How much steel does it take to lay railroad tracks from the capital to Baoding?

Xia Wanchun didn't calculate, but it's definitely an astronomical number, a rail is calculated with a length of one zhang, almost a hundred catties of weight, one mile of one hundred and fifty zhang, four hundred miles is sixty thousand zhang, almost six million catties of steel are needed, this is still one, this railway must need two rails, that is, it needs 12 million catties of steel!

Oh my God, how much is the total steel production in Daming in a year? Although now because the converter steelmaking method and crucible process have begun to be popularized, the steel output has increased sharply, and the annual output is only 30 or 40 million catties, just such a section of the railway, it will use one-third of the annual output of Daming Iron and Steel!

What if the railroad tracks were laid from the capital to Jinan or further afield to Nanjing? Even if all the steel produced by Daming in a year is put into it, it is not enough!

Everyone present was frightened by Zhu Jie's idea, and even Lu Liuliang felt that he was about to suffocate!

"What's wrong? Not enough steel? ”

Zhu Jie smiled: "Isn't there enough steel, so we won't make it?" We build warships, but the wood is not enough, don't we still build warships with all our might? ”

Li Yan smiled bitterly: "Your Majesty, there is not enough wood, we can buy it from Dongying and Nanyang, but what if there is not enough steel?" There is no ready-made steel in the world, all need to make iron to get, although I don't know how other countries are, but the minister can conclude that there is no country in the world that has a higher steel production in our Ming Empire, and the West does not have this level, even if you want to buy there is no place to buy, and you can't afford it, we only need to build a railway from the capital to Nanjing, it takes a distance of three thousand miles, and you need tens of thousands of catties of steel, even if it is a tael of silver can buy fifty catties of steel, tens of thousands of catties of steel, How much silver does that cost? Millions of taels are counted, and that's not counting manpower......"

Zhu Jie shook his head and said: "Not only these, you see, under the rails of this railway, you also need wood support, within one zhang, basically you need six sleepers, that is, about two feet, you need one sleeper, the distance between the two rails is about half a zhang, of course, the whole country, must adopt the same regulations, the car is on the same track, the book is the same text!" In this way, a sleeper needs to be about seven feet long, and the degree of wood used is not much less than that of a rail......"

I'll go......

Everyone rolled their eyes, even if the emperor said it, it was absolutely unacceptable! The cost is too high!

"Roughly calculated, the cost of a mile of railway, almost 4,000 taels of silver, from the capital to Baoding, 400 miles, almost 1.6 million taels of silver......"

Zhu Jie ignored everyone's expressions of lovelessness and continued.

1,600,000 taels!

Yuan Jixian said angrily: "Your Majesty, don't even think about it, even if the Ming Dynasty is rich, he can't help spending it like this, one million and six hundred thousand taels of silver!" Is our court consuming? ”

"If you can afford it, why can't you afford it?"

Zhu Jie said with a smile: "Of course, just to build a railway from the capital to Baoding, there is not much need for the time being, we need to build the railway, first of all, to develop the economy, to recover costs, is the first priority!" Therefore, if I want to build a railway, it will not be from the capital to Baoding, but from Yongping Mansion to Tianjin Wei! Or, from Cangzhou to Tianjinwei; If you can, you can also build a railway connecting Nanjing, Suzhou, Yangzhou, and Songjiang Prefecture, so that the railway can go directly to the trade port! ”

Direct access to trade ports!

Li Yan instantly understood what Zhu Jie meant, this is to speed up the circulation of goods!

"Your Majesty, are you here to facilitate the rapid concentration of domestic goods in the port, and then enter overseas for trade?"

Li Yan asked.

Zhu Jie nodded and replied: "Yes, now we rely on mules and horses to transport goods, it's too slow, a set of mules and horses, how many goods can be pulled when it's full?" A full load is only one or two thousand catties, how far can you go in a day? 100 miles is far away, the cost of 100,000 catties of goods, how long does it take to transport it from Beijing to Tianjin? How much silver? It takes at least fifty sets of carriages, at least three days, and no one hundred or ten taels of silver is unthinkable! If it is a steam locomotive, 100,000 catties of goods only need a train, that is, most of the time to arrive in Tianjin, how much silver does it cost? It's just a few thousand catties of coal, twenty or thirty taels of silver, which is enough, this is the gap! ”

"Railways are all made of steel, and they don't worry about damage for decades, so it is conceivable that one investment will be used for at least fifty or sixty years, and the benefits generated within fifty or sixty years will ......."

Li Yan muttered, "God, the investment is huge, but this income is also a huge and eye-popping figure!" ”

Li Yan has been a scholar of the household department, and he is very sensitive to numbers, and as for the ministers on the side, there is no shortage of talents who count the economy! How could you not know the huge benefits of the railway in the future!

"Your Majesty, do you really let the railway transport goods?"

Xu Yifan on the side was a little anxious, and said urgently: "Compared with the silver that earns some errands, the troop transport side is its greatest value, hanging the back of the steam locomotive on the carriage, pulling the infantry, two or three hundred miles away, this is simply speed!" It is completely possible to be the winner or loser of a war! His military value is the greatest! ”

As the secretary of the Ministry of War, defense and military affairs are always Xu Yifan's first consideration, this railway is used to transport military salaries and materials, and is used to transport troops, which is simply, a railway, more than 50,000 elite soldiers!

"So, the railway, it has to be built!"

Zhu Jie said in a deep voice: "Lu Liuliang, think about it, how to improve this steam locomotive, I will give you a year, ask for money for money, ask for people to give people, I only need a steam locomotive with a load of more than 50,000 catties and a travel speed of twelve miles per hour!" In order to facilitate your experiment, you can change this ring road into a railway, and send a decree to the Ministry of Industry, and in two months, this railway must be built for me! ”

The corners of Yuan Jixian's mouth twitched fiercely, and he said in a low voice: "Your Majesty, do you really want to build?" This is not something that can be done for tens of thousands of taels of silver, from the capital to Tianjinwei, a distance of 300 miles, we have to invest more than 1 million taels of silver, this is not a small amount, and every year we have to build guns and cannons, we have to use a lot of steel, and now we have to build a railway, but I am afraid that steel is far from enough......"

"Afraid of what?"

Zhu Jie said proudly: "When the converter steelmaking method is fully implemented, we will have endless steel by then!" The annual steel output is 10,000 catties, which is extremely easy! ”

(End of chapter)