The room goes through the late Ming Dynasty, and the back door leads to North America at the beginni

This time the New Year's Eve in Da'ei ended at 11:30 in the morning.

Liu Sheng did not leave the ministers for lunch.

There were nearly a hundred people attending the meeting, and it was not easy to prepare lunch for these people.

However, there is a "canteen" in the Forbidden City, mainly for the convenience of guards, maids, and eunuchs. As long as officials don't mind, they can go to the canteen to buy a meal.

In order to facilitate management and reduce corruption, the canteens in the Forbidden City adopt a government-run model.

Anyone who ate there had to pay according to the food they bought - of course, in order to avoid being misunderstood as stingy by the palace officials, Liu Sheng added a meal fee to these people's salaries.

And the food in the Forbidden City cafeteria is cheaper than outside.

In the former Ming Dynasty, the food for the palace staff and ministers was mostly handled by the Shangshan Supervisor and Taichang Temple, which was similar to the public canteens of later generations.

The food of the palace people is often not delicious, and the palace people do not cherish it when they eat it. There is a lot of waste, and it is common practice for the superiors and subordinates to take advantage of the opportunity and take advantage of it.

Later, even the emperor dared to trick him.

For example, Emperor Daoguang of the later Qing Dynasty was deceived by the catering department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Once Daoguang was chatting with a minister and asked him what he had eaten in the morning. The minister said he had eaten four eggs.

Daoguang was shocked when he heard this, because as far as he knew, the Ministry of Internal Affairs purchased eggs for five taels of silver each. If the minister ate four in the morning, it would cost twenty taels of silver. It was too extravagant.

But in fact, eggs on the market at that time only cost a few cents each.

Perhaps this story is fictional, but it can also be inferred from this that corruption in the catering departments in the palaces of the past dynasties was mostly serious, especially in the middle and late dynasties.

Liu Sheng made the "canteen" in the palace official, which could not only prevent the palace people from wasting food, but also facilitate the supervision of the "canteen" finances and reduce the occurrence of corruption.

The official canteen is just one example of Liu Sheng's innovation in many palace institutions of the previous dynasty.

All these are praised by the ministers in the outer court.

···
The next day.

Liu Sheng summoned the Minister of Military Discipline and the Ministers of Industry, Finance, Civil Affairs, and Transportation in the Wenhua Hall to discuss a specific political matter.

“More than half a year has passed since the first railway in Da’ei was opened.

Over the past six months, the Railway Department of the Ministry of Transport has been monitoring the operation of trains on the railway and collecting various data.

Now it can be confirmed that the technology for building railways in Dalian is mature and available, and there are no major problems with the temporary railway operation methods.

In addition, the Railway Administration has trained a large number of qualified railway engineers and railway workers under the guidance of the team of Academician Wang Hui of the Academy of Sciences.

I don’t need to say more about the benefits of the railway to the country and the people. All your ministers must know it. So now is the time to consider building a second railway.

Today you will discuss where the second railway should be built and where it would be more appropriate to start. "

After listening to Liu Sheng's words, the ministers began to communicate in low voices.

"How much money did this railway in Beijing cost?"

"I heard it cost more than three hundred thousand taels."

"More than 300,000 taels of silver were spent for just twenty miles? Doesn't that mean that one mile cost more than 10,000 taels of silver?"

"It's true - I don't know how long this second railway will need to be built. If it is too long, the state treasury will spend a lot of money this year."

"Although the railway will also make a profit after it is put into civilian use, so far, the profit in several months has been less than a thousand taels. I don't know how long it will take to get back the money."

Almost all those who talk about money are officials of the Ministry of Finance.

Obviously, in the minds of most financial officials, investment in railways, which takes a long time to pay off, must be cautious.

If Liu Sheng hadn't had such high prestige, perhaps some of the financial officials would have opposed the construction of the railway.

In the final analysis, these officials still do not have a comprehensive understanding of the role of railways in the country, or they always have doubts without seeing it with their own eyes.

Compared with the Ministry of Finance, officials from the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Civil Affairs were the most excited to discuss.

Needless to say, the Ministry of Transportation is responsible for transportation affairs. Only when the country overhauls railways, official roads, and rivers can their rights be highlighted and even expanded.

As for the Ministry of Civil Affairs, it realizes that railways are indeed beneficial to local people's livelihood and economic development, and are a great thing for both the country and the people.

There is no reason not to support it. Half an hour later, the exchange stopped. Yuan Jixian, the left minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, stood up and said: "Your Majesty, I believe that this second railway should be built in North Zhili, with the capital and Tianjin Wei as the end points.

Now that the country is about to develop maritime transport, the northern Tianjin port has become particularly important.

If there is a railway connecting the capital, it will not only relieve the pressure on the Beijing-Tianjin section of the canal, but also help the court strengthen its control over the capital. "

Hou Tong, the Minister of Transportation, then stood up and said: "Your Majesty, at present, the people are not familiar with railways and trains, and they all rely on state funding to build them.

And if we want to overhaul the railway in Dawei, it is obviously not feasible to rely solely on national finance. We also need to rely on the private sector.

Among the people in Dawei, Jiangnan is the richest, and in Jiangnan, the three prefectures of Su, Song and Chang are the richest.

The old minister thinks that this second railway should be built in Susong and Changsan Prefectures, preferably from Wusongjiang Port in Songjiang Prefecture to the vicinity of Nanjing.

There is a lot of trade in the south of the Yangtze River, and our country has opened a sea ban. If the railway from Nanjing to Songjiang can be opened, merchants will definitely flock to it.

By then, not only will this second railway be able to earn back its capital as soon as possible, but it will also allow the gentry and people in Jiangnan to realize the benefits of the railway.

By then, as long as the court allows it, the gentry and common people in Jiangnan will definitely be willing to invest in building more railways! "

After Hou Tongzeng said these words, many officials from Jiangnan (South Zhili Jiangnan region) immediately expressed their support.

It has been two years since Liu Sheng established Dawei. Now these ministers all know that Liu Sheng is not only not ashamed to talk about business interests, but also encourages his ministers to consider many state affairs from the perspective of financial profit and loss.

Therefore, at this time, although the officials from Jiangnan in the palace knew that supporting Hou Dong Zengzhi was suspected of favoring his hometown, they still spoke.

There were many southern officials in Da'ei's court, especially those from Jiangnan. The meaningful speech at this time was actually quite powerful.

For a moment, other officials were speechless.

Liu Sheng raised his eyebrows slightly. When no officials from Jiangnan spoke again, he glanced at everyone and called by name: "Zhang Xianguang, do you have other ideas?"

A middle-aged official, less than forty years old, stood up.

This person is none other than Zhang Xianguang, the right minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, who was born in Yuan Dynasty. He was Li Changwen's important assistant in handling internal affairs two years ago.

In fact, he had no other ideas about the construction of the second railway. He believed that it could be built in Beizhili or Jiangnan.

But after being called by Liu Sheng and touching Liu Sheng's eyes, he suddenly thought of something.

So he raised his hands and said loudly: "Your Majesty, I think that since we need to build a second railway line, it is best to choose from Yiyang Prefecture in Henan Province to Luzhou Prefecture in Huainan Province."

When the other ministers heard this, their hearts skipped a beat and they all thought of something.

Liu Sheng smiled and asked, "Why do you say that?"

Zhang Xianguang felt that Liu Sheng's smile was recognition and encouragement for him, and he was heartened.

"Firstly, Runing and Yiyang are the places where our great dragon thrives. Ruyang has many arsenals, and Yiyang is a small granary in Henan, which is quite important to the imperial court.

Secondly, His Majesty now goes to Tianmu Mountain every year to relocate and resettle disaster victims in North America.

Although Tianmu Mountain in Henan is not too far from Nanjing, it is not convenient to travel by official road or waterway alone. If there is a railway, it will be much more convenient.

Third, it can facilitate the imperial court to control North America.

Fourth, it is conducive to trade between Dalei and North America.

I think that this second railway will not only connect Nanjing and Tianmu Mountain, but it will not do anything else! "

After listening to Zhang Xianguang's words, the faces of Hou Tongzeng and other officials from Jiangnan became a little ugly.

Zhang Xianguang's reasons were so good that they couldn't refute them even if they wanted to.

The few officials who wanted to please Liu Sheng secretly regretted it and thought to themselves: Why didn't I think about the Holy Mountain and North America?

The fact that Tianmu Mountain can lead to North America is now basically known to the ministers of the DPRK and China. They even think that Liu Sheng is the banished immortal born from Tianmu Mountain, and privately call it the "Holy Mountain".

Because of this, they actually knew the importance of Tianmu Mountain and North America to Da'ei.

No one had thought of it before, but it was just a matter of habit and I forgot about it for a while.

While all the ministers in the palace were thinking, General Counselor Li Changwen also stood up and said: "Your Majesty, it goes without saying that Tianmu Mountain is important to our country. It is indeed necessary to build a railway as soon as possible to strengthen the imperial court's control over Runing, Yiyang and North America. ." (End of chapter)