Save the Bachelor of Heaven

 Chapter 3367 3369【Yellow River Bridge】

In the 32nd year of Qianlong's reign, on the first anniversary of the death of Queen Xiaoxian Lang Hua, Xiang Nan officially named Ruyi the queen and held a grand ceremony for the title of queen.

In addition, Hailan was promoted to the imperial concubine, Yi Huan was promoted to the imperial concubine, and Hanxiang Jian was promoted to the imperial concubine.

In addition, the monthly salary of the concubine of Shoukang Palace and other concubines will be doubled, and the hair, face and clothing will be doubled in the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter. Other benefits are also doubled, such as daily meals, tea, snacks, fruits, charcoal fires in winter, etc.

 In this way, everyone will benefit, and the whole palace will naturally be happy.

 …

 In the same year, the train from Beijing to Xinzheng was opened. In this way, Beijing, Hebei and Henan are connected together. Although the Yellow River Bridge is under construction and the train cannot pass across the river for the time being, it can still stimulate economic development by connecting the three places.

In the past, when people from Yuzhou wanted to come to the capital, they had to take the official road if they were going by land, and the Yongji Canal if they were going by water. In fact, both roads were not very easy to walk, and it was not unusual to walk for ten and a half months.

Now that the railway is connected, it can be reached in half a day at most, saving several days of time at once. As a result, the exchange of personnel and goods between the two places has become greatly facilitated.

 Yuzhou has been prone to disasters since ancient times, either drought or waterlogging. After it was opened to traffic, once a disaster occurred, relief food could be transported immediately, and many people could die less.

In addition to the opening of the Beijing-Zhengzhou Railway, many branch roads from Xinzheng to Hankou, Hankou to Jinling, Wuchang to Huizhou, Huizhou to Suzhou and Hangzhou have also been opened, and trains are now available.

As a result, the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River have also been connected. Silk from Suzhou and Hangzhou, tea from Huizhou, and foreign goods from Shanghai can all be transported by railway.

In addition, the Yellow River Bridge, the Yangtze River Bridge, the railways from Huizhou to Wuyang, Wuyang to Yongzhou, Yongzhou to Hanoi, Hanoi to Vientiane, and Vientiane to Bangkok are all being constructed overtime.

It is expected that after the two bridges and various sections of railways are opened to traffic, they will not only run through north and south China, but also East Asia and Southeast Asia. In this way, Southeast Asia will no longer be lost.

 …

In addition, the Asia-Europe Railway is also being laid intensively. So far, more than 2,000 kilometers have been laid. It is estimated that it will take another five or six years to be fully connected.

 But now the railway had passed through Istanbul and into the Ottoman Empire, linking it with the Middle East.

 Therefore, products from the Middle East have been continuously imported to the Central Plains through the northern line of the Eurasian Railway, including gold, silver, gems, spices, dates, cocoa, etc.

However, the Middle East has not been peaceful since ancient times. During the construction process of the railway, it was often harassed, resulting in slow progress of the project.

To this end, Sheng Nan has formed a coalition to station along the railway line and win over and suppress the chiefs along the line. People in the Central Plains are all too familiar with this "skill of combining vertical and horizontal directions".

Moreover, Xiang Nan is constantly adding sand to the Middle East.

 In the past, the Middle East was the territory of the Tianfang Sect. During the Crusades, the war between the two sects lasted for more than two hundred years. In the end, the Crusaders failed to conquer the Middle East.

 Now, without fighting, Europeans can make pilgrimages to the Middle East and live there. Naturally, a large number of believers went there. After they arrived in the Middle East, they would inevitably have conflicts with the locals and even with each other.

For example, Christianity is divided into Catholicism, Orthodox Christianity and Protestantism, and Tianfang Sect is roughly divided into four sects. They look down upon each other, so struggle is inevitable.

　　When they are obsessed with fighting each other, Xiang Nan can detach himself from the outside world, fight with each other, sit on the mountain and watch the tigers fight, and enjoy the results.

Just like after World War II, Britain deliberately placed the Hebrew people in the Middle East. It was obviously like driving a nail there. Sure enough, even now, that place is still not peaceful.

In the thirty-third year of Qianlong’s reign, the Yellow River Bridge was first built.

This bridge is three kilometers long and has a total of 102 holes. It is a double-track and double-layer bridge. The upper level is for people and cars, and the lower level is for railways.

The entire bridge used 30,000 tons of steel and 400,000 tons of cement. The total cost of the bridge was as high as 5 million taels. It can be said to be a sky-high price bridge.

  But the erection of this bridge is unprecedented for China.

After the completion of the bridge, the Yellow River will no longer be a natural chasm, and travel from north to south will be extremely smooth from now on. The exchange of personnel and materials will reach a new height.

 Since ancient times, the Yellow River has been a natural danger. Although it is not as difficult as the Yangtze River, it is not easy to cross the river.

During the Northern Song Dynasty, it was the natural dangers of the Yellow River that prevented the Jin people from going south. If this river had not blocked the road, the Jin people would have wiped out the Northern Song Dynasty.

 But now that the great powers are unified, there is no need for the natural danger of the Yellow River. This bridge was built only to facilitate people's livelihood and economy. From then on, the north of the Yangtze River was connected to the Central Plains. Xiang Nan could go directly to Jinling by taking a train in the capital.

The successful completion of the Yellow River Bridge also trained a large number of bridge experts and water conservancy experts with technology, experience and practice for the Qing Dynasty, which also accelerated the construction of the Wuchang-Hankou Yangtze River Bridge.

Moreover, after the Xinzheng Bridge is completed, we can also move westward to Chang'an and Ganzhou. As long as another Yellow River Bridge is built in Ganzhou, it will lead directly to the Western Regions.

 Previously, the Northern Line of the China-Europe Railway ran from Shanhaiguan to Ganzhou via Ulancha, Guisui, Jiuyuan, and Hetao. It made a large circle and bypassed the Yellow River.

 After all, the bridge construction technology at that time was limited, and it was quite difficult to build two Yellow River bridges. The result of this detour can also deepen the connection between Inner Mongolia and the Central Plains.

However, the distance is still thousands of kilometers longer, which is not very convenient. Now that we have talented people and skilled bridge construction experience, it will not be difficult to build the Ganzhou Yellow River Bridge.

 …

 In the same year, Xiang Nan carried out official reform.

 The six ministries were changed from the previous Ministry of Rites, Ministry of Personnel, Ministry of Punishment, Ministry of Household Affairs, Ministry of War, and Ministry of Industry to Education, Organization, Secretary, Finance, Civil Affairs, Diplomacy, Water Conservancy, National Defense, Transportation, and Supervision.

 The county magistrates, magistrates, magistrates, Daotai, Fantai, Futai, Zhetai, etc. under the six ministries were all abolished and replaced by county magistrates, district magistrates, mayors, senior officials...

 The reason for this is mainly to solve the problem of redundant officials.

 In fact, according to regulations, the bureaucracy of the Qing Dynasty was not bloated. There were only about 4,000 officially appointed civil servants in the entire Qing Dynasty.

 From the ninth rank of jailers, chief ministers, officials, and inspectors to the first rank of imperial masters, Taifu, Taibao, bachelors and governors, there are only more than 4,000 establishments.

  However, it is obviously impossible to manage such a huge country with just over 4,000 people. Therefore, in addition to the imperial establishment, there were many redundant officials and subordinate staff.

For example, when an old official leaves his post but a new official has not arrived, the feudal officials should temporarily send someone to take over their duties according to regulations. However, the governors detained the immediate officials distributed by the official department in the provincial capital and reassigned people close to them. Acting.

For example, let the actual prefecture and county officials leave their posts and go to other prefectures and counties to handle affairs, so that they can use the hardships to fill the vacant positions. This was a way for Xinjiang officials to show favor to their subordinates and ask for bribes, which resulted in "numerous transfers of clerks to offices. Not only was it easy to keep the five-day capital omen, but the clerks also failed to respond well."

 This resulted in a large number of redundant officials.

 (End of this chapter)