At this time, Baotou Railway Station is very different, it has only been built for less than a year, more than 300,000 square meters of construction area of the huge waiting hall, which has been cleaned cleanly, 22 waiting halls, 11 different stock roads, can accommodate hundreds of thousands of waiting trains at most, this is Baotou Station, the absolute core of the entire Northwest Railway.

Located in the heart of China, although biased to the northwest, but in the future, when China re-expands its territory, it will not be western, but eastern, with a huge rice-shaped structure, connecting China's huge railway network, and Beijing, Nanjing, Chengdu, Zhengzhou, Wuhan and other railway nodes echo each other, forming a huge railway group.

With more than 350,000 passengers per day, and the surrounding satellite cities, the Baotou Special Economic Zone has a daily dispatch capacity of about 1.3 million, making it the most important railway hub in the entire Chinese territory and the largest marshalling station in central China.

This is the first congress, the northwest attaches great importance to it, the government has set up a special agency for the reception of these delegates, the square, specially demarcated the delegate bus docking area, all the staff have a timetable in their hands, write out each and a few days ago, the farthest Xinjiang, Qinghai and other places of the delegates, has gradually set off to Baotou.

The total number of delegates to the First National Congress was more than 9,800, and they were all managers of all the basic political power in the northwest, and if the will of the northwest was to be manifested, it must rely on them.

Even before invitations were sent to other countries, some diplomats who were concerned about China had already seen the difference. First of all, through internal channels, it was Germany that made the request. Northwest now. It's not just playing alone, the Northwest has established a relatively close connection with Germany. The Northwest is Germany's biggest supporter, and the Northwest's actions have also been supported by Germany, and some German media and diplomats will form a simple visiting team to visit this national conference, and they will establish ties with the Northwest in more fields on the basis of the original trade system.

The Great War broke out in Europe. In almost every place, the two sides are staring at each other to the death, and the Northwest Plenary Delegates Conference did not deliberately keep it secret, and some open topics, some local councilors and officials, and even open election proposals, this thing should be kept secret.

When Britain, France, and the United States received the news, they also made the same demands as Germany. These countries, which have gradually stood together, are full of vigilance against the northwest, and the northwest sends troops to Qingdao and marches into Qingdao. In addition to gaining an outlet to the sea in Qingdao, Taiwan will also become the most important point of guidance for the southeast coast in the future, and it is not known whether the northwest will set foot in the ocean. But the possibilities are great.

Starting from the integration of Jiangnan Shipyard, Northwest China has gradually formed a strong production capacity. It would have been quiet. Because of the advent of the war, but also because of the infinite submarine warfare of Germany. A large number of merchant ships were sunk and had to be replenished, even if they were expensive, they had to be bought, and since the beginning of the war, the price of merchant ships has almost doubled.

The world market is full of people waving money and buying ships, not to mention newly launched merchant ships, even half-used merchant ships with not so advanced conditions, have also been sought after by a series of people, and in the middle of this, in 1913, before the start of the war, the northwest of Europe and the Americas, which looted a large number of merchant ships of millions of tons, became the main object of lobbying.

After the outbreak of the war, the half-old, outdated merchant ships were turned five times, and with the opportunity of holding the scarce materials in hand, Jiangnan Shipyard took advantage of the trend to launch its own merchant ship production.

At this time, the field of merchant ships, is definitely a buyer's market, as long as there is a merchant ship, almost, can sail, how much money can be, Jiangnan Shipyard at least, on the 5,000-ton merchant ship, extremely well received, the recent orders continue, homeopathic launch of 10,000 tons, 15,000 tons, or even 20,000 tons, under enough benefits, these people will pinch their noses and recognize it.

Who knows, this is not only not a bad thing to break the fortune and eliminate disasters, but it has become a benefit, when China's merchant ships, it took only one-third of the time of others to complete the construction, and the performance indicators in all aspects are excellent, the benefits of China's merchant ships are spread in the circle, the same price, the carrying capacity is 5% more, well, this is not a big number, it may not necessarily be full, this data is negligible, but the speed is 15% faster, and the fuel consumption is reduced by 12%.

Fast speed, on behalf of the short voyage, faster arrival, on behalf of the cargo to occupy more opportunities, in the era of war, but also represents more difficult to be attacked, Germany's unlimited submarine warfare, the most sunken ships, always low-speed and heavy-load cargo ships, but a faster cargo ship, in the case of full acceleration, at least 7 percent of the certainty, can escape the round-up of submarines.

Even if this is just an undetermined thing, but under the clouds, it is already recognized by everyone, and the last point, it is simply the cover door of long-distance trafficking, when the voyage is up to 10,000 miles, most of the transportation costs, is in the consumption above, the merchant ships provided by the northwest, compared with similar products, when transporting the same tonnage, the cost is only three-quarters of the other party, in this case, there is no need to consider, someone has made a choice.

The owner of the boat, waving the banknote, is still willing even if he has placed a deposit of 7 percent, and the huge order fills the slipway of the Jiangnan shipyard, and the construction of a new dock has never stopped.

Almost in a short period of time, Jiangnan Shipyard has completed a gorgeous transformation, from the original, poor and backward, at most can only repair ships Jiangnan Shipyard, quietly turned into a world-class shipyard, in the case that many people do not realize, Jiangnan Shipyard occupies a large market.

It's a pity that this kind of silence is at most for ordinary people, for ship owners, for the shipping industry, and even for the powers caught in the war, even if there are a lot of things hidden in the northwest, the real data is almost exposed in front of the eyes of all interested people.

Merchant ships are different from other products, other products in the northwest, too many of them, too miscellaneous, very few of the names of the northwest, this era, there is no more perfect brand concept, but most of the foreign merchants, will be the products of the northwest, hang other signs for sale, for this, there is no strength to care.

But it is this kind of chaos that makes it impossible for people with a heart to make accurate and systematic calculations and summarizations, which is also the fundamental reason why the Northwest has made so much money, but has always kept a low profile, as for drugs, sulfonamides and stockings are very huge business, but since this thing works so well, the value should be very high, no one would have thought that his value is unimaginably low, and other things are mostly costs, and a small part is profits, sulfonamides and stockings, simply, most of them are profits, and a very small part is costs, It is this illusion that makes the great powers at least two zeros less when calculating the income of the northwest.

In a sense, there are so many merchant ships, the value is very large, even if you don't pay attention to it, you can roughly estimate the results, the world's mainstream shipping companies and some shipping company orders are summed up, plus Britain also controls Malacca, belongs to the northwest of the merchant ships in Malacca endless flow of passing, is another calculation method, from the middle can get a more accurate figure.

Taken together, the British were surprised to find that China's shipbuilding industry was quite large, reaching at least 1.2 million tons per year.

That is to say, 120 10,000-ton freighters, this number, I am afraid not as good as the number of the United Kingdom, the total tonnage of British shipbuilding is as high as 2.7 million tons, but the number of merchant ships is less than half, that is to say, about 1.3 million tons, in this sense, Jiangnan Shipyard is just starting, many machines and personnel are new shipyards, but quietly, reached the forefront of the world.

The shipbuilding industry itself is a measure of a country's manufacturing level, as well as the foundation of the navy, there are few shipbuilding countries, there is not enough water power, the gap between the capital ship and the freighter, not as big as the later generations, the later generation of China, is the first country in the merchant shipping industry, but only through the import of retired aircraft carriers from other countries, the method of repair and transformation, this has entered the aircraft carrier club, but in this era, when the armor and artillery are solved, between the capital ship and the merchant ship, it is only a design problem.

Since there is no sound, the Jiangnan shipyard under the control of the northwest has put such a large satellite, who can guarantee that Qingdao will not be the first step for the northwest to go to the ocean, as long as there is the first step, there will be a second step, and then one step is faster than one step, and finally when the northwest really enters the ocean, with the huge country as the backing, with the huge wealth of industrial production as the backing, and then with the help of advanced technology and production capacity, finally build a huge number of capital ships.

No matter what the purpose of the Northwest is, in order to find out what the Northwest wants to do, Britain, France, and the United States also sent representatives to this conference, and it is a large delegation, each country will send 30 journalists, 20 diplomats, and other military officers who need to come, and they will jointly assess the political, economic, and military potential of the Northwest in order to deal with it.

Under the premise that the United States has entered the Entente is a foregone conclusion, the northwest, the biggest supporter behind Germany, has inevitably been taken seriously, if you want to defeat Germany, you must sever this connection between the two sides, otherwise, when the 3B railway, a steady stream of raw materials and necessary weapons and equipment to Germany, even if Germany's heritage is not as good as Britain, just drag Britain down, such a world war, just a few months, make Britain a little unbearable, really three or five years, What else does Britain have to compete for world hegemony. (To be continued......)