Chapter 263 Wherever the road goes, it is my land

"Boom, boom, boom!"

The roar of the train was noisy, and the carriage was originally stuffy because of the autumn tiger, but when the train actually started, the stuffiness disappeared.

Zhao Heju sat on his seat, his eyes swept over the courtiers, these old ministers of the court, now lying by the car window one by one, staring out of the window blankly, half of them couldn't close their mouths.

When some of them had been on a steamer, but the train still surprised them, the shock was unimaginable.

The same is true of the people who came to see the bustle outside Lin'an Station, even if there were sergeants and errand officers to maintain order, they still followed the car for a long time, until the speed of the train became faster and faster, and it became a small line in the distance.

When they first left Lin'an Station, the speed of the train was not fast, that is, twenty to thirty songs per hour, so the ministers could see that they had passed through the northeast of Lin'an City with this train, and then they saw the huge Lin'an City left behind them. After leaving Lin'an City and receiving a normal signal ahead, the train began to accelerate, and in a moment it increased to eighty songs per hour.

The railway from Lin'an to Huating Mansion has a total length of more than 300 Song Li, and every 100 steps, there is a forbidden soldier on each side of the road, and 300 steps is one mile, that is to say, along the entire way, there are 1,800 forbidden soldiers. The train passed behind them, and the wind blew their robes and hunting grounds, but none of them looked back.

Zhao Youju noticed this and was very relieved in his heart, these original Great Song Dynasty forbidden troops, after more than two years of training and training, now also showed iron-like discipline.

"Your Majesty, now...... What is this speed today? Wei Liaoweng didn't know when he reacted, he ignored the loss of etiquette, came to Zhao Youju, and asked in a trembling voice.

"It's about 80 miles an hour." Zhao Youju said with a smile.

Of course, the test locomotive that was originally built could not run so fast, but with a locomotive that could run, the next improvement work was easier, the most important thing was how to improve the heat utilization rate of the steam engine, Zhao Youju estimated that the efficiency of this steam locomotive should be comparable to the efficiency of the steam engine in the thirties of the nineteenth century in the time and space he traveled through. If the conditions permit, it can run at a speed of about 80 kilometers per hour, that is, 1780 songs, and at this speed, it is just that it does not have full strength for safety reasons.

Even so, this speed is far better than that of a galloping horse, and the most important thing is that the machine is tireless, as long as there is coal, water, and sand when climbing, then the locomotive can run forever.

The scenery on both sides of the road gradually became more visible, and the ministers also woke up from the initial shock, and when they saw Wei Liaoweng playing in front of Zhao and Ju, they surrounded them one after another. If there are any shortcomings in this locomotive, too much noise must be one of them, especially for some old ministers who are old and deaf, if they don't get closer, they can't hear what Wei Liaoweng and the emperor are talking about.

"Your Majesty, this railway is really a livelihood for the benefit of the country and the people, how can you let Your Majesty's inner treasury monopolize its merits, and Your Majesty's inner treasury has many uses, and the minister wants to exhaust this railway, which really makes the minister uneasy, so the minister asks the Ministry of Household Treasury to transfer 10 million to the Inner Treasury, and this railway will be transferred to the Ministry of Households, what does Your Majesty think?"

When they heard Wei Liaoweng's words, the ministers looked as if they had just seen the train move, and they were all stunned and speechless for a long time.

There was not a single fool in the carriage, and when the train could move, they were amazed and immediately began to consider the benefits. Taking the carriage in Lin'an City as an example, the originally inconspicuous carriage business can now bring hundreds of thousands of yuan of income to Lin'an City every year. And this journey is even further, especially for trains that can carry both passengers and goods, and the profits contained in it can be imagined!

Today, the railway passes through the three provinces of Lin'an, Jiaxing and Huating, all of which are emerging industrial areas. Taking Lin'an as an example, because of the silting up of the Qiantang River, it is already difficult for large ships to dock at the port, and even if the wharf is expanded, it is impossible to change the fact that the water depth is not deep enough and it is easy to run aground. Therefore, most of the goods coming in from Lin'an, especially the foreign goods from overseas such as Ziliuqiu, are transferred to the newly built port of Huating Mansion, where they are loaded into small boats, and then transferred from the Yangtze River to the canal, and then enter the Lin'an Wulin Wharf. Not to mention the time-consuming process, it also added to the burden on the Lin'an Canal section, which was already overcrowded by ships transporting coal, grain, and salt. But after the railway is put into operation, these goods can be completely landed in Huating Mansion, and then transferred by train, at the speed of 80 miles per hour, it can be transported to Lin'an in one day, and the manpower, material resources and transportation capacity saved are not known.

Wei Liaoweng is now very sensitive to numbers, just now in his heart silently calculated, conservatively estimated, if all the foreign goods from Huating to Lin'an, a year's income is 2 million, and this does not include the income of passenger transport - it can be imagined how frequent personnel exchanges between Huating and Lin'an will be in the future.

It is precisely for this reason that he did not hesitate to show the proper reaction of a household Shangshu: to find a way to snatch this energy-generating railway from the emperor's inner treasury.

This did not surprise the ministers, but the excuse he used seemed to be that he was afraid that the Son of Heaven would have no cash to use. At the beginning, some people in Shi Miyuan's party scolded him as a hypocrite, but when it comes to the excuse he used this time, he is really a complete hypocrite.

"Your Majesty, this railway should be handed over to the Ministry of Industry for operation." Before Zhao and Ju could object, the person competing with him had already appeared, and it was Chen Guiyi, the secretary of the Ministry of Works.

Chen Guiyi is also a quick brain, in the process of the construction of this railway, the former Ministry of Industry Shangshu Qiao Xingjian, and his current Ministry of Industry Shangshu Chen Guiyi, have spent a lot of effort for it, and the locomotive of this train is simply invented and improved by Xiao Bolang, the waiter of the Ministry of Industry. Therefore, such a big piece of fat, how can Wei Liaoweng bite it alone, although his qualifications in the sixth department are not as good as Wei Liaoweng's old, but he has the killer weapon of Xiao Bolang, so he has the heart to come out and fight.

Zhao Shanxiang, the secretary of the Ministry of War, moved in his heart, and said unhurriedly: "Official, this person who takes care of this railway is originally a subordinate of the Ministry of War to protect the army and the tun army, and it should have been included in the jurisdiction of the Ministry of War, and the railway has a special significance in transporting troops, so it cannot be separated from the Ministry of War no matter what." ”

In the blink of an eye, the Ministry of Households, the Ministry of Industry, and the Ministry of War, who were originally just watching the excitement, rushed together in order to seize the benefits of the operation of the railway, and the three ministers of the DPRK and China looked at each other, while the other chiefs of the ministries gritted their teeth, and they only hated to find a way to let the departments under their control also have something to do with the railway.

"What are you fighting for, how can any department eat up the fat of the railway?" Zhao Heju was happy and angry, and sighed for a while: "Besides, this is just the first railway in my Great Song Dynasty, and there will be countless railways in the future, how about I ensure that all the Qings are well fed?" ”

Zhao and Ju knew the disadvantages of the railway in later generations, and it was supposed to be the most profitable industry, but it was made to lose money by a group of shameless people by taking advantage of their monopoly position, and they also shouted that the transportation capacity was insufficient every year. He said again: "Don't say anything else, starting next month, I will build a railway from Huating to Jiankang Mansion, Wei Qing, I don't fight with you for this railway, you raise money to build it yourself, how about it?" ”

Wei Weng is happy, Huating to Jiankang, to pass through Suzhou, Changzhou, Zhenjiang, compared to the current railway, the volume is only high, and with the completion of the new industrial base of Jiankang, whether it is raw material input or product output, a lot of capacity is required, the benefits of this, think about it makes Wei Weng excited.

"It's no wonder that officials often say that when the train rings, there are ten thousand taels of gold, which is indeed the truth." He thought to himself.

"Ladies and gentlemen, please take a look." Zhao and Ju lifted a piece of cloth hanging on the wall of the carriage behind him, revealing the glass window inside, and a huge map hung in the window, and the ministers surrounded him, this map in addition to the current borders of the Song Kingdom, there are also Jinguo, Liaodong, Mobei, Western Regions, Tubo Tribes, Dali, Annan and other countries and regions, although it is not accurate compared with the satellite map of later generations, but it is already a rare map of the East Asian continent in this era.

"Now I have two railways in the Great Song Dynasty, one is Liuqiu, the railway from Keelung to Tamsui." Zhao Heju took a small stick, pointed to the island in the southeast corner and said, "This is here, it's very short." ”

It's really short, and the railroad is no longer than a fingernail in the entire map.

"The other is from Lin'an to Huating, and it's not long." Zhao Heju pointed to the second road: "But these two railways will be extended to both ends, taking the Linhua Railway as an example, I first want it to extend to Jiankang Mansion ......."

There is a line of words at the top of this map, "Great Song Railway Transportation Planning Map", Cui He put on reading glasses, stared at the eyebrows, and the two railways pointed out by Zhao and Ju were drawn with thick black solid lines, and the railways he said were prepared to be built were red lines. There are two main red lines of these red lines, one is now Zhao and Ju fingers, from Huating to Jiankang, and then north to Xuzhou by ferry, and the other is from Lin'an to the west, to Hongzhou, Jiangzhou, and then along the river to Jiangling.

If these two railways are really connected, it means that the southeast half of the wall where Song Jinghua is located is firmly connected. After the breakthrough, the southeast half of the goods and personnel exchanges, will be more convenient, take coal transportation as an example, the canal section north of the Huai River, originally in winter will be frozen and can not be temporarily suspended, but after the railway is completed, you can use the capacity of the railway to transfer. Moreover, the speed of the train is much better than that of the ships in the canal, and the general windy weather is not affected, and perhaps the capacity is not enough to reach the canal, but it can make up for the congestion of some sections of the canal, but it is better.

In addition to the railways to be built as shown in the red line, there are also marked in green, and this railway is not only in the Great Song Dynasty. For example, one of them is from Xuzhou to the west, all the way through Luoyang, Bianliang, Chang'an, Yinzhou, to the Western Regions, and the other is from Xuzhou to the north, through Daming, Yanjing to Liaoyang, Goryeo. Cui He secretly felt a pang in his heart, this picture not only revealed the Son of Heaven's plan for the future Great Song Railway, but also showed the Son of Heaven's identification of the territory of the Great Song Dynasty: where the railway can be extended, it is the territory of the Great Song Dynasty.

But why did the Son of Heaven draw the Tibetan tribes in the map, that place...... I don't think we can build a railway.

From the current point of view, the speed of the train can reach 80 miles per hour, which means that even if it is tens of thousands of miles from Lin'an to the Western Regions in the future, it can be reached in 20 days, and the Great Song Dynasty will control the remote territory more than any dynasty.

This also means that the Great Song Dynasty does not need to raise a large border army, and maintains an absolute superiority in the central force, no matter where in the country there is a problem, the elite forbidden army troops can arrive and start fighting within a month. Coupled with the use of steamships, overseas territories were firmly in control, and the risk of feudal secession was almost entirely avoidable.

Even, the Great Song Dynasty did not need to set up more redundant officials in order to prevent the local power from becoming too large. The problem of redundant soldiers and redundant officials, which originally plagued the Great Song Dynasty, had an opportunity to be fundamentally solved because of the emergence of the railway. Going to redundant soldiers and redundant officials means that the financial burden of the imperial court is lighter, and you can transfer money to do things that are more beneficial to the people's livelihood.

Just in Zhao Youju's explanation, the train let out a long whine again, and the speed began to slow down, and when the ministers were surprised, Zhao Heju smiled and said, "It's already in Jiaxing Mansion." ”

This surprised the ministers again, but it was only two hours, and the journey that had been a day and a half had already passed. They all looked out the window, and sure enough, in front of the train, a city was approaching.

The driver and crew of the car had been working on the Liuqiu Railway for almost a year and had enough experience to start cleaning the toilets, sweeping the ground, and preparing to remove the garbage. Like the courtiers in the back carriage, the 100 officers and soldiers and craftsmen in the front carriage all happily stuck out their heads, and the attendants had to repeatedly remind them to pay attention to safety.

"Your Majesty, it's really Jiaxing!" Some ministers shouted unceremoniously: "Zhuangzi once said that Liezi would return in five days against the wind, and the history books said that Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty attacked the Xiongnu in the north in order to obtain a bloody horse that could travel thousands of miles a day. Your Majesty's train is far superior to the skill of the column, and it is beyond the reach of the sweat and blood horse, and Your Majesty really descends from heaven to Allah! ”

"Ride the Wind......"

Zhao Youju smiled faintly, he clearly realized that the train was indeed one of the most remarkable inventions in human history, and its existence was even more incomparable for the huge Central Empire. However, it is the plane, not the train, that can really ride the wind, and in his opinion, if his life is long enough, he may really see the day when the plane first created by the Great Song Dynasty will fly into the blue sky. After all, in the history he traveled through, it only took about a hundred years from the steam train to the plane that could go to the sky.

Countless scientific inventions, what really consumes time is not their manufacture, but the exploration and failure in the manufacturing process. Like an electric light bulb, if he Zhao and Ju could make a generator now, he would definitely not need to do thousands of failed experiments to find a suitable material for making filament, but would directly use carbonized bamboo wire, and if the metallurgical level was sufficient, he would even really use tungsten wire. The time saved is not just one day or two.

Just like the train he is riding now, in terms of history, it took 30 years for the train to get to this point, but the intervention of Zhao and Ju made Xiao Bolang's research have a clear direction, and there were almost no detours, and it only took three or four years to make it from a drawing to a practical locomotive.

This is his greatest advantage, with a series of achievements after his pro-government, the original history has long been changed by him, and his prophetic advantage in history has disappeared. But he also grasped the trend of human science and technology, he knew how to promote the development of the steam engine, and he knew that his next goal that would help him to cross the ages would be the use of electricity, hydroelectric power or thermal power, which was not a big secret to him, or even to anyone who studied physics in later generations.

"Today, Zhu Qing took this first train, and in a later he should go with me to comfort those who built railways and made locomotives." Thinking of this, Zhao Youju stood up from his seat, moved his hands and feet, and said, "Today, I will have a court meeting with Zhuqing in Huating Mansion, and then return to Lin'an to rest at night!" ”

All the ministers are in good spirits, back and forth hundreds of miles, such a court meeting is of course only symbolic, but it is also historical, think about today's events, the history will be greatly written.

Note: 20 to 30 kilometers per hour, about 8 to 14 kilometers per hour. Eighty song miles per hour, or about thirty-six kilometers per hour—a figure that early steam locomotives could have reached.