On the south bank of the Yangtze River, Wuchang, the city across the river from Xiyang, is like the reflection of Xiyang City in the water, almost the same hustle and bustle, the same bell tower, and the same bustling streets.

For hundreds of years, Xiyang, Jiangbei has been existing as the north outline (northern barrier) of Wuchang in the south of the Yangtze River, but now the two cities have changed their status, and Wuchang is more like a subsidiary city of Xiyang.

Wang Meng and his entourage, who had just arrived in Wuchang from the south of Jiangbei, stood on the periphery of the wharf, looking at the lively street scene of Wuchang in front of them quite unexpectedly.

But now the hustle and bustle in front of you, could it be that it was conjured out of thin air?

"General Wang, Wuchang was rebuilt five years ago after the war, relying on commerce and trade to gather popularity... Please go this way. Shi Zhengtong, the governor of Ezhou, led Wang Meng to the carriage parked in the open space on the side.

Because Ezhou Assassin Zhou Fashang was out on the expedition, so Changshi Zheng Tong presided over the affairs of Ezhou, and was so busy that he was in the dark, and sometimes he got Huangzhou Xiyang on business, and this time he returned to Xiakou after completing official business in Xiyang, and happened to go with Wang Meng and others.

More than half of the carriages on the border of Huangzhou are in the style of four-wheeled vehicles, so a car can comfortably ride several people, and Wang Meng passed through Xiakou on the way to Anlu, and Zheng Tong, as a magistrate, was supposed to receive each other, so now the two of them are in the same car, just to greet each other in advance.

Zheng Tong is the best at chatting with people, and seeing that Wang Meng is quite concerned about the changes in Wuchang, he introduced it in a timely manner, after all, Wuchang is under the jurisdiction of Ezhou, and he, as a Shangguan, often goes to Wuchang to inspect the people's situation.

Zheng Tong said that the number of farms and workshops in Xiyang is increasing, and the scale is also larger, and the city and the city are a little nervous, so Wuchang across the river has become the first choice.

Many farms have sprung up around Wuchang, and along the Fanshui coast on the west side of Wuchang, there are also many hydraulic workshops, and a large number of goods and poultry and livestock such as chickens, ducks, geese, pigs and other livestock are loaded in Fankou every day and transported to Xiyang on the opposite bank, or transported downstream to the downstream areas.

The Wuchang government also built water conservancy facilities, encouraged the people to reclaim wasteland, promised not to levy rents for three years, and encouraged homeless people to settle in Wuchang and open up wasteland, but these alone were not enough to support Wuchang's current prosperity.

The point is that Wuchang thrived as a transit point for two kinds of goods, one of which was iron products, and the other was raw (slaves).

When Wang Meng heard this, he asked, "Is it a raw business?" ”

"Yes."

Raw mouth trading is not a shameful thing, there are raw mouth transactions in the south and north of the world, it is nothing more than the size of the scale, Wang Meng asked with a calm face, and Zheng Tong answered with a calm face.

As the wagon drove slowly, you could hear all kinds of noises along the way, including the sounds of people haggling, chickens, ducks, geese, and pigs.

As if in a huge bazaar, there are people bargaining everywhere, Wang Meng doesn't understand the local dialect very well, but he probably understands the most frequent sentence, that is, "wholesale price".

Wang Meng was too lazy to listen to the content of the conversation, and the carriage gradually stopped after a long time, and after getting off the train, he found himself in front of the gate of a building complex, and when he walked in, he saw that there was a railway platform in front of him.

At yesterday's practice banquet, Wang Meng knew that his way of going to Anlu today was a little special, not to ride a horse from Jiangbei to Anlu on the official road, but to alternate between water and land.

Take a boat from Xiyang to Wuchang, then take a railcar in Wuchang to Zhixiakou, Ezhou Prefecture, and then cross the river into Zhuankou by boat, and go up to Anlu along the Zhuanshui River.

"A few days ago, the railway in Xiyang City is the only one in the world, but it is neither right nor wrong, because the day after the Xiyang Railway was completed, the railway from Daye to Xiakou via Wuchang was also built."

Zheng Tong smiled on the side, saying that this railway 'grows' from Daye City near Dayejian and has been growing for more than 50 miles, connecting Daye and Wuchang together.

"I wonder why it cost money to build this track?"

Facing Wang Meng's question, Zheng Tong laughed: "Daye's famous products are tens of thousands of catties of pig iron and wrought iron. ”

Wang Fei, who accompanied him on the side, had seen the relevant introductions in the past few days, and began to learn and sell at this time, introducing Wang Meng to Daye-Xiakou, a railway mainly used by the government.

Daye has iron mines, and Daye's iron production is increasing every year, whether pig iron or wrought iron, it has become an urgently needed material in various places.

Iron can be used to make weapons and armor, can be made into various tools, agricultural tools, not to mention that a large number of iron tools are needed to fight a war, Shannan is everywhere in the wilderness of farming, and a large number of iron plows, shovels, iron sickles and other agricultural tools are urgently needed.

The pig iron wrought iron produced by Daye is either made into various tools on the spot through hydraulic forging hammers, or made into iron ingots, which are transported to various places and then melted and made into various items according to needs.

The ensuing problem is the lack of transportation capacity, forty or fifty miles east of Daye is the Xisaishan area on the south bank of the Yangtze River, and it is convenient for iron products to be loaded and shipped by land to Xisaishan Wharf, but the ships full of iron products go down the river to save time and effort, and it is not so wonderful to go upstream.

The Shannan area, which is in urgent need of iron products, is in the upper reaches of Daye, how to solve the transportation problem?

That is to strengthen the land transportation capacity, that is, to build a railway, connect Xiakou and Daye, and transport the iron products produced by Daye Supervisor to Xiakou by rail carriages, and then load them on ships and transport them to Xiangyang and Anlu through Hankou and Zhuokou.

The amount of water in the Han River and the Zhuan River is not worth mentioning at all compared to the Yangtze River, and even if the boat is against the current, it is not so difficult, and the Daye mine has already appeared with railroad tracks, and iron ore is transported by rail vehicles.

The railway from Daye to Xiakou is nearly 200 miles long, and countless iron materials are consumed, if you want to say how much it costs, because all the people who use it are slave laborers, it is not easy to say, if you convert the market price of the consumed iron, grain, cloth and various materials, the cost is about more than one million.

Wang Meng listened to the value that Wang Gong said, and he didn't know how to continue to ask: 20,000 copper coins can build a new state office, or a not too extravagant assassin's mansion, as long as the officials in charge of the project are not too greedy, there is still 20,000 guan left.

Not to mention how many official offices can be repaired with one million guan, what kind of railway are you using to build this?

Or a single-track, single-track railway with a total distance of nearly 200 miles, won't there be a conflict with the incoming carriages? What is the practical use of this thing?

Wang Meng didn't know whether to say that the Huangzhou government was extravagant and wasteful, or that it was tyrannical and ruined, or that the other party was not sympathetic to the people's power, which didn't seem to be appropriate...

But he felt that since ancient times, shipping on the Yangtze River has not been able to avoid the problem of sailing against the current, those thousands of large ships with a carrying capacity, can also find a way to go up the river from Wuchang to Xiakou, and now Zhou Guo has built a railway to solve the problem of sailing against the current, he feels that it is a small loss of big.

Crossing a two-pace-wide stream and building a bridge so you don't get your feet wet? Not to mention that there is a lot of rain in the south of the Yangtze River, and the railroad tracks are afraid that they are rusty badly, so they have to be changed frequently, which also costs money, and there is so much money and food?

Spending one million guan to make this kind of thing, even if you buy two hui of rice with the usual copper money, you can buy two million hui of grain, which is the ration of nearly 80,000 soldiers for a year! You used it to fix this chicken ribs?

Zheng Tong saw that Wang Meng wanted to speak and stopped, and did not say much, the group drank tea and chatted in the pavilion, and after a while, a clerk came to report that the preparations were completed, and they walked up to the platform and prepared to take the train.

Of course, the ride is a 'special train', except for the 'head' of the coachman, the special train has a total of five carriages, the first two are for officials, family members and relatives to ride, the third is a special carriage that can be convenient for people on the way to the carriage, and the last two are the carriages for ordinary entourages and guards.

The five carriages are connected in series by a special structure, which can be carried from beginning to end, can carry 80 people and a certain amount of luggage, and the special train can reach Xiakou nearly 150 miles away from Wuchang in about three hours (six hours).

In fashionable terms, the speed of the special train is twenty-five miles per hour.

It doesn't seem to be very fast, but considering that with only eight horses (to change halfway), it can pull eighty people and luggage from Wuchang to Xiakou in three hours, which is not ordinary.

Wang Meng has led his troops to fight for decades, and of course he knows what the speed of the march means for combat.

Eighty soldiers marched on foot with their baggage, and even if they marched a hundred miles a day, it would take a day and a half, and when they reached their destination, they had to rest and could not immediately go into battle.

Eighty soldiers with their baggage rode in a special train-like carriage, where they could eat, drink, and lazar, complete the same march on the same day, and be immediately put into battle.

There is more than one "column" of special trains in front of them, and the special train that Wang Meng and his entourage are riding is located in the middle, and there is a column of "Pulie" as the front and rear guard, that is to say, twenty-four horses (to be changed halfway) can easily transport more than 240 people to Xiakou on the same day.

If there is a change in the upper reaches of Xiakou, the Wuchang reinforcements will be able to arrive at Xiakou on the same day and enter the battle!

Wang Yong, who was on the side, also saw another important significance of this railway, and he asked Wang Meng with a smile: "Shixiong, do you know the origin of the name of Wuchang?" ”