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316 Steam Train

However, it is definitely a big event for the emperor to leave the palace, or even the city, and take the queen, princes, princesses, etc. with him.

Officials from the foreign court, especially the imperial censors from the Metropolitan Procuratorate, made reports one after another, admonishing Emperor Chongzhen from all angles to give up this idea.

However, Emperor Chongzhen insisted on having his own way, but they had no choice.

As a result, the soldiers of the Five Cities Military and Horse Division took to the streets to enforce martial law, and the Jinyi Guards cleared the way. Emperor Chongzhen, with his wife and children, arrived at the train station outside the Chaoyang Gate of the capital in a grand manner.

Among this team, there are also specially-made vehicles from the Military War Bureau, carrying huge train locomotives, and various types of carriages, some carrying passengers and some freight.

This was the first time that train parts were shown in front of the people of the Ming Dynasty. The vigilant soldiers of the Five Cities Army were dumbfounded. They were so big and heavy. This was the legendary train. Can it drive?

After the emperor passed by, the people along the way no longer had to stay in their houses, but also flocked out of the streets to watch the excitement.

They were also outside the cordon of soldiers from the Wucheng Soldiers and Horses Division, looking at the huge train parts. They were also dumbfounded. At a glance, they knew that this train part was very heavy. Can it move on that railway?

To be honest, their subconscious answer is absolutely no.

However, this was invented by the emperor, and with all the miracles of Chongzhen's fifteen years in front of him, they quickly changed from denial to doubt. How can such a heavy train move?

Therefore, as the soldiers of the Wucheng Bingma Division gradually lifted their isolation, the idle people in the capital, mainly those who had nothing to do, followed the soldiers of the Wucheng Bingma Division and crowded outside Chaoyang Gate.

go.

There were even some smart ones who saw that there were too many people watching, so they went to other city gates, and then went around. Anyway, the railway is there, and you can see the train coming on the road wherever you wait.

situation.

There are quite a few people who have this idea, and they spread it from ten to ten, and just like that, a lot of people gathered again on the cement official road from the capital to Tongzhou, watching along the route no matter the weather was still very cold.

As a result, some businessmen were encouraged to start doing business and hawking along the route.

"Plain water with peanuts and melon seeds, eat and watch at the same time!"

"Eggs, tea leaves, quail eggs, fill your stomach first!"

"..."

Besides, the Capital Railway Station was guarded by soldiers from the Five Cities Military and Horse Division on the outside, and there were many guards inside. It was impossible for Emperor Chongzhen, his wife and children to be exposed to the cold wind and hide in the warm railway station master's room.

Standing, looking at the activities outside through the transparent glass window.

The senior officials of the Ming Dynasty naturally accompanied the emperor out and stayed in another house. Each of them was quite angry with the emperor. This was just nonsense. They actually ran out with such a big family!

The thieves are still raging in the south, and everything is waiting to be done in the north. Spring sowing is also very important, as is the construction of water conservancy projects. Which one is not very important?

In the end, the emperor was lucky enough to leave the city with such fanfare, just for his railway company, this unreliable machine made of steel?

Even for this reason, they all have a feeling that Emperor Tianqi used to like carpentry work. Could it be that Emperor Tianqi's younger brother began to settle for pleasure and indulge in iron work after the great victory in Jizhou?

In short, they were not looking forward to this train at all. They felt that nothing would happen and they were just messing around with the emperor.

However, in the station master's room, the atmosphere was warm, and people were very much looking forward to the upcoming scene.

Because not only Emperor Chongzhen had seen the video of the steam train, but many others, including Queen Zhou, had also seen it. In addition, even Princess Zhu Auao of Kunxing and his maid Fei Zhene were personally involved in the train

Most of them participated in the construction of railways, especially the laying of railway tracks. The main reason was that they absorbed Liu Weichao's knowledge about railways faster than others. When Emperor Chongzhen hired people, he let them all work regardless of their status.

Got involved.

Among them, Fei Zhen'e was one of the palace maids who went to the railway laying site in person and participated in directing the laying of the railway, and she was the leader. When Emperor Chongzhen asked Liu Weichao about the 100,000 questions about trains, she came up with basically half of them.

. Now, together with Zhu Yurao, they are chattering to Emperor Chongzhen to introduce the situation of the railway laying at that time.

Outside, the construction workers knew that the emperor and empress, as well as senior officials of the Ming Dynasty, were watching. Therefore, they were all working nervously. Song Yingxing, as the general person in charge of Ming Technology, also appeared in front of everyone for the first time.

, busy directing on-site operations.

For the time being, a total of two trains have been built according to the drawings provided by Liu Weichao for use on the Tongzhou and Jingshi Railways.

The steam train Liu Weichao provided to Emperor Chongzhen was naturally a mature steam train.

Speaking of this steam train, in the original history, the first wheel-rail steam locomotive, called the New Castle, would not appear until February 29, 1804. The previous steam engines were all low-pressure boilers and were too bulky.

It is bulky and not suitable for steam locomotives.

The New Castle, invented by the Englishman Richard Trevithick, weighed 4.5 tons and could tow 10 tons of cargo. On February 29, 1804, the locomotive he built towed 5 knots.

The carriage, carrying 10 tons of cargo and 70 passengers, traveled at a speed of 8 miles per hour (approximately 13 kilometers per hour) along the 16-kilometer-long cast iron track of the Morgan Summer Canal, announcing the birth of the steam locomotive.

However, this did not cause a sensation, because it was originally running on the railway used by mining owners to transport ore. It drove like this once and crushed all the iron-covered wooden rails. It made people feel that this kind of train did not

What value.

In fact, before the steam train came out, Trevithick did not run his invention on railroad tracks at first. Instead, the steam car, the kind that ran on the road, caused a sensation at first.

When it was first invented, he took seven friends out for a ride and called him "the blower." As a result, they were overjoyed and accidentally drove the car into a ditch. But this did not affect the young man's enthusiasm at all.

In such a bad mood, he took his friend to a restaurant not far away for a drink. What was even worse was that Trevithick did not turn off the steam car at all. In the end, the water in the boiler was boiled dry, causing

There was a fire and an explosion, completely destroying the vehicle.

So he invented a second steam car and named it the "London Passenger Car". He carried seven or eight people and traveled about ten miles at a speed of 14 kilometers per hour. Unfortunately, due to a driving error, he crashed

On the wall. From then on, people began to regard steam cars as a dangerous big toy, scaring potential buyers to stay away.

In this way, the steam car died, but Trevithick gave up the steam train, which was called the New Castle.

However, the truly practical steam train was improved by the British George Stephenson. In 1829, his steam train dragged a carriage carrying more than 30 people at a speed of 45 kilometers per hour, completing 97

Kilometers of railway mileage.

In this process, every step of the invention had flaws, and then it was improved, tried again, improved again... In this repeated process, the final form of the steam train was finally achieved.

The finalization of this steam train includes all aspects, not only the steam train components, but also the requirements for the rails, etc.

From the emergence of the original steam engine to the final maturity of the steam train, it took mankind an unknown amount of manpower and material resources, and there are many stories involved.

However, Emperor Chongzhen was a very lucky man. With the help of later generations Liu Weichao, he skipped all these groping and improvement steps, thus saving an unknown amount of manpower and material resources, and he was more confident than anyone else.

, what a bright future this steam train has!

Emperor Chongzhen's railway was a standard railway and could be promoted across the country; his steam train was designed to run at a speed of fifty kilometers per hour, which was still lower than the standard speed of 60 kilometers per hour for mature trains in the 20th century.

.

However, if this speed is placed on this plane and during this Chongzhen period, it will definitely blind everyone's eyes.

What concept?

If Emperor Chongzhen's steam train traveled at standard speed, that is, 50 kilometers per hour, then the distance from the capital to Nanjing would be about 1,200 miles. If you take this train, you can get there twenty-four hours a day!

Of course, this is a straight-line distance, and the train does not stop at all. In fact, this is simply impossible. However, with this steam train, it usually takes one and a half months to travel by train.

This is always possible, right?

Such convenient transportation will inevitably lead to huge social changes in the Ming Dynasty!

Of course, in order to achieve this, there are still many difficulties to be overcome in order to pass the train on high mountains, deep valleys, large rivers, and all kinds of natural dangers. And it is foreseeable that it will not be easy in the short term.

At this time, Emperor Chongzhen's family was eating snacks in the stationmaster's office, watching the work outside, chattering, and the atmosphere was very harmonious.

Around noon, Song Yingxing finally commanded the railway troops to set up the steam trains on the rails and connect the carriages. Behind the steam locomotive, three passenger carriages and seven train carriages were hung.

Afterwards, the palace maid Fei Zhen'e ran out, and a group of small bosses responsible for each, under the leadership of the commander-in-chief Song Yingxing, inspected every link. After everything passed, they excitedly went to the door of the stationmaster's room and reported to Emperor Chongzhen

:Everything is ready!


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