The first trial of the steam locomotive went very smoothly, but in the final name, Wang Shu and Zhao Xu, the two cousins, had a dispute, Wang Shu insisted on using the name train, while Zhao Xu insisted on using his own thought of the car, the two were arguing, and finally Zhao Yan could only let them guess the fist decision, and in the end Wang Shu won, which also made Zhao Yan relieved, after all, he also preferred the name train.

Then Zhao Yan and Shen Kuo discussed the construction of the railway, now the steam engine can be put into practice, and the train will be the first practical tool of the steam engine, just now Zhao Yan has promised to build a railway between Tokyo and Luoyang, Xijing, in recent years, with the penetration of the Great Song Dynasty into the Western Regions, the Silk Road that had been blocked at the end of the Tang Dynasty was reopened, which also made the journey from Tokyo to Luoyang extremely busy, so building a railway can not only greatly facilitate the people of the two places, At the same time, it can also promote the development of the Silk Road.

Although the train has just been successfully tried, Shen Kuo is already sure to make a more perfect train, so he is also strongly in favor of the construction of the railway from Tokyo to Luoyang, and guarantees to build a more practical train before the completion of the railway construction, for Shen Kuo's ability, Zhao Yan is also very trusted, so this railway is so decided, and it is built by his private funds, anyway, it is a profitable business, not to do it in vain.

After taking the train, Zhao Yan took Zhao Xu around the Gewu Academy again, visited the new progress of some disciplines, and greatly increased Zhao Xu's knowledge, and finally Zhao Yan took Zhao Xu to the military academy for a turn, so a whole day passed, although Zhao Yan did not give a formal lecture for a whole day, but Zhao Xu's knowledge increased this day was far stronger than the previous day's class.

It was getting late, and Zhao Yan and Zhao Xu were in the carriage and prepared to go back to the palace to rest. It was only then that Zhao Xu suddenly asked: "Third uncle, I heard you and Dean Shen talk about the construction of the railway, why does that kind of train have to walk on the tracks, I think Dean Shen and their train seem to be walking on wooden tracks?" ”

Hearing that Zhao Xu actually noticed this problem, Zhao Yan was a little surprised, but he still opened his mouth to explain: "Dean Shen, they are here to save costs. Therefore, a road with wooden rails was built to allow the train to pass, this kind of wooden rail road is equivalent to low and easy to build, but it will not take long to deform and break, so if you want to let the train run for a long time, you must use rails, so that the railway can be used for decades without breaking! ”

"But...... But how much iron is needed for such a road, steel has always been the lifeblood of the country, if too much steel is spent to build such a railway, what if the steel of my Great Song Dynasty is not enough? At this time, Zhao Xu finally asked the real doubts in his heart. In fact, he has been worried that the output of steel in the Great Song Dynasty will not be able to keep up, after all, the gentleman in the palace has always taught him that the steel output of the past dynasties is not enough, and the same is true of the Great Song Dynasty, so the steel industry must be in the hands of the state.

"Hahaha~, it turns out that Xu'er is worried about this problem!" What Zhao Xu didn't expect was that Zhao Yan laughed when he heard his words, and only after a while did he stop and speak. "Xu'er, did the gentleman in the palace tell you? Our steel production in Da Song is not enough? ”

"Yes, Mr. said that steel can be used to make weapons and armor, as well as farm tools and daily necessities, but steel is not easy to come by, and the annual output is limited, so I monopolized steel in the Great Song Dynasty. to control the use of steel. Zhao Xu said with a serious face at this time, he felt that the gentleman in the palace could not lie to him.

"That's true, but Xu'er you were wrong this time, to be exact, your husband was wrong, my Da Song is not short of steel now!" Zhao Yan said with an unsurprising expression when he heard this.

"How could it be. Although the gentlemen in the palace are a little verbose, they are all erudite people carefully selected by the Queen Mother, how can they even make a mistake in such an important matter as steel? Zhao Xu said in disbelief at this time, although he didn't like to be forced to study by the gentlemen in the palace, he still admired the knowledge of these gentlemen.

"Haha~, if those gentlemen of yours had told you a few years ago that my Great Song Dynasty lacked steel, it wouldn't be wrong, but now it's a big mistake to say so...... Zhao Yan said that he told the reason why he said those gentlemen were wrong.

It turned out that since Qiongzhou found a super-large-scale iron-rich mine, Zhao Yan has found some iron-rich ore in the islands of the South Seas, originally went to the Han people in the South Seas mainly wanted to find some gold, silver or gem mines, but unfortunately there are very few people who can find this precious mineral, but the iron ore found a lot, many of which are iron-rich ore, far stronger than the poor iron ore in the Central Plains, in this case, many people have begun to choose to operate iron ore.

After these years of development, the Southeast Peninsula, Luzon, Liuqiu Island, and even farther Nanyang Island, there are some large iron mines, these iron ore owners use cheap natives to mine the ore, and then transport it to the designated ironworks for iron ingots to be transported back to the Great Song Dynasty, although the benefits of each time are far from comparable with gold and silver, but they are better than the large amount, and they can also get a lot of profits in a year.

When he said this, he saw Zhao Yan pause for a moment and then said: "It is precisely because of the import of these overseas iron-rich ores that the steel production of the Great Song Dynasty has increased greatly in recent years, but the increase in steel production has also brought some not very good effects. ”

"Bad effects? Isn't the increase in steel production a good thing for our Da Song? Zhao Xu was a little puzzled when he heard Zhao Yan's words, in his opinion, the more materials such as steel, the better.

However, Zhao Yan shook his head and smiled when he heard Zhao Xu's words: "Xu'er, you have to remember a truth, that is, everything must have a degree, and if it exceeds this degree, then good things may also become bad things, such as steel production, with the import of overseas ores, it will soon have a huge impact on the iron ore mining industry of our Great Song Dynasty, after all, the quality of domestic iron ore is too poor, so many iron mines have closed down because of this, and miners have lost their jobs, which has had a great impact on the economy and security of some places." ”

Speaking of this, Zhao Yan paused for a moment, then frowned and said: "In addition, the increase in steel production has led to a decline in the price of iron in the country, which is much cheaper than the steel of the surrounding countries, so that many unscrupulous businessmen do not hesitate to risk killing their heads in order to make profits to transport the domestic iron materials to the surrounding countries, and other small countries are fine, but a lot of iron materials have flowed into the hands of the Liao State, if the two countries fight in the future, these iron materials will become weapons against our Great Song Army!" ”

"These damn merchants!" Zhao Xu couldn't help but be furious when he heard this, smuggling iron was originally a felony to kill the head, but he didn't expect that someone would dare to do this, especially selling to an enemy like Liao, which was no different from betraying the country.

"If there is a fifty percent profit, it will take risks; If there is a 100% profit, it dares to trample on all the laws of the world; If there is a profit of 300 percent, it will dare to commit any crime, even the danger of being killed, the merchant pursues profit, it has been the case since ancient times, but the merchant also plays a key role in the country's commodity and economic circulation, Xu'er, you must not despise the merchant in the future, but should pay attention to them, appease them, and use the characteristics of the merchant to develop the country's economy. Zhao Yan said solemnly at this time, the steam engine has appeared, presumably the industrial revolution is not far away, followed by the take-off of industry and commerce, and businessmen will occupy a key role in this industrial revolution, so it is necessary for Zhao Xu to correctly understand the role of businessmen.

"I know, I'm scolding those unscrupulous merchants!" Zhao Xu said fiercely again, in the past few years, he has studied with Zhao Yan and understands the importance of businessmen to the country, so he does not despise businessmen as much as ordinary people.

Because of those unscrupulous businessmen, Zhao Xu will sulk when he gets angry, but soon he pesters Zhao Yan to talk about overseas things, human beings are extremely curious about some unknown things, and Zhao Xu, who grew up inland, is also very curious about the sea that he has never seen, especially in recent years, he has heard Zhao Yan mention a lot of things on the sea, so as long as he has time, he pesters Zhao Yan to talk about things on the sea, and Zhao Yan is also happy to let Zhao Xu know more about the sea, so he picks some things that children are interested in to talk about.

The uncle and nephew chatted, and finally returned to the palace when it was getting dark, Zhao Xu immediately jumped out of the carriage with cheers, rushed into the mansion and disappeared, Zhao Yan didn't care about him, because he knew that Zhao Xu must have gone to find his sons to play, and he would definitely see them in the restaurant when he had dinner.

Zhao Yan went straight into the inner house, Cao Ying and the others were already getting people ready for dinner, and when they saw Zhao Yan coming in, they immediately let people serve the food, and then the family came to the restaurant to eat, at this time Zhao Xu and Zhao Jia really came to the restaurant, and a group of people were so noisy, and finally it was under the scolding of the eldest sister Siyue that they quieted down, speaking of which Siyue was already eighteen years old, and the matchmaker was wave after wave, but Zhao Yan was reluctant to let his daughter marry out so early, so he never let go.

After dinner, Zhao Yan chatted with a group of children for a while as usual, listening to their respective troubles and thoughts, this is Zhao Yan's parent-child time at home, as long as there is nothing particularly important, he will definitely not be absent. But today, I suddenly found that Zhao Jia, who was usually very active, seemed to have something on his mind, and when he asked him, he deliberately diverted the topic, as if he didn't want to talk to him.

Originally, Zhao Yan thought that this eldest son was in early love, but when he went back, Cao Ying told him something that made him angry. (To be continued......)