Nanyang Storm 1864

Chapter 254: Public Carriage Company
"All our army officers and generals eagerly await Your Majesty's presence to attend the Army Expansion and Flag Presentation Ceremony and the Veteran Retirement Ceremony. If approved, it will be a great honor for our entire army."

As the inspection ended and they were about to leave, Lieutenant General Qian Jiang made an earnest request on behalf of everyone.

King Zheng Guohui of Chu naturally agreed with a warm expression. Then, with the respectful farewell of a group of generals, he turned around, stepped onto the carriage engraved with the royal emblem, and left.

All the generals got on their carriages, some went back to the military headquarters, some went to the Manila Army Academy, and some returned to their mansions in the city, and then they scattered.

On the returning royal carriage.

King Zheng Guohui of Chu sat alone in a large and luxurious carriage, holding a glass of champagne in his hand, sipping it leisurely, his eyes looking through the window at the scenery outside that was rapidly receding.

He was in a good mood, thinking that after this thorough improvement, the French 1866 Chassepeau striker rifle would at least reach the level of the Mauser 71/84 committee rifle.

The Mauser 71 rifle is the standard rifle equipped by the Prussian army. In 1867, the Prussian Mauser brothers improved the design based on the rotary bolt of the French 1866 Chassepeau rifle.

The Manila Arsenal started at about the same time as the Prussians, but with its own guidance and clear direction for improvement, it should be at least one step ahead of the other.

Zheng Guohui didn't feel any pressure about this matter, so he seemed calm.

It was originally just a spare piece that was casually placed. When I thought of it, I just gave a casual suggestion and let the technical staff tinker with it.

Although the French 1866 Chassepeau rifle had many shortcomings, as the world's first breech-loading standard rifle, it demonstrated overwhelming technological advantages when facing the muzzle-loading tunnel-fire rifles that were widely used in the world, and its important role in leading the trend of technological innovation is undeniable.

A war that broke out in Europe in October of this year is very telling.

In October, Garibaldi led the volunteer army to approach Rome. French Emperor Napoleon III sent troops to Rome first, and then formed an alliance with the emperor to prepare for battle.

The two armies met at Mentana. After a fierce battle, Garibaldi's volunteers, which were poorly organized and seriously lacked cavalry artillery, were hit head-on by the French army equipped with Chassepeau rifles and suffered a crushing defeat.

Garibaldi's volunteer army suffered more than a thousand casualties and was forced to withdraw from Rome the next day. Among the wounded was even Garibaldi himself, who was a master of rebellion.

The French army suffered only 38 casualties, while the Papal army suffered 144 casualties.

This was a line infantry battle on the plains. Relying on the advanced Chassepeau rifle, the French army achieved an overwhelming victory of 1:30. Most of the casualties of Garibaldi's volunteers came from the French army's deadly volley fire.

As for the casualties of the Papal Army, they were almost evenly matched at 1:1 in the battle with the rookie rebels.

The news about King Zheng Guohui of Chu came from The Times of Kolkata, which is an authoritative source of news in the world today. Britain regularly sends various important European newspapers to the British Indian colony by mail ships.

Generally speaking

The British sent these newspapers and diplomatic parcels to the Egyptian port of Saipan via regular cruise ships.

The port of Saipan, located on the Mediterranean coast, served as an information distribution center, through which newspapers entered British Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Kuwait, and the Kingdom of Oman, a British protectorate on the Red Sea coast.

The city of Suez, located on the other side of the Arabian Peninsula, has regular British mail ship routes that travel between British India and the Straits Settlements all year round, and as far as the Far East.

Through this distribution channel, the latest edition of The Times can reach Kolkata in about 10 days and Manila in about 15 days.

These European newspapers, which came from diverse sources, were sold on a small scale in Kolkata, with their main users being local white colonial officials and businessmen.

The Chu State Chamber of Commerce would regularly purchase items and arrange for the nearest scheduled ship to ship them back to Manila in the form of parcels. This was an important channel for Zheng Guohui and the royal government to understand the world.

Zheng Guohui is accustomed to reading the original newspapers directly. The relevant newspapers are translated and edited by the Royal Chamber of Deputies, and then compiled into a booklet "Overview of World Affairs" in the form of internal reference, which is distributed to various government departments and military officials for reference.

The information involved was of a high level of confidentiality. In the government, they were high-ranking officials above the level of deputy minister, and in the military, they were deputy division commanders and above. They were all important military and political figures in the State of Chu.

The royal carriage sped along, leaving pedestrians and the scenery behind.

Through the carriage window

When King Zheng Guohui of Chu saw the carriages that pulled aside to avoid the way upon hearing his order, including private carriages, trucks, and public carriages, he felt a strong sense of superiority in his heart.

The transportation and public facilities in Manila are ahead of their time, and Zheng Guohui's work is evident everywhere, undoubtedly making this city a better place.

First of all, the city’s complete sewer culvert facilities have prevented water accumulation and flooding in this tropical coastal city on rainy days, eliminated ponds, stinking ditches and puddles of all sizes that breed mosquitoes and flies, and given the city’s sanitation a new look.

Many public toilets have been built in road green belts, residential areas, and places with dense shops. Urinating or defecating anywhere is prohibited and violators will be fined.

Sewer facilities are widely used in some government office buildings, banks, large companies, and various emerging buildings, greatly improving sanitary conditions.

In old areas like Intramuros, Manila, sewer facilities have been added through various subsequent renovations.

The most commonly used are copper sewer pipes. Although they are more expensive, they are easy to use, rust-proof, leak-proof and non-destructible, and can be used for a hundred years once installed.

Along the waterfront avenue we just passed by, there's a unique pavilion-style public parking station. This was the idea of ​​King Zheng Guohui of Chu, inspired by the public facilities of major European cities like London and Paris. Within Manila, public parking stations are roughly 11 to meters apart, divided into different routes: Horse-drawn Carriage Line , , , and all the way to Line .

These public carriages are all large four-wheeled carriages pulled by two horses. The carriages are long and narrow. In addition to the coachman and the conductor, each row can seat four people. There are a total of 4 rows of seats, which can accommodate a total of 10 passengers.

In fact, on the busy and bustling Avenue de Glory and Promenade des Anglais, you can often see passengers hanging on the sides and back of public carriages, sometimes with fifty or sixty people.

When there are too many passengers, even two strong horses cannot pull the load.

At this time, the driver and the conductor would come down and shout at the passengers to help push the rickshaw.

As long as the carriage starts moving and runs forward a dozen steps, two strong horses can pull it.

Manila is located in a coastal plain area with basically no hills. The nearest mountain is more than ten kilometers away, so a public horse-drawn carriage can easily carry fifty or sixty people.

The government implemented pricing for public horse-drawn carriages: 1 cent for three stops, which was about 10 copper coins, and 2 cents for more than three stops, which was about 20 copper coins.

Carriage Line 1 runs on Glory Avenue. A trip from beginning to end is nearly 27 kilometers long and costs 6 cents. It can be said to be both cheap and convenient, making it the first choice for city residents to travel.

These public carriages are operated by the Manila Municipal Carriage Company, which is controlled by the government. Some banks and other companies also have individual shares and implement the manager-management responsibility system.

The requirements are not high. As long as the public transportation needs are met, the municipal carriage company can be kept running and make a small profit.

After running for several months, the Manila Municipal Carriage Company employed more than 730 people and put into operation a total of 176 public carriages. After deducting the operating costs of the carriages and staff salaries, it still earned more than 5300 silver dollars per month, which was quite good.

Running a public carriage company like this is not an easy task.

The company established 16 large livestock farms throughout Manila, usually at the finish line of public carriages, raising a total of more than 620 horses and mules. It also raised a lot of poultry to solve the company's meat and egg supply.

After each trip of these public carriages, the pulling horses had to be changed. They had to be changed for long one-way routes, and for short round trips, they had to be changed.

The harnessed horses or mules that have been replaced need to be carefully cared for by the grooms. They need to be fed until they are 7% full with a mixture of black beans, oats and prepared feed mixed with eggs. They also need to be given water, have their hooves trimmed, be checked for illnesses, and be carefully taken care of.

These are all hard work, and the animals must be given adequate nutrition, otherwise they will have bloody stools after just a few defecations and become useless.

If the horse has diarrhea, the next shift will definitely not be able to pull the harness and will have to be replaced by a spare mule.

Big mules pull carts slowly, but they have good endurance, can tolerate rough feed, and are durable. Many of them are raised in public carriage farms for replacement purposes.

The entire Chu territory
Only the larger cities of Manila, Cebu, Davao, Zamboanga and Batangas now have public horse-drawn carriages, which greatly facilitate residents' travel.

In other smaller cities, the infrastructure is not as complete and people still mainly travel by foot or on horseback.

According to the government proposal
We are planning to implement a public horse-drawn carriage program in towns and villages. This is an effective measure based on the good road conditions in Chu State to facilitate the travel of people between the two places.

The first routes to be opened are naturally the public horse-drawn buses from Manila to various towns, such as Manila to Batangas, Manila to Quezon, Manila to Cavite, Manila to Angeles, Manila to Pasig, etc., which are all inter-city routes that will be opened soon.

For these inter-city transportation routes, the government's proposal is to select five to six capable operators and conduct open bidding with the routes as the target.

King Zheng Guohui of Chu rejected this proposal, and he emphasized that;
If it is operated completely in a market-oriented manner and high bidding fees are required, monopoly and high prices will inevitably occur, which goes against the government's original intention of serving the people.

Large companies, such as the Manila Public Carriage Company, should be brought in to participate, and a maximum price based on mileage should be set to promote reasonable and vigorous competition.

The fare cap is locked, and only by competing within the operating fare range can the original intention of convenience and benefit to the people be achieved, rather than everything being based on profit.

Management needs to be strengthened. Detailed management rules should be drawn up to regulate the operations of those who provide poor service, beat or scold passengers, run unpunctual trains, have chaotic management of public carriage companies, act insincerely, drive up prices, and operate in a dangerous manner.

Instead of just selling the operating route and not asking anything about it, this is the lazy governance approach.

After receiving the instructions from the King of Chu, the government attached great importance to it and quickly formulated a set of practical management methods, with the specific management authority belonging to the Ministry of Ports and Transport.

The Ministry of Ports and Transport also set up a special transport supervisory office and introduced more than 10 supervisors with rich experience in grassroots work. They conduct open and secret inspections and accept reports from passengers on weekdays to supervise and manage the operations of inter-city public carriage companies.

It turns out
It's not that the Royal Government can't find a good solution, but rather whether it is taking it seriously. This is a question of attitude.

After this incident, Prime Minister Li Hezhang launched a self-examination and self-correction campaign among officials in various departments of the Royal Government to prevent and control problems. He accepted suggestions from officials from various government departments and made improvements to existing policies and implementation methods.

This activity attracted subordinate officials to submit letters and speak freely. Many good suggestions were adopted, which greatly improved the efficiency of government work.

Such vigorous and efficient government could only be seen in the early days of the nation.

King Zheng Guohui of Chu also made special commendations for this and promoted a group of grassroots officials whose suggestions were implemented, which greatly encouraged the enthusiasm of grassroots officials and boosted their passion.

(End of this chapter)