"What are you talking about? Li Zicheng wants to meet me?"
Chongzhen's face showed a look of astonishment, which he didn't expect.
Gao Qiqian also said that Chongzhen disagreed, and immediately said: "The old slave also feels that it is inappropriate. How can he be seen as a bandit? The old slave then went to reject the envoy sent by hypocrisy."
"Hey, don't." Chongzhen stopped him, "Why do you have to refuse?"
"Ah?" Gao Qiqian turned around and looked at Chongzhen in surprise, "What do you mean by Long Live Lord?"
Chongzhen stood up and walked around while analyzing: "The hypocritical envoy last time must have said something to Li Zicheng after he returned. Li Zicheng must have been stimulated in some way, so he proposed to meet with me."
"If I guessed correctly, he should have a lot to say to me."
"Of course, this may also be Li Zicheng's conspiracy, he just wants to take the opportunity to harm me."
After saying this for a moment, he continued: "Tell the hypocritical envoy that I can meet with Li Zicheng, but the place must be in my big tent. After the meeting, I promise not to make things difficult for him."
"Yes." Gao Qiqian accepted the order and ran to reply to the hypocritical envoy.
"This Li Zicheng is quite good at handling things." Chongzhen smiled and shook his head.
Well, Chongzhen didn't take this matter to heart at all and just regarded it as a piece of fun.
Do you think I'm stupid when I send you a few watermelons and ask them to try them first? Then I come to meet you.
But when they turned back to face Wang Pingshan and Hu Renzhi, the smiles on their faces gradually solidified.
"Wang Pingshan, Hu Renzhi, 2 million is too much. This is not like the original expedition to Yunnan. The mountains are high and the water is long and the roads are blocked. To transport grain from Jiangnan to Beijing, you can directly take the sea route to Dagukou, and the next more than 400 miles are also covered.
It's a flat road with no obstacles, but you two actually dare to ask for 2 million?"
Zhu Shunshui, who came all the way from Nanjing, also supported the incident and said, "What the Holy One said is absolutely true. Two million stones is so outrageous. The previous price of one million stones was only 500,000. You dared to pay two million stones this time."
Want 2 million?”
Wang Pingshan and Hu Renzhi looked at each other and said with a wry smile: "Your Majesty, Zhu gave me advice, that's not what you said. Although the mountains were high and the rivers were long and the roads were blocked when transporting grain to Yunnan, we only needed to transport 600,000 shi. But this time we are going to Beijing."
However, the cost of transporting grain is 2 million shi, which is more than three times that of Yunnan. In addition, we have to bear the additional responsibility of building gun platforms. There may even be casualties when being attacked by Jian slaves. The injured need treatment and the dead need compensation.
We have to pay for all this, so 2 million yuan is really not much. We lost the 1 million shi last time, a total loss of 400,000 yuan."
Hu Renzhi also smiled bitterly and said: "I have made repeated calculations, and 2 million can only barely protect the capital."
"Two million is impossible, I can only give you 1 million." Chongzhen said firmly.
Wang Pingshan and Hu Renzhi's faces became increasingly bitter, but they were lamenting in their hearts. Sure enough, the court's business was not easy to do.
However, when the two of them sighed, Chongzhen said again: "However, I can give you a little extra compensation in other aspects."
Hearing Chongzhen mention the word compensation, Wang Pingshan and Hu Renzi immediately became energetic. This was also the case last time they transported grain to Yunnan. Simply relying on transporting grain was actually a loss.
But Chongzhen compensated them with a large amount of jewelry at a low price, and he could sell it first and pay later.
At that moment, Wang Pingshan asked in a low voice: "But I don't know what kind of compensation the Lord can give me."
Chongzhen turned his attention to Jiang Tianyi next to him: "Jiang Tianyi, you guys were still discussing just now, saying that it is not easy to build Beijing City, and I shouldn't demolish the east city wall. Is this true?"
"Exactly." Jiang Tian said, "I think the city wall of Beijing should not be blown down."
After a pause, Jiang Tianyi said again: "And facts have proven that it is more difficult to attack the city after the city wall has been destroyed."
In the era of cold weapons, once a gap was cut in the city wall, the attacking infantry could swarm in through the gap. The defending infantry had no other option but to block the gap with human heads.
It is obviously much easier to attack through a gap than to attack by climbing a wall.
But after entering the age of firearms, the logic changed.
The defenders only needed a few cannons and an infantry line formation to easily block the gaps in the city wall, while the attackers could only invest their troops one by one according to the refueling tactics, and were eventually hunted down one by one.
In this way, instead of becoming a smooth road, the gap in the city wall will become a meat grinder for the attacker.
On the contrary, if you don't collapse the city wall and climb the wall along the ladder, you can avoid the lake face of the Jiannu cannon, because the Jiannu cannon can't point the muzzle downward and directly bombard the Ming army on the ladder. As for the Ming army far outside the city,
, the Ming army had already dug a zigzag trench directly to the base of the city wall, which could also avoid the bombardment of the slave artillery.
That's why Jiang Tianyi said that it would be easier to attack without demolishing the city wall.
Because the city walls are not demolished, they only have to face the flintlock guns and traditional city defense weapons of the slaves.
However, Chongzhen said: "I have told you a long time ago that the demolition of the city wall was not to attack the city, but only to exert psychological pressure on the slave-building nobles and Han gentry in Beijing."
Jiang Tianyi said distressedly: "There is no need to blast such a big gap."
Chongzhen said: "Then if I tell you that after the liberation of the capital this time, the entire city wall from Chaoyang Gate to Dongbian Gate will be demolished, wouldn't you feel even more distressed?"
"Why?" Jiang Tianyi asked in surprise, "Why do we have to demolish the city wall?"
Now not only Jiang Tianyi, but also Xu Yingwei, Zheng Sen and other scholars also looked over.
"Because the railway needs to be built," Chongzhen said, "the railway needs to run directly from outside the city to the inside of the city."
"Railway?" Zheng Sen, Xu Yingwei, Jiang Tianyi and other scholars widened their eyes, "Do you really want to build a railway?"
As early as the day after Gewu Ke successfully built the steam engine, the Holy Sage once told them about this railway. He said that a track was laid on the ground with steel bars and wood, and then the steam engine was used to drag dozens or hundreds of sections loaded with steel.
The carriage with wheels can run very fast on the track and can run from Nanjing to Beijing in two days and nights.
At that time, all the scholars felt that the Holy One was just talking.
But he never expected that the Holy Sage actually planned to build a railway.
"Of course." Chongzhen said, "The first thing to do after regaining the capital is to build a railway. Using the railway as a link, the remaining capital and the capital will be connected as one. From then on, the northern and southern capitals will be integrated into one."
Railways can greatly shorten the time and space distance and promote the integration of north and south.
Not only will railways be built between the north and south, but also railways will be built from east to west in the future.
Eight vertical and eight horizontal are too luxurious, but two vertical and two horizontal are necessary.
After a pause, Chongzhen continued: "In order to facilitate the people in Beijing, the train station must be built in the inner city. Otherwise, people will have to walk a long way to take a train or ship goods, which is too troublesome."
Chongzhen would not preserve the complete city wall for the sake of preserving the monuments for future generations hundreds of years later. Things like city walls and towers that bear witness to history should be preserved as much as possible if possible, but the premise is that development cannot be hindered.
It must not cause obstacles to people's going out or living.
"The Gongyuan area is the best location for the train station."
"So the city wall from Chaoyang Gate to Dongbian Gate needs to be demolished."
Jiang Tianyi and others still felt a little regretful and said, "But if this happens, Beijing's city defense will be incomplete."
"City defense?" Chongzhen said with a smile, "You are just pretending to be a lake. After entering the age of firearms, can defense facilities like the Beijing City Wall still play a defensive role?"
As soon as Jiang Tian waited for several scholars, he immediately stopped saying anything.
Indeed, after entering the age of firearms, city walls were no longer useful.
What can now play a defensive role are facilities such as gun towers.
Chongzhen turned his attention to Hu Renzhi and Wang Pingshan and said: "The cost of transporting military supplies is only 1 million, and there is not even a penny more, but I can hand over the construction of the railway from Nanjing to Beijing to you."
[A novel app that has been running stably for many years, comparable to the old version of the source-changing app, huanyuanapp, that is used by all chasing bugs.]
Hu Renzhi and Wang Pingshan did not know what a railway was, so they asked: "Sir, is the railway you are talking about an official road like the straight road built in the Qin Dynasty?"
As businessmen, Hu Renzhi and Wang Pingshan undoubtedly like straight roads.
Because of the emergence of the straight road, the trade between Guanzhong and Hetao has been greatly facilitated.
But there is already a canal between Nanjing and Beijing, and it seems completely unnecessary to build a straight line.
More importantly, it seems that building such a straight road is unprofitable? Does the co-sage want to break the bones of these two families? It is not enough to make them lose money to transport military supplies, but also make them lose money to build a straight road?
"A straight road? A railway is different from a straight road. A straight road is just a road, but a railway is a system."
Chongzhen said: "After the railway is completed, a railway transportation company will be established. The profit prospects of this company will exceed your imagination. As compensation for you two, I allow you to hold half of the shares!"
"Half percent?" This ratio is indeed a bit low, but Hu Renzhi and Wang Pingshan suddenly thought of the steam engine factory and later the machinery factory. The Weng family only held half of the shares in the machinery factory, and they have not divided it so far.
Red, but now even a fool can see the huge profit prospects of the machinery factory.
Needless to say, the Weng family will definitely become extremely wealthy in the Ming Dynasty in the future.
A fortune of tens of millions is conservative, but a fortune of hundreds of millions is possible.
At that moment, Wang Pingshan asked cautiously: "Your Majesty, how do the prospects of railway companies compare with those of machinery factories?"
Wang Pingshan and Hu Renzhi have made up their mind that as long as the railway company can have half the profit prospects of the machinery factory, they will take it even if they lose the proceeds from the resale of the jewelry.
"Machinery factory?" Chongzhen said, "The prospects of railway companies are even better than that of machinery factories."
After a pause, Chongzhen said again: "And the construction of the railway cannot be funded by just you Wang and Hu families. As long as you set up the framework of the business, subsequent funds will be continuously injected."
The Wang and Hu families would definitely not be able to afford such a big project as building a railway.
Therefore, it is definitely necessary to issue bonds and raise funds through two exchanges.
If it were any other emperor, Wang Pingshan and Hu Renzhi might not believe it.
But the two of them believed what Chongzhen said, because Chongzhen never broke his promise.
At that moment, Hu Renzhi slapped his thigh and said, "Your Majesty, our Wang and Hu families have taken over this big job!"