Chapter 1770, there will always be a generation to suffer and suffer
"Everyone, let's take a look~"
Emperor Hongzhi passed Liu Jin's memorial to Zhong Zhong, Wang Shouren, Han Wen, Yang Yiqing and others, asking them to read it and express their opinions.
Several people received the memorial and read it very quickly, and each of them became thoughtful.
"Let's all talk about it."
Emperor Hongzhi glanced at everyone and said.
"Your Majesty, I believe that the strategy proposed by Mr. Liu is in line with the current situation of our Ming Dynasty, and is the foundation for the prosperity of our Ming Dynasty for generations to come."
"It goes without saying that the convenience and role of railways and highways go without saying. Wherever railways and highways go, they not only facilitate the flow of goods and government orders, but they are also conducive to the management and control of various places in the Ming Dynasty."
"The border areas are particularly important. The Black Earth Province is far away from the mainland of the Ming Dynasty. The land in the Black Earth Province is fertile, flat and open, which is extremely suitable for the development of agriculture. Building the railway will not only strengthen the control of the Black Earth Province by the Ming Dynasty, but also promote the development of agriculture in the Black Earth Province.
development, so that it can become the granary of our Ming Dynasty."
"In addition, the layout and planning of the development of the Ming Dynasty are also very correct. The land of Tianfu has been prosperous since ancient times, but due to inconvenient transportation, it is difficult to transport goods. If a railway can be built to Sichuan, Sichuan will definitely become our Ming Dynasty.
Another place south of the Yangtze River."
"Huguang and Jiangxi are inland everywhere, but with the convenience of water transportation on the Yangtze River, we only need to dredge river roads and build more ports and docks. Huguang and Jiangxi can also be compared with Jiangsu and Zhejiang."
As the second assistant, Zhong Zhong was the first to stand up and express his approval. Once this grand plan is completed, the railways will become the arteries connecting various parts of the Ming Dynasty, and the roads will become the blood vessels. Although the Ming Dynasty has a large territory, it will never be used again.
Worry about governance and management issues.
"Your Majesty, what Mr. Liu and Mr. Ji said makes sense."
"The principle of balanced development mentioned by Mr. Liu is even more important. The prosperity of our Ming Dynasty cannot only be enriched in one place. It should be that all places are rich, and the whole Ming Dynasty is rich."
"I believe that not only Huguang and Jiangxi, but also Liaodong is very close to the capital and has convenient transportation to the Bohai Sea. At the same time, Liaodong is rich in resources and is a large granary. It also has great development potential. We can focus on developing the Liaodong, Bohai and Heilongjiang regions.
The downstream estuary area will be turned into the most important grain producing area, ship producing area and steel province in Ming Dynasty."
"In addition, the Guangdong and Guangxi areas have low dimensions and hot and humid weather. The Pearl River estuary area has flat and open terrain, fertile land and maritime transportation. They also have the potential for development, and the imperial court should also give strong support."
Wang Shouren thought for a while and made some additions to Liu Jin's plan.
Ming Dynasty now has the conditions and strength to carry out overall large-scale planning and development. It does not mean that the poor can only come one by one, and can carry out construction in multiple places at the same time.
After listening to what Lao Wang said, Liu Jin also nodded. Liaodong and Guangdong and Guangxi were something Liu Jin himself had not considered.
According to Liu Jin's plan, Liaodong is a large granary and can be engaged in agriculture. As for Guangdong and Guangxi, it is now the land of Lingnan and does not have the conditions for development and investment.
But in fact, Liaodong is very rich in resources, such as coal, steel, petroleum, forestry resources, etc., and the transportation is extremely convenient.
To the south is the Bohai Sea. You can go directly to the Beijing-Tianjin area by boat. The Liao River can also be used as a river transport. To the east is North Korea. A little further up is Vladivostok, which was later built, which is also a large port.
Of course, it was obviously a waste to put it in Maozi's hands. Now in the hands of the Ming Empire, with good management, it is obviously a good port, and it can rely on the resources of the Liaodong region to engage in industries such as steel smelting and shipbuilding.
Although the Guangdong and Guangxi areas are nothing compared to the Ming Dynasty now, they have the advantages of Guangdong and Guangxi. They are close to the sea and have many natural excellent ports. To the north, you can go to Huguang and Jiangxi, to the south you can go to several Nanyang provinces, and to the east you can go to Fujian.
Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and to the west are the southwestern provinces of the Ming Dynasty.
Nowadays, plantations of the Ming Dynasty are blooming all over the Nanyang area. The two Guangdong and Guangxi can also be developed. There is no reason to say that they are worse than other places.
What's more, Qiongzhou now has a branch factory of Miyun Iron Works and a branch factory of Tianjin Shipyard, which already has a good foundation.
The imperial court only needs to invest in building some ports, cities, roads, and railways in these places. Naturally, these places can develop rapidly.
Of course, Liu Jin's plan was limited to infrastructure planning, which was somewhat different from that of later generations. Later generations still had a large number of policies and a large investment of resources, which created the prosperity of the eastern coastal area and also made Guangdong more prosperous.
It suddenly became the largest province.
But in fact, not to mention Guangdong, the two Guangxi and Guangxi combined were not as good as Huguang, Jiangxi, Henan and other inland provinces in ancient times.
It is undeniable that the regional geographical advantages of Guangdong and Guangxi were very useful in the maritime era. Even if the Ming Dynasty did not make any plans, the Guangdong and Guangxi regions could still develop as time went by.
"If we build railways and highways on such a large scale all at once, can our Ming Dynasty finances support it?"
Liang Chu, the new Minister of Household Affairs, thought for a while and said.
He silently calculated the huge infrastructure construction plan proposed by Liu Jin. Just building the railway to Houzhao City would cost hundreds of millions of taels of silver. The railway was too long, even if it was
Now the railway has been built to Nanyang Province, Central Asia Province and Ha Trung Province.
If we build it from these three places, there is still a long way to go. The key is that no one is willing to invest in these railways. This place is far away from the mainland of Ming Dynasty, and the economy is not good. Money invested will only be recovered in the year of the monkey and the horse in the month.
This means that most of the funds required have to be borne by the imperial treasury. Although it is to consolidate border defense, if the investment is too large, it will still have a huge impact on the Ming Dynasty's finances.
What's more, the railway to Tianfu must be built at the same time. Since ancient times, the road to Shu has been difficult to reach the sky. To build the railway to Tianfu, God knows how much money will be spent on paving the road.
Maybe a few hundred million taels of silver would be enough to build the project to Houzhao City in Europe, because most of the areas are flat and open areas, and the road is just long. There is no technical difficulty, and there is no need to spend too much extra money.
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But to build it to Sichuan, although the distance from Xi'an is not that far, it is not comparable to building to Houzhao City in Europe, but in ordinary places, 50,000 taels of silver for one mile of railway is enough.
If we go to Sichuan to build one meter of railway, it might cost tens of thousands of taels of silver. God knows how much money we have to invest in it, not to mention the technical difficulty is too great.
This all costs money. Although the Ming Dynasty’s treasury now has money, I’m afraid it can’t afford to spend money like this.
"It's completely affordable. We don't need to allocate all the money at once, but allocate it in batches one month at a time."
"If it can't be completed in one or two years, we will complete it in five or ten years."
"Railways and kilometers need to be repaired. Sometimes, we can no longer think about whether the investment of money is worthwhile. Instead, we must consider this matter from the perspective of the long-term development and long-term stability of the entire Ming Dynasty."
Liu Jin thought for a while and said with certainty.
No matter how much money is invested, or how long it takes to build the railway, it must be built and developed, because railways and highways are of great significance to the Ming Dynasty.
"I estimate that it will take at least ten years to complete the construction of the railway to Houzhao City in Europe."
"It may take twenty or even thirty years to build the railway to Tianfu."
"In addition, we need to build a railway from Jiangxi to the Guangdong area in Lingnan, which may take more than ten years to complete."
"For our Ming Dynasty, this also means that for a long time to come, our Ming Dynasty's abundant finances will become relatively tight."
After Liang Chu listened, he made a rough calculation and said.
"This is only calculated based on our current construction progress, so we will think how long it will take. Technology is constantly developing."
"In the past, I would have never imagined that there would be trains, cars, trucks and other things. But now that we have them, it will be a leap forward for our transportation and production."
"There are also financial problems. More than ten years ago, our annual treasury tax revenue for the next year was only 3 million taels of silver. Now our treasury tax revenue for the next year has exceeded 1.2 billion taels of silver. The growth is very rapid.
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"Maybe in another ten years, it is hard to say that Ming Dynasty's tax revenue will reach 2 billion taels. Now it seems that it will cause a lot of difficulties and strain the national treasury, but in the future, it may be different.
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Liu Jin said after pondering for a while.
"Hmm~"
After listening to this, Emperor Hongzhi and all the ministers nodded in agreement.
Ming Dynasty's treasury revenue grew very rapidly, and Ming Dynasty's economic development was rapid, so tax revenue naturally increased rapidly.
"What Liu Gong said makes sense. It takes a generation to do these things. If we don't do it now, our descendants will have to do it in the future. If we don't build the railway now, our descendants will have to build the railway in the future."
"We have now repaired the railway, so that future generations can enjoy the benefits. The difficulties are still the same as now. With the accumulation of experience and technology, repairs will definitely become easier, simpler and cheaper."
Yang Yiqing stood up and expressed his agreement. Of course, as the Minister of the Ministry of Industry, he likes to build roads and other things the most. This can reflect the importance of his Minister of the Ministry of Industry.
"Hmm~"
After hearing this, all the ministers nodded. Liang Chu stopped talking when he saw this. Compared with Zhou Jing, his life was much better. He didn't have to spend one penny into two pence.
"Then the matter is settled!"
Emperor Hongzhi saw that everyone agreed and made the decision.