Chapter 890 Railway Construction
The war in the Far East is a trivial matter for East Africa, and it is even difficult to attract the attention of its own citizens. After all, East Africa now mainly focuses on domestic construction and has no intention of intervening in international affairs.
September 1894.
New Frankfurt.
“This railway goes to the southeast. According to the superior department, it seems that a new city will be built southeast of New Frankfurt and northeast of Kabwe. Now this newly opened railway branch line It is to use the new Frankfurt City Railway and then connect it to the national railway network," railway worker Hans said to his colleagues.
The efficiency of the East African government is still good. As the location of Rhine City was selected, the construction of the railway to Rhine City began immediately, and Hans and others were railway workers on this railway line.
“There is nothing surprising about this. A large number of new cities are built in East Africa every year. Take our province of Hohenzollern as an example. There are quite a few cities that have popped up suddenly in these years. ” Lavis replied.
Many cities in the Hohenzollern Province have suddenly risen due to mineral resources or railways, especially the northern copper belt and the central railway, so now a new city has emerged around New Frankfurt. There is nothing surprising about Lavis.
“Hey, you don’t understand this. If it’s just a new city, it certainly doesn’t deserve my attention. But I heard Director Valeni say that this new city is likely to become our new city in the future. The capital, replacing today’s first town,” Hans said to Lavis and others.
Lavis: "How did you get the information from Director Valeni? And since he knows this information, why didn't he publicize it openly?"
Hans: "Didn't I drink with Director Valeni a while ago? He said it to himself when he was drunk. I didn't think much about it at the time. After all, the First Town seems to have no problem as the capital. How could it be possible to move the capital? ! It didn’t take long for what Director Valeni said to be fulfilled, especially for this railway, but Director Valeni mentioned it emphatically."
Another of his colleagues, Bell, interrupted at this time. : "Hans, what's the significance of this railway?"
Hans raised the corner of his mouth and said: "There is a lot of knowledge here. You all know that the capital of any country should be Isn’t there a proverb that says all roads lead to Rome in a place where transportation is accessible across the country? So this capital must choose the area with the most convenient transportation in East Africa.”
“Although the location of the first town is good. It’s close to the sea and has railways, but it’s too far to the east. East Africa is a big country, bigger than a dozen of Germany, so the location of the first town is naturally too remote for the whole of East Africa.”
"It is different around New Frankfurt. Although this is not only the geographical center of East Africa, but also will become the future economic center of our country. To give you the simplest example, it would be better if the central government is placed here. Control various regions across the country, especially the core plateau areas of our country.”
Everyone also thought that what Hans said made sense, but Lavis asked: "But isn't this unnecessary? The capital can be placed in New Frankfurt, and building a new city seems a bit wasteful. "
Regarding this point, Hans explained: "This is not a contradiction. The first town was not placed in the more prosperous city of Dar es Salaam, but was built far away. It is about fifty kilometers west of Dar es Salaam, so our future new capital may also take this approach."
At this time, Director Valeni came out of nowhere and said: " Hans, what are you talking about? "
Valeni's appearance shocked everyone. After all, as bosses, everyone was still a little afraid of Valeni.
Hans' expression froze and he quickly said: "We were discussing the railway just now. After all, Director Valeni, you also said that we should pay special attention to this railway, so we were just talking about work."
"Oh, that's it. You'd better not be petty. This railway is very important. There can be no quality defects at all, so pay attention during construction and report any problems in time. Otherwise, it will be troublesome if problems arise later. "Director Valeni, we are tired of hearing these words. Don't worry, we will always remember it." Lavis and others echoed.
The more this happened, the more uneasy Valeni became. He said directly: "The importance of this railway is higher than any railway we have built before, so it must be Take it ten times or a hundred times more seriously than usual, otherwise I won’t take advantage of you when you go in and step on the sewing machine.”
After hearing Valeni’s words, everyone was shocked and stepped on the sewing machine. That means going to jail. Of course, in East Africa, you may also go to mining and other hard manual labor.
"Director Valeni, did you get any news? Just now we told Hans that this railway will lead to the new capital of East Africa in the future."
Valeni frowned and said: "Well, Hans, where did you get the news?"
Being suddenly named, Hans said with some trepidation: "Supervisor, you forgot, just last month You told me when you were drinking."
Valeni scratched his head: "Really! What else did I say when I was drunk?"
Hans: "The main thing is Rhine. , and so on, I was drunk at the time, so I don’t remember much.”
Valeni then remembered how the news leaked, and it seemed that it would be better to drink less in the future, but he didn’t expect that he would still drink less. He can tell the truth after drinking. If any secrets are exposed, it will be too social.
"Don't pay too much attention to the capital and so on. I haven't even mentioned the horoscope yet! I only got the gossip from my friends, but one thing is for sure, that is, the superiors do not pay much attention to this city. Low, so you should be serious when working, especially when monitoring black people."
When it comes to black people, Valeni said more: "We were responsible for a section of the railway the year before last. An accident almost occurred due to the carelessness of black people during construction, so you must pay close attention to the work of black people and inspect the sections they are constructing at least three times a day to ensure the quality of the project."
In the East African Railway System. There are a large number of black laborers. Although they have made important contributions to the construction of East African railways, they are obviously not able to become excellent industrial workers due to lack of cognition and culture.
However, the East African government knows this very well. The East African government has no intention of training black people to become excellent industrial workers. As for black people now working in various industries in East Africa, they are completely reluctant to part with these cheap labor forces.
However, in the railway sector, the proportion of black labor has actually been decreasing. In the past, the railways were full of blacks and East African supervisors, but now the number of blacks has dropped to less than 30%.
Of course, the proportion in mines, plantations, etc. is slightly higher. Now the main work has begun to be completed by East Africans themselves. After all, the number of East African citizens has already exceeded the number of black slaves by about two to three times. At the same time, this is also the beginning of the East African government. Adapt in advance to the social effects of reducing black slaves.
"Black people generally don't pay much attention, or lack basic knowledge, so you must keep an eye on me, otherwise in addition to trouble, you will definitely be blamed when the time comes." Valeni continued to emphasize. road.
"Don't worry, supervisor, we will keep an eye on it, and we will definitely complete some key tasks ourselves, so that we can ensure efficiency and project quality at the same time." Lavis said in a timely manner.
(End of this chapter)