Daming Military Empire

Chapter 165 Jingdong Railway
After sending off the Expeditionary Corps, Zhu Cijiong could only wait for their news. In this era when communication basically relies on shouting, and sending messages across oceans, it is not bad to have one back and forth in a month or two. Baili is in a hurry, and he can only wait abroad. He doesn't like this feeling very much, but the phone and telegram only exist in his memory. Now there is no electricity at all, and he can only do nothing.

Life must continue without electricity, and the rise of Ming Dynasty cannot be stopped. After the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, he immediately launched the Jingdong Railway Project. What is Jingdong Railway? It is the railway between Beijing and Dongdaying. The total length of this railway About 250 miles, two-way and two-way, he plans to repair it in three months.

It takes three months to complete 250 miles, that is to say, at least three miles a day, is it possible?There is no doubt about this, there is no problem at all, because Zhu Cijiong plans to recruit many, many migrant workers, and the specific number of recruits will only be known through experiments.

This experiment is actually to build a large-scale dispatching station in the west of the capital. This dispatching station is mainly used for parking trains and making U-turns for trains. He intends to build the station in the north of the city, but the tracks have to extend to the west of the city, because the Wanggong factory is in the west of the capital. , it happens that a huge arc is also needed for the train to turn around, so the dispatching station with a huge arc is located in the west of the capital.

This railway was a novelty in Ming Dynasty and even in the whole world at that time. Zhu Cijiong also knew that first laying stones, then laying sleepers, and then laying tracks on it. Centripetal force is generated so that it will not fly out of orbit directly.Of course, these are just general understandings. He has no specific data on how thick the stones should be paved, how thick the sleepers should be, and how much the corners should be tilted. All these must be obtained through experiments.

That is to say, we need to use this dispatching station to do experiments first. The experiment time is set at about one month, and the time for formal railway repairs is actually only two months. He is a bit too much to build a 250-mile two-lane railway in two months. Take it for granted?This is not taken for granted at all, because he is going to invest a huge amount of manpower, [-] if [-] is not enough, [-] if [-] is not enough, and [-] if [-] is not enough. No skills are needed, ordinary migrant workers can do it. The reason why he did this is because he thought of a way to develop the economy.

In fact, most people in later generations have heard of this method, which is to take the lead in launching large-scale infrastructure construction, expand domestic demand, and lay a solid foundation for economic growth.This is a bit theoretical. If it is intuitive, it is that stones need money to buy, wood needs money to buy, and labor needs money. The money will eventually fall into the hands of civilians along the route. When money has consumption power, people will buy things and drive the development of other industries. This is the expansion of domestic demand in the process of railway construction.After the railway is completed, the transportation of goods along the line will be more convenient, and businessmen will come and go more easily. Commercial activities will become more frequent, and the economy will gradually grow.

In fact, Zhu Cijiong has been thinking about how to make the economy of Ming Dynasty grow rapidly. To make the economy grow, the market must be invigorated. To invigorate the market, there must be a consumer group. Where does this consumer group come from? The largest consumer group is ordinary people. money!Therefore, we must first let ordinary people have money before we can talk about economic growth. How can we make them rich?Let them make some money by building infrastructure first; then raise the price of food and let them make some more money; then you can promote special breeding, build labor-intensive factories, etc., and the market will become active when the people have money. When the market is active, the economy will naturally grow slowly.

This railway construction is just the first step to make the people rich, so he is going to recruit as many workers as he can. Anyway, he has money now, so he will invest a little first to make the people rich. Slowly, the economy of Ming Dynasty will be invigorated. , so that he can earn more money.

These are all things to say later, let’s talk about building the railway first. The first step is the experiment. Of course, Song Yingxing is in charge of this experiment. First, he led people to dig a hole in the west wall of the inner city. Alright, just move the city wall on the west side of Wang Gong Factory, first pave the small track of the track flat car, and it will be much more convenient to transport things out. Zhu Cijiong naturally agrees.

After the hole is opened, the track will be laid. Now he doesn't have so much iron ore, so the track can only be laid with a small circular track a few miles long, just like the circular track of a general stadium.

This track is not meant to be paved immediately, because the standard shape of the track has not yet been determined. Zhu Cijiong just roughly drew him an I-shaped track section. How high and thick is the vertical, how wide and thick is the horizontal line above, how short is the inner side, these are all things to try.

It is impossible to make the track into a solid square column. In that case, the track per meter would weigh more than 100 kilograms. Not to mention the waste of materials, it is not easy to fix. It is unquestionable to make it I-shaped. It will be exactly the same as the rails of later generations, because the material is different, it is impossible to make high-quality rail steel in the Ming Dynasty, and the rails are not pulled out or pressed out, and they can only be cast in the Ming Dynasty. This strength is much lower than that of pulling or pressing, so the track made at this time must be thicker than the track of later generations. As for the specific thickness, it needs to be tested.

There are also how thick the stones should be paved, how thick the sleepers should be, and how much the corners should be tilted. The several mile-long railway was dug and paved, and the latest steam locomotive was used to grind it back and forth. The rails were cracked, the stones were crushed, and the sleepers were broken. I don’t know how many times they almost missed The car overturned, and I don't know how many times it went off the track, almost tossing Song Yingxing to death.

You must know that if a locomotive weighing more than 100 tons is derailed, it will take a lot of effort to repair and pry it back. There were no large cranes at that time. Song Yingxing specially made ten huge hoists and ten huge iron hoists for this purpose. The frame, every time you lift the iron frame and hoist can make people vomit blood, let alone slowly lift the locomotive and pry it back to the track.

I won't say much about the hard work involved. In short, Song Yingxing spent a lot of effort and finally tested all the parameters of the railway. At this time, the first batch of iron ore from Shivira was also delivered. , The railway can finally start.

In fact, Shivira started collecting iron ore as soon as he repelled Aurangzeb's first attack. He had already collected 200 million catties of iron ore by the time of the Chinese New Year. As soon as we set off, the iron ore has already been sent out, so it's not surprising that we can arrive now.

With iron ore, it is easy to handle. The small blast furnace is fired hard, the track is cast, the milling machine makes two cuts, and the drill machine is drilling two rows of holes, and then it can be paved outside.In order to facilitate the transportation of the tracks, Song Yingxing deliberately replaced all the tracks of the track flat cars in Wang Gong Factory with standard rails, and adjusted the spacing to be as wide as the rails. The track flat cars were all redone, and dozens more were built. There is no need to lift the track. Wherever the railway is laid, the track flatbed car will be pushed there. Just lift the track from the flatbed car.

Two parallel tracks, one is to send the track to the past, and the other is to pull the empty car back. When the rails on one track flat car are used up, the empty car is directly lifted to the other track, and then the full load is pushed up. That's fine. As for the empty cart, you can easily pull it back for a long distance by riding a horse alone.

The progress of this railway laying is astonishing. Anyway, Zhu Cijiong didn’t care about money, so he recruited [-] migrant workers in one go. Some of them were led by officials from the Ministry of Industry to build bridges, some were dedicated to transporting stones, some were dedicated to preparing sleepers, and some were dedicated to leveling. Some of the subgrades are dedicated to laying stones, and some are dedicated to laying sleepers. Song Yingxing and his students only need to take people to check, and then lay rails on it. The speed is amazing, and five or six miles can be laid in one day!

After the railway was laid, it would be impossible without a train, so Song Yingxing gradually handed over the laying of the railway track to a few students, and he took most of the students to build locomotives and freight cars.

According to Zhu Cijiong's intention, the trial operation will be carried out for a few months first. During the trial operation period, one train will be sent to each side every day. In this case, two locomotives will be needed.As for the freight carriages, a locomotive can pull at least thirty or forty knots, but that would be a bit dangerous. Braking and slowing down require a long distance. Try hanging ten freight cars behind one front first.

In fact, ten freight cars are quite a lot. You must know that a freight car can carry at least 100 tons, which is [-] catties. One trip can pull [-] million catties. Now that commercial activities have not yet flourished, Guangla Military supplies, this shipment is enough.

More people means more strength. The speed of railway laying was completely beyond Zhu Cijiong's imagination. By the end of March, the Jingdong Railway was completely connected!

Just at this time, Shivira's second batch of iron ore was also delivered, and at the same time, news came that the expeditionary force finally arrived in Goa, but Aurangzeb's army had not yet arrived, that is to say, the Mysore The city of Mysore should be regarded as saved, unless the Mughal Empire sent an army of 40 to [-] to suppress it, but this possibility is basically non-existent. Mysore is only the capital of the Mysore Kingdom, not the Mughal Empire. The capital city, the Mughal Empire did not need to be so crazy, nor could it be so crazy.

The supply of iron ore in Mysore is guaranteed, and Zhu Cijiong can finally concentrate on domestic development. The first thing to do is to test the Jingdong Railway.

It happens that the weapons, ammunition, food and supplies of the four legions in Eastern Liaodong are transported to the port of Dongdaying on the capital side; there also happen to be more than 200 million catties of iron ore to be transported to the capital on the other side of Dongdaying. Zhu Cijiong directly issued an order , from March 26th to March 28th, the Jingdong Railway will be officially put into trial operation for three days. As for why this date was chosen, modern people know that six and eight are auspicious numbers.

On the morning of March 26, Zhu Cijiong visited the dispatching station in the west of the city in person to preside over the departure ceremony of the first train. On this day, the capital was empty again, and the entire west of the city was festooned with colorful flags. Hundreds of thousands of Beijing residents almost surrounded the entire dispatching station. After a while, Zhu Cijiong had to dispatch almost all the Jinyiwei in Beijing to maintain order.

The first train was fully loaded with weapons and ammunition and slowly ran around at the dispatching station. All the residents were amazed. Such a huge iron guy can move by itself, which is really unheard of and unseen!
Zhu Cijiong was naturally not surprised at all. He observed carefully for a while with a telescope. The train was running smoothly, the brake system and the steering system were working normally, and there was basically no problem. Waving his hands, he said loudly, "Start."

"Woo!" The train made a long beep, and slowly drove out of the dispatching station, heading for the distance, and slowly disappeared from people's sight. Zhu Cijiong stood there accepting the cheers of the common people, and his heart could not be calm for a long time.

Even if trains can be built, no one can stop the rise of Ming Dynasty!
(End of this chapter)