For an old man who has struggled all his life just to save this irresolvable country, Hu Xiaoyan still has respect. He could have retired like Zeng Guofan, and he could have been the emperor behind the scenes like Cao Cao. But he didn't. He exhausted his last bit of hard work for the country, but he could only sign the last traitorous agreement in his life, and he was unwilling to let go with grief and indignation.

Although Li Hongzhang in this time and space is not dead, Hu Xiaoyan knows that Li Hongzhang will not live long. Xia Yan privately told Hu Xiaoyan that after a collective consultation with Chinese medicine experts, it was concluded that Li Hongzhang would not live for more than a year.

Li Hongzhang's spirit has actually been exhausted, and he is supported by a strong will.

Until today, until now, Hu Xiaoyan understands why Li Hongzhang likes to live in the hospital and why he is still alive.

Because I am not reconciled!

Li Hongzhang has struggled all his life, but he can't even see any hope. No one could understand it, so he could only sit silently behind the glass window and quietly watch the scene in the embassy area. You can only gnash your teeth silently in the dark.

Li Hongzhang is actually a lonely person. Even his own son could not understand him. It was as if the whole world was silently laughing at him. First, the entire army of the Beiyang Navy was annihilated, and later the entire army of Nie Shicheng's Huai Army was annihilated. and then the annihilation of the whole army at the negotiating table, Li Hongzhang, who was in the original historical time and space, died unwillingly under such a triple blow.

In this time and space, Li Hongzhang's situation has not changed at all. The Beiyang Navy and the Huai Army were also wiped out. He doesn't have to come out of the bargaining table. Because Hu Xiaoyan had already arranged it in private, he walked up to the table like a puppet, picked up the treaty prepared by the other party, and signed his name.

Although this treaty was arranged by Hu Xiaoyan early on, it was a failed negotiation for Li Hongzhang himself. Li Hongzhang did not vomit blood and die on the spot after signing the contract, which can be regarded as a strong-willed person.

"Beiyang! Beiyang! Li Hongzhang spit out two words from his mouth.

Hu Xiaoyan silently turned his head to look out the window. Outside the window, the sunlight faded away, leaving endless darkness.

The 100,000-kilometer railway plan was not discussed at all in the court, because the Manchu Dynasty was civil and military, and except for Li Hongzhang, who was a courtier who did things, the others were all crazy. However, Li Hongzhang basically stayed in the hospital and his study, and Emperor Xuanwu was also very considerate to exempt him from the suffering of going to the court.

In addition to Zaifeng and Hu Xiaoyan in the upper study, there are also Li Hongzhang and Yixuan.

"Tie Liang was transferred to the governor of Sichuan, ****** what is your opinion?" Zaifeng is holding the plan and reading it intently.

The other three sat on the sidelines.

Yi Liang arched his hand: "The minister has no opinion." ”

"That's right." Zaifeng continued to watch.

"Fu Wei became the commander of the tomb to replace Tie Liang, do Li Zhongtang and Governor Hu have any opinions?"

"The ministers have no objections." Li Hongzhang and Hu Xiaoyan replied with low eyebrows.

"Li Jingfang was transferred to the head of the General Administration of Railways?" Zaifeng frowned when he saw this.

"It's better to let Lu Chuanlin be the chief manager, Li Jingfang and Zaixun will also be transferred over as deputy managers, and Zaixun will lead the guards of the railway construction." Yixuan hurriedly said. He had also seen the railway plan. So I have a book in mind.

"Lu Chuanlin can't leave Liangguang, and it's too condescending to be a manager. Li Jingfang's general manager is approved, and Zaixun's deputy general manager is also approved. Zaifeng continued to watch. Lu Chuanlin succeeded Li Hongzhang as the governor of Liangguang at this time, and at this time escorted this year's taxes into Beijing in advance to help the imperial court's financial needs. Liangguang can't do without him for the time being.

"Zhan Tianyou's chief engineer for railway construction is also approved, along with several designers and foreign technicians."

。。。。。。。。。

In the back, there are technical problems, which were written by Zhan Tianyou after he started running around at the beginning of the year and came back. At present, the main body of the plan is still in the south and northeast. Because the Southern Railway is the most numerous and complete. Communication is also the fastest and most convenient. As for the Northeast, since the Russians have been building railways for a long time, as long as the Japanese can knock down the Northeast, and then build a connecting channel between the Northeast and the interior. The only problem is probably the incompatibility between the long track of the Northeast Railway and the short track of the South. However, the problem of passenger transport is not big. Once you arrive at the station, set up a transit point in the city where you connect. The difficulty is freight, and trains on two different specifications of rails cannot pass, so only a crane can be set up at the connecting point to pick up the container and transfer it to the corresponding train.

The container was also specially designed by Hu Xiaoyan to solve the problem of long-distance railroad tracks in the northeast and short-distance rails in the mainland. When freight, the container size is designed with the short-gauge train as the standard, and the crane can be directly put on the long-gauge train when the crane is hoisted.

In the west and north, because the railways have not been built in many places, there will be more problems at that time, but Tie Liang, the new governor of Sichuan, has finally been given a little buffer time. Otherwise, as soon as Tie Liang takes office, he will have to deal with the Tibet issue, as well as many other issues such as internal railway land requisition. That's too difficult to be Tie Liang, even if Zhuge Wuhou is alive, I'm afraid he can't do it.

Therefore, the first phase of the project only considers the south and looks at the progress of the Japanese army in the northeast, and then the second phase should be placed in the northeast, and the third phase will consider Sichuan. According to the plan, it is possible that the construction time of the Sichuan Railway overlapped with the construction time of the historical Sichuan-Han Railway. However, the governor of Sichuan is already Tieliang, not Xiliang in history. The fourth phase will be placed in Shanxi and Mongolia. This is tantamount to giving Tie Liang extra time to resolve the Tibet issue. By the end of the fourth phase, about seven or eight years or even ten years have passed. If Tie Liang still can't solve the Tibet issue for such a long time, it is better to replace him as soon as possible.

As long as Tie Liang solves the Tibet issue within time. At that time, the Tibet Railway will also follow.

The overall plan is huge, estimated to be 10 years, but Zhan Tianyou privately complained to Hu Xiaoyan that it would take at least 20 to 30 years to complete. The main issues are money and local ethnic issues.

For example, the Tibet issue is not so easy to solve, and in history, the Zhao brothers were able to solve it, but it was killed with knives and guns.

Another example is the Mongolian issue, the Mongolian princes may not agree to the railway, because they have the backing of Russia behind them.

And so on and so forth, which is not so easy to solve. If one is not good, the railway will not be repaired, and it will cost money to fight.

This is also why Hu Xiaoyan first solved the problems of the south and the northeast. The south is now the most prosperous territory of the Qing Dynasty. If the transportation here is good, it will be much more financially rich. And the Northeast is also motivated by this consideration. If we want to completely solve the problem of the Northeast and the Japanese army in the Northeast, the railway cannot bypass it.

The whole overall plan is really calculated, and Hu Xiaoyan is not sure how many years it will take, anyway, ten years is definitely not enough. A billion taels of silver is certainly not enough. But things have to be done that way.

The First World War was actually already in place since 1910. The age of dreadnoughts in 1905 arrived, and overnight the former dreadnoughts (the three major ones were of this kind) became completely obsolete. The military strength of the navies of various countries was leveled, which also shook Britain's position as the world's number one naval power, and Germany was already preparing for war at that time. It's just that the dreadnought was still being built, so the First World War was postponed to 1914. And once the First World War started, the Manchu Qing Dynasty borrowed a billion taels or more of silver would not necessarily need to be returned so much. Because the borrowing is in marks and pounds. And after the end of the First World War, Mark fell to the bottom, and when the time came, Mark, which was originally worth 100 million taels of silver, only needed to return a few million taels of silver. The same is true for the pound and the franc, which is the key to Hu Xiaoyan's vigorous promotion of the 100,000-kilometer railway plan. Use other people's money to do your own industry, and you don't need to pay back the full amount. Is there anything better in the world than this?

After World War I, there will be World War II, as long as Hu Xiaoyan controls it properly, it will be enough to borrow two or three billion taels of silver but only need to repay two or thirty million taels of silver. This is cheap and not occupied, and it is really sick.

And only when the First World War has not yet started and the finances of various countries are still very rich can they raise such funds. If it was 1910, Hu Xiaoyan would not have the money to build the railway. In order to win the First World War, countries around the world will not lend him money to build roads.

The first batch of one billion taels of silver totals just over 100 million pounds, and Britain can get it alone, so in order to fill the appetite of other countries, Hu Xiaoyan will definitely not borrow only 100 million pounds, how about 100 million dollars from the United States? How about a German mark of 100 million? How about a 100 million franc in France?

It's all possible, but the premise is that these people feel that there is money to be made by investing in China Railway! After all, such a big investment is too big! Railways will definitely make money, but if it takes seventy or eighty years to double the profits, I'm afraid the European countries will not be willing either. For such a long time, they would have been able to earn so much a long time ago, so there must be enough profit to tempt the capitalists of various countries.

Hu Xiaoyan had his own ideas in his heart.

PS: The advent of the dreadnought era made the former dreadnoughts completely outdated, and the main guns of the dreadnoughts were generally 15-inch or even 16-inch guns, while the guns of the former dreadnoughts were only 12 inches. At the same time, not to mention advances in armor. Normally, a dreadnought can sink three former dreadnoughts without damage.