In the sixth year of Chongzhen, on the morning of March 14.

In the territory of Yangzhou Prefecture, a cement road leading to Rugao County.

There was a group of five people riding large horses, moving along the road at a fairly fast pace, and the hooves of the horses made a crunch sound of trampling on the road.

At the intersection ahead, a road sign appears with arrows and arrows, as well as some simplified characters and Arabic numerals.

"What's on the sign?" A thin man in a gray robe on a white horse at the front stopped and asked.

"Jiandou, what is written above, is the harbor city ahead, the distance is 13.5 kilometers, about 27 miles, no more than 30 miles." Behind him was riding on the back of a variegated horse, a middle-aged scribe wearing a square scarf and a cyan robe.

"Less than thirty miles, we can arrive at noon, and we can find a place to eat." Another young scribe on a horse, the destination of the trip was approaching, and his tired face was looking forward to it.

"Okay, hurry up and get there at noon!"

Lu Xiangsheng urged him to sit down on the white horse, waved the whip in his hand, and continued to move along the cement road, with the four people behind him riding horses to follow.

It is said that Lu Xiangsheng, who is a daimyo prefect (mayor-level high-ranking official) and an envoy (military region-level leader) of the Tianxiong Army, came to Jiangnan in his spare time, and traveled lightly, with only a few staff members by his side, and went straight to Xujiazhuang Harbor City.

If it is known by the civil officials of the Ming Dynasty, I am afraid that he will be impeached like rain and attacked countless times, not only will he be confirmed that Lu Jiandou colluded with Xujiazhuang, but also suspect that he betrayed the court and has become the eagle dog of Xujiazhuang, which will lead to more serious consequences.

Although the public opinion risk of this trip was very large, Lu Xiangsheng still made the decision to come to Jiangnan in person, only taking a few trustworthy entourage, and traveling 2,000 miles in seven days.

What does he have to deal with?

Buy a car.

From Xujiazhuang, buy a bicycle.

The number of purchases is about 10,000 units, and then his Tianxiong army will be built into a highly motorized bicycle army, so as to better serve the court and serve His Majesty.

In other words, how did Lu Xiangsheng suddenly come up with such a brain hole, and he took decisive action and went to Harbour City, wanting to turn this brain hole into reality.

Not to mention the expensive bicycles, can he afford to buy tens of thousands of vehicles, and even if he can, the Tianxiong Army, which has obtained high motorization capabilities, will have explosive combat power and be invincible in the world?

It is certainly impossible to be invincible in the world, and any army has the possibility of defeat.

However, after research, Lu Xiangsheng found that if the bicycle can be used in the field of war, the advantages will be very huge.

First of all, the back seat of the bicycle can carry grain and grass baggage, at least hundreds of pounds, which is almost equal to the carrying capacity of a baggage man.

"The Legend of the Fairy Tree"

Secondly, the bicycle is fast, although in the rugged mountainous area, bad road conditions, dense water network areas and other environments, the bicycle can not run fast, but in the plain area, in the road condition of the better area, the grassland environment, the speed of the bicycle, will never be much slower than the cavalry, even faster, the endurance is stronger.

And most importantly, the bike is easy to maintain and less logistically dependent.

Because bicycles don't need to eat a lot of forage and beans like war horses, they don't need many people to serve them, and they won't be frightened and run away, so it's much easier to manage.

That is, in addition to the disadvantage of being expensive, the rest of the bicycle is almost all advantages.

And if an army can get the bonus of carrying heavy grain and grass, get the bonus of high mechanical power, and save the forage and bean material, the logistics will be greatly simplified, and the plain terrain can travel two or three hundred miles a day.

What would such an army mean?

Even if it is not invincible in the world, it is at least one of the strongest armies!

Last winter, those remnants of the Liukou in the Taihang Mountain would not be able to catch up with them after running away from more than a hundred people-that's right, after the remnants of the Liukou on the Phoenix Mountain were resolved, considering the cold and freezing, the army of Yang Wang Deng chose to temporarily stop and found a place to camp for the winter.

But Lu Xiangsheng's Tianxiong army did not choose to stop, not only continued to pursue the remnants of the Liukou, but also divided a number of troops, and swept the Taihang Mountains again, in more than two months, actually caught more than 20,000 Liukou fish that slipped through the net, all traded to the Xujiazhuang caravan, tens of thousands of Tianxiong Army, realized the full change of half-body plate armor + alloy Yanling knife, combat effectiveness, military morale has been greatly improved.

But......

Because of the loss of the trust and support of the imperial court, the logistics supply of the Tianxiong army became more and more difficult, although the Xujiazhuang caravan could buy everything, but the price was expensive, and it was difficult to have a little money bag to bear, resulting in Lu Xiangsheng had to cancel the plan to kill out of Taihang Mountain in March, cross the Yellow River in the south, and enter Henan and Shaanxi to continue to suppress thieves.

Lu Xiangsheng wanted to serve the imperial court and chase after the rogue to prove his loyalty to the Ming Dynasty, but he had no choice but to stop there.

But he didn't give up.

He found that the members of the Xujiazhuang caravan used very frequently bicycles, which was simply an artifact, if he could also create an army of bicycles, and then use them in the pursuit of the Liukou, use the bicycle wheels to crush the iron footboard of the Liukou, chase them with nowhere to escape, and complete the task of completely eliminating the Liukou, then the imperial court will definitely trust itself again, and His Majesty the Emperor will also solve the misunderstanding, believing that he Lu Jiandou is a reliable and useful loyal minister.

It was precisely because of this kind of loyalty to the imperial court that he was like licking a dog to the emperor that drove Lu Xiangsheng to come to Jiangnan in person to talk to each other and strive to get a large number of bicycles from Xujiazhuang.

……

Soon.

Around noon.

The harbor city in front of him, which had swelled to the scale of 500,000 people, appeared in front of Lu Xiangsheng and his party.

They had to stop, like all the outsiders who came to Harbour City for the first time, with a stunned and dumbfounded expression.

The modern city in front of them gives them the same feeling as the ancients who traveled to a modern city, shocked, new and strange to everything in this city.

All of them turned into dirt buns, feeling extremely dazed, and the common sense in their minds could not play any role in reference.

Fortunately, in Harbour City, there are guides who specialize in serving people like them, and immediately there is a young man with a cockscomb hairstyle who looks like a sleek, and he walks over and asks if he needs a guide, as long as he gives 1 silver dollar, he can take them around Harbour City and introduce them to everything about Harbour City.

"1 silver dollar is too expensive, can it be cheaper?" Zhang Huayu, a staff member next to Lu Xiangsheng, asked.

"This price is worth the money, with my Liu Sanbao's understanding of Harbour City, to help you reduce the loss caused by not knowing Harbour City, it is definitely more than ten silver dollars." This local young man said.

"Recruit a local guide, is there a lower bid, why don't you do half a silver dollar?" Zhang Huayu said in a loud voice, every time he went to an unfamiliar city, this trick was tried repeatedly, and the local guides would compete to lower the offer.

But this time he miscalculated, although there were many people around who were similar to guides, but in the face of the high salary of half a silver dollar, no one stepped forward to take the order, even if he could see the expression of intention on someone's face, but he still turned around and scattered.

"This gentleman, Xujiazhuang does not encourage vicious competition, if you don't like me, you can clearly refuse, but if you provoke bidding like this, these guides around me will only offer the same price as me, unless you can find a guide who is not present."

Liu Sanbao hugged his hand and said, in fact, the former Harbour City guide also had a serious phenomenon of price reduction and order grabbing, and even caused conflicts and brawls, but after the owner learned of this, he let people set up a guide guild, and formulated the rules that no malicious order grabbing and malicious bidding are allowed...... That is, the locals must be united, and must not be involuted with each other.

"It's just you, a silver dollar is a piece."

Lu Xiangsheng opened his mouth and asked his entourage Li Chongzhen to take out a silver dollar, and at the same time he was very surprised in his heart, he didn't expect that the people of Xujiazhuang could be so conscious that they could use an invisible rule to protect everyone's interests, and it would be ineffective for outsiders to provoke with interests.

This Xujiazhuang really has a lot of extraordinary.

Subsequently, under the arrangement of the guide Liu Sanbao, this group of five people first stored the horses in the livestock isolation storage place outside the city, and there will be special personnel to take care of these horses, and disinfect and clean them to avoid bringing external epidemic diseases.

I went to the big bathhouse again, took five people to take a disinfectant bath, and slightly combed their beards and hair, and everyone was much cleaner and fresher.

It was only after the entry and exit management department registered the personal information of the five people and had someone take a profile picture with a camera that they finally got a passport and had the qualifications to enter the Harbour City activities, but they could only stay for a maximum of 30 days.

The end is cumbersome and cumbersome.

Enter Harbour City.

Walking on the wide, flat and solid cement road, Lu Xiangsheng and his party asked all kinds of questions about some things they had never seen before in the city.

"Liu Sanbao, what is this white pole on the side of the road, why is it erected here, why is there a black board on it, and a fan? Could this be a fake tree for shade? Staff member Sun Yuanhua asked.

"It's a street light pole, the black panel is a solar panel, and the windmill fan is a wind turbine fan, both of which generate electricity so that the street lights shine at night and make it easier for pedestrians to move around at night."

"I'm afraid there are thousands of such street lamp poles in the city, if they are lit at the same time, wouldn't it be a city that never sleeps?" Staff member Zhang Huayu asked.

"It's much more shocking than the city that never sleeps, and you'll be able to see it at night." Liu Sanbao sold a pass.

"Why are all the brick and stone houses in this city so high? And the big white house, which was much taller than some of the towers. ”

"That's the White Castle, where our owner lives, with twenty-nine floors and thirty-six zhang high, a reinforced concrete structure, which can live for hundreds of years without rust." Liu Sanbao said proudly.

"Ledo in high places, it is very easy to cause fires, how to avoid this?" Sun Yuanhua shook his head and asked.

"There is a lightning rod installed on the top of the White Castle, which can channel lightning into the ground, and the lightning strikes millions of times without the slightest damage."

"The lightning rod is so magical, not afraid of thunder and lightning, if the fire caused by the thunder can be solved, I don't know how many houses can be avoided, I want to enter the White Fort to see the structure of the lightning rod, I wonder if it is allowed?" Sun Yuanhua asked excitedly.

"I, Liu Sanbao, am just a small person, I can't decide this matter, you can find someone else to ask." Liu Sanbao shook his head.

Then there are the electric tricycles running around on the road, how are they driven by the power of thunder and lightning?

Why do the barrages outside the city, and the hundreds of wind turbines erected on the seawalls, convert wind energy into electricity?

There is also a system of public toilets, a water supply system, a power supply system, a drainage system, and a gas supply system based on a giant biogas digester buried in the ground.

Even ask about the purpose of the garbage cans placed on the side of the road.

It wasn't until Lu Xiangsheng and the others were really hungry that they couldn't wait until their stomachs were growling, so they temporarily put down their curiosity, found a signature seafood restaurant, and ate something in it, especially the local special seafood fish, not to mention the cheap quantity, and the taste was also extremely delicious, so that Lu Xiangsheng and other groups who had never eaten seafood were full of praise and gobbling up, and everyone held on until they couldn't eat it.