The train ride through southern Russia into western China, which Bismarck had already inspected, was no different from what the diplomats had seen twenty years ago, the vast Kazakh steppe, still sparsely populated, and the industry here was destined to be impossible to have a dense population.

In the past, the large and small farms established by the Kazakh tribe lords and wealthy free herdsmen have now merged into larger commercial ranches, managed by animal husbandry companies, and a large number of small and medium-sized pastures have gone bankrupt after the war.

Large companies are more efficient in management, but there are fewer people to support.

Unlike the pastures in Britain and Germany, which raise more sheep, the pastures here raise more cattle, on the one hand, the cattle can be sold to farmers in agricultural areas, and on the other hand, the vast inland market is connected by rail, and the increasingly wealthy citizen class has an endless demand for meat, making it more profitable to raise cattle and sell meat.

Entering Ili Province, the situation has changed, although there are also a large number of pastures here, but there is a large number of agricultural reclamation areas, unlike the agricultural reclamation areas of the Urals, where more cotton is grown, the proportion of cash crops is larger, the population is more dense, and the degree of development is no longer one level. Cities formed by railways are also larger than those in the Urals, and are more typical of Chinese cities, because the proportion of Chinese is higher, with only a few Mongols and Hui people, but the degree of sinicization is also very high, and daily conversations are in Chinese.

Along the way, Bismarck's biggest feeling is still big, the train crosses the Kokand steppe, the Gobi, and the desert, it is easy for people to feel small, but heroes can give birth to pride and ambition.

Bismarck, while worrying about the small space of Prussia, strengthened his ambition to unify the great cause of the nation, and if Germany could not be unified in his generation, how would it compete with the strong nations of Chinese, British, and French, and Germany could only be a weak person who survived in the cracks of a big country and a big nation, Bismarck felt more and more urgent.

The tension of the small space caused by the train passing through the long Hexi corridor, often seen on both sides of the mountains, made Bismarck a little bored, and he, like the members of the mission at the time, suddenly began to want to enter the heart of China at once, to get close to the richest country of the workers of this era.

The train drove into the Guanzhong Plain, and when he saw the contiguous farmland and the peasants working on the farmland, Bismarck's mood was a little better. He saw that these people were no richer than the Europeans in their dress, and that these people were no more affluent than the Europeans, and he knew that the gap between the two sides was not as great as the newspapers exaggerated.

In Guanzhong, he saw more factories, smoky factories, close to the outskirts of the city, cutting off the ancient city walls from the fields of the countryside, squeezing into a social system that had been continuous for thousands of years, as a latecomer seemed abrupt, but full of vitality.

Factories in Shaanxi are mainly located along the Weishui area, where cotton from Yili, wool from Central Asia and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and local coal converge to form the cotton and wool textile industry, which is then transported by rail or the Yellow River to the Central Plains east of Tongguan, becoming the only industrial center in the northwest region.

The train crosses the steep Cuihan Ancient Road, enters the Central Plains, but sees less industry, the elements of industry are nothing more than raw materials, markets and labor, compared with the surrounding provinces, the border areas lack labor, rich resources, so the raw materials and resources of Central Asia converge to Guanzhong, the Mongolian Plateau until Siberia lacks labor, but also rich in resources, so the raw materials and resources in the north converge to Shanxi, Hebei, the Central Plains has the best quality agricultural resources, rich population, but lost the opportunity in raw materials and markets.

In terms of raw materials and resources, it is intercepted by Shanxi and Hebei in the north, and intercepted by Shaanxi, Gansu and Guanzhong in the west, and as for the eastern region, although there is a lack of raw materials and resources, it relies on convenient shipping, river transportation and railway transportation to occupy an absolute economic development advantage.

Economically, Henan has not only been unable to attract capital from the east, but has been continuously sucked away from the east in recent years. With the exception of a small number of mining industries such as coal, which have been reduced to a grain producing area and commodity market, the population is increasingly outflowing, some have immigrated to the frontiers, and some have gone to the east to work, but no one can stay, and the economy is naturally backward, but it is only relatively backward, and Henan has basically maintained a traditional agricultural social outlook, which has not increased or decreased.

Not only Henan, but the entire eastern region of China, bounded by the Grand Canal, is more prosperous in the east than in the west, and the northwest of Jiangsu, the north of Anhui, the west of Shandong, Hebei and the south of Shanxi to the west of the canal have all fallen into this great Central Plains predicament.

In Bismarck's view, the degree of development of these places was basically the same as that of East Prussia, and there was still a great gap between them and Berlin, Hamburg, and the Rhine region.

After returning to the Guide Mansion and entering the Xuzhou Mansion, Bismarck's expression was immediately different.

He finally saw the big city, Xuzhou is a big city, where railways, canals, and the Yellow River converge, traders from the north and south, and local coal mining development, which has become the fastest growing town outside the coast, with a population of nearly one million.

Even if you are walking through dense industrial areas, the journey can be lonely. Unlike in Europe, where you can talk to someone at will, the passenger sitting across from you can at least speak a few words of French or English, even if you don't speak German, but Bismarck rarely meets passengers who speak a Western language along the way, and it's a journey in a completely unfamiliar language background.

If Bismarck knew the ancient Chinese poetry, he might sigh twice, "being alone in a foreign land as a stranger", but he didn't have so much sentimentality, Westerners are a wandering people, Germans are not like this, in Roman times they were Germanic barbarians in the forest, in the Middle Ages they were expeditionary Teutonic knights, in Roman times they were not conquered by the Roman infantry phalanx, but by the Christians from the Middle East who successively ruled Greece and Rome, and then they took these beliefs to conquer the Prussians in the Baltics. Poles. In the end his sword and gun conquered the Prussians, and the faith of God conquered the Prussians, who also became Prussians.

Bismarck can occasionally see a few richly dressed, but also eccentric wealthy Chinese children get on the bus, perhaps they have just returned from enjoying the flowers, and their mouths are still chanting, "The pear blossoms are pale white and the willows are deep green, the catkins are full of flowers when they fly, and the snow on the bridge in the east column is melancholy, how clear is life?" Verses. But the two sides looked at each other, and after being surprised, they could only turn their heads away from each other.

As the train passed through Xuzhou, everything began to change, and there were more paddy fields. Bismarck initially thought that the area was flooded, and he saw patches of crops submerged in the water, until he saw people working in ankle-deep or knee-deep water, and he realized that this was the area where rice was grown in China.

After that, the towns passed through were relatively prosperous, but they were much worse than Xuzhou, just like the difference between Berlin and Weimar.

This is because China's largest railway company, the National Railway Company, was squeezed out by the two major canal companies in the Jiangnan region and had to build a railway on the west side of the canal. However, the two major canal companies have built parallel railways along the Grand Canal operated by themselves, which is the most prosperous urban belt. The reason why Xuzhou is prosperous is because Xuzhou is the transportation hub where the canal and the railway meet, and the railway of the railway company, the railway of the canal company and the Grand Canal all meet here.

But when the train arrived at the Yangtze River, the weather was suddenly different, because the opposite side was the capital of China.

Pukou in Jiangbei is already a large city of considerable scale, with a population of more than 300,000, but only one-tenth of the population of the capital.

Ferries are needed to cross the river, and humans are currently unable to conquer a large river like the Yangtze River, and do not have the technical ability to build bridges.

After crossing the river, there were already people waiting at the railway station, people from the Prussian consulate.

They arranged for a carriage, but it was better to walk, because the road was crowded.

"The Chinese emperor was very disliked by industry, and that's why."

The receptionist explained.

Bismarck lifted the window and looked out, the merchant carrying the load, the bullock cart pulling the goods, the sedan chair, the carriage, and the wheelbarrow pushing the goods or sitting on it an old woman, a wife, and a child, everyone shouted, scolded, crowded, and stumbled forward.

"Yes, there are so many people, there is no industry here, who lives in the city?"

Bismarck asked casually.

The receptionist said: "From the beginning, the emperor did not allow large factories in the capital, and the factories were all in Jiangbei. But the Chinese want to squeeze under the feet of the Son of Heaven, and the citizens are too complicated. There are craftsmen, craftsmen, servants, painters, sculptors, artists of all kinds. By the way, there are also students, there are more than a dozen universities here, five or six hundred thousand students. ”

"Students?"

Bismarck couldn't help but feel a little solemn.

"Don't their students make trouble? What ideas like freedom and equality are not promoted? ”

The receptionist said: "I heard that there are some small groups, but they are often beaten, and the students think that it is a barbaric Xiyi doctrine. Their students are just as conservative as their officials, and they are willing to be officials. ”

Even the idea of the Great Revolution among the students was not mainstream, and Bismarck felt that the forces of the revolution could not really be formed here.

The traffic finally moved, it was an intersection, and the whistling officer removed the obstacles that stood in the way and allowed passage, and the other side of the intersection was opened, and the traffic was diverted in this way.

"Won't they just want to solve the traffic problem?"

Bismarck asked.

The receptionist said, "Yes." Bridges are being built to take all the railways into the air. Isn't it very ambitious. Reminiscent of Roman elevated aqueducts! ”

Bismarck wondered: "Put up the railway?" Why don't they build the Underground, like London! ”

The receptionist said: "I tried it a few years ago, but there was too much groundwater and it didn't work. That's when you start walking on the ground, let's go, your colleagues are waiting for you. There is time to take you on a tour, it is spectacular! ”