Chapter 635: Within 50,000
"Related industries in Kisan City can also be considered in advance. The entire Hesse Province is mainly centered around the rubber and mining industries, while Kisan City also has both cotton planting and primary textile industries."
In fact, there are many crops that can be grown near Kisan City. The annual rainfall here reaches 1,700 millimeters. It is located on the edge of the rainforest and has excellent water and heat conditions. Otherwise, the provincial capital would not have chosen this place.
However, when Ernst chose the provincial capital, he must have had experience in his previous life as a reference. In his previous life, Kisan City served as the temporary capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with a population of 680,000. The population of the entire jurisdiction exceeds 1.6 million, plus people living in the entire African continent. Center, so it is called "the most isolated big city in the world."
This shows from the side that Kisangani’s foreign exchanges were not smooth in the previous life, which was mainly reflected in transportation issues. However, Kisangani can develop into a city with a population of more than 600,000, and it is in the impoverished Democratic Republic of the Congo. This shows that the fundamentals are still the same. Because it served as the temporary capital, Kisangani has many universities and institutions.
The city of Kisan under the rule of East Africa is naturally not as glorious as the previous life, but the transportation is much better than the city of Kisan in the previous life. This is due to the results of East Africa's vigorous construction of roads in Hesse Province.
East Africa's obsession with infrastructure cannot be compared to African countries in previous generations. The city of Kisan is the beneficiary of the road hardening project currently being implemented in Hesse Province.
Bamir: "The industrial base in the entire Hesse province is very weak, and it is very different from the railway lines we planned in the past. The difficulty of the projects along the line has greatly increased, so we must use Hesse resources as much as possible, which can save a lot of time. and project quantities.”
Many railways have been built in East Africa, but most of these railways are built in the plateau area. Not to mention the cool and mild climate of the plateau, the construction difficulty is not too great. In addition to the high altitude, the plateau in East Africa is still flat. , and because the savanna is more suitable for development, the Hessian railway is quite a challenging task for Bamir.
"We need to inform the Hessian provincial government about this matter. After we hand over our drawings to them, let them plan the quarry and lumberyard according to the railway trend. The cement factory can also be expanded. There are also three cement factories in Kisan City. , Now Hesse Province is increasing its cement production capacity on a large scale, and I heard that it is carrying out road hardening projects, which will facilitate railway construction." Christian analyzed.
Bamir: "Well, there is also the issue of steel. It happens that the steel production capacity in Matabele Province is relatively sufficient. It is not far from Mbeya City. Through the Central Railway, the steel will be transported to Lubumbashi first. Then it’s processed on site and the track can be laid north along the line.”
Hesse can solve the problem of cement by itself, but steel must rely on support from other provinces, because the distribution of iron ore in East Africa is very limited. This is not to say that Hesse does not have iron ore, but that the number of iron ore in Hesse is small. , small scale, low development and utilization value, it may be considered as technology advances in the future.
Christian: "Don't worry about the issue of raw materials. What really needs to be solved is the problem of railway construction. This time the railway will pass through the rainforest area, and the number of casualties will probably be astronomical, especially when dealing with diseases such as malaria, so quinine should be prepared in advance. There are enough, and anti-mosquito items should also be purchased in large quantities.”
Someone in the past life has studied that the legendary miasma in the south of the Far Eastern Empire was actually malaria. This was the biggest problem encountered in the development of the south. Malaria was mainly spread through mosquitoes.
Human activities can effectively suppress the living space of mosquitoes, snakes and ants. This is particularly obvious in cities. In fact, East Africa, like the Far Southeast, has already developed areas that are not much different from other regions in the world.
However, in places like Hesse, it is still necessary to be more cautious, so more related preparations need to be done.
As for the casualties that the Hessian Railway may face this time, Ernst has expectations in his heart. The more famous death railway in the previous life, the Thailand-Burma Railway, was built with human lives. The death toll was no less than 250,000. It took a long time In May alone, the six-year project was completed, with an average of more than 600 lives lost per kilometer.
The Thailand-Burma Railway project was done by the Japanese, so it was no exception. Survivor Roy Armstrong said this when recalling this experience: I didn’t know how to build a railway, but I never thought of using a basket and A shovel.
Sometimes you can only rest for 2 hours a day. As the workload increases, the mortality rate of prisoners of war and laborers continues to increase, and the workload assigned to each person continues to increase. Some people once worked continuously for 133 days. .
He could only eat one standard meal of rice a day, which contained maggots and worms. Occasionally, the Japanese army would bring a buffalo and cut the best meat to the Japanese officers and guards. The remaining bones and scraps could not satisfy the needs of thousands of mouths. They would put some meat in the soup depending on their mood. They tried their best to eat enough. If an unlucky python ran into the prisoner of war camp, it was destined to be unable to escape.
East Africa will never be as sick and life-threatening as Japan. At least the slave food in East Africa is better than that in some countries in the Far East, and the mix is more reasonable.
At the same time, East Africa implemented militarized management of slaves, and the sanitary conditions were higher than those of workers and prisoners of war who built the Thailand-Burma Railway.
Because there is a saying that harming others will harm yourself. Slaves do not pay attention to hygiene issues. If they are infected with the disease, it is likely to affect the managers in East Africa, thus threatening the country's epidemic prevention work.
Bamir: "We should prepare more steam pumps, and the fuel problem must also be solved. There are many swamps in the entire Hesse province, especially in the north, and water accumulation is serious. In addition to improving the tools, the project must also consider drainage, especially It’s the drainage channels, the culverts, the material capacity.”
Christian: “This involves some special road sections. Debris flows and landslides caused by heavy rain or floods must be considered, so road protection facilities must also be considered. And some road sections must eliminate risks in advance, so more explosives must be applied for. Some."
Although a large number of slaves are still used in East Africa, the use of slaves also comes with risks, and sooner or later East Africa will become a normal country, and the related slavery system will definitely be eliminated eventually. The way to replace slaves is to vigorously improve East Africa's technology. level and productivity.
At present, East Africa's gunpowder production capacity has been increased. This is due to the development of East Africa's defense industry, so it has also become generous in the use of gunpowder. Ten years ago, East Africa still needed to import a large amount of gunpowder, but now it can produce it itself.
Similarly, East Africa can now produce steam engines. The first domestic steam engine in East Africa was produced in 1870 after introducing a complete set of technology from Germany.
This is still the era of steam engines, and steam-type water pumps are mass-produced in East Africa and used in many mines and irrigation projects. Of course, further internal combustion engine-type water pumps are also used, but they are still in the popularization stage.
In addition, many tools have also been domestically produced. With the support of excess steel production capacity in East Africa, production efficiency has been greatly improved.
These have provided conditions for the construction of the Hessian railway. However, the railway still cannot get rid of the consumption of people. Ernst believes that controlling the number of casualties within 50,000 is a reasonable range.