Wild North America 1846

denver castle

In the big stone house

Richard sat at the top and said with approval; "Yes, all the houses in the newly reclaimed Chinese villages and towns are replaced by yurts. When war comes, they can be packed away at any time. The walls are strong and the wilderness is clear, leaving nothing useful to the Americans.

supplies.”

"I obey the order." Chen Cailiang replied respectfully.

Chen Cailiang, a native of Zhangzhou, was 34 years old at the time. He was born in the Qing Dynasty and was forced to go overseas because of being framed by a traitor. He was a rare talent among Chinese immigrants. He was good at farming and planning, and he learned Spanish on a Cuban plantation.

, and he was proficient in English, and was well-known among his fellow villagers in Zhangzhou.

Therefore, he was appreciated by Richard and was appointed as the agricultural and industrial commissioner. He was one of the royal court officials and was responsible for various matters such as agricultural expansion and industrial development.

The Agricultural and Industrial Commissioner is equivalent to a mixture of the Minister of Agriculture and the Minister of Industry, but because the size of the Tang Kingdom is very small, it is almost the same as a larger town.

Therefore, Richard did not use such a big name and was only replaced by commissioner. In fact, his power was quite large.

Richard glanced at the ministers and officers present, and finally stopped at Colonel Dai Changfu and Colonel Kahn. These two people were his trusted confidants.

No one can trust the important task of guarding Denver Castle, so the two generals and a group of close Chinese officers were transferred from the rear of the kingdom. Colonel Dai Changfu served as the commander of the fortress garrison, and Colonel Kahn served as the deputy commander.

5,000 musketeers.

They were the 1st to 5th regiments of the Denver Fusiliers, each with more than a thousand men.

Major James Kahn, commander of the first regiment, Major George Rabiot, commander of the second regiment, Major Wu Degao, commander of the third regiment, Major Duan Debiao, commander of the fourth regiment, and Major Huang Yuanjia, commander of the fifth regiment.

“For Fort Denver, it’s not a matter of whether war will break out, but a matter of when and for how long.

I solemnly remind you

As a thorn in the heart of the United States from the Kingdom, Fortress Denver will surely face a baptism of fire on an unprecedented scale. The war may last for 5, 10 or even longer years.

Therefore, all work must start from preparation for war, and this string should always be tightened in the mind and never be relaxed."

Richard looked around at everyone and his voice became colder and colder. The aura of the superior was fully activated, which put heavy pressure on everyone and continued;

"You must also know the importance of the Denver Fortress that the Kingdom spent huge sums of money to build, and I would like to emphasize it here;

Denver Fortress is the foundation and lifeblood of the Tang Dynasty. It is also the home and destination of the 6,000 cavalrymen fighting on the outside. There must be no room for loss.

Recently

The light cavalry brigade stationed in Hugo seized 5 U.S. military spies in a row, and the Yankees kept killing them. What does this mean?

The storm is about to come and the wind is filling the building!

The purpose of my king's army to attack the northern battlefield this time is to mobilize the deployment of US troops to severely combat the arrogance of the Yankees, and at the same time, to collect as much supplies as possible for the fortress.

Your task is to guard your home and wait for my king’s triumphant return.”

"I will obey the king's orders, and I will not dare to shoulder the heavy responsibility." All the officers, headed by Colonel Dai Changfu, responded in unison and bowed their hands in salute.

January 2, 1847

After King Richard led a group of courtiers to offer sacrifices to heaven and earth, he killed 19 American spies on the spot to offer sacrifices to the flag. Amidst the loud farewells of gongs and drums, he led more than 6,000 expeditionary cavalry and set off on the road to the Northern Expedition.

Starting from Denver Castle and heading north along the wide road beside Cherry Creek, you can see fields cultivated one after another along the way. Green seedlings have sprouted, and you can't see the edge at a glance.

The windmill beside the stream slowly rotates, pumping the clear water into the irrigation canal and flowing all the way to the depths of the fields. Sufficient water and sunshine are the guarantee of a good harvest.

Denver, which is located on the plateau, has more than 300 days a year. The sun is shining brightly, and Mount Evans in the distance is covered with snow. However, the climate here is not cold. The coldest days in winter are mostly around 0 degrees, and rarely below 0 degrees.

below degree.

along the way

You can see Indian men from the hard labor camp kneeling along the roadside. These are the hard labor prisoners who built roads and canals. They were forced to kneel down when the army arrived to show respect.

The cavalry marched very fast. By noon, the large group of troops had arrived in the Indian Valley, 53 kilometers away from Denver, and the wide carriageway between the two places had basically been built.

outside the valley

You can see hundreds of oxen harnessed to iron plows, plowing up large areas of land. These newly reclaimed lands need to be exposed to the sun for more than ten days, and then the plowed land is broken up, leveled, ridden, and seeds are sown. By 4

There will be another harvest within the next month.

The diligent Chinese are all experts in farming. After being equipped with farm tools and cattle, their enthusiasm for reclaiming wasteland increased.

so far

More than 20,000 acres of fields have been cultivated and a variety of crops have been planted, especially soybeans, winter wheat, Chinese cabbage, radishes, potatoes, peppers, as well as alfalfa, elephant grass, etc. that war horses like to eat.

The elephant grass and alfalfa planted in October last year have now grown to the height of a person, and are as dense as a green forest. The growth is gratifying.

Richard sent the order and the army rested here at noon.

The cavalry led the horses and started feeding them beside the fields covered with alfalfa. They lined up for several kilometers. It was a spectacular scene.

Richard led a small number of cavalry guards into the valley and came to the cement factory construction site to check the equipment installation status.

The cement plant is a complete set of imported British equipment, installed by British experts under the command of workers. The person in charge is a manager named Lewis, a British man from the Antwerp area.

"Mr. Lewis, when will the cement plant be officially put into production?"

"His Majesty the King, thank you for sending enough manpower. The equipment installation went more smoothly than expected. It is expected that the rotary kiln production line will be debugged and put into trial production in the middle of next month."

"Does it still take this long?"

"Oh, this is already very fast. The entire equipment installation only took more than 80 days, which has never happened before in my resume. Normally it takes 4 to 5 months."

"Okay, are there any other issues that need to be resolved?"

"Everything is going well. We don't need so many manpower on the construction site for the time being, so we sent more than half of our manpower to mine rocks and hoard stones for the construction of the defensive fortress. Once the cement is produced, we can start building the Taniguchi Fortress."

"Well, we must seize the time as much as possible. The US military may arrive earlier than expected, possibly as early as mid-to-late February, so we must prepare as early as possible." Richard warned.

Lewis was stunned when he heard this, and blurted out: "God, it's so fast, then the construction time of the defensive fortress will be too tight."

"Yes!" Richard nodded with deep sympathy, and his eyes turned to Taniguchi involuntarily.

Indian Valley is a typical encircling valley. After entering the narrow valley mouth, it suddenly opens up. Since the cold wind cannot penetrate, the temperature in the valley is several degrees higher than outside.

Even in the severe winter, it is as warm as spring here.

The mouth of the valley is a steep terrain between two mountains, about 1.7 kilometers wide. A Xima River with a width of more than 30 meters flows along the southern peak, and the water flow is rapid.

According to the British fortress design drawings, a defensive fortress about 1,660 meters long and 128 meters wide will be built along the Xima River, with three bastions, one east and one west fort, and the fortress wall is 5.5 meters high.

It is 4.2 meters wide and can be easily installed with artillery.

The entire valley entrance fortress is like a bottle stopper, blocking the entrance of the Indian Valley. One side is connected to the mountain, and the other side is adjacent to the Xima River.

This horse-washing river is named because the native Indians often wash their horses in the river. It is a river flowing from the depths of Mount Evans. The river surface is not wide, but the current is fast.

When spring comes next year, the flowers will bloom

As the ice and snow in Mount Evans melts, the amount of water in this river will increase dramatically, and the river surface will widen a lot. The rushing river water will rush down with an indomitable momentum, and it will wind out of the valley mouth and merge into Cherry Creek.

At that time, Cherry Creek will turn into a tumbling Cherry River with a very powerful flow.

"Maybe... we can let the convicts build the fortress walls first, and then pour the cement into the cracks in the rocks after it is produced. In this case, we can buy an extra month and a half." Lewis hesitated to say what he said.

idea.

Richard's eyes lit up after hearing this, and he nodded and said, "If it does not affect the strength of the fortress building, I will immediately arrange for 3,000 Indian slave laborers to be sent to you, and start building the fortress wall immediately. Don't worry if it is completed one day earlier.

ah!"

"If we first build a wall of less than two meters and then pour cement slurry later, it should not affect the overall strength of the fortress. We can leave cavities every 3 to 5 meters to facilitate the filling of cement slurry."

"Okay, let's do it like this." Richard clapped his thigh happily and immediately ordered people to mobilize the Indian slave laborers.

Put aside any other work and focus on the Taniguchi Fortress construction project first.

In today's Indian Valley, there are a large number of machines and equipment piled up. Thousands of white convicts are building a large number of houses, paving streets, erecting factories and warehouses here, and gradually building this place into a production base and logistics center in the valley.

Once cement plants, grain processing plants, flour mills, etc. are put into operation one after another, Fortress Denver will end the problem of relying on long-distance logistics lines for supply and save a huge amount of money.

A barrel of cement has to be transported thousands of miles from the rear, and the freight is several times higher than its own value. It is really not cost-effective and economical.

In order to build Fort Denver, Richard almost spent all the huge profits of more than 700,000 ounces of gold made by the American River Gold Mining Company so far, and also incurred a debt of more than 300,000 pounds.

Now that the main defensive wall is completed, there is no need to worry about the rest, and there is no need to transport bulk materials such as cement all the way from Los Angeles, which is too expensive.

The materials needed for urban construction in Fortress Denver, whether steel, cement, masonry or flour, will be mainly supplied by Indian Valley in the future.

Wait until one day when the territorial dispute is completely resolved.

Most of the materials needed for rural town construction throughout Colorado can be provided nearby in Indian Valley, and can also be expanded to surrounding areas to form fully-equipped industrial towns with long-term development potential.

Therefore, Richard attaches great importance to various construction work in Indian Valley. In the future, this place will become an industrial town second only to Fort Denver and one of the important cities in Colorado.