"Don't be nervous, everyone. I am here this time just to bring a junior from the same school to see this dragon carriage. I apologize for any intrusion." Ye Zan said to everyone with a smile.
"Don't dare, don't dare. It's our honor to be able to walk with these two mages. Please come in quickly, two mages." The businessmen looked quite frightened and quickly moved Ye Zan and Li Haoran to the seats inside.
When Ye Zan and Li Haoran sat down, several businessmen stood on both sides, bowing and waiting for Ye Zan's instructions. This small world is somewhat different from the Shenhua Realm because Dao Palace is the actual ruler of the small world, and almost all cultivators are members of the Dao Palace. Therefore, ordinary people in the secular world have a great sense of awe for any ascetic, and do not dare to be disrespectful in the slightest.
Ye Zan shook his head, waved his hand and said to several businessmen: "You don't have to be so formal, just sit down as you like. I just have something to ask you."
"Master, please do as you please, I will just stand and wait for the two masters." Several businessmen said one after another.
"You don't need to wait on me. Just sit down and answer a few questions. Otherwise, I won't dare to disturb you anymore." Ye Zan could only emphasize his tone a little more.
After hearing what Ye Zan said, several businessmen who were afraid of making Ye Zan angry sat down with their buttocks on the edge of the chairs, but they all faced Ye Zan, looking casually waiting for Ye Zan's orders. .
Seeing several people like this, Ye Zan also knew that this situation could not be changed with just a few words, so he could only turn a blind eye and asked one of the businessmen: "You guys think that this dragon cart is used to transport goods now. How is it different from before?”
The businessman in question seemed to have a spring under his butt. He stood up immediately, half-bowed and said: "Returning to the Master, this... dragon carriage is indeed much more convenient than before. I used to wait for it." To transport goods to distant places, it is necessary to hire a large number of horse-drawn carriages, not to mention the high cost. Some goods with a short shelf life, such as fruits from the south, cannot be transported to the north in good condition for sale. Now, it used to take several months to travel, but now it can be reached in a few days, and the fruits are as fresh as freshly picked, not to mention how popular they are with northerners.”
You must know that transport by horse-drawn carriage is not simply lagging behind in terms of speed. The key is that you have to take a detour when encountering mountains and rivers. As for rail transit, it means building roads across mountains and building bridges over water. Basically, as long as you can go in a straight line between stations, you will not choose to take detours. Therefore, the transportation speed is much faster than the traditional horse-drawn carriage team.
"Yes, in the past when we hired a fleet, we had to be manipulated by the fleet. Sometimes when the weather changed, the price would just increase. If there was an accident, we would have to pay a lot of money. The loss of goods is normal. ." Another businessman also said.
The fleets hired by businessmen are often organized by caravans, cart gangs and the like. In the beginning, these organizations were just a way for people at the bottom to get together to keep themselves warm, and to be more equal in negotiating with employers. However, as these organizations grew and developed, they gradually began to change their identities, and some even became mafia gangs.
Things like temporary price increases, compensation for accidents, and some small stolen goods, etc., are nothing. If you really encounter a ruthless person, it is not that uncommon for someone to collude with the bandits, or to seize the goods yourself, or even directly kill people to steal the goods.
Now that it has been switched to rail transportation, naturally there will be no such problems. This is the property of Yuqing Taoist Palace. Who would be so bold as to take over it
"Yes, the Taoist Palace built this railway dragon car, which allows us to transport specialties that are not valuable in the south across tens of thousands of miles to the north for sale, making trade between the north and the south extremely convenient. It is really a great merit!" There is another person! A businessman said with great emotion.
This is another benefit of the transportation upgrade, which is to significantly increase the types of goods circulating between the north and the south. Those things that are called local specialties often actually mean that they are produced in large quantities, but no one will buy them. They are so abundant that they can only rot there or be used to feed livestock. Now, those things that are too numerous to sell can be transported to farther places through rail transportation. If there are no such things at all, there will naturally be a broad market there.
Li Haoran listened to the conversation between Ye Zan and the businessmen, and further increased his understanding of rail transportation. He knew that this thing not only transported a large amount of cargo, but was also quite fast. A journey of several months can be reached in a few days, so transporting military supplies and disaster relief supplies will become faster than before. Especially the transportation of disaster relief materials. Think about it. On the day of the disaster, the emperor can get the news through thousands of miles of sound transmission, and then it takes a few days to deliver the disaster relief materials to the disaster area. This was something that was simply unthinkable before. .
More importantly, it seems to be just a transportation problem, but it can drive the development of many aspects, and the beneficiaries are not only businessmen, but also ordinary people. For example, those special products that would have rotted away can now bring income to the people. As the saying goes, "When the granaries are full, people know etiquette; when they have enough food and clothing, they know honor and disgrace." As long as the people can fill their stomachs, no one will be willing to rebel.
At this time, a female voice sounded in the carriage, saying: "Dear guests, the train is about to leave. Please sit tight in your seats and don't move around for the time being."
"Oh, we are so virtuous and capable. We are so ashamed to be called such." Several businessmen said somewhat uncomfortably. If Ye Zan and Li Haoran were not here, they might still enjoy the title of "respected guest", but now no one dares to show a trace of pride.
Ye Zan laughed secretly in his heart. He didn't expect that a notification sound he found randomly would give these people so many ideas. Obviously, these people are not used to it yet. This so-called "respectful thing" is just a common honorific. In the technology world, such honorifics are used in many places, and using honorifics does not mean that you are really taken seriously.
Following three reminders, the train finally started moving slowly.
When it started to leave the station, the train was not very fast, which made Li Haoran a little surprised and a little disappointed. However, when the train left the station, its speed gradually increased. Looking at the receding scenery outside the window, Li Haoran's mouth opened wider and wider.
"Haoran, what do you think of this speed?" Ye Zan slapped Li Haoran funny.
Only then did Li Haoran come back to his senses and realized his gaffe. He quickly wiped his mouth and turned to Ye Zan and said, "Master, uncle, I just lost my composure. Please forgive me."
Ye Zan frowned and said pretending to be angry: "Okay, don't be so quick to forgive. I asked you to see this, not to say these things."
"Yes, the disciple originally thought that even if this dragon chariot is faster than a horse carriage, it is probably only too fast. But I didn't expect that this dragon chariot can carry so much cargo at such an astonishing speed. It is said that a thousand miles per day is not enough. To describe it. What surprised the disciple even more was that at such a fast speed, the car did not seem bumpy and was so smooth that even the tea could not be spilled." Li Haoran suppressed the excitement in his heart and expressed his surprise. come out.
The businessmen next to them did not dare to make fun of Li Haoran's words, but echoed: "What this mage said is true. What surprised me and others the most is this car. It's so smooth that even the most comfortable carriage I've ever ridden in can't match the safety of this dragon carriage."
Compared to transportation capacity and speed, although this comfort is a trivial matter, it is also the most magical thing in the eyes of everyone. In this small world, including the Shenhua Realm outside, the carriages usually used do not have good shock absorption measures. In addition, the roads are often not very smooth, so riding in a carriage is actually quite painful. Even if you put on a thick mat, you can't avoid the pain of bumps.
"Okay, dragon car is just a casual name. Strictly speaking, this car should be called a rail train. I have a piece of information here. Take it and take a look. If you have any questions, ask me." Ye Zan said , took out a thick piece of information and handed it directly to Li Haoran.
Ye Zan was being lazy again, so he had to directly print the construction of the rail train system, the formation and operation of the transportation company and other matters into such a document, just like he had done with Thousand Miles Telecommunications before. In this way, there is no need for him to waste time explaining more, and he can directly let others read the information first. If there is anything that they really don't understand, he will explain it in detail.
As the "CEO" of Datang Communications, Li Haoran has participated in many things of Datang Communications from its establishment to its operation, so it is not difficult to understand this information. From the construction of the rail train system, he also saw that although the rail train was good, its construction was indeed much more difficult than thousands of miles of sound transmission.
This difficulty is mainly due to the huge amount of work. After all, the track needs to be laid. This track cannot be placed just anywhere, but must be placed on a solid roadbed. The construction requirements for this roadbed are more stringent than the best official roads currently paved, and the amount of work is extremely huge.
In this small world, Ye Zan can directly release a large number of construction machinery to lay all the tracks without any care. However, when he arrived at the Shenhua Realm, he could not be so careless, so the Tang Dynasty still needed to participate in the basic project. Fortunately, through Qianli Sound Transmission's base station, Ye Zan already has a good understanding of the entire Shenhua Domain, including the terrain of the Tang Dynasty. Therefore, the preliminary survey and other work are eliminated, which saves a lot of trouble.
To be honest, for the Tang Dynasty, which had extremely backward productivity, all the basic projects for the rail trains were already equivalent to several times the amount of work required to build the Great Wall or dig the Grand Canal in ancient China in the Earth Age. Therefore, Ye Zan also thought of a way to integrate the rail base and assemble it in sections to reduce the amount of work undertaken by the Tang Dynasty as much as possible.
Ye Zan's method is actually like playing with small train building blocks. The track and road base are produced in one piece, and then assembled piece by piece in the Tang Dynasty. In other words, the Tang Dynasty did not need to build a road foundation. It only needed to compact and level the ground under the road foundation. In fact, it was equivalent to building an official road.
Of course, even so, the amount of work is still huge. Let alone spreading rail transit across the country, even if only a few main lines are built, it will probably take several years.
Li Haoran looked through the information and couldn't help but feel lucky that he had already sat on the rail train and knew the various benefits of rail trains. Otherwise, it would be really difficult to make up his mind to do this just looking at the cost of construction. After all, for a country, such a huge investment, if you really don’t know what the result will be, is simply like a huge gamble, and if you lose the gamble, you will be not far from defeat.
However, now that Li Haoran has seen the results and what kind of benefits this rail train will bring to Datang, then this is not a big gamble, but just an investment that is sure to make a profit.
"I know that no matter how much the amount of this project is reduced, it is still a bit huge for you. However, you don't have to worry too much. The sect will also give you some help with the project." Ye Zan said from the side. .
"How dare you trouble the sect with this matter! Don't worry, uncle, I will definitely convince my father about this matter." Li Haoran quickly said to Ye Zan.
"Well, I think your father is also a wise man who wants to make a difference. Otherwise, he wouldn't have agreed so happily to the Qianli Sound Transmission. There should be no problem with this matter." Ye Zan nodded.
However, what Ye Zan and Li Haoran said about asking the Yuqing Sect to help with the project was not a lie. In fact, this rail transit is not only related to the people's livelihood of the Tang Dynasty, but also related to his gain of merit. The sooner rail transit can be constructed and put into operation, the sooner it can be promoted in the Shenhua domain, and the sooner he can gain merit.
Therefore, Ye Zan plans to bring out people with experience in rail transit construction such as Cheng Liangqi from the small world of Immortal Palace this time to help Datang do this together. You know, for ascetics, many things are much simpler to do than ordinary people. For example, tamping and leveling the ground, Cheng Liangqi and other Yuanying ancestors directly smashed the Panlong Golden Seal down, which is much easier than ordinary people doing it one at a time. Another example is digging tunnels and building bridges. It is difficult and dangerous for mortals to do it, but ascetics can complete it in just a few spells.
In fact, the monastic civilization in this world is really not inferior to the technological civilization. However, ascetics rarely apply what they have learned to the needs of secular mortals, which makes the productivity of secular mortals always lag behind. If in the world of science and technology, scientists are like ascetics, any scientific and technological invention is only for themselves, without any consideration for ordinary people. There is probably no difference between the technological world and this world. (To be continued.)