Wang Tao was ignorant of what was happening in the royal workshop, and he was now outside the city experimenting with a new carriage with several craftsmen. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 The wheels of the new carriage have been greatly improved like the bicycle, and the transverse shaft and wheel bearings have been replaced with steel according to the style of the bicycle, the only difference is that a craftsman creatively uses wood as a tire. He believes that tires are the most worn, and that tires made of wood are lighter than steel, and wood is cheaper and easier to replace later.

As the old saying goes, it's the mule that comes out and the horse pulls it out. Wang Tao came out to experiment with the carriage, for comparison, the same two horses, pulling the same goods, from Beijing to Tongzhou back and forth, the distance is about 100 miles.

This distance is only an hour's drive in modern times, and in the previous life of the High Demon World, it was not even an hour to ride a fast beast, and it took about two hours to ride a horse. As for the carriage, let's put it this way, the carriage that pulls goods is actually not much faster than a person walking.

Although the horse runs fast, the carriage that pulls the goods does not run fast because it pulls the goods, and of course, the friction of the axle of the carriage is too large, which tests the horse's physical strength very much. Generally, the handlebar style of the truck is to follow the car, and the speed of normal people walking is 1 hour and 10 miles. The carriage is about this distance, and after deducting the time for eating and resting, the journey of the ancient caravan in a day is only about 100 miles. This is still a good situation, the road encountered wind and rain weather, delayed some trips, the average speed of a day is estimated to be less than 100 miles.

Today's 100 miles, everyone is going to walk according to the day, so they went out early in the morning. They set out at the same time outside the city gates, divided into two groups, one was an old-fashioned carriage, and a small man with a handlebar and a guard were four people in all. The new carriage has a handlebar type, a craftsman, Wang Tao and two guards and a man.

From the very beginning, the new carriage showed good performance. Two horses pulled 500 pounds of cargo and started easily, and sat on the saddle specially designed for him. I forgot to mention that this new carriage is a four-wheeled carriage, and the craftsman even added a front-wheel steering device with reference to Wang Tao's opinion.

It's not that I haven't sat on the car with the handlebar, but there are really not many opportunities to sit in the car that pulls the goods.

Riding on horseback, Wang Tao did not have any discomfort, although the Dragon Continent has a fast beast as a fast means of transportation, but ordinary people still mainly ride horses. Wang Tao has also ridden horses, so now he is also handy at riding.

"How does it feel?" Wang Tao controlled the horse parallel to the carriage and asked to the handlebar.

"Back to my lord, the little one has been driving a car all his life, and I really didn't expect it to be so comfortable, this car is much lighter than before. I don't think this horse has much strength, and with our current foot strength, we can walk back and forth in an hour. Seeing Wang Tao's question, the handlebar type hurriedly replied.

"Walking back and forth in an hour, it's a lot faster than before." Wang Tao wanted to do experiments, and naturally realized that he had learned about the speed of old-fashioned carriages.

"That's a lot faster, according to this foot strength, we can walk more than 300 miles a day, and we used to walk 100 miles a day. However, the road from our capital to Tongzhou is good, and I am afraid that we can't walk so fast on the official road in other places, but we can still walk 200 miles a day. "This handlebar style has a lot of experience, and it's also the master who has walked through the south and the north.

"200 miles a day, half faster than before, which can be regarded as a big speed." Wang Tao smiled and said.

"Not only is it fast, this horse also saves effort, the previous horse has to be repaired for two days after walking for more than ten days, sometimes in order to hurry, you can only make the horse hard, and finally the horse is sick. Our carriage is much lighter than the previous carriage, and this horse can save a lot. "The handlebar style is an insider, and in addition to speed, it also speaks of another benefit of this carriage.

Hearing the handlebar style say this, Wang Tao laughed, and hurried forward to catch up with the guards in front.

The carriage was his most valuable contribution to the era so far, the bicycle was only for the sake of pleasing Zhu Youxiao, the clock was for making money, and the guns were only for defending against ethnic minorities. The improvement of this means of transportation has a greater and more long-term significance for society. Don't underestimate the increase in this speed, the circulation of materials and personnel in the society will be greatly improved.

For example, the Han Dynasty, the dynasty that is the most proud of the Han people, shouted the strongest voice so far - those who commit crimes against the Han will be punished even if they are far away! Behind this powerful voice was hundreds of thousands of people who kept sending grain and grass to the front line day and night, and the price of these grain and grass from collection to delivery to the hands of soldiers was so huge that Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty needed the two emperors of Wenjing to accumulate strength, and the war against the Xiongnu almost emptied the treasury of the Han Dynasty.

At that time, if the transportation speed could be doubled, then nearly half of the national strength could be consumed! The improvement of transportation speed is too important for the improvement of a country's strength. This is not something that can be compared with a simple weapon reform, and of course the epoch-making weapons reform is another story.

The handlebar style may not understand this truth, but he can really feel the change that this carriage has brought to him.

Wang Tao and his entourage are quite eye-catching on the official road, in addition to such a strange carriage, the accompanying Jinyi Wei is also a natural eye-catching existence. In this year, the reputation of Jinyiwei is much worse than that of the chengguan of later generations, especially for officials, it is no different from the Commission for Discipline Inspection.

The race lost its meaning not long from the beginning, in fact, nothing can be compared in just a hundred miles, and the real comparison is better than the long distance, and the comparison from the wear and tear of the car, the consumption of personnel and horses can show the superiority of the new carriage.

About half an hour, the group came to a tea shop not far from Tongzhou City. After walking for more than an hour, it's time to rest, it's so hot, drink some tea and rest, it's almost noon, Wang Tao is not ready to continue the competition, send things to the place, find a place to have lunch and rest, and return to the capital in the afternoon.

After they finished drinking the tea, they delivered the goods to Zhang Quan's shop in Tongzhou, and the shopkeeper knew that it was a distinguished guest, so he invited people to the back hall to entertain them. It was almost an hour before the carriage arrived.

While they were drinking tea, the shopkeeper had already written a letter and handed it to a fellow who quickly whipped up and sent it to the capital.

Zhang Quan, who was praised by the emperor, was happy to pass, and was thinking about how to deal with Wei Zhongxian, when a little eunuch sent him a letter. When I opened the letter, it showed the results of today's carriage race and the shopkeeper's opinion on the matter.

The speed of transportation has been doubled, which means that the cost of using the new carriage for the same product will be greatly reduced, and there will be a time advantage for some special products. For example, if the fruit from the south is transported to the north and arrives ten days in advance, the price may be two or three percent higher, and the cargo capacity of the four-wheeled carriage is much higher than that of the previous two-wheeled carriage. In short, there are a lot of advantages, but I don't know, how the car performs when the road conditions are bad, this is the only thing that the shopkeeper is worried about.

Regardless of the performance in poor road conditions, the performance of this carriage is no longer comparable to that of the old carriage, and as for the higher cost, it is nothing for the increased profits.

"It seems that in addition to clocks and watches, miscellaneous families can consider the carriage business." Talking to himself, Zhang Quan suddenly thought of how to deal with Wei Zhongxian.