At this time, the Guanwai Railway, which had been built intermittently before the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1894, had been fully opened to traffic after two years of full-speed construction, and was connected with the Shenyang-Hankou Railway, which was built from Andong and Seoul at the same time, in Shenyang. With the Beijing-Hankou Railway within the pass, trains can run directly from Hankou on the Yangtze River to the distant Seoul of North Korea. If coupled with the Guangdong-Hankou Railway and Sichuan-Hankou Railway that have been opened to traffic, trains can run through the entire north and south of the Chinese Empire.
"We will continue to build it all the way north to this place. What is the name of this place?" Emperor Yang asked in the office building of the Shenyang Railway Bureau, pointing to the location of Manzhouli on the map.
"Holejinbulage!" Zhan Tianyou, director of the Shenyang Railway Bureau, said hurriedly.
"Change the name. It's too long and hard to remember. Let's do it this way. You can be credited with being able to build this railway so quickly. In the future, you will have to continue to worry about the railway in the Northeast. Just change the name of this place to Tianyou. Since it is the gate of the country, , then you should have a louder name, God bless China! In addition, I will grant you a baron title, and the fiefdom will be in Shenyang. Remember to go through the procedures for him later." Yang Feng turned to Yuan Shikai who was following him.
Brother Big Tou quickly took a note and wrote it down.
Zhan Tianyou was dumbfounded. He never thought that building the railway would turn him into a nobleman. After he woke up, he was so excited that he lay on the ground and cried with gratitude.
"Don't be like this. Didn't I already have an order? From now on, I will not bow to anyone except my parents and ancestors." Emperor Yang smiled and helped him up, and then continued: "The railway is beneficial to the country and the people. The great deeds of the descendants of Fuyan will naturally be rewarded if they are done well. This is the same as fighting to defend the country. But I have to say it openly. The rewards that should be given to you will definitely not be less. But you guys People have tens or even hundreds of millions of funds to use, but they cannot do illegal things. If they really break the law, there will be nothing left."
Zhan Tianyou led a group of engineers. The officials quickly patted their chests and promised that they would not dare to take corruption or bribery.
Emperor Yang nodded with satisfaction. In fact, it is impossible for big projects like these without any corruption or bribery. Zhan Tianyou's incorruptibility does not mean that others are incorruptible. This kind of thing is not what he needs to care about as the emperor. There are ** under the Congress. The Independent Commission Against Corruption has a complete judicial system. The rest is just the specific operation. He only needs to show zero tolerance for corruption and bribery. It has already been determined by the regulations of the Royal Title Management Office. Any noble or honorary If a citizen commits crimes such as corruption and bribery while serving in public office, he will be directly deprived of the title and deprived of the title of a citizen. There is no room for change. Instead, some other crimes may be committed. It is also possible to consider transferring the title to the heir.
After inspecting the railway, the Liaoning Provincial Government and Provincial Council were next. Now the Northeast has been officially established as a province, Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang, and Rehe. Except for Heilongjiang and Jilin, the two provinces are sparsely populated, and there is Russia nearby. In order to facilitate management, except for the temporary direct jurisdiction of the cabinet, Liaoning and Rehe have officially implemented autonomy in accordance with the standards of provinces within the pass.
As for the princes of Inner Mongolia, the ownership of their territories was directly lifted by His Majesty the Emperor in the form of titles. Anyway, with their small territories and herdsmen, they did not earn much in a year. Just like this kind of princes, they were granted the title of earl in the mainland. If they are given a thousand acres of relatively good fiefdom, they would definitely prefer to live in the mainland. Of course, they have to be willing even if they don't want to.
As for the original Mongolian herdsmen who directly became free people and were autonomous according to the standards of the mainland, Emperor Yang planned to deal with the princes of Outer Mongolia according to this standard in the next step. He stationed an entire division in Kulun and is now building a building from Beijing to Zhangjiakou. The Kulun railway, once this railway is completed, plus the railway from Shenyang to the Tianyou County he just named, will directly clamp the entire Outer Mongolia like a pair of pliers, it is not just a matter of words to decide what to do.
However, Emperor Yang directly stopped the Han people's reclamation in Mongolia, which actually made the Mongolian herdsmen burst into tears. In fact, the reclamation of wasteland in pastoral areas was completely a mistake. The desertification of Inner Mongolia in later generations was mainly due to this reason. Yang Feng did not want to himself From then on, he waited for sandstorms in Beijing every day. Not only did he stop reclamation in pastoral areas, but he also encouraged afforestation in pastoral areas. Each herdsman who planted trees and ensured survival was rewarded according to the number of survivors. As for the original reclamation in pastoral areas, To put it bluntly, he wanted to build the railways in Northeast China and Mongolia, but what he lacked were migrant workers. All these people were hired by him to build the railways.
After inspecting various institutions in Liaoning Province, the next step is to garrison. Shenyang is the headquarters of the Shenyang Military Region. The commander is Chen Zhong. His military region is the most powerful among the eight military regions in the country, and it also has the widest jurisdiction. , including North Korea and the three northeastern provinces.
There are five divisions under the command. You must know that there are 28 divisions of field troops in the country, and more than one-sixth of them are in this military region. One of the divisions is stationed in Chongjin, North Korea. The railway from Yiju to there is currently under construction. One division One division is stationed in Yilan, and one division is stationed in Longjiang. Because the railway network has not yet been built, border defense in the north can only rely on water transportation. There are Nen River and Songhua River channels in these two places that can transport supplies. When the Northeast Railway network is built in the future, then large-scale When the mainland is filled with immigrants, the real control of the Northeast will be complete.
There are also two divisions, one stationed in Jilin and one stationed in Shenyang. The former is responsible for the backup of Longjiang and Yilan through the Songhua River waterway, and the latter is responsible for the support in the direction of North Korea through the railway.
"The military strength is still somewhat insufficient. Although there are only a few people in such a large area, it is still a bit difficult to defend against the Russians. Ninety thousand people in five divisions does seem like a lot, but they are spread over a border of two to three thousand kilometers. On the line, there is no shadow. If you want to form an effective defense, you will need at least 200,000 people." Chen Zhong said, he is also considered a confidant of His Majesty the Emperor, so naturally he has something to say.
"And another point is that with the economic development in the pass, especially the development of industry, the number of immigrants is getting smaller and smaller. Everyone can find jobs and have enough food in the pass, so why do they have to go to this bitter and cold place? Even if the railway is built, with the continued development of the pass, this situation will certainly not be changed," he continued.
Emperor Yang did not expect this. Looking at it this way, China's population is still small. It is less than 400 million people now. It is indeed difficult to generate any population pressure. In the past, ordinary people had no other way to survive except farming. Now they can still enter the country. Factory work. In addition, in order to suppress the power of landlords and lure farmers into factories, Emperor Yang has been taking encouraging measures to import foreign grains, which has significantly lowered domestic grain prices. Farming has become increasingly unpopular. In many places, landlords have even taken the initiative Land rent is reduced to less than 40% of the legal level, or even 30% or 20%. However, a large number of tenant farmers will still leave the countryside and go out to work. Anyway, with the current wage level rising day by day due to the increasing shortage of workers, Even if you can easily feed your children by buying grain, who would want to farm land for the landlord?
Under such circumstances, the bitter cold land in the distant Northeast is even less attractive. Even those who have moved here prefer to make a living on the railway in recent years.
However, lowering food prices is a basic policy of Emperor Yang. He is not ready to close the door to food imports from America and Southeast Asia until the landlords are completely defeated. Now he is preparing to implement the royal land buyback plan, from those who think they
Landowners who are no longer able to make a living buy back the land at a low price, and then lease it back to farmers at 10% of the land rent. Before this plan is completed, food must still be kept at a low price that makes it unprofitable for the landlords, and at the same time, it also forces
They invested their money in industry.
Another advantage of doing this is that it can completely clean up the domestic silver circulation. After closing the import of silver from customs, all the silver mainly in the hands of these landowners can be transferred to the People's Bank of China and exchanged to them for equivalent Chinese dollars based on the price ratio of gold and silver.
It is conceivable that after the transformation of the gold standard is completed, the price of silver in the world will definitely continue to fall, and the currencies of countries that still use the silver standard will continue to depreciate. In particular, the silver producers in the United States will be hit hard. And the silver extracted from China to the hands of the great powers will continue to depreciate.
Silver will also no longer be able to be used in the Chinese market and can only be transferred to those silver-producing countries. This is actually an important reason why China implemented the gold standard in history, forcing Japan to abandon its cannibalization policy and instead engage in a full-scale invasion.
But now Emperor Yang is not afraid of external threats. China's silver is mainly in the hands of the British, but the British market is too big. Countries such as Mexico, India, and South America are all silver-standard. Although there will be some losses, it is definitely not worth it.
After all, their losses can be passed on, but Yang Feng's diesel engine is unique, and China at this time is not so easy to mess with.
In the end, the one who suffered the most was still the United States, so the gold standard was definitely not as simple as changing to another currency. It represented China's complete separation from the colonial era.
As for the recovered silver, it does not have much impact on the People's Bank of China. No one will use all their Hua Yuan to exchange all the thousands of tons of gold owned by Emperor Yang. The gold is still in his vault, and what he has released is only
It's just printed banknotes, but it takes out a large amount of cash from the country, and then uses the silver to plunder the resources of other countries, such as paying wages to its workers in Japan, launching a revolution in Santos, Mexico, and raising funds from South America.
Yang's consortium purchased raw materials for the factory in Texas, so in a sense, he made countless funds from the country at once.