I became a witch, but I started the industrial revolution

However, the shadow did not react. When House came into sight, he saw a scene that shocked him. There were several people lying on the railroad tracks! Not just one person! But several people!

The sharp and piercing sounds of brakes and whistles merged into one, the wheels of the train sent up large sparks, and the sandblasting bucket in front continued to spray sand to increase the friction of the wheels.

To brake the train, compressed air is first used to lift up all the brake shoes, and then the train can start. When braking is needed, the driver only needs to open the valve to release the air, and the braking of the entire train will be carried out immediately and synchronously.

This reverse method also has an advantage that the carriage is naturally in a braking state when it leaves the locomotive and will not slip.

However, due to the long body, high speed and large inertia, it takes a process to discharge all the air as quickly as possible so that the air brake can operate and hold the wheels to achieve maximum braking force.

The braking distance of a freight train traveling at 90 km/h is 800 m, and the time from when House confirmed the shadow ahead to when he slowed down is no more than three seconds.

But by the time he confirmed from the ball of snow that it was a person and slowed down as fast as he could, the distance between the two sides had exceeded the limit of 800m.

The freezing weather and heavy snow froze the rails, extending the emergency braking distance of the train. The train rolled over mercilessly under House's desperate gaze, and slid forward for more than a hundred meters before finally stopping.

House slumped in the chair, trembling all over. As a train driver, he must have good eyesight, a stable and calm mental state, and be able to do what needs to be done in an emergency in a clear and orderly manner. This is the focus of the train driver assessment.

He saw the target clearly and performed everything he was supposed to do perfectly, but if he did everything well but found that he did not achieve the expected goal, the feeling of despair and powerlessness would be even more profound.

Especially at the last moment, he even made eye contact with the woman lying on the track, and saw the seven or eight-year-old child in her arms...

House sent an emergency code through the radio telegraph with shaking hands. The code was sent to the control department through the signal posts set up near the track. The single-line section was closed and subsequent trains were prohibited from passing. At the same time, patrol personnel would come to check the situation.

He pushed open the car door and walked to the snow through the front path. He saw a large pool of blood-red stains and steaming mist a hundred meters away. An indescribable feeling swept over his body, making him lie on the snow and retch continuously.

He didn't have to wait too long. About half an hour later, several six-wheeled armored patrol vehicles appeared nearby, and dozens of railway patrol team members protected the area. Preliminary investigation showed that the dead were a family of three. The details still need to wait for follow-up doctors and law enforcement patrol officers.

At the same time, the Ministry of Railways removed the recording equipment on the train and calculated the driver's handling method and whether the speed was legal based on the comparison of brake marks.

House was also taken away by the police who arrived. According to the initial judgment at the scene, there was no problem for him to drive at the maximum speed of 90 km/h. The visual conditions were poor on snowy days, and the braking distance was 650 m, which ruled out the possibility of dereliction of duty and illegal operation.

So the police did not interrogate him, strictly speaking it should be questioned.

"I...I saw that woman, smiling at me..."

House added this sentence at the end after he finished telling his story. His whole body was still shaking uncontrollably, not only because of the person he bumped into, but also because of the woman's smile.

When a person shows such an expression when facing death, it is a sign of House's strong mental strength that he does not get scared to death.

The two policemen who were questioning House looked at each other, asked a few brief questions and then let him go. The Ministry of Railways then gave him a week's vacation to let him calm down.

The police officer in charge of the review submitted the report, noting House's last words, and expressed the hope that this suicide case would be investigated together with the previous ones.

Then it got stuck during the process and there was no further development.

In the next few days, leaders and colleagues came to visit and express their condolences. Everyone felt that he was unlucky to encounter such a thing and asked him not to have any psychological burden.

This kind of thing is not common, but to be honest, it happens a few times every year, just more this year.

This year...

What’s different this year? If there is any difference, it is that this winter is exceptionally cold, about 10° lower than in previous years.

However, due to the distribution of supplies and cotton-padded clothes, as well as an ample supply of coal for heating, the feeling of not going out is not obvious.

House tossed and turned in bed, unable to fall asleep. As soon as he closed his eyes, he could recall the woman's smile, the child in her arms, and her husband hugging her tightly.

When his panic subsided a little, he still felt that something was wrong. How much determination would it take to commit suicide outside in minus 30 degrees Celsius?

'knock knock'

'Is anyone home?'

An old voice sounded outside the house. House's mother, who was cleaning the living room, opened the door and asked, "Who is it?"

"Excuse me, ladies. Do you have any coal slag at home that you can share with me? My wife can't stand the cold."

House's mother smiled and said, "Hey, it's okay. I still have some. I'll get some for you right away."

House came out following the sound and watched with some curiosity. Coal slag is just small pieces of broken coal, which also cost money to buy. His mother is a very calculative person, so why would she give gifts to others?

After the old man left with many thanks, House asked his own questions.

I got a cold eye roll from my mother: "I am fussy, but that's because I don't spend money that I shouldn't spend. What a waste of the fruits of my labor! But this old man is different, alas."

"The factory they're working at is closed down and undergoing reconstruction. I don't know why they haven't paid their employees their previous wages, nor have they provided proof of their work experience. So without money or quota slips, they can only endure the cold."

Chapter 166 Her Majesty is a good person

House knew about quota tickets, or rather, the visibly improved conditions of his family were also related to the abundant supply of tickets from the Ministry of Railways.

New states such as Anchorage are under great pressure to supply materials, so they will naturally prioritize the transportation of materials. The people-oriented guidance will begin to reduce the quotas of materials according to different proportions of people's livelihood needs.

At the same time, in order to alleviate the pressure of bank runs and hoarding that further increased the supply of materials, Media implemented a temporary system of bill distribution in New South Wales.

The bills generated each month are quantitative, so the government can directly intervene in the threshold of material consumption, maintaining national consumption while retaining a certain amount of emergency reserves.

This bill system will be implemented until the town factories within Anchorage State are able to produce most of the needs, then it will be automatically cancelled and formally aligned with the alliance's market economy model.

Otherwise, if they directly connect to the market economy, the budding industrial and commercial ecology of these states that have not yet completed the transformation will be destroyed in an instant, and they will completely become workers of other states.

In other words, it is actually a novice protection zone demarcated by the state, which prevents businessmen and companies from other mature states from making black money by manipulating the value of various materials in New South Wales.

It also gives state governments that have sorted out industry, agriculture and commerce ample time to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the regions under their jurisdiction and what kind of industries to support so that they can participate in competition within the alliance.

Although it is a bill supply system, the alliance is actually very generous in issuing bills for the four major daily necessities of grain, coal, cotton, salt and people's livelihood. After all, the main items are these four, and it is also to maintain low prices to prevent others from speculating on prices.

In the composition of the wages of ordinary workers, apart from the fixed salary, these four items make up the most. The bills of a regular worker are more than enough to support a family of three, and if the money is added, there will be a lot more left.

Rural areas also have their own bill algorithms.

The government also has a "three-free" policy for citizens who are childless or unable to take care of themselves: free tickets, free housing, and free medical care.

Medea has mentioned the core idea of ​​the Seris Alliance more than once in parliament and in propaganda on the streets:

Seris is a great country

[The reason why a great country is a great country is not to allow the rich to live more luxuriously, but to allow the lower class to live with more dignity. ]

[A society that is friendly to the disadvantaged groups at the bottom will definitely be more friendly to everyone! ]

The foreign trade gap has made companies earn a lot of money and provided the central government with ample tax revenue. Local state governments can also maintain self-sufficiency and gain considerable benefits by investing in some local source enterprises with hot money.

Combined with the subsequent provident fund and pension pool, with the triple guarantee, Seris has fully achieved the goal of continuously subsidizing vulnerable groups without placing too much burden on the finances.

Of course, the main subsidies for Xinzhou are now issued directly by the central government, and the previously issued funds will be withdrawn later when the local area develops.

It is precisely because of long-term publicity and personal experience of the benefits that Media is so easily worshipped and believed in by most citizens.

This is also the strange thing about House. His mother may not understand it very well, but he has received a normal education and his comprehension ability is definitely fine.

In the alliance's policy propaganda, there would never be a situation like that of the old man. No matter whether he was a worker or a farmer, it was impossible for him to end up picking up coal slag.

On the contrary, young people have this probability. If you call young people who can't find a job these days a "slacker", you will definitely be right. There is a shortage of people everywhere. If you can't make a living, it's 100% your own fault.

unless...

"Mom, can you tell me more about that old man? I remember the state government promised to give them free tickets."

"Hey, they went to ask and they said they had already received it so it was not possible. The land they were living on was previously given to them by the factory. The free receipt was directly sent to the factory for distribution."

"But the factory is closed for reconstruction. You can't find the people there. Who can they ask for help?"

House couldn't help but ask: "Shouldn't this be sent directly to them personally?"

"Who knows? Anyway, we can't find the people now, and we don't have the money or receipts. I heard that many people couldn't survive and committed suicide. We can only help so much, so let's do what we can."

At this point, House's mother sighed, and seeing her son's pale face, she seemed to have thought of something, and slapped herself lightly on the mouth: "Hey! It's all my fault that I forgot again. Why did I bring up such a thing?"

House shook his head to stop his mother's action: "It's all in the past. I've almost forgotten it. It's okay, Mom."

As he said this, he went back to the house, put on his cotton jacket and wrapped himself in a scarf, said goodbye to his mother, and said he was going out to relax, then walked out of the house.

Forget? How could he forget, but he had vaguely felt that something was wrong before, and this premonition was getting stronger and stronger, making him very upset. He wanted to go out for a walk to dispel that feeling.

He walked aimlessly in the snow for a few laps and saw the investigation report at the door of the police station, which confirmed that it was a suicide by lying on the railway tracks and that the three deaths were a family of three.

The old man who had met House's family before was also standing there, looking at the notice, carrying a sack with a little coal at the bottom. He sighed and walked away tremblingly.

Media had been promoting literacy classes since the unification. Thanks to the stinginess of the nobles in the past, there were almost no literate citizens among the lower-class citizens, so there was almost no resistance to her promotion of simplified Chinese characters with simple structures.

With the help of the pinyin combination of initials and finals, most people can now simply spell their own names and some articles.

House, who was full of thoughts, came to the pub he often visited, ordered a drink, sat in the corner and drank quietly.

The noisy and bustling pub could hardly cheer him up, and the scenes before the collision kept appearing in his mind.

Unexpectedly, someone in the pub also brought up this matter, which is normal, after all, this is also a hot news recently.

However, the exclamation of one of them caught House's attention.

'Alas... I still remember that family of three, because they lived in my neighborhood and used to buy meat from me, but I haven't seen them in the last few months.'

'On the day the incident happened, I caught the kid from his family stealing meat from my house. When he came to pick him up, he knelt down in front of me and said that the kid was either a bad person or he just hadn't eaten meat for a long time and was greedy.'

"I felt bad for forcing a grown man into this state, so I sent them a piece of meat. I didn't expect that this would be their last meal..."

Another voice sounded:

"I know that company. They are the ones that stopped work to rebuild the factory. There are hundreds of people there. There is not even a light or smoke in their area at night. I guess they really have no money."

"Oh, how can we survive in such a cold night?"

"What can I do if I just bear it? Otherwise I will die."

The pub went quiet.

There is no way to heaven and no door to earth

House seems to be able to think of the following scene

The man took the meat and the child back home. That night the family had the most sumptuous dinner in months. The couple smiled happily as they watched the child wolfing down the food.

Then the family lay on the cold tracks late at night, accompanied by the biting cold wind. Perhaps when the train rumbled towards them, the mother was still telling her children a bedtime story.

The train sped past, crushing poverty and dignity, and crushing that humble dream.

After a long while, House couldn't help but muster up the courage to ask, "Can't I get the ticket for free?"

Everyone who was discussing the matter immediately turned to look at him, their eyes filled with surprise and wonder.

House felt a little uncomfortable: "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Comrade, how long have you not been to the market?"

"what?"