Leo and the other three repackaged the things on the ground, and then Jason picked up the remaining backpack and walked along the path between the wheat fields toward the place where the smoke was rising in the distance.
Although the field roads are a bit muddy, compared to the slippery ground in the Black Forest, walking on such roads is good enough.
While walking, Leo and Jason were also surprised by the invisible wheat fields beside the road.
Because compared to the primitive forest scene of grass and woods outside the east side of the Black Forest that they had seen before, the scene on the west side was completely unexpected to them.
They actually planted a wheat field less than fifty meters outside the Black Forest. Is this still a Black Forest? This was the thought that occurred to both of them at the same time.
Jason, who couldn't hold back his words, couldn't help but express his question, and Nelson, who happened to have read the history of the French Empire, was able to answer this question.
As they can see, unlike the east side of the Black Forest, which is still in a relatively primitive forest state, all the developable land on the west side of the Black Forest has been developed to the extreme.
The main reason is due to the terrain. Most of the east side of the Black Forest is dominated by hills and mountains, and the land is not suitable for development into farmland. The west side is a complete great plain terrain, starting from the Bodo Hills at the southernmost tip of the Black Forest.
, to the northernmost border of the French Empire, the Velonte River, the entire land is dominated by plains.
Although the French Empire has always regarded itself as an ancient empire with more than 2,000 years of history to the outside world, in fact, the French Empire has experienced the changes of thirteen royal families, which is now recognized by Velen historians as the Thirteenth Dynasty of France.
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Among these thirteen dynasties, seven dynasties have always been stationed on the four great plains on the west side of the Black Forest, and their capitals were also established in Leon, which is located in the center of the great plains. Historians call it
The Seven Dynasties of Leon, also known as the Western Dynasties of France.
At the end of the Seventh Dynasty, a large-scale slave uprising broke out. A slave who was a gladiator not only led the slaves, serfs, and free people to overthrow the French dynasty at that time, but also almost killed all the French royal family.
, the last heir of the French royal family was taken by a loyal knight to the Beirut tribe in the winter snowy land north of Velen continent.
More than ten years later, the grown-up descendants of the Fran royal family led the Beirut people across the Venovi Mountains and came to the east side of the Black Forest. They spent several years conquering the mountain tribes there. After that, the commander-in-chief
Hundreds of thousands of troops ventured across the Black Forest from the Velonte River that runs through the Black Forest, bypassed the natural fortress at the southern end of the Velen continent, and rushed directly into the center of the slave dynasty. It took less than a month to completely disintegrate this entrenched Velon.
The slave dynasty on the west side of the continent for more than ten years.
The new Emperor of the French Empire felt that the previous dynasty would be overthrown by slaves so easily because they had lived in a favorable environment like the Velenci continent for a long time, and their long-term comfortable life had corroded their fighting spirit. Therefore, after he ascended the throne, he first
The matter is to move the capital from Leon to Donglin City under the Venovi Mountains in the northern part of the eastern continent.
As the capital of the French Empire moved to Donglin City on the eastern mainland, historians also habitually called the subsequent dynasties the Sixth Dynasty of Donglin, or the Eastern Dynasty of France.
However, what is different from historians is that the anthropological school that has emerged in the past hundred years prefers to call the western French dynasty a farming dynasty, while the eastern French dynasty is called a knightly dynasty.
Because throughout the seven dynasties in the west, the main national policies of the French Empire were to reclaim land and cut mountains to create farmland.
Most of the six dynasties in the east were related to war. There were 300 knights in the history of the French Empire. This period was called the Golden Age of Velen Knights, and this period was during the Eastern Dynasty of France.
Precisely because of the different national policies, the methods of land use and development during the two dynasties were also different.
The Eastern Dynasty preferred to maintain the original appearance of the terrain. They would build fortresses and castles in some dangerous places to defend against possible enemies, while the plains would be used by them to tame war horses rather than cultivate them into farmland.
On the other hand, the Western Dynasty turned all the land that could be cultivated into farmland. They developed the land to the extreme, and even boldly cut down all the trees near the Black Forest, and planted wheat and other crops on the land. The reason was just because
The land there is very fertile, and anything you put on it will grow well.
In addition, although the French Empire has never recognized it, some historians have discovered that during the Western Dynasty, the then Emperor of the French Empire used human sacrifice to sacrifice the lives of a large number of slaves every year in order to reclaim the land outside the Black Forest.
The ancient creatures in the black forest, and this was also the main reason for the slave uprising later.
While Nelson was explaining why the land on the west side of the Black Forest was so thoroughly cultivated, the group had already arrived at the small town with smoke rising in the distance.
After entering this stone town, the three of them found a hotel to freshen up and change their clothes. Then they found a small restaurant in the town and had something to eat.
While eating in a small restaurant, they heard some people dining in the surrounding towns talking about a young man named Albon. They mentioned that Albon seemed to have gone into the Black Forest not long ago, and because the Black Forest was thick,
The fog appeared and I felt that Albon must be dead.
People here have completely opposite attitudes when it comes to Albon's death.
One is the attitude of the elderly, with expressions of regret and regret on the surface, but it is not difficult to hear that they seem to be very happy in the tone of their words. The other is the attitude of the young people, who are really sad about Albon's death.
, and did not want to believe that Albon was dead, and they all thought that Albon should have left the small town and gone to Leon and other big cities.
This young man from Alban reminded the three of them of the poor man who was poisoned to death in the black forest. Although they knew very well the final outcome of this young man, it was too complicated and they had no intention of telling it.
"What's the best way to go to Lanxi?" Nelson asked the restaurant owner when paying the bill.
"If you are not in a hurry and don't have much money, you can take a carriage at the intersection. Every day at eight o'clock in the morning in the town, there are six carriages dedicated to taking people from the town to Lanxi. They can arrive there in the afternoon." The restaurant owner was looking for it.
Change, while saying: "If you are in a hurry and have some money on you, you can take the steam train from the quarry. Starting at six o'clock in the morning, there will be another steam train from the quarry to Lanxi every two hours to transport stone.
, the train will have a carriage specifically for passenger transport, but the cost is much more than taking a horse-drawn carriage."
"Thank you." Nelson thanked him, took the change, and Leo and he left the restaurant and walked towards the train platform built by the quarry in the town.
After arriving at the train platform, I was lucky. I just sat on the chair for a short while before the train came from the direction of the quarry.
Compared to Nelson and Jason, who had already seen and ridden a steam train in person, this was the first time for Leo to see this kind of mechanical product that could only be seen in old earth books or movies. Perhaps Leo's body
I had ridden a steam train before, but this memory did not seem to be passed down to Leo.
In Leo's opinion, the steam train that is slowly entering the platform is definitely a big monster. Although it cannot be compared with the spaceships of the Earth Alliance in size, the heaviness caused by its size and the feeling of being in the steam
The pressure of the slowly approaching locomotive was stronger than that of those spaceships. Even when the locomotive approached his position, he had the illusion that the train would rush out of the tracks and hit him, and because of this illusion, he still
A strong desire to attack was born.
Compared with the steam trains recorded in the old earth movies that Leo had watched, this steam train was now huge. Leo made a slight estimate and found that the height of the steam locomotive was about ten meters and the width was also ten meters.
, the length is more than thirty meters. Except for the cab, the remaining parts are huge steam cylinders. There are as many as seven in total. There are two separate steam cylinders next to each steam cylinder.
The air outlets continued to emit steam, and soon the small platform was completely submerged.
Perhaps in order to be able to withstand such a heavy train crushing, the rails in this world are different from the train rails in the old earth. Each rail here is at least fifty centimeters wide and forty centimeters thick, and there are not only two
Not one railroad track, but four.
As a doctor, Nelson was very knowledgeable and knew a lot of things, but when it came to knowledge about steam trains, he unexpectedly lost to Jason.
Although Jason's brain is a bit stupid, he has an extraordinary memory for the things he likes, so as a steam train fan, he can easily tell the models, specifications, etc. of every type of train in the world today, which seems extremely boring to others.
The data.
As a burst of steam was discharged from the exhaust pipe, covering the entire small station, the train also stopped.
At this time, Jason was like a child who saw a toy. He walked around the huge locomotive several times, reaching out to touch here and knock there. If the platform personnel hadn't indicated that the train was about to leave, maybe he would have
You will also climb under the car and touch the chassis of the train with your own hands.
After the service staff on the car guided the three of them to the designated seats in the tail bus, Jason changed his previous reticence and seemed to be a different person. He couldn't wait to introduce the train to Leo and Nelson.
With Jason's introduction, Leo learned that the model of the giant locomotive in front was the Maris Titan VII locomotive. This locomotive was manufactured by the Maris Kingdom Academy of Sciences in the eastern continent of Minsk, a locomotive specially made for freight.
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Because the Kingdom of Maris has a large amount of mineral deposits, but in the past due to transportation problems, these mineral deposits were difficult to develop. Later, the Maris Academy of Sciences and the National Institute of Mechanical Engineering created a giant locomotive, the Titan, specifically for transporting minerals.
Series locomotives.
The Titan VII locomotive they are building now is the best of its kind. Its power can allow it to tow at least fifty and up to ninety carriages filled with various goods, so now
The vast majority of freight locomotives in various countries use Titan model locomotives.
However, this type of locomotive is not without its shortcomings. The biggest disadvantage is that it must have special rails, and four rails need to be laid, which greatly increases the operating cost.
In addition, the speed of this type of train is also a problem. According to tests, even if it is towing an empty train, the speed of the Titan locomotive is a little slower than other common locomotives. If a carriage is attached, the speed will be slowed down to only half of that of an ordinary train or even lower.
.
But even so, the speed of this type of train is still much faster than that of a horse-drawn carriage. Some people in Shiban Town who are in a hurry to go to Lanxi for business will also choose to take the train, just because the price of the ticket prohibits many people.
For example, the carriage Leo and the others were riding in was originally specially prepared for managers at all levels of the quarry. It had sofas, a bar and a restaurant, and several small rooms dedicated to resting. It could also be placed in other places.
It can be regarded as a high-end carriage. Therefore, the ticket here is also very expensive. It costs 50 ya, which is almost the cost of meals for a family of four for ten days. It is definitely not a price acceptable to the residents of Shiban Town.
However, the person in charge of managing the train was a very business-minded person and specially hung a freight car at the end of the train to transform it into a passenger car.
He managed to put a layer of wooden boards in the middle of the carriage, transforming the carriage into two floors, with no seats installed. Tickets were calculated on a per-person basis, and each person only needed one bea to get on the carriage until the carriage was full.
This carriage will not be counted in freight expenses, which means that as many people as this carriage can transport in one trip, it will get extra income.
As a result, the scene that Leo saw through the car window appeared. He saw more than two hundred people being forced into the last carriage by the station staff. He didn't even need to enter that carriage.
He could feel the suffocation of the crowds inside, which reminded him of the painful memories of tens of thousands of people crammed into a small troop carrier during the retreat from the great battle.
Just when Leo was moved by the situation in the car behind him, a whistle penetrated into the sky from the front. The car vibrated slightly and made bursts of creaking sounds. He slowly drove away from the platform and gradually increased his speed until he entered
A relatively stable uniform speed state.
The train leaving Shiban Town did not head west immediately. The trailer filled with stone materials was extremely heavy. Even with a Titan-type locomotive, it was very difficult to drag these more than 70 carriages up the undulating hills, so we had to
Sticking to the wheat fields, it circled along the gentle strip on the edge of the hilly area, moving little by little to the west.
One section of the detoured track was almost parallel to the Black Forest, and the distance between the two was less than twenty meters. Leo, who was sitting by the car window, watched the Black Forest shrouded in thick fog move quickly in front of his eyes.
Not sure if it was an illusion, but he vaguely felt that the unknown entity that looked at him before appeared in the thick fog again, seemed to be looking at him, and moved with the train. This feeling lasted until the train passed through this section and turned around.
Chapter completed!