Seeing that 1681 is about to pass, but the Central Railway Company, as the first brother of the domestic railway, is still worried about the next month's construction project payment, the existing line maintenance fee, and the salaries, bonuses, allowances and so on.

And the reason for this shortage of funds is actually very simple, that is, the central railway company has expanded too fast before, and has taken the blame for the national policy, consumed too many resources, and carried a heavy burden, so that it is difficult to maintain the normal operation of the company, and it is urgent to inject new funds, otherwise I am afraid that something big will happen.

Today is December 12, Chen Youcaifu, director of the State Administration of Railways, who had just finished a railway system work conference in Meilin County, appeared at the Meiluo County Railway Station, and was "arrested" by Goshkin, the boss of the Goshkin Construction Company, who had been waiting here for a long time, and asked him about next year's project arrangement. At the end of the year, everything is in accordance with the East Coast convention, and they also want to pay bonuses to their subordinates.

"It's all made by the railroad." Chen Youcai sighed helplessly, and invited Goshkin, who was wearing a floral cloth shirt, into the station cafeteria, intending to have a good chat with him.

It is said that the meeting held by Chen Youcai in the Meilin County Railway Machinery Processing Factory before is actually a little bit of a celebration party, to put it bluntly, it is to celebrate the relevant construction personnel of the Northern Railway and the Dingmei Railway that have just been completed. As a result, just a few days after the celebration, he was blocked by the creditor, which was also unlucky.

Speaking of the Northern Railway and the Dingmei Railway, they are also quite famous on the east coast today, even if they are not well-known, they are definitely famous. There is no other reason, that is, this railway communicates the north-south traffic of the eastern essence of the Republic of China, so that from the source of the Wujiang River in the north of the Brazilian plateau to the mouth of the La Plata River in the south, it is connected by railway.

Among them, the Northern Railway actually began to be built a long time ago, the earliest during the East Portuguese War. After a long period of hard work after the war, the construction was stopped, and after many years of hard work, it finally barely completed all the miles on the blueprint, and it was officially completed. This railway starts from the northern metropolis of Ping'an Port in the south, passes through Liushuying Township, Dingjun Township, Kill Hu Township, Shengxing Township, Shenglong Township, Shengyun Township, Xingguo Township, Xing'an Township, Anyuan Township, and finally arrives at the terminal Chengyang Township Railway Station, with a total length of 494 kilometers, spanning six counties, radiating hundreds of thousands of people, and is the most convenient passage from the Yazi Lake Basin to the Brazilian Plateau in the north.

Compared with the Northern Railway, the Dingmei Railway (Dingjun Town-Meiluo Town) is not inferior in any way, and is even slightly stronger than the first line. The railway starts from the railway station of Dingjun Town, the hub of the southern foot of Dingjun Mountain, in the north, winds all the way to the south, crosses the Yakuyi River through Taquali Township, and enters Baicaogou Township, an important coal mining area under the Ping An Mining Bureau. Here, the Central Railway has built a very large station and freight yard, and at the same time there is a large repair workshop, in order to focus on ensuring the transportation of coal, an important source of power - although the coal on the east coast has low calorific value, high ash content, and sulfur content, it is naturally not very suitable for coking, but there is no problem at all when it is used for fire or chemical raw materials.

After passing such an important station as Baicaogou Railway Station, the Dingmei Railway continued to extend southward along the relatively gentle valley floor between the low hills in Huxi, and passed through Zhongshou Township, Luohan Town, Zhongshan Town, Songshu Township, Bailu Township, Hengtang Town, and arrived at the end of Meiluo Town Railway Station - there is also a branch line during the period, that is, the branch line from Bailu Township to Chengji Township of Kaiyuan County - including the branch line, a total of 518 kilometers.

The completion of the Dingmei Railway has connected the southern foot of Dingjun Mountain, the hilly area of Huxi and the grassland on the east coast, which has greatly increased the circulation rate of information, materials, personnel and money in the eight counties along the way, and greatly reduced the cost. Therefore, the mystery of the East Coast people's large-scale construction of railways over the years is here, even if the railways themselves do not make money or even lose money (only two railways on the East Coast are profitable, and the other railways are either losing money or struggling on the verge of profit and loss), but the government has benefited from the development of the economy, collected a lot of more taxes, and at the same time made people's lives more convenient, which is enough.

Of course, with the deepening of economic development, the increase of population, and the gradual increase of enterprises, if these railways can be properly maintained, then they must be profitable in the future, and they will be profitable by the railway passenger and freight themselves, rather than by the commercial facilities and cable telegraphs attached to the railways as they are now. Railways, a promising sunrise industry that may last for a hundred or even two hundred years, are definitely worth investing in.

Uh, well! However, although the railway is indeed promising, but in terms of the current situation of the East Bank Republic, it seems that it is indeed difficult to make a profit in the short term, even if the state gives a large amount of subsidies every year, the burden of the Central Railway Company is very heavy, and the amount of principal and interest that needs to be returned to the bank every month is not a small amount, which makes Chen Youcai feel breathless, after all, the feeling of being constantly called for debts is not a good feeling.

The central government has not considered the predicament of China Railway Corporation and the State Railway Administration, but first, exports will be blocked, trade will be in trouble, and many domestic enterprises will be under-employed, so they strictly ordered China Railway Company to continue, and borrowed a large amount of money from the bank to them (now these loan interest have become the main culprit in the strangulation of China Railway Company), and secondly, there are many so-called "industrial party" members among the elders of the domestic industrial circles, and they have a soft spot for building railways everywhere, so they come and go. China Railway Corporation has built thousands of kilometers of mileage in China within a few years - and at the same time, the total mileage of railways under China Railway Corporation (excluding South African Railways, Forest Railway and Southern Cone Two Oceans Railway) has reached more than 2,500 kilometers, except for the mileage of 404 kilometers of Qingmei Railway (including branch lines), other sections are really difficult to talk about profitability, and there is no one.

But at this point, although the development of the railroad is a bit precocious on the east coast, it is already like this, and the rails that have been repaired can't be demolished, right? Even if they were reluctant to reduce the cost of maintenance and let it be damaged, it seems that this heavy pot must be carried by all the people of the East Coast until the day when it can be profitable - by the middle of 1681, the total population of the Republic of East China had reached 4,834,000 according to various estimates, which was very impressive. Among them, the number of nationals (second and third generations) born in the local area is about 2.592 million, accounting for .62%; The number of immigrants in the Ming Kingdom was about 1.582 million, accounting for 32.73%; The number of nationals of European origin (the vast majority of whom are Slavs) is about 660,000, or 13.65%. If we count the more than 300,000 national laborers, the total population of the country has exceeded the historical threshold of 5 million for the first time, which is gratifying. Population growth has always been the foundation of economic and social development, and is crucial to the future profitability of railways. The current population growth rate on the east coast has given China Railway a glimmer of hope, and I hope it can continue in the long run.

Of course, the executive committee also thought of some ways, such as wanting to introduce so-called strategic investors for the Central Railway Company to reduce its financial burden. Anyway, in their opinion, as long as the State Railway Administration can still hold the shares, why do they have to hold all the shares in their hands? It's also a good thing to take out a part of the shares in the market to find someone to take over, and exchange some funds to come back to reduce the burden. However, it seems that all the merchants on the east coast who have accumulated a little bit are not stupid, and they are unwilling to put real money into the huge pit of railway construction, so in the end, almost no one is willing to invest in the shares, which is a big surprise.

At this point, Chen Youcai also gave up the last trace of illusion, and no longer thought that any wronged boss would invest in it. His main job has changed from supervising the construction of the railway—in fact, there is not much, the Yanbu Railway is currently under construction, and the others are tinkering projects—to the chairman of the fundraising committee, helping the China Railway Company to go to the major banks all day long, or going to the executive committee and the Ministry of Industry and Commerce to cry poverty, saying that the Yicheng Railway and the Tadong Railway will be built soon, and the State Railway Administration will be squeezed dry, and a large amount of subsidies are urgently needed, otherwise it will not be able to open the pot, and it is also miserable to say.

Today, his luck was not very good, and he was actually bumped into Goshkin who was waiting here at the Merlot train station. In desperation, I can only sit down with Goshkin, the creditor, and have a good talk, otherwise I am afraid that I will not be able to get out.

"Mr. Ge, money is not a problem, please rest assured. China Railway Corporation is the largest enterprise under the jurisdiction of the State Administration of Railways, with huge assets and strong strength, and it will definitely not shorten your tens of thousands of yuan of project money. Yes, yes, I understand, it's the end of the year soon, and many people have to pay salaries and bonuses, and this expenditure is not small. In this way, after I return to the capital tomorrow, I will ask the ministry to send a telegram to the China Railway Company, and ask them to find a way to raise 20,000 yuan to remit to you for emergency relief. You have to understand that China Railway Company's finances are also very tight now, and the continuous railway construction and huge maintenance costs have drained the company's bank account, and they are now eager to break a penny in half and spend 20,000 yuan to your company, but also see that this money has been in arrears for a long time, and your company has been an important partner of the ministry. Your general manager's family has a big business, so you don't miss this money, so let's take 20,000 yuan and send it to the brothers first, and then talk about the rest later, there will definitely be no shortage of you, I promise. After leaning back on the chair in the dining room, Chen Youcai, director of the State Administration of Railways, immediately discussed and said in a sad tone: "I know that the shareholders of your company (many of whom are descendants of the traversers) have been active in the past six months, but whether it is China Railway Corporation or our General Administration of Railways, there is no money for the time being." Be patient, Manager Ge, there will be money for the project, we have been working hard. You see, for many of the projects of the Yanbu Railway undertaken by your company, have not China Railway Corporation and the General Administration of Railways been making payments on time? Well, maybe not on time, but at least it's not much, isn't it? Be patient, really. ”

Goshkin was also a little helpless when he heard this. He is a second-generation official, you are the director of the State Administration of Railways, and he is also a thunderous name in the construction engineering industry. Keep pushing? How can it be! Do you still want to get mixed up? You know, people speak so politely to you, not because of how capable you are and how strong your background is, but because your company's shareholders come from complex sources and have strong activity capabilities! If you Goshkin alone, I'm afraid that people haven't seen your thoughts yet.

Therefore, after getting the promise that he could get part of the project money (20,000 yuan), Goshkin could only get off the donkey and express his gratitude to Chen Youcai. Later, the two talked about the progress of the construction on the Pampa Plain, including the construction of the railway station, the leveling of the foundation, and the laying of the railroad tracks. Goshkin expressed concern about the delay in the arrival of funds, and the strength of his Goshkin company is nothing, but some small-scale construction enterprises are very difficult, and employees who cannot pay their salaries abound, and there have even been cases of unruly non-nationals who have gone to become bandits because they have not been paid for a long time, which makes people very worried about the safety and defense of railway construction sites in the future.

Chen Youcai didn't have any good ways to deal with this. The country's tax reform has not been implemented for a long time, and many regions are still in the process of experimentation, although the state fiscal revenue has increased to a certain extent, but the extent is still very limited. In addition, the new tax reform has made it clear that the central government will transfer a large part of its financial power to local governments, which further reduces the financial resources of the central government, so that the funds they invest in the State Railway Administration have not increased.

Goshkin sighed when he heard this, wondering in his heart whether it was time to invest more resources in wineries and meat factories? Although the competition between these two industries is fierce, the market is relatively mature, the demand is very large, and the profits are very stable, which is still worth investing.

However, Goshkin can't let go of his old business, after all, he has been doing it for so many years, and he has been fighting with Batino Company and Mendes Company for half his life, and he also has feelings, and it is difficult to let go of it suddenly. What's more, he has always believed that the construction industry will prosper in the East Coast, a country of immigrants, for a long time, which has nothing to do with anything else, but is determined by the nature and current situation of the country. Therefore, Goshkin was a little hesitant after all, thinking in his heart, after a while, take a boat to the Pampa Plain, see the situation of the project over there and then make a decision.