Daming Military Empire

Chapter 529

With the emperor sitting in Jiayuguan, matters related to the expedition to Wacha are progressing very quickly. All kinds of materials are sent to Jiayuguan crazily. Whether it is grain, grass, luggage or steel and cement needed for railway construction, they have long been piled in Jiayuguan. like mountains.

Soldiers from the vassal state legions and the reserve legions rushed to Jiayuguan like a race, and in less than ten days, they all arrived.

Now the Third Army Corps of the Frontier Defense Army and the Fourth Army Corps of the Frontier Defense Army are gathering for drills in Jiayuguan. The other three armies and the armies of the vassal states have already taken the Wacha Allied Forces with 20 prisoners to build the railway from Jiayuguan to Hamiwei.

At this time, the construction of railways was not as complicated as later generations. There was no need to install any electrical lines. It was only necessary to dig out the roadbed, lay stones, level it up, lay sleepers and rails, and fix it.

During the construction of railways in the Ming Dynasty, the most time-consuming tasks were digging roadbeds, laying stones, and processing sleepers.

It would take at least two days for 10 people to dig a hundred-mile-long subgrade without the Dilong. Now with the Dilong, it is different. The Dilong takes a special sledge and drives all the way. , the people behind can just clean up the upturned soil, and it is no problem for 10 people to dig two hundred miles a day.

It’s not that it’s difficult to lay stones. You only need to fill in the roadbed when laying stones. The main reason is that stones are difficult to find. The place is shipped.

Fortunately, there are remnants of the Tianshan Mountains everywhere along the line from Jiayuguan to Hami, so finding some stones is not a problem, as long as you send people to mine them.

The last item, Daming, also thought of a way. The current sleepers no longer cut down the wood as before, and then slowly processed it, but directly turned it out with reinforced concrete.

At the beginning, making sleeper molds might be a waste of time compared to directly making sleepers, but now, Daming has a lot of sleeper molds, and if you just pull a train over, you won’t be able to use them all up, as long as you tie up the steel bars and mix the concrete well Just pour it in.

Of course, there is one of the most troublesome things in building a railway, that is, building bridges and opening holes. If there are rivers or mountains blocking the way on the railway line, it will be troublesome.

The reason why the railway from Jiayuguan to Hamiwei has not been built is not because the terrain here is complicated, there are no rivers here, and the mountains are also east-west, so they will not block the railway at all. The main reason is that the wind and sand are too strong. It may take a few days after repair It was buried by the wind and sand.

However, now, after several years of treatment by Sun Chuanting, the two sides of the planned railway line are almost covered with drought-resistant plants for dozens of miles, so there is no need to worry too much about the problem of wind and sand.

If in the past, Sun Chuanting led the Qin army and [-] garrison guards to repair slowly, the railway from Jiayuguan to Hamiwei would take at least half a year to repair, but now, the speed is not too scary.

How many people gathered outside Jiayuguan at this time?

There are the Qin Army, the First Army Corps of the Frontier Defense Army, and the Second Army Corps of the Frontier Defense Army. The three regular armies have a total of 30 troops;
There are also the First Japanese Army, the Second Japanese Army, the Korean Army, the Siamese Army, the Annan Army and the Donghu Army. The six vassal states have a total of 60 troops;
There are also nearly 20 captives from the Wacha Department and the Kazakh Khanate, and they are now free labor.

A total of 110 million people, under the command of officials from the Ministry of Industry, divided labor and cooperated, and spread out in an all-round way:
The First Frontier Army Corps and the Second Frontier Guard Army Corps escorted 20 captives to mine stones;
The Dongying First Army and the Dongying Second Army are responsible for transporting stones;
The Korean Legion and the Siamese Legion were responsible for mixing the concrete and turning over the sleepers;
The Annan Army and the Donghu Army were responsible for digging the roadbed and filling in stones;

Qin Jun was responsible for cooperating with the officials of the Ministry of Industry to level the roadbed and lay sleepers and rails.

More than 100 million people are like an assembly line. The speed is astonishingly fast. In less than half a month, the railway from Jiayuguan to Hamiwei has been completed!

Now, the Qin army, the vassal state army and 20 captives are resting at the foot of the Tianshan Mountains north of Hamiwei, while the First Frontier Army Army and the Second Frontier Army Army Army have been transferred back to Jiayuguan for reorganization.

The reason why Zhu Cijiong brought back the First Frontier Army Corps and the Second Frontier Defense Army Army Corps was mainly because of the more than [-] war horses left by the Wacha Allied Forces.

These war horses were accumulated over decades by the Wacha and Kazakh Khanates. Although the Ming Dynasty had a vast territory and was also very rich, it was impossible to gather so many war horses at one time.

After the selection of [-] cavalrymen from the First Legion of the Imperial Guard, more than [-] strong and uninjured horses have been selected from more than [-] horses. As for the wounded, all were transported to the Tatar grassland for healing. The next ones were also assigned to the various legions to pull food, supplies and artillery.

Of the more than [-] horses, only [-] horses are needed by the Third Frontier Army Corps and the Fourth Frontier Army Army Corps, and Zhu Cijiong is going to equip all the remaining [-] horses for the First Frontier Army Army Corps and the Second Border Defense Army Army Corps. It's not that he wants to promote these two legions to first-class legions, it's mainly for combat needs.

Because the most important combat force on the wasteland is the cavalry, and four of the five legions on this expedition are third-class legions, and there is only one first-class legion. In this case, the countries in the Western Regions may waste a lot of time on the issue of whether to surrender to Ming Dynasty.

It would be different if the First Frontier Army Corps and the Second Frontier Army Army Corps were reorganized into a regiment with 17 cavalry. The Ming army that went to the Western Regions had a total of 15 cavalry. [-] cavalry are on the border, it depends on whether you are afraid or not!
Of course, there may be one country among the five countries in the Western Regions that is not afraid of 15 cavalry, that is, the month will be farewell, because it was originally a powerful country in the Western Regions, and in the battles between the Ming Dynasty and the Wacha and the Persian Safavid Empire. It didn't suffer any damage, and still retained all its strength.

For this month's farewell, Zhu Cijiong is going to adopt a north-south attack strategy. At that time, Hou Shilu of South Asia will station 20 troops on the southern border of Yue's farewell, and then let Sun Chuanting station hundreds of thousands of troops in the north of Yue's farewell. Don't believe him Never give up.

After the First Frontier Army Regiment and the Second Frontier Army Regiment reorganized [-] cavalry, there was a problem, that is, there were not enough revolver flintlocks. It's not easy to load bullets at that time, so I can only use a revolver rifle.

However, the Ministry of Industry only sent a total of more than 1 revolver rifles this time. After the Third Army Corps of the Frontier Defense Army and the Fourth Army Army of the Frontier Defense Army were equipped with 6 rifles each, there were only more than [-] rifles left, and the missing [-] It will take at least a month to make more.

Time waits for no one, Zhu Cijiong finally decided to ask the First Army of the Imperial Guard to exchange guns with them first, because the First Army of the Imperial Guard will not go out together, but will be responsible for guarding the rear guards and Jiayuguan. There is not much difference between rifles and ordinary flintlock guns, and they can wait for the Ministry of Industry to deliver new guns.

After more than ten days of rest and preparations, the Ming army finally set off again. This time Zhu Cijiong did not rush to Hamiwei to talk, because he had already handed over the affairs of the Western Regions to Sun Chuanting. The most famous general will not let him down.

(End of this chapter)