Australian Storm 1876

  Chapter 134 Troubles of Coastal Railways

  In a valley in the south

  Rost Coburn, the sheriff from North Sydney, was lying on his side in the grass, and the warm sun shining on him made him unable to lift his energy.

  He cursed the lords of South Wales in his heart. God testifies that this endless wasteland is simply not a place for people to stay.

  It’s been ten days since he set out to encircle the Billy Boy Bandit gang, and he didn’t even get a piece of the other party’s hair.

  In this era of inconvenient transportation and inconvenient communication, it is found that the enemy needs to rely on the eyes, and the transmission of orders depends on shouting, and the endless wasteland gives people a sense of powerlessness.

  The distance is more than half a mile, even if you cross over, you can't find the gangster.

  Roster Cowburn led a team of more than a hundred people, looking everywhere on the wasteland like a headless fly, without seeing any results.

   "Sir, are you camping here tonight." The speaker was Coventry Sheriff Romney, a 40-year-old RCMP.

  Roster Coburn raised his head and looked at the sun high in the sky. The sun was hot and dazzling. It was less than one o’clock noon, and it was too early to camp.

   "I remember there was a ranch about ten miles to the southeast. I rushed to camp there today. At least I could drink a cup of hot coffee. Maybe I could receive a warm reception from the hostess."

"Then you may be disappointed. They drove the sheep to Pine Town." Romney shrugged and said helplessly; "Running a ranch is a loss-making job now, and the Billy Boys gang is overwhelming all in the end. White ranchers are scrambling to sell a straw. They would rather buy bonds issued by the Port of Brisbane or the coastal railway, with at least 5% of the annual income."

"Damn it, it was the **** Red River Valley that broke all this peace. The wool they produced was piled like a mountain, which kept the price of wool down." Roster Cowburn himself is also a rancher and owns a large area. When talking about this ranch, he immediately became aggrieved;

   "These Chinese should be prevented from coming to our ranch. They have taken away white jobs and wool trade rights. We can only endure all this. I really can't imagine what things will turn out. Someone should come out to stop them."

   "You are very right, I think I should..." Romney fingered the white militiamen who were leaning or lying everywhere in the valley, meaning that it was time for him to do something, but there was no time to listen to your complaints here.

"Go, Romney, let the lads cheer up." Roster Cowburn got up and picked up the underground blanket, shaking ashes, slowly rolled up and prepared to put it in the horse bag. .

at this time

  Suddenly, there were intensive gunfire, and more than a dozen cowboys who had just stood up burst into bright blood and fell to the ground.

   "Oh, my god, it's Billy..."

   Suddenly encountered a sneak attack, and the camp was in chaos after a short rest.

The intensive gunfire continued. The running cowboy was knocked down by a shot and rolled and fell to the ground. Some cowboys struggling to step on their horses, but were hit by the hot bullets and blossomed all over their bodies. Fell in the grass.

   caught off guard and encountered a sneak attack. After a short period of confusion, the cowboys spontaneously began to pick up guns to fight back.

   "Papa Papa..."

  The bullets flew randomly, hitting the grass with a "fluttering" sound, and from time to time, someone screamed after being shot.

  Roster Cowburn hides in a huge boulder in embarrassment, and soon finds that the gangsters are hiding on the high rocks and shooting at the cowboys in the valley from the heights, just like hunting hares.

  Judging from the gunshots, the opponent will never exceed 40 people.

   "Romney, Romney, rush out with your people, I will arrange the gunman to cover you, **** it, stay here, we will all be done." Roster Cowburn shouted hoarsely.

  His shout attracted the attention of the gang. A dozen hot bullets hit the rock, and the cracked sharp gravel pierced Roster Coburn’s cheek, leaving a long wound, and red blood poured out immediately.

Roster Cowburn shrank his neck in fright, his heart throbbing wildly, and he couldn't help cursing after being afraid; "Damn bastard, Romney, if you don't want to die here, hurry up and take your man. To rush out, we need to get out of the ambush ring and act for God’s sake."

  At this time, the shooting in the valley was quite fierce, bullets roared in the air, as long as the cowboys who could hold a gun were fighting back, the initial passive situation had been reversed.

Romney fired back a few shots and found that something was wrong. He took a closer look and verified his guess. He quickly waved and shouted; "Stop shooting, stop, everyone stops shooting, go to a group of people to go around the rock to check it out. , Damn we were fooled, the Billy Kid gang has left here."

  Guns stop

  The valley was filled with a strong smell of gunpowder, and the wailing wounded people were everywhere, and there was an aura of tension.

  A small team of cowboys was ordered to go around and climbed up the high places of the rock without finding any gangsters. Looking at a group of dozens of riding gangsters disappearing in the distance, they really hated it.

  This time I was attacked by gangs and suffered heavy losses. Among the 128 people in the encirclement and suppression team, 27 people were killed and more than 40 injured. Obviously, they are already unable to continue chasing and suppressing. They can only withdraw to the nearby town to rest and arrange for the wounded to be treated.

The news of the encounter in the valley spread, and immediately caused great panic among ranchers near Victoria. They drove the sheep into the towns of Coventry and Lexington, and some farmers and ranchers drove the sheep. The influx of groups into Sydney caused widespread chaos in the city.

  A lot of disturbances

  Manpower and resources are sufficient, and the coastal railway project is progressing very smoothly. In October, it advanced 27 miles, in November it advanced 40 miles, and in December, it advanced an astonishing 58 miles.

  Due to the delay in the construction of some reinforced concrete bridges along the way, it is expected that the entire Red River Valley section of the coastal railway will be completed in April 1880 to the southernmost Pine Town, and arrive in Sydney no less than July.

  Sydney

  December 29, 1879

  It has been three days since Li Fushou and his entourage arrived here. They came here to do some persuasion and promotion work for the auxiliary terminal facilities of the coastal railway in Port Jackson and the extension of southwest to Victoria.

  Here, they encountered practical difficulties and obstacles.

  Some white gold mine owners, ranchers and politicians who are worried about the expansion of Chinese power, and hardline white conservatives have expressed their opposition, trying to block the extension of the coastal railway into the Jackson Harbour of Sydney Bay.

  Today, Sydney occupies the Cumberland Gorge area, a gentle hilly area surrounding Sydney Bay. It is located to the west of Port Jackson and extends to the south. It is the education center and core city of commerce throughout Australia.

  White conservatives are opposed to the coastal railway entering the Cumberland Gorge area, and even more opposed to extending to Port Jackson. They fear that the Chinese forces in the Red River Valley will invade Sydney and become the dominant force like Brisbane.

  This concern is real, so the South Wales State Assembly rejected the relevant bill proposed by the Councillors, but passed another compromise bill allowing the Earl of Queensland to build a railway on his own territory, including land in South Wales.

  In a luxurious manor on the banks of Sydney Bay

   "How about it, are the Brothers Grimm willing to sell that piece of land on the north shore?" Li Fushou strode in from the outside, full of the power of sunlight.

  Charlie Vincent bowed respectfully to salute; "Honorable Earl of Queensland, in accordance with your instructions, I paid a high price to Brother Grimm Ranch, and included an official medal of the British Empire, but they were moved."

  "Very well, go ahead and do it quickly, and tell them that my promise is real money."

   "As you wish, Lord Earl."

  Gentleman Charlie Vincent greeted everyone present, and then left the living room, took the carriage to the Brothers Grimm Ranch, and negotiated this important deal as soon as possible.

   "Okay, let's focus on the most important things at present." Li Fushou clapped his hands and attracted everyone's attention, then walked to the large map in the living room. This is a coastal railway planning and design drawing.

  "Zhong Zhai, let me introduce you, what are the roadblocks that our coastal railways still want to gnaw at?"

   "Yes, sir."

  Fan Zhongzhai picked up a baton and walked to the front of the map and introduced to everyone present;

  "The planned construction period of the coastal railway is one year and three months, and the main railway project construction is 12 months and 20 days. At the current speed of progress, it is expected that the entire line will be completed 70 days in advance.

  In other words, at the beginning of July 1880, when the railway line was laid to Sydney, we still had a little more than 7 months.

  If you want to complete it ahead of schedule, there are currently four major difficulties that need to be overcome.

  First, there are as many as 127 controllable bridge and culvert tunnels along the way, especially the Songjiang Bridge and Taihu tributary culverts, which are obstacles to engineering construction.

  Thanks to the world’s latest construction methods for reinforced concrete structures, the bridge, culvert and tunnel are currently progressing smoothly and are expected to be completed by the end of June.

  Second, a large cement plant project located in Songjiang.

  The project is all advanced equipment from France. At the same time, French engineers are hired to direct the installation and commissioning of the equipment. It is hoped that the materials can be put into production in March, otherwise the construction of the reinforced concrete main body of the bridge, culvert and tunnel will be affected.

Third, on the coastal railway line from the Red River Valley to Sydney, there are still four ranches that are hard bones. In addition to the Green Brothers Ranch on the North Shore that has just been settled, there is one ranch in Coventry town and two ranches in Lexington town. Still a stumbling block. .

  The planned coastal railway cannot bypass these three pastures, and these pastures have a particularly tough attitude. They neither allow coastal railways to pass, nor are they willing to sell them. We must solve this problem.

  Fourth is the port issue.

  Even if we repair the coastal railway to Sydney, the railway line cannot enter Port Jackson and cannot realize the linkage of railway and seaport. This will greatly increase the cost of loading and unloading and reduce the efficiency of cargo turnover.

  From this perspective, it is very detrimental to the operation of coastal railways, because we export bulk goods, especially wool and grain trade, and the cost of cargo handling will be extremely high.

  The above is that the coastal railway is a problem that needs to be solved urgently. Any one of them may affect the scheduled passage of the coastal railway, and then seriously affect the next development strategy of the Red River Valley. "

  (End of this chapter)