Bringing the Railway to Daming

Chapter 160: Zou Wu, the first train launch! [Please subscribe]

October 29th.

Zhu Yuanzhang asked the Yin-Yang master of the Imperial Observatory to choose an auspicious day.

At five o'clock in the morning, Liu Kuan and Zhu Huilan were awakened by Taoyao in the outer room. Then they changed clothes, washed and had breakfast with the help of several maids.

Although today was the train's opening day, everything was ready, so Liu Kuan didn't need to be so nervous. However, Old Zhu suddenly felt like attending the train's launch ceremony.

This forced Liu Kuan to rush to the Beijing Railway Station early so that he could check with other officials of the Railway Bureau again all the preparations for today's first train to ensure that everything was foolproof.

Before leaving, Zhu Huilan habitually helped Liu Kuan straighten his clothes and said with a smile, "Husband, behave well today."

Liu Kuan thought Zhu Huilan's words were a bit strange, but he still responded with a smile, "Don't worry, everything has been prepared for a few days, and we are just waiting to leave today."

Afterwards, Liu Kuan rode on horseback with Wang Guangyue and others to the Beijing Railway Station, and found that Su Quan and other relevant officials from the Science and Technology Department had already arrived and were busy.

As for Zhang Jinrao, the head of the Railway Bureau, he slept here for several nights in a row, personally overseeing the progress of various preparatory work and never left.

Liu Kuan exchanged a few pleasantries with Su Quan, Zhang Jinrao and others, then began to inspect and understand the various preparatory work - due to his limited knowledge, there might be some problems that only he could discover.

Fortunately, after a busy period, the situation was the same as yesterday and no problems were found.

Then everyone waited until the end of the Chen hour, when a large group of palace guards and eunuchs came over and informed everyone that the emperor was about to arrive.

Liu Kuan and other important officials immediately came to the train station square to welcome them.

Not long after, Lao Zhu's dragon sedan chair (actually a horse-drawn carriage) arrived as expected.

In addition to Zhu Biao, those traveling with him included Xu Da, Li Shanchang, Tang He and other important civil and military officials of the time.

After everyone cheered "Long live the emperor", he was allowed to rest.

Then a eunuch shouted, "The Emperor orders Vice-President Liu to answer before the Emperor!"

So, Liu Kuan came to Lao Zhu's dragon sedan chair amidst some envious, jealous or curious gazes.

Zhu's dragon sedan was pulled by nine horses and was quite spacious. Therefore, both the windows and the platform in front of the door were not small.

At this time, Old Zhu was standing on the platform, with his hands behind his back, looking at the Beijing Railway Station building from afar.

Liu Kuan came and saluted again, "Your Majesty."

"Stand up." Old Zhu waved his hand and said, "Is this the train station building that the prince mentioned so magnificently? But from what I see, it's a little strange, but not magnificent at all."

Liu Kuan was speechless and thought, could it be that you, Old Zhu, are also a potential lover of wonders?
"Your Majesty, time is of the essence. It's already quite good that this has been completed. In fact, if the Beijing Railway Station wasn't the face of the imperial court, there would be no need to rush to build this two-story building."

Zhu Yuanzhang said, "We were thinking of inviting foreign envoys to visit here and let them be impressed. However, this building is so crude, I'm afraid it will not be able to impress them."

Liu Kuan said, "Your Majesty, the most important thing about a train station is the trains and the railway. I believe that just seeing the trains entering and leaving the station will make the foreign people astonished and worshipful."

"Haha, you're quite right!"

After talking with Liu Kuan for a few words, Zhu Yuanzhang brought a large group of people into the train station building. After looking at the railway behind and the trains parked above, he came back and went to the second floor of the building.

From here, you can better watch the train starting and leaving the station through the large windows that are similar to a terrace.

A minor official came to Liu Kuan and whispered that the scheduled departure time of the first train was approaching.

Liu Kuan then said to Zhu Yuanzhang, "Your Majesty, this first train of the Ming Dynasty has not yet been named. Please give it a name."

Liu Kuan had already mentioned the naming process to Zhu Yuanzhang, and even cited several names of later trains and high-speed trains as examples for his reference.

Xu Da, Li Shanchang, Tang He and others nearby looked over curiously, wanting to hear what name Zhu Yuanzhang would give the train.

Zhu Yuanzhang pretended to ponder for a moment, then said, "In the Classic of Mountains and Seas, there is a beast called Zou Wu, as big as a tiger, with all five colors, and a tail longer than its body. It can travel a thousand miles a day if you ride it."

"Although the first train of our Ming Dynasty cannot yet travel a thousand miles a day, its speed will increase with each generation. In the future, it will surely match or even exceed the speed of the Zouwu. Let's call it 'Zouwu'."

After Lao Zhu told him the name of the train, Li Shanchang was the first to react.

He smiled and said, "Zouwu is not only an auspicious animal, but also a benevolent animal. It will not eat an animal unless it has died of its own accord."

"And this train doesn't need oxen or horses to pull it; it can be driven by burning coal, just like the Zouwu—your Majesty's name is truly beautiful and appropriate!"

Tang He was the second to react, but he was born a warrior and was not as cultured as Li Shanchang, so he laughed and said, "It is indeed a good name. Your Majesty's naming skills are much better than ours, hahahaha."

The others followed suit and praised him.

Liu Kuan also laughed, but thought to himself: Isn't it just the name of a strange beast borrowed from the Classic of Mountains and Seas? How can it be as meaningful as names like "Fuxing", "Ziqiang" and "Harmony"?

But this was the first train of the Ming Dynasty built under his supervision, so it was not bad to name it after a auspicious beast from the mountains and seas.

As everyone was taking pictures of Lao Zhu's horse, the time finally came to nine o'clock in the morning, which was the turn of the year.

The train crew, who had been prepared, started the train.

When the whistle sounded, Zhu Yuanzhang, Xu Da and others looked at the railway through the large windows and saw the Zouwu locomotive spewing thick smoke and moving slowly.

Seeing this situation, naturally many officials secretly murmured: Why is this train moving so slowly?
Didn't they say that once this train is built, it will reach Peking in the next few days? At its current speed, it might take a month to reach Peking, right?
Soon, the officials who had these ideas were dispelled.

Because under the gaze of everyone, the Zouwu was running faster and faster. When it drove out of the train station and disappeared from everyone's sight, its speed was obviously much faster than when it just started.

At this point, even the most clueless person would realize that the train was just starting slowly and would need time to pick up speed. Zhu Yuanzhang also saw the train for the first time, and he didn't look away until it disappeared.

He was particularly happy to think that this was only the first train in the Ming Dynasty, and that more trains would appear in the future. Together with the railways, the transportation in the Ming Dynasty would become more developed and convenient, allowing the emperor's personal army in the capital to descend on various places and even the border areas within a few days to suppress all disobedience and make the Ming Dynasty more stable.

Next to him, Li Shanchang, who saw the train for the first time, was also really shocked.

Then he asked, "Vice-Law Liu, I see this train has twelve carriages, including the first and last two. Does that mean it can carry ten carriages of cargo at a time?"

Liu Kuan nodded, "Exactly."

"How much food can this carriage carry?"

Liu Kuan said, "About four or five hundred dan."

Although Li Shanchang had made some estimates, he was still surprised by the answer. "Doesn't that mean this train can transport four or five thousand dan of grain at a time?"

Liu Kuan said, "Since this is the first train to be launched, for safety reasons, only ten carriages have been added. Once the train's performance stabilizes, we can consider adding more carriages. We estimate that the maximum number can be increased to twenty."

Twenty carriages?
Couldn't that train transport nearly 10,000 dan of grain?!
The people around were surprised when they heard this.

Li Shanchang had heard that if the Pinghu Railway was fully opened, it would only take four days to travel from the capital to Peking, and a round trip would take at most ten days.

He immediately made an estimate in his mind and then said, "If that's the case, with two trains, wouldn't it be possible to transport 700,000 to 800,000 dan of grain to Peking every year?"

Liu Kuan nodded first, then said, "In fact, if we deploy them properly and send four or more trains, it would be possible to transport two million dan of grain to Peking in a year."

After returning to Beijing from an inspection in Xuzhou in June, Liu Kuan calculated the railway operating costs with Lao Zhu and said that the Pinghu Railway could only run 70 to 80 trains a year because it subconsciously chose the safest transportation method, that is, only one train running on one railway line.

But after discussing with officials from the Science and Technology Department and the Railway Bureau, they felt that under the current conditions in the Ming Dynasty, although one railway could not run more than ten or dozens of trains, it would be no problem to run several trains at the same time.

However, it is not appropriate to send too many trains before special railways for return trips are built at the starting and ending train stations.

Because the Pinghu Railway is a double-track line, if one line runs a train every half a day, and there are three trains running, then after the first train arrives at the terminal, it has to wait for the third train to arrive and unload the goods and leave, and then the second train also leaves before the first train can leave.

Treating the three trains as a whole means it would take three more days to complete a round trip.

Considering the limited space at the train station, running three trains on one line should be the optimal solution in the early stage.

The two lines mean six trains, which can be multiplied by three on the original basis, and can indeed transport two million shi of grain to the north every year.

After a few years when the return railway to the terminal is completed, the train can turn around at the terminal and return, and the railway transportation volume will increase significantly!

···
On this day, the cross-river bridge was blocked by the emperor's personal army, but there were still many onlookers gathered a mile away.

I don't know where the news leaked out, but now many people in the capital know that the train that has been "running around" between the capital and Zhenjiang Prefecture for most of the past six months will be rerouted to go over the cross-river bridge today.

Since the second phase of testing began after the Spring Festival, the Zouwu train has been running between the capital and Dantu County, Zhenjiang Prefecture, from time to time. Sometimes it is purely for testing, and sometimes it undertakes transportation tasks.

Although there are railway patrols along the way to prevent people from getting close, many people have actually seen the train running over such a long time.

However, the population of the capital is 700,000 to 800,000, and most people have never seen a train, let alone a train that will pass across the bridge today.

Ru Taisu, with his hair and beard all white, stood in the crowd, escorted by two servants, and also stretched his head to watch.

He was a successful candidate in the imperial examination in the third year of Hongwu. After that, he experienced ups and downs in officialdom for more than ten years. His highest position was as a Langzhong in the Ministry of Justice, and his worst was when he was almost beheaded.

In the tenth year of Hongwu, his father was old and sick, so he returned to serve him.

Later, when his father passed away, he observed mourning for another three years.

Just two months ago, when he had just completed his mourning period, he was summoned to serve as a doctor in the Ministry of Justice.

Ru Taisu had long heard of such wonders as the cross-river bridge, the railway, and the train. Now that he had come across them, he naturally wanted to take a look.

While watching, he could hear the conversations of the people around him——

"I've seen that train before. The locomotive is made of iron, and it's smoking and burning, pulling more than a dozen carriages. Can it really pass over this fairy bridge? Don't let it collapse."

"Look at what you said. It can be crushed and still be called a fairy bridge?"

"This immortal bridge wouldn't collapse in the sky, but now that it's been cast down to the mortal world, it's aging and decaying just like any mortal bridge. How could it not collapse?"

"Since the imperial court dared to let that train pass, it certainly wouldn't crush it!"

Someone else said, "I heard that this train will go to Xuzhou and it will take more than a day to get there. I don't know if it's true or not."

"People from Zhenjiang said that this train is not much slower than a horse when it's running fast. It's probably true that it can reach Xuzhou in more than a day."

"If that's the case, wouldn't it be possible for us to get to Xuzhou in just over a day by taking this train?"

“I’m afraid the court won’t let common people sit on it.”

"Can't we pay for it?"

"I do not know."

"···"

　First update.

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(End of this chapter)