"I know that some people now think that foreigners come to China to do business anyway, they just need to know these things, we just need to have money, the people of the Celestial Empire, if they handle the affairs of these craftsmen, it will be too embarrassing, but if they ask foreigners to buy for a lifetime, it is naturally a good thing for foreigners to sell, but if there is a conflict, foreigners refuse to sell, then wouldn't it be blind?" The Empress Dowager Cixi said, "Wouldn't it be better if you could make these machines and steel yourself?" When the time comes, it's better to be cheap and good. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info"

"Yes, the slave asked the Ministry of Communications to open a railway school, specially invited foreigners to teach about railway trains, and to inspect the construction of railways on the spot.

"Excellent," the Empress Dowager Cixi was overjoyed, it seems that this Mu Yang'a is bent on political achievements, such a person can use it, and she can't help but open her mouth to praise, "You can have such an idea, and the Ministry of Rites Shangshu is also doing it!" Buy first, learn and then build your own, that's the best way. ”

。。。

After several negotiations, Muyana finally decided on the joint construction of a railway between Britain and France, and the demonstration railway was carried out from the European mainland, and then the two countries moved the steel mill and the train factory to China, and the British originally chose Hong Kong, but Muyana gave up the idea on the grounds that "the trains will be mainly in the north within ten years", and finally the agreement agreed that the steel plant would be located "in a place where iron ore is produced and transportation is convenient", and the train factory would be located in Tianjin and Shanghai, which would be built by the two countries, in Muyana's words, " China is so big, I'm afraid that factories in your country and others can't make enough railroad tracks day and night, so why do you need to negotiate a manufacturer in one country alone. Britain and France agreed that neither country could build a steel mill in China within five years because of excessive steel production and even unsalable, but this move could not withstand the coaxing of businessmen from other countries, and the following year, the American businessman Underwood built a steel mill in Ma'anshan, and received orders for ships, weapons, equipment, and rails. Britain and France hurriedly coaxed the Ma Iron Works, and this agreement naturally lost its effectiveness, which is a later story, so I will not mention it for the time being.

The railway and official road matters were agreed, and Mu Yang'a was proud to be folded, explaining the beginning and end of this loan to build the railway, and said proudly, "Without spending a penny of money and grain, the railway can be paved, and the trade can be promoted, and the mouth of Tianjin Dagu can be reached in an instant, and it is extremely conducive to national defense," and pointed out his plan, "Prepare to set up a railway school, specialize in cultivating people who are familiar with the railway, and entrust it with important tasks," "Set up a steel plant, to meet the needs of the whole country." ”

Other ministries are okay, Prince Gong is just a cold bystander, perfunctory, but Cao Yuying, who is still the secretary of the Ministry of Works, jumped out, what about the Ministry of Communications? Ready to merge all the ministry? When the Ministry of Communications was set up before, Cao Yuying was a little worried, after all, the Ministry of Communications overlapped with the Ministry of Industry, and they were all in charge of construction. Interfering with the functions of the Ministry of Works. The construction of the dynasty was handled by the Ministry of Industry, and the Ministry of Communications was newly established to govern the affairs of the official road and railway, and there was no other thing to hear of, and now there is an iron factory, which should have been dealt with by the Ministry of Industry," pointed out Muyanga, "to take care of the affairs and bring foreigners to self-respect!" ”

Cao Yuying has always been the Empress Dowager Cixi, and now she is a serious minister of military aircraft, his meaning was listened to by the Empress Dowager, the Empress Dowager listened, and it was really reasonable, so the steel plant and the next gunpowder factory, musket factory and other matters were handed over to the Ministry of Industry, and asked the Ministry of Industry to build a steel plant and produce within five years, and the gunpowder factory and musket factory should catch up with the standards of foreigners, and the matter of building the Jingshi Lecture Hall was called the Ministry of War to supervise and the Ministry of Industry to build.

So very good, after a few months, the British ash factory was established in Baoding, the Ministry of Internal Affairs came forward to raise the clan's silver, and a down-and-out British businessman jointly built a ash factory, in Yangliuqing, within a few months, the ash on the market was popular, in addition to building official roads, and can build houses to renovate the city wall, and even build river embankments, for a time the ash was popular, and the craftsmen also improved the process in time to make it more suitable for the practicality of the ash.

In October, the official road from the Old Summer Palace to the Beijing Division was all built with foreign ash, the official road was smooth as a mirror, and it was very strong and durable, for a time everyone in the Beijing Division was a sensation, no one did not go out of the city gate to watch in person, and then, let Cao Yuying feel a little depressed and even want to vomit blood The thing happened, Mu Yanga set up checkpoints on the traffic arteries, and the carriages on the official roads need to pay for the use of the carriages, according to the Ministry of Communications, it is "tolls", although the cost is not much, deduct the official carriages of the ministry, but after all, people come and go on this day, This cost accumulates a lot, it is really scary, the Ministry of Communications took money from the Ministry of Household to repair the official road, and now it is relying on the official road to make money, this Old Summer Palace to the Beijing Division is just a small section, but Cao Yuying thought of so many official roads in the world, this slowly has to be put away...... No matter how much business anyone knows how to spend money to buy a quick one, he threw this cornucopia out of vain, and he couldn't help but feel depressed, unable to sleep all night, and the corners of his mouth were foaming a lot.

Muyanga came out with the standard of building official roads, and used the will to make the world clear, not to mention that the cement factory of the Internal Affairs Department of Andehai was in short supply for a while, and even the foreigners' factories were too late to produce, so they could only recruit workers for production, and then recruit workers and re-produce. The gentry everywhere also smelled the fishy smell, and for a time cement factories bloomed everywhere, and there were many people talking about the gray scene.

In the sixth year of Tongzhi, it was the year of vigorous start of large-scale construction, and this year began, and then quelled the beginning of the new rebellion, starting from Beijing, to Lanzhou The official road was built within four years, and the telegraph line was immediately laid to Xi'an, although it had not yet reached Xinjiang, but it had been greatly shortened; At the end of six years, the Tianjin Dagukou railway was completed, the crowd was crowded, everyone was proud of the train tour, and then the Shanghai Wusongkou to the Chenghuangmiao railway was completed, and Hangzhou also had a railway to be built, the official roads everywhere were blooming, everyone saw the way to make money, the poor and crazy Yamen around the country could not wait to start the construction, then the British Embassy in China, ten years later became the British ambassador, in China for more than ten years, and then in 1890 or so the disgraced return to China Henry wrote in his private diary - This book has become an important historical material for later generations to study Sino-British relations and observe China's political, social and economic development, at least at this time, Henry's comments are quite objective and fair: "In this year, the whole of China seems to have fallen into a wave of Western science and technology fanatical love, this trend is unprecedented, because at this time, almost all the technology and machines of the West (including Britain) flocked to China, although many officials are not interested in these things, and have always maintained a contemptuous attitude, But this does not in any way affect the determination of those in power in China...... The whole imperial court seems to show a kind of healthy competition, constantly having to introduce, learn, imitate and transform Western science and technology, and use this to the supreme ruler of the Qing Dynasty Empress Dowager to ask for credit to prove their political achievements, in less than three months, the first rivet of the railway has been nailed, I have to admit, China's speed is too fast, if in Britain, at least the House of Commons will have to fight for a year or two, to China, half a year, the small scale railway in Tianjin has been paved and opened to traffic, After that, the Ministry of Communications specially asked the local officials who went to Beijing to report on their work to Tianjin to see the railway, and those who came to see it all invariably demanded that the construction of the railway start in their own jurisdiction, and if there was no money, it was okay to provide free labor, a county magistrate in Jiujiang Dangzhi County told me. You must know that the construction and collection of railways are all owned by the Ministry of Communications, and the local government has no profit at all, and is also responsible for providing free land, which is not cost-effective. (Cixi: Hehe, if you understand this account, you can become the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom...... ）

“…… As for the official road, I can't imagine it, It will evolve into such a situation, in this year, the Chinese government's finances are still very tight, and the rebellion in the northwest has involved too much of their financial resources, so in my opinion, the official road cannot be built on a large scale, but because of China's good road facilities before, the road that has been repaired for hundreds of years only needs to be built a little to become a high-grade road paved with cement, as long as this way, you can collect money, local officials are very happy to have such a situation, but the problem is, The government has no money, what should I do? ”

“…… It is unimaginable that the Chinese are rich and rich, except for the official roads in coastal and other places where foreign banking institutions make loans, Chinese private investors have found a way to make money, as long as they lend money to the government, and after a few years, they will continue to collect money from the official roads, and they will make steady profits. Take Shanghai as an example, there is a special and the government to do the official road construction business and ticket number, the government has money, and then the cement plant is everywhere, because of the rebellion, the infrastructure construction that has been stagnant for many years has finally blown out, taking the official road from Tianjin to Beijing as an example, it has been all paved with cement pavement, so that some local governments have been paved with cement on the road surface in the county for charging, and later, the Ministry of Communications had to introduce a planning plan to have a clear deployment of the official road, And it is clear that no toll is allowed on other road sections except official roads, so that this problem is barely solved. I have to say that although the issue of road tolls has caused some trouble in the exchange of goods in China, the government's revenue has increased dramatically, and although in the first few years, the government did not receive the money, because it was all taken away by banks and loans, but within a few years, the Chinese government made money. Correspondingly, there are fewer people who do not work in China, because there are too many opportunities to find work, the Chinese organize young people in each place, train regularly, select people with good physical fitness, let them participate in the management of local security, those who have great strength can build roads, those who have skills can do exquisite manual work, women enter foreigners or Chinese handicraft factories to work, in my opinion, there are fewer and fewer people who have nothing to do. ”

"I observed why infrastructure is booming like this, in addition to government support, and our country's advanced technology, the most important thing is that they have the strong support of the supreme ruler," Henry continued, and the horse-drawn carriages on the street outside the window flowed endlessly on the smooth cement road, "The Chinese have an old saying, called the ruler has a liking, the people below will definitely do it, this sentence is very reasonable, the emperor is very supportive of the construction of the cement plant, listen to the grapevine, The Emperor was pleased with the monthly profits of the Cement Works of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and he made a special effort to purchase cement from the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the fortifications built by the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Industry (two Chinese departments under the cabinet), not to mention that the Emperor himself visited the construction of the railway in Tianjin. The Emperor was very excited when he returned from Tianjin, and asked for the railway to be built from Tianjin to Peking as soon as possible, preferably to the entrance of his rare garden, and his pedantic and stubborn teachers strongly opposed it, but could not prevent this from happening, and the Emperor told the Minister of Communications that he wanted to see the construction of this railway completed within a year, so the Minister of Communications stopped the construction of other railways, and gathered the junior workers of the Railway Academy under his jurisdiction, as well as the excellent engineers of the British Empire, to build the railway with all their mightIt is precisely because of the determination and hobby of the rulers that the railroads are booming, although it is still half a year, but the number of kilometers of railway roads prepared, built and planned has already exceeded the number of all railway tracks in the British mainland, which has to be said to be a huge adventure, in my opinion, but those merchants in our country do not care at all, they have gone crazy with joy, although exports to China have been growing in recent years, but the import of opium textiles has been shrinking, after the emergence of cement, steel, There's another big cake waiting for them, and everyone will go crazy. ”

"And the Queen Mother," Henry said of the supreme ruler of China, a little cautious, "I believe that without the nod of the Queen Mother, no one would dare to do this, and do so much." I don't know if this woman who knows English and knows many things in Britain is good for the British Empire, but now, under the influence of the merchants, London has a very good opinion of her, and it is so good that it has forgotten our disputes with the Chinese in the northwest and southwest. (To be continued.) )