Although he had already made some mental preparations in his heart, when Cao Yun actually entered the rail station built not far from Wuling County, he was still more shocked by its huge scale.

This place is more like a small town.

The station was in the center, and all the buildings were painted in eye-catching red. In front of two doors, soldiers were guarded by the two doors. The larger one had carriages coming in and out, and some things were transported in or out from time to time, while the smaller one was obviously leaving.

There was a long queue in front of a small window with a ticket office. I paid the money wherever I got, and then I took out a small wooden sign, and then walked to the small door and handed it to a guard for inspection. Then I could enter the portal with my own salute.

Xiao Hua and Cao Yun naturally didn't need to go through this link. Accompanied by Chen Ye, the two of them entered the station in a carriage and were greeted by the station officials to a quiet house and were waiting.

Sitting in this three-story building, Cao Yun could see the entire station without any slim view.

The first thing he noticed was the inside of the station, under the huge ceiling, the tracks interlaced vertically, which was a bit dazzling. Not long after a train of track cars entered the station, a large group of people in blue uniforms were busy, untiing the reins from the front one by one, and then leading them to a huge horse shed opposite.

This is a rail car for transporting goods. Cao Yun stared at these long connected car boxes. Each car box was covered with thick felt cloth, with a total of ten car boxes, each car box about ten meters long.

The felt cloth was uncovered, and it was obvious that the officials from Wuling County were talking to an official who came with the car. Then, the felt cloth on the truck box was uncovered, and bags of grain were contained. The officials of Wuling County took an iron chisel and randomly selected several bags from the truck box. They inserted the chisel and pulled it out. The empty groove on the chisel brought out a little grain, picked up a few pieces and stuffed them into their mouths to chew them, and nodded with satisfaction.

He turned around and said a few words, and then rushed in neatly a large group of soldiers, unloaded the food from the carriage and put it into the carriage waiting on the side, and then drove the carriage away from the station. The officials of Wuling County stood seriously and counted the number of horses.

Cao Yun was also counting. One car box contained about one hundred bags of grain. If each bag was one hundred kilograms, that car box could hold ten thousand thousand grains. There were ten truck boxes in this train, and this trip brought a full 100,000 kilograms of grain.

This made him feel horrified. The Ming people only used more than a dozen horses to transport food, and two armed soldiers sitting on each car box. No, no, no, that was not their soldiers, they were not the uniforms of the Ming army, and it seemed that they were from some Mingwei escort agency from the Ming Dynasty.

In the minds of the officials of Qi, the escort agency of the Ming Dynasty was a paramilitary organization. They were often employed by their court to do things, such as the suppression of bandits in Qin.

After secretly calculating the cost of Daqi's delivery of 100,000 kilograms of grain in his mind, Cao Yun's mouth couldn't help but thrust.

"Your Highness, the grains are transported to Taoyuan County. Now Taoyuan County is stationed too many troops. With Taoyuan County and the output of our Wuling County, it is still not enough to support the food consumption of so many troops. Therefore, every few days, such grain trucks will transport grain from Zhengyang, Shayang and other places. However, the next step is to rely on carriages to move the house little by little. If it encounters rain and snow, it will be very difficult, so we have to build a good road to Taoyuan County to reduce costs." Chen also said with a smile.

"I'm afraid the cost of repairing this rail car is even greater, right?" Cao Yun counterattacked.

"Yeah, yes, yes, the investment is huge, but one-time investment can enjoy eternal convenience, which is worth it." Chen Ye laughed, "Your Highness the Prince probably couldn't imagine how long it would take to transport so much food from Shayang?"

"for how long?"

"From Shayang to Wuling County, there is also Yiyang in the middle, which is more than a thousand miles away. It takes only three days to use a rail car." Chen also raised three fingers, his complacent feeling beyond words.

Cao Yun's face was dull. He did not doubt that Chen Ye exaggerated in front of him, because he was about to ride such a rail car, and it was completely unnecessary to coax it. He could naturally understand how fast it was.

"This was also invested and built by the wealthy and wealthy families of the Ming Dynasty?" He turned to ask Xiao Hua.

But Chen Ye was the one who answered him.

"It's just a joint venture." Chen also said: "This line is not like those who go to Baoqing. It has little economic benefits, but more military value. It is naturally impossible to get merchants to invest completely, so the court has made more money. The officials said that the court holds 59% of the shares and 41% of the shares in private. However, the operation is left to the private, and the court doesn't care."

"The court invested in it but operated it for private individuals, wouldn't the court lose money?" Cao Yun asked in surprise.

Chen also smiled: "Your Highness, you should think so. If the court comes to operate it, then don't these horses need money? Do workers along the track need wages? Doesn't it cost to maintain such a large station? Instead of the court having to worry about so much and paying so many people's salary, why not give it to private people? Indeed, they will make some money, but in comparison, the court still saves a lot of trouble. Officials of the Ming Dynasty should not focus on this. We just need to supervise them."

Cao Yun felt that he could not understand Chen Ye at all, or the thoughts of officials in the Ming Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty court.

"Do you just transported these military rations and also need to pay the freight fee?" he asked.

"Of course you have to pay it!" Chen Ye seemed to be natural. "The people who transported the grain were specially contracted to the army to transport grain and grass. They made money, and of course they also had to pay the railcars. If the railcars earned a tael of silver, the court could also share the profit of 50% and nine points!"

"I wonder how much money can this rail car make in a year?" Cao Yun asked.

"I don't make money, I'm losing a lot now!" Xiao Hua laughed, "I know this. A few days ago, I saw that the rail car was booming, so I went to the door to beg for alms. As a result, they took out the account book and showed it to me. It was indeed a loss. The current income is not enough to maintain the operation of the rail car!"

"Since it's a loss, won't those profit-oriented businessmen be cheating? Will they be honest in their operations?" Cao Yun expressed his incomprehension.

"Your Highness, it doesn't matter if the rail car doesn't make money for the time being. In fact, the loss is more from this line now. Baoqing is making money. Furthermore, the court gave merchants who can operate this line some other opportunities to make money. For example, they asked them to contract more national projects, such as road construction, water conservancy projects, etc. They lost money on rail car, and they made a big profit in other aspects. As you said, merchants are profit-seeking, and let them work for nothing. How can they do it? You can't have to run the horse and don't give it to the horse to graze!"

"Mr. Chen is a businessman, and the account can be calculated clearly." Xiao Hua praised. "The court's method is very wise. It has done things but has not made the court lose money. It is very wonderful. The old man could not think of these methods."

"Master Xiao, but many businessmen are complaining now. After Geng took office, the businessmen's life was not as comfortable as before. Geng Shangshu was a good plan and was too smart. He made the businessmen make money every time, but the money was far less than before." Chen also smiled. "Everyone missed the days when Su Shangshu was working!"

"Hmph, Su Kairong's old guy is obviously a fierce and powerful person. He said he was abdicating and giving up his wise man and resigning to retire. In fact, he went to earn a coffin for himself. Humph, he was unfaithful and unfilial. Is his coffin built by a rich man?" Xiao Hua pulled his beard hard, with disdain on his face.

"You can't compare with you, the boss." Chen also smiled and complimented a few words. Now Su Kairong is a senior staff member of Changlong Bank. His annual salary is 100,000 taels of silver, and he really makes a lot of money.

Cao Yun had nothing to say. The Mingren's rail car was still operating at a loss, and its function was naturally above military value. According to the transportation capacity he saw, if a war broke out between Ming and Qi, they could transport a large number of troops and logistics supplies to the front line in a short time. Judging from their tone, this line would probably extend to Taoyuan County. In this way, they did not need to maintain too much troops on the front line during peacetime, which greatly reduced the cost. On the other hand, the huge amount of troops maintained on the border line was astronomical.

More importantly, maintaining such a lifeline, the Ming Dynasty court did not spend money at all, but instead made some money from this line.

It has been quite a while since entering the Ming Dynasty. Cao Yun finally discovered that Qin Feng's philosophy of governing the country was completely different from that of Emperor Qi. The kind of emperor there were, the kind of ministers there were. What these Ming officials thought in their minds were completely different from what those of officials thought in their minds.

A loud trumpet sound rang out from outside, accompanied by the sound of horse hooves, the station became busy again, and another track car entered the station. The previous track car had been pulled to a corner, freeing up the middle position. This time, what came was not the open car box covered with felt cloth, but the taller car box with lids, with only eight.
Chapter completed!