Daming: I, Yang Xian, really govern Yang!

Chapter 109 Animal-powered rail public transportation system
Seeing Zhu Biao's face getting more and more ugly, Yang Xian chuckled and said, "Your Highness, don't think too much. All reforms cannot be completed overnight. According to what you said before, the originally scheduled number one in the Ming Dynasty The next spring is scheduled for next year."

"When time is so tight, it is too late to classify. Therefore, for this imperial examination, we can first select some comprehensive talents in government affairs and select scholars based on policy. This was done in the Tang Dynasty. In this way, the reaction of the Confucian scholars will not be the same. It would be too intense. Of course, all policy and discussion topics must be down-to-earth and truly related to people’s livelihood.”

"After that, you can ask His Majesty to send a signal to the whole world during the palace examination, that is, the reform of the imperial examination and the determination to use talents according to their ability."

Zhu Biao breathed a sigh of relief after hearing Yang Xian's words.

He then took Yang Xian to discuss some specific details of the imperial examination reform, which lasted for most of the day.

After returning to Beijing.

Zhu Biao and Zhu Yuanzhang recounted what Yang Xian said again, and together they finally decided on the imperial examination.

After the imperial examination was settled.

In order to welcome the imperial examinations in the coming spring and demonstrate the determination of the Ming Dynasty to seek talents, Zhu Yuanzhang decided to spend a lot of money to renovate Guoxue.

This good job finally fell on the head of Sima Nanshan, the Ministry of Industry and Construction.

Put aside the imperial examination matter for now.

Yangzhou.

Before leaving that day, Zhu Biao complained about how difficult it was for him to travel back and forth between Beijing and Yangzhou all day long, and asked Yang Xian when the Jingyang Highway would be repaired.

Indeed, in Zhu Biao's view, as long as the Beijing-Yangzhou Highway is repaired and the road becomes smooth, the time for him to travel between Beijing and Yangzhou will be greatly shortened.

But Yang Xian knew in his heart that although doing so could indeed speed up the process.

However, it cannot produce qualitative changes.

Because the means of transportation has not changed, it is still riding a horse.

Yang Xian couldn't help but wonder if it was necessary to develop some means of transportation.

Today’s technological accumulation is still some distance away from the Industrial Revolution.

Therefore, the transportation options Yang Xian can choose are limited.

The first thing that came to his mind was the bicycle.

Based on the materials currently available to the Ming Dynasty, it seems possible to build an imaginary bicycle.

But after thinking about it more carefully, Yang Xian denied it.

If it is built to a standard it can be ridden.

Regardless of how long the life span is, if you can ride it around the Yangzhou government office, it will be considered a victory. Then it can be done.

The body is the simplest, you can use iron, or more directly, just wedge nails with wooden strips.

Although it's a bit shabby and doesn't look like a modern bicycle at all, it still has the functions of a modern bicycle, so it's passable.

Next up are the wheels and tires.

Don’t worry about tires. There was no rubber in the Ming Dynasty. Even at the same time, there were rubber trees in the American continent. Rubber could be exchanged directly from the system.

From natural rubber to final tires, complex mixing is required.

So it’s not impossible to put the tires aside for the time being and use the wheels directly.

The material used is also wood.

In this way, a bicycle constructed entirely of wood is finally completed. It has the premise of an asphalt road and the shock absorption is acceptable.

Next comes the hard part.

Car chain.This is a bit too difficult for the ancients. In ancient times, there were no stamping machines, so they had to be forged and processed manually. No matter how powerful the blacksmith was, he probably couldn't knock out hundreds of the same small steel pieces.

Even if the craftsmen make the chain piece by piece like gold and silver jewelry, it is easy to break.

The chain is not completely unsolvable and can be changed to wheel and rope transmission.

Wheel and rope transmission is no problem, as long as the elastic force is tightened.

In ancient times, there was no rubber, so beef tendon could be used instead.

There's only one last piece of the puzzle, and that's the bearings.

At present, this is basically unsolvable. Don't look at this gadget that is far from simple. It uses the friction of rolling iron balls instead of sliding friction, which saves effort.

It seems to be very simple to make, with a big iron hoop surrounding a small hoop, and a circle of steel balls in the middle.

But in fact it is not like this at all. Bearings have extremely high processing requirements. Our country was only able to produce them after the Westernization Movement.

You must know that at that time, the Beiyang Navy was already able to build warships.

Of course, with the system in place, all these problems can be solved.

Yang Xian can even redeem a bicycle directly from the system. It's just a question of how many merit points are needed. But it can't be mass-produced or promoted, so it's all meaningless.

From bicycle tires, rubber trees come to mind.

In Yang Xian's opinion, he could redeem some rubber tree seeds from the system for planting.

Even bicycles don't meet the requirements, so what else is suitable? How about just building a train?

Yang Xian smiled self-deprecatingly.

Smiling and smiling, the smile suddenly solidified.

It seems that it is not impossible.

When it comes to trains, I have to mention a joke.

That was the spectacle of the "horse-drawn train" in the late Qing Dynasty. It was said that the railway was repaired, but the die-hards in the Qing Dynasty claimed that "the locomotive drove straight, shook the Tang Dynasty, and spewed black smoke, damaging the crops."

As a result, the most ridiculous scene in the history of China's railways happened: On standardized rails, several mules pulled a heavy locomotive and carts of coal between Tangshan and Xugezhuang.

This scene is also shown in Jiang Wen's movie "Let the Bullets Fly", which is the scene at the beginning where "taking my wife on a train, eating hot pot and singing songs".

Admittedly, it is indeed an extremely stupid thing to use horses when there is clearly a steam engine that can be used.

But in fact, if we push forward in time, horse-drawn trains are very popular all over the world.

As a large number of people moved into cities during the industrial revolution, there was an urgent need for efficient transportation in the city.

The transportation mode of mules and horses pulling vehicles on the track (i.e. horse-drawn trains) was widely promoted.

New York established the first animal-powered light rail system in the United States in 1832, using mainly horses and mules.Since the track can greatly reduce the friction between the vehicle body and the ground, one or two horses are usually enough to drag an entire vehicle.In fact, even in 1880, the year the Tangxu Railway was being built, there were 415 light rail companies in the United States using mules and horses.

Judging from the current situation, Yang Xian can definitely take a step back and learn from New York in the early 19th century and build an animal-powered rail public transportation system.

If tracks are laid on the ground, the friction experienced by vehicles will be greatly reduced.

Therefore, on the railway track, the power of horses is amazing, and often only two horses can pull dozens of people.

The so-called train is naturally not like today's trains. One locomotive pulls dozens of carriages, and it basically adopts the style of a single carriage.

The more Yang Xian thought about it, the more he felt that something was going on.

(End of this chapter)