Chapter 243 Pacific Railway (First update, please subscribe)
How to ensure that the railway is not damaged!
This is the only problem with using railways to carry out blitzkrieg. Compared with tanks and armored vehicles, trains are useless without railways. The way to prevent the enemy from using railways is very simple - dismantle the tracks, blow up the railways, which are all very simple things.
This is also the most difficult part of implementing this plan. Once the railway is destroyed, the surprise attack will become a strong attack. However, they also have a corresponding response plan.
"Whether the surprise attack will be successful or not is a matter of chance. We will carry it out according to the plan, and leave the rest to God!"
Zhu Xianhai said.
"Right now, I am more concerned about another thing - the Yunling Tunnel! The tunnel has not been completed yet, so we can only transport the armored train and military supplies to Linhai by sea. This section is the blind intestine between Nanhua and Linhai. If we don't open this tunnel, there is no way to conquer it!"
The so-called "Yuengling Tunnel" is not a single tunnel, but a group of 6 tunnels. It is the most complicated section of the railway passing through the Andes Mountains. These tunnels have been under construction for several years and have not yet been completed.
Frowning, Zhu Xianhai emphasized.
"We must understand one thing - no country has been conquered since Napoleon. Now we are going to conquer and occupy Chile - after the implementation of this plan, it will inevitably arouse repercussions around the world, and it is very likely to cause hostility from the entire America towards us. Gentlemen! I think it is very likely that we will have to fight with America - well, that's enough. At that time, how should we deal with all this? There are too many uncertainties in sea route logistics."
The railway has been under construction for nearly five years, but the Andes Mountains, thousands of miles above sea level, have restricted the speed of railway construction, and even the completion date has been delayed again and again.
Zhu Xianhai said with a forced smile.
"This is also a problem we must work hard to solve before we implement this plan!"
In fact, to put it bluntly, the reason why Zhu Xianhai took the special train into the mountains this time was to supervise and check the progress of the railway construction, and then walk over the Andes Mountains to Linhai.
…
Time flies day by day, and amid the rumbling sound of blasting, the tunnel extends forward little by little.
Although February was the height of summer, the temperature at the tunnel construction site at an altitude of more than 3,000 meters was only a dozen degrees Celsius, but the workers in the tunnel were still sweating profusely as they drilled blast holes with hammers and steel chisels. There were no pneumatic cannons in that era, only the most primitive method of manual drilling of blast holes, filling them with explosives and detonators for detonation.
This is how people fought against the solid granite, bit by bit carving out a tunnel in the mountains. The tunnel was filled day and night with the sounds of iron chisels and hammers, as well as the explosions from blasting operations. The explosions continued to reverberate in the silent mountains.
Inside the tunnel, there were clanging sounds, and water seeping from the top of the tunnel dripped onto the faces of the workers. No one paid any attention, and the water just flowed down their clothes and pants and landed on the ground.
"Brothers, work hard. I heard that Erlang Peak is about to be opened. We should also work hard..."
Sun Sanwei, holding the iron rod, shouted loudly. Wang Caiwang, wielding the hammer, wiped the water off his face and said with a smile:
"Hey, let's hurry up and work. The earlier we finish, the more reward we can get!"
Li Husheng said jokingly:
"Yes, the more days in advance you complete the task, the more reward you will get. When all the tasks are completed, the reward may be equal to a month's salary."
The workers in the tunnel were grinning with delight.
Zhao Linbin listened to his brothers' words and started laughing too. Perhaps they were laughing so happily that they forgot about the work at hand. But even so, there were still some faint sounds of iron chisels and hammers.
"Wait, wait, don't laugh..."
Yang Linbin shouted.
Then he leaned against the stone wall and listened, and this time he could hear the sound more clearly.
"It's connected, it's connected, yes, it's the sound coming from the other side..."
In his excitement, Yang Linbin did not forget to shout.
"Quick, tell the captain, we can hear the noise from the other side, send a telegram quickly..."
"Everyone, work harder! We'll open the tunnel tonight!"
As he said that, Yang Linbin grabbed a hammer, aimed at the iron bar and hammered it hard.
The sound of the two hammers hitting the iron chisel was heard again.
Soon, finally, after the blasthole was dug, the workers put the explosives in the blasthole. A few minutes later, accompanied by a series of loud noises, the tunnel was full of dust. After a while, in the choking dust, a series of explosions were heard in the tunnel. The explosions shook the mountain and a cloud of dust rushed out of the tunnel along with the explosions.
"It's open, it's open... the tunnel is open..."
They knew without even entering the tunnel that the smoke was from the explosion on the other side.
The tunnel is open!
For a moment, the whole construction site was in an uproar.
…
On February 14, 1866, with the opening of the last tunnel, the tunnel was opened, the arch wall was built, and the steel rails were laid.
A railway crossed mountains and ridges, traversing the land of South America. The shiny rails were laid from Nanhua all the way to Linhai. The railway was started in Nanhua in July 1861 and in Linhai in November, and finally connected into a whole in February.
In this land of South America, a steel highway was born!
On March 15, a train approached the Yunling Tunnel. After the train stopped, Zhu Xianhai got off the train. After learning that the tunnel was completed, he had been waiting for the day when the railway would be connected. Today, the railway is finally open to traffic, and he will symbolically drive the last railroad spike - driving this spike also means the opening of the Pacific Railway.
"My lord, this is Yunling. It is because of the fog that everyone calls it Yunling..."
Wang Yingjiu said, pointing at the clouds slowly rising from the hillside.
"Well, this name is well chosen, very descriptive, Yunling... the mountain lives up to its name!"
Zhu Xianhai smiled.
With the influx of a large number of Chinese workers, many Chinese-style place names appeared in the Andes. These place names were often imagined by the workers based on their appearance, but these are Chinese-style place names, and they are the marks left by the Chinese on this land.
Of course, this also means a certain declaration - a declaration that the Chinese people are integrated with this land. When these place names appear on the map, when one Chinese-style title after another appears on this continent, this is not conquest or occupation, but integration - from this moment on, the Chinese nation has become the masters of this land, just like the Europeans of the past.
Dozens of minutes later, under the gaze of the people, Zhu Xianhai used a hammer to hammer a gold-plated spike into the sleeper - the Pacific Railway was open to traffic!
(End of this chapter)
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