April 16, 1870, Shanghai Railway Station.

Since the opening of the Shanghai-Nanjing railway, this railway has become the main traffic artery in the south of the Yangtze River together with the Yangtze River, and a large number of passengers take the train to and from various places every day, and the goods along the railway are also transported to various places by rail.

But today, the busy railway line has stopped the noise, and the square in front of the huge Shanghai railway station is no longer visible to the passengers, the small vendors who set up stalls and hawkers, and the horse-drawn carriages waiting for passengers, as well as the rickshaws that have just appeared on the streets of Shanghai in the last year or two.

There are no passengers or vendors at the huge Shanghai Railway Station, but even without these people, today's Shanghai Railway Station is not deserted and empty.

In place of those travelers and vendors, there were a large number of soldiers, and on the outer square, the soldiers were three meters in one, directly forming a human wall and separating the train station from the crowd on the periphery.

These were the Guards independent of the Army and Navy.

The Guards were dressed differently from the Army or Navy soldiers they usually saw, and although they wore the same dark blue uniforms as the regular Army soldiers, their cuffs were embroidered with gold trim, and they wore a dragon badge on their chests.

Even the insignia of military rank is different, they do not directly use gold stars and horizontal bars like the army or navy, but use the form of vertical bars and dragon buckles.

If there is not much difference between the dress of the soldiers of the Guards and the soldiers of the army, then the difference between the officers is relatively large, first of all, the rank insignia of the officers. It adopts the pattern of dragon buckle and vertical bar, and some wear silver dragon buckle. Some officers wore gold dragon clasps.

Secondly, the officers present today are not wearing their regular uniforms. It's a dress of all colors.

The color of the army officers' dresses is still dark blue, and the color of the admirals' dresses is white, but the color of the dresses of these guards is all black.

At the same time, the officer dress of the Guards, although the top is still the typical double-breasted style, but the hem is slightly longer.

It is unusual for so many soldiers and officers of the Guards to appear here at the Shanghai Railway Station today, knowing that the Guards are stationed in Nanjing and the surrounding areas all year round.

Although in order to maintain the combat effectiveness of the Guards. Every year, the Guards sent at least one mixed regiment to Central Asia or the North, but in other parts of the country, there was basically no trace of the Guards, even in Shanghai.

But today, there are guards here in Shanghai, and it seems that there are quite a few of them, and those who don't know the details are confused.

But some people know that the appearance of these guards means that His Majesty the Emperor's special train is about to arrive at Shanghai Railway Station.

Lin Zhe was to come to Shanghai in April 1870 to inspect it. And the commissioning ceremony of the battleship Chiyou was held, which began preparations last year.

These preparations are particularly active in China and the Navy, because they are constrained by various factors. Lin Zhe could inspect the vicinity of Nanjing every year and inspect the army units, but it was not so easy to inspect the navy's warships. Because the capital Nanjing is an inland city, although the lower reaches of the Yangtze River are vast. But it was impossible to let a huge battleship like the Chiyou go in.

So in the past few years, although the navy has also thought of some ways. But at most, a small fleet was sent for Lin Zhe to review.

And this kind of thing is quite detrimental to the development of the Navy.

If the navy wants to improve its political status and get more military spending, then His Majesty's attention is necessary, especially when the empire is still unswervingly implementing the basic national defense strategy of the Continental Army, it is actually quite difficult for the navy to obtain as much military spending as possible.

This time, taking advantage of the commissioning of the battleship Chiyou, the navy is vigorously promoting Lin Zhe to come to Shanghai to participate in the commissioning ceremony, and at the same time, in order to show Lin Zhe the achievements of naval development in recent years, the navy will hold a naval parade.

The navy wanted Lin Zhe to participate in the parade, and the local government of Shanghai also hoped that His Majesty the Emperor would come to Shanghai again for inspection.

Under the promotion of many parties, it also made the originally difficult Lin Zhe's travel relatively simple.

The inspection committee, composed of the palace affairs department, the cabinet, the military, and local government officials from Jiangsu, Shanghai, and Zhejiang, quickly finalized the relevant details.

First of all, in order to highlight the rapid development of the empire's industry in recent years, especially the railway, the cabinet, especially the Ministry of Communications, proposed that the emperor travel by train.

To this end, the Railway Department of the Ministry of Communications and the Imperial Railway Company have specially built a special train for the Son of Heaven.

In order to protect the travel safety of the special train of the Son of Heaven, the army will dispatch troops to directly arrange soldiers to be on duty along the railway line to ensure the safety of the special train.

However, the main security work of the Son of Heaven special train is not undertaken by the army, but by the guards, who will send troops to Shanghai, Zhenjiang, Jiangyin, Suzhou and other cities along the way in advance to temporarily garrison, and take over the defense of local railway stations and important places along the way.

In addition, a mixed regiment of the Guards will travel by train and the Son of Heaven train, and a cavalry regiment of the Guards, the 3rd Guards Cavalry Regiment, will follow the special train.

Accompanying the Son of Heaven was a group of high-ranking officials, nobles and other powerful people, as well as office staff such as the secretariat.

This is Lin Zhe's second tour after the northern tour many years ago, so it is naturally impossible to say that it is simply to see the service ceremony of the Chiyou, taking advantage of this patrol, Lin Zhe will inspect many cities along the way.

For example, Zhenjiang, Changzhou, Suzhou, Shanghai, and finally Hangzhou and Ningbo, he will stop and inspect these cities along the way.

Before arriving in Shanghai, Lin Zhe's special train had already passed through Hangzhou and other places, and now it was heading towards Shanghai, for this reason, Shanghai was also prepared early, and hurriedly started in the early hours of this morning, the entire railway station has been emptied, and the guards took over the defense of the railway station and the surrounding area.

The local military and political dignitaries in Shanghai were also waiting at the Shanghai Railway Station early in the morning.

These people waited until about two o'clock in the afternoon, and then waited for the first train of the day, but this train was not a special train of the Son of Heaven, and in this seemingly ordinary train, some officers and officials came out, and among them, there were also officials from the palace department's chamberlain.

When the officers arrived at the railway station, they first talked with the officials who were waiting in the area, and then they had several more meetings with the officers of the Guards unit who had arrived one step earlier.

These people came in advance to ensure the safety of the Son of Heaven's special train.

After another hour of waiting, I saw the arrival of the second train, but this one was a military train, and many soldiers of the Guards walked down on it.

After this military train, people saw the special train of the Son of Heaven slowly driving into the platform of Shanghai Railway Station.

However, it was not Emperor Lin Zhe who came out first, but dozens of guards in the chamber, after they got off the train, after the final round of safety inspections at the railway station, in this process, the steam engine on the special train of the Son of Heaven was always kept on, and in case of an accident, it could be started and left at any time.

After the security check was completed, I saw Lin Zhe walking off the train accompanied by a group of military and political dignitaries.

At this time, a group of local military and political officials waiting at the train station greeted them!

Although there was a lot of pomp on the eve of the railway station, Lin Zhe did not stay at the railway station for long, and soon got into the carriage under the escort of the guards, and then left the train station directly, and then went to the Shanghai Palace, which was the generalissimo palace before the emperor in the past, and the current royal palace.

When Lin Zhe and other members of the royal family went to Shanghai, they usually lived in this royal palace.

In the evening of the same day, Lin Zhe met with senior officials in Shanghai as usual, but did not hold any dinner or anything like that.

Early the next morning, Lin Zhe got into the carriage to the Songhu Naval Base.

When he arrived at the Songhu Naval Base, the first thing he saw was the 10,000-ton giant ship Chiyou moored at the dock. (To be continued.) )