Chapter 3376 3378 [Internal combustion engine]

Xiang Nan and others stayed in Suzhou and Hangzhou for two days, and then returned to the capital by train.

The total cost of this trip was no more than five thousand taels of silver, which was much cheaper than Kangxi's sixth southern tour.

The key is that now that transportation is developed, it doesn’t take long to walk on the road, so there is no need to pay for palaces, carriages, boats, mules, horses, and people.

 Local officials no longer need to clean the streets and pave the roads with loess, let alone build palaces or bother to arrange them, thus saving a lot of time and money.

After returning to the capital, Xiang Nan successively dismissed many local officials, all of whom were in the places where he once stationed.

 It turned out that he was staying at an inn and not just sleeping alone. In the evening, he would quietly go out and visit residents' homes. With his martial arts skills, it was just a piece of cake to travel through thousands of homes and households.

 By eavesdropping on the people's night conversations, he knew how they felt about the local magistrates. Just look at the rice noodles in their rice vats, the clothes in their boxes, and the furnishings in their houses to tell how they are doing.

 After such a visit, he naturally found many problems.

For example, although he issued an edict, he did not allow local officials to make arbitrary apportionments, nor allow local officials to present gifts or beautiful women, nor was he allowed to recruit civilian husbands...so as not to increase the burden on the people.

However, there were still many local officials who, in order to please Xiang Nan, did not only increase taxes on the people, but also increase taxes to welcome Xiang Nan. Some of them took advantage of others, or spent a lot of money to prepare gifts and beauties for Xiang Nan.

For example, Cai Hongjun, the prefect of Xinzheng, knew that the local Lin Yuanwai's family had a bronze goblet from the Spring and Autumn Period that was priceless, so he specially forced Lin Yuanwai to donate the bronze goblet in the name of presenting the treasure to the emperor.

Lin Yuanwai did not dare not to offer it, so he had to hand over the family heirloom. And this bronze goblet became Cai Hongjun's possession.

In addition to the bronze goblet, Cai Hongjun extorted more than a dozen other items of property, jewelry, cultural relics, etc., which can be said to be shocking.

 For another example, in order to please Xiang Nan, a magistrate of Hankou ordered his men to collect beautiful women and present them to the emperor. The daughter of a wealthy businessman named Xie in the city was already engaged, but because of her beauty, he was forced to offer her to the emperor.

In addition, in order for Xiang Nan to visit Huangshan smoothly, the magistrate of Huangshan recruited thousands of people to go up the mountain overnight to clean the mountain roads. As a result, two people accidentally fell and one died and the other was injured.

In order to take over, the prefect of Suzhou and Hangzhou apportioned it to salt merchants. Each salt merchant pledged a donation of one hundred thousand taels of silver. From this alone, he made a huge profit of one million taels.

Xiang Nan did not attack them at that time because he was afraid that it would affect everyone's fun and that they might jump over the wall in a hurry.

Now that he has returned to the capital, Xiang Nan naturally doesn't care about anything and immediately notifies the Supervision Department to review several people. The crimes of the four people were soon discovered clearly. In order to reduce their sentences, they also confessed several accomplices.

Xiang Nan then carried out the explanations one by one. The stolen treasures were returned to their owners, the coerced beauties were returned to their original homes, and the forcibly confiscated silver was returned to the salt merchants...

“In order to avoid harassing the people during my southern tour this time, I issued a decree in advance that no increase in taxes, tributes of treasures or beauties, or recruitment of civilian husbands is allowed.

 But these officials did it anyway. They were not doing it for me, but for their own greed, and they blamed me. This is really a coward, there is no reason for this.

How can I spare mercy on such corrupt officials, treacherous ministers and thieves? I also use them to warn those ministers who are acting secretly and acting inconsistently. Don't reach out, otherwise you will be caught! "

 Subsequently, Xiang Nan beheaded some of these officials, ransacked their homes, and exiled them according to their crimes. In short, they all had no good ending.

 And his drastic punishment also made officials across the country tremble, fearing that they would make the same mistakes as those few people.

 …

 In the 35th year of Qianlong's reign, the internal combustion engine had been manufactured. The first internal combustion engine train was officially put into use. Its speed was twice that of ordinary steam locomotives, and it was more powerful and carried a larger load. The key is that it no longer has to constantly add coal and water like a steam train, which saves a lot of things.

 Hence, using internal combustion engine trains to transport goods is more efficient. In the past, it took more than half a month to travel from Beijing to Europe. If we hurry up now, it will arrive in seven or eight days, so close.

You know, when we were riding horses, we only had enough time to reach Suzhou and Hangzhou in seven or eight days. Therefore, advanced transportation has shortened the distance between the two places. Coupled with radio communications, information can flow smoothly between the two places.

In this way, Xiang Nan ruled Europe from the capital, just like he ruled Suzhou and Hangzhou before. Although he was far away from China, he was still under control.

 …

 In addition, in the same year, the railway from Chang'an to Linzhou was also opened.

In this way, the oil mined in Linzhou can be continuously imported into the capital through railways, greatly increasing the output of the refinery.

 In the past, it could only produce more than two tons a day at most, but now it can produce forty or fifty tons a day, and the output has increased dozens of times.

 After the output increases, the benefits created will naturally increase. Such as kerosene, paraffin, diesel, gasoline, acetylene, ethylene, asphalt, etc. are all very popular.

Especially kerosene, which has now entered thousands of households. People in Beijing, for example, are now lighting up kerosene. Because the price is low, people can afford it.

 Because of the production of paraffin, the price of candles has also dropped significantly. In the past, the most common candle cost 20 cents, but now a candle only costs 8 cents, which is more than half cheaper.

 Diesel and gasoline are mainly used in internal combustion engines. Acetylene and ethylene are the more important chemical raw materials, which can be used to make drugs, pesticides, fuels, dyes, solvents, plastics, synthetic fibers, etc.

 Asphalt can be used for road paving, waterproofing, anti-corrosion, etc. It is an excellent building material. All in all, oil is a treasure all around, and oil refineries have also made a lot of money from refining oil.

 …

On the first day of August in the thirty-fifth year, Xiang Nan called all the princes, concubines, princes and ministers to the square outside Qianqing Palace. I saw a huge thing covered with tarpaulin in the square. It is about as tall as a person and three to four meters long.

Everyone was surprised.

Xiang Nan immediately ordered his guards to take away the tarpaulin, and saw an iron machine exposed under the tarpaulin with two paddles on it, like bamboo dragonflies. Below is an empty compartment covered with iron sheets and covered with glass. There is a small tail attached to the back of the box, and there is also a paddle on it, but it is much smaller.

Such a weird thing makes everyone feel very confused.

“Huang Ama, what is this?” Second elder brother Yong Cong asked curiously.

“This is a helicopter that can fly into the sky.” Xiang Nan said with a smile.

When everyone heard this, they were in an uproar.

 Since ancient times, except for insects and birds with wings that can fly into the sky, nothing else can fly.

 If it is a human being, then only a **** can fly to the sky.

Now Xiang Nan said, it is really incredible that this can go to heaven.

 (End of this chapter)