My hotel is full of emperors throughout history.

The group quickly got into the car.

Chen Mo guided everyone to find the carriage number and seat number.

Another round of instruction: how to put luggage, how to adjust the seat back, and how to use the tray table.

After sitting down, Zhu Gaoxu couldn't help but marvel.

"Dad! Look at the seats inside! Five in a row! It looks damn spacious!"

"And this seat, it's fucking soft!"

"This high-speed rail is awesome!"

This drew attention from those around them once again.

Zhu Di almost lowered his head, glared at him angrily, and whispered.

"Keep your voice down, or I'll kick you out!"

Upon hearing this, Zhu Gaoxu looked aggrieved, but still obediently shut his mouth.

Zhu Di looked ahead and, following Chen Mo's instructions, put down the small table. He then exclaimed in amazement to Old Zhu beside him.

"Dad! Look... this stuff is just as good as Mom's..."

Before he could finish speaking, Old Zhu gave him an impatient glance.

"You shut up too!"

Zhu Di shut up, turned his head and saw Zhu Gaoxu looking gloating, so he immediately slapped him.

"What are you looking at! Go look outside!"

Zhu Gaoxu pursed his lips, but still looked towards the window beside him.

Zhu Yuanzhang sat in seat C, with Zhu Di next to him. Zhu Gaochi sat in the innermost seat by the window, and Li Shimin and Chen Mo sat side by side. In front of them sat Liu Che and Ying Zheng.

I had barely settled in when the train slowly started moving and gradually accelerated.

At first, the group didn't feel anything, they just watched the platform outside the window gradually recede into the distance.

But as the train pulled out of the station and sped up—

The scenery outside the window began to blur.

Farmland, houses, trees—everything was transformed into fleeting ribbons of color.

Only the distant mountains were still discernible in outline, but they were receding at an alarming speed.

The carriage was unusually smooth; the water cups on the small tables only swayed slightly, and the surface of the water rippled gently.

"this……"

Li Shimin stared out the window, his voice slightly strained.

"Such speed is truly terrifying!"

Li Shimin pondered for a moment, then asked Chen Mo.

"How fast can this high-speed train go?"

"It can reach speeds of over 400 kilometers per hour, but for safety reasons, it's generally not that fast..."

Li Shimin was slightly taken aback, just as he was breathing a sigh of relief.

"It's usually only about 300 kilometers."

Li Shimin: ? ? ?

Liu Che and Ying Zheng in front: ? ? ?

"So, at this speed, it would only take half a day to travel from Xianyang to Handan?"

Ying Zheng turned around and asked.

"It's more than half a day," Chen Mo laughed. "At this speed, even from Beijing to Guangzhou, which is more than 2,000 kilometers away, it would only take seven or eight hours."

"Traveling two thousand li in seven or eight hours?!"

Zhu Yuanzhang, who was standing next to him, suddenly turned his head.

"It's not a time, it's an hour. One hour equals two hours, which means it will take three or four hours to get there."

"From Nanjing to Beiping..."

"About three or four hours."

"Three or four hours..."

"One or two hours???"

Old Zhu was speechless.

His army's northern expedition took more than half a year just to march from Yingtian to Beiping...

If this existed, then...

Old Zhu's eyes lit up again, and he hurriedly asked.

"Hey Chen, can this vehicle... transport troops?"

Chen Mo glanced at him.

"Theoretically, yes, but high-speed rail is a passenger-only line. Troops are transported by dedicated military trains, however..."

He paused, thought for a moment, and then continued.

"If truly needed, high-speed rail can indeed transport a large number of troops in a short period of time. A 16-car train can carry over a thousand people. If twenty trains were dispatched a day..."

He didn't finish speaking, but all the emperors understood.

In one day, 20,000 troops were deployed to a place a thousand miles away.

What does this mean?

"So once war starts, the first thing to be destroyed is the supply line."

"So... how much would it cost to build this section of high-speed rail?"

Old Zhu continued to ask.

"Well..." Chen Mo thought for a moment, "It's probably between 150 million and 200 million per kilometer."

"100 million?"

Several emperors turned their heads at the same time, and there it was again—this somewhat familiar yet utterly unfamiliar unit.

They do know each other...

But one kilometer...

You could just lay money on top of this and it would be cheaper!

A moment of silence.

After a long while, Zhu Yuanzhang finally let out a breath.

"150 million coins... to repair one kilometer of road? Am I really that short-sighted?"

"But it's also more efficient," Chen Mo said. "It used to take months to get from Beijing to Guangzhou, but now it only takes seven or eight hours. Time is money, after all."

"Of course, high-speed rail is indeed a calling card for us. Its technology is world-leading, and the price is not as outrageous as it is abroad."

The group gasped in shock, their faces filled with awe and disbelief.

The train continued its journey for some time.

Suddenly, the view ahead opened up—a great river stretched between heaven and earth.

The sandbar in the middle of the river resembles a giant whale lying on the waves, while the town on the opposite bank becomes a blurred outline.

What truly took everyone's breath away was the bridge spanning the river.

Dozens of gray-white bridge piers rise from the river, each as tall as a ten-story building, as thick as the legs of a giant, firmly planted on the riverbed.

Above the bridge piers is a crisscrossing steel truss structure. At the very top, two cable towers pierce the sky, and countless steel cables hang down diagonally like harp strings, suspending the bridge deck in mid-air.

The high-speed rail track is located on the bridge surface, which is nearly 100 meters above the river.

"this……"

Zhu Yuanzhang was stunned.

"Is this supposed to be a bridge?!"

Liu Che's hand rested on the car window, his knuckles turning white.

He had seen the Wei River and the Yellow River, and witnessed the magnificent fleet of the Han Dynasty's naval ships stretching across the river.

But what's in front of me...

"How...how long is it?"

His voice was dry.

Chen Mo made an estimate.

"About a few kilometers."

"How many kilometers?"

The group gasped again.

One of them, seeing their appearance, chuckled.

"That's nothing compared to the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge! That's truly breathtaking!"

"There's something even more powerful?"

Zhu Gaoxu looked on incredulously.

The man was amused by his posture and waved his hand with a smile.

"That bridge is a cross-sea bridge, more than 50 kilometers long, half of which is over the sea. It's as stable as a mountain even in the wind and waves. That's a world-class engineering project!"

More than 50 kilometers.

Half of it is at sea?

How are these words connected?

Everyone fell silent.

Only Zhu Gaoxu pressed his face against the window, his gaze fixed on the outside.

"Dad! That's awesome!"

This time, Zhu Di finally didn't refute, but nodded in agreement.

"That's really awesome!"

Soon, the train crossed the bridge.

Ying Zheng looked back one last time.

The steel rainbow gradually faded into the distance.

He suddenly remembered the book "Zhuangzi" that he had read when he was young.

"In the Northern Ocean there is a fish, its name is Kun. Kun is so large that no one knows how many thousands of miles it spans. It transforms into a bird, its name is Peng..."

Perhaps... people in later generations are no longer Kunpeng.

They are divine beings who can build bridges with the Kunpeng (a mythical bird), transform thunder into chariots, and manipulate mountains and rivers like chess pieces...

And now... his Qin Dynasty might be changing in this direction as well.