Chapter 1540 Railway Bridge
The Soviet Union's advantage lies on land, so it is not afraid of East Africa's naval power in the Persian Gulf. As for Britain, there is absolutely no possibility for it. However, East Africa has to be more wary of the British.
Britain’s specialties are “splendid isolation” and “balance of power policy”, especially when targeting opponents of the same level as Britain or stronger than Britain.
Now East Africa and the Soviet Union are more powerful than Britain, so East Africa and the Soviet Union are also the objects of Britain's "balance of power". By various means, they provoke relations between the two countries. If the Soviet Union and East Africa come into direct confrontation, then Britain can maintain its "isolated" status and ensure the security of its South Asian colonies.
If East Africa and the Soviet Union were not strong, the British could use "gunboat diplomacy" to strike hard.
Although Soviet leader Joseph was a master of geopolitics, the Soviet Union still could not get rid of the Slavic straightforward, rough and simple diplomatic means. East Africa was not afraid of this "open card" approach.
Countries like Britain that are good at conspiracies and intrigues are even more disgusting. Even if they don't cause much damage, they can still disgust people.
…
Deeds Fuller.
This is an important ancient Persian city, located on both sides of the Diz River. Diz Fuller translates as "Fortress Bridge", and it has always been an important military and commercial town in Persia.
In the city center there is an ancient bridge built during the Sassanid dynasty, namely the Dezful Bridge. It has a history of more than a thousand years and still exists in the 21st century.
The ancient Dezful Bridge is about 400 meters long and has 17 arches. The piers are built of boulders and mortar. It is one of the representative works of water conservancy projects of the ancient Sassanid Dynasty. Therefore, Dezful is known as the "City of Bridges" in Persia.
To some extent, the prosperity of Dezfula is closely related to the Dezfula Ancient Bridge. The Dezfula Ancient Bridge was involved in many military mobilizations or commercial activities in ancient Persia.
Now, a railway bridge is being built next to the ancient Dizful Bridge. This railway bridge is an important supporting project of the Persian Gulf Caspian Railway.
“After the completion of the Deedsfull Railway Bridge, it will greatly promote the prosperity of Deedsfull. The southern section of the railway is ready for traffic, breaking the closed nature of this small town and strengthening communication with the outside world.”
At the ribbon-cutting ceremony of the Deedsful Railway Bridge, East African bridge designer Moyor introduced it to local Persian officials.
"This railway bridge adopts a double-deck design. The lower deck is for railways and the upper deck is for roads. It uses a lot of steel and concrete. It is dependent on the Deedsfuler Ancient Bridge, just like a fusion of tradition and modernity."
"The two bridges symbolize the historical development of Deedsfull City, especially in the maritime era. The Deedsfull Railway Bridge took over the baton from the Deedsfull Old Bridge and played an important role in promoting the development of the local economy."
Dizfull is not far from the Persian Gulf, only about 200 kilometers away, but Persia's transportation infrastructure is so poor that the development of Dizfull is not satisfactory. Before the opening of the Caspian Sea Railway across the Persian Gulf, the economy here will not improve much.
Of course, this is just Moyol's standard. For a backward agricultural country like Persia, although Dizfule cannot be compared with those big cities in Persia, its development is definitely not bad.
However, as an East African, Moyol is used to comparing East Africa's urban construction with Dezfula. In this way, let alone Dezfula, even Tehran can only be regarded as a third-rate city in East Africa.
Not to mention Tehran's economy, in terms of population, Tehran had only more than 200,000 people in 1932, while the population standard for a medium-sized city in East Africa is between 500,000 and one million. Tehran does not even meet the standard of a medium-sized city in East Africa based on population data alone.
In the economic field, Tehran is even worse and the gap between it and the small cities in East Africa is huge, because the Persian government is just beginning to develop Tehran's industry and introduce some light industries.
It is no wonder that there is such a huge gap in the international treatment between the second largest country in the Middle East and the Ottoman Empire.
The small Persian town of Dizful is even worse. It has a population of less than 30,000 and its economy is completely dependent on traditional industries. It has almost no modern facilities and does not even have a modern hospital.
Therefore, the Persian Gulf-Caspian Railway, which was built under the leadership of East Africa, has become the city’s only modern infrastructure, and the more than 430-meter-long Dezful railway-road bridge has become Dezful’s new city card.
Taking into account the scale, design, materials, structure and other comprehensive aspects of this railway bridge, it has reached world-class standards.
Ferdowsi, the mayor of Dizful City in Persia, was very satisfied with the construction of the railway bridge. He told Moyor: "This railway bridge is a testimony to the friendship between Persia and East Africa. It will also become an important milestone for Persia to enter modernization in the future."
"After the railway is opened to traffic, Dezful will further consolidate its position in the domestic transportation sector, forming a comprehensive transportation hub integrating road, rail and water transport, and accelerate the connection with the Persian Gulf ports, attracting overseas investment and the introduction of new technologies."
Although Dizful is not large in Persia, it plays an important role in the field of transportation. The Diz River provides water transportation, and the Dizful Ancient Bridge makes it an important commercial channel in the region.
Now, with the completion of the Deedsfuler Railway Bridge, a new railway has been added, which will also greatly enhance the efficiency of road traffic.
Although the Dezful Bridge was a great project in ancient Persia and is still in use today, it cannot be denied that the history of this ancient bridge is too long. In addition, in modern times, Persia has been unable to maintain the bridge due to internal and external difficulties, so that its traffic capacity has been greatly reduced.
Therefore, the construction of the Deedsfuler Railway Bridge will replace the Deedsfuler Old Bridge, giving full play to its transportation function and it is also a huge improvement.
Moreover, the construction of this railway bridge was paid for by the Persian government, so the financial pressure on Dezfuler was not that great, and this was the key point.
As to whether the Persian government paid a huge price for the construction of the Persian Gulf-Caspian Railway, it was not important to Dezfuler, because the local people benefited from it anyway.
"Only when the Persian Gulf-Caspian Railway is fully constructed and opened to traffic can the railway bridge in Dezfuler really play its role," said Moyol.
"However, considering the current situation in Persia, it may take some time before the Persian Gulf-Caspian Railway is fully open to traffic."
"I heard that last month, the construction site in the northern mountainous area of Dezful was attacked, and even part of the rails were removed. If your country cannot solve the security problems along the line, it will greatly hinder the construction progress of the Persian Gulf Caspian Railway, and will also cause trouble for the future operation and maintenance of the railway."
In response to what Moyol said, Ferdowsi said with a gloomy face: "Humph, those guys who want to sabotage the railway construction are just a group of bugs in the dark."
"They are most likely the Bakhtiari, a branch of the Lur people, who live in the mountains around Dizful. Our government has already begun to clear out these saboteurs who are trying to hinder Persia's modernization."
The area where Dizful is located is a typical multi-ethnic mixed area in Persia. The main population here is Persians and Arabs, followed by Lurs, Kurds and Azerbaijanis. There are also some tribal forces of different ethnic groups around Dizful.
One of them is the Bakhtiari people, who are actually the Lur people living in the mountains, but their numbers are not large.
Ferdowsi did not have much good feelings towards these Bakhtiari people. He himself was a Persian, and the Bakhtiari people were an absolute minority in Persia. Not to mention the Bakhtiari people, even their main lineage, the Lur people, were the same.
Of course, on the whole, the Lur people have a relatively high sense of identity with Persia, and they generally do not have conflicts with the Persian government. This is because in ancient times, the Lur people were under Persian rule for a long time and were deeply influenced by Persian culture, which can also be seen from their choice of religion.
There is prejudice against the Lur people within Persia, but it is not based on ethnic identity, but is more focused on regional development differences. They believe that the Lur people are "mountain tribesmen", a tone similar to the way city dwellers regard rural people as "country bumpkins".
The ethnic groups that have a relatively low sense of identity with Persia are mainly Kurds and Arabs, while Azerbaijanis and Lur people have a high sense of identity with Persia.
Therefore, it is highly likely that the Bakhtiari people’s sabotage activities against the railway construction were supported by someone behind the scenes.
After all, the construction of the Persian Gulf-Caspian Railway will bring more benefits than disadvantages to the Bakhtiari people living in the mountainous areas.
Ferdowsi asserted: "It is certain that some Bakhtiari people were instigated by external forces. I think the Soviets are more likely, and the British are also a possibility."
In the absence of evidence, the Persian government would certainly suspect the Soviet Union first, but Britain could not be ruled out in this matter.
Because the construction of this railway did damage the interests of the British to a certain extent. Although East Africa and Britain had demarcated their respective spheres of influence in Persia, in fact, the division of such spheres of influence was not binding.
The Persian Gulf-Caspian Railway is disadvantageous to Britain in terms of technology, equipment, and market.
Here we must mention the economic structure of Persia, which can be summarized as "the west is rich, the east is poor, the north is strong, and the south is weak."
In the past, Persia was mainly strong in the north and weak in the south, but even if the north was richer, considering that the north faced a direct threat from the Soviet Union, Britain would not feel too bad about giving this area to East Africa.
The west is rich and the east is poor. The west here mainly refers to the northwest. Although the southwest region is backed by the Persian Gulf, its development is not satisfactory. Firstly, it is located in the border area, and secondly, it is mainly an Arab gathering area, and the Persian government's investment in the local area is not high.
However, the Persian Gulf-Caspian Railway and the development of local oil resources in East Africa will change this. Southwestern Persia, which was not given much attention by Britain in the past, has now become a hot spot.
It is hard not to make some British people feel unbalanced. The completion of the Persian Gulf-Caspian Railway means that East Africa will have a greater advantage in the Persian market in the future, especially accelerating the siphoning of the northern market, that is, the Caspian Sea coast, including relatively wealthy areas such as the Persian capital Tehran.
Oil resources are easier to understand. Although Britain discovered and exploited oil in southwestern Persia in the past, East Africa came from behind. In recent years, the output of newly developed oil fields in East Africa in Persia has exceeded that of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company in Persia.
With the rise of the automobile industries in East Africa and the United States, the world's current consumption demand for oil has been greatly boosted. The European automobile industry has also developed rapidly, and oil has become an important hard currency.
Therefore, the oil fields developed in southwestern East Africa aroused the envy of the British. But logically speaking, East Africa cannot be blamed for this, after all, it has only been a few years since East Africa entered Persia.
The reason why East Africa was able to catch up is that it has more technological advantages than the United Kingdom. At present, East Africa and the United States are in the first echelon in the world in oil exploration and exploitation technology, while other countries are far behind.
Moyol said: "It is not important now who supports the Bakhtiari people to hinder the construction of the Persian Gulf-Caspian Railway. For Persia, it should prevent similar incidents from happening in the future. After all, the Persian Gulf-Caspian Railway is about to be completed and is in the final stage."
"If this problem cannot be solved by then, you will suffer the consequences. We are only responsible for the construction of this railway. The subsequent operation and maintenance are your business. East Africa can only provide technology and after-sales service, but all of this costs money."
Although the construction of the Persian Gulf-Caspian Railway is led by East Africa, East Africa does not intend to make too much of this railway. As for the investment part, with the southwestern oil fields as collateral, East Africa is not worried about not receiving the final payment.
This also reflects the change in East Africa's foreign policy towards Persia, which has become softer and less interfering in its politics and social governance. This was not the case in the Middle East before.
In the past, in the eyes of Middle Eastern countries, East Africa was arrogant and domineering, and extremely greedy and brutal. The direct evidence was East Africa’s military expansion along the Persian Gulf coast. Many countries and tribes were destroyed by East Africa.
The Persians also felt deeply about this. Compared with the Ottoman Empire, East Africa could still treat it on an equal footing. In comparison, East Africa's attitude towards Persia was basically no different from that of a colony.
In the past, East Africa’s idea was to fully control Persia in terms of military, economy, culture, etc. Now East Africa focuses on economic interests, while relaxing the military and culture.
It is indeed difficult to expect East Africa to change Persia's culture. After all, even the Soviets could not do it. The Soviet ideology was much stronger than that of East Africa. As a result, the role played by the Persian Labor Party they supported in such a religious country can basically be said to be better than nothing.
In terms of military, East Africa felt that it was not worthwhile to focus its energy on Persia, especially after becoming Persia's umbrella, it would directly confront the Soviet Union. Assuming a conflict occurred, East Africa would become a shield for Persia, which might also contribute to the corruption of the Persian government.
Just like when European countries were fighting against Russia in the past, each of them wanted to rely on the United States to live a life of idleness and wait for death, but their own military continued to decline. After all, the Americans have stationed troops and can provide protection, so why spend so much military spending?
East Africa also does not want the Persian government to become dependent on East Africa, so it is better to maintain a close but distant attitude. This will force it to work harder in fighting the Soviet Union instead of relying on East Africa's protection.
In recent years, the overall economic environment of the world has not been good, and East Africa naturally does not want to increase ineffective military spending. However, in the eyes of East Africa, the strategic value of Persia is just that, an inefficient investment.
(End of this chapter)
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