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

The rich people attending the meeting took a look and found that it was a map of Jiangnan (Ming Dynasty version).

There is a conspicuous red line on it, which runs from Wusongkou, Suzhou Prefecture, to Nanjing, the fertile land in the south of the Yangtze River.

"The easternmost section of the first railway in the south of the Yangtze River that our company plans to build is Wusongkou, Suzhou Prefecture."

Shen Tingyang said loudly.

"Then go west, passing through Jiading, Taicangzhou, Changshu, Wuxi, Wujin (Changzhou Prefecture), Danyang, Jurong, and finally to Nanjing."

"It is estimated that the total distance of this railway will be nearly 600 miles. After its completion, Suzhou, Changzhou and Zhenzhou will be able to travel to and from Nanjing by train."

"Even for Songjiang Prefecture and Jiading Prefecture, Huzhou Prefecture, Hangzhou Prefecture, etc. in Zhejiang Province, you can also take the waterway to Wusongkou and then transfer to the train."

Having said this, Shen Tingyang paused and took a sip of herbal tea before continuing.

"You may have heard about the power of trains, but you may not know it clearly. I will talk about it today."

"Currently, our train in Da'ei is still the first generation, but it has reached a speed of forty miles per hour, which is eighty miles per hour!"

"It can travel both day and night, so at full speed, it can cover nine hundred and sixty miles in one day and night!"

"That is to say, taking a train from Wusongkou can reach Nanjing in just one day!"

"And this is only the speed of our first-generation train in Dalian - currently Academician Wang Hui of the Academy of Sciences is developing a faster train."

"Perhaps in a few years, the train speed will increase by another 20 to 30 miles per hour, or even double!"

"In addition, a train has at least ten carriages, and can even be added to more than twenty carriages."

"Each carriage can carry more than 20,000 kilograms of cargo. If it carries people, it can carry hundreds of people!"

"So, I don't need to say more about how much convenience it will bring to Jiangnan after the first railway in Jiangnan is opened, and what huge profits it will bring, right?"

At this point, Shen Tingyang deliberately stopped to give time for communication and discussion with the rich people in the congregation.

Everyone understood, and suddenly the entire venue was buzzing with conversation.

"This train can travel thousands of miles a day?!"

"Even the legendary BMW of Blood and Blood is not as good as it is."

"How can a horse compare with a train? How many people can a horse carry and how many goods can it pull? Can it travel day and night without stopping?"

"I am going from Jiangnan to Nanjing. Most of the waterways are against the current. It would be much more convenient if there is a train."

"It seems that the benefits of this train are greater than we expected."

"I don't know how many railway transportation shares the imperial court is planning to pre-sell in Suzhou this time. There are so many people attending this meeting that it's hard to get enough."

"···"

After everyone had listened for a while, the gong rang again, and an official shouted loudly: "Quiet!"

The venue fell silent.

Zhou Lianggong stood up and said: "I am the director of the Ministry of Transport and the co-organizer of the railway transportation company. Next, I will preside over the railway transportation company's share auction."

Bidding?

Hearing this word, the rich people present were slightly stunned.

It's not that they don't understand the word - bidding was already done in the Ming Dynasty, so it's not unusual.

The key is that they did not expect that the imperial court would sell the railway shares through bidding.

From this point of view, the imperial court is very confident in the value of the railway transportation shares.

And it is likely that not many shares will be sold in Suzhou this time.

If there were too many, they would not be sold by auction.

Thinking of this, many people secretly changed their minds - those who were not prepared to buy decided to buy, and those who had already decided to buy were prepared to buy more.

Zhou Lianggong saw everyone's expressions and was secretly happy in his heart.

He continued: "I would like to explain the bidding rules again: First, each bid increase must not be less than one hundred taels."

"Second, you must raise your hand when making a quotation, and you must not regret it after making a quotation; third..."

After a while, Zhou Lianggong finished explaining the bidding rules.

"The first auction begins now. The competition is for 30 shares of the railway transportation company. The starting price is 30,000 taels."

After Zhou Lianggong finished speaking, the venue became quiet for a while, and Xu Shuqi raised his hand and shouted loudly: "Thirty-one thousand taels!"

As soon as he started, someone immediately followed him.

"Thirty-two thousand taels!"

"Thirty-two thousand five hundred taels!"

"···"

In the end, these thirty shares were bought by Xu Shuqi for 36,300 taels of silver.

Then Zhou Lianggong personally issued a note specially made by the court to Xu Shuqi.

"This is a specially prepared share certificate of our railway company, which can also be called a stock. Yuan Xu has to keep it." "Although you can get a replacement from our railway company if you lose it, but it is troublesome, so it is better to keep it." "

"understand."

Under the attention of more than a hundred wealthy people at the venue, Xu Shuqi received the first stock in Dawei and couldn't help but blush with excitement.

However, when he returned to his seat, the attendant immediately leaned into his ear and said, "Master, the old master is here."

"Ah?" Xu Shuqi was surprised, "When did he come and where is he now?"

"You're standing under the tree over there. I just saw you receiving the stocks."

Xu Shuqi looked in the direction pointed by his entourage.

Sure enough, I saw Xu Jingwen standing under an osmanthus tree outside the venue, leaning on a cane.

His face was as gloomy as water, and he was obviously very angry.

Seeing this, Xu Shuqi was frightened at first, then gritted his teeth and said: "I don't care about him - I bought all the shares. Even if he is angry, there is nothing he can do to me!"

The share bidding continued, and Xu Shuqi also shifted his attention.

Next, under the auspices of Zhou Lianggong, the shares of the railway transportation company were auctioned for a minimum of ten shares and a maximum of sixty-six shares, attracting rich people attending the meeting to compete for the shares.

After more than an hour, when they saw that the shares had not been sold out, these Jiangnan rich people realized that something was wrong and calmed down one by one.

Seeing this, Zhou Lianggong said: "There are not many shares left, so the next competing products will be less than ten shares."

Because the previous bidding was too fierce, many attendees actually failed to take the photo due to lack of financial resources or hesitation.

Originally, these people had given up, but after listening to Zhou Lianggong's words, they suddenly became interested again.

And those wealthy people who have already bought dozens of shares feel that the railway transportation shares are indeed limited, and perhaps they should buy a few more shares.

As a result, the next bidding for less than ten shares was equally hot.

In this way, the bidding lasted for more than half an hour, and more than a hundred shares were auctioned before everyone's enthusiasm cooled down.

Zhou Lianggong exchanged glances with Shen Tingyang, and then ended the "share auction meeting".

After the meeting.

Shen Tingyang, Zhou Lianggong and others returned to the main room where they had rested before and counted the bidding results again.

Both of them looked happy.

"General Office, I have done the math again and found that one thousand, two hundred and twenty-two shares were indeed sold this time!"

Shen Tingyang's throat went dry after hearing this, and he asked, "How much money will be spent on the sale?"

"One million, five hundred and sixty-five thousand eight hundred taels!"

"it is good!"

Shen Tingyang couldn't help but clapped his hands.

"One 'share auction meeting' can sell for more than 1.5 million taels. If we come two or three more times, this first railway in Jiangnan will not require any money from the court!"

Nanjing's "Yuqi Railway" (Yuzui Wharf to Qiqiao Weng) cost more than 300,000 taels of silver for more than 20 miles.

But that's because for the first time it was built, more money was spent on many places and even wasted.

With experience in building other railways, various technologies and techniques have become more mature, and the lines are longer, so the average cost per mile has naturally been reduced a lot.

However, there are many rivers in the south of the Yangtze River, and some railways are even built in hilly areas.

On average, the amount of silver required to build one mile of railway has not decreased much. It is estimated that it will cost about seven to eight thousand taels of silver per mile.

The railway from Wusongkou to Nanjing is nearly 600 miles long.

To complete it, it is estimated that more than four million taels of silver will be needed.

After Zhou Lianggong calmed down, he was not as optimistic as Shen Tingyang.

He recalled the performance of those wealthy people when bidding today, and said: "There are indeed many wealthy people in Jiangnan, but our large number of railway transportation shares may be guessed by others. If we want to use a similar method to bid in the future, I am afraid the effect will not be as good." alright."

Shen Tingyang smiled and said, "It doesn't matter, even if they have speculations, they can't confirm it. As for the wealthy people in other places, they only know that this time Jiangnan people bid for shares and spent millions of taels to grab the railway transportation shares that the court gave to Jiangnan. null."

"So, when we hold this conference elsewhere, if someone from Jiangnan says that there are many railway transportation shares and it is not worth snapping up, what do you think the rich people in other places will think?"

Zhou Lianggong's eyes lit up after hearing this, and he said: "They will probably think that the people from Jiangnan don't want them to buy the shares!"

"However, if we don't want this matter to change, I'm afraid we need to add fuel to the flames."

"For example, let a wealthy man from Jiangnan go to the second auction meeting with great fanfare, first publicizing that the railway transportation shares are not worth buying, and then participating in the bidding in the end!"

Shen Tingyang smiled and nodded, "Yuan Liang (Zhou Liang's nickname) can draw inferences from one instance to another, but he has a lot of understanding in this matter. Then, it's up to you to bribe one or two Jiangnan rich people."

"Yes, I will handle this matter well!"

Then, the two led a group of officials to check the accounts again and confirmed that they were correct before sealing them.

"General Office, where are we going next?"

"There is heaven above, and there are Suzhou and Hangzhou below. Since Suzhou is the first stop, the second stop is naturally Hangzhou." (End of Chapter)