After concluding a visit to Liu Jinyi and other officers who had been reinforced, Chen Zeyu inspected the operation of various production and construction corps in northeast China in early February.

As early as two and a half years ago, according to the order personally issued by Chen Zeyu, the supreme head of the republic, the central government called up 30 divisions of nearly 700,000 reserve troops in Nanyang. Soon after, the government used these 700,000 reservists as the backbone to recruit nearly 10 million simple rural youths from the mainland, and on this basis, established a huge number of domestic production and construction corps.

Except for some personnel in Xinjiang and Northern Mongolia, most of these corps are stationed in the northeast region, and while they have not given up their military training, these production and construction corps have been carrying out agricultural and animal husbandry production activities for many years.

After two years of construction, the Northeast Production and Construction Corps, which has a population of up to 5 million people, has built 455 large and small reservoirs, more than 6,000 irrigation facilities, and excavated 25,570 large and small canals, with a total length of 172,000 kilometers, by means of mechanization.

Up to now, they have 1,072 large and medium-sized farms, military horse farms, forest farms, pastures, and fishing grounds in Northeast China, with a total cultivated land area of nearly 8 million hectares, which is 120 million mu per mu. In addition to the land owned by demobilized soldiers, immigrants, state-owned companies, and armed colonization migrants in Northeast China, more than 300 million mu of cultivated land has been reclaimed in the entire Northeast and Inner and Outer Regions in the past two years. You must know that the cultivated land owned by the entire Qing Dynasty was only about 1.5 billion mu, and these newly reclaimed land in the northeast are equivalent to increasing the cultivated land area of the republic by 20%, and among them, it is obvious that the production and construction corps has played a vital role.

With the large-scale investment of diesel tractors and various other agricultural machinery, while the arable land in the country of Seris continues to grow, more and more domestic landlords and old fortunes have begun to reluctantly find that the price of food in the country has begun to fall, and their own income has also been shrinking. By the end of 1897, the price of wheat in Seris had fallen below 30 yuan per ton, and under the current "Special Restrictions on Agriculture Act", individuals who owned more than 1,000 acres of non-mechanized cultivated land had to pay heavy taxes. While liberating a large number of rural cultivators, this situation also forced local landlords to gradually shift their attention to the industrial fields with more oil and water, and this situation began to become more and more obvious under the premise of accelerating the implementation of domestic immigration policies.

In addition to the achievements in cultivated land, the Production and Construction Corps in the Hulunbuir region in northeast China has also built hundreds of large and medium-sized pastures and horse breed improvement bases in accordance with local conditions, providing a large amount of fresh meat to the country while also solving the long-standing problem of the army's demand for high-quality military horses, and has successively provided more than 10,000 fine war horses and more than 40,000 horses to various military subdivisions of the Republic in the past two years.

After expressing satisfaction with the situation of the production and construction corps in various localities, Chen Zeyu also commended the commanders (non-military units) of each corps. In addition, Chen Zeyu also set new requirements for the military training of the Production and Construction Corps.

Although they are not regular combat units subordinate to the establishment of the Republic Army, these production and construction corps that have been stationed in the border areas for many years still have a very strong military color. Judging from observers from all walks of life abroad, these construction corps distributed in the northern Krai of Seris are completely front-line combat units under a different name, whether in terms of organizational composition, personnel quality, clothing, and personal weaponry.

They guessed correctly, Chen Zeyu's proud work was to help the Republic unconsciously establish a regular and less expensive reserve force. In fact, a considerable number of them are reservists from within the Republic, and with sufficient equipment and training, these huge construction corps can be transformed into reliable regular combat units in an instant in the event of a real war situation.

According to the regulations drawn up earlier, as soon as the central authorities give them the order to mobilize for war, these construction corps distributed in the various border regions will begin to receive instructions from the nearest military district headquarters as soon as possible.

After walking around the entire northeast one after another, Chen Zeyu finally received a telegram from the capital on February 15, and embarked on the journey back to Beijing on the newly built Beijing-Shenyang railway on the same day.

……

Sitting on the elegantly decorated seat of the special train, Chen Zeyu couldn't help but laugh secretly when he looked at the message in front of him.

He could imagine how impatient the Englishman Sir Dou Nale should be now, and the reason why Beijing only replied now was not to deliberately play tricks on this Sir Sir Le , but to handle it completely in accordance with the priority of the government's administrative steps, and it was supposed to be Chen Zeyu's side to deal with the important travel affairs before it was the turn of the Minister Dou Nale from the United Kingdom.

Chen Zeyu actually knew the intention of this British minister.

Wanting to let Seris join the British's international system, Chen Zeyu sneered at the same time a little sympathy for Sir Dou Nale, who is dedicated to the relationship between the two countries.

Putting aside national feelings, Chen Zeyu actually has deep respect for this Sir Dou Nale. The two had met a few times before, and after a few conversations, Chen Zeyu's senses for Dou Nale were quite good. Looking at the individual alone, the new British minister to China can be called a model in the diplomatic world in terms of professional ethics and personal conduct. Compared with the French Minister Shi Alan in the embassy district of Dongjiaomin Lane, or the Japanese who had just resumed the embassy and consulate in Beijing, this Sir Dou Nale can also be called friendly in terms of dealings with the Republic.

It's a pity that personal emotions can't hide the contradictions between nation-states after all! Want to get Seris into the UK's alliance system? Let's give me back Hong Kong first!

With today's complex international situation, even if Chen Zeyu really joins the British alliance system, what can he do? Judging from the isolated and hostile relationship between Britain and European countries in this era, Chen Zeyu can't help but put a big question mark on his country.

Britain extended an olive branch to the Orientals in order to confront Russia. But Chen Zeyu knew that when he chose the British, he was also pushing Russia and Germany into opposition at the same time, and coupled with the current complicated Anglo-French and Anglo-American relations, the Republic would lose far more than she could gain.

Moreover, for the rules of the game in the modern world, there may be no one who understands it better than Chen Zeyu.

There are not many new things under the sun, and the nature of the country is easy to change. In Chen Zeyu's view, whether it is "United Britain to reject Russia" or "United Russia to reject Britain" is not interesting, perhaps in the eyes of the British, Seris is still a weak and small country, at most a larger Japan, and they need to hug their thighs, but they obviously underestimate the strength of the Orientals.

At the end of the day, this era is the age of cannons and steel, and speaking is supported by fists. And with Seris's current comprehensive national strength, all she needs to do is follow the policies that have been laid out for a long time.

In the international arena in the future, the republic will gradually establish its place in the international arena while not giving an inch!

Looking at the scenery flashing outside the train window, Chen Zeyu thought in his heart.

"Führer, it's time to dine!"

Just when Chen Zeyu was putting his mind on this telegram, the secretary next to him reminded him after checking his watch.

"Well, you go and call Huang Hanlin and them in, let's eat together." Chen Zeyu nodded and commanded.

"Yes, Führer!"

Ignoring the thoughts in his mind, Chen Zeyu began to enjoy the lunch prepared by the head chef on the train with the guards.

In his spare time, Chen Zeyu looked around at the special train box he was in.

If you look down slightly, you can see that the brightly colored carpet on the ground has been cleaned by the railway personnel, and the reliable lighting has illuminated the entire carriage. Although it is the middle of winter, the steam heating system in the car makes all the people present feel the slightest cold, and the better sound insulation and shock absorption measures in the passenger room also greatly reduce the discomfort of passengers.

In terms of design, the domestic railway system has also been at the forefront of the world from the very beginning because of Chen Zeyu's participation.

According to the actual needs of the future, Sun Wen, vice minister of the Ministry of Railways of the Republic, personally led the formulation of the country's first railway construction standards. In the future, except for the urban light rail and the short-distance self-use railways used by industrial and mining enterprises to transport ore raw materials, all railway projects will abandon the original narrow-gauge construction and instead use the imperial 1435 mm standard gauge as the yardstick to build the calculated general heavyhaul railways (heavyhaulrailways).

As a new type of railway with very high transportation efficiency, no one is more familiar with this standard heavy-haul railway that gradually emerged after World War II than Chen Zeyu. Although this kind of heavy-haul railway requires 75 kilograms of steel per meter compared to the various types of railways currently built by various countries, and the construction cost is higher, Chen Zeyu also knows that in the future, in order to adapt to the bulk of passenger and freight transportation, countries around the world will not spend less money to repeatedly upgrade their own railway systems. With Chen Zeyu's personal instructions, this railway construction standard has naturally attracted the attention of all railway construction officials.

After nearly two years of construction, the first five-year plan of the domestic heavy-haul railway has been completed by 40%, and the total mileage of the double line has reached 8,160 kilometers, excluding the earlier railway line industry in Nanyang. Among them, about 60% of them are directly funded by the government, and about 40% are built by private joint ventures through raising equity capital.

As of the beginning of this year, the entire domestic railway system has 4,985 steam traction locomotives, 12,565 railway passenger cars and 149921 freight cars, which are responsible for 39.6% of the domestic cargo traffic and 47.3% of the passenger traffic in Seris. More than 1,750 railway stations have been built, of which 1,190 are standard national railway stations under the Ministry of Railways, and the rest are operated by private capital, and 563 are private railway passenger and freight stations supervised and managed by the Ministry of Railways.

Thinking of the various new steam locomotives that are now in use in China, the corners of Chen Zeyu's mouth once again hung up in his thoughts.

In the last time and space, until the seventies of the twentieth century, other countries at that time had long ceased to use steam locomotives, and only the Orientals were still using these steam locomotives as the main traction power of domestic railways because of their lack of technical funds. Just like the turbojet engine that was later forced out, as a country that used steam locomotives to the last time, the Orientals unknowingly developed a type of steam traction locomotive with the highest power and the most advanced steam traction locomotive ever in the world -- the "forward type" steam locomotive, which was also called the "peace type" when it was first successfully developed.

Following the super-first-class design of the "Forward Type" of the previous Republic, now under the traction of such a steam locomotive named "Whirlwind", the various passenger and freight railway trains of the Republic can run a maximum speed of 120 km/h, and the average operating speed has also reached 85 km/h, which is close to the fastest speed of the early diesel locomotive railway.

In the railway systems of the same era, the operating speed of railway trains in most European countries at this time was only around 45 km/h, and the theoretical design speed of the Baghdad railway, which the Germans had just started construction last year, was fast, but it was only 50 km/h. In fact, even on the Chinese battlefield during World War II in the previous life, the Japanese South Manchurian Railway was at this level, and the speed of fifty or sixty kilometers per hour was not taken into account by the Communist railway guerrillas at that time, and it was common to climb up and down.

A fast and efficient rail system means huge improvements in the transportation of goods, the movement of people, the exchange of resources, trade over different places, and the ability to mobilize national defense. 85 km and 45 km, the difference between the two is almost doubled, which means that when something needs to be done in another country, the Seris railway system can be completed in half a day. In particular, the great convenience of national defense mobilization, when the enemy country needs two weeks or more to mobilize troops, the government of Seris only needs one week to complete the mobilization of troops at home, and in the event of war, the huge strategic advantage of this difference between the two sides will be incalculable.

It was at such a "whirlwind" speed that Chen Zeyu's special railway train arrived at the railway station on the outskirts of Beijing in less than 9 hours, which originally required 20 days to enter the customs.

On February 15, 1898, at 17:35 p.m., Chen Zeyu, who had returned to Beijing, first met with Secretary of State Liang Cheng and signed the "Revised Domestic Press Act" that had just been passed by the House of Representatives that day, and then met with Sir Dou Nale, the British Minister who had been waiting for a long time.

Seeing that the time was almost up, Chen Zeyu simply invited the other party to have dinner with him in the Xiyuan restaurant in Zhongnanhai......