As soon as the idea of selling the right to build highways was announced, it immediately sparked a heated discussion, and the entire Guangdong region was run through by the three main rivers of the Dongjiang, Xijiang and Beijiang, and in later generations, these three rivers were collectively called the Pearl River, in fact, the direction of these three rivers just presented an inverted "D" shape, forming the main line of the entire river in Guangdong, and the area connected by the plains around Guangzhou is the Pearl River Delta[Bookmark:]

Qin Kai's subcontracting road repair plan this time is to build a main road connecting various provinces and counties in Guangdong, of course, this involves too much work, so the first step of the road splitting and subcontracting plan is huge, so that his attachés don't know how to start.

His initial plan is to connect several important prefectures and counties and mining areas in Guangdong first, this planning and design, Qin Kai didn't think about doing it himself, even if he has a light brain, he can't play with these professional things!

However, this matter is not difficult for Qin Kai, he has several students studying railway engineering in the United States, he immediately called Zhan Tianyou, put his highway plan on the table, on the map of Guangdong, a large road network from Guangzhou Prefecture will diverge, and at the same time connect the important ports on the Pearl River.

Zhan Tianyou naturally understands the important role of this transportation very well, Qin Kai said in the plan, "If you want to get rich, build roads first", which made him taste it repeatedly, but he deeply felt that this was a bit vulgar, but the truth was unbreakable, and at this time, he was holding the plan book that was given to him and looking at it hungrily!

"I plan to use two years to build a highway network covering Guangdong with the help of the river transportation of the Dongjiang, Xijiang and Beijiang rivers to form a fast transportation network! Hear what you think. Qin Kai looked at this super coolie with a smile, his great traffic idea was ready to give it to this guy!

Zhan Tianyou sighed, but did not answer immediately, but continued to look at his plan, his eyes flashed, and his mood could be described as very excited. He returned from Yale's civil engineering department with four classmates, and he was the only one who was able to finish his studies because he enrolled a year early.

On the way back, several of them often lamented that they didn't know what the situation would be after they came back, and they were snubbed on the docks in Shanghai, and they heard that the first batch of students were sent to the telegraph office to do the boring work of newspaper dispatchers, and they were also full of emotion......

Qin Kai waited for a long time before he heard Zhan Tianyou's voice, "My lord, I'm sorry, I think you're too involved in this plan, can I take it back and take a closer look, and come back tomorrow to report to you?" ”

"Cheng, I remember that you have a few classmates, take them with you, and plan this matter well," Qin Kai looked at the persistent and wise man, "I want to leave the design of this Guangdong traffic project to you, you think about it, you don't have to worry about the specific project promotion and cost, I have my own way!" ”

Zhan Tianyou didn't expect that he was a newcomer who had just joined Mawei Shipbuilding for only a few months, and Lord Qin would give such a lot of trust, he almost couldn't believe it when he held the plan, but this was his professional strength, he nodded vigorously and left.

In the afternoon, Qin Kai was pondering the matter of Leizhou heavy industry base, Leizhou's convenient transportation is conducive to the transportation of raw materials, but in the same way, due to geographical conditions, the mineral resources of Leizhou Peninsula are relatively scarce, and the mineral resources of the entire Guangdong Province are quite rich, and the famous flat-topped iron ore and Dabaoshan iron ore in later generations have a scale of hundreds of millions of tons.

Iron ore is almost as important to the human body as blood is to the first industrial revolution, and now Vietnam's steel production has grown steadily, and the latest production capacity of the Shishan coal and iron base in northern Vietnam has reached 3,000 tons of iron and 500 tons of steel per month, and eight iron-making blast furnaces imported from Germany are producing 24 hours a day.

The news sent back by Qian Qing, who was stationed there to preside over production, shows that Vietnam's huge local high-quality coal mines and high-grade iron ore are the key factors for the efficient production of Shishan coal and iron base, and it is clear that Vietnam is now absolutely no longer a place for power and status for itself, but an industrial core that needs to be fully defended.

At present, there are nearly 3,000 workers working in the Shishan Coal and Iron Base, and the workers in the surrounding coal mines, iron mines, and copper mines have reached an astonishing nearly 30,000 young people. ,

This huge industrial system, in addition to the income they could not get from the land, also brought them a completely different concept, and groups of young people are gradually changing from ignorant farmers to skilled workers in this large steel mill that has sprung up from the ground.

"Damn the French...... Qin Kai muttered, these French ghosts are still raging in northern Vietnam, Zhou Ruidong's army is now stepping up preparations for the siege of Haiphong City after sweeping through those villages and towns in northern Vietnam, and the final counterattack of the French has not yet appeared, which is what Qin Kai is most worried about.

Now get the news, Li Zhongtang is still very persistent in diplomatic mediation with the French, and even the British began to participate in it, putting pressure on the French, after all, Qin Kai's victory in Vietnam and naval battles made the British feel that this great empire in the East still has a very strong stamina, the French have touched the nail, and the British Empire naturally does not need to fight for the interests of the Gallic chicken.

When he was looking at the map and thinking, Lu Shu suddenly knocked on the door with a thief's expression and reported, "My lord, there is a girl outside who has just delivered a letter!" ”

"Oh!" Qin Kai raised his eyebrows, he smiled slightly, he has been in Guangzhou for almost ten days, and he mentioned it when he communicated with the dress-dressed beauty earlier, and he will visit the Qi family when he arrives in Guangzhou, but now he is busy like this, this big move is one of the most critical links in his big industrial plan...... The plan to invite the cuties to travel with them is lagging behind!

Get your hands on it, Qi Shuxuan's letterhead is always so delicate and lovely, this beautiful woman in a dress is good at calligraphy and painting, so every time the letterhead is a few sketches, an orchid, or a few weeping willows, all of which are full of vitality and charm, and then attach some whispers, every time I see this exquisite letterhead and elegant words, it is a very pleasant feeling for Qin Kai.

To be honest, such a long time of exchanging letters with Qi Shuxuan is a good adjustment in his life, and in the past two years after the crossing, he has spent almost all of his time constantly expanding his strength, allowing himself to occupy more advantages in this era of official position.

And now, he has climbed to a high position in the Qing Dynasty officialdom that is enough to sit on one side, and he has an army in his hands that is completely loyal to him, and now he finally has a kind of confidence to be able to stand on this upcoming troubled world, and he thinks he should have an explanation for Qi Meimei's matter.

I want to be more confident than his official title, what makes him more confident is that there is a complete set of industrial systems that can support war machines, although the scale is not large enough, and the technology is not advanced enough, but the entire land of the Qing Empire, and even the entire East, will soon feel the shock brought by the Mawei industrial system.

However, the major events in his life have always been that Ding Richang and Sun Funian have talked about N times, and even Zhang Peilun's wife is very enthusiastic about helping Zhang Luo for himself...... Thinking of this, Qin Kai smiled dumbly, if it went on like this, it was estimated that these subordinates would have to doubt their sexual orientation, so he immediately asked people to invite Sun Fu and Wu Jingui.

When Sun Fu heard what he often talked about, Qin Kai finally remembered it, and he was also very happy, but when he heard Wu Jingui introduce that he was a woman from the Qi family, a big merchant in Guangzhou, he seemed to be a little eager to speak, but thinking of this Qin adult's special case, it was inconvenient for him to say much about this matter.

Wu Jingui has known about this matter for a long time, but this adult is very resolute in other things, and this matter is also grinding enough, and the last time I saw the strangeness in this, it was the first general meeting of the Textile Association a year ago, and there was no movement after that, and I still have a new love for Lord Qin.

However, Qin Kai still insisted that the two of them go to Qi's house to mention this matter a week later, because he was still thinking about how to confess this matter to the beauty, in his modern opinion, if Qi Meimei didn't nod his head and agreed to propose marriage in that old-fashioned way, he felt somewhat strange, although it seemed that everything would come naturally......

Zhan Tianyou came to see Qin Kai at noon the next day, and he brought a pile of strips of Chen, and it could be seen that these strips had undergone very rigorous revisions, many of which had been altered many times, and he put forward tactful opinions on Qin Kai's plan for the provincial highway.

You know, in this era, China's roads are basically hard mud roads, muddy and difficult to walk in the rainstorm season, even if it is an official road is this standard, and in this era, the road construction in the West has long realized the gravel pavement, the emergence of the gravel pavement can be regarded as a major achievement in the history of highway construction, and then more advanced masonry pavement has also appeared, but in the same way, this road repair has also brought a surge in costs. ,

Qin Kai's plan is to use two schemes of gravel, asphalt and gravel and cement, Zhan Tianyou naturally calculated the cost, he had seen asphalt roads when he was studying in the United States, but that can only be seen in industrially developed cities, and this cost is bound to be not low.

And cement, is a rare thing, Mawei is a few cement factories, and Guangdong kaolin, limestone, clay these raw materials for making cement are very rich, but he also went to the cement factory to study, this is the product of industrialization, just calcining, mixing these work, is not at all human power can be completed, Mawei shipyard's cement plant unified use of steam power, but limited to scale, this capacity is not very high.

Therefore, Zhan Tianyou proposed that the specifications of the road can still follow the standard of the current official road, and change it to a gravel pavement, which can reach the lower standard of the Western highway after rolling and road construction, but the advantage of this is that in addition to manpower, the cost of other aspects is greatly reduced!

Qin Kai naturally understood Zhan Tianyou's thoughts, after all, with the scale of the commodity economy and the progress of industrialization in this era, the advantages of developed transportation could not be fully reflected, and the huge industrial system that Qin Kai hoped to create was something that no one expected.

"Cheng, I have seen your plan, then first build a new asphalt road from Huangpu Port, and at the same time I need to build an ordinary road from Guangzhou to Huizhou, the specific road design, budget and planning you come, the recruitment of workers and the operation of the project, Wu shopkeeper to deal with it!"

Zhan Tianyou pondered for a while, a short-distance high-specification highway is obviously a good test field, from which he can get the important information he wants to know, such as labor costs, road costs, construction periods, for the highway from Guangzhou to Leizhou listed by Qin Kai in the plan, he still put forward his own idea, build yì at the same time as the construction of the road, and lay a railway at the same time.

Qin Kai did not think about building a railway, an important event affecting the world was underway in this era, the comprehensive development of the western United States, with the participation of a large number of Chinese workers, the entire western part of the United States was incorporated into the economic system of the United States with the railway.

In 1881, the whole of China, except for the steel mills owned by the Mawei Shipyard, had an annual output of only 2,000 tons of steel, most of which came from the steelworks of the Jiangnan Bureau, and the other local ironmaking from the people was about a few hundred tons.

And Qin Kai's steel plant, the steel production capacity is already an amazing achievement compared with the backward production capacity of the Qing Dynasty, but he is very soberly aware that his own production capacity compared with the strong production capacity of the great powers, the gap is still very huge, this era Germany has an annual steel output of more than 2.7 million tons, and the British steel production has reached an astonishing scale of 7 million tons, which is hundreds of times, or even hundreds of times......

Therefore, at present, as an important material for war, steel is the first thing to ensure is the application of ships and military industry, but Zhan Tianyou's railway dream, Qin Kai knows that this is also a major event related to the economy, and must be given enough attention, after careful consideration, so a short-distance railway linking Leizhou Heavy Industry Zone to Leizhou Bay was included in the project.

This decision made Zhan Tianyou, who was dedicated to showing his skills, crazy, and immediately went back to gather his students studying in the United States to devote himself to the design and planning of roads and railways.

At this time, Wu Jingui was thinking about the subcontracting project of highway construction, and the task given to him by Qin Kai was very simple, to subcontract and build important highways between these cities at a reasonable price. Of course, in return, the road will be tolled, free for the people, only for vehicles, and the financier of the construction will be given the right to collect fees for three years, after which the ownership of the road will be nationalized.

This toll model is naturally based on the most common highway shareholding model in later generations, but in later generations, those state-capitalized highway companies have long occupied the right to collect road tolls, and the highways built by the state with a lot of capital have been turned into tools for a small number of people to seek personal gains, Qin Kai also felt deeply disgusted, so he set a three-year toll right.

The issue of the right to charge fees for three years has troubled Wu Jingui for a long time, and naturally it has also troubled other large businesses that are ready to invest, after all, no one knows whether the three-year period will be able to recover the cost...... Now that the first high-specification asphalt highway is about to be launched, he is hesitating whether to win the project with his own funds, and he will lose some money, so he will also promote the project. ,

Unexpectedly, someone came to the door today, but it was an acquaintance, the shopkeeper Lu of Fukang Yinhao, who greeted him and exchanged a few words, and after the shopkeeper Lu complimented Wu Jingui fiercely, he went straight to the topic.

"Lord Wu, the shopkeeper of Hu Da asked me to bring a message over, this road repair project, our Fukang Silver is willing to invest 300,000 taels, which can be regarded as a gesture to Lord Qin!"

"I don't know that the shopkeeper Hu has taken a fancy to that section of the road?" Wu Jingui suddenly remembered that his family had made a lot of money behind Qin Kai, and he had forgotten about this stubble, or Hu Da's shopkeeper accident!

"This ...... Hu Da shopkeeper didn't say that which road is not easy to do, even if our Fukang Silver is good! Lu Yijin laughed and said, in the past two years, the profits earned by Fukang Bank from Qin Kai's industrial chain, although they cannot be compared with when Hu Xueyan made his fortune, but compared with the profits of previous years, how could Hu Da shopkeeper not understand, isn't it all on this fast-moving Governor Qin!

These 300,000 taels are actually nothing, Mawei Shipping Company invested 300,000 taels in Fukang Silver at the beginning, and now it has already turned over a few heels, this is the way of business, naturally it is necessary to pay attention to the word "Tao", Lu Yijin got the instructions, but below 500,000 yuan, can be directly undertaken, so he opened his mouth 300,000 taels.

Wu Jingui's mind was also flashing at this time, after all, this is an important opportunity, how much he earned, he didn't calculate, but now the worth of three or four million taels is ironclad, thinking of this, he immediately discussed with Lu Yijin, and the two families invested 1 million taels together to eat both highways.

When Qin Kai heard the news, he was also a little strange, he asked you Wu Jingui to go to China Merchants Bureau for a long time, and recruited your Wu family's own silver for a long time...... However, compared to the promotion of highways, Wu Jingui's promotion in the industry can be described as a rich achievement, those members of the textile association are the first wave of snap-ups, after he picked, nearly 30 medium-sized factories in the Mawei Industrial Zone have been under construction.

Seeing the prosperous appearance of the industrial zone, the second wave of foreign compradors from the Thirteen Lines of Guangzhou came in, but they watched Wu Jingui change from a small store of the Thirteen Banks to a super merchant now, and they were originally a little hesitant about the industry taken out this time.