Chapter 733: Dajinshan

The Sino-Western war in North America has already begun, and it has just entered its climax. But Nanjing doesn't know. If this explosive news doesn't spread for a few months, Nanjing will not know about the war in North America.

When this news spreads to mainland China, the British will definitely be happy. They have gained a powerful ally invisibly.

This is the limitation of the times.

Not to mention the telephone, even the wired telegraph will have to wait for decades to appear.

Even if the foreign journalists who followed the immigrant ships to the west coast of North America wrote their reports and described the heroic struggle and brilliant achievements of the expeditionary force in a moving way, it would be impossible to make the headlines of domestic newspapers overnight.

So, where are the eyes of the country now? Including Chen Ming, they are all paying attention to Baoji.

It has been the eighth year of Chengtian. The national highway from Baoji to Tianshui has been completed and opened to traffic, and the second railway from Xi'an to Lanzhou has also been connected. Only the section from Lanzhou to Xinjiang has not seen the hope of being connected.

Because the route to be built was too difficult and cost too much.

The cabinet government sold railway bonds on a large scale for the first time. At the same time, the Northwest Bureau of the Ministry of Communications of China, which was under construction, was listed as the Northwest Transportation Company. The superiors raised shares and funds. One team with two brands, just like the rabbit. For example, the National Archives Bureau and the Central Archives at that time.

There was no way. The cost of this railway was too high, far exceeding the first railway. The initial budget was not enough. The construction of the narrow channel of the Wei River was difficult enough, but the construction and laying of the railway in the northwest section was even more difficult.

Not to mention the severe cold of more than ten degrees below zero and twenty or thirty degrees in winter, the heavy snow here was above the calf, which was an insurmountable natural barrier. Moreover, the soil in the cold winter would be as hard as pig iron, and a shovel could only shovel off a layer of skin.

And in summer? The scorching sun was unbearable. Even the hardest-working man would collapse after three or four hours under the scorching sun. Moreover, the temperature difference between day and night is very large. The temperature of 36 or 37 degrees during the day is enough to make people sweat even if they are wearing only single clothes! When working, sweating all over, even that single layer of clothes is not needed. At night, you have to cover yourself with a thin blanket!

Many sections of the road lack water, which invisibly limits the number of construction workers, the progress of the project and the speed of construction.

At least 30 labor camps with families are working hard for this, and there are also pure labor camps coming to contribute. In the present time and space where transportation and equipment are all primitive, manpower is the necessary force to promote a major project.

And people are really a kind of creature that can adapt to the environment. In addition to those who died due to work, the number of people who died due to illness among them is not much more than the labor workers who came during the same period.

This cannot but be said to be a phenomenon that Chen Ming cannot understand!

In theory, the death rate of these labor camp families and prisoners due to illness should be far higher than that of normal workers with certain medical insurance, but the fact is another way.

The Muslims just celebrated the Eid al-Fitr and were forced to speed up the progress. In order to sell the shares of Northwest Transportation Company at a better price, they had to speed up the progress. Therefore, the meals in the labor camps at different construction sites have unexpectedly become better and richer recently.

But the price is that they have to work harder and harder.

From the start of work after the thaw this year to now, it has been three months, and there are nearly 20,000 labor camp prisoners - strong laborers, and at least twice as many family members. After completely deducting the casualties caused by work, only those who were hospitalized due to illness and insect bites, the total number is only 1,700, and 280 people died. What about the labor team of only about 5,000 people in the same period? There were also 160 to 170 people who died. This is really fucked up!

In just three months, more than 300 workers who signed contracts at the end of last year chose to leave. The number of people who also wanted to leave but did not want to give up their wages easily and had to pay hundreds of yuan was several times this number.

Those who would rather pay money and report to quit would rather go to the more dangerous Nanyang or Outer Northeast than stay in this damn place.

All those who went to the Northwest signed a contract, and the Northwest Bureau could completely reject their application for withdrawal. However, because there were Japanese who could fill the vacancy, and the casualty compensation of these foreign Japanese was much lower than that of the Chinese, the Northwest Bureau could deduct every penny of these workers' wages in the name of unfulfilled contracts, and get a sum of money from them, so they agreed to it.

Since two years ago, the number of Japanese on the construction site has begun to increase dramatically. Up to now, they have grown from the initial 200 to 300 people to the current 1,000 to 2,000 people, and their number is comparable to the armed forces of the Japanese security team responsible for security here.

Are the Japanese not afraid of death? Of course they are afraid. But the attraction of money made them ignore the threat of death. Also, because their living conditions were much worse than those of similar Chinese workers, more than 500 Chinese and Japanese died in three months. The latter's base number was obviously a minority in the total worker group, but the number of deaths accounted for the majority.

There is no way to completely eliminate diseases in China today. The climate with huge temperature difference between day and night in the northwest makes it easy for people to catch colds and fevers, which can then easily turn into pneumonia, which are fatal symptoms. Therefore, medicinal materials such as Coptis chinensis and Bupleurum chinensis are being transported to the northwest in large quantities. However, in this era, these are just people doing things according to fate.

In order to calm people's hearts, Buddhism, Taoism, and the Green Sect believed in by Northwest HH are all popular on the railway construction site.

Just like when the leader of the labor camp in the mountains was willing to take out the great monk Shi Jingkong and build a temple for him to become a monk there, they had long discovered that faith is a driving force.

In order to better appease the labor camps and workers, various beliefs began to become popular on the construction site.

But in general, Buddhism and Taoism are returning to the northwest in large numbers.

In today's railway construction sites, almost every new construction site will build a land temple in the first month, and then quickly build a plague temple and a Buddhist temple to worship the Taoist emperor and the plague leader. Gods, the Buddhist Oriental Glaze Medicine Master Light Tathagata and the South China Sea Guanyin Bodhisattva!

The person in charge of the project initially planned to deploy manpower to erect a temple for Japan's Shinto religion, but was directly stopped by the superiors. Commander-in-Chief Duan Guorui even worshiped all the gods and Buddhas, but it was still unclear whether he should be dead or dead, whether he should be without water or without water!

In the memorial sent to Nanjing, he said: The constant death rate has cast a heavy shadow on the entire project, and the harsh climate and environment have severely affected the workers' enthusiasm for work and work emotions. Zong, Religious faith can soothe their inner panic and hesitation...

He also mentioned some bad rumors circulating among the laborers in the northwest - the higher mortality rate of the Han and ethnic groups is the disrespectful punishment of the Han and ethnic groups who are regarded by the northwest laborers as the true God of their faith. Because although some people died of the disease in the Northwest HH, if we make a horizontal comparison, the proportion is much lower than that of the Han and ethnic groups. Are they from the northwest? Although these people are in a very bad situation now, because of the heavy losses suffered by the Han and the two tribes and the comparison of the worse experiences, they are cheerful and happy. This has a very bad impact.

The Northwest Bureau adopted thunderous tactics and arrested hundreds of HH reform-through-labor prisoners and a small number of HH laborers for spreading rumors. According to the method of drawing one out of two, they asked them to first select those who were willing to go to heaven to see the true God. Of course, this Without success, the half who were hanged were selected by drawing lots. In the short term, this has suppressed the momentum of this bad rumor.

The Northwest Bureau Headquarters is having a hard time. Duan Guorui, the commander-in-chief of the project and the former deputy commander-in-chief of the first railway project, not only has to worry about the progress and technical issues of the project, but also the "ideological" issues of the workers. In order to suppress such vicious rumors, he even invited a cultural troupe to put on a big show to relax the nerves of the reform-through-labor prisoners and workers.

If Duan Guorui hadn't wanted to make another contribution, and he regarded this appointment as Chen Ming's trust in him, it gave him a special sense of honor and felt that he would have to shoulder the responsibility. He was already fifty years old. He had already given up his options.

The construction of the entire railway started in the third year of Chengtian's reign, and it has been five years now. His hair has turned white. This is much more difficult than building the first railway.

The cool night breeze blew Duan Guorui's old face. He was a man with rich experiences. In the early days, he was born in Lushan and was one of the white servants who worked under Chen Hui. However, his ability was much inferior to that of Zheng Hongyu and Wei Xiuzhi, Chen Hui's capable generals at that time, and he did not dare to Holding a knife and fighting desperately in front of the battle, he entered the logistics department. He also had a friend, Zeng Ming from Manchuria.

Duan Guorui has long been out of touch with the army.

After quitting the army, he entered the Ministry of Communications. After so many years, he became the deputy commander-in-chief of the construction of the first railway. Before the construction of that railway was completed, he was appointed by Chen Ming as the commander-in-chief of the construction of the second railway. person in charge. This is not a position that can be taken casually. He is still the first person in charge of the Northwest Bureau and the chairman of the Northwest Transportation Company.

Being able to sit in his current position can be said to be a leap in Duan Guorui's life, but this can also be said to be the biggest disaster in Duan Guorui's life!

Railway construction in the northwest is much more difficult than railway construction in the Mongolian steppes.

Here, taking a sip of cold water may cause you to sway and then fall ill; being blown by the wind may cause you to catch a fever and cold, and die of weakness; not to mention these difficult environments. Water stretches for hundreds of miles in many places, and it is difficult to find even an exposed water source. Even the Northwest Bureau prepared a water transport team, and those days were simply devastating.

The only thing Duan Guorui was satisfied with at the construction site was the Japanese geishas here. Although he was not interested in the Japanese 'dance' and the white powder all over their faces, the geishas were still very nice and obedient after washing their faces.

Moreover, they do as the Romans do, and make whatever they want.

These women are willing to come to this hellish place just for money. As for the so-called 'Japanese tradition', how much is it worth?

There is no way. Domestic prostitutes do not come to the Northwest Railway construction site at all. They would rather go to Southeast Asia. Even in Hami City, their faces are rarely seen. Duan Guorui and most Chinese people are not interested in local women in the Northwest, so they can only spend money on Japanese geishas and prostitutes. Especially a big man like Duan Guorui prefers to keep a beautiful geisha rather than a prostitute! There is no need to say more about the reason.

Yes, he also has concubines and maids with him. He can even take women to the construction site directly, but this has a bad influence. Considering all factors, Duan Guorui is better off keeping a geisha!

Because there are geishas on every construction site.

Tomorrow is Duan Guorui's half-monthly rest day. According to his previous "life", Duan Guorui will definitely sleep drunk in the flowers tonight and play wildly for a day. Although his hair is gray, his body is still very good. This is also one of his ways to relieve stress.

But Duan Guorui did not go to the brothel. He sat alone in front of the window of the room, looking up at the half-moon in the sky, holding a bottle of wine in his hand. Tomorrow is a person's death anniversary. His first wife, a woman who had suffered a lot, gave birth to three sons for him, all three of whom were raised, but she was not able to enjoy the great fortune with him. On this day of the year before, she took her last breath in her bed at home.

Although Duan Guorui's first wife was not beautiful, and was ten streets worse than other concubines now, this woman took care of Duan Guorui's parents with all her heart when Duan Guorui followed the army to the south of the Yangtze River, and sent the two old people away. Duan Guorui did not marry a successor. Regardless of whether he had feelings or not, he had to accept this love.

It is really a good system for Chinese people to marry concubines. After Chen Han became prosperous, no one wanted to divorce his wife, which was a phenomenon that made Chen Ming very happy.

The sight slowly rose from Duan Guorui's point, and a huge railway construction site slowly appeared in front of him. This is Xingxing Gorge.

It is a necessary route for the Longhai Line to connect with Xinjiang.

When the Fu Han Army entered Xinjiang, it also took this route. As an important route connecting northern Xinjiang and Gusu, this road is not only not abandoned, but has become more prosperous. Of course, the route from Zhangjiakou through Hohhot and Baotou to Uliastai to Xinjiang is more prosperous, because this route has abundant water and grass and a shorter distance. Xingxing Gorge connects more Gansu, Shaanxi and Xinjiang.

Now the Han people in Xinjiang use Xingxing Gorge as a dividing point, the east is Kouli, and the west is Kouwai.

Although it was late at night, most of the construction site had fallen into darkness, leaving only a few scattered lights, but in a place not far from the construction site - a market like a small county town was bustling. The lights were bright, the voices were noisy, and the singing, dancing, and drinking made people forget the shadow of death and the fatigue of work...

Looking further away, on a hill seven or eight miles away from the Xingxingxia construction site, simple tombstones were arranged as closely as soldiers standing in the parade ground. This is a cemetery, and so far, more than 3,000 people have been buried here.

There are some remains of soldiers here, and there are stone tablets in front of their graves; the rest are all prisoners and laborers. The latter are at least buried in the soil, and there is a thin coffin, while the former are just a box of ashes.

Also in mid-July, while Chen Ming was paying attention to the issuance of Northwest Transportation Company's stocks, the Immigration Bureau did something it wanted to do. A group of Ainu people were moved from the bitter and cold Sakhalin Island to their homeland - Ezo.

In recent years, China has been vigorously emigrating abroad, and Sakhalin Island is also one of the places that has been focused on development. At present, there are at least 50,000 Han immigrants living there. Several coastal ports have become fur sales centers and general logistics supply stations for northern hunters.

All immigrants who are willing to migrate to Sakhalin Island are placed in the previously selected settlement areas.

They are all fertile plains with sufficient water sources and flat terrain suitable for farming.

After the immigrants go there, they only need to cultivate the land, build houses for the winter, store food and firewood for the winter, and survive this year's severe winter. By next year, they will be almost self-sufficient.

Moreover, the immigration work there has generally ended at this time, because in a few days, Sakhalin Island will enter the autumn and winter season, and then wait a few more days, heavy snow and cold winter will come.

The report submitted by the Immigration Bureau to Chen Ming is not about worrying about Sakhalin Island, but about Honolulu.

After several years of development, Honolulu seems to have reached the time to start.

The number of this first batch of immigrants reached 10,000. They traveled thousands of miles away. The immigration work was like the original Nanmingzhou, which was very trivial and troublesome.

Chen Ming also summoned court ministers to discuss the discovery of a gold mine in Nanming Prefecture.