Chapter 59 Development

China in the 21st century can be called an infrastructure maniac.

From 2005 to 2017, China's expressways added more than 70,000 kilometers, and the total mileage of traffic reached 30,000 kilometers, ranking first in the world. The railway mileage is 120,000 kilometers, ranking second in the world.

All kinds of architectural bests in the world, such as the highest bridge, the longest bridge, the longest tunnel, etc., are all in China.

Among the world's top ten longest cross-sea bridges, five bridges in China are on the list. The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge ranks first in the world with a length of 55km, which is nearly 20km longer than the second-ranked Seto Bridge in Japan.

The Beipanjiang Bridge, with a vertical height of 565 meters from the bridge deck to the bottom of the valley, is equivalent to a 200-story building and is the highest bridge in the world.

The attributes of the infrastructure maniacs that have attracted worldwide attention are the innate genes passed down since ancient times.

China has two world-class 5,000-kilometer-long rivers, the Yangtze River and the Yellow River. However, as early as the Sui Dynasty more than 1,000 years ago, the ancestors of the Chinese people connected these two major water systems with artificial rivers. Today, from BJ to Hangzhou, the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal is 1,787 kilometers long, the longest canal in the world.

The Erie Canal built by the United States in the 19th century is the second longest in the world, with a total length of 584 kilometers, only one-third of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. No other canal in the world exceeds 200 kilometers.

The Suez Canal is the third longest in the world, only 190 kilometers. In addition, the Panama Canal, which is well known to Chinese people, is only about 82 kilometers.

The Great Wall is the only one in English that has the word "Great Wall". Except for the Great Wall, other walls are not great.

In addition to the Great Wall, which is the second longest wall in the world? I believe few people know.

In addition to the above two super projects that are still difficult for humans in the 21st century to build, there is also the Dujiangyan Water Conservancy Project, the only one in the world's ancient water conservancy history that has survived to the present and is also the oldest in existence, which has made Sichuan a land of abundance, with an irrigation area of ​​millions of acres.

Dujiangyan was built more than 2,000 years ago. At the same time, the world only had small irrigation systems, not such a grand water conservancy project.

This genetic attribute passed down from generation to generation also affected Yannick, causing him to always like to build city walls when playing strategy games such as Age of Empires, and to connect every two cities with railways when playing Civilization 5, as if he had an obsessive-compulsive disorder, wishing that there were railways in every grid.

Now that he has mastered an empire, he is even more unstoppable, turning the entire Germany into an extremely large construction site.

Yannick ordered that the main roads in Berlin and other major cities be built into two-way eight-lane roads, plus tram lanes, bus lanes, non-motorized vehicle lanes, sidewalks, expanded spare lanes, and green lanes, and the width of the road surface reached 70 meters. You must know that the production of cars at that time was far less than that of later generations, and even the existing road surface with a width of about four lanes seemed very empty.

But Yannick knew that in less than 20 years, Germany would really be able to realize the ambition of everyone being able to drive a car. If it is not expanded now, it will definitely be congested.

The most important thing is that the expansion requires the demolition of countless houses. Given the current poor living conditions of the German people, many people will obey the government's arrangement to move for a few bags of flour or other daily necessities.

Want to demolish the house in a few decades? Then the city government will have to hold multiple hearings, involving the environment, transportation, education, residential buildings, commerce, municipal services, taxes, etc., and listen to the opinions of the community many times, negotiate changes, and bargain, which is extremely cumbersome.

Of course, there are also those stubborn "nail households" who are directly thrown into prison for obstructing public service.

I believe many people have heard of the story of "The German Emperor and the Miller". This story is widely circulated in the Chinese world, and various versions have been interpreted. The more common version goes like this:

In the 18th century, German Emperor William I built a palace in Potsdam. Once, he lived in the palace and climbed up to overlook the panoramic view of Potsdam, but his view was blocked by a mill. The emperor was very disappointed. This mill was "unsightly". He sent people to negotiate with the miller, intending to buy the mill for demolition. Unexpectedly, the miller refused to sell it, and the reason was simple: This is what my ancestors left behind, and I can't let it fail in my hands, no matter how much money I pay! The emperor was furious and sent out his guards to forcibly demolish the mill.

The stubborn miller filed a lawsuit in court. Surprisingly, the court ruled that the emperor lost the case. The court also ruled that the emperor should rebuild the mill in its original location and compensate the miller for his economic losses. The emperor obeyed the court's decision and rebuilt the mill.

Decades later, William I and the miller died one after another. The miller's son was on the verge of bankruptcy due to poor management. He wrote to the then Emperor William II and voluntarily sold the mill to him. After receiving the letter, William II was filled with emotion. He believed that the mill was related to the country's judicial independence and the image of fair trial. It was a monument and a symbol of Germany's judicial independence and fair trial, and it should be preserved forever. He wrote back in person, urging him to keep the mill to pass on to his descendants. He also gave him 6,000 marks to repay his debts. The young miller was very moved after receiving the reply. It was decided not to sell the mill to commemorate this past.

The earliest Chinese version of this story was a diary written by Mr. Yang Changji in 1914. Later, it was quoted and spread, and finally more and more people regarded it as a model in the history of Western legal system. Many people tell this story to emphasize the long-standing tradition of judicial independence and property rights protection in Western society.

Before traveling through time, Yannick also thought that this was a real thing. It was not until he asked the royal steward that he found out that the "German Emperor and the Miller" was actually a fictitious story. In German history, there was no case of the emperor being sued for demolishing a mill.

The prototype of the story should be a legend about King Frederick II of Prussia that appeared in the late 18th century:

Frederick II built a Sanssouci Palace in Potsdam, but there was a windmill outside the palace. The creaking sound of the windmill affected the king's rest, so Frederick II ordered someone to buy the mill, but was rejected by the miller. Frederick II threatened the miller: "You know I can use the king's power to requisition this mill without paying a penny." The miller said: "Your Majesty is powerful, but there is still an appeals court in Berlin." Frederick II was very satisfied with this answer, and generously let the miller go and no longer insisted on requisitioning his mill.

Please note that this is also a legend, not real history. This legend also reveals a piece of information: the King of Prussia has the right to requisition the mill without compensation, but Frederick II was very generous and did not do so; and there is no plot of the miller suing the king here. I think it is a bit far-fetched to use this legend to prove the long tradition of judicial independence and property rights protection in the West.

When Mr. Yang Changji told this foreign story that was spread by word of mouth, he said with a serious expression. "Westerners respect the law and do not succumb to power like this, which is something that Orientals have never dreamed of."

If Mr. Yang had studied Chinese history in depth, he would have found that there were similar stories in the Song Dynasty of China.

The first story: The imperial city in Kaifeng City of the Northern Song Dynasty was formerly the seat of the governor, which was relatively narrow, so the emperor always wanted to expand the imperial city to be wider. On September 17, the second year of Yongxi (985), the Chu Palace in the imperial city caught fire, which made Song Taizong determined to "expand the palace city" and even asked people to survey and draw drawings. According to the drawings, many civilians' houses needed to be demolished. The officials in charge of the project went to consult the residents within the demolition area, but "most residents did not want to move", so Song Taizong did not dare to demolish it by force and had to give up.

The second story: During the Shaosheng period of Emperor Zhezong of the Song Dynasty, Empress Dowager Xiang's family, the Xiang family, wanted to build a Ciyun Temple near their ancestral tomb. Cai Jing, the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, wanted to curry favor with the royal family, so he enclosed a large piece of land and presented it to the Xiang family, and ordered the "neighboring fields and houses" to be demolished quickly. The demolished families were dissatisfied and went to Kaifeng Prefecture to sue Cai Jing. Fan Zhengping, a judge in Kaifeng Prefecture, made a ruling: "All the land that has been developed is the property of the people and cannot be taken away." In today's terms, it means that the property rights of the residents are protected by law and cannot be infringed. However, the demolished households were still dissatisfied with Fan Zhengping's ruling, and "beat the drum to appeal again" and sued to Dengwen Drum Court. In the end, Dengwen Drum Court punished Cai Jing for violating the property rights of civilians, and "fined him 20 catties in Beijing."

The first story is recorded in "Song Huiyao Jigao" and "Song History·Geography", and the second story is recorded in "Song History·Biography of Fan Zhengping", which is much more sophisticated than Mr. Yang's fictitious story.

In any case, thousands of kilometers of highways and railways are constantly being built, which also boosts domestic demand and creates countless jobs. In addition to transportation construction, Yannick did not ignore social, sports, cultural venues and water conservancy facilities to improve people's quality of life.

And Speer's architectural dream has finally come true. The Nuremberg Stadium, Berlin Airport and Hamburg Railway Station designed by him have been approved and started construction.

However, he seemed to be a little too excited and proposed to build a building in the center of Berlin that is taller than the Soviet Palace, and to erect a statue of Frederick the Great on the top of the building. The entire building is planned to be 591 meters high and have a total of 200 floors. (Speaking of the Soviet Palace, the Soviet Union started to build the Soviet Palace last year, flattened the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, and began to lay the foundation)

Yannick rejected the plan with some laughter and tears, but he was not yet so inflated that he was confused.

Countless funds rolled back and forth in such a huge construction site, pushing Germany onto the fast track of rapid development.