Chapter 357: Seeing the railway repaired to my hometown
Hearing that Shu King Li Min agreed so happily, Ji Zhiji actually felt uncomfortable.
In his imagination, the King of Shu would definitely shirk the offer in every possible way, or even refuse to agree at all.
Because according to Ji Zhiji, King Li Min of Shu must have prepared various back-ups.
Even if Qiwang of the fifth surname is no longer in the mirror business.
The King of Shu doesn't have to worry about finding a new home.
And it is impossible for Qi Wang, the fifth surname, to really abandon the mirror business.
But what Ling Zhiji didn't expect was that the King of Shu agreed so readily.
As a result, Ji Zhiji was extremely unaccustomed to it. Faced with the King of Shu's request for help from their five surnames and Qiwang, he agreed without much thought.
The same is true for representatives of several other companies.
In their view, road construction should be a matter between two families.
Even after the road was built, the biggest beneficiaries were their five surnames, Qi Wang and other aristocratic families.
Therefore, it is completely normal for both families to contribute their efforts in building roads.
Next, Li Min proposed to build a railway from Yizhou to Chang'an.
When they heard the word railway, Ji Zhiji and the representatives from the five surnames and Qi Wang all showed blank expressions on their faces.
What exactly is the railway mentioned by the King of Shu?
Isn't this road paved with iron?
This is simply unbelievable.
Anyway, they couldn't believe it, it was completely beyond their scope of cognition.
Perhaps, this is a metaphor from the King of Shu.
Next, people from several families divided the labor in building the railway.
The matters of how to build and how to plan were naturally left to the King of Shu, Li Min.
The raw materials were also provided by the King of Shu himself.
The aristocratic families such as Wu Xing and Qi Wang are responsible for providing manpower and some money.
Each family probably needs to pay several million dollars.
As for manpower, each family needs to be responsible for as many as tens of thousands of people.
This kind of contribution is a considerable investment even for Qi Wang of the fifth surname.
But the price is completely worth it to them.
They believe that after some roads are built, the mirror can bring them at least a hundred times the return.
The return is so great that this investment is completely worth it.
And they made such a large investment, I believe that the King of Shu will have no reason to regret it by then.
For Li Min, it was somewhat beyond his expectation that Qi Wang, the fifth surname, was so generous.
With the human and financial resources of Wu Xing Qi Wang, the construction period of this railway can be greatly shortened.
Qi Wang, the fifth surname, is really a good person!
After the plan was finalized, the construction of the railway was also put on the agenda.
Next, the Wang family of Taiyuan proposed to cooperate with the King of Shu in the salt industry.
The Wang family of Taiyuan originally controlled the salt industry of the Tang Dynasty.
But now, the King of Shu has mastered a new refining method.
Able to extract more pure table salt.
The purity of these experiments is much better than the salt cooked by the Wang family.
Fortunately, King Shu's salt mine is not large in scale.
At present, it is only sold in Yizhou and a few nearby states, which does not have a big impact on the Wang family in Taiyuan.
However, the salt industry is one of the economic pillars of the Wang family in Taiyuan.
In the salt industry, no problems are allowed.
They must take this new technology into their own hands.
As a first step, the Wang family is planning to see if they can secretly control the method of purifying salt in the name of cooperation.
However, this salt will be a great weapon for Li Min to deal with Qi Wang of the Five Surnames in the future.
How could it be possible for Li Min to hand over the method of purifying table salt to the Wang family in Taiyuan?
What's more, what the Wang family wants must be the exclusive agency rights for table salt.
After the Wang family gets these refined salts, they will definitely sell them at a high price.
As for Li Min, he had no intention of using salt to make huge profits.
Therefore, Li Min refused to cooperate with the Wang family on the grounds that Yizhou's salt production could only meet the demand around Yizhou.
The Wang family in Taiyuan had no choice but to give up.
In fact, the original plan of the Taiyuan Wang family was to finance the purification technology of King Shu themselves.
But now, the contact person of the Wang family in Taiyuan has not made this request.
Because he found that it was impossible for the King of Shu to sell them the salt purification technology.
If they make this request now, they may block the road in the future.
If that's the case, it's better not to mention it.
The future is long, and there will always be opportunities to obtain salt purification technology in the future.
…
The manpower from several major aristocratic families was quickly in place.
The construction of the railway was once again put on the agenda.
As for the construction of the railway, the preliminary work could only be presided over by Li Min himself.
Because, in this world, only Li Min has seen railways and knows how to build railways.
First, there is the choice of map route.
This one doesn't require much exploration.
It is enough to directly learn from the railway line from Yizhou to Chang'an in later generations.
Just one exploration can save a year or two of effort.
The next step is to clear out the sections that need to be laid, and make some preliminary preparations.
For railway laying, as long as the road section is good, there is actually no need to clear a wide area.
First clear the road section, then lay small stones on it, flatten it, and lay sleepers and rails on it.
The general process is like this.
However, because no one has ever done this work before, the early progress is very slow.
However, as time progresses, the progress of this work gradually accelerates.
Especially the process of laying stones is very fast as you become more proficient in the business.
As for the rails, they are all made in steel plants using open-hearth and converter steel-making methods.
In order to speed up the laying of railway tracks, Li Min specially built several steel mills next to the railway road.
In this case, the transportation distance of the rails will be greatly shortened, and the efficiency will be greatly improved at once.
However, after a section of railway track was laid.
Whether it is those workers, representatives of the Five Surnames and Seven Hopes, or others.
Almost everyone who sees the successfully laid railway track section will be dumbfounded.
Is this the railway that King Shu wants to build?
How can one walk on such a narrow road?
Even if you pass the car, you can't get through at all?
The railway that has been built cannot pass either cars or people, so what is the use of it?
As one of the investors, the representative of Wu surnamed Qiwang couldn't bear it when he saw the railway was built like this.
They couldn't help but find Li Min, the king of Shu, and asked him why he built the road like this?
How can I still walk after cultivating like this?
How will their glass be transported?
Faced with the questioning of Qi Wang from the fifth surname, Li Min felt that it was difficult to explain such a profound issue to them.
He could only promise them that after the railway was repaired, he would guarantee that all the glass would be transported out.