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Text Chapter 170 The Vast Land

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    The north wind blows and the white grass on the ground folds, and the sky is full of snow in August. Suddenly, like a spring breeze coming overnight, thousands of pear trees bloom.  It is already October in the Gregorian calendar, and the first layer of winter snow has fallen on the land of Beiman.  In the Vladivostok Port at the top of the Golden Horn Peninsula, an old-fashioned "East Coast Star" train carrying more than a hundred tons of supplies slowly started and headed north.  The destination of this train is Shuangchengzi Town, which is also the furthest point that the first railway in the jurisdiction of the Manchuria-Mongolia Development Team (i.e., the Manchuria-Mongolia Standard Gauge Railway) can extend.  The Manchuria-Mongolia standard gauge railway has been proposed for more than 20 years.  As early as 1679, Chen Ke, then captain of the pioneering team, proposed the Golden Cape Railway plan.  The so-called Golden Horn Railway is a railway that runs through the entire Golden Horn Peninsula from north to south, with a designed length of more than 40 kilometers.  But for such a short railway, the Southern Railway Company has been delaying its construction due to various reasons. The reason is that their own operating pressure is huge. The Shangding Railway and the Jiaoyan Railway are not very profitable, and the Binh-Rong Railway costs a lot of money. There is really no  The remaining energy was spent building railways in the desolate land of Manchuria and Mongolia.  After Lu Xiaofeng took over as captain of the pioneering team, he brought up the old matter again and asked to build a railway, but the Southern Railway Company declined again.  However, Lu Xiaofeng was not discouraged. He proposed an astonishing plan, the Manchuria-Mongolia standard gauge railway plan. He warmly invited the Southern Railway Company to join the project and promised that they would not interfere with the operation of the railway itself and its affiliated areas. He listened to the management of the Southern Railway Company.  .  The Southern Railway Company was very excited for a time. They even sent a team to conduct field surveys and planned the route.  However, after the route map was drawn, it has been shelved. Even though Manchuria and Mongolia promised to squeeze out some fiscal funds and also brought in the Bank of Taiwan to share the funds among the three parties, they still guaranteed 51% of the equity of the Southern Railway Company.  Still not working.  It seems that things are so bad.  Many people say that the population of Manchuria and Mongolia is too small and the economy is too poor to be suitable for building railways.  Heishui has a population of 300,000, a developed economy and advanced technology, but they haven¡¯t even said they want to build a railway. Why are you just joining in the fun?  Even many Manchu and Mongolian officials believe that military operations consume huge resources. Can their financial resources really support another large-scale infrastructure project while launching a war?  In the end, Wei Wendu¡¯s appointment changed everything.  The captain of the pioneering team, who was a military officer, was very enthusiastic about building the Manchuria-Mongolia standard gauge railway and worked hard to implement it.  But at the same time, he was also very practical and proposed to build a short section first, namely the first phase of the Manchuria-Mongolia standard gauge railway, from Vladivostok Port Terminal to Shuangchengzi County, with a total length of about 120 kilometers.  After the first phase is completed, everyone will take a look at the effect. If it is good, we will discuss the construction of the next phase.  It should be said that Wei Wendu¡¯s proposal is still very practical, and the Bank of Taiwan is also very supportive of it.  In addition, the Southern Railway Company's finances had greatly improved by this time, and its cash flow was relatively abundant. Therefore, all three parties had no objections, and finally signed a railway construction agreement in 1697, and construction began that year.  Today is October 3, 1704. After many shutdowns and delays, the first phase of the Manchuria-Mongolia Standard Gauge Railway was finally opened to traffic half a year ago.  From then on, a large number of people and materials could be disembarked in Vladivostok, and then transported to the hinterland of Manchuria and Mongolia via this railway. Most importantly, they were transported to Harbin, the core capital city where a large number of soldiers were stationed.  Yes, the ultimate goal of the Manchuria-Mongolia standard gauge railway is to connect Harbin and Vladivostok.  The former is the administrative capital, military center, and the economic center of the mainland with a large population. The latter is a seaport city and commercial center that can collect and distribute large amounts of materials. If the logistics costs between the two cities can be reduced, this can be greatly improved.  A sound economic environment provides a huge impetus for development.  At present, the plan for the second phase of the Manchuria-Mongolia standard gauge railway has been put forward, that is, it will be built from Shuangchengzi to Suifenhe. The planned length is almost 120 kilometers, which is equivalent to the first phase, but the cost should not be as much as the first phase.  However, construction and procurement funds of more than one million yuan are always required.  Unmentioned, the money was jointly financed by three parties and injected proportionally into a company called the Manchuria-Mongolia Standard Gauge Railway Company, which is the owner and operator of the first and second phases of the standard gauge railway.  The first and second phases of the railway total more than 240 kilometers, diagonally crossing an entire fertile plain.  On this black land, which people on the east coast call the Xingkai Lake Plain, an increasing number of people have now settled.  They fell trees and cultivated fields, fished and hunted, kept bees in their spare time, panned for gold, and picked some wild products, and their lives were quite good.  And with the official opening of the first phase of the Manchuria-Mongolia standard gauge railway, their remaining agricultural and sideline products, wild goods, leather and wool, etc. can be sold to further places through this transportation line.  In a word, the market is bigger, there are more choices, and the income will naturally increase.  As for the section from Suifenhe to Ningguta in the third phase of the Manchuria-Mongolia standard gauge railway, the total mileage exceeds 160 kilometers and may not be considered in the short term.  Divide?If there are any major changes, or funds suddenly become abundant, otherwise there will be no possibility of project establishment in the next five years, and we will be forced to do some preliminary survey and demonstration work, without any substantive action.  Of course, some people have also raised the possibility of building a direct railway from Shuangchengzi to the north along the east bank of Xingkai Lake through Heicheng County to Khabarovsk.  This railway is also of great value. It passes through plains rich in products and is not far from the mountainous areas. The natives can also come here for trade, which is very beneficial to the economic development and national integration of the entire Manchuria and Mongolia.  But this proposal was rejected almost immediately. The reason is that the capital of Manchuria and Mongolia is not in Khabarovsk but in Harbin. At this stage, all energy must be invested in Harbin. This is not only an economic issue, but also a political issue.  ,Not negotiable.  Today¡¯s train from Vladivostok transported construction materials, metal tools, food and medicine.  After arriving at Shuangchengzi Railway Station, they were transported westward by horse-drawn carriage, because the Manchu and Mongolian pioneering teams had established several new settlements in that area and were in urgent need of the above supplies.  These settlements are: Laoheishan Township (located near Laoheishan Town in later generations), Luozigou Township (located near Luozigou Town in later generations), and Wangqing Township (located near Wangqing County in later generations).  In addition, a fleet had previously landed on the coast of Pochet Bay in later generations, settling a total of 3,000 immigrants in three new settlements, namely: Chunhua Township (located near Chunhua Town in later generations), Hunchun  There are four settlements in total: Pinglu Township (located near Hunchun City in later generations), Mokowei Township (located near the small town of Poshet in later generations), and Pinglu Township (located near the port of Zarubino in later generations), among which Pinglu Township returns to Vladivostok.  County jurisdiction.  Hunchun, Chunhua, Mokuowei, Laoheishan, Luozigou and Wangqing, a total of six settlements with a total population of more than 5,000, have in principle been designated as one county, Hunchun County.  The county is roughly a narrow area north of the Tumen River and south of Vladivostok and Shuangchengzi counties. The territory is mostly mountainous, and the plains are mainly along the coast, along the river and in some isolated mountain valleys.  In view of the fact that in recent years the North Koreans have begun to move sporadically in the area south of the Tumen River, which has relatively unclear ownership rights, Wei Wendu, the captain of the Manchuria-Mongolia pioneering team, is very dissatisfied. In addition to sending people to scold him, he also plans to send a group of people urgently  We crossed the Tumen River and went to the south bank to survey the terrain. We planned to set up a few settlements first and then occupy this land to prevent the Koreans from thinking about it.  There should be no delay in this matter, and it will be implemented next year (1705) at the latest.  "A small North Korea dares to covet our land on the east coast. I really don't know who is in charge of the ups and downs of this vast land?"  ¡°While construction is in full swing in the coastal area, it is time for the railway and new settlements. At the other end of the railway, a series of construction operations are also underway in the Harbin Fort area, the capital of the Manchuria-Mongolia pioneering team.  They mainly focused on consolidating and digesting, that is, thoroughly sorting out the territory that was originally owned by the Qing Dynasty that had been conquered over the years. They generally used methods such as household registration, relocation, educational assimilation, commercial penetration, and military coercion.  , after several years of rectification, it has been initially digested and all worries have been resolved.  They also established some new settlements, such as Fuyuan Township (located near the later Fuyuan County) and Raohe Township (located near the later Raohe County). These two towns, together with Mianfanbao and Tongjiangzhai, formed a county.  That is Tongjiang County.  To the north of Heilongjiang, three new counties were also established, namely Zhenwei County, which governs Zhenwei Town (later known as Alhara Town) and Amugong Township (located near the source of the Amgun River);  Guining County, Guining Town and Daren Township (located near the later town of Novovoskre Shenovka); and Yaksa Town, Xinrong Township (located near the later Solovyovsk), and Tenda Township  Yakesa County (located near the small town of Tengda in later generations) and Yunxing Township (located near the small town of Neryungri in later generations).  In the Ergun River Basin, Mohe County, which governs Mohe Town, Mangui Tun Township, Alongshan Tun Township, and Jinhe Tun Township, was also established.  This is the first county in the Hulunbuir region (established by the military area under the jurisdiction of the Hulunbuir Advance Detachment). It can also be regarded as a symbol of the transformation of social order in this westernmost territory of Manchuria and Mongolia.  So far, the Manchuria-Mongolia Development Team has eighteen counties under its jurisdiction, in addition to a number of directly affiliated military forts and managed towns.  With vigorous efforts to promote people's fertility, intensify immigration and recruit natives and Mongolians to integrate households into the population, the total population of the jurisdiction has exceeded 800,000, making it the undisputed number one in the vast land of Manchuria, Mongolia and outer northeast.  Power cannot be challenged by anyone.  Not the Russians!  Not the Mongols!  Neither can the Qing people!
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