I want to be emperor

Chapter 1203 Long-distance self-driving trip

In the summer of the 55th year of Chengshun, Jiao Tiancheng was driving on the road with his wife and two daughters.

The highway is a two-way asphalt road that was recently opened to traffic and is part of the Jiangnan highway network construction plan.

This time, taking advantage of the summer vacation, Jiao Tiancheng is going to take his family on a long trip. The ultimate destination is Huangshan in Jiangxi. In addition to traveling to Huangshan, he will also visit an old friend who lives in Huizhou.

After working hard in Songjiang for many years, although his life was improving steadily, Jiao Tiancheng was always busy and had no free time to take his family out for a trip.

On weekdays, I would just take a simple walk in Songjiang City and the surrounding areas, but I have never taken a long-distance trip.

This time, taking advantage of his eldest son’s summer vacation, Jiao Tiancheng plans to go on a self-driving tour!

Although taking the train is the best choice from a travel perspective, today's trains are very convenient, safe and comfortable.

However, the point-to-point travel method lacks some flavor. Jiao Tiancheng still hopes to see the scenery along the way and let his family, especially the children, see a variety of scenery.

In order to plan this self-driving tour, the couple had already bought maps and travel brochures to do research, and made plans in advance for everything from choosing the route to where to go and what to see.

At the same time, I also prepared to bring a tent, food and drinks. Although I planned to stay in an inn along the way, I always had to be prepared for the worst.

For this trip, Jiao Tiancheng specially changed his car. Instead of selling the second-hand Tangshan sedan he used daily, he drove a Bison station wagon produced by North American Motors.

This Bison station wagon is quite special. It was designed in the early days because North America is vast and sparsely populated, and people would have to drive hundreds of kilometers at a time. However, the performance and reliability of modern ordinary cars are generally poor, making it difficult to continue fast driving for hundreds of kilometers.

In response to this situation, North American Motors Corporation specially developed this large luxury station wagon with extremely high reliability. It has an amazing V-6 engine with a maximum horsepower of 45. This horsepower is actually an active reduction in horsepower to ensure reliability in order to enhance the reliability design.

The vehicle is relatively large, with a length of five meters and a relatively large trunk. The two rows of seats in the car are also very spacious, and the backrests of the rear seats can be folded down and turned directly into a simple bed.

Other design aspects are mainly based on reliability. Taking into account the poor road conditions in various places today, dirt roads are often encountered during long-distance travel. Therefore, this large luxury station wagon is a very rare four-wheel drive vehicle today, and its ground clearance is relatively high.

Therefore, this type of station wagon, to some extent, also possesses certain characteristics of an off-road vehicle.

In fact, the four-wheel drive technology of the Jaguar series off-road vehicles that North American Motors later launched into the market and provided to the military was derived from the Bison series station wagons.

However, the Jaguar SUV is a relatively pure hard-core SUV that focuses more on off-road performance, so it still uses a pickup truck chassis, but its comfort is a little worse... This is also the reason why the military values ​​this car and purchases it in large quantities as officer command vehicles.

The Bison Wagon, although it also focuses on off-road performance, is more concerned with comfort, so it uses a luxury car chassis. After all, this car is specially developed for people to travel long distances. Its off-road performance is only for passing through dirt roads to avoid being unable to pass due to poor road conditions, but it is not really for climbing mountains...

In fact, this thing is a bit similar to later SUVs in terms of chassis and vehicle technology, but there are also huge differences.

After the Bison wagon was launched on the market, it performed well in the Americas, Central Asia, Eastern Europe and overseas markets, but was mediocre in the local East Asian market...

The railway network in other places is not as dense, and people only need horse-drawn carriages and cars as a substitute for horse-drawn carriages if they want to travel long distances. However, if you travel within East Asia, you can easily take a train to your desired destination.

Therefore, the demand for using cars for long-distance travel is relatively small... Of course, this is also related to the relatively high price of Bison station wagons.

The chassis and power system of this thing are all configurations of luxury models. Coupled with the expensive four-zone system, the efficient and reliable body, and the extremely low failure rate, the price of this station wagon is actually very high. The price of a brand new model is more than 1,500 Chu Yuan.

It was naturally impossible for Jiao Tiancheng to buy a brand new station wagon. This Bison station wagon was actually a second-hand one, and it was a second-hand one that had been in an accident.

The original owner had been seriously injured in an accident, and the car was facing being half-scrapped... The price of taking it to the car manufacturer for repair was too high, so it was taken to Jiao Tiancheng's repair shop for repair... But the repair costs were also expensive.

Later, seeing that they were reluctant to repair the car, Jiao Tiancheng felt that although the surface of the car was unrecognizable, its core components such as the engine and gearbox were still good, and there were no major problems with the chassis. At the same time, this type of Bison station wagon was relatively rare in East Asia, and four-wheel drive vehicles were rare in modern times. Jiao Tiancheng also wanted to take it, repair it and have some fun with it, so he immediately said that he could take it.

After some negotiation, Jiao Tiancheng bought back the one-year-old accident car for just over two hundred Chu Yuan, and then repaired it himself.

Because there are very few stocks of this car in East Asia, spare parts are hard to find and you have to order them from the manufacturer. Some spare parts are not even provided by other car manufacturers...you can only do it yourself, which is quite troublesome.

However, it is not easy to calculate the labor costs for repairing your own car. Whether it is troublesome or not, Jiao Tiancheng will only do it when he is free anyway.

It took Jiao Tiancheng several months to finally repair the car... To be honest, Jiao Tiancheng likes this car very much.

I wanted to sell it at first, but the price was too high and I couldn’t sell it. If I sold it cheaper, I would feel like I was losing money, so I didn’t sell it for several months.

He actually has quite a few recycled cars on hand now, dozens of them in total, which he then repairs and refurbishes before selling.

  To this end, he even set up a used car dealership and made more money from it than repairing cars!

This Bison station wagon couldn't be sold for the time being, so Jiao Tiancheng simply didn't care about it. If someone wanted it, he would sell it, and if no one wanted it, he would just leave it there and drive it occasionally.

We simply used this car for this trip.

It has to be said that North American automobile companies are very strong in pickup trucks, off-road vehicles and variant station wagons... The Bison station wagon that was driven along the way had almost no problems.

The engine and gearbox are solid, and there is no problem with the chassis.

Moreover, it has very good passability and can easily pass through some gravel roads or even dirt roads.

The shock absorption is also very good, and it will not make people uncomfortable even after long-distance bumpy rides.

It is also powerful and has no problem climbing hills. The four-wheel drive also has no problem dealing with complex road conditions. Jiao Tiancheng once experienced a traffic jam on the road ahead due to a car accident. He then turned the steering wheel and the car drove directly off the road and drove for more than a few hundred meters in the undulating wilderness to bypass the construction section.

  Leaving a group of drivers stunned!

After driving for more than a hundred kilometers, Jiao Tiancheng finally understood why the wealthy people in overseas territories liked this car. This thing is really good and much better than any luxury car for long-distance travel.

Especially the four-wheel drive, which is a must for traveling... With the road conditions on modern roads, you will always encounter various problems. Without the four-wheel drive, it would be impossible to travel so smoothly.

When they were halfway there, Jiao Tiancheng and his family stopped the car from time to time to enjoy the scenery, and then went to some local scenic spots, stayed in a hotel to rest and eat, etc.

Since I was driving myself, I didn't need to rush, so everything was very leisurely. I would stop and take a look when I saw something interesting, and stay in a place for a few days if I thought it was nice.

However, after leaving northern Zhejiang and entering the area near Huangshan, the road conditions along the way were not very good.

When they were in Songjiang Prefecture and northern Zhejiang, they drove mostly on asphalt roads. The section from Songjiang to Hangzhou was all asphalt roads. The Songjiang Prefecture section had four lanes and became a two-lane road after entering the Zhejiang section, but the road conditions were still good.

After leaving Hangzhou, there is a relatively long stretch of two-way asphalt road, but it soon turns into a cinder road and gravel sections, which makes it a bit uncomfortable to walk on.

At the same time, there are no common cars on these roads, but mostly trucks and tricycles.

However, their station wagons perform very well and can travel smoothly even on this gravel and cinder road, and their comfort is guaranteed thanks to the excellent shock absorption system.

Only when you get close to the city can you walk on some cement or asphalt roads.

They walked and stopped, played as they went, and it took them several days to reach Huangshan.

After arriving in Huizhou and finding a nice inn to stay in, Jiao Tiancheng also took the time to go to a local repair shop for some simple maintenance.

Although there was nothing wrong with the car, after driving hundreds of kilometers and traveling on a fairly long section of cinder and gravel road, the car had suffered considerable wear and tear, and needed timely maintenance and adjustments to avoid any subsequent problems.

After the car was maintained, Jiao Tiancheng drove his family to Huangshan for a tour, climbed the mountain, and looked at the scenery. After the tour, he went to Huizhou city to visit friends.

This good friend also worked in a car factory with Jiao Tiancheng. After Jiao Tiancheng became a driver, this friend continued to work in the car factory and was later transferred to the car after-sales department as a mechanic.

When Jiao Tiancheng opened his auto repair business, this friend helped him a lot in the early stages, helping him order some equipment, obtain some technical information, and even some hard-to-get spare parts.

Later, this friend resigned and started his own business, and Jiao Tiancheng helped him open a shop. However, his friend was not lucky and the car repair business failed to take off.

So last year I simply packed up my shop in Songjiang and returned to my hometown in Huizhou with my family to open a car repair shop.

These two people have known each other for more than ten years and have continued to help each other in their careers. They are considered to be very good friends.

It makes sense to visit Huangshan during this trip to see how my friends are doing.

However, what Jiao Tiancheng did not expect was that when he found his friend's auto repair shop according to the address written in his friend's letter, he found the door closed.

Before leaving, he sent a telegram to this friend, saying that he would come to visit him, and his friend replied with a telegram to express his welcome.

Then Jiao Tiancheng got out of the car and asked the people around him. After asking around, he found out that the owner of the repair shop, who was also his friend, had died of a sudden serious illness five days ago.

At this time, he had been sent back to his hometown in the county by his family for burial.

As a result, the repair shop naturally could not open.

After hearing the news, Jiao Tiancheng felt a little upset... He had known this old friend for more than ten years, and he had just come to see him, but he heard the news that he had died of a sudden serious illness...

Later, with the guidance of people around him, he found his old friend's house again. Sure enough, there was a white lantern hanging in front of the house, and there was no one in the house. After asking the neighbors, they said that the friend had gone back to his hometown to attend a funeral.

After inquiring about the address of his old friend's hometown, Jiao Tiancheng settled his family in an inn in the city and drove there himself.

No matter what, you have to go and take a look.

After driving for half a day, I arrived at my old friend's hometown in the countryside. After asking around, I found my old friend's home... There were white lanterns hanging in front of the door, and a funeral was being held there.

  I tidied up a bit and came to visit you!

Then I met my old friend's wife and children. I had met these people before. After all, the two families had a good relationship and had met each other many times. In addition, I also met the parents of my old friend, whom I had never met before.

After a conversation, we learned that the old friend's wife had sent a telegram announcing the death to friends including Jiao Tiancheng before returning home... But Jiao Tiancheng was driving on the road at that time and did not receive the telegram at all.

There was no point in just saying all this. Jiao Tiancheng, feeling a little depressed, saw his old friend for the last time. He did not leave but stayed for two days to help deal with the funeral arrangements.

After the burial, Jiao Tiancheng looked at his old friend's family! An elderly mother, an ignorant housewife and three children. The oldest boy was only sixteen years old and had just graduated from junior high school.

  How will this family live in the future?

His friend's auto repair shop didn't have any other experienced workers, it was just his friend and three apprentices running it. Now that his friend is dead, those apprentices are useless.

After thinking for a long time, Jiao Tiancheng told them that if they wanted to continue running the repair shop, it didn't matter if they didn't have a master craftsman. He would send an old master to help them and try his best to train these apprentices.

However, the other party stated that the repair shop's business was already very poor because there were too few cars in the local area, and there were several repair shops with little business, so they had already been losing money.

There is no point in keeping it by force, and you will continue to lose money. It is better to transfer it and get some transfer fees, so that there will be some left... otherwise you will lose it all.

At this time, my friend's eldest son said that he wanted to go to the store to learn how to repair cars if he could support the family store.

Jiao Tiancheng thought for a moment and said, "If you really want to learn the auto repair business and are willing to endure hardships, come with me to Songjiang. I'll take you!"

Although the old friend died of illness, the friendship between the two families remains. Jiao Tiancheng couldn't bear to see his old friend's family live in hardship in the future, so he would still help as much as he could.

  After hesitating for a while, the young man nodded on the spot!

Although the boy is still young, he already knows that he has become the backbone of this family...