"The minister still has a discussion!"

Yang Chao bowed again. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

Zaifeng was a little impatient and said, "Say it." ”

Yang Chao said: "The minister discussed the construction of the railway. ”

"Railroad?"

Zaifeng's brows couldn't help frowning, these days about building the railway, it can make him worry.

Zhang Zhidong wants to build the Luhan Railway, the British want to build the Jinpu Railway, the Germans are still building the Jiaoji Railway, I heard that the Germans and the British about the construction of the Jinpu Road and the red face, the Germans said that if the British do not let Germany participate in the Jinpu Road, then Germany will not agree to the Jinpu Road through Shandong.

Zhang Zhidong has long had the idea of building the Luhan Railway, probably in the fifteenth year of Guangxu (1889), that is, the year of Guangxu's pro-government, Zhang Zhidong suggested that Huguang spend two million taels of silver every year to build a railway connecting Lugou Bridge to Wuhan, and it is precisely because of this railway that Zhang Zhidong began to build the Hanyang Iron Works in Wuhan, and the initial purpose was only to make rails for the railway.

It was only Zhang Zhidong who allocated funds for a year, and the imperial court embezzled the funds for the construction of the Luhan Railway to repair the Kwantung Railway because of the tense situation in the northeast.

After the defeat of Japan in the First Sino-Japanese War, the Qing government really made up its mind to build a railway, but a railway of thousands of kilometers cost tens of millions of taels of silver, and the imperial court had to pay Japan an indemnity of 200 million taels, so it could not come up with the money at all.

In the end, Zhang Zhidong chose Belgium, which is a smart choice, because Belgium is a small country and has no ability to infringe on China's sovereignty at all, but Belgium's pursuit of economic interests is stronger than that of other countries, and the borrowing can be called harsh.

The Luján Railway was entirely financed by Belgium, and the rails used were all produced by the Belgian Company, except for those that could be manufactured by the Hanyang Iron Works, and after the completion of the railway, it was to be operated by the Belgians for 30 years after the loan was repaid.

If it is placed in the future, this will be called the BOT model, the full name is the construction, operation, transfer model, many backward countries will cooperate with developed countries, build infrastructure in their own countries, let others operate for decades and then hand over to the government, such as Taiwan's high-speed rail model, Vietnam, Africa and other countries many railways, highways are so, is considered a typical example of mutually beneficial cooperation.

But in the Qing Dynasty, it was a bit difficult to accept a dictatorship like the Qing government, which had the final say from the government for thousands of years.

Therefore, the opposition was still very large, and it was delayed until the end of 1898, and then the war of 1900 interrupted the process of building the railway, and after the war of the Eight-Nation Alliance, the center of power was vacant for nearly a year, and only under the compromise of all parties, Zaifeng ascended the throne, and Zhang Zhidong became the prime minister.

So Zhang Zhidong, who had always been thinking about the Luhan Railway, naturally advocated restarting the construction of the Luhan Railway.

However, the diehards continued to oppose it, saying that it was because of the Westernization that the foreigners were provoked and the two palaces were killed, and they not only opposed the resumption of the Luhan Railway Project, but even demanded that the imperial court permanently ban the construction of railways and other foreign affairs, believing that it was the root cause of the disaster to the country and the people.

For this reason, the Westernists and diehards quarreled endlessly in the court meeting and the parliament in all places they could see, and both sides also brought the lawsuit to Zaifeng, which made Zaifeng annoyed.

In the end, Zaifeng still supported Zhang Zhidong on the grounds that he had already signed a contract with the Belgians, and if he didn't repair it, he was afraid that it would cause foreign disasters.

But then the British came to the door and asked to preside over the construction of Jinpu Road.

The Jinpu Railway, from Tianjin to Nanjing Pukou, is about the same length as the Luhan Railway, both of which are more than 1,000 kilometers.

The proposal to build this railway, which preceded the Luhan Railway, was put forward by another faction in the Westernization Movement, the Huai faction headed by Li Hongzhang.

Due to the disrepair of the Grand Canal at the end of the Qing Dynasty, the transportation was slowly snatched away by the shipping of foreigners, Li Hongzhang believed that this was a hidden danger, and at the same time the construction of the railway could also stimulate the economy of the south of the Yangtze River, so as early as 1877 proposed to build a railway line along the Grand Canal to Zhenjiang from Tianjin to Zhenjiang.

However, at that time, there were no talents in China to build railways, and no one was willing to have close contact with foreigners, so it was delayed.

In 1880, Liu Mingchuan of the Huai faction proposed to build this railway, which was also opposed by the diehards, on the grounds that if the railway was opened, the foreigners would definitely demand the opening of ports along the railway, which would be very unfavorable to the Qing Dynasty.

In 1886, Zeng Guofan's son, Zeng Jize, also proposed to build the railway, which was also not allowed.

Knowing that in 1896, after being defeated by the Japanese, everyone knew that it was no longer possible to engage in foreign affairs, at this time Rong Hong proposed to borrow foreign money to build the railway, and at the same time promised to serve the imperial court with heavy money, and the Qing government, which was worried about internal and external troubles and was embarrassed by the reparations for the First Sino-Japanese War, finally agreed to this plan.

Yung reached an agreement with a British company to borrow more than £5 million to build the railway. However, after the Germans found out, they had already forcibly occupied Jiaozhou Bay and obtained the right to build a railway in Shandong, and they also wanted a piece of the pie, and arrogantly stated that if the British did not allow Germany to participate, then the railway would not be allowed to pass through Shandong.

So Rong Hong suggested that the route be diverted to bypass Shandong, but if it was moved to the west, it would be too close to the Luhan railway line, which would obviously affect the income of the Luhan railway, which was opposed by Russia and France, because although the Luhan railway was undertaken by the Belgians, Russia and France also participated in the borrowing.

Because they could not participate in the Luhan Railway, the British already felt that their interests in the Yangtze River were threatened by France and Russia, and they could not let go of the Jinpu Road, so the British privately compromised with the Germans, agreed to Germany's participation in the loan, and privately divided the scope of power with the Germans to build railways in China.

In 1899, Britain and Germany jointly negotiated with the Qing government and initialed the contract, but it was also delayed because of the Eight-Nation Alliance. Now that the war has ended, the British naturally put forward a proposal to build it, hoping to start the construction of the Jinpu Road as soon as possible.

Before the matter of Jinpu Road was over, there was another problem in Hunan. Because Hubei wants to build the Luhan Railway to Beijing, the business people in Hunan strongly advocate leading the Wuhan-River Railway to Hunan and finally to Guangdong, which is the Guangdong-Hanzhou Railway, and then Beijing will be able to connect with Guangzhou.

I have to say that the people of provinces like Hunan and Sichuan, where there are many mountainous areas and difficult roads, have always been very enthusiastic and active in building roads and bridges. The people of Hunan have a high demand for the construction of a railway within their own territory, and businessmen from all walks of life have taken action and expressed their willingness to raise funds for the construction. Later, the Sichuan people were even willing to pay money to redeem the right to build the railway, but the Qing government forcibly took back the railway, which caused the road protection movement, and then triggered the Wuchang Uprising, which hit the Qing government.

Zhang Zhidong also supported the construction of the railway from Wuhan to Guangzhou, although he became the prime minister, but at this time his protégés and former officials in Huguang and Guangzhou were all over the world, and this can be said to be his base, and he was happy to use the power of the prime minister to help Huguang develop.

However, the funds for the construction of the railway were astronomical after all, and even if the Chinese businessmen were enthusiastic, they could not raise enough capital, and Zhang Zhidong did not believe that the Chinese could do it themselves, so he handed it over to his henchman Sheng Xuanhuai to preside over. Ignoring the strong opposition of the local business community in Hunan, Sheng Xuanhuai borrowed four million pounds from an American company, stipulating that he could only take back the railway after 50 years of repayment.

At this time, Britain and France, which had a large number of interests in the Yangtze River valley, joined forces to squeeze out the United States, and it was difficult for them to put pressure on the Qing government; after all, they still had to worry about the face of the Americans on the surface, and they privately instigated the Chinese businessmen in Hunan to compete with the Americans for the right to bid for the right to bid. At this time, Britain and France also wanted to intervene, and at this time, the Chinese merchants in Hubei, Hunan, and Guangdong, who were related to the railway, quit and began to oppose the participation of foreigners and demanded the resumption of the right of way.

The matter was in an uproar, the Chinese shareholders and the Americans could not talk together, Britain and France secretly wanted to get a piece of the pie, and it was difficult for the railway to start construction for a while.

There is no doubt that Zaifeng has a big head when he hears the word railway.

But he didn't expect Yang Chao to also put forward a request for the construction of a railway.

"That's right, build the railway. The Germans saw that they wanted to build a railway from Qingdao to Jinan, and if they could not build a railway of their own Chinese, then the affairs of Shandong would inevitably be in the hands of the Germans in the future. All Shandong exporters must pass through Qingdao of the Germans, and not go through Yantai of our own country. ”

Yang Chao said.

Zaifeng nodded, but he couldn't suppress his boredom, he deserved it as the emperor of the last days, and he was really worried. If he knew that the Qing Dynasty would die on the railroad in the end, I don't know if he would be even more worried.

"And which country are you going to borrow?"

Zaifeng said in a gloomy voice.

How could he not know that the Westernists were keen to build railways and were keen to borrow money from foreigners, in addition to the fact that the Qing government really couldn't come up with money to repair the railways, but also because the compradors under the foreigners were so energetic that they were willing to spend money. These people have eaten the kickbacks of foreigners, so they naturally want to borrow foreign money, but in the end, the money has to be repaid by the court.

Yang Chao said: "To repair the railway, the first is not to borrow foreign money, and the second is not to invite foreigners. ”

This made Zaifeng curious, and it made sense not to borrow foreign money, he always suspected that Yang Chao was a child of a big family in Nanyang, and if he could take out a family that was a flower plate in the Song Dynasty, how could he be short of money. But Li Hongzhang and others are not short of money, and Sheng Xuanhuai is not short of money, but Sheng Xuanhuai has not decided to borrow money from the Americans without authorization, and no one will be disgusted with money.

Therefore, Zaifeng also admitted at this time that Yang Chao did not seem to be a corrupt official, but Yang Chao's proposal of not inviting foreigners puzzled him.

"Aiqing really doesn't invite foreigners?"

Zaifeng couldn't help asking.

Yang Chao said: "Wechen plans to hire a Chinese engineer to preside over the construction!" ”

Zaifeng was even more puzzled: "Can my people in the Qing Dynasty also run a railway?" ”

Yang Chao said with a smile: "Weichen knows a person, if he uses this person, the construction of the railway must be in the hands of foreigners." ”

Zaifeng asked, "Who?" ”

Yang Chao said: "Zhan Tianyou! ”