Wild North America 1846

Chapter 118 Indian Valley

denver castle
Daishiyali
Li Cha sat at the head, and said in an approving tone; "Yes, all the houses in the newly reclaimed Chinese villages and towns are replaced by yurts. When the war comes, they can be packed and taken away at any time. The walls are cleared and the Yankees are not left with anything useful. supplies."

"My minister obeys the order." Chen Cailiang replied respectfully.

Chen Cailiang, a native of Zhangzhou, was 34 years old at the time, and was born in Juren in the Qing Dynasty. He was forced to go overseas because of traitors. He is a rare talent among Chinese immigrants.He is proficient in farming and mulberry, and is good at planning. He learned Spanish in a Cuban plantation and is proficient in English. He is well-known among Zhangzhou fellow villagers.

As a result, he was appreciated by Li Cha and appointed as the commissioner of agriculture and industry. He was one of the royal courtiers and was responsible for various matters such as agricultural expansion and industrial development.

The Commissioner of Agriculture and Industry is equivalent to a mixture of the Minister of Agriculture and the Minister of Industry, but because the Tang Kingdom is small in size, it is almost equal to a larger town.

Therefore, Li Cha did not use such a big name, but only replaced it with a commissioner. In fact, the power is quite large.

Li Cha glanced at all the officials and officers present, and finally stopped on Colonel Dai Changfu and Colonel Kahn, who were his trusted confidantes.

No one is assured of the important task of guarding Denver Castle, so the two generals and a group of confidant Chinese officers were transferred from the rear of the kingdom. Colonel Dai Changfu served as the commander of the fortress garrison, and Colonel Kahn served as the deputy commander. 5 thousand Musketeers.

They are the first to fifth regiments of the Denver Musketeers, with more than a thousand people in each regiment.

The first regiment was led by Major James Kahn, the second regiment was led by Major George Rabiot, the third regiment was led by Major Wu Degao, the fourth regiment was led by Major Duan Debiao, and the fifth regiment was led by Major Huang Yuanjia.

"For Fort Denver, it was not a question of if there would be a war, but when and for how long.

Solemnly remind you

As a thorn in the heart of the United States, the Denver Fortress is bound to face a baptism of war on an unprecedented scale. The war may last for 5 years, 10 years or even longer.

Therefore, all work must start from preparations, and the string in your head should always be tensed, and you must not relax at all times. "

Looking around at the crowd, Li Cha's voice became more and more cold, the aura of the superior was fully opened, which brought heavy pressure to everyone, and continued;
"The importance of the Denver Fortress built by the Kingdom at a huge expense, I'm sure you all know it, so I'd like to emphasize it here;
The Denver Fortress is the foundation and lifeblood of the Tang Kingdom, and it is also the home and destination of the 6000 cavalry in external battles, and there is no room for loss.

Recently
The light cavalry brigade stationed in Hugo seized 5 cases of American spies in a row, and the Yankees kept sending heads. What does this mean?
The mountains and rains are about to come and the wind is full of buildings!

The purpose of this king to lead the army to attack the northern front battlefield this time is to mobilize the deployment of the US military, severely attack the arrogance of the Yankees, and at the same time store as much supplies as possible for the fortress.

Your task is to guard your home and wait for the king to return in victory. "

"Your ministers will obey the king's orders, and they will not dare to bear heavy trust." A group of officers headed by Colonel Dai Changfu all clasped their hands in salute and replied.

Nov. 1847, 1

After King Li Cha led a group of courtiers to offer sacrifices to heaven and earth, he beheaded 19 American spies to offer sacrifices to the flag on the spot. In the farewell with loud gongs and drums, he led more than 6000 expeditionary cavalry and set off on the road of the Northern Expedition.

Starting from Denver Castle, along the wide road along Cherry Creek to the north, you can see the green seedlings sprouting in the fields that have been reclaimed along the way, and you can't see the edge at a glance.

The windmill beside the stream turns slowly, pumping the clear water into the irrigation canal and flowing all the way to the depths of the field. Sufficient water and sunshine are the guarantee of a good harvest.

Denver, which is located on the plateau, has more than 300 days a year. The sun is shining brightly, and the snow-capped Mount Evans in the distance, but the climate here is not cold. The coldest time in winter is mostly around 0 degrees, and rarely at 0 degrees. below the degree.

this way
Indian men from the penal camp could be seen kneeling along the side of the road. These were convicts who built roads and canals and were forced to kneel as a sign of respect when the army arrived.

The cavalry marched at a very fast speed. By noon, the large group of people and horses had reached Indian Valley, 53 kilometers away from Denver, and the wide carriageway between the two places had basically been repaired.

outside the valley
You can see hundreds of oxen with iron plows, turning over large tracts of land. These newly reclaimed land need to be exposed to the sun for more than ten days, and then the plowed land will be smashed, leveled, ridged, and seeds will be sown. The harvest will be ushered in again during the month.

Diligent Chinese farmers are experts in farming. After all the farm tools and cattle are equipped, the enthusiasm for reclamation is high.

To date
More than 2 acres of land have been reclaimed, and various crops have been planted, especially soybeans, winter wheat, Chinese cabbage, radishes, potatoes, peppers, as well as alfalfa and elephant grass that war horses like to eat.

The elephant grass and alfalfa planted in October last year have now grown to a height of more than one person, densely packed like a green forest, and the growth is gratifying.

Li Cha sent an order to go down, and the army rested here at noon.

The cavalry led the horses and fed them on the edge of the field full of alfalfa. They lined up for several kilometers. This scene was spectacular.

Li Cha led a small number of cavalry guards into the valley and came to the construction site of the cement plant to check the equipment installation.

The cement plant is a complete set of equipment imported from the UK, which is installed by workers directed by British experts. The person in charge is a manager named Lewis, a British man from the Antwerp area.

"Mr. Lewis, when will the cement plant be officially put into operation?"

"His Majesty the King, thank you for sending enough manpower. The installation of the equipment has been smoother than expected. It is expected that the rotary kiln production line will be commissioned in the middle of next month and put into trial production."

"Will it take this long?"

"Oh, this is already very fast. The entire equipment installation only took more than 80 days, which has never been done before in my experience. It normally takes 4 to 5 months."

"Okay, is there anything else that needs to be addressed?"

"Everything is going well. We don't need so many people on the construction site for the time being, so we sent more than half of our people to mine rocks and stockpile stones for the construction of the defensive fort. When the cement is produced, we can start building the Taniguchi Fortress."

"Well, we must hurry up as much as possible. The American army may arrive earlier than expected, and it may be in the middle and late February at the earliest, so we must prepare as soon as possible." Richard urged.

Lewis was taken aback when he heard this, and blurted out to ask: "God, so fast, the time to build the defensive fortress is too tight."

"Yes!" Li Cha nodded in sympathy, and turned his gaze to Taniguchi involuntarily.

The Indian Valley is a typical encircling valley. After entering the narrow valley mouth, it suddenly opens up. Since the cold wind cannot penetrate, the temperature in the valley is several degrees higher than outside.

Even in severe winter, it is as warm as spring here.

The mouth of the valley is a steep terrain between two mountains, with a width of about 1.7 kilometers. A Xima River with a width of more than [-] meters flows out along the mountain peaks on the south side, and the water flow is fast.

According to the British fortress design drawings, a defensive fortress with a length of 1660 meters and a width of 128 meters will be built along the Xima River. With a width of 5.5 meters, it is convenient to set up the artillery.

The entire valley mouth fortress is like a bottle stopper, blocked at the valley mouth of the Indian Valley, one side is connected to the mountain, and the other side is close to the Xima River.

This horse-washing river, named because the aborigines often wash horses in the river, is a river flowing from the depths of Mount Evans. The river is not wide, but the water is fast.

When the spring blossoms next year

As the snow and ice in Mount Evans melt, the volume of the river will increase dramatically, and the river surface will widen a lot. The rushing water rushes down with an indomitable momentum, exiting the mouth of the valley and winding into Cherry Creek.

At that time, Cherry Creek will turn into the rolling Cherry River, with a huge water potential.

"Maybe... we can let the convicts build the fortress walls first, and pour the cement from the cracks in the rocks after it is produced. In this case, we can buy an extra month and a half." Lewis said hesitantly. idea.

Li Cha's eyes lit up when he heard this, nodded his head and said, "If it doesn't affect the strength of the fortress, I will immediately arrange for someone to send 3000 Indian slaves here, and immediately start building the fortress wall. Don't worry if it is completed sooner. what!"

"If the city walls below two meters are piled up first, and then the cement slurry is poured in later, it should not affect the overall strength of the fortress. We can reserve cavities every 3 to 5 meters to facilitate the filling of cement slurry."

"Okay, let's do it like this." Li Cha slapped his thigh happily, and immediately ordered people to mobilize Indian hard labor.

Let go of any other work, and let the construction of Taniguchi Fortress come first.

In today's Indian Valley, there are a lot of machinery and equipment piled up. Thousands of white convicts are building a large number of houses, paving streets, erecting factories, warehouses, and gradually building this place into a valley production base and logistics center.

Once the cement plant, grain processing plant, flour mill, etc. are put into operation one after another, Denver Fortress will end the problem of relying on long-distance logistics lines for supply and save a lot of money.

A bucket of cement is transported thousands of miles from the rear, and the shipping cost is several times higher than its own value, which is really uneconomical and uneconomical.

In order to build the Denver fortress, Richard almost spent all the huge profits of the American River Gold Rush Company so far of more than 70 ounces of gold, and also took on a debt of more than 30 pounds.

Now that the main defensive wall is built, there is no need to worry about the rest, and there is no need to transport bulk materials such as cement all the way from Los Angeles. The cost is too high.

The materials needed for urban construction in Denver Fortress, whether it is steel, cement, masonry or flour, will be mainly supplied by Indian Valley in the future.

Wait until one day, after the territorial dispute is completely resolved.

Most of the materials needed for the construction of rural towns in Colorado can be solved nearby by the Indian Valley, and can also be expanded to the surrounding areas to form a complete industrial town with long-term development potential.

Therefore, Richard attaches great importance to the construction work of Indian Valley, which will become an important industrial town second only to Denver Fort in the future, and one of the important cities in Colorado.

(End of this chapter)