Nicaragua Canal construction site

The endless canal construction site is extremely grand, and the entire canal construction site is divided into 24 sections.

From the Punta Gorda River on the Caribbean side, along the Tule River into Lake Nicaragua, to the mouth of the Brito River on the Pacific coast, it is about 276 kilometers long, three times the length of the Panama Canal.

The bottom width of the canal channel is planned to be 230 meters to 520 meters, the water depth is 27.6 meters, and after the completion of the canal, hundreds of thousands of tons of giant ships can pass.

With Lake Nicaragua as the core of the canal, the construction of the natural channel along the San Hushen River on the east side is less difficult.

It is mainly to block the river channel and drain the river, cut and straighten the existing 198 kilometers of San Juan natural river channel, remove some river banks, blast rocks, widen and deepen a small part of the narrow river channel, and build masonry stone slope protection and other projects.

Due to the length of the route, the amount of earth excavated is more than twice that of the Suyinshi Canal, which is the most labor-intensive place.

After more than four years of large-scale construction, the east side of the river has taken on a rough prototype.

Due to the natural water width and depth conditions, the original tortuous river channel has become much straighter after construction, and the giant ship can easily enter from Lake Nicaragua and enter the Caribbean Sea along the San Juan River.

On the slope of the canal site

There are many railway-like slide rails fixed, and the unpowered dump trucks carrying mud and stone go up and down, transporting the excavated soil and stone to the top of the slope, and piling up into small flat-topped dirt mountains nearby.

In the future, these flat-topped hills could be used both as a monitoring post for the Canal Company and as a garrison camp to defend the Nicaraguan Canal.

At the top of each track there is a tractor full of sand and gravel, and the tractor car pulls a wire rope to pull the dump truck full of mud and gravel up the bottom of the riverbed along the rails.

Just last year

Dozens of electric motors were sent to the Nicaragua Canal construction site, and it was safe and good to use them to pull the wire rope, and it was soon used on a large scale on the construction site.

A diesel unit for power generation can tow five slide rails, and the construction efficiency is greatly improved.

But it is undeniable that the excavation of sediment at the bottom of the canal can only rely on pure human labor.

The hard work of day after day has cost nearly a quarter of the hundreds of thousands of black slaves, which is the price that must be paid for the grand project of the century, and no one can afford it.

According to the current progress of the project, in two and a half years, the eastern section of the 198-kilometer San Juan River channel can be completed and fully navigable.

The biggest difficulty in the construction is on the west side, the west bank of Lake Nicaragua is only 20 kilometers from the Pacific Ocean, but it is hilly and mountainous, and the original Britto River passes through the isthmus, the river is tortuous and narrow, and the water depth conditions are not enough.

In addition, there is a 26-meter drop between the water surface of the Pacific Ocean and Lake Nicaragua, and it is necessary to build a double-line three-level sluice, which is rare in the world and extremely difficult to construct.

this day

Escorted by his entourage and numerous officers and men of the Royal Praetorian Guard, Emperor Richard personally inspected the sluice gate site and listened to the progress of the local engineering work.

Now in front of Richard is a magnificent architectural scene, the foundation pit of the 36-meter-deep lock has begun to pour concrete slabs, bundled with dense steel honeycombs, making people's scalp tingle.

Two cement plants along the Brito River produced 27,000 barrels of cement ahead of schedule, which were densely stacked around the site in preparation for the concrete pouring of the floor.

The locks are made of specially developed special cement, which has high strength, long durability and an astonishing price, more than three times that of ordinary cement.

At the beginning of the pouring order, 11,500 workers around the lock site started to mix the stones, yellow sand, and cement piled up into a hill at the same time.

The 137 cement mixing drums lined up started at the same time, and the mixed cement was loaded and transported to the established place for dumping by workers pushing small carts.

There are dozens of workers around each cement mixing drum, some are responsible for sand and gravel feeding, some are responsible for adding water, and some are responsible for adding cement.

And on the other side

More than 20 trolleys have been waiting quietly, each trolley is two people, one in front and one in the back to stabilize the wheelbarrow.

Look down from above

Black slave laborers pushing carts formed 137 thin lines, dumping concrete back and forth, cart after cart, with no pauses in between.

Next to each cement mixing drum, there are engineering personnel responsible for quality recording and supervision, so as to ensure that each barrel of cement mixed meets the requirements and the proportion is appropriate.

The whole pouring will last for two days and two nights, requiring a one-time pouring without pause, and a total of more than 70,000 square meters of concrete will be poured.

The black slave laborers who participated in the pouring changed shifts every two hours, came down to rest for a while, drank some water, ate something, and recuperated themselves to continue on top.

Looking at this lively and orderly labor scene, Emperor Richard was also full of pride at the moment, and said with a smile;

"The on-site construction organization is very good! There is a very earth-changing spirit, which shows the extremely high level of the Imperial engineers, which is a gratifying thing.

When it was decided to host the Nicaragua Canal project, many people preferred to hire highly qualified French engineers because they were responsible for the construction of the Suinz Canal of the Century.

From a technical point of view

The Suyinz Canal was nothing more than a land canal without locks, and French engineers had no experience in building record-setting two-line three-stage locks, and its domestic industry lagged far behind the imperial heavy industry.

If someone else can do it, why can't we?

The shipbuilding, heavy industry and metallurgical industry of our Tang Empire are among the top in the world, and the engineers have rich experience in building large reservoirs.

Now it seems that I was right to make the decision against the crowd, and the standard of the Imperial engineers has reached the top level in the world. ”

Such a high evaluation made the Chinese engineers around him very excited, and their faces were full of brilliance as if they had been beaten with chicken blood, and only a smirk remained.

Zheng Yuan, the head of the Royal Secretariat, raised his hand and congratulated; "I want to congratulate you, Your Majesty can be described as a golden mouth, with this magnificent project of the century, the imperial experts in the field of civil engineering have led the world, enough to be proud."

"Thank you Your Majesty for your reputation, thank you Your Majesty Longen, I dare not be ashamed."

Hou Guangde, an academician of the Imperial Academy of Engineering who served as the chief engineer, was dark and thin, with a pair of gold-wire glasses on his face, and led everyone to sincerely thank him.

The academicians of the Academy of Engineering belong to the engineering branch of the Royal Academy of Sciences of the Tang Empire, and those who can serve as academicians are all senior high-level experts, and their rich resumes are very convincing.

The Royal Academy of Sciences of the Tang Empire is mainly divided into two branches, the Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Engineering, with the Library of the Royal Academy of Sciences, 27 laboratories led by famous academicians, and 6 institutes under the Royal Academy of Sciences, which are involved in six key scientific research areas: metallurgy, shipbuilding, chemical industry, electrification, basic materials and industrial equipment.

Academician Hou Guangde's greatest wish is to build a civil engineering research institute, bringing together the top civil engineers of the Tang Empire in one place, focusing on solving some of the world's cutting-edge architectural problems.

For example, the proposed Golden Gate Bridge across the bay in Chang'an, the imperial capital of Chang'an, the Chang'an, Los Angeles, Chicago subway projects, super hydropower stations, dams, long-span steel frame bridges and suspension bridges in frontier areas, etc., to build more large-scale projects for the benefit of the empire.

Emperor Richard could understand the wishes of an engineer, and he could not hide his admiration;

"This is not an exaggeration, the Nicaragua Canal will occupy a glorious page in the history of world engineering, and its importance cannot be overstated.

This proves that human beings have incomparable creativity and proves that the Empire is at the cutting edge of the field of civil engineering.

As long as this century project is successfully completed, from now on, the outstanding engineers of the Tang Empire will be shrouded in an invisible halo, representing the world's advanced level.

Hou Aiqing, what you are carrying out now is a great project of great historical significance, which will not only benefit the present, but also future generations, including many imperial engineers in the future.

Over here...... It is the stage where you can display your outstanding talents. ”

Emperor Richard waved his hand, and his words were extremely fanning.

All the engineers and managers present were all swollen and red, as if they had been beaten with chicken blood, and their expressions exuded a strange brilliance, and they were so excited that they couldn't help themselves.

Far into the distance

In the distance of the lock construction site in the hot construction, an isthmus that has been widened and deepened by countless blasts is revealed in front of everyone and extends to the end of the line of sight.

The originally narrow and winding isthmus along the Brito River is mostly rocky, and manual excavation is almost impossible, so a lot of blasting work is required.

In the riverbed

Countless rock protrusions need to be blasted and crushed to ensure that after the river is poured into the water, the water depth is more than 28 meters, and the passage of the giant ship cannot be obstructed.

The narrow isthmus also requires a lot of blasting to widen and straighten, consuming thousands of tons of high-explosive gunpowder every year, which is also an extremely dangerous construction project, and a single careless can cause a large number of casualties.

Falling rocks, collapses, overturns, falling from heights, as well as diseases such as tropical plague and malaria, the backward and dangerous construction environment is the main cause of casualties among black slave laborers.

It is precisely under these harsh construction conditions that the Nicaraguan Canal is even more magnificent and emotional.

As the concrete floor was poured, black slave laborers working at the bottom of the lock, which was more than 30 meters deep, continued to appear.

Some people slipped and fell on the huge steel cage, some people got their arms into the mixing bucket, and some people fainted halfway......

The fierce black overseer immediately rushed up and greeted him with a leather whip, and shouted loudly to continue his work, without stopping.

These black overseers were selected from slave labor, and were able to enjoy a higher level of food, and the senior overseers were even allowed to marry and have children, and were paid to live in the Chinese labor area.

This makes the black overseers the most ferocious, and treats the lowest black slave laborers with no mercy, and they are not allowed to stop as long as there is still a breath of air.

They were well acquainted with the lazy and casual nature of the black slaves, and they were like hungry wolves. If you go slow or procrastinate, you will be whipped up and killed on the spot if you dare to resist a little.

It was under the constant supervision of the black overseers that the entire Nicaragua project could go so smoothly.

After a little relaxation, all kinds of foreign grinders will come one after another, and the project will not be able to be built for another 20 years.

From this point of view, the black overseers played an important role, and of course they were the group that attracted the most hatred from black slave workers.

On the construction site

It is not uncommon for black overseers to be killed, some by stone, some by pushing down a deep pit and falling to their deaths, and some even being strangled to death in the dark, which is indeed a very dangerous job.

For this case

When the murderer can't be found, he can only stop it, and just choose one more from the bottom black slave laborers.

In order to keep up with the progress of the project, the Canal Company tacitly used cold-blooded methods to oppress the slave laborers, drove them away with whips and sticks, and tortured the disobedient black slave laborers, all of which were carried out by these black overseers.

The Canal Company itself could not escape the suspicion of instigation and connivance.

It's a colonizer in the first place, where did all those hypocrisies come from?

Emperor Richard's eyes were like torches, and he had a full view of everything that happened on the huge construction site, and his vision was much wider than that of ordinary people, and he could even see clearly the actions of the overseers who viciously beat the black slave laborers more than 10 kilometers away.

But after a glance, he turned in a different direction......

Over time

Tired black slave laborers made more and more mistakes in pouring back and forth, and sometimes one fell and even several slaves were injured, and all of them fell into a rolling gourd.

A few strong overseers in the vicinity immediately rushed forward, beating them everywhere with whips and clubs, and could only endure the pain on their bodies and hurry to push the cart.

If you stay a little longer, you will receive a few more lashes.

This scenario may seem extremely cruel and inhumane, but if you don't......

These black slave laborers who had fallen would lie there for a long time without getting up, chirping crookedly, "This hurts, that hurts ...... best."

It's like a plague, one by one, and in less than half a day, the whole construction site will have to stop, and it's not an exaggeration.

So as long as you have a breath on the construction site, you have to get up and work.

Chief Engineer Hou Guangde saw that there was some chaos at the scene, and looked at Director Zheng Yuan as if he was asking for help, hoping that he could mediate.

Now is the critical moment for pouring the foundation pit floor, and it cannot be stopped no matter what.

The pouring was about 1 hour and 20 minutes by this time, and there were 40 minutes left before the shift could be changed.

Under the intense labor, the black slave laborers were already out of breath and their legs were weak. One in front and one in the back, the two worked together to push a wheelbarrow weighing more than 140 pounds and drove on a narrow ramp.

In the event of an accident

The black overseers will take more severe measures to impeach, and it is not excluded that the armed guards will shoot some of the troublemakers at close range, and such a thing will be unsightly......

For His Holiness, I hope he can persuade His Majesty the Emperor to leave.

Director Zheng Yuan obviously understood the meaning in the other party's eyes, and after bowing his head slightly, he saw that His Majesty the Emperor was chatting with the close ministers around him and was turning around, so he stepped forward and gave a deep salute and said;

"Your Majesty, the sun is getting higher and higher on this construction site, and it will take a lot of time to walk up. Why don't you do it today...... I respectfully ask the Holy Driver to move to the Pedestrian Palace, and all the adults accompanying you can also take a break and drink tea. ”

"Oh...... This seems to be an oversight on my part. Okay, then do what you say, and drive back to the palace. ”

"Wait for your majesty to thank you, get off!" Zheng Yuan hurriedly raised his hand, and more than 10 nearby Praetorian Guard officers opened the way in front, and a group of attachés surrounded His Majesty the Emperor to leave the high place and head towards the bottom of the hills......