On the way back to Jinan, Ren Chao was not in such a hurry, anyway, the grain had already begun to be transported to various disaster areas, and Ren Chao did not need to rush back. This time, Ren Chao specially ordered someone to find a carriage and marched to Jinan under the escort of a group of guards.

Although it is a horse-drawn carriage, it is inevitable that it will be bumpy in the current road conditions, and the speed is too slow.

Railway! Ren Chao, who was sitting in the carriage and endured the pain of the bumps, now thinks of these two words the most. As early as 1804, the British mine technician Diveske used Watt's steam engine to build the world's first steam locomotive. After decades of development, trains have been vigorously popularized in Europe and the United States, and have gradually become one of the main means of transportation for human travel.

But in the current Qing Dynasty, the promotion of trains has been hindered at all levels. In 1865, in order to arouse the interest of the Chinese in the railway, the British Durand built a small railway outside Xuanwu Gate in Beijing, but the result was counterproductive. The commander of the Xuanjing infantry army ordered the yamen to be dismantled, and the group began to be suspicious. ”

In 1876, the British built the Wusong Railway without the consent of China, which was also strongly opposed by the people along the way, and the train "was on its way, when it was stopped by eight or nine hundred men and women" because the sparks flying while the train were moving and set fire to the thatched huts nearby. Later, the train ran over a Chinese while running, which further angered the people, and the local people forcibly stopped the train, and the train was forced to stop running for only six weeks, after which the Qing government ransomed and demolished the railway line.

It was not until 1881, at the insistence of Li Hongzhang and others, that the Qing government finally built the Tangxu Railway, the first railway in China at that time. After the completion of the Tangxu Railway, there were still officials who proposed impeachment on the grounds that "the locomotive drove straight, shook Tanglin, and spewed black smoke, which hurt the crops." As a result, there was a strange phenomenon of transporting trains by mules and horses.

forced the locomotive to be banned, and later through Li Hongzhang, Tang Tingshu and other efforts, the railway was finally saved.

The reason why the implementation of the railway was so greatly hindered was very simple: at that time, the government and the opposition were still in a closed, even arrogant state, and their concept was still very backward, believing that the railway was "miraculous and ingenious", which would cause uneasiness in the spirit of the mountains and rivers, and would also bring disasters, and there was a kind of resistance and rejection of the railway, which would inevitably affect the acceptance of the new thing by the Chinese people.

Fortunately, after more than ten years, the Chinese people finally have some correct understanding of the railway, and the development of the railway has also made some corresponding progress. It was expanded on the basis of the Tangxu Railway and went south to Linxi Town on the Jingu Railway. To the north to Shanhaiguan (also known as Yuguan), construction started in 1890, opened to traffic in the spring of 1894, with a total length of 127 kilometers. At the same time, when Liu Mingchuan was the governor of Taiwan, he also built Taiwan's first railway in Taiwan.

But Shandong, where Ren Chao is located, has not had a railway so far. In order to speed up the modernization and development of Shandong, the construction of railways is already imminent. And Ren Chao is undoubtedly very lucky, with the efforts of Li Hongzhang and others, the government and the opposition also have a certain understanding of the railway. At this time, the time was ripe for the construction of additional railways.

Ren Chao sorted out his thoughts for a while, and then wrote a request for the construction of a railway on the carriage. Directly to Emperor Guangxu requesting the construction of the Jiaoji Railway and the Zhiji Railway (Tianjin-Jinan). In this recital, Ren Chao first explained to the imperial court the benefits of building a railway.

“…… Once the railway is passed, it can be shrunk to 10,000 miles, and the moon is in day and night, so that it can be used to transport troops, to transport weapons, to relieve famine, to transport, and to gather in Baisi. It is convenient to learn from the scholars, to transport goods from merchants, to make a living, and to understand speech. 1. Customs. With this amount of money, it is better to get tens of millions of dollars without spending national funds, than the railway. The benefits of the railway are known to the world. Outside Shanhaiguan. It has been built for a long time, and now it is a company, and its effect has been seen...... "Ren Chaonaturally does not have such a writing. I just wrote a first draft, and then found someone to polish it, and then it was played to the imperial court, of course, none of this is important.

Of course, the construction of the railway requires silver, and the current Qing Dynasty is undoubtedly very short of silver, and even if there is silver, many of it goes into private pockets, or is wasted in some useless places. For this reason, Ren Chao also proposed to attract private capital and even foreign capital to prepare for the construction of railways, but the control of railways should be firmly in the hands of the government, which is undoubtedly very important.

In order to ensure that things went smoothly, Ren Chao went to the court on the one hand, and told Li Hongzhang his thoughts as they were. Although in terms of attitude towards Japan, Ren Chao and Li Hongzhang had a strict disagreement. But I think the two were able to agree on the construction of the railway. After all, without Li Hongzhang's support, whether the Qing government can build a railway now is a question, which can be seen that Li Hongzhang is still quite clear about the benefits of the railway, and Li Hongzhang will not oppose this kind of move to benefit the country and the country. With Li Hongzhang's support, this matter has become more than half.

After Ren Chao returned to Jinan, he first summoned Li Chengen, the political envoy of Shandong, to briefly understand the disaster relief situation. At this time, the grain for disaster relief has been transported from Jiaoao to the disaster areas in various places, and the government has opened warehouses to release grain to help the victims, so that the disaster situation has been temporarily alleviated. But it is not so easy to completely relieve the disaster, and now Ren Chao can only silently hope that the people sent to Nanyang to purchase grain can transport the grain back to Shandong as soon as possible.

At the same time, the Jiao-Macao peace talks failed, and Ren Chao directly transmitted the news of the expulsion of the negotiating envoys back to Japan. It immediately caused an uproar in the Japanese government and the opposition. The main battle faction, which had been gradually falling silent, raised its head again.

"The Japanese Empire has repeatedly made concessions, but the arrogant Qing government has no sympathy at all. The brutal and brutal act of brutalizing and expelling the diplomatic personnel of the Empire is a great shame for our Empire Japan! I will restart the war mechanism, increase the number of troops in Korea, and increase the number of troops in the country! Only by completely defeating the Qing government can we wash away the shame brought by the Qing government to the empire. The main fighters at the cabinet meeting shouted loudly.

"But with the current state of the Empire, there is no longer the ability to fight! The Empire's elite army has been lost, the navy has also been heavily damaged, the treasury is empty, there is no money and no soldiers, how can this battle be fought? If we continue to fight, it will only increase casualties, and it will not do the empire any good. The Lord and the faction immediately objected. (To be continued......)

PS: The second update is here! Crying for subscription! Ask for a commuter pass! Ask for a qiē support!