After the Kyushu region of Wadao was ceded to the Qing Dynasty, Yinzhi quickly established a military base there.
Yinzhi was not good at this, so Yinreng sent Yinyou over.
Weihaiwei was relatively close to the Japanese island, so Yinreng also allocated the building materials and supplies from Weihaiwei and asked them to blockade the areas ceded by the Japanese within half a year.
With the supply of building materials from Weihaiwei, a line of defense was built in the Kyushu area in just three months.
In addition to Yinyou, Yinreng also sent a team of professionals who were good at geological exploration. After investigation and evaluation, they found that the Kyushu area had rich coal and sulfur resources, and the mineral reserves of limestone and gypsum were not low.
There should be no shortage of local building materials in the short term.
More than half a year had passed by the time Yinyou had initially transformed the Jiuzhou area into the back garden of the Qing Dynasty.
Yinzhi left with a large army as soon as the local situation stabilized.
Yinxiang took over the entire situation with the Weihaiwei personnel.
This resulted in a shortage of manpower in Weihaiwei, so Yinxiang submitted a memorial to Yinreng, requesting the expansion of the Weihaiwei naval force.
Yinreng originally planned to expand Weihaiwei directly to 30,000 people, but after thinking about it, he was afraid that Yinxiang was still young and he was afraid that he could not control it, so he only expanded Weihaiwei to 10,000 people.
The rest of the expansion will be carried out after Yinxiang has gained a firm foothold in the Japanese island.
After the King of Wa signed the "Treaty of Heian-kyo", when the news was passed back to the capital, the imperial merchants received the news.
Everyone knew that the opportunity that the head of the Imperial Household Department had reminded them of had come.
So they began to collect tea, silk, porcelain and other goods and flocked to Tianjin Port.
They want to seize the initiative and be the first to establish a trading company on the Japanese island!
After the King of Wa signed the treaty, a major event also occurred in the country.
The train section from Beijing to Weihaiwei is now open to traffic.
The land distance from Weihai to the capital is 1,700 miles. If you ride at full speed, it will take five or six days to reach the destination.
If you take the lead and transport more goods, this time will be extended to about one month.
By taking the train, you can arrive in three days by traveling day and night.
For people of this era, this speed is undoubtedly like a rocket.
After Yinreng shared this news with the officials in the court with a happy face, they were reluctant to believe it at first.
Yinreng knew that this kind of thing had to be seen with one's own eyes to be believed, so he selected one person from each of the Nine Ministers and Six Ministries, and asked them to take a boat to Weihaiwei first, and then take the first train back to the capital.
If he wasn't busy with government affairs, he would have wanted to go by himself.
The people who were chosen set off for Weihaiwei with half belief and half doubt.
Yinreng took all the officials to wait for the train to arrive in the capital, and then went to the station to pick it up.
After the morning court session ended that day, Yinreng changed into the emperor's court robes and went to the capital station with his brothers, officials, and...Kangxi.
Yinreng did not inform Kangxi.
But the old man must have heard the news from someone, and sent someone to inform him two days ago that he also wanted to go and see the train.
Yinreng had no choice but to take him with him.
On the platform of the station, soldiers on both sides stood facing the tracks with serious expressions, armed with live ammunition. The stationmaster of Jingcheng Station accompanied Yinreng and Kangxi with sweat on his forehead.
From time to time, he also had to answer some of Kangxi's questions.
Yinreng looked around at the simple platform and the barbed wire fences on both sides of the train tracks.
This barbed wire was only laid around the station. There were mostly no protections on both sides of the tracks in the remaining sections. It was not that Yinreng did not want to set it up, but that he could not afford it for the time being.
Even with external inputs, steel production is still extremely limited. The consumption of rails alone is already a headache for the Ministry of Industry.
Yinreng did not intend to build only one railway.
Besides, the main purpose of a train is to transport goods, so it is understandable that ordinary people would just take a ride.
Even though there are no surveillance facilities now, it is easy for people to sneak into the train and commit petty thefts, and Yinreng is still trying to find a way to solve the problem.
Hundreds of officials followed the two men, looking at the environment on the platform and whispering to each other.
Time passed minute by minute, and soon, Kangxi and others became a little impatient.
Frequently ask the stationmaster when the train will arrive.
The stationmaster's sweat never stopped.
Yinreng had two chairs brought in. After Kangxi sat down, the number of times he complained and grumbled decreased visibly.
Yinreng glanced at Kangxi's old face and felt a lot of emotion in his heart. It seemed that this old man was really old and could not bear such a small suffering.
——
"Frame! Frame! Frame!..."
At the beginning of noon, a rhythmic sound came from afar, which lifted everyone's spirits and they thought to themselves, "It's coming!"
Everyone's eyes couldn't help but look in the direction of the sound.
From a distance, everyone only saw a thick white smoke slowly approaching.
As the sound of "Kanci! Kanci!" got closer and closer, the full picture of the locomotive appeared in everyone's eyes. It was a pitch-black steel behemoth, wrapped in a strong smell of coked coal, gradually approaching everyone.
Everyone felt the ground beneath their feet was shaking, and the rhythmic sound seemed to be rolling directly over their chests, giving people an extremely heavy feeling of oppression.
Even Kangxi, who was used to big scenes, couldn't help but take a step back.
The unknown is the most terrifying thing.
However, when he looked at Yinreng, who was standing with his hands behind his back, waiting for the train to arrive with a smile on his face, the slight tension in his heart quietly disappeared.
——
"squeak!"
With a sharp sound of metal friction, the train stopped steadily in front of everyone.
Four or five middle-aged men got off the car and ran towards Yinreng with excitement on their faces.
"Your Highness... Oh no! Your Majesty! I bow to you, Your Majesty!"
"I pay my respects to the Emperor!"
Seeing that they were about to kneel down, Yinreng hurriedly stopped them.
"Engineer Lin, Engineer Xu, you don't have to be so polite. I thought you were going to let those kids lead the team!"
These people were all engineers trained by Yinreng in Weihaiwei. He did not expect that they would be willing to leave the laboratory and lead the team to the capital in person.
"Of course, this first trip has to be led by us old guys. We built this train from scratch..."
The faces of several engineers flushed red. The train ran for the first time without any accidents. This was something they could brag about for the rest of their lives.
While the few of them were exchanging greetings, the court officials sent by Yinreng to experience the train also got off the train one after another.
When the officials saw that the dozen or so people had returned safely, their suspicion and vigilance towards the train instantly disappeared.
Yinreng asked these people about their experience with the train, and their answers were within Yinreng's expectations.
Everyone praised the train highly.
The people from the Imperial Observatory even recorded the time they took by train. It only took them two and a half days, less than three days, to get from Weihaiwei to the capital.
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