The next day, there was nothing that was not in plan, and Yun Xi had successfully completed all the excerpts in the morning, and after lunch and lunch break, he came to the Imperial Horse Prison to see the experiment of the railcar he had ordered to go down last month. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

These days, the craftsmen who study the railroad carriage jingle all day long, Yun Xi can't hear it in the Qianqing Palace, but everyone can hear this sound a little south.

Some ministers, such as Jian Yi or Xie Jin, once understood what this was all about, and after learning that it was 'making a new style of carriage', they didn't say much.

Probably influenced by the Mongols' emphasis on technology, in the early years of the Ming Dynasty, not only did they attach importance to technology, but also did not discriminate against craftsmen, 2 many craftsmen were promoted to directly serve as officials in the Ministry of Industry, and later in the Yongle and Xuande years, there were also craftsmen as officials. Of course, as the power of civil officials in the imperial examination increased step by step, it was difficult for even prisoners to become officials, let alone craftsmen.

But at this time it was okay, plus it was necessary to build a new carriage for the emperor, so the civil officials did not say anything.

Yun Xi walked to the place of the Imperial Horse Supervisor, and saw a very long track extending from a distance, because of the relationship between the wall, Yun Xi could not see how long this track was, but it was already more than a mile long as the eye could see.

At this point, there is some sound on the other side, and there is no movement on the track. Yun Xi guessed what the craftsmen were probably doing over there. He walked along the tracks himself, watching them carefully as well.

At this time, Bai Xiguang, the eunuch of the Imperial Horse Prison, trotted over and saluted and said, "I have seen Your Majesty." ”

Yun Xi waited for him to get up and asked, "How is the experiment going during this time?" How much faster can a railroad be than a trackless? ”

Bai Xiguang said cautiously: "Your Majesty, we have built a total of four miles of tracks, all of which are iron-clad wood; The wheels were modified according to the tracks, and then the carriages were driven on the tracks. ”

"Pulling the same amount of things, the horses on the railroad can run faster and longer than the horses drawn by the trackless carriage; If they were to run at about the same speed and at the same time, then a horse running on a track could pull more than twice as much cargo as a horse without a track. ”

Yun Xi stretched his eyebrows and said, "That's not bad!" ”

Bai Xiguang continued: "However, the carriage often presses over the tracks, the wood is easy to deform, and the iron sheet will also rust, so it is necessary to have people to replace the wood and replace the iron sheet. The wood that had been replaced could no longer be used for anything other than fire; The iron sheet can be used again to grind away the rust, but it is not too easy. ”

Bai Xiguang said this, and their group had already arrived at the place where the craftsmen were.

When those craftsmen saw Yun Xi, who was wearing royal clothes, come over, they all stopped what they were doing and knelt down and said, "I have seen His Royal Highness the King of Gaoyang County." ”

Yun Xi said, "Get up." ”

Yun Xi knew that Bai Xiguang, as the eunuch of the Imperial Horse Eunuch, probably knew a general idea of these things, and he would not know the details, so he said to him: "Bai Xiguang, you go down to do other things first, Lone doesn't need you to always accompany him here, Lone heard that your Royal Horse Supervisor has been quite busy recently, you can go." ”

Bai Xiguang bowed down and said, "Your Highness, the slave has gone." If there is any command, His Highness can call the servant at any time, and the servant is in the place on the right. He didn't want to stay here anymore, Yun Xi asked again, and it was estimated that he wouldn't be able to answer the question, so it would be better to slip away early.

And during this time, the Imperial Horse Supervisor did have a lot of things, and he was also lacking in skills, so he decided to leave with Yun Xi's words.

Yun Xi turned his head, sat down on the chair brought by the eunuch of the Imperial Horse Prison, and said to most of the craftsmen: "What were you doing just now, just keep doing it, you don't have to stop because you are alone." Then he said to the carriage, "Come here." ”

The eunuch on the side carried the canopy over to shield Yun Xi from the sun, and the carriage came over and saluted and said, "Your Highness." ”

Yun Xi asked, "Just now Bai Xiguang told me about the pros and cons of the railroad. I won't talk much about the pros, but the disadvantages, in your opinion, if all iron is used to make rails, will it work? ”

In Yunxi's opinion, all the rails made of iron do not need to be replaced frequently, and some rust is nothing, the only problem is whether the iron production can be enough.

However, this is also relatively easy to do, Yun Xi was a child of workers in one of the major steel factories in China in his previous life, and he still knew a lot about building blast furnaces for ironmaking, and it was not a problem to have a certain amount of funds and manpower to increase iron production; And Yunxi didn't roll out the railcar on a large scale at the beginning, there must be a time.

But the carriage was silent for a long time, and said, "Your Majesty, this use of rails can be much less time to change; But how to prevent people from stealing iron? ”

Well, this one question stopped Yun Hee. A pile of iron is placed on the ground, and there is no one to guard it, so it is strange that no one steals it, and as long as he is not caught red-handed, it will be difficult for Yun Xi to catch the person who steals the rails. Yun Xi ignored this matter before, and when he said it, he also knew that the rails of the whole railway were not feasible at this time.

The carriage continued: "But if you want to save trouble, in fact, after the horses have been trained, they don't have to be driven, just let the horses run." ”

"It's just that it's better to stop every few miles to change the carriage and prevent anything from happening to the cart."

Yun Xi thought about it: "It seems that although this railcar is useful, it is also quite limited in its use, and it cannot be compared with a train. ’

But it can still be used. The water network in the southern region is dense, the weather is humid, the wood is easy to rot, the iron sheet is easy to rust, and it is of little use; However, there is a lack of river transportation in the northern regions, especially in the northwest, and the use of railcars is still beneficial. They could have been laid along the post stations, at most adding a few more in some places. ’

Yun Xi asked a few more details, and then sent someone to call Bai Xiguang over and said to him: "I see that this railroad is still of some use. You can discuss it with Tingshan, the eunuch of the inner official prison, and then say hello to the Ministry of Industry, and start building such a carriage and track that runs on the tracks. You don't have to build too much at first. ”

Bai Xiguang bowed his head and promised: "Yes, Your Majesty, Your Highness." ”

Yun Xi said to the carriage again: "You work hard here, continue to see where you can improve." Lone will definitely make you an official in the future! Yun Xi's words made the carriage not know how to answer. He didn't know if it was because of excitement or other feelings, so he couldn't say a word when he knelt on the ground.

But Yoon-hee didn't wait for him to answer. Yun Xi finished talking about the matter in the Imperial Horse Prison, and turned around to go to the Inner Eunuch. Most of the craftsmen belonging to the inner palace are in the inner official prison, so he has to go to the inner official prison.