The Ming Dynasty obtained the right to build the Northeast Railway, which was negotiated with the Qing government after the Ming Dynasty captured the Northern Railway in 1865. Pen fun and pavilion www.biquge.info

The Ming Dynasty obtained the right to administer the port of Dalian, and at the same time obtained the right to build a direct railway from Dalian to the Russian border.

Due to the opposition of the Russians, an agreement was reached between the Ming and Russia, and the construction of this railway to the Russian border by the Ming Dynasty must obtain the consent of Russia, the route must be approved by Russia, and the use of Russian technology must be preferred.

At that time, the Ming Dynasty easily agreed to the Russian request, mainly because the Ming Dynasty was not able to build a railway at that time, and had no interest in investing heavily in building a railway on the territory of the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

However, the Russians later became more and more interested in building a railway, and gave the Ming many suggestions, suggesting that the railway line built by the Ming Dynasty led from Dalian to the trading city of Kyakhta, and the tea imported by Russia from China, whether it was from Hankou on the territory of the Qing Dynasty, or from Fujian on the territory of the Ming Dynasty, now took the waterway all the way to Tianjin to the shore, and then took the land route, through Zhangjiakou to Kyakhta and then entered the territory of Russia.

Joining the fact that there was a direct railway from the port of Dalian to Kyakhta, Russian merchants could not afford to travel the expensive land from Tianjin to Kyakhta, knowing that a large part of it had to pass through the desolate Mongolian Gobi and steppes, and encountered countless bandits and horse thieves, which were very dangerous, and the insurance premium alone was a large cost.

However, the Ming Dynasty always responded positively to Russia's proposals, but the timetable for the construction of the railway was not clear, and it was delayed until ten years later.

The Russians could not drag it out, because they felt more and more that they needed a railway to open up their interests in the East.

After the Second Opium War, Russia gained great commercial rights, not only opening the passage through the Mongolian region of China, but also gaining the right to trade in China's coastal ports, the most important of which was Hankou, because it was the largest production base for the Jin merchants to trade in Russian tea.

In addition, Russia has also obtained huge preferential tax rates, for example, according to the "Qing Russian Land Trade Regulations", Russia has obtained a tax rate in Tianjin that is one-third lower than that of other countries, and has also obtained exemption from the re-import duties of Russian goods entering Tianjin Customs, so that Russia can directly open a tea factory in Wuhan to produce tea, and then leave the customs from Wuhan, enter Tianjin duty-free, and then go to Kyakhta by land.

Taking this section of the waterway from Wuhan to Tianjin, greatly saving the costly land freight, the Russians soon achieved the absolute advantage of the Jin merchants who used camel transportation, but also bore a higher tax rate than the foreigners, and the number of tea directly imported by Russia did not go through the Jin merchants, and the number of tea directly imported by Russia continued to rise, only about 1.65 million pounds in 1865, and rose to more than 8.6 million pounds in 1867, an increase of more than five times in two years, and there was a great tendency to drive the Jin merchants out of the Sino-Russian tea trade.

As the most powerful business group in China, the business level and ability of the Jin merchants are obviously not lost to the Russian businessmen in the lower reaches of Europe, and in the absence of the support of state forces, the camel caravans of the Jin merchants crisscross the north and south of the desert, the east and west of the Tianshan Mountains, and for a long time, monopolize the trade in Central Asia, and the trade power can be extended to Afghanistan to the Central Asian steppe.

But with the military expansion of the Russians, the Russian merchants followed behind the Cossack army, gradually encroaching on the commercial interests of Central Asia and driving the Jin merchants out of Central Asia. Now it is even more in the hometown of Jin Shang, and Jin Shang is forced into a desperate situation.

Could it be that the level of Jin merchants is really much lower than that of the Russian merchants at the end of Europe, of course it is impossible. The reason is still the bastard of the Qing government, when the Russian merchants opened up the waterway, the Jin merchants wrote to the Qing court, and also hoped to take the waterway, but they were rejected by the Qing court, because once the Jin merchants took the waterway, the 63 checkpoints that the Jin merchants passed through in the original land transportation will not be able to collect rich gold, and the checkpoints along the way are taxed, coupled with the extortion of local officials, so that the Jin merchants not only bear ten times the tax of Russian businessmen, but also spend huge amounts of capital to maintain various violent forces such as government and bandits along the way.

Ten times the tax is on the Jin merchants, obviously they can't compete with any merchant gang, because the taxes they pay may be higher than the cost of the other party, how can they compete?

Under the predicament, in 1868, the Jin merchant group put forward the slogan that Russia came to the Qing Dynasty to compete for profits, and the Jin merchants also went north to Russia to compete for profits, and wrote to the Qing government in the hope of obtaining permission, and put forward an attractive reason, that is, the Jin merchants went north, they could organize the Russians to go south, and put forward this slogan, which was targeted, at that time, the Russian tsar used the pretext of the reduction of Kyakhta trade scale, and asked the Qing government to open Zhangjiakou, a new land port, to Russian businessmen, and the Qing government was worried about the penetration of Russia to the south. That's why he agreed to the suggestion that the Jin merchants go north to Russia.

The Jin merchants were good, as the most mature business group in China, they were obviously prepared, and in 1868 they applied to the Qing court to go north to Russia, but Xu Rongcun went to Russia in 1864 to discuss Alaska business, and saw the Jin merchants in St. Petersburg.

The layout of the Jin merchants was very effective, and the result was that the Qing government agreed that they went north to enter Russia in the first year of business, in 1869, the Jin merchants imported 110,000 quintals of tea to Russia, and this year the Russian merchants themselves imported 110,000 quintals, it can be said that the first year of the Jin merchants going north to Russia, has caught up with the level of the Russians who have been operating for several years. By the third year, in 1871, the Jin merchants had imported 200,000 quintals of tea into Russia, which was twice as much as the Russian merchants' own imports.

In the process, the Qing government only allowed them to enter Russia to operate, and the tax rate was reduced by half, but it was still five times that of Russian merchants. It can be said that when operating in China and carrying a five-fold tax rate, the Jin merchants competed with the Russian merchants in any case. The reason why they were able to suppress the Russians in this unfavorable situation was that, after they entered Russia through Kyakhta, they made up for the disadvantages in their own territory by operating under the same policy of operating in the mountains of Russia and Russian merchants.

Sadly, it is not possible to obtain policy preferences in one's own country, but in the other country, it can achieve a huge advantage simply by not being suppressed.

Under intense pressure from the Jin merchants, Russian merchants lobbied the government many times to build a railway between the Qing ports and the Russian border, so that they would be able to easily transport goods from China to Russia by sea, and then transport them to Russia by sea through the convenient waterways of Siberia.

The suggestion of the Russian merchants was to build a route from Tianjin to Kyakhta that was the shortest and most convenient, but the closed Manchu Dynasty, which did not even want to open Zhangjiakou to the Russians, could accept the Russians to build a railway through Beijing, the core area of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, unless the Russians could directly attack the city of Beiqi like the Ming Dynasty and negotiate with the Qing court in the case of occupying the Forbidden City, so it is estimated that the Qing court would accept any conditions.

Historically, it was not until after the First Sino-Japanese War that Russia gained the right to build railways in the northeast, that is, the famous South Manchurian and North Manchurian railways in later generations, which were called the East Qing Railway at that time.

But in this history, because the Ming Dynasty had obtained the right to build a railway in Dalian, Russia's ambition to build a railway was greater. Having succeeded in arousing its ambitions, Russia began to look for an opportunity to seek the same conditions, and to acquire the right to build a railway.

It was not until 1870 that they found this opportunity, and in the Tianjin case, several Russians died, and the Russians used this to negotiate with the Qing court, and finally the Russians easily let go of the severe sanctions demanded by the Qing court, and did not even ask the Qing court to apologize, because they received a privilege from Li Hongzhang, that is, the right to build a railway from Kyakhta to the Bohai Sea.

However, the Qing court imposed restrictions on the Russians, and they demanded that the Russians build railways that could only be walked outside the pass, and never crossed the border walls.

This greatly limited the location of the Russians' railway, there are not many excellent ports outside the customs, Yingkou is counted as one, but where is the British sphere of influence, Dalian is counted as one, but Dalian is a port controlled by the Ming Dynasty. As for the other ports, they were not open at all, and even if the Russians built a railway, they would not be able to transport goods to Russia without a port.

In this case, the Russians decided to negotiate with the Ming Dynasty, hoping to connect this railway to Dalian, a mature port that had been developed, so that goods could land directly from Dalian, and then go straight to Kyakhta, and then enter Russia. The most important thing is that it will allow Russian merchants to gain a huge competitive advantage over the Jin merchants and other merchant groups in China.

However, the Russians knew very well that in order for the Ming to cooperate, they had to pay a price, but compared with the British who Russia did not like to cooperate with the Niuzhuang port in Yingkou and the benefits that needed to be given to the British, Russia believed that the Ming would have a smaller appetite and be easier to feed.

The construction of a railway through Dalian to the Russian border, the Ming Dynasty really just talked about it in the past, because Zhu Jinglun understood that in a short period of time, the construction of such a railway could only help Russia to infiltrate the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty basically could not have any special interests, because it was impossible for the Ming Dynasty to penetrate into Russia.

Speaking of which, it is just Zhu Jinglun's strategy of "blocking", hoping to use such a power to balance the same interests that foreigners may obtain.

Now it can't be blocked, because the Russians have also obtained the same power, and if the Ming Dynasty does not cooperate, the Russians can completely repair it themselves.

As for the port, the Russians did not repair to Dalian, they could also repair to Yingkou, the British have special interests here, but this is not a British colony after all, and as long as the British are given enough benefits, the British will not refuse to cooperate with Russia.

The most terrible thing is that Russia did not cooperate with the Ming Dynasty or the British, but independently sought to control a port on the territory of the Manchu Qing Dynasty. Or they could build the railway from Vladivostok or other ports in the Sea of Japan that they had already occupied.

Zhu Jinglun weighed it and found that only by agreeing to cooperate with Russia and allowing the Russian railway to connect to the port of Dalian could he achieve the greatest influence on this railway.

As far as Russia is concerned, being able to build a railway to Dalian, the only ice-free port near the Bohai Bay, is of great significance to Russia's construction of a railway because of the influence of Japan's warm current, and Dalian is not frozen in winter because of the influence of Japan's warm current, so it can be passed around all weather, which is of great significance to Russia's railway construction.

However, in the negotiations with the Russians, Daming mentioned other requirements, and they hoped that Russia would agree to let Daming and the Russians jointly operate the railway, and the two sides would form a joint team, so that it could more conveniently serve the Chinese and Russian guests and make the railway more profitable.

In order to get the right to jointly operate, the Ming was willing to provide half of the funds for the construction of the railway, and at the same time would give up the construction of a competitive railway line from Dalian, in other words, if the Russians did not agree, the Ming would build a parallel railway near the Kyakhta railway to compete with the Russian railway.

After weighing, the Russians agreed, because the Russians were very tight on funds, in history they in order to build the Trans-Siberian Railway, the huge burden on the treasury, the railway line from Kyakhta to Dalian, the length is absolutely not short, the funds required to spend is an astronomical amount, probably more than 100 million taels of silver, in this case, it is not a bad thing to have the Ming to share the construction funds, anyway, after the railway is repaired, the biggest benefit from it must be the Russian businessmen.

So the two sides reached an agreement, Daming contributed half of the construction funds, but all the construction work will be under the control of Russian technicians, but Daming has the power to send people to supervise the finances, after the operation of the railway, in each post, respectively, set up a Russian staff and Chinese staff, respectively used to receive customers from the two countries.

Just after reaching a joint construction with Russia Kyakhta-Dalian line, the Ming Dynasty decided to start the construction of the Northeast Railway, the Ming Dynasty has the right to build a railway from Dalian to the Russian border, giving up the right to the direction of Kyakhta, does not mean giving up the power of other directions, so the Ming Dynasty has the right to build a railway from Dalian to the north, directly to the north of the Heilongjiang River Basin.

For Zhu Jinglun, after he obtained the right to build the railway from Russia, he felt that he could no longer stop the Russians, and the Russians could build a railway from Kyakhta to Dalian today, and when they got the benefits, they would not be able to control their appetites, and once the Russians' appetites were opened, it was almost impossible for them to not want to expand northeast.

Therefore, since it can't be blocked, then simply retreat into advance, change passive defense to active attack, and before Russia has the ability and ambition to penetrate into the northeast, the Ming Dynasty will seize the interests here.