"Your Majesty, we really can't afford to build such a railway, I really don't know how to raise such a large sum of money to build a railway in which countries in the West......"

Zuo Zongtang said with a sad face. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

I can't help but be depressed, 20,000 taels of silver, this is still a conservative number, this number is definitely an unattainable number! It's not something that the current Chinese Empire can afford!

Whether it is Zuo Zongtang, even Li Hongzhang, who is known for his long-sleeved dancing and financial management, this is also an almost impossible character, and it is definitely difficult to go to the sky!

"Twenty thousand taels of silver, is it really a lot?"

Guo Ye asked lightly.

"Your Majesty, do you still think that number is small?"

Rong Hong looked at Guo Ye with a smile and asked.

"Of course, for our annual financial income of 80 million taels, it is indeed too much! But, did I say, are we going to build these railways ourselves? Building a railway is a sure-fire business, transporting goods, you can collect money, and transporting guests can also collect money, just think you don't need to pay for the coachman's sedan chair in the capital? Think about it, once invested, build the railway, in the future, we basically, there is no big investment, at least ten years, even twenty years, are relying on him to make money, what a good deal, presumably there are people who want to do, our country only ensures that the railway trunk line is in its own hands, as for the branch lines of the provinces, it can be built by the provinces or private funds, and even, we can use Western money to build the railway, Chunfu, you only know, the Americans have money, the Americans built the railway, Do you know that in order to build the railway, the Americans borrowed from the British not less than tens of millions of pounds, which was converted into hundreds of millions of taels of silver. ”

Rong Hong smiled bitterly: "Your Majesty, the Americans have a close relationship with the British, so naturally they can get loans, and the industrial strength of the Americans is not much better than that of the British, and they can recover their costs in a short time, but it is difficult for us to do this......

"Chunfu, you are wrong, the world is bustling for profit, the world is bustling, all for profit; As long as there is money to be made, how do you know that people will not lend us money? Even, as soon as we open our mouths, those foreigners will come over with money, and they won't even need us to repair it, they will repair the railway for us, hehe......"

Guo Ye laughed evilly, he suddenly remembered a bad move, and was ready to pit the powers, but the time was not yet ripe, so naturally he couldn't do it in a hurry......

"It's just that, Your Majesty, even so, the investment of 20,000 taels of silver is not something we can afford casually, the financial pressure is huge, and so many projects are started at the same time, and we don't have enough raw material supply, which will definitely cause prices to skyrocket......"

Rong Hong was still persuading, and Guo Songtao on the side also looked at Guo Ye with some worry.

"There must be a road before the car reaches the mountain, and the water is naturally straight to the bridge!"

Guo Ye said in a deep voice, "Since we are short of funds, let's find a way to open up sources and reduce expenditures, open source, naturally to ensure the abundance of funds, throttling, it's very simple, find a way, just spend less money and do more......"

"Your Majesty, this is a huge project, much more than the construction of the Great Wall, and even surpassing! The labor cost and the steel and wood required alone are an astronomical ......"

Guo Songtao had to speak.

"That's why I said, we have to speed up the construction of the iron factory, otherwise, what do you think we are doing with so much steel?"

Guo Ye replied, "There are also labor costs, this is true, not to mention anything else, just a thousand kilometers of railway, is enough for tens of thousands of people to work for two or three years, an average of six taels of silver a year, 50,000 people, five years, that is millions of taels of silver, however, it is not without a solution......

"How to fix it?"

Guo Songtao's eyes lit up, if this problem can really be solved, then everything will naturally be fine.

"Go and rob someone! Don't you think it's a good idea to grab tens of thousands of strong laborers and give us free work? ”

Robbing people?

Everyone was dumbfounded, such an idea could also be said by a dignified emperor? It's shameless, isn't it......

"Ladies and gentlemen, this war originated from Little Japan at all, and my evil breath has not yet come out!"

Suddenly, Guo Ye's face turned straight and replied, "The ancients said well, those who commit strong men will be punished even if they are far away!" If little Japan dares to join forces with Westerners to invade us, is it enough to pay a price of two or three hundred thousand pounds? Far from enough! Xiaohai, do you say enough? ”

Chen Hai stood up and said coldly: "Of course it's not enough!" Whoever dares to hit us, then we will fight back with all our might, and they are all over the ground looking for teeth! ”

"Isn't that the end of it? Send an order to Ding Ruchang, allocate two ironclad cruisers, four gunboats, and then bring two divisions of troops to give me all the troops in the East, I don't ask you for anything else, the only request is to bring back at least 50,000 young and strong laborers from the small Japanese island, well, 50,000 laborers, still a little insufficient, 100,000 laborers! Anyway, although the small Japan region is small, the population is there, and the population there is not much less than that of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces......"

This......

Pan Zuyin, the chief of agriculture and forestry on the side, frowned and said, "Your Majesty, how is this behavior different from a robber?" We are the great China, the kingdom of the Celestial Empire, how can we be an example for all nations? I'm afraid that it will cause the wrath of the heavens and the resentment of the ......"

"The fart is angry!"

Guo Ye said disdainfully: "Shaotang Gong, you have read too many moral articles, the British robbed us three times, and the heavens were angry and complained?" France robbed us twice, why are people angry? The Spaniards occupied the Philippines for hundreds of years, and plundered no less than 10 million taels of silver from the Philippines every year. ”

This one......

Pan Zuyin is really out of touch with the fallacies and heresies given by Guo Ye, and he wants to refute them, but he doesn't know where to start, talking about morality? Over the years, the Western powers, which one has taught you about morality? Hundreds of years ago, when did the Japanese invade the southeast? Never! It's just that when these words came out of Guo Ye's mouth, it was always not a taste, the emperor, the king of the world, upright, righteous and bright, tyrannical and cruel, how to make the emperor's conduct?

"Shaotang Gong, in fact, the monarch mainly has morality, but the monarch's morality is reserved for his own people, benevolence and love for the people, this is morality; But there will be mercy to the Gentiles, that is, pedantic, even feeding the tiger with his body......" (To be continued. )