"The steam locomotive is a good thing. It won't take long for us to go to Suzhou and turn it back. But my old bones are no longer good, and it still can't stand the journey for a few hours."

Zhang Yandeng, a civil affairs officer from the Jianghuai Province, took the train with officials from the Provincial Yamen to Suzhou City from Nanjing City, the location of the Provincial Yamen. After a few days of inspection in Suzhou City, he returned to Nanjing City.

In order to block animals or ordinary people from entering the railway tracks, there are barbed wire or wooden fences on both sides of the railway.

Because a small generator was transferred from Beijing, the front of this steam locomotive has a lighting system that can illuminate the road ahead and can drive even at night. However, the power of the small generator is not enough to provide lighting for ordinary cars.

"The legendary divine horse travels thousands of miles a day. I think this thing is faster than the eight divine horses of King Mu of Zhou. With it, Nanjing, Zhenjiang Prefecture, Changzhou Prefecture, and Suzhou Prefecture will be connected, and the goods run on the railway tracks day and night. Our Jianghuai Province is likely to be the most prosperous province in the empire in the future!"

"Building this railway costs a lot of local finances in our Jianghuai Province, and we still owe a large loan from Jiuzhou Bank. Other departments may not think there is anything, but our finance yamen is uncomfortable. We need to make careful calculations for at least three years to prevent local finance from being tight."

Senior officials from the Jianghuai Provincial Government Office were happy and worried about the Ningsu Railway that was opened to traffic.

For the entire provincial government, the opening of Ningsu Railway is undoubtedly a brilliant political achievement, and it is very painful for the financial government government responsible for local fiscal budget expenditure.

The construction of basic engineering requires a lot of funds, and the provincial finance yamen must also be responsible to the Ministry of Revenue. If the fiscal budget of the Jianghuai province collapses due to the construction of the Ningsu Railway, the financial yamen will be held accountable.

Zhang Yandeng took the beard and looked back at the officials who were talking about the steam locomotive, with a hint of regret on his face.

"Old Zhang, what's wrong with you?" asked an official with gray hair in his sixties.

"I just regret that it was an era of such a change, but I was already buried in the soil and couldn't see any strange things coming out after the steam locomotive. So I couldn't help but envy them, they could see more magical things..." Zhang Yandeng couldn't help but sigh.

It has been rare since ancient times that it was seventy years old. Zhang Yandeng had thought that he had experienced all things in the world at this age, but in the last short period of his life, iron armored ships, steam locomotives and other things appeared. This made Zhang Yandeng sigh and envious of younger officials.

The younger generation of officials can also see a stronger country, but he retreated behind the scenes at this point of becoming stronger.

"I will retire next month, and I will leave the matters of the Jianghuai Province to Yu Siheng." Zhang Yandeng asked the 60-year-old official.

"The officials are already in their sixties, and I'm afraid they won't have to retire in a few years if they take over as a civil affairs officer in Jianghuai Province. As the elder said, the future belongs to the younger generation of officials." Yu Sihen could feel Zhang Yandeng's sigh.

The emergence of ironclad ships and steam locomotives has made the older generation of officials who have been active in Wanli until now full of vision for the future, but they are likely not to see a day when the empire will be stronger.

The month after the Ningsu Railway was successfully opened to traffic, Zhang Yandeng, a civil affairs officer in Jianghuai Province, applied to the Ministry of Personnel for retirement with some regrets. In fact, Zhang Yandeng reported to the Ministry of Personnel for the grand examination last year. The Ministry of Personnel had long approved his application and allowed him to officially resign after the Ningsu Railway was opened to traffic.

Although Zhang Yandeng still wants to do his last effort to reach the peak of this empire, his age and physical condition ultimately prevent him from exerting his remaining energy.

The one who succeeded Zhang Yandeng as the civil affairs officer of the Jianghuai Provincial Department was Yu Siheng. In the 44th year of Wanli, he went through the three dynasties of Wanli, Tianqi and Chongzhen, and later defected to the Jiuzhou Army and became a new bureaucrat.

Shortly after Yu Sixun took office, the Wuhu businessman group represented by Wang Changyuan found him under the recommendation of the Taiping Prefecture Prefecture Prefecture Prefecture Prefecture Prefecture Prefecture, and asked the government to find out whether the government allowed the government to build railways and the cost of building railways.

"The military leader publicly announced in Tianjin Wei that as long as private businessmen have sufficient financial resources and are willing to obey the jurisdiction of the government, they can be allowed to build roads and railways, and our government can even provide technical and talent support." Yu Sixun took the initiative to meet Wang Changyuan and others.

Wang Changyuan is a veteran businessman who deals with the government. He has even met Chu Yun several times and has helped deal with the matter of the textile workers in Suzhou City burning textile factories. Even Yu Sixun has heard of him.

Wuhu County is also an important county town in Jianghuai Province, but it is not particularly important than Suzhou City.

According to the railway construction plan of the Jianghuai Province, the next section of the railway will not be a railway to Wuhu County.

But if the people pay for the construction themselves, it would be different. It is equivalent to the government and the people building railways at the same time. The formation of the railway network will be faster and the Jianghuai provinces will also be more prosperous.

"I don't know how much railway investment is? Will the technology and talents provided by the government help us complete the railway construction from Nanjing to Wuhu County? How to operate it after the construction is completed? Here are the people of Wuhu, and they don't want the villagers to spend a lot of money." Wang Changyuan expressed his difficulties.

"Don't talk about you ordinary businessmen and people, even if our government wants to spend so much money to build a railway from Nanjing to Wuhu, we are all in a difficult position." Yu Sihen said.

The Jianghuai Province has only built the first railway, which is more than 400 miles long. It is deeply impressed by the cost of railways. When they saw Wang Changyuan and other Wuhu merchants spontaneously want to contract the construction of the railway, although they remain calm on the surface, they are already full of joy.

If the Ministry of Works prohibits private people from entering the railway industry, he will naturally turn aside Wang Changyuan and the others. However, the current situation is that the capital encourages a large amount of private capital to pour into the investment and construction of basic transportation fields such as railways, and wishes to collect all the spare money from private people to build roads.

Although the initial investment in infrastructure construction is amazing, it is regarded as a "fixed asset" of the entire society and can ensure the prosperity of the empire in the next few decades or even hundreds of years.

Compared to land mergers, investing money on the road is more valuable.

"I don't know if there is a book of prices, so I can use it as a reference to estimate the cost and benefits of building and operating the railway?" Wang Changyuan asked carefully.

"The prices of railway tracks are indebted, because they have changed due to changes in the technology of the rail beam factory and have also fluctuated up and down. However, we can provide you with a general price list for the construction of Ningsu Railway this time, but you must not spread it." Yu Sihen said.
Chapter completed!