African Entrepreneurship Records

Chapter 916 Walvis Bay Railway

The desert is solitary and the sun is setting on the long river. The Namib Desert in Southwest Africa is not inconsistent at all. With the completion of other main line railways, East Africa has finally begun the construction of the Walvis Bay Railway.

Although it is close to the sea, the Namib Desert does not enjoy the nourishment of Atlantic rain. Like Chile and Peru, vegetation relies on fog to obtain its main water source.

“Leder, am I dazzled? That’s an elephant!” Vasily, a railway worker, stared at a group of elephants passing by on the road next door and said in amazement.

There is a road directly from Walvis Bay to Mongu City. This road is naturally built in the hinterland of the desert, and the Walvis Bay Railway is also built along the road, which means it is also in the desert, so Vasily almost thought that something appeared in his eyes. hallucination.

"What a fuss, that's a desert elephant. It's different from the grassland elephants we usually see. I remember that there is also a forest elephant in the Congo Basin, so you still haven't seen much." Leder introduced to Vasily quite proudly.

"There is all sand around here. What do they eat to maintain such a big size?" Vasily didn't believe it. After all, Vasily had seen a lot of elephants on the grassland, but those elephants were not short of food!

"Look carefully, are the elephants in this group smaller than the elephants we usually see? Desert elephants mainly live on shrubs in the desert. Although the Namib Desert is dry, it has heavy fog and a lot of vegetation depends on it. As a result, it has developed a completely different way of living from other desert plants in the world."

"Anyway, you will understand after you have stayed in the Namib Desert for a long time. I also listened to some old-timers and realized this more intuitively when I was building the Walvis Bay Highway. Not only elephants, but also the Namib Desert There are also lions, zebras and other animals you have seen in grassland areas, and you will get used to them in the future.”

Of course, Leder said it casually, but his next move shocked Vasily.

Leder took out his pistol, loaded the bullet skillfully, and then shot in the direction of the elephants.

"boom…"

Of course, Ryder just fired a shot into the sky to scare the elephants away.

“Why did you suddenly shoot and startle me?” Vasily said with some resentment.

“Of course it’s for safety. Elephants are dangerous animals. If there weren’t too many of them and we didn’t have enough manpower, I wouldn’t just fire a blank shot as a warning.”

 The sound of gunfire attracted the attention of the rear guard, who also asked Leder what happened.

"It's okay, Hope, there was just a herd of desert elephants in front of us. I fired my gun to scare them away."

"Don't be so reckless next time something like this happens. Even though we have weapons in our hands, we still leave such dangerous matters to us." Hope reminded him unsurprisingly, "You see, the black people next to you are so scared. Dare to work."

 As railway workers in East Africa, they are actually paired with black workers as substitutes. Only technically difficult jobs will be done by their own people.

"Don't worry! Hope, these black people just want to be lazy. After all, they are not that group of wild animals and don't know what guns are for."

"Very good, as long as the task can be completed within the construction period, you can decide what is appropriate. After all, if black people riot, it will be a headache. Don't think that if you have a weapon in your hand, you will be foolproof. I have thought so before. People were killed in the end.”

What Hope said is of course true. Today’s black people in East Africa are no longer “uninformed” natives. Under the management of East Africa, they have also come into contact with many new things.

For example, guns that were previously considered "monsters" have returned to their correct perception. They are weapons used by East Africans. As long as they pull the trigger, they can become "patriots". It has to be said that the black indigenous people have also "opened their eyes to the world" with the development of East Africa, but this has also caused the East Africans to "fall off the altar" in the eyes of the indigenous people.

It turns out that they are not an iron wall, they just have better weapons to defeat us. With this understanding, many black people naturally take risks.

Of course, this has also strengthened the determination of the East African government. In the future, these "scourges" must not be allowed to remain in East Africa. They should be allowed to cause disasters in other "civilized worlds"!

"Hope, we have been cooperating for a long time. You also know that I was in Southwest Africa before. I naturally understand the truth behind this and will never cause any trouble." Leder assured Hope.

Later, he asked Hope: "Is there any specific news about the railway construction in the rear? I wonder if they have been completed? I just want to finish this section in the Namib Desert as soon as possible. It is too painful to stay here." "

What Leder is talking about is naturally the plateau section of the Walvis Bay Railway. The Walvis Bay Railway is divided into two parts, one part is the coastal Namib Desert, and the other part is the Homas Plateau.

The railway construction in the Homas Plateau section is related to the progress of the project in the Namib Desert section. After all, only after the Homas Plateau section is completed can building materials be transported from the inland faster.

"You don't need to worry about this. There are currently less than fifty kilometers left for the railway to connect with the Namib Desert. Now that Windhoek has been identified as the new capital of Southwest Africa in the future, the project is progressing very quickly. "

In the past, the political center of Southwest Africa was naturally Walvis Bay, and the military center was Swakopmund to the north of Walvis Bay. However, with the construction of Windhoek in East Africa, it became the center of Southwest Africa with its superior geographical and climatic conditions. Africa’s “upstart” cities.

Windhoek was the capital of Namibia in its previous life. Historically, the Germans established the city there in 1890. In 1892, it became the capital of German South-West Africa. At the beginning, the German colonial capital was Swarovski. Copemund.

Now East Africa has established Windhoek as the capital of Southwest Africa. This is actually consistent with Germany's approach in the previous life. It is located in the center of Southwest Africa and has certain agricultural planting conditions. It is better than Swakopmund, which only relies on subsidies from East Africa. Bay Harbor is much stronger.

In the past, Walvis Bay and Swakopmund were obviously more important and were the only large-scale west coast ports in East Africa. However, as East Africa occupied Angola, there were better options such as Luanda and Cabinda on the west coast of East Africa, so the two The status of land has naturally declined.

Of course, the importance of the two places mainly affects the economic value, but it is also very important strategically. After all, it is related to East Africa’s main maritime strategic deployment in the southwest region, and it is one of the areas that the East African navy pays more attention to.

Of course, in the future, with the development of mineral resources in Southwest Africa, places such as Walvis Bay may turn around, but now Southwest Africa is actually a "bottomless pit" among East African countries.

Just like the Walvis Bay Railway, except for Walvis Bay and Wendeke, only the regional economies outside Southwest Africa are relatively developed along the route.

In the next few years, the Walvis Bay Railway will not be able to increase the volume of people or freight. After all, Walvis Bay currently has only a little fishery output, and Wendeke has just started, and the entire Southwest Africa is sparsely populated.

Therefore, the Walvis Bay railway operation will inevitably suffer losses for a long time in the future. If it were not a country like East Africa, it would be difficult to have the power to build a railway in Southwest Africa, which would still be the highest-level trunk railway. After all, the East African government has never considered economic aspects entirely. .

This is a bit like the Siberian Railway in Tsarist Russia. The Siberian Railway is still under construction and is still far from being fully completed.

Forty percent of the Walvis Bay Railway in East Africa has been completed. This can also show the gap between the two countries. Although the Walvis Bay Railway is far less than the Siberian Railway in length, the difficulty is not bad at all, except that Tsarist Russia The gray cattle of the United States may not be able to withstand the horrific weather in Siberia, while the black slaves of East Africa are relatively tolerant of the Namib Desert.

 (End of this chapter)