Zhang Bin was still on the train to Baoding Mansion at this time, and the time he calculated seemed to be a little off, Dongshengtang was laying the railway line near Luoyang, but the station had not been built near Luoyang, and the train could not come over, because there was no station to turn around, so he could only lead the army to Mengjin in the north of Luoyang to get on the train, so it was delayed for a day.

He also miscalculated one point, that is, the number of trains, at this time, the factory built by Dongshengtang in the southern suburbs of the capital has only been put into production for a few months, and it can cast some tracks, build some shells, and assemble trains, many core components such as steam pistons, boilers, wheels, etc. cannot be built, and must be transported from Dongfan, so the production efficiency is not high, and after a few months, ten trains have been assembled.

Ten trains, each with ten carriages, can transport 50,000 horses at best, he simply divided 80,000 horses into two, he took 40,000 horses first, Li Dingguo led the remaining 40,000 horses to wait in Mengjin, anyway, Mengjin to Baoding is more than 1,000 miles, the train can run back and forth in two days, but it can't delay much.

In front of Baoding Mansion City is already in sight, Zhang Bin is sitting there motionless, his eyes are looking out of the car window, but there is no focus, he is still thinking about the problem of laying the railway line, because he left Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, the two big thieves, to support the army and self-respect, we must consider how to encircle and suppress in the future, just rely on two legs, even war horses and chariots will definitely not work, because the territory of the five northwest provinces is too vast, if Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong are running around like in history, human legs and horse legs can't run, Only by relying on railways, fast transshipment.

He just sat there and thought quietly, the whole convoy did not stop in Baoding Fucheng, but continued to drive north, because Baoding Fucheng did not have an official road to Dagu Port, only Dingxing in the north of Baoding Fu, and after about an hour, Dingxing County finally arrived, and the train slowly stopped, Zhang Bin cleaned up his mood and took a group of guards to get off the train first.

When he stepped on the platform, he was suddenly shocked, because the car battle was surrounded by ordinary people watching the excitement, that guy, afraid that there would be tens of thousands of people, cheering, screaming, criticizing, abounding, the whole scene was extremely noisy.

In the face of this scene, he could only shake his head helplessly, no way, the train is too rare for the people at this time, at least it will take a few years for the freshness of the people to pass.

At this time, a group of officials from the Ministry of Industry hurriedly stepped forward and said in unison: "See Lord Cabinet." ”

Cabinet Department, how does this title sound so appropriate, Yang Sichang is also known as the Cabinet Department, he is not Yang Sichang.

However, this can't be blamed on these people, because the cabinet is an honorific title for a cabinet scholar, and it is also an abbreviation, and their headquarters can directly call a certain scholar, in that case, it sounds more appropriate.

Zhang Bin waved his hand, signaling everyone to be exempt, and then stepped forward, patted the shoulder of the leading official, and said with a smile: "Chuyang, I haven't seen you for a long time, how is it, have you been busy lately?" ”

The leader was Sun Yuanhua, the new Qing official of the Ministry of Industry, Zhang Bin specially transferred him from Dongfan to preside over the laying of railways and the manufacture of trains, and as for the affairs of Kaohsiung, all the affairs were handed over to Song Yingxing.

Sun Yuanhua is just a person, it stands to reason that it is unlikely to be promoted to the fifth grade of the Ministry of Langzhong, many Jinshi are mixed in the county of the seventh grade, and he has to line up according to his fame, and he has not been ranked for several lifetimes.

However, when he was in Liaodong, he was exceptionally promoted by Sun Chengzong to be the head of the Ministry of War, and he also had military exploits, coupled with Zhang Bin's hard operation, he became a member of the court of Zhengwupin with the fame of raising people.

At this time, Sun Yuanhua's gratitude to Zhang Bin was incomprehensible, and he said excitedly: "Not busy, not busy, okay, but you, my lord, work hard for the country, and turn to the Quartet, so that the thieves and Jiannu are frightened when they hear ......the wind." ”

In fact, he is busy to death, Wang Zheng is a waiter in the Ministry of Works after all, it is impossible to always leave the capital to run around, he is responsible for the laying of the railway and the construction of the station, thousands of miles of railway, dozens of stations, can he not be busy.

Zhang Bin saw that he was a little incoherent with excitement, and couldn't help patting him on the shoulder and smiling bitterly: "Okay, okay, Chuyang, time is limited, we won't talk about these imaginary things, do you estimate when you can build the railway to the vicinity of Tongguan, how to cross the Yellow River moat, and what are you going to do from Tongguan to Xi'an?" “

Sun Yuanhua smiled awkwardly, and then frowned: "I estimate that according to this progress, the railway should be able to be repaired to Fenglingdu opposite Tongguan in the first month of next year, the Yellow River moat is really not easy to cross, my idea is to build a large port on both sides of the strait first, arrange more ferries, in this way, the river crossing will be delayed for a while at most, and the impact on the overall speed should not be very large, as for the section from Tongguan to Xi'an, I have not been to the field survey, and it is not easy to say." ”

At this time, Feng Shuangli and other generals had already commanded their soldiers to carry weapons and equipment and grain and grass to assemble outside the station, Zhang Bin nodded, pulled Sun Yuanhua to the corner of the platform, and then instructed: "Build a port, arrange a ferry, this is just a temporary move, you should still think about it, how to build a bridge, across the Yellow River moat, as for the Tongguan to Xi'an section I have carefully seen, if the ferry is arranged, then don't go through Tongguan first, It is more time-saving to build the port in the west directly at the confluence of the Wei River and the Yellow River, because Tongguan is located at the northern foot of the Qinling Mountains, the terrain is complex, and it is very difficult to build a railway there, and the confluence of the Wei River and the Yellow River is close to the Guanzhong Plain, and it is a flat ocean through the mountainous area of more than ten miles. “

When Sun Yuanhua heard this, he nodded again and again: "Well, I'll go over and take a look at the Wei River, I'm also thinking about this Yellow River bridge, but the span is too big, and the stone arch bridge is probably not reliable." ”

When Zhang Bin heard this, he fainted at the wrong point, repaired the stone arch bridge to cross the Yellow River, Sun Yuanhua really dared to think about it, he shook his head again and again: "Chuyang, you are wrong, the bridge I said is an iron bridge, such a large span, how to carry the stone arch bridge, an iron bridge and a steel bridge must be built." ”

When Sun Yuanhua heard this, his eyes suddenly lit up, and he said thoughtfully: "This is really possible, but the cost is probably high." ”

Zhang Bin said indifferently: "Don't worry about the cost, 500,000 taels is not enough, if it is not enough, it will be 1 million taels, just open your mouth, Dongshengtang's money will still come out." Also, you can't just focus on this railway, you have to have an overall plan, the section from Kaifeng Mansion to Xiangyang Mansion, the section from Beijing to Datong Mansion, and even the section from Datong Mansion to Suidezhou You have to think about it, and it is best to start construction after the year. You work hard, the three parties start construction at the same time, and strive to use the railway to connect the five northwestern provinces within three years. “

When Sun Yuanhua heard this, he said with some embarrassment: "It's not a big problem for these three parties to start construction at the same time, but this bridge repair thing is probably difficult to complete within three years." “

Zhang Bin thought about it for a while, then nodded and said: "Well, you can talk about repairing the bridge later, let's use the ferry first, by the way, there is also the railway from the capital to Dagu Port to build ......." ”

The two stood on the platform and discussed for nearly an hour, until the 40,000 Fuguang army was assembled, Zhang Bin waved goodbye to Sun Yuanhua and led the army straight to Dagu Port.