On October 25, 1728, at 6:10 p.m., Qi Zexuan's train arrived at Nandu Station nearly an hour later than expected.

When a freight train laden with grain and coal passed through Xiakou (present-day Shepperton, southern Australia), several carriages derailed and overturned due to a mistake by railway workers, forcing all trains passing through the station to avoid emergency and wait for the accident to be dealt with.

The local military and political officials of Nandu Province, who had come to greet the arrival of His Royal Highness the Imperial Sun, had to wait for more than an hour in the VIP room of the station.

After a brief farewell to Zizexuan, the English envoy, Baron Spencer Compton, he was seen riding in a carriage toward the city, surrounded by many welcoming officials.

When I came, because Britain and Qi were still in a state of war, they all took English merchant ships along the way and made a large circle along the coast of the Indian Ocean according to the traditional oriental route before coming to Hanzhou proper.

Now that the two countries are about to achieve peace, then this time when they return to Europe, they can naturally follow the advice of the Qi people, depart from the southwestern port of Hanzhou, take their steam passenger ship, directly cross the Indian Ocean, and after arriving in South Africa, they can return to London along the Atlantic coast of Africa.

As a rough estimate, the return journey is one-third less than the original one, and the time is more than half saved.

"Technology changes life!"

Baron Compton couldn't help but think of what the royal heir of the Qi Kingdom said, and immediately resonated.

Qi is really a country favored by God!

Nandu is the largest city in the southern part of Hanzhou and the capital of Hannan Province, with more than 450,000 permanent residents, and if you add various floating populations, it may reach more than 500,000.

Nandu is located in the east of the Great Eastern Mountain (Great Dividing Range), affected by the South Pacific Warm Current all year round, the temperature changes are relatively gentle throughout the year, and the precipitation is evenly distributed, but due to the influence of the cold wind in the Indian Ocean at the same time, the daily temperature difference of the city is large, more than 10 degrees. Summers are warm and relatively dry, and hot weather is rare. Winters are warm, slightly wet, and snowfall is less – the last recorded snowfall in the region was two decades ago. However, there are many mountains around Nanto, and there is a lot of snow on the high mountains in the cold weather in winter, which adds a bit of winter fun to the area.

As an important industrial town in the south, Nandu has a relatively sound industrial category, including steel, coal, shipbuilding, machine tools, heavy machinery, military industry, textiles, food, ceramics, glass, papermaking, chemicals, metal processing and many other industries.

The headquarters of the fifth largest bank in Qi State, Southern United Bank, is located on the banks of the Mingyue River (the Yarra River flowing through Melbourne City), and major domestic banks and insurance companies have also set up branches in the city.

Every year, more than 100 merchant ships depart from Nandu Port, loaded with various industrial products and ordnance materials, and cross the ocean through Dongzhou (now New Zealand) and the islands of the South Pacific, arriving in South America and Spain, and carrying out trade activities with the local area.

Now, with the widespread use of steamships, traders travelling between the two places have moved north to the more gentle South Pacific route, which at least avoids the risk of destroying people and ships, rather than using the "roaring westerly wind" route.

"The Southern Capital City still looks very big!" Qi Zexuan sat in the carriage and looked at the big southern city through the window, with a little relief on his face.

The bigger the city, the richer and more vibrant the region, and the gradual expansion of the city is one of the main signs of a country's prosperity and strength.

Cities often mean the accumulation of money, the deepening of industrialization, the collection of knowledge, and the expansion of modern lifestyles.

Looking at the bitter citizens of the Qin State on the mainland, sick, malnourished, and mentally numb, the residents of European countries are also very similar to this, compared with the well-dressed and healthy people in the cities of Qi who struggle for a more comfortable life all day long, it will make people feel that these are people from two worlds.

Now it is really more and more Qi people living in towns and cities and their radiation ranges, trains, steam street cars, and rail carriages are often seen by many urban and rural people, and many people have even become accustomed to its existence.

In many areas of the railway, the winding railway has become as integrated with the natural landscape, as were the canals and post roads that preceded the railway age.

The bustling southern capital city is not all about high-rise buildings and bright streetscapes, and many dilapidated neighborhoods and old houses still flash on both sides of the road.

Yes, in a big city like Nandu, there are still many old houses, most of which were built decades ago. It's still full of people, it's normal for five or six people to live in an ordinary old house, and it's not surprising that eight or ten people live, and many of them are rented.

With the increase in the population of Qi and the increase in urban job opportunities, the number of urban people is increasing almost every day. Not all of these new people are wealthy owners, most of them are immigrants or rural people who yearn for a city life.

Now, the housing prices in the city are already very high, often hundreds or even thousands of yuan, which is not something that the migrant workers who have just arrived in the city can afford. Therefore, they can basically only choose to rent a house, and then find a job to make a living, save money for a few years or more than ten years, and finally realize their desire to buy a house (building) of their own, and officially become a decent city person.

The layout of these old houses is basically face-to-face, and the space was considered at the beginning of construction, generally consisting of three rooms, a utility room and a kitchen, and most of them are inhabited by shop assistants, restaurant waiters, dock workers, factory workers and other low-paid occupations.

Other old and dilapidated neighborhoods have been demolished by the government and replaced with beautiful and atmospheric apartment buildings built by "real estate developers". These apartment buildings are well-built with solid materials and modern designs, with everything from running water, sewerage, and even gas pipes to the ground.

The residents of the apartment buildings are also mostly high-level craftsmen from factories, middle-level managers of various companies and trading companies, small businessmen, scholars, and other people with a certain social status, which is in stark contrast to the dilapidated neighborhoods.

The local government has not failed to think of a major demolition of all the old and dilapidated neighborhoods, so as not to affect the city's image too much, and at the same time to improve the living conditions of those who live in "overcrowded".

However, after calculating the local finances and expenditures, they can only pinch their noses and let these "unsightly" neighborhoods continue to exist.

Don't look at a big city like Nandu, the annual financial revenue is millions of yuan, but the government paved a large stall, the renovation and upgrading of the urban sewer network, the construction of roads and bridges, the expenditure of public and municipal administration, the increase of medical and health care, and the continuous ......investment of education funds, many places are in urgent need of money, and improving residents' housing does not seem to be a priority project.

As for wanting to rely on the investment of the royal public housing fund to build some urban public rental housing, it is just a drop in the bucket. With so many cities across the country and so many people living in poor conditions, where can public rental housing be built?

The royal family doesn't have much food left!

However, although these old houses were built many years ago and are relatively rudimentary, they are fortunately made of solid materials and are not easy to damage and do not form dilapidated houses. Although the residential area is cramped and messy, there are still basic facilities such as running water, gas lamps, and sewer pipes, and the garbage generated is regularly cleaned up by indigenous laborers, and it is barely enough to survive.

In view of the problem of old neighborhoods, the local governments of large and medium-sized cities in Qi, including Nandu, have also learned a lesson in the development and planning of new districts, and have made great efforts in the construction and layout of residential areas. They have built a large number of residential buildings with 2-5 floors in the vicinity of offices, commercial areas, and industrial areas, which can be rented or sold for government officials, junior employees of trading companies, and commercial service personnel.

These houses all have basic amenities, bright windows, separate kitchens and toilets, simple décor, and are generally very good and popular with the majority of city dwellers.

For those with a good income, there are more upscale homes for rent or sale, which usually have three to four separate bedrooms, making them ideal for family living.

As for the so-called upper class such as middle and high-level government officials, senior managers (senior craftsmen) of trading companies (factories), and merchants, the demand for housing is a bit more luxurious.

Some will buy a large piece of land from the government, then ask a well-known architect to carefully plan and design, and then let a qualified construction company enter the construction to build a mansion that meets their wishes.

Others will buy a luxury villa built according to a standardized process from a "real estate developer", with walls made of exquisite blue bricks, a basement, a cloister, a pavilion, a stable, and a private garden full of greenery and flowers, which looks warm and cozy.

Of course, these houses are worth a lot of money, usually in units of 10,000 yuan, which is not a luxury that ordinary small households can hope for.

"Yes, not only in our southern capital, but also in other parts of the country, the process of urbanization is accelerating." Yin Wang Zhixu, who was sitting opposite Qi Zexuan, said with a smile: "There are more and more factories and trading companies in the city, and various service industries have sprung up one after another, attracting more rural people and immigrants. Rail transit, gas lighting, running water, horse-drawn carriages, and many other entertainment industries are serving more and more people. Cities have higher wages, better welfare protection, and too many opportunities to change their fate. It's hard to imagine that some scholars have predicted that in the next 10 to 20 years, we will have a few megacities with a population of one million! ”

Yes, a city covering hundreds of square kilometers with a population of one million, to be honest, he couldn't imagine it. Such a huge city probably needs hundreds of thousands of industrial and commercial workers, what a vast market, and what a scale of wealth can be created!

"In the past, during the pre-Song Dynasty, the population of Bianliang, Tokyo seemed to be more than one million." Qi Zexuan's eyes were also fascinated.

According to the current rapid development of Qi country, the first city in China with an urban population of more than one million should be Jianye.

In the census of the sixteenth year of Taiping (1720), the population of Jianye City exceeded 600,000, reaching more than 640,000. Now it is estimated that there should be more than 700,000, and if you add all kinds of floating population and non-national population, maybe it will exceed 800,000. It's not far from a million, and it seems that it's not far off.

The large-scale accumulation of urban population has also made the industrial scale of the city more and more concentrated, and the industrial scale effect it has exerted has become more and more powerful.

Over the past 40 years, CCB's share of China's total industrial output has been shrinking as the economy across the country has been soaring. However, since ten years ago, with its superior geographical location and huge population and industrial accumulation effect, Jianye's total industrial output value has continued to rise, and its proportion in the country has begun to increase slowly, approaching 10%.

The government is happy to see the country's urbanization process come to fruition, which will make more intensive use of infrastructure, so as to develop industry more effectively and create more jobs and income. At the same time, the increase in population in the process of urbanization will lead to the socialization of family life and the development of various service industries, which will also create more jobs, so that more farmers can move out of agriculture and obtain higher-income employment opportunities.

After decades of continuous industrialization, the social landscape of Qi has undergone tremendous and profound changes. Being in it, it may not be particularly obvious, but after Qi Zexuan took a boat through Nanyang, Annam and other places, and traveled through the Qin State, he immediately felt a completely different social style and economic situation.

In other words, it has been more than 40 years since the founding of the Qin State, and the mainland has been peaceful for a long time, and it has been developing for decades, but it still feels poor and backward. Some old immigrants once sighed that the situation on the mainland has really not changed much, and it is still the same, it is nothing more than a little more populous, and the countryside is not as withered as it was before the war.

In fact, it is not just the Qin State on the mainland, most countries on the earth are basically in this state, there is no war, and they are already very satisfied if they can eat well.

When the convoy arrived at the State Guest House in the west of the city, it was already more than seven o'clock in the evening, and the last rays of the setting sun stained the glass windows of the building red. In the distance, a train of steam street cars passed by, the dull rumble mingling with the shrill whistle, and some of the off-duty trading company employees and factory technicians furrowed their brows and hurried in the direction of their homes.

A layer of black, yellow, or white mist clouds hung over the city, and the bustling taverns and restaurants were crowded with people aloud announcing their menus to the back kitchen; In the teahouse theater, under the light of the gas lamp, it was unusually bright, and the dedicated artists performed hard, winning bursts of warm applause and applause; In the elegant and exquisite buildings, the merchants reached a huge deal in the staggered planning; The steamers in the harbor sounded their whistles and sailed out to sea laden with cargo; Countless students happily rushed out of the classroom with their school bags after the school bell rang......

In the southern capital, in Hanzhou, and in the country of Qi, the face of the entire society is undergoing profound changes, and it is not yet known where it will go.

However, whether it is the royal ruler, the cabinet government, or thousands of ordinary citizens, they all believe that life may be better in the future.

(End of chapter)

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