I want to be emperor

Chapter 868 Homecoming
Sun Xu, Ms. Meng and his entourage, Uncle Li, took the train very smoothly. There was no need to change trains along the way, and the train they took was an express passenger train, which was faster than ordinary passenger trains, and it only stopped at major stations. Significantly shorten the travel time.

The Great Chu Empire has been engaged in railway construction for more than ten years. Both the railway and the train have actually been upgraded several times.

After all, the technological development these years is very fast. In the 21st year of Chengshun, the first-generation 21-type train produced by the Great Chu Empire could only pull passenger trains at an average speed of [-] kilometers per hour.

Because the thermal efficiency value of the locomotive at that time was very low, coal and fresh water consumption was very large during operation, so it was necessary to stop to add coal and water after running tens of kilometers.

This is also one of the reasons why when the railways of the Great Chu Empire were built, the railway stations were densely built, with a railway station every few tens of kilometers... not only for the convenience of passengers, but also for the purpose of adding coal and water to the train.

Subsequent train technology continues to improve, and various new technologies continue to appear and be applied. For example, the train uses mechanical brakes at the beginning. In order to ensure that the entire train stops quickly, a separate mechanical brake will be set in each car. , and equipped with a brakeman, when the brakes are needed, under the unified command of the driver, the brakemen in each compartment manually pull up the brakes to achieve braking.

This method naturally has many problems such as inconvenient, untimely, and high cost... Not to mention anything else, just because each car is equipped with a brake, the labor cost is not low.

Subsequent researchers came up with air brake technology, which is a brake system that uses an air compressor and then uses pipes to send compressed air to each compartment.

When braking, as long as the train driver pulls the brakes, the compressed air will push the cylinder pistons of each carriage and press the brake shoes tightly, so that the train can be stopped quickly.

It is a very simple and convenient braking system. The technical difficulty lies in the air compressor... But this thing is not a high-tech thing. The Great Chu Empire has produced low-pressure steam engines in Chengshun for more than ten years. air compressors for industrial production.

Later, technology continued to improve, and air compressors were also used to drive rock drills for large-scale engineering construction. During the railway construction process of the Great Chu Empire, air compressed rock drills were used in large quantities for tunnel construction.

In the 27th year of Chengshun, the technical experts of the Great Chu Empire perfected the compressed air brake technology, and after several years of small-scale tests, they began to apply it to trains on a large scale.

Compressed air braking technology, this is just one of the links in the history of train development, well, it is a relatively important link.

There are many other technological developments.

The more important one is naturally the continuous development of locomotive construction technology.

The technical difficulty of the locomotive lies in the core component of the locomotive: the steam engine.

At the beginning, the steam engine used by the Type 21 train was just an ordinary single-cylinder high-pressure steam engine, and it was just two steam engines connected in parallel to work... And the so-called high pressure at that time is not worth mentioning today!
With mechanical processing, the level of raw materials continues to increase, and the steam pressure and temperature of the steam engine continue to increase, so that the steam engine still has a large amount of residual energy after doing work once. In order to use these residual capabilities, the multi-expansion steam engine was born naturally.

This is also a very obvious logical change of technological progress, that is, there are advances in raw materials and processing technology first, and then promote technological progress in a certain aspect, and then drive technological progress in other aspects...

It is impossible for you to say that a triple-expansion reciprocating steam engine was produced 20 years ago... It does not mean that three cylinders cannot be produced... This thing is a design problem, and there is no technical problem in terms of manufacturing.

But there was no need for this at the time, and there was no driving force for the development of this technology.

Because of the raw materials and processing technology at that time, the pressure and temperature of the steam generated by the boiler were just like that. One cylinder can already fully utilize the kinetic energy contained in the steam, and more cylinders are useless...

The multi-expansion steam engine must be equipped with a boiler capable of generating ultra-high pressure and corresponding steam pipelines to play its corresponding role.

To make multi-expansion steam mobilize, you must first have ultra-high temperature and high pressure steam...

In the 26th year of Chengshun today, the steam pressure generated by the boiler is already eight times that of the morale boiler steam pressure in 21st... The change in this data is the real reason for the emergence of the triple-expansion steam engine.

The reason why the double-expansion steam engine appeared in the past, and the backwardness until now is also based on the same reason.

There is a context here... There are raw materials and precision processing technology before there is high-temperature and high-pressure steam, and there is a high-temperature and high-pressure steam engine before there are steam engines with more cylinders...

When all these were satisfied, the Great Chu Empire began to apply triple-expansion steam engines on a large scale. It was first applied to naval warships, and then gradually applied to civilian ships, mainly passenger ships that pursue speed.

When these technologies are applied to trains, it is already relatively mature and the price is relatively cheap.

There is no way, a naval battleship can be hundreds of thousands of casually, and the price tolerance for the power system is very high. It has always been only the best. As for the price issue, as long as it is not too outrageous, it is not a problem.

But the train is different. This thing is for large-scale civilian use, and it also has an inclusive nature of basic transportation facilities. The technical cost card is still relatively strict.

After all, the old steam engine is not unusable, it's just that the speed is slower, and what the common people pay more attention to is not how much your speed has increased, but how much your ticket price has increased...

This is why there are still many old antique Type 21 locomotives in service in the Great Chu Empire Railway Corporation... How should I put it, this thing is not broken, you don’t have to buy a new one, then there will be a new one As for the lower power... Anyway, many branch railway trains don't require any speed, and thirty to forty kilometers are enough.

However, some new locomotives will still use new-style steam engines. The Type 33 locomotive produced by Guangzhou Machinery Company is a typical example. This locomotive uses almost all contemporary new technologies. During the test, nine large passenger carriages were pulled to simulate When it was loaded, it ran at a speed of up to [-] kilometers per hour...

Even if a light load was actually used during the test, and the railway is also a downhill section, and it is a newly built new railway, the so-called test speed is actually of no practical value.

But this speed is still very exaggerated for the contemporary Great Chu Empire...

Based on the Type 33 locomotive, the Great Chu Empire Railway Corporation has developed a series of fast passenger trains with characters A, which all start with the character A, followed by Arabic numerals.

That is to say, the rapid passenger train that Sun Xu and Ms. Meng are currently traveling on has an average speed of about [-] kilometers per hour during actual operation.

That's not the point. Fifty kilometers seems to be faster than an old train with a speed of thirty or forty kilometers per hour, but that's it.

The point is that the A-series fast trains only stop at major stations, and carry more coal and fresh water, so there is no need to stop to add coal and water every tens of kilometers.

These have greatly improved the operating speed of the A series of express passenger trains, and further improved the travel speed and comfort of passengers... Well, it is common for contemporary passengers to stay on the train for a few days on long-distance travel, except Passengers in the sleeping berth class, ticket passengers can't talk about travel comfort.

When Sun Xu came to Songjiang last year, he took a third-class ticket all the way. The feeling...he will never forget it for the rest of his life.

But now when he goes back to his hometown, he can take Ms. Meng directly to the first-class sleeper box. Although it costs a lot, the feeling of the journey can be greatly improved. They even read books on the train with great mood. , look at the scenery.

Eat in the dining car dedicated to first-class passengers during meal time... When stopping for rest at night, the conductor organized a dinner in the dining car. The name is to entertain the passengers in the first-class car... But in fact, the dinner is charged , but also dead expensive dead expensive.

And it’s not good if you don’t go, the train conductor personally went to each box to invite you one by one... When he invited you, the train conductor was a decent person, so naturally he wouldn’t say that there was a fee for the dinner, but simply invited you to the dinner party... But the train conductor always As soon as we left, the staff of the dining car came over to perform the so-called registration service, and by the way collected the ticket price for the dinner... and they also respected each guest, and their attitude was extremely polite.

Under such circumstances, if you are not thick-skinned to a certain level, you are really embarrassed to refuse... At least Sun Xu is not so shameless, and in the end he obediently pays the bill to attend the so-called high-end dinner... The food is still from the dining car Convenience food.

The Great Chu Empire Railway Corporation, like many government-run enterprises or institutions, has the same urgency. It is to make money from the rich to subsidize the poor...and often develops a lot of consumption projects specifically for the rich. , For example, this first-class carriage, the first-class dining car.

How to put it this way, if it doesn't earn all the money from the rich, how can it subsidize a large number of civilians to take trains cheaply? ...How to continue to build various railways that do not make money or even lose money on a large scale?
We can't always rely on issuing bonds, no, the railway bonds have to be repaid, and now the Great Chu Empire Railway Corporation owes too many bonds...to the extent that ordinary companies look up to them.

To what extent?In recent years, when some financial investment institutions or wealthy people in Chu State make stable investments, they often use part of their funds to buy national bonds and railway bonds.

This is all on par with national debt, and you can imagine how big the railroad bond is.

The interest that needs to be repaid every year makes the management of the railway company a big headache.

Therefore, the railway company has been trying to find ways to generate income!

This is how the first-class carriages, the first-class dining cars, and the train conductor's dinner that left many upper-class people speechless...that's how it came about.

Only with the high income of the first-class carriages at the rear of the train can the ticket carriages in front of the train be kept relatively cheap, so that a person with little money in his pocket can also take the train to work in other cities...

If such measures are not adopted, and the train operating costs are shared purely based on the same fare for everyone, then most poor people cannot even afford train tickets... let alone take the train to the city to work and earn money.

The transportation in the Great Chu Empire is the same as the education, it takes the path of robbing the rich and giving to the poor... A small number of rich people pay for the education and travel of a large number of poor people.

Of course, in this process, the rich will inevitably enjoy more social resources.

For example, Sun Xu now... is comfortable, eats well and sleeps well. If you want to brag, you can even say that the train conductor has to eat and drink with him, and he arrived in Xi'an smoothly all the way.

In the first half of the train, there are many ticketed carriages. Many of the people in these ticketed carriages are going home during the Chinese New Year just like Sun Xu.

But they can only be squeezed in the crowded carriages, and fortunately sit on the narrow seats for a few days... Some people even don't even have seats, and they bought cheaper standing tickets...

In the third-class carriage, there are almost crowded people, the smell of sweat and various smells are mixed, the sounds of children crying, women shouting and cursing, and men shouting loudly are intertwined, composing the vast majority of contemporary Dachu people traveling far away. true portrayal.

The express passenger train arrived in Xi'an smoothly all the way. Because the journey was comfortable, Sun Xu and Ms. Meng didn't need to rest in the local area. They changed trains on the spot and got on the train to their hometown of Longzhou.

This time the journey is relatively short, only eighty or ninety kilometers in total, and there is only one stop at Siyangjing in the middle. Therefore, although the trains on this branch line are all old trains and the speed is relatively slow, they will eventually pass. It took only three hours to arrive in Longzhou.

Walking out of Longzhou Railway Station, looking at the familiar small square and street in front of the railway station, Sun Xu was filled with emotion.

After more than a year, I came back again, and I came back with great success.

When you leave, you only have a few clothes and a few yuan in your pocket, and you still have a third-class ticket.

But now...he is wearing a wool coat made of fine cashmere, with a silk shirt inside, plus shoes and a hat, which cost more than 20 Chu Yuan.

Not to mention that he has already bought a good single-family house in Songjiang, and there is also a beautiful woman standing beside him who he didn't even have the right to look at before.

Now he is back!

Maybe it was because she sensed Sun Xu's mood change, and of course it was also possible that she was nervous about coming to her boyfriend's hometown, so Ms. Meng habitually took Sun Xu's arms.

At this time, Uncle Li on the side had already negotiated with the driver of a four-wheeled carriage, and the luggage was carried up and tied up. Sun Xu and Miss Meng sat in the carriage, and Uncle Li stepped directly on the carriage. Rear, holding on to the railing at the top.

The two-horse carriage was driving quickly on the road, and when Sun Xu left, there was a young man beside him with a puzzled expression.

The young man just now looked like a rich man, very similar to the Sun Xu he knew... But after a while, he didn't dare to confirm it, and he didn't even have the guts to go to the rich young man and ask if you are Sun Xu ...

So it can only be directly wondering.

Sun Xu didn't know this. As the carriage drove gradually and was approaching home, Sun Xu was also a little excited.

After not coming back for more than a year, he was homesick.

And Ms. Meng at the side was obviously more nervous. Her small hand kept holding Sun Xu's hand, and she grabbed it even harder... Sensing her nervousness, Sun Xu immediately comforted: "Don't be nervous, my parents are kind people. I have already sent a letter back and mentioned marriage with them, and they have agreed to the marriage, and they have been looking forward to you."

Miss Meng said: "I know, I've read the letter... But, I'm still nervous!"

But even if she was nervous, it had to come. It didn't take long for the carriage to pass through the small county town to Dongcheng District, and finally came to a private house.

The people living in this place are ordinary people, and there will not be any two-horse taxis coming over in ordinary times.

So as soon as the car arrived at the door of the house, it immediately attracted the attention of the neighbors around. Many people poked their heads out to look at it, and some acquaintances gathered together to chat.

"Who is this?"

"Come to Lao Sun's house?"

"I haven't heard that there are any rich relatives in their family!"

"The youngest son of their family is quite promising. He was admitted to Shaanxi-Gansu University this year! But he hasn't graduated yet. When he came back two days ago, he didn't have such a big picture!"

While the neighbors were discussing, Uncle Li had already got out of the car and opened the door before the coachman, and then Sun Xu got out of the car... When Sun Xu got out of the car and appeared in front of everyone, the scene stagnated for a moment.

Sun Xu was naturally recognized by the neighbors around him. Even if the situation was far beyond their expectations, the clothes on Sun Xu could be seen to be expensive, but it would not make them unrecognizable.

"Is this the eldest son of the Sun family?"

"Is the sun coming out from the west?"

"Didn't Dawa Sun say that she went to Songjiang to work? It doesn't look like she is going to work, she is going to grab money!"

"Tsk tsk, look at this outfit, it's more elegant than what the boss in our store wears!"

"And this carriage, this kind of rental carriage is very expensive, our boss can't bear to take it a few times a year!"

While everyone was discussing, the courtyard door of Sun Xu's house was also opened... In fact, the courtyard wall of Sun's house is very low, and the upper part is still a wooden fence. Fence caught sight of this four-wheeled carriage, which was known to be extremely expensive at first glance.

Before, I thought it was some rich man who passed by, but after stopping at the gate of the yard, Sun shoemaker thought that maybe he was looking for the neighbor next door... his son?
To be honest, he really didn't expect it for a while, even though Sun Xu had written to him many times telling him that he had been promoted and his salary was good, and he even bought a house in Songjiang City and found a woman to marry.

He knew that his son had made a lot of money, but it was actually hard to understand what kind of concept Sun Xu's annual income of over a thousand Chu Yuan was, and what practical changes it would bring to his life.

Just like the ordinary people in the original time and space, they don't actually understand what their daily life is like in the high-income group.

It can only be based on hearsay, coupled with some imagination... and these hearsay and imagined high-income life scenes are basically far from the facts, either the imagination is too low, or the imagination is too high .

This is the case with Shoemaker Sun. He knows that his son has made a lot of money in Songjiang, but he never thought that when his eldest son came home, he would take a look at the double-horse rental carriages specially used by rich people from other places... And with followers.

It can't be blamed that he doesn't have enough imagination, but that he really hasn't come into contact with people of this level, and he hasn't even seen many people.

And when he squinted his eyes and saw Sun Xu getting out of the car, and opened his eyes wide to look carefully, he immediately stood up from the chair and shouted through the wooden fence: "Xu Zi?:

Just as Sun Xu got out of the car at this time, he also turned his head towards the yard of his family. He happened to see his father calling him, and immediately responded loudly: "Father, it's me, I'm back!"

After hearing this, grandpa walked out with small brisk steps, and at the same time he did not forget to shout: "Mother, come out quickly, Xu Zi is back!"

Soon a middle-aged woman wearing an apron came out quickly, and shouted after seeing Sun Xu: "Son!"

Soon, the two arrived at the door, and Miss Meng also got out of the car. Sun Xu introduced to his parents: "Father, mother, this is the Miss Meng I told you about!"

At this time, Miss Meng also leaned her upper body forward slightly, put her hands together in front of her chest, and at the same time slightly bent her knees and gave a blessing salute: "Blessings, Uncle and Aunt!"

Seeing this, Grandfather couldn't close his mouth from ear to ear with a smile, and said repeatedly: "Okay...Okay!"

Grandmother saw the fair and beautiful Ms. Meng, who was well-dressed and dignified, with a wrinkled face and a smile on her face: "Girl, you are welcome, they are all from my family... Come in, come in and talk!"

(End of this chapter)