Chongzhen and I became partners

Chapter 316 Steam Train
However, it is definitely a big event for the emperor to go out of the palace, or even out of the city, and bring the queen and princes and daughters with him.

Officials of the foreign court, especially the censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, played up one after another, admonishing Emperor Chongzhen from various angles to dispel this idea.

However, Emperor Chongzhen insisted on going his own way, but they had no choice.

As a result, the soldiers of the Wucheng Bingmasi went to the streets to enforce martial law, Jin Yiwei cleared the way, and Emperor Chongzhen, with his wife and children, arrived at the train station outside the Chaoyang Gate of the capital in a mighty manner.

In the middle of this team, there are also special vehicles from the Military Warfare Bureau, carrying huge train locomotives, and various carriages, some for passengers and some for freight.

This is the first time that a train part has been shown in front of the people of the Ming Dynasty. Those vigilant soldiers from the Five Cities were stunned. It is so big and heavy. This is the legendary train. Can it move?
After the emperor passed by, the people along the way no longer needed to stay in the houses, but also flocked out of the streets to watch the excitement.

They were also outside the cordon of the Wucheng soldiers and horses, looking at the huge train parts, and they were also dumbfounded. At a glance, they knew that this train part was very heavy. Can it move on which railway?

Seriously, their knee-jerk answer is definitely no.

However, this was invented by the emperor. With all the miraculous performances of Chongzhen in the past 15 years, they quickly turned from denial to doubt. How can such a heavy train move?
Therefore, as the soldiers of the Wucheng Bingmasi gradually lifted the isolation, the idlers in the capital, mainly those who had nothing to do, followed behind the soldiers of the Wucheng Bingmasi and crowded outside the Chaoyang Gate. go.

There were even some clever ones who, seeing that there were too many crowds of onlookers, went to other city gates and then went around.Anyway, the railway is there, and if you wait at any place, you can see the train going on the road.

There are quite a few people who have this kind of idea, and they spread it to ten, ten to a hundred, just like that, on the concrete official road from the capital to Tongzhou, many people gathered again, regardless of the cold weather, along the line to watch.

As a result, some businessmen were driven to start doing business, and started selling along the line.

"Peanuts and melon seeds boiled water, watch while eating!"

"Eggs, tea eggs, quail eggs, fill your stomach first!"

"..."

Let’s talk about the capital’s railway station. The surrounding area is guarded by soldiers from the Wucheng Bingma Division, and the inside is lined with brocade guards. Emperor Chongzhen and his wife and children cannot be blown by the cold wind, and they are hiding in the warm room of the station master. Standing, watching the movement outside through the transparent glass window.

The senior officials of Ming Dynasty naturally accompanied Yu Jia out and stayed in another house.All of them were more angry with the emperor. This is simply nonsense, and they ran out with such a big family!
The thieves are still raging in the south, and the north is also waiting to be done. The spring planting is also very important, and the construction of water conservancy, which one is not very important?

It turned out that the emperor was lucky enough to leave the city with such fanfare, just for his railway department, this unreliable machine made of steel?

Even for this reason, they all had a feeling that Emperor Tianqi liked carpentry in the past. Could it be that this younger brother of Emperor Tianqi began to settle for pleasure and indulge in iron work after the great victory in Jizhou?

In short, they didn't look forward to this kind of train at all, and felt that there was nothing wrong with it, they were just messing around here with the emperor.

However, in the station master's room, the atmosphere was lively, and he was very much looking forward to the upcoming scene.

Because not only Emperor Chongzhen had watched the video of the steam train, but most other people, including Queen Zhou, had also watched it.In addition, even Princess Zhu Yuxi of Kunxing and his maid Fei Zhen'e personally participated in the construction of the train, especially in the laying of the railway tracks. The main reason was their knowledge of Liu Weichao's railways. Absorbs faster than others.When Emperor Chongzhen employed people, he let them participate no matter what their status was.

Among them, Fei Zhen'e was one of the court ladies who went to the railway laying site in person and participated in directing the laying of the railway, and was the one in charge.Of the [-] reasons why Emperor Chongzhen asked Liu Weichao about trains, she basically put forward half of them.Now, together with Aunt Zhu, they are chattering about the situation of laying the railway to Emperor Chongzhen at that time.

Outside, the construction workers knew that the emperor and empress, as well as senior Ming officials, were watching.Therefore, construction is underway.As the general manager of Daming Technology, Song Yingxing also appeared in front of everyone for the first time, and was busy directing the on-site operations.

For the time being, a total of two trains have been built according to the drawings provided by Liu Weichao, which will be used for the separation between Tongzhou and Jingshi Railway.

The steam train provided by Liu Weichao to Emperor Chongzhen is naturally a mature steam train.

Speaking of this steam train, in the original history, it was not until February 1804, 2 that the first wheel-rail steam locomotive appeared in the world, called the New Castle.The previous steam engines were all low-pressure boilers, which were too bulky to be used in steam locomotives.

The New Castle invented by the British Richard Trevithick has a locomotive weighing 4.5 tons and can tow 10 tons of cargo.On this day, February 1804, 2, the locomotive he built pulled 29 carriages, carrying 5 tons of goods and 10 passengers, along the 70-kilometer-long cast iron track of the Morganshire Canal at a speed of 16 miles per hour. (about 8 kilometers per hour), proclaiming the birth of the steam locomotive.

But this did not cause a sensation, because at the beginning he was running on the railway that the mining owner transported ore, and he drove it just once, and all the wooden rails wrapped in iron were crushed.It makes people feel that this kind of train has no value.

In fact, before this steam train came out, Trevithick did not run his invention on the rails at the beginning, but a steam car, the kind that ran on the road, which also caused a sensation at first.

When he first invented it, he took seven friends out for a ride and called it "The Blow Guy."As a result, they were overjoyed and accidentally drove the car into a ditch.But this didn't affect the young master's mood at all, and he took his friend to a restaurant not far away for a drink.To make matters worse, Trevithick did not stop the steam car at all, and eventually the water in the boiler boiled dry, causing a fire and an explosion that completely burned the vehicle.

So he invented the second steam car, named "London Coach".He carried another seven or eight people and drove for about ten miles at a speed of 14 kilometers per hour. Unfortunately, due to a driving error, he crashed into a wall.From then on, people also began to regard the steam car as a dangerous big toy, which scared away potential buyers.

In this way, the steam car died prematurely, but Trevithick tossed out the steam train, which is the previously mentioned New Castle.

However, the truly practical steam train was improved on the basis of the British George Stephenson. In 1829, his steam train dragged a carriage loaded with more than 30 people at a speed of 45 kilometers per hour, completing a 97-kilometer railway mileage.

In this process, every step of the invention has defects, and then it is improved, tried again, and improved again... In such an iterative process, the final shape of the steam train is finally obtained.

The finalization of this steam train includes various aspects, not only steam train components, but also requirements for rails and so on.

From the appearance of the original steam engine to the final maturity of the steam train, it took humans an unknown amount of manpower and material resources, and there are many stories in it.

However, Emperor Chongzhen, the lucky one, because of the help of the later generation Liu Weichao, all these groping and improvement steps were skipped by him, which saved an unknown amount of manpower and material resources, and he was more confident than anyone else. , How promising is the future of this steam train!
The railway built by Emperor Chongzhen is a standard railway that can be promoted throughout the country; his steam train has a design speed of [-] kilometers per hour, which is still lower than the standard speed of [-] kilometers per hour for mature trains in the [-]th century. .

However, this speed on this plane, in this Chongzhen period, would definitely blind everyone's eyes.

What concept?
If the steam train of Emperor Chongzhen traveled at the standard speed, that is, 1000 kilometers per hour, then it would take about 24 or [-] miles from Beijing to Nanjing. If you take this train, you can get there [-] hours a day!

Of course, this is a straight line distance, and the train doesn't stop.In fact, this is simply not possible.However, under the premise of having this steam train, it usually takes one and a half months for this journey, and it takes half a month to arrive by train. Is this always possible?
Such convenient transportation will inevitably lead to huge social changes in the Ming Dynasty!
Of course, in order to achieve this, there are still many difficulties to be overcome on how to pass the train on such various natural dangers as high mountains, deep valleys, great rivers, and so on.And predictably, it won't be easy in the short term.

At this time, Emperor Chongzhen's family was eating snacks in the station master's office, watching the work outside, chirping, and the atmosphere was very harmonious.

Around noon, Song Yingxing finally commanded the railway soldiers to put all the steam trains on the rails and connect the carriages. Behind the steam locomotive, three passenger carriages and seven train carriages were hung.

Afterwards, the court lady Fei Zhen'e ran out, and a group of small bosses in charge of each, under the leadership of the commander-in-chief Song Yingxing, inspected every link. After everything passed, they excitedly went to the door of the station chief's office to report to Emperor Chongzhen. :Everything is ready!
(End of this chapter)