Beijing Qianmen East Railway Station
As can be seen from the Financial Records of Beijing, before the demise of the Qing Dynasty, the financial revenue suddenly increased sharply, and the annual income reached more than 200 million taels of silver. The imperial court swept away the bad luck since the Boxer Rebellion and suddenly became excited. It is said that there are four reasons for "not bad money". In addition to the increase in customs revenue and the constant collection of heavy taxes on alcohol and tobacco, the most important thing is the income of state-owned railways. The annual income of the railway outside the customs alone reaches several million, exceeding the tax revenue of a province; There is also the commercial prosperity brought by the railway, which has greatly increased the tariffs in various places. Due to the rise of commerce around Qianmen Railway Station, Chongwenmen Customs has become the largest customs in China.
At first, the court also doubted whether the train to Beijing would spoil the good deeds of Emperor Long Mai and destroy the geomantic omen of the dynasty. I didn't expect the railway to soon become a rich financial resource for the imperial court. It was "a steady stream of money pouring down one after another", and stupid things like "horse-drawn trains" are gone forever. Since then, all the railways have been connected to Beijing, and the financial resources of the whole world have been remitted to the capital. This is an era when money needs to be produced, and it is an era when circulation and transportation are in parallel and money is constantly being sent. Is there a train whistling in the history to send money to Beijing from all directions? Don't! Dare to dream, dream of centralization, dream of unity, so this is still an era that needs and can achieve unity. With the railway, China, where the mountain is high and the emperor is far away, has changed since then. Who said that "it's hard to get to the sky through the Shu Road"? With the railway, we can "turn the natural barrier into a thoroughfare", so we built Chuanhan Road, from Chuanhan to Han Jing, and soon arrived in Beijing. It used to be said that "everything is in the four directions and in the central government". What is "important"? This is a railway. With the railway, we can grasp the "sage's persistence" and change from several basic retreat principles to several real hubs.
The whole story of railway entering Beijing
If you want to be a prophet, you have to be Li Hongzhang, and China drives his own railway. When the small train carrying coal roared back and forth between Tangshan and Xugezhuang, the whistle sounded to Dongling, and officials came to play, saying that the train disturbed the spirit of the late emperor. As soon as Cixi heard the fire and became angry, the train stopped and became a carriage. When Li Hongzhang failed to build a road, the court concluded that it was nothing more than a disaster for the country and the people.
But since he built the garden at naval expense, the appearance of the imperial court has changed, and the railway from Tangshan to Tianjin has finally been completed. The twists and turns are hard for people to understand. The difficulty of road construction lies in culture, which is said to have destroyed the geomantic omen of agricultural civilization. At that time, the British built the Wusong Railway in Shanghai. After the completion, the court insisted on demolition. Shen Baozhen was then Governor Jiang, and Shanghai was under his rule, but he didn't know it beforehand. Later, he learned that British businessmen were good at building railways in Shanghai, so he ordered to stop. Wade pushed him back in a word: British businessmen requisitioned land and built their own roads, which had nothing to do with the China government.
It turns out that this road has been sold to Wusong Road Company in the United States, named "Ordinary Road" and transferred to British businessmen. After the British businessman took over, it took about a year to open the whole line to traffic. However, there were constant conflicts with residents along the line, not to mention that when the train was running, it even killed a soldier who crossed the tracks to grab the train. It turned out that Li Hongzhang had sent Sheng Xuanhuai to Shanghai to sign the Wusong Railway Redemption Clause, which stipulated that the railway price was 285,000 silver, which was bought out by China. All the money will be paid in three installments within one year. After that, the railway "listens to China's autonomy" and foreign investors "don't ask"; Before the redemption money is paid, foreign businessmen can handle passenger transport business, but they are not allowed to handle freight transport.
Li Hongzhang thinks that this road can be used as an "experimental route to test China people's feelings for railways", and once the operation effect appears, China people will change their attitude. I didn't expect the train to kill people, and it was a China soldier. The railway was suspended, and even the American special envoy came forward to persuade and said many reasons why it should not be demolished. 154 Chinese businessmen from Shanghai and Jiangsu also signed a letter to Shen Baozhen asking for leniency. But all this was useless, and the order to dismantle it was issued.
When Li Hongzhang bought the railway, it was a good deal. In modern words, it was called "win-win". British businessmen want to make money, but China only spent less than 302,000 silver to own his own railway. However, it still pays off.
Shen has been engaged in westernization for many years. How can she not know the benefits of railways to the country like the old lady Cixi? However, if he wants to run the railway at the expense of his own honor, he won't do it. In this case, if the railway runs, he will be labeled as a "traitor". If it is torn down, it will ruin the Westernization School and end the discussion of the Qing School. The country can lose money, but its own honor must not lose money. When Guo Songtao was in London, he was labeled a traitor and wrote to Shen to persuade him not to tear down the railway. Shen and Guo Ben are good friends. Since they were attacked by the Stone Forest, they have defiled Guo's honor. So Shen belongs to Guo, try to avoid contact. Guo's letter, he didn't reply, and Shen Wei wrote the word "Rong". He doesn't need loyalty or seeking the truth. It is really "desperate" and "people are afraid of danger"! Therefore, Guo said that Shen was "named after the timely theory of the Music Committee." Even Shen Baozhen can tear down the railway. How to Westernize China?
From the beginning of the "road-building storm", Li Hongzhang, under the hat of "bringing disaster to the country and the people", is ready to start road construction in Tianjin. This time, he is much more cautious. British businessmen wanted to undertake the road construction project, so they temporarily laid a railway near Zizhulin, and invited Li Hongzhang to invite Tianjin businessmen to take the train. This is really effective. They found that the train was really much faster than the carriage. As for the imperial court, Yi Xuan and others turned to support Li Hongzhang, and Li Hongzhang helped to repair the Summer Palace with naval military expenses because of the stimulation of "many things between France and Vietnam, inconvenient transportation and repeated military defeats". On the grounds of "Zhili has a long coastline, which is not easy to defend and especially difficult to transport", he requested that the Jingu Railway be built first, and then extended to Shanhaiguan area.
As a result, Tianjin was quickly used as the fulcrum to incite the national road construction project. Zhan Tianyou, an outstanding railway engineer, personally directed this road construction project, and built Laolongtou Railway Station, the largest railway station in China at that time, in Tianjin. Later, the project went south and the Jin-Pu Railway was built. The project went north and finally "leaked" the imperial city. When the train broke through the city wall and rumbled into Beijing, the king of the Qing Dynasty was not angry, but excited. Economic interests have produced a new cultural identity, and even the old lady Cixi reciprocated and took the special train to follow the fashion.
There must be a saying to open the way.
Railways are good things, of course, of course, not to mention how the court knows. There must be a saying, how does the court understand it? There are two versions of this story, which we can observe. One is the story of Liu Mingchuan, and the other is the story of Zhang Zhidong. They are "both civil and military, one relaxed and the other relaxed."
Liu Mingchuan said that Russia and Japan are China's worries. Russia began to build railways in Europe, and it is becoming more and more prosperous. The highway from Vladivostok to Hunchun will be opened, but the railway has not been built yet, so it will not be launched. Within ten years, it will be disastrous. Japan is a tiny place. It is difficult for me to learn the technology of westerners and rely on railways. If we don't build a railway, we are afraid of common prosperity. Therefore, China strives for self-improvement and is not in a hurry to build a railway.
It costs a lot of money to build a railway, so it is not enough to talk only about Qiang Bing, but also about a rich country. There are countless benefits to "the benefits of railways" and "people engaged in water conservancy, relief, commerce, mining, donation and tourism". But he is a soldier after all, and he emphasizes that "fighting is particularly urgent." Because China is a vast country, "Wan Li is to the north, adjacent to the Russian border", it is bound to be guarded against "trading with seaports and * * * with other countries", so it is also necessary to guard against it, and it is hard to say national defense without building railways.
Eighteen provinces in China are short of soldiers. However, at this boundary, each has his own heart. If you have soldiers, you will be self-sufficient and desperate. The bigger the country, the worse the national defense, and the more soldiers there are, the less it is needed. If the railway is opened, all the places will be connected, and the soldiers will die. Frontier defense and coastal defense are deployed by the state and dispatched by the central government. "In the future, the right to pay will be in the imperial court, and it will be heavy inside and light outside, and it will not be bound by Xinjiang ministers." The story ends here.
Zhang Zhidong said, "Today's railways are used to open local goods urgently." He first calculated the foreign trade account: "foreign goods are imported, and the new year's goods exceed domestic exports by 22 million." In other words, there are 22 million taels of silver flowing out of China every year. Only by selling more domestic products can we achieve a balance of foreign trade, but without railway and mainland products, it is difficult to export. Second, in the words of national defense: "The Yangtze River, the three eastern Liaoning provinces and the border area between Qin and Long are all guarded by strong neighbors, and it is impossible to prevent them." Therefore, railways are needed to help the enemy. Where to start repairing? We should pay attention to this, it should be in the "place where merchants gather", otherwise "no railway fee is charged", specifically, "it should start from Lugou Bridge outside Beijing and arrive at Hankou Town in Hubei via Henan", that is, it should start from the central part of China-the Central Plains.
To put it bluntly, there are two ways to say it. Military people say that national defense is the most important thing, and literati say that profit comes first. However, scholars, whether they are soldiers or not, must give consideration to the way of civil and military affairs in order to appear "politically correct" and be regarded as "second opinions". In fact, after the implementation, most of what they said came true. In particular, it has opened up new profit sources and new ways to make money, which is a great contribution to the railway.
Will say and do.
Zhang Zhidong takes the lead in rewarding meritorious deeds, from the national economy and people's livelihood to the project budget. He knew that what the imperial court was most worried about was that "it would be difficult to achieve great expenses", so he proposed "building by stages". It is divided into four sections, "Beijing to Zhengding is the first section, then to the north bank of the Yellow River, then to Xinyang for the second and third sections, and then to Hankou for the last section". Calculated by "five or six thousand dollars per mile", the budget of each railway section needs about four million and two thousand RMB.
And "the method of raising funds, first of all, is based on finance, and" China is so big that it seems that it is still helpless to raise 2 million yuan every year "; Secondly, in addition to the railway companies issuing shares as usual, there are also places with rich ports and prosperous saltworks in various provinces. The "ticket-printing stock list" is forwarded by the transportation and customs departments, that is, issuing stocks and bonds. This is still a "Chinese-style" idea, not from the aspect of "using western learning" or "self-reliance". It sounds good, but it sounds feasible and the court will approve it. What are you afraid of? Let's do it first.
Sure enough, as soon as the memorial came out, it was accurate. It was said that Zhang Zhidong's suggestion was adopted today, so Tianjin-Nantong was postponed to deal with Lu Han first. However, it changed its head and set off from Hankou to Xinyang. From south to north, it is divided into Lugou and Hankou pilot projects. The approved budget is about 32 million yuan, and it is agreed to raise foreign debts in addition to commercial stocks and official funds.
The cave notified by Hong Zhang should be opened as soon as possible to avoid complications. However, his mood is inevitably complicated. Why did he build the road? So he rose up against it and was suppressed. And Zhang Zhidong's mediation in the meantime is very popular? For more than ten years, he has been advocating railway construction. Almost every time he raised it, there were many people who opposed it and few who supported it. Only this time, he was supported from top to bottom, but he stole the show. As for Zhang Zhidong's statement that Lu Hanlu was repaired, he could not openly oppose it, but only supported it. Privately, I don't think so. Lu Han Road is 3,000 li long and costs about 32 million yuan. It's hard to repair! Therefore, he said that Zhang Zhidong's "big talk is not true", and finally "I am afraid that it will be difficult to hand in the paper, and it will eventually fall into a thousand miles." If he has no confidence, it will be difficult to succeed, because the court will have to rely on him to succeed.
A few days later, Russia accelerated the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway, and the court urgently needed the three northeastern provinces. Following Li Hongzhang's suggestion, it ordered to move to Lu Han Road to run the Kanto Railway, and planned to build a trunk road from Guye Linxi, from Shanhaiguan to Shenyang Dajinlin, and a branch road from Shenyang to Niuzhuang and Yingkou, with a total length of 2,323 Li. Plus two hundred million silver, as a special fund for road construction in Kanto, and Li is a supervisor, so Lu Han Road was delayed.
But what about the Kanto Railway? 189 1 In June, Li Hongzhang set up the Beiyang Railway Bureau and began to build the Kanto Railway. Only two years later, in the name of celebrating the Queen Mother's birthday, the Housing Department "borrowed" 2 million yuan from the Navy yamen and took all the special funds for road construction. What other railways have been built? 1894, the Jin-Tang Railway has been extended to the outside of the pass, and he is in the pass, so the Kanto Railway, which has been built for about 400 miles, was stopped. In August this year, the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 broke out, and the Japanese army came in, and even 6,000 tons of rails stored in Lushun Material Factory were taken away.
After the defeat in the Sino-Japanese War, the imperial court summarized the reasons for the defeat. Among them, the railway has not been built, and it is difficult to transport troops. Therefore, after the post-war railway revival, Lu Han Road was put on the agenda by the imperial court. As Zhang Zhidong's Hanyang Iron Works wanted Sheng Xuanhuai to take over, he handed over the long-stalled Lu Han Road to Sheng Xuanhuai. One can talk and be good at persuading the court, and the other can do things and know how to do things. Only by talking and doing can the railway be built.
Do "western use" first.
Sheng Xuanhuai was able to do it because he reversed the "Chinese style" and put "western use" first. "Chinese style" is used to say things, not to do things, and "western use" is the opposite. In the meantime, the separation and flexibility are beyond Zhang Zhidong's power. Zhang Yishi, as a teacher, supplemented by "Chinese style and western use", began his road to westernization. He thinks he is full of knowledge and skills. So, he began to westernize amateur. When it failed, Li took over, and Li's replacement was Sheng Xuanhuai.
Li takes "western use" as the first priority and "Chinese style" as the guarantee. When "using western learning" is the first priority, Sheng Xuanhuai will take his place, and when "Chinese style" is the guarantee, he will play the banner of a teacher.
What is "western use" first? Take Xiuluhan Road as an example. How can such a good project be short of money? Official funds are not enough to own private capital, and private capital is not enough to own foreign capital. However, when the project is started, it is very particular, and it is necessary to prioritize and prioritize. If the "Chinese style" is the mainstay, the official Tang is the first. However, the official Tang is the most unreliable. Because the official Tang relies on officialdom, and the use of officialdom lies in politics, and money is taken away when it is said. At that time, the money from Lu Han Road was not taken by Li to repair Guandong Road. And isn't the money Li got from East Road used to celebrate his birthday again? Therefore, the official money is the first, and it is easy to suffer. What about private capital? Private capital without civil rights can be supplemented, but not given priority. Unless the court is open to civil rights, private capital will think that the court is unreliable, take advantage of it and not follow the court.
What is really reliable is foreign investment, which was learned from Hu Xueyan. At that time, if we didn't borrow foreign capital-"use the west first", it would be difficult to start the western expedition. If the customs mortgage-"China Sports" is not guaranteed, it will be difficult to win this war. This is precisely the policy of abandoning men and using them.
China overhauled the railway, and the whole world was red-eyed. Hot money is coming on the news, and everyone wants a piece of it. Besides the giant railway itself, the bigger project than the railway is the urban development and construction along the railway. Which country's capital will be indifferent to this hot land? From 1896 to 1906, Sheng Xuanhuai, as the minister of railway supervision, worked as a "road builder" for nine years, successively borrowed foreign capital1800,000, and built more than 2 100 kilometers, which was six times that of the previous 30 years and even exceeded that of the first 20 years of the Republic of China (60,000). Most importantly, railways are not only expensive, but also profitable. 1905, Lu Han Road was completed and opened to traffic in sections. Only this year, the net profit was 2.375 million taels of silver, 1906, and the net profit was 3.534 million taels. Foreign businessmen can get as much as 600 thousand taels of silver a year, and gentry everywhere are red-eyed. This time, it was not the outflow of silver that worried the court, but foreign capital that worried private capital.
Therefore, Sheng Xuanhuai's "road loan" became the key to the outflow of silver in the late Qing Dynasty.