Wentang

Chapter 728 Li Shimin Takes the Train
The railway has never been repaired by Yueshan, nor has anyone else repaired it. Everyone has no experience, so they can only try according to the old thinking and old methods with certain innovations.

The old way of thinking and the old way is to lay a solid foundation, and follow the standards of building the road.

First tamp the road surface, spread a layer of fine sand and continue to tamp, and then lay gravel, on which sleepers are laid to lay steel rails.Although the progress is relatively slow, it is safe enough.

There are a few more interesting things here, one of which is the U-turn problem of the train.

The current steam locomotive does not have the ability to travel in both directions. After reaching the end, it must turn around. This is a big problem.

In Yue Shan's previous life, he only saw a train run but never turned around. What's the matter?

Then Tian Shungu and others came up with the idea of ​​building a large turntable, driving the train on the turntable, rotating it 180 degrees and then driving it down.

With a skeptical attitude, Yue Shan built a big turntable and tried it, and found that it really worked.

Although I don't know how the train in the previous life turned around, but this big turntable did solve this problem.So when the railway was built, a large turntable was also built at the Weishui River Wharf and Chang'an.

There is also a worry that someone will put stones and other obstacles on the rails to overturn the train - there have been similar scenes in some anti-war dramas.

After Yue Shan raised this question, Tian Shungu and others found a solution within a few minutes.

Add a baffle in front of the locomotive, and things that are slightly larger will be pushed away by the baffle, and the extremely small things will be ignored at all, and they will be crushed directly.

If you are still afraid that someone will put tree stumps on it... then you can only ask the train drivers to pay more attention to the road conditions, and at the same time send more patrols.

The third problem is that the windows of the passenger compartment cannot be sealed with wood, right?It definitely won't work with paper paste.Yue Shan found his eldest grandson Wugou and ordered a large number of thickened glass from the glass factory.

The fourth is the gauge - the distance between two rails.

There are many legends about the gauge in the previous life, some say it is the width of the buttocks of two horses, some say it is the width of the ruts of ancient Rome, and so on.

What is the international standard gauge? Yueshan forgot, there is no way, that number is not an integer but has whole numbers and zeros. Whoever is not a professional memorizes it for nothing.

Besides, this standard is just continued from the beginning, it can be wider or narrower.

Therefore, when considering railway tracks and manufacturing trains, Yueshan set the gauge to 1.5 meters according to estimation.In the future, the gauge standard of Datang will follow this standard, and even the whole world will accept this standard.

The specific scene is like this: Yue Shan gestured with a copper ruler in both hands, and said that it was 1.5 meters.

Then this process was completely recorded by Tian Shungu on the side. I don't know how people in the future will feel when they see this record.

The train gauge is actually set like this, it's too... casual and hasty.

Not long after the track was laid, another problem was encountered-this railway is not straight, but there are many small bends in the middle, which requires curved steel rails.

It is not easy to bend such a thick rail, and it has to be bent into a fixed arc, and the arc of the two rails must be the same, which stumps everyone.

It is impossible to measure and make molds and cast them on site. Although it is not impossible, it will delay things too much.

Then Yue Shan brought a bending machine 'invented' by a group of craftsmen, a very simple mechanical device that can adjust the angle to process steel rails with the same arc.

Fortunately, there is a steam engine now, and the power of the machine can be borrowed. Otherwise, even if there is a bending machine, it will not be able to bend such a big guy as the rail.Even with a bending machine, the rails must be burned red before they can be bent.

In short, this non-problem problem blocked their construction period for a few days. After the solution, the whole project went much smoother, and there were basically no problems encountered.

It took almost two months, and the eighty-mile-long two-way track was finally repaired.

Then there is how to get the locomotive and carriages onto the tracks.This really stumped the big guy...I can't use people to carry it over.

Yue Shan also slapped his head straight, making another mistake.It should directly build a train track from Sixingping to the outside of Chang'an City, at least connected with the Changwei Line (Chang'an-Weishui River), so that the train can be driven over.

And in the next few years, the steam engine factory located in Sixingping will be the only train manufacturing factory in Datang. The construction of a railway can be used for testing trains and also facilitates transportation.

But now it was too late to temporarily repair the railway, so we could only build a super-large carriage to transport the train and carriages to the railway station outside Chang'an City one by one.

It took them four or five days to transport the train across the distance of twenty or thirty miles.

There are four trains, the smallest five-meter locomotive is specially used to pull people, and the carriages are relatively small, only eight sections.

The three large locomotives are used for both passenger and cargo transportation. For example, the largest 20-meter locomotive has five sections for pulling people and 25 sections for cargo, with a total of [-] carriages.

As for whether the 20-meter front is suitable for pulling [-] carriages, no one knows, and it can only be adjusted through slow testing.

Then comes the pre-opening preparations.

When the railway was being built, the court didn't respond, but it didn't mean that no one paid attention. In fact, the eyes of the entire court and the public were staring at this place.

Now that the railway has been repaired, and the train will be opened soon, how could Li Shimin be absent at such a historic moment, he must come to make a debut in person.

Clean up the train station first, and clean the train again. At the same time, it is also full of goods-these goods were temporarily dispatched by the Royal Commercial Bank.

After all, the empty car used to be too ugly.

When everything was ready and Li Shimin was invited to cut the ribbon, something went wrong again.

"What? You said you were going to take the train to Weishui Wharf yourself?" Yue Shan asked in surprise.

"Yes, is there a problem?" Li Shimin asked.

"Problem? It's a big problem. You are a sage of Tang Dynasty, it's too dangerous to travel without any preparation." Yue Shan said.

"You're saying that traveling without preparation is too dangerous, not that the train is dangerous?" Li Shimin said.

"Is there a difference? It doesn't make any sense to catch words at this time." Yue Shan said a little annoyed.

"Why is it pointless? If it is said that the train is dangerous, I don't have to take it. If it is about guarding, you don't have to worry about it at all. I can send cavalry to Weishui Wharf to guard first. You can say yes or no." Li Shimin road.

Yue Shan asked unexpectedly: "Are you serious?"

"Yes." Li Shimin said seriously: "Many people in the government and the public are opposed to the construction of the railway, which is not conducive to its promotion. It is necessary for me to take a ride in person to express my attitude."

"At the same time, I can also invite some sages from the ruling and opposition parties to go with me. After they have personally taken the train and experienced the convenience of the train, they will not object."

Yue Shan didn't expect him to come up with such an idea, he felt a little ashamed, he thought Li Shimin wanted to do this out of the blue because he thought it was fun.

"Saint, don't worry, I can assure you that the train will never be in any danger. You can rest assured that you will take someone on the ride, and I will personally accompany you." Yue Shan said solemnly.

This is also the first time he used the honorific 'you' when talking to Li Shimin.

Li Shimin could hear it naturally, and said happily: "Okay, I believe you."

After the matter was agreed upon, Li Shimin ordered Zhang Shigui to send an imperial army to Weishui Wharf to do security work, and he ordered to invite dozens of celebrities from the ruling and opposition parties to take the train together.

For safety reasons, Li Shimin did not directly say to take the train, but only said to participate in the ribbon-cutting or something.The railway is too easy to be tampered with, and the news cannot be known in advance.

And the artifact train built by the fairy son Xia Guogong Yueshan was about to be put into use, and the news spread throughout the city of Chang'an overnight.

Everyone was talking about it, and the next day, as soon as the city gate opened, they all ran to the train station to watch.

As Li Shimin's personal guard commander, Zhang Shigui has very rich security experience and has already made various preparations.There are guards everywhere standing guard in case of accidents.

Not long after, Li Shimin also brought his grandson Wuji, Fang Xuanling, Li Jing, Li Ji, Li Xiaogong and other civil and military ministers, as well as some sages from the people, a group of dozens of people came here.

The common people were naturally very excited to see the emperor, and they didn't know who started it, and began to shout long live.Of course, long live is not the emperor's exclusive title at this time, but a relatively rare honorific title.

Li Shimin first took people to visit the train station, and then came to the four trains.Not just observing the train, but also checking the goods loaded on the carriages at the back, making sure that all carriages are full to be satisfied.

Most people sniffed when they saw things that usually took thousands of horse-drawn carriages to pull in several days, just piled up in the carriages of four trains.

They don't believe that this so-called train can really pull so many things, and they probably will make a fool of themselves in a while.

However, what they didn't expect was that Li Shimin suddenly proposed to let everyone take the train with him to experience it.

This frightened some of them, and they dared not say no. After all, the emperor has gone, how dare you say no?
Li Shimin can only be discouraged from getting on the train with reasons such as the train is too dangerous, and a gentleman does not stand under a dangerous wall.Many people even scolded Yue Shan for bewitching his father to risk something.

As long as the emperor doesn't get in the car, they don't have to go.

But Li Shimin had made up his mind a long time ago, how could he be persuaded by them, and just said that if you are afraid, you can do whatever you want.

After speaking, he turned around and boarded the prepared carriage under the leadership of Yue Shan. Fang Xuanling, Li Jing and others also turned and followed.

Now they really had no choice but to follow up tremblingly.

This car is a 20-meter locomotive...that is, the second car of train No. 0001.

The first car is too close to the locomotive and the noise is relatively loud. Besides, the emperor's guard work must be done well. The first car and the third car are all guards.

The interior of the carriage has been temporarily covered with carpets, tea and snacks are ready.

However, this kind of carriage is an ordinary one-hundred-seat carriage, and the design is very simple, no matter how it is arranged, it will be the same.

However, it was Li Shimin's first time riding this kind of vehicle, and everything in it was very new to him. He kept walking around, curious about everything he saw, and asked endlessly.

Yue Shan patiently gave answers one by one.

After they turned around in this carriage, those 'car-afraid' people walked in tremblingly.

After everyone was seated, Changsun Wuji, Li Ji and several other important officials pleaded guilty and left - Li Shimin also had to be on guard against accidents, he couldn't let everyone go with him.

These few are trustworthy people, even if there is an emergency on his trip, they can help the queen to stabilize the court and welcome the prince Li Chengqian to return to the country to succeed him.

Everything was ready, and following Li Shimin's order, the steam engine that had been preheated earlier began to increase its firepower.

"Dididi..." A huge siren sounded, and everyone who was unsuspecting was startled.

Yue Shan hurriedly said: "This is the sound of the train whistle, reminding people around to be vigilant. The sound is now to remind everyone that the train is about to leave, please get ready."

"Well, there will be a big shake when the train just started. Don't be afraid, it's a normal phenomenon."

Everyone was relieved.

As soon as Yue Shan finished speaking, the train shook with a 'bang'.The people who were prepared were not frightened, and even had a thought: It's as scary as you say, that's it?

But as soon as this idea came up, I felt that the train seemed to be moving forward.

And the common people who were watching the excitement outside exclaimed one after another: "It's moving, it's moving, this strange car is moving."

"Besides, besides..." the train roared and started to move slowly, but the speed was relatively slow.

Walking in the forefront is the small passenger train driven by the five-meter locomotive, that is, No. 0004, on which is a battalion of guards.

The No. 0001 that Li Shimin was riding on was the second train. In addition to being full of cargo, the other carriages were also full of guards.The remaining two 0002 and 0003 followed respectively.

After driving out of the station, the speed began to gradually increase.

Looking through the window at the 'fast' receding scene, there were bursts of inhalation sounds in the carriage.

Unexpectedly, this big iron lump really started to run. You must know that there are tens of hundreds of tons of cargo behind it, and there are hundreds of large living people.

And the speed is still so fast.

Li Shimin was also excited and applauded in a low voice. With the train, Datang can really break through the geographical restrictions.

Others also started to discuss, and even the most frightened group of people forgot their fear and started discussing.

Everyone is not stupid, and it is clear what kind of changes this means of transportation will bring.

Listening to their emotions, Yue Shan just smiled and did not speak.

He reckoned that this speed was only about [-] kilometers per hour, which was too slow for the cars in his previous life, and any car could surpass it with a slight tap of the accelerator.

But in this era, it is already very amazing. You must know that the speed of ordinary war horses is not much faster than this.

"Is it only possible to run so fast?" Li Shimin asked with a slightly trembling voice.

"If the power reaches the limit, it can be doubled, but that would be too dangerous, and the boiler will explode. Now the speed is about 45 kilometers per hour, and it can reach about [-] kilometers faster by one-third." Yue Shan thought for a while Said.

"Speed ​​means how far you can run in one hour."

Li Shimin was even more excited.Although he couldn't fully understand Yue Shan's meaning, he understood that running 45 kilometers per hour is [-] miles, and even [-] kilometers is fine.

"Why don't you run faster?" He asked dissatisfied.

"This is the first trip on this road. You and all the ministers are sitting on it. Safety is the most important thing." Yue Shan explained.

Li Shimin nodded to express his understanding, and did not mention the matter of acceleration.

(End of this chapter)