If you traveled back to ancient times, while others ate Guanyin clay, you would actually have giant

Although the railway tracks in the South China Sea are only an east-west line, their construction was actually extremely difficult.

Because the railway tracks need to be kept in balance, roads have to be built over mountains and bridges have to be constructed over rivers, and given the limited transportation capacity of this era, the efficiency of transporting railway tracks is very low. Therefore, what we are seeing now is only the first section of the station that has been completed.

The next morning, Zhou Wu led the inspection team to the Nanhai Railway Station.

Upon entering, everyone was immediately drawn to the two large railway tracks on the ground.

"Why are such good iron ingots spread out on the ground?"

"Zhou Wu, we've come to see the train today. Where is the train?"

Zhou Wu couldn't help but smile. The train was right behind them, but none of them recognized it.

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty, Your Excellencies, what you see is called a railway track, the road on which trains travel. As for where the train is, please look behind you; that is the train."

After everyone turned around, they looked around for a long time, but there was nothing there. However, there was a rather large iron lump. Wait, why does this iron lump have wheels?

Good heavens, these wheels are made of iron too! Is this a train?

Suddenly, everyone hesitated to think any further.

"Zhou Wu, this... is... a train?"

"Yes, gentlemen, this is the train."

Zhou Wu walked up to the locomotive and solemnly introduced it to everyone, but soon some people questioned it.

"Lord Zhou, this train is made entirely of iron, isn't it?"

"good."

"Then let me ask you, this lump of iron must weigh at least a thousand pounds, right?"

"There are also some weighing tens of thousands of jin."

The locomotive alone weighs more than a thousand pounds, not to mention the carriages behind it.

"Your Majesty, I request that Zhou Wu be punished for deceiving the emperor."

Zhou Wu was stunned, and Li Tiancheng was also stunned.

Weren't we having a good chat? Why are you tattling on us to our faces?

"My lord, in what way have I deceived the emperor?"

"You just said that the locomotive alone weighs ten thousand jin (5,000 kg). Then I ask you, Lord Zhou, how many horses would it take to pull this? What's the point of such a train?"

The person who filed the complaint spoke with righteous indignation, seemingly having successfully exposed Zhou Wu's lie.

Who told you this train is pulled by horses?

"Even cows won't do."

Zhou Wu was speechless. Trying to explain science to these pedantic scholars was like casting pearls before swine.

Seeing this, Li Zheng covered his mouth and chuckled.

When Li Tiancheng saw his son's appearance, he knew that things were not so simple.

At least in Li Tiancheng's mind, Zhou Wu wouldn't be that stupid, so Li Tiancheng didn't react to the ministers' accusations.

Zhou Wu was too lazy to waste words and directly called Estein over.

"Have you test-driven the car?"

"Sir, we've tried several times already. The first section of the railway has been completed and is now operational."

"That's good."

Once he confirmed that the train could run normally, Zhou Wu turned around and told everyone to board the train.

"Your Majesty, please get on board and try it out; you will then know how powerful the train is."

A carriage was pulled behind the locomotive, just big enough to accommodate all these people.

"Alright, let's see just how powerful this train really is."

Li Tiancheng was the first to board the train, followed by the Empress, the Fourth Prince Li Zheng, and the other ministers, seeing that the Emperor had boarded, naturally did not say anything more and boarded the train one after another.

Estan, along with two boiler workers, boarded the locomotive and began adding coal to the boiler. As the heat increased, the train began to release steam.

Because they couldn't understand how the locomotive operated from the back carriages, everyone could only sit there, and the train didn't move for a long time. Someone couldn't help but say something.

"Lord Zhou, why isn't the train moving yet?"

"Waaaaah~~~"

The man had barely finished speaking when, before Zhou Wu could utter a sound, a piercing horn blared from the front of the car, startling everyone.

Then, the vehicle began to move slowly, very slowly.

"Wait, this cart isn't pulled by animals?"

Someone discovered that the train was indeed being pulled by no animals at all.

"So what? What's the point of this train if it's so slow?"

No sooner had I finished speaking than two more whistles sounded from ahead, and then the train began to accelerate steadily until the wind outside the window stung my face.

"That speed..."

"It's so fast, and you can't feel any bumps at all."

"It's incredible, it's amazing! A cart that doesn't need to be pulled by animals can actually go so fast."

The train's actual performance silenced all the doubters.

Now everyone can't sit still anymore. They look around the vehicle, curious about everything.

It felt like we hadn't been sitting for long when we arrived at our stop.

"Everyone, we have arrived at our station."

The vehicle slowly came to a stop in front of a platform.

"So fast?"

Li Tiancheng seemed to have had more fun than usual.

"Your Majesty, we've been sitting for half an hour, and we've traveled a hundred li."

"What! They covered a hundred li in half an hour?"

Good heavens, everyone was stunned. You have to understand, this wasn't a fast horse, but a transport speed for carrying people and goods.

To give a simple example, Niujia Town is about 3,000 li away from the capital. Normally, it would take a merchant caravan at least 20 days to a month to make the trip, but now it only takes less than two days by train. This is simply unbelievable.

"This is just the speed of the experimental test; it may get even faster later."

Now no one dared to speak anymore. The speed of the experiment was already overwhelming, and it was going to get even faster in the future.

What methods did Zhou Wu use this week? This is something that no ordinary person could achieve.

Everyone climbed onto the front of the car and looked at it carefully. Although they couldn't understand it, they just wanted to broaden their horizons.

. . . . . . .

Upon returning to Nanhai City, Li Tiancheng immediately gathered everyone to discuss the train.

"Speak up."

Everyone is still completely baffled and can't figure out how the train can run so fast.

"Your Majesty, trains are certainly a good thing, no doubt about it. But I have a question. Trains need to run on rails, so the cost of building them must be quite high."

In fact, everyone already had the answer in their hearts: the train is certainly a good thing, but some people could see that the cost of the train might be very high.

Zhou Wu had great respect for people who could see the essence of the problem, and at this moment, only he stood up and explained it to everyone in detail.

"Yes, sir, you are very observant. In fact, the cost of a train is not only high because of the expensive tracks, but also because of the train itself. However, the most expensive part of a train is neither the tracks nor the train itself, but the construction process."

"What was the construction process? Zhou Wu, what difficulties did you encounter? Tell us now so we can discuss it together. Trains are indeed a good thing. If they can run normally, they will definitely bring a leap forward to Dalong."