Outside of Tokyo, the town on the edge of the Bianhe River is actually a first-class prosperous place. Cars, boats, foot shops, reverse passenger houses, all kinds of shops are lined up one after another, no less than ten thousand, and the people come and go is not inferior to how much in the city.

At this time of the year, it was the peak of families coming out to buy New Year's goods, and not only the people in the vicinity flocked to it, but even the people who lived in the city also went out of the city to buy because of the cheap prices outside the city. But now the two-month drought has driven up prices, and people who have no money to spare have the intention of going out to shop, and the atmosphere before the New Year's Festival is not at all.

A tavern that was originally located by the Hongqiao on the river, which was lively every day, was also a big drop in business. Nowadays, although there are customers who come to the door, they order the cheapest food and drink, and they use their complaints as a toast, which makes the atmosphere in the tavern extremely gloomy.

"It's really hard to live these years!" A middle-aged man took a small sip of half a sip of wine in a bowl and lamented with wine.

A thin descendant at the adjacent table put down the bowl and was furious: "It was the new method of the prince who made a moth that caused today's catastrophe." It's just a natural disaster, why can't you even be reluctant to open a regular position? Do you really have to wait for the price of food to rise before selling? Don't let people live!? ”

"Amitabha, natural disasters and man-made disasters." Sitting by the door, a monk also sighed. The bare scalp is blue, and the short stubble is a minute or two long.

The shopkeeper, who had been listless, raised his head behind the counter and asked the monk: "Master, didn't the Li family member in Hexi just donate thirty catties of sesame oil to you a few days ago, why are you still sighing?" ”

"Amitabha." The monk clasped his hands together: "A monk can't just drink oil, but also eat." ”

When the middle-aged man heard this, he said, "If I can drink more sesame oil, I can eat two less bites of rice." ”

"But oil is expensive!" The shopkeeper sighed, "It's only been two months of hard work, and it's doubled and there is a turn." I can't light the lamp, and I can't put oil on the food. Next time you come to the store, you can also bring some oil by the way. ”

"No wonder the food has been so unpalatable these two days...... middle-aged man dropped his chopsticks, "I don't even have a taste for wine, how much water is mixed with it?!" ”

The shopkeeper listened anxiously: "The conscience of heaven and earth!" I've been out in business for decades, and I've never deducted anything from food and drink......"

As he was talking, the figure in front of the door flickered, and a person suddenly slammed into the door with a bang, but he tripped on the threshold and rolled in.

"Isn't this Li Si?" The middle-aged man lowered his head and looked at the rolling gourd on the ground: "Why are you panicking like this?" Do you want to hide from your mother-in-law? ”

The thin and tall descendant also knew the person who came, and said with a narrow smile: "Fourth brother, don't worry, when the fourth sister-in-law comes, we won't say that you are here, only that you went to find Xiao Chunhong under the east gate!" ”

"Talking about your mother's nonsense!" Being teased with his handle, Li Si got up from the ground with a scolding and said loudly: "There is a car on the river!" There are carriages walking on the Bianhe River! ”

There was a moment of silence, and then laughter erupted in the tavern. The tall and thin young descendant covered his belly, knocked on the table hard, and laughed: "Fourth brother, you are talking nonsense!" ”

Li Si was anxious: "What are you lying about?" Dozens of cars are running on the ice......"

"Amitabha." The monk bowed his head with his palms together, and proclaimed the Buddha's name: "The car is not a car, the horse is not a horse, Li Shizhu, everything is a dream bubble......

"Lord of your mother, monk, I don't have the money to cheat you!" Li Si scolded again, and said anxiously to everyone in the store: "This is true!" Lying dead family! ”

As if to testify for Li Si, a group of people outside the tavern ran in the direction of the Bianhe River, and there were faint rumors of 'carriages' and 'chariots' or something.

The middle-aged man and the tall and thin junior glanced at each other, then followed Li Si out of the tavern, and flocked to Hongqiao with the group of people from Fang Cai. The monk looked at the empty tavern, touched his bald head, grabbed the rosary and followed him.

These are all old customers, and the shopkeeper is not afraid that they will run away, so he ordered the boy who ran the hall to look at the store, and then went out to see the excitement. He walked up the Hongqiao, still a little puzzled in his heart:

The Bianhe River is not the Yellow River. It is not surprising that chariots and horses cross the Yellow River on ice in winter, but it is never before for a carriage to run on the Bianhe River with a bridge...... Or dozens? There are 100 bridges over the Bianhe River! A car can be divided into two or three, not to mention the embankments on both sides of the Bianhe River, which are much steeper than the embankments of the Yellow River, how can the carriage go down?

The tavern shopkeeper was puzzled and went all the way to Hongqiao.

A wooden arched bridge curves like a rainbow across the wide Bianhe River. This is the most famous Hongqiao on this section of the Bianhe River in Tokyo. In order to cross the Bianhe River without affecting the boats with sails in the river, the bridges on the Bianhe River were built in the style of arch bridges, and the closer you get to the city of Tokyo, the more special the arch bridges become. Take a boat along the Bianhe River to the north, as long as you see a bridge like a rainbow, you should know that you have arrived at Tokyo City.

The sides of the bridge deck, which was several feet wide, were now crowded with people, and on the embankments on both sides of the river, a crowd of spectators had also gathered, and almost a thousand people had gathered in a short period of time, looking down at the river.

With a sweep of his eyes, the shopkeeper found some of his guests, squeezed in from them, looked down, and saw a carriage passing under the bridge, and in a blink of an eye it went north. Soon, it was another car that passed.

The tavern shopkeeper has been running a shop by the Bianhe River for decades, and he has seen more horse-drawn carriages. But he had never seen the shape of these carriages running on the river today. There were only three horses dragging the cart—nay, the shopkeeper found that the one that had just passed by, with mules on either side and only horses in the middle—and the wagon carrying five knots, dragged behind like centipedes. The carriage body had no wheels, only two narrow strips of wood underneath. The sticks of wood were cocked at both ends, and long bars were exposed.

"What is this car called?" Beside the shopkeeper, the tall and thin junior whispered to himself.

No one could answer him.

From time to time, there are such carriages coming from the south, all the way to Phu Quoc Cang. The vast majority were dragged with five bodies in the back. Bags of rice are piled high on each body. Even if such a body does not carry much, but four or five knots add up, at least a hundred stones.

"I'm afraid there won't be hundreds of stones in such a train." The middle-aged man said what was in the shopkeeper's heart.

"You didn't see that one." Li Si pointed to a train that was going away, "See, the boat has been dragged up!" ”

The shopkeeper and the middle-aged man looked at Li Si's hand, and they were all taken aback. It wasn't the body that was dragging behind that wagon.

The carriages had passed quite a bit, and the shopkeeper could tell that the bodies dragged behind the horses had only been put together improvisely. It is not exactly the same, there are large and small, wide and narrow, and the styles are varied, which is completely different from the neat and uniform gang boat. However, the train dragged by Li Sizhi in the first section of the car body is too special, and it is actually transformed by a ship. It was just that the legs were erected under the ordinary boat, and two long wooden strips were nailed.

The shopkeeper and the middle-aged man were dumbfounded: "The boat has also come up." ”

Li Si was now pinching his fingers quickly. With words in his mouth, he was calculating the capacity of this ice carriage. As a foreman on the docks, it's a good thing to have a job in the winter. But how much work there is, of course, must be counted.

A train is about a hundred stones. And seven or eight have already passed in the time he was on the bridge. If this were the case today, there would be almost 200 grain trucks arriving in Beijing a day. That's 20,000 stones.

20,000 a day, 200,000 in 10 days, that's 600,000 stone a month. In the nine months from February to October, the average monthly movement of 6 million stones is only more than 600,000 stones. Although it is said that the capacity of the Bianhe River, the imperial court's gang boats account for a small half of it, and most of it is still occupied by civilian ships. But in winter, the capacity of the Bianhe ice can be less than half of the navigable time, which is already a dumbfounded thing.

"In one winter, it's just a matter of waiting to bring in a million stones." The shopkeeper also counted it out, and he also couldn't close it with his mouth open.

The middle-aged man sighed: "It's much stronger than the Taiping car, and you will definitely not be able to pull a million stones to Beijing in a winter with a Taiping car." Not to mention that there are far fewer livestock to pull carts, and there is less expense on the road. ”

The Taiping car, which is common in the north, can carry five or six thousand catties, and is a first-class truck. However, this kind of truck requires more than a dozen cows, horses and livestock to pull, and not only hang in front, but also tie two horses to the back, which is used to pull backwards when going downhill, saving you from rushing downhill.

The thin and tall Housheng shook his head and retorted: "The water surface is much smoother than on the road, and after the Taiping cart comes up, it can also use a lot less livestock." ”

The middle-aged man sneered: "How can the Taiping car be towed?" Don't look at how slippery it is on the ice either! The wheels roll smoothly on the ground, but they roll on the ice? It's definitely slippery on all sides! ”

The thin and tall post-graduate couldn't argue with the middle-aged man, frowning and puzzled: "These cars don't have wheels, so it's not easy to slip to both sides, but how can those horses walk so steadily on the ice?" ”

At this time, a young man was squeezed down by the crowd of onlookers from the embankment. As soon as his feet stepped on the ice, he slammed into his heels. The back of the head hits the ground, and if it weren't for the fur hat, a piece of the skull would have been deflated.

How slippery the ice on the surface of the Bianhe River was, everyone saw it now, so they were even more puzzled, "Think about how big the horse's hooves are, and they are hard and easy to slip." Everyone fell, but why didn't the horses slip at all? ”

"What do you want to do so much? This is the sleigh car, and Wang Xianggong really brought grain up from the south! "The shopkeeper finally remembered what he had heard two days ago. With his hands together, he chanted repeatedly with the monks beside him, "All of a sudden, the price of food is going to plummet!" ”