Seeing Li Yu's serious expression, Fang Zheng leaned over and flipped through the books on the table, picked up a few pages and said, "From today on, Your Highness does not need to understand the contents of the book, just memorize it. Just memorize this much a day."
Li Yu's face turned pale, and he said hesitantly, "Master, you read so many words a day, so you must read about 4,000 to 5,000 words, right?"
That’s four or five thousand words!
I can’t finish watching it! I can’t finish watching it at all!
How to memorize it?
"It's okay. Although the content is thick and there is a lot of material, you can read as much as you can. As long as you keep reading every day, you will finish it sooner or later." Fang Zhengyi comforted him, "There is still a month before Yucai School starts. Learn more so that you can stand out from the crowd when you go to school."
"This is called sweating more in peacetime and bleeding less in war!"
"I understand, Master!" Li Yu made up his mind and continued to study hard.
"Your Highness, I have something to discuss with you." Fang Zhengyi led Li Yuanzhao out.
When they got to the courtyard, he said, "The train is almost ready, and I need a train driver. Oh, I should call him a train driver. I see that Your Highness is an expert in this field, are you interested?"
Li Yuanzhao said in surprise: "Yes, I am the best train driver!"
Then he hesitated again and said, "Although the locomotive is almost finished, the road... is still a long way to go. How about we build a hundred-meter-long railway in the next two months and show it to the court?"
Fang Zhengyi shook his head: "No, if we want to show it, we must show the finished product. The railway must be long enough, otherwise there will be a lot of trouble later. I plan to build the railway from Dongjiao University to Beijing and then to Taoyuan County. Right now, I need people to connect with other colleges to study railways, including geographical surveying and mapping, etc."
Taoyuan County and Dongjiao University have sufficient talent reserves, and these majors have existed since the beginning of the school.
Nowadays, we have trained a lot of theoretical talents, but they lack practical experience. It would be more appropriate to let the prince manage them.
At least the subsequent projects can be guaranteed to be free of any technical troubles.
After all, such a luxurious and wasteful act as laying iron on the ground would inevitably be attacked by the court.
Explanation and explanation are not clear...
It's just like when he promoted sweet potatoes in the first place, if he had directly told the court that he had a crop that could double grain production.
Instead of appreciating him, the court officials and the emperor immediately treated him as a madman...With his poor popularity, it was no surprise that he was kicked out.
Everyone knows exactly what offering auspicious signs means, but it is wrong to joke about grain production!
"What's the trouble with this railway? Just customize the tracks according to the model and lay them on the road. It's not difficult." Li Yuanzhao said indifferently.
Fang Zheng said, "No, it's a lot of trouble. We also need gravel sleepers to reduce vibration and prevent the tracks from shifting. The knowledge involved is no less than building a train, but we have enough talent. As long as we solve the problems one by one and learn while building, I believe we will have a perfect method in no time. I'll leave it to Your Highness."
Li Yuanzhao thought for a moment and said in surprise: "Hey, what you said seems to make sense. You never care about technology, how come you know more about it than me?"
"What you think about during the day, you will dream about at night." Fang Zheng raised his hands and said seriously, "My father came to me in a dream yesterday."
"Well... okay, but I've done the math on the railway you mentioned. The cost of building one mile of railway is probably no less than five thousand taels, maybe six or seven thousand taels. There are too many links involved. From the capital to Taoyuan County, it would probably cost at least one or two hundred thousand taels. Do you have that much silver?" Li Yuanzhao asked.
Fang Zhengyi was also a little puzzled when he heard him raise this question.
So expensive?
It is not impossible to come up with 1.8 million taels of money, but this thing is a public tool and must be under the control of the court to a certain extent.
He paid for everything, how will the money be divided in the future?
Although we are working for the country and the people, if we cannot make any money ourselves, who will work for the country and the people in the future?
The best thing would be to ask the Ministry of Revenue to approve the money. All the money would come from the treasury, and he would enjoy the subsequent profits of the railway, but the possibility is not high...
Thinking of this, Fang Zheng said, "Since it is connected to the capital, it is natural that the Ministry of Revenue will allocate money. I will go to the Ministry of Revenue to ask for it."
"Well, I don't think it's difficult, unless you build a section of railway first and show it to the court. Then I think I can allocate two million to you."
Fang Zheng rejected them all: "No! I'll go try it first. If it doesn't work, we can pool our money and fix it."
Railways and trains are truly amazing.
According to the views of the court and the people, no one knows what will happen in the future, although the newspapers have been vigorously promoting it in recent years and the people's horizons have been broadened a lot.
But superstition has always been rooted in people's hearts.
Who knows, in the future they might come up with some nonsense like "shaking the dragon veins", "bringing bad luck to the whole scene", or "building railways by digging up people's graves for the purpose of formation".
The expansion of public opinion will inevitably affect the decision-making of the court, and many subsequent projects will be delayed.
Unless the finished product is produced in one go and huge benefits are directly placed on the table, the rest will come naturally!
Compared with the huge negative impact that may arise, who pays for building the railway is a small matter.
Seeing that Fang Zheng rejected his suggestion once or twice, Li Yuanzhao stopped asking further questions.
Since Lao Fang is unwilling to build a section of railway first, he must have his reasons. There is no point in asking more questions.
"Okay, then I will go to Dongjiao University tomorrow to select a group of people to start discussions."
The prince is becoming more and more reliable!
Fang Zheng smiled and said, "Your Highness, please do your best. The foreign delegation is leaving soon, and I have decided to go to the Honglu Temple to organize a big event. It won't be long before there is something interesting to watch. The first shovel of construction of our railway must be done by Your Majesty!"
"That sounds interesting. But why is it my father who has to do the digging? Can't I do it too?"
"No, the right to interpret the dragon vein is not in your hands yet."
"???"
Li Yuanzhao curled his lips in disdain at the nonsense he said again: "What is this Honglu Temple event you are talking about?"
"Don't ask too much about this, Your Highness. If you do it well, you will be remembered in history! And I promise you will have fun then." Fang Zheng patted his chest and promised, "Then I will take my leave. I still have some official business to attend to. I'll trouble you with the rest, Your Highness!"
......
The next day, inside the Honglu Temple.
Chen Hong expressionlessly took a pot of tea and poured a cup for Fang Zhengyi: "Master Fang, please have some tea."
Fang Zhengyi took a sip of tea and said with a half-smile, "Master Chen, are you so unwelcoming to me?"
"No, no, I hope that Lord Fang will come every day. Apart from other things, I have plenty of delicious tea and snacks." Chen Hong waved his hands repeatedly with a bitter face, and said, "But Lord Fang, please don't interfere with the affairs of the Western delegation. They are all troublesome. And..."
"And what?" Fang Zheng raised his eyes and asked.
Chen Hongyi said shyly, "Besides, this is the end of my career. Being able to receive envoys from 23 countries at the same time, and these are countries I have never had contact with, is an unprecedented event. So I hope nothing goes wrong before I retire..."
......
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