Li Hongzhang's motorcade was moving fast in the wind and snow, and Wang Chenhao thought that the motorcade would go to the dock, but the motorcade stopped at the Laolongtou Railway Station in Tianjin.

Due to the strategic security concerns of the Qing court, there was no road connection between Yanjing and Tianjin, except for a narrow post road. After the establishment of the Tianjin Telegraph Office, this horse road was also abolished, and officials could only travel to and from Tianjin and Yanjing by canal and waterway. In winter, the water level of the canal is low and often frozen, so the traffic to Yanjing is very inconvenient.

This was obviously unbearable in later generations, but at this time, the diehards of the Qing Empire were very happy, thinking that it was not easy for the enemy to attack Yanjing because of such inconvenient transportation. As everyone knows, this is self-deception, if the enemy attacks the Tianjin gateway, it will also be difficult for Yanjing to reinforce. Even when the Eight-Nation Alliance captured Tianjin, Cixi of Yanjing did not know the situation, so she rashly declared war on the Eleven Kingdoms. If she had known about this earlier, I'm afraid she wouldn't have had the courage to declare war.

The Qing Empire's Westernization Movement lasted for 30 years, but because of the opposition of conservative diehards, the effect of the Westernization Movement was greatly reduced. Not to mention anything else, at this moment Wang Chenhao finally knew that the Qing Empire already had the first railway at this time - the Jintang Railway.

The Jintang Railway is a freight railway built by Li Hongzhang in order to transport coal from Tangshan to the Shuiguan Wharf in Tianjin.

Everyone got off the carriage and entered the train station, and along the way, Zhang Peilun explained to Wang Chenhao a series of absurd stories that happened during the period. Wang Chenhao always thought that the Westernists were the most powerful in the late Qing Dynasty, but they didn't know that in terms of railways, the Westernists fought against the diehards for more than 30 years and finally lost.

The strength of the Qing court's old-fashioned diehards was strong, and it was Li Hongzhang and other world's first governors and ministers who only built 10 kilometers of railways in the first fifteen years of their reign in Zhili and Beiyang, and later because a series of problems were exposed after the Sino-French War, the Qing Empire established a naval yamen to allow Li Hongzhang to build the Jintang Railway.

To Wang Chenhao's surprise, the railway was under the control of the navy's yamen, and Li Hongzhang had to show favor to Prince Yiyun in order to build the railway to Yanjing. Although Yiyun agreed to Li Hongzhang's repair of the Jin-Lu railway, the diehards resolutely opposed it, and Li Hongzhang had to show favor to Zhang Zhidong and use it as foreign aid. Such a diehard faction agreed to build the railway, but unexpectedly, Zhang Zhidong dragged Li Hongzhang back, proposing to stop the Jinlu Railway first and build the Luhan Railway first. The Luhan Railway is 3,000 miles long, and it costs 30 million taels of silver, and it cannot be completed in the financial year of the Qing Empire. Soon, the situation in Korea was turbulent, and it was said that Ben sent troops to Korea to make the Qing Empire nervous about the safety of the ancestral land in the north, so Li Hongzhang's plan to build a railway into the northeast was approved.

In this way, Li Hongzhang can take the opportunity to repair the Jinlu Railway. However, at this time, Prince Yiyun died suddenly, and the naval yamen fell into the hands of Yixuan. Yixuan only admitted money, pressed the railway matter, and kept blackmailing Li Hongzhang with this, but until the outbreak of the First Sino-Japanese War, the Jinlu Railway was not completed. During the First Sino-Japanese War, there was no money to repair it, and it has been shelved until now.

Now, Yi has entered the navy yamen, and Li Hongzhang naturally has to visit him, hoping to build the railway smoothly.

In Wang Chenhao's view, the Manchu court will only have three minutes of blood after being beaten. After the Sino-French War, the naval yamen was opened, and the idea of building a railway was moved. After the First Sino-Japanese War, the construction of a new type of army was launched, and it was inevitable that the railway project would be put on the agenda.

So he said: "Prince Gong and Prince Alcohol are both rare people of insight, and the First Sino-Japanese War exposed the unfavorable situation of reinforcements from the imperial court's land division, I think there should be no problem in building the railway!" ”

"I hope so!" Li Hongzhang didn't seem to report too good results, and Zhang Peilun explained to Wang Chenhao: "Prince Gong and Weng Tonggong have a close relationship, and there was a 'friendship' that was kicked out of the prime minister's yamen back then, so we can't help but be on guard!" ”

Wang Chenhao was stunned for a moment, and suddenly remembered the festival between Li Hongzhang and Weng Tongxiao, and suddenly smiled bitterly.

The train is not long, only six carriages, and the huge steam locomotive can only be seen from old photos in Wang Chenhao's time.

"Isn't the Jintang Railway going to Tangshan?" Wang Chenhao suddenly thought of this question.

Li Hongzhang and Zhang Peilun glanced at each other and smiled mysteriously, and the latter quietly explained to Wang Chenhao: "This is what we secretly cultivated!" But it is only to extend the Jintang Railway to the vicinity of Langfang, and after Langfang, it will not be under our jurisdiction, and we will not dare to build it again! ”

Wang Chenhao smiled, in response to the sentence "There are policies and countermeasures", and Li Hongzhang did not completely listen to the mercy of the Qing court.

After getting on the train, Li Hongzhang asked Wang Chenhao to write down his training instructions in detail. Wang Chenhao thought that many things in the future would be easy to forget if he didn't think about them for a long time, so he chose to write them down on paper.

When the train arrived in Langfang, Wang Chenhao had already written his training instructions. Li Hongzhang took it and frowned immediately, only to see that Wang Chenhao wrote all simplified characters, and it was crooked, Li Hongzhang could only rely on the words before and after to roughly judge the words he didn't know.

"After I go back, I want to urge Chen Hao to practice writing a lot!"

Li Hongzhang couldn't stand it anymore, so he handed it to Zhang Peilun and asked him to copy it again and sort it out before showing it to him.

In this regard, Wang Chenhao just smiled awkwardly.

It is not far from Langfang to Yanjing, where there is a convoy specially retained by Li Hongzhang, and everyone gets on the bus directly to Yanjing.

Before dark, Li Hongzhang's motorcade arrived outside Prince Gong's mansion. The self-owned newspaper officer went up to knock on the door and handed over the sign, and at the same time carried a few boxes of gifts for Yi inside.

Li Hongzhang pinched the time very well, and the gift was given in the dark sky in the wind and snow, so as not to be discovered, and at the same time he told Wang Chenhao to prepare for a good meal in the palace, and eat enough first.

All right! Wang Chenhao has to admire Li Hongzhang's abacus is loud enough, enough for the masters!

"Lord Wang, Lord Li, Lord Wang, Mr. Zhang!"

Because Zhang Peilun has no official position and has been convicted by the imperial court, he is not allowed to see Prince Gong according to the rules. However, today Li Hongzhang came to see Yi with his two sons-in-law, so Yi let Zhang Peilun in.

It was snowing outside, and Li Hongzhang and Wang Chenhao's personal guards were arranged to wait in the palace wing.

Li Hongzhang took Wang Chenhao and Zhang Peilun to follow the housekeeper into the palace, and as soon as he walked outside the front hall, he saw a person laughing a few times and greeted him, it was Prince Gong Wang Yi.

When the two met, they could not be praised by the officialdom. And Zhang Peilun is famous, naturally he has seen Devil Six, and the two are also very familiar.

Of course, Wang Chenhao and Yi have also met a few times, and it was during the negotiations in Tianjin. But at that time, Yi didn't care about Wang Chenhao, thinking that a hairy boy could have any ability, so he ignored it.

Now he doesn't dare to underestimate Wang Chenhao anymore, not to mention that he is still Li Hongzhang's fourth son-in-law, and his status is different, so Yi naturally wants to pay attention to him.

"The afterlife is terrifying!"

"The prince has won the prize! The prince is the most knowledgeable in the Qing royal family! The humble position is just a little starry, how dare you compete with the prince Haoyue? ”

Yi laughed a few times, didn't say much, and hurriedly invited the three of them in.