On August 12, the 29th year of Chengshun, Shanhaiguan, Yongping Prefecture, Hebei Province.
The huge fleet of royal special trains stopped here to replenish coal and fresh water. Taking advantage of this time, Luo Zhixue also got off the car and visited Shanhaiguan, a famous pass in the world.
Feel the majesty of the famous gate in the world!
This place has been a strategic transportation location since ancient times. The Yuguan Pass was built during the Sui Dynasty. However, to truly become a world-famous pass, we had to wait until the early Ming Dynasty to start building the Ming Great Wall to fight against the aliens from the Northeast and beyond the Great Wall.
The easternmost end of the Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty reached the seaside. The Ming Dynasty felt that the geographical location of ancient Yuguan was not good, so it moved 60 miles eastward and built a new pass, which is Shanhaiguan.
From this time on, Shanhaiguan became the gateway connecting North China and Northeast China. At the same time, after the Ming Dynasty moved its capital to Youzhou, Shanhaiguan became the east gate of the Ming Dynasty's capital region, and its strategic status was further enhanced.
Of course, in the middle and early stages of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty was on the offensive against the Peking Dusi region and the Northeastern region. Shanhaiguan was strictly in the hinterland, and its strategic position seemed important, but in fact it did not experience any war.
After the middle period of the Ming Dynasty, the territory of the Peking Dusi was gradually lost, and the three guards of Duoyan changed from allies of the Ming Dynasty to enemies, and Shanhaiguan's strategic position was further strengthened.
In the late Ming Dynasty when the Dongji people rose, the importance of Shanhaiguan reached an unprecedented level... Well, it was at this time that Shanhaiguan truly became the number one customs in the world.
In other words, when the threat comes from the Northeast, this place becomes so important!
In the long history of China, the only time when threats came from the Northeast was in the late Ming Dynasty. At other times, the strategic position of this place was actually the same.
How should I put it, it’s important when there is a need.
When it is not needed, it is just a place of interest and a regular place for garrisoning troops.
Just like in the current Chu Empire, Shanhaiguan is said to be important, but in fact it is not that important. At least the Chu army does not station a large number of troops here.
In normal times, there is only one infantry regiment and artillery battalion of the standing second-class division stationed here. They are still dissatisfied, with a total of only three to four thousand people.
The Chu army in North China had heavily garrisoned troops in the cities of Tianjin and Youzhou. In fact, there were not many garrison troops in other border cities.
The city with heavy troops stationed in the Northeast is Shenyang, the new provincial capital of Liaodong.
This is all because North China, Northeast China, and even the Monan area are no longer border areas, but are serious hinterland...
In this kind of hinterland area, although some troops will be stationed at some important checkpoints, it is mostly just to be prepared. More troops are actually stationed in big cities and transportation hubs.
For example, the Chu Empire deployed heavy troops throughout the Central Plains in Xuzhou and Zhengzhou, which were little-known in the past.
Why?
No reason, just because these two places are railway hubs, and Xuzhou is also a river transport hub.
Through railways and river transportation, the troops deployed in Xuzhou can be easily and quickly transported hundreds or even thousands of kilometers away.
The Chu army deployed a large number of troops in Tianjin in North China because this place was a transportation hub.
Similarly, in the Northeast region, the Chu army also deployed its main forces in the transportation hub Shenyang.
Shenyang, why is this place important?
Because it is a cross railway hub in a series of northeastern railway plans in the Chu Empire.
The railway network in the Northeast region has a very simple main line railway direction, which is a cross!
The Horizontal Railway is the Northeast Railway that starts from Tianjin in the west and goes all the way along the Liaoxi Corridor, passes through Jinzhou, and then reaches Shenyang. It then extends eastward from Shenyang, crosses the Yalu River, enters the Koryo Peninsula, and enters Donghai Province, and finally reaches the end of Shenyang. On the east side of the sea is Busan.
The vertical railway starts from Lushun Port in the Liaodong Peninsula in the south, extends all the way north through Gaizhou, Hekou, and Liaoyang. After arriving in Shenyang, it continues north. After entering Liaoning Province, it passes through Changchun, the capital of Northern Liaoning Province, and then continues north. Arrive at Songhua River and arrive at Shuangjiang City, the provincial capital of Heishui Province.
These two trunk railways are the most important railway network in the Northeast railway network. However, they have not yet been completed. Only the section from Tianjin to Shenyang, the section from Hekou to Shenyang, and the section from Shenyang to Changchun have been completed.
Railway construction is too expensive and costly. There are not many railways in the Eastern Plains areas with good economies and large populations in the Chu Empire. It is naturally difficult to build railways in a bitter and cold place like the Northeast.
In addition, the Liaohe River waters and Heilongjiang waters in the Northeast can actually provide a certain amount of river transportation capacity, and the demand for railways in some areas is actually not as great as imagined.
The Liao River today does not have the same limited transport capacity as it did in later generations due to siltation and other conditions for hundreds of years. During the period of the Chu Empire, the Liao River Basin's river transport capacity was still quite good. Although large-tonnage sea-going ships could not pass, it was still navigable. Some flat-bottomed ships of several hundred tons are still no problem.
When the Chu Empire developed coal and iron resources in Liaodong, it used the Taizi River, Hun River and other rivers in the Liaohe River for external transportation. When mechanized planting was carried out in Liaodong in the early years, a large number of mechanical equipment also used rivers to transport. For transportation in the north, grain is also transported through rivers to the mouth of the river, and then loaded onto ships for shipping.
This situation became even more obvious after the Dachu Empire's high-pressure ship-borne steam engine was successfully developed and quickly put into use for inland water transportation.
Of course, river transportation also has great limitations. For example, many river sections in the Northeast will freeze in winter and cannot be navigable all year round. Therefore, rail transportation is also very necessary.
It is necessary to vigorously develop railway transportation in Northeast China, and Shenyang is the center point of this railway network.
The reason why this place became the center point of the Northeast Railway Network is naturally because the governor of Liaodong Province moved here.
In fact, at the beginning, the governor of the Liaodong Province of the Great Chu Empire was not based in Shenyang, but in Liaoyang... After all, at the beginning, Shenyang was still the capital of the capital of the East!
After the Dongdu was eliminated, the governor of Liaodong was still based in Liaoyang for a long time, but the east bank of the Liao River was no longer the land of lush water and grass it had been in ancient times.
Due to the long-term reclamation of the Liaohe River area, ecological degradation, grassland turned into sand, the lower reaches of the Liaohe River were seriously silted up, and floods often occurred, and a swamp-like place was gradually formed in this area, namely Liaoze, where Liaoyang City is located in the area.
The Taizi River, Hun River and other areas have large water flows, and floods often occur in summer. Liaoyang City is an important affected area.
After the founding of the Chu Empire, although local officials continued to manage these rivers, they only addressed the symptoms but not the root cause.
In the 10th year of Chengshun, Liaoyang suffered a large-scale flood. After the flood even rushed into the urban area, Liaodong Province began to prepare to relocate the provincial capital. After many considerations, Shenyang was chosen along the Hun River, but the terrain was relatively high. as the new provincial capital.
This place was previously used as the capital city by the East. It also has a relatively complete city and administrative buildings, so the relocation cost is relatively low.
In addition, it is also very important that the Chu Empire continued to attack the north at that time, launching a war of conquest against the various local indigenous people, and simultaneously launched large-scale reclamation operations. Among them, the area around Shenyang was an important area at that time. Reclamation area.
As the political, military and economic center of the Northeast region, the governor's station in Liaodong can be moved north appropriately to better coordinate with all aspects of the military's operations.
Finally, after several years of deliberation and preparation, in the 16th year of Chengshun's reign, the governor's residence in Liaodong was moved from Liaoyang to Shenyang, and many administrative agencies also moved there. Shenyang became the new provincial capital of Liaodong Province.
When the railway was subsequently built, Shenyang was naturally regarded as a railway hub. After this place became a railway hub, it further strengthened the place's status as a political, military, and economic center.
This place is also an important inspection city for Luo Zhixue when he visited Northeast China.
After all, aside from being a political and military center, this place is still the most important industrial city in the Northeast, although there is another estuary in the south at the mouth of the Liaohe River.
However, Hekou also has its own limitations. It is mainly engaged in mechanical processing, agricultural product processing, trade and other businesses. The real steel city in Liaodong is actually Shenyang.
After all, transportation requires costs. If coal and iron ore are transported directly to the river mouth for smelting, the transportation costs will be relatively high.
By smelting iron ore locally into iron or steel and transporting it overseas, transportation costs can be saved a lot.
Therefore, most of the time, the location of steel plants is generally considered based on the coal production area and the iron ore production area, and the distance is not too far.
Of course there are exceptions, that is, there are no iron ore or coal mines around, and you can only rely entirely on external ores. Then you will usually choose a coastal port city with convenient transportation. After all, sea transportation has the lowest cost among many modes of transportation.
This is how Songjiang Iron and Steel Works came to be.
Various factors have led to the rapid rise of Shenyang in just over ten years, and it has become the most important industrial city in Northeast China.
When Luo Zhixue came here, he felt the industrial atmosphere here!
The sky was gray and the air had a faint smell of coal.
At first glance, you can tell that it is heavy pollution... However, behind such heavy pollution is the large-scale steel smelting and other heavy industries.
So as soon as Luo Zhixue got off the train, he was smiling!
Just looking at the gray sky and the smell of coal in the air, you can tell that the heavy industry in this place is developing very well.
As for environmental protection and so on, the Chu Empire is not qualified to engage in these things these days.
In the early days of industrialization, environmental protection was not taken into consideration.
Productivity is only so much. If you try to protect the environment, you will just eat dirt...
London in modern history was a foggy city... but it was also the city with the most developed economy and the most powerful industry in the world.
In the early days of the development of the United States, there were various large-scale construction projects, and various industrial sewage was discharged directly into the rivers. Today, more than a hundred years later, the fish in many rivers in the United States are inedible because the pollution in the past was too severe, including heavy metals. Exceeding the standard!
Luo Zhixue is also very clear about these. He will ignore the other things and increase productivity first. When productivity increases, he will slowly manage it.
Developing first and governing later may sound bad, but in fact it is a necessary stage for every industrial country.
Of course, this was only limited to other places. Jinling City, where he lived, definitely couldn't do this. He didn't want to live smelling the smell of coal every day.
This is also the reason why there are not many factories in Jinling City!
Today, the twenty-ninth year of Chengshun, Jinling City, the capital of the empire, still has no large-scale factories worthy of praise. At most, there are only some small factories that have little impact on the environment.
The development positioning of Jinling City has always been a political and cultural center, never an industrial center or even an economic center.
In the pan-Jiangnan region, the industrial centers are Dangtu and Susong.
The economic center is in Songjiang and Shanghai.
In fact, Jinling City does not even have a large permanent population in the urban area... After all, there are no labor-intensive industries such as factories in the area. In addition to military personnel and administrative officials, the permanent population includes faculty and students, corporate headquarters and R&D personnel, and some services. industry.
Plus the family members of the above-mentioned people.
And without labor-intensive industries, it is difficult to gather a large number of people... After all, you can't find a job and you can't live.
This population size cannot even rank among the top thirty in the Great Chu Empire.
The urban center of Songjiang Prefecture, that is, the Shanghai side, has an urban population of more than two million, and Tianjin and Guangzhou also have a population of one million and tens of thousands.
Even in Shenyang in the northeast, the local urban population has reached more than 700,000.
Luo Zhixue is personally very satisfied with the development positioning of Jinling City. Anyway, the huge Chu Empire does not necessarily need Jinling City to provide economic data.
It's good to be a political center.
Live comfortably by yourself.
So over the years, although the residents of Jinling City have begun to use a large amount of coal for fire and heating, the overall population is small, the population is relatively scattered, the density is not high, and there are no factories.
Therefore, the water and air quality in Jinling City are still good, and the greening is also very good.
On the other hand, in Shenyang, although the new city has only been developed for more than ten years, environmental pollution is already relatively serious.
Development requires paying a certain price!
After Luo Zhixue arrived in Shenyang, he did not go to the so-called imperial palace built during the Eastern Captivity. The so-called imperial palace of the Eastern Captivity had long been destroyed by the war. After all, the two sides fought fiercely here.
Later, the Chu army cleared the ruins and stationed here. Some of the remaining buildings were used as military camps, and a large area was used as a training square. This was used as a military camp for many years.
When the Liaodong Governor's Yamen decided to move here, after coordination with the military, the military happened to plan to move the military camp to a wider area outside the city. Therefore, the Liaodong Governor's Yamen built a new Governor's Camp on the basis of the military camp. Yamen and other administrative buildings.
Therefore, the so-called imperial palace of the East Captives in the past has long disappeared in the dust of history. After several changes, this place has become the location of the Liaodong Governor's Yamen and other administrative agencies' office buildings.
When Luo Zhixue goes out for inspections, he never lives in the local government office buildings... It's not that he doesn't want to, but these office buildings are purely office buildings and cannot be occupied by people!
Each government office in the Chu Empire was a formal office building, unlike other traditional dynasties where government offices had backyards for officials to live.
Of course, in order to facilitate officials' commuting to and from get off work and the lives of foreign officials, a number of residential buildings are often built behind office buildings.
Therefore, it is impossible for Luo Zhixue to live in any governor's office.
The Royal Assets Section does not have any royal resorts or palaces in Liaodong, and there are no suitable luxury houses for wealthy businessmen in the area.
Luo Zhixue had previously banned inspections of places along the way to build palaces.
In the end, there was no choice but to requisition a newly opened local luxury hotel: the Hunjiang Hotel, and renovate it to use it as a temporary palace.
It is worth mentioning that the main building of this hotel is five stories high. The decoration is not only extremely luxurious, but also equipped with a steam passenger elevator, which has only appeared in the public eye this year. Most of them still don’t know what it is.
(End of chapter)
