Since 1825, when Britain built the 27-kilometer railway from Stockton to Linton, the railway has become one of the most important forms of transportation in countries around the world to determine national strength and show power projection capabilities.

Today, the total length of railways in the world (except Daming) has exceeded 100,000 kilometers.

Among them, the total length of the British Empire railway has exceeded 50,000 kilometers, the domestic railway network is 32,000 kilometers, and the total length of Indian railways is nearly 20,000 kilometers.

In about two or three decades, the total length of Indian railways alone will be 55,000 km.

It is worth mentioning that more than 100 years later, in the twenties of the 21st century, the total mileage of the British railway was 17,000 kilometers.

The total length of the railways I took with India is 67,000 km.

And an East Asian country that is about to collapse and will collapse forever has a mileage of 140,000 kilometers.

As for the quality of the railway, let's not talk about it.

·

In the bumpy carriage, Bismarck was having a brief informal chat with Zhao Aqian.

It was mainly the Chinese "Foreign Minister" who informed him about the rest of the itinerary.

Truth be told, Bismarck was very curious as to why he would venture to the Richmond joint.

Because in his cognition, the southern government is the British sphere of influence, and it is everywhere in the eyes of the British.

Fortunately, at least for now, the diplomats of the Ming Dynasty seem to have shown their transcendent power here, and they have easily dismissed the Dixie soldiers along the way.

But even so, landing on the Atlantic coast and crossing North America in a horse-drawn carriage was not a good idea.

The Prussian side originally hoped to take a direct boat detour to Tierra del Fuego and detour from the Drake Strait in Antarctica to Fengdu.

In order to appease the somewhat neurotic Prussians, Zhao Aqian had to explain the situation to Bismarck in person and inform him of the arrangements for the train.

Bismarck, of course, also recognized the importance of railways long ago.

Today, Prussia and Bavaria have built a large number of railway lines.

Bismarck's old friend, Moltke the Elder, commander-in-chief of the Prussian-Danish and Austro-Prussian wars, once put forward a famous phrase after he became chief of the Prussian General Staff: "Don't build more fortresses, give me more railways!" ”

In the Austro-Prussian War that broke out last year, Prussia relied on railways to send 200,000 troops and 55,000 horses to the front, which played a great role in the war situation.

So when Bismarck heard that the Ming railroad had actually been built to Memphis, he was shocked and snatched the map of North America from his entourage regardless of grace.

Because of the size and topography of the country, the Great Lakes and Northeast region controlled by the federal government of the United States has a large number of railways, and the total mileage is even close to that of the British mainland, Bismarck knew it.

(Historically, in 1900, the United States had 200,000 kilometers of railroads, more than the rest of the world combined.) ）

But he was completely unaware that the Ming Kingdom also had capacity-building railways, and that it was a super railway that spanned so far.

Due to the rapid transformation of the Dawang banner in North America, especially in the central and western regions of North America, in recent years, a reliable map of North America has not been published at all.

Bismarck's map was an old map printed by the U.S. government in 1850, just after the end of the Mexican-American War, to declare its occupation of New Mexico.

Bismarck stretched out his finger, measured the distance approximately, raised his head, and tried to hide the shock in his heart: "Mr. Zhao, are you saying that you can take the railway from Memphis and go directly to Fengdu after a distance of 3,000 kilometers?" ”

Zhao Aqian shook his head through the translation and said: "No, Mr. Prime Minister, to be exact, it is Xinyu City, which is across the New Yangtze River from Memphis, and there will be a railway station here." ”

Bismarck pulled the curtain open, and sure enough, the carriage had no intention of stopping in Memphis.

He braced his arms and took a closer look at the cotton capital.

It's not so much a city as a huge cotton transit center.

Countless black slaves were packing endless stretches of cotton into mules, horses, carts, and cars.

Bismarck knew such cars, and he himself had one.

It was an extremely expensive smuggled Rising Sun car, which sold for more than £2,000 in Europe.

Bismarck, of course, knew that there was a lot of politics in this price, and it was definitely cheaper in the Ming Dynasty.

But he didn't expect it to be so cheap, and to be used as a substitute for mule-and-horse carts to transport cotton.

"Excuse me, Mr. Prime Minister, are you interested in cars?"

Zhao Aqian noticed Bismarck's focus of sight and explained, "The road infrastructure of the Confederate States is too bad, and only a few places such as Richmond and Memphis are suitable for driving a car, so in order to facilitate the journey, we still arranged a carriage for you." ”

"Oh...... Don't care, Mr. Zhao, I only have the eagerness to see His Majesty Zhu Fugui in my heart. ”

Bismarck nodded subconsciously, but his eyes were still observing everywhere.

He found that the cotton merchants in Memphis were both Ming and white merchants.

Of course, more blacks.

Black slaves were shackled and lazy and lazy.

Bismarck saw that many Chinese merchants could not stand these inefficient black slaves, and rolled up their sleeves with their men to load cotton.

A Chinese who did not look tall could often carry twice as much cotton as a black slave, and the huge cotton was in sharp contrast to their short size.

Zhao Aqian also noticed this scene, but didn't say anything.

This generation of Chinese is indeed short, especially Cantonese and Hunanese, and they are even smaller.

However, with the rollout of the Daming meat, eggs and milk protection plan, especially the implementation of free school lunches, Zhao Aqian believes that the next generation of Daming people will be much taller.

Bismarck didn't feel as much emotion as Zhao Aqian.

In this era, Europeans are actually not very tall, and their height is not as good as that of North America, after all, North America's grain and meat are much cheaper than those in Europe.

At least nowadays the Prussians are not synonymous with tallness.

Of course, the Junker aristocracy, who had plenty of meat and martial virtue (meaning hunting and servants), was still very high.

Bismarck himself was one of them.

What he noticed was the difference in the means of transportation between the two groups of people.

Most of the mule-and-horse carts came with blacks in red necks.

And the Rising Sun Automobile is owned by a Ming businessman.

How did they drive the cotton back to the other side of the river?

Bismarck's doubts were soon solved.

A steel bridge that does not span the two sides of the strait has appeared on the new Yangtze River.

"Mr. Prime Minister, if you are visiting in the second half of the year, we will be able to get on the train from Memphis."

Zhao Aqian pointed to the railroad tracks being laid under the steel bridge, on which a large number of Chinese workers were working bare-armed, "This is actually a railway bridge, and the lower part has not yet had time to be completed." ”

"The Chinese are indeed a great artisan nation, and in our Germany, we all praise Chinese goods!"

Looking at these hard-working but uncomplaining, highly efficient Chinese road construction workers, Bismarck couldn't help but open his mouth to praise.

Half compliment, half sincere.

From cameras to automobiles, the high prices and excellent performance of the goods were a commodity that the upper class and the fresh capitalists were keen to buy in the German states.

It was precisely when he saw such road builders that Bismarck finally understood why the Ming people were able to build the railway here.

It is worthy of the nation that built the Great Wall!

Bismarck felt that this trip to the Americas might be more important than he had originally anticipated.

·

In fact, the total mileage of the current railway in Daming is not long.

Binhai Railway + Northern Line Railway + Scattered Branch Railways, the total mileage of Daming's railway is only 10,000 kilometers.

It is equivalent to the railway mileage of the whole of China during the fall of the Qing Dynasty.

Not only can it not compare to the United Kingdom, but it can't even compare to the Little Lincoln gang + Johnson gang.

However, the Daming single-track railway is indeed very long, and the northern line railway Feng-Chongqing line is 3144 kilometers, which should be the undisputed longest railway in the world.

In particular, this route passes through the Mihe Plain, the Central Basin, the Northern Plateau, and the Rocky Mountains, and the natural scenery along the way is not spectacular.

Because of the vast land and sparsely populated areas, it is common for three or four hundred kilometers, or even five or six hundred kilometers to not stop.

This gave Bismarck a great sensory impact.

He was even more impressed by the 55 km/h speed of the "Foxy" trainset.

Bismarck sat in the VIP compartment, looking at the scenery speeding by on both sides, and his face could not calm down for a long time.

"Mr. Prime Minister, what do you think of our Ming train?" Zhao Aqian asked.

"Fast, too fast, there is a sense of inspiring people to forge ahead!"

Bismarck said meaningfully, "I think that our Prussia, like your country, is very suitable for such a train, we all need this speed, and we need to run now!" ”

The speed of 55 kilometers per hour is of course nothing.

Even in this era, 55 kilometers is not fast, and in the United States there are internal combustion engine trains of more than 70 kilometers per hour.

But those trains are short-haul and can only be achieved at speeds that can only be achieved in very good geographical conditions.

And Daming's "Foxy" not only ran far, but also experienced a variety of complex terrain, fully demonstrating his strong power.

In fact, Daming's train technology was also very crotch-pulling at the beginning.

When Li Hongzhang came, the train was less than 20 kilometers an hour.

This is also the result of the Vanderbilt family enlisting the guidance of technical experts from the east.

At the beginning, the locomotive that the Ministry of Industry of Daming made itself had no way to run 100 kilometers without failure.