Chapter 23: Western Continental and Steam Train

　　The three Leo repacked the things on the ground, then Jason picked up the only backpack he had left, and walked along the path between the wheat fields, toward the place where the smoke came up in the distance.
　　Although the field path is a bit muddy, it is good enough to walk on such a road compared to the slippery ground in the Black Forest.
　　While walking, Leo and Jason were also surprised by the wheat field where the border was not visible.
　　Because compared with the original forest scene of the grass and woods outside the east side of the Black Forest that they had seen before, the scene on the west side made them completely unexpected.
　　 The wheat field was planted less than fifty meters outside the Black Forest. Is this still the Black Forest? This is the idea that arises in both people's hearts at the same time.
　　 Jason couldn't help but tell his doubts, and Nelson, who had just read the history of the French Empire, was able to answer this doubt.
　　As they have seen, it is different from the relatively pristine forest on the east side of the Black Forest. All the land that can be developed on the west side of the Black Forest has been developed to the extreme.
The main reason is because of the terrain. The east side of the Black Forest is mostly hills and mountains, and the land is not suitable for development as farmland, while the west side is a complete great plain terrain, from the hills at the southernmost part of the Black Forest. , To the northern border of the northern empire of the French Empire, the Vilund River, this entire land is dominated by plains.
Although the French Empire has always regarded itself as an ancient empire that has been inherited for more than 2,000 years, in fact, the French Empire has undergone a change of 13 royal families, which is now recognized by the Weilun historians. .
Among these 13 dynasties, seven dynasties have been stationed on the four great plains on the west side of the Black Forest, and their kingdoms are all located in Leon, which is located in the center of the great plains. Historians call it It is the Seven Dynasties of Leon, also known as the Western Dynasties of France.
At the end of the seventh dynasty, a massive slave uprising broke out. A slave of a gladiator not only led slaves, serfs, and free men to overthrow the Frankish dynasty at the time, but also almost killed the royal family. By the way, the last son of the royal family of the Fran was brought to the Beirut tribe in the winter snowy area north of the Weilun mainland by the faithful knight.
　　Ten years later, the grown-up descendants of the French royal family led the Beirut over the Vinoway Mountains to the east of the Black Forest. It took several years to conquer the mountain tribes there. After that, he commanded more than a hundred thousand troops and ventured across the Black Forest from the Velent River running through the Black Forest, bypassing the natural fortress at the southern end of the Velon continent, and rushed directly to the center of the slave dynasty, completely disintegrating in less than a month. The slave dynasty that has been entrenched on the west side of the Weilun mainland for more than ten years
The new Emperor of the French Empire felt that the previous dynasty would be overthrown by slaves so easily, because they lived in the excellent environment of the West Continent for a long time, and their long-term comfortable life corroded their fighting spirit, so after he ascended the throne, the first The thing is to move the capital and move the imperial capital from Leon to the winter city under the Vinove Mountains in the northern part of the eastern continent.
　　As the capital of the French Empire moved to the winter city on the east side of the mainland, historians also habitually referred to the subsequent dynasty as the six winter dynasties, or the eastern dynasty of France.
However, what differs from historians is that the school of anthropology, which has emerged in the last hundred years, prefers to call the Western French dynasty the farming dynasty and the Eastern French dynasty the knightly dynasty.
　　Because of looking at the seven dynasties in the west, the main national policy of the French Empire was to reclaim land and cut mountains to make fields.
　　 And the six dynasties in the east are mostly related to wars. In the history of the French empire, there were 300 knights. This period is called the prosperous age of the Velon knights, and this period is in the period of the eastern dynasty.
　　Because of different national policies, the methods of land development in the two dynasties were also different.
　　Eastern dynasties are more willing to maintain the original appearance of the terrain. They will build fortresses and castles to defend against possible enemies in some dangerous places, while the plains will be used by them to domesticate their horses instead of reclaiming farmland.
In contrast, the Western dynasty turned all the land that could be reclaimed into farmland, and they reached the extreme of land development. They even boldly felled all the trees close to the Black Forest and planted wheat and other crops on the land. The reason is only because The land there is very fertile, and sprinkling anything can grow well.
In addition, although the French Empire never admitted it, some historians discovered that during the Western dynasty, the emperor of the French Empire at that time sacrificed a large number of slaves’ lives every year in order to be able to reclaim the land outside the Black Forest. The ancient creatures in the Black Forest, and this was the main reason for the subsequent slave uprising.
　　When Nielsen answered why the land on the west side of the Black Forest was reclaimed so thoroughly, a group of people also came to the town where the smoke was rising in the distance.
　　After entering this stone town, the three found a hotel to freshen up, changed their clothes, and then found a small restaurant in the town and ate something.
While eating in the small restaurant, they heard some people in the surrounding towns talking about a young man named Arbon. They mentioned that Arbon seemed to have ran into the Black Forest not long ago, and because the Black Forest was thick The fog appeared and felt that Albon must have died.
　　When people talk about Arbon's death, they have two completely opposite attitudes.
　　 An attitude of the elderly, with a pity and regret expression on the surface, but the tone of the words is not difficult to hear that they seem to be very happy. The other is young people. They are really sad about the death of Arbon, and they do not want to believe that Albon is dead. They all feel that Arbon should leave the town and go to big cities such as Leon.
　　 The young man of Arbon made the three of them think of the poor man who was poisoned in the Black Forest. Although they knew the final result of this young man, they had no choice but to say something.
　　 "If I go to Lanxi, what is the best way to go?" At the checkout, Nielsen asked the restaurant owner.
"If you're not in a hurry and don't have much money, you can take a horse-drawn carriage at the intersection. Every day at eight in the town, there are six carriages dedicated to taking people in the town to Lanxi, probably in the afternoon." The restaurant owner looked for it. Loose change, while saying: "If you are on the road and have some money on your body, you can make a quarry steam train. From 6:00 in the morning, the quarry steam train will go again every two hours to transport stones to Lanxi. , The train will have a train compartment dedicated to passenger transportation, but it costs much more than a carriage."
　　 "Thank you." Nielsen thanked him and took the change. He and Leo left the restaurant and walked towards the train station platform built in the town in the quarry.
　　After arriving at the platform of the train station, he had good luck. He just sat on a chair for a while, and the train came from the direction of the quarry.
　　Compared to Nielsen and Jason who have seen and traveled by steam train in person, Leo is the first to see this kind of mechanical product that can only be seen in old earth books or movies. Perhaps Leo’s body used to take a steam train before, but this memory does not seem to be inherited by Leo.
According to Leo, the steam train that is slowly entering the platform is definitely a big monster. Although the size is not comparable to the spaceships of the Earth Alliance, the sense of bulk caused by the volume is in the steam. The pressure of slowly approaching is more intense than those of spaceships. Even when the locomotive is close to where he is, he has the illusion that the train will rush out of the rails and hit him, and because of this illusion, he has a strong desire to attack.
Compared with the steam train recorded in the old earth movies that Leo watched, this steam train is huge at the moment. Leo estimated it slightly. The height of this steam locomotive is about ten meters, and the width is also ten meters. The length is more than 30 meters. Except for the cab, the remaining parts are all huge steam cylinders. There are as many as seven in the count. There are two separate air outlets next to each steam cylinder. These outlets continuously emit steam, which will soon completely submerge this small platform.
Perhaps it is to be able to withstand such heavy train rolling, so the rails of this world are also different from those of the old earth. Each rail here is at least fifty centimeters wide and forty centimeters thick, and not only two There are four railroad tracks.
　　 As a doctor, Nielsen is a very versatile person, and he knows a lot, but with regard to the knowledge of the steam train, he was unexpectedly defeated by Jason.
Although Jason’s brain is a bit stupid, he has extraordinary memory of what he likes, so as a steam train fan, he can easily say that the models, specifications, etc. of every type of train in the world today look extremely boring. The data.
　　 As a burst of steam was discharged from the exhaust pipe, the entire small station was covered, and the train stopped.
At this time, Jason was like a child who saw a toy, turned around a huge locomotive several times, and reached out and touched here, knocked there, if not the platform staff said that the train was about to leave, maybe he You will also crawl under the car to touch the chassis of the train.
　　After the service staff in the car guided the three people to the designated seats of the tail bus, Jason changed the previous reticence and seemed to be a different person. He could not wait to introduce the train to Leo and Nelson.
Under the introduction of Jason, Leo knew that the model of the giant locomotive in front was the Maris Titan 7 locomotive. The locomotive was made by a kind of locomotive for freight transportation specially made by the Maris Kingdom Academy of Sciences in Eastern Minsk. .
Because the Kingdom of Maris has a large number of mineral deposits, but in the past, because of transportation problems, these mineral deposits were difficult to develop. Later, the Marisko College and the National Institute of Mechanical Engineering created a giant locomotive specifically for the transportation of minerals, which is Titan. Series locomotive.
The Titan 7 locomotive they built is now the best of its kind. Its power allows it to tow at least 50 and up to 90 cars loaded with various types of cargo, so now The vast majority of freight locomotives in various countries are Titan-type locomotives.
　　 It's just that this type of locomotive is not without its shortcomings. The biggest shortcoming is that it must have special rails, and four rails need to be laid, which greatly increases operating costs.
In addition, the speed of this type of train is also a problem. According to the test, even if the empty train is towed, the speed of the Titan locomotive is a bit slower than other common locomotives. If the carriage is hung, the speed will be slowed to only half or even lower than that of ordinary trains. .
　　 But even so, the speed of this type of train is still much faster than that of a carriage. Some people in Shiban Town who are eager to go to Lanxi will also choose to take the train, just because the price of the ticket has discouraged many people.
For example, Leo’s carriages were originally prepared for managers on all levels of the quarry. There are sofas, bars and restaurants, and several small rooms dedicated to rest. They can also be placed in other places. It's a luxury car. Therefore, the ticket here is also very expensive. It costs 50 Biya, which is almost a ten-day meal for a family of four. It is definitely not a price acceptable to the residents of Shiban Town.
　　However, the person in charge of the train is a very business-minded person, specializing in hanging a freight car at the end of the train to transform it into a passenger car.
He managed to separate a layer of planks in the car to transform the car into upper and lower floors. UU reads www.uukanshu.com and does not have a seat. The ticket is calculated based on the head of the person. Each person only needs one Bia to get on the car. Until the car is full. And this car will not be included in the freight expenses, which means that as many people can transport this car in one trip, he can get as much extra income.
As a result, this scene that Leo now sees through the car window appeared. I saw that more than two hundred people were just stuffed into the last car by the station staff. He didn’t even need to enter that car. All of them could feel the suffocation of the crowd, which made him unable to recall the painful memories of the tens of thousands of people who crammed into a small troop transport ship when the big battle retreated.
Just when Leo hit the scene because of the situation in the back car, a whistle slammed into the sky in the front sounded, the car slightly vibrated, and a burst of crunching sounds slowly drove away from the platform and gradually increased the speed until it entered A relatively stable uniform speed state.
The train leaving Shiban Town did not immediately go west. The trailer full of stone was extremely heavy. Even the locomotive of the Titan model, it was very difficult to drag these more than seventy cars on the rolling hills, so only Close to the fields of wheat, we walked along the gentle area on the edge of the hilly area, and moved slightly to the west.
　　 One of the detours is almost parallel to the Black Forest. The distance between the two is less than twenty meters. Leo, who was sitting by the window, watched the Black Forest covered in dense fog move quickly in front of his eyes.
　　I don't know if it is an illusion. He vaguely felt that the unknown existence that had looked at him appeared again in the thick fog, and he seemed to be looking at him, and moved with the train. This kind of feeling didn't disappear until the train drove through this section, turned a corner, and disappeared after an arched hill came.