Zhao Shizhen paused, and after being asked by Chen Mu to extinguish his pipe, he seemed to have organized some words in his heart.

He cleared his throat before he said, "Commander, everyone, please listen to the next word." ”

"The students thought that what the big marshal said that in a few years, the descendants would be driven away from this land, and it would not happen, which was too unfounded, and this was not a nonsense of the students."

Zhao Shizhen spread his hands on the table as he spoke, looked around at the participants in the hall, and said with a light smile: "The marshal said that strength is artillery, industry, and the flag army, in short, it is nothing more than gunpowder, man and steel. ”

Zhao Shizhen dipped his fingers in the water in the teacup and wrote a few numbers on the table, and waited for everyone to look up and read it before he said: "This year, the saltpeter from Chile and Jincheng arrived in Changsheng, and the Gunpowder Bureau made the medicine, and in the past two years, the Asian gunpowder has been stockpiled for more than two days due to the surge in saltpeter, and the inventory was 1.44 million catties last month, in addition to the sixty percent saltpeter stock. ”

"According to the order of the marshal, this year, twelve lucky ships will carry 440,000 catties of saltpeter and send them back to the imperial court." Zhao Shizhen talked about these data very easily, obviously doing a lot of homework on weekdays: "The remaining reserves, within a month, can increase the gunpowder by nearly 500,000 catties, while the consumption of garrisons, immigrants and gunpowder circulating in the market in various parts of Asia is only more than 23,000 catties per month." ”

"With Shao Shuai to build a fourth saltpeter mine in the Chilean desert, which will mine a steady stream of saltpeter for the empire, we are not short of gunpowder, but also very surplus."

Chen Mu nodded slowly, the most indispensable things in the Oriental Military Mansion now, one is wood, one is saltpeter, and the other is sulfur, these three things are inexhaustible for them.

You can't cut it all and you can't dig it up, and you can never finish it according to the existing productivity.

In fact, the iron and copper mines in the Great Lakes are about the same for their existing productivity...... I can't finish digging, I really can't finish digging, but in Chen Mu's opinion, the biggest problem is that I don't have the will to finish digging at all.

Everyone strives to be the world's environmental protector, and the concept of sustainable development is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, but the problem is that there is no way to find out the specific reserves of any mineral deposits in this era, so people look at the mines with iron hats, dig a little here and bury them, dig a little and bury them well, and carefully protect the environment.

If it weren't for Zhang Juzheng in power, even the strange place of the Beiyang Industrial Zone would not exist: who could stand the white smoke rising from the big chimney and the roaring machines in the factory?

"There is no shortage of people, there is no shortage of people in the four coastal counties of North Asia alone, there are millions of people registered, tribes from all over the country have registered one after another, and there can be as many as tens of thousands of people at a time, not to mention that there is a large amount of land that the military government of the North Asia Center has not yet fully mastered, and the students estimate that the people can exceed five million."

"There is no shortage of steel, and the Ontario Lakeside Iron Works produces 17.24 million catties of wrought iron a year - so the students don't think so." Zhao Shizhen looked at Chen Mu and arched his hand: "This place needs to be dug into white ground." ”

"You think that's enough?" Chen Mu shook his head and said: "The people of North Asia haven't even used iron farming tools, the military government wants to build a four-hundred-mile-long railroad, and the output of the lakeside iron factory is not enough for three years, this is only four hundred miles, let alone feeding the Central Plains, they are not enough." ”

"Not to mention ......"

Before Chen Mu finished speaking, he saw his brother-in-law Yang Zhaolong raise his hand cautiously and slowly, and waited for Chen Mu's eyes to remind him: "Brother-in-law, six hundred miles, there is a section of road that is not easy to repair, the mountain has to be bypassed, and hard cultivation will kill people, and it will take more than two hundred miles." ”

Yang Zhaolong has no sense of existence in this meeting, he himself has no bias towards Chen Mu's decision and the suggestions of Li Yuxi, Zhao Shizhen and others, he grew up in Banzhou, he does not have the kind of scholarly anger that takes the world as his own responsibility, and the real mission for him is one: to save his own life.

And there is only one way to save his life - his brother-in-law will do whatever he says.

Anyway, the ancestral Banzhou Xuanwei Division has been lost by him, and when he leaves the New World, his brother Yinglong is afraid that he will be chased to the ends of the earth, so it is right to hug his brother-in-law's thigh.

Although he also thinks that Zhao Shizhen is right, it is good to leave green waters and green mountains for future generations, instead of potholed mines, but it is better to listen to his brother-in-law.

Chen Mu nodded when he heard this, spread his hands and said, "Another two hundred miles, and another two years of output will be added." We have enough manpower, if the cement and railroad tracks are enough, and the site is the best flat land, the railway can be laid and put into use in six months. ”

"If according to the original estimate, the maximum annual output is 17.42 million catties, then we need five years to repair this 600-mile-long Muhe railway; But if the furnace rests, the workers rest, and the iron mountain rests, the output will be reduced by at least half, and the rough calculation is 8 million catties per year - this road will take 12 years to build. ”

This is an unimaginably slow progress for Chen Mu, although the railway they built is long, but it is not like the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway built in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, the terrain is steep, passing through the mountains and mountains, the terrain of the Muhe Railway is flat, there is no need to build tunnels and bridges along the way, and there is neither a shortage of funds nor manpower.

Moreover, their railways did not have the same high standard as those of later generations, and the trains that were ready to run on them were not as heavy as those that were perfected by later generations.

As a result, the most lacking thing is actually the railroad tracks.

He opened his hand and smiled helplessly: "In all fairness, even if the iron output of eight million catties is indeed quite a lot, a little more than Guangdong." But in twelve years, the first rails were rusted! ”

Zhao Shizhen is not a fool, of course he knows that this is inefficient, but one is that he doesn't think that the output is high, and the consumption has increased for no reason, he spread his hands and said: "Dashuai set up a furnace in the lakeside iron factory for forty, and he has to prepare another forty, can it be counted as an expense?" It is not the ones paid by Li Yuxi, but the labor fees, dozens or even hundreds of workers who dig mines, burn charcoal, and fan furnaces in a furnace, and those who patrol furnaces, transport charcoal, transport ore, sell wine, cook vegetables, and transport goods, and for every dozens of people, three or five hundred people gather in one furnace. ”

"If you want them to work for months, you have to bring their families, build mine dormitories, and even form villages, and the military government can't hand over the mines to the merchants, so they have to be paid, and the refractory and thermal insulation of the iron-making furnace can't continue to produce."

Zhao Shizhen originally wanted to use these words to stop Chen Mu, but he didn't expect him to see Chen Mu turn his head happily: "You got to the point!" That's it! ”

"We're not trying to maximize production, how do we make these technologies progress? When there is a problem, people will think about how to solve the problem, otherwise they will only stand still, and they will not progress, counting on the coincidence of natural progress, so how long will they wait? Now is the time. ”

"Our steel gap is bigger than ever, and from now on there will be no more steel production but not running out, and the corresponding technology must be improved!"

"Don't say more, letting future generations have iron mountains to mine is for the benefit of future generations, and letting future generations be able to mine iron mountains is also for future generations, Zhaolong!"

Chen Mu finally changed his words, and Yang Zhaolong, who was so frightened that he was stunned with his fingers, suddenly stood up and shouted: "Here!" ”

"First, we must not let the craftsmen die or be injured; Second, craftsmen should not be allowed to eat less and wear less; Third, you can build the Muhe Railway for three years and five years, no matter how much it costs, I can be sure, but after two years, I want to see the number of rails, which requires the annual output of the lakeside iron factory to 30 million catties, can you? ”

Yang Zhaolong blinked, swallowed saliva and said, "Okay, okay?" ”