Mikhail, the president of the Kitland Merchants Association and the manager of the Dragon City Dairy Company, turned around and smiled indifferently at the two young attendants: "You guys are new to the capital, you haven't seen the world to make such a fuss, Krasburg is a place that pays attention to the law, the police don't dare to mess around, besides, His Royal Highness Roland is my old friend, and I have a friendship that has been born and died together, even if His Excellency the Police Superintendent Kemp is here, you have to give me some face, what is there to worry about!" ”

The old man made his way through the crowd with his head held high, accompanied by two nervous young assistants, to the front of the police cordon and greeted the middle-aged police officer, who was leaning on his horse and lighting a pipe.

"Mr. Officer, what do you call me?"

The man looked up at Mikhail, and seemed to notice that the old man dressed as a merchant had an extraordinary bearing, put away his pipe, saluted, and replied quite politely: "Carl Peabody, deputy director of the Highway Traffic Management Division of the Capital Police Department, just call me Peabody, and your accent seems to be from the north?" ”

"Mr. Peabody's ears are really good, I am a native of Kitland, I used to serve the Yangbo Chamber of Commerce in Baigull Harbor, and now I am employed by His Excellency Viglaf, the Governor of Dragon City, to manage a dairy company, not long ago, His Royal Highness Roland came to Dragon City to inspect, and asked to send the pasture improved Lothmon to the capital as soon as possible to relieve the transportation pressure of the magic locomotive, because I have some friendship with His Royal Highness the Prince, Governor Viglaf asked me to lead a team to escort the Lothmon, I just completed the transportation task yesterday, and I plan to take the car to the Great Falls City to visit an old friend I haven't seen for many years, I didn't think that I was blocked by a barricade as soon as I got out of the city gate, and it was inconvenient for Mr. Peabody to reveal what happened to the road ahead? ”

Mikhail's pretended to reveal his identity inadvertently, which made Officer Peabody awe-inspired, and took a step closer and replied in a low voice: "Actually, it's not a big deal, it's just that the technicians of the Ministry of Transportation are testing the new horse-drawn carriage, and the police are asking the police to isolate a 20-mile-long section of the road for them to conduct field driving tests, don't worry, the new car test will be completed in half an hour at most, and our side will also remove the roadblocks and resume normal traffic." ”

"Just a test carriage?" Mikhail was skeptical. The test carriage can just find a wilderness and run in the wilderness, and it is necessary to block the road with great fanfare?

Officer Peabody shrugged his shoulders and smiled bitterly: "Don't believe it, that's the way it is, not only for you, but for anyone who asks me." ”

Mikhail nodded thoughtfully. The trader's eye skills had been honed over the years had told him that Officer Peabody was not lying, but what he had learned was not necessarily the whole truth, and Mikhail had a vague hunch that the new horse-drawn carriage being tested by the Ministry of Transport was extraordinary, and that perhaps in the near future, it would have a major impact on the transportation industry in the Far East.

……

Two barricades separated the highway from an open area of 20 miles, and Roland stood on the side of the road, staring intently at the "Volkswagen" pocket watch in his hand.

Transport Minister Mattwi Wittgenstein stood beside His Royal Highness the Prince with his hands in his hands, also observing the hands of his pocket watch intently.

Matvey's son, the Mithril Trick Warlock, Leonid Wittgenstein, was across the road, whispering to his secret lover Natalia, who was with him, sometimes gesturing at the other side of the road to Krasburg, as if waiting for something.

"It's coming!" Roland suddenly raised his head and looked at the end of the road. The horizon was calm, and nothing was out of the ordinary, but he could already feel a slight tremor coming from his watch. On this highway, which was cordoned off by the police in the capital, it was possible for only one horse-drawn carriage to be galloping.

"Sure enough, it came, five minutes earlier than last time." Matvey smiled.

At the end of the horizon, smoke and dust could be seen rising, and the sound of horses' hooves in a storm quickly spread from far to near, but the noise of wheels crashing against the road was unusually faint.

In the evening, a horse is galloping down the road with a four-wheeled open-top carriage. Kafta, the deputy director of the Koras Ordnance Institute and a mechanic, makes a cameo appearance as a coachman, brandishing his whip to urge the horses to run.

Kafta's elder brother Morozov sat in the carriage, closing his eyes and recuperating. Built 20 years ago, during the reign of the Imperial Provincial Government, the road was so potholed that it used to be bumpy and often had to endure bumps when passing by, and the speed of horse-drawn carriages was usually reduced to less than 10,000 yards per hour to mitigate the bumps and avoid damage to the wheels and axles. If someone who doesn't know the inside story sees this scene, I'm afraid that Kafta who is driving the car is going crazy, and at the same time sympathizes with Mr. Morozov's ass.

"Hey! Good morning, gentlemen, our chariots are back! However, Morozov's ass was not turned into four petals, and he stood up from the open car coquettishly and waved his hat to Roland and others on the side of the road.

Kafta grabbed the reins, the galloping horse chirped in rhythm, and slowed down obediently, and the carriage slowly stopped on the side of the road.

Kafta and Morozov jumped out of the carriage one after another, and couldn't wait to ask Roland:

"How's it going this time?"

"What's the speed?"

Roland glanced at his pocket watch, checked the data recorded by Matway, and replied with a smile: "At about 25,000 yards per hour, a new record was born." ”

"I'm looking forward to this year's Road Carriage Race, and our new model is sure to surprise the world!" Leonid said excitedly.

Natalia crouched in front of the carriage and carefully poked out a thin finger to touch the dark gray tire wrapped around the wheel, the flexible and elastic touch was amazing.

"This is the 'Familiar Star Tire'? It's amazing that the carriage can be galloped at full speed without being too bumpy. The secret girl muttered to herself.

Leonid squatted down beside his girlfriend, didn't mind the dirt on the wheels, scraped the dirt off little by little, carefully observed the pattern on the surface of the tire, and then nodded with satisfaction.

"Honey, what are you looking at?" Natalia asked curiously.

"The pattern on the tires has been running back and forth several times, and there are no obvious signs of wear in the patterns, which shows that the friction resistance of the familiar star is very good, which means that the service life of the tires will be very long." Leonid replied softly.

Across the road, Roland was still silently calculating. The speed is 25,000 yards per hour, according to the length unit of the Far East, 1 mile is equal to 1,000 yards, which is equivalent to 25 miles per hour. One yard is about 0.9 meters above Earth, which translates to 22.5 kilometers per hour.

For comparison, Roland remembers that at the end of the 18th century, a stagecoach in England had traveled 376 kilometers on the best roads of the time, and it still took 23 and a half hours to reach it at the fastest, with an average speed of about 16 kilometers per hour – of course, before the British invented the tire.