With the banging train, He Xihua took the immigration special train organized by the Immigration and Reclamation Division and left Anle City, the capital of Tumi Province. He first followed the plain area on the western edge of the Bogda Mountain, and then entered the Jungar Basin.
Then continue westward along the southern plain oasis of the Jungar Basin and cross the Lashan Pass before entering the Yibfu area, which also belongs to Tumi Province.
Then proceed to the south, passing through the capital of Yibo Prefecture and the city of Kashgar located on the plain southwest of Balkhash Lake.
After arriving in Kashgar, the Northwest Railway has also reached its key point, and the train will next travel on the Central Asia Railway.
Here, the train they took continued westward, and He Xihua also knew that several other migrant trains coming with them were going to the Tashkent area along the southern line of the Central Asia Railway.
As for them, they will continue to move westward along the western line of the Central Asia Railway!
At this time, He Xihua also fully felt the desolation of Haidong Province!
This kind of desolation does not mean the barren mountains and rivers, how bad the natural environment is, but the absence of people.
In fact, most of the places He Xihua saw along the way were mainly plain green areas, and deserts were relatively rare. On the one hand, the places where the railway passed through were all places with a relatively good climate and environment, and most of them could be reclaimed.
The plain areas were too harsh and it was impossible for Datang to build railways there.
After all, railways serve people, and building this railway in the desert is of no use.
But the good thing is that many areas that were desertified in later generations are still grassland areas in this era, and they are even areas with abundant water and grass.
After all, the population in this era was still very small, and there was no excessive reclamation that would lead to soil erosion and vegetation turning into desert.
The huge Tang Dynasty now only has a population of about 200 million, and it has experienced more than 20 years of prosperity. In addition to the development of industry and commerce, more importantly, it has expanded to many places. Although the core local areas have more people and less land
, but as long as you go a little further, you won’t have to worry about farming.
In other words, generally speaking, although the population of the Tang Dynasty grew rapidly, the growth rate of food production was even faster. Only with cultivated land and food could it support the explosive growth of the population.
In addition, there is no war, the society is stable, and although the medical conditions are still very rudimentary, they are improving slowly.
This has led to a continuous increase in the average life expectancy. Before the Unification War, the average life expectancy in the Tang Empire was only about thirty years old, but now, the average life expectancy has generally increased to forty years.
If it were in later generations, the average life expectancy of forty years would definitely be very low, but for the level of science and technology in this era, this is a huge progress.
Looking around the world, only the Tang Empire could do this.
However, most of the population of the Tang Dynasty was concentrated in the mainland, especially the places where the Chinese people lived traditionally. Among them, the three major river basins of the Yellow River, Yangtze River, and Pearl River had the largest population.
As for other local provinces, their populations are actually not that large.
Take Shaanxi and Gansu, for example. These two places were border provinces in the early years. The empire made great efforts to immigrate and colonize them, but even so, the population was not large.
To the west, Tumi Province and the newly established Haidong Province are even more pure immigration provinces.
The indigenous people in these two places were packed away by the Tatars, and now there are only newly immigrated people from the Tang Dynasty.
This huge Central Asia region includes the entire Haidong Province and the southern part of Xibei Province, with a total population of only a few hundred thousand.
In this situation, it cannot be said that there are few people and the land is vast, but it should be said that it is deserted.
After the train ran for several days, it finally stopped.
He Xihua naturally knew that they had finally arrived.
He knew his destination before he came, Curry City.
The westernmost city of the Tang Empire, the terminus of the western line of the Central Asia Railway, and the base camp of the Western Expeditionary Army.
More than a hundred kilometers west of Kuri City is the Ural River, and three or four hundred kilometers further west is the Volga River.
This place is already six thousand kilometers away from Jinling City, and this is a straight-line distance.
After seeing too much desolation along the way, He Xihua originally thought that Kuli City would be a wilderness like other places in Haidong Province. However, when the train was about to enter the train station and pass through the wilderness outside the city, he found that the land was flat.
, and the surrounding area is still a grassland area, and there is also water flow.
And the most important thing is that he actually saw the sea!
"Is this the West Sea?" He Xihua could hardly believe that what he saw was real.
He also knew before that the westernmost part of Haidong Province is a lake, and he knew it was called the West Sea.
But is this lake in front of me?
As far as the eye can see, there is a salty smell in the air. It looks like the sea no matter how you look at it.
Naturally, he didn't know that the West Sea is actually a saltwater sea and the largest inland lake in the world. But if you look at it with the naked eye, it's normal to mistake it for the ocean.
Otherwise, the name Xihai would not exist.
He didn't care whether the Western Sea was big or why it was salty. He only cared about where he would be assigned next and what kind of land he would be assigned.
Soon, officials from the Immigration and Reclamation Department took them out of the train station and then to a large wooden barracks outside the city, where they were assigned to stay temporarily.
I heard that these temporary resettlement houses are also military barracks, which were vacated to accommodate immigrants.
But He Xihua didn't care about these. He only cared about what kind of land he could get.
After a good night's sleep, an official in official attire and badges came to their barracks the next day and handed out land deeds.
Soon, He Xihua also got his own land deed. The first thing he looked at was the name on it. Yes, it was his name. Then he looked at the quantity, which was also correct.
There are five hectares of cultivated land and one hundred hectares of dry land.
Seeing this number, he clenched his fists involuntarily. Sure enough, he could divide so much land.
The reason why he decided to come to Kuli was because there was enough land allocated here.
Although there are many immigrants coming to Haidong Province, most of them actually live in some oasis grasslands along the way, especially near Lake Balkhash.
In fact, not many people actually come to Curry. On the one hand, it is too far away, and on the other hand, this place is still on the front line. The Tatars are more than a hundred kilometers away.
So many people are unwilling to come here so early.
But He Xihua didn't care, because he came early and got enough land.
Compared with some places with good conditions, safety, and close proximity to the Central Plains, the allocated land is only calculated in terms of acres. However, in places like Kuli, the allocated land is directly calculated in terms of hectares.
In addition to the cultivated land that can be directly reclaimed for planting, there will also be a larger area of dry land. These dry lands can actually be developed, but they do not have good water source conditions.
With so much land, he didn't know how to cultivate it for a while.
Then, together with other immigrants, he was taken by officials to their land, which was actually outside the city, or outside the military camp.
Today's Kuli City is actually a huge military camp. There are no traditional city walls or anything like that. Most of them are wooden houses in the military camp.
It didn't take long for him to see his own land. The five hectares of land counted as cultivated land were used as cultivated land because there was an obviously newly dug canal. This canal could provide water for cultivating food.
Behind the cultivated land is dry land where water is difficult to obtain.
But from the perspective of a farmer who had been farming at home during his childhood and adolescence, one-third of the one hundred hectares of dry land was relatively flat, and the soil was no different from the surrounding areas. If he could
If a water source is introduced, it can be turned into cultivated land in an instant.
Of course, it has nothing to do with good farmland, but at least it can produce yields.
Five hectares of cultivated land with water and one hundred hectares of dry land. This is why He Xihua traveled thousands of kilometers to come to Kuli City.
With such a large area of land, as long as it is cultivated well, the output will be indispensable. It is still better than working in a factory.
In the next few days, he got to know several immigrant families next to him and made an appointment to help each other build houses.
Although they can continue to live in the military camp, it is a bit far away from their own land and it takes more than an hour to walk there. It is better to build a small house directly on their own land.
Just as he and his new neighbors were discussing how to help each other build their houses after the materials arrived, another government official came over with a group of soldiers, and these soldiers brought several carriages, which were piled with many supplies.
After being called over by officials, I realized that these were supplies allocated to them.
Some of these supplies are free, such as grain seeds, hoes and other production tools, wood for building houses, nails and other materials.
But some are materials borrowed by the government for free, such as cattle.
These are supplies that were determined before immigration. Without this assistance, they would not have come to this damn place.
However, after accepting the supplies, the soldiers did not leave. The leading officer waved his hand, and the more than thirty soldiers took action. They dug the ground, drove the wooden piles, and nailed the wooden boards.
board.
And it can be seen that they have done it very skillfully, as if they have done it many times.
He Xihua still hasn't figured out what happened.
However, the officials who came with them said that this was one of the benefits provided by the Western Expeditionary Army to the new immigrants: the military would build houses for the new immigrants for free.
After he finished, he also said that in fact, the small ditch in front of their door was dug out with the help of the military.
Seeing this, he didn't know what to say. He asked the military men to help build houses and dig ditches. To be honest, he had never thought of it before.