The north wind blew by, making the clothes on my body rustle.
There is still some white left in the undulating mountains in the distance, and the vast land is dotted with some sparse woods, with dry branches standing tenaciously. It is completely different from the beautiful scenery in the south of the Yangtze River. The slightly gray land is the first time I see all this.
People are shocked by the vastness and desolation.
In the early spring of the 33rd year of Guangxu's reign, the Pangjiabao Iron Mine in Xuanhua Prefecture.
The spring sunshine shines on a large newly opened playground next to the mining area. More than a thousand young men wearing Dongjun's dark blue military uniforms are divided into eight square teams and are practicing nervously under the leadership of veterans drawn from Dongjun.
"Left left, left left, left left!"
Following the command of the team officers, after more than two months of winter training, these miners and railway workers who were originally farmers marched in goose, and the march of the queue was already in shape. Except for the lack of a chilling atmosphere, it was indeed better than the green camp.
They were much stronger than the flag soldiers. The veterans holding military sticks stood aside and stared at the "raw melons and eggs" in the queue. When they saw anyone whose movements were not standard enough or made mistakes, they
The red and black military sticks in their hands were immediately greeted without any explanation.
Under Yuan Shikai's recommendation, Lin Shuo has been promoted to the position of National Railway Assistant, working under Tang Shaoyi, and is mainly responsible for the capital allocation of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway.
The Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway built under the leadership of Zhan Tianyou has been built to Xuanhua Prefecture. Lin Shuo took this opportunity to invest in the construction of Longyan Iron Mine and Xuanhua Iron Works. Different from the other world, the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway has tens of thousands of people.
Migrant workers were organized, and the court approved the extension of the railway to Baotou.
After the railway shutdown in winter, most of the migrant workers had already taken leave, and thousands of selected young men were organized to conduct military training in several settlements.
The monthly payment of three taels of silver plus food and accommodation was a big temptation for most farmers in this era. For this money, these original farmers were biting and enduring the torture of the veterans.
Well, the hard days are coming to an end, and as the weather gets warmer, everyone has to go back to the railroad or the mines.
Li Chengen, the General Office of Dongjun Camp Affairs, led several soldiers and watched the drill of this "militia" from a distance. The overall performance of these people made the veteran Xingwu quite satisfied. After a while, he
He nodded and said to Zheng Yijing who was accompanying him: "The young master ordered as many trained migrant workers as possible to be mobilized to go to Mongolia with the recruited refugees. Mongolia is not at peace. The Mongolian troops stationed in Karen under General Khovd
We cannot rely on soldiers at all, we must have our own armed forces to protect the own security of each reclamation area."
Zheng Yijing said: "About 1,500 people have signed up to go to Montenegro. After all, they still have six dollars a month to take care of food and housing. I just wonder whether it is worth spending so much money to resettle refugees in Montenegro."
not worth?"
Li Chengen glared at Zheng Yijin, "Whether it's worth it or not is the young master's business. Just do your job well. If you talk nonsense again, I'll cut out your tongue!"
Zheng Yijing stopped smiling and said, "Yes, I guarantee that this will be done to the young master's satisfaction!"
Since the Gengzi Year, in order to deal with the increasingly serious border crisis, the Manchu and Qing government had to abolish the immigration ban outside the customs and began to implement the "immigration real border" policy to encourage landless refugees from the mainland to colonize outside the customs. On the 28th of Guangxu
In 2001, the ban on Mengdi was announced, and the Bureau of Reclamation was established in Suiyuan City to take charge of the land reclamation and clearing of Mengdi.
Lin Shuo set his sights on the Loop.
The princes of the Western Second League had long been envious of the "waste money" received from the land reclamation. Lin Shuo used the Tianyiyuan, a trading company in Mongolia he controlled, to ask Suiyuan General Liankui about the land reclamation in Meng. This official
The Manchu general who was worried about the lack of money agreed to the matter immediately after receiving 50,000 taels of "eshuang silver".
A large number of inland refugees were organized and arranged on both sides of the Yellow River to recruit workers. The scale was not large at first, with less than 10,000 refugees being arranged to enter Mongolia every year.
Lin Shuo adopted a militarized management method similar to that of later military reclamation. He established three reclamation bureaus, namely Wuyuan, Baotou and Dingyuanying, to take charge of major reclamation areas respectively. The recruited migrant workers were registered and distributed to various settlement points.
A monthly salary of 4 yuan is paid, and food and necessary living materials are uniformly distributed by the reclamation area, but the means of production belong to the Bureau of Reclamation.
At first, the work of recruiting immigrants was very difficult. Sometimes the reclamation bureaus had to use some deception, coercion, and methods. Lin Shuo had to invest 500,000 to 600,000 silver dollars every year to subsidize the shortfall in the income of each reclamation bureau. But after three years, each reclamation bureau had to use some deception and coercion.
The Bureau of Reclamation has basically achieved self-sufficiency, and many poor people in the north have also learned about Montenegro, a place where people can still have enough to eat.
In the late Qing Dynasty, disasters occurred all over the country, and having a full meal became a luxury for many people.
The legend of Monte Reclamation is like a paradise to many people.
Although it was difficult for Chinese people to abandon their homeland unless absolutely necessary, under the pressure of livelihood, more and more refugees began to flock to Mengdi. In the spring of 1907, various reclamation areas in Suixi had already recruited nearly 20,000 households of refugees.
Liankui received a special commendation from the imperial court for his meritorious service in recruiting land.
With the help of the settlement, the Tianyiyuan Company controlled by Lin Shuo gradually controlled the trade routes from Kobdo to Ili. The annual trading profit will exceed 1 million yuan, and it is likely to surpass Dashengkui and become the number one trading company in Montenegro.
In this world, due to Lin Shuo's financial support, the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway will be fully connected in October 1908, nearly a year earlier than the history of another world, and the imperial court has also approved the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway to continue to extend to Mongolia. All the way
It extends westward to Ningxia Town and all the way north along the camel road called "Zhangku Avenue" to Kulun.
Zhan Tiancai rushed to Zhangjiakou in person to arrange the survey preparations for the Monte-Montreal Railway. Unexpectedly, he met Kuang Rongguang, Zeng Pu, Rong Shangqian and others. They were all young children studying in the United States at that time. Kuang Rongguang and Zhan Tianyou Zeng Yizhi
They had not seen each other for several years while working in the Kaiping Mining Bureau. After Zeng Pu returned to China, he went to England to study mining. Later, he was recruited by Lin Shuo to Hanyang Iron Works, and later took charge of the iron mines in Fanchang and Ma'anshan.
construction.
When old friends met, they exchanged pleasantries for a while. Zhan Tianyou was curious about how Kuang Rongguang and others came to Zhang Yuan.
It turned out that Lin Shuo invested in the Baojin Company in Shanxi through the Tianyiyuan Company and planned to build an iron smelting plant in Taiyuan. At this time, he was able to make use of the resources in Yuan Shikai's hands. This time, he sent Kuang Rongguang to lead a geological team to conduct a census of Shanxi.
Regarding the mineral resources in the north, according to the location designated by Lin Shuo, the geological team indeed discovered rich iron ore belts in Dai County and Lan County.
Rong Shangqian was hired by Lin Shuo as the manager of Tonghai Steamship Company. This time, he was specially inspecting the road conditions for the transportation of a batch of equipment at Xuanhua Iron Works.
Zhan Tianyou turned around and asked Zeng Pu: "I heard that you are in charge of the construction of the iron factory in Wuhu. How is the situation now?"
Zeng Pu shook his head and said: "Originally, Governor Enming was very concerned about the Wuhu Iron Works. The land acquisition and procedures for the iron works went smoothly. But just as the iron works started, Enming was assassinated by the revolutionary party. The newly appointed
Governor Zhu Jiabao is very conservative, and the construction of the iron plant took a lot of twists and turns. It was originally expected to be put into operation next year, but now it looks like it will take two or three years to complete."
"Why did you go to Shanxi to build an iron factory again? In addition to the Xuanhua Iron Factory, Lin Anhua has built four iron factories. How can there be so many sales in the country?"
"How about we keep supporting you in building railways? The more railways you build, the easier our lives will be." Rong Shangqian laughed, "Hanyang has recently installed a new medium and heavy plate rolling mill, and in a year's time, domestic shipyards will
Domestic steel plates can be used.”
"Oh, don't affect the supply of steel rolling on the railway. Now there is only one iron factory in China, and it still buys tens of thousands of tons of steel from foreigners every year." Zhan Tianyou said.
Kuang Rongguang laughed: "James, just now you were worried that the steel you produced would not be sold, and now you are worried about the supply of rails. Isn't this inconsistent!" Several people couldn't help laughing.
While several people were talking, they heard the sound of neat slogans not far away. They turned around and saw that more than 2,000 newly recruited railway workers were undergoing military training. Several of them had studied at Mawei Shipbuilding and had received military training.
training, and Rong Shangqian has experienced nearly ten years of military career in the Beiyang Fleet,
After watching it for a while, I understood the intention. These strong migrant workers who have undergone military training are very similar to foreign engineering soldiers. Moreover, after receiving military training, people know how to obey orders and prohibitions, and have strong obedience and discipline. This is better than
Generally, the efficiency of a disorganized migrant labor force will be much improved.
Rong Shangqian looked at it for a while and couldn't help but praise: "You're really good, Dachao. You used this trick to turn migrant workers into engineers, and the construction progress of the Beijing-Suiyuan Railway was greatly guaranteed."
Zhan Tianyou smiled and said: "This is not my credit. The idea came from Lin Anhua, and the Dongjun reinforcements stationed in Ningxia Town were also recruited from these people who had received military training. He subsidized part of the training expenses, but asked me to help
He maintains thousands of supplementary troops, do you think he is very careful with his calculations?"
Rong Shangqian was startled, and the words "employing soldiers among the people" immediately came to mind. He thought that he had heard that Lin Shuo's factories and mines also required military training when recruiting workers. Many people just regarded it as a joke.
Now it seems that Boss Lin has his own unique ideas
, once a chaotic situation like the Gengzi Year occurs in the country, he can immediately recruit tens of thousands of trained soldiers. Although such an army is not as good as the few towns of Beiyang troops in Yuan Shikai's hands, it is definitely better than those that were put together temporarily.
The patrol battalions are much stronger.
But what exactly does Lin Anhua want to do?
Lin Shuo himself didn't know what to do. After Gengzi, the Queen Mother of the West learned the hard way, and as if she was a completely different person, she strongly supported and promoted the so-called "New Deal", which was even better than the "Reform Reform" promoted by Emperor Guangxu a few years ago.
The approach is even more radical. Today, the government is more open-minded than ever before, with domestic incentives for industry and commerce, and private investment gradually becoming more active. The situation is somewhat similar to the early days of reform and opening up in the early 1980s.
We are now in the early stages of the second industrial revolution, when steam engines are transitioning to internal combustion engines and electric motors. If the country develops so steadily for two or thirty years, it may not be able to achieve as great economic achievements as it did in the thirty years after the reform.
Nowadays, the imperial court is preparing to imitate constitutional government. If the emperor is a Han emperor, perhaps the constitutional monarchy may still be successful. Unfortunately, the royal family that currently rules China is an alien race, and it is a small ethnic group with only a few million people.
In an era when national consciousness is gradually awakening, tens of millions of Han people are extremely reluctant to accept a Manchu emperor who will never be easy. This is a very terrible fact.
The idea of "anti-Qing and restoration of Ming" has always had a large market among the people. This is also one of the reasons why the so-called "revolutionary movement against Manchuria" proposed by the revolutionaries has been recognized by more and more scholars and the majority of the party. If it is
If the emperor had been a Han Chinese, perhaps there would not have been so many problems.
In other words, troubled times are basically unavoidable, and Lin Shuo can only quietly accumulate strength to prepare for self-protection in the coming turbulent period.