In December 1878, the construction of the two major railway arteries that crisscrossed China's east, west, north and south began on a large scale. The railway starts from the four starting cities, as well as the intersection of Zhengzhou, Henan, and selects several points in the middle, a total of more than a dozen places start construction at the same time, so as to speed up the construction progress to the greatest extent.

In fact, a great deal of preparatory work was already underway for the geographical survey, the planning of routes, the negotiation of the import of various supporting facilities, the hiring of foreign engineers, the formulation of rules and regulations for the construction of railways, the recruitment of laborers for road construction, and the removal of local officials who opposed road construction.

At this time, the Ministry of Industry had been renamed the Ministry of Construction, and Li Hongzhang, as the minister, spent most of his time on the construction and planning of the railway, of course, the main design work was carried out by the British, and a large number of Chinese technicians accompanied the work and study. In charge of the Beijing-Guangzhou (Beijing-Guangzhou Railway) was the British engineer Jinda, and in charge of the Wuhan-Shanghai (Han-Shanghai Railway) was the chief engineer of the Kaiping Mineral Factory, the Englishman Bo Nei and his wife.

Ding Yuntong believes that the completion of the two railways will greatly facilitate the circulation of goods, the flow of personnel, and the assembly and mobilization of troops. This is not only the construction of the railway, but also the spiritual baptism of all Chinese. The concept of the pursuit of development and modernization will be more powerful in the mind than any words. Japan's dictator during the Meiji Restoration, Okubo Ritsu, once had doubts about the construction of Japan's first railway, but when he personally took the Keihin Railway (Tokyo-Yokohama) once, he felt extremely happy and his mind was completely clear.

Anyone who is dissatisfied with the New Deal does not need to debate with him, as long as he gets on the train and experiences the feeling of speedning, there will inevitably be a change of thinking. If it is still stubborn, it means that the brain has completely rotted, and there is no need to debate with him.

This is Ding Yuntong's logic.

Judging from the budget report of the Ministry of Construction, the cost of the Tangbei Railway was about 10,000 taels of silver for one kilometer of railway, of course, the longer the railway mileage, the cost of each kilometer will be reduced accordingly. However, as a large railway such as Beijing-Guangzhou and Hanzhou-Shanghai, it involves complex terrain and geographical conditions, compensation for residents along the way, and various unpredictable conditions in advance, and even modification of local design schemes, etc., all of which must be included in the cost, and the cost per kilometer to Zuihou may increase.

The budget of the Ministry of Construction is: the railway mileage from Beijing to Guangzhou needs more than 2,300 kilometers, and the railway mileage from Wuhan to Shanghai is more than 1,200 kilometers, and at least 39 million taels of silver is needed at 1 tael and 1 yuan of silver per kilometer.

Ding Yuntong silently calculated: In fact, there must be some more, and the preliminary estimate of 42 million taels is relatively safe. The U.S. dollar is now roughly 5 to 1 with the British pound, and silver is 3.5 to 1 with the British pound. Then 70 million US dollars can be converted into 49 million taels of silver, of course, after the trading turnover of cotton and wheat, it would be good if Zuihou cash could reach 45 million taels. Then in addition to the 42 million taels of road repair, there should be 3 million left. At the same time, the construction of a branch railway from Beijing to Shenyang could begin in preparation for the construction of a railway to North Korea in the future. To start a war against Japan, it takes the right time, the right place, and the right people, and the connection of the Sino-Korean railway is the right location.

Huaxia Bank has the equivalent of 25 million taels of pounds left after removing the first budget of more than 10 million taels needed to build the new army, as well as the cost of purchasing three warships and other military integrations. It could be used as a reserve for currency reform, printing China's own banknotes, and banning the circulation of silver in the domestic market, with the pound sterling in Huaxia Bank as a foreign exchange reserve.

In the next few days, Ding Yuntong was discussing with Hu Xueyan, Tang Tingshu, Zheng Guanying, Lin Run, Li Hongzhang, Sheng Xuanhuai and others. Draw a conclusion: In addition to the two arterial railways under construction, the Beijing-Shenyang branch railway can also be designed immediately, and strive to start construction next year. Monetary reform must be carried out with great caution, and many details need to be scrutinized repeatedly.

A few days later, on December 7, 1878, Ding Yuntong issued an order, headed by Hu Xueyan and Zheng Guanying, to form a financial delegation to Britain to study and study financial law and economic reform. There were also a few people accompanying him, all of whom were specially transferred by Ding Yuntong, including Zhang Jian, a clerk transferred from the original Huaijun Wu Changqing Department; Shen Yunpei, the Jishi of the Hanlin Academy; Henan salt supervision and sales are strict and trustworthy; Anhui Taoist Xu Dinglin and others, these people will be famous industrialists in the late Qing Dynasty in their previous lives, and now they simply go to the UK to study and open their eyes together.

At first, Ding Yuntong wanted to establish a gold standard in one fell swoop, but he could only think about it, although the establishment of a gold standard had many advantages, and he could use the same currency settlement system as the Shijie powers to compete in the market under the same conditions. But first, the gold standard requires the central bank to have a large amount of gold reserves, otherwise how to peg the currency to gold? Historically, Japan succeeded in establishing the gold standard only after receiving reparations from China for the First Sino-Japanese War and solving the problem of gold reserves.

It seems that he can't expect this for a long time, Ding Yuntong was quite depressed, but he quickly eliminated negative emotions, ate bite by bite, first resolved the Sino-French war in a decent way, and then hit Japan is the real key. As long as you pass these two levels successfully, other problems are always easy to solve.

As he was talking, the General Staff sent a secret letter from Tang Jingsong, ambassador plenipotentiary to Vietnam. After Ding Yuntong motioned for everyone to stand back, he immediately opened the secret letter.

The MeSign was originally written in a coded code, but it had been translated by the General Staff. In his letter, Tang Jingsong reported that Vietnam was not loyal to China, and that the king of Nguyen Phuc, the heir of Emperor Duc, proclaimed himself king of China and emperor internally, and did not sincerely become a vassal of China. Although he has repeatedly claimed to be bullied by France, he is unwilling to rely on China completely, and seems to only want to use China to contain France. The power of the DPRK and China was mainly held by two ministers, Nguyen Van Xiang of the Criminal Department and Shang Shu Zun of the Military Department, said that both of them were very wary of China, and their attitudes also influenced Emperor Duc. Emperor Dede's mother, Empress Dowager Ciyu, the queen, and the three concubines, known as the "Three Palaces", also constantly intervened in the government. Moreover, the three adopted sons of Emperor Duc were also vying for the position of crown prince, and the Vietnamese court at this time was in chaos.

Tang Jingsong, alternate director of the Ministry of Officials, and Shao Youlian, a Taoist officer, had already been sent to Vietnam to make arrangements, and the General Staff Headquarters could sometimes receive information from them from Vietnam and report on everything. Because there was no wire and telegraph in Vietnam, they could only send letters to Guangxi and then send them to the General Staff in Beijing by telegram.

Before leaving, Ding Yuntong gave them secret tasks, and Shao Youlian needed to assist and supervise Liu Yongfu in completing the reorganization of the Black Flag Army on behalf of the central government, so as to transform the Black Flag Army from a green forest and grass that occupied the mountains and became a semi-regular army that truly obeyed the command. At the same time, the government supplied the Black Flag Army with military supplies, and granted Liu Yongfu and his officers corresponding official positions.

Tang Jingsong wanted to encircle the Vietnamese imperial court, make it completely obey Beijing, and let China take the initiative to build roads and lay telegraph lines, China sent officers to train troops, and China helped with the budget, in short, to control the Vietnamese government as comprehensively as possible, so that China could occupy an advantageous position in the future conflict with France.

Judging from the current situation, Shao Youlian is also going well, and Liu Yongfu's Black Flag Army has a loyal attitude and is very cooperative with the reorganization work. The road leading to Baosheng City, the garrison of the Black Flag Army, has begun to be repaired, and the telegraph line is almost finished.

But Tang Jingsong was very troublesome, and the situation in the Vietnamese court was complicated, and it was much more difficult than the original Jihua.

Dinh Van Tong paced back and forth anxiously, trying to search for memories of Vietnam's history. In his previous life, he did not pay special attention to the modern history of Vietnam, and he couldn't find any clues at once, so he sighed in his heart: it would be easier if it were North Korea, and he had carefully read the modern history of North Korea, and he knew all the shili within it, and there were many means to borrow.

While thinking about it, he looked at Tang Jingsong's letter, and when he looked at it, he suddenly remembered a scandal in the Vietnamese palace in history, which was the adultery between a minister and a ** concubine, but historians in the previous life did not determine when the adultery began. You might be able to give this a try, and if you succeed, you can open up the situation right away.

Thinking like this, Ding Yuntong immediately replied to Tang Jingsong, reminding him how to test it, and at the same time telling him which people could be borrowed from the pro-China faction.

After writing the letter, Ding Yuntong looked out the window, which was the southern direction of the empire. He did not doubt Tang Jingsong's patriotism, in his previous life, Tang Jingsong was automatically asked to go to Vietnam to contact and fight against France, and after the war, he also wrote the "Diary of Asking Ying", which will be passed on to future generations. He believes that as long as the operation is done properly, Tang Jingsong will be able to complete the task.

Ding Yuntong didn't know that when he was looking south, in Hue City, the capital of Vietnam, Tang Jingsong, the Chinese ambassador plenipotentiary to Vietnam, was also looking anxiously at the north.