Ma Shiying and others told the emperor that the patent fees given to the two were too much, and even one tenth was a huge number. The implication was that they hoped to reduce the patent fees. After all, most steel plants were official, so what was wrong with saving some money? Wang Fu did not nod and insisted on giving the two high patent fees.

The Ming Dynasty pig iron has been moving around 30 taels of silver/ton, that is, one tael and half of silver/loan, while steel is several times more expensive or even dozens of times more. Of course, if exported, the price is higher, and it is not surprising to sell a few taels of silver on the grassland to a few pounds of iron pot weighing several pounds.

By the 19th year of Hongguang, due to the sharp increase in steel production, the iron price had fallen by half, about 5 taels per ton of silver, and the steel price fell more and had fallen to the original iron price level. One tael of silver per ton of steel was required to take out one tael of silver from each ton of steel as a patent fee. This number is by no means small.

It was only because of the efforts of Xu Zhixi and He Wei that the output of the Ming Dynasty's steel increased several times, which made the first five-year plan hope to be completed. It was not comparable to the patent fee of one tael of silver per ton. Moreover, if the patent fee was given to the two of them, it would be a big money to buy a horse, which would arouse the whole country's interest in scientific and technological inventions.

After learning about the possible benefits Xu Zhixi and Hewei, the newly established patent office immediately became the most popular yamen. Many people flocked to the patent office to register the technology and secret recipes they mastered as patents. Some of these patents are indeed useful, but more valuable. The patent office had to raise the cost of registering patents while increasing the manpower, and then deal with it.

When people who have learned that they need to pay for their patents have to make money, they can only be clear about the minds of those who have not actually mastered their own unique skills, which has reduced the workload of the patent office.

When the Patent Law was promulgated, the Patent Office accepted a total of tens of thousands of patent applications, but only more than 2,000 were accepted. Among these more than 2,000 patents, only two-tenths of which are truly valuable, a small number of them were ancient formulas, and most of them were new mechanical manufacturing, among which the Royal Academy of Sciences accounted for half of the profits. The owners of the other patents were either from technical schools or from factory technicians. With the patents applied for, these originally ordinary families became rich, and under the leadership of these people, the status of craftsmen and technical schools increased greatly.

In July of the 20th year of Hongguang, the Beijing-Shanghai Railway was completed. The Beijing-Shanghai Railway was more than 600 miles long. The entire line used more than 45,000 tons of steel and more than 8,000 tons of cement, and it consumed 5.2 million taels of silver, which took two years to complete.

The Beijing-Shanghai Railway is the first railway in the Ming Dynasty and naturally the first railway in the world. It was originally expected that the project would be about one and a half years, but unfortunately due to the insufficient supply of steel, the railway has been delayed for half a year.

After the Beijing-Shanghai Railway was opened, the distance between the two places was shortened by about eight hours for several days. It can be said that it was coming day and night, greatly deepening the connection between Beijing and Shanghai, and facilitating the connection between goods. When the Beijing-Shanghai Railway was opened, the export of goods at the Shanghai Port increased, and the railway achieved very good results. As soon as this railway was opened, the imperial court immediately prepared a second railway: the Beijing-Hanzhou Railway.

The Beijing-Hanzhou Railway is more than 1,000 miles long and is 17 times the length of the Beijing-Shanghai Railway. With the experience of the Beijing-Shanghai Railway, Fang Jiqing, the chief engineer in charge of railway construction, still finds it difficult and nothing else. This railway needs to cross the Yangtze River and build a bridge on the Yangtze River. It has never happened since ancient times.

Wang Fu was not sure whether the Yangtze River Bridge could be successfully built. He was ready. If it didn't work, he had to use a ferry to connect.

The construction period of the Beijing-Hanzhou Railway is two years, with a budget of up to 9 million taels of silver. This is not a big burden compared to the annual income of more than 200 million taels of 200 million taels in the Ming Dynasty. Moreover, it is only two years of installment, but the country's steel is tight, so the Ministry of Industry did not decide to build another railway.

In mid-September 20th year of Hongguang, Shanghai Railway Station was crowded with people, and the newly established railway patrolman shouted loudly over and over again, demanding that everyone withdraw from the platform white line.

The train has been running for more than two months. After repeated publicity by newspapers, many people have developed a strong interest in taking the train. Although the whole ticket price is as high as 5 silver dollars, even if you arrive from Shanghai and Kunshan, you have to spend two cents of silver. The train is still full every day.

After twenty years of opening up, Shanghai has grown from a small fishing village with only tens of thousands of people to a large mansion with a population of one million. Suzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou and Zhenjiang along the way are all densely populated areas. The income per passenger transport per day is more than 7,000 silver dollars, and freight transport is as high as more than 15,000 silver dollars. If such income continues, the annual revenue will reach a huge amount of 5 million yuan. Excluding costs, perhaps this railway can recover investment in about one and a half years. It is not an exaggeration to say that this road is a golden road.

At this time, more than ten people were particularly eye-catching in the crowd waiting for the bus outside the platform. These more than ten people were all Westerners with blue eyes and high noses. If they were outside the country, these people would easily attract onlookers. However, in Shanghai, although they seemed a little abrupt, they were not as rare as other places.

With the opening of the Beijing-Shanghai Railway, the railway is no longer confidential. Europeans have become enthusiastic about railways. Every day, foreigners buy tickets and take trains to and from Beijing to Shanghai. They want to figure out why this huge iron lump can walk. Some Westerners who have some knowledge of technology have guessed a rough idea, but it is even more difficult to imitate without real comparison.

"Woo" a long whistle sounded, and a train with white smoke emitting "Hum, Huh, Huh." sounded from the front, and its speed gradually slowed down, and it stopped steadily on the platform.

Although the train had been running for more than two months, seeing the train's huge body, the crowd waiting on the platform still exclaimed huge praise.

"God, this is simply a miracle of mankind." Qu Shawei drew a cross in front of the yog and murmured to himself. Among the more than ten people, it was divided into multiple countries. Qu Shawei is a German, Nan Huairen is a Belgian, Bfarce is an Italian, and there are French and British, with the most Portuguese. In addition to the Dutch and the Spanish, there were almost all European countries that had trade relations with the Ming Dynasty because of the war with the Ming Dynasty last year.

Qu Shawei has lived in the Ming Dynasty for nearly twenty years. He gave himself a Chinese name Qu Ande. Their group did not wait on the platform to take the train, but was waiting for a distinguished guest, someone who could bring them hope.

Among this group of people, Fei Susha was the former governor of Macau in Portugal. After the Ming Dynasty took back Macau, Fei Susha's title of governor of Macau was naturally removed. Originally, Fei Susha planned to return to my train, but the appearance of the train made Fei Susha change his mind and hurried to Shanghai from Mantaga to the sea.

"Oh, I seem to see such a huge...huge..." A Portuguese opened his mouth wide, but forgot how to call the giant in front of him.

"Train." Nan Huairen reminded that compared with those who lived in the Ming Dynasty for more than a dozen or even decades, Nan Huairen had only been in the Ming Dynasty for five years, but he was not as stupid as the Ming Dynasty. He was fanatical about everything in the Ming Dynasty and had taken several trains to and from Beijing to Shanghai.

"Yes, train, I seem to see such a huge train passing by in Europe." The Portuguese said slightly exaggeratedly.

"I hope so." Bi Francis interjected, but his confidence seemed a little lacking in his tone.

"Don't worry, everyone, we will definitely get what we want. You know who we are here to welcome. They are big men, real big men, a marquis of an empire. Oh, thank God, we have always had a harmonious relationship with the Ming Dynasty." The Portuguese looked full of confidence on their faces.

"Fortunately, the poor Dutch and the Spanish fought against the Ming Dynasty at sea. If they were on land, it was almost unimaginable that something could stop the power of the Ming Dynasty on land.

"Haha." The waiting crowd burst into laughter. At this time, Spain gradually declined, but the Dutch were still strong. The British and French were a little gloating about the failure of the Dutch and the Spanish in the South China Sea. Portugal even wanted to regard the victory of the Ming Dynasty as its own.

The speaker is unintentional, the listener is speechless. After laughing, many people are very proud of the troops in their hearts. The Ming Dynasty alone has reached one million. Fortunately, Europe is far away from the Ming Dynasty, otherwise who would have blocked the Ming Dynasty's military front?

With a bang, the train door opened, and the passengers got off the bus one after another with big bags. After eight hours of travel, many people showed a hint of fatigue on their faces. The half-girls were full of excitement, and they were reluctant to get off the bus. They had not yet taken enough.

The door of the car in the middle is opened, and the number of people in this car is obviously smaller than that of the other carriages. If you can see the internal space, you will find that the decoration in the carriage is completely different from that of the ordinary carriage. The casing is covered with thick blankets, and the rows of seats on the blankets are wide enough to make people lie flat on it. Not bad. This is a sleeper carriage, specially for those rich people to ride, and the ticket price is three times higher than the ordinary ticket price.

After the carriage door opened, sure enough, the people who came out of the car were all dressed in gorgeous clothes. Their servants had already been waiting by the side. These people were picked up by the servants at once. After a while, a man in his fifties, surrounded by several people, walked out of the carriage door.

Seeing this man appear, Fei Susha hurriedly led more than ten people forward and shouted from afar: "Marquis de Bugall Road, Marquis de Bugall Road."

The shout alarmed the person who had just got out of the car. He looked up and saw Fei Susha, with a smile on his face, and opened his arms and rushed towards Fei Susha: "Oh, my dear Lord Fei Susha, I'm so happy to see you."
Chapter completed!