The Imperial Age with the Resurgence of Han Style

Chapter 228 The Selfless “Internationalist”

On April 1730, 4, in the early morning in Panama City, the air was filled with the aroma of forest and earth, and the sunlight shined through the gaps in the leaves and reflected on the marble walls, reflecting a soft yellow color. The ancient city wall still stands there, reflecting its tenacity and charm that have gone through the vicissitudes of time. On the tower of the city wall, there is flying a Castilian flag representing the Spanish royal family. The golden castle and lion on the flag have witnessed too many wars, blood, tears and joy in the long history of changes. The splendor and glory of this city.

In the jungle outside the city, everything is growing and multiplying. Tall and dense trees cover the land into a green blanket, and the rainforest is full of life. Occasionally, a few birds fly out and emit sweet birdsong, which seems to express their praise for the greenery. The river flows slowly under the city wall, and the fish in the water shuttle back and forth, looking very comfortable and happy. In the distance, you can occasionally see some small islands, floating quietly on the sea, like exquisite gems, shining with unique light.

Inside the city walls, the residents of Panama City began a busy day. Some carry baskets to the market, some do business in shops, and some carry children to church. The city in the early morning is full of vitality and busy. Everyone is working hard for their own lives and adding glory to the city.

He Jianing carried a musket on his back and a short knife on his shoulder, and came to the empty yard. He looked up at the rising red sun and took a deep breath of fresh air, as if feeling the charm and vitality of this foreign city.

"Hello, sir!"

He Jianing was looking around at the situation around him when he suddenly saw an army officer (captain) striding over. He quickly stood at attention, put his musket on his left side, raised his right hand, and saluted. Standard military etiquette.

"Well, you are the first to come. ... Very good!" Han Huping returned a standard military salute, nodded slightly, and signaled the rural soldier to take a rest, waiting for the assembly order, and then walked towards a row of houses on the right side of the yard. Go.

About half an hour later, Han Huping walked out of the house one after another, accompanied by more than a dozen officials and engineering technicians from the Railway Supervision Office. Seven or eight carriages also drove over and stopped steadily in front of the guests. The mestizo driver immediately got out of the carriage and opened the carriage door respectfully.

He Jianing and the more than 40 escorts who accompanied him waited for the railway supervisor to get on the train, then they immediately got on their horses and guarded both sides of the convoy. Some of the guards also boarded the carriage and sat next to the coachman to provide close protection.

Under such circumstances, how could the railway workers endure it? So they jumped into the forest at night and fled.

It can be said that, to a certain extent, Panama City is an extremely safe city and does not need such strict security.

However, since the construction of the Panama Isthmus Railway began, the security issues outside the city suddenly became somewhat out of control.

If it only delays the construction period, that's fine. At worst, the project budget will be increased and the construction period will be extended accordingly. Anyway, there is no rush to build this railway, and we will just get paid according to the day.

But when it was time to eat, many workers found that the food provided was often as rough as pig food, and they immediately started making noises.

Naturally, Panamanian local colonial officials and railway supervisors did not allow such blatant acts of resistance, so they ordered the army to suppress, hanged several indigenous people who took the lead in "making trouble", whipped dozens of people, and canceled the order on the grounds of violating supervision orders. A meal for all workers as a warning to others.

In the Spanish mines, because of the remote location and tight protection, it was generally difficult for indigenous coolies to escape.

However, in the railway construction section, there is a dense forest not far behind you. As long as you move fast enough and avoid the first round of musket fire from the guards, you can jump into the forest while the other party clears the barrel of the gun and reloads it. .

He went all the way to the Panama rainforest to build a railway in order to get a high salary, but not to be captured by the Indian natives and become their "meat ticket".

If you're not careful, your life could be in danger!
After two consecutive incidents of Qi Railway engineering and technical personnel being abducted, everyone was immediately upset.

You must know that the Isthmus of Panama is a tropical rainforest area. Although it is the cooler dry season at this time, the construction areas are spread over swamps, forests, and highlands. The environment is harsh and complex, making construction difficult and labor intensive.

What the hell!

In fact, Panama City has been one of the core areas of Spanish rule since its founding in 1519. It became a base for colonists to enslave American Indians and a center for religious activities. It was also a place where Spanish colonists searched for wealth and sold illegal goods in the Americas. As a distribution center for slaves, the Spaniards concentrated large amounts of gold, silver and jewelry looted from all directions in the city, and then transported them to mainland Spain.

Originally, these forcibly recruited native Indians and Mulatto people were already exhausted mentally and physically during the arduous construction process. They suffered severe damage, both physically and psychologically, and were filled with resentment.

What is even more speechless is that the Spaniards actually skimped on the food of the railway workers, mixing a large amount of moldy corn and potatoes with various "forages" and cooking them into pots and pots of dark dishes for those who worked hard. Eaten by tired workers.

In order to "save" costs, the Panamanian governor ordered local officials to forcibly recruit the surrounding Indians and a large number of mulattos (black and white mulattos) as railway laborers without any compensation - at this point, Spain It's a bit ugly to see people eating, because labor costs are listed in the railway project budget.

As a result, soon after the railway construction started, indigenous workers often ran away, making it impossible for the construction progress to proceed as planned.

But the problem is that a large part of the indigenous coolies who escaped into the forest did not run back to their tribes or hometowns - they were worried that they would be caught by the Spaniards again and continue to be drafted as railway laborers. They hid in the woods near the railway construction site, waiting for opportunities to steal food, attack lone Spanish supervisors, and even kidnapped Qi engineering and technical personnel.

Gein, the Spaniards did some cunning when they were building the railway.

No more, no more!
Damn it, before you come here, didn’t you mention that the construction environment is just bad and you might contract tropical diseases such as malaria, yellow fever, diarrhea, etc.?
You should know that with the continuous research on tropical diseases such as malaria in China, as early as more than 20 years ago, alkaloids (i.e. quinine) were successfully extracted from the bark of Cinchona tree, which can treat and prevent malaria, and It can treat diseases such as pyrozoonosis. In a short period of time, this drug has become a "life-saving drug" that countries around the world, especially in tropical areas, are rushing to buy.

Therefore, some engineers and technicians who covet the super high salary offered by the Panama Isthmian Railway Company do not think that the tropical rainforest environment in Panama is very dangerous. As long as you have proper protection and there are relatively effective antimalarial drugs, there should be nothing to be afraid of.

But who would have thought that, predicting the harsh construction environment, they would not expect to encounter unexpected security problems. How do you Spaniards manage the place? You can't even deal with a bunch of escaped indigenous coolies. They come out of the woods from time to time, either stealing and robbing railway supplies, or attacking construction workers.

In order to appease the railway engineering and technical personnel, the Isthmian Railway Supervisor requested assistance from the nearby Haizhou Governor-General and mobilized some capable armed guards to protect Qi's construction workers throughout the process so that the railway project could proceed smoothly.

Why not ask the Spanish to send more troops and armed personnel to defend it?

Because the people of Qi expressed deep doubts about the Spanish's fighting power. Over the years, in the large-scale wars in Europe, the Spaniards have rarely won and suffered repeated defeats. It is difficult for people to look down upon them.

In the just-concluded Qixi War against the British, tens of thousands of Spanish troops besieged the Gibraltar Fortress where only 2,000 English troops were stationed. It took 19 months. After the British army's sea supplies were completely cut off by the Qi navy, the British army was completely cut off. The defenders ran out of ammunition and food and voluntarily surrendered, and finally captured it with great difficulty.

Entrusting their own safety to a group of American colonial troops whose combat capabilities were not as good as those of Spanish native soldiers, the people of Qi were afraid that they would not even dare to close their eyes while sleeping.

These natives have been influenced by the Spanish for more than two hundred years and have long been civilized. They are not the kind of primitive savages who only play with stones.

People also play with guns!
"It is said that the Spanish silver production value in Mexico alone exceeds 10 million silver pesos. If the silver mines in Peru are included, the entire Spanish American territory will contribute more than 16 million silver pesos to the Kingdom of Spain." Railway. Senior construction specialist Wei Yuanxi adjusted his sitting position on the bumpy carriage to make himself more comfortable. "With such abundant financial resources, Spain's national power would not have been so decadent. But now it seems that Spain is not only in the European continent, but also in the European continent." The situation is getting worse and worse, and even their American territories are being managed so poorly. This is a waste of such good resources!"

"If the Kingdom of Spain is still as powerful as it was more than a hundred years ago, how can we, the whole country, have a chance to take action?" Yue Xianfeng, the project supervision specialist of the Isthmian Railway Supervision Office, smiled brightly, "Spain is in ruins, no matter what. What? After this railway is built, we must continue to lobby the Spanish to build more railways in Peru or Mexico to make our American Railway Company bigger and stronger."

"If we want to build railways again, we should focus on Mexico. After all, it was the first place to be developed and has a population of millions, so the investment payback period should be much shorter."

"Haha, Old Wei, your layout is inevitably a bit narrow." Yue Xianfeng shook his head and said: "As long as the Spaniards are willing, the Mexican railway will be built, and the Peruvian railway will also be built. Anyway, one sheep is also being driven, and two Even a sheep can be fed by our American Railway Company. Look at the United Railways of India. In just less than four years, it has built five railways with a length of more than 700 kilometers. That’s a mouthful. Oil is leaking. So we need to work harder and not fall behind others to build more railways in America.”

As the local railway construction in Hanzhou became increasingly saturated (the vast inland deserts had little investment value), more and more railway companies began to set their sights on investment in overseas territories and Nanyang vassals, setting off another round of railway construction. upsurge.

Why?

In addition to the need for capital expansion, there is also excess production capacity.

In fact, as early as the 1720th year of Taiping (), there was already a surplus of domestic steel production. Infrastructure industries and manufacturing industries such as railways, bridges, machinery, hardware, and military industry were simply unable to consume tens of millions of tons of steel every year. Steel.

Even though buildings in many cities are beginning to use a large amount of steel bars, due to their small scale, they have not had much impact on steel consumption.

Under this situation, in addition to lifting steel export restrictions, the cabinet also gradually lifted the policy prohibiting the proliferation of railway technology, and successively liberalized railway investment licenses in surrounding overseas territories, friendly allies and vassal countries to facilitate the surging domestic capital exports. and consumption of excess steel production capacity.

By the 1727rd year of Taiping (), the cabinet completely lifted restrictions on foreign investment in railways, allowing domestic railway companies to invest and build railways around the world to further absorb domestically produced steel.

Qiguo Railway Company is present in Southeast Asia, China, Northern Ming Dynasty, India, Persia, Egypt, Ottoman, and even in France, the Netherlands, Prussia and other countries on the European continent.

Even in the remote Americas and Africa, a railway with a length of more than 200 kilometers appeared two years ago, with rows of roaring locomotives running across the vast wilderness.

By building convenient railway facilities, Qi State also took the opportunity to further open the door to the host country. At the same time, it also improved the logistics speed, reduced the cost of trade transactions, and played a positive role in promoting the export of capital and goods from Qi State.

After all, with convenient transportation, we can better plunder resources. Oh, no, it should speed up the circulation of goods.

Investment in railways is often accompanied by the dumping of Qi's goods and the plundering of local raw materials. It is also a convenient tool for Qi's capital export and control over the countries where the railways are located.

In India, Persia, Egypt, and now the Spanish American Territory, Qi's railway companies not only seized the right to build and operate railways directly in the country where they are located, but also obtained the management rights along the railway lines and usurped the rights along the railway lines. political, economic and even military rights, thereby deepening the penetration and control of the country where the railway is located.

You see, the export of railways has so many benefits, so why don’t we seize the time to squander as much land as possible and fight for as many railway road construction rights as possible around the world.

In the second year of the Han Dynasty (1671), the Qi State obtained the permission of the Ottoman Empire and the Governor of Egypt to build a Su (Esh)-Kaifeng (Luo) highway, thus obtaining the operating rights and stationing rights within a few kilometers on both sides of the highway. Military power began to gradually penetrate and control Egypt. Since then, the Qi State has established a very mature road construction model. Whether it is a highway or a railway, wherever the road extends, it is an opportunity for the Qi State's power to deepen, and the return will be several times the investment.

Therefore, sometimes, the Qi Congress is very generous in building roads and railways for some countries and regions for free. In the eyes of many people, it is simply a selfless and great "internationalist".

But through this selfless and great behavior, Qi is deepening the colonial process of India, gradually turning Persia into a semi-colony, turning Egypt into a political and economic vassal, and converting its vassal states and allies. As a pawn, it is bringing more countries and regions into the global trading system led by Qi.

(End of this chapter)