As soon as Wang Dachuan said this, everyone was a little stunned.
Yes, there is nothing else here, except that everyone lives high-spirited and high-spirited. Full of confidence and desire for the future.
Because since they followed Yang Fan, their lives have become better and better.
Not only are these soldiers well-paid and well-fed, but many of them have achieved military exploits and will be promoted when they return home. Only when people have hope for the future will their mental state be positive.
In other parts of the Ming Dynasty, from top to bottom, almost no one was happy, they all had sad faces.
It's as if Jingying is another world.
Fairness is emphasized here, but efficiency is also taken into consideration. No matter who has achieved military merit, they will not be taken away by others and will definitely receive rewards.
If you work hard, your military pay will be paid in full. No one can deduct it.
Officers are not allowed to beat or scold soldiers without any reason, and they must speak politely between superiors and subordinates. They are also not allowed to bully the people.
These officers and soldiers looked neat and tidy, their clothes were washed and starched. Their schedules were fixed and their housekeeping was tidy. This also affected them, the civil servants, who got up with the wake-up call every day, washed themselves first, and then went to prepare meals.
Life in the military camp is simple and orderly. They have become accustomed to it without realizing it.
Now that I'm leaving, I suddenly feel a little empty.
Everyone hopes to live in an environment full of positive energy. Once they have seen the light, they can no longer endure the darkness.
They sighed heavily when they thought about continuing to live a life of oppression, injustice, and subservience after returning. Even the tofu puffs and fried dough sticks in the bowl no longer tasted good.
An hour later, the ship sailed. It was fully loaded with civil servants, eunuchs, factory guards, and the luggage and belongings they had brought back from the grassland.
These ships were all cargo ships with poor conditions. They were in a hurry to leave the danger zone and couldn't care less.
We can only clean the deck, lay out carpets, and let them sit on the ground temporarily.
In addition to the steamship used as a power tug, the next ten boats are flat-bottomed river boats converted from canals.
This kind of ship has a shallow draft and a wide hull. In order to prevent harassment and archery by Mongolian cavalry along the coast, it is equipped with a semicircular steel plate roof that slides forward and backward.
As soon as the steamer and the canal boat left the dock of Jiuyuan City, they were spotted by the Mongolian cavalry on the north bank. They were a group of several hundred people, riding horses, and kept shooting arrows at the fleet.
Many of them are rockets filled with burning grease.
The city must be besieged to death. Although the Yarkand army in Henan was finished, they were not prepared to let the Beijing camp retain a water channel.
The destruction of the Yerkang army made them realize that Henan was an inaccessible land with isolated terrain. They did not dare to send any more people there.
The Mongolian rockets landed on the ship densely, making a ding-ding-dong-dong sound.
The civil servants and eunuchs were so frightened that they screamed. On the contrary, the people from Jinyiwei and Dongchang didn't take it seriously. Didn't you see that the ceiling was made of corrugated steel plates?
What are you afraid of? Can it still be shot through? Can it be set on fire?
After the Mongols followed for a while, the horse could no longer run.
After all, the horsepower was limited, so how could they keep up with the steamer driven by the steam engine? Moreover, the ship was still going down the river, so they had no choice but to give up.
Although they hated these ships traveling in the river, they had no choice but to retreat.
The return trip was along the river at a very fast speed, and we arrived at Tuoketuo Town at noon.
Due to the rise of water transportation, this place has become a rest stop on the way. Ships can be overhauled here. People can also go up and down to replenish coal, fresh water, and food.
Here, the Dahei River, a tributary of the Yellow River, merges into the Yellow River. It is an important node on the water transportation route from Guihua City to Jiuyuan City.
The fleet needs to enter the Dahei River from here and sail to Guihua City.
When they arrived at Guihua City, they transferred the carriage to Zhangjiakou, which was the same route they took when they set off for the expedition.
However, water transportation was opened from Guihua City to Jiuyuan City. A temporary official road was built from Guihua City to Zhangjiakou. Now all the people running on it are four-wheeled light passenger cars, carriages and four-wheeled caravans.
It's easier to go when you get to Zhangjiakou, because the train from Beijing to Zhangjiakou has opened.
At noon, beef buns, dehydrated vegetables and vegetable soup mixed with stock were delivered from the kitchen of the second tugboat. Everyone enjoyed them.
The biggest benefit of this expedition was that they had the freedom to eat beef and mutton.
In the Ming Dynasty, they would never dare to think of eating meat every day.
In the Ming Dynasty, most people cannot afford to eat mutton. Moreover, the mutton smell of the sheep in the Ming Dynasty is very strong, and most people are not used to eating it. But sheep on the grassland, as long as the blood is drained when slaughtered, there is almost no smell.
Not to mention beef, the Ming Dynasty prohibited the slaughter of cows for meat. Violators will be jailed.
When I thought about eating beef buns so happily after returning to Beijing, it was almost impossible. Gao Qiqian also sighed.
When they arrived at Guihua City, they stayed at an inn for one night. The next day they boarded a caravan converted into a passenger bus.
Yang Fan now has no shortage of horses, and there are plenty of horses to pull carts. Moreover, from Guihua City to Zhangjiakou, a four-lane official road was built using large stone rollers, sand, and lime. With cars and roads, public transportation can be established naturally.
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The road is flat and straight, and the caravan has been converted into eight rows of seats. Each row has four seats. A caravan can seat twenty-four people.
Eight horses pulled the caravan and galloped down the road.
There is a stop every thirty miles, and the horses are replaced, and the car does not stop and continues to the next stop.
When changing horses, passengers can get off, go to the toilet, drink some water, and do some exercise.
"This official road is really good. It's flat and straight, and there's no bumps when driving on it." Mr. Chen, the Minister of Household Affairs, said.
"Sir, this road was built by Uncle Dingyuan's engineers. It seems to be called a highway. These rest stops are called service areas." A supervisor came over quickly and introduced it.
"Well, Uncle Dingyuan is good at doing this. But the car is not bad. It feels like it's shaking up and down when I'm sitting on it. I just don't feel any bumps. I don't know how it's dampened."
The expressway was really fast. We changed horses every thirty miles and kept running at a speed of 25 kilometers. We arrived at Jining City that night. We checked into the inn at around ten o'clock in the evening.
We set off again the next day. This time we arrived in Zhangjiakou before dark.
Gao Qiqian and others stood in the north of Zhangjiakou City, looking at a tall masonry and concrete building in front of them, feeling a little dazed.
This is a square. There are street lights all around, and the carbide lamps illuminate the square and the train station building as brightly as day.
"Gaogong, this is the starting station of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway, Zhangjiakou Station." A eunuch came over and introduced. "But it's too late today, there is no train. We need to find an inn here to stay for one night. There will be one tomorrow morning.
Take an early train to Beijing. It only takes two days and two nights to reach Xizhimen."
Gao Qiqian looked at this tall, strange-looking train station. Some of him didn't react.
This journey is like a dream. First we took a steamship, then we took a carriage that kept changing horses, and we took some highway. Now we are about to take the legendary train.
When I came here, I left for more than a month, and now I can go back in three days.
These were his first attempts and experiences in life, which made them feel unreal.