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Text Chapter 551 The Difficult Road

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    The year 1921 began with a bang.

    First of all, there was explosive news from the international community that the first phase of negotiations on the Washington Naval Treaty broke up unhappily.  Both China and the United States have criticized the Anglo-Japanese alliance. Ye Zugui even said that as Sino-British relations enter the moment of normalization, the UK's continued alliance has undoubtedly hurt the feelings of the Chinese people.  Moreover, when the tonnage of ships and the quality of personnel are far inferior to those of its immediate neighbors, any treaty that restricts the development of the navy cannot be accepted.  In order to bring China and the United States back to the negotiating table, Britain finally gave up on the Anglo-Japanese alliance. Japan also knew that this alliance would not last long and could only accept it with disappointment.  However, because Britain and Japan need each other, the general trend of continuing to maintain special and good relations has not changed.

    What followed was the demise of the Ottoman Empire, the establishment of the Turkish Republic, and the signing of the Treaty of Riga.  Due to the failure of the Russian Red Army to attack Warsaw, the war between Moscow and Poland came to an end. In this war, Stalin lost leadership and had conflicts with Lenin and Tronotsky. After the failure, he publicly stated that he was "the only one who disagreed"  A member of the Central Committee of the March on Warsaw" shied away from all responsibility for this.  Lenin, who was in declining health, had no intention of arguing with him. In order to end the civil war as soon as possible, he finally agreed to sign the Treaty of Riga, ceding large areas of fertile land in Belarus and western Ukraine to Poland, thus ending the state of war.  The war that lasted for more than half a year resulted in millions of military and civilian casualties, and the entire Ukraine and Belarus were devastated.

    The threat from the east remains, and reconstruction requires huge amounts of funds. Moscow, which is helpless, has no choice but to allow the two places to establish independent autonomy and establish the Republic of Ukraine and the Republic of Belarus.  This has also led to instability in neighboring countries.  Finally, it turned around and signed new peace agreements with Estonia, Latvia and other countries, allowing them to self-govern.

    The impact of the European War is actually far from dissipated.

    The country is also trapped in a world of ice and fire.

    First, the Qinghai earthquake at the end of 1920 caused serious damage to many places in Qinghai, Gansu, and Shaanxi. Four cities were directly destroyed by the earthquake, leaving more than 4.7 million people homeless.  Although the Republic of China government dispatched 160,000 troops to provide disaster relief, it also urgently transported a large number of tents and food from the mainland. Yang Qiu, Li Yuanhong, Hu Weide and others also visited the disaster area in person.  Still due to poor transportation, poor sanitation, and severe cold weather, 220,000 people died.

    The major earthquake heralded that China has entered a four-year period of high incidence of natural disasters.  To this end, Nanjing has also established a government public crisis management department following the British model to respond to sudden disasters across the country.  Fortunately, shortly after the earthquake, the country finally entered into the intense second five-year national construction plan.  As the currency reform deepens.  The total amount of RMB issuance began to rise sharply. From the signing of the "Minimo Foreign Contract" to recover silver until May 1921, the Ministry of Finance continuously issued 3 billion RMB banknotes and 2 billion bearer treasury bonds.  As Schumitcher described, not many people collect banknotes, and the tradition of saving money causes most of these banknotes to return to the central bank.

    After the funds were secured, the central Ministry of Finance allocated 1 billion yuan in various funds in just the first four months of the year. In addition, the local finance allocated a total of 2.2 billion yuan in construction funds. A large number of new projects have emerged across the country, and these projects will  Workers who lost their jobs due to bankruptcies and closures will absorb most of them.  Peace in the outside world stimulated the speed of national construction, but the new generation of visionary politicians of the Republic of China headed by Yang Qiu knew very well.  China is far from the time when it can truly say no to the world.

    On the train traveling along the Longhai Line, two groups of young people argued with each other about the recent "Civil-Foreign Treaty", which attracted a lot of attention.  The group of people on the left were well-dressed, and they looked like they came from a wealthy family. They were the first to say: "The vice president was wrong this time. Why bother to argue anymore."

    ¡°The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk relied on us and Britain and the United States to defeat Germany before agreeing to be invalidated. Who can we rely on?¡±

    "In a few years, foreigners will be able to produce many products, and by then they will have made all the money of the Chinese people."

    The students on the right are not as bright as them. Most of them are ordinary cloth shirts, and many of them still have patches on their clothes.  At first glance, they are ordinary students who have realized their college dreams due to the free education policy.  Many people also wore the emblem of the Youth Association on their chests and retorted: "Brother, don't you know that they earn yuan? The money they earn still has to be used domestically, even if it is  Buy a boatload of coal and go back, and keep the money."

    "But this will have an impact on our industry and the national industry will shrink."

    "Nonsense! The country's statistical population is nearly 50 million. With so many mouths to feed and clothe, how long will it take for us to rely on ourselves? As long as the country is rich and the people are strong, what's the fear of expanding tenfold? What we have to do is  Supervise them, rather than closing the country off."

    "It is not easy to supervise. These foreigners have been engaged in industry for hundreds of years, and the things they make are better than us. They are more familiar with the corners than we are. It is better not to open up than to have a headache when the time comes."

    "How can a big country with fifty million citizens continue to be left to foreigners?"Fraud?  Don¡¯t you know the virtues of foreigners and foreign investors during the Manchu and Qing Dynasties?  If we are talking about construction, why do we need to ask foreigners to come?  Therefore, it is unwise to open up to foreign investment.  "

    ""

    Gradually, the group of young people on the left who opposed opening up gained the upper hand. Many ordinary people were attracted by their arguments and believed that foreigners were not good people, so foreign capital should not be allowed to enter the country, at least slowly and still in such large amounts.

    Zhan Tianyou, who had been in the corner, was both relieved and frowning when he heard this.  The pleased students have begun to pay attention to the development of the country, but they are frowning because many people have not understood some things, and their minds are still in the era of the late Manchu Qing Dynasty when they did not dare to take the initiative to go out and meet challenges.

    The young assistant next to him was also a little unconvinced. He stood up and wanted to say a few words to the national socialist students, but he pulled him back: "Who are they?"

    "It's the northwest collecting group organized by Peking University and Nankai University." The assistant said angrily: "Minister, listen, it's just nonsense. It compares our Republic of China to the Manchu Qing Dynasty! Without foreign capital injection, we went there to import equipment."

    "Haha" Zhan Tianyou smiled and waved his hand: "Why bother to fight about this kind of thing? Aren't they going to the northwest to collect wind? Once they go there, they will know what this country is like." After finishing speaking, he drank.  Drooled.  Regardless of the debate, he spread out the drawings and took out a hard white steamed bun from his bag. He started to work while eating and asked, "How are the preparations for the southern coast line going?"

    Zhan Tianyou usually doesn¡¯t take a box when he goes out. Instead, he squeezes into a sardine can-like carriage like ordinary people.  National construction requires too much money, and railways are a top priority, so he insists on setting an example.  But there are troubles.  It was very noisy along the way, but fortunately there were assistants and staff on the left and right seats, as well as guards sent by Yang Qiu.  So you avoid a lot of trouble.

    The young assistant knew his temper, so he simply ignored the debate and introduced: "We will first select 7 starting points on the southern line. Basically, there are them in every province. The biggest difficulty is Guangxi and Fujian, with mountains and rivers.  The difficulty is not much worse than the Longhai Line. Jiangsu, Shandong and Zhejiang are relatively easy. The biggest problem in the north is the Changbai Mountain area. The altitude here is too high. Professor Yan has already gone to the field to survey and prepare to see whether to detour or dig culverts." The assistant began to explain the environment.  Regarding the situation of China's southern railway line, this railway has received full support from Yang Qiu and the Ministry of Finance, and has allocated 5 million yuan and sent the Air Force and Army Engineer Corps to help with preliminary surveying and mapping work.  This is his lifelong wish, and it is a big project that cannot go wrong no matter what.  So listen very carefully and ask several times if you have any questions.

    "How was the Longhai Line damaged by the earthquake?"

    The China-Rim Railway is still relatively far away. Zhan Tianyou came out this time mainly to personally inspect the western section of the Longhai Line project. He was very worried due to the collapse of many roadbeds caused by the earthquake.  You must know that the Longhai Line is a major project involving national security in the northwest.  Nanjing and the Ministry of National Defense have strictly ordered that it must be opened to traffic by the end of 1923.

    "The roadbed from East Kazakqi to Xingxingxia has been started, and the speed from Lianyungang to Tongguan is also very fast. However, the road from Baoji to Tianshui is too problematic. The roadbed and railway bridges built before have been displaced a lot due to the earthquake, and in many places there are still  Cracks appeared. The construction workers in front wanted to simply reselect the line to avoid earthquake zones to avoid causing greater damage in the future."

    Amidst the sound of rolling iron wheels, Zhan Tianyou¡¯s brows gradually wrinkled.  Put the half-eaten bun into your briefcase.  The most difficult part of the Longhai Line is the section from Tianshui to Baoji. The train needs to cross the Liupan Mountains in the Qinling Mountains. The mountains are high and the rivers are dangerous and the gorges are rugged. It takes hundreds of kilometers just to build various cement railway bridges and dig culverts. The technical requirements are rare in the world!  This section was also the most damaged by the earthquake, but he did not dare to make an immediate decision on whether to reselect the route. You must know that 100 million yuan has been invested in this section alone. If the route was reselected, it would mean that all the initial investment was wasted, and it would definitely be lost.  Delay in construction period.

    The long journey seemed to consume too much energy from everyone, and the two groups of young people who were blushing at each other also stopped. It was not until the train arrived in Hanzhong that vitality showed again.

    Since the railway from Hanzhong to Tianshui has not yet been repaired, if you want to go to Gansu or Xinjiang, you need to change carriages from here.  When Zhan Tianyou stood up, the sharp-eyed students immediately recognized the famous railway minister and surrounded him with a cheer.

    "Minister Zhan, how long will it take for the railway ahead to be opened to traffic?"

    "Yes, we also want to take a train directly from here to the northwest."

    "It will be soon! The country has mobilized all its forces to conquer this natural chasm. Nothing can block the way forward for our Chinese nation!"

    "Okay! Bang"

    Zhan Tianyou¡¯s bold words drew applause from the students, and the young man who was the most powerful in refuting Yang Qiu¡¯s policies in the car came over.  He wears glasses and looks very elegant.He introduced himself with dignity and said: "I, Hu Shi, have met Minister Zhan."

    Hu Shi?  Zhan Tianyou raised his eyebrows, thinking of the noisy dispute between old and new cultures in the past two years, and asked, "Are you Hu Shi from Peking University?"

    "Exactly."

    Zhan Tianyou took a look. He was handsome and personable, and he had studied in the United States for many years, which made him unconsciously feel close to her. If he hadn't repeatedly said that Yang Qiu's policies were wrong on the train, he might have thought more highly of him.

    Hu Shi also met a minister-level figure in Nanjing for the first time. He had long wanted to enter politics but had never been able to get into it. He couldn't help but asked lonely: "Minister Zhan, did you hear what we said on the train? Can you tell me about you?"  What¡¯s your opinion?¡±

    "My opinion? Haha" Although Zhan Tianyou is a minister, he never interferes in political decisions. This is his promise to Yang Qiu as Minister of Railways.  What's more, he only has the dream of the China Railway in his heart, so he shook his head and pointed ahead: "You will have your answer ahead"

    Hu Shi and other students and young people didn¡¯t quite understand. At this time, the military truck that came to pick up Zhan Tianyou and his party arrived. He simply let the truck take everyone on board and swayed all the way to Baoji.

    "Brother Lieutenant, how long does it take for us to reach Baoji?"

    Several female students who kept singing along the way felt uncomfortable because of the bumps. They grabbed the second lieutenant who was leading the group and asked how far it was.  The second lieutenant had never seen so many girls in big cities. He comforted them with a blushing face. It wasn't until a sea of ??colorful tents appeared in front of him that he breathed a sigh of relief: "We are here."

    "Wowlook! What is that? It's so beautiful."

    "Yes, so many colors."

    "Why are there so many tents here? Are they from the construction team?"

    "Wait, this isGod!"

    As the motorcade approached, the female students who were shouting excitedly because they saw the beautiful tent ocean for the first time suddenly covered their mouths, and their big eyes instantly turned red.

    Groups of ragged people like gray-brown ant colonies appeared in sight. The soldiers were handing out meager rations. The naked children tightly held the hands of adults and looked timidly at this group of brightly dressed and fine-skinned people.  White city dweller.

    What kind of railway construction team tent is this?  It¡¯s basically a large refugee area after the earthquake!

    "Get out of the car." Zhan Tianyou took a deep breath and turned serious: "You are all adults, haven't you been discussing national construction and policies in the car? Here are all the answers you need."

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