The soldiers of the Sixteenth Guards of Chang'an have begun a new round of training, along with the first batch of students from the Joint Command Academy. The recruitment of the second batch of students has been temporarily suspended. The second batch of students will probably not be recruited until the 24th year of the Tang Dynasty.
After Li Ke arranged them, he didn't pay attention to this matter.
Because there is a brand new thing waiting for Li Ke to verify.
At the end of June of the 23rd year of Zhenguan of the Tang Dynasty, the last nail was officially hammered into a large building located west of the Weishui River in Chang'an City. This nail was driven in by Li Ke.
Well, the sense of ritual is still very important.
As Li Ke knocked the last nail, everyone at the scene began to burst into warm applause, and many workers couldn't help but cheer directly, because this road took two years to finally be completed!
On the roadbed more than one meter above the ground, sleepers soaked in coal tar were laid on the gravel, and four slender rails stretched directly into the distance.
This is the first fully built railway in the Tang Dynasty! This is also the most primitive railway. The technology used is estimated to be the technology of Li Ke's previous life in the 1920s and 1930s. It has just been optimized and the construction process has been optimized.
Its service life may not be very long. If it is used frequently, problems may occur in its rails after more than ten years, and the rails, sleepers, etc. will need to be replaced by then.
But it's not important. After more than ten years, Datang has enough new technology to replace the new railway sleepers.
And now, the building they are in is Chang'an West Railway Station, the first railway station in Datang. There is a one-way railway connecting it about three kilometers away from this railway station, and there is the first railway station in Datang. Steam locomotive factory.
At this moment, Datang's first train has been prepared in the maintenance station of the railway station.
Its entire steam engine technology is already very advanced. Although it is still a coal-burning steam engine, many of its technologies are actually very advanced. After all, Li Ke has a complete technology tree here.
Steam trains in history have gone through a long period of development to reach this point. After all, the improvement of some small parts inside may take several years, or even more than ten years.
Such as preheaters, smoke deflectors, obstacle removers, etc. With these relatively advanced designs, coupled with the optimized manufacturing plan, and the elimination of some more difficult designs, this unique neat train was born. The front of the car.
It can reach a speed of 40 kilometers per hour when fully loaded. This speed is not even as fast as the running speed of a war horse, but its endurance is much faster than that of a war horse.
And when the car is empty, its top speed is not high, about 60 kilometers per hour. It's not that it can't run faster, but its wheels, bogies and other structures cannot support it. out faster.
In fact, the safe speed it sets is 50 kilometers per hour.
The maximum running time for a single filling of water is about nine to ten hours. It is designed with a dedicated water tank and a carriage for pulling coal.
Its highest-carrying carriages are seven standard carriages, and each carriage can carry 200 people.
Of course, it is impossible for all the carriages to be used to pull people. It can only have five carriages at most. That means the maximum number of passengers is about 1,000.
If you want to pull people, this train cannot be fully loaded. Not counting the weight of the carriage, it can only be considered fully loaded when it is fully loaded with about 400 tons of cargo.
In fact, the potential of this steam engine is still huge. With the advancement of production and assembly processes and materials, the maximum traction mass of this steam engine alone is estimated to be about 2,000 tons.
If you want to improve further, you need to continue to upgrade technology.
But this technology is enough for the current Datang.
"Have you tested it?" Li Ke looked at the craftsmen in front of him and asked. This time, almost all the craftsmen in the industrial zone rushed over. Although many of them have nothing to do with steam engines, this can bring together almost all the craftsmen in Datang. A masterpiece of technology.
"It has been tested by Your Highness. We have tested it several times from the production factory to here. Its operation is very stable. Moreover, we have changed the power output of the steam engine itself, and it has been tested in some factories and iron ore plants for a long time. However, there is nothing wrong with it!" Lu Daqiang said excitedly.
"It's just that we haven't tested it yet from Chang'an Station to Chencang Station. The total length of this railway is about 176 kilometers. According to the average speed of this train of 50 kilometers per hour, we can arrive in about three hours! In half a day we can You can even walk back and forth!”
Li Ke nodded with satisfaction, then looked directly at Xu Song behind him and said: "Go, announce the good news, report to my father as quickly as possible, including all officials from the three provinces, who can be in Chang'an City, all will arrive here tomorrow, we are going to Putting a new mode of transportation to the test!”
"Yes!" Xu Song was also a little excited. He didn't even know how the giant steel dragon in front of him was made. Moreover, it ran so fast and could pull so many people.
Two hundred people in one carriage? In Xu Song's view, five or six hundred people could easily fit into such a carriage. Even if there were five carriages, this meant that nearly three thousand troops could be transported at the same time!
Three thousand people, one hundred miles per hour, more than two thousand miles per day! What is this concept? Is it more than several times faster than before?
This speed is too fast, and there is too much cargo to be pulled.
Xu Song's movements were very fast. Several young eunuchs got on their horses and rushed towards Chang'an City as fast as possible.
His Highness said it was the fastest speed, so they directly used the privileges His Majesty gave them.
Although it was not a 800-mile rush, it was a direct rush to Chang'an City in an 800-mile rush.
The horses equipped with horseshoes were running wildly on the road, and the knights on the horses kept shouting "The King of Qin is urgent". Hearing the roar of the knights on the horses, the pedestrians on the road gave way to the main road. , in fact, the official roads built by the Tang Dynasty are still walking on the upper and lower roads under the promotion of Li Ke.
However, people have never been allowed to walk freely in the central part of the road because it was prepared for the cavalry who delivered the news.
When the cavalry rushed into Taiji Palace, Li Shimin was a little stunned. Li Ke didn't leave Chang'an City, so what's the emergency? Didn't he say that the road construction between Chang'an and Chencang will be completed? He went to the scene to observe. Is this... the result?
"Announcement." Li Shimin announced the person in immediately.
The eunuch who came in was one chosen by Chang Lin himself. Li Shimin had seen all these eunuchs, so he recognized them.
"I would like to inform your majesty that the new road between Chang'an and Chencang has been completely constructed. His highness recommends that your majesty take all the courtiers in Chang'an to a location west of the Weishui River tomorrow to test the new transportation method."
"His Royal Highness also said that all princesses and princes can go to watch the ceremony."
