The next day, there was finally nothing that was not planned. Yunxi also successfully finished answering all the papers in the morning. After lunch and a lunch break, he went to the Royal Horse Prison to see what he had ordered last month. The experiment of rail carriage.??
These days, the craftsmen who are working on the tramcars are making jingling sounds all day long. Yunxi can't hear it in Qianqing Palace, but everyone can hear this sound a little further south.
Some ministers, such as Jian Yi or Xie Jin, had understood what this was doing, and after learning that it was "building a new style of carriage", they didn't say much.
Probably influenced by the Mongols' emphasis on technology, in the early Ming Dynasty not only technology was valued, but craftsmen were not very discriminatory. 2 Many craftsmen were promoted directly to official positions in the Ministry of Industry, and later in the Yongle and Xuande years, 6 There were craftsmen who became officials. Of course, as the power of civil servants through imperial examinations gradually increased, it became difficult for even supervisors to become officials, let alone craftsmen.
But it was okay at this time, and it was necessary to build a new carriage for the emperor, so the civil servants did not say anything.
When Yunxi walked to the Royal Horse Prison, he saw a very long track extending from a distance. Because of the wall, Yunxi couldn't see how long the track was, but what he could see was enough. It's more than a mile long.
At this time, there were some sounds on the other side, but there was no movement on the track. Yunxi guessed that the craftsmen were probably doing something there. He walked along the track himself and looked at the track carefully.
At this time, Bai Xiguang, the eunuch of the Royal Horse Supervisor, trotted over and saluted and said, "I have met Your Majesty."
Yunxi waited for him to get up and asked: "How is the experiment going during this period? How much faster can a tracked carriage be compared to a trackless one?"
Bai Xiguang said cautiously: "Your Majesty, we built a total of four miles of track, all covered with iron sheets and wood. We also modified the wheels according to the track, and then let people drive carriages on the track."
"To pull the same amount of things, the horses on the tracked carriage can run faster and for a longer time than the horses pulling the trackless carriage; if they have the same speed and the same running time, then on the track A running horse can pull more than twice as much cargo as a horse without a track.”
Yunxi's eyebrows relaxed and he said: "That's not bad!"
Bai Xiguang continued: "However, carriages often run over the track, the wood is easily deformed, and the iron sheet will rust. People need to replace the wood and iron sheet frequently. The replaced wood can no longer be used for other purposes except for burning fires. The iron sheet can be used again after grinding off the rust, but it’s not too easy.”
When Bai Xiguang said this, his group had already arrived at the place where the craftsmen were.
When the craftsmen saw Yunxi coming over in royal uniform, they stopped their work and knelt down and said, "I have met His Highness the Prince of Gaoyang."
Yunxi said: "Everyone, get up."
Yunxi knew that Bai Xiguang, as the eunuch of the Royal Horse Guard, probably only knew a general idea of these things, but not the details, so he said to him: "Bai Xiguang, go down and do other things first." , I don’t need you to accompany me here all the time. I heard that your Royal Horse Supervisor is quite busy recently, so you can go."
Bai Xiguang bowed and said: "Your Highness, the servant has gone. If you have any instructions, your Highness can call the servant at any time. The servant is on the right side." He didn't want to stay here anymore, so Yunxi asked again. If he goes down there, he probably won't be able to answer the question, so it would be better to leave early.
Moreover, the Royal Horse Supervisor did have a lot of things to do during this period, and he was too busy to do anything, so he decided to just follow Yun Xi's words and leave.
Yunxi turned his head, sat on the chair brought by the eunuch of the Royal Horse Supervisor, and said to most of the craftsmen: "What are you doing just now? Just keep doing it. There is no need to stop because you are here." Then he said to the carriage: " come here."
The eunuch on the side moved the canopy to block the sun for Yunxi. The carriage came over and saluted and said: "Your Highness."
Yunxi asked: "Bai Xiguang told me just now about the pros and cons of rail carriages. I won't go into details about the pros and cons. In your opinion, will it work if all iron is used to make the rails?"
In Yunxi's view, if the rails are all made of iron, they do not need to be replaced frequently, and some rust will be fine. The only problem is whether the output of iron can be sufficient.
However, this is relatively easy to handle. In his previous life, Yunxi was a worker's son in one of the major steel plants in China. He knew a lot about building blast furnaces for ironmaking. It was not a problem to have a certain amount of funds and manpower to increase iron production; and Yunxi was not a problem either. It will take time to roll out railcars on a large scale from the beginning.
But the carriage was silent for a long time and said: "Your Majesty, the use of rails can save the time of replacement; but how to prevent people from stealing iron?"
Well, this question stopped Yunxi. A pile of iron was placed on the ground, and there was no one to guard it. It was strange that no one stole it. As long as he was not caught on the spot, it would be difficult for Yunxi to catch someone stealing the rails. Ren Yunxi had ignored this matter before, but after he said it, he also knew that the full railway track was not feasible at this time.
The carriage continued: "But if you want to save trouble, in fact, after the horses are trained, you don't need to be driven by people. You can just let the horses pull the carriage."
"It's just that it's best to stop every few miles and change horse-drawn carriages to prevent anything from happening to the horse-drawn carriage."
Yunxi thought to himself: 'It seems that although this rail carriage is useful, it also has many restrictions on its use. It is incomparable with the train.'
'But it can still be used. The water network in the south is dense, and the weather is humid. Wood is easy to rot and iron is easy to rust, so it is of little use. However, the north, especially the northwest, lacks river transportation, so it is still beneficial to use rail carriages. They can definitely It is laid along the inns, and at most a few inns are added in some places.'
Yunxi asked a few more details, and then sent someone to call Bai Xiguang over and said to him: "It seems that this rail carriage is of some use. You can discuss it with Tingshan, the eunuch of the Internal Affairs Bureau, and then contact the Ministry of Works. Say hello and start building carriages and tracks specifically designed to run on tracks. You don’t need to build too many at the beginning.”
Bai Xiguang lowered his head and promised: "Yes, Your Majesty, Your Highness."
Yunxi said to the carriage again: "You work hard here and continue to see where you can improve. I will definitely let you become an official in the future!" Yunxi's words made the carriage not know how to answer. He didn't know why. Excited, or some other emotion, so I knelt on the ground and couldn't say a word.
However, Yunxi did not wait for his answer. After Yunxi finished talking about what happened in the Royal Horse Prison, he turned and went to the Inner Palace Prison. Most of the craftsmen belonging to the Inner Palace were in the Inner Palace Prison, so he had to go to the Inner Palace Prison.
