Chapter 1167 Engineering Miracle
Road transportation in East Africa has formed a huge competition with railways. This is still under the condition that the potential of road construction 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, especially in several large lake basins in East Africa, forming quite developed regions. Sexual water transport network.
In the 20th century, the inland shipbuilding industry in East Africa also entered a stage of great development, sailing on the Great Lakes, Lake Solon, Lake Malawi, Congo River, Zambezi River and other river basins, as well as artificial canals in East Africa Ships grew significantly.
Of course, it is difficult for Franz IV to have an intuitive understanding of this. Most of the areas he passes through currently 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 Franz 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.
Except for 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 , Iringa, although the first 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 Cobol showed his ID, the group waited for the 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.
For this Duke, the New Frankfurt City Government does not dare to neglect. To be more rigorous, Francis IV is a serious foreign head of state, although the Principality of Mecklenburg-Schwerin is only the German Empire. A principality below, rather than an independent country, does not hinder 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 just 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 go to some undeveloped areas in East Africa, such as grasslands, rainforests, and lakes. Touring, of course, East Africa also has 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 the city of New Frankfurt also have any famous natural landscapes?"
Laslis: "Our city does not have any famous natural landscapes. However, 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, Franz IV was more interested. After all, the name was so big, and the scale was obviously not 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 has been liberalized , these projects naturally do not need to be secretive. Lasles introduced to Francis IV: "The East African Grand Canal is a miracle of our East African water transportation construction, and it is completely comparable to your country's Kiel Canal. Large-scale projects that are comparable, 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 Africa, thereby realizing water transportation in East Africa. It connects the coastal areas of the two oceans, so its function is 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 in our country this century. This is very similar to your country's Sino-German Canal."
The Sino-German Canal can also be called the Central German Canal or the Mittel Canal. It was 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 considered a national strategic project. If completed, it could connect Berlin and Wolfsburg. , Hannover, Dortmund, Duisburg 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 impressive.
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?"
Lasleus did not notice that Franz IV Shi's heart changed, but he directly said: "This project has been completed for four years. As for the length, the entire manually excavated river channel is more than a thousand kilometers. I heard that the project volume is only larger than the canal built in ancient times by the Far Eastern Empire. Small."
Franz IV seemed to have heard a joke, and he asked in disbelief: "How is it possible?"
"With more than a thousand kilometers of artificial canals, I am afraid that except Apart from the ancient canal in the Far Eastern Empire, there is no such crazy project in the world, and you just started digging this canal in East Africa, right? How could it be possible in such a short time?”
< br>Facing the doubts of Franz 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, and its project volume is comparable to six or seven Suez Canals. , and this canal passes through the city of New Frankfurt. Of course, the price paid is not small, but for us in East Africa, this is not an impossible amount of work. After all, the population of East Africa is as high as more than 100 million, plus the distance The tools and materials are more complete than those used when the Suez Canal was built, so this is not a breakthrough in common sense.”
With Cobol’s confirmation, Franz IV had to believe in the existence of this canal, after all, along the way. The close relationship made Franz IV not think that Cobol was talking big words, and there was no need for the East Africans to joke with themselves about such things.
After reluctantly accepting the fact of the existence of the East African Grand Canal, Francis 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 East Africa's The national strength 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."
(End of this chapter)