In April 1641, after the 1st and 103rd companies of the army were loaded on ships and left for South Africa, the Executive Committee began to formulate a series of plans. After all, they were also worried that the Dutch would suddenly go to war on the eastern republic if they couldn't think of it, and that would be caught off guard if they hadn't prepared in advance. Moreover, as the members of the Executive Committee generally judged that the future eastward march into the Strait of Malacca would inevitably lead to a conflict with the Dutch, it was only natural that preparations for war should begin from now on.

Since the beginning of April, under the coordination of the Government Council, the Trade Bureau under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has begun to increase the import of high-quality coal, graphite, mercury, lead, copper, tin, flax, paraffin, horses and other strategic materials from Europe. Of course, the introduction of the population is also going on at the same time, and the French immigrants, who had been stagnant, have reopened the floodgates due to the changing situation, and it can be expected that a large number of French immigrants will flock to the territory of the East Bank Republic through various channels in the next few months. In order to counteract the impact of the arrival of a large number of French immigrants, the Ministry of Civil Affairs also increased the introduction of Livonian immigrants, and also purchased a large number of Persian, Berber, Greek, Cossack, and Tatar slaves from the Turks to balance the ethnic power in the country.

At the same time, the representatives of the east coast of the city of Colonia also officially announced to the merchants who came to trade: The East Coast Republic of China will openly purchase all kinds of metal minerals except iron, hard coal, wool, cotton, ship materials, livestock, sulfur and other materials, especially Chilean sulfur, and the people on the east coast directly raised the purchase price by 30%, and made it clear how much they will receive. The local merchants were not stupid either, and they smelled something unusual from the initiatives of the East Coasters. So he quickly sailed away to collect supplies. Strive to make a big deal before Colonia City closes. Take a big hit.

On April 10, the canal project connecting Port Vostochny and Lake Mirin, which had been cancelled due to the heavy workload of the construction team and the shortage of materials, began to be mentioned again. There were some fears that in the event of a full-scale war with the Dutch, the east coast might be blocked again, and the coastal access between the Yabei Zihu heavy industrial area and the densely populated capital area in the south would be cut off. In that case, industrial products such as steel, machinery, coal, and cloth from the north could not be transported south, while daily necessities such as grain, meat, oil, salt, and furs from the south could not be transported north, so they had to rely on extremely inefficient land transportation. Not to mention that there is no official highway from the port of the East to the north at the moment.

Therefore, the issue of access connecting the capital region with Lake Mirin in the north is of considerable importance. Because it is only necessary to connect Dongfang Port with Milin Lake, then the small inland steamer can go directly to Ping'an County in the north through Milin Lake, the Two Lakes Canal and the Duck Lake, so as to maintain the smooth flow of inland areas and maintain the stability of the north and south poles of the country. Of course, the canal project was mentioned at this time, not to dig the canal, which may be nearly 100 kilometers long, but to be mentioned as a foil for the construction of a direct land communication route from the capital area to Lake Mirin. The digging of a canal with a total length of more than 100 kilometers is an extremely heavy burden for the East Bank Republic of China, which has limited national strength, and it is unrealistic in the short term.

What's more, in the original plan, the water systems through which the canal passes, such as Lake Negra, Lake Negra marsh, and Lake Mirin, are all brackish water systems. Therefore. If the canal is opened to the capital area, there is a high risk of polluting the local soil and water sources. This is also something that people don't want to see. As a result, the costly canal was shot out last year and replaced with an overland access road from the cotton farming village to Lake Milin to the north.

As early as the middle of last year, engineers from the design institute under the Ministry of Communications planned the route. The whole road was built from the cotton farmer township to the north, passed through the town of Yuanxiang, and then continued to the north for 50 kilometers before winding northeast to the bank of the San Miguel River near the town of July 18 in Uruguay. The width, volume and depth of the San Miguel River are all okay, and there is no problem with navigating the entire river with shallow drafts of inland waterway transports, except for some sections that may require a little dredging. The total length of this land road is about 80 kilometers, and the area passing through is all flat grasslands, and it is more than 20 or 30 kilometers away from the coast on average, and there is no doubt about its safety.

Since last year, the Ministry of Communications Construction Fourth Bureau, Fifth Bureau began to level the land from the north and south at the same time, and tamped the foundation, after more than half a year of struggle, the roadbed has been constructed, just waiting for the start of formal construction. However, to everyone's surprise, including many crossers, this land line of communication under construction was not an asphalt road like Highway 1, but a steel track, commonly known as a railway.

Rails were not uncommon in today's Eastern Republic, and many steel rails were used to transport supplies, whether it was mines, docks, or brick kilns. However, it is the first time that a large-scale railway has been laid for tens of kilometers like today, and it is important to know that according to the standards of today's East Coast Republic, steel tracks with a spacing of 1,500 mm (different from the standard gauge of 1,435 mm in later generations) weigh more than 40 kg per meter, and a 70-80 km long railway may require more than 3,000 tons of steel.

This is a huge number, according to the current monthly output of 600 tons of pig iron and 250 tons of steel output of Ping An Iron and Steel Plant, laying such a section of the railway may need to vigorously reduce the demand for steel in other aspects, and then save a year or two to be enough.

In the face of such practical difficulties, the Executive Committee had no intention of backing down. At the insistence of the construction maniac and the Prime Minister's vest, this railway will be launched no matter what. Moreover, the military has also strongly supported the opinion of the horse armor from the perspective of national strategic security, and the rail carriage is not comparable to the traditional highway four-wheeled carriage in terms of cargo capacity and driving speed. After all, the sliding friction between smooth metals is much smaller than that of rough asphalt pavement, and it's easy to see which is better or worse.

Therefore, since the second half of last year, Ping An Iron and Steel Plant has begun to change production under the order of the Government Affairs Yuan, that is, to reduce the proportion of pig iron production and increase the production of steel. As for the ratio of rail steel, it is a kind of carbon steel researched by the Metallurgical Institute of the Institute of Natural Sciences after long-term testing, the carbon steel has strong bearing capacity, and has a certain toughness and elasticity, which further reduces the friction coefficient between the carriage wheelset and the track, and is very suitable for manufacturing rails.

From the middle of last year to April this year, in addition to ensuring the steel used for casting guns, the Government Council has reduced all other non-essential steel demand, and has maintained a total production of more than 1,600 tons of rail steel so far. The First Machinery Plant used the molten steel to cast more than 3,000 I-shaped rails, each 12.5 meters long and weighing about 500 kilograms. At the same time, two timber processing factories in Henan Township and Xihubao also began to process sleepers according to the standard sizes issued by the Ministry of Communications, and a machine factory also began to use lathes to process a large number of connectors between rails, fixing bolts and other parts.

In order to produce these products, the woodworking plant and the first machine plant even purchased a large number of new machines, and at the same time the training of machine operators was carried out. In order to provide power for these new machine tools, the boiler workshop of a machine factory also began to work overtime to build large power boilers and transmission equipment for these factories. It can be seen from this that industry is never isolated, but a complete system. This system complements each other, interacts with each other, and is indispensable; Every industrial technological progress is obtained bit by bit by the entire industrial base, and there can be no shortcomings, nor can there be any luck.

At this time, it is not uncommon to point out that the current capacity of horse-drawn carriages on animal rails is limited, and in fact, there is no need to build such a high standard of steel rails. In actual use, it is enough to build a light rail weighing less than 10KG per meter, which can save a lot of steel. However, the Government Council rejected all of them and insisted on using high-standard steel rails. The vest even threatened to use all heavy steel rails with high load-bearing capacity, even if there was not enough steel to stop and wait for the railway.

Since the beginning of this year, the Fourth Bureau of Communications and Construction under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Communications has transferred some manpower from Miannong Township to the north, and the Fifth Bureau of Communications and Construction has begun to lay railways from north to south from the location of the former army post on the shore of Milin Lake. The connection between the rail and the sleeper is fastened with large bolts, while the rail and rail are connected with specific iron connectors. There is a small gap between each two rails, which is the gap left by the thermal expansion and contraction of the rail during the high temperature in summer. And it is precisely because of the existence of this gap that there is a "click" sound when the train passes.

More than three months later, from January to April, hundreds of workers from the two Construction Bureaus under the Ministry of Transport, plus more than 2,000 South African labourers, worked overtime to continue to lay the foundation while laying gravel ballast and sleepers, and then laying steel rails above the sleepers. So far, the Construction Bureau has laid a total of about 20 kilometers of steel tracks from both directions. Based on this construction speed, the Ministry of Communications is very optimistic that the first railway in the East Coast Republic of China, which is about 80 kilometers long, will be completely completed by the end of the year and will be put into use in the first half of next year.

After the construction of this railway is completed, the Ministry of Transportation will continue to build a double line next to it, so that southbound and northbound trucks can travel opposite each other. In this way, the materials in the capital area can be transported by small steamers to the wharf of the cotton farmer township through the Dayu River-Dayu Lake water system, and then reloaded into a rail carriage and go all the way north from the cotton farmer township through Zhenyuan Township to the shore of Milin Lake, no longer afraid of the enemy's naval blockade. (To be continued......)