Chapter 523: A Strong Transportation Nation, the First Battle in Ten Years

No matter which era, the superiors are actually more willing to pursue stability. After all, "sharing the blessing of peace" is the policy that best suits their core interests.

Zhu Youtang, sitting on the dragon throne, sipped tea slowly, his heart as clear as a mirror.

Although he has been training these important officials for these years and often selecting the best and the worst for some important officials, many officials present may still disagree with this super-large project in their hearts.

But this matter cannot be blamed entirely on them. After all, the cost of this project is indeed astonishing, and it can even be described as shocking.

If a railway is built from Hangzhou to Beijing, it will not only take the whole country's strength, but also have to bear a large amount of debt, especially the problem of pig iron has become more serious.

If they want to deal with this super project, they will not only have to work hard, but also may lose their official hats due to work mistakes.

Putting themselves in their shoes, they are naturally unwilling to take such a big risk in their current position, and would rather enjoy a peaceful life comfortably.

Zhu Youtang felt the fragrance of tea and his eyes became sharp.

Although he could understand the lack of ambition of some important officials, if the Ming Dynasty wanted to truly take off and lead the whole mankind to light up the technology tree, then this kind of suffering must be endured.

If there is no pioneering spirit, if the name of infrastructure maniac cannot be obtained, then what can the Ming Dynasty use to dominate the world?

"You only see the difficulties of the Beijing-Hangzhou Railway, but if we complete this railway, how much convenience will it bring to the north and the south? Most of you are from the south, and you must have experienced the hardships of the journey to the capital for the exam. We always say that we want to open peace for the world. Now that the wise monarch is in power, shouldn't we overcome many difficulties and build a railway that connects the north and the south?" Chen Kun, the Minister of Industry, had tears in his eyes, but he played the emotional card.

As soon as this was said, officials such as Song Cheng, the Minister of Punishment, began to think seriously.

Although this is indeed a very ridiculous project, it is full of infinite charm.

If the Ming Dynasty could build a railway connecting the two places, not only would the flow of goods and personnel be closer, but it would also be more convenient for him to return home.

Although the Ming Dynasty already had the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, which connected the north and south by water, this canal was greatly affected by the seasons, and its efficiency and safety were incomparable to the railway.

In particular, the railway used the power of coal, while the canal relied on manpower. Having the Beijing-Hangzhou railway would greatly reduce the transportation costs between the two places.

"Chen Shangshu is right! The Ming Dynasty is in the best situation now. If we don't build it now, do you think the new dynasty will build it in the future?" Jia Jun, a cabinet minister, had already stepped half a foot into the coffin, and at this moment he stood up to support his successor.

It is said that people are more afraid of death as they get older, but they also see a lot of things. Life is only a hundred years short. If you don't do more practical things in your lifetime, you will only regret it when you die.

With his understanding of the court, if he had not met a wise ruler like Zhu Youtang who was wholeheartedly devoted to the country and the people, he would definitely not have found such a difficult task to challenge.

"Future rulers and ministers will definitely not have such courage!"

"Let alone the Beijing-Hangzhou Railway, even the Beijing-Tianjin Railway may not be built!"

"If we don't set a leading role for future generations, it may be a long time before the Ming Dynasty dominates the world!"

...

As if a word awakened a dreamer, cabinet minister Li Yu and other officials suddenly realized that they could not count on future generations, and immediately started to make fun of them.

The real person who is at stake in this dynasty is not their group of important officials, but the ambitious empire in front of them. Only he can lead the Ming Dynasty to prosper.

If something that could not be done in the hands of Emperor Hongzhi, it would be a foolish dream to expect future generations.

"If we build the Beijing-Hangzhou Railway, it will be a great success for generations to come, but the investment is too high. It will cost at least 100 million silver dollars, right? Can we afford that much money?" Liu Xuan, the Minister of War, said bitterly, as if he was trapped by money.

100 million silver dollars?

Although Song Cheng, the Minister of Criminal Affairs, and others supported this plan, they still couldn't help but take a breath when they thought of the astronomical amount of project funds.

In the past few years, they argued endlessly over the 5 million silver dollars for the Ming-Myanmar Highway, and now they are facing a project fee of 100 million silver dollars.

If the Ming court did not have the right to mint coins, it would take many years to raise this astronomical amount of project funds given the current financial revenue of the Ming court.

But now, just thinking about such a huge investment makes them feel unsure. Is it really okay to spend 100 million silver dollars?

"My Lords, you all seem to have a misunderstanding! Even though the construction fee for the Beijing-Hangzhou Railway is 100 million, we can actually build it in sections. We don't need to raise 100 million silver dollars at once. For example, if we build a section from Beijing to Shandong with 10 million silver dollars per year, our financial pressure will be much smaller!" He Cong, the Minister of Revenue, saw the reactions of the crowd and pointed out the key point.

The Beijing-Hangzhou Railway can be compared to the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. Not to mention that the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal has gone through many dynasties to reach its current scale, even in the beginning it was also built in sections.

The reason why the Ming Dynasty can now build large-scale projects such as the Ming-Myanmar Highway and the Beijing-Tianjin Railway is that it benefits from the healthy finances of the Ming Dynasty, which has a fiscal surplus every year.

In addition to the large amount of taxes that can be collected every year, there is also the mining of overseas gold and silver mines.

If the gold and silver mines in America are mined smoothly, they may be able to raise the astronomical 100 million silver dollars during the project.

"It's really a wake-up call. We don't have to pay 100 million silver dollars!"

"If we invest in batches every ten years, then our pressure will be much less!"

"10 million silver dollars a year, and we can also issue national bonds, so the money problem may not be unsolvable!"

...

After the reminder of He Cong, the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, officials such as Wan Yi, the Left Censor of the Censorate, reacted and became optimistic about the project.

They have never been afraid of difficulties, and are willing to do more practical things for the country and the people. If the Beijing-Hangzhou Railway can be built, it is destined to go down in history.

Now that they can find ways to slowly raise money, they have no reason to stop this project that benefits the country and the people.

"Even if the funds can be solved, we have used up all the pig iron in the construction of the Beijing-Tianjin Railway, and we can only barely solve the shortage of pig iron by constantly purchasing from overseas. If the pig iron needed to build the Beijing-Tianjin Railway is at least ten times more, how can we solve such a huge amount of pig iron?" Liu Xuan, the Minister of War, shook his head gently and raised the core problem again.

As soon as the voice fell, Zhao Chengqing, the Duke of Jingguo, took the lead in expressing his position: "Hasn't our Tangshan iron mine been mined all the time? If the pig iron mined in Tangshan is not enough, then we will ask the vassal states to increase the amount of pig iron they pay tribute to. They are under our protection and naturally have to share one or two for our Ming Dynasty!"

Because he was born as a military general, his character is strong. He does not pay attention to etiquette to the surrounding vassal states, but prefers to speak with fists.

For example, in the earlier war against Ryukyu, he was a staunch advocate of war.

Now North Vietnam, Champa and South Vietnam all have iron mines, and Korea and Japan can produce iron, so they naturally have the obligation to provide a batch of pig iron for Ming Dynasty.

Compared with asking for it from the country, he prefers to go overseas, and can get a large amount of pig iron from these vassal states through various means.

"Yes, if it is not enough, ask the vassal states for it!"

"Since they are under our protection, they must pay tribute to us!"

"For the sake of the people of the world, this marquis is willing to lead the army to fight against the vassal states that do not pay tribute to iron!"

...

Jingguogong Zhao Chengqing has become the leader of military merits, and now facing the possible pig iron problem, they have also expressed their positions.

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In fact, they have also seen that now is the best time to make achievements. As long as they are willing to work for the country, relying on the invincible army of the Ming Dynasty, it is simply giving them military merits and titles.

No matter how much pig iron is needed for the Beijing-Hangzhou Railway, as long as they mobilize the resources of all countries, pig iron will no longer be a problem.

That is why they also tend to ask for pig iron from neighboring countries. If a country is unwilling to give it, they will launch a war like against the Ryukyu Kingdom.

"In that case, I have no problem. I also support the construction of the Beijing-Hangzhou Railway this time!" Liu Xuan, the Minister of War, was not a stubborn person, and he changed his attitude immediately.

The reason why he stood up to raise these sharp questions was that this was his usual practice in discussing things, and he wanted to throw out the problems for everyone to solve together.

Since the court was confident that money and pig iron could be properly solved, even if the Ministry of War under his charge would be a little tight in the coming days, he also accepted it.

After all, once the Beijing-Hangzhou Railway was completed, each of them would be famous in history, and Liu Xuan, as an important member of the Hongzhi Dynasty, would be even more glorious.

"We agree to build the Beijing-Hangzhou Railway!" Jia Jun, a cabinet minister, also reached a consensus quickly, but unanimously agreed to this epic project.

Seeing that everyone had reached a consensus, Yin Zhi, the chief minister of the cabinet, said respectfully to Zhu Youtang on the dragon throne: "We think that the Beijing-Hangzhou Railway can be built, please judge!"

No matter what the attitude of these important ministers was, the real person in charge of this dynasty was always the ambitious Emperor Hongzhi in front of him.

Now that the ministers have reached a consensus, whether to implement it or not depends on the real idea of ​​the emperor in front of him.

Zhu Youtang glanced at the ministers present and found that his efforts were not in vain. These ministers were not the kind of people who were content with pleasure.

Without his intervention, these ministers were able to collectively pass the proposal to build the Beijing-Hangzhou Railway, which was enough to prove that this team really dared to do practical things.

Zhu Youtang was very satisfied with the pioneering spirit of the ministers now, so he nodded solemnly and said: "Approved! All government offices will cooperate with each other, and the Ministry of Works will take the lead to immediately formulate a plan to build the Beijing-Hangzhou Railway!"

Nothing can be accomplished overnight. Even if the Ming Dynasty decided to build the Beijing-Hangzhou Railway, it would take a lot of time and personnel to conduct field investigations in order to formulate a feasible construction plan.

Fortunately, the Imperial College of Engineering is now training a large number of talents. As long as the court has the courage to promote such a project, there will be no shortage of talents in this area.

With the current efficiency of the Ministry of Industry, I believe that before the completion of the Beijing-Tianjin Railway, a construction plan for the Beijing-Hangzhou Railway can be put forward, and the Ming Dynasty will officially embark on the road of becoming a transportation power.

"Your Majesty is wise!" Wang Yue and other important officials bowed respectfully when they saw that the emperor agreed to this proposal.

The ninth year of Hongzhi ended with the trial operation of the steam locomotive. The greatest achievement of this year was not that the Ming Dynasty had established a firm foothold in the Americas, nor that Japan sent a steady stream of silver ornaments and women, but the appearance of the steam locomotive.

The territory of the Ming Dynasty is now expanding, especially the Ming-Myanmar Highway is about to be completed, so the geographical barrier between the Central Plains Dynasty and the Indian Ocean is about to be broken.

Now that the steam locomotive has emerged, the Ming Dynasty can closely connect all places through the railway network, and will also provide transportation support for the Ming Dynasty to rule the world in the future.

The Beijing-Tianjin Railway is just a starting point, and the Beijing-Hangzhou Railway is also just a beginning. A railway network across Asia, Europe and Africa is the ultimate form.

In the tenth year of Hongzhi, the New Year's Day court meeting.

As the Ming Dynasty became more and more powerful, the Ming Dynasty gave up the idea of ​​sharing the blessing of peace, but destroyed the surrounding countries at the slightest disagreement.

Now more and more vassal states sent envoys to participate in the court meeting, and even the wild Jurchens also surrendered to the Ming Dynasty, and they all offered tribute to the most valuable items of their countries or tribes.

Since Wang Zhi had already made a name for himself in the Indian Ocean, he also attracted some countries or forces to come to pay tribute. This time, an Arab representative sent a large amount of treasures and an Egyptian beauty.

Zhu Youtang did not deliberately consolidate his harem, but more and more countries paid tribute to beautiful women, which made it difficult for him to refuse. However, he was still worried about the fate of extinction in his heart, so he worked hard to change his fate every night.

As for those countries that sent rare and exotic animals, Zhu Youtang did not give a good face.

Under the secret operation of various important officials, their only requirement for envoys from various countries was that they pay tribute to pig iron. The more pig iron they pay tribute to, the more they can win the friendship of the Ming Dynasty.

"Stop paying tribute to pig iron?"

There were some unexpected things about this matter. Facing the Ming Dynasty's request for pig iron again this time, they actually encountered a thorn and refused to pay tribute.

This matter was quickly transferred to the Supreme Council, and the officials of the Supreme Council passed the proposal to attack with a unanimous vote.

When the proposal was passed by Zhu Youtang, the Military Council took charge of the formulation of the battle plan, and then Zhu Youtang finalized the selection of the commander-in-chief.

Just after the Spring Festival of the tenth year of Hongzhi, the first foreign operation kicked off. (End of this chapter)