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

As the General Counselor of the Government Affairs Council and Minister of Military Aircraft, Li Changwen was equivalent to the chief assistant of the former Ming Dynasty, and his words were very weighty.

He agreed to build the Runing and Yiyang railways first. Unless Liu Sheng objected, there would be no other changes in this matter.

Judging from Liu Sheng's expression after Zhang Xianguang's speech just now, Liu Sheng obviously also prefers to build the railways in Runing and Yiyang first.

Sure enough, Liu Sheng nodded and said, "Tianmu Mountain and North America are indeed important to us in Dawei, and the railway there should be built first."

But to everyone's surprise, Liu Sheng immediately changed his words and said, "However, what Yuan Qing and Hou Qing said just now also have some truth."

"The Northern Railway involves the control of Beijing and northern Xinjiang, and building the railway in the south of the Yangtze River will help encourage the gentry and common people to invest in building the railway."

"That being the case, why don't our country start building three railways at the same time? The Railways Department should have enough trained engineers and engineers, right?"

When Liu Sheng said his last words, he turned his eyes to Railway Director Zhonglu Zhenfei.

Lu Zhenfei immediately stood up, raised his hands, and said respectfully: "Reporting to Your Majesty, the Railway Department currently has thirty-eight railway engineers, and there are more than one division of railway engineers. It is indeed possible to divide the troops to build three railways at the same time, but it will not be as fast as using all the troops to build one railway. ."

Lu Zhenfei was fifty-five years old and had gray hair. He was from Quzhou, Guangping Prefecture, North Zhili.

He was a Jinshi in the fifth year of Tianqi. He entered the officialdom late and served successively as magistrate of Jingyang, censor, and inspector of Fujian.

During his tenure as inspector of Fujian, the pirate Liu Xiang colluded with the Dutch to invade Fujian's waters. Lu Zhenfei organized guerrillas such as Zheng Zhilong and Huang Binqing to defeat them.

Later, he was transferred to Su Song as the inspector. During this period, he was involved in the civil cases of Qian Qianyi and Qu Shiqi. In the memorial, he satirized Wen Tiren, the chief assistant, and was demoted to the post of the inspector of Henan Province.

In the late Ming Dynasty, the governor had great power, and it could be said that he was only one step away from the governor.

Lu Zhenfei was suddenly demoted from a patrol officer to a minor official, which shows how tragic his experience was.

After Wen Tiren stepped down, although he was promoted, he only held idle official positions such as Lin Cheng and Guanglu Temple Shaoqing.

In later generations, Lu Zhenfei had to wait until the 16th year of Chongzhen's reign before he was taken seriously by Chongzhen and appointed as the governor of water transportation. He played an important role after the Jiashen disaster and before the establishment of the Hongguang court.

Such as organizing soldiers and horses to fight against the Shun army, writing a letter requesting that Tang Wang Zhu Yujian be released from the Fengyang Imperial Tomb, etc.

At this time and space, because Lu Zhenfei was inconspicuous, he did not suffer much during the period when the Shun army occupied Beijing in the fifteenth year of Chongzhen's reign.

After Li Zicheng abandoned Beijing, Lu Zhenfei decisively fled Beijing and returned to his hometown of Quzhou.

Shortly after the Tai army came to Guangping Prefecture, Lu Zhenfei took the initiative to serve and came to Nanjing for several months to observe the government. He was appointed as the Minister of Railways and the Minister of Transportation of China.

As a native of Beizhili, he naturally hopes to build the Beijing-Tianjin Railway first.

Originally, the Beijing-Tianjin Railway was the least likely of the three railways to be built first. Now Liu Sheng wants the three railways to be built at the same time, which is equivalent to allowing the Beijing-Tianjin Railway to be built earlier.

But Lu Zhenfei still reminded Liu Sheng that although the Railways Department had many engineers and engineers, it would definitely not be as fast as using them all to build one railway.

After Lu Zhenfei finished speaking, while the other ministers were still thinking, another person stood up, but it was Ni Sihui, the left minister of the Ministry of Finance.

He cupped his hands and said, "Your Majesty, if three railways are built at the same time, there will be an additional expenditure of about three million taels this year. I am afraid it will hinder the financial operation of the imperial court."

In the early Ming Dynasty, financial issues were an obstacle to the implementation of many political affairs.

In Ni Sihui's view, when Damei was first established, although the state treasury was filled by expropriating the properties of the former Ming vassal kings, nobles, and some evil gentry and bullies, the annual expenditures were also huge. If it was not controlled, it would not last more than a few years. , the national treasury will be in deficit.

At that time, it was difficult to become an official in their Ministry of Finance.

This matter should have been raised by Qian Yunsheng, the chief official of the Ministry of Finance, but Qian Yunsheng was sitting there and made it clear that he did not want to dissuade Liu Sheng, so Ni Sihui consciously stepped in.

Liu Shengdao: "As long as the basic team for building the railway can be separated, money and ordinary labor are not a problem."

"Now that we are preparing to overhaul our railways, we certainly cannot let the Railways Department directly manage them like this railway in Nanjing."

"Considering that the overhaul of the railway requires the help of private wealth, it is better to establish a railway company called 'Da'ei Railway Transport Company', referred to as 'Rail Transport'."

"Railway companies can sell part of their shares to the private sector to raise funds needed to build railways in advance."

"Anyone who purchases shares of a railway transportation company will receive dividends every year for thirty years after the company returns its capital and profits." "Of course, the railway transportation company is still controlled by the court - officials from the Ministry of Transportation and Finance can be sent to cross Management; Supervised by commissioners appointed by the Inspectorate..."

Liu Sheng talked eloquently and explained the modern methods of raising funds to build railways in later generations.

Companies and shares are no longer unfamiliar words to today's Da'ei courtiers.

For one thing, companies and shares can not only find their origins in ancient books, but also rely on the literal meaning.

Secondly, in the past two years, Liu Sheng has already ordered the establishment of many companies.

Among them are companies wholly-owned by the Liu Mei royal family, such as "Anxianglai" (an integrated factory and physical store sales company), which mainly produces perfumes and soaps, and "Anxianglai", which mainly produces underwear and disposable menstrual belts. "Yirenfang", etc.

There are also joint venture companies between the royal family and the imperial court, such as "Da'ei Daily Chemical Manufacturing Company" (referred to as "Da'ei Daily Chemical") whose main products are soap and paper, and "Da'ei Building Materials" whose main products are lime and cement. etc.

However, there had never been such a company that was a joint venture between the court and the private sector but controlled and managed by the court.

Therefore, many ministers' eyes lit up after hearing this, especially several officials from the Ministry of Finance.

What Liu Sheng said was equivalent to them opening their minds.

Since railways can be built with private wealth but are controlled by the court, can other similar matters be handled in the same way?

This kind of thing must not be forced, it must be made profitable by the gentry and merchants.

While the officials were thinking about the matter, Liu Sheng went on to talk about solutions to the labor shortage.

"In terms of manpower, there is now one division of railway engineers, which means that each railway can be assigned more than 10,000 people, which is quite a lot."

"Now, except for the northwest, southwest, northern Xinjiang, and Liaodi, the other provinces are generally at peace, so there is no need to retain too many security forces and civilian bravery."

"If we cut off the garrison and civilian warriors, we must make arrangements for their placement, and we can recruit railway engineers from them."

"Fortunately, I feel that there is a shortage of personnel, so I can recruit them from the common people. I believe that with the treatment of railway engineers, the common people will flock to them."

"Using the original engineers of one division and bringing these new engineers together to build railways may be slower at first, but later when the new engineers become skilled workers, the speed of railway construction will catch up."

"When the railway construction is completed, we will have another group of engineers on the Dalei Railway. It can be said that we can accomplish multiple things with one stone."

Liu Sheng's words made him and the officials in the congregation nod frequently, obviously they all thought it was a good idea.

So, after Liu Sheng finished speaking, he asked the ministers to discuss and find out the deficiencies, and then decided to build three railways at the same time and establish the "Da'ei Railway Transport Company".

a few days later.

Various departments, headed by the Railway Department, drafted the preliminary construction plans for the three railways as memorials and sent them to Liu Sheng.

Among these three railways, the starting point of the Beijing-Tianjin Railway is not controversial.

As for where the starting point station should be placed, engineers must go to Beizhili for an on-site inspection before they can determine it.

There is not much controversy about this section of railway in Henan and Huainan, but construction is confirmed to be started in sections.

There are two sections to be built first.

The first is the "Chengming Railway Section", that is, from Taiping Town to Minggang, or from the foot of Tianmu Mountain to the north bank of the Huaihe River in Yiyang Prefecture.

The second is the "Shouhe Railway Section", that is, from Shouzhou to Luzhou Prefecture and Hefei.

As long as these two sections of railway are successfully constructed, Liu Sheng will only need to travel by water or take a train to go to Tianmu Mountain in the future. There is no need to repair the whole journey, and the round trip time will be shortened a lot.

After these two sections of railway are completed, the railways from Shouzhou to Ruyang and Ruyang to Taiping Town will be built - because this area is on the Huanghuai Plain, the railways are easier to build.

If you leave from Yiyang Mansion, it will be difficult to live in the Dabie Mountains, if nothing else.

Compared with the first two railways, it is much more difficult to determine the specific stopping points of this railway in the Jiangnan area... (End of this chapter)