"All up, work harder, don't let the mall people on the other side look down on you!" On April 15, 1701, a black and thin man shouted at the top of his lungs with a construction design drawing in his hand.

What they are working on is a communication line, a communication line that is only more than 50 kilometers long. But don't underestimate it, because this is the first communication line across the seabed/river bottom on the east coast, connecting the telegraph room between the mall port and the Shanghai port. If this line is proven to be safe to use for a long time, it will bring new opportunities to the development of the communication industry on the east coast.

In fact, people on the East Coast have tried many times about submarine communication cables. The first line they pulled was actually on Milin Lake, but the submarine cable was damaged after three years of use, and the result was not ideal. Later, they set up a special technical research team, and the Engineering and Technology Research Institute also participated, and received a large amount of funds from the "Science Spring" plan, constantly researching and improving the submarine communication cables, and then pulled up the second line in the Yazi Lake basin. The result this time was very good, and it took more than nine years to use the problem.

After the limited success of the experiment in the Yazi Lake basin, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, which led the project, was inspired. They once again organized experts to research and improve some problems that had occurred before, and then started the third challenge with confidence: this time it was the seabed. Considering that the upper layer of Song River is fresh water and the lower layer is sea water, let's just count it as crossing the sea.

There is no doubt that because of the tricky terrain under the sea and the various risks faced by insulated copper wires in deep water sludge, all experts believe that this project is "a great possibility of failure" in deep water. Later history of the English lay submarine cables between Dublin-Hollyhead, Dover-Calais, and Hotzania-Cosica in the early 1850s. Because the installation locations are shallow and offshore, these telegraph lines have been running for quite a while before problems arise. However, after trying the deep-sea cables of the Atlantic Ocean in 1858, they could not make any noise after only less than a month of operation. The cable broke and the attempt failed.

Starting from the 1860s, the English made many attempts, from Norway to the African coast, from Nova Scotia in North America to the Gulf of Mexico, from London to Constantinople, etc., and many attempts failed many times. The least of the 11,000-mile undersea line layed was only more than 3,000 miles available. Fortunately, the English were not discouraged and would take them out and repair them wherever they broke. In addition, the later Indian mutiny led to the London government giving the Undersea Telegraph Company a large amount of financial subsidies, which led to the rapid development of this technology and eventually became practical.

At this time, the East Coast people did not have the Indian mutiny that shakes the foundation of rule, and their demand for submarine cables was not as urgent as that of the English. But this does not mean that they had no demand. In fact, the existence of a submarine communication cable between the local area and South Africa is still very necessary, which can solve a lot of trouble. The most important thing is to stabilize the rule of the East Coast people!

The experiment at the deep Songhe River bottom is only the first step. If you can succeed here, the criteria for success are a little vague, but you have to use a dozen or twenty years without large-scale fractures to be considered. The next step is to summarize experience and lessons and make further improvements. After the improvement, you can almost try to conduct experiments between Xingnan-Madao, or even between Qingdao-Hezhong.

The East Coast Executive Committee attaches great importance to this. They understand that this is an epoch-making technology and something that can change the world's distance. Once the local area connects wired telegrams with South Africa, New China and other places, not only can the orders be implemented in the shortest time, but the local market can also be better connected to the local area. Qingdao Port should be very looking forward to this technology. As a national financial center, bulk road goods transactions about South Africa and New China have always been very shaking. If there is a submarine cable, everything will be simple.

Faster information and commodity transmission speeds are the technology that can best change the distance between people and countries. None of them, people on the East Coast have long had a very deep understanding of this.

"After the cable is connected, you can take that small boat to the river to see if there is any trouble with the Halibut." The thin black man walked around and returned to his original place and said to the young man following him.

The "Half" is a engineering ship affiliated to the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. It was specially set up and laid out to repair submarine cables. The standard displacement exceeds 2,000 tons, and the iron and wood mixed structure has a total construction cost of more than 150,000 yuan, which once made the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications very painful. But there was no way, who made this kind of ship not a general ship? The manufacturer's Modern Special Vehicle Factory still felt that it was a loss. It kept asking the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications when it would build a second ship so that they could share the R&D costs.

After hearing this, the young man immediately responded loudly that after handing over some work to others, he immediately carried a briefcase and rode a dozen tons of steamer that was also affiliated with the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, and drove towards the center of Songhe. As for the thin black man, he turned to a teahouse next to him to rest, and met an "old friend" who had met once.

"George Montgomery?" said the thin black man, not sure, "I remember meeting you at a regular investor meeting in the Ministry of Railways, and you were praised at that time."

"Director You, it's me, you have a good memory." George Montgomery nodded and smiled: "It was the investor conference of Luoshang Railway at that time. As a representative of England investors, I was very honored to have received verbal praise from President Chen."

"Hehe, I'll just say it, it looks so familiar." Director You subconsciously put the briefcase beside him, and then asked, "What? Come to see the railway on Luoyang? I advise you not to worry about it. There is no chance in a few years. I don't know the year of the Monkey and Horse Month to get the money you invested."

"Haha, in fact, there is no hurry to invest. I came to Shanghai Port to experience the commercial atmosphere here. I just wandered around the dock, and more than a dozen sailboats were lined up there to unload the goods, most of which were loaded with wood. It's really amazing. The trade volume of those wood alone may exceed 300,000 yuan, right?" George Montgomer said in an envious tone.

Because they are all prairie, the south of the east coast always needs to import timber. Shanghai Port and Yancheng Port are two major import ports. Due to the policy reasons, there are some places in various places, namely, from both the land of the country, from the free state, Portugal Brazil, New Korland and even New Huaxia Island. This is a means of economic regulation and a disguised influence. According to a statistics last year (1700), by weight, about 40% of the timber consumption on the east coast comes from imports, almost entirely by sailing ships. After entering several large ports, it is scattered into markets such as civil buildings, mine column materials, railway construction and industrial applications.

Similar to wood is also a cotton market. Although the local Hexi region has large-scale cotton production areas, mostly state-owned farms, and a large number of Indians and Mestiso people are used during the picking season, more than two-thirds of the cotton on the east coast are still imported from abroad, Shanghai, Ping An, Dongfang and Mingfu are the four main import ports. Among these cottons, 40% are produced from New China Island, 25% are produced from Free State, 20% are produced from the mouth of the Mobile River (AirCanada Plantation), 10% are produced from Caribbean islands, and the remaining 5% are of different sources and are not fixed.

The import of bulk materials such as wood and cotton, and the two major ports in Shanghai (Shanghai Port and Nancun Port) are the main import sites, which also indirectly reflects the prosperity and prosperity of this harbor city. The existence of Songhe Group, BMW Company, Mahjong Food, Modern Shipping, Shanghai Iron and Steel and other enterprises has accelerated the economic development of the city, and then slowly absorbed the resources of the upper reaches of the Bian River and the counties and townships near the inland hinterland, and began to form a relatively complete economic area.

This area includes three counties, Xinbian, Xincao and Hening, which are responsible for the division of labor in the industrial chain. They are responsible for processing upstream processes such as mechanical parts, chemical intermediates, and grain semi-finished products. They also provide resources, manpower and markets of towns along the Salt Railway, such as Jiaocheng, Gaoyuan, Baita, Jiacheng, Sanjue and other counties.

Jiacheng and Sanjue counties were newly established at the end of last year. They are currently under the jurisdiction of the Luxi (west of the Yanshang Railway) Regional Administration, which is governed by Shanghai County. Among them, Jiacheng County is the 203rd county-level administrative unit in the country, with Jiacheng Town, Huangxu Township, Zhongxing Township (located near the city of July 9th in later generations), and Sanhe Township (located near the small village of Hallhale in later generations). There are a total of four settlements, with a population of more than 15,000, and agricultural and animal husbandry output is relatively stable. Sanjue County is the 204th county-level administrative unit in the country, with Sanjue Town (located in later generations Qiwei.

Near the city of Erkoy), Shungeng Township (near the city of Chakabuco in later generations), Mingyi Township (near the city of Bragado in later generations), Shanhou Township (near the town of Saladillo in later generations), there are also four settlements, currently with more than 13,000 people, with both agriculture and animal husbandry and commerce, and are developing quite well. In addition, the newly established Yinghe Township (near the town of Lovos in later generations) is under the jurisdiction of Shanghai County. The number of towns under the county has reached ten, and the total population is 70,000 to 80,000, and the development speed is still quite fast.
Chapter completed!