In the eastern suburbs of Xiyang City, a railroad carriage is slowly moving eastward, there are five carriages, each carriage is exactly the same style, and the workmanship is much more exquisite than other railroad carriages along the line.

In the first carriage, Huang Governor Shi Hao Wu Bozheng and other officials sat and drank tea, experiencing the comfort of the "special train".

On the left side of the carriage is the aisle, which occupies only about one-third of the space, and the remaining two-thirds of the space on the right is a compartment with a door, with a couch, a several, and a couch.

Several maids carried teapots and poured tea for the officials seated opposite each other in each compartment, and although the carriage was a little shaky, the trained maids poured the tea steadily into the teacups.

Next, several other maids stepped forward with food boxes and placed the warm meals on the dining tables of the officials.

The table is fastened to the floor of the carriage by a snap button, so it does not move due to a slight shaking, but after all, it is a moving carriage for dining, and many people are not very comfortable at first.

But the carriage on the tracks was smoother than the one on the dirt road, so that gradually everyone was able to eat normally, and when the meal was finished, the maids took away the utensils, brought a basin of warm water and hand towels, and told the passengers to wash their hands.

Everything is similar to the process of receiving visitors in post houses and post stations, although the place is a little narrower, but it also gives the officials the same feeling, sitting on this kind of "special train", the comfort is similar to that in the wing room of the post house.

You can sit, you can lie down, after the sliding door of the compartment is closed, even if the sleeping posture is not elegant, you are not afraid of being seen by people coming and going, you can also eat, drink, go to the toilet, and rest in the car, and take the special train is really the preferred way to travel long distances.

It's a pity that the special train only runs on the railway from Wuchang to Xiakou, and where there is no railway, of course, there is no special train.

Normally, officials take their families, salutes, and servants to other places, and the journey is only about thirty or forty miles a day, because even if there are horses, the speed of the procession will be slowed down by the foot people.

Based on the distinction between the noble and the low, even if it is a popular four-wheeled carriage in Shannan, it is impossible to seat many people in one carriage, so unless there are many horses, the servants and maids who accompany them are all advancing on foot.

At noon, you have to eat, you have to avoid the hot sun, so there is not much time to travel in a day, according to the past, an official with his family, entourage, luggage, from Wuchang to Xiakou, it takes at least four days.

Now, if you start on the same day, you can arrive in the afternoon, because the carriage is always moving forward, except for changing horses, and the members of the carriage can calmly eat, go to the toilet, and rest, and will not delay the journey.

This is very important, saving the passengers the fatigue of the journey, for the officials of Xiyang, Huangzhou, in the future, to Anlu, they can take a boat to cross the river to Wuchang, take a railroad to Xiakou, and then take a boat to Anlu.

This way of travel is about the same time as riding a horse and taking the official road to Anlu, but it is not so tiring, and today Hao Wubo took everyone to experience the special train, which is to make a reference for dividing the specifications of the special train.

The rail carriage carrying passengers should be divided into two types: officials and civilians, and officials should also be divided into grades, and officials should travel according to different ranks, and the specifications of the carriages are different, so the specifications of the special train are also clear.

Not only the official position, but also the special train of the person whose title is a duke, and the person whose title is a marquis, must also have different specifications, and how to divide it has not yet been determined, because the etiquette system of the Zhou State does not stipulate the specifications of the railing carriage, and the carriage of the railroad carriage is larger than the ordinary carriage.

But one thing is certain, that is, the more comfortable and spacious the special train carriage, the more it can reflect the status and dignity of the passengers.

The official with the highest official position in the Shannan realm is the Daxingtai Shangshuling and its Shangzuo, followed by the governors and their superiors, and then the state assassins and their superiors, and the military attachés can also be divided into several levels, as for the title, the highest is the Xiyang King at the level of the county king.

The people who may take the special train, not only many officials and generals of high rank, but also the family members of these people, some of the family members have orders, so they have to consider the rank of the female dependents, and it is impossible for the railroad carriage to prepare the corresponding special train for these people one by one, so how to determine the appropriate specifications is a headache.

A series of factors such as officials, titles, and scattered ranks are combined, so that Hao Wubo can't come up with the best plan after racking his brains, so he took his subordinates on a special train today to brainstorm.

The current special train is mainly for officials from Wuchang to Xiakou, if it is from Xiakou to Wuchang/Xiyang, you can directly take a boat down the river, so in general, there is no need to prepare such a train.

Hao Wubo's initial concept, first of all, the official car and the civilian car should be separated, and the official car is divided into four specifications, the outer dimensions of the carriage are the same, but the layout of the carriage is gradually narrow, and the decoration is also simplified step by step.

It is best to make a 'general' carriage, the layout of the carriage can be changed more conveniently, so as to reduce the cost as much as possible, but it is easier said than done, Hao Wubo feels that the situation is critical now, and Yu Wenwen also asked him to be in charge of this kind of thing, which is a little difficult to distinguish the priority and urgency.

The officials on the bus expressed their opinions on the specifications of the special train, and Hao Wubo only felt a buzzing sound in his ears, rubbed his temples, and ordered everyone to write out the ideas and hand them in after they went back, and he read them one by one.

Hao Wubo was a little helpless to spend so much time for a two-hundred-mile railway, but he knew that this railway was of great significance, because Yu Wenwen's ambition was not small, and he needed this railway to accumulate operating experience.

Hao Wubo had heard the bright prospect of rail transportation described by Yu Wenwen, but he didn't dare to believe that it could really be realized, because it would require huge manpower and material resources, and the effect was doubtful.

Not to mention that it has already cost a lot of money to build a 200-mile railway, and it is very difficult to run, and if he builds a longer railway, he thinks that it will be a waste of money and waste, and so much iron and money will be wasted in vain.

Perhaps, it is time to write to King Qi and ask him to let Yuwenwen "calm down"?

Hao Wubo flashed such a thought in his mind, and at this moment the special train slowly stopped, he looked out the window and found that he had arrived at Bakou Port, took out his pocket watch and looked at it, and found that the special train had arrived at its destination on time.

Stepping off the special train and breathing in the fishy air by the river, Hao Wubo looked at the familiar port and was quite pleased, Bakou Port, like Xiyang City, is becoming more and more prosperous, and the emergence of the double-track railway has made the connection between the two places closer and closer.

Therefore, Hao Wubo has a very complicated feeling about the railway, and at this moment, a large number of ships appeared on the river in the east of Bakou.

It was the return of the Hulin Army after nearly a year of going out, and Hao Wubo came to Bakou this time, in addition to experiencing the feeling of riding a special train, but also to welcome this strong team under the command of King Xiyang.

Based on some considerations, Sima Yuwen of Huangzhou sat in Xiyang and did not appear in Bakou at the same time as him.

Bakou Port had vacated a large area of the wharf so that the ships of the Hulin Army officers and soldiers could berth, Hao Wubo looked at the military families gathered around the wharf, and then looked at the ships in the distance, and sighed.

The King of Xiyang didn't know what the consideration was, and he actually gave the soldiers of the Hulin Army a thirty-day vacation, and Hao Wubo felt that it was really a little difficult to distinguish between the priority and the urgency.

Even if you resist the Wei Chi army in Yuzhou, the movements of the Chen army in Jiangnan are really not worth paying attention to? It's not good to be so underestimated!

Hao Wubo thought about it, and turned his gaze to the farther east, the news of the internal strife in Zhou should now also reach Jiankang, the capital of Chen Guoguo, and if Emperor Chen made peace with Wei Chiyou, the commander of the Zhou army in Jiangbei, the situation would take a sharp turn for the worse for Yuwen.

What if Chen's army did not cross the river to attack Huainan, but went up the river to recover Jiangzhou?