When Chen Lifu went south, he did not take his own private ferry like when he traveled between Jinling City, Suzhou and Shanghai.
Although he himself prefers traditional boats to new things like trains, after all, he is a serious Jiangnan native. He has traveled frequently by boats since he was a child, and he is already accustomed to taking boats.
Even though today's ships have changed from the pure sailing ships of the past to the current motor-sailed ships, this essentially does not change anything.
As for trains, although Chen Lifu is not opposed to them and has often taken them in the past two years, he still prefers traveling by boat. He can stand on the deck and feel the river breeze and the Buddha's face, and can also enjoy the scenery on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
But this time, he was pressed for time, and it would take several trips to get to Suzhou by boat, which was far less convenient than taking the train.
If he takes the train, he can reach Suzhou from Jinling City in one day. After the handover work in Suzhou is completed, he can take the train directly to Shanghai, and then take a large sea ship from Shanghai to Guangzhou, which is convenient and fast.
In fact, the great feature of convenience and speed is also an important reason why trains have won the competition with inland waterway shipping in recent years.
Although many of today's inland river passenger ships are basically powered by sails, they not only use sails, but also use steam engines at the same time. The speed is faster than before, and the impact is not significant when sailing against the current.
However, this convenience of inland waterway shipping is only for large riverside cities, such as cities along the Yangtze River.
It is worth noting that Suzhou is not a city along the river. Suzhou City is also called Wuxian County. It is a serious inland city that relies on the dense water network in the Jiangnan water town to travel, and these seemingly dense and convenient.
In fact, most of the water network can only pass a few small boats.
The current steam engine technology is also relatively limited. The size and weight of steam engines are still relatively large, and the price is also relatively expensive. Therefore, the ships currently equipped with steam engines are generally ships of more than 100 tons, and there are very few ships of less than 100 tons.
Equipped with a steam engine.
As for sail-powered passenger ships, due to their high construction costs and relatively high operating costs, they generally travel between cities with relatively large passenger sources. They are not the same as ordinary sampans and boats, which can be seen everywhere in the water network of Jiangnan.
, you can go anywhere.
Even the route from Jinling City to Shanghai, which has the most convenient inland waterway shipping line, is actually now outclassed by trains.
In the early years, the inland river passenger transport line from Jinling City to Shanghai was known as the busiest and most competitive inland river passenger transport line in the Tang Empire and even in the world today.
However, although the current passenger route from Jinling City to Shanghai still maintains the appearance of prosperity, in fact its growth rate has outpaced that of trains.
You must know that with the widespread application of high-pressure steam engines, people in the empire have traveled more frequently as travel has become more convenient. Therefore, the annual growth rate of the passenger transport market is very high. However, most of these high-speed growth passenger transport markets have
Because it was taken away by trains, inland waterway shipping can only maintain the passenger volume level of three or four years ago.
However, there is one thing about shipping that trains cannot match, and that is the freight!
This is not talking about passenger fares, but freight charges.
The carrying capacity of the ships is huge, even if the speed is slower, they manage to make the prices cheaper.
As for contemporary trains, limited by the technical development of steam engines, the actual load capacity of trains is still relatively average. In addition, trains are still a new thing, and the maintenance cost of trains is relatively high. This maintenance cost does not only refer to the locomotive, but
Maintenance of carriages and the like, as well as maintenance of train lines.
Coupled with the large amount of coal consumption, and the price of coal in the Tang Empire has always been high, this has pushed up the operating costs of trains.
Therefore, today in the 23rd year of Xuanping, in terms of freight costs alone, trains are still unable to compare with shipping.
However, the slight increase in costs did not affect the development of trains in the Tang Empire.
In fact, since the high-pressure steam engine was successfully developed and the Jingzhen Line was opened to traffic in the 19th year of Xuanping, the train transportation in the Tang Empire has been experiencing explosive growth.
The first is the Jiangnan Railway. After years of construction, it can now be said that the entire line is open to traffic, from Hangzhou to Shanghai to Jinling, to Dangtu, and Jiujiang Hukou. The entire line is now open to traffic.
It has become the transportation lifeline of the Jiangnan region, greatly facilitating local travel and greatly promoting immediate economic development.
Not to mention, another important section of the Jiangnan Railway is currently under intense construction. It is expected to be opened to traffic next year, which is the 24th of Xuanping. This is the section from Hangzhou to Huzhou and then to Jinling.
In addition, in addition to these main lines, the Jiangnan Railway has many branch lines, such as the section from Hangzhou to Ningbo, the section from Changzhou to Jiangyin, the section from Suzhou to Changshu, the section from Shanghai to Jiading, the section from Dangtu to Ningguo, etc.
As a result, a huge main line, coupled with many branch lines, has completely formed a railway network for the Jiangnan Railway, fully covering the areas south of the Yangtze River, southern Anhui, northern Zhejiang, and northeastern Jiangxi.
This Jiangnan railway network has also brought great promotion to the industrial and commercial economic development of the above-mentioned areas.
In addition to the Jiangnan Railway, which has an important political, military and economic strategic position, the Tang Empire has been building railways across the country in recent years.
Among them, in the north of the Yangtze River, the Beijing-Kaifeng Line, which runs from Jinling City to Fengyang and Xuzhou, and then to Kaifeng, has been completed and opened to traffic.
It relies on the Beijing-Kaifeng Line, with Kaifeng as the transportation hub, and the Northwest Railway. Currently, the Northwest Railway has been built in Shaanxi.
Then there is the Northern Railway from Kaifeng to Tianjin. This section of the railway was started at both ends at the same time, and the terrain along the way was flat, so it was built very quickly. If nothing goes wrong, the entire line will be open to traffic in the 25th year of Xuanping.
.
Further north, there are the Prairie Railway and the Northeastern Railway.
The Northeast Railway has been built to Liaodong and is heading towards Shenyang. Although this railway was of course built for war preparation, with the discovery of a large number of minerals in the Northeast, it has completely changed.
The war-prepared railway has become a commercial railway. I don’t know how many businessmen who have invested in mining in the Northeast and are planning to invest in this area are eagerly waiting for the Northeast Railway to be completed and opened to traffic.
Even in order to support the construction of the Northeast Railway, several major local mining giants, such as Northern Coal Company, Liaodong Iron and Steel Company, etc., signed transportation contracts with the railway company in advance and even paid deposits in advance before the railway was completed.
This is to allow the railway company to have no worries and be able to build railways at the maximum speed.
Compared with the current popularity of the Northeast Railway, the current development of the Prairie Railway lags behind a lot, because the grassland area no longer has the threat of the Tatars, and its strategic importance has declined rapidly. At the same time, the local population is lacking and the economy is underdeveloped. Although
It is said that some minerals and other minerals have been discovered locally, but it is still difficult to change the problem of high cost and difficulty in repaying the cost of the prairie railway.
Although this railway is a war-ready railway and belongs to politicians, it must be built even if it is a loss. However, with limited resources, although the Railway Corporation is still building this railway, the progress is obviously slower.
A lot.
In addition, the empire is also building several other main line railways, such as the Kaihan Line from Kaifeng to Hanyang, the Nanwu Line from Nanchang to Jiujiang and then to Wuchang, the Southern Main Line from Jiujiang Hukou to Ganzhou, and then to Guangzhou, and Hong Kong. Nanchang to Changsha
The Southern Long Line, etc.
There are many railway plans in the Tang Empire, some of which have already been constructed, while others are still under investigation.
Considering that the terrain in the south and southwest is complex and railway construction is difficult, it will take a long time to complete the construction of these railways.
However, there is an exception in the southern provinces, and that is the railways in Guangdong, which have developed quite rapidly. Although limited by terrain, the railways connecting Guangdong to other provinces, whether it is Jiangxi, Hunan, Guangxi, etc., are difficult to build due to
, we can’t see it being completed and open to traffic in a short period of time.
However, some areas in Guangdong Province have relatively flat terrain, especially the Pearl River Delta plains, so it is relatively easy to build railways.
In addition, the local economy is developed, and the demand for passenger and freight transport is very large, second only to the Jiangnan area nationwide, so the railway construction in this area is basically in sync with that in the Jiangnan area.
Nowadays, a relatively complete Pearl River Delta railway network has been built. You can take trains from Foshan to Guangzhou, then to Huizhou, and then to Hong Kong.
But this alone is not enough in Chen Lifu’s opinion!
Although he has not yet arrived in Guangdong, and he himself does not like taking trains, he is very aware of the importance of trains in driving the local economy.
The economic explosion in the Jiangnan region in recent years is closely related to the development of railways.
I am now the governor of Guangdong. If I want to have the opportunity to enter the imperial study room in the future, the past few years in Guangdong are very important.
In the policy plan he reported to Emperor Sheng, he already mentioned the need to develop industry and commerce, especially the light manufacturing industry for export.
To turn these governance concepts into reality, this is what Chen Lifu will do in the next few years.
Regarding how to expand overseas markets and how to solve the monopoly problem of Datang Western Trading Company, these are not what Chen Lifu can care about. This is the work of Emperor Sheng.
But after Shengtianzi solves these problems, it will be Chen Lifu's job how Guangdong will welcome the expanded overseas market.