Thomas pointed to the messenger and said, "I'm sure you've seen it today, he's the permanent counselor of our embassy, Alex?" Hickson. ”

Hickson didn't look down on the Chinese just now, but now he changed his previous appearance, took the initiative to extend his hand to Lin Yuan, Lin Yuan and him gently shook each other, the two exchanged a few words, Thomas pointed to another person and said: "His name is Billy?" Cindick is a railway design expert of our national Pacific Railroad Company, and he is in charge of the design and construction of the railway. ”

Cindick looked down on the Chinese more than Hickson, and when shaking hands, he said disrespectfully: "You Chinese don't know how to build railways, but most people in your country like to pretend not to understand, so I hope that in the process of building railways, we can not be hindered by any external obstacles, but don't worry, we all have professionalism, so as long as you issue the right contract, we will do our best to complete all kinds of work." ”

Thomas heard the thorn in Cindick's words, hurriedly came over to play the round, and said to Lin Yuan: "Lord Lin, don't be surprised, our expert is this nature, in your Chinese words, it is the rectum, so the stomach can't hold words." ”

Lin Yuan thought to himself: "I'll show weakness to you now, and I'll settle accounts with you later." So Lin Yuan smiled and said, "It's okay, it's okay, we build the railway with the mentality of learning." ”

Hickson smiled at this time: "You talk slowly, I still have things, so let's go first." Saying goodbye to everyone, Thomas took Lin Yuan and Cindick to a seat in the corner, and a maid brought a Western-style cream cake, a few colorful cocktails, and a few coffees.

Thomas pointed to the things on the table and said with a smile in Chinese: "These are the local products of our country, please taste them." Lin Yuan smiled, Thomas raised another glass of light blue wine, and said: "The reason why I chose to talk in such an environment is mainly because I want to make a friend with Lord Lin, and there will be a lot of exchanges between our two countries in the future." ”

Lin Yuan thought to himself: "Thomas knows that Chinese pay attention to human feelings, so he is close to himself and pulls a relationship. Lin Yuan also raised his wine glass and touched Thomas gently, at which time Cindick frowned and said, "What?" Aren't you going to talk about work today? Then I'll go. ”

Thomas hurriedly smiled: "Say, why don't you say it." So he looked at Lin Yuan and asked, "Aren't we going to build a railway?" I don't know where to build the road? ”

Lin Yuan said: "I plan to build two north-south trunk railways, one from Beijing to Kunming, Yunnan; One departs from Beijing and arrives in Shanghai. ”

When Cindick heard this, he laughed loudly, causing everyone to poke their heads out from behind the screen to look at him, and Lin Yuan asked curiously, "What are you laughing at?" ”

Cindick said: "I advise you Chinese to be more sensible, it is impossible to build these two railways!" Let's talk about the railway first, starting from Beijing to Yunnan, where do you plan to go? ”

Lin Yuan replied: "Starting from Beijing, passing through Shanxi, Shaanxi, Gansu, Sichuan, and then arriving in Yunnan. ”

Cindick took out a map from the bag next to him and said: "This is your Daqing's "Unification of Public Opinion Maps", that is, maps, although your Chinese maps are not comparable to our Americans, but our mappers have not yet set foot on this wild land, so they have to use this map temporarily." ”

Cindick spread out the map on the table and said with a smile: "If you want to enter Shanxi, you have to pass through Taihang Mountain, how do you go through Taihang Mountain?" Do you want to tunnel? Do you have that technique? The mountains in Shanxi are better, not very high, but the mountains in Yunnan are higher, can you get by? ”

"Let's talk about the second one, from Beijing to Shanghai, it seems that there is no need to cross mountains and mountains, but to get to Shanghai, you must build a bridge over the Yangtze River, with the width and flow of the Yangtze River, with the existing skills of you Chinese, build a bridge on it, don't even think about it."

Thomas coughed lightly, and the syndicate said: "Okay, as the construction party of the railway, we will not interfere in the matter of line selection, but I want to make it clear in advance that the construction of these two routes is too difficult, and you must spend a lot of money!" ”

Lin Yuan said: "We won't say much about the selection of the line, we are all responsible for it, you are only responsible for the construction." ”

Cindick frowned and said, "Do you know how to build a railway?" ”

Lin Yuan smiled faintly and said, "Then please tell me about it." ”

Cindick sighed helplessly, picked up a box on the table, poured the powdered sugar on the table, and said, "See? Railways can't be built directly on the ground, they need to have roadbeds, and we use these powdered sugar as roadbeds. ”

Cindick said and took out two potato sticks from the snack plate and spread them on top of the powdered sugar, then took out two more potato sticks and placed them vertically on the potato sticks just now, and then said: "The sleepers below are put on the roadbed, and the rails are on top of the sleepers, and the train goes on them, this is the basic model of the railway, you understand?" ”

Lin Yuan nodded, and Cindick said: "You have no experience in building railways, so you can't know many things, for example, do you know what shape the rails should be?" Do you know what the coefficient of friction between the rails and the train should be? ”

Lin Yuan smiled and did not speak, and Cindick said: "I know that you Chinese must not know the way, so when we build the railway, you don't care about anything, just give us enough wages and give us some rough workers." ”

Lin Yuan nodded, looked at Thomas and said, "Okay, let's talk about it here today, the specific matters of the contract, let's wait until we officially meet the day after tomorrow." ”

Lin Yuan returned to his residence and immediately contacted the Beijing ship, the Beijing ship is an aircraft carrier, and laymen may think that there are no railway construction experts on it, but the Beijing ship is different, this time the Beijing ship's navigation test has an important content, that is, to use the ground penetrating radar on the shipborne drone to analyze the geological conditions of military projects in Japan, the United States, Australia and other countries, and prepare data for the optimization of the air strike plan.

Therefore, there is a military engineering expert on the Beijing ship, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, surnamed Hou, named Hou Zhengfeng, when it comes to military engineering, many people's first reaction is trenches, fortresses, etc., in fact, all civil engineering buildings are closely related to military engineering, and railways and highways are no exception.

Lin Yuan estimated the time and found that when Hou Zhengfeng arrived, he happened to go through the handover procedures for the silver in the household department, so he asked Shen Wanqing to help him pick up Hou Lao.

When Lin Yuan finished the matter, Shen Wanqing also came back with Hou Zhengfeng, Shen Wanqing didn't have a good face when she saw Lin Yuan, and said angrily: "That expert has been picked up by me and arranged by me in the embassy." ”

Lin Yuan saw that her expression was wrong, so he asked, "What's wrong with you?" Who upset you? ”

Shen Wanqing said angrily: "It's not just that old monkey!" With his virtue, he can even become an academician! ”