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Boom!

The young man's words rang in everyone's ears like thunder, and everyone looked at each other in astonishment, as businessmen, they didn't know the truth of the young man's words. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

Yes, as he said, even if the whole country does not need a railway, Guangzhou needs this railway, and with this railway Guangzhou can live!

After the Treaty of Nanking was negotiated, the commercial situation in Guangzhou deteriorated, because the "Five Ports of Commerce" stipulated in the treaty negotiated by the British fundamentally hit Guangzhou hard. There is a basic principle in the foreign trade market: the closer the port is to the place of origin, the lower the transportation cost and the fresher the product. At that time, foreign merchants came to China mainly to buy black tea and silk, and if they wanted to buy black tea, they would find that the nearest port to Wuyi Mountain, the main producing area of black tea, was Fuzhou, not Guangzhou, so now Fuzhou's tea sales are gradually surpassing Guangzhou; If they want to buy silk, they will find that the closest port to Huzhou, the main production area of silk, is Shanghai, not Guangzhou, so as early as seven or eight years ago, Shanghai's silk sales exceeded Guangzhou. If there were other businesses, especially illegal opium smuggling, then British-ruled Hong Kong was undoubtedly more convenient than Canton. Therefore, since eight years, Guangzhou has relinquished the crown of China's largest port and even the world's largest port that has been maintained for more than 100 years, and has no choice but to gradually become an ordinary provincial capital.

As a business family with decades of business experience to hundreds of years, the business sense of the thirteen merchants is very comparable. At the beginning, they did their best to prevent the outbreak of war at any cost, on the one hand, because they knew better that the strength of the foreigners was far superior to that of the imperial court, and on the other hand, it was not to maintain the status of Guangzhou, and when the war broke out, they saw very clearly: no matter what the course and outcome of the war were, Guangzhou's business environment would deteriorate, and Guangzhou's economic status would inevitably sink. It is even because of this that they will take advantage of the dissolution of the merchant to switch to other businesses.

But now, this railway has given them new hope -- with this railway, Guangzhou will be able to restore its position as it was yesterday, and then goods from Hunan, Hubei, Sichuan, Guizhou and other places can be transported to Guangzhou by rail! And foreign ships from all over the world will gather in Guangzhou again.

Isn't that what they've always dreamed of?

Surprised by the young man's insight, Wu Chongyao left his seat and walked over to him and sat down in front of him.

"This little brother, unconsulted, who are you?"

"Uncle Wu Shi, little nephew Pan Zhaolin, I've seen Uncle Shi!"

The young man didn't dare to stand up at all, and said to Wu Chongyao's respectful salute.

"You're from the official family?"

The "official" in Wu Chongyao's mouth refers to the Pan family of Tongfu Bank, and the Pan family was the head of the line back then, but long before the war, he withdrew from the ranks of merchants by bribing the government. Despite this, the Pan family can still be called the richest man in Guangdong, and its family property is more than 10 million. However, unlike himself, a general businessman, who has fallen into the name of a traitor, Pan Zhengwei of the Pan family is extremely good at being a person, and he was praised for "destroying his family and relieving difficulties" in the last conflict.

"Exactly, my father dyed ginger because of his net worth, so he specially ordered his little nephew to come to watch the ceremony.

"Lie?"

Looking at the young man in front of him, Wu Chongyao shook his head.

"If this is a lie, then the words of the world are probably all lies, virtuous nephew, as you said, this railway is my living road in Guangzhou, if you can really build a railway, leading to the inland, then my Guangdong can no longer be prosperous yesterday!"

Sighing, Wu Chongyao looked out of the carriage and looked at the fields outside the carriage,

The thought that came to his heart since the banquet that day kept churning in Wu Chongyao's heart, his eyes were even more staring at the front carriage, and after a while, he looked at Pan Zhaolin and said.

"The virtuous nephew can see the convenience of this railway and Guangzhou, I wonder if the virtuous nephew is interested in this railway?"

Wu Chongyao's question made Pan Zhaolin stunned at first, and then asked in surprise.

"Uncle Shi, do you intend to build this railway?"

When this question was raised, Pan Zhaolin's heart was beating rapidly, since the Pan family withdrew from the business bank by heavy bribery, although he has made some profits in the past ten years, but in fact, he has also made a lot of money, in order to maintain dignity, he spends a lot every year, hundreds of thousands of taels of expenses every year, although it seems not much, but sooner or later the Pan family will be dragged down.

If you can participate in this railway, won't the Pan family have another profit? In addition, Pan Zhaolin is different from his father, because the Pan family's Haishan Immortal Pavilion has always been a place for officials to informally meet foreigners, so he also has a lot of contact with foreigners, so that he has a certain understanding of the West, and naturally knows that this railway has always been very profitable in the West, and it is contrary to the ancestral precept of "not doing business" to deal with foreigners again, but this railway is different. If the Pan family can build this railway, the annual local and foreign freight sales will be made by the railway, and the profit will be more than millions?

At this time, the most interesting thing in the carriage is to see the villagers in the field...... All of them stopped and stared at the railway. There may be an old woman holding a cane and opening her mouth to prolong her eyes, or a young man standing obsessed with a hoe, or a weak woman looking at it and laughing, and as for the child or the elder who is afraid and depends on the elder, there are only a few places or the cow is frightened and seems to be fleeing. However, there is no one who does not have a happy face.

Holding the teacup in his left hand, and using the lid of the cup with his right hand to float the tea leaves on the tea surface, Li Ziyuan didn't speak, he just looked at the visitors in front of him, the sudden visit of these two guests was beyond his expectations, and it was also in his expectations, he didn't expect that their reactions would be so fast.

"When the railway built by the adults today is the prosperity of Guangzhou that has not been seen in a hundred years, I will feel the kindness of the adults when I mention the Guangzhou railway in a hundred years!"

Sitting respectfully in front of the governor, Wu Chongyao's every word was repeatedly considered before he spoke, although he knew that the government could not come up with the money to build a railway from Guangzhou to Wuchang, but the government, to be precise, the governor's office wanted to build this railway, so as to connect the north and south with the railway.

The government wanted to build this road, and he Wu Chongyao also wanted to build it, and in his opinion, this railway was the foundation for revitalizing Guangzhou. But if he is too eager, he fears that he will pay more. Years of experience dealing with the government had taught him that this matter had to be handled carefully.

"This railway construction is not the credit of my Li Ziyuan! When this official was in Wuchang, he was instructed by the Han Governor! ”

As he spoke, Li Ziyuan clenched his fists with both hands and pointed slightly to the north, and his tone was extremely respectful.

"If you want to strengthen the country in this world, you must first build a railway!"

Although I don't know why the railway is so important to a country, Li Ziyuan's biggest advantage is his "blind obedience" to the Han Governor, which is actually the characteristic of most officials.

"Han Du once said that such an era will eventually come,"

After a pause, Li Ziyuan said with longing.

"People would sit in wagons pulled by steam engines and travel back and forth between cities...... On one of these trains, departing from Wuchang in the morning, passengers can have breakfast in Yuezhou, lunch in Changsha, dinner in Guangdong that evening, and Cantonese breakfast in Guangzhou the next morning...... Although it is not possible to start from day to night, it is by no means a dream to travel thousands of miles in a day. Now we are building a Guangdong-Hanzhou railway, and in the future we will build a Luhan railway, and one day all the cities in China will be connected by railways! ”

Looking at Wu Chongyao in front of him, Li Ziyuan changed his words.

"At that time, who will think that the railway is new, but I believe that it will not be ordinary passengers who will be really convenient at that time, but businessmen, because just like a cargo ship on land, it can transport goods thousands of miles away, and the freight is extremely low!"

This is exactly what Wu Chongyao sees in terms of potential!

As a businessman, from the first time he saw a model train on a merchant ship with a foreigner more than ten years ago, he believed that trains could change transportation on the road, and that people and horses would eventually be replaced by trains.

When Wu Chongyao was thinking about how to persuade the governor to hand over the railway in Guangdong to him, Pan Zhaolin was looking forward to the future described by the governor, the future of traveling thousands of miles a day.

"My lord, the road from Guangzhou to Wuchang is not less than 2,000 miles, if the railway needs more than 10 million taels of silver, although the governor is now saying that it is issuing bonds, there are many places in the house to use silver, and it is difficult to raise silver taels!"

Ignoring Wu Chongyao's hinting eyes, Pan Zhaolin met the gaze of the governor and said directly,

"If it is handed over to a business in the railway, it will not cost a penny or a penny in the house, and the government can enjoy the convenience of the railway."

Young, still young after all,

Pan Zhaolin's words made Wu Chongyao sigh in his heart, he is still too young, what hole cards does he have to play when he says this? Years of experience dealing with the government told Mr. Wu that Mr. Pan's words had all but destroyed his hopes of hosting the railway, and that he could no longer reap the benefits.

"Leave it to the business?"

Looking at this young man with wide eyes, Li Ziyuan asked in surprise.

"Do you know how much this less than 13-mile railway costed? A mile of railway is no less than 11,000 taels! Do you know how much the 2000-mile railway will cost? ”

The reason why Li Ziyuan built this railway was not to hand over the railway to the merchants, but to open a breakthrough from these rich people in Guangzhou, so that they could realize the convenience of the railway, and then take the initiative to buy the bonds issued by the government, but now Pan Zhaolin's words made him feel that he had done something wrong, but he preferred to regard this as the arrogance of young people, and there was no silver in the railway house, let alone just such businessmen.

"My lord, as long as it is something that can be done with money, it is not a matter! Don't say it's 2,000 miles, it's 3,000 miles cheap, and how can you not repair it? (To be continued.) )