"Dingguo, you eat the food before leaving!"

"Good!"

On the twenty-eighth day of the first lunar month, when the school was about to start three days away, Li Dingguo was not on the way to the Qi Palace, as he had done at this time in the past few years, but helped pack his things at home, and was just about to return to the capital.

"If you go so late, can you get to the capital in time?"

Sitting at the door, Li Dingguo's father Li Dashou also looked at Li Dingguo who was laying grass for the cattle pen worriedly, but Li Dingguo smiled easily:

"It's okay, the train from Yanshan County to the capital has been repaired, I'll go later, wait for it to get on the train after dark, and I guess I'll be able to get to the capital at dawn."

"So fast?" Li Zhang, who had never been on a train, walked out of the house and wiped his hands with an apron with a somewhat surprised expression.

"Almost, it is three hundred and eighty miles from Yanshan Station to Jingcheng North Station, and the train has to run for six hours, so I can sleep on the car then."

Li Dingguo explained with a smile while laying grass for the cattle pen that he understood so well because he came by train when he came.

The speed of railway construction in the Ming Dynasty was not fast, although each railway started construction of more than 200,000 people, but the speed was only more than 400 miles per year.

The construction of the Beijing-Liao Railway began in October of the tenth year of the Apocalypse, and it experienced a two-month shutdown of war on the way, but even so, it has been built for nearly 500 miles so far.

As the production of mercury thunderate continued to rise, and the major steel mills continued to smelt steel after the use of steam engines, the construction of the railway was faster than Wen Tiren expected.

The original six-year construction period has been shortened to less than five years, that is, another four years of construction, and the railway from the capital to Shenyang can be completed by taking the Great Wall from the capital.

"When the railway is built everywhere in the future, when the farming is slack, I will take my father and mother to the Cham Mansion in the south of Jiaozhi to play, and I heard His Highness say that there is a beach and a sea over there, and the sea is blue and very beautiful."

Li Dingguo also took the train a few times, and after feeling its convenience, he realized why his Royal Highness wanted to build a train vigorously.

In the past, he thought that trains were only used for military purposes, but later he found out that in fact, trains are also very beneficial to people's livelihood.

"It's expensive by train, isn't it?"

Although he now has land and income, Li Zhang's family is still very distressed about money and is very frugal.

"It's not very expensive." Li Dingguo said with a smile: "When I graduate and enter the imperial court and earn a fortune, I will take my father and mother there." ”

"How much did you spend from the capital to Yanshan?" Li Dashou asked directly about the price.

"One hundred and twenty-six." Li Dingguo didn't hide it, because he was afraid that it would be cheap, and his father and mother would not bring enough silver on the train in the future.

"So expensive?!"

Sure enough, when he heard the price of the train, Li Zhang shouted out in a lost voice, and Li Dashou was also a little speechless.

"It costs 30 yuan to ride a carriage, and 50 yuan to ride a horse, which is fine."

Li Dingguo got up with a smile and responded while working.

"From the capital to Yanshan, you will have to pay one hundred and twenty-six Wen, and I am afraid that it will cost a few taels of silver to go to Jiaozhi, right? Have you ever gone to Shaanxi? ”

Although Li Zhang's is too expensive, she still asks curiously, after all, she has walked the longest road in her life, which is to migrate from Yan'an to Yanshan.

"It's much farther, almost eight thousand miles, the three of us plus our younger brothers and sisters, it is estimated that we will get more than twenty taels back and forth."

"But it doesn't take so much, I heard Cao Bingbi say that the steamship of the Armaments Institute already has eyebrows."

"When the time comes, we will take a train to Tianjin, and then take a boat from Tianjin to the south, which is estimated to be more than a dozen taels of silver."

Li Dingguo talked eloquently, but Li Zhang quipped:

"My little ancestor, I'm afraid you don't know what a dozen taels of silver is enough for our family."

"If it's enough, don't delay, anyway, the kid will take you with the money."

Li Dingguo said with a smile, and Li Dashou also helped: "A dozen taels of silver, it's okay to go." ”

It's not that Li Dashou licked his face and gnawed his son, but that their Li family cultivated a lot of fields, and many people in the village moved to the north, and the village officials began to redistribute the land to them.

The current standard for dividing land in Yanshan County is 12 acres per person, so Li Dingguo has a family of five and a total of 60 acres of land.

Although it did not increase much, due to the promulgation of the new policy, their family originally needed to pay a tax of three out of ten according to the military tuntian, but now they only need to pay one of ten taxes.

Although the drought in the Xiaoice River has led to a cooling and the yield of Yanshan land has decreased, sixty acres of land can also produce more than 50 stone rice, and one tenth of the field endowment has been paid, like Li Dashou, they can still have 489 stone left.

In addition to the food left for his own family, after the rest is sold to the imperial store, he can earn almost twenty taels of silver.

It has been several years since the Li family moved to Yanshan, and Li Dashou himself has saved a lot of silver, although it hurts to spend more than a dozen taels of silver, but it is okay to grit his teeth.

Of course, this is mainly because Li Dashou feels that life is getting better and better, and maybe he can earn more in the future.

"Are you crazy? That's a dozen taels! Li Zhang stepped forward and glared at Li Dashou, but Li Dashou chirped:

"There are only more than 80 households in this village, and if this continues, I am afraid that in a few years, there will only be more than 50 households."

"More than 50 households share these thousands of acres of land, and it is estimated that the family will be able to earn more every year after that, and it will cost more than a dozen taels to spend......"

"Yes, mother!" Li Dingguo walked out of the bullpen with a smile, but Li Zhang's scolded the two of them: "You don't feel sorry for the silver." ”

"You go out to inquire, other families only have a few taels of silver a year, and you can spend more than a dozen taels of silver."

"As far as the Zhang family at the entrance of the village is concerned, there are seven or eight people in the family, and the land is only about 80 acres, and I heard from the Zhang family's aunt that they only harvested 70 stone rice last year."

"After selling the rice that can't be eaten, the family only has nineteen taels of silver."

"What is the situation of the Zhang family, can you not know? It was a good life for someone in the family who died in the war and took the pension field. ”

"A few days ago, those foot merchants from the south also said that the whole family in Shaanxi only has five or six taels of silver a year."

"In case of a big drought when it comes, our little silver is useless, so we can't go to the Qi Palace's mansion to beg."

Li Zhang's words are hard to hear, but it is true.

In fact, most of the people in the traditional two capitals and thirteen provinces have seven or eight people per household, and they can only earn five or six taels of silver a year, at most they can eat enough.

For the people of this era, migration is the fastest way to make a fortune, and Zhu Youzhen is constantly opening up this way.

However, as the surrounding land was almost occupied, and only some oases and grasslands in the northern and western regions remained, the way to get rich by dividing the land had to be changed to cultivating and getting rich.

After all, there are so many familiar lands in East Asia, and they have been almost divided by the Ming Dynasty.

"Okay, mother, let's eat."

Li Dingguo knows the situation of Daming better than Li Zhang, he has seen his Royal Highness busy for the people, but he is too young, he just wants to make his family comfortable, and he has not thought about the world and the people for the time being.

Maybe when he is older and sees more reality, his thoughts will slowly change.

The whole family was speechless, and they all went back to the courtyard to eat, and when lunch was over, Li Dingguo also went to the station to Yanshan County under the pull of Li Dashou's ox cart.

The station in Yanshan County is not far from his home, but it is only more than 30 miles, and even if you walk there by ox cart, it is only an hour and a half away.

Li Zhang prepared water for the two to drink dry food, and the two sat on the ox cart and hurried towards the station.

On the way, I saw people in the village and said hello, but no one wanted to rub the car.

After all, it is the north, and it is still north of the Great Wall, except for Liaodong, the people of the three provinces outside the Guanhai are not short of animal power.

The relocated people were given oxen and horses by the officialdom, and these livestock could be used as a means of transportation or as agricultural tools, which was very convenient.

Walking out of the village, the two drove on the small road in the countryside, and in the distance were many villagers burning wasteland.

On a village road more than ten miles long, the two walked for an hour in an ox cart.

The remaining ten miles of the road, from when they walked out of the country road, became a county road watered by a cement road, a full three zhang wide, enough for five horse-drawn carriages to run in parallel.

The ox cart is very comfortable walking on the cement county road, which is much better than the bumps in the country road.

After arriving on the county road, the number of convoys on the road has also increased a lot, and it is common to see some people from the next village sitting on ox carts or riding horses on the road.

"To the train station?"

"Ah, yes......"

Some people who didn't know each other drove from the opposite direction, and when they met Li Dingguo's father and son, they all said hello, because the ox and horse carts were not fast, so they could often chat a few words between the wrong bodies.

In the first month of the year, Yanshan County is still below zero, the rural roads are frozen and snowy, everyone can't walk fast, and everyone is dressed very warmly.

"Dingguo, is it cold or not?"

"It's not cold, it's warm."

Li Dashou was afraid that Li Dingguo would be cold, so he laid a layer of straw for the ox cart, which was relatively warm.

"Dad, who cleaned up the snow on this rural road?"

Li Dingguo looked at the snow that was pushed to both sides of the road, and asked curiously, Li Dashou also smiled:

"Who can clean this up? The county sent a task, the town carried it out, and the village officials in the village asked each village to do it. ”

"What about our family?" Li Dingguo was very curious, but Li Dashou smiled and said:

"When you go home, our family can't go to work, so I paid eight yuan to the Liu family in the village's drying field, and asked them to bring someone to help with the work."

The Liu family in the drying field, this Li Dingguo knew that they were relocated to the village later, Shanxi Datong, who settled late and did not want to move to the north, although they had a field, they still continued some work in the village.

"Why does the Liu family make so much money?" Li Dingguo asked curiously, and Li Dashou also explained:

"The house they live in belongs to the He family, and they have to pay 300 yuan in rent every year."

"I talked to their family before, and they seemed to be planning to save money to discuss with Zheng Village officials and them, and set aside a piece of wasteland to build a house for them."

"It takes a lot of money to build a house, but we won't make that money, help him fight for two days, I can't do it for too long, and your mother has to talk about me."

Li Dashou is a simple man, he likes to give people money when he helps with work, but when he encounters a neighbor who needs help, he keeps his mouth shut and doesn't mention money, this kind of character makes him suffer a lot of losses, and Li Zhang's family doesn't say much about him.

It's just that every time he is told, he will always cleverly divert the topic, saying what happened to the field, and what is probably going on, so that Li Zhang can't talk about him anymore after being distracted.

The ox cart walked slowly on the county road, although it was very cold around, but Li Dingguo had a hand warmer in his hand, plus there was straw, so it was bearable.

On the contrary, it was Li Dashou, on his sallow face, his nose was red, and Li Dingguo also got up and reached out to grab the reins: "Dad, I'll drive, you will lie down." ”

"You lie down, I'm fine." Li Dashou took Li Dingguo's hand away, and then drove stubbornly.

Li Dingguo was helpless when he saw this, so he could only let Li Dashou continue to drive.

Half an hour later, when the time came to the fourth quarter of Shen Shi (16 o'clock), they finally drove to the railway station in Nancheng, Yanshan County.

The railway station is built outside the city, the area is not very large, the area is not more than an acre, into the railway station is the ticket office and waiting hall, Li Dashou tied the ox cart to the guard box with the Soldiers and Horses Division, and then helped Li Dingguo carry the bookcase into the concrete construction of the railway station.

Since he had never seen glass, he faced the train station that used glass as a window, and Li Dashou, who came to the door, tidied himself up, kicked the dirt on his feet, and then walked in with courage.

Li Dingguo looked at his father who was walking in front, and he could see that Li Dashou was a little panicked in his heart, after all, he had not experienced this.

It's just that his strong personality made him look at the station, he was illiterate, but he chatted with Li Dingguo all the way, and he also knew that the counter with three big characters was the ticket office.

In the railway station of Yanshan County, the people who take the train are all people from Huangdian, or folk foot merchants, and there are basically no people.

"Buy a ticket to Jingcheng North Station."

Walking to the ticket gate with Li Dingguo, Li Dashou looked at the transparent glass, and the male conductor at the counter glanced at Li Dashou, then wrote the ticket, stamped it and launched it: "One hundred and twenty-six texts." ”

"Eh!" When Li Dashou heard this, he hurriedly handed over a piece of broken silver, and the conductor weighed it in the name of the station: "Charge you three dollars and two cents of silver, and find you one hundred and ninety-four wen." ”

After that, the man opened the cabinet in front of him, took out two strings of Baiwen copper coins, counted six, and handed the remaining copper coins and tickets to Li Dashou.

"Thank you...... Thank you......" Li Dashou looked at the process and had no problem, the ticket was in hand, the stone in his heart fell to the ground, turned around and walked out of the queue with Li Dingguo, and then handed the ticket and copper money to Li Dingguo.

"You take the money." As he spoke, he looked around, and saw that the top of the waiting hall was made of cement like the ground beneath their feet, but it was painted with white ash.

On the left side of the station is the ticket gate, on the right side is the place where the service provider Jia transports goods and weighs the goods, and in the opposite direction of the gate is a row of glass and two glass doors that are closed, and there are many chairs placed in the four corners of the hall.

"Just sit here and wait for the bus? How do you know how to get in the car? ”

Li Dashou asked Li Dingguo, Li Dingguo pulled him to the chair in the corner and sat down, and then pointed to a few big characters on the glass door and said:

"That side is the boarding gate, the west door is to Shenyang, the east door is to the capital, and so you will hear the whistle, which direction of the car, which direction of the door will be opened, just go along the road to enter the station, and then get on the bus."

"There's a note on the back of this ticket." As he spoke, Li Dingguo handed the ticket to Li Dashou to see, Li Dashou took the piece of cardboard in his hand and looked at it, he didn't know any of the small characters.

"Hey...... Dad didn't have much culture, he didn't know him. Li Dashou smiled awkwardly and handed the ticket to Li Dingguo, as if he was afraid that he would break the ticket worth one hundred and twenty-six yuan.

"Do you want to go back first? When it gets dark, I'm afraid you won't be able to go home. ”

Li Dingguo looked at a huge clock hanging in the station, and found that it was already five quarters later, and he couldn't help but be a little worried about how Li Dashou would go home.

"It's okay...... it's okay," Li Dashou responded with a smile, his eyes constantly looking around.

He was like a rural kid who had just entered the city, out of place at this station.

The people in this station were all wearing silk cloth, and he was the only one wearing cloth clothes, which could not help but make him timid.

"Bell, bell, bell—"

Soon, the sound of gongs sounded in the station, and the glass door to Beijing was also opened, and a person shouted with an iron horn: "People going to Beijing are ready to get on the train!" ”

After these words were spoken, dozens of people in the station began to get up and walk to the door, and Li Dingguo also got up and picked up the bookcase:

"Dad, I'll go back to the capital first, you go back early, be careful on the way, you have this copper furnace."

Li Dingguo handed the copper furnace in his hand to Li Dashou and put his frozen and somewhat wooden hands on the copper furnace.

While his palms were warm, Li Dashou was also a little at a loss: "Oh, let's go, let's go, remember to go home during the summer vacation." ”

"Well, you go back, I'll go first." After that, Li Dingguo walked towards the boarding gate of the train station with the bookcase on his back, while Li Dashou got up and looked at his back, and then looked at the train station again until his back disappeared, and then walked out of the train station.

When he came to the guard box of the Terracotta Division, after untying the ox cart, he couldn't tell what he felt all the time, only that he felt empty.

As he set up the ox cart and left, a voice he had never heard before came not far away.

"Woo-woo-"

When the whistle sounded, Li Dashou straightened up, turned his head to look, and saw a black "strange car" emitting black smoke and slowly driving away from the railway in the distance.

"This is the train......

Looking at the back of the train in the distance, Li Dashou had mixed feelings in his heart, and finally drove the ox cart and walked in the direction of home.

As for Li Dingguo, who got on the train, he sat by the window near the train station, so when the train left the train station, he saw Li Dashou sitting on the ox cart.

He kept looking at Li Dashou until he couldn't see it anymore, and he didn't withdraw his gaze.

Turning his head, he looked at the carriage, the structure in the carriage was designed by Zhu Youzhen, but the position was much wider.

The tables and chairs made of solid wood looked very comfortable, but there were not many passengers in the carriage, only a few dozen people.

Li Dingguo is not worried about the train losing money, because after the train arrives at the station, it will choose to add carriages or cargo boxes depending on the situation.

For example, the trains at Yanshan Station, at present, they are basically trucks that pull materials to Duoyan County, and they arrange carriages when someone takes the train, and if there is no cargo box.

In short, no matter how you get it, the train won't lose too much money.

Li Dingguo, who understood all this, looked at the appearance of some businessmen and scholars in the carriage, and they were all chatting without exception, looking at the scenery outside the window and pointing.

The speed of the train is not fast, but it is compared to the later generations, compared to the horseback riding.

If you compare the horse-drawn carriages, the smooth train is a few streets away from the horse-drawn carriages of this era, except for a little noisy.

"Jingle bell—"

"There is a mechanism on the left side of the wooden chair on the car, which can be put down after being pulled down, this time the shift is to go to Jingcheng North Station, it is expected to take six hours, please keep your ......"

The words that were almost not much different from later generations appeared in Li Dingguo's ears, it was not the first time he had taken a car, and he had already known that all chairs had mechanisms.

After finding the mechanism and pulling it, the chair immediately fell down to 120 degrees, which made people feel a lot more comfortable.

Although they are all wooden chairs, the buttocks have cotton cushions, which are quite comfortable.

Since the classes for the winter vacation were all done, Li Dingguo didn't have anything to do in the car, so he took a copy of Yanshan's textbook and started to read it.

While reading, perhaps he got up too early or was too bored, and he gradually fell asleep.

By the time he finally woke up from his dream, the dusk outside the train window had turned into darkness, and only the oil lamp on the roof of the carriage provided a faint light to the carriage.

Li Dingguo looked around, everyone was sleeping, and the blankets were brought by them.

Li Dingguo didn't prepare blankets, but the carriages of the steam train were very warm, and he wore thick ones, so there was no need for blankets.

He got up and walked to the back of the carriage, where there was a room with a latrine written on it.

The train's latrine is connected to a wooden box, and when the train's manure box is full, it is handed over to the night incense driver stationed at the station when the train stops.

After spending a few minutes solving his problem, Li Dingguo returned to his position and glanced at his pocket watch,

"Three Moments of Ugliness (1:45)" ......

Finding out that it was still early, Li Dingguo closed his eyes and continued to pretend to sleep.

Time passed little by little, until the sky began to light slightly, and the crew on the car walked out of the carriage with a bell:

"There is still a quarter of an hour to ...... capital"

"Jingle Bell ......"

The ringing woke up many people, including Li Dingguo, who was pretending to sleep.

Some people went to the toilet to wash their faces, while others solved the problem of grain reincarnation, and when Li Dingguo packed up his books, it didn't take long for the train to sound the whistle.

With a "whining" sound, the train pulled into the Jingcheng North Railway Station and stopped shortly after entering the station.

As the door opened, Li Dingguo and the people on the train stepped off the train, and the wooden sign on the platform that read "Jingcheng North Station" reminded Li Dingguo.

After a winter break, he returned to the capital.

"It's very comfortable, but it's too expensive, and few people can afford to sit ......"

Seeing that the scholars and merchants on the platform were all dressed in silk cloth and satin, Li Dingguo shook his head, and then walked to the exit of the station with the bookcase on his back......