Bringing the Railway to Daming

Chapter 216: It’s so refreshing, with cakes, dried fruits and drinks!
The clerk shouted "Train No. 3 is about to depart" three times in a row, and then shouted, "Passengers taking Train No. 3, please line up in front of the gate with the character "Y" and prepare to board the train!"

This sentence was still shouted three times.

Huang Xinyi pointed to the second gate from the left on the north side, which had a striking white "Y" painted on it, and said, "Young Master, the queue for the bus should be over there. Should we hurry over there?"

"go!"

Fu Rang waved his hand and went ahead with three followers, while Huang Xinyi and his men followed behind.

After dozens of people lined up in front of the "Y" gate, an official opened the gate and instructed, "Please board the train in an orderly manner under the guidance of the staff. Do not panic, and do not create chaos. Violators will be arrested and brought to justice by the security team. Remember this!"

Following the clerk's repeated instructions, Fu Rang, Huang Xinyi and the others walked out of the Yi Gate, and saw that the railway was less than a hundred steps away. Along the way, there was a guard post every three steps and a sentry every five steps, with royal guards wearing red armbands with the word "security" on them. The defense was even tighter than that in the square.

Seeing this scene, no matter whether it was a powerful young man like Fu Rang, a wealthy businessman's son like Huang Xinyi, or a son of the gentry, they dared not act recklessly.

Like soldiers, they lined up obediently under the guidance of officials and walked towards the train parked on the railway.

Huang Xinyi looked carefully and found that this train, which was more than ten carriages long, seemed to have only three passenger carriages, and the rest were freight carriages.

It is unknown where the terms passenger compartment and freight compartment originated from, but people thought they were appropriate to describe the two types of train carriages, and they quickly spread.

Only one of the three passenger carriages had its door open, so Huang Xinyi and other passengers boarded the train one by one under the guidance of the clerk.

There was also someone guiding the car.

"Passengers please take your seats according to the information on your tickets. You are not allowed to exchange seats without permission."

"If anyone doesn't recognize the words on the ticket, you can ask me."

Huang Xinyi knew how to read and had even memorized the text on the train ticket, so he and his three followers easily found their seats.

Huang Xinyi then stood up from his seat and carefully looked at the interior layout and decoration of the carriage.

The carriage seats were divided into two large columns, each with twenty-two rows, but the seats were arranged in two rows facing each other. One column had three seats in a row, while the other had only two.

The seats are all made of wood. They are not particularly exquisite, but they are polished and painted, as if they are fixed in the train car and cannot be moved.

There is a rack more than a foot wide above the seat. According to the guiding "clerk", it is used to place luggage.

However, what attracts everyone's attention most in the carriage is not the seats, but the windows.

Huang Xinyi's servant couldn't help but touch the transparent glass on the window, and then said excitedly: "Second Master, it really is transparent glass - this is too extravagant, using glass as window paper!"

The replacement of glass windows on the Daming trains was a recent event. Although Huang Xinyi and others had noticed it from outside a long time ago, they did not dare to believe it.

Although glass has been on the market for more than a year, it is still a luxury for ordinary people, especially larger pieces of flat glass.

Even a wealthy family like the Huang family had never thought of using glass instead of window paper - not because they lacked the financial strength, but because they felt it was unnecessary.

Although the glass windows in the carriage are not small, they are made of several palm-sized pieces of transparent glass sandwiched in a wooden frame. They are divided into two parts and can be pushed outwards.

Huang Xinyi looked out through the glass window and found that it was indeed much better than window paper - if it were replaced with window paper, the carriage would be much darker at this time.

"Maybe I could suggest to my mother that we replace the window paper in the living room, study, and flower hall with glass!"

This thought popped up in Huang Xinyi's mind.

"If mother disagrees, I will try to persuade my eldest brother first."

Huang Xinyi's father has been dead for several years, and since there is a tradition in the family where women are in charge of the household, it is actually his mother who is in charge now.

Just when Huang Xinyi was thinking about how to persuade his mother to install glass windows at home, he heard Fu Rang calling him.

"Brother Huang, come sit next to me!"

Huang Xinyi was still thinking about how to make friends with Fu Rang, but he didn't expect Fu Rang to take the initiative to chat with him. Isn't this like giving someone a pillow when they are sleepy?

He immediately went over and exchanged seats with one of Fu Rang's followers, sitting opposite Fu Rang.

Fu Rang smiled and said, "It's quite tiring to take a train. If you can't read, you probably won't know how to take it."

Huang Xinyi thought to himself: Even if I can't read, there are still those officials to guide me.

But he said, "Young Master is right. If an illiterate person comes here, it will indeed be very inconvenient."

Fu Rang was sixteen or seventeen years old, a year or two younger than Huang Xinyi. He was still a teenager with quite unconventional thoughts, so he changed the topic while chatting.

"Brother Huang, the train ticket you bought also ends in Xuzhou, right?"

"It's Xuzhou."

"Then we can be good companions on this journey. I see you come from a good family. What's your family's business?"

At present, Zhu Yuanzhang's restrictions on merchants' clothing are not as strict as they were before. In fact, in the past two years, some restrictions have been relaxed to encourage trade.

Even so, the idea that merchants had a lower social status had not changed. At least in the early Ming Dynasty, the social status of merchants was lower than that of military households.

So, when Fu Rang asked about his background, Huang Xinyi became even more humble and said, "My dear young master, I come from a merchant family in South City. My family makes textiles."

Fu Rang's eyes lit up when he heard this, and he said, "Nancheng Huang, could your ancestor be the Huang Dao Po in the folk song?"

Huang Xinyi's face finally lit up with a hint of confidence as he replied, "The folk song is about my great-grandmother."

Fu Rang cupped his hands and said, "So, Brother Huang is also a descendant of a famous merchant family. I'm so sorry for the disrespect."

Although Fu Rang did not show any admiration when he said this, it still made Huang Xinyi proud.

It's no coincidence that Fu Rang knew about Huang Dao Po and spoke these words. After Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty, he vigorously promoted cotton cultivation, and also the cotton spinning process. As the legendary woman who spread cotton spinning to the south of the Yangtze River, Huang Dao Po was naturally promoted by the Ming court, and even allowed the people to build temples in her honor.

Huang Dao Po in this time and space not only had a rough life, but also a very rough emotional experience, and she never married.

Later, she went to Jiankang (the old name of Nanjing during the Yuan Dynasty) to open a weaving workshop and took in many homeless women and children. Later, she chose a boy as her adopted son to pass on the Huang family's bloodline.

The Huang Xinyi family came from this.

Fu Rang and Huang Xinyi chatted for about a quarter of an hour. Then the train started moving and they both lost interest in talking and looked out the window.

I saw the scenery outside the window receding faster and faster. It didn't feel like long before the train had actually reached the cross-river bridge!

"I've always wanted to experience what it's like to ride a train across the Fairy Bridge, and today I finally got my wish. It's so cool!"

This was the first time Huang Xinyi had heard someone use the word "shuang" in this way. Although he roughly understood what it meant, he still asked, "Young Master, what does this "shuang" mean?"

Fu Rang laughed and said, "It means 'joyful'—it's a new word that came out of the main hall!"

Although Huang Xinyi was the son of a merchant, he knew that the Great Hall was where the princes studied and learned. When he learned that the word "Shuang" came from there, he immediately felt that the word was used very carefully.

So he looked out the window like Fu Rang, his face intoxicated and he said happily, "It's really great!"

Dozens of people in the carriage were looking at the scenery outside the window like Fu and Huang. Before they knew it, the train had passed Xianqiao and was rushing towards Chuzhou.

Fu Rang and Huang Xinyi came to their senses and started chatting aimlessly.

Fu Rang talked about some interesting military stories he had heard from his father and brothers and some that he had experienced, while Huang Xinyi talked about business matters and interesting stories from the neighborhood, and they actually got along quite well for a while.

After an unknown amount of time, Fu Rang felt a little hungry and said, "It's almost noon now, right? How are we going to have lunch?"

Huang Xinyi said, "We should be arriving at Chuzhou Station soon. Perhaps we'll be allowed to get off the train and eat in Chuzhou City. Or maybe there are restaurants or wine shops in Chuzhou Station."

Fu Rang said, "I think the train officials are keeping a close eye on us. I'm afraid they won't allow us to get off the train in Chuzhou and run around."

Huang Xinyi had little social experience and couldn't guess what the situation would be.

At this time, a "clerk" from the front carriage pushed a small cart made of fine iron into the carriage and started selling things as he walked.

"Cakes, drinks, dried fruits, and boxed lunches!"

"Please move aside, I'll take your legs."

"···"

Seeing this clean-looking young "clerk" pushing a cart over, almost everyone in the carriage was surprised.

Because it was their first time taking a train, and trains had always been quite mysterious and high-end in their minds, they were surprised and uncomfortable to see people on the train hawking their wares like street vendors.

Fu Rang and Huang Xinyi were considered the younger of the dozens of passengers, and had a strong ability to accept things, so they were the first to come to their senses.

Seeing the cart pushed aside, Fu Rang hurriedly shouted, "Wait!"

The clerk asked with a smile, "Does this passenger want to buy some food or drinks?"

Fu Rang stood up and glanced at the cart. He found that it had several layers and a lot of things on it. He asked, "What kind of food and drinks do you have?"

The "clerk" reported skillfully: "It mainly consists of various cakes such as date cakes, wheat cakes, chestnut cakes, honey cakes, five-spice cakes, Chongyang cakes, etc., as well as various drinks such as tea, ginger honey water, kumquat balls, deer grain juice, snow bubble spleen-reducing drink, Wuling Dashun powder, osmanthus drink, and perilla drink."

"There are also melon seeds, cherry preserves, cherry yogurt..."

"Okay, okay, don't report it." Fu Rang hurriedly stopped him and said, "Give me one serving each of deer syrup, osmanthus drink, and perilla drink, as well as one serving each of chestnut cake and five-spice cake. And that boxed lunch, is it hot?"

"Of course it's hot. Look, it's still steaming. There are two types of dishes: meat and vegetables. The meat ones are more expensive, while the vegetables are a little cheaper."

"Then give each of us a meat lunch!"

"okay!"

The "clerk" began to skillfully take things out of the cart.

Fu Rang couldn't help but ask curiously, "You're also an official at the Railway Bureau, right? How did you end up running this small-time street vendor?"

The "clerk" laughed and said, "You're joking. I'm just a food and beverage waiter on the train. At best, I'm a supernumerary clerk in the Railway Bureau, two or three levels below the official clerk."

"I see." Fu Rang nodded.

The others also looked enlightened after hearing this.

You know, although a petty clerk has a low status in the official system, it is impossible for him to be a hawker. If this person is not an official clerk of the Railway Bureau, then everything makes sense.

After a while, the waiter brought out the lunch boxes, cakes, and drinks needed by Fu Rang, Huang Xinyi and eight others, almost emptying one-third of the space in the cart.

Huang Xinyi was smart enough to ask for the price and pay the bill in advance.

"how much is the total?"

The waiter quoted the price of the cakes, drinks, and boxed lunches that the group had ordered. Finally, he calculated, "A total of nine strings of cash and forty-eight coins."

The servant, who often went to the market to buy things, couldn't help but exclaim after hearing this: "Isn't this too expensive? These are just ordinary food items, yet they're two or three times more expensive than outside?"

The waiter was about to explain, but Huang Xinyi, feeling embarrassed by the waiter, scolded him, "Are you stupid? How can the prices on this train be the same as outside? You're a legitimate child of the Huang family, but how come you don't have any business sense at all?"

　First update.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)