The blue sky and white clouds are blowing, and cattle and sheep are flocking on the green grassland, each eating grass leisurely. On the railway that runs across the north and south in the wilderness, a train is heading north.

In a certain carriage in the train, Yuwen Wen, wearing military uniforms, was listening to the officials' reports. The report content was about the technical parameters of the new locomotive and the operation of the southern section of the Beihai Railway.

The southern section of Beihai Railway was undertaken and fully operated by Hanhai Railway Company. It started construction in the winter of the previous year. It took more than a year to be officially completed and opened to traffic in the spring of this year, just in time to catch up with the promotion of the new locomotive.

The original locomotive used saturated steam to drive the wheels. The new locomotive used the latest steam technology theory and used superheated steam to drive the wheels, which made the "strength" much greater.

The new locomotive is classified as a "superheated steam train". The structure is not much different from the "saturated steam train", but there is only a soda separator and a superheating box, so it is very convenient to modify.

The average operating speed of the "superheated steam train" towed standard trains (buses) can reach 120 miles per hour, which is 50% faster than the average operating speed of the "saturated steam train".

This is the number at the beginning of this year. The train Yuwen Wen is now on is nearly 120 miles per hour.

With the continuous improvement of "superheated steam trains", the speed of trains will increase. Even if the train cannot run higher speeds due to various restrictions (stops along the line, etc.) in actual operations, the train cannot run higher speeds, but the towed carriages have increased significantly.

Taking the "superheated steam train" that is now put into use as an example, while maintaining an operating speed of 80 miles per hour, the number of people and goods that can be transported has increased by nearly 50%.

If the carriage is not added, the speed will increase by 50%. The imperial chariot (the imperial train) sets north from Jinyang, Bingzhou, enters the southern section of the Beihai Grassland, and finally arrives at the northern end of the railway in the southern section of the railway (the southern edge of the Dazhi). The whole journey is nearly 2,000 miles, and the time takes about nine hours (eighteen hours).

After the Beihai Railway is fully connected, it is about 4,000 miles from Jinyang to the south coast of the Beihai. It is expected that the train will arrive in about four days when it is actually operating.

In the future, the railway from Chang'an to Jinyang will be completed, and the entire journey from Chang'an to Beihai will be about 5,500 miles. The train is expected to arrive in about six days when it is actually operated.

In the past (when there were no trains or steamships), it took more than twenty days for the imperial guards to go from Chang'an to Jinyang.

This is the huge change brought about by the progress of transportation modes. The imperial court can not only easily "deport" tens of thousands of troops to the Qibei grassland and Beihai area, but also maintain control of the Qinan and Qibei grasslands at a very low cost (relatively).

The Beihai Railway is like a long and tough line, tying the grasslands in the south of the Chi, northern Jibei and the Central Plains together. Once this railway is completed, there will be no room for the Eastern Turks to survive on the grasslands.

At that time, Beihai will become a tourist attraction, and will no longer be the bitter and cold place where Su Wu shepherds sheep in people's impression.

After the official finished his report and left, Yuwen Wen looked at the information carefully and looked at the grassland outside the window, with a lot of thoughts.

When the Beihai Railway is fully connected, the Central Plains imperial court's control over the grasslands of Jinan (South of Mo) and Jibei (North of Mo) will have qualitative changes. Not to mention that the Eastern Turks cannot stay, no nomadic people will rise to become the overlord of the grassland.

This was unimaginable in the past.

The feudal dynasty based on the agricultural economy did not have the ability to control the grassland for a long time due to the limitations of productivity. At most, when the country was strong, the overlords on the grassland ran away with their heads.

But such an advantage cannot last long, because the expedition of the Lao Shishi has consumed too much damage to national strength. After a long time and more times, the national strength cannot afford it at all.

Emperor Wu of Han attacked the Xiongnu and consumed all the wealth accumulated by the Wenjing rule, and a large number of casualties in war horses were very expensive. This is an example.

At the peak of the dynasty, if you want to solve the grassland problem, you can only treat the symptoms rather than the root cause. Therefore, the threat to the grassland direction will always be a headache for the dynasties in the Central Plains.

But now it is different. With railways and railways that are about to extend to the North Sea, this new mode of transportation has greatly reduced the cost of the Central Plains imperial court controlling the grasslands.

The army set out on an expedition, starting from the mainland, and it only took less than a month to complete the assembly in the Beihai area. There was no need to consume too much food and grass, no need to use a large amount of young and strong people to transport grain, but only burn coal.

The Central Plains court was able to use the Beihai region as a support point and use the army equipped with hot weapons as a stance, relying on its absolute technical advantages to leverage all surrounding areas.

By then, the Central Plains court controlled the four-season pasture on the vast grasslands, and the nomadic tribes could only obey.

From then on, there will be no more grassland overlords, and railways will become the carrier of trade and exchanges.

The vast grassland will become a pasture in the Central Plains. A large number of Central Plains goods will be transported to various places for sale by railways to improve the life of nomadic tribes. At the same time, the cattle and sheep raised by the nomadic tribes and various dairy products produced by the nomadic tribes will be sold in large quantities to the Central Plains.

This is a win-win result. Whether it is the people in the Central Plains or the herdsmen on the grassland, they will have the opportunity to improve their lives because of the emergence of the grassland railway.

The herders no longer lack daily necessities, basic medical care and living security, and no longer have the need and opportunity to go south to hunt grass valley. The people of the Central Plains who live in adjacent grasslands are no longer afraid of every year, and are wary of the cavalry on the grasslands going south to burn, kill, loot.

This is the change brought about by the progress of productivity, which gives the Central Plains court the opportunity to completely solve the grassland problem, provided that the ruling people do something, rather than treating advanced productivity as a "strange trick" to embellish the peace.

Yu Wenwen put down the information, drank a cup of tea, closed his eyes and rested for a while, and took out the map to study it.

This time he left Beijing, not for a trip, but for leading his army to fight in the north, that is, the imperial commander personally, and the target of the conquest was the Eastern Turks.

The Great Khan of the Eastern Turks, Luo Khan, moved the royal court to the north of Jibei the year before yesterday, probably in the Dujin Mountain area. The other party's behavior was actually an informal break with the Zhou Kingdom, and the Great Khan was used as a natural barrier to confront the Zhou Kingdom.

Yuwen Wen originally planned to do everything step by step and take a steadily. He spent a few years to completely control the Qinan grassland, and then waited for the Beihai Railway to open to traffic, and then included the Qibei grassland and the Beihai area under his jurisdiction.

At that time, the Khan of the Eastern Turks would either flee west with the Chinese people or be forced to fight the Zhou State before the Beihai Railway was repaired. No matter which choice the other party made, the initiative would be with Zhou State.

However, Yuwen Wen's fainting in spring disrupted all his plans.

An emperor who fainted in public, whether the reason for his fainting was dizziness, he had not eaten breakfast, and had low blood sugar shock, or suffered from serious illnesses, he could not relieve people's worries and could not stop people from approaching the young and strong crown prince.

Such an embarrassing situation made Yuwen Wen unable to sleep or eat, but he quickly made a decision: he had to let go if he should, but no matter what, he had to walk on the grassland.

He didn't want to be ridiculed as a coward, but was frightened by a fainting and became the Supreme Emperor in seclusion to save his life.

He wanted to end his career as an emperor with an imperial commander.

In the Eastern Turkic Khan, facing the harassment of Zhou cavalry, Wang Ting had never moved near Dujin Mountain. The other party was so persistent, probably hoping that the natural barrier could block the Zhou army's large-scale northern expedition.

But later, there should be new expectations.

Although the envoys of the Eastern Turks had been driven out of Zhou State, Chuluo Khan must have a spy in Chang'an and could use the civilian telegram line of Zhou State to convey messages.

Therefore, it is possible that the Emperor of Zhou was fainting, and the Chuluo Khan, who was in the north of the river, might know.

Chuluo Khan might have hoped that the Zhou emperor would be unconscious after fainting again, and then the Zhou Kingdom would fall into internal strife. If so, the Eastern Turks would have a chance to turn the tables.

This opportunity does not require Chu Luo Khan and others, Yuwen Wen delivered the goods directly to his door: I personally led the army and came to Jibei in person, right under your nose, do you want to give it a try?

When the Zhou army was in the northern expedition, Chu Luo Khan did not dare to confront him head-on, and he was likely to choose to escape from the distance and avoid a decisive battle.

But when the Zhou Emperor, who had physical problems and could suffer a stroke at any time, was in charge of the enemy's in-person campaign, and the other party had the best chance of turning over, but he might not be able to run away.
Chapter completed!