Clang, clang, clang, clang, clang … The noise was accompanied by the vibration under his body, making him feel like he was going to fall apart at any time.
In an open space surrounded by fences outside Lan City, there was a circle of rails with a diameter of 400 meters. A train pulling two wooden carriages was running along the rails, making clanging sounds continuously.
Ren Baqian, the empress, and the rest were in the second carriage behind the train. The wind blew against their faces as the smoke from the locomotive drifted …
"It's much faster than an ox cart," Zhuo Yan, the minister of justice, said as he felt the wind.
"It's also much steadier," everyone said.
With the roads in this world, coupled with the wooden tires and shock absorbers, even riding in the city required extremely strong buttocks, let alone outside the city.
After leaving Lan City, it would be a disaster if the ox cart sped up a little. It could even make one vomit out their internal organs.
"It's just that the smell is too unpleasant," Yu Shang, the minister of agriculture, said as she covered her nose.
"After all, there are advantages and disadvantages." Ren Baqian smiled and then introduced it to everyone. "This kind of train can travel 70 kilometers in an hour and 140 kilometers in two hours. It can travel up to 1,680 kilometers in a day and only takes two days to travel from Lan City to the Protectorate of the Northeast or the Protectorate of the North. This is only the current speed. It can continue to increase in the future and even double!"
"So fast? Doesn't this thing need to rest? "someone immediately asked in surprise.
"This isn't a living thing, so it doesn't need to rest like livestock. As long as there's enough coal, it can maintain this speed," Ren Baqian explained to everyone.
"Also, this kind of train can carry a lot of cargo. It's made of metal, and the load of one carriage is equivalent to about 60 ox carts. It can pull dozens of carriages, which is equivalent to the load of more than 4,000 ox carts. It doesn't require that many people and doesn't consume that much rations.
Not only can this kind of train carry a lot of cargo, but it can also be used to transport troops. It only takes two days to send tens of thousands of troops to the Protectorate of the Northeast and the Protectorate of the North, which also saves a lot of time and rations. This is especially true when there's a war.
Whether it's speed or load, it's completely incomparable to an animal cart.
More importantly, with this thing, it will be much easier to rule the Yun Nation. No matter what happens there, they can respond and deploy troops in a timely manner. All kinds of resources from the Yun Nation can also be transported back in large quantities. "
"Hiss —!"
Everyone sucked in a cold breath.
The crowd might not be very clear about the concepts of load and speed, but when it came to the load of more than four thousand ox carts and the time of two days, everyone immediately had a relatively clear idea.
One had to know that a carriage of fork-horned cows weighed no more than 500 kilograms, and their speed was even slower. They could only travel a little more than 100 kilometers a day.
In other words, a train running for one day was equivalent to four thousand ox carts traveling for ten days.
The amount of manpower, material resources, and rations needed for this was an astronomical figure.
Even the aboriginals understood the value of time.
With such a contrast, everyone present was shaken and beaming with joy. It was as if they could drive a train straight to the Yun Nation the next day.
"Principal Ren's words are very moving, and I'm also very moved. However, all of you should know that just these so-called rails below have consumed more than 200,000 kilograms of steel, which is enough to arm 10,000 soldiers.
It was thousands of miles from the Yun Nation. How much iron was needed? More than 50 million kilograms! Even if Mount Damo was emptied, there might not be so much iron, and the time needed would be in the hundreds of years. "Tu Wan poured a bucket of cold water on everyone from head to toe.
Everyone didn't need to count with their fingers. Just hearing that more than 100,000 kilograms of iron was enough to scare them. What was even more frightening was the amount of iron needed to spread from here to the Yun Nation. This number had completely exceeded everyone's understanding of numbers.
They always felt that this number was inexplicably far away, so far that it seemed impossible to achieve.
Everyone was dumbfounded as they looked at Tu Wan and Ren Baqian, not knowing what to say.
"Doesn't that mean that it can't be built at all?" someone sighed.
"No, no, no. My plan is to connect Lan City to the Yun Nation in 10 years, not to the Protectorate of the Northeast." Ren Baqian waved his hand. "Everyone, please listen to me."
"In fact, it's not as difficult as you think. Although iron ore is scarce in Dayao, there is no shortage in the Yun Nation. As far as I know, there are seven known iron ore mountains in the Yun Nation, and I'm afraid there are more that have yet to be discovered.
This railway is calculated to be 4,000 kilometers long, and according to the standard of 100 kilograms of iron per meter of rail, it will require 400 million kilograms of iron.
Even the smallest iron ore mine will contain at least 100,000 kilograms of iron ore. Based on 50% of the iron ore content, there will be 250 million kilograms of iron and steel, which is enough to build such a railway.
A slightly larger iron ore mine can build 10 such railways, and a medium-sized iron ore mine can build 100 such railways.
Therefore, you don't need to worry about the amount of iron and steel consumed. The Yun Nation has enough iron and steel reserves.
As for mining, that's even less of a problem. As long as a prisoner of war can mine five kilograms of iron a day, it will be more than 1,500 kilograms a year. The iron ore mines in the Yun Nation aren't like those on Mount Damo. Do you think that each of them can't even mine five kilograms of iron a day? 100,000 prisoners of war will be able to mine enough iron in two years. "Ren Baqian put aside everything else and used numbers to calculate for everyone.
As for mining iron ore, it wasn't a problem in his eyes.
The physical fitness of the people in this world was much stronger than that of the people on Earth. If they encountered any problems, there were so many Earth Wheel experts who could solve them. If it didn't work out, they could still transport explosives over. Compared to the mining methods on Earth, there were many more ways to mine, and the difficulty was much lower.
"Furthermore, we can directly build a steel plant in the Protectorate of the Northeast. After smelting in the Protectorate of the Northeast, we can directly build a railway from there to the nation. Even if we fail in the end, the railway can be used for other purposes. It will only consume a little manpower and rations, and we will still be able to obtain a lot of iron and steel.
If we succeed, this will be a great achievement for generations to come, and the Yun Nation will be firmly in the hands of the empire. "
After Ren Baqian finished speaking, everyone began to ponder deeply.
Qin Chuan scratched his head and said, "Although I don't understand how much is needed, what Sir Ren said makes sense." "Sir Ren is definitely more knowledgeable than I am, so I think it will work."
If this railway could really be realized, the Ministry of War would also benefit from it. The thought of being able to mobilize troops at will made Qin Chuan excited.
"I think that what Sir Ren said is right. If this matter succeeds, the entire Yun Nation will be in the hands of Her Majesty. It will be worth it even if we have to pay a little," Shi Qing said slowly.
"I second that." Kou Zhehai nodded.
"I am aware of Sir Ren's knowledge and ability." Tong Zhenye chuckled and then changed the topic. "However, is there really that much iron in the Yun Nation?"
"Definitely and definitely. Iron is one of the most common substances in nature. As long as iron ore is formed, the amount won't be too little. Furthermore, I have been following the most conservative estimates. Based on the level of prospecting in the Yun Nation, most of the iron ores that can be discovered are exposed open-pit mines. The reserves and ore quality may be higher than what I have said.
In particular, three of the iron ores are very close to each other, and it is very likely that a large iron ore is buried underground.
The location of these three iron ores is currently where the vanguard of Protector-General Zi Donglai's troops is.
As long as we continue to push forward, these three iron ores will fall into our hands, "Ren Baqian said.
Even Tu Hong didn't say anything else after hearing this.
After all, if such a railway could achieve the effect that Ren Baqian had mentioned, it would be too valuable and worth the risk.
Moreover, they didn't need to pay much.
Whether it was the mines or the captives, they were all from the Yun Nation. The most important problem of food could be solved by the pumpkins, sweet potatoes, and other high-yielding crops that Ren Baqian had brought.
What they had to do was to conquer the Yun Nation, which was originally part of the plan.
Everyone had been drooling over the riches of the Yun Nation for a long time.
Even if they didn't have this goal, they wouldn't let go of this piece of fat meat, not to mention that it was already on the chopping board.
At present, Dayao had successively sent 60,000 reinforcements to the Protectorate of the Northeast. In addition to the original army of the Protectorate of the Northeast, there were a total of 75,000 soldiers, which was close to the original strength of Dayao. All of them had been sent to the Yun Nation.
The Yun Nation had now lost a quarter of its land, and the country was in a state of panic.
Everyone jumped off the train and watched from the side. After 12 hours without slowing down, just as Ren Baqian had said, they were satisfied and returned to the city to arrange the following matters.
The plundering of the iron ores and the laying of the railway had become one of the most important things in everyone's mind.
The Black Bamboo Academy also had to continue to improve the design of the train to ensure that there wouldn't be any problems. If the speed could be doubled as Ren Baqian had said, everyone would wake up laughing even in their dreams.
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