On the one hand, Song Zhewu instructed Jia Jingde to speed up the construction of the new power plant, and on the other hand, through Xiao Guodong, arranged to speed up the development of high-power high-voltage transformers and steel-core aluminum stranded wires, so as to make preparations for long-distance power transmission.

After all, Shanxi's industry wants to develop greatly, it is absolutely impossible to have enough electricity, this problem must be solved sooner or later, since it must be solved, it is better to solve it early than late.

But at this moment, Feng Rui came with good news, the irrigation problem on the banks of the Yellow River was solved, and a lot of electricity was not needed.

This news made Song Zhewu both happy and surprised.

It turned out that Cao Ruizhi, a water conservancy engineer from the Committee of Agriculture who graduated from the University of Wisconsin in the United States and obtained a master's degree in hydraulic engineering, used the siphon principle to design a complete set of drainage and irrigation facilities on the banks of the Yellow River.

This Cao Ruizhi was originally an engineer in the Henan Water Conservancy Bureau, but this time he was also attracted by Song Zhewu's talent recruitment plan and returned to Shanxi. As soon as he arrived in Taiyuan, he was robbed by Feng Rui to the Committee of Agriculture and served as the chief engineer of water conservancy construction.

Feng Rui's news also reminded Song Zhewu vaguely that he seemed to have read an article about Cao Ruizhi using the siphon principle for irrigation in Shanxi and Henan in his previous life, and this Cao Ruizhi also published a book in 35 years, called "Hydraulic Situation and Flow Calculation of Siphon", and won the gold medal of the Chinese Society of Engineers that year.

During the Republic of China, there were really capable people! During this period, it can be said that there is no shortage of talents in China to a certain extent, but only a stage on which they can play their role.

In addition to feeling emotional, Song Zhewu immediately instructed Feng Rui to 'step up the development of tidal flats on the banks of the Yellow River and strive to build a demonstration farm this year.' At the same time, he also instructed Feng Rui to 'promote the siphon irrigation project in Taiyuan and Suiyuan, Nanbeimeng and other places, combine the water storage of small reservoirs and electromechanical pumping elevation irrigation, improve the farmland water conservancy plan in various places, and put the development of small hydropower on the agenda.'

With perfect water conservancy and irrigation facilities, combined with the use of new agricultural production technology and chemical fertilizers, Song Zhewu is confident that the grain output of the Taiyuan Administration and Suiyuan, and Nanbeimeng will be greatly increased.

Compared with a series of things such as scientific research, education development, education, industrial revitalization, and farmland reclamation, the most headache for Song Zhewu was the construction of the Kutai Railway.

The Kutai Railway had to be built as soon as possible, because the strategic importance of the railway was so important.

At present, Song Zhewu's troops are mainly divided into two major parts, one in Taiyuan and the other in Northern Mongolia, and the distance between the two places is more than 1,000 kilometers in a straight line alone. Now, even with the help of Song Zhewu's more than 1,000 trucks, it will take about a month to transport an army to Kulun.

The path of the Kutai Railway has been selected, according to the instructions of Song Zhewu, starting from the Taiyuan Station of the Zhengtai Railway, passing through Xinzhou and Yuanping, passing through the west of Dai County, and then passing through Shanyin and Huairen to Datong. It's just that the section north of Shanyin to Datong is not under the control of Song Zhewu now, which needs to be done by the Jin Sui army. Now Xu Yongchang also wants to build this section of the railway, but he has no money in his hand, so he has to build this section to Shanyin first.

This is only a branch line of the Taiku Railway, and the trunk line of the Taiku Railway is in Yuanping to the west through Ningwu and Shenchi to Biguan, out of Shanxi through Zhungeer to Baotou, and then through Guyang to Baiyun Obo mining area, and then from Solanger to North Mongolia, through Manlai, Wollegit to Kulun, the whole journey is more than 1,800 kilometers.

The reason why the main trunk line of the Taiku Railway did not pass through Suiyuan is mainly because Song Zhewu considered that after the start of the Anti-Japanese War, Suiyuan is likely to become the front line. Moreover, it is also closer from Baotou to Baiyun Obo. You know, Baiyun Obo mining area not only has a large iron mine, there is also the world's largest rare earth mining area, reserves account for 80% of the world's total reserves, is a well-deserved world rare earth treasure house, Song Zhewu to vigorously develop the semiconductor industry, can not do without here in the future.

Song Zhewu planned to build a large steel complex and a rare metal refinery in Baiyun Obo, which would not have been possible without easy rail links.

Now that the route has been selected, the next step is the design and construction, but the design plan handed in by Jia Jingde and Ling Hongxun made Song Zhewu very puzzled, obviously the quasi-gauge railway has a larger capacity, but they have to build a narrow gauge?

In particular, the quasi-gauge railway, that is, the broad gauge can be connected to the Datong and Pingsui lines, and the goods from Taiyuan can be transported directly to Tianjin, without the need to reload and reverse the train on Shangpinghan Road in Shijiazhuang, as is the case with the Zhengtai Railway. This saves not only the shipping costs, but also the main thing is that it saves a lot of time.

Song Zhewu remembered that in normal history, Yan Xishan was not criticized by the world for building narrow tracks. One theory is that Yan Xishan built a narrow gauge instead of a quasi-gauge because he was afraid that the central army would take the train straight into Shanxi and threaten his rule over Shanxi.

Of course, Song Zhewu did not believe this statement, because if there was really a war, it would be impossible for the opponent's army to enter Shanxi by train and swagger, and it must go through a battle, and only if the Jin Sui army failed, the other party would take the train into the hinterland of Shanxi.

Moreover, in wartime, it is also possible to block traffic by destroying bridges and culverts, in the period of the Anti-Japanese War in history, there are sections of the Tongpu Railway in the Battle of the Hundred Regiments, because they were seriously damaged by the Eighth Route Army, and the army wants to recover and has not been restored, until the founding of the People's Republic of China to resume traffic.

In particular, the narrow gauge of the Tongpu Railway did not prevent the Central Army from entering Shanxi. Historically, after the Red Army entered Shaanxi, the Central Army marched into Shanxi in the name of assisting the Jin Sui Army in suppressing bandits.

The Ministry of Railways of Nanjing also sent a telegram a few days ago, in addition to praising the construction of the railway in Shanxi, it also hoped that the railway built in Shanxi must be built on the quasi-gauge track, not as narrow gauge as the Zhengtai Railway, so that it can be connected to the Datong or Suiyuan and Pingsui lines in the future, so as to realize the combined transportation of the two railway bureaus and improve the efficiency of freight transportation. He also said that Nanjing could subsidize part of the money.

Jia Jingde and others insisted on building a narrow track, did they, like everyone else, really think that they could block the outside army from entering the hinterland of Shanxi? Could it be that Yan Xishan really thought so at the beginning?

With such questions, Song Zhewu took Jia Jiying and Xiao Guodong to the Industrial Construction Committee presided over by Jia Jingde, and he wanted to ask the reason, make a final decision, and let the Taiku Railway start construction as soon as possible.

Regarding Song Zhewu's question, Jia Jingde, Ling Hongxun, and Qiu Zengyi could only smile helplessly.

Jia Jingde explained: "Commander, the reason why we proposed to build a narrow gauge is, in a word, a matter of money. ”

Song Zhewu frowned inadvertently and said: "I know that the construction of the Kutai Railway is a huge and arduous project, and the construction cost will be very high, and I am still mentally prepared for this, and we have now prepared the preliminary construction payment." ”

Song Zhewu's unhappy expression, although it was only for a moment, was still discovered by the sensitive Jia Jingde, who knew that Song Zhewu still underestimated the huge amount of money for the construction of the Kutai Railway, and somewhat misunderstood what he meant.

Jia Jingde shook his head slightly, pondered for a moment, and then explained: "The commander wants to build the Kutai Railway, aside from the military significance, the economic significance alone is also very huge, Shanxi people have a soft spot for railway construction, and have long wanted to build a railway in the territory, and the commander's move has been praised by Shanxi people." ”

"After the construction of the Zhengtai Railway, Shanxi from Beijing Hanlin Yuan Ji Shi Xie Yingge, the director of the Ministry of Officials Li Tingyang, Hunan alternate Daoist Liu Dujing and others suggested to Shanxi Governor Zhang Zengyang: 'The railway from Datong to Puzhou should be built by the gentry and merchants of this province, that is, the Tongpu Railway. Zhang adopted this suggestion, and Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty approved the establishment of Shanxi Tongpu Railway Co., Ltd. in February 1907. After three years, only 7.5 kilometers of roadbed were built between Yuci and Beijiao Village. Finally, due to the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution and the difficulty of fundraising, the repair was suspended. In 1913, Tongpu Road was changed from "commercial office" to "state office", and was incorporated into the Tongcheng (Datong-Taiyuan-Fenglingdu-Xi'an-Chengdu) railway plan, and also borrowed money from the French to build it. Later, because Yuan Shikai used the money for the civil war, after ten years, only the road was measured and no track was paved. In 1927, Baigong put forward a plan to build the Tongpu Railway by Shanxi itself. Ren Nai continued to be the leader of the surveying team, and it took three years to measure the entire line. It was stopped in 1930 due to the Central Plains War. ”

After Jia Jingde called Yan Xishan a hundred dukes, he felt that something was wrong, and couldn't help but pause to observe whether Song Zhewu was unhappy.

Now he still calls Yan Xishan a hundred dukes in front of Song Zhewu, but in Song Zhewu's system, there are only two people, Jia Jingde and Zhao Pilian, and some people have already expressed their dissatisfaction with Song Zhewu. But Song Zhewu didn't care. Zhao Pilian is an upright person, and he has been friends with Yan Xishan for a long time, although he joined Song Zhewu's side, he didn't bother to call Yan Xishan by his name in order to curry favor with Song Zhewu. And Jia Jingde has always been obsessed with Yan Xishan's kindness, and even encouraged Yan Xishan to launch a war in the Central Plains, causing Yan Xishan to flee to Dalian very guilty, and his name for Yan Xishan has always remained the same. Song Zhewu understood the thoughts of these two people very well and was not dissatisfied.

Therefore, he didn't care about Jia Jingde's uneasiness, but he was very interested in what Jia Jingde said, Shanxi people have insisted on building railways for more than 20 years, and motioned Jia Jingde to continue.

Jia Jingde secretly let out a long breath, and then said: "When Baigong wanted to build the Tongpu Railway, there was a debate about whether to build a narrow track or a quasi-track. At that time, due to the shortage of funds, it once asked Nanjing to allocate part of the money, and Nanjing proposed to adopt the 1.435-meter standard gauge in the name of the Ministry of Railways. However, because Nanjing also proposed that if the central government allocated funds, the railway would be nationalized after completion, so it gave up. ”

"Because of lack of funds, Baigong had to decide to build a narrow track at that time."

(To be continued)