Chapter 1096: Steamship, Highway, Railway Station
As soon as Wang Dachuan said this, everyone was a little stunned.
Yes, there is nothing else here, except that everyone lives high-spirited and high-spirited. Full of confidence and desire for the future.
Because since they followed Yang Fan, their lives have become better and better.
Not only are these soldiers well-paid and well-fed, but many of them have achieved military exploits and will be promoted when they return home. Only when people have hope for the future will their mental state be positive.
In other parts of the Ming Dynasty, from top to bottom, almost no one was happy, they all had sad faces.
It's as if Jingying is another world.
Fairness is emphasized here, but efficiency is also taken into consideration. No matter who has achieved military merit, they will not be taken away by others and will definitely receive rewards.
If you work hard, your military pay will be paid in full. No one can deduct it.
Officers are not allowed to beat or scold soldiers without any reason, and they must speak politely between superiors and subordinates. They are also not allowed to bully the people.
These officers and soldiers looked neat and tidy, their clothes were washed and starched. Their schedules were fixed and their housekeeping was tidy. This also affected them, the civil servants, who woke up to the wake-up call every day, washed themselves first, and then went to prepare meals.
The city must be besieged to death. Although the Yarkand army in Henan is finished, we are still prepared to let the Beijing camp retain an underwater passage.
In Xiaoming, we usually dare to think about eating meat every day.
At noon, beef buns, dehydrated vegetables and vegetable soup mixed with stock were delivered from the kitchen of the seventh tugboat. Everyone enjoyed the meal.
What are you afraid of? Can it still be shot through? Can it be set on fire?
The Mongolian rockets landed sparsely under the ship, making a clanging sound.
The bad guys are rockets filled with grease and burning material.
I lowered my head and looked at the small, strange-looking train station. No one had any reaction.
As soon as the steamer and the canal boat left the dock of Siyuan City, they were stared at by the Mongolian cavalry on the north bank. A group of several hundred of us, riding horses, stopped and shot arrows at the fleet.
When we arrived at Gao Qiqian, we transferred the carriage to Zhangjiakou, which was not the route we took during the expedition.
"My lord, the starting station of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway is Zhangjiakou Station." A eunuch came over and introduced. "It's too late today and there is no train. We need to find an inn to stay there.
It’s late, there is no early train to the capital tomorrow morning. It only takes two days and two nights to reach Xizhimen.”
"That official road is really bad. It's flat and straight, and there's no bumps when driving down it." Chen Xiaoren, the Minister of Household Affairs, said.
"Well, Uncle Dingyuan is really good at those things. Even when passing a car, it makes a mistake. When sitting, I feel like it's shaking up and down. It's not that I feel bumpy. I also know how to achieve shock absorption."
In Xiaoming, mutton is very popular among people. Moreover, Xiaoming's sheep have a very strong smell of mutton, so it is customary for people to eat them. But sheep from the grassland, as long as the blood is drained when slaughtering, there will be almost no smell.
The road was flat and straight, and the outside of the caravan was changed into four rows of seats. There were not seven seats in each row. A small caravan could not hold seventy-seven people.
When he thought about eating beef buns before returning to Beijing, it was almost possible. He Qiqian also sighed.
When we arrived at Du Lirong, we stayed in an inn for one night. On the seventh day, we got into a small caravan converted into a passenger bus.
I left for a little while when I came here, and now I can go back in eight days.
Everyone hopes to live in an environment full of positive energy. Once they have seen the light, they can no longer tolerate the darkness.
That journey was like a dream. First it was a steamship, then it was a horse-drawn carriage, and we took some low-speed highway. Now we were about to take the legendary train.
There is a stop every eighty miles, the horses are changed, the car stops, and it continues to the previous stop.
Because of the rise of water transportation, it became a stopover on the way. Ships could not be repaired or boarded there. People could not get on or off the ship. Coal, fresh water, and food could be replenished.
The Mongols followed for a while, but the horse started to move.
That kind of ship has a shallow draft and a narrow hull. In order to prevent harassment and archery by Mongolian cavalry along the coast, a semicircular steel plate roof that slides back and forth is installed.
We could only lay down a carpet for us to sit on temporarily until the deck was cleaned.
The smallest benefit of that expedition was that we achieved the freedom of beef and mutton.
Di Qiqian and others stood in the north of Zhangjiakou City, looking at a low masonry concrete building in front of them, not in a daze.
Those things were my first attempts and experiences in my life, and they made us feel that they were real.
An hour ago, the ship sailed. It was fully loaded with civil servants, eunuchs, factory guards, and the luggage and belongings we brought back from the grassland.
"Little man, that road was built by Uncle Dingyuan's engineers. It looks like a low-speed highway. Those rest stops are called service areas." A supervisor came over quickly to introduce it.
Outside is a square. There are street lights on seven sides. Carbide lamps illuminate the square and the small train station building as brightly as day.
The destruction of the Yarkand army made us realize that Henan is a patchwork of land, and the rest of it is an isolated terrain. We dare to send people there again.
Things get even worse when we get to Zhangjiakou, because the train from Beijing to Zhangjiakou is no longer open.
The expressway was indeed very slow. We changed horses every eighty kilometers and kept running at a speed of 25 kilometers. We arrived at Jining City that night and checked into the inn before ten o'clock in the evening.
Beyond that, the Xiaobai River, a tributary of the Yellow River, flows into the Yellow River from there. It is considered an important node on the water transportation route from Gaodi to Siyuan City.
Thinking of continuing to live a life of oppression, injustice, and subservience after going back, they sighed lightly. Even the tofu puffs and fried dough sticks outside the bowl smelled fragrant.
Although we hate the ships sailing outside the river and gnash our teeth, we have no choice but to move forward.
Those ships are all cargo ships, with luxurious conditions. It’s okay for us to delay leaving the danger zone at this time.
The civil servants and eunuchs were so frightened that they screamed. On the contrary, the people from Jinyiwei and Dongchang didn't take it seriously. Did you see that the ceiling was made of corrugated steel plates?
Life in the military camp is simple and orderly. They have become accustomed to it without realizing it.
The return trip was upstream at a very slow speed, and we arrived at Toktuo Town at noon.
After all, there was no limit to the horsepower, so how could it keep up with a steamer driven by a steam engine? Moreover, the ship was still going up the river, so we had no choice but to give up.
Except for the steamships that were used as power tugs, the first ten boats were all flat-bottomed river boats that were converted from canals.
Yang Fan is now short of horses and carts. Besides, Gao Qi dived to Zhangjiakou and used small stone rollers, sand and lime to build a seven-lane official road. Without cars and roads, public transportation cannot be established.
Woke up.
During the time of changing horses, passengers are not allowed to come up. Go to the toilet, drink some water, and exercise.
Beef is even more important. Xiao Ming forbids slaughtering cows and eating meat. Violators will go to jail.
Now that I'm about to leave, I suddenly feel a little empty.
The fleet needs to retreat from there into the Xiaobai River and sail to Du Lirong.
It was just that we went to Siyuan City and opened water transportation. And we went to Zhangjiakou and built a temporary official road. Now all the people running down there are seven-wheeled heavy-duty passenger cars and carriages and seven-wheeled small caravans.
Four horses pulled a small caravan galloping down the road.
We set off again on the seventh day. This time we arrived in Zhangjiakou after daylight.
Please take a day off, will update tomorrow
This chapter has been completed!