Warlords: Rising from the Northwest Border and Sweeping Across the Powers

Su Zhengyang closed his eyes and rested in the car for about half an hour. The command car had already stopped steadily in front of the gate of the Northwest Railway Bureau headquarters on Jinshan Road in Yong'an City.

"Governor, we're here."

Su Zhengyang opened his eyes and nodded. Qiao Weimin carefully helped Su Zhengyang open the car door. Under the close protection of several guards led by Li Yunlong, Su Zhengyang walked into the five-story Northwest Railway Bureau headquarters.

Su Zhengyang did not say hello to anyone during his inspection this time, but Gou Changqing, the deputy director of the Railway Bureau and a senior talent exchanged from the system, still saw Su Zhengyang at a glance.

"Governor? Why are you here? You didn't even inform us in advance."

Su Zhengyang stretched out his right hand and shook hands with Gou Changqing, then smiled and said, "Our Northwest Railway Bureau has been established for more than half a year, and I have never visited it. Today I came to see your working environment and inspect your work progress."

"Governor, Director Hu is on a business trip to Hutu City. Please come to my office and I will tell you in detail about our current work progress."

In Gou Changqing's office, with an extremely rigorous work attitude, he asked his secretary to bring tea to Su Zhengyang and others, then took out a railway planning map and began to explain it to Su Zhengyang.

"Governor, Yongzhou and Ganzhou are now completely under the control of our Northwest Revolutionary Army. We have control over the Yonglong Railway Line, which was originally 1785 kilometers long, starting from Beilong City in the east and ending at Yongzhou Sishui City in the west. Our Railway Bureau plans to build a 328-kilometer Si'an Railway Line from Sishui to the west, directly connecting Yong'an City from Sishui City, and build four railway stations in Yong'an City, starting from Yong'an City and extending to Hutu City in the north and Sanjiang City in the south of Linzhou."

"The northern railway has five stops, including Hanbei and Cangyuan. On the southern line, the main stops are Zhenyuan City, Sanjiang City, and Yuanshan City. We plan to complete the laying of a total of 1750 kilometers of railways and station construction within one year, connecting Yongzhou and Linzhou, and at the same time opening up the north-south and east-west railway networks in Linzhou, so that all major cities in Linzhou can be opened to traffic."

Su Zhengyang nodded thoughtfully, then asked, "Your plan doesn't seem to mention Ganzhou in the west?"

Gou Changqing explained, "Governor, the northern part of Ganzhou is mountainous, and in the south, the Zhao family spent a lot of money to ask the English Empire Far East Railway Company to build a total of 712 kilometers of railway lines, which pass through the southern cities of Lantian City and Tongshan City. However, half of the shares of this railway line are currently in the hands of the English Empire Far East Railway Company. We have already started a negotiation with the person in charge of their branch in Lantian City, but the other party's attitude is extremely unfriendly. Even though we offered a high price, they refused to sell their shares."

Su Zhengyang frowned. In fact, this situation was not uncommon in the whole of China. For example, the Longgang railway line from Beilong City to Jinggang City, which was only 217 kilometers long, was originally funded and built by the Inglish Far East Railway Company. This short 217-kilometer railway line brought huge profits to the Far East Company in the past years. The dozens of trains operating on the Longgang railway line belonged to the Northern Xinjiang Railway Office under the Northern Xinjiang government. They had to pay the Far East Company at least six million oceans every year to allow them to pass smoothly.

Moreover, the Far Eastern Company often unscrupulously demanded money from the railway office under the pretext that funds were needed for routine maintenance of the railway, which was sheer robbery.

In addition to the Longgang Railway, Inglis also owns the Haixuan Railway, the Fengyang Railway in the central part of the country, and other railway lines with a total length of more than 5,000 kilometers.

It can be said that this is the result of weak national strength and backward development.

Su Zhengyang understood with a little thought that the reason why the Far East Railway Company rejected the Linzhou Railway Bureau's proposal to acquire the railway's equity was simply because he had directly razed the British Concession that had existed for more than 40 years in Qingyun City, making these British people hate him to the core and naturally would not give a good face to the Northwest Railway Bureau.

After a moment's silence, Su Zhengyang sneered, "How can we be bullied by these white pigs on our own territory? Yunlong, call the Far East Railway Company in the name of our Northwest Revolutionary Army and tell them that for one hundred dollars, I want the complete equity of the entire Gannan Railway Line!"

Gou Changqing was slightly stunned. Isn't this a fantasy? You know, the cost of laying railways and supporting facilities in the country is as high as one million yuan per kilometer. The total length of the Gannan Railway Line, which is 712 kilometers long and covers the entire southern Ganzhou, is about 2.6 million yuan even if depreciation is taken into account. The price offered by Su Zhengyang is completely a robbery!

Don’t think that the construction cost is very expensive. In fact, the 200-kilometer Beihong Railway from the capital of Beilongcheng to the capital of Hongzhou, which was built in the late Qing Empire, cost million taels of silver.

If you want to get rich, build roads first. This is an indisputable principle in any era.

"Governor, this will most likely lead to protests and condemnation from the English Empire, and will also affect our international credibility."

Su Zhengyang waved his hand. "England is now stuck in the quagmire of the European war and can't take care of itself. Apart from protesting and condemning, what other means can they use? Are they going to send their own troops across the ocean to fight me? Ignore them. If they don't agree, just get rid of them. It just so happens that we can get control of other domestic railways of the Far East Company."

Gou Changqing was speechless for a moment. His governor was really wild and unruly.

"I will allocate 600 million dollars to your Northwest Railway Bureau! Within one year, I want to see your written plan fully implemented and produce results that satisfy me!"

In fact, although 1750 million oceans sounds like an astronomical figure, it is not enough to build the -kilometer railway network planned by the Northwest Railway Bureau, which covers the entire Linzhou and connects with Yongzhou. Fortunately, with the help of the system, Su Zhengyang has built a railway equipment manufacturing plant in advance, which can produce rail beams and even a series of necessary items including trains, and can save about % of the cost. The million oceans are barely enough.

"Yes, Governor, please rest assured that our Northwest Railway Bureau will definitely go all out and produce results that will satisfy the Governor as soon as possible!"

Su Zhengyang nodded. Once the railway network plan was implemented, the flow of goods and personnel between Yong, Gan and Lin states would become frequent, which would also bring great development to the economy and trade in the three provinces.