"Lord, only for the benefit of the Wei State, Wei will not help me." Zhou Wen was blunt. Although he didn't know how to fight - Qin defected to Chen Shi and became a general, but he was defeated by the Qin general Zhang Han when he entered Hangu Pass, but with his understanding of Wei, he could still make a more accurate judgment. "Back then, the alliance against Qin failed, and the countries of Chu, Zhao, and Yan retreated to peace, and there was no loss, but this Wei State was ......"

"Only this Wei country first lost the song of the dynasty, and then lost the land, and this year I am afraid that it will lose the three cities of Yuanyi, Puyang, and Yanyi." Huang Xie said. After the merger, the Qin State did not fight others, but focused on the Wei State. In the spring of this year, the county soldiers were raised again, wanting to seize Yuanyi, Puyang, and Yanyi. Shen Yinyu and others believe that the number of Wei countries is subject to Qin's attack, and a mention of the combination will inevitably follow.

"Exactly." Zhou Wen bowed his head. "In the past four years, they have been attacked by Qin one after another, and the monarchs and ministers of Wei only want to make peace with Qin in order to quench the wrath of the last time they joined forces to attack Qin. If you unite to attack Qin again, won't Wei lose its cities again? ”

"How is Zhao Guo?" Huang Xie and Zhou Wen were talking, Yu Qing seemed to be outside the body, absent-minded, Huang Xie had to ask.

"Is the Lord asking me?" Yu Qing came back to her senses. Although he is a guest of Huang Xie, he is usually at ease and rarely contributes, and this time he has to be summoned by Huang Xie to go to the meeting. "Dare to ask the lord: Chu and Zhao are two countries, Chu saves Zhao commonly, who has seen Zhao save Chu?"

As soon as Yu Qing spoke, Li Yuan smiled. Wei Zhao is not allied with the Chu State, and Han Yan is even more useless, and the matter of the crown prince entering Qin as a hostage can be decided. Once Xiong Jing entered Qin, Qin really made it not return to Chu as agreed, and Han'er would be the next king of Chu.

Li Yuan smiled, and Huang Xie asked without giving up: "Chu and Zhao are two countries, auxiliary vehicles depend on each other, Qin attacked Zhao several times, that is, he was saved by Chu." And the eldest son of the king Jing is the son of Concubine Zhao and the nephew of King Zhao, if he is the king and it is beneficial to Zhao, why doesn't Zhao save Chu? ”

"The lord doesn't know anything." Yu Qing has some positive colors. "Now my king of Chu is not the nephew of Zhao, Chu also sent troops to rescue Zhao, and the eldest son of Wang will be crowned king in the future, and it will take more than ten years to govern himself. The politics of Chu are all in the monarch, what does it have to do with the crown prince? The desire of the Qin State is only one proton ear, although it is the eldest son, but the eldest sons of Han Yan and Wei are all in Xianyang, why do you want to make a big move for the eldest son of Chu State? Although the eldest son of Han Yan and Wei is in Xianyang, the three kingdoms are still fighting against Qin, what is the weight of protons? ”

Since the Spring and Autumn Period, Zhou Zheng began to communicate, to the Warring States Period has become a mere formality. The kings of each country have several princes under their knees, and even if they are condemned to other countries, they will not take into account the safety of the protons and make a truce with other countries; Although other countries have protons, they do not dare to use this as a threat, for fear that the other party will change to another heir and hold the vacancy.

"With Mr. Yu Qing's intentions, Zhao Guo will not help me this time?" Zhu Guan listened carefully to Yu Qing's words and asked each other.

*

In the capital of Yingdu in August, there were frequent discussions and rumors. The Prince's East Palace, which is inside the road gate, seems to be out of the way, unaffected by it in the slightest. Here are the 'strange roads' that take days to pave around the entire palace:

The logs, each about four or five feet long, were arranged parallel to each other at a distance of about two feet, making a circle around the entire East Palace. On top of the wood, near the edge, are two iron bars. The bars were more than three feet apart, neither wide nor narrow, and the wheels of the four-wheeled carriage above were pressed against the bars, and the wheels rolled along the two bars as soon as the horses on both sides of the road were dragged.

This is a railroad, which is obvious to those with a little bit of common sense in later generations, but more than 2,000 years ago, it was a complete rarity.

“…… Take the iron bar as the road, put the cart and horse on it, pull it, roll forward, and its car is heavily loaded......"

There are historians around the king of Chu to record his words and deeds, and there are also historians around the crown prince. The historians around the King of Chu are more relaxed, but the crown prince is different here, every time he creates something new, the historian in charge of remembering it has to cut off his hand.

"Your Highness, this is the railway?" Gong Yin Dao followed the frames running on the iron bars until they turned to the other side of the palace.

"It's not a railroad." Xiong Jing shook his head, "At most, it is a horse-drawn railway, and only by developing the power of water and fire and driving the carriage with the power of water and fire can it be regarded as a real railway." At that time, a car can hold four or five hundred tons. ”

The concept of tons of Gong Yin Dao is well known, generally calculated, one ton is equal to four thousand Chu catties, and five hundred tons is two million catties. A railway car can hold two million catties, and Gong Yin's back molars are exposed.

"Your Highness, even Marat, what you are carrying is amazing." It was the Yin of the Jade Mansion who spoke. Three four-wheeled carriages loaded with six tons of goods were dragged by two horses to rush around the entire East Palace, and it was at this time that the capacity of the four-wheeled carriages was really brought into play.

"It depends on whether the bearings you make are reliable or not." Xiong Jing replied. Unlike ordinary carriages, these three carriages used bearings made by Yufu. It's just that the quality of this bearing is not clear. The carriage turned more than ten times, moving faster and faster, and when the temple people who counted shouted thirty laps, the carriage did not return to the southern starting point for a long time. The temple people ran over and back, "Tell Your Highness, the Imperial Handword has not turned in a round." ”

Yu Yin was ashamed when he heard this, and ran over to see Xiong Jing's salute. There was no reaction to Xiongjing, and the bearings were not so easy to make. Although there were craftsmen who made delicate objects, and they themselves drew the bearing structure and made vernier calipers, it still took a long time to accumulate experience.

"Your Highness, if you don't have the power of fire and water, just a horse, how many things can you transport?" Gong Yin Dao saw that Xiong Jing did not move to see the broken carriage, so he asked about the horse-drawn railway, wanting to know how effective the horse-drawn railway was.

"Only with Marat?" Xiong Jing thought about it, he could remember the horse-drawn railway of the Russian army during World War I, the theoretical maximum transportation volume of 100 versts per day and night was 500 tons, and the actual average transportation volume was around 180 tons. To reach 500 tons it would take three pairs of trains, each with 100 wagons, to carry a pitiful 166 tons each.

This is obviously too little, and even without railways, each four-wheeled carriage could hold 1.66 tons. However, considering that it was wartime, the slope limit was very broad in order to achieve the 2.88 km horse-drawn railway that was paved every day and night as stated in wartime statistics. If according to the normal slope limit of the railway, the towing of two horses should not be less than three tons, so calculated...... Xiong Jing was taken aback, if each carriage is loaded with three tons, three pairs of trains, the horse-drawn train can carry 900 tons of goods every day and night.

The volume is very large, and the cost is also expensive. Even if 7.25 kilograms per meter of rails are used, plus road spikes and other materials, 16 or 7 tons of steel are needed per kilometer, which is worth more than 1,000 gold. Even if you don't count the cost of civil construction, bridges, facilities along the way, and vehicles, you can't build a hundred kilometers of railways with the annual financial income of the Chu State, which is really too expensive.

Even if the converter can produce steel, the price of steel will be reduced to the most ideal ten dollars per catty, and the cost of 16 tons of steel will be 133 gold, which is also very expensive. The only thing that can afford it is probably only the iron wooden rail, but the iron wooden rail also needs to use iron, one kilogram per meter, and two tons of iron per kilometer, which will not be less than four gold.

Yu Yin went and didn't come back, and after Xiong Jing thought that the cost of the iron and wood rails could be affordable, he no longer thought about the broken bearing, and went straight to the room to see the map of Chu State. What he thought was: With the current situation of the Chu State, how should the railway be repaired?

In terms of military and economy, it is necessary to connect Lu in the northeast, Song in the middle, and Chenxian, Pingyu, and Chengyang near Wei. This is the most densely populated area of the Chu State, but because the Rushui, Yingshui, and Pushui all flow from north to south into the Huai River, the route of the traders is generally to go downstream, enter the Huai River from west to east, and then turn from the Huai River to other rivers, and then go upstream. In this way, even if it goes down the river to the east, the journey will take more than half a month, and the retrograde time from east to west will be longer.

If all the cities upstream of these rivers are connected by rail, then the journey from Ludi in the northeast to Chengyang in the westernmost part will be a journey of day and night, and the journey will take less than three days, and if you only travel during the day, it will only take six or seven days.

Militarily, the significance of the existence of this railway is to enable the state of Chu to mobilize the soldiers of the whole country as quickly as possible. For example, in the war against Qin, it takes at least a month from the king's order to the assembly of the army, without a railway, but if there is a railway, the mobilization time will not exceed ten days. Catch him off guard when the Qin army is not fully assembled, eliminate part of the main force of the Qin army, and occupy some important cities and passes in the territory of Qin, and the subsequent war will be easy to fight.

For example, when the Qin army of more than 300,000 troops attacked Zhao with all its might, they gathered to the border of Chengyang within ten days, and then quickly captured Dan (now Zhechuan, Henan) and Xi (now Xixia, Henan) in the lower reaches of Danshui with their superiority in strength, and used their geographical advantage to fight against the Qin army that came from a few months later.

"Zijing ......" thought that Xiong Jing, who could take advantage of the huge capacity of the railway to recover his hometown, was a little enthusiastic, and he didn't want anyone to call him behind him, it was a crown.

"Meet the teacher." Xiong Jing hurriedly bowed as a disciple.

"What, Zijing wants to restore the hometown of Chu?" The crest is still a feather hat, unkempt. He saw Xiong Jing's fingers caressing Dan and Xi Eryi, what these Eryi represented, he knew very well.

Since the founding of the Chu State, it has always attached importance to the defense of the north, so it built Fangcheng at the junction of Nanyang County and Korea in present-day Qin, from which the county name of Fangcheng County in later generations was derived. The Battle of Chuisha in 302 BC caused the state of Chu to lose its entire city of Fang. Four years later, in 298 BC, King Huai of Chu died, King Xiong Qingxiang of Chu ascended the throne, and the Qin State raised an army to attack Chu due to the failure of extortion, and pulled out the sixteen cities of Yi.

Nanyang is a basin, and it is the revolving door of the entire Chinese military geography. From here, to the north is the Central Plains, to the east is the two Huai, to the south is the two lakes, and to the west is Guanzhong. The Sixteen Cities of the Qin State opened the door to the Nanyang Basin from the west. More than 20 years later, it was precisely because the Qin army could smoothly enter the Nanyang Basin. Xiong Jing's hand touched on Xiyi, nothing more than to close this gate, calmly eliminate the scattered Qin troops in Nanyang County and Nanjun, and recover his hometown.