Chongzhen 10th year, February 28.

Shaanxi, Xi'an City.

In the palace of the governor of the Qin army.

In the study, Hong Chengchou, who is 44 years old this year and has a lean figure but a sharp eye, is sitting on a sofa chair, wearing a pair of low-myopia glasses, and is looking at the "Oriental Times" issue of today's issue in his hand.

The headline article on the front page [Railway investment bonds have been sold out and began to enter the construction stage], Hong Chengchou read it over and over again, and then fell into a long daze, not knowing what he was thinking.

Ay!

He let out a long sigh.

Irritably, he closed the newspaper and put it on the desk, then stood up, paced back and forth with his hands behind his back, and walked around the small study.

And from time to time let out a long sigh.

It can be seen that he is not in a very good mood, and he looks preoccupied and gloomy.

In fact, his development in recent years has been very good.

Especially since the winter of Chongzhen's sixth year, he joined the "Female Cadre and Business Alliance", went to Shanxi to destroy the eight Jin merchants, and earned that wave of extra money.

With the help of the first pot of gold obtained this time, he trained a full 30,000 elite Qin troops loyal to him, and in the following years, relying on this Qin army, he made a lot of military achievements.

His official position was promoted to Zhengyi Pinjia Prince Taibao, and he won the order for his wife and mother.

In terms of personal wealth, he has invested in sea trade in recent years, introduced Xujiazhuang's technology, invested in a number of factories, and his net worth has long exceeded 10 million.

There is also the railway investment bond issued by Xujiazhuang this time, and he bought 3 million silver dollars without blinking, which can be described as very arrogant.

Case.

Since his life has been so successful and can be called to the point of perfection, why does he sigh for a long time and not be happy at all, which makes those people who are far inferior to him embarrassed?

In fact, the vast majority of unhappiness comes from disparities and contrasts.

In the winter of the sixth year of Chongzhen, under the organization of Xu Jiazhuang, troops were sent to exterminate the sixteen imperial armies of the eight major families of the Jin merchants, and its main generals Hong Chengchou, Cao Wenzhao, Yang Yufan, Wang Hong, Deng Xi, Zuo Liangyu, Qin Liangyu, Wu Xiang, Zu Dabi, Wang Yinghui, Zuo Guangxian, Li Bei, Ai Wannian, Tang Jiuzhou, Chen Yongfu, Liu Zeqing - among these sixteen people, Hong Chengchou's official position was the highest at that time, and even the superior of some generals, plus he was born as a civil official, so he was naturally half a head higher, and his status was far above the other fifteen people.

But less than four years have passed.

He was transferred from the governor of the three sides to the governor of the Qin army, in charge of the military and political affairs of Shaanxi, his rank has not changed, and his power has been slightly weakened.

The other fifteen people have not been promoted much, and they are all suspicious of the imperial court, which has nothing to say, and there is no need to compare them.

It's just that what makes Hong Chengchou unacceptable is that in less than four years, in terms of territory and industrial management, except for himself, earth-shaking changes have taken place.

For example, Yang Yufan, the general soldier of Tongzhou, now has the title of "Canal King", relying on the end of the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal, relying on the river to eat the river, forming his own river transport caravan, opening a food processing factory, a brick kiln factory, a cement factory, a honeycomb coal factory, a river sand factory, with the help of water transportation convenience, the Tongzhou army made a profit of four or five million silver dollars a year, and continued to grow, and gradually had a tendency to monopolize the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal.

Another example is Wang Hong, the chief soldier of Tianjin, now known as the "King of Tianjin", not only opened dozens of factories, but also cooperated with Xujiazhuang, a family and a half, monopolized the entire Tianjin Port, with an annual cargo throughput of nearly 100 million stones, and also set up a fishing fleet to go to the Bohai Sea to fish, and entered the mining industry, earning tens of millions of silver dollars every year.

Another example is the Guan Ning Army, with Wu Xiang, Cao Wenzhao, Wang Yinghui, and Zu Dabi as the core giants, has developed into a huge military business group, with an annual income higher than the annual income of the imperial court.

Sichuan Shizhu Tusi Qin Liangyu, although Hong Chengchou admires this female general very much, but he is quite disdainful of Shizhu such a poor place where birds don't, but now it has also developed and shined in the textile industry, Qin Liangyu is known as the queen of textiles.

There are also Zuo Guangxian, Li Bei,

Ai Wannian, Tang Jiuzhou, Chen Yongfu, Liu Zeqing, these people in Hong Chengchou's eyes, they used to be small roles that were not worth mentioning, and they were all martial artists who made him disdain in his heart, but they have also made a fortune in the past few years, opening factories, mining mining, operating logistics, etc., especially Zuo Liangyu, a rat who is willing to be a dog in Xujiazhuang, has also blossomed everywhere in many fields, and now his net worth is at least twice that of him Hong Chengchou.

All in all.

Hong Chengchou found that among the sixteen commanders, he has obviously lagged behind in the past few years, or simply counted down - Hong Chengchou has private correspondence with them, and after the telegraph station in Xujiazhuang allowed them to use it, the private communication in the past two years has been quite frequent, often exchanging experiences, discussing their respective developments, and knowing each other better.

So finding that he was obviously lagging behind, and even ranking last, Hong Chengchou's anxiety arose, and he began to reflect, obviously he was very high, why was he thrown away so much by everyone?

Soon he came up with three points.

First, clear high.

He felt that he was indeed a little pretentious, when others begged Xujiazhuang to cooperate every day, tried their best to please, and introduced various technologies to open mines and set up factories, he Hong Chengchou was a little unable to put down the shelf, and felt that he was a civil official and a Confucian scholar, so it was difficult to come up with an attitude of begging for people, and only when he really asked for Xujiazhuang, he would send a request, resulting in only a few factories, and the timing was relatively late, and the market share had already been occupied.

Second, resources are insufficient.

Shaanxi is too barren, less mineral resources, the fields have been drought and harvest failures year after year, agriculture can not be developed at all, wars have broken out many times in the past, and then millions of immigrants from Xujiazhuang have been reduced to millions of miners, and now the total population of Shaanxi is only five or six million, resulting in a small labor force, lagging economic development, these factors make it difficult for Shaanxi to develop, the market capacity is small, and naturally it does not make much money.

Third, there is no room for external development.

This is a very fatal problem, and it is the main reason why it cannot be developed.

For example, the Guanning Army can develop in Liaodong, which is full of forest resources and mineral resources, develop in Mongolia, which is rich in cattle and sheep, and even face the sea and expand overseas - there are many directions that can be developed externally, and there is endless space for future development.

For example, the Zheng Group in Fujian, following Xujiazhuang to expand overseas, does not know how many warm places it occupies, established countless manor ports, and its development potential is also unlimited.

Another example is Qin Liangyu of Sichuan Shizhu, although the transportation into Shuchuan is not very convenient, but the Sichuan Basin is the country of abundance after all, even if it can only go around in it, the potential is still very huge, not to mention that it can expand to Yungui.

In a few years, the Haichuan Railway will be completed, and it will be able to take off directly.

The rest will not be exemplified.

And what about Shaanxi, where he Hong Chengchou is located?

To the west is a breathless plateau.

To the north, there is an endless desert and the Gobi.

If you go south to east, you will encounter other people's territory, which will seriously offend your colleagues, and the imperial court will punish you severely, of course Xu Jiazhuang will not support it, after all, the entire territory of Shaanxi, even if it is barren, he should be content.

Deathtrap.

Hong Chengchou felt that he had fallen into a dead place where there was no room for development, although there were still a lot of resources, and he was still alive and well, but there was really not much room for growth.

In the end, it will only be opened up a larger gap, and there is no possibility of catching up.

What to do?

What can be done to break this situation?

Of course, there are ways, and there is more than one.

For example, give up the territory of Shaanxi, ask Xujiazhuang for help, and develop in a new place, such as going overseas, going to the South Seas, and occupying a small island of tens of thousands of square kilometers, it is estimated that there are more people than Shaanxi - only the 30,000 elites of the Qin army, most of them are locals in Shaanxi, and their lives are very good now, and they have enough food and salary, so if they want to leave their hometowns and go overseas, I am afraid that there will be opposition, and mutiny is possible.

Unless he abandons this Qin army that he invested in blood and single-handedly built, he will only take a few people overseas...... But it's also impossible.

So I can only stay in Shaanxi.

Or listen to the advice of experts in Xujiazhuang, invest a huge amount of money, carry out a major transformation of Shaanxi's ecological environment, plant a large number of plants and trees, restore greening, and spend fifty or sixty years to turn Shaanxi into a paradise full of green mountains and green waters, even its ecological value is incalculable.

But after fifty or sixty years, everyone else is gone, and even if the ecological environment improves, he will not see it, so what's the point?

Eliminate the rejection of one option after another.

Hong Chengchou quickly turned his brain.

Combined with all kinds of information he saw in the "Oriental Times" these days, and then made a concatenation, he suddenly found several key points.

For example, through the report on the young blasting genius Li Dingguo, Hong Chengchou knows that with today's blasting technology, opening mountains and blasting rocks has become a relatively common thing, and the cost has also been reduced, which can greatly improve the efficiency of mining and road construction.

In recent days, Xujiazhuang has overwhelmingly publicized the concept of heavy-haul railways, which has made people realize the huge potential of heavy-haul railways, which can transport tens of millions of tons of resources to thousands of miles away in just three to five days.

The land of the Western Regions outside the northwest is a desolate and remote place, but it is full of countless mineral resources.

Although it is very far away, if a heavy-haul railway is built and extended to the territory of the Western Regions, will a huge amount of various resources be transported in a steady stream?

Even if there are deserts everywhere, what about the Gobi? As long as he overcomes the difficulties and builds the railway, there will be wealth everywhere at that time, and it will not limit his pace of grabbing wealth - that is, the transportation problem to the Western Regions will be solved through the railway, so as to allow him to lead the Qin army into some desperate places, and can ensure the logistics supply, then he will never be defeated and driven back.

As long as the railway can be built, one day in the future, maybe he Hong Chengchou will be the "King of the Western Regions".

So a "Western Regions Exploration Plan" gradually took shape in his mind, making his eyes brighter and brighter.

At the same time, the strongest desire and unwillingness erupted in his heart, making him clench his fists and secretly said:

"I, Hong Heng Jiujinshi, am full of wealth and talent, how can I live behind those reckless people?"

"I want to get rich, I want to make more and more money."

"I also want to be king, to gain greater power, to control the lives and deaths of more people!"

"I'm forty-four years old this year, I won't live too long, within ten years, I must do something great, I must not be stuck in the shallows for a long time, waste my years!"

"No matter how much effort and cost you pay, I will be the king of the Western Regions!"