Vientiane Throne of Civilization

Chapter 1151: Accumulated Expenses

After finishing the business here, Zhou Xu didn't plan to stay on the grassland for long, and arrived at the grassland railway station on time.

Judging from the time, the steam train No. 001 heading to the Northeast should be returning soon.

Of course, in this era, it is difficult to be completely accurate in time. In fact, Zhou Xu waited in the train station for almost twenty minutes before steam train No. 001 finally arrived.

But even so, it was faster than riding back on his own.

It takes three hours to get from Prairie City to Black Moon City by horse, but about forty minutes by steam train. Even if he waited here for twenty minutes and added those twenty minutes, it would not change the fact that the train was faster.

At this time, he could even catch up with dinner.

“This is how times have changed.”

As he got off the train, Zhou Xu had a look of emotion on his face.

Just like that, the seasons change quietly, and it is autumn again...

This has always been a busy season, but this year it is not only because of farming, but also because of the emergence of steam locomotives, which has greatly improved the construction efficiency in the northeastern region of their Great Zhou. Invisibly, the busyness of the construction teams there has skyrocketed, and their Great Zhou has entered a stage of rapid development.

In a short period of time, Zhou Xu had completely lost the desire to expand outward.

The most important thing at the moment is to seize this rare period of peace without disturbance from external enemies and complete the all-round development within their Great Zhou.

During this period, the labor problems that troubled him the most were solved to a certain extent.

And the key to all this lies in the Lizardman!
It has been said before that Lizardmen become adults at the age of six.

That is to say, every year after entering the peace period, there will be a stable number of Lizardmen coming of age and forming the labor force for their Great Week.

The only thing that limits them is the climate environment, but they can work in the south.

After the earlier labor mobilization, Zhou Xu concentrated the labor force in the Northeast, resulting in a sharp decline in the labor force in the southern region. While the efficiency of many engineering projects was greatly reduced, many more projects were directly suspended.

These adult lizardmen can just fill this vacancy.

At the same time, the railway project in the southern border was officially launched.

For now, based on the situation in the southern border, Zhou Xu feels that it can accommodate any amount of labor.

Maintaining this rhythm, a year passed quietly...

"Woo——"

With the sound of the whistle, at the factory railway station, their second steam locomotive of the Great Zhou Dynasty, numbered '002', was officially put into service!
After successfully building the first steam locomotive, Qin Fen and his team, who had gained experience, found it even easier to build the second steam locomotive.

Of course, at this point in time, the railway on the southern border has not yet been built to the border fortress.

After all, the southern border is currently the largest area in their Great Zhou. If they want to build a railway from the factory to the border fortress, the workload will not be comparable to the previous construction of railways in the northeast region.

At this point in time, the railway on the southern border has been built to the rainforest fortress.

The so-called rainforest fortress is the fortress located at the outermost part of the rainforest area and facing the Claw Clan's rat tide attack when fighting with the Claw Clan.

Since the steam locomotive had already been built, it was impossible for Zhou Xu to wait until the railway was built to the border fortress before putting it into use.

This idea was simply outrageous to him. The railway can be connected, and if there is a section that can be used, you can use it first.

In fact, the distance from the factory to the rainforest fortress alone can be transported by steam train, which can save a lot of time and thus achieve the goal of improving construction efficiency in the southern border!

At the same time, in the Qinzheng Hall, Zhou Xu was looking through the report sent by the Ministry of Finance and making plans for the project arrangements for the new year.

Normally speaking, in the southern border, although the railway has not been completed, the steam locomotive has been built.

In this case, according to Zhou Xu's idea of ​​working with efficiency as the main focus, the relevant departments under him should naturally start manufacturing the third steam locomotive.

In fact, this was also Zhou Xu's original plan.

If they could increase the efficiency by one steam locomotive per year, then within a few years, railways would be opened in all parts of the Great Zhou, thus achieving an all-round improvement in transportation efficiency.

But what Zhou Xu had not expected was that the No. 002 steam locomotive had just been put into use, and the Ministry of Finance said that the manufacturing project of the third steam locomotive had to be slowed down, otherwise there would be a high probability that the financial situation of their Great Zhou would be in trouble in the new year.

At this moment, Zhou Xu was looking at the financial analysis of the Railway Bureau made by the Ministry of Finance, and his brows gradually furrowed.

"Let the Audit Department check whether there is any problem with the Railway Bureau's expenditure."

The main duty of the Inspection Department is to monitor the officials of various departments. Since the Inspection Department did not report it proactively, there is probably no problem. However, Zhou Xu still wants to confirm it just in case.

After receiving the order, Ye Jinghong retrieved the archives of the Railway Bureau for the past two years as quickly as possible, and at the same time sent subordinates to confirm it. Only after making sure that there were no problems did he send someone to report back.

After understanding the situation, Zhou Xu nodded.

It has to be said that the annual financial expenditure of the Railway Bureau is much larger than he expected.

Steam locomotives are not a means of transportation that can be used after you build them. There is a saying in modern times: "You can afford to buy a car, but you may not be able to maintain it!"

The same applies to steam locomotives.

And maintaining a steam locomotive is much more expensive than maintaining a car.

In terms of fuel, steam locomotives consume a lot of coal, and a lot of coal is burned for each trip.

At the same time, as an important means of transportation, it must be inspected every day and maintained regularly. The same is true for railways.

Even in the area of ​​'routine maintenance' and 'inspection', the railway's expenditure is the biggest!

How long is a steam train? The railway spans two areas!
In addition, considering the risk of wild animals appearing in the wild and even damaging the railway, a railway patrol station must be set up at regular intervals along the railway.

Their daily job is to patrol along the railway and perform maintenance and repairs on the railway every once in a while.

This expenditure is nothing if taken individually, but any expenditure will accumulate over time!
As time went on, the accumulated numbers made Zhou Xu's eyelids twitch.

In this report, the Ministry of Finance has taken into account the latest steam locomotive No. 002 that has been put into service, as well as the railway that will definitely be laid to the southern border fortress.

With the premise of building the southern border railway directly to the border fortress and opening up an entire transportation route, the current financial funding within their Great Zhou can still be maintained.

But if they built another steam locomotive No. 003 and laid a railway in that area, they would have financial problems.

After all, the Railway Bureau is not the only one that needs to spend money within the Great Zhou...

(End of this chapter)