Section 96 Railway Development

What railway?

Zhengtai Railway. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

When Yang Chao said about the railway, Geers was also startled, thinking that Yang Chao was going to buy the Dongqing Railway, and the Russian Empire would not be able to do it.

Yang Chao was not so naïve, in the original history, even if he was defeated by the Japanese, Tsarist Russia only gave the Japanese half of the railway, not to mention that it has not been defeated now.

After Yang Chao finished speaking, Geers realized that what Yang Chao wanted to buy was not the railway in the northeast, or even the railway itself, but the power, the borrowing right and operation right of the Zhengtai Railway that the Russians wanted from the Qing government.

In fact, as soon as the Russo-Japanese War broke out, the Russians were no longer able to give loans to the Qing government, and in the original history, after the Russo-Japanese War, the Russians sold the Zhengtai railway bonds to the French.

After the French built the Zhengtai Railway, it operated until the thirties before it was taken back by the government of the Republic of China.

What Yang Chao wants is this loan right, and the Zhengtai Railway is the railway from Shijiazhuang to Taiyuan, and the purpose is naturally to look at Shanxi's coal resources.

If there is a supply of coal resources in Shanxi, the Yanji Railway will also have a guarantee in terms of transportation volume, not to mention the construction of a railway, Yang Chao can also attract investment to run a coal mine, this is a very lucrative business, poor countries engage in industrial accumulation, what do you sell if you don't sell resources? If you can use Shanxi's coal resources in exchange for an industrialization, it is still very cost-effective, not to mention that the coal in Shanxi, at the current level, even if you let go of digging, you can't dig it in a hundred years.

"We have a contract with the French."

Gereth hesitated, he was not reluctant to pay that debt, but the Russian-French alliance was also an alliance in expanding China's interests, and they were acting in conjunction with the French at the beginning, and the Sino-Russian Daosheng Bank came forward to lend money to the Qing government to build the railway, and then obtained the right to operate the railway as collateral, and the construction was a French steel complex.

If the debt was sold to Yang Chao, the contract of the French was soon frustrated, and it was the French who begged the Russians to help fight Germany, but after all, Germany and France did not go to war, and now that Russia itself has been involved in the war, they now have to beg the French.

"No problem, let the French continue to repair, but we have to do what we ask. We have a dedicated audit team and supervision team that will evaluate and supervise the railway, and everything will be done according to the contract, and there will be absolutely no loss to the French. ”

In the original history, the French built this railway, and they made it difficult everywhere.

The French wanted to build the kind of narrow gauge in Vietnam and Yunnan, but after Sheng Xuanhuai discovered it, he immediately stopped it and asked to build a standard gauge that could be connected to the Luhan railway, but the French said that if the broad gauge was built, the investment would increase by 60 million francs.

It was only a very short stretch of railroad, and sixty million francs was equivalent to twenty million taels of silver, and it was only an increase in the amount of investment. Later, the French proposed to change the line, because the original design was to pass through the Hutuo River, repair the demon and build a railway bridge, which was difficult to construct, and the French were unwilling.

After some nonsense, the railway, which had been prepared before the Eight-Nation Alliance, has not yet started.

"Five million francs. Just give away a power! ”

Yang Chao opened the price and said, the terms that the Sino-Russian Daosheng Bank had signed were to borrow 40 million francs with an annual interest rate of 5%, and Yang Chao directly gave them 5 million francs, and they didn't do anything, so much money for nothing, it was very cost-effective. Moreover, when the loan was paid, the Russians only gave ninety percent, and the borrowing method was nine out of thirteen, which was equivalent to four million francs had been withdrawn.

But Gerth shook his head: "Ten million! ”

"Deal!"

10 million francs, only 2 million dollars, Yang Chao did not need to entangle with the Russians on this issue, but just helped them transport 20,000 people to Lushun.

At this point, what else is there to say, 10 million Geers is not nonsense, and sending 20,000 people for free is also his purpose.

Then Yang Chao immediately called the imperial court, saying that he had negotiated with the Russians about the Zhengtai railway, and the Russians sold the railway loan rights to Yang Chao, and Yang Chao hoped that the imperial court would directly hand over the railway to Yang Chao to build.

The purpose of the imperial court to build the Zhengtai Railway was not actually for the economy or development, but for defensive purposes, because it was afraid that it would be forcibly occupied by foreigners, so that the rights and interests on both sides of the railway would be forcibly occupied.

Therefore, Yang Chao retracted this road, for the imperial court, it can be said to be the best of both worlds, if he can do it, who will let the foreigners do it, but Sheng Xuanhuai, who is responsible for handling this matter, has quite a few complaints, he thinks that the Zhengtai Railway involves France and Russia, rash intervention, will cause conflicts, so far eventful, the imperial court should not be troubled.

If Sheng Xuanhuai hadn't taken advantage of the French, it would have been a hell of a thing.

Yang Chao is not in a hurry, it is the Russians who are in a hurry, and the Russians are not willing to look for the French, so they directly find the Qing government. Even if they are now fighting on the land of the Qing Dynasty and killing the people of the Qing Dynasty, they can still dictate to the Qing government.

Zaifeng discussed with Zhang Zhidong several times, but Zhang Zhidong agreed with Yang Chao's repossession of the railway, thinking that it was a good thing, but he was also worried about what Sheng Xuanhuai said, so he still had to communicate with the French.

Yang Chao resolutely refused to have anything to do with the French, the money was borrowed from the Sino-Russian Daosheng Bank, and the management rights were also handed over to the Russians, and the contract was clearly clear, and it had nothing to do with the French, it was a contractual relationship between the Russians and the French, so Yang Chao asked for the matter to be handed over to him.

Yang Chao does not intend to compromise, if the French are playing tricks, Yang Chao plans to fight a lawsuit with them, go to Paris, and sue the French government, if the French come up with a contract with the Russians, Yang Chao can hire their engineers, isn't it just more expensive, Zhan Tianyou and those people are not iron-clad, and they can't be busy with the current project at all, and it is the same for handing it over to the French.

The French did not care about the railway at this time, they were busy dealing with the problem of falling Russian bonds, and the French people who subscribed to Russian bonds, seeing that the Russians failed again and again, kept selling bonds, and the bond price had already fallen below the issue price, which affected Russia's credit problem, and the credit was reduced, and the next bond issuance would have to be high.

Therefore, maintaining Russia's credibility in the French financial market is the most urgent task for the French government, and it does not take into account the interests of several domestic iron and steel companies.

Long after Yang Chao signed the transfer contract with the Sino-Russian Daosheng Bank, the French did not jump out to say something.

So Yang Chao asked Zhan Tianyou to send someone to measure and inspect the line, on the determined line, Yang Chao did not plan to let the French play tricks, if in the end they said that they could not repair the line without changing it, Yang Chao just had the opportunity to contact the contract.

The significance of railways to the development of a country cannot be overemphasized, and the Japanese divided their history of the Restoration into two parts, after 1882 for a new stage, because after this the speed of their railway development greatly increased, allowing them to enter a new era.

In fact, Yang Chao has always regarded the railway as the most important thing to do, supporting Zhan Tianyou is an example, and Zhan Tianyou is also competitive, needless to say that the railway is built, and the operation has also become regular, at least in terms of efficiency, it is not worse than the Germans.

Last year, Yang Chao communicated with the British Shanghai Minister through the British Foreign Bank in Yantai, and the Shanghai Minister was the general director of the British Fu Company, which was digging coal in Jiaozuo, and reached a railway monopoly agreement with the Tafu Company, and Yang Chao gave them a preferential price of 20 percent to carry all their coal, but the Fu Company also had to ensure that the coal was sent to Jinan.

Fu Company originally had the Jiaoji Railway as a choice, but out of the competition between Britain and Germany, they had been planning to send coal from Jiaozuo to Tianjin through the canal for export, but the conditions in Tianjin at this time were not as good as Yantai, which was the largest port in the north.

Moreover, Tianjin is frozen in winter, Yantai is a freezing-free port, and the British can't always use coal in winter, so this cooperation can be said to kill two birds with one stone: first, it suppressed the Jiaoji Railway of the Germans, and also suppressed the Qingdao Port, which indirectly supported the development of Yantai, which had a lot of interests in the British; The second British, who received preferential freight rates and a more guaranteed shipping channel.

With the coal supply of the British Fu Company, the source of goods transported by the Yanji Railway was secured, and it finally achieved profitability for the first time before the end of the year.

But compared with the railway profits, Yang Chao's follow-up is a big deal, the first to get the right to build the railway to Zhengzhou, the second also to get the right to build the Guangdong-Hanzhou Railway, and now get the right to build the Zhengtai Railway, Yang Chao's railway mileage is expected to reach 3,000 kilometers, accounting for one-third of the railway mileage.

However, Yang Chao was not satisfied, and he proposed to the imperial court that he was willing to undertake the loan to repay the Luhan railway built by Belgium, and then obtain the right to operate the Luhan railway for 30 years, that is, to take back the right to operate it from the Belgians.

In this way, Yang Chao was able to connect the Luhan Railway with the Guangdong-Hankou Railway, and as long as he built a bridge over the Yangtze River, he could go directly from Beijing to Guangzhou. Moreover, the Luhan Railway can connect the railways of Shandong and Henan into a cross railway network.

But because of the matter of the Zhengtai Railway, Yang Chao seems to have really offended Sheng Xuanhuai, and Sheng Xuanhuai strongly opposes this matter.

There is no way to do this, this is officialdom, it is easy to offend people.

And Yang Chao thought that it was not as simple as it seemed, because Sheng Xuanhuai made his fortune through the Westernization Movement, and was recognized by the imperial court as the first person to do Westernization, even Li Hongzhang, Zhang Zhidong and others were all done through Sheng Xuanhuai.

But Yang Chao suddenly rose, and in just a few years, he stole Sheng Xuanhuai's scenery.

But this is not the main problem, the main problem is that Sheng Xuanhuai is the Minister of Mail and Shipping, and China's railway affairs are under his control, Yang Chao through the expansion of the Yanji Railway, all of a sudden to build a railway network, so who is in charge of whom, that is to say, it is fundamentally a struggle for power.