"Your Majesty, Weichen thinks that the biggest gain, in addition to the construction of such a railway and opening to traffic, more importantly, not only has a large number of railway construction teams been trained, but also mastered the technology and ability to build railways and bridges, and even stimulated the rapid development of cement, steel, timber, machinery and equipment industries."

When Feng Yunshan heard this, he remembered that he had told him to form the Chinese Imperial Railway Construction Corps under the Railway Division, but later he heard that it had been built, and he couldn't help but ask: "Cheng Aiqing, how is the Railway Construction Corps under your Railway Division now?" ”

Hearing that the emperor took the initiative to ask, Cheng Hengsheng hurriedly replied: "Back to Your Majesty, when I received Your Majesty's holy decree, Weichen immediately rebuilt the construction engineering company that was still under the Ministry of Public Works, and hired a large number of railway workers and technicians from the Central Railway Company of the United States and Prussia, and established the Chinese Imperial Railway Construction Corps in the fourth year of Taisheng, with three divisions under its jurisdiction, a total of 30,000 horses, and militarized management, in addition, there are nearly 50,000 laborers, an unprecedented scale. In the past few years, the reason why the four major railways in the five-year plan have been successfully completed is because of their hard work. Your Majesty, Weichen can proudly say that this railway construction corps of our Chinese Empire is the largest and most powerful railway construction team in the world. ”

In addition, there are several large chambers of commerce in China, such as the Huizhou Chamber of Commerce, the Guangzhou Chamber of Commerce, the Qiaojia, Changjia, Caojia in Shanxi, and the Jiang family in Hunan, etc., which have set up their own small and medium-sized railway construction companies, and helped the local government or private coal and iron mines to build freight railways through self-financing or contracting, which have also developed very well. Because His Majesty has explained that the imperial court has not encouraged its suppression and restrictions, so the railway construction companies opened by these local chaebols and big businessmen have become a bit of a climate. Recently, the Qiao family in Taiyuan Prefecture, Shanxi Province, and the Qiao's Railway Construction Company and Chang's Railway Construction Company under the name of the Chang family joined forces, saying that they were planning to build a passenger and freight dual-purpose railway from Taiyuan Fucheng in Shanxi Province through their hometown Yuci County and Qi County to Shunde Fucheng in Zhili. Weichen thinks that since this railway is to be repaired, it is not so important to directly connect to Shunde Mansion, if it is further south to Lu'an Mansion, which is rich in coal, and then through Linxian County to Zhangde Mansion in Henan, and connect with the Guangdong-direct railway, so that the coal of Taiyuan Mansion and Lu'an Mansion in Shanxi Province can be continuously transported to the north and south through the Guangdong-direct railway. ”

Feng Yunshan nodded and encouraged: "Cheng Aiqing's words are reasonable!" However, for these private merchants, although the imperial court should encourage them to set up factories and even build railways, your railway department, as the chief official of the imperial court, should also strengthen management, and the railway, as an important transportation facility of the country, must be completely controlled by the imperial court, and cannot arbitrarily indulge the people's arbitrary investment in the railway, even if the investment and construction of some small freight railways are released, they must be strictly reviewed. The main thing I said is not to prohibit those businessmen and private individuals from investing in the railway, but to encourage them to invest, but to plan reasonably. After all, the investment in railways is huge, and if you want to invest a lot of wealth in it, you must invest it where it is most needed and where it can play its most role. ”

Cheng Hengsheng heard Feng Yunshan's will, and hurriedly agreed, seeing that the emperor was looking at him, he knew that he was letting himself continue, and said busily: "In terms of official roads, the achievements in the past few years have been greater than the development of railways. The mileage of the railway, which has now been completed and opened to traffic, is only 8,200 li, and there are still 3,500 li to be opened to traffic at the end of the year, and all of them add up to less than 12,000 li. As of last year, the newly built official roads had exceeded 200,000 miles. In addition, this year, due to the opening of many railways, it is convenient to transport cement and mountain opening machines, and the construction of new official roads is more rapid, and it is expected that 70,000 miles of new official roads will be added this year. Moreover, the main official roads built in the new area focus on the inland area, which is not only convenient for porters to walk, but also very suitable for horse-drawn carriages. Nowadays, local governments have set up their own long-distance carriage companies, which carry out the transportation of merchants and goods in each section of the official road that has been put into use, and make a lot of profits. ”

"The long-distance carriage company?" Feng Yunshan was happy when he heard it, but he didn't expect that before he could remind him, his subordinates would be able to think of these livelihoods, and sure enough, with the foundation of the new official road, it would give birth to the industry of passenger and freight transportation.

However, this new type of official road is expensive, just like the highway of later generations, and if those private freight companies transport heavy goods, it is easy to damage the official road, and it is necessary to strengthen management as in later generations. In addition, in order to maintain these new official roads, it is necessary to collect some fees from these transportation companies. Thinking of this, Feng Yunshan spoke: "Your Ministry of Communications should formulate a long-term and reasonable charter to encourage private capital to invest in new official roads. Alas, this name is inappropriate, since this newly built official road is convenient for horse-drawn carriages, it will simply be distinguished from the old official road in the future, so it will be called the road! You should draw up a charter to encourage private capital to invest in the road, and at the same time strengthen the planning and management of the road, as well as the maintenance and repair of the road in the later stage. In addition, for the long-distance carriage companies in various places, it is necessary to formulate some management regulations and industry standards, which are the charging standards for transporting people and goods. For example, there is a uniform fixed number of how many saints should be charged for each ton of goods transported, and how many saints should be charged for an adult every 100 kilometers. Of course, these places can be measured according to the cost of building and maintaining roads in different regions. ”

Feng Yunshan's mind at this time was thinking of a word for later generations: sustainable development. If the newly built roads are not charged, and all depend on the expenses of the imperial court, there will definitely not be enough funds to invest in the construction of more new roads in the future, after all, the financial resources of the imperial court are limited to invest in various places. What's more, the imperial court is not like those companies that operate transportation to charge fees, they will not reduce the price of transportation, it is better to not only collect their fees, but also set the transportation fee standard, which can also promote the circulation of goods and improve the living standards of the people.

When Cheng Hengsheng and other ministers heard the emperor's name of the road and the will to set the toll standard, their eyes lit up, and they couldn't help but secretly admire the emperor's insight.

"Your Majesty, and in terms of water transport, in addition to the earliest establishment of the Liangguang Ocean Company, the imperial court later successively established the Southern Water Transport Company, the Northern Water Transport Company, and the subdivisions include the Yangtze River Water Transport Company, the Pearl River Water Transport Company, the Zhejiang Water Transport Company, the Minjiang Water Transport Company, the Hanjiang River Water Transport Company, the Yellow River Water Transport Company, the Heilongjiang Water Transport Company, the Liaohe Water Transport Company, the Ili River Water Transport Company, the Red River Water Transport Company, the Mekong River Water Transport Company, etc., which are mainly engaged in freight transport, but there are also some passenger transport, which is very helpful to the travel flow of the people and traders. Due to the expansion of the empire's territory, the Liangguang Ocean Company has been changed to the China Ocean Company, and the scope of transportation business has expanded several times from the original coastal area, not only to the South China Sea, but also to the entire Pacific Ocean and even to the place called Australia. Now that Lord Peng led an expeditionary force to expand the province of New Mexico for the empire, China COSCO could expand its business to the Americas. ”

"This is only the water transport company founded by the imperial court, and the private businessmen, especially those local consortia, have also set up small and medium-sized water transport companies to create river transportation business in the region. It is not bad that the Department of Water Transport will audit and manage it and use it to revitalize local commerce. At present, water transportation is the bulk of the country's transportation, and grain from the south is transported to the north, and coal from the north is transported to Shanghai, Guangzhou and other places, all of which are unimpeded. ”

"Finally, there is the telegraph and post post, although it developed a little late, but because of His Majesty's attention, it has advanced by leaps and bounds. At present, nearly 30,000 miles of telegraph cables have been laid, and cables have basically been laid along all railway lines, north-south and east-west main roads, and telegraph offices have been opened in large cities above Fuzhi where roads and railways pass, more than half of which have been put into use, and will be fully operational by the end of this year. Moreover, with the expansion of the empire's territory, the Telegraph and Post Department is preparing to lay telegraph cables along all the roads under construction, so that this telegram, which can instantly send news to thousands of miles away, will be put into use in various places, and our Chinese empire will be as stable as Mount Tai. Your Majesty, with the exception of the Kazakh Autonomous Region, Xinjiang, Tibet, Mongolia, Qinghai, Heilongjiang, and Jilin, all the major cities in the other provinces have been telegraphed. By next year at the latest, all the provinces of the empire will be able to telegraph. As for the post posts, changes have also been made, and post offices have been set up along the newly built railways and roads, so that people in other places will not have to send letters to their families in the future, but will not have to take a month or two to have them delivered, but will arrive in ten or even a few days. Of course, if the telegraph service is opened in the future, it will be able to arrive instantly. ”

Hearing Cheng Hengsheng's words, Feng Yunshan smiled. He understood what Cheng Hengsheng meant, and he was suggesting to himself whether to allow ordinary people to use the telegraph for communication. At the beginning, he built his own telegraph, mainly for military and government purposes, but in any case, the telegraph was idle, and it was not impossible to carry out some civilian business by the way. So, Feng Yunshan nodded and agreed.