"If you want to get rich, you must first build roads!"

This sentence has spread far and wide in various parts of China in later generations, and has had a profound impact on China's economic development, which is rare in the world.

After the rebirth, Li Weiguo, under the rule of Jiangnan and Zhejiang provinces, the implementation of comprehensive reform and opening up, rapid economic development, as of the seventh year of Xianfeng, the economic aggregate of Jiangnan Province has tripled compared with the first year of Xianfeng, and the total economic volume of Zhejiang Province has also doubled, becoming the two richest provinces of the Qing Empire.

Since the fourth year of Xianfeng, after the battle between the Shanghai army and the Taiping army, although there have been some small-scale military conflicts between the two sides every year, they have been peaceful on the whole, and no large-scale battles have broken out, so that the people under the jurisdiction of Jiangnan Province and Zhejiang Province have recuperated proudly.

During the fourth year of Xianfeng and the seventh year of Xianfeng, most of Li Weiguo's energy was focused on economic construction, and the first thing was to build roads.

The road construction includes railways, waterways, and roads.

In the case of railways, it is mainly due to military factors and strategic considerations. There were two railways, one was the Shanghai-Hangzhou railway, and the other was Shanghai-Dantu (now Zhenjiang). The former was Li Weiguo's order to strengthen his control over Zhejiang, and after the railway was completed, the Shanghai army could reach Hangzhou from Shanghai within 4 hours. The latter strengthened its control over Jiangnan Province and was also the most direct support for the Jiangdong battalion, and it took only five hours for the Shanghai army to send troops from Shanghai to Dantu, at least a week for the infantry to march, and even longer for the heavy artillery.

The 180-kilometer-long Shanghai-Hangzhou railway, designed by the British designer Raul and built by the British Manchester Railway Company, is 17 kilometers longer than the later railways due to the difficulty of building some sections. The construction period began in February of the fifth year of Xianfeng and was completed in February of the seventh year of Xianfeng.

The reason why the British were responsible for the design and construction was because Li Weiguo did not have the talent for railways in his hands, and although Li Weiguo had sent tens of thousands of students to Britain, it was still ineffective in a short period of time. Because of the tense war, the early construction of the railway was very important for the various strategic actions of the Shanghai army, so Li Weiguo could only let the British, who were the most technologically mature in this area, design it and have it built by a British company.

However, Li Weiguo never let his lifeblood foreigners keep him hostage, and he spent 1.3 million pounds to import a full set of locomotives, carriages, and rails from Britain. Half of the facilities were built directly by the British and shipped to Shanghai, while the British provided a full range of technology and produced locally in Shanghai. The British were responsible for the maintenance of the railway in the early stage, and at the same time trained Li Weiguo's people, and Li Weiguo's people would maintain it in the later stage.

At first, the British Manchester Railway Company did not agree, because they did not want Li Weiguo to master the full set of production and laying technology of the railway, and they felt that China was a vast territory. In the future, the huge railway market will be lucrative, and he is naturally reluctant to let Li Weiguo share it.

But unfortunately, Manchester's calculation was wrong, and Li Weiguo quickly let them know that they were not the only railway company. Due to the large-scale construction of railways in Britain at this time, according to the British government's plan, Britain will achieve a domestic railway network around 1880, with a total length of 30,000 kilometers. A large number of British businessmen were engaged in the railway industry, and the competition was extremely fierce.

When the president of Manchester learned that Li Weiguo knew everything about the railway industry in the UK. He had to compromise with Li Weiguo, after all, the huge profit of 1.3 million pounds was very considerable, which could not be obtained in Britain, and finally agreed to transfer technology and equipment to Li Weiguo, and even helped train designers, maintenance workers and skilled workers in the railway industry.

In this way, Li Weiguo will no longer have to be held hostage by foreign railway companies in the future. So he continued to work with the Manchester company, and handed over the railway project from Shanghai to Dantu to them.

The Shanghai-Dantu railway, with a total length of 261 kilometers, is also more than 20 kilometers longer than the railway of later generations because of the difficulty of the project. It was also built from the fifth year of Xianfeng. It is divided into three phases of the project, the first phase of the project will be opened from Shanghai to Suzhou at the end of Xianfeng six years, the second phase of the project will be opened from the end of Xianfeng six years to the end of Xianfeng seven years, Suzhou to Changzhou, and the second half of Xianfeng eight years from Shanghai to Dantu will be opened.

In addition to the two main railway lines of Hangzhou and Dantu, Li Weiguo also built several branch lines.

Considering the problem of support for the Wusongkou Fortress, in the sixth year of Xianfeng, it was temporarily decided to increase the railway from Shanghai to the Wusongkou Fortress, which happened to pass through the Jiangwan Industrial Zone along the way, although the Jiangwan Industrial Zone is close to the Huangpu River and the water transportation is convenient, but this railway can help the Jiangwan Industrial Zone to transport goods and divert goods in peacetime, reduce the pressure on the Yangtze River shipping, and make every effort to transport military supplies in wartime, killing two birds with one stone.

Shanghai is very close to the Wusongkou fortress, which was also designed and built by the British, so it was completed in less than a year.

The Wusongkou Fortress was the northwest gate of Shanghai, defending against the enemy's entry into the Huangpu River by sea and threatening Shanghai's security.

Similarly, Shanghai is surrounded by the sea on three sides and borders Hangzhou Bay to the southwest, which would threaten Shanghai's security if the enemy came from the sea.

In the Battle of Songhu in history, the key to the defeat of the Nationalist army was that the Japanese army landed at Jinshan in Hangzhou Bay and threatened the rear flank of Shanghai. In fact, at that time, the national army deployed heavy troops in Jinshan, but no fortress was built, and the army was inexplicably transferred, which gave the Japanese army the possibility of a successful landing.

Now that Li Weiguo has set up his nest in Shanghai, he will naturally be extremely careful, if the great powers want to attack Shanghai one day, they will also land from Jinshan in Hangzhou Bay.

Therefore, Li Weiguo built the Jinshan Fortress in Jinshanwei, and after completing the construction and deployment of the Wusongkou Fortress, he concentrated funds and manpower on the construction of the Jinshanwei Fortress.

Jin Shanwei, as the name suggests. As early as the nineteenth year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty, a city was built in Xiaoguan Town (also known as Xiaoguan Town) in Huating County to defend against the invasion of Japanese pirates at sea. Because it is opposite to the large and small gold mountains in the adjacent sea, it is called Jinshanwei. The city is square in shape, with a circumference of 6 kilometers, and is a fortress of coastal defense. At that time, there were heavy troops stationed as a barrier to defend Nanjing, and Jinshanwei developed into the largest town in the nearby area. The castle was originally an earthen city, in the 14th to 16th years of Yongle in the Ming Dynasty (1416~1418), because Shanghai was repeatedly harassed by the Japanese invaders, in order to defend Shanghai, 5 feet higher with bricks, a total height of 3 zhang 3 feet. At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, due to the realization of the sea ban. After the Jinshan County Administration was moved to Zhujing Town, Jinshanwei was deserted.

After Li Weiguo put forward the plan to defend Shanghai, Wu Yong and Chen Jingnan were aware of the threat at sea and realized that Jinshanwei was very important to Shanghai's security, so they accompanied Li Weiguo to Jinshanwei many times to inspect and after detailed research. On the basis of the original city defense again, build Jinshanwei fortress, all use reinforced concrete to heighten and thicken the city defense, build forts and pillboxes, to Xianfeng seven years in January, Jinshanwei fortress construction is completed, a total of 128 artillery pieces of all kinds, 5,000 Shanghai troops are stationed here all the year round.

At the same time, a railway was built from Shanghai to Jinshanwei. It is convenient for the Shanghai army to reinforce Jinshanwei at any time.

In terms of waterways, Li Weiguo mainly imported more than 20 dredgers from Britain, dug wide and deep the canal, Wusong River (known to foreigners as Suzhou Creek), and Huangpu River, removed silt, built cement dams on both sides of the river, and added shipping wharves to facilitate the entry and exit of large warships and transport ships, so as to lay a good channel in advance for the coming era of ironclad warships.

Of course. Li Weiguo's excuse for repairing the river was barbaric, because the two governors of the river appointed by the imperial court had accidents. One death and one disappearance, all of which were done by Li Weiguo, because Li Weiguo wanted to control the passage of the imperial court, and he wanted to intercept the grain from Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, and Zhejiang. The next year, it was said that the canal was in disrepair and the silt was impassable, but in the past few years, all the grain and wages from Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, and Zhejiang were secretly intercepted by Li Weiguo, and the imperial court did not receive a penny. Xianfeng was furious. Li Weiguo was ordered to repair the canal and garrison troops in the canal to protect the canal.

Of course, Li Weiguo had to agree, and as for when he would repair the canal, it depended on his mood.

Li Weiguo came before the army, so in addition to railways and transportation, highways are mainly for the people's livelihood and promote commercial transportation. Focusing on cement roads, the first phase of the project is concentrated in Susong Taisanfu, with Shanghai as the center, and the cement roads connect Suzhou, Taicang and Songjiang, as well as some important towns, including the military fortress of Wusong. Among them, the key highways are the Shanghai-Suzhou Highway, the Shanghai-Taicang-Wusong Highway, and the Shanghai-Songjiang Highway.

The project is planned to be completed in three years, in fact, it has been fully completed in the third quarter of the sixth year of Xianfeng, thanks to the third major expansion of the cement factory in Jiangwan Town, with sufficient cement, coupled with the continuous influx of a large number of refugees into Li Weiguo's territory due to the war, it just provides a large number of cheap labor for road construction, and helps Li Weiguo solve the livelihood problem of these refugees, so that there are few refugees in Li Weiguo's territory to riot, and ensure social stability under Li Weiguo's rule.

After three expansions, the cement plant from Jiangwan Industrial Zone has added 300 clinker kilns, with an annual output of 400,000 tons, including 50,000 tons of ordinary civilian grade cement and 350,000 tons of military high-grade cement.

The amount of civil cement is so small, this is because the cost of cement is still very high, ordinary people generally use wood to build houses, only wealthy families can afford to use cement to build houses, and the annual production of civil cement is basically purchased by residents of Shanghai County and surrounding towns, because this is a decree imposed by Li Weiguo.

It turned out that Li Weiguo considered that Shanghai was his old nest, and the surrounding area was flat and flat, and there was almost no danger to defend, although the Wusongkou fortress was built, and the county seat of Shanghai was also expanded twice, and a new outer city wall was built, and the defense capability was greatly improved, but Li Weiguo still felt that it was not enough, so he ordered that the new residences in the entire Shanghai county should no longer use wood and earthen houses, and all of them should be replaced with reinforced concrete buildings.

Due to the small size of the old town of Shanghai County, a large number of wealthy families and refugees have moved in, resulting in urban congestion. When the construction of the new county town (outer city) of Shanghai approved by Li Weiguo began, the old city became an inner city, and only the families of government agencies and officials were allowed to live, and all civilians moved to live in the new city.

However, after the expansion of the county seat of Shanghai, although the place has increased by dozens of square kilometers, Li Weiguo thought that the population of Shanghai would increase by millions in the future, so in consideration of the land problem, it was decided that there would be no more bungalows in the new urban area, all of them were planned buildings, three- to five-story buildings, and the wealthy could buy three-story buildings as villas alone, and civilians lived in the buildings, with shops on the first floor and residences on the upper floors. Strictly guard against the infiltration of hostile forces and spies.

At the beginning, the common people were naturally complaining, but Li Weiguo was strong, with a big stick in one hand and sweet dates in the other, and the army forcibly moved the residents of the old city into the new city, and at the same time gave housing subsidies, and the residents with shops directly gave the shops, and all of them were good locations in the commercial street, which stabilized them. As for the refugees from outside, they were supposed to sleep on the street, but Li Weiguo was merciful and gave them buildings to live in according to their household registration, but at the cost of working for Li Weiguo and using labor money to repay the housing loan.

The entire outer city of Shanghai is full of reinforced concrete buildings, and no bungalows are allowed (this rule was somewhat loosened later, and the power of the wealthy who want to live in bungalows is still very large), making the whole outer city look more like a modern metropolis.

Li Weiguo did this, mainly from the perspective of Shanghai's military defense, a city composed entirely of reinforced concrete buildings, after the arrival of the war, can become a fortress, the historical Battle of Stalingrad is a typical example, if the buildings of Stalingrad are all Oriental-style wooden buildings, it will be burned to ashes by the German army in three days.

Of course, Li Weiguo is reluctant to fight with the enemy in the streets of Shanghai unless it is absolutely necessary, after all, this is his lair and his hard work. However, Li Weiguo must be guarded, because Britain, France, the United States, Russia and other powers are eyeing China, especially when the second Opium War is coming, it is not certain that the British and French coalition forces will come to touch Li Weiguo's buttocks, after all, Shanghai under Li Weiguo has begun to have the scale of an industrialized city, and looking at the entire Qing Empire, it is the place where the British and French coalition forces want to destroy the most.

Once the Anglo-French forces attack Shanghai, it will be a great battle, because Li Weiguo will not retreat, but his current strength and family background are far inferior to Britain and France, the world's two industrial powers and military powers.

Li Weiguo did not fight unprepared battles, so he had to be ruthless and build Shanghai into a reinforced concrete fortress.

On this day, just as Li Weiguo was inspecting the new city of Shanghai, the imperial court suddenly had a decree.

After Li Weiguo listened to the will, he was in a daze and said to himself: "Ya, Xianfeng let Lao Tzu enter Beijing, what does he want to do?" (To be continued......)

PS: Recently, every time I finish a chapter, I have to check it dozens of times, and I'm really tired. Because there are too many "harmonious" words in the chapter, I can't upload it, but I can't review it, I changed it again and again, and many words have to be replaced by homonyms or letters. The minimum guarantee is one change per day, at least 4000 words or more, there are too many shielded words in the book, and several books of the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China on the cruiser have been blocked, I hope you can understand, after this difficult period, the cruiser will make up the chapters.