open sea

Chapter 1260
Wanli didn't extort money from the Shu Fan anymore, and when the weather warmed up, the young man selling briquettes in Beizhili collected his bill, and it was time to pay tribute to the emperor.

But warm weather isn’t just a good thing for making money.

As the weather warmed up, the railway to the south of Tianjin was about to start construction, and the soldiers and horses stationed in Guihua City outside the northern mouth also started to move. Not only did the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Finance have to pay for the preparation of a large amount of supplies, but the emperor was also used to rewarding the soldiers who went out separately.

It's all about spending money.

The long chariot caravan from Datong left the customs, branched into four routes, and carried a large amount of military supplies to Guihua City on the desolate ancient roads of grasslands and valleys.

Caravans from all over the world gathered together. As early as last autumn, Emperor Wanli issued an edict to recruit caravans that dared to transport supplies outside the mouth. Although there were no rewards, the number of applicants was still high. The registration officials who were in charge of the mouth city did not have a holiday. Merchants from all over the world gathered in Datong after receiving the goods from Beiyang, and led their teams to set off just waiting for the ice and snow outside the mouth to melt.

The imperial court did not give rewards, but gave these merchants the right to trade outside the Great Wall to those merchants who were recruited to escort military supplies. Except for military supplies such as hardware and gunpowder, they were allowed to sell one cart of goods when they escorted two carts of luggage to the outside of the Great Wall.

The tax is paid in full when leaving the customs, and [-]% of the tax is paid according to the market price in Senai. After that, the court does not care which tribe the merchant sells the goods to; Never before.

The Ming Dynasty's trade blockade to the north has lasted for 200 years. It is obvious that this is an opportunity for businessmen to make a fortune, not to mention that there is no need to worry about safety.

Not to mention that the commander-in-chief of the relatives outside the Great Wall is leading the army to Guihua City. The imperial court itself has strong soldiers from Beiyang stationed in Guihua City, and there are also guards as escorts to go out with them. People say that this is a rare event in a thousand years. good opportunity.

The imperial court had no choice but to use the Great Ming Kingdom as a springboard for the empire to the north and even the northwest. Now Guihua City has gathered officers and soldiers from all walks of life. If the army is escorted, the battle will lose money.

Now the railway from Tianjin to Changping is connected, and the section from Yanqingwei to Xuanfu and Datong is also connected. Only the more than 80-mile road from Changping to Yanqingwei is not connected - Badaling and Wuding River. That section of road is the most difficult to repair. , difficult to repair is only secondary.

It’s hard to be afraid, the construction time of Wanquandusi’s end of the railway built in China is faster than that of Beiyang. It relies on the fact that there are many military households and it is easy to manage. The field inspection along the way was completed the year before. The Qinglong Army column was pulled straight to Changping, and then the Changping General Soldier took care of the carts along the way and transported them to Yanqingwei. The hundred households in the guardhouse worked on their own. .

Even if it is slow, the construction workers can only be nearby, otherwise they cannot afford it.

Since Qi Jiguang went out of the fortress, the north has continued to use troops, and the customs are unable to mobilize local corvees on a large scale under the condition of high ration consumption. They can only pay wages and cannot manage food.

However, the terrain of that section of the road is difficult and dangerous, there are few military households, and there are few people along the way, and that section of the road has not been repaired until now. The result is the section from Tianjin to Changping. Daming has an extreme transportation capacity beyond imagination in the past, only 26 hours, The latest model of the Qinglong Army Column can travel [-] miles to deliver a huge amount of goods to Changping, but it is blocked as soon as it passes Changping.

The eighty-mile journey will take four days to be pulled by a horse-drawn cart.

After passing that section of the road, the speed suddenly picked up again, and we arrived in Datong in 27 hours.

But if you want to send the goods from here to Guihua City, the shortest road is [-] miles away, and there is no railway, so the time limit for the convoy team is limited to [-] days for light luggage and [-] days for heavy luggage.

This means that the rations for half a month and one month will be consumed as road consumption, and they will have to accept more road consumption in the future. According to this calculation, no matter where this battle goes, it must be a loss-making business—where on the grassland? Have you found an enemy whose reward exceeds the road consumption?
Fang Fengshi didn't want to lose money, so he went to consult Wang Chonggu, the Minister of the Ministry of War who had returned from his old age, and finally prompted the court to make such a decision.

The luggage was handed over to the merchants in Datong to transport it out of the customs. Several soldiers were inserted into the caravan to guard it along the way. The chariots and horses carrying the luggage were prepared by the court. All the carriages except the artillery carts were uniform in shape. The Jin Kingdom of the Ming Dynasty trafficked goods; merchants had to bear the food for the flag troops accompanying the team, and had to transport the luggage to Guihua City within the specified time. After arriving in Guihua City, they could choose where to sell goods by themselves.

Some banner troops will continue to follow them, taking on the duties of protection, surveying and mapping, guiding, and supervising.

Around Beijing, the Ming Dynasty has sufficient experience in mass-manufacturing large trucks. From Yongle’s relocation of the capital to Jiajing’s rebuilding of the three main halls, the demand for carrying a large number of goods led the court to manufacture a large number of large trucks, two-wheeled, four-wheeled, six-wheeled, and eight-wheeled. They even Also built a sixteen-wheel cart, of course, the latter is too low in practicality.

After these large carts are used up by the court, in order to save costs, they will be sold at a discounted cost to the surrounding people. The best sellers are naturally two-wheeled and four-wheeled carts. Later, when they are used again, they will be bought by the common people. Sell...it's not possible to buy it before doing it again.

Daming’s four-wheeled vehicle is not very convenient to turn, but it’s not as inconvenient as it is commonly known. It’s true that a four-wheeled vehicle does not have a steering device to steer, but a four-wheeled carriage is different from a four-wheeled vehicle. It is more like a six-wheeled truck. The front of the car is nothing more than livestock, and the left and right wheels are not stuck with the axle. When turning, the two wheels rotate at different speeds, and the cart naturally turns when the livestock turns.

But this purchase can no longer solve the problem. Because of the track problem, they need to use a car that can run on the track, so they can only build a large car with a uniform specification by Beiyang, all of which are concave four-wheeled cars with iron sheets on the outer edge. There are cast iron plates nailed to the body, and there are four lines of characters on it.

The first company undertook the manufacture of four-wheeled vehicles for Beiyang Ordnance Bureau.

This time, a single horse on a dirt road carries a load of [-] catties.

The three acts carried four thousand catties on a single horse on the stone road.

At the end of the day, the railway carried a load of [-] catties.

This time, Beiyang still did not use steering tools for the bottom of the car, but added bearings, because both the reed and the steering shaft will reduce the load or be easily damaged. It is common sense that the more complicated something is broken, the harder it is to repair. It is damaged under the condition of not going to the village and not going to the store. If the shaft is broken, you can replace it with a spare shaft, but if the load-bearing steering tool is broken, it means that the car is scrapped.

What's more, Beiyang didn't intend to bring the enjoyment of the second child to military materials. The popularity of large quantities of anything, decoration and comfort are not important, the most important thing is practicality.

For example, Emperor Wanli’s favorite Daqinglong, the application of the railway made Zhou Sijing very busy. Hundreds of the largest Huodexingjun were produced and put into use as the locomotives of the Qinglong army train. The steam bureau had no time to make them. For decoration, put on an iron case and use it.

Even the iron shell of the hood was outsourced to Beiyang Shipyard by Zhou Sijing.

low cost.

　Good morning!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)