth Route Army's railway tracks with the Datong Line and avoided unnecessary trouble... Just because the Shanxi railway was narrow gauge, Shanxi was able to control it under Yan Laoxi's control
Only when it is isolated from other areas and becomes its own group, Datong will become an extremely important material transit place: the Japanese broad-gauge train reaches Datong as its terminal station, and the materials it transports can only be unloaded and transferred to the narrow-gauge train.
The second is cost considerations.
During the war, steel was a scarce commodity, even if the Eighth Route Army had its own iron mines and steel plants.
Standard broad gauge requires about 90 tons of steel per kilometer, while narrow gauge only requires 40 tons per kilometer, which is more than half less than wide gauge.
I don’t know how many rifles can be made with this saved steel.
Third, consider the use of seized materials.
Shanxi uses narrow gauge. The specifications of the narrow gauge rails are different from the standard rails, and the trains are also different.
If the Eighth Route Army builds wide track, it means that neither the rails nor the trains captured from the Japanese can be used.
You must know that after the Eighth Route Army captured Datong and Ningbei Railway Station, it has seized seven trains and a large number of carriages piled in the railway station from the Japanese. Under such circumstances, if the Eighth Route Army still builds wide track, it can only be said to be asking for trouble.
have eaten.
So there is almost no room for consideration in this regard, it must be narrow gauge.
There is no need for Wang Xuexin to consider building the railway. This task is directly directed by the headquarters.
Wang Xuexin also had to be convinced in this regard.
Before building the railway, Wang Xuexin was worried that the cost was too high and the Eighth Route Army could not afford it, so he asked Yu Ping to inquire about the situation.
Yu Ping used to work with Yan Laoxi, so he had a better understanding of the construction of railway tracks in Shanxi. He said to Wang Xuexin: "If Shanxi Tongpu Road plus branch lines are included, the total length of the railway will be about 2,000 kilometers. I remember the original calculation...
…If it costs 95 million silver dollars to build standard broad gauge, it is much cheaper to build narrow gauge, which only costs 34 million silver dollars, but it actually only costs about 20 million silver dollars!”
"Oh, you can actually save so much money?" Wang Xuexin was a little surprised.
If according to the construction situation of the stubborn army, the budget is more than 30 million, if he doesn't allocate 50 to 60 million, it won't be called the stubborn army. How can he save nearly half of the cost?
This is simply nonsense.
But then I thought about it, Yan Laoxi's style of governing Shanxi was different from that of the stubborn army.
All the officials in the recalcitrant army worked for Chiang Kai-shek. They were able to take advantage of every fortune.
Yan Laoxi is different. The whole of Shanxi belongs to him. If he enriches his own pockets while building the railway, wouldn't it mean that the left hand is greedy for the right hand?
Therefore, he should do everything possible to save money.
Sure enough, I heard Yu Ping say: "Yan Laoxi is a traitor. He builds his own cement factory and sawmill, and then recruits strong men from the common people and drives them to build the railway. Doesn't that mean he doesn't need money? Another
On the other hand, at that time, a large number of narrow-gauge railway tracks abroad were eliminated and sold as scrap iron. Yan Laoxi’s purchase and installation on the railway...can we not save it?"
Wang Xuexin said "Oh" and secretly said that Yan Laoxi is still a good businessman.
Then Wang Xuexin began to worry: Yan Laoxi could import obsolete steel rails from abroad at low prices at that time. Now that China's external ports are basically blocked and must take a long way around and most of them have to be transported by air, this road will definitely not work.
Although the route of the Eighth Route Army is much shorter, it may be six or seven hundred kilometers from Yuncheng to the steel plant including the branch line (Wang Xuexin is not sure because he has not calculated it in detail). Yan Laoxi needs 20 million silver dollars to build 2,000 kilometers. According to this
If the average price doubled, it would cost 14 million silver dollars at least!
This is not a small amount.
Wang Xuexin was wondering whether he should allocate part of the US dollars in his account to build the railway.
But soon Wang Xuexin discovered that his worries were completely unnecessary. The Eighth Route Army was more economical than Yan Laoxi in building the railway, and it was much more economical.
The most important thing is reflected in the labor cost.
In the past, when China built railways, whether it was the stubborn army or the Shanxi-Sui army, they needed to spend money to hire laborers, and it was inevitable that the officials in charge would deduct wages, etc. Therefore, even if there were cases where strong men were captured and forced to build roads, labor costs were indispensable.
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The Eighth Route Army is different. The Eighth Route Army has almost no cost in terms of manpower. They only need to do one thing: take care of food. That is, as long as the people are well fed and energetic enough to work.
In fact, many places did not even care about food, and the people spontaneously organized a labor force to help the Eighth Route Army in construction.
This phenomenon would be "unbelievable" if it were compared to the stubborn army and various warlords. They were forcing the people and no one was willing. The Eighth Route Army did not need to call, and the people came one after another.
Actually, if you think about it deeply, this phenomenon seems quite normal.
The recalcitrant army and warlords are separated from the people. The country belongs to the leaders of each warlord. Why should the people endure hardship in exchange for the warlord leader's big fish and meat and still ride on the people's heads to lord it over them? If the people are willing, they will be stupid.
The Eighth Route Army is an army of the people and is closely related to the people, especially the guerrillas. Its members are simply the people... They do farm work during the busy farming season and train during the slack farming season. They are fellow villagers and neighbors with the common people. They bow their heads without looking up.
See.
In this way, working for the Eighth Route Army was as natural as helping a neighbor to rob.
Therefore, the labor cost is actually food... Wang Xuexin bought a large amount of food from the stubborn army before, and now the bags are distributed as wages.
The other cost is the rails.
But this aspect actually doesn’t cost much. The reason is that the Eighth Route Army launched a campaign to replace steel rails with rocket launchers and rocket launchers...
In the past, when the Eighth Route Army was short of steel and had to use "two lines", it used rails in exchange for bullets, and the exchanged rails were melted down to make guns and cannons.
Now that I think about it, it is really a waste. The processed rails actually melted and were directly put on the railway without even processing.
On the other hand, no one is interested in bullets, so they have to be replaced with rockets.
In fact, there is another benefit to using rockets instead: rockets are a powerful weapon against the Japanese gun towers. If the gun towers cannot stop the guerrillas, it will not be difficult to open a breakthrough in the Japanese rail defense line.
This greatly increased the amount of steel rails seized by the guerrillas, and the Eighth Route Army's harvest also greatly increased. If I could describe this in one sentence, it would be "I can't bear to let my children catch the wolf."