1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 126 Action Preparation
"As long as this market is opened, we can definitely let Daming organize a military observation group to go to Vietnam to watch. Seeing how the Vietnamese army used our weapons on the battlefield, this should be very useful for us to open up Daming's arms market in the future. Help." When it comes to doing business, Schneider's thinking is obviously more flexible than Yan Chujie's, and he has already thought of how to use Vietnam's domestic war to open up the international arms market.

Everyone chattered and discussed, expressing their opinions on how to open the arms market in Vietnam, but no one cared about the original topic.

It was obvious that they were discussing how to adjust the military force allocation that was still planned in Xingang, but the topic turned to the arms business. This kind of digression has almost become a traditional feature of the crossing group's internal meetings.It is not the first time Tom Wang has participated in this kind of internal high-level meeting, and he has gradually gotten used to this kind of atmosphere.

In the end, it was Liu Shanxia from the Ministry of Construction who brought the topic back to the right track: "About the channel between the port area and the mining area, I would like to ask if there is any condition to go directly to the track?"

The use of rail transportation in mining areas is undoubtedly a relatively convenient transportation method, and the efficiency is much higher than that of shoulder-carrying or ordinary flatbed carts.In the mining area of ​​Tiandu Iron Mine, the first ore transportation track with a length of about 300 meters has been laid and put into use, which is responsible for transporting ore from the mine pit to the concentrator.Moreover, this track is still a double-track construction, and two tracks can be used at the same time. If there is a problem with one of them, it needs to be stopped for maintenance, and the transportation line will not be completely shut down.

However, the Crossing Group does not yet have the ability to produce steel on a large scale, and the track is naturally not rolled by a large-scale machine such as a rolling mill.In view of the current limited reserves of pig iron, these tracks are not even made of pig iron, but the way of iron-covered wooden rails is chosen, and they are used first to make do with horses.

This is completely impossible. Even according to the lightest track standard of later generations, at least 70 tons of steel are required to build a one-kilometer railway. If double-track construction is used, then this demand will have to double, and this weight is not even The supporting devices such as spikes, fish-shaped plates connected to rails, and turnouts are counted.If we really want to use all-steel tracks, then Tiandu Iron Mine will need 300 tons of steel to meet the construction needs of the only 40-meter double-track track. on track.

And what pulls the heavy ore on this track is not the steam engine that just came out, but the primitive animal power.Although the speed is a bit slow, it has greatly saved human resources. In the past, at least five or six people had to push and pull a cart of ore to transport it away, but now only one cow is enough.In the continuous transactions with the Li people in the past few months, the Transit Group has obtained [-] to [-] cows. Apart from a part of which was distributed to the Ministry of Agriculture as cattle, the mine also distributed [-] cows. After the track was built, the amount of work that these ten cows could accomplish was enough to save dozens of laborers for iron ore mining.

Because of the high efficiency of rail transportation, the Ministry of Industry included rail transportation as an infrastructure project when planning the Hongji Coal Mine. However, it is easy to establish a project but difficult to construct. It is the Ministry of Construction that really needs to face this problem.Building the track is not as simple as drawing a line between two points on the drawing. Although the expedition team has provided graphic and video materials, Liu Shanxia still needs further explanation from Wang Tom to make a judgment. This is not just the Ministry of Construction. The matter of one family also involves the issue of whether the Ministry of Industry will assign production tasks to the carpentry workshop and metallurgy workshop.

Tom Wang frowned and said, "I don't know much about engineering technology, so let Qiao Zhiya talk about it."

Qiao Zhiya got up and said: "We can see from the picture that it is not difficult to build a track based on the trend of this river valley. The key is that in order to prevent the river from flooding in the rainy season, we must start building from the river bank a section higher than the river bed. This may require the use of engineering blasting methods. If the supply of explosives can be guaranteed, then I think it is more feasible to directly lay tracks in this passage.”

"Then can you estimate the approximate manpower and construction period required?" Tao Donglai asked.

"If there are [-] laborers and sufficient tools, I think it will not take more than half a month to open this river valley channel. As for the track from the port area to the mining area, if it goes well, it will be completed within a month." Qiao Zhiya thought. After thinking about it, he replied.

"It's still too slow, time is running out!" Tao Donglai sighed, "Wait for more than a month, I'm afraid the metallurgical workshop will be shut down soon."

"Actually, it shouldn't take that long." Ning Qi interjected: "If according to what the expedition team said, as long as we have enough transportation capacity, we can continuously obtain labor from the eastern coastal areas of Vietnam, and the construction of Xingang will not Like the base camp, it often faces a labor shortage situation. Qiao Zhiya said that the construction progress is 500 people, so what if we can invest 1000 people? What about 2000 people?"

Tao Donglai immediately turned to the seat of the shipping department: "Xiao Yue, Xiao Sun, what do you think?"

Yue Zhiyun and Sun Changmi looked at each other, and Sun Changmi nodded to signal Yue Zhiyun to speak first.Yue Zhiyun responded: "We currently have three relatively large ships on hand. If we put this overseas route as soon as possible, in addition to carrying cargo, we can also transport 400 to 600 people from the east coast of Vietnam each time. Xingang. In addition, He Xi rented three ships from the north, so these six ships can transport at least 3000 people each time. The round-trip voyage between the two places takes about four days. It’s not big.” Seeing joy on everyone’s faces, Yue Zhiyun added: “Of course, the data I mentioned is just a calculation on paper, and it’s almost impossible for us to achieve such a goal in actual operation.”

Sun Changmi went on to say: "The reason for this is that there is an unavoidable problem - most of the materials needed for the construction of the new port must be operated from the base, and because there are many things that need to be delivered from the base camp. If it is continuously produced, it is very likely that one or two trips will not be enough, so it is impossible to keep all the ships on the route between Xingang and Vietnam to attract people. According to our estimates, to ensure the construction progress of Xingang, at least Only half of the ships can be sent back to the headquarters to deliver supplies, so the speed of transporting people may not meet the standard that Yue Zhiyun said."

"Then how much transport capacity can be guaranteed, can you give me an accurate number?" Liu Shanxia from the Ministry of Construction has been dazed by these two guys.

"At most 800 people in the first half of the month, 500 people within a month is probably the limit." Yue Zhiyun finally made the decision.

"Enough!" Liu Shanxia slapped the table heavily and said, "As long as the labor force can reach this number, I can complete the track construction from the port area to the mining area within 20 days...Of course, it is only a single-track track, and it will be troublesome to build a double-track track." Much more, but if necessary, the construction of the double-track track should be completed within those two months."

Then Tom Wang answered a few questions intermittently, but they were all relatively easy to deal with. Tom Wang completed the answer in a few words.Tao Dong took a look and announced that the meeting would move on to the next agenda, which was the final deliberation on the overseas development action plan.

"Let me tell you about the material supply situation." Tao Donglai opened the notebook in front of him and began to explain: "The current material preparation mainly includes four items, namely production tools, building materials, food supplies and daily necessities."

"The production of production tools is currently in the charge of the metallurgical workshop and the carpentry workshop. As of this afternoon, we have prepared [-] shovels and hoes each, [-] hammers and [-] axes each, chisels, saws, bamboo baskets, poles and other tools. A few. At present, the production department is still working overtime to make tools, and strive to be able to ship enough tools needed for the first month of Xingang construction when the operation begins.”

"In terms of building materials, in addition to a large amount of cement, we have dismantled several prefabricated houses in the No. [-] base to prepare for shipment. They will then be used to build the command center of Xingang and the residences of members. As for the housing of immigrants, The model of the No. [-] base will be followed, mainly with bamboo and wood structure buildings such as elevated boat houses. In addition, we also need to manufacture an additional batch of freight rails. The production plan for this part will be discussed in detail by the relevant departments after the meeting. In addition The construction of Xingang Wharf will mainly use bamboo trestles in the early stage, and then gradually build a permanent wharf after the local cement kiln is put into operation."

"In terms of food supply, the biggest problem now is food, because we may have to provide food and drink for thousands of people locally from the very beginning. This pressure is not small. We plan to solve the food problem in two parts. One is to start from the base camp The second is to purchase part of the food locally. After all, it is so close to the grain production area. We are not short of money now. We can purchase more nearby. This will probably be the main input of food needed by Xingang in the future. Channels. After the local population meets the needs of coal mine production, small-scale agricultural development can also be organized, and some food and vegetables can be grown to supplement it.”

"As for daily necessities, in addition to the personal luggage of the stationed personnel, we have also prepared photovoltaic power generation equipment for living facilities, a set of short-wave military radio stations, more than 20 walkie-talkies, water purification equipment for thousands of people, and heating facilities. Water boilers and pipes. In addition, the metallurgical workshop has also rushed to manufacture a batch of honeycomb coal stoves, and the personnel stationed in Xingang will not have to burn wood stoves like the base camp.”

(End of this chapter)