Before dawn in the morning, Zhou Wen and the others were woken up by Zeng Erniu knocking on the door.
Everyone washed up casually and then followed Zeng Erniu out of the inn. There were two soldiers waiting outside the door. The three of them were fully armed, carrying rifles on their backs, and wearing leggings at their feet. They looked a bit heroic.
.
Zeng Erniu took the lead and walked onto the street. He found a stall on the road and bought some food. Everyone ate while walking. After walking for about twenty minutes, they left the city through the west gate.
By this time it was already dawning, and there were many people, carriages and horses leaving the city.
Zeng Erniu said to Zhou Wen: "We are all going to catch the train. Now we will find a place on the side of the road to put some water. We will have to hold it in until we get on the train."
After saying that, he took the lead and walked towards a small forest on the roadside.
After draining the water, we continued on the road and arrived at the train station after walking for about ten minutes.
Good guy, there are already hundreds of people crowded in front of a two-story brick and stone building. Everyone is pushing and pushing, and I am stepping on you. Some people are shouting and cursing, some are calling their wives and children, and they speak in various dialects.
The chickens were flying around, and the ground was littered with shoes and hats that had been squeezed off.
"This is a rush to buy tickets." Zeng Erniu explained.
Zhou Wen and Xu Dacheng were stunned to see such an operation.
"Don't they line up?" Zhou Wen asked subconsciously.
"Queue? What kind of queue? You buy tickets like this, and it's the same when you get on the train. If you are strong, you can get a seat by rushing in front, but if you are weak, you can only stand. Sometimes there is no room to stand, and you still have to play.
The golden rooster is independent."
A soldier looked at Zhou Wen like a country bumpkin and said: "If you have money, you don't have to suffer this. You can take the second-class train for twice the third-class fare. There is no need to crowd, there are seats, and you can also eat
Western food. If you can afford three times the price, you can take the first-class train. I heard there is a spring bed, and you will feel like a god when you sleep on it."
As the soldier spoke, he squinted his eyes, straightened his back and shrugged, which was indescribably obscene.
Xiong San also rushed to introduce Zhou Wen and said: "Over there, on the other side of the small building, that window sells first-class and second-class tickets."
Zhou Wen followed the direction of his finger and found a small window on the left side of the small building. In front of the window, there were only a few people wearing long gowns and hats buying tickets. There was also one who was bending down to get off the bridge.
It seems that no matter which world it is, it is divided into first, second and third grades! Zhou Wen sighed.
You must make money in the future, make a lot of money, otherwise just imagining the scene of squeezing into a third-class train will make people shudder.
Zeng Erniu seemed to have read Zhou Wen's thoughts and said: "We don't have to squeeze into the carriage, let's take the caboose." After saying that, he waved an official document he just took out from his hand.
Zhou Wen knew what a caboose was. Old-fashioned trains in the past had to hang a caboose after the last car. Its main function was to measure the speed of the car, help brake, protect the front car from wind and keep warm, and also allow family members and employees to ride.
Zeng Erniu led everyone through the crowded crowd and came to the door to enter the platform. After showing the official document, he entered the platform. Zhou Wen found that there were two doors to enter the platform. There were fewer people in the one he entered. It should be a second-class and first-class train.
The entrance of the car.
After waiting on the platform for almost 30 minutes, Zhou Wen heard the sound of a whistle in the distance. The sound of the whistle was not loud, but it was very distant.
He looked far to the right and saw a black spot in the distance that was like an exclamation point, smoking.
The black spots slowly began to become clearer, and the outline of the locomotive was faintly visible.
There was also a faint roaring sound in his ears, which was not very fast. Zhou Wen completely released his senses and felt a slight vibration under his feet.
Turning around to look at Xu Dacheng and the others who were still stretching their necks, looking eagerly, they knew that their visual senses were probably more than double those of ordinary people.
After a few more minutes, Xu Dacheng shouted: "It's coming, it's coming, I saw it."
The train is coming. The locomotive is huffing and puffing, carrying thick smoke, and it is getting closer and closer with more than a dozen carriages.
Zhou Wen could clearly see that the style of the carriage at the back was the same as that of the old-fashioned train from the previous generation. The front and rear doors, step ladders, and windows were all the same.
The train began to brake when it was far away, spraying thick steam mist to both sides. Feeling the increasingly stronger vibrations under their feet, everyone couldn't help but take a few steps back.
Before the train could stop, countless people rushed to the carriages in front of them. They were chasing after each other, vying to be the first.
As the saying goes: the pole and rope are thrown wildly, and the dustpan and basket fly together.
Zhou Wen knew that the third-class carriages were all close to the locomotive. Steam locomotives of this era all burned coal, and the carriages near the locomotive had to eat coal ash on the road.
Without hesitating to express too many emotions, Zeng Erniu had already led a group of people to the last caboose. There was only one steward with a big cap on the caboose. After looking at the official document, he asked everyone to get on the caboose.
The caboose compartment was shorter than the normal compartment. When Zhou Wen and the others entered, they found that there were already several people dressed as ordinary people sitting inside. They were probably all related people.
There is a row of wooden hard seats on the right side of the carriage. There are no seats on the left side, and there are a lot of sacks and boxes piled up. These are the goods that the flight attendants use to earn extra money for others.
The flight attendant called those people who were sitting up and gave their seats to Zhou Wen and others.
Zeng Erniu was not polite and took the lead to invite everyone to sit down. The common people sat on the sacks or wooden boxes opposite. No one said anything.
After the train started moving for a while, Zhou Wen felt the speed of the train and estimated that the speed would not exceed 60 kilometers per hour.
Everyone had nothing to talk about in the car, and Xu Dacheng had already fallen asleep. Zhou Wen looked around, and unknowingly his eyes took a few more glances at the gun Zeng Erniu placed in front of him.
This is the famous 7.9mm rifle made in Hanyang. It is an improved model of the old sleeve rifle that Zhou Wen grabbed in the woods. The sleeve device of the barrel has been cancelled. This can be regarded as a famous gun in China until the liberation of China.
Used since then.
Zeng Erniu saw Zhou Wen paying attention to his gun, so he stretched out the gun and handed it to Zhou Wen and said: "Brother Zhou, if you want to see it, just take it to see. It's not loaded, so it won't be a problem."
Zhou Wen smiled and nodded, and took the gun over. As soon as he grasped the handle of the gun with his right hand, a familiar feeling filled his body. It felt much better than the old sleeve.
I couldn't help but pull the bolt, turned my head and squinted to look at the barrel of the gun carefully. I saw that it was dark and shiny inside, so I put my finger in and touched it, then turned the muzzle and looked inside the barrel, and found that the rifling was clearly visible. Click.
The head said: "It's well maintained."
I thought that if there was such a gun in the woods and enough bullets, I would be confident that I could kill all the bandits in the mountains.
He stood up, put the gun on his shoulder, pushed the bolt, and aimed outside the carriage. His movements were coherent and natural. Zeng Erniu praised him repeatedly: "Brother Zhou is an expert. How can he feel like he has been handling guns for many years at such a young age?"