Wild North America 1846

Chapter 261 Nevada Railroad

Nov. 1856, 9

After several rounds of negotiations between the United Kingdom and the United States, the two sides reached the "Newport Trade Treaty", many of which took into account the urgent needs of the British side, and greatly reduced tariffs, allowing goods from the United Kingdom to enter the American market more unimpeded .

As the factory of the world, the UK has been committed to promoting trade liberalization policies, trying to break the shackles of trade in various countries and win more opportunities for British industrial products to enter the market.

After the signing of the treaty, the Times of London reported excitedly; "This is a trade arrangement that is in line with the fundamental interests of the United Kingdom and the United States. effect……"

This is a clear signal, which has aroused the great attention of Datang Kingdom.

Count Juan Carlos, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom, commented on the "Newport Trade Treaty" when answering reporters' questions;
"The signing of this treaty is of great significance.

We are happy to see that the United States has taken a step in the right direction, which will play a powerful role in easing tensions between the transatlantic and North American regions.

Datang Kingdom will pay close attention to the development of the situation, and is committed to the normalization of relations between Tang and the United States in the future, and will make tireless efforts for the bright future of peaceful development in North America..."

In public, Datang Kingdom responded to the concerns of the general public with diplomatic rhetoric. It is difficult to see the deep meaning hidden in it just from the words.

Actually

Datang Kingdom attaches great importance to the close interaction between the United Kingdom and the United States. The "Newport Trade Treaty" is by no means a bilateral trade arrangement that can be ignored, but a milestone event that must be highly valued.

The signing of the treaty shows a 180-degree change in London's policy toward the United States, and also shows London's intention to strike a balance in North America, which will definitely affect the inter-regional situation.

Before this
London's policy of meddling everywhere is a headache for the Yankees. The biggest backer of the southern separatists is the British. Among the white cotton plantations, at least seven or eight of the 10 are from England or Scotland, and at worst they are also Irish. Two of them are of French origin, and only one may be of German or other European descent.

In the United States in the mid-19th century, in the developed coastal areas on the east coast led by New York and Philadelphia, the upper class was basically dominated by British people, and most of the politicians, financiers, lawyers, business owners and white plantation owners were Anglo-Americans. German-American workers and small business owners make up the absolute majority, while bakery owners and idle bums are mostly Italian-Americans.

The thirteen states of British North America were the foundation of American independence, and they are still the core part. If London is compared to an old father who is strict and likes to dictate, the United States should be a rebellious and self-reliant son.

The grievances between the two are hard to say clearly, but for Datang Kingdom, it is not a good thing for Britain and the United States to get close, and it will inevitably damage the interests of Datang Kingdom.

For this reason, the Royal Government dispatched specialized experts to analyze the current political and economic situation in North America in depth, and made full preparations for it.

9/27

His Majesty the King of the Tang Kingdom personally attended the commissioning ceremony of the seventh "Cold Tide" and the eighth "Bitter Winter" of the "Cold Wind" type II steam iron-clad frigate held in the San Francisco Bay Area. Among them, these two 7-ton steam ironclad ships representing the world's advanced level officially joined the Datang Kingdom's navy.

It is estimated that in the next 1857 and 1858, the follow-up four warships "Ice", "Cold Dew", "Cold Night" and "Frost" will be completed and put into service at a rate of two ships per year.

So far, the Datang Kingdom Navy has been equipped with six 1550-ton Type I ships, including the Hanfeng, the Cold, the Cold, the Hanmei, the Hanshan, and the Hanchun, and the seventh ship, the Cold Tide. The two 7-ton Type 8 ships, the No. 1880 and the eighth "Bitter Winter", have moved one step closer to the goal of an all-steel fleet.

according to plan;

The seven main sailing battleships of the Datang Kingdom Navy will be decommissioned one after another in 10 years. At that time, all the warships equipped by the navy will be steam-powered and iron-clad, which is one of the main symbols of the advanced navy in the world today.

the sixth day of October

His Majesty the King's special train heading west has started this year's inspection tour of the border provinces. It is expected to visit 14 provinces on the northern and southern borders, which will last for more than two months.

11/21

Good news came from the railway site from the Colorado Plateau westward to Salt Lake City. The most difficult Sierra Ridge Tunnel in the continuous Sierra Nevada Mountains was opened, and a breakthrough was made in railway engineering.

The Central Railway is the No. [-] Tianzi project of the Ministry of Communications. It starts from Chang'an and goes westwards through Salt Lake City to the nearest railway artery in the Colorado Plateau. It connects Chang'an, the largest city, and Taoyuan, the fourth largest city. It needs to cross In the vast Sierra Nevada mountains, construction is extremely difficult.

This main railway line is of decisive significance for maintaining the military security of the Tang Kingdom, breaking through traffic obstructions between the coastal inland provinces and the northern provinces, realizing the flow of people and goods, and promoting the economic development of the northern border provinces.

Viscount Huang Yuanjia, the minister of the Ministry of Communications, personally took the command, fully tilted the human, material and financial resources, overcame difficulties, forged ahead, and created engineering miracles one after another.

In front of them is the Sierra Nevada Mountains at an altitude of 2100 meters. The first 40 miles are to pass through the mountains. The entire railway line must build 50 bridges and more than 10 tunnels.The construction conditions were extremely difficult.

Not long after the start of work, during a sudden torrential rain in summer, a mountain torrent broke out, and hundreds of convicts were washed off the cliff, and many people were drawn into the river, causing dozens of deaths and injuries.

As a result, the project was suspended for a month and a half. More than 10 engineering supervisors and a senior engineer on site were severely held accountable for this, and they were punished with a salary deduction of 3 to 6 months.

From the start of construction to the present, it took three years and one month. The railway builders overcame many difficulties, fought the wind and snow, and feared the harsh natural conditions in the mountainous areas. They successively dug more than 10 tunnels and built more than 40 bridges. A rudimentary railroad artery opened up in the Sierra Nevada.

Among them, the more than 70-mile-long Sierra Ridge area is the most difficult, the most complex geological conditions, and the harshest construction area, which is daunting.

The convicts need to open a passage on the steep vertical cliff with a height of more than 300 meters, which is enough for two trains to intersect. Ropes, and falling off cliffs after exhaustion are commonplace, claiming the lives of thousands of people.

In the winter of 1855 and 1856, the Sierra Nevada was extremely cold, the lowest temperature dropped to minus 23 degrees, and the snowstorm lasted for more than three months, making the thickest snow in the mountains as high as more than 10 meters. In the construction site, countless lives were buried in the cold blizzard.

In the construction of the Central Railway, the longest tunnel is the Donner Tunnel, which is 1600 feet long and is the longest tunnel in the world today. The difficulty of construction can be imagined.

During the construction of the Tangner Tunnel, there have been 73 landslides, 4 rock falls, [-] mud intrusions and hundreds of warnings of varying degrees. Almost every other accident is an accident. tuition fee.

In the setbacks, hundreds of young Chinese engineers have grown from infancy to maturity. It took more than eight years from the design and demonstration stage to the construction stage of the Central Railway Project. Many Chinese engineers have grown up through tempering and progressed through setbacks. , has the world's top engineering planning and construction capabilities.

The official opening of the Serra Ridge Tunnel marks the breakthrough of the most difficult construction node of the Central Railway. After the completion of more than 10 large bridges, it will have the ability to lay tracks along the entire line.

It is estimated that in another year and a half, from April to May 1858, the Central China Railway, also known as the "Nevada Railway", which has been under construction for more than 4 years, is expected to be fully opened to traffic, shortening Chang'an City, Sacramento and the cities on the Colorado Plateau by more than 5 kilometers distance, no need to go south to Los Angeles for transit.

Then
Datang Kingdom will build a national backbone railway network with two vertical and two horizontal lines, supplemented by dozens of railway branch lines, forming a dense railway network that can easily reach cities and towns with a population of more than 10 in the Kingdom, which will greatly promote regional economic construction and lay a solid foundation for entering an industrialized country. Base.

The influence of the completion of the Central Railway is not limited to economy and trade, but its military role is particularly important.

After the opening of the railway, it only takes one and a half days to travel from important inland cities such as Chang'an (San Francisco) and Sacramento to the fortresses of Phoenix and Taoyuan on the Colorado Plateau (the speed of the train passing through the mountains is slow, and the speed is generally more than 20 kilometers per hour), compared with the original I don't know how much shortened 6~7 days at every turn.

Many important strategic reserves were established in the fertile Central Plains, from which it is easy to reach Phoenix Fortress and Omaha Fortress.

After mobilizing a large number of reserve troops, it is also very convenient to reinforce the front line, which is of great significance to consolidating national defense and resisting American aggression.

In many cases, it can determine the success or failure of a battle.

It is precisely because of the extremely high military value contained in the Central Railway (Nevada Railway) that the Army Staff Headquarters of the Kingdom of the Tang Dynasty spared no effort in cooperating with the construction of the Ministry of Transportation. Several cavalry teams were used to hunt down escaped Indian convicts in the mountains.

Once caught, they were immediately hanged.

The construction progress of the Central Railway has greatly inspired the provinces in the northern region. A railway construction plan jointly proposed by Oregon and the Northern Province is to build another railway trunk line from west to east across the Rocky Mountains in the north. , via Montana and finally to oil-rich North Dakota.

This railway line is called the "Northern Railway", and it also has to cross the mountains of the Rocky Mountains. Because it is located in the north at high latitudes, the climate is colder, and the geological conditions are more complicated. The construction difficulty is no less than that of the Central Railway (Nevada railway).

This is a new challenge for the railway engineers of Datang Kingdom.

For those native Indian convicts who cheered and escaped from the fate of death, it will be the beginning of another suffering, and the future hope is even more bleak.

(End of this chapter)