I want to be emperor

In the cold winter of the 46th year of Chengshun, it snowed in Jinling City two years ago. The snow was a bit heavy. After getting up one night, Luo Zhixue discovered that the ground outside was covered with snow. When he looked up, the roof of the palace not far away was also covered with snow. Full of snow.

It seems that the snowfall last night was quite heavy. Judging from the thickness of the snow, people who don't know about it may think it is in a northern city.

But Luo Zhixue is used to this... Although he has stayed in Jinling City in the south of the Yangtze River for decades, he has never felt that he lives in a southern city...

How can any southern city experience heavy snowfall as soon as winter comes? This is very inconsistent with common sense!

Luo Zhixue also knew why, because now is the Little Ice Age, winter is much colder than in later generations, and there are more extreme climates.

Although Jinling City is located in the south, it will still be very cold in winter during this special Little Ice Age. It snows almost every year, but some years the snow is lighter and some years the snow is heavier. .

If it is the Purple Mountain on the outskirts of the city, it is covered with snow every year in the cold winter.

Facing the heavy snow outside the window... Luo Zhixue had a hard time convincing himself that he lived in a water town in the south of the Yangtze River. Otherwise, he wouldn't have asked someone to build a seaside resort palace on the outskirts of Leizhou Prefecture in the south. Sometimes in winter He would take his family on a special train and go south for the winter.

However, it is already the New Year's Eve, and the annual Spring Festival state banquet in the Chu Empire is about to begin. There are also a series of rituals on the first day of the new year, so it is not possible to go south to the Leizhou Palace to spend the winter.

A heavy snowfall has also affected the travel arrangements of many residents in Jinling City to a certain extent. However, it is already the end of the year. Except for the staff of official yamen and people's livelihood enterprises who continue to go to work normally, ordinary enterprises have already gone on holiday early. .

Many employees have basically been taking trains to return to their hometowns for the New Year in the past few years. Not long ago, Luo Zhixue was still in the imperial meeting, repeatedly emphasizing that all departments must ensure the smooth development and safety of the Spring Festival travel work.

Now this heavy snow has also made Luo Zhixue a little worried about the safety of Spring Festival transportation.

Spring Festival transportation has been a major problem that has plagued the transportation department of the Chu Empire for more than ten years!

There is no way, this has something to do with the inherent traditional customs of the Chu people.

The Spring Festival is naturally spent with family.

In fact, this is nothing... After thousands of years of Spring Festival, there has never been a Spring Festival in any feudal dynasty.

What really caused the phenomenon of Spring Festival travel in the Chu Empire was mainly due to the large-scale expansion of industrialization. Once industrialization began, the huge demand for labor would continue to attract rural surplus labor from surrounding areas to work in cities... This is A huge number of people working in other places have been created!

These people who are employed in other places are not only those who come to work in the city from the countryside, but also include a large number of officials who work in other places!

During the long holidays every year, a large number of low-level officials return home to celebrate the holidays.

Such various factors have resulted in a large number of people working in other places in the Chu Empire. During the holidays, people who work in other places take trains or ships to return home for the holidays.

In the official appointment system in the Da Chu Empire, the situation of appointment from another place was basically adopted... Especially in the past ten years, after the direct admission of officials through the prefectural-level academic examination was abolished and the provincial-level provincial examination was adopted for unified admission and then unified distribution, the system was adopted. A comprehensive off-site appointment policy has been adopted.

In today's empire, even newly-passed ninth-grade officials cannot be assigned to serve in their place of origin. They must at least serve in another county.

This actually takes into account the fact that the railway transportation in the contemporary Chu Empire is very developed. Almost every county is connected by train, making long-distance travel more convenient.

This situation further avoids the hereditary situation of low-level officials in local areas... The original purpose of the empire was to combat this phenomenon by abolishing the authority to directly recruit officials through prefectural-level academic examinations and assigning newly admitted officials uniformly to the provincial personnel affairs department.

The situation of working in a different place coupled with the unique homesickness complex of the Chu people... Finally and the most important thing is the developed train and ship transportation system of the Great Chu Empire, which makes many Chu people choose to travel long term when they have enough time. Holidays are mainly when returning home for the Spring Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival.

Especially the Spring Festival!

Correspondingly, the number of passengers during holidays far exceeds normal times, resulting in insufficient train and ship capacity.

There is nothing we can do about it. Railways and ships all require procurement costs, and daily operations also require costs. In order to control costs, operators arrange them based on transportation volume.

And this kind of transportation volume is prepared based on the usual transportation volume...Although there is an explosion of passengers during the holidays, it only lasts for a few days, and it is impossible for the operator to allocate trains according to the number of passengers during the holidays. and the number of ships.

This means that the number of trains and ships will be several times greater than the current number!

Because the number of tourists during holidays can easily increase several times, or even more than ten times, compared to normal times.

If we really want to satisfy them all, it also means that there will be several times or even more than ten times the number of trains and ships idle and wasted in normal times.

So this is very difficult...especially in the past ten years, as the economy has continued to develop, there have been more and more railway lines, and people's desire to return to their hometowns during holidays has become more and more difficult.

This is also the reason why Luo Zhixue has personally directed the Spring Festival transportation work in recent years...

In response to the phenomenon of hard-to-get train tickets during the Spring Festival in recent years, according to the unified deployment of the empire's top officials, the railway company's response is to increase the number of train heads and carriages as much as possible...especially a specially customized train. A large number of carriages that can carry more passengers. The seats of these carriages are smaller, but they can seat more people. They are not used in normal times. They are only used during the Mid-Autumn Festival and Spring Festival and are directly hung on existing trains. , to increase the number of passengers carried.

And they will also sell standing tickets during this special period... It doesn't matter whether you can sit and go home during this special period. It would be nice if you can go home standing...

At the same time, the frequency of trains will be increased, and the train company will adopt the method of rotating multiple flights to take breaks and trains will not take breaks to operate continuously.

And a few years ago, a night passenger train was opened...but very carefully, the scale of the night passenger train is relatively small, ensuring that there is a relatively large time interval between night trains.

The opening of night trains is inseparable from technological progress... First of all, it must be said that night trains are relatively risky these days. In the early years, the empire tried to build night trains, but after several accidents, It stopped behind, and for a long time the night trains were only sporadic freight trains.

Until the opening of wired telegraph technology, and these telegraph lines were opened along railway lines, the railway company could conduct safe train dispatching through telegraph, and in special circumstances, information could be quickly transmitted through telegraph.

But even so, for a long time the only night trains were freight trains.

When electrification technology became more mature, the railway company borrowed the idea of ​​searchlights on naval battleships and began equipping trains with generators, lighting bulbs and spotlight holders, creating high-power train-specific lighting headlights that could see far ahead. Distance road conditions.

This allows the train driver to clearly see the railway road conditions ahead at night.

With the advent of electric lighting technology and telegraphs, it became a reality for passenger trains to continue operating at night... However, the risks are still relatively high, so the speed of passenger trains is also slower at night, with speeds of twenty or thirty kilometers per hour being the norm.

Unlike during the day, express trains can already reach a speed of 60 kilometers per hour.

Passenger trains can also run at night, which for the Chu Empire's train passenger transportation is equivalent to a substantial increase in transportation capacity, and it can also shorten the time for long-distance passengers.

Unlike in the early days, traveling by train is actually not too fast... because the train only runs during the day. When it gets dark, it will stop at a special place to spend the night. When it gets dark, it will start again and continue the journey. .

Therefore, if you take the train early to travel long distances, you will arrive at your destination earlier in the summer and later in the winter!

This is because the daylight hours are longer in the summer and the trains run longer; in the winter the days are shorter and the trains run less time.

However, after telegraphs, electric lights and other technologies appeared and became popularized, trains also began to run at night, which shortened a lot of time when traveling over long distances. Similarly, this kind of night operation can also allow the train company to increase its transportation capacity during holidays... Of course, even now there are still certain risks in the night operation of trains. Therefore, if passenger trains want to run at night, the railway company needs to conduct careful scheduling. At the same time, the speed should not be too fast, and it should be ensured that the brakes can be braked in time if there is any unexpected situation ahead.

Increase the density of carriages, sell station tickets in large quantities, trains will run continuously, and at the same time open night trains on a large scale. At the same time, the railway company will originally reserve part of the locomotives and carriages for rotation during daily train maintenance, and it is also a strategy Provide supplies to quickly increase train capacity under special circumstances to meet disaster relief and military needs.

Through these measures, the Railway Corporation has been able to alleviate the huge demand for transportation capacity during the Spring Festival to a certain extent... Although the supply is still in short supply, it has barely been able to get most people to take the train home... at least the remaining small part. , there’s nothing you can do about it!

There is nothing we can do about it. Even for a behemoth like the Railway Corporation, a government-run enterprise whose purpose is to serve people's livelihood and promote local economic development, it is difficult to completely solve the problem in the face of the Spring Festival travel rush.

The Railway Corporation is increasing its transportation capacity every year, but the annual increase in Spring Festival passenger traffic is even greater...

You know, this is a population of more than 600 million. No... It is estimated that the Chu Empire will exceed the 700 million mark next year. Industry and commerce are developing rapidly, and there are a lot of people working and studying in other places. At the same time, there are many people taking advantage of the opportunity. The relatively long Spring Festival holiday is used to travel and visit relatives, which has led to a sharp increase in the number of tourists around the Spring Festival.

According to data provided by the Railway Corporation, since the Spring Festival Transport began on December 15th, the average daily passenger flow of trains has begun to rise significantly, and reached a peak on December 27th. On this day, according to the Railway Corporation, The company's own preliminary statistics show that the passenger flow of trains in Asia alone has reached 5.7 million.

During the entire month-long Spring Festival travel period, train passenger traffic within Asia is expected to reach 120 million passengers!

To put it simply, in this month, about 60 million Chu people took a round trip by train!

Very exaggerated...

The most important thing is that, judging from the situation in recent years, this data will increase significantly. By next year, I am afraid that there will be 150 million visitors.

There was a lot of pressure on the Railway Corporation... In the end, it was Luo Zhixue who made the decision himself. Don't be afraid of spending money. It is better to build more locomotives and carriages.

During the Chinese New Year, people who have been working and studying outside for a year have to go home to celebrate the New Year. Isn’t it right to visit their parents, wives and children...

And ordinary people don't expect to have a second-class sleeper at this time. If you can let them buy a seat ticket, they will be very satisfied. If this is not possible, a standing ticket will be accepted.

If you can't be satisfied with a sleeper berth, is it possible that you can't even be satisfied with a third-class ticket? Even if the third-class ticket is gone, you can’t even give back the standing ticket?

This is not good!

And trains are actually more expensive than locomotives... If the carriages are not first-class or second-class carriages that have relatively high requirements for decoration, ordinary third-class carriages are actually not expensive... But they are just an iron frame plus The wheels and brake system must be very expensive for ordinary people... but it is nothing to the railway company.

Even if you buy more third-class carriages and store them there, it won’t cost you much.

Even if some costs are incurred, the extra money will be earned back after frequent use during the Mid-Autumn Festival and Spring Festival.

So starting this year, the Railway Corporation will purchase train cars on a large scale... but they didn't buy new trains and cars and just leave them unused!

Rather, it is done in the name of upgrading... They plan to purchase a large number of advanced locomotives and carriages and put them into daily operation, and then seal up some old locomotives and carriages for maintenance, and then use them during holidays to increase transportation capacity.

Although it still costs a lot of money this time, it can be used directly, increases the daily train capacity, and reduces operating costs.

At the same time, we have also purchased some third-class carriages with denser seats, and the fares are lower than ordinary third-class tickets, which can also take care of low-income groups.

For low-income groups, even ordinary third-class tickets are not cheap... many people would rather buy standing tickets.

Nowadays, the railway company has made these seats more densely packed. Although the riding experience is worse than the ordinary third-class tickets, at least there is a seat... but the price can be reduced a lot, only slightly more than the standing ticket. That’s all.

The Railway Corporation has issued a military order to Luo Zhixue. During the Spring Festival next year, the transportation capacity of at least 200 million passengers in the East Asia region will be guaranteed... In order to ensure the transportation capacity, next year they will not only increase the transportation capacity reserve in the East Asia region , and also plans to temporarily allocate the transportation capacity of the railway networks in Southeast Asia, Central Asia, Eastern Europe, India and various vassal countries to support the East Asia region.

The Dachu Empire Railway Corporation is not the East Asia Railway Corporation, but a global railway corporation.

Now that the local region of East Asia has a freak demand for transportation capacity during the Spring Festival, the railway company can allocate transportation capacity from other regions... It has done this before, but the scale was not large.

But after this year's embarrassment and being criticized by Luo Zhixue again, several company executives at the Railway Corporation have made up their mind to purchase trains and train crews next year. The transportation capacity must be increased next year.

If this doesn't work, even if the trains in various vassal countries are suspended during the Spring Festival next year, priority must be given to meeting the Spring Festival transportation needs of the East Asian mainland.

Because His Majesty cannot see the suspension of trains in those vassal countries, and even in Central Asia, Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia and other territories...but he can see a large number of people queuing up in the snow outside Jinling Eastern Suburb Railway Station to buy train tickets!

Therefore, if necessary, they will consider deploying trains from other places to increase transportation capacity in the hinterland of East Asia.

But, can you do this kind of thing or not do it... Because if the local trains are suspended during the Spring Festival, let alone other things, you are blind as the local governor...

The governor saw that the people under his control could not even take a train during the Chinese New Year. If such a big thing happened, he, the governor, might have to take the blame...

Because every year, the Spring Festival transportation guarantee work is also an important task for governors in various places during the Spring Festival. Every year, the Council will issue a document to the provincial governors, requiring each province to ensure the Spring Festival transportation work...

The local trains are out of service and the Spring Festival transportation work is over. It is because the local governor has failed in his duty!

So local officials like the governor had to trouble their railway company on the spot!

A second-level local governor with real power still has great energy in the political ecology of the empire. The Governor-General's Office and several conference offices and co-organizers of the Railway Corporation are certainly not afraid. After all, the Governor-General's Office and the co-organizers of the Railway Corporation He is also a boss from the second to the third grade! …

But the middle-level officials of the railway company will be afraid, especially the people in the railway branches in local provinces!

From the second-grade boss of a province, he can't handle the big bosses of the railway company in Jinling City, and he can't handle the supervision of your mere railway branch? If you offend such a big boss, he will send you to jail for corruption in a minute so you can reflect on it.

Don't say you haven't been greedy... There is no official in the Chu Empire who is not greedy!

Therefore, it is not easy to allocate train capacity to remote areas to support the hinterland of East Asia...

It is a powerful weapon that can hurt others and yourself. Once it is used, it will cause great trouble in the future!

Of course, they will still do it when necessary...

After being criticized, the people from the Railway Corporation went back to work on next year's Spring Festival travel plan, while Luo Zhixue took the time to hold another staff meeting. This time, the staff meeting was nothing important. It was just to hear the New Year's Eve plans of various departments. Summarize.

After the executive meeting is over, there will be nothing else to do except a Spring Festival state banquet.

After the Spring Festival state banquet, there is the Spring Festival holiday, but in the first few days of the year, the empire has actually resumed normal operations, and has begun preparations for the great court meeting on the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first lunar month!

The Great Court Meeting in Chengshun's forty-seventh year is different from the Great Court Meeting in previous years, because this time there will be envoys from more than a hundred vassal states attending the Great Court Meeting!

This is also the first time that the Chu Empire has summoned envoys from various vassal states on such a large scale!

This event was initiated and implemented by the Ministry of Etiquette and Education. The purpose was very simple, that is, to create a grand occasion for all nations to come to the DPRK.

The power of the Chu Empire needed vassal states to set it off!