The great hero of the Silk Road, starting from a farm farmer

"Kuiwa, there is something I shouldn't say, but for the sake of the foundation, my uncle has to say it. Hezhou is more than a thousand miles away from Yinzhou, and a road needs to be built from Wazhou to Huizhou. It adds up. That's more than 1,500 miles. To lay such a long road with railroad tracks would cost so much that it's beyond imagination.

If you plan it slowly and repair it in ten or eight years, it is not impossible. But to build such a long road within three to five years, from my point of view, is a great achievement and a waste of people and money. You must know that the first emperor built a border wall and the Qin Dynasty was destroyed, so we must take precautions against it. "This time and space existed in the Qin and Han Dynasties. It was only after the Wei and Jin Dynasties that it deviated from the time and space that Song Yingkui lived in. The second uncle used the First Emperor's construction of the Great Wall as an example to warn Song Yingkui not to embark on big projects easily.

"My uncle, the First Emperor, did more than just build the border wall. He also built straight roads and chimney tracks. The chimney track is very similar to the railway I want to build, with similar purposes and functions.

It makes sense for later generations to attribute the death of Qin II to these major projects during the First Emperor's tenure. But I think it's not comprehensive. There are many reasons for the rise and fall of a dynasty. If you focus on just one point, you will be blinded.

Look at the rise and fall, evaluate the pros and cons, and have a broad vision. Heshuo was originally an old land in the Central Plains. Why did it gradually move further away from the Central Plains after the Han Dynasty and become a paradise for foreign countries? The reason is closely related to the collapse of the straight road and the collapse of the side wall.

If our Anxi Army wants to control Heshuo for a long time, it cannot be achieved by relying solely on the water transport capacity of the Yellow River. There must be a road with large transport volume and high speed to cooperate with the Yellow River water transport, so that Hezhou, Taoyang, Wazhou, Huizhou, Pingchuan, Yinzhou and even Wuyuan and Shuofang can truly be connected into a whole.

Railways and water transportation can enable the major sectors currently under our military's control to support each other in terms of property, civilian power and military power. In the long run, this is a policy that saves money and effort.

Without railways, the food gained from developing three systems in the future can only be consumed locally, and the cost of using it to support other places will be huge. And the current cultivated land will be unsustainable if it only goes to the Heshuo area of ​​Yinzhou for blood transfusions for a long time.

With the railway, our army can control the planned area and save at least about 30% of its troops. My uncle should be able to figure this out.

All in all, I believe that actions such as building border walls and straight roads were not the root cause of Qin's demise. There is no right or wrong in these policies, but the strategies and methods are wrong. The railway must be repaired, and it must be repaired as soon as possible, but we must not do things that waste people and money, and we must not do things that overwork the people.

Turning this into a good government that revitalizes Anxi is the biggest test for everyone in the governor's office. We must face the difficulties head on.

Specifically, although building railways costs a lot of money, the number of people who will flow into our territory in the future will be at least hundreds of thousands. When these refugees first came, they were in a difficult situation. It would be difficult for them to just open up wasteland and cultivate land in a short time. Put your foot down. Isn't it good governance that kills two birds with one stone by allowing them to earn money by working on railway construction?

Of course, the key to good governance lies in the execution of officials. If in the name of road construction, officials embezzle and deduct construction funds from above, and exploit the interests of the people from below, and the quality of the roads they build is worrisome and insufficient for use, then Anxi, our country, is not far from being destroyed.

For this road construction, I will use a large number of scholars who have been exiled to our territory, as well as professional officials graduated from secondary schools and universities, in order to ensure orderly management. At the same time, supervision and inspection will be strengthened, and officials will be urged to do their best with strict punishments and laws. "

Faced with his second uncle's confusion and questions, Song Yingkui spoke at length about his views and intentions on building the railway. The purpose is to use his words to let the people under his command understand and support the matter of fully building the railway.

A simple estimate is that the cost of building one mile of railway is about 5,000 silver dollars, and the total cost of building 1,500 miles of railway is seven to eight million silver dollars.

At present, the annual fiscal and tax revenue of the military government is only between 3 million and 5 million silver dollars. Excluding expenses, the annual balance is less than 500,000 silver dollars. In other words, with the current financial resources, if the military government wants to build the entire railway line, it will have to save money for at least ten years.

With such a large amount of expenditure, it is difficult for people below to figure out why before they actually use the railway. It will definitely not work if they do not do a good job of explaining.

As for the money to build the railway, Song Yingkui was not too worried. He had already planned the source of funds, which was to use additional currency and bonds to solve the problem.

The number of people under the rule has increased several times in recent years. The original currency can no longer meet the demand for circulation. By building the railway, we can inject water from top to bottom and cover a large area to solve the problem of insufficient currency in circulation. .

At its current size, it is not a big problem to inject about one million silver dollars worth of water every year. If it lasts for three years, the construction cost of three million taels of silver dollars can be paid.

It is not possible to issue additional currency without scruples. The remaining money collected by the private sector must be recovered with bonds. This adds an insurance to the over-issuance of currency and can also raise some funds for railway construction.

Coupled with foreign trade and currency outflows, Song Yingkui believes that the overall currency situation is still controllable.

In today's world, it is difficult for Dazheng's coinage to recover in a short period of time. The large lost land in the north does not have large-scale currency issuance, and the Miemeng regime has no habit of issuing currency. In addition, the Western Fan regime has currency needs. The market space for the currency issued by the Anxi regime is quite large.

As long as trade can return to normal, it will be easy to digest the additional currency issuance. Even this additional currency issuance may not meet market demand.

If you look at the situation a little more enlarged, there are ways and means to dilute the cost of building railways, and it is not difficult. The most critical thing now is to open up trade routes and increase the scale of trade. As long as the scale of trade increases, the railway can be repaired using safe financial means.

The top priority is to resume large-scale trade with Dazheng as soon as possible and expand the scale of trade in the direction of the Western Fan and the Western Regions.

Previously, the Anxi regime was unable to directly carry out trade with the Western Regions. After the Hexi region was fully recovered, Song Yingkui felt that it was necessary to deeply develop the trade route between Yungu industry and commerce and the Western Regions, and pay full attention to this trade line.

Based on the current traffic situation, the size of the Western Region trade line cannot be very large. However, the advantage of this trade line is that it is highly profitable and highly scarce. Through the Western Region trade lines, a large amount of hard currency such as gold, silver and jade can be exchanged. These things are crucial to the currency reserves of the Anxi regime.

At the same time, valuable goods such as silk from Dazheng can also be exported through this trade line, thereby expanding the trade links between the Anxi regime and Dazheng, and using trade to strengthen the Anxi regime's presence in the hinterland of the Central Plains, so as to prepare for the future. Make preparations for things to happen. As for the profits that have been made by transferring to another station, it is not as important as imagined, and it is just a matter of convenience!

(End of this chapter)