I am the prince of the Ming Dynasty, I don't give up

Chapter 119 Qizhou Experience (I)

"This guano stone should be just a nickname, right?" Zhu Houzhao still had a lucky mentality.

“This guano stone is not a joke. It is said to be formed by the droppings of seabirds deposited on the island for thousands of years.” A snicker appeared on the ship owner’s dark face.

Zhu Houzhao's face turned even darker.
With Zhu Houzhao's noble temperament, he would definitely not give up after suffering such a big loss. However, what happened today was really not something he could bring to the table. The bigger the matter became, the more embarrassed he would be. After thinking it over carefully, he had no choice but to give up.

"Don't tell anyone what happened in the past few days!" Zhu Houzhao looked at the accompanying personnel with a dangerous look.

Everyone nodded frantically.

"Father, should we go directly to find Uncle King Jing?" Jiang Bin asked.

"I've told you not to call me the Emperor's father. Call me Young Master Zhu." Zhu Houzhao said in a low voice.

Jiang Bin nodded repeatedly, "Mr. Zhu, what should we do next?"

Zhu Houzhao felt better then. "This Qizhou City is indeed the most prosperous place we have come to. Ahem. But the air is not very good. There is a smell of coal smoke. Even in the capital city where so many people burn coal for heating in winter, there is not so much coal smoke."

"Yes, the air was good all the way, but when we got near Qizhou, it suddenly became like this. It's not cold in Qizhou in early winter, so why burn so much coal?" Jiang Bin also said, covering his mouth and nose.

Zhu Houzhao and his entourage's first impression of Qizhou was that the air was relatively poor.
"Let's not go to your uncle's place first. Let's walk around Qizhou City first to see if the legend about Qizhou City is true and see what fun things there are in the city." Zhu Houzhao made a decision.

While they were talking, many people came on board. The long crane arm lifted several large wooden boxes onto the boat. The people on board began to load guano stones into the boxes. Zhu Houzhao was a little scared of this and got off the boat quickly. As soon as he got off the boat, he saw a row of horse-drawn carriages queuing in an orderly manner to load guano stones.

What surprised him was that these carriages were all four-wheeled. Although most carriages used in the Ming Dynasty were two-wheeled, Zhu Houzhao had seen many four-wheeled carriages in the capital, but the four-wheeled carriages before him were different from any he had seen.

This four-wheeled carriage was much longer than any he had ever seen. The carriage compartment was open, and a crane was hoisting a box of guano stones above the carriage. The workers on the dock hurriedly adjusted the position of the wooden box, and then somehow they fiddled with it, and a hole suddenly opened under the box, and the box of guano stones poured into the carriage compartment.

They cooperated very well with each other, and Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but stop and watch for a while.

One carriage was soon filled up, and the coachman cracked his whip, and the carriage began to move slowly. Zhu Houzhao then noticed that such a large and long carriage was pulled by only two horses, and that it pulled two carriages in series.

This surprised Zhu Houzhao a little, because in his opinion, two horses could not pull such a large carriage.

The two horses were pulling faster and faster, and it seemed like they were not pulling with any effort.

But he soon found the reason.

"Look!" Zhu Houzhao pulled Jiang Bin and pointed at the road under the carriage and said, "The road in Qizhou City is so strange."

Jiang Bin looked in the direction Zhu Houzhao pointed, and saw two parallel tracks under the carriage. What surprised him most was that the tracks were shining with metallic light.
Before Jiang Bin could come to his senses, Zhu Houzhao ran to the track, knocked on it with his hand, and said in shock: "It's really made of iron!"

He had never thought that iron could be used to pave the road. Even though he was an emperor, he felt that it was a bit extravagant. He stood up and looked into the distance. He saw that the iron track continued to extend into the distance, and he could not see where the end was!
"How much iron must have been consumed! Qizhou's reputation for being rich is indeed true. They actually use iron to pave the road. Aren't they afraid that others will steal it if they just pave it on the road?" Jiang Bin also stared at the long railway in amazement.

Their second impression of Qizhou was that the roads were paved with iron.

"There were people stealing two years ago, but they were caught. This railway is patrolled day and night, so there is no chance to steal. Even if they do find an opportunity, they can't go far while pulling these rails before being caught." A voice suddenly sounded in their ears.

Zhu Houzhao and Jiang Bin hurriedly looked in the direction of the sound. It turned out to be an elderly carriage driver waiting to be loaded with guano stones. The driver was observing them with an interested look.

"Thank you for your help! What is your name, sir?" Zhu Houzhao said with a bow.

"My last name is Cui, you can call me Old Man Cui." Old Man Cui answered readily, "Is this your first time in Qizhou?"

"That's right, how did you know that, father-in-law?" Jiang Bin asked vigilantly.

"You guys sound like northerners from your accents, and" Cui Laozhang pointed at the railway, "people who see the railway for the first time will have the same reaction as you."

Zhu Houzhao and Jiang Bin looked at each other and understood what was going on.

"This railway is made of iron, but the wheels of my carriage are made of fine steel!" said Mr. Cui proudly. He seemed to enjoy seeing the shocked expressions of Zhu Houzhao and the others.

"Made of steel?" Jiang Bin almost thought he had misheard. "This wheel must weigh several hundred kilograms. Is it made of steel?"

The steel used in this wheel could be used to make several sets of armor that could be passed down from generation to generation, Jiang Bin thought silently in his heart.

"Why should I lie to you? Is there any point in lying to you?" Mr. Cui said with disdain.

Zhu Houzhao actually bent down and touched the wheels of the carriage, but of course he didn't figure out anything, but he felt that Mr. Cui was not lying.

"I wonder what this kind of carriage is called? Why is it so strange that it even uses steel for wheels?" Zhu Houzhao asked curiously.

"This is called a horse-drawn train, we all call it a horse-drawn train!"

"Marxism." Zhu Houzhao murmured and repeated the name, "What a good name! I wonder what this Marxism is used for?"

"This is Qizhou's ore terminal. All the coal and ore are unloaded here and then transported to various factories. The factories use too much coal, so we can only use this Marxist-Leninist truck to supply it. I can carry 20,000 kilograms in this trip." Cui Laozhang explained.

Zhu Houzhao nodded as if he understood, not quite. He looked at a horse-train galloping away into the distance and suddenly realized the advantages of this kind of railway. With only two horses and a coachman, it could pull 20,000 kilograms of things so fast, so the transportation cost must be very low.

If the railway could be built across the entire northern part of the Ming Dynasty and connect the nine border towns, the transportation cost would be greatly reduced, and the court would be able to transport more food to the border towns, because previously more than half of the food and grass transported to the border towns was lost during transportation.
(End of this chapter)