Li Xuan wanted to get on the train to participate in the test, which naturally changed many of the original plans. The Guards troops escorting the train quickly deployed and then blocked the railway line.
At the same time, the original test was only for a trained train driver to drive, but now the boss of the locomotive project team is driving the train himself, and a group of technicians are also accompanying him, ready to solve any technical problems at any time.
At the same time, a large group of cavalrymen from the Guards Cavalry Regiment were followed on both sides of the train, ready to escort and rescue people at any time.
In short, even if Li Xuan himself didn't think there was any danger, others still didn't dare to show any slightness.
After waiting in the carriage for a while, I could hear the locomotive in front making a loud rumble. This was the steam engine starting to start, but it was still in a state of boiling water and pressurizing, so I probably wouldn't be able to leave for a while.
Steam engines are troublesome to start. Whether it is a ship-based steam engine or a train, it has to go through a period of time to increase the steam pressure. Li Xuan is not in a hurry. He is sitting in the carriage at the back, waiting for the car to start, and he is also watching.
car.
This carriage is a passenger carriage specially built for trains. The main structure is made of iron. However, in order to reduce weight, many parts are made of wood. The entire carriage is covered with wooden seats. There is an aisle in the middle and two aisles.
There are seats on both sides. Because the seats are relatively dense, Li Xuan visually estimated that it can seat thirty or forty people.
Of these five carriages, except for the front carriage near the locomotive, which is used to haul coal and fresh water, the remaining four carriages can haul more than 100 people at a time.
This number is not small.
Now the four carriages are full of people, and these people carry a lot of things with them. At the same time, there are many rifles and even shotguns of the accompanying Guards soldiers.
The Holy Emperor travels and is escorted by the Guards. How can this be done without sufficient weapons and equipment!
No matter whether the Holy Emperor takes a train, a carriage, or walks, the accompanying Guards will always carry a large number of weapons and ammunition to escort him at any time.
These people, as well as their carry-on luggage, equipment, etc., plus coal and fresh water in the second carriage of the train and other heavy cargo prepared for the test.
Now the entire train's load is probably close to thirty tons.
As the person from the front said that everything was ready and asked Li Xuan for instructions, Li Xuan immediately said: "Let's start!"
Following Li Xuan's order, the locomotive in front sounded a loud whistle, and then you could clearly feel the train starting to vibrate slightly!
The train is moving!
Although it was still very slow, the train was really moving, which made the civil and military courtiers who were riding the train with Li Xuan marvel and panic at the same time.
Several ministers who were timid and had relatively rotten and uncivilized minds even screamed at birth, muttering about monsters, ghosts, gods, and Buddhas.
But Li Xuan stood up obviously, then walked to the bed, stuck his head out, and looked ahead!
At this time, you can clearly see the locomotive in front, constantly spewing out black smoke and white mist. At this time, the locomotive is continuously adding coal and burning, and outputs high-pressure steam to drive the turbine transmission, and finally drags this heavy train towards the
forward.
The speed of the train that has been started is slowly increasing. At first, it is the speed of people walking, but soon it can be almost as fast as people trotting.
The train continued to increase speed, and finally stabilized at a speed of twenty kilometers per hour!
Li Xuan was sitting on the train and felt that the movement of the train was relatively smooth and there was no big shock. At this time, he happened to see the leader of the Guards Cavalry Regiment and several other Guards Cavalrymen riding their horses.
Drive along outside the car.
Li Xuan immediately said: "How about, you can keep up!"
On both sides of the train, there were hundreds of cavalrymen from the Guards Cavalry Regiment following and protecting them. Well, in fact, not only these cavalrymen, but also the railway line where the railway operation was tested was blocked and fortified by the Guardsmen.
The officers of the Guards turned around and said with a smile: Your Majesty, if I can keep up with you, this train will go well, but the speed is still a bit slow!"
Li Xuan chuckled, and then said: "But this train can run to Zhenjiang in one breath. Can you still keep up with it then?"
Hearing Li Xuan's words, several cavalry officers showed embarrassed expressions!
How could they as a cavalry compete with a train for endurance? As long as the train had enough coal and water, it could run all the way to Zhenjiang. However, the horses of their cavalry regiment could not sustain a long run.
Seeing that Li Xuan was in a good mood, one of them immediately boldly said: "But we won't go to Zhenjiang either!"
Li Xuan said: "That's true!"
Naturally, this experiment will not run all the way to Zhenjiang. In fact, it will only run for about ten kilometers at most, and then turn back in a circle.
When he returned to the platform, Li Xuan got off the train and said to a group of courtiers: "This train is a good thing. It must be popularized as soon as possible so that the vast number of people in the empire can ride on the train!"
This is to say that letting the people board the train is only one of the tasks of the train at this stage, and it is also a not very important task.
Because for the contemporary empire, the biggest role of trains is not to transport passengers, but to transport freight.
The huge material transportation capacity brought by the railway can connect major industrial areas, mining areas, and cities, making the transportation of goods more convenient and cheaper, thus forming an economic blood vessel and allowing countless materials to circulate in the railway network.
As for passenger transportation, the current population flow in the empire is not very large. The current river transportation and official horse-drawn carriage transportation can actually solve the population transportation problem. The emergence of trains is at most the icing on the cake, and cannot be compared with the field of cargo transportation.
bring huge significance.
Looking back at the train that had stopped for maintenance and prepared for the second test, Li Xuan couldn't help but feel proud. Now that we have ships and trains, is it still far to conquer the world?
So he stood up straight, then looked at the ministers. When everyone's eyes were focused on him, he slowly said: "Today, we created the future!"
"The future must belong to us!"
Many people present know that the future mentioned by His Majesty is not an illusory word, but a word with a specific meaning, and that is the world!
The future of the Tang Empire lies in conquering the world!
This point was determined many years ago, and it is no longer a secret among a few core executives. Now those who know the empire's grand strategy hear Li Xuan talk about the future, and it is certain that Li
Xuan was talking about nothing else but conquering the world!
After Li Xuan finished the first train test, he did not wait for the second train test, because the second train test would be all-line traffic. The test train would depart from Jinling Railway Station, then arrive in Zhenjiang, and arrive in Zhenjiang
Afterwards, return.
This round trip will reach more than 150 kilometers. According to the power of the current 18-year-old locomotive, it will take more than ten hours of continuous running.
At the same time, for the safety of the experiment and to allow more time to deal with unexpected problems, it is impossible to run for more than ten hours continuously, so this round trip plan will be divided into two days.
This train will leave for Zhenjiang today and return tomorrow.
Naturally, it was impossible for Li Xuan to stay at the train station waiting for the results of the second test, let alone get on the train and run to Zhenjiang.
After completing the inspection, he took the people back to the palace directly. Before he set off to return to the palace, the second test of the train had already begun. The train had left the station and headed for Zhenjiang, which is more than 70 kilometers away.
In the evening of the next day, he received the good news that the train had successfully completed the round trip from Jinling to Zhenjiang, with a total running time of more than ten hours, and the train itself did not break down during the journey.
However, there were some minor troubles with the railway itself, because on the return journey, a heavy-load test was carried out, with eight carriages loaded with cargo, and the total weight of the entire train exceeded one hundred tons.
Because the load of the passing trains was too large, the railways along the way were under great pressure. Some sections even experienced land base sinking, rail deformation, and even railway bridges collapsed under the load.
Because when the Beijing-Zhenjiang Railway was designed a few years ago, although it was said that the standards for both the land base and the rails were raised in consideration of the future operation of trains with greater load capacity, the design and construction personnel at that time were still too conservative.
They instinctively used the horse-drawn carriage as a reference, and then they also expected that the load capacity of the train would be relatively large, but they did not expect that it would be so large. One carriage could actually carry more than ten tons, and several
The carriages are hung end to end. The dead weight of the entire train plus the load exceeds one hundred tons, but this locomotive can actually pull it.
Although the speed is very slow, not much faster than a person walking, it can be pulled after all.
This can be said to have brought considerable pressure to the newly constructed Beijing-Zhenzhen Line.
At present, the Zhili Railway Company, a subsidiary of Datang Railway Corporation, has been conducting urgent discussions with relevant technical personnel such as the Royal Institute of Technology to discuss how to improve the existing railway tracks to better operate trains.
Li Xuan naturally doesn't care about these things. These are considered trivial matters anyway. The train has been built anyway, and the next step is just continuous improvement.
Moreover, it is much better to have problems arise and be solved now than to build the national railway network and then discover problems later.
It is better to turn the ship around now, otherwise when the national railway network is built, it will not be so easy to change it.