The spring breeze caresses the surface of Weishan Lake, the canal water flows slowly, and the rivers and lakes in the northern land, which have been frozen for several months, have begun to thaw two months ago.

When the river thaws in the spring, the waterwheels on the banks of the river turn again, and the ironworks that have fallen into semi-silence due to the freezing of the river in the winter come alive again. But this winter, the ironworks were not as silent as they had been in previous years, and even the tall waterwheels were dismantled in the winter when the water dried up, replaced by towering chimneys and several steam engines.

Xingqian seven years, this year, for the Ming Dynasty is an extremely important year, the reason why it is important, is not only this year, the Ming army crossed the Tongguan, step by step to the west. It's because in this year, Daming has entered the age of steam. And Liguoyi Iron Works is naturally no exception.

Standing on the shore of Weishan River and Lake, Zhu Mingzhong, who was dressed in a black dragon and dragged a dragon, was taking a walk by the lake with several officials. The back is surrounded by the brigade of Jinyiwei, as a tradition of the Ming Dynasty, as early as a few years ago, Jinyiwei has been re-copied, it is the same as the old times, Jinyiwei is first of all the emperor's guard and honor guard, but in the same way, it also bears the same combat function as other Tianzi pro-army, but the flying fish suit has already become a red military uniform, only the copper belt around the waist on the flying fish pattern shows their identity, however, now the Jinyi guard is just a guard pro-army and honor guard.

Even though it has been seven years since Xingqian, most of the fields on both sides of this Weishan Lake are still barren and not much populated. Decades ago, the fertile land where chickens and dogs smelled each other is now almost as desolate as the grassland outside the Saiwai, and as far as the eye can see, it is all green, and there are even many trees growing in it.

If there are a few more years, the once familiar land on both sides of the strait will inevitably become a forest and grassland. During the Chongzhen period, the Qing army's several invasions were along the Grand Canal all the way to the south, since then, within a hundred miles of both sides of the Qianli Canal in the north to Shandong, there was hardly anyone in the slaughter of the Qing army, and even now, there is still not much recovery here.

"Your Majesty, the minister plans to build a railway from Liguoyi, which will go directly to Xuzhou and connect with Xuzhou to the Shanghai-Jingluo Railway, so that the cannonballs and other materials produced by the Liguoyi Iron Works can be directly transported to the northwest front by train."

Zhang Ying, who was following His Majesty, carefully kept a distance of half a step behind, while not forgetting to tell his plan.

As the new manager of the railway company, Zhang Yingyi, who was originally only an engineer, took office, and faced a crisis of integrity, with a large number of high-level occupations involved in corruption, or being sentenced to death, or exiled, and involving millions of taels of funds, which must be said to be shocking.

In this case, Zhang Ying not only had to keep the railway company running, but also had to prove the value of the railway company to the imperial court. Although the railway has been proving its value from the pre-war transportation of troops to the present, the railway company is facing a life and death test, after all, the imperial court has agreed to run a commercial railway.

Therefore, he will carefully plan the development route in order to prove the value of the existence of the railway company, and this opportunity to meet the saint is also Zhang Ying finally won over.

When Zhang Ying mentioned the plan to build a railway branch line, Zhu Mingzhong occasionally set his eyes on him, and in another time and space, this Zhang Ying can be described as a famous celebrity, not only because of the "Six Feet Lane" in Tongcheng, because his son Zhang Tingyu was also the only Hanchen in the entire Qing Dynasty who was worthy of enjoying the Taimiao. It was Zhang Tingyu who perfected the system of the Military Aircraft Department, and he can be called the "hero" who established the Manchu dictatorship.

And now history has been completely changed, Zhang Ying is no longer a bachelor of the Manchu Qing Dynasty in history, but the first batch of railway experts in the Ming Dynasty, and of course the first batch of railway experts in the world. Over the past few years, he and his colleagues have designed and built the world's first railroad and developed equipment for it.

History has been completely changed, and what has been changed is not only the fate of Zhang Ying.

Turning his head to look to the other side, looking at the big chimney spitting smoke, although it was far away, Zhu Mingzhong seemed to hear the roar of the steam engine.

In the seventh year of Xingqian, 1670, this year, the steam engine began to be fully popularized in the industrial production of the Ming Dynasty!

Now, of course, the only thing that restricts the use of steam engines is coal mines, the second is naturally iron, and the third is factory production.

“…… According to Chen's calculations, as long as the supply of rails and other materials can be guaranteed, the railway branch line between Liguoyi and Xuzhou can be built in July at the latest. ”

Zhang Ying said cautiously.

"In this way, it can be guaranteed that military transportation this winter will not be restricted by the freezing of the canal."

When it was over, he deliberately emphasized again.

"The construction of this branch line does not need to be paid by the imperial court, and the minister calculated that after switching to steam locomotives, the profits of the railway company have risen sharply, especially the vast majority of the materials and soldiers of the imperial court's westward expedition are transferred by the railway, and it is expected that this year's profits will exceed 1.35 million taels, and the construction of this branch line is more than enough."

Looking at the silent Majesty, Zhang Ying's heart secretly cried bitterly, a few years ago, the imperial court invested a lot of money in the railway company, but how did the people of the railway company repay the imperial court? It's large-scale corruption. This is also the reason why the imperial court is now staring at the railway company and is eager to audit it every month.

"The minister expects that the cost of this railway branch line will be about 200,000 taels, and considering other expenses, the minister is ready to pay 800,000 taels to the household department at the end of the year."

800,000 taels!

This money is really not good, although when he took out this money, Zhang Ying also felt a little painful, and he preferred to use this money to build a railway.

"Zhang Ying, after the 800,000 taels are handed over to the imperial court, if you want to come back, it will be difficult......

Staring at the iron factory in the distance, Zhu Mingzhong asked rhetorically,

"Don't you want to build hundreds of kilometers of railroad?"

His Majesty's words made Zhang Ying's eyes open slightly, and he looked at His Majesty with some puzzlement.

"I have never been a person who wastes food because of choking, some people in the court feel that the railway company is seriously corrupt, and it costs so much money to the imperial court, and as a result, it also blocks technological progress, so they feel that it is better to run it than to run it officially, so they decided to let go of the railway official office and support the business office instead, and I am not opposed to this!"

When Zhu Mingzhong mentioned "blocking technological progress", he suddenly had a conflict that wanted to laugh, unlike the panic and conservatism of the Chinese people in the 19th century in the other world when facing the railway, the Ming Dynasty was stunned by the railway. They did not expect that after the combination of railways and trains, its capacity would be so large and so fast, and the court officials, who had been deeply troubled by the problems of grain transportation, troop deployment, and frontier military supplies, almost immediately saw a solution to the problem.

Build a railway!

Not only did they have to build the railway, but also overhauled the railway, especially before and after the Western Expedition, in just a few months, this railway, which was backward in terms of technical conditions, actually transported more than 100,000 troops and more than 100,000 tons of materials, which was completely beyond their imagination.

So the overhaul of the railway became the consensus of the imperial court, almost all the officials and gentry, were there to talk about the benefits of building the railway, there was no other time and space, was frightened, felt that the railway would shake the feng shui and destroy the dragon vein, and the railway line was planned there with great interest.

As soon as he heard His Majesty mention that he did not oppose the commercial railway, Zhang Ying's heart "chuckled", his mood suddenly became heavy, and his expression was not very natural.

"At the beginning of the month, when I was discussing with the cabinet, Zhu Daxian took out a planning map, which is said to be a line planned by businessmen, and they want to build a 100,000-mile railway within 20 years......

100,000 miles......

It's similar to the 100,000 miles of Sun's cannon in another time and space, but fortunately, at least they didn't fantasize about building a railroad across the Himalayas.

"Your Majesty, the minister has also seen the planning map, the planning map is completely out of thin air, there is no consideration of the terrain, environmental and other restrictions, the minister thinks that the commercial railway is good, but only enthusiasm is not enough, take the Sichuan railway, the current population of Sichuan is only one million, to build the railway into Sichuan, not only to go over the mountains and mountains, and consume a lot, and the technology is also difficult to meet, if you let the business run, I am afraid that in the end not only the railway is difficult to pass, and even may give up halfway......

Listening to Zhang Ying's explanation, Zhu Mingzhong nodded slightly.

"Yes, this enthusiasm is good, but we must take into account the substance, the railway in Sichuan, the railway from Guangzhou to Wuchang, the same is true, technology, now our road construction technology is being explored, and the output of the iron plant is also very limited, so for the time being, the time is not yet ripe to run a railway......

Pointing to the iron factory in the distance, Zhu Mingzhong continued.

"This year and next year, there will be two more iron-making blast furnaces here, is a new type of blast furnace, now Qinghe Academy is improving the furnace body, as well as blast equipment, if nothing else, next year, the output of Li Guoyi Iron Plant will exceed 50,000 tons, however, this is also the limit of Li Guoyi, but Nanjing's Jiangnan Iron Works and Hubei New Daye Iron Plant, will add new equipment, plus iron plants in other parts of the country, next year's iron output in Daming will exceed 300,000 tons, the year after next should reach 400,000 tons, by then, The construction of railways will no longer be constrained by the shortage of raw materials. ”

When the words fell, Zhu Mingzhong turned to look at Zhang Ying and said.

"However, all this must be premised on the railway, and only by constantly building the railway can we promote our steel production, so I think that the railway company must play a leading role for a long time to come! It is up to the railway companies to plan the construction of railways across the country, not entirely on the wishful thinking of businessmen! ”

Staring at the wide eyes, it seemed that there was some confusion So Zhang Ying, Zhu Mingzhong asked with a smile.

"How? Which railroad are you going to build first? ”

"Your Majesty, this, this ......"

Zhang Ying looked at His Majesty in surprise, as if he still didn't understand what His Majesty meant.

"Lead!"

Looking at Zhang Ying with a smile, Zhu Mingzhong continued.

"Let's put it this way, in the future, the construction of the railway in Daming should be carried out by the way of government and business cooperation, the company makes the plan, then explores the line, and then opens the line, which can be jointly funded by the company and the businessman, and built together, or because the company or the businessman builds alone, it can be built in the form of joint stock cooperation, and it does not necessarily have to stick to the form, after all, it ......"

After a pause, Zhu Mingzhong said again.

"Businessmen are profit-oriented, some routes are not necessarily profitable, they are naturally unwilling to build, at this time they need the government to bear more, after all, some roads seem to have no commercial profits, but if they do not build the railway, it will be disadvantageous to the National University, so sometimes, we can't just see how much profit can be brought by building roads, but also see the potential impact......

Zhu Mingzhong was vigilant about the commercial railways, because in another time and space, "I Taqing" was destroyed by the chaos brought about by the commercial railways, and on the other hand, he was well aware of the role of the commercial railways in promoting the railway industry, after all, the United States on the other side of the ocean, the achievements of building more than 100,000 kilometers of railways in just a few decades were enough to amaze the world. It can be said that it was by relying on the construction of railways that the United States successfully squeezed into the world powers, and eventually became the world's first power.

The railways themselves were both a product of the Industrial Revolution and an important factor in promoting industrialization. Because the construction of railways absorbed most of the production capacity of industry and led to the acceleration of the operation of various industrial sectors. The construction of railways has promoted the development of a series of related industries such as steel, coal, machinery manufacturing, wood processing, etc. This knock-on effect has made a significant contribution to the overall growth of the U.S. economy as a whole.

In this era, Zhu Mingzhong certainly hopes that the railway can become the leader of the industrial revolution in the Ming Dynasty, at least together with the textile industry and other industries, to become the leader of the industrial revolution and stimulate the country's economic development. In the end, let Daming achieve industrial take-off.

It is precisely because of this that Zhu Mingzhong has an inexplicable expectation for the more dynamic commercial railways, expecting them to be able to concentrate the idle capital of society and build a railway network belonging to the Ming Dynasty in a short period of time - a railway network that spans the Ming Dynasty and even connects Southeast Asia, North Korea and even Central Asia.

"Your Majesty's words are very true, the newspaper once said that "the place where the railway extends, is where my Ming prestige is", some places are not suitable for building railways because of the high mountains and dangerous roads, but for the safety of the Ming Frontier, it is necessary to build the railway on the border, even if it is not at the expense of work, it is not at any cost, but ......"

Zhang Ying, who finally understood His Majesty's thoughts, finally breathed a sigh of relief, and after understanding the future position of the railway company and the leading role of the railway company, he said after overcoming the "existential crisis".

"But the minister thinks that the most important thing now is not how many railways are being built at the moment, but how many talents related to road construction are cultivated!"