Chapter 1785, change people if you don't have the skills
In the study room of Qianqing Palace in Beijing.
"Your Majesty, officials responsible for the construction of the railway, including Sun Pan, the right minister of the Ministry of Industry, and Qiu Ye, the director of the Ministry of Industry, sent telegrams saying that it is simply impossible to build a railway to Chengdu, Sichuan."
"I request your Majesty and all the princes in the court to reconsider this matter!"
Yang Yiqing, Minister of Industry, handed the telegram from Sun Pan to Emperor Hongzhi.
Emperor Hongzhi read the telegram carefully. In the telegram, Sun Pan, Qiu Ye and others described in detail the difficulties of the Shu Road and the difficulties that needed to be faced in building the railway. He believed that it was simply impossible to build a railway in such a place. things.
Moreover, even if a railway could be built, the cost would probably be very huge. Simply building a railway with money would be very uneconomical for the court.
At the same time, he also bluntly stated in the telegram that only by walking there in person will you know how difficult the road to Shu is, how difficult it is to reach the sky. This is definitely not an exaggerated adjective, but it is truly very difficult, even walking is already difficult. Going to the sky, let alone building a railway, is simply impossible.
"You all take a look."
After Emperor Hongzhi read it, he immediately sent the telegram to Liu Jin, Wang Shouren, Zhong Zhong and Han Wen to read it.
Liu Jin received the telegram and read it carefully. After reading it, he remained silent and handed the telegram to Zhong Zhong, Wang Shouren and others to read.
How could I not know that the road to Shu is difficult?
He also said that he would go there in person. It’s not like I have never been to places like Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan. The mountains and rivers are steep and the terrain is extremely undulating. I know all these. It is precisely because I know clearly that the road to Shu is difficult, and I also know clearly that the land of abundance is open to the outside world. The transportation is inconvenient, so we mainly build such a railway.
If the land of Tianfu can open up the external transportation network, then the entire southwest of the Ming Dynasty can become rich and stable, just like in later generations, with the rise and rapid development of Chengdu, the economy of the southwest region is centered on Chengdu, Sichuan, and its rapid development developed.
The most obvious point is that in the past, there were a lot of migrant workers in Sichuan. However, with the development of Sichuan and Chengdu, the number of migrant workers has decreased significantly. Everyone can find a job in Sichuan, and the entire southwest is also developing extremely rapidly. .
In the land of abundance, the importance of the Sichuan Basin is extremely important to the entire Ming Dynasty. Once the Sichuan Basin is completed, it will also be a super large granary and a land of plenty.
Sichuan now has a very large population. According to the census of the Ministry of Household Affairs of the Ming Dynasty, the population of Sichuan exceeds 8 million. It is definitely a province with a large population.
However, because Sichuan's transportation is extremely inconvenient, Sichuan's population cannot migrate outside the customs on a large scale like other provinces. They can only continue to stay in Sichuan. As a result, the contradiction between man and land in Sichuan is still very acute. A large number of The gentry, landlords, etc. occupied a large amount of land, but the farmers who actually cultivated the land did not have their own land and lived in poverty.
There is no way for people from other places to work in big cities, so places like Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan can now be said to be the poorest places in the Ming Dynasty.
The traffic conditions here are really bad. People can't get out, and people from outside can't get in.
Factories, workshops, trading firms, etc. in other parts of the Ming Dynasty have already taken off and developed extremely rapidly. However, here in Sichuan, development is very slow because it is difficult to transport outside machines in and people who know the technology are unwilling to come.
Here in Sichuan.
Because you can make a living wherever you go and live a pretty good life. There is no need to go to Sichuan and suffer hardships.
In a relatively closed environment, Sichuan's external exchanges of goods and information are very slow and very sparse, and its development will naturally lag behind, even inferior to many territories newly incorporated into the Ming Dynasty.
The railway must be built. Once the railway is built, it will open up the development of Sichuan.
Sichuan's large surplus population can continuously migrate overseas, and Sichuan itself can also develop rapidly, regardless of the provinces outside the customs.
The development of Sichuan can also drive the development of Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and Chongqing. If Chengdu can become an emerging industrial city like Tianjin and Songhu, it will naturally attract a large number of people from Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan to work, live and settle in Chengdu.
.
Difficult, definitely difficult!
But it's not really impossible to build. Internal combustion engines have come out, and all kinds of engineering equipment and machines have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain.
It is also possible to open a road by digging holes in the mountains, building bridges and paving roads. Now the infrastructure technology has reached great development.
There were reinforced concrete and all kinds of machinery and equipment. Liu Jincai didn't believe that even a railway to Sichuan couldn't be built.
The others also passed the telegrams sent by Sun Pan and others to each other and finished reading them. Everyone was thinking about it.
"Your Majesty, I think it is precisely because the road from Sichuan to Sichuan is very difficult that we should build a railway to Sichuan."
"The Land of Abundance, the Sichuan Basin, is a land of plenty that does not belong to the south of the Yangtze River. Sichuan has a population of more than 8 million. With such a huge population, if a railway is built, a large number of people can be moved outside the customs and overseas."
"In addition, Sichuan is related to the southwest region. If a railway is built to Sichuan and promotes the development of Sichuan, then the entire southwest can be stabilized. Whether it is the chieftain in Yunnan-Guizhou or the chieftain in the Uzang area, as long as Sichuan is stable and prosperous, the imperial court can pass
If the railway quickly dispatches troops and grain and grass into Sichuan, they will not be able to make any waves."
"This is the reason why the imperial court built the Great Wall Railway at all costs, not only for Sichuan, but also for the stability and development of the entire southwest."
"As for the construction of the railway being impossible, I think it's because Sun Pan, Qiu Ye and others don't have much understanding of new machinery."
"The Beijing Machinery Factory relies on internal combustion engine technology to develop a variety of new machines. These machines have greatly improved the efficiency of engineering and made many impossible things possible."
"In addition, Sun Pan, Qiu Ye and others, as officials of the Ministry of Industry, are not enterprising and do not learn and understand new engineering infrastructure technologies. I thought that since they have no ability, then they should be replaced by people with ability to take charge of this matter and develop the railway
I think we can leave it to the Engineering College to build this railway."
Liu Jin was the first to stand up and explain the importance of building railways. At the same time, he bluntly said that Sun Pan, Qiu Ye and other officials from the Ministry of Industry had old ideas, little knowledge, and had not kept up with the development of the times.
It's different when you look at Zhong Fan. He did a very good job in regulating the Yangtze River. He made extensive use of a variety of new construction machinery and the construction of the Jingjiang embankment was in full swing.
When they arrived at Sunpan and Qiuye, they actually said that it was difficult to build the railway and that it was impossible to complete. They asked the emperor to think about it again and again. They also secretly implied that they had never walked through the Shu road and did not know the Shu road.
of difficulty.
"Your Majesty, I think what Mr. Liu said is reasonable."
“Nowadays, there are cars for transportation, and excavators and bulldozers for excavation. Even if you encounter rocks and the like, you can use drilling machines, and you can also use explosives to cut mountains and rocks. All kinds of engineering machinery are used.
There are so many and the efficiency is very high.”
"The telegram from Zhong Fan, the left minister of the Ministry of Industry, explained in detail the construction of the Jingjiang embankment in Jingjiang, Huguang. The telegram emphasized the power of construction machinery. In the past, it might have taken 100,000 people to build the embankment, but now various kinds of equipment are used to build the embankment.
Such construction machinery.”
"A few thousand people are enough, and the construction speed is faster than the previous 100,000 people carrying handbags on their shoulders. It is expected that the entire Jingjiang embankment will be repaired by the end of this year, turning the north bank of Jingjiang into a fertile farmland."
Fertile fields.”
"Sichuan's Shu Road is indeed very difficult, but I believe that with our existing technology and various engineering machinery, we can build a railway to Sichuan, and even build a railway from Sichuan to Chongqing in the future.
, railways from Huguang, Sichuan to Yunnan, Yunnan-Guizhou, Guangxi and other places.”
Wang Shouren also followed suit.
In order to see the efficiency of machinery, he specifically founded Caiyun Textile Factory. Now it has become the largest textile factory in the Ming Dynasty. It is famous for its production of ready-made clothes that sell well all over the world. It earns tens of thousands of taels of silver a year.
Therefore, he also spent a lot of effort to study the machinery, and even the power and efficiency of the machinery. At the same time, he was responsible for the construction of the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge. He had seen the efficiency of a large number of construction machinery and was able to build bridges on the Yangtze River.
What is impossible?
It's nothing more than cutting mountains and cutting rocks, it's nothing more than building bridges and digging holes. If you do it manually, it may be impossible, but if you use machinery, it's completely possible.
"Your Majesty, what Liu Gong and Wang Gong said is reasonable. I also think that since Sun Pan and Qiu Ye think it is impossible and cannot be completed, then we should replace it with someone who is capable and can complete this task."
"The development of the railway is related to the long-term peace and stability of our Ming Dynasty, and is related to the stability and development of our Ming Dynasty in the southwest. How can we back down just because of difficulties."
Zhong Zhong also said, this Sun Pan also said that we should reconsider it again and again. We made this decision after repeated consideration. Otherwise, why do you think it should be built into a railway?
The situation in Ming Dynasty is very good now. It wants money and is very stable. Everyone is relatively united and is thinking about building a good job and governing the country well. If we don’t take advantage of this time to build this railway, who knows what will happen in the future.
What kind of accident will happen?
Could it be that we have to wait until the court has no money in the future?
Is the government in turmoil?
Or should we wait until the conflict between the ruling and opposition parties continues before repairing it?
PS: Have you ever felt that people are actually the same. When conditions permit, you should seize the opportunity to accomplish major events in your life, such as marrying a wife and having children, buying a house and settling down, and making progress in your studies and career. Sometimes if you miss it,
Opportunities, when the time comes, all kinds of annoying things will make you concentrate your energy and financial resources on doing these big things.
