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Introduction: China's first train originated in the last years of the Qing Dynasty (1876), when the United States and Britain jointly built a railway from Wusong to Shanghai, which was later redeemed and dismantled by the Qing government. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 Many years later, Li Hongzhang led the construction of the Tangshan-Tianjin railway, and then the "Tangxu Railway" was built by the Chinese people themselves, and became the first railway in the true sense of the word. Although railways did not blossom in all parts of China, the basic framework of railways was born. And the foreigner iron car mentioned in the article is naturally the prototype of the train.

Xu Yang and his entourage watched the endless stream of pedestrians rushing towards the city, and when they heard that everyone was discussing the foreigners' iron car, Ma Zichen was enthusiastic, and then proposed to go to Longjing as soon as possible in the iron car.

If you can arrive in Longjing by a foreigner's iron car, it not only saves the time of walking, but also reduces unnecessary numbness on the road.

Although everyone didn't understand how long it would take for the foreigners' iron cars to arrive in Longjing and how much money they needed, they couldn't resist their curiosity and wanted to go over to see what was going on and make plans again.

So, Xu Yang nodded towards Ma Zichen, and knew that the most urgent thing for the other party now was to arrive in Longjing as soon as possible, so that he could participate in the imperial examination smoothly. And because his group has lost their mounts, if they continue to walk towards Longjing, they are afraid that when Ma Zichen arrives in Longjing, the imperial examination will also end.

So the crowd walked towards the city of Zhangde.

When everyone walked into the city, there were bursts of shouting and buying and selling, and at the same time, everyone saw that people in strange clothes and strange appearances were also wandering around the city, and the words they said were words that they could not understand.

When everyone saw these people in strange costumes, they couldn't help but look at them twice, wondering where and where these people were?

Everyone searched in the city of Zhangde, found a grain store, and was about to pay a high price to buy grain, when suddenly a deafening whistle sounded from the north, and then everyone felt that the earth trembled, making people tremble.

And the sound of the whistle also broke the chaotic sound in the city, and the city was silent in an instant, only the sound of "besides" went from far to near, until a distant "woo ......" made all the sounds stop.

At this moment, the city was completely boiling, and people rushed towards the northern city gate.

Xu Yang and his entourage saw that the people in the city were running over to see the excitement, and they immediately thought that this whistle sound was the foreigner iron car that the pedestrians said?

Therefore, Xu Yang and his entourage no longer buy food, and they also want to go over and see what is going on, even if they can't sit in the iron car, they can only take a look at it, so that they can solve their doubts.

When Xu Yang and his entourage squeezed out of the gate of Beicheng in the crowd, they saw an unseen house not far away, and the plaque of the house read "Jardine Matheson".

At the door of this foreign company, there were several foreigners in strange costumes, as if they were collecting something, and let the pedestrians standing at the door enter, and behind the foreign company were huge iron boxes arranged side by side, the size of the big iron boxes was about the size of a house. And in front of these iron boxes, there are people going up and down.

"Master, pick me up quickly, and let me see what strange things are. Xiaohuan shouted as he tugged at Xu Yang's sleeve.

Xu Yang was standing on tiptoe and looking ahead, and suddenly heard Xiaohuan also want to look, so he immediately picked up Xiaohuan, who was short in stature, and put it on his shoulder, so that the other party could see the scene in the distance. And Xu Yi was picked up by the big tiger, and he was able to see the crowded things in the distance at a glance.

Ma Zichen observed for a while, and saw that the pedestrians who were going to take the foreigner's iron car walked in from the door of the foreign company, and then happily boarded the iron car one by one, and there was not a single livestock at the front and rear ends of this string of iron cars.

Ma Zichen counted these iron cars and found that there were ten iron cars, the one in front was like a hideous dragon head, the three iron cars followed closely behind were impregnable iron houses, and the remaining iron cars in the back were without roofs. Although the tin cars behind them did not have roofs, they were crowded with a large number of toiling people.

Ma Zichen saw that the carriage behind him was already crowded with people, although he couldn't see whether the first three carriages were also overcrowded, but he was afraid that his group would have no place, so he hurriedly said to Xu Yang: "Brother Xu, presumably these iron cars are foreigners who can quickly reach Longjing, right? ”

Xu Yang understood what the other party meant, and he was just worried that the iron car would not have its own seat, and he would be overjoyed.

Xu Yang saw that his front was crowded with black pressure people, most of the people came here to see the excitement, only a small number of people were in a hurry to get on the iron car, and just about to say that he went over to see if he got on the iron car, he was interrupted by a deafening sound in front of him.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the train running behind me was built by 'Jardine Matheson', and this iron car that arrived in Longjing is running for the tenth time. It is easy and fast to arrive in Longjing, and it only takes five days to arrive at the holy land of Longjing. If there are still people who want to get on the train, please buy a ticket to board the train as soon as possible, otherwise in another quarter of an hour, our train will leave Zhangde. If we miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity today, we will have to wait another week for our iron car to return. A Chinese man wearing a black high hat and a suit and leather shoes shouted from a high stool.

When Xu Yang and his entourage heard that there were still seats, they hurriedly asked Xiao Xiong and his group to push and shove the lively residents in front, while everyone followed them and walked towards Yiheyang.

After the Chinese in a dress finished shouting, as soon as his vision swept through the crowd, he clearly saw that Xu Yang and his party were crowding towards him, and they were all together at a glance, with a smile on his face. After seeing that the surrounding residents were indifferent to their words, and shouted a few words like "is there anyone in the car", he saw that Xu Yang and others had come to his side.

This person saw that there were more than 20 people in Xu Yang's party, including men and women, and two strange-looking children, and he could see with a keen professional vision that he was undoubtedly going to take a car. He asked, "Fellow guests, do you want to go to Longjing?"

"We are indeed going to Longjing, dare to ask how much it will cost a person?" Ma Zichen asked with irrepressible excitement.

This person looked at Xu Yang and his party were all dressed in plain cloth clothes, not rich and noble people, but they did not look like hard-working farmers, lest Xu Yang and his party give up the idea of taking the iron car, and hurriedly said: "If you want to take those roofless carriages behind the iron car, one person only needs to spend five dollars of silver, and if you want to make the three iron cars in front, one person needs to spend one or two silver." In fact, no matter whether you sit in the front or back, the speed of arriving in Longjing is the same. After speaking, I was nervous, hoping that Xu Yang and his party could pay as soon as possible. (Note: One tael of silver is equal to ten pieces of silver.) ）

It turned out that after these foreigners came to the land of the Celestial Empire, they saw that there were many poor people, and there were very few rich and noble people, so they retained a part of the roofless carriages in the design of the carriages, which reduced the construction cost and made them economical, so that the vast number of toiling people could afford to sit on the train.

Xu Yang and his entourage heard the other party finish talking about the price, stretched their necks and looked at the carriage behind the foreign bank, and saw that the roofless carriage was overcrowded and crowded. If you are crowded in it, although it will not be squeezed to death, it must taste uncomfortable. On the other hand, the three covered carriages in front of you, although I don't know how comfortable it is to sit in them, must be more comfortable than those without a roof.

Xu Yang saw that there were twenty-eight people in his group, and if he sat in the unroofed carriage, it would cost fourteen taels of silver, and if he sat in the covered carriage, it would cost twenty-eight taels of silver.

Although Xu Yang had no money on him, Liu Xiangping was carrying a lot of money. Suddenly, everyone acquiesced to the idea of sitting in a topped iron car.

The people of the country saw Xu Yang and his party constantly looking at the iron car behind them, and their hearts also followed, lest Xu Yang and his party would be too expensive and give up taking the train, and when they were anxiously waiting for everyone's reply, they saw that Xu Yang and his party had two children, Xiaohuan and Xu Yi, and their eyes lit up, and they immediately thought about it, and said with a smile: "Guests, the two children you bring with you are free." I wonder if you'd like to take a quick and easy tin car?"

Everyone was overjoyed to hear that Xiaohuan and Xu Yi didn't need to pay for the car. When Xiaohuan and Xu Yi heard each other say that they were children, they were angry and shouted in unison: "We are not children." We're a finger older than you......"

The man only thought that the two of them were telling childish jokes, and his left ear went in and out of his right ear, and he didn't pay attention to it.

Xu Yang was afraid that the two of them would leak their life experience, so he hurriedly said: "We will sit in a tin car with a roof." Chao Liu Xiangping said: "Pay twenty-six taels of silver to the other party." ”

Liu Xiangping nodded, reached out and touched it in his arms, took out a money bag, and took out twenty-six taels of silver from it and gave it to the countryman.

The Chinese people were overjoyed when they saw Liu Xiangping take out a handful of broken silver for themselves, they didn't expect Xu Yang and his party to sit in the covered carriage, and hurriedly reached out to take the silver, and regretted why they wanted to exempt Xiaohuan and Xu Yi from the fare?

This person asked Xu Yang and the others to wait for a while, and after weighing the silver accurately, he gave Xu Yang and his party twenty-six tickets, and asked everyone to line up to get on the bus.