Chapter 1496： The importance of trains

After listening to Marin's explanation, Caesar was so surprised that he could put eggs in his mouth. He really did not expect that this America, which was desperately promoted by his father Marin as a "barren land", was so rich and vast.

At the same time, he also clearly realized that what he was about to inherit would be an extremely huge empire. Because, Marin made it clear that the North American colony alone is several times larger than Western Europe ...

"Dad, can we hold such a large site?" Caesar was worried. But he knows that the population of Beihai is too small, just over 2 million. The Kingdom of France has a population of more than 15 million. Even Spain has a population of seven or eight million.

With a population of more than 2 million, it is still not enough to develop the local area, not to mention the development of land several times larger than in Western Europe?

Malin haha ​​smiled, and introduced him to the Pexang artillery and the 1,000-ton battleship under study, and said by himself:

"As long as this kind of killer is developed, the Beihai Kingdom is equipped with hundreds of ships. Then, no one in Europe is our opponent. We don't need to defeat all opponents on land, just sink the opponent's ships. After all, if you want to grab the American colony with us, you have to have a fleet ... "

After thinking for a long time, Caesar suddenly realized:

"I see, Dad, you asked me to marry the British Princess Margaret in order to get the huge British fleet? With the new artillery and warships you mentioned, plus the huge scale of England, we can Protect the interests of the American colonies, right? "

Marin snapped his fingers and said happily:

"Right, son, you are so smart! If it were not for a huge colony, I would have married you to Princess Anna of the Kingdom of Bohemia. In this way, you can get the two crowns of the Kingdom of Bohemia and the Kingdom of Hungary. , Plus the Principality of Silesia. "

But Caesar frowned, saying:

"No, does not Majesty Vladislas II have Prince Layos? How can you annex Bohemia and Hungary by marrying Princess Anna?"

Malin smiled without explanation. He can't tell his son that this is the future history? Moreover, now that he has crossed, it has affected history. Well, Lajos II did not necessarily die in the hands of the Turks as it was in history.

But in any case, it is the headache of others. After all, his second son William is too young. If he was born early, Marin might have asked him to marry Princess Anna. But now, I am afraid there is no such opportunity. After all, Princess Anna is much older than William.

...

Looking at the standard map of the Americas drawn by Marin, Caesar's heart thrilled. He felt that he owned the whole world. Because, according to Marin, the area of ​​North America is twice that of the whole of Europe. If you can keep and rule such a big place, you really have the world.

But, looking at the map, Caesar suddenly remembered a problem--

"Dad, the Americas are so big that messaging is inconvenient. So, how can we maintain the dominance of such a large site? You see, these undeveloped places are definitely inaccessible. If there is a rebellion in central North America, we are You can send messages with pigeons. But how do you mobilize troops to suppress the rebellion? After all, sending troops deep into the interior is a very difficult thing ... "

"So, in the end, we may only be able to maintain our dominance in coastal areas and along the banks of large rivers ..."

Caesar's problem can be described as straightforward and directly points to the core problem. It's like someone asked-why is there no more expansion in China's history?

It is not impossible, but it cannot expand to maintain its rule. After all, ancient transportation was too inconvenient.

Why did the Mongolian Empire sweep across Eurasia, but in the end they had to separate out the four major Khanates? It is not that the Central Government of the Yuan Dynasty did not want to unify management, but that the four major Khanates were too far from the Central Plains to take care of them at all. The only way is to separate the four major Khanates to manage.

In order to beat the Huns as Dad, the Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty used the power of the entire Han Empire and sent numerous horse-drawn carts to transport supplies. In the battle of Mobei alone, the Han Dynasty dispatched 240,000 horses and 500,000 troops, which cost countless dollars.

In the 15 years of war, the Han Dynasty lost more than a hundred thousand young and strong, and hundreds of thousands of war horses, and the loss of grain and grass money was innumerable, ruining the family left in the era of Wenjing.

In desperation, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty had to stop the Northern Expedition, and he took the imprisonment and began to restore national power. Among them, the loss of money and food is mostly not used in combat, but in marching transportation ...

From Guanzhong, the core area of ​​the Han Dynasty, the money and grain needed by hundreds of thousands of troops were transported to Mobei, thousands of miles away. The loss of grain and grass along the way was extremely alarming. The actual time of fighting with the Huns is actually very short. Most of the time and money are basically spent halfway ...

Therefore, after obtaining the Central Plains, the dynasties generally did not want to expand. In particular, the sites on the grasslands have less benefits and cost more money, which is not cost-effective.

Generally speaking, only strong dynasties like the Han and Tang dynasties, or minorities like the Yuan and Qing dynasties, would be willing to seize and manage the Mobei and Xiyu regions. Because the cost of operating Mobei and Xiyu is too high. Unless, there are enough prairie cavalry available.

...

Facing Caesar's thinking, Marin was very pleased. This is indeed the biggest problem of colonization. After the Europeans sailed, it was indeed only a few hundred years that they could only spin around the colonial coast until ...

Until the train appeared ...

...

The advent of the train made it very easy for the colonial army to enter the interior from the coast. Not only is it fast, but the volume is huge. Therefore, it was only from the 19th century that colonizers were able to open up a full range of colonies in landlocked countries. At that time, where the railway was repaired, the colonial power expanded.

Similarly, the significance of trains to a large country is extremely important. For example, in the United States, at the end of the Civil War, the United States had relatively weak control over the western region. At that time, people who went to California to seek gold wanted to take the gold back to the east, and they had to take a boat around South America and return to the east coast. To this end, a ship carrying the gold called "Central America" ​​sank.

After the Civil War, the United States relied on policy encouragement to encourage private construction of the Pacific Railway. To this end, the US officials did not hesitate to give the land along the railway line to the railway repairer. Through this policy, the enthusiasm of private companies to build railways was greatly stimulated. The Pacific Railway took six years to build successfully. The Americans also finally completed control of several western states through the railway. Before that, the Americans had to go to California and they had to take a steamer to bypass the whole of South America.

Similarly, although Russia initially occupied the Siberian region, its control over the Far East region was quite weak. It was not until the construction of the Great Siberian Railway from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century that Russia was given the ability to deploy large-scale power to the Far East. Ironically, after the completion of the Siberian Railway in 1916, Tsarist Russia was destroyed the following year, and the Soviet Union replaced it.

In the Russo-Japanese War that broke out before the completion of the Siberian Railway, the Russians were defeated by the Japanese because they could not transport the millions of troops that crushed Europe to the Far East in time. You know, in that war, there were actually more Japanese deaths than Russia. However, there are millions of troops in Tsarist Russia, but they cannot be transported from Europe, so Japan is given a chance to win. The Battle of Nomenham broke out more than 30 years later, because the Soviet Union was able to transport large-scale aircraft tanks and various military supplies from the mainland of Europe through the Siberian Railway, which directly suffocated Japan. At that time, the Soviet Union transported 60,000 tons of arms and materials from the mainland to the Nomenham region in August alone. There are 20,000 tons of shells alone. Then, the bravery of the Japanese was useless, and instantly became a fool. However, the Japanese army ’s arms supply is always stronger than that of China ’s poorer than the army. Therefore, the Japanese army can still show its power in China ... until the two superpowers of the United States and the Soviet Union free their hands from the European battlefield to clean up them ...

Many people are bragging about the combat effectiveness of the Japanese army. In fact, the Japanese invasion of China is nothing more than a rook peck. In this mutual pecking, because the Chinese army was poorer and lacked ammunition, the air was completely controlled by the Japanese army, so it has been suppressed. How brave are you? In the face of the bombing of aircraft cannons, no matter how brave they are, they will be beaten into a sieve.

However, when the United States and the Soviet Union replaced ammunition with sufficient ammunition, the Japanese army, which was short of ammunition, was instantly stupid. We do not say how brave the Soviet army is, but only the American army. The bravery of the US military is completely incomparable with the devil. However, many people have ammunition, and when they hit an island where only a few dozen people are stationed, they first wash the ground with tons of shells. Then, all kinds of firepower kept on. Even the brave devils must kneel in front of this tactic ...

Therefore, the railway is of great significance for the colonists to control the inland, or the great powers rule the distant frontiers. In fact, before the completion of the Siberian Railway, Russia had poor control over the Far East. The failure of the Russo-Japanese War proves this. If the Qing dynasty was a powerful regime at that time ~ www.novelhall.com ~ Relying on local advantages, it would be no problem to **** Siberia. But the last Manchu Qing was a scum that could not support the wall. Tsarist Russia could send some expeditionary troops to scare Manqing. Otherwise, you will not easily lose the outer northeast ...

...

Railways and trains are so important that Marin has arranged for Da Vinci to start developing trains that move Watt steam engines to the cars.

But Marin knew that the efficiency of this early vertical horizontal bar steam engine was actually very low. Just like the train invented by Stephenson in the early days, because of the inefficient Watt vertical single-cylinder steam engine, the train speed is very slow, only a dozen or twenty kilometers per hour, and it can only tow a 30-ton carriage. And the subsequent trains easily carried a load of 2,000 to 3,000 tons.

But Marin also knew that the food had to be eaten bit by bit. So, he is now letting Leonardo test the train system powered by the Watt single-cylinder steam engine. Wait until this low-speed and low-cargo train is successfully developed, and then go to develop a horizontal twin-cylinder steam engine to improve efficiency ...

Once the train is successfully developed, it will be very simple for Marin to control the interior of North America. There is no Indian tribe that cannot be settled by the army of a train. If so, then the army of another train will pass ...