Chapter 66                                                             �

The 52nd year of Zhengtong, late spring.

Countless soldiers from the Beijing camp entered the capital to maintain order.

After Zhu Qizhen sued the temple, under the escort of the Jinyiwei, Jinwuwei and other central troops, the cavalry guards of the three battalions selected from the Beijing camp were surging tens of thousands of them. The entire Beijing East Station was blocked tightly.

Even a fly can't fly out.

When Zhu Qizhen came to this Beijing East Station, he felt disillusioned.

Zhu Qizhen didn’t know how the Beijing Railway Station developed in history, but in history, he chose this place.

Because the first railway in the Ming Dynasty was Zunhua to Beijing, and it was freight, and it was more about transporting iron materials to various factories in Beijing, and processing them into artillery weapons and even various iron materials. After the railway arrived at the city of Beijing, it did not shake the Beijing city wall in the end and chose to be placed outside the city of Beijing.

That is, Beijing East Station.

As mentioned earlier, Shaofu Fireworks Factory wanted to use the water flow of the Yongding River, and it was placed south of Beijing. Therefore, one extension line of this railway is to the south of Beijing. This road is now ready to extend to Baoding. The Zhending line may be the right way for the Ming Dynasty to travel south by land.

However, the largest railway connecting Beijing to the south is the Jingxu Line.

It was from Beijing to Tianjin, then headed south along the canal, and it was all the way to Xuzhou. There was still a distance to Xuzhou south, but it was not to Huai'an.

There is nothing else, it is because of the Huaihe River problem.

The problem of Huaihe River management is not solved, and it is better to pass the Chidao, after all, Chidao is much simpler than a railway. The requirements for railways are even stricter.

If the Huaihe River is not under management, you may be able to pass it through. However, the Huaihe River management project has been launched, so the Ministry of Works has gathered and discussed it and suggested that the railway be stranded for the time being and turn to the northwest.

After all, the northwest requires much stronger railways than the southeast. These Ming railways that have been built for many years are mostly in the northwest. However, the difficulty of building railways in the northwest is something they could not imagine. Therefore, the railway construction has been stranded repeatedly and the progress is slow, and it has not yet entered Lanzhou.

But even so, it brought great convenience to the court and alleviated the suffering of the people in the northwest.

Zhu Qizhen knew about this.

Even he is the main push.

It's not the first time he's here.

But at this moment, he still feels disillusioned with historical dislocation.

The previous railways were not operated by passenger transport.

All are freight transport by the government. Even if some high-ranking officials and nobles want to use railways, they just add a car after the freight train. It can be regarded as completing the tasks of the court, not as a special passenger transport.

However, the railway is too expensive.

It can even be said that part of the reason for the wealth of the imperial court was that the Northwest Railway was too difficult to build. After all, the power of the steam engine in this era was quite limited, and the slope was too steep, so the train could not get up. If the railway was built in the mountains of the northwest, it could only be relied on people to slowly grind it. Even if you have money, you could not speed up the project.

If the railway was not built smoothly, the money from the court might not be able to be kept.

Even so, it is not easy to get the cabinet to agree to the funds for the construction of the railway. It is not that the cabinet completely disagrees. In fact, the cabinet members generally agree to the construction of the railway, and they all understand the benefits of this to the Ming Dynasty. It’s just that the money is too great. We have to carefully weigh the trade-offs.

And the railway department has to find a way to make money.

Qiu Jun also intends to promote reforms to some bad policies of the post station.

The inn is a heavy burden for the local people. The situation is also introduced in the previous article, so I will not talk about it here.

Qiu Jun intended to use the sprint and railway instead of the traditional post road, and directly ordered the general to replace the previous post road by quoting tickets.

Passenger transportation is generated under this background.

Even so, there is only one passenger flight and route. It is nothing more than from Beijing to Xuzhou.

Of course, all transportation tasks were cancelled today, whether it was passenger or freight.

At this moment, Beijing East Station was quiet. The station was filled with rows of soldiers who seemed to be pillars. In fact, there was no extraordinary building at this station. It was just a place close to the railway tracks, and there were rows of sheds. There were not even a platform. When boarding the train, you had to use a ladder.

In Zhu Qizhen's eyes, the carriage was much more primitive.

Needless to say, the front of the car has improved a lot compared to the previous steam engine, so Zhu Qizhen looked around.

"Your Majesty." An old voice came to Zhu Qizhen's ears.

Zhu Qizhen turned around and looked over, but Belin was supported by two disciples and had a crutch in his hand, so he stood tremblingly.

Belin is a teenager older than Zhu Qizhen. Now he is 80 years old and has long stopped engaging in front-line research. However, since he studied with Wu Yubi, he has truly found his goal in life and devoted himself to science. However, he has the talent to become a scientist.

Belin devoted her life to the steam engine, but she had no results in other aspects. To some extent, Belin was more suitable for being the first engineer in China.

Zhu Qizhen said: "Why should Bei Qing do this? I didn't say that Zunhua meets you."

Belin said, "Your Majesty is on tour, how can I not come to greet you?"

Zhu Qizhen said: "Okay, look for it and see your masterpiece."

Belin was supported by his disciples and grandsons and said, "Your Majesty, this car is made of copper and iron as its muscles and bones, and the large wood in the northeast is the grid. There is an iron wheel under it, so you can travel thousands of miles a day."

Zhu Qizhen, surrounded by his ministers, walked on the train.

The train only has seven cars, and the layout inside has no trace of the current train layout, but it makes Zhu Qizhen very familiar.

Yes, this is the layout of the Qianqing Palace copied in the train. One of the seven cars is Zhu Qizhen's room, and the other six are the cabinet, the military, the guards, and the eunuchs and palace maids who served Zhu Qizhen.

Zhu Qizhen sat on the imperial throne and felt that he was no different from the Forbidden City.

Seeing that Zhu Qizhen had sat firmly, Huai'en asked for instructions before he asked for the car downstairs to drive.

But I heard a long whistle sound, spreading from the front. Although black smoke came out, a rhythmic vibration spread from Zhu Qizhen, and then a clanging sound came, and the train slowly moved.

Zhu Qizhen ordered Huai'en to lift the window, and the breeze came out from outside, but this speed was not very fast in Zhu Qizhen's eyes. Zhu Qizhen saw a horse team running outside with the train, covering up the threat inside the carriage outside. It can be seen that the speed of the train is not a burden for the war horses in the army.

However, Zhu Qizhen also felt several major benefits of trains surpassing roads.

The first benefit is stable.

The width of the chassis is the same as the width of the railway, but the chassis gives people the feeling of being light and unstable, especially when being pulled up by a horse and galloping rapidly, it feels like rushing out of the chassis, but there is no such feeling on the train. In fact, the ministers did not have much Zhu Qizhen took the train, and there was too much dissuasion, which actually showed trust in the safety of the train.

The speed of the train is even higher than that of the carriage on the road.

But the train gives people the feeling that it is stable. Generally speaking, there is no need to break out of the tracks. Even if something really happens, the train can knock out obstacles.

Of course, there are also necessary guards.

There are some funny scenes now. Zhu Qizhen is advancing on the train at a speed of 30 kilometers per hour, while the guards are divided into several digits. When the train passes by, the guards are on the side.

Zhu Qizhen said: "With this magical mechanism, Mr. Bei has made contributions to the country, Qiu Qing."

Qiu Jun said, "I am here."

Zhu Qizhen said: "Transferred to the cabinet, and the achievements of trains and steam engines were made Beilin the Marquis of Zunhua."

Zhu Qizhen's reward for Belin was not once or twice, but there was a lot of resistance.

This was also what Zhu Qizhen made himself.

In order to improve the combat effectiveness of the army, Zhu Qizhen strictly implemented the title without military merits. Even the forced force before the empress dowager did not change his attention. Huichang's Sun family had already invested countless lives for the sake of an earl and died in battle on various battlefields in Nanyang.

That is the price the Huichang Bosun family paid for this title.

The deaths of several male deeds and the Earl was already a discount for Zhu Qizhen to give the Huichangbo family for the sake of the Empress Dowager. As for whether they wanted it or not, it was another matter.

Zhu Qizhen's seriousness towards titles also made the titles of the Ming Dynasty suddenly more valuable. Many civil servants looked down on the nobles before this, but they have changed over the years because almost every earl's reward has been subject to scrutiny, and every noble family must join the army in order to maintain their influence in the army and prepare for their lives.

This is true. In turn, the noble families rejected the indiscriminate titles.

This brought great difficulty to Zhu Qizhen's goal to be named Belin.

After all, it is Zhu Qizhen's proposal to strictly enthrone the title, and Zhu Qizhen cannot whisper to himself. Not to mention, if it is really said that Belin is not considered a military merit.

Before, Belin was already developing a train and was named Earl.

However, in Zhu Qizhen's opinion, a mere count cannot represent Belin's contribution at all. It is also inconsistent with Zhu Qizhen's dedicated promotion of this scientific concept. However, there was an earl who had the foundation and wanted to be named Marquis, which caused a lot of storm.

The reason why it is suitable now is that time proves the role of the steam engine and the train, and on the other hand, Belin is old.

What kind of future can an old man in his eighties have? This marquis will achieve his lifelong achievements and will not play any role in politics. The resistance he encounters is much smaller.

As Zhu Qizhen expected, Qiu Jun hesitated for a moment and finally agreed.
Chapter completed!