In a valley in the south

Sheriff Roster Cobbon, from Sydney's North District, lying on his side in the grass, the warm sunlight shone on his body, making him unable to lift his body.

He cursed the men of South Wales in his heart, and God testified that this endless wasteland was simply not a place for people to stay.

It has been more than ten days since we set out to encircle and suppress the Billy gang, and we have not even caught a single hair from the other party.

In this era of inconvenient transportation and inconvenient communication, it is necessary to find that the enemy depends on his eyes and to convey orders, and the boundless wasteland gives people a sense of powerlessness.

The distance is more than half a mile, and even if you cross it, you can't find the bandits.

Roster Cobbonn led a team of more than a hundred people, searching everywhere on the wasteland like headless flies, without seeing any results.

"Sir, are you camping here tonight?" The speaker was Coventry Sheriff Romney, an old RCMP in his 40s.

Roster Cobbonn looked up at the sun hanging high in the sky. The sun was warm and dazzling. It was less than one o'clock in the afternoon. It was too early to camp.

"I remember there was a ranch about ten miles southeast. Today I rushed there to camp. I could drink at least a cup of hot coffee, and maybe I could be warmly welcomed by the hostess."

"Then you may be disappointed, they drove the flock to Pine Tree Town," Romney shrugged and said helplessly. "Now running a ranch is a loss-making job. The Billy gangsters are overwhelming all the last straw. White ranchers are scrambling to sell it. 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's the damn Red River Valley that broke all this peace, and the wool they produced was piled up like a mountain, which lowered the price of wool." Roster Cobbonn himself was a rancher, owning a large ranch, and immediately became indignant when he talked about this;

"These Chinese should be stopped from coming to our ranch. They took away white job opportunities and wool trade rights. We can only endure all this. We really can't imagine what will turn out, and someone should come out to stop it."

"You are very right. I think I should..." Romney pointed to the white militia who were leaning or lying down the valley. He meant that he should do things, but he didn't have time to listen to you complain here.

"Go, Romney, let the guys cheer up." Roster Cobbonn turned over and climbed up, picked up the blanket underground and shook the ashes, slowly rolled it up and put it in the horse bag.

Just then

Suddenly, dense gunshots came, and bright blood burst out from more than a dozen cowboys who had just stood up and fell to the ground.

"Oh my God, it's Billy..."

Suddenly, the camp where he had a short rest was in chaos, and the war horses that had run wildly, causing chaos in the camp.

The dense gunfire continued. The running cowboy was knocked down by a gun and rolled to the ground. Some cowboys struggled to step onto the war horse, but were blown towards the hot bullets and they all bloomed. They fell into the grass with both men and horses.

Caught off guard against a sneak attack. After a short period of chaos, the cowboys spontaneously began to pick up their guns and fight back.

"Smack it..."

Bullets flew around, making a "rustling" sound when hitting the grass, and from time to time, people screamed after being shot.

Roster Cobbon hid behind a huge rock in a mess, and soon found that the bandits were hiding high on the mountain rocks, shooting down from a high place to the cowboys in the valley, just like hunting hares.

Judging from the gunfire, the other party will never have more than 40 people.

"Romney, Romney, rush out with your people, I'll arrange for the gunmen to cover you, damn it, we'll all be done here," Roster Cobbon shouted at the top of his lungs.

His shouts attracted the attention of the gangsters. More than a dozen hot gun bullets hit the rocks. The cracked sharp gravel cut Roster Cobone's cheek, leaving a long wound, and red blood immediately poured out.

Roster Coppern shrank his neck so much that he kept thrusting his heart, and he couldn't help but curse, "Damn bastard, Romney, if you want to die here, hurry up and take your people out. We need to get rid of the ambush circle and act for God's sake."

At this time, the fire in the valley was quite fierce, and bullets were whistling in the air. As long as the cowboys who could hold the gun were fighting back, they had reversed the initial passive situation.

After Romney shot back a few times, he found something was wrong. After careful observation, he verified his guess and waved his hand and shouted, "Stop shooting, stop, everyone stop shooting, go to a group of people to check it out, we are fooled, the Billy gang has left here."

Gunshots stop

The valley was filled with a strong breath of gunpowder, and the wailing injured people were everywhere, filled with a sense of tension.

A small group of cowboys were ordered to go around and climb up the mountain and rocks, but they did not find any bandits. Looking from a distance, a group of dozens of gangsters were disappearing in the distance, and they felt really annoyed.

This time, the bandit gangs suffered heavy losses. Among the encirclement teams with a total of 128 people, 27 people were killed in battle and more than 40 were injured. Obviously, they were unable to continue chasing and suppressing them. They could only withdraw to the nearby town to rest and arrange for treatment of the injured.

The news of the valley encounter spread, which immediately caused great panic among ranchers near Victoria, driving the flocks into Coventry and Lexington. Some farmers and ranchers drove the flocks into Sydney, causing extensive chaos in the city.

Amidst the chaos

With sufficient human and resource resources, the coastal railway project was progressing very smoothly, 27 miles were pushed in October, 40 miles in November, and by December, a staggering 58 miles were pushed.

Due to the lag 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 built to the southernmost Pine Tree Town in April 1880, and will arrive in Sydney no later than July.

Sydney

December 29, 1879

It has been three days since Li Fushou and his party arrived here. They came here to do some persuasion and promotion work in order to provide coastal railways at the affiliated dock facilities of Port Jackson and to continue to extend southwest to Victoria.

Here, they encountered real difficulties and obstacles.

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

Today, Sydney occupies the Cumberland Canyon region, a gentle hilly area surrounding Sydney Bay, located west of Port Jackson and extending to the south, and is the educational center and business core city of Australia.

White conservatives opposed the coastal railways entering the Cumberland Canyon area and even more opposed the extension to Port Jackson. They were afraid that the Chinese forces in the Red River Valley would invade Sydney and become the dominant force like Brisbane.

This concern is practical, so the South Wales Parliament rejected the relevant bill proposed by the Chia Democratic League MPs, but passed another compromise bill that allowed the Earl of Queensland to build railways on his own territory, including South Wales land.

In a luxurious estate on the banks of Sydney Bay

"How about it, are Brother Grimm willing to sell the land on the north bank?" Li Fushou walked in from outside, his body full of sunshine.

Charlie Vincent bent down respectfully and saluted; "Great Earl of Queensland, as you told me, I offered a high price to the Brothers Ranch of Grimm and accompanied it with a British Empire Order, but they were moved."

"Very good, I'll do this with a quick knife and tell them that my promise is real money."

"As you wish, Lord Earl."

Mr. Charlie Vincent greeted everyone present, then left the reception room, took a carriage to the Grimm Brothers Ranch, and agreed to this important deal as soon as possible.

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

"Zhongzhai will introduce what other obstacles we have to chew on the coastal railways?"

"As for orders, sir."

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

"The planning and construction period of coastal railways is one year and three months, and the main railway project is 12 months and 20 days. Judging from the current speed of progress, it is expected to be completed 70 days ahead of schedule.

That is to say, in early July 1880, we had a little more than 7 months to lay the railway line to Sydney.

If you want to complete it as scheduled, there are currently four major difficulties that need to be overcome.

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

Thanks to the world's latest reinforced concrete structure construction methods, the bridge and culvert tunnels are currently progressing smoothly and are expected to be completed by the end of June.

Second, a large cement plant project located in Songjiang.

All of the projects are advanced French equipment, and French engineering personnel are hired to direct the installation and commissioning of the equipment, hoping to successfully put into production in March, otherwise it will inevitably affect the construction of the reinforced concrete body of the bridge and culvert tunnel.

Third, on the coastal railway line from the Red River Valley to Sydney, there are still four ranches that are hard to deal with. In addition to the newly solved North Shore Green Brothers Ranch, there is one ranch in Coventry and two ranches in Lexington, which is still a roadblock...

The planned coastal railways cannot bypass these three ranches, and these ranches are particularly tough. They do not allow coastal railways to pass or sell them. We must solve this problem.

Fourth, it is the port issue.

Even if we build the coastal railway to Sydney, the railway line cannot enter the Port of Jackson and cannot realize the intermodal transport linkage between railways and seaports, which will greatly increase the loading and unloading transportation costs and reduce the efficiency of cargo turnover.

From this perspective, it is very unfavorable to the operation of coastal railways, because we export bulk goods, especially wool and cereal trade, and the loading and unloading costs of goods will be extremely high.

The above is a problem that needs to be solved urgently. Any of them may affect the on-demand access of coastal railways, and thus seriously affect the next development strategy of the Red River Valley."
Chapter completed!