Zhu Youzhen boarded the horse-drawn rail car at Taijichang Station, as the first run of the first horse-drawn rail track in the capital and the first horse-drawn railway track in the Ming Dynasty, he insisted on taking the first operating train himself.

The total length of the railway is 117 miles, with 12 stops along the way. The entire journey takes about 78 minutes and costs 6 cents.

This price is half cheaper than the public carriages that have just appeared in the capital, and two-thirds cheaper than the previous palanquins and rented carriages. In addition, the horse-drawn rail car runs more smoothly, and there is also a police officer on board to take charge of security in the car.

Most people are optimistic about the prospects of this horse-drawn rail car, but they are slightly sorry that Chongzhen lowered the fare to one penny per person per kilometer and 15 cents per kilometer per ton of cargo.

To transport one stone of rice from Suzhou to Tianjin, the shipping cost is about 026-03 taels, which is about 03 cents per ton per kilometer. The freight for the same distance by land is 12 taels per stone, which is about 17 cents per ton per kilometer. The cost of river transportation is 078 taels per stone, which is about 07 cents per ton per kilometer.

But this rate is the best time when the country is in good weather and the rivers and roads are maintained. In fact, in the event of a year of famine, when there are many thieves, or when the river is not well maintained, the freight rate has skyrocketed by 10 times.

And by the time of the Apocalypse, the freight of goods was already three times the price. According to the opinions of several officials in charge of the railway, the freight price set by Chongzhen was doubled to be a reasonable price.

However, Zhu Youzhen did not need to listen to their opinions, he believed that the significance of building transportation facilities lies in the fact that it can greatly save social costs.

If the freight rate of the horse-drawn railway is set too high, maybe the profit will look good, after all, there are not many wealthy businessmen in the capital. But in this case, the horse-drawn railroad has become a luxury toy for some of the rich.

Those people in Beijing who really need to travel are unable to use this kind of public transportation to travel, which undoubtedly defeats his purpose of promoting the construction of horse-drawn railways.

As a ceremony for the first operation of the Beijing Railway, Chongzhen had to ride it himself to encourage the people of the capital to use this new means of transportation.

The manager responsible for the management of this Zuoyang light rail not only arranged the most skilled driving veterans, but also deliberately reduced the two carriages, and put red and green on the remaining two carriages, which were extremely gorgeously decorated.

This makes the first running ceremony of this railway more like a parade of floats. In front and behind the horse-drawn rail car, there are royal forest guards, brocade guards, and patrol officers to maintain order.

The people sitting in the two carriages were also the palace attendants and several officials of the Shuntian Mansion. In fact, Bi Ziyan, the chief official of Shuntian Mansion, was not interested in accompanying Chongzhen to participate in the opening ceremony of the first railway in the capital, and he thought that Chongzhen seemed to be a bit nonsense in doing so.

After all, the current situation in the Ming Dynasty is not very good, Shaanxi and have already determined, and this year will inevitably suffer from drought. And outside Shanxi Pass, a big war between the Ming and the Mongols is brewing, and now no one knows what the outcome of this war will be.

The Ming Dynasty fought against Liaodong Jiannu for nearly ten years, but almost every battle was lost, losing most of Liaodong, leaving only a Liaoxi corridor as the defense line north of the capital.

This situation of repeated defeats was in fact a great blow to the morale of the Ming army. Originally, in Liaodong, it was the Ming army looking for Jiannu for a decisive battle. But now it has become, every time Jiannu looks for the Ming army for a decisive battle.

The fear of Jiannu has even spread from the army to the court. Before Jiannu raised troops, if any minister of the imperial court dared to propose a policy of shrinking Jiannu with cannons in Jiannu, I am afraid that this official would have been criticized by his colleagues a long time ago.

But now, not to engage in field battles with Jiannu has become a public opinion of the imperial court. However, because of this, Chongzhen proposed to negotiate peace with Jiannu, but did not encounter fierce resistance from officials.

Chongzhen's approach made these officials breathe a sigh of relief, after all, what will be written in the history books in the future is that Chongzhen first gave up the idea of recovering Liaodong, and this black pot does not have to be carried by some officials.

However, the weak attitude of the Ming officials towards Jiannu did not mean that they also had the same idea about the Mongol ministries.

No matter how strong the Jiannu were, they were only a small clan with a population of less than a million after all, and the territory they occupied in eastern Liaodong was extremely vast, which already exceeded the area of land that this small frontier clan could digest.

Judging from these Ming officials, if Jiannu wants to really control this land, it is impossible for Jiannu to become the master of this land in Liaodong without hundreds of years of rest and recuperation, and tens of millions of people.

On the contrary, the Mongolian tribes not only control a large area of land on the grasslands outside the Guan, but also have a population that is not weaker than the Ming frontier. It's just that because of the intrigue between the Mongol tribes, it is impossible to unite a strong country.

What's more, no matter what, the Mongols have invaded the Central Plains, and after these Hu people entered the Central Plains, the painful memories brought to the various ethnic groups in the Central Plains have not been erased from the memories of the Ming people.

Losing to Jiannu is just a loss of some land and face, but if you lose to the Mongols, this is a disaster of losing the country.

In particular, the city of Beijing is close to the border pass, and after the Mongols break the two towns of Datong and Xuanfu, they can go straight to the city of Beijing. In the past few hundred years, once the Mongols were strong, they would not hesitate to attack the city of Beijing along this route.

Therefore, when the news spread that Chongzhen was preparing to fight against the Mongolian Chahar Department outside the Datong Pass, the people of the capital immediately paid attention to this war.

They have even forgotten the drought in Shaanxi and, the case of the household department greedy for money and grain for disaster relief, the rebellion in southwest China, and the recent uprising of the righteous people in Henan.

Speaking of the uprising of the righteous people in Henan, this is completely the death of some officials and gentry in Henan. Unlike Shaanxi, Henan has not encountered drought this year, except for a few areas, and it can be said that it is a normal year.

However, because of the policy of unified purchase and sale of grain issued by the imperial court and the abolition of usury orders, some local gentry in Henan were greatly dissatisfied. They believe that the former is the imperial court competing with the people for profit, while the latter violates the unspoken rule that the imperial power does not go to the countryside.

Henan is located in the Central Plains, located in the plain area, and has a large number of rivers passing through, originally a large grain-producing province in the central part of the Ming Dynasty.

Since ancient times, Henan has been a densely populated place, so there are naturally many homes of officials and gentry. And the number of Daming clans sealed in Henan is even more in the forefront.

For more than 200 years, Henan, which is located in the hinterland, is naturally more densely populated. And the population of the gentry and the clan will inevitably surpass the families of those low-level people, after all, they have better living conditions and medical means.

In this way, after a long time, the gentry and the clan will inevitably not have enough land to distribute, and they will inevitably seek additional land and housing for more and more of their children.

This way of seeking is nothing more than a clever plunder. After all, in an agrarian society, peasants who have lost their land basically have no way to survive, either by selling themselves as servants or as wandering outcasts.

Grain prices are raised when there is a shortage of crops, and grain prices are lowered during the autumn harvest. Or harvest the land in a hungry year, and collect the cash in a good year. It was these gentry and wealthy families who used the mildest means of exploiting the peasants.

Now, with a single order, the imperial court wants to force them to change their old way of life and give up the means of profit that they think are fair. In their opinion, this is a bit too overbearing.

If it weren't for the fact that it was only a temporary policy for one year, which was only indicated in the policy of unified purchase and marketing of grain, I am afraid that Henan would have preceded the popular uprising in Shaanxi long ago.

But even so, some local wealthy families who were deeply involved in the usury business were still extremely indignant at the policies of the imperial court. They have been operating on their own ground for more than 100 years, and even if the local county magistrate takes office, they must visit them first, otherwise it will be difficult to move an inch.

These arrogant local tycoons have long lost their reverence for the imperial court. Even in their hearts, there is such a thought, they don't want to rebel, they just want to have the final say on their own one-third of an acre, can the emperor still be unreasonable, and he has to get along with them.

However, these local tycoons soon discovered that the order issued by the imperial court this time was not a dead letter. Whether it is Sun Chuanting, the governor of Henan Prefecture, or the current governor of Henan, they are not easy to fool.

In particular, after Sun Chuanting took over as the prefect of Henan and served as the deputy envoy of Henan Bingbeidao, and concurrently served as the civil and military power, he cleaned up the fields near Luoyang, cleared out 7,000 hectares of good land in the guards, and formed a new army of more than 8,000 people in Henan.

It took Sun Chuanting less than three months to complete the above affairs, and naturally used some more radical measures. Because of this, some officials from Henan Province aimed the main spearhead at him.

There are about dozens of impeachments against Sun Chuanting, but Chongzhen's reaction is somewhat unexpected.

Almost as soon as these impeachment chapters were sent to the palace, the orders for reprimanding, demoting, and dismissing the impeached officials were released in a short period of time.

The emperor's fierce response suddenly made the officials who had been cleaned several times quickly silent. Subsequently, Chongzhen personally ordered the promotion of several local officials who were impeached for promoting the policies of the imperial court.

At last, the officials everywhere came to their senses, and the emperor who had ascended the throne as a young man did not intend to engage in a verbal dispute with them, but only used his own actions to show that whoever obstructed the policies he pursued would have to bear the consequences.

Although the emperor's actions did not convince most officials, they were quite effective. Especially for the case of the household department's embezzlement of ink, dozens of officials were arrested at one time, but the household department can still operate normally, which is a bit intriguing.

However, the silence of the officials of the DPRK and China does not mean that the local gentry and wealthy families in Henan have also died down.

Many local tycoons who are accustomed to arrogance in the local area simply play the trick of raising thieves and self-respect. They sent their own cronies to contact the local bandits, and under the pretense of righteous people who opposed the new policy of the imperial court, they drove the officials who had gone to the countryside to announce the new policy back to the county seat.