At the beginning of the new year, the ice and snow melted. In the Ministry of Transportation of the Shangshu Province, Yu Wenwen listened to the report of the Ministry of Transport officials on the current status of railway construction in the conference room. Yang Xuangan, the Minister of Transportation, first introduced the progress of the construction of the Guanzhong Railway.

A huge road map hung on the wall of the conference hall.

On the 19th day of the Chinese New Year, the western section of Guanzhong Railway (Chang'an to Luoyi section of Qizhou) was completed. The day before yesterday, that is, on January 15th, the western section of railway was successfully opened to traffic, which means that the Guanzhong Railway (east-west-way direction) took more than two years to finally be completed.

This railway, from Luoyi at the western end to Weikou at the eastern end, is nearly 600 miles long.

Compared with the construction speed of the Huangbo Railway (the northern end of the Huangbo Railway has now been extended to Baimajin, Huaxian on the south bank of the Yellow River), the construction speed of the Guanzhong Railway is not very fast, but considering that the Huangbo Railway has Daye Iron Manufacturing Station and Liguo Iron Manufacturing Station "serving", the construction speed of the Guanzhong Railway is already acceptable.

The six hundred miles range is about twelve hours, or six hours, at the current normal speed of the train (passenger and freight).

If it were the past, it would take ten days to transport goods for horse-drawn carriages and half a month to walk.

After the western section of Guanzhong Railway was completed, the grain and goods transported from Shu were transported to Luoyi via Shu Road and then transported to Chang'an by train, which significantly reduced transportation costs and saved a lot of time, manpower and animal power.

Goods from Longyou can also be loaded on a train through Luoyi and transported to Chang'an. The railway that runs across Longyou and connects Lanzhou and Qinzhou will take two years to build and will be completed in March this year.

After this railway is completed, Qinzhou Shangfeng and Qizhou Luoyi are connected by railway. People and goods departing from Chang'an can be transported to Lanzhou via railway, and vice versa.

The railway between Shangfeng and Luoyi travels through the Weishui Canyon throughout the whole journey. It will be built from now on (east-to-east) and planned to be repaired in one year.

In other words, in a year, the planned Guanlong Railway will be fully opened to traffic.

At the same time, the railway connecting Chang'an and Luoyang can almost be completed and opened to traffic, while the railway connecting Luoyang and Yingyang was opened to traffic last year.

It takes more than 2,000 miles from Lanzhou to Yingyang. After the train is opened, even if you consider dispatching, meeting and stopping along the line, the entire journey of one train is no more than four days.

This is a miracle. Just over three years ago, no one dared to imagine that this would become a fact.

As the Minister of Transportation, Yang Xuangan has been building railways for nearly three years during his tenure. When it comes to the Guanlong Railway, which will be opened to traffic in a year, his excitement is beyond words.

When the Guanlong Railway is opened to traffic (the eastern end connects to Yingyang), it will take another five years to extend the railway to the northwest end, pass through Guzang, Liangzhou, and arrive at Dunhuang, the northwest end of the Hexi region.

"At that time, if the imperial court wants to mobilize troops, horses, food, and materials in Jixi, it will be very convenient to start from Chang'an and arrive in Dunhuang, which will take only 70 days to walk, and the food consumption will be extremely low, and neither personnel nor mounts will consume too much energy."

The most exciting railway project Yang Xuan felt was the railway between Chang'an and Dunhuang. After it was opened to traffic, the cost of the imperial court's travel to the West (Western Regions) was greatly reduced, and it was able to invest more troops with lower logistics consumption.

By then, more than 100,000 cavalry equipped with firearms swept across Jixi, and the countries in Jixi would either surrender like Khotan or be destroyed, and the city would become the new stronghold of the Zhou army.

By then, the doomsday of the Western Turks will come.

Similarly, the Eastern Turks can't jump for long.

Yang Xuangan was enthusiastically introducing the route survey progress of Hexi Railway. Yuwen Wen looked at the railway route map and suddenly had an idea: 'A year plus five years, just six years, can I live six years?'

Will you still be clear when you live until then?

Yuwen Wen thought again, if according to history, when Emperor Xuanzong of Tang was almost 60 years old, he made his former daughter-in-law Yang Yuhuan the imperial concubine as he wished, and favored him day and night, and flew with each other. From then on, the king would not go to court early.

"Old Li" was full of energy at that age, and she had a lot of fun playing with her daughter-in-law. It doesn't matter that I am younger than him but I don't have enough energy!

Thinking of this, Yu Wen Wen was full of energy. He looked at the Hexi Railway Planning Map and asked: "In five years? Will it be too hasty? The Hexi region is windy and sandy, and the geological structure is afraid of being unoptimistic. He cannot leave many hidden dangers in order to rush to work."

The Hexi Railway is so important, the sooner it is opened, the better. In five years, everyone thought it was a little longer. The emperor actually thought the construction period was too short, but Yang Xuangan was not surprised: The emperor has always been patient.

After the Liaodong Battle, the emperor waited patiently for ten years and "renewed the contract" instead of rushing to destroy Goguryeo. Such a patient emperor has been a minority since ancient times.

Well, the emperor is not happy with merits, and the ministers will have enough time to "work slowly and work hard" when doing things.

In order to dispel the emperor's doubts about the Hexi Railway, Yang Xuangan specially introduced the inside story.

Everyone knows the benefits of railways, so the wise men in Longyou area are actively planning to build railways, and the same is true for the wise men in Hexi area.

The wise men in the Longyou area mobilized their relatives and friends to petition the court to build a railway, and the same was true for the wise men in the Hexi area.

Therefore, when the construction of the Lanqin Railway started, the court sent an investigation team to Hexi to survey the terrain and select routes. Qiangzong and his surname from all over Hexi actively cooperated with the exploration work, and needed people to contribute and efforts.

There was heavy wind and sand in Hexi, so everyone actively offered suggestions and summarized the areas that could shed wind and sand and provided them to the survey team. At the same time, they also actively searched for coal mines and iron ore veins to "add bricks and tiles" to railway construction.

In two years, the exploration and route site work of the Hexi Railway was successfully completed, and some coal mines and iron ore with mining value have also initially discovered the mineral veins. In another year, new coal mines and iron ore can be exported, and iron smelting can make railway tracks.

It happened to be the construction of the Hexi Railway.

The coal mines, iron ore and iron smelting that appeared during the construction of the Lanqin Railway can still play a role in the construction of the Hexi Railway. Ores and rails can be transported to the Hexi Railway construction site by train.

Not only will the Hexi Railway be built, but the Hehuang Railway with Lanzhou as its starting point and the Xihai as its end point will also start construction. The railway has also completed surveys and route site selection work, with a total length of about 700 miles. Once completed, the Xihai area will be completely controlled by the imperial court.

Yuwen Wen looked at the thick stack of information and listened to Yang Xuangan's clear analysis, and was very satisfied.

The benefits of railways are well known, so everyone, from the officials of the court to the local tyrants, is looking forward to building railways and is very enthusiastic.

The imperial court had no money to build railways, so it used the method of government supervision and business management to raise funds for railway construction. All parties responded positively, so if they were not short of money and grain, they would lack iron. The iron production limits the progress of the railway construction.

There are no iron smelting giants like Daye Iron Manufacturing Station, Liguo Iron Manufacturing Station, and Wuyang Iron Manufacturing Station in Guanlong area. They rely on many small iron smelting "high firewood and high flames", so the iron production is always limited, which cannot be overcome in the short term.

The Hexi Railway was completed and opened to traffic six years later, which was already very optimistic. However, Yuwen Wen was not in a hurry. He felt that even if he could not see the end of the Western Turks, it would not matter if the court had fully managed the Western Regions.

What's wrong with letting children and grandchildren take such achievements?

If you step too big, it is easy to pull the egg.

The railways in the west need to be slowly built, which is a limitation of objective conditions, so the east is different.

Yang Xuangan asked the officials to replace with a new road map. The railway map depicted on it is the Xulai Railway, which will be completed and opened to traffic in the summer.

The Xulai Railway is roughly north-south. The southern end is Pengcheng, Xuzhou and Huangcheng, Laizhou, and passing Jiaozhou and Qingzhou (both branch lines) in the middle. It is a railway that runs across the Qingqi area (the eastern part of later Shandong Province).

The railway is 1,200 miles long (the main line) and is planned to be built in two years. The required iron materials are provided by the Xuzhou Liguo Iron Manufacturing Institute. After completion, the materials from Henan and Huaihe River can be collected in Xuzhou and then easily transported to Laizhou Bay via railway.

Supporting the imperial court's battle to destroy the country in Goguryeo.

Now it is the 23rd year of Mingde. Next year, it is the third year after renewing the contract with Goguryeo. Liaodong is already self-sufficient this year. Therefore, according to the previous plan, Goguryeo should be completely solved next year.

The peace treaty between the two countries lasted for ten years, but it could be torn up at any time, so there was no need to worry about not being able to find an excuse.

Therefore, the Xulai Railway was a railway built for this war, and the road map was selected before the court renewed its contract with Goguryeo.

When the Goguryeo envoy was still in Chang'an, the railway started construction and progressed smoothly. It could be completed this summer. After more than half a year of operation, it will reach the "full state" at the beginning of next year, just in time for the war.

Of course, this railway will still play an important role after the war, making the Qingqi area closer to Henan and Huaihe River.

As he thought about it, Yuwen Wen coughed dryly.
Chapter completed!