The Sino-Western War in North America had already begun, and it had just begun to enter the Gao Yu Dynasty. But Nanjing didn't know that if this exciting news did not spread for a few months, Nanjing would not have known about the outbreak of war in North America.

And when the news spreads to China proper, the British will surely be happy. They are tantamount to invisibly adding a powerful ally.

This is the limit of the times.

Not to mention telephones, even cable telegraphs will have to wait decades for them to appear.

Even the expatriate correspondents who followed the migrant ship to the west coast of North America could not make the headlines of the country overnight if they wrote their stories and described the heroic battles and brilliant results of the expeditionary force.

So, where are the eyes of the country focusing on now? Including Chen Ming, they are all paying attention to Baoji.

It has been eight years since Chengtian, the national highway from Baoji to Tianshui has been completed and opened to traffic, and the second railway from Xi'an to Lanzhou has also been completed.

Because, the route to be built between them is too difficult and difficult, and the cost is too great.

The Cabinet government sold railway bonds on a large scale for the first time, and at the same time, the Northwest Bureau of the Ministry of Communications of China, which was under construction, was listed as the Northwest Transportation Company, and the boss raised shares to raise funds. One team with two brands, just like a rabbit's approach. For example, the National Archives and Records Administration and the Central Archives at that time.

There is a way, this railway is too expensive, far more than the first railway. The initial budget was simply not enough, and the construction of the Weishui Narrow Road was difficult enough, but the construction and laying of the Great Northwest Section of the Railway was even more difficult than it.

Not to mention the severe cold of minus ten degrees or twenty or thirty degrees in winter, let's just say that there is no snow on the calf here, which is an insurmountable moat. Moreover, the soil under the cold winter will be as hard as pig iron, and a shovel can only shovel off a layer of skin.

And what about in the summer? The scorching sun is unbearable, and the men who can endure hardships can survive under the scorching sun for three or four hours, and the people are also abandoned. And the temperature difference between day and night is very large, and the temperature difference between day and night is too large. The temperature of 367 degrees during the day is enough to make people sweat profusely when they only wear single clothes! When I worked, I was sweating profusely, and I didn't even need to wear that layer of single clothes. At night, you have to cover yourself with a thin quilt!

There is also a lack of water in many sections, which virtually limits the number of construction workers, and also limits the progress and speed of construction.

At least 30 labor camps are working hard for this, and there are also pure labor camps that have come to help. In the current time and space when transportation and equipment are all primitive, manpower is the necessary force to push a major project forward.

And man is really a very adaptable creature, except for those who die on the job, the number of people who die of disease among them is not much more than the number of workers who came to work during the same period.

This can't but be said to be a phenomenon that Chen Ming can't even understand!

It stands to reason that the mortality rate of the dependents and prisoners of these labor camps should be far higher than that of normal laborers with certain medical insurance, but the reality is different.

The Celestial Cultists had just passed Eid al-Fitr, and then they were forced to catch up. In order for Northwest Transportation stock to sell at a better price, their progress would have to be accelerated. Therefore, the labor camps on different construction sites have unexpectedly become better and more abundant recently.

But the price is that they work more and are more tired.

After the thaw this year, the construction started until now, and it has been three months since the full fight, and the small 20,000 labor prisoners - strong laborers, and the number of family members who are at least twice this number, completely deducting the casualties in the line of duty, only sick and hospitalized by insect bites, the total number is only 1,700, 280 deaths, and only about 5,000 labor teams in the same period? also hung up one hundred and sixty or seventy people, which is a dog!

In just three months, more than 300 workers who signed contracts at the end of last year chose to leave, and the number of people who also wanted to leave but did not want to give up their pay easily, and who had to pay hundreds of yuan upside down was several times this number.

The people who would rather pay for it than report their exit would rather go to the more dangerous South Seas or the Outer Northeast than stay in this damn place.

All those who go to the Great Northwest have signed a contract, and the Northwest Bureau can completely refuse to accept the withdrawal report of these people's applications. However, because there were still Japanese to fill this vacancy, and the casualty pensions of these foreign Japanese were far lower than those of the Chinese, the Northwest Bureau could also deduct every cent of the wages of these laborers in the name of unfulfilled contracts, and in turn get a sum of money from them, so they agreed to it.

Since two years ago, the number of Japanese at the construction site has begun to increase dramatically, and by now, they have skyrocketed from the initial two or three hundred to one or two thousand now, which is comparable to the armed forces of the Japanese security forces responsible for security here.

Aren't the Japanese afraid of death? Of course they are afraid. But the attraction of money made them ignore the threat of death, and because the living conditions were much worse than those of the same Chinese workers, more than 500 Chinese and Japanese died in three months, the latter of which was obviously a minority in the total group of workers, but the number of deaths accounted for the majority.

There is no way to completely eradicate disease in China today, and the climate here in the northwest where the temperature difference between day and night is huge, making it easy to catch colds, fevers, and then turn into pneumonia, which is a fatal symptom. Therefore, Coptis chinensis, Bupleurum and other medicinal materials are being transported to the northwest in large quantities, but in the current era, these are just doing their best to obey the destiny of heaven.

In order to calm people's hearts, Buddhism, Taoism, and the green religion believed in by HH in the northwest are all in vogue on the current railway construction site.

Just like the head of the labor camp in the mountains at the beginning, he was willing to put forward the great monk Shi Jinggang and build a temple for him to be a monk in it, faith is a kind of motivation, and they have long been discovered.

In order to better appease the labor camps and laborers, various beliefs began to spread on the construction sites.

But in general, it is still Buddhism and Taoism in a large number of refluxes to the Great Northwest.

Nowadays, the railway construction site, almost every new construction site will build a land temple in the first month, and then build the plague temple and the Buddha temple at a rapid speed, enshrined the Taoist emperor and the plague god, the Buddhist oriental glazed medicine master Guangrulai and the South China Sea Guanyin Bodhisattva!

The general manager of the project originally planned to send people to erect temples for the Shinto religion in Japan, but was directly stopped by the superiors. The commander-in-chief, Duan Guorui, himself worshiped all the gods and Buddhas, but it was just a no-brainer, the dead are still dead, there should be no water or no water!

In the reciprocal report sent to Nanjing, he said: The uninterrupted mortality rate has cast a heavy shadow on the entire project, and the harsh climate and environment have dealt a heavy blow to and affected the workers' labor enthusiasm and work mood, and religious and religious beliefs can soothe their inner panic and hesitation......

He also mentioned some bad rumors circulating among the HH workers in the Northwest - the high mortality rate of the Han and the two ethnic groups was the punishment of the Han and the Han people by the Northwest HH as the true god of faith. Because although some people in the northwest HH also died of illness, if you make a horizontal comparison, the proportion is much lower than that of the Han and the two ethnic groups. Compare them to the Northwest. Although these people are in a very bad situation now, because of the comparison between the heavy losses and the worse experiences of the Han and the two tribes, the self-congratulatory mood of Le Hehe is high, and this has a very bad effect.

The Northwest Bureau used thunderous means to arrest hundreds of HH labor prisoners and a small number of HH laborers on the charge of spreading rumors, and according to the method of drawing two to one, let them first elect those who were willing to go to heaven to meet the true God, which of course did not succeed, and then used the method of drawing lots to select the half who were hanged. In the short term, it suppressed the momentum of this bad rumor.

The Northwest Bureau Command had a very difficult time. Duan Guorui, the chief commander of the project, and the deputy commander of the first railway project, not only had to worry about the progress and technical problems of the project, but also cared about the 'ideological' problems of the workers. Even in order to suppress this kind of rumor, which is of a very bad nature, he also invited the art troupe to put on a big show to relax the nerves of the prisoners and laborers.

If it weren't for Duan Guorui's desire to make another contribution, and this appointment was regarded by him as Chen Ming's trust in him, which gave him a special sense of honor, and he felt that he was about to take responsibility, and he would have picked on his son at the age of fifty.

The construction of the entire railway began in the third year of Chengtian, and it has been five years now, and his hair has turned white. This is much more difficult than the construction of the first railway.

The cool night breeze blew on Duan Guorui's old face, this is a person with a lot of experience. In the early days, he was born in Lushan, and he was one of the white servants who followed Chen Huimen to eat at the beginning, but his ability was much worse than Zheng Hongyu and Wei Xiuzhi, who were the right-hand men under Chen Hui back then, and he didn't dare to hold a knife in front of the battle, he entered the logistics department, and he also had a friend, Zeng Ming of Manchuria.

Duan Guorui has long been out of step with the army.

After quitting the army, he entered the Ministry of Communications, and after so many years, he became the deputy commander-in-chief of the construction of the first railway, and when the construction of that railway was not completed, he was appointed by Chen Ming as the general director of the construction of the second railway. This is not a position that can be easily sitting, he is still the first person in charge of the Northwest Bureau and the chairman of the Northwest Transportation Company.

Being able to sit in his current position can be said to be a leap in Duan Guorui's life, but this can also be said to be the biggest catastrophe in Duan Guorui's life!

The railway construction in the northwest is much more arduous and difficult than the railway construction in the Mongolian steppe.

Here, a sip of cold water may make you swing and get sick; If you are blown by the wind, you may have a fever and a cold, and die of weakness; Not to mention these difficult circumstances. Water, in many places, stretches for hundreds of miles, and it is difficult to find even the water source exposed on the surface. Even the Northwest Bureau had prepared a water transport team, and that day was simply devastating.

Duan Guorui's only satisfaction with the construction site is the Japanese geisha here, although he is not interested in the Japanese 'dance' and the white powder that is all over his face, but the geisha is still very good and obedient after washing his face.

And they are very local customs, watching the dishes and dishes.

These women are willing to come to this ghost place for silver, and as for the so-called 'Japanese tradition', how much is it worth?

There is no way, the female branch girls in China do not come to the construction site of the Great Northwest Railway at all, they would rather go to the South Seas, even in Hami City, their faces are rarely seen. Duan Guorui and most of the Chinese people were not interested in the local women in the northwest, so they had to give the money to the geisha and female branch girls in Little Japan. Especially a big man of Duan Guorui's status, he prefers to keep a beautiful geisha rather than a female branch girl! The reason needs not be said.

Yes, he also brought concubines and maids with him, and he could even take women directly to the construction site, but the impact was too bad. All things considered, Duan Guorui is still a good geisha!

Because there are trick halls on every section of the construction site.

Tomorrow is Duan Guorui's rest day in the first half of the month, according to the 'life' of the previous time, Duan Guorui will definitely sleep drunk in the flowers tonight, debauchery and play for a day, although his hair is gray, but his body is still very good, this is also one of his ways to release pressure.

But Duan Guorui didn't go to the restaurant, he just sat alone in front of the window of the room, looking up at the semi-circular moon in the sky, holding a bottle of wine in his hand. Tomorrow is a person's death day, and his original partner, a woman who has suffered a lot, gave birth to three sons to him, three sons who have been raised, but she has not been able to enjoy great blessings with him. On this day, the year before, I took my last breath on my bed at home.

Although Duan Guorui's original partner was not beautiful, ten streets worse than other current concubines, this woman did her best to take care of Duan Guorui's parents when Duan Guorui went to Jiangnan with the army, and single-handedly sent the two old men away. Duan Guorui did not marry his stepfamily, he didn't care whether he was emotional or not, but he had to receive this love.

Chinese can marry concubines, which is really a good system. After Chen Han was developed, no one wanted to send his wife to court, which was a phenomenon that made Chen Ming very happy.

The line of sight slowly rose from Duan Guorui's point, and a huge railway construction site slowly appeared in front of him, which was Xingxing Gorge.

It is a necessary way for the Longhai line to communicate with the salary of Xinjiang.

As an important route connecting northern Xinjiang and Su, this road has not only not been abandoned, but has become more prosperous. Of course, from Zhangjiakou through Hohhot and Baotou, the route of Uriya Sutai into Xinjiang will be more prosperous, who will make this route abundant in water and grass, and the distance will be shortened. Xingxingxia here communicates more about Ganxi and Xinjiang.

Now the Han people in Xinjiang take Xingxing Gorge as the dividing point, the east is the mouth, and the west is the mouth.

Although it was late at night and most of the construction site had been plunged into darkness, with only a few lights left, it was bustling with activity in a small county town not far from the construction site. The lights are bright, the people are noisy, and the shadow of death and the fatigue of work are forgotten in the singing, dancing and drinking......

Looking farther, on a hill seven or eight miles away from the Xingxing Gorge construction site, simple tombstones are lined up like soldiers standing in the colonel. This is a cemetery where more than 3,000 people have been buried to date.

There are the bones of some of the soldiers, and their graves are lined with stone tablets; The rest are all prisoners and laborers. The latter is still a skeleton and a thin-skinned coffin, but the former is just a box of ashes.

Also in mid-July, while Chen Ming was keeping an eye on the issuance of shares from the Northwest Transportation Company, the Immigration Bureau did something that it wanted to do, and a group of Ainu were relocated from the bitter cold of Sakhalin Island to their homeland, Ezo.

In recent years, China has been heavily immigrating, and Sakhalin Island is one of the most developed areas, and today there are at least 50,000 Han Chinese living there. Several coastal ports became centers for the sale and sale of furs, as well as general logistics supply depots for Northland hunters.

All immigrants who wished to move to Sakhalin were resettled in the previously selected cantonment areas.

It is a fertile plain with abundant water and flat terrain, suitable for farming.

After the migrants passed, they only needed to reclaim the land, build houses for the winter, and stock up on the food and firewood needed for the winter, and then survive this year's harsh winter, and wait until next year, and they will be almost self-sufficient.

Moreover, the migration work there is generally over by this time, because in a few days Sakhalin will enter the autumn and winter season, and in a few more days, heavy snow and cold winter will come.

The report submitted by the immigration bureau to Chen Ming was not about Sakhalin, but about Honolulu.

After several years of development, it seems that Honolulu has reached the time to be tasty.

The number of these first batch of immigrants reached 10,000, and they traveled thousands of miles away, and the immigration work was like the original Nanming Prefecture, which was very trivial and troublesome.

Chen Ming also convened the ministers of the imperial court to discuss that gold mines had been discovered in Nanmingzhou.