The Panama Canal, which crosses the Isthmus of Panama in Central America and connects the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean, is one of the two important artificial shipping arteries in the world, and is known as one of the world's seven engineering wonders of the "World Bridge".

In Liu's previous life, the Panama Canal was owned and managed by the Panamanian government, but no one can deny the great influence of the United States on the Panamanian state. At that time, the Panama Canal was a lock-type canal. The length of the coastline is about 65 kilometers (40 miles) from one side to the other, and about 82 kilometers (50 miles) from the deep waters of the Caribbean Sea to the deep waters on the Pacific side, and it is 304 meters wide and 152 meters at its narrowest point.

It is one of the two most strategically important man-made waterways in the world, the other being the Suez Canal, which has already been completed. Ships sailing between the east and west coasts of North America had to make a detour to Cape Horn in South America, but the Panama Canal could shorten the voyage by about 15,000 kilometers, or 8,000 nautical miles. Travelling from one coast in North America to a South American port on the other can also save up to 6,500 kilometers, or 3,500 nautical miles. At the speed at which ships are now generally in their early tens, this can save a month or two of time. Not to mention the dangers of Cape Horn and the Strait of Magellan.

The Nama Canal is 81.3 kilometers long, with a water depth of 13 meters ~ 15 meters, and a river width of 152 meters to 304 meters. The water level of the entire canal is 26 meters higher than the two oceans, and there are 6 locks. It usually takes 9 hours for ships to cross the canal, and ships of up to 76,000 tons can be navigated.

The most valuable time for the canal was in 1914.

It's 1897. There are still 17 long years to wait, and it was the Americans who finally built the Panama Canal, not the French, who now have the right to dig the canal and start construction.

At this time, the Panama Canal, which had already begun construction by the French, was piling up like a pile of foul-smelling dung. Although in the recent negotiations in Washington, the French tried their best to defend their right to dig the Panama Canal. The British spared no effort to help the French maintain this right, but this did not prevent the 'dung' from rotting and fermenting little by little.

The Isthmus of Panama has a tropical rainforest climate, humid and sultry, dense jungles, blocked traffic, complex terrain, backward infrastructure, and a lack of minimum construction conditions.

In 1883, the famous French diplomat Fernand Fernandes, who became famous for planning and organizing the construction of the Suez Canal. Morality. Resaib. After bringing in 40,000 construction troops from 55 countries around the world, it was a living hell: the dense forests were intolerably infested with poisoning insects, and the heat caused a terrible disease to spread rapidly, claiming the lives of large numbers of workers and technicians. On the Mount of Hope near the Gatong sluice, the gravestones are chilling.

And even more terrible than the hot climate and harsh environment were human errors, at first, negligent, blinded by the success of the Suez Canal. Following the experience of the Suez Canal, it was suggested that a sea-level canal could be built using the numerous lakes of the Isthmus of Panama. After four years of construction, the arrogant French discovered that the sea surface of the Isthmus of Panama at the end of the Pacific Ocean was 24 centimeters lower than that of the Caribbean Sea, and the difference was 5 or 6 meters after the high tide.

Of course, what bothered Reseb the most at that time was the demolition of the Americans. The canal was designed to run parallel to the American-run Panama Railway. This was primarily to facilitate the transportation of supplies, but the Americans simply did not cooperate. I want to know this with my toes. How great the strategic and economic benefits of the Panama Canal are to the United States. Their rejection of the French is as strong as it gets.

Therefore, when the old American Revolutionary War was in the past, the French endorsed the United States, owed a lot of debts, and became the fuse that triggered the French Revolution, which was really blind.

The U.S. railroads have put obstacles in every possible way to the distribution of canal supplies. In the end, the French Canal Company had to buy the railway, which was only worth $7.5 million, at a sky-high price of $25.5 million, but the retained American employees continued to make trouble, sabotage and sabotage, so that the railway could not operate normally at all.

At last. The French Canal Company also had problems in its operation and management, and the senior management headed by Reseb took advantage of the fact that the project was unsustainable, but they embezzled the funds of the canal shares issued to the public on a large scale; In order to cover up the truth, the company continued to issue additional bonds, and the company used large sums of money to bribe officials, and a number of high-ranking ministers and 130 parliamentarians of the French government accepted bribes. But paper could not contain the fire, and in 1889, the French Canal Company was so exhausted that it had to be declared bankrupt, and Reseb himself went to court.

The failure of the Panama Canal cost France 2 billion francs, and many French investors lost their money, causing the famous "Panama scandal", and Reseb faced five years in prison. Although in 1893 the Supreme Court acquitted him of "old age", Reseb was discredited and devastated and died soon after.

In September 1894, in order to clean up this mess, the French government took the lead in forming another company to take over the canal project, and decided to change the original Haiping canal into a sluice lifting canal, which was the right idea. However, with only one-third of the work completed and more than double the budget for the planned investment, the remaining two-thirds were the most difficult and only six years away from the original completion date. France simply could not meet the deadlines.

In particular, with the outbreak of the First East-West War, known as the First World War in foreign countries, the French government's funds flowed to Russia and the United States, and the construction of the Panama Canal was almost suspended.

Until the beginning of this year, the French side had to ask the Colombian government to extend the construction period to October 1912, for which France was willing to pay 20 million francs as compensation. In March, the Colombian government sent a representative, Nicolas. When Esgra came to Paris, the Colombian side fully understood the difficulties of the French side and offered to compensate only 5 million francs. The French were given the right to postpone the completion of the project by four years on more favorable terms. But even so, the completion of the Panama Canal by the French side is still in sight.

During the negotiations in Washington last year, Liu Xian's eyes were on the Panama Canal. He Qing instructed his negotiator: China must control the Panama Canal in its own hands, and must not give up this control and hand over the canal to any European country!

But this was firmly rejected by Britain and France.

Liu Xian was not at all prepared to give up his plans to take over the Panama Canal. But he knew how difficult it was. The economic results of France have been remarkable. The previous war had been a problem for the French for two years at most, and it was impossible to really stumble in the footsteps of the Gallic rooster.

And behind France there are also the British, even Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy, Spain, and behind them there is the whole of Europe. The whites lost North America, but they didn't want to lose South America. The Panama Canal was of limited economic and strategic importance to Europe, but to China, which occupies half of North America. More than the Strait of Malacca, the benefits and significance are even greater.

China is now facing the entanglement of the old beauty of the original time and space. Connecting the east and west sides of North America is a crucial point in organizing the maritime defense of North America and organizing the overall defensive war of the entire Chinese North American land. It is about whether Central North America is a whole, or whether it is the East and the West. China must have a canal in the Americas!

How the Americans took the Panama Canal away from the Gallic rooster in history, Liu Xian can no longer remember. He only knew that the Americans had ended up with the British first, and then with the French.

Combined with the history of the original time and space, it is not difficult for Liu Xian to guess why the British retreated. John Bull was fighting the Second Boer War in South Africa at the time, and they needed U.S. support in national affairs. Moreover, Lao Mei had already taken Spain at that time, stepped on the corpse of Spain, and ascended to the throne of the world's first-class powers. Whether it is the right to speak in the international arena. or status, all of which have been greatly improved. The British did not have too much interest in Central and South America, and it was a very reasonable choice to withdraw.

But how did the French get out? Liu Xian was not impressed at all.

Another is that Panama still belongs to Colombia at this moment, not an independent country like in later generations.

Liu Xian did not know when Panama became independent. But he knew that the success of a locality's independence, as in the case of Panama, required not only external pressure, but also internal cooperation. Liu Xian has ordered the Military Intelligence Agency to investigate the news of Panama. This land of projectiles. Is there an independent force?

However, the cabinet was not optimistic about the prospect of its own emperor trying to wrest the Panama Canal from the French. They prefer to take a different route - the Nicaragua Canal. Starting from the country of Nicaragua, cut into the Punta Gorda River on the Caribbean side. The Tule River flows along the Tule River into Lake Huponicaragua, the largest in Nicaragua, and on the Pacific coast at the mouth of the Brito River, with a total length of about 276 kilometers, three times the length of the Panama Canal.

Of course, the investment will be more than the Panama Canal, but Nicaragua's topography is easier to excavate, and the width of the bottom of the waterway plan can be greatly enlarged. At the same time, the water depth is far greater than that of the Panama Canal, the passage capacity of the waterway will of course be stronger than that of the Panama Canal, and the maximum tonnage ships that can pass through it are far greater than the Panama Canal.

The main thing is that Nicaragua is less influenced by Western civilization. In 1821, the country broke free from the shackles of Spanish colonization and declared its independence in the 'South American War of Independence'. In 1822~1823 he briefly joined the Mexican Empire. In 1823~1838, he joined the Central American Federation. Year 1839. Nicaragua establishes a republic and a peaceful state.

Westerners have far less influence in this country than Americans do. But now that the United States has collapsed, the United States, which has retreated to the northeast and licked its wounds, is no longer able to influence Nicaragua, although Nicaragua has not embezzled Americans' assets like Mexico, but the country is undoubtedly in a 'political blank period' in the short term.

With China's current 'influence', taking the initiative to reach out to this country may not be impossible to 'get along amicably'.

China is now in a hurry to open up a water artery connecting the East and West of the Americas as quickly as possible, rather than focusing on how to 'maximize benefits'! (To be continued......)