My Italy

The sun shines on the desolate land, making it so hot that people can't lift their spirits. The cobblestones on the road are not much worse than the sand on the side, and they are all good for barbecue. Not to mention the railway track beside it, the heat seemed to want to melt it too.

But even at such a hot moment, there are still people here.

"Every day we patrol to check whether the road spikes are secure. We must not be careless, otherwise something big will happen."

An older road guard was talking to the younger one next to him.

The younger one tugged on the scarf that wrapped his entire head, trying to untie it.

"Don't move. Don't open it no matter how much it simmers."

"But it's really hot and stuffy. I feel uncomfortable. Maybe I'm suffering from heat stroke."

The young man looked like he was new here, and he didn't understand the power of the North African desert at all.

"Bonnie, hold on. There is a house where you can rest two kilometers away. There is water and a bed there. It's very comfortable."

The man named Boni also knew that he couldn't lie down at this time, so he answered bravely. "Okay Barondo, I think I can hold on for a while."

The two of them braved the hot sun and walked towards the resting place Barondo said. In order to distract him, Barondo kept talking to Bonny.

"Boni, where is your hometown?"

“The town of Solca, Sardinia.”

"where is that?"

"Twenty-three kilometers east of Cagliari, we are very famous for tomatoes. Only the paella with Solca tomatoes is the authentic Sardinian paella. Thinking of the paella in my hometown, I want to drool. Tell You, the paella in my hometown is absolutely delicious. We first pour some olive oil into the pot, stir-fry the squid, shrimp, and clams, then sprinkle a little sea salt, then add tomatoes, onions, and garlic and continue to fry, and then add rice. Add a large bowl of water and cook for an hour. Add some lemon juice and green onions before serving. I like to eat the clams inside the most. The clams are full of juice, one bite at a time, very delicious."

Bonny was beaming as he spoke, and kept licking his dry lips. It seemed that he really missed the delicacies of his hometown.

"Okay, we're here!"

Barondo opened a door with Bonny and led him in.

"This was originally a cavalry barracks. Due to security reasons, a platoon of cavalry was stationed here before. Later, after the security improved, the army left. We took over this place and it can be used as a resting point for inspections."

Barondo said and pushed open the window made of thick wood. "Look, you can see more than ten kilometers around here. The scenery is pretty good. No wonder the army chose this place."

The cool and windy environment gave Poni some relief. After taking off the scarf, which was no different from an Arab headscarf, Boni looked at the hot scene outside and replied casually. "not bad."

Just as he was talking, a whistle sounded, and a train pulled goods at high speed.

Barondo took a quick look and recognized it accurately. "This is a Nick type III heavy-duty steam locomotive. The two locomotives have a combined power of 4,000 horsepower and basically carry forty freight cars. It is really painful to drive this train on this hot day."

Barondo was right. When the train got closer, the long carriages behind the two locomotives were filled with iron ore. This train of iron ore weighs about a thousand tons and can be seen at least ten or twenty times a day.

"Barondo, can I ask how many years have you been here?"

"Let me think about it. I was transferred from Naples in August 1891, so it has been exactly five years."

Barondo gestured with five fingers and said the time of his arrival.

Bonny looked at Barondo, who looked full of vicissitudes of life, and continued to ask. "Then do you regret it?"

"What's there to regret? Although staying here for five years makes me look ten years older, the salary is high. I don't believe that you didn't come here for the high salary. Besides, you are much better now than I was then. At that time, the railway had not yet been fully connected, and it was still dangerous to patrol in the field. At that time, we still had to carry rifles for self-defense. We were even more tired and the food was not good. The bread was only black bread. But I heard that we were in Valcke at that time. I have been besieged by indigenous people and dozens of people died.”

Barondo's words made Boni very interested.

"However, the indigenous people were not happy either. The military was furious at that time. During the pursuit, more than 200 thugs were arrested and more than 300 were killed."

"What happened to the thugs who were caught?"

"What else can they do? Those who have lives in their hands will be hanged, and those who have no lives in their hands will be dragged to build railways and mines. They will spend the rest of their lives to atone for their sins."

"So, this place was still dangerous before?"

"It's not too dangerous. I haven't heard any news about attacks in the past three years. Maybe those natives who dared to be hostile to us died in the desert."

Time passed slowly as the two chatted. The desert at dusk, with the long railway passing through it, made people feel comfortable.

As the night deepened, the tired two people soon began to snore.

The two of them could sleep peacefully, but some people couldn't.

Belumeber, the general manager of the Libyan Railway Company, did not feel sleepy at all while looking at the information in front of him.

"The Jufra section of the railway has sunk seriously and needs major repairs. The Sodagobi section of the railway has suffered serious damage and needs to be renovated. The loss of the entire section of the railway is twice as high as expected. It is expected that the railway will be renovated in four to five years. This How should I tell Rome?"

What troubled Mr. Belume was that technicians from the railway company discovered that the Sousse Railway in Libya, which specializes in carrying iron ore, was in serious wear and tear and its service life would be greatly reduced.

Well, it seems that when designing the railway, Italian technicians underestimated the environmental difficulties, which led to such serious consequences.

As a qualified railway company general manager, Belumeber certainly knew the seriousness of this matter. But you really can’t blame him for this. Although the railway cost as much as 118 million lire, the design was also expected to have a transportation capacity of 3.5-4.5 million tons of iron ore a year.

However, due to the high quality of Sabha iron ore and its affordable price (tariff factor), the demand for its iron ore has increased significantly. The Sabha mining area has also increased production.

One more thing to say here is that the Sebha mining area is currently the most modern mining area in Italy, and it has basically achieved all-electric production. This is also due to the discovery of a small coal mine 60 kilometers south of the mining area. Although it is just some lignite, it is more than enough to generate electricity.

As the output of the Sabha mining area increases significantly, the railway company must also increase transportation volume. Since last year, the railway company's iron ore transportation volume has increased month by month. Last month, according to statistics from the Sirte Port, the port shipped 510,000 tons of iron ore. This is an effort to achieve an annual output of 6 million tons.

Therefore, the railway was seriously damaged and it was really not something he could decide.

But no matter what he did, this was not going to be easy. Because the blame-shifting problem is not unique to China, Italy will not lag behind either.

Belumeb's headache may follow him for a long time.