Chapter 934: Strategic Highways

  Chapter 915 Strategic Highway

Counterattacks also take time to prepare, troops with heavy casualties need to be replaced down to rest and recuperate, and strategic supplies need time to be raised and transported.

Facts have long proved that modern war is no longer simply a battlefield fight, the rear is also fighting.

Just opened the Battle of the Rhine is a case in point, if not Austria gathered a large number of machine guns, artillery, it is impossible to withstand the French attack with inferior strength.

The more powerful the firepower, likewise meant the greater the logistical needs. More than 80% of the trains and ships sent from Austria to the front were transporting strategic materials.

If it were not for the fact that the transportation of logistical materials took up a great deal of capacity, the Austrian army would not have been able to move at such a slow pace.

Of course, the present sluggishness was mainly for the sake of future swiftness.

As a matter of fact, several years earlier the Vienna government had proposed to the German Confederation: the construction of a strategic highway from Bavaria directly to Luxembourg.

Only at that time the situation in Europe was still peaceful, people did not have enough sense of crisis, because of the cost of delayed agreement.

After all, the transportation in the German region was already sufficiently developed, the river transport + railroads could fully satisfy the daily transportation needs, and the economic value of building another highway was too low.

Coupled with the British and French fear that Austria will be through this highway, further deepening the influence of the West German region, tripping behind the scenes, the plan was shelved.

Until the outbreak of the Continental War, the front line of the logistical transportation pressure intensified, along the state governments were forced to restart the strategic highway program.

In order to save time, the governments decided to widen and re-string the original roads.

Time was too short for the German Confederation alone to complete the program in a short period of time. Even if only temporary roads were to be built, they would not be sufficient.

As a good ally, Austria naturally had to lend a helping hand. So far, the number of Austrian laborers entering the German area has exceeded 600,000, more than the number of Austrian soldiers on the Rhine front.

The management of such a large construction force was naturally a difficult task.

Fortunately, Austria adopted a universal military service system, and these conscripted civilian laborers, even if they had not entered the army, were drilled in the reserves and could be adapted in the shortest possible time.

The inconspicuous town of Wiese was chosen to become the new main road because of its geographical location.

In charge of the construction of this section was the 3rd Battalion of the 4th Regiment of the 3rd Austrian Engineer Division. Engineer Iverson, who was the technical leader, was currently surveying the site with binoculars.

Said exploration, in fact, Iversen only brought paper and pen, plus a pair of binoculars. Measuring and exploration instruments are all non-existent.

Not his malfeasance, laziness, mainly in order to catch up with the schedule, there is not too much time to waste in the preliminary work.

The exploration, analysis, and research in the past are now omitted through and through. “Naked eye looking into the past + experience = roadmap.”

After determining the general direction, it was straight forward to repair. Except for the special areas that had to be avoided due to geographic constraints, other than that, it was just a matter of directly A-passing them.

This was road repair, it wasn’t a precision job. Even if there was an error, the big deal was to make a turn when docking midway, as long as the deviation wasn’t too excessive, it was all acceptable.

“It’s a pity that such a good manor will soon be split in two!”

Along the way, Iverson had already lost count of how many times he had made similar exclamations. There was no way around it, right now he was doing the job of a demolition worker.

The flat terrain of the manor, while facilitating agricultural production, also facilitated road construction. Only need to slightly level the land, compacted on the concrete on the line.

Geological conditions, type of soil, bearing capacity, the basic parameters of construction in the past, now become redundant.

When you build a road in the plains, even if the pressure is too high later on and settlement of the roadbed occurs, it won’t sink anywhere.

Road quality problems, that is completely overthinking, now everything in order to rush, as long as the danger is within the controllable range, nothing else is a matter.

The big deal is that after the end of the war to repair, as long as the temporary use, to meet the logistical transportation on the line.

Moreover, these days the car load capacity is limited, able to pull dozens of tons of goods at once are heavy trucks, the carrying capacity of the road requirements are not high.

“Lieutenant, there are people outside looking for you, saying they have urgent matters to discuss with you.”

A guard on duty, ran over to inform.

Since it was a militarized management, military rank was naturally rare. Although he was only an ordinary engineer who had just been drafted, Iverson still became a basic officer with his own skills.

Putting down the binoculars in front of him, Iverson slowly asked: ”Got it. Let’s ask the visitor first, what’s the matter with coming over to me.

If they say they don’t come for anything specific, or if the reason is too far-fetched and the request is too much, they will all send me away.”

It was obvious that Lt. Iverson was already experienced in dealing with this. Even if he didn’t see anyone, he knew what the visitor was for.

“Demolition”, naturally, there is no lack of interests involved. These days, there is no demolition fee, even if the land is privately owned, it should be occupied.

The most you can do is to give some symbolic compensation, anyway, not too much higher than the market price of land.

If there was a large-scale expropriation of land, this kind of compensation might not make the land owner lose money, but the problem is that now it is only compensation for the land occupied by the highway.

The problem is that now the compensation is only for the land occupied by the highway. However, the loss of profit brought by the construction of the highway is not limited to the land occupied. Many estates are split in the middle by the road, and instantly become chicken ribs.

If you want to be reasonable, I’m sorry that this is a time of war. Everything has to give way to the war, and all problems have to wait until after the war.

Not everyone has a sense of the big picture, and even less are willing to give. There are naturally a lot of people who climb up the ladder in order to minimize, or deflect, losses.

Those who were able to find their way to the door were not ordinary people, and in the beginning, in order to make good relations with local powerhouses, Iverson even attended a lot of banquets.

However, he soon gave up. The land annexation situation in the German region was already very serious, and no matter how the road was sited, it would inevitably jeopardize the interests of some people.

After all, this is a strategic highway, the footprint is naturally not small. Compared to the original two or three meters wide road, now directly increased five or six times, these are to occupy land.

To get rich first build a road, in the German region does not apply. The local economy is already good, the original road is also enough to meet the daily transportation needs.

This strategic highway that is now being built has essentially seriously jeopardized the interests of the landowners.

As in the case of this manor, once the road is split in two, not only will the area be reduced, but the management costs will also increase greatly, and the value of the manor will naturally fall drastically.

Before the Luxembourg defense line collapsed, Lieutenant Iverson would have considered whether to sell the landowner a favor and find a way around the edge.

But now, with three orders from the top to make progress, it was only natural to do it as quickly as possible. As for follow-up questions, that was a matter for the state governments themselves.

……

“Lieutenant, this is the wine I brought for ……”

Without waiting for the old man to finish his sentence, Iverson interrupted, “I’m sorry Mr. Will, you should know that the Luxembourg line has been lost, and now the Rhine line is also in danger.

For the sake of the larger strategic picture, the higher-ups have ordered that most of the sections be strung out within two months, and we don’t have time for that.”

The Rhine defenses were naturally not in jeopardy, but when it came to demolition, they had to be.

If they don’t feel the pressure, who can guarantee that the owners of these lands won’t be so lucrative that they’ll deliberately prevent the highway from being built.

The old man replied bitterly, “Lieutenant, I understand all of this. Once the French break through the Rhine River defense line, this place will turn into a battlefield and no one will be able to stand alone.

But I am a vineyard here, and once the highway passes through the middle, it will inevitably affect the quality of the grapes.

Take a detour from the side, it adds less than a kilometer in total, the terrain here is flat, it won’t take much time!”

It was bound to happen that the highway passing through the middle of the vineyard would affect the quality of the grapes. Not to mention, the noise of the vehicles passing through, and the dust flying up from the road will affect the growth of the grapes in the neighborhood.

Grapes don’t keep well, and these days vineyards sell mostly raisins and wine, so if you’re just going into the lower end of the market, it doesn’t hurt to have poorer quality grapes.

To get into the mid to high end market, anything that could potentially affect the quality of the grapes would be fatal to the vineyard owner.

Iverson shook his head, “Sir, I’m very sorry, I really can’t help you with this favor. I personally suggest that you should negotiate with the local government about compensation as soon as possible to minimize your losses.

Perhaps in your opinion, a detour of a few hundred meters to pass by the land next to you will minimize the financial loss and won’t increase the workload much.

But do not forget that the land next to it also has an owner. The owner of the land surely does not want something similar to happen to him or her.

If the owner of the land reprimands the troops, this kind of behavior, which clearly involves malicious encroachment and targeting, is something I’ll have to court-martial.”

Austria was preparing to unify the German region, so naturally it couldn’t do anything indiscriminately. It was understandable that land had to be taken for the construction of strategic highways, but only if it was done as fairly as possible.

Even if there was to be a detour, it was only possible to proceed if the landowner had done a good job of coordinating it first and everyone had no problem with it.

The old man nodded helplessly, ”I’m sorry for making things difficult for Your Excellency. The road cannot be rerouted, then move to the side and pass through the fringe area of the manor.

Don’t worry about the increased workload Your Excellency, I will organize my own manpower to come and help, it won’t affect the construction progress.”

“Just a slight offset, no land strife involved, no impact on the construction progress, I don’t think there’s a problem!”

Lieutenant Iverson did not intentionally make things difficult, he was still happy to sell a personal favor without affecting the mission.

The local officials on the side who were responsible for coordinating the communication also breathed a sigh of relief, similar things had happened countless times. Those who were able to solve the problem without conflict were considered to have a happy ending.

(End of chapter)