[There are a lot of things after the year, and the updates are not normal, and there are a lot less. Today's four more to make up. The first update. 】

Pulled by two horses, the four-wheeled carriage on the track moved smoothly, without the shaking of the ordinary road. Only when the carriage passes through the junction of two wooden tracks, the two short sounds of the front and rear wheels break the silence in the carriage for a while.

Han Gang closed his eyes and felt the sound of a steady rhythm under him. He didn't know how many years he hadn't heard a similar sound, but now it fell in his ears, and he was pulled back to the old days for a while.

It was when I was just out doing business, and I spent a third of the month asleep listening to the click of the wheels hitting the track interface. After a few years, there was no such sound when I got in the car.

However, the timbre is a little different from the old time, as if to remind Han Gang that he can't go back.

The level of skill thousands of years ago, I don't know how many years it will take to reproduce the timbre in his memory. The joints between the wooden rails are also nowhere near as wide as the railroad tracks.

Han Gang is eager to turn the track into a railroad track, but with the current level of technology in the steel industry, if he wants to make track steel, he doesn't know that he will have to wait until the year of the monkey. Han Gang didn't ask for I-beams, and ordinary wide steel bars couldn't be made, only cast iron—and even if they did, no one was willing to use them on roads, not on weapons.

At present, the only way to do this is to press iron sheets on wooden rails, and then nail a layer of copper skin to prevent vehicles from damaging the tracks.

Rail steel...... Han Gang sighed in his heart.

Unless the Son of Heaven and the imperial court can loosen their control over the steel industry and allow private capital to infiltrate, it is almost impossible to achieve their goals.

The development of technology can be guided by the government, but it should not be monopolized by the government, especially in the steel industry and manufacturing industry. But Han Gang was so disturbed that he couldn't convince anyone except himself. In order to cater to reality, he had to change his plan.

Han Gang was immersed in his thoughts and didn't speak, and Shen Kuo, Li Jie, Fang Xing, Shen Boyi, and Fang Cheng Zhixian, who were in the same car, were also inconvenient to speak. Several people lowered their eyebrows and lowered their eyes, and they didn't dare to disturb Han Gang.

I don't know how long it took, Han Gang finally made a move. His eyes blinked twice, straightened up slightly, and before he could speak, he broke the silence in the car.

"The road is well repaired." Han Gang's tone was very satisfied, and he didn't explain what Fang Cai was talking about, so he suddenly fell silent, through the two car windows, the scenery outside was constantly regressing, "The newly built road is easy to walk and easy to walk, but it is not so simple to be so stable." ”

Shen Kuo moved his body, "It's good to build this carriage." ”

Han Gang followed Shen Kuo's words and glanced at the car. He was right.

It is similar to the shape of the Western carriage in later generations, but it is completely different from the carriage at this time, it is much larger and more spacious. The fact that there are two rows of seats opposite each other is surprising, and the long seats can even make you lie down.

There were six people in one car, but the space still seemed very spacious. The two-wheeled carriage of this era could never be so spacious, and only a four-wheeled carriage could do it.

Four-wheelers are not unusual. In the siege equipment, Mo said that there are four wheels, six wheels, and eight wheels. At present, in the docks and mines, the railcars used to carry goods are all four wheels. On the track, there is no need to think about the steering, as long as you think about how to increase the load, four wheels are far more advantageous than two wheels.

And it can drive so smoothly, not only because the road is good, but also because the carriage itself is exquisitely crafted. From the frame to the axle, to the hub and wheel, it is all the official workshop in Beijing, which has been accumulated for many years. Whether in terms of materials or manufacturing processes, it represents the highest level of this era.

The scenery outside the window changes, and the wind pours into the carriage from the window, which is cool, and there is no heat from the outside world. The Fangcheng track is sixty miles away from the city, and it only took an hour.

"It's fast." Getting off the car, it was already the north end of Fangcheng Pass. Shen Kuo looked at the scenery near and far, and smiled at Han Gang: "According to the law, foreign officials are not allowed to go out of this realm without permission. This is already Ruzhou, and if you are caught by the imperial history, you will have to write a bullet stamp. Look at Fang Chengzhi County, who bent over and didn't dare to speak, "It should be two." ”

"Just bite it and don't admit it. If you don't say it, I don't say it, how can the imperial history know the Tao? Han Gang joked: "Tomorrow, I will take Fang Jingmin to Tangzhou as well, can he still sue you?" ”

"Fang Jingmin is here, but I want to set up a wine to celebrate." Fang Jingmin is the governor of Ruzhou, and he also made a lot of efforts in the construction of the Fangcheng track, but he is not as good as Shen Kuo.

Fang Xing sighed: "Sixty miles in an hour, hurry up to catch up with the shop, and the ordinary shop delivery is only four hundred miles a day." ”

Of course, this speed cannot be compared with later generations, but compared to the ordinary carriages of this era, it is already very fast. Unless you're prepared to die of riding, that's how you can ride a horse.

"If it were a cargo, it wouldn't be so fast. Two horses pulling tens of thousands of catties of goods and seven or eight people can only walk slowly. Long before Shen Kuo and Han Gang came to inspect, Li Jie had already measured the time, "It's only about half the speed it is now." ”

On this track, the people and goods are all combined, and the owner of the cargo or the person escorting the cargo must always follow the goods. Two hours and sixty miles is indeed not fast, but it is still faster than the gang boat in the canal.

"If only it could be faster than a boat." Even if it was only half the speed, it could still satisfy Shen Kuo.

"The gang boat on the Bianhe River is rated at 600 to 700 materials, with a load of 40,000 or 50,000 catties, I don't know how much can a train pull on this track? Have you ever tested it? Han Gang asked.

"Increase the number of horses that pull the cart, four horses, six horses, and you can hang a few more carriages in the back. The most suitable is still six horses, less horsepower is insufficient, more is inconvenient to drive. Six horses drawn by horses, four carts of goods, and one cart of passengers can be worth the amount of a ship. ”

Li Jie's answer proves that he has already carried out several tests of the transportation work of the track. Han Gang and Shen Kuo glanced at each other and nodded together.

Originally, Li Jie was just an idler who Han Gang was ready to share the credit in Tangzhou in order to reward Li Nangong for his help, but no one expected that his ability in engineering construction was outstanding, and he also had outstanding performance in management, and gradually let Han Gang hand over the entire track laying project to him to manage. It's also considered luck - of course, it's not just Li Jie's, but also Han Gang and Shen Kuo's.

"A car of 40,000 or 50,000 catties only costs six horses, which is much less than a Taiping car." Shen Kuo said, "It looks like Fangcheng Mountain is going to raise a lot of horses here." ”

"One hundred and fifty horses, including the replacement." This time it was Fang Xing who replied, this number had been in his heart for a long time, "At least one-tenth or even one-fifth of it will be exchanged every year." ”

"Pulling a cart is hard work, and the horses will not eat less." Shen Kuo calculated, "A horse costs at least fifteen stone grains and thirty bunches of grass a year." It adds up to nearly 10,000. ”

"I also use oiled bean cake to replenish my strength. However, the bean cake is not valuable, and 10,000 stone bundles of grain and grass are nothing. Pulling horses is no better than military horses, and one is only a dozen times. With the addition of labor, it will not be too much, at most 20,000 yuan. Fang Xing smiled, "If the discipline is not strict, there will be more than this number of people who will not be able to do anything in a month." ”

Han Gang nodded, and said to Shen Kuo: "In charge of the Fangcheng track, you should choose people and techniques, otherwise you will be a group of fat rats." ”

Shen Kuo smiled and didn't speak. He hasn't made up his mind yet whether he wants to come out and take charge of the Xianghan Shipping Division.

Fang Xing turned around and looked at the transshipment port at the northern end of the track, and even the warehouse had not been repaired, that is, the wharf had been built. Looking at the construction site in the port, he asked Li Jie, "How much time will it take to complete the renovation?" ”

"It's September." Li Jie replied, "I have to spend two months' money and food." ”

Shen Kuo said: "The port only occupies a small head. Just for this track, it cost a lot. ”

In order to repair the track, Tangzhou paid for it, and this year's taxes only went around the account book of the Transshipment Division, and the money and grain were directly intercepted in the state, and Shen Kuo himself was naturally very clear.

Li Jie pointed to the half-foot-high gravel roadbed, "The highest cost is the gravel under the roadbed." Digging out of the mountains and rivers and transporting it to the Fangcheng Pass to pave it is almost worth a year's transportation capacity. ”

"That's a lot of money." Shen Kuo frowned, "It's only sixty miles, but if it's long, it will be a headache." ”

Han Gang said: "It's not that you have to lay the roadbed, it's okay to put the rails directly on the flat ground." How can there be extra spare money and time for the tracks in mines and docks, and they are not all laid directly on the ground? ”

"Whether it's a track or a sleeper, it's a good wood, and it's worth a little money, not to mention the copper on the track." Shen Kuo noticed the change in the expression on Han Gang's face, "In the mine and on the dock, people come and go, and no one dares to hit the idea of the track." But in the field, that's all. Do you want people to stare along the line? ”

Han Gang smiled: "You must send people to patrol along the line, just like sending people to watch on the Bianhe River." It's just that the current sixty-mile track doesn't need too many people. ”

"But once this track is repaired, it will not stop along the sixty-mile road, and the shops that do some tea and wine trading in the pass will hate this road." Li Jie said.

Fang Xing had a cold face: "Exile a dozen or twenty people to Lingnan, kill the thieves who come over, and see who dares to commit a crime!" ”

"It's too early to say that. Now that the track has been opened, all that remains is how to transport the autumn grain to the capital......" Han Gang swept his eyes across the crowd, "Only by transporting this year's autumn grain to the capital can it represent the opening of the Xianghan Cao Yun and let the imperial court see our merits." ”

Fang Xing was the first to nod, followed by Li Jie and Shen Kuo, who also nodded in agreement.

In the past six months, what have they worked so hard for? It's not for merit and reward afterward. If you open up for the benefit of the country and the people, but there is not enough return, who will be distracted?

Drinking and chanting poetry, there are so many daily drinks and feasts that it can be called a hell of wine and food, and it is also an official, and there are more people like that in the officialdom.