Chapter 280: Heart in Tangshan, Home in Nanhua (Third update, please subscribe)

Connect Hubei with railways to transport grain!

Zhao Tianfeng's suggestion made Governor Li's eyes light up. In recent years, ever since the grain transport from Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi and other places was cut off, life in the capital has been difficult and they can only rely on foreign rice to survive.

If we had a railway, we could reopen the grain routes to Huguang and other places.

"I will report this matter to the court. Please tell me more about the road construction..."

"Sir, if we want to build a road, we must build an ironworks..."

Sitting up straight, Zhao Tianfeng started talking.

"Although the purpose of building an ironworks is to smelt iron and make railroad tracks, the Western-style steel produced by the ironworks is an indispensable raw material for making Western-style guns and cannons. In the West, it is said that "steel is the mother of all tools." Without steel, neither guns nor machines can be made. Without steel, how can a country be rich and strong?"

"Ziqing, what you said is very true, very true..."

Although it was just a simple remark, Governor Li couldn't help but sigh in his heart. Why is it so? Because there is no talent for Westernization around him. Take Yung Wing for example. He... studied literature in the United States. Yes, that's right, the legendary liberal arts student. Such liberal arts students have only heard of engineering, but even such people are rare talents for Westernization!

But no matter what, Zhao Tianfeng was an engineering student who graduated from Brooklyn Polytechnic. It was not very famous in another world, but in this era it was one of the most famous engineering schools in the United States. Many American engineers in the 19th century came from this school.

Engineering... this is their major!

Such talents, well, were not available until about half a century later, when the New Deal began to send students abroad to study. As for before that, although Chinese children studying in the United States had received this kind of training, few of them graduated!

In the following time, Zhao Tianfeng talked about everything from iron smelting to steel rolling, from steel rolling to cannon forging. Naturally, he also mentioned how to make profits from the iron plant and how to use the profits from the steel plant to establish other factories.

In the end, Governor Li, who was above him, even put aside other official duties and sat there listening attentively. The speaker became more and more excited, and the listeners were also extremely focused.

A few hours later, until the servants came and lit the oil lamp, Governor Li realized that it was getting late, and looked at Zhao Tianfeng and apologized.

"Look at me, I'm only listening to you, Ziqing. You just came back from overseas, so you probably don't have a place to stay yet. Stay here with me tonight, and I'll find you a place to stay in the city later."

But after just half a day of talking, Governor Li was impressed by Zhao Tianfeng.

After all, talents are hard to come by!

A few days later, Governor Li submitted a memorial to the court in his capacity as the Governor of Zhili, requesting the construction of a railway. He listed five major benefits of building a railway, including "benefiting people's livelihood", "benefiting the suppression of bandits", "benefiting trade", and "benefiting relief", and pointed out that building a railway would greatly benefit the country. Although this memorial caused an uproar and was strongly opposed by conservatives, the benefits of "connecting Hubei with railways to transport grain" and "railways to drive away bandits" mentioned in the memorial made the court somewhat tempted.

There is no way. No matter how much I oppose Western things, my stomach is still a big deal!

After all, the Taiping rebels now have artillery batteries in Jiujiang and ironclad ships in the Yangtze River, so food from Huguang, Sichuan and other places cannot be transported out! People are starving to death in the capital every day!

This railway needs to be repaired!

Moreover, "the road advances and the bandits retreat" is also for the purpose of suppressing bandits, for the sake of the Qing Dynasty!

As for Feng Shui and those foreign things, they are thousands of miles away from the capital. If the Feng Shui is going to be ruined, it would be Fengyang and Nanjing first.

If you put it that way, this is actually a good thing.

Well, after a few days of discussion, the railway project fell on Governor Li's shoulders. However, as in the past, Governor Li had to find a way to raise the money himself. After all, the imperial court had no money!

Well, we just give you an approval document, and let you figure out the rest on your own.

Historical changes are always a little unexpected. Who would have thought that an escaped overseas student would be like flapping the wings of a butterfly in China, and actually make the railway that would not appear on this land more than ten years later come into being ahead of schedule? Although such a change was unexpected.

In fact, it is reasonable that there are "loyal and righteous men" like Zhao. You have to know that the song in history was written decades later, and the Qing Dynasty had been destroyed for decades, and there are still countless old and young people among them.

Throughout history, there were many servants as loyal as him. Moreover, at this time, many people still thought they were orthodox.

But these things are actually not a big deal at all. Not to mention for Nanhua, who is thousands of miles away across the ocean, but also for Li Fugui who is in Hangzhou Bay.

In the past few years, although the entire province of Zhejiang was occupied by the Kingdom of Heaven, Yangshan Island and Shengsi Island had always been under its control. Every day, small boats sailing from the mouth of the Yangtze River would send hundreds of immigrants to the islands. Even though the Kingdom of Heaven no longer used people to exchange for guns and cannons since last year, immigration has never stopped.

"People in troubled times are worse than dogs!"

Li Fugui, who was standing at the dock, leaning on a cane, sighed, then turned to Liu Kunpeng and said,

"Brother Liu, I'll leave everything here to you from now on."

"Oh, I really envy you, brother. You can finally go home."

Li Fugui laughed and smiled at Liu Kunpeng.

"Yes, we can go home now. When you and I came back, we never thought it would take nearly ten years. Now, we can finally go home!"

"Brother Fugui, when you go back, see the young master and tell me that I want to go back too."

"Hey, my dear brother, it's not that the young master doesn't want you to go back, it's that I really haven't found the right person. Governor Li in the north trusts you, and King Li Ying in the south can't do without you either. The young master wants to change people, but there is no suitable person."

Liu Kunpeng said helplessly.

"Hey, you helped me get the job done, but you ended up burying yourself in it. Look at the hole you dug. I don't know when you can go home."

Home!

For Li Fugui, Liu Kunpeng and others, Nanhua has long been their home. As for this place... Huaxia is the "Tangshan" in their hearts. Whether in Nanyang or in Nanhua, they all refer to their hometown of Huaxia as "Tangshan". However, unlike the overseas Chinese in Nanyang, Li Fugui and others have long regarded Nanhua as their "home". The reason is simple, because they are not like the overseas Chinese in Nanyang who suffer all kinds of bullying, but conquerors, the conquerors and masters of that land.

As the masters, they naturally miss home.

Finally going home!

A few hours later, Li Fugui finally stood on the deck of the "Great Eastern", standing next to the 150mm naval gun on the side that defended against pirates. When he saw the mainland of Tangshan, his eyes were full of reluctance.

Nanhua is my home, and Tangshan is my hometown!

I’m afraid I’ll never come back after this trip!

"Uncle, are we really going to Nanhua?"

Standing beside his uncle, Li Ziyue's eyes were full of curiosity. He had been with his uncle all these years. Now of course he had to go back with him.

"What does Nanhua look like? Is it really like you said, with tall buildings everywhere? Are those tall buildings so high that they can reach the stars in the sky?"

(End of this chapter)