The rise of a great power: starting with military industry

Chapter 540 The Railway Was Not Built Smoothly
The situation in Myanmar is complex.

国土面积67.6578万平方公里的缅甸，足足有135个民族，全国85%以上的人信奉佛教，全国分7个省、7个邦和2个直辖市。

The forces here are complicated and intertwined. There are external forces as well as local forces. It is extremely complex.

There are at least hundreds of well-known forces.

The territory controlled by the original government forces has become smaller and smaller, and now controls about one-fifth of Myanmar's territory.

Kachin State, Shan State and Sagaing Province are where Panshan Group has invested the most energy and effort, and they are also where Chinese people gather.

However, even the Chinese are divided into different forces.

Zhao Guoping introduced the current situation in Myanmar. Myanmar seemed to be forgotten by the world, but in fact Myanmar has been in war.

In recent years, the government forces have suffered continuous casualties and lost territory, and the territory they control now is far smaller than before.

Currently, we have opened up a land route to the east and a land route to the Indian Ocean.

The bilateral trade volume is increasing rapidly, and natural resources such as minerals and wood are continuously shipped to Yunnan Province.

After several years of turmoil, Myanmar's original population is reduced to less than 30 million.

"It is estimated that it will take another year for the railway to be built to the Dali border. The railway in Myanmar has not yet been built, so the speed must be accelerated!" Liu Tao frowned slightly.

If we only rely on road transportation, given the current road conditions in Yunnan Province and the even worse roads in Myanmar, the transportation capacity is actually very limited.

Only if the railway is built can the transportation capacity be much greater.

The construction of railways not only greatly improves the ability to transport personnel and goods, but also greatly enhances the ability to transport troops at critical times.

Take the green-skinned train for example. Generally, a green-skinned train has 18 carriages, and each carriage has a total of 128 people. Normally, a green-skinned train can carry 2300 people. If you squeeze in, it can even carry 2600 people!
As for cargo, each freight train has a load capacity of about 4000 tons. If 60-ton trucks are used, that would be equivalent to 67 trucks!
The railway in Yunnan Province has been under construction before. It starts from Guangtong Station of the Yunnan section of the Chengdu-Kunming Railway, and goes west through CX City, Nanhua County, Xiangyun County, and Midu County of Yunnan Province to Xiaguan in DL City. The total length is 213 kilometers, and then it will be built from Xiaguan in DL City to the Myanmar border.

The design level of this section of railway in Yunnan Province is relatively high, with a double-track design and a maximum speed of 200 kilometers!

According to the plan, the railways in Myanmar will also use standard gauges, with a maximum speed of 120 km/h, and will also use double tracks, then run all the way to Sittwe Port.

Currently, Panshan Group has five major ports developed and constructed overseas, one is the Port of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, Africa, one is the Port of Djibouti in Djibouti, East Africa, one is the Port of Gwadar in Pakistan, one is the Port of Sihwak in Cambodia, and the last one is the Port of Sittwe in Myanmar.

These not only serve as trading ports, but also as supply ports for the Chinese Navy when it escorts and strikes islands in the future.

Sittwe Port is located in the Bay of Bengal. It is an excellent deep-water port, but this excellent deep-water port has not been developed much so far.

Panshan Group obtained the 99-year operating rights of Sittwe Port!
According to Liu Tao's plan, this place will not only serve as a strategic sea outlet to the southwest, directly bypassing the Malacca Strait, but will also serve as the terminal of an oil and gas pipeline, transporting oil and natural gas to southwest China through the pipeline.

It can be said that the location here is very important.

Just by listening to Zhao Guoping's introduction, Liu Tao felt that it would be very difficult to open the China-Myanmar Railway in 1990.

Because now, only Shan State is building railways in the whole of Myanmar, and other states and provinces have not yet started.

Sometimes having too much power is not a good thing, because it will cause the efficiency to be very slow.

As for the east, the six states are still fighting with India and have no intention of building a railway. It is only in the preliminary demonstration stage and is still a long way from the design stage. "Next, we will speed up the consultation with the relevant forces in Mandalay Province and speed up the implementation of the railway." Zhao Guoping said in a deep voice.

The construction of the railway involves forces from all aspects, and coordination and communication is not an easy task.

And we cannot rely solely on force here. Force alone will not work.

This requires wisdom!
The wisdom to solve problems.

"It's okay to give up some profits. Short-term concessions are acceptable, but we need to take a longer-term view," Liu Tao said. "Short-term concessions do not mean long-term concessions!"

The construction of the China-Laos-Cambodia Railway is now going smoothly and it is expected that the entire line will be open to traffic by 1990.

But looking at the China-Myanmar Railway, there are still a lot of things to be resolved.

Afterwards, Zhao Guoping introduced the situation in Bhutan, Sikkim, Nagaland, Manipur, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram.

Bhutan and Sikkim formed an alliance with these six states, each forming an alliance as an independent kingdom to jointly resist the threat posed by India.

The Indian army currently controls about 110 million square kilometers of territory, and it can be said that it has lost control of Kashmir. The Indian army, which is engaged in multi-front operations, has a large number of troops, but has not performed well.

This year, India imported a large amount of weapons and ammunition from the Soviet Union at the cost of gold, a large amount of US dollars, and low-interest loans.

However, it is hard to say whether the lost territory can be recovered.

The areas that Liu Tao can influence are the Kashmir region and Khalistan, and the Independent Democratic Alliance. As for those in the south, which include both the Communist Party of India and the forces supported by the United States, Liu Tao has no influence over them.

However, what is certain is that without resolving the issues in the southern and eastern regions and Khalistan, it is no longer possible for the Indian army to use troops in the Kashmir region.

As long as it does not control Kashmir, India will never be a world power and can only be a South Asian power at most.

"The current situation in India is quite complicated. The Congress Party is gradually losing control of the situation and is facing challenges from other political parties. Moreover, the rift between Hindus and Muslims is becoming increasingly serious," Zhao Guoping said in a deep voice.

Sometimes he found it incredible that religious issues could be so terrifying.

He thinks that all that is needed is a document and a meeting, and representatives of all religions can sit down in harmony and express their opinions. Everyone can discuss and work together within the legal framework and not go too far.

But he was happy to see this situation. After all, maintaining balance in South Asia was actually the most important thing.

South Asia does not need a big country, let alone hegemony. Hegemony is not a good thing. We should develop in harmony and make some money.

What's the good of fighting and killing? It's not as important as making little money happily.

Li Fuguo added on the military side, saying that in the past year, many wars had taken place in South Asia, and there had even been a battle in which the forces of both sides exceeded 50.

Wars of this magnitude are always of great interest to military personnel, who try to understand and analyze them, and then get a glimpse of the military strength of both sides.

After all, it all comes down to how hard each person's fists are.

The use of force is the ultimate basis for resolving everything, just like the saying goes - political power comes from the barrel of a gun!
(End of this chapter)