Vladivostok has become extremely cold in November, with snowflakes constantly floating on the city's heads, crystal ice cubes hanging on the protruding walls, and a little residual ice accumulating on the blue-black city bricks, revealing a deep chill.

Groups of Russian troops crowded into the doorway, around the fire to keep warm, most of them were wearing cotton clothes, but some of them were still thin summer clothes, only stuffed with some cotton wool inside, in such a cold weather, after all, it did not play a key role.

Therefore, since the weather has completely cooled down, there have been Russian troops patrolling the city from time to time who have been frostbitten, and even frozen to death, as for the people hiding in the city, it is even worse, they not only do not have enough winter cotton clothing, but even the fuel is strictly controlled, resulting in many people dying at home, and many corpses are thrown out of the city every day.

Of course, no matter how miserable the city of Vladivostok was, it naturally had no effect on the governor of the governor's palace, and he could still enjoy the warmth of the fireplace and the rare vodka in the city this winter.

It's just that it can be seen from the gloomy face of Count Sara Hurra that his mood is not good, and even a little bad.

"Yunchun has been captured by the Fu Han army, and the Qing Emperor doesn't know whether he is dead or captured, and it is difficult for our people to get more intelligence information."

The intelligence officer Sergei's face was a little worried, everything that had happened recently, especially the failure to take away the Qing Emperor, their intelligence system had been seriously derelict in its duties, and now it had become so passive, it was naturally difficult to explain it to the governor.

Sure enough, after Sergei finished speaking, Count Saratura immediately swept all the things in front of the table to the ground, he stared at Sergei fiercely, and said coldly: "Maybe there is still a lot of news about Yunchun that you don't know, but these are no longer important, but please also ask our intelligence chief to tell me, what do you know about the enemies who have come to the city now?" ”

Sergei suddenly felt that the cold sweat on his forehead was about to fall, although the weather was very cold, but he felt even more chilled in his heart, so he had to whisper: "Your Excellency, the enemy troops under the city at the moment should be the Eighth and Fourteenth Divisions of the Fu Han Army that were stationed south of the Tumen River before, but it seems that there are new troops now...... Maybe it's from the western steppe. ”

"Do you mean the cavalry that swept through our rear strongholds?"

Count Sarahulla couldn't help but feel a little pain in his head, and the current situation was undoubtedly the fastest for him.

You must know that colonization and development have never been easy, and it takes decades or even hundreds of years and a lot of resources for the Russian Empire to build a series of earthen forts on the land of the Far East, accumulate that little bit of force, and form control over the Far East.

But the result of the efforts of one or two generations, it only takes one winter to completely lose it.

Obviously, under the surprise attack of the Fu Han army, the Russian army in the Far East was not really fully prepared, but was caught off guard, the loss of a large number of earthen forts, coupled with the removal of the Russian outposts, made Vladivostok, which had shrunk into a ball, face the risk of being besieged by a lonely city, which was almost a copy of the Battle of Yaksa.

A trace of reluctance appeared on Count Sara's face, he was determined to establish a career in the Far East, and then he could be promoted back to St. Petersburg and become a central and upper power figure, but now not only was this goal getting farther and farther away, but even he was about to lose it.

"Where is the breaking point?"

Facing the fairly detailed map of the Far East on the wall, Count Sara Hurra couldn't help but fall into deep thought.

.......

There are four gatherings in the world, Beijing in the north, Foshan in the south, Suzhou in the east, and Hankou in the west. However, on the coast of the East China Sea, outside Suzhou, there are Wuhu, Yangzhou, Jiangning, and Hangzhou to divide their potential, and the west is only Hankou.

With the rise of the Fu Han army, Hankou Town has gradually upgraded from one of the four gatherings in the world to the head of the four gatherings, and Suzhou used to be faintly prosperous in the city, but now it is a little low-key, a large part of which is that the past Shanghai County has now been upgraded and has received heavy attention.

In particular, the construction of the Shanghai wharf and the subsequent development made Shanghai begin to become a window platform for foreign trade.

Now, with the opening of the Shanghai-Nanjing Railway at the end of July, Shanghai's development has faintly added a lot of impetus, just like this long train, which began to launch its own whistle.

"Woo-woo-"

As the familiar whistle sounded, most of the businessmen who had rushed from Shanghai to Nanjing had already found their places with their tickets, and were sitting on solid wooden seats, their faces calm as usual, but most of them were playing drums in their hearts, nervously and excitedly observing everything around them.

"What the hell is this, sir....... Why don't you see an animal pulling a cart in front of you? ”

A young man who followed his shopkeeper to the car, his face was a little green, and he asked the shopkeeper next to him curiously.

The young man had carefully observed it from before he got on the train, and there was only a big chimney in front of the front of the car, and black smoke came out of it, but there were no cows or horses at all, but just after they got on the train, the train actually moved forward, which was really strange.

Next to the guy sat a young man who looked richly dressed and had a good temperament, it was Shen Weijun, the eldest son of the Shen family in Jiangnan who was dominant among the scholars back then, but finally sold the scholars.

Today's Shen Weijun is naturally no longer the youthful appearance of the year, he has experienced the trend of scholars in Nanjing, although he was lucky to get out, but the entire Shen family is also facing the dilemma of transformation, his father Shen Guanglie in order to get the Shen family out of the emperor's sight, had to sell a large number of Jiangnan fields at a low price, and then took out all the funds obtained to form a chamber of commerce, and began to devote himself to the increasingly hot business world.

Originally, in Shen Weijun's opinion, joining the industrial and commercial world is a dead end, but he died more slowly, but he didn't expect that the industrial and commercial world is so easy to make money now, and it has caught up with the dividends brought by technology, the steam engines and looms that the Shen family originally invested in have become golden eggs to make money, and the large amount of money invested by the Shen family not only did not lose money, but made a lot of money, and the income in a year was almost as good as the output of the previous ten years.

The Shen family, who got such a big surprise, naturally no longer had the psychology of rejection of the new deal, they began to build a large-scale weaving factory, and purchased steam engines and looms in large quantities, and also recruited a large number of female weavers from the south into the factory, which made the business more and more prosperous, and even Shen Weijun devoted himself to the new career, as for the previous careful thoughts, it was naturally gone.

In the words of Shen Weijun's father, Shen Guanglie, that is, their Shen family has to thank the emperor, if the emperor hadn't pulled them back then, it is estimated that the entire Shen family would be like those other big clans, reduced to the situation of raiding the family and destroying the clan.

Now, Shen Weijun has just negotiated a big deal with English merchants in Shanghai, but he is still suffering from insufficient productivity and cannot produce goods in a short time, so he is ready to return to Nanjing to contact several large chambers of commerce to attract their investment to expand his factory in Shanghai and obtain huge profits from this order.

Hearing that Ji Chunsan was puzzled by the train, Shen Weijun smiled lightly, he is also a character who reads books and newspapers every day, of course he will not understand the truth of this train, and immediately said: "I told you to recognize a few more words on weekdays, so I can see how it is written in the newspaper, and I will not commit this joke, this young master will let you see for a long time today, this train is not drawn by oxen!" ”

"Oh? Didn't it pull it with cows and horses? What's that used for? ”

Chun San didn't feel inferior to his shallowness at all, he couldn't help but continue to ask, and many of the businessmen sitting next to him were also the kind of people who didn't know a few words, and they were also quite interested in this question, so they pricked up their ears and listened one by one.

Shen Weijun smiled, "Do you know why this car is called a train?" And why do you run so fast? This is not something that cows and horses can do. ”

"Young master, don't sell Guanzi......" Chun San couldn't help muttering, and the others also nodded secretly, this thing looked like a dog, but he was in a hurry to die when he spoke.

Only then did Shen Weijun proudly look around at the people in the car, cleared his throat and said: "The so-called train, naturally it is a car that can only go by making a fire, and there is a mechanical creation on its front, called the steam engine, and the reason why the train can go is completely due to the credit of this thing." ”

"Make a fire to go? Angry chicken? Is there such a chicken in the world? ”

Not only did Chun San not understand, but he became more and more confused, and so did everyone in the car, although they were amazed that the train could move so quickly and smoothly, but they did not know anything about its origin.

Shen Weijun naturally shook his head disdainfully when he heard Chunsan's levelless inquiry, "It's not the kind of chicken that can be eaten, but a mechanical creation, which can make a lot of steam by burning coal, and then it can push the train to run, and the reason why it can go so fast is not only because of the steam engine, but also because it has railroad tracks underneath....... Forget it, you don't understand all that. ”

Good guy, Chun San and everyone were a little disappointed when they heard this, and the young master said it for a long time as if he didn't say it.

However, although everyone has doubts, they have their own logic in their hearts about this set, that is, this is a treasure made by the emperor, as for why the emperor can make this, it is nothing more than because of the gift of God, as for what is the mystery of the gift of God, is this an ordinary ordinary person can understand?

Therefore, in this environment of divine authority of the monarchy, it is normal for everything to be pushed to the emperor abnormally, and it is impossible for ordinary people to figure it out, which is why businessmen do not hesitate to spend a lot of money to take the train - they make money, but they don't have much to spend, and this train is a treasure that the emperor got from heaven, if you don't take a chance experience, it doesn't have much taste to make money.

As for the price, it is indeed quite expensive, everyone from Shanghai to Nanjing, have to charge five silver dollars, in the past it was five taels of silver, this is not a small amount of money, like the former Qing ordinary green battalion soldiers, a month is only one or two silver!

But for the merchants, not only do they not think that five taels of silver are expensive, but they feel that they are cheap, after all, a treasure like this kind of gift from God can sit down once, let alone use only five taels of silver.

Now that they heard Shen Weijun's explanation, although everyone didn't understand, they felt more and more that the money was worth it, and if they could spend five taels of silver, they could enjoy such a high-end thing, it was simply a word, it was worth it!

However, if these merchants knew that they and the emperor had already returned to Nanjing on the same train, I am afraid that not only would they feel that the five taels of silver were worth it, but even if the price was increased tenfold temporarily, everyone would probably be willing to pay for it.

"It's too expensive, how can it be so expensive?"

On the penultimate carriage of the train, Ning Yu was sitting by the window, with a little unhappiness on his face.

Around the emperor were the ministers who accompanied them, and the front and rear carriages were also stuffed with Praetorian Guards who were on guard, each armed with muskets and handcuffs hanging from their waists, staring at everyone with fierce eyes.

The reason why the Emperor was placed in the penultimate carriage was entirely because everyone thought that the closer to the locomotive was, the more dangerous it was, and therefore the more noble and safer the position was in the latter carriages, so that His Majesty the Great Emperor could only succumb to the position at the end of the crane.

Speaking of which, the emperor really took the first train after returning to Shanghai by boat from the north, which is also a real sight of the world for the emperor who has experienced the high-speed train in his previous life - because he has never taken such a slow train, and the speed is only about 12 kilometers per hour.

In a word, even the speed of a horse can far throw off the speed of a train more than double.

It sounds like a shame, but Ning Yu already had an expectation in his heart, because the early steam engine power could only reach this level at most, in fact, the early trains in the previous life only had a speed of eight kilometers per hour, and at that time, the speed of sixteen kilometers per hour was regarded as a very lofty goal to catch up......

Therefore, Ning Yu, who silently complained about the speed in his heart, began to question the price again, he is not the kind of emperor who does not eat minced meat, like the fare of five taels of silver is obviously not consumed by ordinary people, in this era, there is a high probability that only the real rich can take the train.

For Ning Yu, this is not what he wants, at least in terms of public transportation, and he prefers that the train can serve the public, rather than just become a toy for a few people.