At midnight, the banquet ended.

When Zhao Hao came back from seeing off the guests, he saw his father still drinking tea and knew that he had something to say.

"Son, it sounds like you're leaving again?" Zhao Shouzheng looked at Zhao Hao reluctantly. "You've only been back for a few days?"

"Yes, I'm leaving. In the past, when my father-in-law was buried, I, as his son-in-law, would follow him for thousands of miles. This time, my father-in-law has passed away, but I am not carrying the coffin to the south. Wouldn't that make people laugh?" Zhao Hao nodded and said, "Besides, there is an old lady. Xiao Jing and I have to send her back to Jiangling."

"What happens after the burial?" Zhao Shouzheng looked at his son eagerly. He thought that once he became the Prime Minister, Zhao Hao would live in Beijing permanently.

"It's the group's 20th anniversary celebration, and there are still a lot of things to deal with." Zhao Hao sighed.

"What happens after Daqing?" Zhao Shouzheng asked again.

"Next year is the end of the Fourth Five-Year Plan..." Zhao Hao apologized, "Now the group is getting bigger and bigger, I'm afraid I can't stay in Beijing for a few days."

"Alas, we meet and part so quickly." Zhao Shouzheng said with a sour nose: "I thought I could finally see you more often."

"..." Looking at Zhao Shouzheng's graying temples, Zhao Hao felt a surge of apology. Dad is fifty-seven years old this year, which is a serious old man in this era...

Even though he was an eloquent man, he racked his brains and could not find the right words to comfort his father.

"Look at me, it's already this late, and I'm still talking about this." Zhao Shouzheng smiled and comforted his son, "Go home without worrying about your father, you've arranged everything so well."

"Yes, it's best that my father and I are not in Beijing at the same time." Zhao Hao nodded and whispered, "If there is anything that father is unsure about, you can tell Mr. Wu and I can give you an answer on the same day."

"Oh, you are so powerful now?" Zhao Shouzheng said in surprise. He never doubted his son.

"Yes, that's right now." Zhao Hao said with a smile, "The world is so small, I will know what my father has to say at the first time."

"That's great!" Zhao Shouzheng seemed to be comforted and said, "If you have any problems, you must tell your father as soon as possible!"

"It's a deal!"

"It's a deal!" Zhao Shouzheng stood up and hugged his son, tears streaming down his face.

~~

The next evening.

Minister of Personnel Wang Guoguang ended a busy day and returned to his Tianguan Palace in an official sedan chair.

After the sedan chair had landed steadily, the bearers pressed down the poles, the steward lifted the curtain, and helped the old official, who had a serious face, down.

"Should we have knife-cut noodles or臊子面 tonight?" Wang Guoguang asked, addressing the top priority in his life.

"Master, we're having cold noodles tonight. Madam said it would be too cold if we don't eat it." The housekeeper replied respectfully.

"Ah..." Lao Wang sighed. The cold noodles were too bland and he didn't like them very much, so he said, "Put more sesame paste in my bowl."

"Yes, sir." The butler quickly agreed.

"What's going on at your house today?" Wang Guoguang asked casually as he walked into the house, "Are there many people giving gifts?"

The Mid-Autumn Festival is coming soon, which is one of the two major gift-giving seasons along with the Spring Festival. In previous years, the threshold of the Tianguan Mansion would be trampled by people at this time of year, and the gifts received would fill up the storeroom!

However, there are no secrets in Beijing, and the news that he was going to retire had spread throughout the officialdom. Wang Guoguang was very worried that it would affect his last chance to make money.

"It's OK, sir." The butler replied softly, "We received thirty or forty gift lists, but they are much thinner than in previous years."

"That's for sure." Wang Guoguang said with a dark face.

"Oh, yes. The gift from the young minister is quite substantial." The butler suddenly said with a strange expression.

"Young Lord, are you giving me a gift?" Wang Guoguang was just about to go into the house when he heard this, but he stopped on one leg and stood on one leg like a golden rooster, saying, "Where is the sun coming out from?"

I wondered if he thought the old vinegar and bamboo leaf green that I sent to his family were too shabby? Aren’t I going to retire soon? Why should I spend money on it…

"Bring me the gift list." Wang Guoguang said hurriedly.

"There is no gift list." The butler shook his head and said, "Just two big iron lumps."

"A big iron lump?" Wang Guoguang was increasingly puzzled. "Bring it here and have a look."

"Hey." The housekeeper responded quickly.

After a cup of tea, six sturdy servants came in with heavy steps, carrying a wooden box that was more than ten feet long.

"Put it here. Be careful not to damage the floor tiles." The housekeeper instructed the servants to slowly place the wooden box in the hall. "Slow down."

The wood used for the wooden box is very common, just ordinary pine boards, not even painted. It is obvious that it is used to load goods, not human coffins.

When the servant removed the lid of the box, Wang Guoguang saw two long I-shaped rails lying in the box covered with sawdust.

"It's just this thing, a really heavy lump of iron." The housekeeper said from the side: "I don't understand why you gave it to me?"

"You idiot, this is a priceless treasure!" Wang Guoguang's eyes lit up, and he lay on the box, stroking the smooth and straight track surface with both hands, muttering: "For us in Shanxi, this is an invaluable treasure that is priceless..."

He had personally visited Xishan to inspect the Mentougou Railway, so he could naturally recognize that it was a railway track at a glance.

However, the Mentougou Railway has many more rails than this one. One rail is five meters long, so he couldn't have anyone steal one to study. Now he can see the real thing in person.

The standard size of rails produced by Tangshan Iron and Steel Plant is 16 meters long and weighs 25 kilograms per meter.

The rails should be as long as possible, which was Zhao Hao's personal request. This would greatly reduce the number of joints, facilitate installation and make driving smoother.

And the anti-theft effect is great. Because for the carriage load of this era, a light rail of less than 30 kilograms is more than enough. If the rails are too short, the risk of theft will be greatly increased. In the Ming Dynasty, iron is very valuable!

A single rail is 16 meters long and weighs 800 kilograms, which makes transportation very difficult. But for the group that transports several tons of logs all year round, it is not a big problem.

But it is enough to make outsiders give up the idea of ​​stealing railroad tracks. This kind of thing that can't be sawed or smashed, even if you can steal it back, you have nowhere to hide it!

In order to show the rails to Lao Wang, Zhao Hao had someone cut off two ten-foot-long samples.

~~

Wang Guoguang asked his servant to quickly call Chu Yu and Liu Dongxing to come home to eat cold noodles together.

The three jealous gang members slurped noodles from their bowls while watching several old blacksmiths from Shanxi identifying the two rails on the spot.

After they finished their noodles, the blacksmiths came to a conclusion.

"Tell me." Wang Guoguang wiped his mouth with a handkerchief and said to the leading blacksmith, Ou, "How much does it cost to make one of these?"

“No amount of money can make it.” Ou the blacksmith sighed, “This thing is made entirely of steel, and judging from the cross section, the inside is also made of steel.”

"Puff..." Chu Yu spat out a mouthful of tea: "What nonsense are you talking about!"

He was the Minister of Works and was familiar with the Ming Dynasty's steel industry. He knew that the most advanced carburizing method was nothing more than turning the outer layer of wrought iron into steel.

"But the facts are right in front of us." Blacksmith Ou said with despair: "The steel we produce in Shanxi in a year can't be made into just a few pieces..."

"Fuck..." Wang Guoguang said with a sweat on his face, "Isn't this a waste of natural resources?"

"So, we still greatly underestimated Jiangnan Group?" Liu Dongxing was also shocked.

"Too terrible." Chu Yu came back to his senses after a while. He was in charge of the weapons bureau and knew the importance of steel to the military.

The so-called good steel is used on the blade. The steel blade is both sharp and tough, which can greatly improve the combat effectiveness of soldiers. But the steel production of the Ming Dynasty was too low, and only the generals' personal soldiers and the elite border troops could use that kind of "steel knife".

As for using steel in muskets and cannons, it was unthinkable.

Jiangnan Group can use steel to lay railways, what does this mean? Chu Yu didn't dare to think about it...

Wang Guoguang and Liu Dongxing also fell silent, and the hall was filled with an atmosphere of fear.

In fact, wrought iron is enough for the rails of horse-drawn trucks. In later generations, European countries used wrought iron produced by the Pudlin process to build more than 70,000 kilometers of railways. However, due to the fundamental weaknesses of semi-solid state smelting - poor working conditions and poor wrought iron quality, the Pudlin process was quickly eliminated after the birth of the converter steelmaking process.

Zhao Hao was already able to use the converter steelmaking method to mass-produce cheap steel, so he naturally took one step and skipped the wrought iron rails and moved on to steel rails.

However, the iron ore used to produce rail steel is not from Tangshan, but from Ma'anshan, and cast and produced in Wuhu.

The 01 Institute found through tests that the steel produced from the Maanshan iron ore contained a high phosphorus content, which increased the brittleness of the steel, especially reducing the low-temperature toughness of the steel, known as cold brittleness. Therefore, it could not be used to cast weapons.

But at the same time, phosphorus can significantly increase the tensile strength of steel and improve its corrosion resistance, making it very suitable for manufacturing light rail rails. Zhao Hao took measures to adapt to local conditions and started producing rail steel in Wuhu.

Lao Xier, who was clueless, couldn't tell the difference between rail steel and tool steel. He was completely shocked by the two sections of railway sent by Zhao Hao.

~~

The fourth day of August is the day when Grand Tutor Zhang Wen Zhong moves his coffin back south.

Emperor Wanli sent Yu Jing, the Junior Minister of Imperial Household, one Deputy Minister from each of the Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of Rites, and Cao Yingkui, the Commander of the Imperial Guard, to escort Zhao back to the south. Madam Zhao also returned to Jiangling at the same time, escorted by the eunuch Chen Zheng.

Zhang Juzheng's six sons naturally returned south to mourn, and his daughter and son-in-law also accompanied him, carrying the coffin. A group of people escorted his hearse and left Dashamao Hutong, where Zhang Juzheng had lived for twenty-two years.

From Dashamao Hutong to Zhengyangmen, not only were there incense tables set up by various government offices along the way, but tens of thousands of people from the capital came to see him off. Both sides of the more than ten-mile-long street were filled with people kneeling on the ground and crying, and the scene was very moving.

Infected by the atmosphere of mourning of the people, Mrs. Zhao fainted in Zhang Xiaojing's arms. Zhang Xiaojing also shed tears and looked back at Dashamao Hutong at the end of the long street.

That place is no longer her home...