Late at night, in a smoky room, Lu Xiaojia held a cigarette between her fingertips and concentrated on studying the China Railway Network Atlas on the table.
Then he opened the topographic map of Yu Province on the side, compared it with the railway map, and observed it carefully.
It can be seen that most of the coastal areas of Yu Province are dominated by plains and hills, and the central area is mainly a basin sandwiched by two mountains.
Looking at the terrain like Yu Province, Lu Xiaojia was a little confused. She didn't know what kind of state railway transportation could be developed with today's technological level.
As the saying goes, if you want to be rich, build roads first.
During this period, the coverage rate of highways in various provinces of China was actually barely visible, but the condition of the highways was really difficult to describe.
Under such circumstances, Lu Xiaojia naturally did not have the energy to build expressways and asphalt roads everywhere... Railway transportation became the best choice at the moment.
Since 1804, Trevithick made mankind's first steam locomotive at the Pen-y-Darren foundry in South Wales.
So far, railway transportation has gone through a development history of more than a hundred years, almost throughout the entire modern industrialization process of mankind.
The endless steel arteries, with their huge transportation capacity, have become a weapon for the world's major industrial countries to obtain resources, profoundly affecting the world's political, economic, civilian and military patterns.
Even in Lu Xiaojia's previous life, after more than two hundred years of development, countries around the world are still unable to escape the efficient and economical transportation method of railway transportation.
On July 3, 1876, the Wusong Railway line built by John Jardine Capital Group in China was officially opened to traffic, using a narrow gauge of 762 mm. This was the first railway in China.
In 1881, the Tangxu Railway started construction. In November of the same year, the Tangxu Railway was officially completed, becoming the first railway built by the Chinese themselves.
Beginning in 1897, great powers such as the Rakshasa Kingdom, the Hans Kingdom, the Gaul Kingdom, and the Fusang Kingdom began to carry out large-scale construction projects and build railway lines in East China, North China, Northeast China and other regions.
Today, China already has the Eastern Provincial Railway Line, the Southern Manchuria Railway Line, the Jiaoji Railway Line, the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway Line, the Bianluo Railway Line, the Guangdong-Han Railway Line, the Longhai Railway Line, the Beijing-Fenghuang Railway Line, and the Beijing-Puzhou Railway Line... A total of 14,000 kilometers of railway lines.
But unfortunately, most of the rights to use these railways do not belong to the Chinese.
And these 14,000 kilometers of railway lines are barely enough for countries with smaller territories.
But for the vast country of China, this railway line can only be a drop in the bucket.
The next day, in the living room of Lu Mansion.
"Master, Mr. Zhan, deputy director of the Public Works Department of the Guangdong Provincial Railway Bureau, has arrived."
Hearing this, Lu Xiaojia smiled widely. An important figure in his plan finally arrived!
"Bring Mr. Zhan in quickly."
After a moment, a thin man in his twenties wearing a tuxedo walked into the hall carrying a large suitcase.
This man's name is Zhan Wenzong, and his father is the famous father of railways in China, "Zhan Tianyou"
As the son of Mr. Zhan Tianyou, Zhan Wenzong had high hopes at an early age and was sent to study in Sam Country by his father Zhan Tianyou in 1908.
After graduating from Yale University in Civil Engineering in 1918, Zhan Wenzong returned to China without stopping, inherited his father Zhan Tianyou's last wish, and devoted himself to China's railway industry.
In the Battle of Tanzhou in 1941, the Japanese army attacked Tanzhou twice and bombed the Guangdong-Han Railway in an attempt to cut off the lifeline of the Chinese army.
Zhan Wenzong organized and organized emergency repairs along the railway day and night to ensure smooth transportation so that military supplies could reach the front line to support the Anti-Japanese War.
Due to overwork, he died in Hengyang at the age of 48, which is enough to prove that this person had extremely high patriotism and lofty beliefs.
"Hello, Mr. Lu, I am Zhan Wenzong from the Guangdong Provincial Railway Bureau. I heard that Mr. Lu wants to build a railway line in Yu Province..."
"Hello, Mr. Zhan, I welcome you to Yu Province, but your information is wrong. To be precise, I want to build 3 railway lines. However, the terrain in some parts of Yu Province is very complex, and I am not sure, so I I invite you to come and help me take a look."
"Oh! You want to build three railways? Mr. Lu said that you are not joking. Are you sure you want to build three railways? This is a huge amount of work and will cost a lot of money..."
Seeing that Zhan Wenzong was full of suspicion, Lu Xiaojia pulled him aside to the map and pointed at it.
"Mr. Zhan, I'm not kidding you. My idea is this. We first build three railway lines with 1435mm standard gauge between Hangzhou City, Taizhou City and Jinhua City, and construct a railway line in Yu Province. A large triangular railway network.”
"Then these three railway lines will continue to extend in three directions: west, north and south respectively, connecting Fujian Province, Guangdong Province, Anhui Province, Gan Province, Huai Province and other places. In this way, these three railway lines will connect us The five provinces in South China and East China are all connected..."
By the time Lu Xiaojia tirelessly finished explaining his plan, Zhan Wenzong was completely stunned.
"This...this...Master Lu, with all due respect, do you know how much it will cost to build these three railway lines according to your idea?"
"The terrain in your Yu Province is not bad. Although there are many mountains, there are basically basins between the mountains. Building these three railways is not a big problem. As for Huai Province, the terrain there is very flat, and most of the It's all plains, so it's easy to build railway lines."
"But if you want to build railways in the direction of South China and Central China, the terrain there is complicated, with a lot of mountains and hills. And our country currently lacks all kinds of engineering vehicles. If all railways are built manually, even if explosives are used, the cost will probably be huge. Very high."
"Moreover, just building the three railway networks in your province of Yu, with a mileage of 600 to 700 kilometers, requires at least 40 million silver dollars. Among them, purchasing transportation rails and sleepers is the biggest expense. If you want to complete the three railway networks, you can continue to the west, north, and south. The idea of extending in three directions would cost at least 50 million."
After hearing what Zhan Wenzong said, Lu Xiaojia knew that the construction of the railway was done.
As for money, as the saying goes, if you have a gun in your hand, you will have a bag of money wherever you go.
Moreover, it will be much cheaper to purchase various materials in the system mall. As long as the transportation and labor problems are solved, the cost will be much smaller.
