It is said that since Beihai Town was founded seven years ago, a large number of machinery and equipment have emerged in an endless stream, not to mention the two large iron ships, the Thor and the Thunder. Although there are still new immigrants in Beihai Town who are curious about the tractors on the fields and stand on the ridges of the fields during spring plowing and autumn harvest, no one will regard these machines as monsters anymore.
For example, Zhu Dagui and other village representatives who were invited to attend the train opening ceremony have long been accustomed to tractors, cars, inland river engines and sailing boats. In Zhu Dagui's view, there are endless magic weapons in the pockets of gentlemen. Whatever they take out is good and will definitely be of great use. So after seeing the steaming locomotive, most people just shook their heads in admiration, and then turned the focus of discussion to how fast this thing could run.
Only Wang Zhong, Hong Liangji and others were shocked and pulled Zhao Liang to ask questions about how the machinery worked.
In the history of another time and space, the first officially operational railway in China was not the one outside Xuanwumen in the capital, but the Wusong Railway built by the British. The line only lasted for one year before it was taken back by the Qing Dynasty and dismantled.
So some people said that the Manchus were corrupt, did not understand science, and often took off their pants and farted. In fact, for this railway that the British secretly built without telling the Qing court, officials headed by Shen Baozhen at the time were worried that the foreign powers would expand their power and infringe on the rights of way through the construction of the railway. Other countries would follow suit, so they had to demolish it no matter what. Lose. Of course, I would not dare to play tricks with the British, so I could only spend money to buy it back and then dismantle it as a disguised warning.
In 1881, the Tang-Xu Railway, which the Qing government presided over the construction and completely controlled by itself, was officially opened to traffic.
As for those so-called Feng Shui theories, behind them is either the common people using Feng Shui to ask for more money because they received less money for land acquisition, or the conflict between conservatives and reformists in the court. Throughout the ages, it has always been like this, no one is stupider than anyone else.
After everyone from Beihai Town arrived, the opening ceremony officially started at 8:30 am. First, Zhao Xin came up and did some talking, which took 10 minutes. Its content is nothing more than working together as one, working hard, and working together for the future of New China.
In another time and space, Zhao Xin occasionally participated in this kind of ceremony. Normally at times like this, he who was sitting below would look attentive while silently greeting the other person's family in his heart. Unexpectedly, things have changed, and now he has become one of the people standing on the stage to speak, but I don't know if anyone is also sending cordial "greetings".
All in all, on April 2nd, the Khabarovsk Railway Station was a gathering of elites, and the major "carrots" of the Beihai Town Railway Construction Committee took the stage to speak one after another. When a foreman named "Yu Jinfa", who was a worker representative, came to the stage to speak, he became nervous when he saw Zhao Xina sitting in the front row. His legs went weak and he almost knelt in front of the microphone.
After more than forty minutes, the speech finally ended, and Zhao Xin and others immediately cut the ribbon on the platform. The dozens of meters long red silk was cut into eleven pieces amidst the noise of gongs and drums, and then was taken away and distributed to the workers working in the station. This thing is very good whether it is used as a bellyband or red pants.
According to the plan, after the ribbon-cutting ceremony, the locomotive will drag two passenger carriages and run back and forth between Khabarovsk and the dispatch station ten kilometers away at a speed of 60 kilometers per hour. The whole journey takes more than an hour.
The first batch of locomotives used in Beihai Town were two forward steam locomotives. These were sealed stocks that Zhao Xin bought from a company in the north in another time and space three years ago. After being overhauled two years ago, it was transported onto a Panamanian freighter, and then mysteriously disappeared from the cargo manifest while passing through a transit port.
Several steam engine enthusiasts wanted to go to the cab and follow them for a ride, but when they told Master Sun, the man in charge, the old man said impatiently: "Drive? I think you are just driving into the river! It's more like that!" Why don't you stay cool!"
"Master Sun, how can you say that? After all, I have also visited the train museum, and I am better than your apprentices."
"Really? Can you kid read the water meter? Do you know how high the water level should be?"
"Isn't it enough to keep the boiler without water shortage?"
After hearing this, Master Sun, who was in his early sixties, glanced at the man in his thirties and ignored him.
At this time, the four-square-meter cab that could only accommodate three people was already fully packed. In addition to the driver, co-driver, and two apprentices wielding shovels, there was no room for luxury. Several enthusiasts had no choice but to return in despair. Went to the first carriage and sat down.
In fact, these people are only interested in steam machinery, and no one has ever driven a steam train. In their minds, they all think that train drivers are very majestic and interesting, but in fact, the hard work of train drivers is unimaginable to ordinary people. As the saying goes, "From a distance, he looks like a fugitive, from up close, he looks like a beggar, and up close, he looks like a maintenance man." Duan." This is a true portrayal of a railway man.
Since 1789. The Beihai Town Railway Construction Committee opened a railway technical branch in Khabarovsk, which is affiliated to the Beihai Town Technical School and specializes in training railway technical workers.
There are many inns in life. For hundreds of thousands of refugees from Daiqing, the emergence of Beihai Town led to a major turning point in their lives, and the emergence of the railway school also meant a new beginning for some of them. Eight years before and after More than a hundred young people have become members of the working class from farmers.
Several teachers at the Railway Technical School are all veteran railway people invited from another time and space, and their average age is over sixty years old. What Zhao Xin negotiated with them was a five-year contract. After teaching the first batch of students and teaching them for another two years, the mission would be over. After that, they would consider whether to retain them based on their personal circumstances.
The Khabarovsk Locomotive Depot consists of four workshops including operation, maintenance, equipment, and fuel, and two turnaround sections. It has four locomotives and currently has 500 ungraduated apprentices. Because there are few vehicles, each vehicle has a crew of 12 people, with the driver, co-driver and stoker taking turns in one shift.
It is not easy to become a train driver in Beihai Town. You must go through four stages: school, apprenticeship, fireman, and co-driver, as well as at least one year of experience and exams before you can be promoted to a driver. Overall, it will take five years at the earliest.
According to the suggestions of several masters, after one year of theoretical study, students from railway technical schools officially enter the two-year apprenticeship period, combining theory and practice. After graduation, they can become formal stokers, and stokers must work for at least one year. Only those who have worked for more than 1 year are eligible to take the co-driver test, and the co-driver can take another year of service before he can take the driver test. Therefore, it takes five years at the fastest to become a locomotive driver, that is, you must burn fire for three years and lubricate machine parts for one year before you are qualified to be a driver.
Such a learning method is actually counterproductive. According to the opinions of those old masters, it takes at least seven years to go from apprentice to driver. Drivers and co-drivers must not only understand practical operations, but also master the principles of locomotive construction, fault analysis and maintenance, technical regulations, operation regulations, and signals. Fortunately, the outer northeast of this time and space is vast and sparsely populated, and the demand for technical talents is urgent, so these apprentices are given room to perform in advance.
Taking into account the level of the apprentices, the current four locomotives are operated by time-travelers, and only a few apprentices who have learned particularly well are qualified to use the big shovel to burn the boiler.
Before a steam train starts, the driver, co-driver and stoker must be ready for departure. The driver's task is to preheat the cylinder, increase the temperature of the cylinder wall, and discharge a large amount of condensation water in the cylinder; the co-driver has to lead several apprentices waiting on the platform, get off the car with a long-mouthed oil can, and spin around. Oil the five friction surfaces of the flat wedge iron behind each wheel. In addition, the intermediate buffer must also be oiled.
At this time, an old man named Wang, who was the co-driver, was refueling and casually said to the apprentices behind him: "Remember them all! As long as the car is parked, the co-driver has to come down and oil these places to reduce wear and tear."
A student raised his hand and said: "Master, what if the position of the iron pulley when it stops happens to block the flat wedge iron?"
The old man nodded with satisfaction, turned around and said with a teachable expression: "Good question! So when the position is just right for oiling, you must give it enough. Not every time you park, the position can be just right for you. .”
After the co-driver completed the inspection, more than 300 people attending the opening ceremony got on the bus. At this time, a signal light is raised in front of the station to notify that the train can depart.
With a "thrust" sound, as the driver, Mr. Sun, skillfully pushed the gate to the operating position, the main air cylinder began to fill the train pipe with air. As the pointer on the wind pressure gauge moved to the position of 600 kilopascals, Old Man Sun pushed the handle again, opened the quarter valve, and then moved the small gate to the relief position; there was another "stab", and the train immediately It started slowly.
"哐~哐~哐~哐~"
"It's moving! It's moving! The train is moving!"
In the second passenger car, Zhu Dagui, who was sitting on a green chair with a backrest, felt his body suddenly rush forward. At the same time, the scenery outside the window also moved backward. The dizziness caused by the discomfort made him feel extremely uncomfortable in his chest.
After the train left the platform, the driver in the cab pushed the forward gear to 55, opened the valve again, and then stepped on the drain valve on the left side of the ground. Then the whole train "click~click~click~" Started running.
With a whistle of "Woo~~", Beihai Town's steam train galloped across the land of the outer northeast for the first time.
Beside the railway east of Khabarovsk station, border residents of all ethnic groups who came to see the strange thing after hearing the news stood behind the fences on both sides of the railway, watching the roaring train passing in front of them with curiosity and astonishment. Fortunately, railway police and soldiers were placed on duty every 50 meters along this section of the railway, and wire guardrails were built. Otherwise, the Hezhe and Oroqen people who came from afar would have wanted to stand on the railway track to see what was going on.
Ten days later, Fukang'an, who was based in Wula City, Jilin, received a report from a secret agent that the Thousand Mile Avenue built by Beihai Town to the north of the Huntong River had been completed. Beihai Town used some evil method to actually make a black steel monster with white smoke pull two carriages with at least hundreds of people sitting on them. The monster moved with astonishing momentum. It only took a little more than a stick of incense to travel more than twenty miles.
"With one stick of incense, hundreds of people walked more than 20 miles...not good!" After thinking for a long time, Fukangan suddenly stood up from his seat, his face turning a little pale.
In ancient times, an hour was divided into eight quarters, that is, four quarters above and four quarters below. Each quarter is approximately 15 minutes in later generations. A stick of incense lasts a quarter of an hour and can travel twenty miles. Doesn’t it mean that one hour can travel a hundred and sixty miles? You can walk a thousand miles in ten hours!
Fukangan was shocked by this incident. In his opinion, with such a "steel monster" in Beihai Town, wouldn't it become true to travel a thousand miles a day? ! If Beihai Town mobilizes troops in the future, thousands of people can attack thousands of miles away in just half a day!
Who can handle it from now on? You must know that it is only more than two thousand miles from Jilin Wula to the capital! When he set out from the capital to suppress bandits in Xi'an, more than sixty bearers took turns along the way. He had still been gone for more than two months.
At present, from top to bottom in the Qing court, the person who knows the strength of Beihai Town best is Marshal Fu. Despite the fact that the Qing Dynasty has not taken any action in the past two years, in fact, the customs have been working hard to strengthen the training of green camps in various places.
With the handover of half a million refugees completed, hundreds of guys with espionage missions openly sneaked into various places in Beihai Town. However, the more news came back, the more afraid the ministers from Qianlong to the following officials became.
Not only can the oxen and the iron horses help with farming, but boatloads of workers from island countries are busy building roads and paving "iron slides" in the mountains and forests day and night. It is even more difficult to understand what the value of those places is. ? It makes no sense at all to spend huge amounts of money just for ginseng and mink skins!
For the Manchu and Qing monarchs, the layers of fog that had covered Beihai Town over the years not only remained unresolved, but made it even more difficult to see through. Not to mention the mystery of Zhao Xin's life experience, the Manchu emperors and ministers of the Qing Dynasty couldn't figure it out just where the financial resources of Beihai Town came from.
After fighting with Zhao Xin for so many years, Qianlong was shocked by the high military pay of the Northern Navy. In terms of ordnance, the Ministry of War of the Qing Dynasty concluded based on statistics from previous battles that Beihai Zhen's expenditure on "guns" and explosive bombs alone was astronomical.
Where did he get so much money? You must know that in the eyes of the Manchu monarchs and ministers like Zhao Xin, who has been conquering all over the world these years, the money in Beihai Town is like a sea of flowers!
According to the analysis of various currencies issued by Beihai Town in recent years by the Baoquan Bureau of the Ministry of Household Affairs, the fineness of Beihai silver coins is consistent and the balance of weight is beyond imagination. Even for copper coins, there is no difference in copper content between the original version and the version issued last year. This shows what? This shows that the amount of silver and copper in Beihai Town is extremely sufficient, the market is stable, and the finances are abundant.
Trade with island countries? People from Guanggan Department and Heshen have checked many times in Nagasaki. The gold and silver earned by Beihai Town from the island country in the past three years is only more than two million taels at most, and only two-thirds of it has been cashed out. The rest have been It's gold and silver notes.
Searching for gold placer mines in Lenji Island? The problem is that people from Guanggan Department and Fukang'an have also checked, and that little gold placer can only make up for the annual income of more than 100,000 taels.
A certain minister speculated that there might be large-scale gold and silver mines outside the customs, and Beihai Town relied on this to support it? However this is even more impossible. It has been 174 years since the Qing Dynasty was established as the capital. During the Nurhaci and Huang Taiji periods, they fought in Jilin and Heilongjiang, and brought the Hezhe, Xibo, Oroqen, and Daur tribes under their control. If there were any large gold and silver mines, Qianlong would have known about it.
Later, when the news came that Zhao Xin led his troops to defeat Tsarist Russia in the Nebaikal region, a group of people led by He Shen speculated whether Zhao Xin would loot and plunder the land of Oros to support military expenditures, otherwise Why did he fight all the way to the Yenisei River?
However, when the news came back from Outer Mongolia, Qianlong, his son and He Shen were disappointed again. Beihai Town did not plunder at all, but instead waived the poll tax.
When will Zhao Xin take action? At present, this matter has become the most concerned issue for the Manchu and Qing court.
On April 5, 1791, Zhao Xin, Liu Sheng, and Fan Tong, who returned to Baibai'er City from Boli Town, held a closed-door meeting for three days. At this military meeting, Zhao Xin presented an "Outline for the Implementation of the Outer Mongolia Campaign" drawn up by him.
He set the launch time of the entire campaign in early July.
