Chapter 1167 Engineering Miracle
Road transportation in East Africa has formed a huge competition with railways, and this is still under the condition that the road construction potential in East Africa has not been fully stimulated.
As for inland water transport, as an obvious shortcoming of transportation in East Africa, it has continued to make efforts in recent years, and its market share has increased significantly. In particular, several large lake basins in East Africa have formed a fairly developed regional water transport network.
Entering the 20th century, the inland shipbuilding industry in East Africa also entered a stage of great development. The number of ships traveling on the Great Lakes, Lake Solon, Lake Malawi, Congo River, Zambezi River and other river basins, as well as the artificial canals in East Africa, increased significantly.
Of course, it is difficult for Franz IV to have an intuitive understanding of this. Currently, most of the areas he passes through avoid areas with developed water transportation in East Africa.
However, the brilliant achievements of railway and road construction in East Africa alone were enough to make Francis IV feel uncomfortable.
Looking at the majestic New Frankfurt Central Station in front of him, Franz IV became full of curiosity about the new Frankfurt City.
Apart from the Rhine City, this was his first detailed visit to a large city in East Africa. Although he also passed through Dar es Salaam and Mbeya along the way, they were all short stops. As for Dodoma and Iringa, the first Although the town is quite spectacular and not inferior to European cities, the gap between it and the big cities in East Africa is still visible to the naked eye.
New Frankfurt is obviously one of the large cities in East Africa, which can be seen from the developed urban construction scale of New Frankfurt.
"I plan to stay in New Frankfurt for a few days to get a good feel for the details of urban construction in your country. I will trouble you next." Franz IV said to Copper.
"This is my honor, and it is also my responsibility, Your Excellency the Duke." Cobol replied in a neither humble nor condescending manner.
Subsequently, Cobol began to arrange for his entourage to unload luggage from the special train, and notified the city of New Frankfurt to come over and take charge of the contact work.
After Copper showed his ID, the group waited for people from the new Frankfurt City Hall in the VIP lounge of the central train station.
Twenty minutes later, a fleet of government buses from the New Frankfurt Municipal Government drove into the New Frankfurt Central Station.
The new Frankfurt city government did not dare to neglect this duke. To be more rigorous, Franz IV was a serious foreign head of state. Although the Principality of Mecklenburg-Schwerin was only a principality under the German Empire, A non-independent country does not affect its status as a country.
"Your Majesty the Duke, in the next few days you would like to visit those areas of our city. Although our New Frankfurt City is only a new city, it also has many unique sights." New Frankfurt Deputy Mayor Lasles was sitting in the passenger seat. asked Franz IV in the back row.
This aroused the interest of Franz IV. After all, East Africa has a very short history and there are no famous places of interest. As for the scenery, it is better to visit some undeveloped areas in East Africa, such as grasslands, rainforests, and lakes. Of course, East Africa is also There are some famous natural landscapes.
For example, the Great Rift Valley, Kings Falls (Victoria Falls), Nile River, Congo River, etc., but these places obviously have little to do with New Frankfurt.
So Franz IV asked: "Does New Frankfurt also have any famous natural attractions?"
Lasles: "Our city does not have any famous natural landscapes, but there are still many man-made landscapes, such as the New Frankfurt People's Park, the East African Grand Canal, the Central Football Stadium, etc."
Franz IV was very indifferent to the parks in East Africa. After all, as a great nobleman, Franz had seen many gardens and private estates. Although there were many parks in East Africa, could they be more ornamental than the gardens of the Rhine Palace? sex.
As for the East African Grand Canal mentioned by Lasles, Francis IV was more interested. After all, with such a big name, it was obvious that the scale could not be small.
He asked Lasles: "Can you introduce what the East African Grand Canal is? I am very interested in the canal project in East Africa."
Now that East Africa is liberalized, these projects naturally do not need to be covered up. Lasles introduced to Francis IV: "The East African Grand Canal is a miracle of our East African water transportation construction, and it is completely compatible with Your country’s large-scale project is comparable to the Kiel Canal. Of course, if you look closely, your country’s Sino-German Canal is more comparable.”
“Because the main function of the East African Grand Canal is to connect the water networks in central and western parts of East Africa, thereby connecting the East African water transport to the coastal areas of the two oceans, its function is very similar to the Sino-German Canal connecting the central and northern parts of Germany.”
"And the East African Grand Canal is also a large-scale canal project completed by our country this century. This is very similar to your country's Sino-German Canal."
The Sino-German Canal, also known as the Central German Canal or the Mittel Canal, is an artificial canal planned to be built by Germany before the war. Construction started in 1905, and has now been temporarily shelved due to the war.
Franz IV also knew something about the Sino-German Canal. After all, for the whole of Germany, the Sino-German Canal was a national strategic project. If completed, it could connect Berlin, Wolfsburg, Hannover, Dortmund, Du Isburg and other important German cities, and greatly strengthened the connection between the capital Berlin and the Ruhr Industrial Area
And Lasles actually compared the East African Grand Canal with the Sino-German Canal. Obviously, in Lasles' mind, the East African Grand Canal must be quite good.
This made Franz IV a little unconvinced. After all, the Sino-German Canal was already considered a huge project in Franz IV's eyes.
So Franz IV asked Lasles: "I wonder how much work is being done on this canal in your country and how is the progress of the project?"
Lasles did not notice the change in Franz IV's heart, but directly said: "This project has been completed for four years. As for the length, the entire artificial excavation of the river is more than a thousand kilometers. I heard that the project The capacity is only smaller than the canal built by the Far Eastern Empire in ancient times.”
Franz IV seemed to have heard some joke, and he asked in disbelief: "How is it possible?"
"With more than a thousand kilometers of man-made canals, I'm afraid there is no such crazy project in the world except for the ancient canal in the Far Eastern Empire. And you just started digging this canal in East Africa this century, right? It's so short. How can it be achieved in time?”
Faced with the doubts of Francis IV, Lasles said: "This is indeed the case. The empire has indeed completed this incredible project, and an even larger canal project is currently being built in East Africa, although it is difficult to convince people."
After speaking, Lasles couldn't help but think that if he were a foreigner, it would be impossible to believe that East Africa could independently complete such a huge project.
On the contrary, Cobol said to Franz from the side: "Although it is hard to believe, the Empire did complete the East African Grand Canal a few years ago. The amount of the project is comparable to six or seven Suez Canals, and it is within the territory of New Frankfurt." There is this canal passing through. Of course, the price paid is not small, but for us in East Africa, this is not an impossible amount of work. After all, East Africa has a population of more than 100 million, plus it is far more than when the Suez Canal was built. Well-established tools and supplies, so it’s not out of the ordinary.”
With Kobol's confirmation, Franz IV had to believe in the existence of this canal. After all, the interactions along the way made Franz IV not think that Kobol was telling lies, and the East Africans had no need to Make fun of yourself about this kind of thing.
After reluctantly accepting the fact of the existence of the East African Grand Canal, Franz IV said: "It seems that your country's infrastructure capabilities are indeed beyond the imagination of the world. Before coming to East Africa, I thought that the national strength of East Africa should be comparable to that of Russia. But now I have to pay the price for my ignorance. Your country's capabilities are far superior to Russia's, especially your country's infrastructure capabilities, which are not inferior to those of the entire Europe. "