The benefits of trains speak for themselves.

Even the feudal mentality of the Manchu Qing Dynasty in history can recognize the importance of trains.

Besides, these are just Tang Dynasty ministers who don't know how big the role of the train is? In terms of the degree of open-mindedness, after Li Yuanji's washing in the past few years, the ideological aspects of the Tang Dynasty ministers can be said to far exceed that of most of the ministers of the Manchu Dynasty in history.

Because they don't have the kind of ideological constraints of closing themselves off from the country, they don't think about whether the introduction of these things will cause other 'unfavorable' consequences.

The same thing, two different people, will have two different results, this is the inevitability of human nature, but also the inevitability of history.

"What about how much does it cost? Experimental phase! After witnessing the magic of the train, Huangfu Wuyi had to ask the question he was most concerned about.

Naturally, it is impossible for the royal business group to be responsible for the train, so once the imperial court decides to build a railroad on a large scale and use the train, then the household department must come up with a lot of money to operate.

It is a pity that in order to build the railway from Chang'an to Luozhou, the household department has owed more than 2 million yuan so far.

Of course, this is only the data on the books, and many times, especially in the current national conditions, the accounts cannot be calculated in this way.

In fact, the total cost of building this railway, which is less than 1,100 li (about 550 kilometers), is only more than 200,000 yuan.

Because the iron ore belonged to the imperial court, the iron smelting workshop belonged to the imperial court, everything belonged to the imperial court, and even the labor used to build the railroad was recruited by the imperial court in the form of labor.

So, the biggest cost isn't the cost of the materials, because they don't count as costs at all, or they don't even think about these costs.

And these more than 200,000 yuan are the labor costs owed by the imperial court.

Of course, this is not owed to individuals, the wages of workers will not be in arrears, these are solved by the subcontractors themselves, and the imperial court owes these subcontractors.

As for a loss-making business like Qu Tuquan, it can only be said that it is the result of his own calculation mistakes and inexperience.

In fact, before this, the Ministry of Industry has been carefully calculated and given a quality of qualified material requirements.

What Qu Tuquan needs to do is to report the materials and labor they need, as well as the overall quotation, this quotation refers to the manual quotation, and the materials are solved by the imperial court, but on this quotation, the number of various materials needed needs to be indicated.

Qu Tuquan accurately calculated the amount of materials needed, and in order to ensure that he could get the project, he directly quoted the minimum amount of materials and a manual quotation that was almost unprofitable.

The result, of course, is ......

In the process of construction, it was found that some places could not be done like this, although it also met the requirements, and there would be no quality problems, but once there was a problem, it was not a small problem, so only one more bag of cement could be used here, and one more steel bar should be used there to ensure that there would be no problems with the quality.

But the problem is that these materials are equipped with strict standards, and the quantity is dead, and it is impossible to give more than a bag of cement and a single steel bar.

And at this time, there are only two ways to solve it, cut corners, or take responsibility for solving the vacant materials yourself.

Qu Tuquan chose the latter, so he could only lose money.

These problems are all issues that Huangfu Wuyi is concerned about, the cost of more than 200,000 guan is not high, but it is not a lot, and horses pull so many goods, more horses are inevitably needed, and the cost is higher, in fact, the fundamental reason for asking this question is that Huangfu Wuyi wants to calculate it to see whether it is cost-effective for horses or trains.

"His running cost is about a truckload of coal and a truckload of water, and if you need to ensure a larger cargo capacity, you can also choose the kind of car with half a car of water and coal, so that you can free up a car car, but the problem is that you may need to add supplies on the way. As for the other costs, this is not yet possible to give accurate data, because he has not yet run a real full journey, and it is not clear when the parts inside will need to be replaced. Lao Xu shook his head, if he knew this data, then he called out the ghost.

Moreover, he is only responsible for research, as long as the quality and requirements can be met, what is the cost of his operation?

For these people, the problem of money is not what they need to worry about at all, as long as they can study it, and whether to use it or not is a matter that the emperor and the court should consider.

However, this problem is not a problem for Li Yuanji.

Although Li Yuanji also doesn't know what the specific operating costs are, he knows a truth.

"How long does it take to transport 10,000 stone of grain from Chang'an, if you use a horse-drawn cart? And how many wagons are needed? And how much is the consumption on the way? Li Yuanji asked three questions in succession.

"According to the calculation that each cart can carry twenty stone of grain, it takes five hundred carriages, but now it takes five days for a one-way trip, and the consumption is about five hundred stone. If it is other places, it will be more, after all, Chang'an and Luozhou have official roads, which not only save time, but also greatly save losses. Huangfu Wuyi said it almost without thinking, and the household department was in charge of money and food, which was also one of his tasks.

"One back and forth, that is, ten days, about a thousand stone consumed. In ten days, the train should be enough to run four to five round-trips, and the transportation volume is about eight to one hundred thousand stones, and his consumption, just coal and water, plus the loss of some parts, will not be too much, and I think that this big guy may not be as impatient as everyone thinks, and he needs to replace parts at every turn. "The maintenance of the train is a must, and even every time a task is completed, the necessary inspections need to be carried out, which is understandable.

But the train itself, or the steam train itself, is still very rough.

And roughness represents another meaning, he is not like those precision instruments, a little uncomfortable and emotional, and the best explanation is the historical World War II T34 and German tank duel, which has explained the problem to a large extent.

Although it has not been verified yet, in the face of one example after another, isn't it enough for Li Yuanji to have these confidences?

The planned economy has the advantages of a planned economy, and the current Datang belongs to a combination of a planned economy and a market economy.

In some important areas, the planned economy was adopted, and the advantage was that the cost could be reduced to a minimum, which was obvious for the Tang Dynasty, where the funding problem was not solved.

In particular, the current level of science and technology is not in the era of a big explosion, and the Academy of Sciences represents the highest level in the whole world, so this model can be continued.

And it is not until the scientific and technological level of the market economy grows up and surpasses the Academy of Sciences in a certain field that it will be considered to be handed over to the market.

Of course, Li Yuanji didn't say much about these, because it was inappropriate.

On the other hand, Li Yuanji also plans to compile these ideas and measures into a book for his own future generations.

Try to use the advantages of your own crossing to tell them how to make decisions when they encounter a certain problem.

They don't need to follow the steps or follow the cases in the book, what needs to be cultivated is their reaction when they encounter this situation, and how to deal with it.

"You can't just think about things from the economic side, you should look at the broader side, and the benefits of trains are self-evident, fast speed, more cargo, just these two points are enough." Ma Zhou was relatively quick to accept the train, and at the same time saw the problem.

"Yes, and on the issue of coal burning, it doesn't seem to be a problem, we can build a railway...... Fang Xuanling also laughed.

Although the appearance of the train did not have much impact on him at the earliest, now, this impact has been formed.

The unimaginable speed and cargo capacity can run tirelessly day and night, and even, a train only needs a few people to operate, and it can send tens of thousands of stone of goods to thousands of miles away.

If the biggest problem is coal burning, the idea can now be abandoned.

They can build a railway to the area where the coal mines are concentrated, and the output of the coal mines only needs to send these coal-fired concentrated to the station, which may only be dozens of miles, or more than a dozen miles, or even go out, which can greatly save the time and cost of transportation, so that the giant of the train can complete the rest of the tasks.

And this train full of coal can run along the way, and unload one or several cars of coal at each station to be spared.

In addition, now the people also need a huge amount of coal, one is cooking, the other is heating, coal burning in the city has basically replaced firewood, the reason is very simple, the temperature of the flame is high, it lasts for a long time, and most importantly, the price is low, although the price is the same as firewood, but it is better to buy firewood and coal at the same price, coal is a complete victory.

Li Yuanji shook his head with a smile and sighed deeply: "Hey, you guys! I still don't see the point of this. ”

It was not because of anything else that made Li Yuanji shake his head and sigh, it was naturally a good thing that they could see the commercial value in it, but is a train only commercial value?

No, in Li Yuanji's view, commercial value is only incidental, and even trains are only incidental, or is it an old problem, the emergence of trains does not simply mean that more goods can be sent to farther places in a short period of time and at a lower cost.

Rather, it lies in the process of mechanization, in the speed of industrialization, which has officially increased with the speed of the train.

That's all that matters, and it's a pity that no one sees that.