"Your Majesty, my lords, if you want to say that the most beneficial thing for the imperial court is the development of civilian industry and factories and mines!" Zeng Guanlan then talked about the civilian industry, and he deliberately glanced at Zeng Yuheng, Minister of Public Works, and began to report the achievements of the civilian industry: "Your Majesty has been preparing to build industries and factories and mines in Liangguang, Hunan and other places long before the establishment of the empire. In particular, the lead-zinc mines, iron ores, copper mines and sulfur mines in Guiyang, the large-scale iron mines and coal mines in Shaozhou Prefecture, the copper and tin mines and the associated mines of gold and silver in Yunnan have all been greatly developed and exploited. After the establishment of the empire, especially since the implementation of the first five-year plan, the whole country has undergone earth-shaking changes. ”

"According to the requirements, more than half of the provincial capitals of the 18 provinces in the original interior of the country have set up cement factories, hardware factories, phosphate fertilizer factories, flour mills, printing factories, traditional Chinese medicine factories, match factories, soap factories, sugar factories, oil factories, garment factories, wineries, paper mills, firewood furniture factories, coal brick factories and other livelihood factories related to production and life. Especially garment factories, match factories, hardware factories and other factories with large daily use, such as Suzhou Prefecture, there are more than 10 factories. Dozens or hundreds of tea brick factories, silk reeling factories, and some grocery stores and trading houses have sprung up along the coast, and the atmosphere of doing business has become stronger. At the same time, medical bureaus, post offices, and supply and marketing cooperatives were established in various provinces, prefectures, and even counties, and even telegraph offices were basically built in Huguang, Liangguang, and Jiangnan, the earliest places to develop. ”

Zeng Guanlan flipped up the information in his hand while reporting, there were too many data from various newspapers, where did he remember it, so he could only pick some key points to report.

Feng Yunshan also understands this, and on his previous trip, he had already seen the situation in various places in Guangzhou and Fuzhou, and it had indeed changed greatly. For these factories that are related to the people's livelihood, he is not afraid that they will not be able to develop, as long as the policies of the imperial court and local officials are promoted, and the people have the needs of this aspect, they will naturally develop naturally. In the middle, the first point is that the people can have surplus money, and they can have other pastimes while eating well, and have the ability to spend money to try other living needs, otherwise, like a few years ago, most of the people are poor haha, it is impossible to go hungry to buy clothes, buy newspapers, buy wine and drink, right? And the second point is that there is capital to invest in this factory and make a profit.

The imperial court has been promulgating policies for several years, such as the establishment of industrial factories, which use plant and machinery as collateral, the government-run banks provide low-interest loans, and the government paves roads and bridges to help connect the supply and sales of goods in order to encourage merchants to set up factories, and even directly provides subsidies to support. Therefore, within a few years, there began to be a large-scale boom in the construction of factories in various places, especially in the south, because of the more wealth, from the land began to be converted into capital. In particular, the land policy originally introduced by the Chinese Empire caused many large landlords and gentry to sell their land one after another, hand it over to the local government for storage, and then lease it to the landless people by the local government, which not only allowed some landless people to have land to plant, but also turned some people from large landlords in the countryside to merchants and factory owners in towns. After several typical establishments, other landlords saw that opening factories could make more money than farming, and that they could better curry favor with the local government and gain fame and honor, so they followed suit and set up factories, so some small local factories were established one after another. Even in some places, such as Suzhou Prefecture, there are countless small primary processing factories and workshops such as silk factories, textile factories, soap factories, and rice factories, which are a bit of a flood trend. Fortunately, Li Hongzhang, the governor of Jiangsu, used the power of the government to intervene in time to relocate one-third of the factories to the neighboring Changzhou and Zhenjiang prefectures, and began to strictly approve them, so as to curb the momentum of factory flooding.

Zeng Guanlan continued to introduce: "Your Majesty, in terms of transportation of railways and official roads, I'm afraid that Weichen can't explain clearly, and please let Lord Cheng report it." ”

Feng Yunshan knew that Zeng Guanlan gave Cheng Hengsheng, the new vice minister of transportation, a chance to stand up, so he happily nodded and agreed. He also knew that Zeng Guanlan was not telling a lie, and the newly established Ministry of Communications had under the jurisdiction of the Railway Department, the Official Road Department, the Water Transport Department, and the Telegraph and Post Department, which were far more in charge than the later Ministry of Communications. What's more, Feng Yunshan also attaches great importance to transportation, and wants to know how it is developing now.

Cheng Hengsheng hurriedly came out of the queue and reported with a little excitement: "Your Majesty, and all the adults, during the first five-year plan, the country's transportation development is changing with each passing day, which is particularly spectacular. The most important of nature is the railway. According to the first five-year plan, His Majesty finalized the construction of four railways by the Department of Railways, and as of this month, the situation is as follows: The first part of the Guangdong-direct railway, the main north-south artery, was originally built in Guangdong before the five-year plan was proposed, and by the beginning of the fifth year of Taisheng, the construction of the four sections of the railway, north of the Yangtze River, from Beijing to Kaifeng, Kaifeng to Hankou, and from Shaozhou to Guiyang and from Guiyang to Wuchang south of the Yangtze River, had all been completed. At the beginning, like the Xiangjiang River, the Han River, these big rivers can not erect bridges, after more than two years of attempts, the difficulties were finally overcome, our railway division and the United States foreign experts, the use of Niagara Falls road and railway dual-purpose bridge scheme, the use of wrought iron cables and reinforced beams of the suspension bridge, as well as the cement reinforced arch bridge mixed style, with barges and jacks to lift in place, and finally built hundreds of large and small bridges. The only difficulty lies in the section from Hankou to Wuchang across the Yangtze River, because the Yangtze River is too wide and the amount of water is so large that it is difficult to close for a while. Thanks to His Majesty's reminder, last year we set up a pontoon boat made of three giant flat-bottomed wooden boats on the Yangtze River, and laid nearly 100 meters of railroad tracks on the boats, so that the train could drive from the shore to the pontoon boat and transport the train across the Yangtze River. Now that all the tests have been completed and are being prepared to be officially put into use next month, the entire Guangdong-direct railway will be fully opened to traffic, and from then on, the river will become a thoroughfare. ”

As the second railway, the Suzhou-Zhizhi Railway, just like the Guangdong-Zhizhi Railway, the southern Shengjing to Shanghai section has been opened to traffic, and the northern Jiangpu to Beijing has also been opened to traffic in the fifth year of Taisheng, leaving only the Shengjing Yangtze River Bridge is still under construction, resulting in the entire Suzhou-direct railway north and south sections can not be connected. Because the river is too wide, the river is also very deep, and the lifting machinery cannot hold up thousands of tons of bridges, we really have no good way to build such a span of bridges in a few years. Now our railway department has given up on the idea of building bridges, and like Wuchang, we have built a giant pontoon boat, so that the train can be driven onto the pontoon, and then the train will be transported across the Yangtze River by boat. ”

"The third railway is the Jiangsu-Zhejiang Railway from Shanghai to Ningbo, which was opened to traffic as early as the second half of the fifth year of Taisheng. The construction of the fourth Gansu-Fujian Railway, which is the main artery in the east-west direction, and its extension section, have been completed. In addition, because of the early completion and further expansion, the Jiangxi-Fujian Railway was expanded into the Hubei-Jiangxi-Fujian Railway, and now it can directly reach Fuzhou from the Dexing Copper Mining Area through Jingdezhen and through Raozhou to Nanchang. And from Nanchang to Jiujiang Prefecture, and at present in the construction of the Jiujiang to Wuchang section of the railway, by the end of this year, should be able to be completed, then from Wuchang, not only can be transported by the Yangtze River water to reach Fuzhou, but also can directly reach Fuzhou City by railway. ”

In addition to these four major railways directly undertaken by the Railway Division, since the fifth year of Taisheng, a number of railways have also been built one after another. For example, a number of mining railways in Yunnan, such as the Dongchuan Copper Mining Area to Yongdingying and the Zhaotong Copper Mining Area to the Jinsha River, have been completed and partially opened to traffic. Construction of railways from Beijing to Zhangjiakou, Beijing to Tianjin, and Guilin to Yongzhou has also begun. In addition, the provinces have submitted some railway construction plans one after another this year, and the Ministry of Railways is ready to approve them this month. ”

Hearing this, Feng Yunshan's face was full of joy. The railway is the propeller of the modern industrial revolution, in addition to the steam engine to drive the textile industry, the railway is the most significant lifeblood to promote the development of modern industry. Vigorously developing railways has greatly promoted the whole country. Feng Yunshan had already thought that even if he borrowed money, he would give priority to building railways, which is why he did not hesitate to spend a lot of money to build multiple railways at the same time. Now it seems that the results are gratifying, and the railway mileage that has not been built for more than ten years at the end of the Manchu and Qing dynasties has been built in just four or five years.