Although the Ming Dynasty had deployed nearly 500,000 troops to the Southeast Asian Peninsula, there was no sense of the existence of war in the Ming Dynasty.

The lives of the people in the entire Ming Dynasty were still as rich and busy as usual. With the promotion of electric lights to the provincial capitals of various governors, the night markets in various towns became more lively.

Some wealthy families or some lively street markets even start singing operas, listening to music, dancing lions, and playing juggling all night long.

As the people's non-working hours were extended, the entertainment demand naturally increased, and consumer demand began to increase significantly, which further promoted the prosperity of business in the Ming Dynasty.

However, due to the increasing demand for entertainment, the tertiary industry and other industries have also led to the rapid development, and more and more people have left direct labor production and began to specialize in art, literature, music, drama and other aspects.

Legendary books such as talented men and beautiful women, heroes and epics, which were popular among the market in the past have become even more popular. At first, media newspapers and magazines that rely solely on publishing academic articles and news as their main selling points have also begun to appear in some publications that specialize in serializing various legendary stories.

The term "magazine" also began to appear in the Ming Dynasty in advance, but compared with the traditional entertainment methods in previous years, the general public is still interested in the novel things such as steam trains and electric lights that are often mentioned recently.

With the arrival of the 29th year of the Apocalypse, the Daming Daily disclosed the news that the first railway from Shanhaiguan to Beijing was about to be completed and opened to traffic half a month ago.

Therefore, during this period, more and more people began to crowd into Shanhaiguan to the capital, preparing to take a good look at the steam train drawn in the Daming Daily.

Many people in the Ming Dynasty did not understand why two railway tracks were laid between Shanhaiguan and the capital, and the railway tracks were covered with stones, and sharp barbed wire mesh was also laid on both sides of the railway tracks.

But when the black motorcycle, which seemed like a monster, was marching with thick white smoke, many people who were watching the wire along the way were stunned.

No one expected that this kind of iron lump, which was like a black dragon, could actually travel on this narrow rail, and it was just leaning on a few round iron plates, without a horse, and no one would push it.

Some people who like to show off their knowledge began to explain that these cars are all driven by burning coal to exhale. This kind of car does not require a horse to pull, but only needs to be loaded with a steam locomotive.

But more people were amazed by this and even wanted to go into the car window to take a look.

However, at this time, the train from Shanhaiguan to Beijing did not allow any civilians to enter. After the construction of this railway from Shanhaiguan to Beijing was completed, the prince-in-law Gong Yonggu, the Minister of Works and the Grand Secretary of Wenyuan Pavilion Xu Guangqi, the Minister of Transportation Huo Weihua and other imperial officials and railway construction participants became the passengers of the first official train.

It was the first time that Xu Guangqi sat in a small steam train car that could only be seen in tourist areas in the future. The seat he sat in was a bamboo double seat, and the inside of the window was a wall made of yellow wooden boards. The speed was naturally slower than the current train, but for Xu Guangqi, it was as fast as a galloping horse.

Seeing the mountains and forests flying backwards quickly, Xu Guangqi took up a cup of Shaoxing wine for tribute with interest and poured it into the cup of Gong Yonggu's cup. After Gong Yonggu, the son-in-law Gong Yonggu, who was opposite, took the short-footed glass, he asked: "Can Gong know whether the trees, flowers, plants, and even mountains and rivers outside the window are stationary or moving."

Gong Yonggu couldn't help but laugh and said, "Ge Lao Xu was really joking. Although the officials were shallow in their studies, they were not stupid. The trees, flowers and plants outside were naturally stationary. Although they seemed to be backing, the fundamental reason was that the train we were on was fast and we were in the car, so we were moving at the same speed as the car, so the flowers and plants seemed to move backwards."

Xu Guangqi shook his head. As an academic official of the Ming Dynasty, he could be regarded as a "nerd" in natural science. As soon as Gong Yonggu replied, he opened up and began to popularize physics knowledge for Gong Yonggu. All objects in this world are moving, there are no absolutely still things, stillness is just a relative state, etc. Gong Yonggu was stunned.

And while Xu Guangqi taught physics knowledge to this world-class Gong Duwei, the train had already crossed the first bridge.

Although the Ming Dynasty has made strong explosives that can be blasted, it does not have a systematic theoretical basis for engineering mechanics, so it is impossible to build relatively long tunnels. When encountering uneven terrain that cannot be destroyed by destroying its mountains, it directly builds a railway bridge.

The technical requirements of railway bridges are not low and the strength requirements for steel are also high. Fortunately, with decades of development, the steel smelting and welding technology of the Ming Dynasty has made great progress, so it is possible to build railway bridges. Even railway bridges are built directly on the basis of building stone arch bridges to meet the sufficient full load capacity of steam locomotives by the bridge.

Huo Weihua was not interested in participating in Xu Guangqi's physics professor. He naturally knew that the construction of bridges, rail paving and carriages along the entire railway were involved in his cabinet Grand Secretary, but as the general manager of the railway, he could not be as relaxed as Xu Guangqi and Gong Yonggu at this time. He is now very afraid that an accident occurred in the steam train midway, which would completely fail the project, which he was fully responsible for. You must know that His Majesty the Emperor spent a lot of money here. If it fails, I am afraid that he will not be able to escape punishment.

The people outside the iron fence didn't know what the officials in the steam train were thinking. They were just new and surprised now, and many people were even shouting and cheering.

After the steam train arrived at the platform in the western suburbs of the capital, the cheers became even more intense, and Huo Weihua also breathed a sigh of relief. After several failures, this iron lump was finally able to arrive in the capital without any danger, which also marked the official completion and opening of the first railway in the Ming Dynasty!

From now on, the trip from Shanhaiguan to Beijing will be greatly shortened. Although there are only ten cars, the number of troops or other populations that can be transported is limited, it is obviously much faster than before when infantry runs with two legs.

After the completion of the first railway trunk line, the Railway Department under the Ministry of Transport began to officially launch train tickets. Although the price of train tickets has risen to 100 silver dollars per ticket, it is still difficult to get a ticket.

At the same time, Zhu Youxiao has also begun to think about opening a new railway trunk line and meeting the transportation needs of increasing the army's attack on the Duyang Peninsula as soon as possible.
Chapter completed!