"As for the Trans-Siberian Railway, construction has also begun. His Majesty must have seen that the Mongolian-direct railway is actually the first part of the northern line of the Trans-Siberian Railway, which has only just been built to Kulen, and the further north it goes, the more difficult it is to build, and it can only wait for the next summer, after the Selenga River thaws, to use rafts and boats to transport rail materials such as sleepers and rails. It is expected that the construction will be carried out in the next year at most in Beihai City (on the shores of Lake Baikal), and further west is expected to take another two years to reach Tomskburg, and finally to Yekaterinburg and Orenburg in five years.

This is the northern line, the southern line of the Trans-Siberian Railway, from Lanzhou City to the west, also to Wulumuqi, as I just said, in about ten months, it can reach Kashgar City or Khokhan City, then pass through Bukhar City, arrive at the Aral Sea City at the mouth of the Aral Sea River in the Syr Darya River, and then go northwest through the town of Aralsk, and finally arrive at Orenburg, it is estimated that it will take three and a half to four years. Because of the long construction time of the southern route every year, and the fact that local Kazakhs can be hired, it is much faster to build than the northern route, so it is possible to help the northern route build the section from Orenburg to Yekaterinburg after the southern route is completed. In this way, the Trans-Siberian Railway line will be completed more quickly, which will be more beneficial for the imperial court to control Siberia.

In addition, there are several freight railways such as coal mines and iron mines. For example, from Anshan Iron Mine to Yingkou Freight Terminal and Fengtianfu City, directly under the Kaiping Coal Mine in Kaiping Town, Luanzhou, Yongping Prefecture, through Luanzhou Prefecture City to Sijiaying Iron Mine and Zhili Iron and Steel Plant, and then north through Yongping Fucheng, Xingquan Coal Mine and Shimen Village in Funing County, and finally to Qinhuangdao Freight Terminal. ”

After listening to Li Hongzhang's talk about the construction of the railway, Feng Yunshan had a rough idea in his heart. It has to be said that the railways of the Chinese Empire have developed very rapidly in recent years. But compared to the United States in history, it is still very different. Feng Yunshan remembers that in the United States, as early as a few years ago, the mileage of railroad construction exceeded 19,000 miles, and historically, in the sixties of the 19th century, the length of railroads in the United States was 30,000 miles, and by the early eighties, it directly increased to 90,000 miles, and in the late eighties it soared to more than 150,000 miles. In other words, at the time of its rapid development, the United States was even close to building 10,000 miles a year, equivalent to 16,000 kilometers, which is almost equivalent to the total length of railways in the Chinese Empire for more than ten years.

This undoubtedly shows that there is still a lot of potential to be tapped on his side. This is especially true now that the steel industry has developed and there is no longer a shortage of rails. Therefore, although Feng Yunshan recognized the rapid development of railways in the empire over the years, he was not particularly satisfied. After all, the population of the Chinese Empire was huge, almost ten times that of the United States at that time, and the funds far exceeded those of the American government at that time. Of course, Feng Yunshan also realized that the reason for this situation is that in addition to the fact that the construction of the railway started too late in the early stage, and the technical personnel and rails required for the construction of the railway were seriously insufficient, the profit drive was the fundamental reason.

The initial railroad construction frenzy in the United States was mainly due to the interests of the Westward Expansion Movement, and the railroad companies, the contractors who built the railways, and the capital of the steel industry made a lot of money, especially the land use rights of the railways along the line. As for his own empire, the benefits of the railway have just been applied, and it is the imperial court that allocates funds for railway investment, after all, it is limited. However, Feng Yunshan believes that in the future, as long as he begins to open up the right to build railways, as in the history of the United States, and encourages private capital to enter the railway branches, he will definitely usher in the great development of the railway.

So, Feng Yunshan turned his head to look at Li Hongzhang and Cheng Hengsheng, Minister of Communications, and asked, "Li Aiqing, Cheng Aiqing, what happened to the "Imperial Railway Development Regulations" that your Ministry of Communications and the Ministry of Minerals and Metallurgy did?" ”

Li Hongzhang looked at Cheng Hengsheng and motioned for him to answer. Cheng Hengsheng understood and said busily: "Your Majesty, the Ministry of Communications has formulated the "Imperial Railway Development Regulations", a total of 12 articles in the whole charter, and made a unified charter for the development of the empire's railways, including a unified standard gauge of 1435mm, and vigorously support the railway business, but it must be dominated by Chinese capital, and the local business capital of the empire will be rewarded for investing more than 100,000 saints in the new railway, mainly based on the principle of specialization, institutionalization and openness of railway construction, which embodies the proposition of the imperial court to support business and unified road administration. The main purpose is to encourage private investment, protect the interests of commercial railway companies, and promote the construction of railways faster and better. ”

"Excellent! In addition, major banks should also assist private businessmen to build railways and provide them with loan support! The interest can be guaranteed and subsidized by the imperial court in advance. In short, it is necessary to fully mobilize, and even give priority to these commercial railway companies the mineral exploration and development rights of the railways along the line, so as to promote their enthusiasm for building railways and train them to become large railway companies. In addition, when they come out for passenger and freight transportation, they must also be able to approve them to carry out mail and other businesses, believing that the capital of the imperial court is always stronger than them, and they are not afraid of their development.

However, there is one article that must be made clear: in the event of emergency rescue and disaster relief, emergency military war, etc., the railway companies must unconditionally accept the requisition of the railway by the imperial court, and the losses or freight caused by it shall be allocated by the imperial court treasury at half price. Feng Yunshan added.

Cheng Hengsheng hurriedly agreed, and immediately revised and added it.

Feng Yunshan said to Li Hongzhang and Yan Jingming, Minister of Finance and Taxation: "Cheng Aiqing's Ministry of Communications must want to vigorously develop railways, and I have no doubt about this. Now I heard that the production of steel has also increased significantly, and it is fully able to meet the production of rails. Now the final decision is still up to the two of you, Li Aiqing, you, the vice premier of the cabinet, must attach great importance to the construction of railways, and Yan Aiqing, the Ministry of Finance and Taxation must focus on the allocation of funds to the Ministry of Communications, and vigorously support their railway construction! ”

Li Hongzhang and Yan Jingming hurriedly agreed: "Weichen and others obey the holy decree!" ”

Li Hongzhang then went on to talk about the achievements of the imperial court in transportation and communications.

In addition to railways, the Chinese Empire also made significant achievements in dredging inland waterways and building official roads.

Especially in the southern region, the river network is dense and criss-crossed, and shipping has always been developed. However, some rivers were too narrow to pass through large ships, so the imperial court continued to develop in recent years by constantly reinforcing the embankments, dredging the river harbors, pouring wharves, and improving the transportation of the waterways.

From south to north, the Pearl River and the upstream Xijiang and Beijiang shipping water systems, the Minjiang River, the Oujiang River and the Yongjiang River composed of coastal and inland river joint shipping water systems, and then to the Yangtze River and Jiangnan water town shipping system composed of the main channel of the Yangtze River and its tributaries, Dongting Lake, Poyang Lake, Taihu Lake, etc., the shipping water system of the Central Plains hinterland of the Huai River and the Yellow River, and the shipping water system composed of the northernmost Heilongjiang River basin, have all flourished in recent years. These, especially the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, connect the Yongjiang River in Zhejiang, the Yangtze River and the Huaihe River and the Yellow River in the middle, and the Haihe River in the north, linking the water transport channel between Ningbo and Tongzhou, Beijing.

As a result of the development of these inland waterway shipping undertakings, the economy of the Pearl River Basin, the Jiangnan region and the hinterland of the Central Plains, which were the most prosperous areas of the Chinese Empire, also developed rapidly, making the circulation of bulk goods in the whole country more frequent, convenient and cheaper.

According to the statistics of the Ministry of Communications, as of the first half of this year, there were 3,740 registered water transport companies in the entire Chinese Empire. With the exception of government-run water transport companies such as the government, Nanyang Corporation, and Toyo Corporation, most of them are water transport companies established by private capital. There are a total of 8,932 passenger ships and cargo ships (merchant ships) of more than 50 tons in the country, with a total tonnage of about 720,000 tons.