Chapter 244 The Golden Ten Thousand Taels Train Rings

This autumn is another bumper harvest autumn, since the introduction and promotion of new species, the grain production of the Great Song Dynasty has increased year by year, and now the price of rice is lower than in normal years, if it is not for the government to come forward to buy a large amount of grain, to maintain its price stability, I am afraid that the harvest will inevitably happen.

"Hehe, the weather is nice today."

The Great Dynasty Meeting was about to start, and when everyone was waiting in front of the Daqing Palace, Wei Liaoweng said to Xue Ji with a smile.

Xue Jihu looked at the sky suspiciously, it was clearly a cloudy day, in the past few days, Wei Weng seemed to have changed his temperament, and the face of the physicist was no longer seen, but replaced by a smile. If he didn't know that he was a human being, Xue Ji would almost have wondered if he had married a few more concubines.

Qiao Xingjian glanced at Wei Liaoweng quietly, and then lowered his eyebrows, as if he was thinking about something.

Now in the Great Song Dynasty, the data is extremely sensitive, and the Son of Heaven once reprimanded a few court officials who could not report important data under their own duties during the court meeting, saying that they were insensitive and shameless, forcing those court officials to resign in shame and anger, and Zhao and Ju also accepted their resignations unceremoniously, without the slightest intention of retaining. This made the court officials awe-inspiring, and they did not dare to slack off on the details of their duties, so they were more or less exposed to the financial revenue in the first half of the year, especially the autumn grain storage data, Wei Liaoweng was so happy because of these data.

If the economic situation in the first year of Yanhuang made Wei Liaoweng breathe a sigh of relief, then the data situation so far in the second year of Yanhuang made him feel excited.

Of course, in the dead of night, he was also a little frightened, and the wealth released by the people formed a force that made him fear. He used the rest time to go around Lin'an, and saw with his own eyes that the state capitals had changed, of course, the biggest change was Lin'an, although he lived in the city, but as long as he didn't go out of the city for three days, he felt novel: the place that was still a wasteland was originally excavated, and now the foundation has been excavated, and the original road was not accessible, but now there is a beautiful concrete floor, and the place where he was so poor that he was heartbroken in the Great Song Dynasty Hubu Shangshu is now happily buying meat dumplings.

Yesterday he also received a letter from Zhen Dexiu, the letter was sent by Zhen Dexiu from Xuzhou, with the help of the original military station converted into a post system, it only takes three days for such a letter to arrive in Lin'an. Zhen Dexiu talked about the changes in Xuzhou and Huaibei in the letter, and talked about the gap between Chuzhou and Huainan, and the panic in Zhen Dexiu's words almost came to his face.

Before the time for this bet came, Zhen Deok so had actually conceded defeat.

Qiao Xingjian glanced at Cui He again, and lowered his eyebrows again.

Cui He is still the smiling and harmless appearance, some people say that he is the most faceless prime minister since this dynasty. However, Qiao Xingjian secretly scolded the old fox in his heart, when Cui He first came from Guangdong two years ago, there were almost no people in the Manchu Dynasty except for Hong Shikui, but after two years, he unknowingly installed his people in many Langzhong, Wailang, and chief positions in the Six Ministries. Originally, the important ministers of the court, not Siming and Wuzhou, now unconsciously the Cantonese people have also become an important part of it.

When he was thinking about Cui He, Cui He suddenly walked over to Qiao Xingjian and said with a smile: "Qiao Shangshu, how did the reef of the Three Gorges blow up?" ”

In order to dredge the waterway, Zhao Heju issued an order that the Ministry of Industry and the artillery of the Guards should cooperate to blow up the reefs on the Yangtze River waterway with gunpowder and artillery, which has been in operation for more than half a year. Qiao Xingjian only got the news a few days ago, so he smiled and said: "It's already done, at the beginning, Li Taibai said that thousands of miles of Jiangling would be returned in one day, and now if you go down the river and take the steamer, it will only take half a day!" ”

"That's very good, after two years, the old man will take a boat to see it again." Cui and the way.

The dredging of this route played a very important role in strengthening the control of the Great Song Dynasty over the land of Sichuan and Shu. The reason why the traitor Wu Xi dared to rebel against Sichuan and Shu was that the road into Sichuan was difficult, and although the waterway was convenient, the reef and dangerous shoals made this road full of dangers.

"Cui Xianggong's spirit is like this, how can he talk about Zhishi?" Qiao Xingjian keenly sensed the meaning of Cui He's words, and raised his eyebrows and asked.

"Dying and decaying, not longevity, the tomb has been arched." Cui sighed with emotion: "In the past, the old man saw very openly, only felt the common feelings of birth, old age, sickness and death, but now I can't let go of it, my Great Song Dynasty is thriving, if you give the old man another five years of life, you can see that Wang Shi Beiding Central Plains Day, and then give twenty years of life, maybe you can see the prosperity of the three generations of governance can not be compared!" ”

"What is the purpose of this old man telling me this?"

Qiao Xingjian thought so in his heart, but he wished in his mouth: "Cui Xianggong's body is now, even a forty-year-old person can't compare, don't say that if you live for another twenty years, it is natural to live a long life of 100 years." ”

"I think Brother Qiao is in better health, as long as there are no accidents, he will live a long life before he ......."

When Cui He said this, the sound of the whip of the wrestler came, which meant that the Son of Heaven had been promoted, and the hundred officials should be in the court. Cui He bowed slightly, returned to his class, and left Qiao Xingjian alone in shock.

Cui has a good relationship with him, but he is not good enough to run to say this, and he must have something to say. But this old fox didn't say this in a private conversation, but used the time before the court meeting, this kind of public occasion, Qiao Xingjian was suspicious and not easy to ask.

After entering the hall with the class, Qiao Xingjian glanced at the Son of Heaven, the Son of Heaven's expression was very happy today, and it seemed that there was some good news. Qiao Xingjian thought for a while, but he didn't receive any notice in the newspaper, so the news of the Son of Heaven should have been received yesterday.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I have good news today." After the end of the routine court meeting, Zhao Heju smiled and said: "Xiao Bolang, the waiter of the Ministry of Works, played a steam locomotive that has been built to run on land, and in the future, it will be a place where there is no waterway, and the steam engine can also be used. ”

Unfortunately, Zhao and Ju's enthusiasm did not receive much of a fierce response, as the ministers were still skeptical of this epoch-making invention, and the people at this time did not understand what the railway system meant for a country with a large area.

"I want to build a special road for steam locomotives from Lin'an to Huating, and the survey along the way started half a year ago, and the land acquisition was accompanied by the assistance of Yousi." Regardless of whether the ministers understood the significance of this matter, Zhao Youju continued: "Within a year, I want this way through. ”

In fact, after Xiao Bolang and Hu You completed the development of steam ships in the first year of Yan Huang, their subsequent research was handed over to the young researchers who graduated from Liuqiu Middle School, and Xiao Bolang himself completely transferred his energy to the study of steam locomotives according to Zhao and Ju's instructions. As long as the technology of turning steam into power was mastered, the research time of steam locomotives was very short, and the rails had long been used in order to facilitate mining, so the first steam locomotive was built in January of the second year of Yanhuang, but this was still very ugly, dragging four carriages on the railroad and running at a speed of 20 miles per hour. After discovering that it could be put into practical use, Zhao Youju immediately transferred experienced railroad laying personnel and 180 graduates of the middle school from Liuqiu to start the railway survey and site selection from Lin'an to Huating Mansion. After May, it even began to build dual-purpose steel bridges for railways and highways on some river ditches, only to prepare for the bridge across the Qiantang River.

In the past three years, the higher school has accepted 600 of the most outstanding students, the middle school has trained 4,800 qualified skilled workers and ordinary researchers, and the number of students admitted to the primary school has reached 50,000 - this is the number after adding up the number of branches in all cities such as Tamsui and Yilan. This greatly alleviated the problem of the shortage of technical personnel in Zhao Heju's hands, and also enabled him to ensure the continued development of Liuqiu, while also transferring key manpower from it to start the construction around Lin'an.

Moreover, with the establishment of the Xuzhou Primary School, the talent training program on land is also on the right track, in recent years, under the guise of cultivating Langzhong, in the Great Song Dynasty poor children literacy and numeracy education, the first batch of the smartest children have been selected, ready to be sent to Xuzhou to receive primary education, and then after the completion of the selection of the best sent to Liuqiu to continue their studies.

And Xiao Bolang, who is far away, continued to improve and test his steam locomotive, and it took half a year, on July 2, the second year of Yanhuang, Xiao Bolang's test steam locomotive completed the whole process from Tamsui to Keelung, and there was no breakdown in the whole process, and there was no major failure, the speed reached 30 miles per hour, and the load was an astonishing 50 stones (tons), Zhao Youju got the news the night before, and was so excited that he almost didn't fall asleep all night.

"Your Majesty, how much does this steam locomotive carry at one time, and how many people does it carry?"

Seeing that it seemed to be a little cold, Cui asked with his class.

"At present, a car can hang five carriages, and each carriage can carry 170 stones of grain, a total of more than 800 stones. If it is carrying people, each carriage can carry 100 people, and one car can carry 500 people. The speed of the car is 30 miles per hour, and you only need to add coal and water and sand on the way, and you can almost never sleep, 24 hours a day, deduct 4 hours to add coal and water, and 20 hours can run 600 miles if you go well. Zhao Youju realized that he didn't tell the specific situation, so he naturally couldn't get the agreement, so he smiled: "And now it's only the initial model, Xiao Bolang, the waiter of the Ministry of Works, is developing a better one with skilled craftsmen, and this car will only pull more people and carry more weight." ”

Although he said it a little scattered, the Manchu civil and military were all taken aback.

For the Great Song Dynasty, a very serious problem is the loss of manpower and material resources in the transportation process, for example, if it is not a waterway, relying on manpower and animal power alone to send a hundred stone of grain thousands of miles away, the loss of money in the middle of the way, often more than the delivery. The waste of time, manpower, and agricultural time in the middle is not counted.

"This car...... How much manpower does this car cost? Cui He was also frightened by this news, he remembered the steam wheel, since this steam locomotive has the same power as the steam wheel, it will cost very little manpower.

"On top of a car, it is enough for three people to add coal and one person to drive, but the roads along the way need to be maintained." Zhao Youju made a silent calculation in his heart: "I changed the military system at the beginning and turned the box army into a guard army and a garrison army, just to prepare for it, so there is no need to spend more people's power." As for the construction of roads, one can use the guards to garrison the army, the second can recruit workers, and the third can take advantage of the agricultural slack season, so as not to disturb the people. ”

As he calmed down, Zhao and Ju noticed that his ministers were now significantly more interested in what "benefits" the new things could bring to the Great Song Dynasty, at least until now, none of them had jumped out to say that the steam locomotive did not conform to the "law of the ancestors".

Thinking of this, one thing that Zhao Youju was originally very worried about was solved.

He vividly remembers that in the time and space he traveled, when China first started building railways, it was widely opposed because of the fear that it would "destroy feng shui", and he was worried that his own railways would be met with similar strong resistance, but now it seems that at least the bureaucrats and doctors are not very resistant to this.

"Your Majesty, this is a great good thing, if this is the case, not only to Huating Mansion, but also to Chengdu Mansion, Xiangyang Mansion, Xuzhou Mansion, all must be repaired!"

The first person to come out was Ge Hong, and what he said also made Zhao Heju startled, he just wanted to build a railway to Huating Mansion, one was an experimental nature, the other was to accumulate experience, and the third was because he knew how important Huating Mansion would be in the future. However, Ge Hong directly proposed to build four, including the railway to Chengdu, and Zhao Youju believed that he might not be able to accumulate such technology in another ten years.

"I thought I would go to Quanzhou and Guangzhou." The second one who came out to support was Qiao Xingjian, as the secretary of the Ministry of Works, he was somewhat uncomfortable, because the nominal assistant Xiao Bolang, the waiter of the Ministry of Works, had never seen it before, and Xiao Bolang invented these things, and the Son of Heaven knew about them earlier than him, the chief official.

The Song people were far more open than later generations imagined, and they may be more conservative in the system, but their ability to accept new things and the benefits that this new thing can bring, their attitude is far more pragmatic than Zhao and Ju imagined. If it can really have such a miraculous effect as the Son of Heaven said, it means that the control of the Great Song Dynasty over the frontier areas has been raised to an unprecedented level, and the saving of people's power is enough to leave a good reputation of "benevolent government" in history. At this time, as long as you are not too stupid in your mind, you will not go against the trend, and you will deliberately go against the Son of Heaven, if you want to criticize the Son of Heaven to invite fame, it is better to grasp the fact that the harem of the Son of Heaven is still empty.

"It would be better if I could make all the state capitals of the Great Song Dynasty pass this road." And another courtier brought it up.

Zhao Youju found that he had become the most conservative person in the Daqing Palace.

"I am very pleased that all the ministers are united in the heart of the people." After signaling everyone to be quiet, Zhao Heju said slowly: "In Liuqiu, this steam locomotive runs on the rails, so it is also called the railway. The paving of the entire road requires a lot of rails, gravel, and sleepers, and it is by no means an overnight thing, nor can it be paved throughout the country. And across the mountains and rivers, there are still many problems to be solved, therefore, I want to build a road between Lin'an and Huating, if it can be completed within two years, then I and Zhongqing will experience it in person, and then decide whether to promote it in the whole territory of my Great Song Dynasty, how about it? ”