The main structure of the iron wheel carriage is wood, only the wheels and part of the base are made of iron material, so the carriage is not very heavy, far inferior to the iron carriage of later generations. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

In this way, as long as Li Longji and dozens of ministers board the carriage, the total weight of the carriage will increase a lot, which will have higher requirements for the manpower to drive.

In order to ensure that the vehicle could pass on the rails at a relatively high speed, Li An added six male servants, with a full quota of eighteen, to drive the head of the iron wheel.

This was also calculated by Ang Lee in advance, and the driving force provided by eighteen people was enough to pull the carriage and dozens of people for planting.

In order to facilitate getting on and off the bus, the position of the carriage and horse is designed in the middle of the side, there are six rows of seats in the front and rear, of which the seats in the front row are wrapped in leather and mattresses, and the comfort of sitting on it is like sitting on the sofa, there is a small open space in front of the front row, where the legs can be retracted at will, which is the most comfortable position, and the rear row is a simple wooden cushion, which is slightly less comfortable.

Li Longji boarded the train first with the support of the two little eunuchs, and Gao Lishi also followed, followed by Li An and dozens of ministers, and boarded the carriage in turn according to their positions.

Everyone was amazed to see the inside of the carriage, this kind of structure was something they had never seen before, after all, the vehicles on land were small, and the carriage built by Ang Lee was very large, and forty-eight seats were placed, the scene was luxurious.

"Your Majesty, you sit at the front."

Of course, Li An wants to leave the best position to Li Longji, and the four seats in the front row are all reserved for Li Longji, and in Datang, no courtier can sit on an equal footing with Li Longji.

However, except for Li Longji, no courtier dared to sit down casually, and when the emperor was present, unless the emperor gave the seat, the courtiers could not sit down casually, this was the imperial power in the feudal era, and no one could touch it.

"Everyone, sit down!"

Of course, Li Longji will not let the courtiers stand in the car, he is still very good to these courtiers.

According to the size of the official position, the ministers of the big government sat down first, and the ministers of the junior government sat down later, and it took a long time for all of these ministers to sit down.

Although Li An's position cannot be regarded as the highest among the ministers, he needs to explain the situation of the carriage to Li Longji, so he sits behind Li Longji, and the position next to him is still free.

"General, sit down too! I sat next to me. ”

Li Longji politely asked Gao Lishi to sit down, his old slave is not young, and it will be more difficult to stand in the car.

"Your Majesty, just stand still."

Colliers excused.

"General, sit down! Otherwise, Your Majesty will be displeased. ”

Ang Lee opened his mouth to answer.

Seeing this, Gao Lishi walked directly to the second row and sat next to Li An, he was the emperor's servant, and he couldn't sit with the emperor anyway, and there were so many ministers in the carriage.

Seeing that all the ministers were seated, Li An lifted the silk curtains on the side and ordered loudly: "Okay, let's drive, let's go." ”

Hearing the order, the eighteen male servants began to push the pedals hard, slowly started the front of the iron wheel, and pulled the carriage slowly forward.

"Hey, it's moving, it's really moving."

"It seems that the front of the car in front can really pull so many of us!"

"This rail car is not only stable, but also can pull people, the only drawback is that the rail is too iron-consuming."

"Yes! Oh, yes! I have thousands of miles of mountains and rivers in the Tang Dynasty, if all the rails are paved, how much iron will be needed! ”

When the vehicle started slowly, all the ministers discussed it in private, and it was not surprising that in the Tang Dynasty, where materials were relatively scarce, the ministers would have such doubts.

Li Longji lay on the comfortable seat, felt the process of the carriage slowly speeding up, and after the speed stabilized, he slowly looked out of the carriage.

"Yes, it's indeed more stable than the horse's, and the transportation capacity is also larger, so I don't have to worry about the horse's surprise, I like it very much."

Li Longji felt that this rickshaw was too comfortable, and he had a little Jiujiu in his heart.

"Thank you Your Majesty for your praise, Weichen will make persistent efforts to make the carriage better."

Li An knew that Li Longji would definitely like it, but he didn't expect Li Longji to praise him in front of so many ministers, which he didn't expect.

Li Longji nodded with satisfaction, looked at Li Linfu in the back of the side, and said, "Right Minister, in the Guanzhong area, can there be iron mines?" ”

When Li Linfu heard this, he was shocked, this time he accompanied Li Longji to inspect, Li Longji and Li An are the absolute protagonists, he, the head of the ministers, has become a relatively minor person, plus he doesn't know much about these things that Li An did at all, so he just smiled and made peace with his colleagues along the way, and did not take the initiative to say any suggestions, nor did he dare to say nonsense, so as not to expose his ignorance.

"Back to Your Majesty, there are nine iron mines in Guanzhong, five of which are being mined, and four of which are unmanned."

Li Linfu's cultural knowledge is not very good, but he knows a lot about many things in the imperial court, and even knows how much iron ore there is in the Guanzhong area.

Therefore, Li Linfu has always been favored, not just relying on flattery and stammering, he also has a few brushes, which makes Li Longji feel comfortable to use.

"Oh, there are so many, what about the reserves?"

Li Longji didn't care about these details, and he didn't expect that there were so many iron ores in the Guanzhong area, but he was more concerned about the reserves of these iron ores.

"Reserves?"

Li Linfu was stunned for a moment, and replied truthfully: "Your Majesty, according to the current mining progress, these iron mines will not be mined for tens of millions of years. ”

Li Longji was overjoyed when he heard this: "In this way, as long as black powder is used to blow up ore, a large amount of iron can be obtained, and as long as there is enough iron, it will be possible to lay railroad tracks on the road." ”

"Your Majesty, as long as black powder is used, the mining speed of iron ore will increase exponentially, and Weichen believes that my Datang will definitely have countless iron materials, and when the time comes, it is completely possible to lay rails."

Li An said with certainty that he has imagined this situation many times, as long as there is no problem with the output of gunpowder, then the mining speed of iron ore will be guaranteed, and once there is a large amount of iron materials, there will naturally be no shortage of raw materials for laying rails.

Li Longji recognized this very much, looked at Li An, and urged: "Li Shilang, if you want to lay rails on the road, you must have enough iron, and my Datang is not short of iron ore, as long as you are in the black powder workshop and configure enough black powder, the mining efficiency of iron ore will be greatly increased, and there will be no problems with the raw materials required for laying rails, so the burden on Li Shilang's shoulders is very heavy, and he must work hard to allocate more." ”

"Yes, Your Majesty, Wechen understands that Wechen will definitely redouble his efforts and allocate enough black powder as soon as possible, so that there will never be a shortage of raw materials for laying rails."

Seeing that Li Longji and Li An had reached an agreement on laying railroad tracks, all the ministers were surprised, but when they thought of the huge power of black powder, the hearts of the ministers were calm, if black powder can really increase the speed of iron ore many times, then, the extra iron can be used to lay rails, that is to say, as long as the iron is enough, laying rails on the road, there is nothing unrealistic, of course, the land of Datang is thousands of miles away, and it is impossible for all roads to be paved with rails, However, it is still completely feasible to pave some of the most core main roads with rails, and Ang Lee has a better plan to increase the capacity of the iron wheel carriages many times, so why not give it a try?

Lying on the comfortable special seats, enjoying the scenery outside the car, the ministers felt very good, if they could sit in such an iron-wheeled carriage in the future, the fatigue of the journey could be greatly reduced, so that the daily distance traveled could be greatly increased, and the people sitting in the car would not be tired.

In particular, these ministers are not young, their bodies and bones are relatively weak, and they can't travel far in a day when they sit in a bumpy carriage, otherwise, their bones will be turned upside down, and if they sit in such an iron-wheeled carriage, they will not feel uncomfortable, and when they go out to inspect, the efficiency will increase many times.

Of course, the premise of all this is based on the fact that Datang has enough iron, otherwise everything is empty talk, of course, these ministers also believe that as long as a large amount of black powder can be produced smoothly, it can greatly increase the output of iron, so that Datang has enough iron to produce rails.

The comfort of the iron wheel carriage has been unanimously recognized by Li Longji and the ministers, at this moment, only the sufficiency of iron is left, and the premise of sufficient iron is the large supply of black powder, and for Li An, providing enough black powder is not a problem at all, so the final popularization of the railway track is already a sure thing, and no one can change it.

The iron wheel car slowly stopped three miles away, because the rails are only such a short length at present, there is no way to go forward, which makes everyone feel a little unpleasant, such a comfortable iron wheel car, who doesn't want to sit for a while?

Following Ang Lee's order, eighteen male servants changed the direction of the drive mechanism and drove the head of the iron wheel car backwards to drive the iron wheel car back to the place of departure.

"Rewind, this can be rewinded."

"It's amazing, Xia Guan was still thinking just now, how to turn the direction of such a big car? I didn't expect to be able to rewind it directly, what a great invention! ”

"Li Shilang has invented so many new things, Lu Ban is alive!"

"Li Shilang's merits are much stronger than Master Lu Ban, and Master Lu Ban can't build rails and iron wheel carriages!"

When the carriage slowly retreated, everyone was surprised, many people were thinking about the problem of turning around, but unexpectedly, the front of the car did not move at all, and it fell back directly, which surprised everyone, of course, some ministers had seen Li An reverse back, and more ministers were busy eating cucumbers, and did not notice how the carriage came back.

Li Longji also recognizes the technology of automatic front steering, and prefers the carriage made by Ang Lee, of course, he hopes that Ang Lee can build a special royal carriage for him to meet his needs in all aspects.

And Li Longji's most desired railway line is to start from the north of Daming Palace and extend to the Hot Spring Palace dozens of miles away, so that every time he goes to the Hot Spring Palace, it is very convenient, and he no longer has to bump all the way.

However, for the time being, all this is not realistic, it is necessary to produce black powder on a large scale, then increase the production of iron ore, and when the iron material is sufficient, lay a long-distance railroad track, and then it is possible to realize his idea.

The iron wheel car slowly stopped at the departure position, and at this point, the experience was over, and Li An stood up first and reminded: "Everyone, you have arrived at the station, you can get off." ”

When the ministers heard this, they all consciously stood up and said in their hearts, before they experienced it, they didn't feel much about it, they felt that laying railroad tracks was too material-intensive, and after the experience, they all changed their opinions, and understood that iron wheeled vehicles have great advantages, and Li An has given a promise that they will continue to improve until these vehicles can benefit the people, so that everything is possible.

"You Aiqing get out of the car first, I still have something to say with Li Shilang."

Li Longji did have a lot to say to Li An, and these words were not convenient in front of the ministers.

When the courtiers heard the order, they walked to the carriage in turn in order of official positions, and after getting off the carriage, they gathered together in twos and threes to discuss the feasibility of laying railroad tracks on the Datang Road, and with the current national strength of Datang, once the railroad was laid, which road should be paved first, etc.

Different ministers will have different opinions, but the general opinions are not much different, among them, the road from Chang'an City to Luoyang City, is the consensus of many ministers, they feel that the relationship between the two cities is the most important, this road is the most important road in the entire Tang Dynasty, so priority must be given to laying railroad tracks.

As for what Ang Lee said, they will continue to improve the performance of iron-wheeled cars, none of these ministers can discuss, after all, they don't understand any of this, and they can't figure out how Ang Lee will fly, but they are still willing to believe Ang Lee, after all, Ang Lee has surprised them countless times, making them feel that Ang Lee is omnipotent, maybe after some research, they can invent more practical iron-wheeled cars.

After all the ministers got off the carriage, Gao Lishi also took the two little eunuchs who had been standing and got out of the carriage, and only Li An and Li Longji were left in the entire carriage.

"Li Shilang, I plan to requisition tens of thousands of people to speed up the mining of iron ore in Guanzhong, what can you supply with black powder?"

Li Longji asked with great concern. (To be continued.) )