After dealing with the matter of the international student plan, Liu Dingzhuang, who was in charge of Pontianak industrial construction, came in to find Hu Zhen and reported some specific things and work progress of industrial construction.

"Who is it?"

"One name is Chen Yixi, and the other name is Zhan Tianyou, they both arrived in Pontianak late last night and came early this morning to see you!"

"Ah, they're here, please!" Hearing that Chen Yixi was coming, Hu Zhen jumped up happily and walked to the door to greet him in person.

Zhan Tianyou, a native of Nanhai, Foshan, Guangdong, is no stranger to people who are familiar with modern Chinese history, but who is this Chen Yixi, and Hu Zhen should pay so much attention to it?

Chen Yixi, a native of Taishan, Guangdong, is the first railway engineer in the history of China!

A self-taught railroad engineer who rose to prominence by a coolie slave worker on the construction site of the Pacific Railroad in the United States!

People who are familiar with the history of China know that Zhan Tianyou is the first person in the history of the Chinese railway, and the evaluation of Zhan Tianyou by later generations is that "Zhan Tianyou is one of the pioneers of modern science and technology in China, the first person in the Chinese railway, the pioneer of the Chinese railway, and is known as the father of China's railways and the father of China's modern engineering." ”

Zhan Tianyou, a native of Guangzhou, Guangdong, made outstanding contributions to the Huaxia railway project, which is recognized throughout China, but Chen Yixi, who is also a railway engineer, is much less lucky.

In 1861, when Zhan Tianyou was born, seventeen-year-old Chen Yixi was already working the construction site of the railway in the United States; In 1878, Zhan Tianyou was admitted to the Department of Civil Engineering of Yale University, majoring in railway engineering. In 1888, when Zhan Tianyou was recommended by a friend and began to work as a railway engineer in the Qing Dynasty, Chen Yixi established Guangde Company in Seattle, USA, and began to contract railway construction projects.

Zhan Tianyou began to build the first railway built by Huaxia in 1905; And Chen Yixi was dedicated to serving the country, but he had no way to serve the country, and he could not be appreciated by the Qing court. I had to work hard to raise funds on my own, and from 1904 began to prepare for the construction of Xinning Railway, the first private railway in China.

Chen Yixi in history is not only the first railway engineer among the Chinese people, but also very righteous to the Chinese people, under the anti-Chinese frenzy of the United States. Chen Yixi withstood the pressure and endured the beating of the American thugs, and with his own wisdom, he maneuvered between the Seattle police, the court, and the prosecutor, and obtained 700,000 US dollars in compensation for the Chinese people after litigation. Compared with the current situation in the 21st century, when the Chinese people still dare not fight a lawsuit in the United States, it is not easy for Chen Yixi to help the Chinese people obtain such a compensation 120 years ago.

However, now the fates of Chen Yixi and Zhan Tianyou have changed.

Hu Zhen sent people to preemptively get Zhan Tianyou from the position of teaching at the Guangdong Boxue Museum on the grounds that he wanted to overhaul the Chinese people's own railroad in Nanyang, and Chen Yixi was invited to give up his own company from the United States to come to Nanyang.

Zhan Tianyou and Chen Yixi took a boat to Pontianak in Nanyang together in Hong Kong, and the two chatted very speculatively on the common topic of railways along the way, and now they have become good friends. Hearing that Hu Zhen was going to summon them, he immediately came in, but unexpectedly, Hu Zhen, the chief of the Huaxia Guild, personally walked out of the door quickly to greet them.

"Mr. Chen, Mr. Zhan. Hello! Hu Zhen warmly stepped forward and shook hands with the two.

"Hello, Chief Hu!" Chen Yixi and Zhan Tianyou were surprised to find that the famous commander of the Huaxia Army in front of them was so young, even younger than the twenty-six-year-old Zhan Tianyou.

"It's good that you're here, come in, let's talk about the construction of the railway!"

Hearing that they were talking about railway construction, the two immediately became excited, and they didn't say anything politely, and followed Hu Zhen to stride in.

Faced with two big experts in railway construction, Hu Zhen of course couldn't wait to talk to them about the railway, and he ordered someone to roll out a map of Nanyang. Pointing to the map, he said: "We plan to build at least 30,000 kilometers of railways on a large scale in Nanyang, and in the future, we will extend the construction of the railway to the mainland of Greater China, setting off a frenzy of railway construction in Greater China...... More than 100 kilometers of railways have been built near Pontianak, and the first long-distance railway is planned. It is to build a railway from Pontianak across the central hinterland of Borneo to the eastern port of Sammarinda, a distance of more than 1,000 kilometers, and it is estimated that the whole railway journey is more than 1,300 kilometers! ”

Hearing Hu Zhen say that he wanted to set off a frenzy to build a railway, Chen Yixi immediately lost any restraints, pointed to the location between the two points of Pontianak and Sammarinda on the map, and said: "Build more than 1,000 kilometers of railway in the tropical jungle of Borneo!" This is an unprecedented challenge for my experience of building railways in temperate climates in the northern hemisphere. ”

Talk about railways. Zhan Tianyou also has no constraints: "No matter where the railway is built, it needs a detailed on-site survey and measurement in order to plan the route and determine the construction plan. ”

Hu Zhen actually didn't have much understanding of railway construction technology, he just wanted to be the shopkeeper, and talking about professional things was certainly not the opponent of the two big experts, so he said: "We budget to invest three million pounds in start-up funds, a total of 21 million taels of silver, and set up the Nanyang Railway Corporation to be responsible for surveying the terrain and building the railway, and the two of them will preside over it, okay?" ”

"Nanyang Railway? Three million pounds? Chen Yixi and Zhan Tianyou couldn't imagine that as soon as Hu Zhen met, they invested heavily in a few words, and they were very shocked.

"How? Three million pounds is not enough, and you can increase the capital injection in the future! As long as the railroad can be built quickly, funding is not an issue. In front of connoisseurs, Hu Zhen can only talk about money.

"As a start-up fund, we can use this fund to build two sections of the railway from Pontianak to the west of East Manlu and Sammarinda at the same time, put them into operation, and use the profits generated from the operation to support the construction of the planned railway in the future!"

Hu Zhen listened and nodded, Zhan Tianyou's idea of using the profits from railway operations to support the construction of railways is in the same vein as what he has shown in history.

Chen Yixi also has his own unique opinion: "We can turn the railway company into a joint-stock company, and raise funds among the Chinese people to build railways, and Hugh said that building more than 1,000 kilometers of railways in this area is not a problem even if you build 100,000 kilometers of railways!" ”

Hu Zhen also agreed: "Yes, we will set up a joint-stock company, and this three million pounds is the first investment fund, and in the future, Mr. Lao Chen will raise funds among the vast number of Chinese people all over the world and work together to build railways on the land of our Chinese people!" ”

"When will the start-up capital be available for us to get to work?" Zhan Tianyou was concerned about when he could start building the railway.

"Later, I will inform Fan Qianhai of the Ministry of Finance to inject 3 million pounds into the newly established Nanyang Railway Company, and tomorrow the two gentlemen will be able to put into the preparatory work and start building the railway as soon as possible!"

"Ah, so fast! Good! Tomorrow we will begin the recruitment process and prepare for the establishment of the railway company. Chen Yixi and Zhan Tianyou originally thought that it would take ten days and a half months to come up with a plan, but they didn't expect Hu Zhen's efficiency to be so high, and he did what he said, and invested money without wasting any time.

Hu Zhen had a very happy conversation with Chen Yixi and Zhan Tianyou, and immediately notified Fan Qianhai, Liu Dingzhuang, and Wang Kaitian, who was in charge of iron and steel machinery products, to come to meet and ask them to vigorously cooperate with the two railway engineers to build the railway.

After talking about the construction of the railway, it was already noon, Hu Zhen's stomach rumbled, and he was about to take everyone to his house to have dinner with the two brides, but he saw Chen Zichao sweating profusely and hurriedly walked in from outside, and asked urgently: "Is there something wrong?" ”

"A bad thing happened in China...... Chen Zichao saw Chen Yixi and Zhan Tianyou, two people with braids, present, and it was inconvenient to say.

Hu Zhen said: "Since it is what happened in Huaxia, these two are their own people, but it doesn't matter if you say it!" ”

"The Yellow River burst its banks, seized the Huai River into the sea, and the flood spread for thousands of miles, flooding a large area of land in the Central Plains, and millions of victims!" (To be continued.) )