The people they talked about were also students studying in the United States. Speaking of which, the Qing government’s arrangements for foreign students were really weird. They went to the United States to build railways and mining, the United Kingdom to build ships and naval, and the United Germany to learn machinery manufacturing and army. This time they returned to China, they were all in a bunch of work, and they looked at all acquaintances.

Seeing Zhan Tianyou start talking about work, Liang Ruhao's expression became serious: "The railway in the northeast is indeed difficult to build. It was better in Liaoning before, and the more you go north, the more difficult it becomes. Now there are two main problems. One is that the railways to Harbin, Qiqihar, and Heihe are all frozen lands, and the foundation of the bridge is difficult to deal with. The other is that Jilin is to Tumen, Harbin is to Suifenhe, two lines, one needs to pass through the Changbai Mountains, and the other needs to pass through Malehuliwoji. You can't imagine how desolate the Ningguta is. If you don't say anything else, you can't even recruit workers, and no one wants to go there."

Zhan Tianyou said: "Didn't you send more than 10,000 Japanese prisoners of war a few years ago?"

Liang Ruhao said: "Yes, if there were no more than 10,000 prisoners of war, could the railway be built so quickly now?"

Zhan Tianyou: "Where is the current progress? I mean it will definitely be useful. Don't say it when you go to the wilderness."

Liang Ruhao said: "Are you so anxious? Take a few steps to the office and I will take a map and tell you in detail."

Liang Ruhao's office is at the station. Nowadays, the city is not as developed. Offices, accommodations and life are all at the station. Even the people set up stalls and set up shops, but they come around the railway station.

After entering the office, Liang Ruhao took out a map and said, "The main line has already arrived in Harbin. The railway to Qiqihar is under construction. The method is to rush to work from all sides. A team of people are repairing from Qiqihar to Zhaodong, a team of people are from Harbin to Zhaodong, and a team of people are repairing from Zhaodong to both ends. The most difficult part of this section is the Songhua River Bridge. As long as the Songhua River Bridge is open, the entire line will be almost done."

Zhan Tianyou looked at the map and asked, "Where are Qiqihar going to Heihe and Manzhouli?"

Liang Ruhao said: "The construction has not started yet. There are two main problems. One is the technology. The climate is colder there, and the requirements for motorcycles, rails, foundations, etc. are higher. We want to wait until the Harbin to Qiqihar section is opened to traffic, observe the technical loopholes, and then start construction. The other is the shortage of manpower. There are also sparsely populated areas there, and Japanese prisoners of war are basically placed in the two lines from Jilin to Tumen, Harbin to Suifenhe."

Zhan Tianyou nodded: "I understand, you can continue."

Liang Ruhao continued: "The Harbin to Suifenhe route is also used in the same way. In the end, the two sections of railways are in Mudanjiang. The most difficult part of this section is Mudanjiang. One is to build a bridge, and the other is to have multiple tunnels to be opened."

Zhan Tianyou said: "When will this line be connected?"

Liang Ruhao thought for a while, "It will be around the end of the twenty-five years."

Zhan Tianyou's brows immediately frowned. "Where is Jitu Railway?"

Liang Ruhao said: "It's almost the same."

Zhan Tianyou said: "If you want to increase the progress, what is needed and how long can it be completed?"

Liang Ruhao thought for a while and said, "Double the manpower, before July 25th."

Zhan Tianyou said: "Only double the manpower can you get half a year ahead of time?"

Liang Ruhao called out: "Is this in the Northeast? It will not be possible to start construction in November and February of the following year. What can the temperature of more than minus 30 degrees Celsius do?"

Zhan Tianyou knew it was because he was anxious: "Okay, try to speed up the construction of the Harbin to Suifenhe route first, this line is more critical. In addition, there is also the Harbin to Heihe route. I will do the manpower and machine when I go back. In short, you'd better complete the construction of these two lines by the end of the 25th year. As for Haman and Jitu, the two lines are lined up after these two."

Liang Ruhao called out: "You have to give me an explanation. I have to tell you why even if I want to work."

Zhan Tianyou sighed, looked at the closed door, and then said softly: "The court and the Germans had a quarrel over the Shandong incident. Do you know this?"

Liang Ruhao nodded.

Zhan Tianyou continued: "The Germans have sent a fleet to occupy Jiaozhou Bay, but we have been beaten back. But the emperor is worried that the Russians will take the opportunity to join forces with the Germans to jointly seize Shandong and Northeast China. So the court now needs railways to complete the transfer of troops and transportation supplies. Do you understand now?"

Liang Ruhao knew that this was not a joke and nodded solemnly: "Please ensure that the task is completed!"

In order to deploy troops, the Northeast has begun to accelerate the construction of railways, and Beijing is also stepping up its response to possible changes.

"First, in terms of military terms, the three infantry divisions in the Northeast are ready for combat. If the Russians dare to use force, we will attack Vladivostok from land and destroy his naval base and fleet supplies. The four bases in Lushun, Tianjin, Weihaiwei and Qingdao are ready for combat to deal with possible wars. The Navy sent a light fleet into Busan, blocking the Tsushima Strait and the Korean Strait with mines, and delaying the Russian fleet's southward pace as much as possible."

"Second, take this opportunity of the priest's evil behavior, conduct an investigation of all German-funded enterprises in China and temporarily control these enterprises."

"Third, increase tariffs on some light industrial products imported by Germany and suspend the export of special steel and fertilizers to Germany."

"Fourth, continue to public opinion propaganda and convey our country's preparations for war to countries around the world. But be careful that this propaganda should be controlled as much as possible abroad, and domestic propaganda must be controlled, and it must not be expanded to tell which newspapers it is related to the prosperity of the country. If there is no room for negotiation, the company will destroy the company!"

"Fifth, strengthen diplomacy. On the one hand, we strive for the British to occupy our side, and on the other hand, we encourage France and Austro-Hungarian Empire to divide Germany and Russia's alliance."

Various strategies have been planned long ago and are implemented according to different situations and needs. Now that the emperor has issued the decree, the rest of the matter will be operated by each department.

For a moment, most of China started to move.

In the northeast, the eighth, ninth and thirteenth divisions began to assemble. The eighth division was heading towards Heilongjiang and the ninth division moved towards the Jilin border area. Zuo Baogui's unit of the 124th Division, responsible for the garrison of Lushun, Feng Guozhang's unit of the 4th Division, responsible for the garrison of Tianjin, and Zhang Wenxuan's unit and Huang Chengyong's unit of the garrison of Weihai Guard, also began to prepare for combat preparations. In addition, Yang Yong's third division, as a mobile division, was preparing to enter the pass again.

The fifth and sixth two divisions in North China, the 126th Central China, the 127th East China, and the 125th South China also actively mobilized. At the same time, the Qing government began to expand the enrollment of the 128th, 129th and 133rd divisions in North China, Central China and Northeast China.

The Navy sent Huang Jianxun to lead a light patrol, three destroyers, three frigates and more than a dozen torpedo boats to perform missions to Busan. Two battleships and three armored cruisers set off in formation, preparing to deal with threats from the sea.

On the North Korean side, the Second Division began to move towards Dandong, and Pyongyang's defense was handed over to the First Division of the Korean People's Army. The Third Division of the North Korean in Wonsan and the Second Division of the North Korean in Busan were also in combat readiness. The garrison troops in Kyushu were also in combat readiness, and even the Japanese government issued combat readiness orders to the remaining divisions ready to deal with possible full-scale wars at any time.

The Ministry of Revenue, Ministry of Industry, Ministry of Commerce, and General Taxation Department jointly acted, and with the assistance of the local garrison, forcibly entered the German business enterprise, sealed the accounts, suspended production and held a workers' meeting.

The Zongli Yamen urgently summoned the ministers of various countries to China to discuss the current situation, on the one hand, win over allies, and on the other hand, they divided the other side.

Tianjin, Shanghai, Nanjing, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Wuhan, Guangzhou, and major newspapers all have soldiers standing guard for 24 hours to prevent excessive remarks from stimulating the situation and causing domestic public opinion to get out of control. Under the "guidance" of the court, the reports of major newspapers are basically based on the main theme of "the court makes great efforts to rectify illegal enterprises and safeguard workers' or "the court's determination to safeguard the rights and interests of farmers from the handling of Shandong lesson plans". On the one hand, let the people and intellectuals know from the side what the current situation is, and on the other hand, they take the opportunity to add points to the court.

The actions against German enterprises and merchants immediately achieved results. First, what could not be resisted was the emerging capitalists who relied on the foreign economy. Then, military-industry enterprises such as Krupp, Rheinmetall, Volga Shipyard, etc. began to be affected. Then, the farmers Junker nobles found that fertilizers from China were of better quality than their own domestic products. Hehe, mainly because of the different formulas. The percentage of this kind of thing was a little worse, and the effect of the things produced in the end was much worse.

Germany has now surpassed the United Kingdom and the United States to become China's largest trading partner. The trade exchanges between the two countries involve military, chemical industry, medicine, steel industry, machine manufacturing and other aspects. The comprehensive cooperation between the two countries in the military field can be traced back to the beginning of the establishment of the Beiyang Navy, after which the Qing government turned its naval cooperation to Britain, and its military cooperation with Germany focused on the army. With the development and utilization of Tangshan special steel, this cooperation was extended to the steel industry.

In the chemical industry and medicine, Zai Tian, ​​who is a monster, has cheated, so in this field, China has become the world's number one. It has the most advanced chemical industry research institutes and pharmaceutical factories. Germany has benefited a lot from its cooperation with the Qing government. The two countries monopolized 80% of the world's production and sales of chemical dyes. The pesticide and fertilizer industries also account for 70% of the world's share.

Faced with such huge economic and trade interests, the government of any country will not easily consider reactionary wars. Just like the US-China relationship in another time and space, the conflicts between the two sides are much more dirty, but it is absolutely impossible to start a war.

At the same time, German officials and ministers also began to evaluate whether the price Germany would have to pay could be afforded even if it was a general mobilization in China.

In France and the Austro-Hungarian Empire were expressing concerns about their firm allies moving closer to each other. The French Foreign Ministry notified the Russian and German Unions, believing that the alliance between Russia and Germany may harm France's interests. And if it caused a conflict between Russia and Britain, France would not bear the responsibility of its allies. The Austro-Hungarian Empire was also warning Germany that getting closer to Russia would inevitably damage the alliance relationship between Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The British told Germany and Russia respectively, on the one hand, calling on the German emperor to maintain restraint, and on the other hand, warning Russia not to try to play with fire.
Chapter completed!