Zhu Youzhen was also a little hesitant about Sun Yuanhua's suggestion, the entire Tangshan Iron and Steel Base had already been planned, and the investment in canal to railway was not only not expanded, but shrunk.

But the original plan for the canal was not only to transport coal to the sea, but also to build a water conservancy package. That is to say, Chongzhen borrowed the investment in the steel base and appropriated it to the Haihe River control project by the way.

How to get back the investment that has been spent, it is obvious that it will have to be taken out of his pocket again. This year, because of the disasters in Shaanxi and Zhejiang, the use of troops in the southwest and northwest, and the control of floods and the rectification of the military system, the summer tax has basically been spent, and even a lot of money has been advanced.

The autumn tax will not be transferred to Beijing until at least the end of December to March next year, although with the help of banks and the opening of the sea, this year's tax may be paid to the household department earlier than in previous years.

However, the nationwide banking network has not yet been completed, and the port of Shanghai, which connects the North-South Sea Route and the Yangtze River waterway, has not yet taken shape, so it is only unknown how far ahead of schedule.

Now Jizhou Town and Qian'an Iron Mine have also been built, and Tangshan has also built three old-fashioned blast furnaces. If you want to build this railway, there is no shortage of raw materials, but you need to put real gold and silver into it.

Before there was no news about the end of the war from Datong, Zhu Youzhen did not dare to spend the war reserve money in his hand in a big way.

While he was pondering, he heard a noise coming from outside the courtyard gate to the southeast. Soon a small official came in from outside the courtyard, and he ran to a place not far from him and Sun Yuanhua with a look of frustration and stopped, looking like he wanted to speak and stopped.

Without waiting for Sun Yuanhua to speak, Zhu Youzhen had already frowned and asked the little official: "What's so alarmed, is it possible that there are still people who dare to come to the * workshop to make trouble, don't they know that this is a place where idlers are not allowed to enter?" ”

The little official hurriedly knelt on the ground and kowtowed: "It's a few squires from the Democratic Progressive Association, they didn't break into the workshop, they just stood outside the door of the workshop and shouted, I have to see Sun Shilang today." ”

The little official's answer made Chongzhen a little confused, he glanced at Sun Yuanhua beside him, and found that Sun Yuanhua's face was a little dark.

Zhu Youzhen looked at him and couldn't help but ask tentatively: "Could it be Sun Shilang, do you know what they mean by looking for you?" ”

Sun Yuanhua's throat twitched a few times, and finally he said helplessly: "Your Majesty ordered the construction of the Zhuozhou-Beijing railway, and wanted to use this to train the coal from Changxindian into coke and transport it to Shijingshan to rebuild a new steel plant.

However, because the Mentougou-Beijing railway line has not yet been completed, and the supply of the capital's iron storage has been prioritized, the construction of the Zuo'anmen-Chaoyangmen railway. Therefore, the Zhuozhou-Beijing railway has been progressing slowly due to the lack of railroad tracks.

The squires who invested in the railway did not have any opinion on the speed of the railway's progress. However, after the operation of the Zuo'anmen-Chaoyangmen railway, the profit is really good, and the land prices near several stations have increased by 3 times.

Therefore, some squires were a little unbearable, and they quarreled with Wechen every day, demanding that Wechen hand over the railroad tracks they had paid for, so that the railway could be constructed normally. ”

Zhu Youzhen blinked, and said disapprenously: "Their requirements are also normal, it's always a good thing to build a railway, where is this railway now?" How many rails are left? ”

Sun Yuanhua said with a somewhat bitter face: "It's less than a kilometer out of You'anmen, and there are nearly 70 kilometers left to be repaired. The problem is that when they take out the money, the price of good iron to make rails is about one cent of silver per catty.

But now, the price of good iron in the capital has tripled. At this price, the railroad construction department will lose a lot.

Chen originally planned to use the self-smelting iron of the Xishan Iron Works to build this railway after the opening of the Jingxi Railway, so as to reduce the cost. ”

Although Sun Yuanhua only mentioned it slightly, Zhu Youzhen's face turned a little red, and he embezzled the funds of this railway and used it to build the first railway in the capital first, so as to advertise the new railway, which was originally his opinion.

Unexpectedly, now Sun Yuanhua has carried this black cauldron. Zhu Youzhen clenched a false fist in his right hand, blocked it in front of his mouth, coughed lightly a few times, and covered up his embarrassment before he said to Sun Yuanhua.

"The price of this iron has tripled, and the cost of building the railway will rise by at least nearly 90%. Now that we have reached the current situation, it is not too late to wait for the opening of the Beijing-West Railway before repairing it.

As for these squires, you should go and appease them. If it can't be appeased, simply recycle the 20% share premium, which is less than the loss of building the railway now.

Also, how much work is still needed for the Jingxi Railway to be fully opened? ”

Sun Yuanhua first responded, and then replied calmly: "There is only one railway bridge left, and there is still about 5 kilometers of work from the south of the bridge to Shijingshan." If it's fast, it will be done by the end of this month. If you slow down, you won't be able to delay it in the middle of next month. The Shijingshan-Fuchengmen railway will be put into trial operation from tomorrow..."

In the second duty room on the west side of the main hall of the Wenhua Palace, in this small room that comes out of the partition, the light seems to be slightly dim.

With the main hall as the center, there are 7 single rooms facing north and south according to the west three east and four rooms, which are used as the office of the cabinet and the emperor.

Although these rooms are not very well lit, even in the middle of the day, candles are often lit to review documents. But compared to the old cabinet office, it is already a world of difference.

Li Tianjing put down the document in his hand, reached out and rubbed his eyebrows, and relaxed his somewhat sour eyes.

He looked up at the table where there were still nearly a third of the folds that he hadn't read, and he felt quite helpless. The content of these recitals sent from all over the Ming Dynasty is actually the same, that is, to ask him, the cabinet minister in charge of education, for money, goods, and people.

When he was appointed by the emperor to enter the cabinet at the beginning of the year, he still felt that he could show his strength this time and show his ambitions.

But after more than half a year, he realized that he was still a little naïve. The experience of governing the government for more than half a year told him that he should not talk about showing his strength and reforming the maladministration in the imperial court. Just being a pasteur so that Daming's educational institutions could function normally had already left him exhausted and had no time to be distracted.

In fact, there are not many things that he is in charge of as the Minister of Education, one is the imperial examination and the management of schools and academies in various places; The other was proposed by His Majesty when he ascended the throne, changing the old school into a new school, redefining the content of teaching, and stipulating the number of years of study. On this basis, three years of compulsory primary education will be introduced.

The content he was responsible for in the previous one, in fact, he didn't have to worry about it, the officials of the Ministry of Rites were very familiar with these old systems, and they didn't need him to say anything, and they could deal with seventy or eighty percent of things.

Only the latter content, whether it is the new school system, the new school content, or the compulsory education of primary school, is something that has never been heard of or seen by officials of the Ministry of Rites and local school administration and teaching.

First, they did not know how to meet His Majesty's request, and second, many local elites and scholars were completely resistant to the new school and the new school system.

Even if it is a three-year compulsory primary education system, this kind of moral politics seems to be fine. There are also those who believe that the compulsory education system does not discriminate between the subjects, that all school-age children are included in the education, and that the children of slaves and prostitutes sit together with the children of pure white families in class, is simply disrupting the curriculum.

In addition to the opposition of these local people, the academic administration and teaching of various places also turned to him one after another to complain to him.

If we want to introduce three-year compulsory education and change the old school system to the new school system, we need to build new schools on a large scale, otherwise we will not be able to accommodate so many children.

Moreover, if you want to educate so many children, you need a lot of books, tables, chairs, paper, pen and ink, which need to be allocated by the imperial court, and the local government cannot afford it.

Also, it is easy to say that teaching the Four Books and Five Classics is that there are ready-made books that can be engraved anyway, and some children and talents can also be recruited to teach.

And this new school not only has no books to teach, but also no teachers who can teach the new school. Therefore, the Cabinet should distribute the new school materials and arrange for a few teachers to teach the new school.

All in all, if the imperial court does not give money, goods, and people, whether it is new learning or compulsory education, there is nothing that can be done locally.

This problem was in front of him, but Li Tianjing was also at a loss for it. At the beginning, the emperor allocated a sum of money to him.

But the current Daming is full of loopholes, His Majesty is just a young man who has just ascended the throne, just maintaining the current situation of Daming is exhausted, how can he be embarrassed to push all the problems on His Majesty.

What's more, His Majesty's great support for education in the Northern Zhili region has already saved him a province of trouble, and he is really ashamed to continue to ask the emperor for help.

Li Tianjing, who was thinking, was suddenly awakened by the sound of the door opening, he looked up and found that Shi Fenglai was standing at the door, smiling and saying hello to him.

Li Tianjing suddenly stood up and welcomed Shi Fenglai into the door, and after the two finished saluting, they sat down on the chair next to them.

Li Tianjing looked at Shi Fenglai through the coffee table, and asked curiously: "Elder Shi Ge came to the door this time, but is there anything you want to tell Changde?" ”

Shi Fenglai hurriedly waved his hand and said: "Changde's words are really where to start, although the old man is a few years older, he is neither the first assistant nor the second assistant, how dare he tell Changde to do things." The rest of the time, in fact, there is something to ask for. ”

Li Tianjing smiled and said: "The boss is highly respected in the court, and what even the boss can't do, Changde may not be able to do it." But since the boss is interested, please tell me what happened. ”

Shi Feng came to see him for a moment, and then opened his mouth to tell him about the application for the postal bank. Li Tianjing was silent for a while, and did not answer him, but asked out loud: "Opening a bank is a good thing.

Now the imperial court has a lot to do, but it has very little money in its hands. To be able to add such a bank, whether it is His Majesty or the courtiers, they are happy to see it. Why should the lord share the credit with me? ”

Shi Fenglai chuckled, "The imperial court is indeed in urgent need of silver, but there are eight people in the cabinet, and there are six ministries in the court, so what doesn't need silver on hand to do things?"

The old man has an empty shell of the Ministry of Trade and Postal Affairs, and there are few people and little power, how can he compete with those tigers and wolves. The old man was afraid, as soon as he put forward the proposal of the Postal Bank here, someone cut off his beard over there.

If anyone thinks that the Ministry of Industry needs this bank more, then wouldn't the old man make wedding dresses for others..."