Master Yuan, start!

Chapter 361 The Railway Map That Changed the Course of History

As soon as Yuan Shikai got off the canal boat, he saw people gathered densely at the Linqing Nancaoguan Wharf not far away.

The somewhat desolate Beicaoguan just now was like a world of difference compared to the Nancaoguan in front of it.

However, what surprised Yuan Xiangcheng even more was yet to come.

After the people surrounded it, a burly man holding a yellow round cloth came forward from the crowd.

After approaching Yuan Xiangcheng, the man lowered his head and bent over, holding the yellow cloth in both hands, as if he was going to present a treasure.

Looking at the scene in front of him, Yuan Xiangcheng couldn't help but twitch his eyes.

Yuan Xiangcheng turned to look at Song Qing beside him, and also blamed Tan Sitong beside Song Qing.

However, Tan Sitong was somewhat dumbfounded by the situation. He also didn't know what Song Qing was planning to do.

Yuan Xiangcheng sighed and frowned, "Comrade Zhu San, what are you doing?"

Song Qing was not from a direct line of descent, so Yuan Shikai did not address him directly by his courtesy name, but instead used the "zi+comrade" format.

"Mr. President, this... this is the love that the people have for you."

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Song Qing took the bright yellow cloth, spread his arms, and explained, "This yellow sun represents the yellow sun in the twelve-star flag of our Republic.

But if you ask me, this yellow sun has another meaning!"

Yuan Xiangcheng took a deep breath, looked at Song Qing helplessly and said, "What do you mean?"

"Mr. President, this yellow sun also represents you!

You are the sun in the hearts of all people in the world!

The people of the Republic, like the stars in the twelve-star yellow sun flag, surround you!

As soon as Song Qing finished speaking, twelve huge yellow stars were raised in the crowd of people lining up to welcome him.

The stars are high above our heads,

Looking down from the sky, twelve yellow stars emerged from the surrounding people, echoing the yellow sun in Song Qing's hand.

A realistic version of the map of the twelve constellations of the yellow sun is right in front of you.

Yuan Xiangcheng never expected that the first time he would see the human-shaped national flag would be in such an occasion.

"Comrade Zhu San...you...you really are good at coming up with new ideas."

Yuan Xiangcheng couldn't reprimand Song Qing directly, so he could only look at Tan Sitong beside him with a stern look:

"When the Republic was first established, the central government had already issued a telegram ordering local governments not to imitate the extravagant and wasteful practices of Qing officials, and even had local Red Confucian societies supervise them.

Comrade Fusheng, have you forgotten what you promised me on the day you left Incheon?"

Hearing Yuan Xiangcheng's rebuke, Tan Sitong was speechless for a moment: "General... General Instructor, I have told Comrade Zhu San that we should not be extravagant, and he... he also promised me.

I just... I didn't expect it."

"Mr. President, please don't blame Brother Fusheng." Song Qing saw that the atmosphere was not right and knew that Tan Sitong was taking the blame for him, so he quickly said:

"Only 13 pieces of yellow cloth were used in this welcoming ceremony. After using up these 13 pieces of yellow cloth, we can sew clothes into clothes. It's not a waste, right?

As for the people, they all came here spontaneously and voluntarily!

They are all sincerely welcoming the President, so we can't just disperse them, right?"

Song Qing's high-sounding explanation almost made Yuan Xiangcheng lose his composure.

But after thinking about it carefully, I can't really blame anyone.

The 13 pieces of cloth are not going to be used just once, so it is not really a waste.

Yuan Xiangcheng said calmly, "Forget it, let's discuss this matter later."

Facing the evening breeze, Yuan Xiangcheng looked around and said to the people around him: "Xiangcheng came to Linqing, firstly to borrow a passage to the south, and secondly to solve the problem of resuming the grain transport.

No matter what the outcome, the Republican government will never allow millions of canal workers to be left without food and clothing.

It's getting late, fellow villagers, please go back first."

After Yuan Xiangcheng finished speaking, Zhang Jian beside him was stunned at first, and then he wanted to stop him, but the words had already been spoken, so he could only stand there and worry.

Weiting, Weiting, how come you didn’t remember a single word of what we said just now on the boat?

How can we afford to support millions of canal workers?

The Qing government could afford it because, although the grain transport was costly and labor-intensive, at least after it reached the capital, it could be sold and funds could be recovered.

But now the Grand Canal has been cut off by the Yellow River, making it difficult for grain and grass to travel north, and the last bit of value of the canal transportation has been lost.

Without the little money left from selling grain, do we have to take money from the national treasury to support these one million grain workers for nothing?

With this money, it would be better to recruit another 20 National Revolutionary Army soldiers!

Zhang Jian wanted to say something else, but seeing that Yuan Xiangcheng had been taken away from the dock by Song Qing and others and walked towards Linqing Market, he had to give up.

The residence that Song Qing prepared for Yuan Shikai was originally a large manor outside Linqingji. The original owner of the manor was a bannerman and also the supervisor of the banknotes stationed in Linqing by the Qing Dynasty.

After the establishment of the Republic, the Banner Supervisor was beaten to death by the people of Linqing who rushed into the manor. After the National Revolutionary Army arrived, they nationalized the official residence.

However, with Tan Sitong's insistence, the office in Linqingji was finally chosen as Yuan Xiangcheng's residence, a small courtyard with two entrances.

As soon as they entered the courtyard and put down their luggage, Yuan Xiangcheng called everyone into the study.

"When I boast before the people today, it's not without purpose.

The shipping of the Grand Canal concerns the livelihoods of millions of people, and the Republican government cannot ignore it.

Brother Ji Zhi, you thought on the boat that building a railway would cut off the livelihoods of the canal workers, right?

After hearing about Yuan Xiangcheng's culture, Zhang Jian paused, then nodded slowly.

Yuan Xiangcheng asked again, "Brother Ji Zhi, I want to ask you, are these canal workers born with the ability to pull the oars and row the boat?"

Zhang Jian replied, "Of course not."

"That's it." Yuan Xiangcheng clapped his hands and said, "Who says these canal workers can't become railway workers?

After the railway is built, who says these canal workers can't take on tasks such as track maintenance, railway patrol, ticket sales, and on-call duties?"

In Yuan Xiangcheng's view, millions of people losing their livelihoods is undoubtedly a huge time bomb.

The Beiyang government of the Republic of China in the original time and space failed to pay attention to this point, so bandits frequently occurred in northern Jiangsu, southern Shandong and other places, and even triggered the vigorous Bailang Uprising.

Not all methods can be solved by violence. Otherwise, in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the means used to deal with Shanghai capitalists would not be economic means, but the bullets of the People's Liberation Army.

One approach is to learn from a kind father and exile all those who disobey his management to Siberia.

But more importantly, Yuan Shikai wanted to use these one million canal workers for his own purposes.

Jianghuai has been a place where emperors fought for supremacy since ancient times. Apart from anything else, Yuan Shikai knew that his original identity, Yuan Shikai, was from Xiangcheng County in the upper reaches of the Huai River.

Not to mention these places, there are also rebel gods such as Chen Sheng and Wu Guang, Liu Bang, Xiang Yu, Cao Cao, Liu Yu, and Zhu Yuanzhang.

If we can make Jianghuai rise, today's millions of canal workers can be transformed into tomorrow's millions of railway workers.

Then Yuan Xiangcheng would have another solid base.

Moreover, the route of the Beijing-Hangzhou Railway is far more suitable than the historical Jinpu Railway.

jThe Beijing-Hangzhou Railway is actually the original Tianjin-Zhenjiang Railway.

The Tianjin-Nanjing Pukou section of the Wujinpu Railway and the Tianjin-Zhenjiang Railway share the same route in Shandong, but after passing Shandong, there is a dispute over the east-west direction.

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The six green dotted lines are the Jinzhen Railway, the light blue is the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, and the red solid line is the actual Jinpu Railway.

The Lujinzhen Railway is the eastern line. After passing Xuzhou, it goes south to Jiangsu, passes Huai'an, and goes directly to Yangzhou on the banks of the Yangtze River. At that time, it was a railway line passing through the Jiangsu section of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal and the economically prosperous area.

On the other hand, along the western line of the Jinpu Railway, most of the places were unknown Anhui post stations, most of which were remote places.

If we follow the theory that railways should boost the economy along the lines, the East Line Jinzhen Railway is undoubtedly superior to the West Line Jinpu Railway.

However, since Sheng Xuanhuai, the Minister of Posts and Communications of the Qing Dynasty at that time, was from Changzhou, he strongly advocated the construction of the Jinpu Railway to Nanjing.

In addition, the discovery of coal mines in Huainan, Anhui, eventually prompted the Qing Dynasty to decide to abandon the eastern line of the Jinzhen Railway and build the Jinpu Railway instead.

The railway planning in northern Jiangsu was delayed for nearly a hundred years.

There has been no direct railway connection between northern Jiangsu and southern Jiangsu for a long time. If either side wants to go to the other side, they have to go through Anhui.

It was not until the reform and opening up that high-speed rail was finally launched in northern Jiangsu.

Economic development has a Matthew effect, and the first-mover advantage is extremely obvious.

Northern Jiangsu was originally located on the Thousand Mile Canal Line of the Golden Waterway, and its economic prosperity was no less than that of the Jiangnan region.

However, with the help of railways, Southern Jiangsu, the "land of fish and rice", has successfully transformed into China's economic highland.

As northern Jiangsu fell behind, it continued to fall behind, eventually causing an economic collapse in the hinterland of northern Jiangsu.

The economic structure of "industry in the east and agriculture in the west" determines that China's economic center will sooner or later move to the eastern coast.

If the railway's empowerment of northern Anhui is from 1 to 10, then its empowerment of northern Jiangsu is from 10 to 50.

Therefore, the value of building the eastern Jinzhen Railway at the end of the 19th century was higher than that of building the western Jinpu Railway.

Moreover, with coal from Northeast China and North Korea, Yuan Shikai was not in urgent need of the Huainan coal mine.

Therefore, it is imperative to change the canal to iron.

Chapter 362 People's Foundation Reform Plan

"Of course, even if we give the sweet dates, we can't forget the stick."

After Yuan Xiangcheng finished explaining his idea of ​​"converting grain transport to iron transport" to everyone, he looked at Song Qing and asked:

"Comrade Zhu San, have you completed the investigation you were asked to do?"

Upon hearing this, Song Qing took out a piece of paper from his pocket, placed it on the table, and said respectfully, "I've checked it out.

From Linqing south of the Grand Canal to Zhenjiang, there were more than 400 canal bosses and more than 100 gangs of various sizes.

Among them, the areas of Huai'an, Yangzhou and Zhenjiang are particularly affected."

The bureaucrats who came from the Qing Dynasty had some bad habits in their minds, but they did a great job in completing the tasks assigned to them.