On April 2, 1791, just as Deng Fei and others achieved their initial victory in Batavia, an unprecedented event occurred in Beihai Town. The construction of the first phase of the railway line from Beihai Town to Heilongjiang City had begun for more than a year. The project is about to be officially opened to traffic.
Starting from March 30, people traveling through Beihai Town who had nothing important to do came to Khabarovsk one after another to prepare for the opening ceremony.
On April 1st, Shen Xuan came with Momo, who was over one year old, escorted by half of Zhao Xin's guard battalion. Accompanying her were A Miao, Miss Wu who served as bodyguards, Chen Erya, and even Wang Zhenyi and Tang Xiao who had just recovered from a serious illness.
Shen Xuan also noticed this. Although her man was not always merciful wherever he went, he was no worse than a playboy. What she fears most right now is that one day Zhao Xin will release a blond-haired, blue-eyed Rakshasa woman to Beihai Town, and things will be even more chaotic by then.
In addition, Wang Zhong, Duan Yucai, Liu Taigong, Hong Liangji, Jiao Xun, Huang Chengji and others also put aside what they were doing and followed Yu Deli, Lao You and others. Serving as their escorts were veteran boxers Wu Zhong, Chai Rugui, Gao Liugeng and Li Qingwen.
As for the masses, ahem, the common people are busy with spring plowing and have no time to pay attention to any "trains". After all, these days, they have to guard fifty acres of land and have no worries about food and clothing. The hot bed with their wives and children is the pinnacle of life. They have nothing to do but wander around. ah!
The entire line is 208.7 kilometers long, starting from Khabarovsk Station, 24.3 kilometers northwest of Khabarovsk Town, and ending at Chimuni Town, located at the intersection of Aktala Mountain and Buleya Mountain in the Lesser Khingan Mountains.
"Qimuni Town" is a new village and town that originated from the railway. It is located in the lowland plain of the Qimuni River, the left tributary of Heilongjiang. This place originally had no name, but the surrounding hundreds of miles were called "Qimuniwoji" on the official map of the Qing court and among the Hezhe people, and belonged to the residence of the Qiler Hezhe people.
In the early days, the forests in Jilin and Heilongjiang were dense and lush, blocking out the sky and the sun. The fallen leaves accumulated in the forests for many years, resulting in a large swamp area formed by poor water flow, which was called "Woji" by the Hezhe people.
During the early survey process, Sima Jianghan from the island country and his students discovered a high-quality coal mine on the left bank of the Chimuni River, 257 kilometers away from the Heilongjiang River. After Lin Ziping and others confirmed that it was correct, they reported it The "Beihai Town Railway Construction Committee" later decided to set up a station here.
Since the survey team only discovered this coal mine on the nearly 600-kilometer stretch from Khabarovsk to Hailanpao, the status of Chimuni Town becomes even more important. After all, the trains in Beihai Town need to burn coal, and Boli Town’s trains need to burn coal, and Boli Town’s trains need to burn coal. The steel plant there requires a lot of coal.
If Beihai Town wants to fully develop the vast and sparsely populated Outer Northeast and Eastern Siberia, without railways, everything will be out of reach, let alone the timely mobilization of troops. Only the railway can firmly lock tens of millions of square kilometers of land, transport thousands of poor farmers in the pass to various settlements centered on the railway station, and truly incorporate this land into the Chinese territory.
Zhao Xin once heard an interesting story when he was in Baibai'er City (Irkutsk), which illustrates the vastness of Siberia. Of course, this may also be fabricated by someone.
It is said that in the mid-18th century, Elizabeth of Tsarist Russia. Empress Petrovna once invited six virgins from the Kamchatka Peninsula to St. Petersburg for an audience. These chaste girls, escorted by Tsarist Russian officials, were already pregnant with the children of the Guardsmen as soon as they arrived in Irkutsk. By the time these people trekked more than 10,000 kilometers again and arrived in St. Petersburg, the women were already pregnant with the younger siblings of their first-born children.
In fact, the horse-drawn railway has been used within the jurisdiction of Beihai Town for several years, from the gold mine on Solenji Island to the Beizenzhou coal mine in Ezo, and then to the Hisikari mining area. The longest one was used in the Beiquanzhou coal mine. It was almost 1.5 kilometers long. The three carriages could pull eight tons of coal at a time. They used Mongolian horses captured in previous battles with the Qing army.
It is said that it is extremely difficult to build a railway from Khabarovsk to the west. Although the stones used to make road ballast can be mined from the mountains eighty miles away, the areas the railway passes through are all swamps in the tundra zone; it is frozen hard in winter and thaws in spring. It became a mud pond.
What makes the Railway Construction Committee laugh and cry the most is that despite the vast coniferous forests in Khabarovsk, the timber resources are extremely rich, but most of them are not strong enough and have poor durability. They can make paper, but they are useless for making sleepers. If the wood that is not fully dried is cut down to make sleepers, it will break down within a year or two, so the suitable wood has to be transported from the forest farm on the north bank of Xingkai Lake, 300 kilometers away.
To cut down a tree, the tree roots must be removed, the roadbed must be dug three meters underground, and then backfilled with gravel or even cement, the roadbed and cuttings must be built, and drainage canals must be built. At the same time, the road construction workers had to build a road parallel to the railway line that could accommodate four large carriages.
Beginning in June 1789, more than 20,000 island workers organized by the Tokugawa Shogunate's Hokkaido began to be busy on this land. Their main tasks were logging, digging and quarrying.
The whole project was very arduous, but Beihai Town did not treat these island farmers and criminals poorly in terms of food, clothing and housing. In the summer, most workers camp and live in tents. In the winter, since they can only build bridges, build stations and other auxiliary projects, half of the people working are reduced. In winter, the workers live in tents. There is a basement that can accommodate 10 to 20 people.
From April to September, workers generally have to work from 6:30 in the morning to 7:30 in the evening, 13 hours a day, with only two hours of rest during lunch time, which is exhausting; even in the cold winter, Low temperatures and heavy snow will hinder construction, and these people have to work seven or eight hours a day.
The workers in the island country work six days a week, and they also rest during holidays in Beihai Town. Although the food is not exquisite, there is no problem in providing enough food. The workers' meals are deducted from their salaries. Some of the ingredients come from Beihai Town, while others are fish and game purchased from the Hezhe people. These days, the fish in Heilongjiang and its surrounding tributaries are as numerous as the stars in the sky. People like Qilerhezhe can earn enough to support their entire family just by providing catch to railway construction sites.
The workers' breakfast usually consists of steamed buns with gruel and homemade pickles from Beihai Town. Lunch is usually steamed buns, and occasionally brown rice, with river fish stewed in a large iron pot. Every few days, a pot of wild boar or roe deer meat will be stewed, often with bean sprouts, radish or beet leaves. Dinner is noodles, with leftover fish soup or broth from lunch, and each person will also get a piece of butter or lard.
Because workers from different villages or towns are provided with food by women from the same village or town, so the level of food varies widely. Those who cook poorly often cause complaints and even riots, but generally there is enough oil and water.
The "Beihai Town Railway Construction Committee" treats workers from these island countries well. For example, the salary of skilled lumberjacks and quarryers is 80 North Sea dollars per month, and the salary of unskilled earth diggers is 50 North Sea dollars per month. Even though the shogunate and the feudal clans that provided labor wanted to take half of it, the proletarian refugees from Kanto still took over.
Now, if you can come to Beihai Town to build the railway, you have to pay at least 20 taels to each feudal government office just for the trust relationship. In addition, you have to pay Beihai 20 taels to buy the ship ticket, so the poor farmers can only borrow usury. In the past two years, the shogunate has made a lot of money from the business of exporting labor, which has greatly alleviated the economic crisis caused by the forced reduction of interest rates.
Since we are building a railway, there will inevitably be dangers. Although the "Railway Construction Committee" and Zhao Xin himself have tried their best to provide a variety of advanced tools and equipment, the construction conditions are sometimes unimaginably difficult.
For example, when constructing in the swamp section, we often have to work in waist-deep mire. The water must be drained first, and then the silt can be dug out. During the hotter months, mosquitoes and small bites are the most common threats and a source of infectious diseases. Last summer, a cholera outbreak broke out among more than 200 workers from Morioka Domain. Although the medical team from Beihai Town quickly set out from Fuldan City after hearing the news, dozens of workers were already dead when they arrived.
The most dangerous project is actually bridge repair. Especially in winter, workers must work on scaffolding above the river or on the surrounding embankments. The so-called safety protection equipment is only tied with a rope. Some people even find it troublesome not to tie a rope. As they work, their body temperature will unknowingly drop to the point where they become numb. As a result, if they slip, their frozen fingers will be unable to grasp any support in time, and those who are not tied with ropes will fall.
According to calculations by the Financial Department of the Railway Construction Committee, basically for every 500,000 Beihai silver dollars spent on construction, one worker will die. As for tunnel excavation, the mortality rate is even higher. Deaths and injuries caused by landslides are 3 to 4 people for every NT$500,000.
In fact, the most complex part of the entire railway project is the bridge across the various tributaries of Heilongjiang. Fortunately, from Khabarovsk to Chimuni Town, going east from Heilongjiang City, you need to pass through six rivers of different widths, including the Hala River, the Kultur River, the Zhuchun River, the Kulu River, the Sulu River, and the Bizhan River.
The designs of steel bridges on larger rivers were all designed by Zhao Xin in another time and space after obtaining the surveying and mapping data. From this, Pereira, as chief engineer, also gained a lot and learned many advanced bridge engineering technologies of later generations.
Once the design requirements are met, the bridge piers built in the river must be extra strong to withstand the pressure of the railway in the spring. You must know that those winding creeks that originally had a small volume of water will suddenly turn into ferocious torrents after a rain in spring, carrying melted snow water and ice floes rushing out of the mountains, causing great damage. Overcome all obstacles.
After all bridges are completed, they must be tested for compression resistance and bending. Trucks loaded with heavy objects must be driven to the middle of each bridge and stay there for two hours. Only if there are no problems can they be accepted. It is precisely because of this that the railway from Heilongjiang City to Kubutlin End will be completed eventually, probably next year at the earliest.
Although various difficulties were encountered during the construction of the first railway, it also laid the foundation for future railway construction to Eastern Siberia and Shanhaiguan. Zhao Liang believes that starting next year, we can start building the railway from Heilongjiang City to Yaksa.
On the night when Shen Xuan and his entourage arrived, Zhao Xin walked out of a small courtyard in the military camp in Khabarovsk, with his hands behind his back, as if he had just inspected the barracks. Outside the courtyard, Chai Rugui, Gao Liugeng and Li Qingwen had been waiting for a long time with a platoon of people.
The reason why Zhao Xin chose this time to come back was to avoid causing confusion. But even so, Chai Rugui and the others were shocked when they thought that it only took three days for King Zhao, who was thousands of miles away, from sending a telegram to notifying him to show up. This god. By the light at the entrance of the courtyard, Zhao Xin saw the nervousness of Chai Rugui and the others and found it funny.
After Shen Xuan and his party arrived in Khabarovsk, they were arranged to live in a courtyard outside the military camp. Because so many people came at once, the mayor of Boli Town couldn't arrange too many places to live, so Wang Zhenyi and Tang Xiao also lived with Shen Xuan.
At this time, several women had just finished dinner and did not disperse even after taking away the dishes. They all listened attentively to Wang Zhenyi's account of last year's field survey. As for Zhao Xin's son, he was running around with his legs spread out in the house. A Miao followed behind with his hands spread out and looked nervous, fearing that he might get bumped.
There was a soft creak in the courtyard, and the heavy wooden door was opened from the inside. Zhao Xin walked in and strode towards the main room before the guard who opened the door could speak. He had been traveling all day, going back and forth, and he was so hungry that his heart was pressed against his back. So when he pushed the door open and entered the house regardless, Wang Zhenyi's words stopped abruptly, and everyone's eyes immediately changed from surprise to surprise.
(⊙o⊙), Zhao Xin looked at the Yingying Yanyan sitting in a circle, and thought to himself, I'm going to choke them, why are they all here? !
Early the next morning, Zhao Xin's family of three, A Miao and others crossed the Ussuri River by official boat, and then took a carriage to the newly completed Khabarovsk Railway Station.
When the carriage passed the bustling crowds on both sides of the road and passed through a forest, Shen Xuan and A Miao, who were sitting in the carriage, turned their heads and looked out the window. They couldn't help shouting "Wow", and suddenly the people who were dozing in the carriage were Zhao Xin was woken up.
As it is the starting station of the first railway in Beihai Town, this railway station in Khabarovsk was beautifully designed by Pereira. The entire building combines Chinese style and Western European Gothic retro sentiment. Facing north and south, the entire station not only looks like a huge beige stone castle, but the blue glazed tiles on the roof and Chinese-style floor-to-ceiling glass windows are also unique. The only thing that has not yet been completed is the five-meter-high clock tower on the east side of the station. Pereira's suggestion was to invite some watchmakers from Macau, but he couldn't do this.
At this time, the square in front of the train station was already full of horse-drawn carriages and cars, all of which were vehicles of the Chuanchuan people and other related people who had arrived in advance. Railway police and Beihai navy soldiers patrolling and standing guard can be seen everywhere in the open space, separating the top management of Beihai Town from ordinary people.
Zhao Xin took his wife, children and A Miao out of the carriage, picked up his son who was about to jump up, smiled and greeted Chen Qingsong, Zhao Liang, Yu Deli, Lao You and Wang Zhong who came out to greet them. , walked to the station together.
Without saying anything, everyone went straight to the platform first. When they arrived at the heavily guarded platform, several steam train enthusiasts from Zhongli had already gathered there in advance and were commenting in front of the train.
"As soon as it starts up, I have to go up and take a look."
"Okay! Let's go together."
"Forget it, the cab isn't that comfortable and it will kill you when the coals are burning!"
"The six of us are all going to stay in the cab. Where do you want the driver and stoker to go? Why don't you go sit on the pile of coals in the back and blow some air?"
A few people were talking when they saw Zhao Xin and the others coming, so they stopped talking and came over to say hello and tease the rich second generation of Zhao Xin's family.
Whether it was Wang Zhong, Duan Yucai, Liu Taigong and Hong Liangji, or Shen Xuan, A Miao, Wang Zhenyi, Tang Xiao and others, they saw the 20-meter-long man with a hooded appearance parked on the railway track. The "monsters" standing on the huge black iron plate with steam rising from the top all stood there blankly, with their mouths unable to close for a long time.
