Shang Wen believes that the construction of the navy still lacks a solid foundation, and this foundation is the overall economic development of the south, which will be closely integrated with the state of Chu. Then through the Yangtze River waterway to complete the final civilian navigation foundation needed by the navy.

But the development of the south is not easy, and a Qinling Mountains separates Guanzhong and Bashu. It is this impassable mountain range that separates the development between the two places. The great geographical isolation will directly lead to great difficulties in economic development.

Transportation became a big problem for this southern development.

Shang Wen convened a small internal cabinet meeting for this purpose. The number of participants in this meeting was limited to the temporary establishment of the transportation department. With the increasing diversification of the means of transportation in the Qin State, the establishment of such a department has become very necessary.

According to incomplete statistics, it is conservatively estimated that there are as many as 100,000 carriages in Qin Guoguan alone. If you add railway traffic, there are already nearly 100 locomotives. This number is increasing very quickly, because the demand is very strong, and the role of trains is already beginning to be felt. The number of train wagons has exceeded more than a thousand. People have become accustomed to the presence of trains, especially after the erection of telegraph lines. The number of train departures has exceeded ten times that of all previous time periods combined.

In addition to the fact that the Southern Railway was not built, the Qin State had laid three major transportation arteries, of which the eastward direction could directly reach Xinzheng in South Korea, and the Qin State could occupy Korea by train as long as it wished.

It's not just land transportation. There is also air traffic. Yingyu established its first air transport company, and the first route has been opened. The direct airship flight from Xianyang to Taiyuan attracted everyone's attention. The airship adopts a rigid airship. It can carry fifty passengers and more than two hundred stone of cargo. After the establishment of the first air transport company, the royal air transport company established by the Qin king opened up a number of routes. Oriental route from Xianyang to Hanguguan, Luoyang, Xinzheng. Western route from Xianyang to Longxi. There is already a direct route to the north. The people who ride are mainly some of the old aristocrats, high-ranking business people, wealthy merchants, etc.

In addition, there are river traffic that has been temporarily suspended due to ice and freezing. Therefore, it is necessary to set up a transportation department.

And the transport department is not done yet, because the number of horse-drawn carriages in the various regions is still not counted, not only horse-drawn carriages, but also horses, and they plan to consider bicycles as well. Shang Wen vetoed. He thinks the transportation department is a little crazy. If he needed statistics, he could have set up a statistical department. Rather than creating a separate transportation department.

The meeting was held in a small room.

"First of all, our topic this time is the development of the south. I know it's a bit big. But the Navy has already built their naval base in the south. They really need us to support them in agriculture, industry, and business, otherwise it will be very difficult for them to put down roots there. Shang Wen said.

"Our country has had Bashu for a long time. And the granary of Bashu has always been the last savings of our country. So, Bashu is very important to us. ”

"But the Yangtze River is also very important, with our country's targeted trade, our trade volume with the Chu State is the largest, judging from the recent statistics, we have probably earned 500,000 gold royal orders from the Chu State. There was also countless people-to-people trade, and we exported glass, munitions, mirrors, clothing, shoes, flour, and so on. In addition, we also know that almost all the gold is in our Qin State, so we have imported a large number of silk, duck down, wood, rhino horn, medicinal materials from Chu State, and the most important thing is sugarcane, which is what we call "Zhe", which is our most important sugar raw material. Without sugar cane, then the milk we drink will not have sweetness, and our various breads will lose their sugar. This is disastrous for us. ”

"Therefore, the development of the south, especially the Yangtze River region, is very important for us in the future."

"But the biggest problem is, traffic. Our funds in Guanzhong cannot cross the high mountains to the south. The goods produced in the south arrived in Guanzhong. Therefore, the first step in developing the south is to solve the transportation problem. Shang Wen clearly marked the location of the Qin Mountains on the map, and it was this mountain range that the Qin State could not communicate with the land of Bashu geographically.

"My view is that we can bypass this mountain range and build a railway going south. From Luoyang, go directly south to my naval base in Daqin. Not only railways, but also highways and road networks can be built to improve it, and from here to here, it is almost flat land. Meng Yi spoke first, and his opinion was very simple, that is, to bypass this mountain range. In fact, in the construction of the highway to Bashu, the Qin State encountered engineering problems that were unimaginable to him. Although there were explosives, the whole trend of the mountain, in fact, the location of Huashan was there, and the difficulty of the project had caused a large number of engineers to delay the construction period by as much as a year. Even if a large number of slaves were to be sent south to participate in the project, it would probably be difficult to carry out the project. The reason for the delay was that the highway needed to be kept straight, and in the north, the Qin state could use slaves to fill in the entire ravine. Because the geological material is not the same. But here, there is also granite, which is extremely hard, which is quite difficult for the difficulty of the project. In order to keep the road straight, different tunnels need to be excavated. These tunnels have dramatically increased the difficulty of the project. Six out of ten slaves who came here remained there forever. The death toll is very high.

It is precisely for this reason that Meng Yi believes that the quick solution is to bypass the Qinling Mountains. Otherwise, there is no way to make the south develop so quickly. Especially industry. It's hard without good transportation. Hard.

The Minister of Transport also agreed with this option for the simple reason that he agreed. Everyone understands the difficulty of the Qinling project. It can be said that if it were not for the use of slaves, the construction of a highway in the Qinling Mountains would be no less than the manpower, material and financial resources consumed by the Qin State when building the Zhengguo Canal.

Shangwen agreed. But there is another question, that is, will the Qinling project continue? The answer is, in strategic security considerations. The traffic in the Qinling Mountains must be repaired. And no matter how difficult it is, it must be repaired to the end. Meng Yi is talking about outside transportation. And Qinling is an internal line of traffic. Interior transportation was very important for Qin Guoguanzhong to directly control Bashu geographically. Now that the country is developing rapidly, the development of the Qinling Mountains in the south must be connected to high-speed and, if necessary, trains.