Chapter 1504 The Northern Railway Opens to Traffic
As the Minister of Agriculture, Ying Junzhi's main responsibility is naturally to be responsible for a series of agricultural, mulberry, animal husbandry and forestry in the country. In addition, he is responsible for the resettlement and reclamation.
In recent years, the work of the Immigration and Reclamation Department has become more and more important, so Ying Junzhi is now the Minister of Agriculture, but he still often pays personal attention to the affairs of the Immigration and Reclamation Department.
When Li Xuan personally gave instructions to increase immigration and settlement in border provinces such as the southwest, northeast and northwest, Ying Junzhi was naturally busy and even took the train to organize the immigration affairs.
Henan, Shanxi and other provinces with a large population but little land organize immigration.
Speaking of which, it is only in the past two years that senior officials like Ying Junzhi have been able to frequently go to Beijing to handle matters in person. Because of the convenient trains and ships, if it were replaced by the past, it would take several months to go back and forth.
It's simply impossible.
Fortunately, now that there are trains and ships, you can take ships to travel to various coastal, river, and lake areas. Even places with only small rivers and small rivers can also be visited by small river cruises.
Taking the train is even faster. It takes one day and night to travel from Jinling City to Shanghai.
Datang's railway network was constructed very quickly, because the railways built were all single-track railways. At the same time, in order to shorten the construction period and reduce costs, the railway lines were also built in plain areas. As for the more troublesome cross-river lines, today's steel
The technology of cement bridges is relatively mature. Some bridges with a span of several hundred meters are naturally more troublesome, but for bridges with a span of less than two to three hundred meters, it is no longer a problem now.
Under such circumstances, the railway construction in Datang was very advanced. In the autumn of the 24th year of Xuanping, the last section of the north-south main line, the Beijing-Tianjin line from Jinling City to Tianjin, was completed and opened to traffic.
From this, you can take a train all the way from Jinling City to Tianjin.
At the same time, the Northeast Railway from Tianjin to Shenyang has been completed and opened to traffic, and the Prairie Railway from Tianjin to Youzhou, and then to Heishan City has also been completed and opened to traffic. This means that the main railway line from Jinling City, the capital of the empire, to the north has basically been fully connected.
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Starting from Jinling City, you can take a train all the way to Shenyang City in Liaodong Province or Heishan City in Hefeng Province, which greatly expanded the empire's rule over the Northeast and grassland areas.
Because of the opening of the railway, it was not only easier to mobilize troops and transport, but also a large number of immigrants followed the railway line to the Northeast and Ha Feng Province.
In the early years, Black Mountain City was just a pure military fortress, but now it has become the provincial capital of Hefeng Province, and it is also home to tens of thousands of immigrants, becoming the empire's main economic and trade city on the grassland.
At the same time, iron and other minerals were discovered in the area near Heishan City, attracting many mining companies to invest in mining here, and the industrial economy with mining as the core gradually developed.
Similarly, the Northeastern Railway also plays such a role. Although the Northeastern region is rich in minerals, because the Northeastern Railway was not opened to traffic a few years ago, it was difficult to transport the minerals. The cost of transporting the minerals to coastal ports by horse-drawn carriages was very high, but after the Northeastern Railway was opened to traffic
Later, various minerals from the Northeast region could be easily transported by train to the north and even the Central Plains and other provinces, which greatly stimulated the development of local mining.
In the Jiangnan region, the last section of the Jiangnan Railway, that is, the railway from Jinling City to Huzhou and then to Hangzhou, has also been completed and opened to traffic, and a railway network around Taihu Lake has been officially formed, which has greatly stimulated the economic stimulation of northern Zhejiang.
Railway construction in Jiangxi is also very fast. The Guangdong-Jiangxi Railway has entered the final critical construction period. The main projects are concentrated in mountainous areas, but this part of the area is left in the end. However, because they are all mountains and hills, the geography
It is complex and difficult to construct, and it is estimated that it will take a long time before it can be opened to traffic.
On the other hand, the railway line connecting Jiangxi to Huguang is being built relatively quickly. Because the terrain is plain, construction is easy. The railway line from Nanchang to Wuchang is nearing completion.
The other most important trunk line of the imperial railway network, the Northwest Railway, has now been built to Shaanxi, but it has not yet entered Gansu. According to the construction period estimate of Datang Railway Corporation, it wants to build the Northwest Railway to Jiayuguan, Gansu.
, it will take at least two years.
Speaking of which, this railway is also the most frustrating railway built by Datang Railway Corporation. The construction in the Central Plains area is not bad, at least in the plain areas. The surrounding population is also large. It is convenient to hire railway workers and the cost is not high.
Moreover, after the railway was built to Xi'an and connected the provincial capital of Shaanxi, which was also one of the three nominal capitals of the Tang Dynasty, the freight volume and passenger volume were not bad, at least it did not cause the Datang Railway Corporation to lose money.
But when we continue to build westward, it will be extremely difficult. The terrain is more complex and the construction is more difficult. Many building materials used, such as steel, have to be transported from the hinterland of the Central Plains, and the transportation cost is high.
Not to mention these difficulties, the most important thing is that the further west you go, the smaller the local population is, so it is often difficult for Datang Railway Corporation to hire enough railway workers locally.
You must know that contemporary railway construction mainly relies on manpower. The use of mechanical equipment is actually very limited. Without enough labor, the railway cannot be built.
The shortage of local labor forces forces railway companies to hire railway workers from the mainland, which incurs even greater labor costs.
In addition, the further west you go, the smaller the population and the more desolate it becomes. If you continue to go west to Gansu, there will be few civilians there except for the garrison. This means that the further west you go, the less revenue you will earn from railway operations.
, after arriving in Gansu, it is estimated that only the military’s transportation tasks will be left.
Not to mention recovering the construction costs, even maintaining operations on weekdays will cost money.
This kind of situation has never been encountered even on the Northeast Railway and Prairie Railway.
Although the three northeastern provinces and Hefeng Province are also frontiers, the Liaodong and Liaoxi regions in the northeast have gradually developed in recent years, especially the rapid development of minerals. Hefeng Province is also the largest exporter of cattle, sheep and other related goods in the empire.
The origin and freight volume are still not small, and the mining industry in Black Mountain City is also gradually developing.
Therefore, although these two railways are not making money for the time being, they will not lose money by maintaining daily operations.
But as for the Northwest Railway, it hasn’t even been completed yet, and the operation of the existing railway section has already begun to lose money!
This made the Railway Corporation very helpless.
Because even if they lose money, they still have to bite the bullet and continue repairing it, and they still have to maintain operations, because the Northwest Railway was not a commercial railway from the beginning, but a war-ready railway.
Fortunately, other regions in the country, especially the Jiangnan Railway, are quite profitable. Datang Railway Corporation can also support itself by relying on the profits from railway operations in other regions.
This was one of the reasons why Li Xuan established the Datang Railway Corporation at that time and gave this company a monopoly on all railway construction and operations in the empire. Because the empire was so large, there must be some places where the railways were very profitable, and some places where the railways were not profitable or even lost money.
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If the monopoly is liberalized and capital pursues profits, it is estimated that railways will only be built in the hinterland of the Central Plains. There will be no companies to build the northwest railway, northeastern railway, grassland railway, etc.
This situation was something Li Xuan didn't want to see.
Li Xuan is quite satisfied with the current situation. Regardless of whether the railway is profitable or not, as long as the empire needs it, it will be built.
Relying on the empire's now developed railway network, the transportation of personnel and materials has become extremely convenient.
This can be seen from the changes in the empire's military deployment in recent years. In the past, the empire's military deployment was deployed in some strategic towns in traditional areas. However, in recent years, the deployment of military forces has basically been
It's around the railway line.
For example, Tianjin is a strategic town in the north, a railway hub in the north, and also a major coastal port in the north. Such important transportation has allowed the empire to station heavy troops here. As for the nearby Youzhou City, there is now only one former Ming Dynasty city left.
There is nothing important left outside the palace, and there are not even many garrison troops left.
There are also cities such as Shenyang, Jinzhou, and Heishan City that are key railway stations or along the lines, all of which are heavily garrisoned.
In the Central Plains region, Kaifeng should have the largest number of troops stationed there. It is the intersection of the Northern Railway and the Northwest Railway, and is also a port area along the Yellow River. It goes without saying how important its strategic position is.
In addition, today's Jiujiang, Nanchang, Wuchang, Ganzhou, Guangzhou, Huizhou, Hangzhou and many other cities along the railway lines are heavily fortified areas.
A large number of troops are stationed here not only because these places are important, but also if a war breaks out in the country, the troops along these railways can be quickly delivered to the warring areas relying on the railways.
This point is more important.
The developed railway network and river transportation network also brought another military benefit, which was that it allowed the Imperial Army to control a larger area with fewer troops.
In the past, when troop mobilization was slow, more troops needed to be deployed to control various areas. However, now, the Army has begun to gradually reduce its troop strength in some areas, adopting comprehensive monitoring, focused defense, and mobile operations.
To put it simply, a very small number of reserve division troops are deployed in various places across the country. These reserve division troops are used to maintain daily public security. They are very small in number and do not add up to much.
However, the main field forces are concentrated and deployed in strategic transportation locations, usually along railways, rivers and sea transportation. Once there is unrest in a certain place, the main forces are quickly mobilized directly through trains and ships to suppress it.
In this way, there is no need to deploy the main force dispersedly in many places as in the past.
The emergence of trains and ships was also an important reason why the Tang Army continued to mobilize troops to fight abroad. While its domestic troops were gradually reduced, it was still able to maintain its suppression mission in border areas and the hinterland of the country.