The first thousand three hundred and seventy-two chapters open to traffic is the time of the westwar
Since the successful development of high-pressure steam engines, related train steam engines, shipboard steam engines and industrial steam engines have been successively developed.
While the ship-based steam engine is undergoing shipboard testing on the Lady, the design of the steam engine for trains has actually been completed, and a prototype has been manufactured to begin various tests. It is currently undergoing final testing on the Beijing-Zhenzhen Railway. If not
If there is any big problem, it is expected that trains will be operated at the same time when the Beijing-Zhenzhen Railway is opened to traffic.
This time point is probably in October.
Against this background, the planning and preparation of national railways also started quickly.
In addition to the Jiangnan Railway and the Northern Railway, the Northwest Railway is also an important part of the national railway network planning.
According to the current plan, the Northwest Railway is the railway line from Kaifeng to Jiayuguan!
The reason why Kaifeng is the starting point is because according to the current solidification of the imperial railway, Kaifeng is an important transfer station for the railway network of the northern provinces. After connecting Kaifeng, you can go south to Jinling City, north to Tianjin, and east to Huai'an and Shandong.
Starting from Kaifeng, it connects to Luoyang, Xi'an, Shaanxi, then enters Gansu, and goes straight to Jiayuguan!
If this northwest railway is built and connected to the northern railway that is also under planning, then the supply problem along the railway will no longer be a problem!
From the situation in the Western Regions, and then to the strategic planning of the Tang Empire, it can basically be concluded that the day the Northwest Railway is opened to traffic will be the time when the Tang Army begins its western expedition!
But even if everything goes well, it will probably take several years before the Northwest Railway is opened to traffic. After all, building railways takes time.
Prior to this, the Tang Army's strategy in the northwest will still focus on strategic defense. Some small and medium-sized battles may break out in the confrontation with the Tatars, but it is not said that tens of thousands or even more than 100,000 troops will be mobilized.
The army marched against the Tatars.
This also means that the Tatars will not face too big a threat in the northwest region in a short period of time, and they can raise more forces to invest in the Western Expedition.
It has to be said that Anda Khan's retreat to the west was a good move. If he had fought with the Tang Empire in the Hetao and Fengzhou areas, he would have been tightened by the Tang Empire and would be finished.
, and because of the continuous attrition operations, the Tatars will gradually lose blood. In the end, even if they want to retreat and flee westward, they will be unable to leave.
However, Anda Khan decisively chose to withdraw westward when his strength still existed.
Once they withdrew westward, the Tatars were like tigers that had escaped from their cages. They could run wild in the Western Regions at will, but others were helpless.
Li Xuan has been paying attention to the movements of the Tatars, but he can only focus on it. Since we can't fight now, we can just let these Tatars suffer.
Now he is more concerned about domestic construction issues.
After years of restoration of people's livelihood and industrial development, the empire's development has now entered a new stage. Once high-pressure steam engines are widely used in transportation, mining, industrial production and other aspects, a real industrial revolution will be launched.
If the low-pressure steam engine of the year brought the empire to the threshold of the industrial age, then the high-pressure steam engine of the present time will allow the empire to completely open the door to the industrial age and set off a real industrial revolution.
Only this true industrial revolution can achieve the global expansion Li Xuan had in mind.
With expectations for the future, in early October of the 18th year of Xuanping's reign, Li Xuan left the palace again and participated in the inspection of the steam engine project. This time, the inspection was not a ship-based steam engine, but a train!
The steam engine project team of the Royal Institute of Technology has already designed a train. Like the ship-based steam engine, in fact, except for the high-pressure steam engine itself, most of the other subsystems have been completed and are just waiting for the high-pressure steam engine itself.
This is why after the high-pressure steam engine project was successfully developed, it was able to be transplanted so quickly and develop shipboard steam engines and locomotives.
This time, the test was not conducted at the test site within the Royal Institute of Technology, but directly on the Beijing-Zhenzhen Railway.
At present, all the main projects of the Beijing-Zhenjia Railway have been completed, and the final finishing work is currently underway.
As long as this train operation test can be successful, it can be operated on this railway at any time.
Jinling Railway Station is located at the east gate of the old town of Jinling, in the area connected to Dongcheng District. The scale of the entire railway station is designed to be very large. After all, it is the capital railway station. It can make the trains easy to use, but face cannot be lost, so
The entire Jinling Railway Station is not only designed to be large in scale, but also magnificent.
The main building is a three-story building, and there are two one-story buildings on both sides. These three buildings are connected to each other. In front of it is a huge square, and behind the building is a huge platform.
, and farther away is the dispatch area
"The entire train station can accommodate at least tens of thousands of people at the same time, and has complete supporting facilities!" The official next to Li Xuan kept explaining the situation of the train station to Li Xuan.
In fact, Li Xuan knew it without their explanation, because he also put forward many constructive suggestions during the design process of the train station.
There was no way, trains were a new thing, people didn't even know what trains looked like, let alone how to design a train station, so Li Xuan first put forward requirements for the design of the train station.
Considering the huge flow of people, the area must also be large. There needs to be complete waiting equipment, such as seats, and facilities such as sanitary toilets. At the same time, there also need to be some shops that provide water and food.
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At the same time, the diversion of public transportation must also be considered. For example, public carriages need to set up special stops here to pick up passengers heading to and leaving the train station.
Li Xuan doesn't care about the specific design, but he requires that this train station must meet the needs of 10,000 people to stay at the same time, regardless of whether they are waiting for the train or getting off the train.
Anyway, the place has enough management, and it must not be too small and petty. Otherwise, when the passenger flow increases, it will be troublesome if you want to do it again.
Looking at the train station, no matter how good it was, it was just a bunch of buildings. Li Xuan just took a few glances and found that he was no longer interested, and walked directly inside.
The focus of today's inspection is not this railway station, but the trains that are about to be put into trial operation.
After entering the building and then arriving on the platform, Li Xuan saw the train they built for the first time!
The first thing I felt when I saw this train was that it had a strong retro style!
Just like those ancient trains seen in movies and TV series, the whole train looks simple and primitive.
In addition to the locomotive, the entire train also has five carriages mounted at the back. These five carriages are obviously different from the common horse-drawn carriages. These carriages look much heavier and stronger than the horse-drawn carriages.
The horse-drawn railcars of the Tang Dynasty have been used for many years. In addition to being used as public carriages and running in big cities like Shanghai and Jinling, the horse-drawn railcars are actually more commonly used in major mines.
Basically every large-scale mining area will have at least one railway track, and horses pulling carriages loaded with minerals run on these railway tracks.
Due to the limited strength of the horses, the carriages of the horse-drawn carriages cannot be made too large and the goods loaded are too heavy. However, the carriages in front of them have numerous steel structures and are obviously much heavier.
The front of the train also looks relatively simple, similar to the prototype train that Li Xuan had seen at the Royal Institute of Technology before.
At this time, someone on the side explained to Li Xuan: "This is an 18-year-old locomotive specially designed and developed by us. The entire locomotive uses a pair of horizontal high-pressure cylinders. There are more than a hundred various pipes. By adjusting
The air valve can control the starting, acceleration, deceleration, etc. of the locomotive.
According to our calculations, this 18-year-old locomotive is enough to drag five load carriages and achieve a speed of 20 kilometers per hour."
Li Xuan listened and watched, and then ran to the train to look around. Then he sat down directly in the carriage and said: "Didn't you say that we are going to conduct a running test? Let's get started. I'm waiting!"
However, some of the courtiers who followed showed concern. Liu Bagou even came closer and whispered: "Your Majesty, would it be better to go to the platform for inspection? I heard that this train is a new matter after all, and today
This is still the first actual vehicle test, just in case something happens!"
Liu Bagou was not worried about trains. He was not a pedantic person who was averse to new things like trains. Instead, he felt that this train had not been tested too much. If it ran for the first time, an accident would happen.
The probability is still relatively high. If there is an accident, such as a car rollover or something, wouldn't it be dangerous?
Li Xuan didn’t take it seriously!
Dangerous ass!
This train can only run at 20 kilometers per hour when it reaches the sky. No one can run fast. What danger can there be? The most is that the steam engine is not good, and then the cylinder explodes or something. If the cylinder explodes, it is not an explosion, and I am not.
Stay in the locomotive, but carry it in the last carriage, so it won't get in the way.
Even if there is a rollover or other messy accidents, the worst case scenario is that you can just jump out of the car. Even at a speed of 20 kilometers per hour, you won't die if you jump out of the car.
What's more, since they dared to test the train in front of them, they must be confident. Otherwise, if the test failed, the consequences would be very serious.
After all, everyone is stupid and not fully prepared, so how dare they show it to Li Xuan.
Li Xuan insisted on taking the train to test it in person. Naturally, the others had no choice but to get on the train with Li Xuan and accompany Shengtianzi to participate in the train's opening test.