Take the mall to Datang

"Your Majesty, Yuan Pushe said that he can return to Chang'an at any time." Ma He went to Li Shimin's side and said.

After receiving this news, Li Shimin was not in a hurry. The train was simply a magic tool for him. You must know how lonely the emperor is in the palace. Now that there is a train, this is different. Based on the current speed to Lantian County, if you want to travel between Luoyang and Chang'an, it will take half a day, or even go to a farther state capital. of.

According to Yuan Shan's calculations, even to the coastal cities in the south, the farthest journey may only take ten days round trip. If it is replaced by a horse-drawn carriage, it can take more than a month, but all of this requires the support of the railway.

What Li Shimin cares most about is that the strategic significance of the railway is very great. If the railway is built to the border to transport food, grass and weapons, personnel can guard against incoming enemies at any time. What a magical weapon, even more important than the mighty cannon.

Guo Shouyi's report was very concise, and it was all influenced by following Yuan Shan.

The construction of Lantian County was reported to be completed soon, and what Guo Shouyi said became a beautiful and grand blueprint, and even the county mentioned had the tendency to become a state by leaps and bounds.

In fact, the tax revenue of Lantian County is indeed very objective. Coupled with the construction of vegetable greenhouses, the supply of vegetables to Chang'an City has been increased, and the overall economic development of Lantian County has been very good.

But today Li Shimin came out mainly for the train project, and when he learned that he could go back, he left with everyone.

Seeing the train leaving, the people at Chang’an City Railway Station began to ask about the situation of the train. At this time, people arranged by Liang Ming, Qin Yu and others came out to answer the questions. Tickets are required to take the train. Currently, the train station only goes from Chang’an to Lantian County. The two round-trip times a day are fixed. If you need to take a bus, you need to buy a ticket one day in advance.

And it will only be sold in the morning of the day before yesterday, and the ticket office will stop selling tickets after noon.

Many people went to buy tickets out of curiosity. The tickets were printed from the Yuanjia Paper Factory. The patterns were so weird that no one knew the meaning, just like the special cursive recording method of a pawn shop.

Now it is only in the experimental stage. The main purpose of going back and forth between the two places is to transport goods. It can be adjusted to add one or two passenger cars at any time, but the freight car is the main load.

"Look, the train is back." Someone shouted.

Chapter 615 Expanding Iron Ore Production

On the day of the trial run of the train, Li Shimin returned directly to the palace from Zhuque Street, and immediately called a meeting of his ministers.

Yuan Shan was still making arrangements at the train station. After the courtiers left, they welcomed the second batch of passengers in Chang'an City—businessmen.

Their situation is different from that of the courtiers before. The former courtiers are very curious, and the businessmen are more interested in seeing the benefits that the train can bring them.

Traveling back and forth between Chang'an and Lantian County again, this time the train's terminal station is not only the Lantian County Station, but also directly to the centralized warehouse in the Economic Development Zone.

"In the future, the trucks will pass directly through the centralized warehouse. As long as the goods are stored here, they will be sent to Chang'an soon." Yuan Shan said.

Zheng Qi suddenly asked: "Will the load of goods in the freight box affect the driving time of the train?"

Yuan Shan immediately explained: "It's normal to have such a thought, but everyone can rest assured that the freight cars will be separated after arriving at the station, and the goods brought in can be unloaded at any time without affecting the train's departure time again, and if someone Trains can run for anyone willing to pay for their wallets.”

All the merchants nodded in unison.

"The train is very convenient, but at present, it can only travel between the two places, and there is only one train. It feels very convenient, but the freight value is actually higher." The businessmen began to discuss.

Upon hearing this, Yuan Shan immediately said: "Don't worry, everyone, the prototype of this truck has been put into use. Next, the Armed Forces Supervisor will call in skilled craftsmen from the Tang Dynasty to continue the construction. Don't worry that the number of trucks will increase soon."

After the businessman returned, he asked some curious people to take the ride. A ticket only costs [-] Wen, which is not expensive but not cheap. The price is definitely an experience price, but the problem is that the round-trip ticket costs [-] Wen. Many people find that they have no money in their pockets when they get off the train, so they have to figure out their own way to go back and forth.

On the court, Li Shimin and others are studying the railway. The reason is very simple. According to the plan of the Ministry of Economic Development, the truck railway will be built along Lantian to Sichuan. After all, there are cultivated agricultural resources there, but Li Shimin What I want is to open all state capitals to traffic, but the investment of a single Ministry of Economic Development is not enough.

When taking the train today, Yuan Shan made it very clear that it is absolutely impossible to open Chang'an, Luoyang and other state capitals to traffic within a year.

"Is there any objection to the construction of this railway?" Li Shimin asked.

Fang Xuanling immediately said: "Your Majesty spent a lot of money on building the railway. Although the amount of iron ore mining has increased, the reserves are still insufficient. I think the implementation of the railway can be postponed."

Li Shimin looked at Du Ruhui again, and Du Ruhui stood up and said, "Your Majesty, I think what Fang Fushe said is reasonable. The current iron ore mining speed cannot meet the demand unless the iron ore mining authorization is expanded again."

Changsun Wuji said at this time: "Your Majesty, I think that the expansion of iron ore mining authorization can be implemented by the Ministry of Industry to increase mining efforts. As for the authorizing minister, I think it is better not to open more authorizations."

Those who ask questions will solve them, and soon there will be various voices in the court.

Yan Lide didn't say a word. He, the Ministry of Industry, needs His Majesty's support if he wants to carry out the project. Anyway, it is a big project for the Ministry of Industry to mine. No one likes to do unpleasant things.

"Yan Shangshu, iron ore mining still needs your Ministry of Industry to do it, what do you think?" Li Shimin asked.

"I am willing to share your majesty's worries." Yan Lide said.

The emperor even spoke up, and he, the minister of the Ministry of Industry, gritted his teeth and wanted to do it.

"Your Majesty, I don't know how much money will be invested in mining." Yan Lide said.

"This……"

It's normal for Yan Lide to ask for money, and Li Shimin doesn't have a temper either. After all, the scale of the mine depends on the investment.

Li Shimin didn't have much experience, but suddenly thought that Prince Li Chengqian had experience, so he said: "This matter will be supervised by His Royal Highness, and you can discuss and solve any problems."

Li Chengqian was happy when he heard that, mining is to dig money, but Datang Mining is now under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Economic Development, and mining still needs to go through the filing process.

The prince and Yan Lide found Yuan Shan the next day.

He thought that with the current status of the prince, Yuan Shan could be called to the East Palace as long as he ordered someone to order, but this prince didn't seem to have this habit, and he still brought people over directly as before.

Yan Lide, who is in charge of the Ministry of Industry, is an extremely smart person. He knew that His Highness the Crown Prince had done well in mining before, so many things were directly handed over to His Highness the Crown Prince. This was right for His Highness the Crown Prince's temper.

"Yuanshan, my father asked me to be in charge of the mine development of the Ministry of Industry. At this time, I need to discuss with you to see how to increase the iron ore production as quickly as possible. The old equipment and gunpowder are getting some for the prince. It's to get more." Li Chengqian said.

Yuan Shan was speechless, and quickly replied: "It is a good thing to increase the intensity of mining, and it is also a support for the construction of the railway. The steam equipment minister will try his best to satisfy it, but the gunpowder still needs the crown prince's attention from the military supervisor. The supervision of gunpowder in the prison is very strict, and I dare not make it privately."

Seeking truth from facts, gunpowder and so on can be directly contacted with the Military Weapons Supervisor so that no one will be suspected. Moreover, after the improvement of the Military Weapons Supervisor, the effect of using it to open mountains is still very good.

"The Ministry of Economic Development now has ten sets of steam crawler equipment for mine transportation, and the price is [-] guan each. As long as the money arrives, these equipment can be transported away at any time." Yuan Shan said.

When Yan Lide heard that it was in stock, this steam engine was a rare item, even if it needed to be customized under normal circumstances, but now that Yuan Shan said it was in stock, he seemed to notice that the corners of Yuan Shan's mouth were slightly turned up, which was obviously It's like being prepared.

Yan Lide's guess is correct. The Yuan family has never planted a custom-made boiler at the military supervisory side, and there are such projects in the investment of the Ministry of Economic Development. From the distribution of mining authorization, the mining equipment has already been produced. , and many people buy from it. For example, Lu Ziang from Luoyang is one of the first few customers.

The demand for iron ore has increased, and the military inspector has spent a lot on gunpowder. Otherwise, the mining of iron ore cannot have the current speed.

Seeing Yan Lide's skeptical look, Yuan Shan immediately explained: "Yan Shangshu, don't misunderstand, these equipments were custom-made by wealthy businessmen before, these are just over-produced, it is really the stock, now finally there are buyers, and the cost is also low." It can be brought back.”

Yan Lide didn't say a word, because the money needed to be paid by the treasury, and the crown prince needed to nod.

It's just that Li Chengqian didn't seem to take this matter seriously, but said: "Yuan Shan, you have to help me this time."

After chatting with the prince for a while, knowing that Li Chengqian wanted to show in front of Li Shimin that his son wanted to please Lao Tzu, Yuan Shan said, "Don't worry, prince, I will still help you with this job, just need to make some changes."

Chapter 616 Temporary Workers

"But it's okay, I know you have the most ideas." Li Chengqian said expectantly.

"Looking at the current situation, the only way to increase the amount of iron ore is to start a cooperative model. The funds needed can be borrowed from merchants first, and then the debts can be repaid with minerals. At the same time, all the Turkic captives are invested in the mining business. The Ministry is responsible for the acquisition, so money and people are needed, which can speed up the mining progress." Yuanshan said.

When Yan Lide heard this, from the imperial court's point of view, it can save the treasury expenditure, but the problem is true. If this continues, all the iron ore mined in the end will be purchased by the Ministry of Economics and Development, and the imperial court will only get a small part of the benefits. In this case It's not right.

In the future, if the imperial court needs a large amount of iron ore, it will need to buy it from the market. This is the biggest problem with this cooperation method.