Elizabeth got on the special train. Even though it was her first time riding a train, she was curious about trains. However, she didn't look sideways along the way and didn't even ask a question, as if she was not surprised by trains.
This is because although she has never taken a train, she has heard about the trains in the Tang Dynasty many years ago and has read the picture album. On the way, a maid from the Palace Affairs Department also quietly reminded her of some precautions, so although It was her first time taking a train, but she actually already had a basic understanding of trains.
In addition, I have even been on a luxury liner of 10,000 tons, and it has traveled thousands of miles on the sea.
Those who should be surprised or shocked have already been surprised and shocked.
So along the way, Elizabeth behaved quite calmly.
In the special train carriage, she tilted her head slightly and looked at the scenes passing by outside the window, feeling the Tang Dynasty that she could not feel in the picture album before!
Before coming to the Tang Dynasty, like everyone else, her understanding of the Tang Dynasty was basically limited to people's stories, written descriptions and pictures.
This understanding is superficial or even exaggerated, and is not enough for outsiders to truly understand the true face of the Tang Dynasty.
But now, sitting on the train, she could really feel the true appearance of the Tang Dynasty.
How should I put it, it was not as beautiful as she imagined!
The descriptions of the Tang Dynasty in many European books and picture albums are actually one-sided, exaggerated, and beautified.
How should I put it, if it is something that is not shocking or beautiful enough, those writers and painters will not record it specifically.
For example, in Europe, people can actually easily see the urban scenes of the Tang Dynasty painted by painters. Whether it is Shanghai, Guangzhou or Jinling City, most of them have various paintings.
The most famous sight among them should be the high-rise buildings along the Huangpu River in Shanghai. As people say, the ten miles of riverside road bring together the prosperity of the world!
However, it is actually very difficult for you to fully understand the real Tang Dynasty from these written descriptions and paintings.
Outsiders' understanding of the Tang Dynasty is mostly based on vague guesses, and they are basically fantasies in a beautiful direction.
People tend to forget that not all places in the Tang Dynasty are prosperous cities, and not everyone lives in cities.
In the vast mainland of Datang, cities are only a small part. The current urban residents of Datang only account for about 18% of the total population.
What is even more noteworthy is that the vast majority of the 18% of the urban population are not living a good life.
Even in a prosperous place like Shanghai, with an urban population of more than one million, more than 80% of the people live on the subsistence line.
Of course, even if it is just on the food and clothing line, it is still better than other places in the modern era. At least if you work hard, you don't have to worry about starving to death.
At the same time, in the vast rural areas, solving the problem of food for the vast number of people has been the top priority of the government in the Tang Dynasty in recent decades. It is foreseeable that it will still be the most important task of the Tang Dynasty in the next few decades.
In fact, if this were not the case, millions of people from the Tang Dynasty would not immigrate to the frontiers or overseas territories every year. To put it bluntly, it was just to have enough food to survive.
However, these situations will naturally not be recorded with great fanfare.
After all, human beings like all kinds of beautiful things by nature, and often turn a blind eye to dark and ugly things.
But now, the scene of the Tang Dynasty that Elizabeth sees is the real Tang Dynasty!
At the Wusongjiang Naval Base, she could see the huge shipyard not far away. After getting on the train, she saw many factories along the way, especially a huge steel factory that left her speechless.
In her opinion, the area occupied by just one steel plant is larger than the entire city of Madrid!
Numerous factories and magnificent buildings were her first impression.
The prosperous and lively city of Suzhou gave her a new experience.
But beyond the city, she also saw vast rural areas.
Things seem much more normal in rural areas. It's not like everyone is living in paradise. On the contrary, they still have to work hard in the fields. The buildings of the villagers' houses are either good or bad.
How should I put it, there are still some differences between the paradise imagined by the Tang Dynasty and outsiders.
It has a beautiful and great side, as well as a dark and ugly side.
But even so, Elizabeth was deeply envious of her.
Although she could see that there were many ordinary workers in the city and many farmers in ordinary clothes in the countryside, no matter how she said it, they all lived and worked in peace and contentment.
You can see hope in people's eyes.
Rather than the despair of the poor in Madrid.
The situation is stable, industry and commerce are developing smoothly, water conservancy facilities are good, and many conditions such as unified agricultural taxes have been combined to create the current Datang land.
And these are things that other countries in the world don’t have.
As the special train clanked all the way to Jinling City, Elizabeth gradually got used to the sight she saw.
In order to ensure the safety of the special train, the special train from the Palace Affairs Department did not rush for time, did not travel very fast, and did not rush at night, so it arrived at Jinling City the next day.
If you switch to an express train, it will take less than a day from Shanghai to Jinling City.
Datang has been developing trains for many years and has formulated many strict rules and regulations for train dispatching. After the emergence of many communication methods such as wired telegraphs, the dispatching of trains in Datang has become quite smooth.
The railway speed currently running on the Jiangnan Railway is a double-track rail railway with complete dispatching measures at stations, tunnels, bridges, etc. along the way.
This also makes the passenger express trains of the Jiangnan Railway listed, and their average speed can reach 65 kilometers per hour. Even if this data specifically refers to the data of express trains running during the day, it is still a quite astonishing data.
Even if you travel at night, the speed is not slow.
But these are just ordinary trains, and Datang's train operations have actually had many accidents over the years.
In the 24th year of Xuanping, an extremely serious accident occurred on the Central Plains Railway. A passenger train running at night was paralyzed due to a fault. However, the staff of the railway company did not report the fault in time and adjust the subsequent trains, so that a
A passenger train that didn't know it had broken down in front of it crashed into it, causing a huge rear-end collision. Fortunately, the speed was relatively slow at night, and only more than 20 people were killed or injured among hundreds of passengers.
Interestingly, after the accident was investigated, the number of people sentenced to death because of the accident exceeded the number of casualties.
In this accident, from relevant officials to dispatchers, more than 30 people were sentenced to death and more than 300 people were sentenced to exile!
Many lessons and severe rectifications led to the improvement of the rules and regulations of railway transportation in the Tang Empire.
This is why today's express trains average an average of 65 kilometers per hour.