Although the Ming Dynasty has sent nearly 500,000 troops to the Southeast Asian Peninsula, for the Ming Dynasty, there is no sense of the existence of war.

The life of the people of the whole Ming Dynasty is still as rich and busy as usual, and with the promotion of electric lights to the provincial capitals of the political envoys, the night markets in various towns have become more lively.

Some large families or some lively street markets even began to sing operas, listen to music, dance lions, and juggle all night long.

The people's non-working hours were extended, the demand for entertainment naturally increased, and the consumer demand began to increase significantly, which further promoted the commercial prosperity of the Ming Dynasty.

However, due to the increase in demand for entertainment, the tertiary industry has also developed rapidly, and more and more people have begun to specialize in art, literature, music, and drama without direct labor production.

Legendary books such as talented and beautiful women and heroic epics, which were popular in the market in the past, have become more popular, and some publications specializing in serializing various legendary stories have begun to appear in media newspapers and magazines that mainly relied on publishing academic articles and news at the beginning.

The word "magazine" also began to appear in the Ming Dynasty in advance, but compared to the traditional entertainment methods of previous years, the general public was still interested in novelties such as steam trains and electric lights, which were often mentioned recently.

With the arrival of the 29th year of the Apocalypse, because the Daming Daily disclosed the news that the first railway from Shanhaiguan to the capital of the Ming Dynasty was about to be completed and opened to traffic half a month ago.

Therefore, during this period of time, more and more people began to crowd along the line from Shanhaiguan to the capital, ready to take a good look at the steam train drawn in the Daming Daily.

Many people in the Ming Dynasty did not understand why two railroad tracks were laid between Shanhaiguan and the capital, and the rails were covered with stones, and sharp barbed wire was erected on both sides of the rails.

But when the black locomotive, which looked like a monster, spewed thick white smoke and clattered locally, many people watching the barbed wire along the way couldn't help but be dumbfounded.

No one thought that this kind of iron lump like a dark dragon could actually travel on this narrow railroad track, and it only relied on a few round iron plates, no horse, and no one pushed it.

Some people who like to show off their knowledge began to explain that these were all cars that burned coal to exhale and walk, and that such cars did not need to be horse-drawn, but only had to be mounted by a kind of steam locomotive.

But more people are amazed by this, and even want to go inside the car window to take a look.

However, at this time, the train from Shanhaiguan to the capital was not allowed to enter any ordinary people, after the completion of the construction of the railway from Shanhaiguan to the capital, Gong Yonggu, the commander of the horse, Xu Guangqi, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry and Wenyuange University, Huo Weihua, the secretary of the Ministry of Communications, and other court officials and participants in the construction of the railway became the passengers of the first officially opened train.

It was the first time Xu Guangqi sat in this kind of small steam train carriage that could only be seen in tourist areas in later generations, and the seat he sat in was a bamboo double seat, and the inside of the window was a wall made of yellow wood planks, which was naturally slow compared to the current train, but for Xu Guangqi it was as fast as a galloping horse.

Seeing the mountains and woods rapidly rowing backwards, Xu Guangqi picked up a glass of Shaoxing wine with great interest and poured it into the cup of Gong Yonggu, the commander of the horses. ”

Gong Yonggu couldn't help laughing and said: "Xu Ge is really joking, although Xia Guan is shallow in reading, but he is not stupid, these trees and flowers outside are naturally stationary, although they seem to be retreating, but in the final analysis, it is just that the train we are sitting on is fast, and we are in the car, so we are moving at the same speed as the car, so the flowers and plants seem to move backwards." ”

Xu Guangqi shook his head, as an academic official of the Ming Dynasty, he can be regarded as a "nerd" in natural science, as soon as Gong Yonggu replied, he opened the conversation box and began to give Gong Yonggu science knowledge of physics, what all objects in the world are in motion, there is no absolutely static thing, rest is just a relative state, etc., Gong Yonggu was stunned when he heard it.

And at the same time that Xu Guangqi was teaching physics to the rich captain of the world, the train had already crossed the first bridge.

Although the Ming Dynasty has now produced high explosives that can be blasted, it does not have a systematic theoretical basis for engineering mechanics, so it is not possible to build relatively long tunnels.

The technical requirements of the railway bridge are not low, and the strength requirements for the steel are also high, but fortunately, with the development of decades, the steel smelting and welding technology of the Ming Dynasty has been greatly developed, so the erection of the railway bridge can also be realized, and even the railway bridge is built directly on the basis of the construction of the stone arch bridge, so as to meet the sufficient full load of the bridge body for the steam locomotive.

Huo Weihua is not interested in participating in Xu Guangqi's physics professor, he naturally knows that the bridge construction and track laying and the number of carriages along the entire railway line are involved in his cabinet scholar, but as the chief person in charge of this railway, he can't be as easy as Xu Guangqi and Gong Yonggu at this time, he is now deeply afraid that the steam train will have an accident in the middle of the way, which will make the project for which he is solely responsible completely fail, you must know that His Majesty the Emperor has spent a lot of money in it, if it fails, I am afraid that he will not be able to escape punishment.

The people outside the bars did not know what the officials in the steam train were thinking, they were now only surprised and surprised, and many people were already shouting and cheering.

After the steam train arrived at the platform in the western suburbs of the capital, the cheers became more intense, and Huo Weihua also breathed a sigh of relief, this iron lump finally arrived in the capital without danger after several failures, and this also marked the official completion and opening of the first railway in Daming!

From then on, the travel time from Shanhaiguan to the capital will be greatly shortened, although there are only ten carriages, and the number of troops or other people that can be transported is limited, but it is obviously much faster than relying on infantry to run on two legs.

After the completion of this first railway trunk line, the Railway Department under the Ministry of Communications began to officially sell train tickets, although the price of train tickets has risen to 100 silver dollars a piece, but it is still difficult to find a ticket.

At the same time, Zhu Youxiao had already begun to ponder the opening of a new railway line and to meet the transportation needs of increasing the number of troops to attack the Indian Ocean Peninsula as soon as possible.