"The gold production of Zhaoyuan Gold Mine is now becoming more and more stable." Nan Yimin cautiously walked in the mining area full of rubble, and said to Lu Zheng, who was following him.

Lü Zheng is the son of Lü Fang, an official of the Southern Pioneer Team, who had been studying on the East Coast before, and after graduating, he went through many screenings and finally entered the mysterious state-owned East Coast Gold Company. In this enterprise, which mainly mines, smelts and processes precious metals, diamonds and gemstones, Lu Zheng struggled for ten years, and then because of his outstanding work performance, he was assigned to the Far East as the general manager of the Zhaoyuan branch of the East Coast Gold Company, fully responsible for the daily production and operation of the Zhaoyuan gold mine.

As for Nan Yimin, the son of Nanjiro, the former deputy director of the Military Administration and commander of the Djibouti garrison, is 37 years old this year. is somewhat similar to Lu Zheng's experience, after working in the Southern Railway Company for 20 years, he finally got through, climbed to the position of director and also served as the real shortage of the Jiaoyan Railway Management Committee, which is quite good. You know, it may not be too difficult to be a director, director or something, as long as the grades are okay and the qualifications are old enough, but if there is a very good vacant position, it is not simple, Nan Yimin can represent the Southern Railway Company as the director of the Jiaoyan Railway Management Committee, which itself shows his ability.

Today, someone from the south came to the Zhaoyuan Gold Mine, in fact, he was invited by Lu Zheng to see if he could build a railway branch line to connect the Zhaoyuan Gold Mine and the Jiaoyan Railway to facilitate the daily operation of the gold mine. To be honest, Nan Yimin was not interested in this matter at all, and he didn't want to repair this branch line at all, but because of the kind invitation of others, he had to come and take a look.

Although Director Nan is now the leader of the Jiaoyan Railway and is responsible for the daily operation of the railway, his life is not very comfortable. First of all, although this railway communicates the prosperous area of the Jiaodong Peninsula and the business is booming, it is not necessarily how profitable it is. The main reason is probably the high maintenance cost of the railway, which not only includes the fact that most of the parts required for railway maintenance must be imported from the local area, which costs a lot of money, but also includes the cost of personnel.

In addition, a large number of troop movements are being carried out more and more frequently by rail. According to the current agreement between the Southern Railway Company and the military, this part is completely free, or even if it costs very little. Over time, it is natural that the Jiaoyan Railway, which occupies a large amount of capacity by military transportation, will have a large deficit in this regard. However, considering that when the railway was built, the military also donated some cash and materials, and even drove a large number of prisoners of war to the builders for free use, and the successive presidents of the Southern Railway Company were all active military attachés, and there were inextricable links with the army system, so this burden of rubber smoke railway could not be shaken off no matter what, and could only be carried by themselves.

Finally, but also a very important factor, the East Coast itself has not yet approved the establishment of a cable telegraph network in the Far East. You know, the cable telegraph was very profitable, and in the early days when the local railways were not profitable (and in fact they are not profitable now), the State Administration of Railways had to rely on the profits of the cable telegraph to subsidize the loss-making railway sector. But in the Far East, this model cannot be replicated, although the Jiaoyan Railway is not strictly speaking loss-making, but without the cash cow of cable telegraph, its business will certainly not be very good. Therefore, this time Lu Zheng invited Nan Yimin to visit the Zhaoyuan Gold Mine, and euphemistically proposed that he hoped to build a branch line, I am afraid that it is unlikely, the reason is no, he has no money in hand!

"The Zhaoyuan gold mine now produces nearly two tons of gold per year, although it is not as good as the local Tieling gold mine, but it is almost the same." Lu Zheng pointed to the large mining area in front of him and said: "The army has set up a garrison here, with more than 1,500 personnel, all of whom are cavalry, scattered around, strictly guarded, and no idle and suspicious people are allowed to approach. Next year, I plan to recruit more workers and expand production. At that time, the output of Zhaoyuan gold mine will inevitably jump to the largest in the country. After all, the potential of the Tieling gold mine has actually been tapped to the maximum, and the output is stable at more than two tons a year, and there is no increase in it. On the contrary, the current utilization of Zhaoyuan gold mine's production capacity is far from sufficient, which has a lot to do with the long-term indifference of the local area. In the past two years, the international silver price has fallen rapidly, and the local lords finally realized the value of gold, so they began to urge all localities to increase the output of gold mines in preparation for the future currency reform. Actually, I just want to ask, why did you go this morning? ”

Lu Zheng is the son of Lu Fang, and Lu Fang is the brother-in-law of the army boss Yang Liang, so if you really want to say that this Lu Zheng is also a founder of the third generation, although his identity is not as good as those who are rooted in the red roots, but he is much stronger than Nan Yimin. Therefore, Lu Zheng dared to scold the local officials and lords, and dared to accuse them of their mistakes, but Nan Yimin was still more cautious about this, and kept laughing beside him, not expressing his opinion.

Of course, from his heart, he actually agreed with Lu Zheng's opinion. The fools of the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Precious Metals did not collect a lot of gold in the first place, and they used it to pay off foreign debts and build infrastructure in times of financial hardship. At that time, the Ministry of Finance often used the words "using gold reserves of tens of thousands of yuan" in the documents of the Ministry of Finance, which meant that the budget was not enough, and the gold reserves were temporarily used to spend. The problem is that this used gold has not been re-replenished, so it is embarrassing that the East Coast government's gold reserves have been very small for so many years.

Well, now the old men see that silver is becoming less and less valuable, and feel that there are still great flaws in the gold and silver double standard system, which is not as good as the gold standard to maintain and increase its value. However, it is not so easy to carry out the reform of the gold standard currency system, which first requires the East Coast government to have sufficient gold reserves: too much dare not say, in order to prevent major economic problems, there must be at least tens of millions of gold coins in circulation in the market, right? That's a few dozen tons of gold reserves!

In other words, the East Coast Republic now produces about five tons of gold a year (including gold obtained from trade), and it will take more than ten years to accumulate enough reserves. And this is only taking into account the gross profit margin of gold, if all the costs are taken into account, then it may take thirteen or fourteen years.

Therefore, if you don't want to accumulate slowly and step by step, God knows if you can save it, and if you don't have enough money one day, you may use the reserve gold to open some gold mines, and make up the reserve gold needed to issue the currency faster. Therefore, the East Coast Gold Company began to instruct the Zhaoyuan Gold Mine and Huma Gold Mine in the Far East to immediately start expanding production and strive to increase production as soon as possible. To this end, they helped to bridge the relationship by purchasing a large number of new steam engine mining equipment from the local area and shipping it to Denglai by ship for local gold production.

This kind of treatment should be said to be not low, because many coal mines in the Far East do not have enough steam engine equipment for pumping, coal washing, and transportation. Therefore, Lu Zheng also felt the pressure, so he invited someone from the south to visit the Zhaoyuan Gold Mine.

Nan Yimin and Lu Zheng walked around the gold mine, seeing that the time was almost up, Nan Yimin didn't want to drag it out any longer, so he directly picked it out and said: "Manager Lu, I don't talk about it anymore, the matter of building a railway branch line to Zhaoyuan Gold Mine that you mentioned before is not realistic to be honest." Really, it's not that I don't help, it's really difficult. Guy from the nearest Laiyang Railway Station to this side, there are about 70 kilometers away, which costs more than 1 million yuan of road construction funds, to be honest, our company can't come out, and it's not that I, a small director of the Jiaoyan Railway Management Committee, can decide, which needs to be discussed at the company's headquarters. ”

Nan Yimin's words are also true. With a mileage of more than 70 kilometers and a capital of more than 1 million yuan, he can't make it up if he kills him, so this branch railway is doomed to be impossible. Even if the Zhaoyuan gold mine has a lot of money, its annual gold production is a lot, except for part of the distribution to the Denglai pioneer government, the rest of the money has to be shipped back to the east coast, so it is impossible to embezzle this part of the gold to build the railway, that is going to be a big thing.

"So, this branch railway is destined to be delusional?" Lu Zheng asked a little depressedly.

Nan Yimin nodded lightly and said: "It has been two or three years since the official commercial operation of the Jiaoyan Railway, and I have not saved any money so far, and the dividends to shareholders are pitiful. From an investment point of view, it will take decades to recoup the cost of the railway, which is not a good investment. ”

"However, in terms of social and economic benefits, the Jiaoyan Railway has reduced the logistics and transportation time and cost between the Yellow Sea and the Bohai Sea, accelerated the flow of people, capital and commodities in the counties and townships along the railway, prospered the local economy, and increased a lot of tax revenue for the government. This part of the income is actually quite large, but it cannot be reflected in the accounts of the railway company. Lu Zheng smiled bitterly and said, "Yes, I understand what you mean." Isn't it called poor, the profitability of the rubber smoke railway is low, and the lion's share of the benefits has been taken away by the local government, right? Forget it, I didn't force you to build this branch railway. But look at your shabby appearance, how will the Pingrong Line Railway be repaired in the future? I remember that in the government's planning, there are two railways on the Jiaodong Peninsula, one vertical and one horizontal, and the Jiaoyan Line is there, if there is another Pingrong Line, it will be really powerful, and it can effectively mobilize the strength of more than 2 million people in the entire Jiaodong Peninsula. ”

"The Pingrong Line is the Year of the Monkey." Nan Yimin handed Lu Zheng a cigarette, lit one himself, and said: "Anyway, in my opinion, if the local government of Denglai does not make a big deal, the Pingrong Line will never be built." After all, our Southern Railway Company is a commercial enterprise, and we may have to pay attention to the return on investment and be responsible for the shareholders. The Binh Vinh Line railway is longer than the Jiaoyan line, and the cost is huge, and it is impossible for us to do it alone. The local government of Denglai should show its sincerity, now the economic development of Jiaodong is so good, the population is becoming more and more numerous, since the railway is very important to the development of the economy, then there must be sincerity. You know, now the Southern Pioneer Team is also actively contacting our company and wants to build a railway in the Ningshao area. I think that the Ningbo area is densely populated and economically developed, and the request to build a railway is legitimate. Captain Liu Houfei has invited a group of technicians from our company to go south, if nothing else, our next step is to gradually transfer to the local area. ”

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