On the sixth day of July in the twenty-seventh year of Kaiyuan, the yellow calendar says that today is the auspicious day of the zodiac, everything is appropriate, it is located in a place called Changze about five miles west of Chang'an City, the colorful flags are fluttering, the gongs and drums shake the sky, Changze is a remote small village outside Chang'an City, the young and strong are not going down to the field to work in Chang'an City on weekdays, most of them are old and young to take care of their homes, slightly deserted, but today Changze Village is overcrowded, all kinds of luxurious carriages are parked on both sides of the road, people on the road are next to people, as if rushing to the temple fair.

Due to the large number of people, not only the officials of Chang'an County and Wannian County were dispatched, but even the soldiers of Jingzhao Mansion were dispatched to maintain order.

The reason is very simple, today is the day when Changluo Road is officially opened to traffic, to be precise, it is the day when the Changluo Railway is officially opened to trains, Zheng Peng has officially ordered the road to be the Changluo Railway, and at the insistence of Cui Yuan, please ask the Taishi Ling of the Taishi Bureau to pick an auspicious day of the zodiac as the official opening day.

The Taishi Bureau, also known as the Qin Tianjian, has the function of observing the celestial phenomena, calculating the solar terms, and formulating the calendar. From the Qin and Han dynasties to the Southern Dynasties, Taichang belonged to the Taishi Lingzhang Tianshi ephemeris. The secretary of Sui Province belonged to Taishi Cao, and Emperor Yang changed Cao to prison. At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, the Taishi Supervisor was changed to the Taishi Bureau, and the heirs were renamed the Secretary Pavilion, the Hun Tian Supervision Yuan, and the Hillary Yi Supervisor several times, or they belonged to the Secretary Province. In the fourteenth year of Kaiyuan (726), it was restored to the Taishi Bureau.

It was supposed to be officially operational in mid-May, but for this auspicious day of the zodiac, it was delayed for more than a month before it was officially opened to traffic.

Zheng Peng didn't have any research on Zhou Yi, and he didn't know where the "Ji" was on this day, but he really admired the Taishi Ling of the Taishi Bureau, at least this day was sunny and sunny, and it was a sunny day, and it was officially running in such weather, saving a lot of trouble.

There were many people who came to watch the passage of the train, and many relatives and friends also came to cheer, but Zheng Peng didn't have time to receive it, so he had to prepare for the official departure:

"As for the groom, let him get the horse right, but if he doesn't set off, let the people take a closer look first."

"Check if the coal particles are enough, and check the steamer again."

"How long has it been since the Guardrail Team departed? Be sure to make sure that each section of track is in good working order before you travel. ”

"All personnel are in place, and there can be no travel pools."

Zheng Peng, as the largest shareholder and commander-in-chief of the Changluo Railway, was very busy, mainly preparing for the first official attack.

Huaxia is very attentive and likes to get off to a good start, and so many people are staring, even Li Longji, the son of the Tang Dynasty, will come in person for a while, and the first official army can not travel to the pool, and it must be smooth and smooth, so Zheng Peng handed over the reception to Cui Yuan, and put his mind on preparation.

Anyway, Cui Yuan also likes to do this kind of work that shows up and is beautiful, I saw him holding his great-grandson Zheng Siyuan, who began to learn to speak, as if showing off, greeting people everywhere, looking at his eyebrows and smiling, like an old man who has come to open Sun Le, if he hadn't witnessed Cui Yuan's changes over the years, Zheng Peng couldn't believe it.

Thinking that back then in Guixiang, Cui Yuan had a fierce light on his face with frost on his face, especially the attitude of not being angry and arrogant, and treating life like an ant, compared with now, it is simply a world of difference.

Before the official operation, the railway has run many times, including night operation, there is a good tacit understanding between the personnel, and many drills to prevent accidents.

"The Emperor has arrived"

As soon as Zheng Peng finished his work, he heard the voice of a eunuch shouting Li Longji's presence, and when he looked up, he saw a team of forbidden army escorting a large group of people and horses slowly approaching this side, and walking in front was Li Longji, who was full of red light and high spirits, and it was Li Heng, who was the new crown prince last year, who followed him.

A man who has brought Datang to an unprecedented prosperous era, reaching the peak of both prestige and territory, and one will be the lucky one to inherit this hegemony, both father and son are high-spirited and energetic.

Zheng Peng, Cui Yuan and others hurriedly went to greet them, and after some etiquette, they accompanied Li Longji and Prince Li to see the train that was about to start.

Li Longji walked to the front of the train, suddenly stopped, and looked at the position of the front of the train with some puzzlement.

"Father, is there anything wrong?" Li Heng followed behind Li Longji, and Li Longji in front of him suddenly stopped, startling him and almost bumping into him.

Li Longji pointed to the position on the front side of the train and asked, "Zheng Aiqing, if I am correct, in the last test, there were eighteen horses used for pulling, why only twelve this time?" ”

Zheng Peng paused for a moment, he didn't expect Li Longji, who was the son of heaven, to observe so carefully, and even knew how many horses were pulling the cart, and when he came back to his senses, he quickly smiled proudly: "If you go back to the emperor, it turns out that you do need eighteen horses to pull it, and after improving the steamer, the power has increased greatly, so the horses have been reduced as appropriate, after all, horses are not cheap, and there are also unstable factors." ”

"Instability?" Li Longji said: "Aiqing is saying that the horse suddenly lost control or had an accident and fell. ”

"The Emperor's Wisdom"

Horses are livestock, and some emergencies may make it frightened out of control, or fall while running, especially if more than ten horses run together, they will collide if they are not careful, and reducing the number of horses will reduce the occurrence of such incidents.

Li Longji thought for a while, and quickly asked: "Using a horse-drawn train, there is indeed a risk, if this situation occurs, I don't know what Aiqing can do?" ”

Speaking of which, Li Longji has experienced the hardships of the people, and has also led his troops to seek great causes, and knows that Zheng Peng is telling the truth, in the army, it is very common for horses to lose control or stumble during the train movement, this is a matter to pay attention to, after all, this new means of transportation can carry more than 100 people.

Zheng Peng said with a serious face: "If you go back to the emperor, you may encounter various things on the way, we have made various plans, please rest assured." ”

"Oh, tell me how to make a plan?" Li Longji suddenly became interested.

"There are road chiefs, patrols every day, and there are stables at each station, and passengers are replaced when they get off at the station; There is a Lang Zhong stationed on the train, and the passengers who faint or something halfway through the illness are also taken care of; The horses have the groom to take care of, in addition to the long whip, the groom also carries a sharp knife, if the horse falls down and can not stand up in time, it will decisively cut off the reins, and at the same time there will be a rope next to the groom, in case of emergency, pull the rope, the people in the control room will immediately reduce the air and exhaust pressure, and brake at the same time. ”

After a pause, Zheng Peng continued: "In addition, things such as landslides, flooding, train breakdowns, theft and robbery, etc., have been dealt with accordingly. ”

Li Longji nodded with satisfaction, and said with a look of approval: "Even Langzhong is equipped, good, very good." ”

Li Longji still has a lot of confidence in Zheng Peng's ability.

Li Heng on the side couldn't help but ask: "General Zheng, the steamer has been heard many times, it's really amazing, I want to ask, if there are no horses, can this train still move?"

Fixing the car on the rails is a very interesting design for Li Heng, however, Li Heng really doesn't know how amazing the legendary steamer is, in his heart, he always feels that the steamer is dispensable.

There are so many horses, just using horses can be pulled away, isn't adding an extra steamer to add a snake?

"Yes," Zheng Peng said confidently, but quickly added, "But it's not fast." ”

"How fast?" Li Heng is like a curious baby, with the strength to break the casserole and ask the end.

Zheng Peng thought for a while and quickly said: "It's about the speed of a donkey carrying a stone of rice, whether it's fast or not, whether it's slow or not, it's reduced to chicken ribs, so you need to rely on the pull of the horse." ”

"General Zheng, how much faster can you get with the addition of horses?"

"It's slower than a solo ride, but it's faster than a normal carriage," Zheng explained.

Li Heng nodded with satisfaction, and Zhang Jiuling on the side suddenly asked, "General Zheng, I don't know what advantages the Changluo Railway you spent a lot of money to build compared with ordinary carriages?" ”

When the words came to the point, as soon as the words fell, many people quieted down and looked at Zheng Peng, wanting to hear how he explained.

The Changluo Railway has been repaired for seven years, it can be said that the money is like flowing water, at most eight sections started at the same time, more than 300 gunpowder blasts were used, and more than 10,000 people were once working on the construction site.