The distance between Luoyang and Ezhou was relatively far. It was more than a thousand miles, a few hundred miles further than the distance between Chang 'an and Luoyang. However, now that the train had sped up, it would only take half a day to cover the distance.
The scenery on the way to Ezhou was completely different from the scenery between Chang 'an and Luoyang. After all, this route ran from north to south. The further south one went, the warmer the climate was, so the species of plants were naturally different.
Along the way, enjoying the beautiful scenery outside the window and feeling the technological development of the Tang Empire was a wonderful feeling. At least, Ang Lee was in a very good mood.
"Assistant Minister Li, we'll reach Ezhou in three hundred miles. This new train is really fast! It's at least fifty percent faster than the original train. "
Guo Yu sat across from Ang Lee and looked out of the window happily.
As the colonel of the armored artillery brigade, he led the entire brigade and was responsible for protecting Li Longji's safety on his journey to the south. All the armored artillery carriages were on the freight train at the back, but as the commander, Guo Yu sat in the Emperor's private train. Of course, he sat in the carriage at the back. The first five carriages were all for the Emperor alone.
Since he had nothing to do, Guo Yu ran forward a few carriages and walked into Ang Lee's small private room. As an important minister of the imperial court, Ang Lee was naturally allocated a private room, but Guo Yu could only squeeze into a hard sleeper carriage with some minor officials. Of course, their treatment was different because of their different positions.
"Three hundred miles? It'll only take four to six hours. The train will definitely reach Ezhou before dark. Today, we'll be able to see the Ezhou Yangtze River Bridge. "
Ang Lee was also very excited. Although Ang Lee had seen many magnificent bridges in his previous life, it was the first time that a bridge had been built over the Yangtze River in the Tang Empire. When he thought of the shocked expressions of the Emperor and the ministers when they saw the bridge, Ang Lee felt excited. After all, this bridge was designed by him and he had poured a lot of effort into it. It would be a great achievement to be recognized by everyone.
"Assistant Minister Li, the bridge built over the Yangtze River must be very magnificent. I didn't expect that the Tang Empire could build a bridge over the Yangtze River. This is all thanks to Assistant Minister Li!"
Guo Yu was excited and did not forget to praise Ang Lee, which made Ang Lee quite happy.
"The Ezhou Yangtze River Bridge is just the beginning. In the future, we'll build more large bridges over the Yangtze River and the Yellow River to connect the two sides. We'll even go out of the country and build bigger bridges over the big rivers in other countries."
Ang Lee proposed a more ambitious goal. This was also a necessary means to promote the development of the neighboring countries in the future. It was also something that the Tang Empire had to do to better control the neighboring countries. Only by making transportation more convenient could the powerful armed forces of the Tang Empire reach the neighboring countries more quickly and control the situation in the neighboring countries.
"Assistant Minister Li, we've already built a bridge over the Yangtze River. Shouldn't the next step be to build a bridge over the Yellow River? The last time our army went to Hebei, it took us an entire day just to cross the Yellow River. If the bridge is built, all the carriages in our brigade will be able to cross the Yellow River in an hour at most. This will save us an entire day."
Guo Yu was still a little regretful about the last time he went to Hebei to rescue the princess of the Tang Empire. He felt that the natural moat of the Yellow River severely limited the movement of the armored artillery brigade and delayed a lot of their time.
"Of course. In the future, the Tang Empire will build at least a dozen large bridges over the Yellow River. The reason why we'll build the Yangtze River Bridge first is that a large amount of rubber materials needed for the industrialization of the Tang Empire comes from rubber trees, which can only be planted in the warm south. Therefore, we can only transport them to the north quickly by railway. Therefore, building a large railway bridge over the Yangtze River is much more urgent than building a bridge over the Yellow River."
Ang Lee explained.
When sending the steam fleet to America to search for rubber trees, Ang Lee had been thinking about how to quickly transport the rubber products from the south to the capital. Sea transportation and railway were the fastest transportation methods, and the speed of railway was undoubtedly much faster than sea transportation. If they went from Jiaozhou to Laizhou by sea and then to Chang 'an by railway, it would take a lot of time. But if they directly loaded the goods from Jiaozhou to Chang' an by railway, it would definitely be many times faster and more efficient.
After the railway from the capital to Jiaozhou was unblocked, all kinds of materials from the capital could be transported to Jiaozhou more easily, and the transportation of people would also become extremely fast. The status of Jiaozhou in the Tang Empire would also be higher, and the feeling of being demoted to be an official in Jiaozhou would not be so strong.
However, as far as the current situation was concerned, the rubber trees transported from America were too few. In a short time, it was impossible to meet the large demand for rubber products for the industrialization of the Tang Empire. Fortunately, a larger steam fleet had gone to America and brought back more rubber trees according to Ang Lee's request. In this way, they could reproduce and transport the rubber trees from America at the same time, and the number of rubber trees in the Tang Empire would increase. In a few years at most, the Tang Empire would have an inexhaustible supply of rubber trees to ensure the industrialization of the Tang Empire in the future.
After discussing the current affairs with Guo Yu for a while, Ang Lee lay on the soft bed and closed his eyes to rest. After all, they would soon arrive at the Ezhou Yangtze River Bridge. At that time, he would certainly spend a lot of energy accompanying Li Longji and the other ministers and princes to inspect the bridge and give various explanations.
Four hours passed very quickly. Ang Lee had just rested for a while when they arrived at the Ezhou Railway Station. As the train slowly stopped, Ang Lee was also woken up by the guard.
"Assistant Minister Li, we have arrived at Ezhou."
Ang Lee nodded, got up gently, and walked slowly to the front of the train to wait for Li Longji to get off.
The Ezhou Railway Station was built to the north of the Ezhou Yangtze River Bridge. It was only a few li away from the bridge. As long as they got off the train, they would be able to reach the bridge quickly even if they walked. However, the bridge was very long, and it would be too tiring to visit it on foot. This was especially true for the Emperor and many of the ministers. They were all rather old men, and it was not very realistic for them to visit the bridge on foot.
Before they left for Ezhou, the Imperial Court had already considered this point. They had sent a freight train in advance to transport the open carriages to the Ezhou Railway Station to wait for the Emperor and his ministers to arrive.
After the Emperor and his ministers got off the train, they sat in Ang Lee's newly developed and extremely comfortable carriages. Originally, Ang Lee had planned to develop a steam car, but steam machines were too noisy. If they were placed in ordinary carriages without sound insulation, it would be very noisy. Thus, using the most primitive carriages would be very effective.
There were large and small carriages. The largest carriage could hold ten people, and the smallest could hold four. However, no one dared to ride in the Emperor's imperial carriage. There was only one coachman in charge of driving the horses, and the carriages behind were almost all full.
"What a huge bridge! I can't see the end of it. "
"From the looks of it, this bridge is at least ten miles long."
"It's definitely more than ten miles. It's at least fifteen miles, or even more than twenty miles."
"Our Tang dynasty can actually build a bridge over the Yangtze River. So, we should be able to build a bridge over the Yellow River soon!"
"Yes, yes, yes, we must build a few such bridges over the Yellow River."
While touring the bridge, the ministers expressed all kinds of emotions. They all hoped that the Tang dynasty could build a large bridge over the Yellow River to connect the two sides of the Yellow River.
The carriage moved slowly. After a while, it reached the middle of the bridge, which was the highest point of the bridge.
After reaching the highest point, Li Longji gently waved his hand, indicating for the carriage to stop.
After the carriage slowly stopped, Li Longji walked to the carriage with the help of a young eunuch. He stepped toward the guardrail of the bridge and looked at the wide river.
Li An and the other ministers hurriedly got off the carriage and walked over. A large number of guards also followed to protect them from dangers that could appear at any time.
"Dear ministers, who else remembers this place?"
Li Longji asked.
"Your Majesty, this old minister remembers that forty years ago, Your Majesty passed by Ezhou and stood in the middle of the river to compose a poem. At that time, this old minister was by Your Majesty's side."
One of the ministers said.
Li Longji nodded and agreed, "Yes, it's been forty years. I haven't been here for forty years. However, I'm even happier to be here this time, because from now on, there will be no need for a ferry to pass by Ezhou. We can pass by the bridge directly. The feeling of standing on the bridge and looking at the middle of the river is completely different from standing on a ferry. And this is all thanks to Assistant Minister Li."
Ang Lee hurriedly stepped forward and said humbly, "Your Majesty, this is what I should do. In the future, I will design and build bigger and better bridges so that the people on both sides of the river can travel more smoothly."
Li Longji nodded and said, "Assistant Minister Li should study it carefully. There is already a bridge over the Yangtze River. Next, we will build a bridge over the Yellow River near Luoyang City. Assistant Minister Li should make a good plan."
"Your Majesty, rest assured that I have already designed it. It's in Luokou, but most of the technical talents are concentrated here. Therefore, the construction of the Yellow River bridge in Luokou has been delayed. After the technical talents here withdraw to the north, we can build the Yellow River railway bridge."
Ang Lee said.
In order to connect the railway to the northern territory, the Yellow River bridge must be built. It was an unavoidable obstacle. Only by building the Yellow River bridge could the railway of the Tang Dynasty smoothly reach the northeastern territory of the Tang Dynasty. Thus, the Imperial Court's actual control over the northeastern area could be strengthened.
"That's good, that's good. Work on the Yellow River bridge as soon as possible. If you need anything, immediately transfer it from the national treasury."
Li Longji had made up his mind. He wanted to build the Yellow River bridge as soon as possible.
"Your Majesty, there is a Pearl River in our kingdom. Although it is not as wide as the Yangtze River of the Tang Dynasty, it seriously hinders the people on both sides of the Pearl River and greatly increases the transportation cost of merchants. If the Tang Dynasty can build a Pearl River bridge for our kingdom, the King and the people will be very grateful to Your Majesty."
An envoy from a small western country asked.
"Your Majesty, our kingdom also has a river, which is wider than the Pearl River …"
"Your Majesty, the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty, our country …"
Soon, several foreign envoys took the opportunity to ask the Tang Empire to send technical talents to build bridges for their countries.
The reason why there were so many foreign envoys was, of course, because Emperor Li Longji was too good at showing off. He felt that since the Tang Empire had built the magnificent Yangtze River bridge, it should let the foreign envoys see it so that they could better understand the power of the Tang Empire.
When these foreign envoys saw the Yangtze River bridge, they were all deeply shocked by the grandeur of the bridge. They were eager to build such a magnificent bridge in their countries to communicate with the people in their countries.
When Li Longji heard that the foreign envoys asked the Tang Dynasty to send technical talents to their countries to build bridges, he was very happy. However, he would not send technical talents to their countries for no reason.
It was possible to build large bridges for these small countries, but there were a few basic conditions that must be met. First, all the costs of building the bridges must be paid by the countries involved. The Tang Dynasty could not pay to build bridges for them. How could there be a free lunch in the world? Second, these countries must agree to a series of railway requirements put forward by the Tang Empire. In other words, these small countries must allow the Tang Empire to extend the railway line into their countries. Moreover, all the interests along the railway line must be the interests of the Tang Empire.
Only when these small countries agreed to the Tang Dynasty's requirements, could the Tang Dynasty help them build bridges and railways and help them develop their domestic economy.
The envoys of these small countries immediately agreed to Li Longji's proposition. After all, this was the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty. How could they dare to disobey? The powerful Tibetan Empire was destroyed by the Tang Dynasty in a very short time because it provoked the Tang Empire. The strength of these small countries was very weak. The Tang Empire only needed to pinch them gently to destroy them.
Therefore, the envoys of these countries never dared to treat Li Longji's discussion as a real discussion, but as an imperial edict. It was the decree of the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty that could not be violated.
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