This year is the fifteenth year of Wanli, and in 1587 AD, the steam engine built by the Tang Beiwang Daehui project team can be said to be the world's first steam engine with practical value.

Although this steam engine has various shortcomings, it is a very good start for the People's Army in the development of steam engines. With this steam engine of practical value, it can be improved based on this to create a better steam engine.

Steam engines can be regarded as the key to the industrial era. They use steam engines to provide power to drive machine tools, textile machines and other machinery, which can greatly increase the output of various industrial products. Trains, steam ships, etc. can even bring the distance between people.

However, the steam engine created by the Tang Beiwang Dahui project team can only be used for pumping water at present, and it has little effect on the People's Army. It will take longer to study it if you want to build a steam engine that can be widely used.

Trains will not appear in a short period of time, but one of the prerequisites for trains, the railway tracks have appeared under the rule of the People's Army and are constantly extending eastward from Yuecheng Iron and Steel Plant.

The four rails and two-way lanes are nearly ten miles long. As the output of rails increases, the construction speed of rail roads will also increase rapidly.

The nearly ten-mile-long railway track road can no longer be hidden. It was seen by the people living in the surrounding areas. The staff did not stop the people from looking at the railway track road, and even allowed the people to make special carriages to experience it.

Ordinary people are just curious about the railway track. After seeing special carriages driving rapidly on the railway track, merchants quickly learned about the importance of railway tracks.

If there are three roads between the two cities: railway tracks, cement roads, and dirt roads, merchants transport goods from one city through railway roads to another city to sell, obviously it will take a shorter time on the road.

Short time for transporting goods is an advantage, and competition among merchants is very important.

Merchants still have two doubts about the railway tracks. One question is how long the People's Army will build, and the other question is whether the People's Army provides free carriage access or pays to pass.

Now merchants think about these issues at all uselessly. In a short period of time, the railway tracks will not be opened to the public. At least the railway tracks must be connected to the two cities before this section of the railway tracks will be opened.

Cement roads and rail roads are both part of the People's Army's huge road repair plan. Compared with the construction of rail roads, it is easier to build cement roads and relatively lower cost. The speed of building cement roads is much faster than the speed of building rail roads.

In the road construction plan, the People's Army must use cement roads to connect all cities under its jurisdiction, but the railway track roads do not have such high requirements. It can only connect all the county towns between the people's army and the county towns under its jurisdiction by rail track roads.

Whether it is cement roads or rail roads, they are much better than the previous dirt roads and gravel roads, which facilitates communication between various places and trade development. At the same time, they are of great help to the military mobilization and logistics supply of the People's Army.

There is also a group here that needs to be thanked by the coolies who have made great contributions to the People's Army's road construction plan.

The coolies were composed of prisoners of the Ming army, bandits, gangsters, gentry and merchants, and their guards. They were all guilty people. Those with serious crimes were executed directly. More people were not guilty until they died, and they were demoted to coolies by the People's Army to contribute to the development of the People's Army's rule.

During the road construction process, there were also coolies who were injured or even killed, but there were almost no coolies who were exhausted and beaten to death. Although coolies were all guilty, the People's Army was not bad to coolies. As long as coolies were obedient, they would not curse them at will. The People's Army provided enough food for coolies. The food was relatively simple. The advantage was that they were full and they were full. If they were unwilling to eat, they would starve to death.

It turns out that even the gentry and businessmen who lived a wealthy life in the past did not want to be starved to death.

At the beginning, the coolies often planned violence and were suppressed by the People's Army. The People's Army also used strategies and would inevitably win the prize. Until now, fewer and fewer people dared to plan violence and move among the coolies.

The People's Army also gave the coolies some hope. The hard laborers have a period of time. As long as they reach their age, they can get rid of the coolies and become ordinary people under the rule of the People's Army. The People's Army will distribute farmland.

...

As June approaches, a very important thing is placed in front of Fang Nan, which is the issue of equal coins.

In order to issue equal coins, the People's Army has done two main tasks in the past few months, one is to mint equal coins in large quantities, and the other is to build people's money houses under the rule of the People's Army.

The People's Bank of China is the exchange point for equal coins. The People's Army issued three equal coins in one yuan, five cents and one cents, all of which were silver coins, with weights of one tael, five cents and one cent.

Ordinary people can bring silver to people's money houses in various places to exchange equal coins of equal weight.

Yes, Fang Nan's plan is to use the equal currency as silver of the same weight under the rule of the People's Army. At this stage when the equal currency has just been circulated, the People's Military Government will not prohibit the irregular silver circulation. Silver and silver coins can be used as transaction currencies together.

The most important problem is that the number of equal coins minted by the People's Army is not large enough to support the huge amount of silver exchange after the circulation of silver is prohibited.

Therefore, the equal currency was first put into the market for circulation, so that the people could accept equal currency bit by bit and were willing to use equal currency. In this process, the people began to take out the silver they had in their hands to exchange it for equal currency. The People's Army obtained the silver and then minted it into equal currency.

As equal coins are widely accepted, even if the People's Military Government does not issue a ban, the people will gradually stop using silver. After all, equal coins are more convenient than silver, and silver is weighed every time it is used, which is too troublesome.

However, it is not possible to make the people accept equal coins simply. For this reason, the People's Military Government must take the lead in using equal coins, pay salaries to officials with equal coins, and also use equal coins when purchasing various materials from merchants. All merchants under the rule of the People's Army must accept equal coins as transaction currency, etc.

People's money houses in various places are ready and are waiting for the official issuance of equal coins.

At present, people's money houses have very little effect, no loan business, nor deposit business, and mainly accept users' exchange of silver for equal coins.

The People's Bank of China was the first money house under the rule of the People's Army. There were originally many money houses in Guangdong under the rule of the Ming Dynasty. However, after the People's Army captured Guangdong, most of the money houses were confiscated by the People's Army because of problems with the owners, and a small number of money houses were unable to be opened due to business problems.

It is expected that with the emergence of the People's Bank of China, new money houses will appear under the rule of the People's Army in the future.

[The term bank is not used for the time being, people XX, it seems like they want 404]
Chapter completed!