Generally speaking, poor people didn't care too much about whether the seats in public places were clean or not. After all, many of them worked in places that were dirtier than public places. Even the daily necessities in their homes might not be cleaner than those in public places. Comparatively speaking, public seats and beds that looked cleaner were much better than the places where they worked and lived. So, why would they care?
But the rich were different. These guys usually used clean things. If their bedding and beds were a little dirty, they would ask the servants to clean them. They would never use dirty things. Moreover, they were not short of money, so there was no need to deliberately save money. It was fine to buy a set of bedding when traveling and throw it away after using it. The saying that rich people were capricious was absolutely empty.
Why did these rich people do this? Naturally, it was because they felt a little uncomfortable when they saw the things used by others. They felt that the things used by others were not clean enough. If there were any infectious diseases, wouldn't it be very bad?
In short, the sleeper only needed to prepare a set of simple beds. As for the quilts on them, they could prepare brand new ones and sell them directly to the people in the carriage. As it became more and more convenient to transport the Anxi cotton to the entire Tang dynasty, more and more cotton fields were planted. The cost was getting lower and lower, so the price was naturally very affordable. Therefore, it was not a big deal to buy a set of bedding. For the rich, providing disposable bedding for health was not a big deal.
"What kind of wood is this bed made of? Is it also a layer of skin?"
Ang Lee looked at the two beds and asked.
The small official still had a treacherous look on his face as he said with a smile, "That's right. All the high-end items here are made of a thin layer of skin. The big bed inside is made of a thin layer of Phoebe zhennan wood. The outside is made of chicken wing wood from the Jiaozhou area, while the inside is made of ordinary willow wood. Moreover, it's piled up with the side branches of the willow tree. No one can see what's inside. As long as we don't tell anyone, no one can see through it."
It could be seen that the small official was treacherous. This not only increased the quality of the facilities, but also greatly reduced the cost. It could make the most high-end furniture at the lowest price. This was a very good idea. Although it was a little immoral, the quality was okay and it did not affect the normal use. As long as the person who used it did not break the bed violently, no one would be able to see through it. Even if the material inside was discovered, it would be fine. Anyway, no one would say that under the gorgeous skin was genuine high-end wood.
Nowadays, the price of glue was getting lower and lower. This was the basic condition for the large-scale use of thin skin technology in carpentry. Without cheap carpentry glue, it was difficult for carpenters to use this technology.
At the same time, there was also the common use of wood-planing machines. If there was no wood-planing machine, it would be impossible to process and produce very thin and strong high-quality wood sheets. Without these high-quality wood sheets, it would be impossible to process high-end looking wooden furniture.
The wood-planing machines could process expensive wood into thin skins, and then use the shaping and polishing machines to process the thin skins into very strong and flat products.
The role of carpentry glue was to glue all kinds of inferior wood together to make a strong base material. Then, the expensive wood skins would be glued on top of the base material, so as to achieve the purpose of making high-quality furniture.
What unscrupulous businessmen in later generations liked to do the most was to use high-quality wood as the skin and fill the interior with sawdust particles. The cost of the furniture made in this way was very low, but it had the condition of using shoddy products as good ones. People who were not very knowledgeable were very likely to be deceived. Now, the Tang dynasty had also begun to use this method to make furniture. Who knew how many people would be deceived?
The bed in the outer room was placed along the window. The window was very big and the curtains were very beautiful. The inner room was placed perpendicular to the window. The window was not very big, and the curtains were high-end Sichuan brocade with very beautiful embroidery.
"The Sichuan brocade curtains can't be faked?"
Ang Lee looked at the Sichuan brocade curtains and said.
The petty official quickly nodded and agreed, "Assistant Minister Li is right. It really can't be faked. The Sichuan brocade is only a thin layer. Whether it is real or fake, you will know by touching it. It can't be deceived."
In order to insulate and keep warm, the glass of the window was very thick. The thicker the glass, the better the insulating performance. In order to ensure ventilation, the window could be pushed and pulled, but the part that could be pushed and pulled was not large. This was to prevent a certain degree of danger from being pushed and pulled too much. It would be troublesome if people fell outside. There was no alloy material at the moment. The pushing and pulling parts were made of pure copper. Although the copper material was a bit soft, it was obviously more useful than iron which was easy to rust.
Of course, copper was also easy to rust. It was the green kind of rust, but it was definitely much better than iron. Gold would not rust, but gold was too expensive. Ang Lee really did not dare to guarantee that if the gold was made into a sliding window, it would not be patronized by thieves. It was basically certain that thieves would definitely patronize it.
After visiting one side, Ang Lee returned to the entrance and then visited the other side. There was only a ten square meter house on the other side. It was also divided into two parts. Compared to the left side, it only lacked a bathroom. The bedroom and structure were basically the same.
With such a forty square meter private room, there was no pressure for a family of more than a dozen people to live in. In addition to the ten square meter servant's room next to it, there was no problem for a group of thirty to fifty people to travel. No matter how many people there were, there was no need to be afraid. They could just buy the ordinary seats at the back. It was not a big deal.
After visiting the entire carriage, Ang Lee was quite satisfied overall. This was the top configuration. It could satisfy a big family's travel. It could not be higher than this among the people. Of course, the ticket price was very high. It was much more expensive than the ordinary seat ticket.
After all, all the carriages were the same size. The ordinary carriage could have more than a hundred seats, and the environment was not as good as the suite. Therefore, the ticket price had to be at least a hundred times more than the ordinary seat ticket. It even had to be two or three hundred times more to meet his level.
For the rich, this was not a big deal. They could afford to pay a thousand times the ticket price. The most important thing was that they had to be comfortable when they traveled. As long as they could satisfy their comfort, nothing else mattered. For a family to be comfortable together, it was worth it no matter how much money they spent.
Before the appearance of the train, rich people rarely traveled together as a family. After all, it was very inconvenient for women to travel, and they would try their best not to travel. Even if they had to travel together as a family, they would need to prepare a large number of carriages. If they traveled together as a family, they would not be separated on the road, especially the women, who generally would not squeeze with other men they did not know. If they took an ordinary train seat, there would definitely be a situation where men and women would sit together. If they were unwell and needed to be served, it would be very inconvenient for them to be full of outsiders. This was not in line with the habits of rich people when they traveled, so they had a high demand for this kind of suite. If they did not have this kind of suite, they would have to book the entire carriage by themselves, otherwise, they could only travel by carriage. Rich people were so arrogant, they pursued comfort more than poor people, who only needed to reach their destination.
Naturally, the royal family was even more extravagant. The Emperor's special train served the Emperor alone. If the Emperor did not travel for the time being, then this special train would always lie in the shed of the Capital Station. Even if it caused a huge waste of resources, it would not be used by others. Some of the royal family's children and important ministers also had their own special train, but the grade was slightly lower. The usually idle position was also not together with the Emperor's special train to show the special status of the Emperor's special train.
Because different grades of carriages had different colors, so as long as one could see the color, one would know who the carriage was prepared for. For example, the Emperor's special train was painted with the color of nouveau riche gold, which symbolized the nobility of the royal family. It was a color that only the royal family could have.
Apart from the royal family, the most high-end suite carriages were purple carriages. For example, the carriage that Ang Lee was visiting at the moment was purple, which was the same color as the clothes worn by officials of Rank Three and above.
Of course, this purple only represented the highest grade, but it did not mean that only officials of Rank Three and above could take it. Ordinary rich businessmen could also take it as long as they could afford it. However, it was free for officials of Rank Three and above. Rank Four and above could get a 40% discount, and Rank Seven and above could get a 20% discount. Rank Seven and below and rich businessmen had to buy the tickets in full.
After the purple carriage, of course, it was the red carriage. The grade of this carriage was much lower than the purple one, but it was much higher than the pink ones. There were also suites inside, but they were all small suites. The better ones had a private guard, but if the area was too small, then there was no private guard. They could only go to the toilet at the junction of the carriages like ordinary passengers.
Anyway, he had nothing to do, so Ang Lee stepped toward a red carriage. This carriage had just been completed, and the paint on the outer surface was not completely dry. He had to wait for the paint to completely dry before he could take it to the train station.
"How many suites is this?"
Ang Lee pointed at the red carriage and asked.
The official hurriedly replied, "In reply to Assistant Minister Li, there are six rooms. Each room has a bed, a sofa, a small coffee table, and a washroom. Although it's not big, it's compact enough. The ticket price is only one-tenth of the previous suite."
Li An nodded when he heard that. It took up one-sixth of the space in the carriage, and the ticket price was one-tenth of the price in the previous carriage. Hence, the ticket price for the six small suites was one-tenth of the price of the large suites, which was sixty percent. This ticket price was still quite reasonable. After all, the large suites were more luxurious, so it was reasonable for the price to be higher. Those were all made for the rich.
Similarly, officials of Rank Five and above could take these small suites for free. Rank Six and Rank Seven could pay 60% of the price, Rank Eight and Rank Nine could pay 20% of the price, and the rest was the full price.
In short, in the Tang dynasty, officials and members of the royal family had special privileges. They could even take the train without buying a ticket. Moreover, the higher the official position, the more benefits they could enjoy, and the better the suites they could enjoy.
At present, due to the tourism trend, especially the rich, they all wanted to take advantage of the fact that they were not too old to enjoy life. They wanted to go out and see the different sceneries of other places. As a result, there was naturally more demand for high-end carriages. The existing large suite carriages in the few stations in the capital were no longer enough to meet the demand. The small suites were also very tight. Even the original blue carriages that ordinary people rode in had a lot of operating pressure.
The aristocrats and the rich traveled frequently, some for tourism, and some for business inspection. The poor traveled frequently, and many of them went out to look for work. After working for a period of time, they still needed to go home to visit their relatives, so there was also a high demand for railway travel.
Whether it was the poor or the rich, the demand for travel was getting higher and higher. The number of people from all walks of life was increasing year by year, and the speed of increase had exceeded the maximum capacity of the railway system. In this case, the only solution was to build more railways and more trains. At the same time, the construction of hard roads and waterways should be improved, and various methods should be adopted to relieve the traffic pressure in the Tang dynasty.
At present, both the high-end carriages needed by the rich and the ordinary carriages needed by the poor were very scarce. In order to allow more people to use the railway to travel, the most suitable method was naturally to build more carriages of the original colors. However, the aristocrats and the rich did not think so. They did not want to squeeze together with the poor. It was improper to squeeze with the poor to travel. This was something they could not tolerate, and the pressure of travel was already in front of them. In order to solve this problem, they proposed a solution that combined suite carriages and double-decker carriages. To put it simply, they wanted to increase the supply of suite carriages, and at the same time, build a double-decker carriage that could accommodate more than 200 people, doubling the capacity.
This was simply killing the poor. The height of the interior of the carriage was not much, generally less than three meters. After it was divided into two layers, the height of each layer was only a little more than one meter. At this height, people could not stand, and could only sit there very sullenly. It was very difficult to move the body, and the air quality would be very bad.
Of course, some people also proposed a carriage that stood all the way. There was no seat in the carriage, and everyone had to stand. This way, they could also achieve the goal of transporting more than 200 people in one carriage.
For short-distance passenger transport, not having a seat was still bearable. However, for long-distance transport, this was simply fatal. Even if one's body was made of iron, one would not be able to withstand standing for several days and nights. Some people did not treat the poor as humans at all. Those who could continuously stand without sitting or lying down were probably only herbivores.
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