The royal train of the emperor of the Tang Empire is not a train, but a full 4 trains, and there are two fully armed royal guard special trains in front of the royal patent, which depart 8~10 minutes apart in advance, as a guard for avant-garde vigilance.

The front of the Royal Janissary Guard, known as the "Fire Pilot Car", is a seven-car train with a sharp bucket on the front of the train, which can remove all obstacles on the track and avoid affecting the passage of trains.

In the front and rear carriages of the fire pilot train, each is equipped with 6 24-pounder Colt guns, a total of 12 guns, once it is powerful, it can burst out with powerful firepower.

The middle carriages are also equipped with a whole heavy machine gun battalion firepower, a total of 64 heavy machine guns, of which 16 heavy machine guns are on daily duty, and another 48 heavy machine guns are in reserve, which can form a suppressive dense fire against the incoming enemy.

Behind the "Fire Pilot Car" is the "Support Train", a special train consisting of 11 cars, and the remaining 10 cars, except for one dining car, are all loaded with soldiers with live ammunition, totaling more than 640 officers and soldiers of the Royal Janissary.

Behind these two trains is the real royal patent, which looks no different from the first two trains on the outside, but the interior is extremely luxurious. Moreover, several important carriages are all equipped with Harvey bulletproof steel plates, which are as thick as three fingers superimposed, even if they are parked there and let the artillery bombard, the artillery under 12 pounds cannot break the defense.

The last special train is a logistics vehicle, which carries logistics personnel, Royal Guard soldiers, horses and entourage, as well as some special food and supplies for the royal family, supplies and so on.

During the Emperor's tour, the railway was very tightly guarded, and all bridges, culverts and important areas were guarded by soldiers, and it was strictly forbidden for idlers to approach.

It's approaching evening

When the royal train roared its long whistle into Taoyuan Station, the officers and soldiers of the Royal Janissary Guard, who were on strict guard, raised their hands in salute, and then the orchestra played the passionate "March of the Cavalry Regiment", and the majestic music echoed on the platform.

Emperor Richard did not stop at the train station for long, hurriedly boarded the royal convoy that had been waiting here, and galloped in the direction of Mirror Lake Palace under the escort of the cavalry of the Royal Guard.

As the sixth largest metropolis with a population of one million in the empire, Taoyuan City is one of the core cities in central China, connecting the east and west and the north and south, and has obvious geographical advantages.

Its urban scale has long been not limited to the Taoyuan Valley, outside the valley to open up a large area of new urban areas, along the street 4~5 storey buildings rise from the ground, there are some eight or nine floors or even more than 10 storey high-rise buildings dotted in the meantime, the exterior wall with gorgeous marble decoration, showing extraordinary taste.

When night comes

The kerosene street lamps along the street are lit up one by one, and some shops have already used bright electric lights, and the bustling flow of people is very lively, and the street is filled with the fragrance of various delicacies, making people forget to leave.

It was one of the earliest cities of the Empire, connecting Phoenix City to the east along Cherry Creek, and is the dazzling twin cities of the Colorado Plateau, known for its pleasant climate and abundant products.

His Majesty the Emperor brought a group of concubines and princes to Jinghu Palace for a vacation, which was a great glory for the entire Taoyuan City, and many nobles in the empire also heard the news, forming a trend of coming to Taoyuan City for summer vacation, bringing additional business opportunities and prosperity here.

The use of kerosene lamps and electric lamps lit up the metropolis at night, and the security situation in the empire was good, and many city dwellers came out with their families at night. One is to consume food, and the other is to enjoy the beautiful night view of the city, and feel comfortable.

Some vendors with a keen sense of smell sensed the business opportunity and set up a night market with wonton stalls, and business was booming.

One to ten, ten to hundred, one after another.

in time

There are many itinerant vendors with kerosene lamps hanging in the city, and the snacks and snacks sold are also varied, with both northern and southern flavors, forming a roadside night market.

Most of the night markets are concentrated in some restaurants, teahouses, taverns and prostitutes on the streets, and gradually form a relatively large-scale night market stalls, and even some larger merchants are also involved.

"Guest, please ...... upstairs"

"Please raise your feet, the three guest officers will go upstairs to the elegant seat and make tea!"

Under the warm greeting of Dr. Tea, Richard and his entourage in disguise walked into a teahouse with antique furnishings, came to the window position of the private seat on the second floor, and sat down at the window, observing the bustling scene on the street with great interest.

The fragrance full of fireworks wafted in, and the stomach of the hooker was ready to move.

Dr. Tea quickly came up with four kinds of refreshments and four kinds of dried fruits, made a pot of good tea and brought it to the table, confessed his guilt, and said, "Guest officer, you use it slowly" and then went down.

The tall Richard, though in his forties, did not look old. There was not a trace of wrinkles on his fair and handsome face, and his elegant demeanor was like that of a noble son, and he was a completely different young man after disguise.

He sat on a chair by the window, leisurely enjoying refreshments, but his eyes kept looking at the bustling street outside, and there was a scene of a street full of fireworks.

Among the two people sitting at the periphery of the table, a middle-aged man was Viscount Yao Guangyi, who had just been transferred to the center from the high-ranking position of the royal province of heaven, and was one of the newly promoted deputy directors of the royal secretariat.

is a fresh face in the empire, and he doesn't need to be disguised at all, and there are not many people who know him.

This person has served as the mayor of New Xi'an for many years, and in his hands he has developed this only metropolis with a population of one million in overseas provinces.

The other fierce companion was also a middle-aged man, Colonel Zheng Yong, who belonged to the Imperial Chamberlain Military Attache. This person was born in a family of folk Tongbei boxers in Yizhou, and his military career has been nearly 20 years, most of which have been served in the Royal Praetorian Guard, and he is a true master who has always been taciturn.

At this table, two middle-aged people and a young man are not an eyesore.

The antique teahouse is elegantly furnished and elegantly decorated, and it is obviously not a low-end public occasion.

Those who can board the teahouse to consume are either rich or expensive, and a table of refreshments can easily cost more than ten or even dozens of yuan, and ordinary people can not afford to consume them.

But there is a reason why it is expensive.

The 2nd floor of this teahouse is full of private rooms, decorated with precious wood carved beams and paintings, and the tea cups used are also famous porcelain from Jingdezhen official kiln, which is unique.

The calligraphy and paintings hanging in the private room are also from the hands of famous artists, and they are delicate and bold under the illumination of bamboo charcoal wire electric lamps, revealing a strong fragrance of calligraphy and ink.

These things will be antiques for more than a hundred years, and they are the kind of high-quality goods that are worth a lot of money.

Don't say anything else

The fact that electric lights can be used in this teahouse is a demonstration of strength in itself.

At the beginning of this lantern, the private room on the second floor of the teahouse was already sitting, and it was obvious that the rich businessmen and celebrities in Taoyuan City were not short of money, and their spending power was considerable.

From other private rooms, there is a faint sound of orchestral silk and bamboo playing, as well as the gentle tune of the singer, together with the bustling fireworks outside the window, together constitute a vivid picture of life.

Emperor Richard carefully examined the vendors and customers on the streets, in his eyes;

The vendors along the street are obviously managed, some selling wontons, selling tofu brains, selling fried buns, and selling rock sugar gourds, with a rich variety.

What the southern cold skin, roast goose, roast duck, northern Hu spicy soup pancakes, as well as cold noodles, tea eggs, rice noodles boiled in a variety of patterns, almost everything.

You can also see tortillas, barbecues, sausages and beers, pasta, French cheeses and more. There is even poppy seed bread full of gold diggers' nostalgia, and the freshly baked bread is full of aroma, and many people buy it.

Such a scene made him smile at the corner of his mouth, and his heart was full of warm feelings.

What is the way of statecraft?

Isn't it the rise of peace in the four seas, so that ordinary people can live a happy and happy life?

Because the Tang Empire itself is the world's most important oil extraction and refining producer, the domestic supply of kerosene for lighting, diesel and gasoline for agricultural machinery, and heavy oil for ships are relatively low, and ordinary people can afford to use them.

In addition, the Tang Empire was the first country to open the second industrial revolution represented by the new wave of power and chemical industries, and walked in the forefront of the world in the construction of thermal power stations and hydroelectric power stations.

A series of thermal power stations have been built in large and medium-sized cities, and some hydroelectric power stations have begun to operate to provide urban lighting and electricity for factories.

This makes the city light up at night, and there is a foundation for the development of the night market economy.

Don't underestimate that

No other country in the world, including the most economically powerful country, has developed a night market economy, because they can't light up the night, and that's too extravagant.

Due to the monopoly of the world's oil supply by several major oil companies led by the Tang Empire, the situation of large price reductions in oil prices did not occur in the original history, and still maintained high prices, and the strong demand in Europe was far greater than the supply.

And all this is undoubtedly faster than grabbing money for the Tang Empire.

The Tang Empire imposed heavy taxes on the oil industry, and the resource tax alone accounted for more than half of the extraction costs, plus the special fuel production tax, the dangerous goods surcharge, the provincial and municipal additional taxes, the customs export tax and other taxes, almost swallowed up eighty percent of the profits of the oil companies.

Even so, the empire's major oil giants are still alive and well, and they can invest a lot of money in Texas oil fields, and the annual equity dividends are huge, which shows how big the windfall profits of the oil industry are?

In the original history

The Texas oil field has been in full swing from the very beginning, with investors flocking in and erecting hundreds of wells where the oil was found, looking like a dense forest from afar.

In less than 10 years, from the discovery of Texas oil in 1859, U.S. oil production skyrocketed from 2,000 barrels to 4 million barrels, and later to 60 million barrels, all in less than 10 years.

A well, with a high production capacity, can pump more than 3,000 barrels of oil a day, which is simply insane.

At $10 per barrel in 1859, the well generated more than $30,000 in gross profit a day at a negligible cost.

Uncontrolled production frenzies, coupled with numerous competitions, have led to a sharp drop in the price of petroleum products.

The price plummeted from $10 per barrel in 1859 to 10 cents in 1869, turning the windfall profits of the oil industry into meager profits......

In this day and age

Several major oil giants are controlled by a monopoly class dominated by royal capital and aristocratic capital, and they have maintained a steady increase in production through tacit development and maintenance, and have always kept the price of oil floating between 10 and 8 Tang Yuan in order to maintain staggering profits in the long run.

This alone brings in hundreds of millions of dollars worth of revenue every year.

The Tang Empire used heavy taxes to control the high price of oil, and the royal family and the imperial government accumulated huge amounts of money.

This once aroused extreme dissatisfaction among Britain, France and other powers, requiring the Tang Empire to reform the heavy taxes on the oil industry and introduce healthy competition from foreign capital to maintain the long-term and stable development of the oil market and meet Europe's strong demand for kerosene and other petroleum products.

The Tang Empire basically listened with one ear and went out with one ear, and it didn't go to heart at all.

Wouldn't it be foolish to give up monopoly interests on such an important issue involving one's own interests?

Human beings are irreplaceable in their pursuit of light at night, and no one wants to live in the dark night, which is their nature.

Kerosene, as a cheap fossil fuel, is more suitable for lighting than olive oil, and gasoline and diesel are irreplaceable as chemical fuels to drive internal combustion machinery.

Not to mention lubricating oil, which is an indispensable lubricant for the machinery industry, without which the entire industrial system will be paralyzed.

Britain and France, the first countries to enter industrialization, are also inseparable from petroleum products at all times, they have worked hard to colonize the world, squeezing the large profits obtained by the colonies, and flowing into the Tang Empire through the oil trade like a floodgate that has opened the floodgates, and it cannot be stopped.

It's maddening, but there's nothing you can do.

The Tang Empire's superior geographical location on the verge of two oceans, strong military power and strong industrial economy almost unified the regional hegemony of the American countries, coupled with the tough dictatorship Emperor Richard, making it a very difficult master to mess with.

Even with the strength and hegemony of Britain and France, they can only discuss with the Tang Empire in terms of oil industry policy, and cannot put the idea of armed invasion into practice, which is completely unrealistic.

How many troops did it take to conquer the Tang Empire?

1 million, 2 million, or 3 million?

Britain, France and other world powers found that they were facing the hellish difficulty of an ocean-crossing expedition, and there was nothing to borrow from except for a foothold in northern Canada.

Any difficulty in front of us is hopeless, and it is obvious that it is very unrealistic to resort to force, so we can only talk about it with both hard and soft......

Talk about a fart!

Emperor Richard's attitude towards this issue is perfunctory, even if the royal family is rich all over the world, it is difficult to give up the annual oil trade dividends with amazing profits, which is simply cutting meat!

The royal family and the imperial government are in an unprecedented alignment, always responding with constant Tai Chi pushes, and whenever a train derails the Texas oil railroad or an oil tanker sinks in the Atlantic, it will always cause large fluctuations in the international oil market and soar prices.

"It's really nice to see people living and working in peace and contentment!" Richard looked at the lively street scene with a happy expression, and a warm smile appeared on his face.

At this time, a sudden noise attracted his attention, and after listening to it for a while, his expression immediately turned cold......

(End of chapter)