Jiangning City is worthy of being the ancient capital of the Six Dynasties, and it seems to be born with its own aura of popularity.
It has been more than a year since China captured Jiangning. It has been more than a year since the two rivers were at peace. Jiangning seems to have become the cultural and economic center of Jiangnan again.
The wealthy businessmen who originally fled have returned to Jiangning. Although their properties have been transferred to the hands of the Renaissance Army, these people are not in the city at all.
The manors located everywhere are their foundation. The gentry and landlord class in the Jiangnan area are deeply rooted. The Taiping Army's sweep only weakened their strength.
On the contrary, it created conditions for the Renaissance Army to restrict these gentry and landlords.
On the surface, the Baath Army did not put much pressure on these landowners, but instead made a commitment to protect private property.
In fact, this is only compared to the Taiping Army.
If the land policy of restricting land rent introduced by the Renaissance Army had been met in the past, it would definitely have been resisted by these landowners.
But after being suppressed by the Taiping Army, they were able to easily accept the new system of the Renaissance Army. This is the effect of comparison.
Just like a person who eats rice bran every day, if you suddenly let him eat only white rice, he may find it very fragrant.
However, the return of these large households has made Jiangning's city more prosperous.
There must always be rich people in a city, and only with rich people will there be workers.
Without rich people, there will be a lack of money as the main force of consumption; without workers, there will be a lack of popularity.
If there are no rich people, then who will make money from those who are working as workers or doing business?
Rich people can bring funds from outside the city into the city for consumption. This is equivalent to sending funds to the city.
Without external input, cities cannot develop.
If a city is viewed as an organic whole, then the more input there is, the faster the city will develop.
Arriving at the dock in Xiaguan, Li Cunxun led officials from Jiangning to greet Dong Shuheng at the dock.
It had been a long time since he had seen this old subordinate, and Li Cunxun had grown a short beard on his lips, making him look much more mature than before.
He is now the chief executive of Jiangning Mansion.
This time when he visited Jiangning for inspection, it was Dong Shuheng who asked him by name to come and receive him.
The senior officials from the province wanted to come down to pick him up, but Dong Shuheng refused all of them. He came down to hang out alone, and didn't want everyone to hang around him. Anyway, they would meet during meetings.
"How is it, Cun Xun? Are you doing well in the local area?" Dong Shuheng asked.
After Li Cunxun left the attendant's room, he first went to Jiangxi for some experience.
When China was established, all the headquarters offices in Jiangning City were transferred north. It was at that time that he was transferred to Jiangning City.
At that time, many people in Jiangning suddenly left, and it suddenly seemed to be a lot depressed.
It took a long time to calm down.
"Hello, President, please rest assured, President, Cunxun will do a good job." Li Cunxun did not talk about the difficulties.
As local officials, it is their duty to solve problems. They are not supposed to do anything specific and are not allowed to solve problems, so what are these people supposed to do?
"I think the development around this pier is pretty good. It's much more prosperous than the last time I saw it." Dong Shuheng looked at the scene at Xiaguan Pier.
A large number of shops and warehouses were built near the dock. Along the main road of the dock, leading to the city.
"President, our place is now a distribution center for goods from Jiangxi, Hunan, Hubei, Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and other places heading north."
"Commodities from various places usually stop temporarily when they arrive at our place. Then they choose whether to go north by rail or by ship. Commodities that go to Huaibei and Xuzhou generally take the railway. The speed of the railway is fast. If you go further north, you have to take the canal.
Some bulk commodities will also be shipped by sea.”
…
Li Cunxun spoke eloquently. He knew that Dong Shuheng liked to hear people report these tangible things.
If you flatter Ma Laixu in front of him, Dong Shuheng will be very disgusted and feel that you are wasting his time.
Dong Shuheng is a pure pragmatist.
As Dong Shuheng's first secretary, Li Cunxun knew Dong Shuheng better than the average person.
"Jiangning's location advantage is very good, and it also has historical origins. After all, she has always been the center of the south in history."
Dong Shuheng changed the subject and continued: "However, Cunxun, as a senior member of the party, you should know that any location advantage will not last forever. Let me tell you, our railway will continue to develop in the future, maybe in the future
In ten years, we will be able to build a bridge across the Yangtze River. This is not a fantasy. Now we are building a railway bridge on the Yellow River, all made of steel. So how far is it from us to build a bridge on the Yangtze River!"
"Let me give an analogy, if there is a railway directly from Xinjing to Henan to northern Hubei, and then continues to extend southward along southern Hunan. Then, at that time, will the goods from the southwest still be transferred from Jiangning?"
What Dong Shuheng said really caused Li Cunxun to worry deeply: "This... President, Cunxun's vision is too narrow."
"It doesn't matter if you haven't thought of this, but you have to know that if a place wants to develop, it depends on two strengths, one is hard power and the other is soft power."
"Hard power means that you have to develop your own industry. Now Jiangning has a heavy industry foundation. The shipping here is convenient and you can make good use of the surrounding mining resources. After you have a steelmaking plant, you can consider developing some downstream industries, such as machinery manufacturing.
.The market for this industry will be very large in the future. If it develops well, it will be the foundation of China in the future."
"Let's talk about soft power. Soft power refers to the political environment and humanistic environment of a place. Whether the government can be efficient and clean, and can effectively serve the local economic development, this is the soft power of a place. If the soft power of a place is good,
Well, factory owners naturally like to build their factories in such a place."
"If a big city like Jiangning wants to develop, it must establish its own industrial system. To develop, agriculture alone is not enough. Of course, there will be no stability without agriculture. The development of agriculture is the basis for local stability, but it cannot affect the urban development."
Contribute to the expansion of.”
"If Jiangning wants to become a real metropolis, it must have industry to attract more non-agricultural people to live in the city. Farmers rely on land and cannot live in the city. There are only workers, who rely on their own labor in exchange for wages.
, need to live in a city with complete daily necessities. The increase in the working population can promote the expansion of the city. Moreover, the consumption of these people can also promote the development of the city's commerce."
"Another point is to attach great importance to the development of education, because the development of industry depends on science and technology, and education can cultivate innovative and technological talents. At the same time, colleges and universities can also promote the development of a city's humanistic environment. This can also be regarded as a city's soft
strength."
…
Dong Shuheng shared some of his ideas on urban development with Li Cunxun without reservation.
In fact, Jiangning's development also has many limiting factors.
There are many commercial cities around Jiangning, such as Yangzhou, Shanghai, Suzhou, and Hangzhou. These big cities are not far from Jiangning, and they are bound to take away many of Jiangning's development drivers.
Of course, this is actually an advantage for Jiangning's development, that is, there are more resources around it, which will compete with Jiangning and can also be used by Jiangning.
"Well, President, I really benefited a lot from what you said today. We used to be a little short-sighted in looking at urban development. It turns out that there is such a big difference between governing cities and rural areas." Li Cunxun said.
"I believe you can do it well. In fact, every city has its own positioning. Some cities want to become a large regional center, and some cities are purely administrative centers for a small region to serve the region. The positioning is different.
The requirements for development are also different." Dong Shuheng continued.
"Jiangning should be positioned as a large central city serving the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River, not just the capital of Jiangsu Province. I have high expectations for Jiangning."
"Well, President, I will not let you down." Li Cunxun nodded and said.
Li Cunxun and Dong Shuheng got on a carriage together. This carriage was quite special. It was a rail carriage.
Because the cargo throughput here at Xiaguan Terminal is relatively large.
Jiangning Mansion specially built a tram on the main road of the dock.
Two railway tracks, similar to train tracks, extend into the distance.
Sitting on a railcar is obviously much more comfortable. Because it runs on rails, the obstruction of the carriage is reduced, and the packhorse can pull heavier carriages, so the railcar can be built larger and longer.
Before the advent of trams, tramcars were the mainstay of urban short-distance rail transportation.
Even trains were developed on the basis of horse-drawn carriages.
Dong Shuheng now encourages the use of rail carriages in various places. China now has large areas of grassland, and the cost of large livestock is very low.
The development of rail carriages can also solve the problem of horse sales on the grassland.
Soon, China will have its own tram.
Xu Shou faithfully fulfilled his role as a technology porter in Europe.
Even before his people came back, the tram technology had already come back. Of course, his credit also goes into these technologies.
It was he who built the first tram in collaboration with Siemens.
When the time comes, Dong Shuheng can slightly modify these tramcars and turn them into trams.
In the city, there should not be too many large livestock, otherwise it will affect the appearance of the city.
But they can continue to play a role in rural areas, even if diesel engines are introduced in the future.
Livestock such as cattle and horses can still play a role in rural areas. After all, they eat grass. And diesel engines need oil.
Diesel engines break down when they are worn out, and cattle and horses can still be sold for meat when they are old. They have been serving mankind all their lives.
Entering Jiangning City, Dong Shuheng saw that the roads seemed to have been repaired. The overall layout of the city had not changed much.
It's just that there are more buildings outside the city. There are even rows of newly built worker housing.
Arriving in the city, Dong Shuheng saw that most of the large mansions used for the headquarters had now been turned into academies.
"President, we have moved all colleges and academies to the city. Now there are nearly ten academies in Jiangning, including Women's Normal College, Men's Normal College, Jiangning Academy, Jiangning Institute of Technology, Jiangning College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and Huai·Ke Technical School.
College or vocational school.”
"We basically converted all the large houses in the inner city into schools and formed the Jiangning Education Alliance."
"In order to save costs, all academies share a large public library in the inner city. In this way, the books of these schools can be collected to form resource sharing. It also facilitates exchanges between students from each school." Li Cunxun pointed to the carriage.
The schools with big signs outside introduced them.
This was really not taught by Dong Shuheng, it should have been figured out by them themselves. This kind of model was very common in later generations, and it can be regarded as a group effect.
"This is great. Your place can become an academy city. Just turn the inner city into a Jiangning Academy City and move all the government agencies outside."
"Yes, President, this way we can have a better learning environment. Later we will talk to the heads of the institutions and explore the possibility of establishing a university town." Li Cunxun was already eager to accept Dong Shuheng's suggestion.
To practice.
"Although this is a good idea, you need to talk to the president about this first. If the senior officials know that it was my suggestion to kick them out, my life will be difficult in the future." Li Cunxun said with a bitter smile, Dong Shuheng likes to do things like this.
Being vigorous and resolute, what he just said was not just words.
Dong Shuheng smiled and nodded, indicating that he understood.
He said: "Now we have promoted primary education and established primary schools in various places. As the base of scholars is getting higher and higher, more and more young people will hope to enter academies in the future. You are studying here
The number of scholars will continue to grow explosively.”
"So, the academy will become bigger and bigger in the future."
"Jiangning is a place where humanities gather. Half of Jiangnan's culture is gathered here. This is really a good place to run a school!" Dong Shuheng said with emotion.
Later generations said that Nanjing's economy was not as good as that of Suzhou and Shanghai. The reason why it was able to develop was because of the support of so many universities.
Students are also a group that needs to consume, and their money comes from outside the city, and they are also the people who import resources into the city.
The more students there are in a city, it will be beneficial to the city's economic and social development.
"Cunxun, you must not only cultivate talents yourself, but also retain talents. To retain talents, on the one hand, you must make Jiangning more beautiful and livable, and on the other hand, you must create employment opportunities for others."
...Dong Shuheng taught Li Cunxun a lesson. Their first stop was the Jiangsu Provincial Government, where Dong Shuheng held a symposium with Jiangsu officials.
I learned about the construction situation in Jiangsu and made some suggestions. The development foundation here in Jiangsu is the best among all provinces.
Although the northern area was allocated to Xuzhou City and the southeastern area was allocated to Shanghai, Jiangsu is still very large, with developed cities such as Yangzhou, Jiangning and Suzhou within its territory. There is also the Huaihai Navy when it was first established.
Dongtai, the industrial foundation left by Gaoyou.
Whether it is light industry or heavy industry, Jiangsu is ahead of others.
The next day, Dong Shuheng visited Huai Ke's arsenal. He had long wanted to see how those huge fortress cannons were made.
"Mr. Krupp, how are you living here?" Dong Shuheng met little Krupp here and greeted him cordially.
"Oh, dear Mr. President. Thank you for guiding me to this magical land of China. This is a place where miracles are created." Little Krupp said with emotion.
His time in China was neither long nor short. He witnessed with his own eyes that Dong Shuheng led his men to unify an empire that was almost as big as the entire Europe.
Then he personally participated in China's economic construction.
He and his wife Mary have become Chinese nationals and have sworn allegiance to China. This was a decision they made at the very beginning.
Next, Krupp Jr. introduced the construction and commissioning of the factory to Dong Shuheng.
What Huai Ke Group built in Jiangning was a steelmaking, machinery, and military-industrial complex. Its core was actually the steelmaking plant located in Jiangbei.
Considering the living environment problems in the urban area, Huai Ke's steelmaking plant was eventually built in the Jiangbei area.
There is both a railway station and a water transport port there, which play an important role in the transportation of large steel parts.
However, the military factory was built in the south of the Yangtze River. The main reason was to consider the living problems of the workers. After all, the Jiangbei area was somewhat desolate. There was a waterway connecting the two and the transportation was very convenient.
The foundry building of the heavy artillery was very tall. Dong Shuheng did not understand the technology and did not understand the craftsmanship.
I just roughly know some simple principles.
"President, the new gunpowder you showed us is great. Now that we have this gunpowder and solved the problem of propellant, we can develop larger-caliber artillery. And this gunpowder is very suitable for breech-loaded guns.
It's very friendly and has almost no residue." Little Krupp said excitedly.
Just as gunpowder has always restricted the development of firearms, it has also restricted the development of artillery.
"President, I have something to report to you. The research on the nickel-chromium alloy armor you gave us before has already begun. This kind of armor is indeed much stronger than ordinary steel armor." Little Krupp said excitedly.
said.
In the development of alloy steel, China seems to have surpassed Prussia and Britain.
This made little Krupp feel a little proud. He used to regard his father as an unsurpassable goal. Now he seems to be able to get ahead of his father.
ps: Please vote! Recommend two books "My Sword Thirst for Blood" and "Soul Painter".