Thanks to the massive reduction in military spending in 1860 and the fact that the budget for the development of the interior was more relaxed than in previous years, the various cabinet ministries had already put forward a number of plans.

The Ministry of Industry and Commerce has put forward a plan to support the construction of two key industrial cities and three minor industrial cities in the next two years, and will focus on the development of textile, daily chemicals and other light industries that are closely related to people's livelihood and have low technical requirements.

In particular, Guangzhou, one of the two key support cities, is preparing to build itself into a city represented by light industry in an all-round way, and is preparing to focus on light industries such as textiles and tea processing.

On the other hand, Wuchang, Hubei Province, is an industrial city that is ready to be used as a heavy industry-based city.

In addition, other cities such as Tianjin and Suzhou are temporarily dominated by light industry.

The distribution of light and heavy industries is related to the geographical location and resources of each region.

For example, the reason why it was decided to develop heavy industry in the Wuchang area of Hubei Province is because there is a Daye iron mine nearby, and after Lin Zhe's intentional or unintentional guidance, Jiangnan Mining Company has discovered a large-scale coal mine in Zhuzhou, Jiangxi Province.

With coal and iron mines, these areas are not short of population, and are located on the Yangtze River, which is more convenient for steel to be transported, and there was already a Changsha Arsenal in Hubei Province.

The combination of these led to the empire's decision to build a heavy industry dominated by steel industry in the Wuchang area.

However, to develop Jiangxi's coal mines, we must first build a railway, otherwise the cost of coal transportation is too great!

This time. It's about the Empire's railroad plans again!

In order to cooperate with the development of domestic industry and commerce, Lin Zhe had instructed Royal Industry to invest in the establishment of Xuzhou Railway Company a few years ago. and build an experimental railway between the Xuzhou mine and the canal.

The test railway, which is only a few tens of kilometers, cost the Xuzhou Railway Company more than one million yuan, and the company has just hired technicians from abroad. The direct import of trains, etc., led to the high cost of this section of the railway, which made many people oppose it.

Some officials of the Finance Department of the Palace Affairs Department have repeatedly questioned whether it is worth it to spend such a high price to build a section of railroad tracks.

If hundreds or even thousands of kilometers are built in the future, won't the investment funds be tens of millions or even hundreds of millions?

How can such a high construction cost be raised?

It is absolutely impossible to rely on the royal industry alone, you can let the royal industry invest a million yuan, and you can get four or five million through gritting your teeth, but you can let the royal industry take out tens of millions to invest in the construction of railways. That's a very difficult thing to do, unless the Royal Bank spends the depositors' money directly.

The royal family industry can't do it, and the imperial treasury can't directly pay for the practice?

It is also unlikely, the empire's annual financial income is only more than 200 million, even if it increases in the next few years, it is impossible to increase several times and several times, and it will have to snicker if it can have a growth rate of more than ten percent.

And to build a railroad can cost tens of millions of dollars, and if the empire moves so much money, then there will be problems with the operation of the administrative organs of the entire empire. The military's military spending will also be seriously insufficient.

Taking out tens of millions to build railways is not a difficult problem for the imperial finances, but it will be 100% financially bankrupt.

For China in 1860, it was necessary to build railways on a large scale. The difficulty is considerable.

But then again, no matter how difficult the railroad is, it must be built, and without the railway, China's industrial and commercial economy cannot be truly realized. The industrial revolution will not be completed, and national defense will face great difficulties.

So no matter how difficult it is. Lin Zhe has to grit his teeth and build the railway.

"Now that the Xuzhou mining railway is almost complete, we have already run the train on a trial basis in one of the sections. Although there have been some problems, we have slowly solved and improved them, and the entire railway is expected to be fully opened to traffic in October! ”

Sitting in front of Lin Zhe was not an official of the empire, nor a soldier, but a middle-aged man in a Chinese suit, who was different from the others in that he wore a dragon badge on his chest, which was a unique badge for royal employees.

This person's name is Ma Gongwen, is the general manager of the Xuzhou Railway Company, which belongs to the royal family, this person is about 40 years old, not a technician, but a very typical businessman, has been in the royal industry, successively served as the financial manager of Linde Machinery Company, the general manager of Jinling Arsenal.

Lin Zhe put him in charge of railway affairs back then, but it is not that this person's ability is good, but he has a very excellent characteristic, that is, he will do what Lin Zhe says, and he will not drill the horns of the bull, and has too many personal ideas.

Lin Zhe asked him to prepare for the Xuzhou Railway Company and build a test railway, he didn't even ask why, he just took office and started to do it, Lin Zhe asked him to set the railway standard as an international standard, he also did not ask why, but did so, Lin Zhe asked him to go to the UK to hire relevant technicians, the introduction of trains and other related technologies, he still did not have any problems, and immediately did it.

Sometimes, the superior does not really like those subordinates who are too good in personal ability and have a strong personal style, on the contrary, many superiors prefer obedient subordinates, unless there is a real need, otherwise it is difficult for them to really feel at ease with those who are talented and have too many personalities.

Looking at the military and political sides of the empire, there are actually no truly talented people, many of them are people of average ability, and those in high positions are also very obedient people.

The few who are more capable are Shi Qingxuan of the military, Guo Longyun, the economic minister of the government, and Bi Xuanxi, the governor of Anhui.

The generals of the other high command and many ministers of the cabinet are actually mostly mediocre!

When it comes to those who are really capable and talented, they are often not well-known in the middle level, and the most obvious example is Li Hongzhang.

Needless to say, this person's talent and ability are needless to say, in history, he engaged in foreign affairs, ran a sailor, and laid the political and military system of Beiyang in one fell swoop, without him, the Manchu Dynasty is estimated to have perished decades ahead of schedule.

Even in this time and space, Li Hongzhang still exerted an amazing talent, a few years ago he was nothing on the land of China, but it didn't take a few years to make a Jianghuai New Army, was captured by the Chinese army, lived a life of house arrest in the first year, and later personally wrote a letter to Lin Zhe on the development of industry and commerce, before officially announcing that it was anyway, and served as the 'director of industrial and commercial strategic development' to lead the task of the industrial and commercial strategic development office directly under the cabinet.

Although this department does not have any real power, it belongs to the consultant and think tank institutions, but even if it is a false position, Li Hongzhang has made achievements.

Since last year, he has participated in several cabinet meetings and assisted the Ministry of Industry and Commerce in refining the development plan of the textile industry.

Recently, he proposed to develop coal mines in the Tangshan area, iron ore in the northeast Liaoning area, and rely on the iron ore and coal in these northern regions to prepare for a large-scale steel base in Tianjin.

This plan has even been endorsed and supported by the Minister of Economy, Guo Longyun!

This Li Hongzhang fully proves one sentence, that is, gold will shine there!

It's a pity that this talented person has always been able to hold the fictitious position of director of industrial and commercial strategic development, let alone enter the cabinet or govern a province, even if he has middle-level real power.

This is not that Lin Zhe deliberately suppressed Li Hongzhang, but that although Li Hongzhang is capable, it is reflected in the overall situation, and he is too subjective in addition to his ability.

If you have a view of the overall situation, Lin Zhe himself has it, and he doesn't need his subordinates to have a big picture, Lin Zhe's own inner plan, and even the development plan for the next hundred years are already there, well, if he can live for hundreds of years, his overall view can be used until the twenty-first century.

What kind of forward-looking, big-picture view and so on, looking at the world, who else can compare to his traverser?

Maybe in a few years, Lin Zhe will bring up Li Hongzhang for reuse, but even if he is reused at that time, it will definitely not be because of Li Hongzhang's ability or talent.

Lin Zhe likes to use some courtiers with relatively moderate and obedient personalities, who have the best ability, and the ability is average and barely passable, as for the ability to say that the ability is too poor.

People with too poor ability can't get into Lin Zhe's field of vision at all from the upper echelons of the empire!

Ma Gongwen is a typical person with average ability, but very obedient!

"When the traffic is opened, you are ready to prepare, and when the time comes, I will let a few people from the cabinet take a look, and since the test railway is almost completed, you will prepare to build a Zhuzhou coal mine railway, and carry out preliminary exploration preparations for the railway from Shanghai to Dangtu!"

Ma Gongwen would not be like everyone else, asking why he wanted to build the Zhuzhou Coal Mine Railway, why he wanted to build the railway from Shanghai to Dangtu, he just bowed his head and replied: "The Ministry of Labor knows!" ”

Lin Zhe said: "Well, after you have finished preparing the preliminary work for these things, you will find a successor appropriately!" ”

Hearing this, Ma Gongwen, who had never doubted, couldn't help but show his doubts, he has been in charge of railway affairs for the past two years, and he chose someone else at the beginning of this railway affairs, so what about himself? Where to go?

It's about himself, Ma Gongwen is naturally a little apprehensive!

Lin Zhe saw his apprehension, and knew that if he didn't say it today, it was estimated that this person would not be able to sleep for several days when he went back, and immediately said: "This railway construction is a local section, and each does not belong to each other, but the development of the imperial railway industry still needs unified planning, and the large-scale construction of the railway also needs the strong cooperation of the cabinet and the local government, and a single Xuzhou railway company cannot do this, and in a few months, I am ready to prepare an agency responsible for national railway affairs, and you will take care of it then!" (To be continued.) )