The Russians can influence the international situation by building a railway, because there are countless examples of huge projects affecting the regional situation, not to mention China alone. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

The Great Wall is definitely one, although it is difficult to find evidence, but after the completion of the Great Wall, it did effectively prevent the nomads from going south to plunder for many years, why only the Yuan Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty were completely conquered by the nomads in Chinese history, and the Han people encountered so many crises such as famine and peasant uprisings in history, but only these two successes, in fact, the Great Wall must have played a huge role.

It's just that history can't describe what didn't happen, just like the Ming disaster disaster caused a huge drop in the number of deaths, no one would have thought that this disaster could have claimed 20 million lives.

It is impossible to estimate how many times the Great Wall has blocked the nomads, but compared to India, which lacks the protection of a Great Wall, the Indians have been independent for a short time in the Mauryan era, and most of the time in history is in the era of nomadic conquest, the Aryans went to rule India, the Afghans went to rule India, the Turks went to rule India, and the Arabs went to rule India.

Excluding the protective significance of the mountains and rivers, there must be the Great Wall in it, but the greater role of the Great Wall is actually when the Han nation was strong, blocking the nomads' regular southward raids.

Nomads are like waves, they will not die when they hit the strong city walls, they will turn back after the waves hit the shore, and the nomads who are blocked by the Great Wall and cannot plunder are bound to plunder resources from other directions, this is their life. As a result, the geographically connected steppes of South Russia and Central Asia will become the passage for their westward raids.

The westward migration of the strong peoples from the Mongolian plateau will squeeze the local peoples in Central Asia and the steppes of South Russia, and they will either successfully block these steppe peoples like China, or be conquered by them, or continue to move west under oppression, and history has indeed produced waves of such nomadic westward migration, largely initially the result of the Chinese blocking the southward movement of the Mongolian steppe peoples, of which the Great Wall should have played a great role.

The construction of the Great Wall turned the pressure of the steppe peoples to the west, and the construction of the railroad by the Russians also released their pressure to the south. Historically, they built the Trans-Siberian Railway, in fact, it also played the same role, why did the Japanese attack Russia in front of the railway, launched the Russo-Japanese War, this railway has a big factor.

This kind of railway that can affect the world pattern, China has some of them, Qin Shi Huang built the Zhengguo Canal, the result of which the national strength increased greatly, destroyed the Six Kingdoms, Qin Shi Huang built the Ling Canal, so that the Central Plains people can expand to Lingnan, casting the historical map of China, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty built the Grand Canal, exhausted the national strength, the Sui Dynasty perished, but in the Tang and Song dynasties, Jiangnan became an economic center because of this canal.

Only in great times, great nations can build this great project, before the industrial revolution, this kind of project may only be able to be built by the Chinese, the Egyptians can not build the pyramid to change the international situation, until modern times, the West has this ability.

The French built the Suez Canal, which is such a project; The Russians built the Trans-Siberian Railway, which is such a project.

But there is another railroad whose significance cannot be overlooked, and that is the Pacific Railroad in the United States.

The construction of this railroad connected the east and west ends of the United States into a whole, and since then the United States has truly become a two-ocean country, with a land spanning the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean, and has a strong capital to dominate the world.

And this railway should not forget about the Chinese workers.

Despite the setbacks, this railway finally had to be completed by Chinese workers.

Stanford succeeded.

He attached great importance to this railway, but at first he was not so confident, when the railway was suspended for three years, he thought of the rocky cliffs in the Sierra Nevada countless times, he couldn't help but be afraid, marveling at how unrealistic he was at the beginning, would want to build a railway in this kind of place, plus the influence of public opinion, even if he accepted the cooperation of the Chinese and began to regain the scepter of railway construction, but he did not have absolute confidence.

But the money is from the Chinese, even if it can't be repaired, he will not lose anything, once it is built, he will get a huge return from this railway, and his name will go down in history along with this railway.

In April '76, the Nevada Tunnel of the Pacific Railroad project, which had been stopped for three years, began construction again, still the old way, still Chinese workers.

The difference is that instead of the coolies of the past, and no longer illiterate people who don't know anything, the Daming Labor Company insisted on training those workers who installed gunpowder, taught them the correct and safe way to use gunpowder, hired a large number of American engineers with mining experience to preside, and required the use of Nobel safe gunpowder instead of nitroglycerin, which can kill people by shaking it.

Even under such strict measures, the speed of railway construction was still dissatisfied, and the hard-working spirit of the Chinese made Stanford once again amazed, and once again moved him to worry that if millions of such ethnic groups were allowed to enter the United States, how strongly would white Americans be affected, and in time the United States would still be American?

Worry is worry, now these laborers are used by him, and he wishes these people were more hard-working.

Seeing that after the use of safety powder, the rock tunnel moved forward inch by inch, albeit slowly, but methodically, Stanford thought that as long as he persevered, he would definitely be able to complete it.

After the first year passed, Stanford had no doubts, because even in winter, the Chinese did not stop construction, they lived in the tunnel, of course, the railway company in accordance with the requirements of the Daming labor company, provided them with good warm conditions, stockpiled enough winter materials, as a result they were working all winter, after the snow melted, Stanford went to inspect, the progress has been a big step ahead.

Receiving this information, Stanford not only did not make it public, taking it as a benefit to the railway company, but kept the news tightly sealed, and revealed to the non-mention that the construction of the railway was stagnant, and the construction difficulty was more difficult than everyone thought, but investors should rest assured that the railway will be able to be built within ten years.

In this impetuous era, no investor is willing to wait for an investment that will not pay off until ten years later, and as a result, the price of the railroad company's already low stock plunges again, and many people throw away their last stock.

Stanford secretly instructed his agents to eat them all quietly. And the news he released was not debunked by anyone, because the people who built the railway were Chinese, the engineers were all hired by him, the Chinese did not have much contact with the locals, and he controlled his people very well, so he was able to block the news perfectly.

In the following year, whenever he met other people's interviews, Stanford would emphasize the difficulties, and at the same time express his unwavering confidence that he will build this railroad for the American people within ten years, for which he repeatedly said that he was willing to invest all his property and gamble his entire worth, which made him win a lot of reputation in California, especially some later immigrants, who did not know what Stanford had done before, and treated him as a responsible politician, and Stanford refused, saying that he would put all his energy into building this railroad for the American people, and put all his energy into building this western main gate for the United States and for California.

The strange thing is that every time Stanford makes a high-profile statement, there will be investors who give up railway stocks in disappointment, and Stanford eats it publicly, and there is no need to hide it at this time, he is doing this to express his determination to the public, the determination to live and die with this road, rather than the future benefits of the railway, so the people eat this set, but the capitalists do not eat this set, thinking that Stanford is buying fame with money, and everyone is guilty of sending death with this kind of person.

After two consecutive years of eating, Stanford's stock has quietly reached 30 percent, and it can be comparable to the labor company, but he did not touch the railroad bonds, because he values the control of the railroad more than the specific wealth, and by controlling the railroad, he controls the western gate of the United States, controls the future of the American continent, and he is the king of the west, the extradition of the American pioneers to heaven.

However, a large part of the money for Stanford's acquisition of shares was borrowed from the labor company, which accounted for 21% of the entire railway shares, so that the two parties could control the railway company in partnership, and Stanford secretly acquired another 10% of the railway shares, so that the number of his shares reached 31%, which was one more than the share of shares controlled by the labor export company, and the last 10% of the shares were all purchased with Stanford's own funds, and what he showed to the public was not an illusion. He really put his fate on this railway.

If he loses his money, he will lose it, and the money of the Daming Labor Export Company will be repaid.

Just before knowing that the railway tunnel was about to break through, Stanford decided to prepare to pay back the money.

"Help me get Mr. Wells and Mr. Fargo."

It was two bankers who partnered to open Wells Fargo, California's first bank, but they could only settle for second place because they couldn't compete with California banks.

Stanford had long been sidelined by the California banking circle, and he had to do business with Wells Fargo.

He first persuaded two bankers to allow him to borrow money against shares of the railroad company after things improved on the Pacific Railroad.

He then began lobbying the California and federal governments, saying that the railroads were in financial difficulties, and he hoped that the government would be able to get closer to the land on either side of the railroads in advance, at least close to the large amount of land subsidized twice by the railroads in California, so that the railroads could get funds through the sale of land assets in advance.

The federal government has long regarded the railroad as a mess, and Stanford has been releasing bad news, causing the federal government to lose its appetite for this road, but they promised that if the California government does not object, they will not interfere with the lifting of the ban on railroad-subsidized land within the California government. And Stanford's popularity in California is growing day by day, and he has enough influence to attract enough votes to easily get the California government to lift the ban on subsidized land.

So the railroad company began to sell the railroad in California on a large scale, where the railroad passed, most of the land in California is in the mountains, if the railway can not be built in the future, the land here is worthless, only after the railroad is built, the railway here can increase in value, the railroad company is actually invested with such an idea, those tycoons do not expect to make a little hard-earned money by honestly pulling people to transport goods, they have long been aware of the value of a large amount of land on both sides.

Now everyone thinks that the railroad cannot be built, even if these lands are sold through normal channels, the price is so low that people cry, and it only costs more than one million dollars, Stanford bought more than 5 million acres of land on both sides of the Sacramento to the Sierra Nevada Railway, including mountain, woodland and mineral development rights, of course, he did not come forward himself, but bought it through dozens of agents.

Even so, Stanford couldn't afford to pay the money, but he was the president of the railroad, and he could put it off forever if the railroad board didn't check the accounts, and even if the board suddenly wanted to check the accounts, he could do so for a while.

What he has to do now is to make the stock of the railway company rise, so the situation of the railway company suddenly began to improve, Stanford kept releasing good news to the outside world, today said that the railway company has solved another technical problem, and tomorrow has made a small breakthrough, in short, the speed of the project progress has been greatly improved, to a very unreasonable level, the tunnel in the rocky mountain, one day it has advanced hundreds of meters.

The continuous good news finally made the lifeless Pacific Railway stock begin to rise, but the speed is still very slow, but Stanford can already take out a loan through the mortgage railway stock, in order to reassure Wells Fargo, he also took two bankers to the railroad to take a look, and after seeing that the progress of the railway is indeed relatively smooth, they are relieved to give Stanford a loan.

In 1878, in the third year of the construction of the railroad, the shares of the railroad companies began to grow, and Stanford's shares were able to mortgage more loans, so he mortgaged them all, and then continued to buy railroad shares in large quantities while the price of railroad stocks was still low.

Just a month before the railway tunnel was about to be completed, Stanford stopped the acquisition, at this time he held 40% of the shares, becoming the undisputed largest shareholder of the Taiping Railway, what is admirable is that everything he did was done in the sympathy of the outside world, everyone thought that he was an idealist who invested heavily in ideals, not a profit-seeking capitalist.

After the railroad was completed, the board of directors must have cleared the accounts, so Stanford stopped all action and put the last of his money into the company's account to fill in the hole of selling the land.

On April 18, 1878, the third year of the construction of the railroad, just two years after the construction period, Stanford invited hundreds of newspaper reporters from California and even the east to the 6,000-foot mountainside of the Sierra Nevada.

After a sudden explosion, the whole mountain seemed to shake, and soon a thick smoke and dust filled the mouth of the tunnel, and several Chinese workers who had detonated the gunpowder at the mouth of the tunnel shouted.

Stanford was dressed in a gown, very gentlemanly, took off his hat and bowed his head gently:

"Gentlemen, please look at your watches and remember this moment in history, at this moment, the last obstacle in front of the main gate of the American West—"

He stopped, and pointed to the tunnel not far away: "Tunnel No. 6 in Sierra Nevada has been opened, and our Century Railway has been completely completed!" ”

The prolonged applause, the champagne brought by the handymen in celebration, and the magnesium lamps that kept emitting white smoke, and countless cheering crowds.

Eventually, these voices, images, and information were transmitted through the wires at the speed of light throughout the United States, and Pacific Railroad stocks skyrocketed by a third in an instant.

In the California market, the land on both sides of the railroad has doubled in value, but Stanford does not plan to sell the land in his hands, he will wait until the land becomes worthless, and as for selling it to the Chinese to pay off his debts, he will have to pay at least ten times the price for the Chinese.

At this time, those who laughed at Stanford and sympathized with Stanford all began to envy this lucky guy, because with the skyrocketing stock of the railroad company, he could well become the richest man in the United States.