The inaugural issue of "Daqing News" mentioned that the United States has the highest arable land in the world, and the population of the United States is less than one-tenth of that of the Qing Dynasty, which made the people of the Qing Dynasty quite envious, but unexpectedly, 1860 was a war year, not only the Qing Dynasty had wars, Italy had wars, and the United States was also in turmoil.

The abolitionist Lincoln was elected the 16th president of the United States, kicking off the Civil War. On November 6, Lincoln was elected, and on December 20, South Carolina was the first to announce its withdrawal from the Commonwealth of America.

With the guidance of the Qing Dynasty press, the current Qing Dynasty is not an obscurantist country that cannot see the world at all, and it gives a detailed introduction to the federal system of the United States, emphasizing that the United States is a union of large state power and small central power, and that the Supreme Law "Constitution" explicitly guarantees the freedom of all states to withdraw from the Union. Since the state power is so strong, of course there will be inconsistencies in the laws of the states, such as slavery. Some states are legal slavery, others are not, mainly in the South and not in the North. As a result, some southerners took their slaves to the north to do business, and as a result, the slaves were emancipated after arriving in the north, so similar legal disputes often caused. That is, as Lincoln said, "a cracked wall cannot stand", and the conflict between the North and the South intensified.

Downing planned to take advantage of the opportunity of the Civil War to recruit a large number of railway engineers from the United States to build the Great Qing Railway, and Rockefeller came forward to recruit workers, starting from the East Coast through the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, and then passing through the Riau Strait, with a range of 25,000 kilometers, however, because the cruising speed of the Great Eastern ocean-going giant ship has reached an exaggerated 50 kilometers per hour, it is only a short 20 days, plus the ship's electricity, ice storage, and entertainment facilities are complete, and it can also receive news from all over the world every day, which is not a problem at all. Under the operation of capital, North American engineers will incredibly enter the Qing Dynasty to work, and promise to return to their hometowns for free once a year.

The development of the airship has entered the final stage of testing relatively quietly, so the great engineer Brunel has time to spare, and Downing is ready to send him to China to preside over the construction of the railway. Brunel was startled, hugged the pillar next to him, and said to the Downing assistant who came to lobby: "If you don't go, you won't go, you won't go to death!" What kind of place is that, China? Don't you know that our British diplomats have been dismantled? What does the boss mean? Running all the way there to do business? The business plate in Europe is not big enough! ”

The assistant had already prepared, took out a map of the Qing Dynasty, and analyzed the form: "The place where China has a war is in the south, from Shanghai to Beijing is now too peaceful, the railway you want to build is the Beijing-Shanghai Railway, and the boss will also give you more than a dozen guards, all with desert foxes, and hundreds of heroes can't get close." As for the war in the south, you can rest assured, it was China that spent 5 million taels of silver to ask our British army to help the Chinese government exterminate the Taiping army. The United States is miserable, the southerners are extremely brave, and even if the economic strength of the north is far stronger than that of the south, this war will not end in a while. ”

Brunel quietly hugged the other pillar: "Then I won't go, it's too challenging to build a railway, you see, I finished the crystal shipyard and got the airship, my reputation is big enough, and the money is enough, it is the time to enjoy the happiness, I don't go to China to suffer." ”

"Suffering?" The assistant had already said, "Are you afraid of a hard journey?" No, the boss said you can take a few airships to China for exploration work, I also took an airship once, it was safe, quiet and comfortable, better than trains and ships, you go out three steps to have an airship, and in case ...... I mean, it's unlikely, you're besieged by bandits, and you slip away in an airship, and no one can catch them, right? ”

Brunel: "This ...... There is an airship, but it is quite safe, take the airship to the sky of China to travel and have a sè I will consider, again, I am tired of repairing the railway, boring! ”

There was no way, so the assistant had to take out the bag with a clever plan, a graphic telegram, and said: "The boss said, if you don't want to, show you this thing, and promise that you are willing to go." I also looked at it, I don't understand it at all, or you can see it yourself. ”

And such a magical bag? I don't believe it! Brunel let go of the pillar and spread out the telegram to read. It turned out that the high-level officials of the Qing Dynasty heard that the train weighed 100,000 catties or millions of catties, and it moved earth-shatteringly, and the whistle was harsh and disturbed the people, which was not a problem, they were afraid of alarming the ancestors in the underground and being condemned by the ancestral gods! The boss has an idea and prepares to build the world's first silent railway.

Silence is an exaggeration, and the low noise is something that Tang Ning likes very much, otherwise why would he only build airships and not airplanes. The first requirement of the silent railway is to use high-strength solid rubber wheels, and the second is to use ultra-high-strength concrete as the rail. Another innovation on the concrete track is the use of a wide gauge to fully integrate the tires with the rail surface, so that only a single track is required. That is, this unprecedented railway will be monorail!

The secret of the stability of the monorail lies in the fact that in addition to the tires that are combined with the track surface, there are also two tires on the side, a total of one main and two pairs of three tires, which hold the broad gauge firmly, and then the train body straddles the track like a horse. Monorail also has the big benefit of being able to steer flexibly and is far superior to the double-track in terms of climbing ability. Another big advantage is that as long as the three wheels are the same, the width of the car body is not limited, and the passenger car and the cargo car can be treated separately, because the passenger car is relatively empty, the size can be relatively large, and it is conceivable that this kind of luxury sleeper car with large space is far better than the ordinary train that is traditionally limited by the width of two horses' buttocks.

Is this quiet? No, the steam engine is still very noisy, Downing designed a pure electric locomotive, there are overhead wires to provide power for the locomotive throughout the whole process, and there are windmills that generate electricity every other section of the whole process, this kind of electric train will not burn coal for the first time and does not need any chemical energy, so it is super environmentally friendly and cheap.

The team of this epoch-making train technology is also ultra-luxurious, with the Nobel family team in charge of the tires and tracks, the Faraday team in charge of the power system, General Dynamics in charge of the locomotive engine, and Brunel as the architect in charge of communicating the entire team.

The nature of using new technology is in Brunel's blood, and after reading the concept design of his boss, he couldn't help but smile, and even said: "It's a little interesting, it's a little interesting...... However, why Boss Mao wants to go to China to do this kind of thing? That poor and backward country. ”

The assistant said self-righteously: "Maybe it's because there is no railway in China, there is a great opportunity!" ”

Since the boss has asked me, then I can put up a shelf, Brunel said: "I have a condition!" No, two, first, a dozen guards are not enough, I want a hundred, and thousands of heroes can't get close! Second, the boss doesn't interfere with my smoking anymore, you know? Every time he saw me, he asked me to quit smoking, and I was annoyed. ”

Assistant: "Ah! I almost forgot that the boss specifically told me that you had to quit smoking before you were allowed to participate in this project. ”

"What?" Brunel was furious, "Then I won't do it, huh!" "It's so boring that we have to be controlled for such a hobby.

Assistant: "...... I've got another tip. He took out another telegram, which was a handwritten letter from the boss, just a few lines, and the handwritten words seemed more tender: "There are two things I hate the most, one is religion and the other is philosophy. There are always people who want to solve all problems once and for all, who are passionate about religion and philosophy, who seek the ultimate truth every day, but who do not know that the most true and the most useless (including this sentence). I like you, Mr. Brunel, so I hope you live a long life, smoking for about 12 years, a super engineer like you is the most valuable asset of mankind, is a practical talent to innovatively solve one engineering problem after another, human beings have only one way to progress, that is, engineers and scientists like you, to make the world a better place, so that human beings can succeed with themselves, so you should quit smoking. If you don't quit, then you don't want to participate in this project, it's very hard to go all the way to the East. - Downing von Windsor. ”

After reading this letter, Brunel was surging with new trends, and had a feeling of dying as a confidant, and scolded: "Nima and von Windsor, a sour smell of German aristocracy!" Obviously we are English......"

The collection stone of the golden team composed of these super talents is in Singapore, where there is quite a complete infrastructure and scientific research equipment, it is a rubber center, an oil center, an Asian shipbuilding center, and a certain big boss has complete control there. Today, this economically prosperous city has an international population of 300,000, compared to Berlin's 500,000.

At this time, Kuala Lumpur also began to develop as a result of the discovery of tin ore, and an experimental monorail would connect Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.

Did the Qing Dynasty have the money to build a railway? Of course not! Because the emperor did not allow the introduction of the policy of exploiting the people, the Qing Dynasty could not use any money to build the railway, but it didn't matter, it was completely privatized, as long as the land was used as a shareholder, the capitalists could be allowed to build the railway, and the Bank of Zurich was a shareholder, not to mention anything else, foreign capital was absolutely pouring in.

What the? Faraday, the power king! What the? Mr. Nobel, who won the first prize in natural sciences! Mr. Brunel, who successfully built the Great Eastern and the airship! General Dynamics, which makes hydrogen fuel cell engines! These thunderous names are like tiger whips, whipping on the small hearts of European investors, making them excited, as if taking a stake in the Beijing-Shanghai Railway is not an investment, but a welfare. As for whether the Qing Dynasty had just fought a war with the British and French forces, or whether it was still making trouble in the Hongyang Rebellion, it was not what they cared about at all, in short, it was absolutely right to follow Boss Tang to invest, even the worst and worst Dutch East India Company was also famous for inventing instant coffee.

Monorail, the name is a project in the style of Boss Tang, always doing groundbreaking projects, and always doing a quasi-project.

This project was supposed to be called the "Daqing Railway Company", but unfortunately it is not suitable from the current point of view, it does not use much iron, and the Daqing Dynasty does not have a company law, if it is called this name, it is equivalent to the Dutch East India Company, the world's first joint-stock company, which is a pioneering business phenomenon in the Daqing Dynasty.

Finally named the "Daqing Railway Bureau", it sounds like a bureaucracy, but it is actually the first joint-stock enterprise in China. This time basically according to the provincial capital through train to plan, from Shanghai to Jiangning (Nanjing), through Suzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou, Jiangning to Jinan, through Xuzhou, Jining, Tai'an, from Jinan to Tianjin, through Dezhou, Cangzhou, Tianjin to Beijing, a straight-line distance of 800 miles, according to the railway power of the United States 30,000 dollars a mile of rough planning, for 5 million pounds, that is, 18.5 million taels of silver. It's really expensive to build a railway, and it's almost time to catch up with the war reparations. (http：//.）。 Tang Ning didn't take the Taiping Army seriously at all, and directly divided the capital of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and several occupied cities in southern Jiangsu in the plan!

The Ministry of Industry of the Qing Dynasty has a 10% stake in the land planning and does not contribute money, and the technical team Faraday team, Nobel team, General Dynamics team, and Brunel team each account for 5% of the shares, a total of 20%, without paying. Bank Zurich invested £1 million, or 14% of the shares.

The Daqing News gave a detailed introduction to the operation of the railroads in the United States and the team organized by the Bank of Zurich, and the princes and ministers of the Qing Dynasty were so confident that they raised 3.5 million taels of silver, equivalent to about 13% of the shares. Raising funds for the merchants and people of the Qing Dynasty, these people saw that the princes and ministers had invested money, and the Ministry of Industry had participated in the shares, and the construction team seemed to be very strong, and they also dared to contribute, Qi Taiyu, Xu Rongcun and other Jin merchants and Cantonese businessmen were too thunderous to the Bank of Zurich, and under their drive, the merchants and wealthy civilians actually raised 7 million taels of silver, or 26% of the shares.

The remaining 37% was handed over to foreign capital, which did not need any reason at all, and raised 1.85 million pounds in an instant, which was like grabbing money. In fact...... I'm afraid that Boss Tang will disappoint everyone this time, how much money can be made by this thing of the railway. It should be okay to make a little profit, but it is not okay to make a huge profit.