The purpose of building railways in North America or South Africa is simple and pure, either to mine and obtain more strategic resources, such as the Maputo Railway in South Africa, which is purely to obtain more gold and help The empire can better implement the indirect gold standard monetary system and maintain the healthy operation of the overall economy.
Either it serves to expand and control more areas, such as the proposed North American East-West Railway in North America. The early goal of this railway is to better develop the nearby Golden Valley area, mine local gold mines, and develop more of cultivated land.
The follow-up will continue to extend into the interior of North America, allowing the immigrants from the Chu Empire to set foot in the interior, all the way to the Mississippi River, and eventually even to the east coast of North America.
In fact, these two purposes can ultimately be summed up as an attempt to obtain more overseas resources to supplement the huge local industrial consumption and improve the local food supply level.
Although the Chu Empire has completed preliminary industrialization, the overall per capita grain output is still not very good. After all, the technology of agricultural production is still not very good, the fertilizer industry has not been developed, and the research progress of excellent grain seeds is not very good either. .
This has also led to the fact that although the current grain output per acre in the Chu Empire is higher than that in traditional agricultural societies, it is still limited. To solve the food problem in the empire, more efforts are made to use the power of industry to reclaim more cultivated land. , and transform some existing ordinary land and use water conservancy facilities to turn ordinary lower and middle fields into high-quality fields.
Through these methods, the overall production of food can be increased.
However, although the total grain output has increased, the empire has been in peace for a long time. Thirty years of peace and rapid development have brought not only economic growth and improvement in living standards, but also a huge population.
When people are peaceful and stable and can see hope, they will have a stronger desire to get married, start a family, and have children; on the contrary, if the war continues, life is difficult, and there is no hope in life, people will lower their willingness to get married and have a family. Desire to have children.
This is not only reflected in various modern countries in later generations, but also in ancient feudal dynasties.
The so-called prosperous times that occurred decades after the founding of the People's Republic of China in previous dynasties were basically manifestations of this situation.
The same is true in the Dachu Empire, and this situation is even more obvious.
Nowadays in the Great Chu Empire, it is very common for a couple to have two or three children, and many will have four, five or even more children.
Although limited by medical standards, the maternal mortality rate is high, and the child mortality rate is also very high, but in summary, the birth rate is still very scary.
In the third census conducted by the Ministry of Civil Affairs in the 30th year of Chengshun, the total population of the Chu Empire had reached 460 million. This does not include the large wave of babies born thirty years after Chengshun!
Compared with the population of more than 100 million in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, it has tripled...
This is a scary number!
And the vast majority of the population are children and young people.
The first batch of baby boomers born in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, who are now generally in their twenties, have grown into the backbone of the empire's labor force.
In recent years, young people from the first wave of baby boomers have been getting married and having children, which has also brought about a second wave of even larger baby booms!
This means that in the past three years and in the next few years, there will be hundreds of millions of new people!
This has led to the great pressure on food in the Chu Empire. It has reached the level of 300 kilograms per capita long ago. However, in the past ten years of rapid development, it has only increased by 50 or 60 kilograms. That’s all.
In the 33 years since Chengshun, according to preliminary statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, per capita grain is expected to reach 365 kilograms, with the overall level remaining the same as last year.
In fact, this year's grain production will increase a lot, but it will not be able to support the large new population!
When there are more people, the per capita food level will be lowered.
This is still a long way from the goal of 400 kilograms of food per capita proposed by Luo Zhixue.
Regardless of the level of 365 kilograms, it is only 35 kilograms away from 400 kilograms!
However, it is very difficult to cross over and achieve this goal.
Especially when the level of agricultural cultivation is still relatively low, the grain output per acre is limited, and at the same time the population is increasing significantly, it is much more difficult to quickly increase the per capita grain level than to push the world flatly!
In terms of fighting, in fact, if the senior leaders of the Chu Empire are willing and pay a huge price for it, to be honest, they can start from Central Asia and fight all the way to West Asia, then Eastern Europe, directly to Western Europe, and drink the English Channel!
When the Mongols were so backward in productivity, they were able to defeat it by using the characteristics of the nomadic people, let alone today's Chu Empire.
Although the Da Chu Empire was not a nomadic nation, the number of horses, sheep and other livestock that the Da Chu Empire actually maintained was far greater than that of the Mongols back then.
How can the level of traditional grazing in ancient times and the size of the horse herd it maintained be comparable to the modern animal husbandry technology that uses modern animal husbandry technology for large-scale grazing and breeding.
Impossible!
Besides, even the traditional grazing areas on the grasslands are now basically in the hands of the Chu Empire!
The entire vast Central Asian grasslands, Siberia, Mongolia, etc. are all pastures of the Chu Empire!
The huge number of horses also led to the Great Chu Empire having powerful cavalry that far exceeded the traditional nomads... Well, let alone quality, the quantity alone far exceeded the so-called Great Chu Empire back then.
How many horses did the Chu Empire have?
There is no exact number, but there is a rough number: 35 million horses!
You read that right, not hundreds of thousands or millions, but a full 35 million horses!
A large number of horses are widely used in agricultural production, transportation and military strength.
You said that ordinary civilian horses cannot fight, then you only talk about military horses. The major government-run horse farms, military-run horse farms and private horse farms have provided up to 80,000 horses for the army, navy and guards of the Great Chu Empire in the past thirty years. Military horse after complete military training!
This number is actually not the largest number, but the number of official purchases by the Army, Navy and Guards every year!
If the military has greater needs, major horse farms can actually provide more military horses.
At the same time, I am not talking about ordinary horses, but professionally trained horses that will not panic when encountering the sound of gunfire, and are specially used for cavalry or officers. The riding horses used by messengers or professional artillery and logistics horses.
The Chu Empire purchased tens of thousands of riding horses a year... and the army, navy and guards had a total of 600,000 horses!
In many countries in the world, there are not so many horses...
The sufficient number of horses also allowed the Chu Empire to have the largest cavalry force in the world, as well as the most powerful artillery force, especially the artillery force.
Trivia: In modern times, in armies that mainly use guns and artillery, cavalry is not the big user of horses, but artillery and baggage are!
A standard six-gun 115mm field artillery sentry in the Dachu Empire requires one hundred and fifty horses!
The powerful cavalry and artillery force, coupled with the powerful industrial system, can completely give the Chu Empire the strength to defeat the world... Without so many conspiracies, it can defeat all indigenous countries in the past.
It's just that if the Chu Empire really launches large-scale mobilization and wants to quickly destroy other countries in just a few years... In fact, it doesn't even need resistance from other countries, it can drag itself to death...
A powerful army corresponds to powerful logistical consumption!
The more advanced the equipment and the more powerful the mobile army, the greater the consumption.
Not to mention other things, the food consumption alone is several times higher than that of simple foot infantry.
Why did the Chu Empire build a C-class division back then... Wasn't it just to build a low-cost army to save military expenses?
The high mobility of the Class A Division is based on the huge number of draft horses and supporting horses... Without these horses, they can't even pull the artillery!
As for the C Division, although it also has guns and artillery, it basically does not retain these draft horses on weekdays. It will only recruit draft horses directly from the civilian population when necessary when a war breaks out. This leaves a huge number of draft horses on weekdays. Consumption of draft horses.
The second-class division is in the middle of the two. It usually has a certain amount of horses, but not many. It basically only meets the horse needs of the backbone troops. When a war really comes, it still needs to mobilize and replenish a large number of horses.
This is why the Dachu Empire has hundreds of divisions, but only twenty first-class divisions... they are too expensive to raise and not cost-effective.
If a war were to be fought directly across the world, a large number of troops and horses would have to be mobilized, and the food consumption alone would be very terrifying.
With the current national strength of the Chu Empire, it is very difficult to support it.
Therefore, you still need to expand, but you have to pay attention to the rhythm and method... Don't just focus on the expansion in front of you, and then you will find out as you play that the front is constantly winning battles, and the country's economy behind is constantly collapsing...
In the end, we don’t know when all enemies around the world will be wiped out, but Luo Zhixue will definitely be killed in a few years.
Therefore, even if the empire has the strength to directly expand the world, Luo Zhixue and the empire's top officials are very cautious in external expansion, and they can be regarded as slow-paced.
Anyway, the advantage lies with me, don’t rush, take your time, expand step by step, and develop new territories in a timely manner to supplement domestic consumption and continue to improve people’s living standards.
No, they have successively taken over Siberia, Central Asia, and various places in the Southeast Asia. Now they also control most of India and the west coast of North America. Now they are targeting Africa and the interior of North America.
Step by step, there is no burden on national strength, and it can continue to expand, resettle more immigrants, and plunder more industrial raw materials and agricultural products.
Domestic people can still live a leisurely life and continue to receive the benefits of overseas expansion, such as more food and more industrial raw materials.
This is pretty good!
Nowadays, the construction of railways in South Africa and North America is also based on this mentality!
Let's not talk about South Africa for now. The development there is still a bit poor. For the time being, it is still dominated by gold mining, but it is different in North America.
After years of continuous immigration to North America, and more importantly, the continued development of steamships, the tonnage of ocean liners and cargo ships continued to expand, safety continued to improve, and transportation costs continued to decrease.
This has led to the continuous reduction of the cost of immigrants to North America. Whether it is official immigration or self-funded immigration, the cost has been low to an acceptable level.
In the Age of Sail, if immigrants wanted to go to North America, the price of the ship ticket alone was beyond the reach of ordinary poor immigrants.
In Europe, during the Age of Sail, a large number of indentured servants, or migrant laborers, appeared. The reason for this was that the cost of immigration was so high that ordinary poor people could not afford it. They had to sell their labor for many years just to get a ship ticket. money.
But in the current Great Chu Empire, even the lower class people who don't have much money on hand can basically save enough money to pay for a one-way ticket.
If you are in trouble, you can still apply for an immigration loan from a bank.
In order to encourage and support immigrants, many government-run banks in the Dachu Empire launched corresponding immigration loans to support immigrants' ship ticket fees, initial ration costs for arriving at the immigration destination, purchase of agricultural tools and grains, etc.
As long as you are willing to immigrate and leave your hometown, it is still very easy to live in the contemporary Chu Empire.
All of this has led to explosive growth in the population of North America over the past decade.
Today, the number of Chu people in North America has increased from hundreds of thousands in the early days to more than one million.
Jinshan Mansion alone has a population of more than 400,000.
At the same time, the North American governor of the Great Chu Empire established several directly governed territories in North America.
Today's Chu Empire has completely controlled the west coast of North America north of Mexico, established many coastal cities, and along the rivers went deep inland and established many inland cities.
What’s more, a large number of people move into the area every year.
In the thirty-two years of Chengshun, in this year alone, more than 200,000 new immigrants poured into North America!
And this number is still rising!
A large number of Chu immigrants landed on the west coast of North America and then headed inland, hoping that the Golden Valley, which was still in the wilderness, has now become the new granary of the Chu Empire in North America. The large amount of food produced locally not only supplies Local demand is also shipped back to the country in large quantities.
North America has become the largest region for the Chu Empire to import grain from overseas, surpassing Nanyang and India.
In this way, it became natural for the Chu Empire to further develop North America.
Soon, the construction plan of the Jinshan Prefecture Railway was completed, and the first railway track was laid in Jinshan Port. This railway will then be developed all the way east from Jinshan Port and enter the key development areas of the Dachu Empire in North America. Golden Valley Land.
In the future, we will also cross the mountains and go deep into the interior of central North America.
During this process, the immigrants from the Chu Empire inevitably faced the Spaniards and clashed!
After all, the immigrants from the Chu Empire were not only expanding inland, but also expanding southward!
In the twenty-sixth year of Chengshun, the first batch of free immigrants from the Chu Empire landed at a harbor in the south of Jinshan Prefecture, and established the first immigrant settlement in a fertile river valley: Xinluo River. The following year Set up a town.
In the twenty-eighth year of Chengshun, the Chu Empire merged this town and several surrounding towns such as Nanluo Town farther south, and established Luohe County as an overseas territory directly under the jurisdiction of the North American Governor's Yamen.
Relying on Luohe County, the immigrants from Chu State continued to push southward to establish new settlements, and then faced the Spanish in the south...
In the thirty-third year of Chengshun, that is, this summer, the Chu Empire had a fierce war with the Spanish in the peninsula area in the south, which the Chu people called the Luohe Peninsula and the Spanish called the California Peninsula. armed conflict…
The Chu immigrants who went there to start a new life and find a living space, armed with percussion rifles, directly destroyed a Spanish immigrant settlement, occupied the immigrant settlement and a large area of surrounding land, and started their own new life. Life……
This triggered strong protests from the Spanish governor of New Spain!
Facing the written protest from the Spaniards, several Chu officials looked at me and I looked at you, and then they all became confused.
The Chu people have established countless immigrant settlements in North America and killed countless indigenous people during this period. However, this is the first time that someone has sent documents to express a formal protest!
To be honest, they have little experience!
Besides, in their view, colonization means you rob me and I rob you...
If you are awesome enough, you can definitely fight back. I, the Chu people, won’t talk nonsense, let alone express any protest. They will only mobilize the army and kill them!
However, since they formally expressed their protest in official documents, the officials of the Great Chu Empire claimed to be highly civilized people and immediately responded with a letter saying that the Luohe Peninsula area has been the territory that our Great Chu Empire has always had since ancient times. , before you Spaniards broke in and lived secretly, we didn't bother to argue with you, now be quick and get out of here, otherwise the king of heaven will kill you, and then no chickens or dogs will be left behind!
It's just that this is a very formal official document, so it is written with gorgeous and rigorous words, and the entire article is filled with formal written language!
As for the formal written language in Chinese, that is, traditional classical Chinese, not to mention Spaniards, even Chu people with lower education levels may not be able to understand it!
After the Spaniards received the reply...their own translator was dumbfounded at first...he even knew the translator when he took it apart.
But when combined together, I can’t understand it!
After the Chu people replied, they felt that they had complied with the diplomatic etiquette that they should abide by, so what should they do next?
After discovering that the Spaniards still refused to leave voluntarily, more than 200 local garrison troops from Luohe County led hundreds of immigrants to the last and largest immigrant settlement of the Spanish on the peninsula.
This immigrant settlement was quickly and easily occupied... thus occupying the entire Luohe Peninsula, which is what the Spanish call the California Peninsula.
At this time, the Spaniards in New Mexico City were still studying what was written in the diplomatic letter sent by the Chu people!
