Jiang Nanqi, who had been transferred to the head of the circuit court under the jurisdiction of the Northwest Reclamation Bureau, was struggling to walk on the muddy grass, the sky was still splashing with the spring rain, and the ground was full of potholes full of muddy water. A discerning eye can tell at a glance that these potholes are rutted by heavy freight wagons, and the freight wagons that travel to and from this busy route have completely destroyed this improvised road.

Jiang Nanqi had already dismounted from his mount, and then wore heavy whale skin rain boots, trekking high and low. His retinue wore tarpaulin raincoats, pulled the neighing horses, and bowed their heads tiredly.

"It is said that spring rain is as expensive as oil, but it is not a solution to rain too much." Jiang Nanqi wiped a handful of raindrops on his forehead and thought with a little worry. From the beginning of November to the end of December and the beginning of January, the precipitation on the entire east coast has increased by one-third compared with the past, and this has not only brought considerable trouble to agricultural production, but also brought great trouble to the domestic infrastructure projects that are currently in full swing in the East Coast Republic of China.

This time, Jiang Nanqi went to the area of Chengshan Fort and Tieling Fort to deal with some cases. Of course, according to the regulations, the Circuit Court of the Northwest Reclamation Bureau will also be open in Chengshanbao from this month. As the president of the circuit court of the Northwest Reclamation Bureau, Jiang Nanqi, a lawyer in the department, is now also beginning to make his mark on the East Coast political stage, when it is rumored that the war with the Spaniards is officially over and the government is beginning to re-elect. It is highly likely that this gentleman will enter the Ministry of Justice to take the position of the sought-after minister. It is not even impossible to compete for the throne of the Central Executive Committee.

"Dean Jiang. The rain has been heavy for more than two months, and the water level of the Black River (Negro River) has skyrocketed. It's getting late now, so I don't think I'll be in a hurry to cross the river today, just rest for the night at Hejin Fort first, and then ferry over tomorrow morning. The captain of the bailiff, who was covered with mud on his trousers, led the horse and chased him up from behind and asked Jiang Nanqi for instructions.

"It's okay, everyone is almost tired, let's rest at the ferry today." Jiang Nanqi nodded in agreement. Then take the lead and go to the front. There was a thunderous roar not far ahead, and Jiang Nanqi knew that maybe there was another rapids coming down from the upstream. The city of Hejinbao is still about two kilometers away from the ferry port, and the local swamps, creeks and wetlands have a strong water storage capacity, so the local residents are not worried about the disaster caused by the Heihe River, which has been gentle in previous years.

However, Jiang Nanqi and the others did not plan to live in Hejin Fort City, they planned to live at the ferry by the Black River. There is a railway station and a river port, several small villages, scattered with two or three hundred villagers, and the General Directorate of Railways has built a large warehouse here to store all kinds of materials transported by the northwestern railway through Guò.

It's a pity. Today's East Coast Republic of China does not have enough technical strength and does not have the ability to build large-scale railway bridges. Especially in the Jinbao section of the Heihe River, where the water is turbulent, the flow has a certain seasonal difference, and the span is more than 40 meters. The east bank, which lacks modern steel rolling technology (which can be called another industrial flower and has many technical difficulties), can only shamefully build the Northwest Railway to the ferry, and then honestly use the original river and miniature lakes on both sides of the ferry to rebuild the river port and its attached storage facilities, and place and transfer all kinds of materials and personnel.

In other words, everything transported by the Northwest Railway, whether it is people or goods, had to get off at the Hejinbao Ferry Station, change to a ferry boat to the other side, and then change to a train to go to the area of Chengshanbao and Tielingbao. It's very troublesome, and it's very speechless, but the reality is like this, and what can be done? The 40-meter-long railway bridge is really beyond the current level of technology of the East Coasters, and can only be left to be gradually solved later.

Jiang Nanqi and his entourage finally arrived at the ferry after it was slightly dark, and successfully borrowed several empty warehouses from the stationmaster of the railway station for the night. The bearded stationmaster even boiled a pot of hot water for Jiang Nanqi and the others, which made the people on the patrol of the Reclamation Bureau immediately grateful.

"Thanks to the railroad to the ferry, there is plenty of fuel here. Boiling some hot water is not a hassle at all, trivial. The stationmaster stood in the dry and warm warehouse, rubbing his hands together and smiling.

The Northwest Railway had been officially completed to Hejinbao before the end of December, and now a large number of railway construction workers have already crossed the Heihe River and entered the other side of the river, and began to build the Hejinbao-Chengshanbao section of the Hejin-Chengshanbao railway, which is more than 100 kilometers long, and is expected to be completed by the middle of this year (1649). However, with the heavy use of Clandín slave labor in the La Plata area, it is not impossible to advance the construction period.

After the railway is repaired, all kinds of commodities produced in the coastal areas can be transported unimpeded, which is also the biggest dividend brought by the railway. In addition, the construction along the railway line will also be accelerated, and heavy machinery, massive materials and a large number of labor will be continuously transported to the inland areas through the railway, which is also profoundly changing the production and living order of the inland cities and towns.

"It's been raining for the past two months, and it's hard to build the railway, right?" Jiang Nanqi took the hot water and drank two sips, and the warm feeling went straight to his heart and spleen. There was also some rain in his boots, and his cotton socks were wet, and he was shivering from the cold.

"Isn't it!" The stationmaster's box opened at once, and he said: "I used to build railways, but at that time there were not so many machines now, and it was all human and animal power, which was really hard." It's better now, there are more machines, there are more people, and more importantly, there is a lot of use of Crandi slave labor. The original black road builders have also been promoted to large and small foremen, and their motivation has increased, so the progress is much faster than before, but it is still very hard. ”

Hearing what the stationmaster said, Jiang Nanqi also nodded slowly in agreement. In fact, the road construction workers are not the hardest, but the hardest ones are actually the personnel responsible for the preliminary route survey. They did not have a detailed map of the East Coast at all, nor did they have some of the auxiliary means of exploration (such as aerial photography) in later generations, so they could only measure the land inch by inch with their own feet. Fortunately, the terrain on the east coast is not complicated at all, and most of the area is suitable for the construction of railways, so they only need to consider the location of the railway line from an economic point of view, and do not need to worry about the difficulty of the project.

After surveying the line, the railway department will also send a large number of survey teams. The surveyors also worked extremely hard, carrying supplies and tents to all parts of the railway line, braving the scorching summer sun and the bitter cold of winter, stepping on muddy meadows, eliminating the interference of disease and barbarian attacks, and completing all kinds of tasks in harsh conditions. The hard work of Cheng dù is not something that can be imagined by literary and artistic young people who sit in the city and attend banquets, play music, write poems, and shout a few slogans all day long.

Hard work is hard work, which is not romantic or lovely, but it is an extremely strict thing. You can elegantly despise these hard-working people who are fighting on all fronts in obscurity, but the superior and decent life you can maintain is created by them bit by bit, and they are the soul and backbone of this country.

"The biggest difficulty in building a railway is the shortage of labor, right?" Jiang Nanqi sat there and suddenly asked. On his trip to Chengshan Fort, he will personally review the cases of some of the arrested Klandi fugitive slave laborers.

These Crantis were brought in by the East Bank Army in the area of La Plata, and they were forced to contribute their part day in and day out on the construction sites of the Northwest Railroad. But the heavy labor, poor working conditions, and rampant disease caused them to flee – some of them attacking and injuring their foremen (a few Crandis, most black) before fleeing. Most of these fugitives were captured by the East Coast Mounted Police in pursuit, and then imprisoned one by one, awaiting trial by local judicial offices.

In December alone, the Chengshanbao District Judicial Office sentenced nine Krandi road builders to death on charges ranging from multiple escapes, vandalism of public property (destruction of machinery, livestock, etc.), and assault (assault on a foreman). Since the death sentence had to be reviewed and approved by the president of the court at the regional level, Jiang Nanqi was fortunate enough to see the files of these people and to learn a little about the hardships of the road construction workers, especially the Klandi slave workers.

As far as what he saw, it could only be said to be shocking.

The Hejin-Chengshan section of the Northwest Railway was jointly constructed by the powerful Fourth Construction Bureau of the Ministry of Communications and the newly established First Construction Bureau of the General Administration of Railways, and the two road construction armies employed as many as 3,818 Klandis slave laborers. But just two months later, a quarter of the Klandians died from disease, flight, riots, etc., and then a large number of slave laborers died or fled almost every month in the following months. By January of this year, just over 1,800 of the original 3,800 Crandis were still alive and in poor health and mental state, but it had only been more than nine months since they arrived at the construction site of the Northwest Railroad from La Plata.

The difficulty of building a railway in this era can be seen from this! (To be continued......)