Back to Ming Dynasty with Industrial Revolution System

Chapter 1084 Coal Tar Pavement in Beijing
The Edo government is preparing for and suppressing the rebellious samurai group, and the exploration team is also investigating large and small gold and silver mines in Dongying.The defeated Tokugawa Iemitsu, Mizuno Katsunari, Matsudaira Tadaaki and others permanently withdrew from the stage of the Eastern Europe competition, and they were escorted to the capital of China on the Dongfang.

Tokugawa Iemitsu walked out of the compartment of the "Industry" steam locomotive with a look of shock on his face.Between Tianjin Wei and the capital, the people are not surprised by the railway that has appeared.As long as they have money, civilians are also eligible to buy train tickets.

He saw the neat and orderly streets of the capital, and was extremely surprised by the orderliness here.Because of the establishment of the Ministry of Medicine, public health care has received unprecedented attention. Urinating and defecating on the street is listed as an illegal act, and will face arrest and fines.

At the same time, the Ministry of Medicine organized personnel to dredge the open and dark channels of the capital, and developed a drainage system for waste and sewage, which gave the capital a new look and began to evolve from a classical city to a modern city.

These greatly stimulated Tokugawa Iemitsu and other shogunate prisoners.At this time, Edo Castle was also in a classical city, and it was definitely not so clean.

On both sides of the main city road are neat telephone poles, and the distance between each pole is almost the same.Some streets are closed, roads are being paved, and concrete buildings are being erected in others.Among the endless flat and low wooden buildings, high-rise civil buildings with more than three floors appeared.

And farther away, you can faintly see billowing black smoke from the chimneys of the factory, sinking into the air.

"Edo Castle is incomparable to the breathtaking castle." The Tokugawa family sighed.

The capital, where the embryonic form of modern cities emerged, began to surpass the classical cities of this era, making other cities only comparable!
"This street is blocked by the government, please come here." The officer who escorted them said to Tokugawa Iemitsu and his party.

They were going to take the main road, but a section of the main road was blocked, there were fences at the front and back, and patrols in charge of guarding the road. It seemed that there were still workers busy.

Are you building a road?Before turning the corner, Tokugawa Iemitsu looked curiously at the blocked road section out of the corner of his eye, and found that there were indeed workers building the road.

But what surprised Tokugawa Iemitsu was that the road surface that the workers were laying was gray-black, completely different from ordinary dirt roads and gravel roads.

"What kind of stone is used to pave the blocked road? Why is the color gray and black? Could it be that such a road is more convenient for travel?" Tokugawa Iemitsu asked the Kyushu Army officer who escorted them.

"It's called a coal tar pitch gravel road. It's very complicated, and I can't explain its principle. It's more expensive than ordinary gravel roads. I don't know the benefits. I heard that it's not easy to seep water, and it won't be so when it rains." Muddy.” The officers who led them did not know that coal tar pitch was a man-made pitch, a complex compound produced by distillation of coal tar, but they only had a general idea of ​​what it was.

They don't need to know all the principles of many things. As non-technical experts, they only need to know the pros and cons to use them calmly.

Tokugawa Iemitsu, Mizuno Katsushige, Ikeda Mitsumasa and others looked at each other in blank dismay, completely unable to understand what a coal tar pitch gravel road was, and could only regard it as a special kind of gravel road in their hearts.

Coal tar pitch pavement was started to be laid in the capital, and the construction cost was much more expensive than ordinary gravel and dirt roads, but Chu Yun did not hesitate to develop this technology and put it into use.Because coal and the corresponding coal by-product processing technology constitute the energy source of Kyushu military industrial technology, providing energy for the steam engine.

During the development of coal use technology, the coal tar pitch technology was also inadvertently activated by Chu Yun, and provided a suitable road surface for future car production. Asphalt roads are more suitable for cars than ordinary dirt roads and gravel roads.

In fact, asphalt roads had been laid in Britain, France and other places in the early and middle of the 19th century before the appearance of automobiles. The first asphalt gravel road was only in the city of Shanghai in China in the early 20th century.

Before the development of petroleum technology, Chu Yun still used coal-related technology, and coal tar pitch technology has become the current first choice.In addition to coal tar pitch technology, there are petroleum pitch and natural pitch, the latter two are not yet practical.

Tokugawa Iemitsu and others were amazed by such unknown things as asphalt, but also deeply fearful.The technology here in the capital seems to be developing too fast, as if a bunch of novel things popped up suddenly.This is somewhat inconsistent with their impression of the Celestial Kingdom that was once banned by the sea. Now China's ambition to expand outward is stronger than the island country they are trying to seek development outward.

"You stay here temporarily for a few days. When our military master wants to call you, I will take you to visit him." The officer who led Tokugawa Iemitsu and other shogunate prisoners led them to the usual reception The residences of envoys from various countries and officials coming to Beijing from all over the world will be settled.

Tokugawa Iemitsu and their identities are also somewhat special. Although they are prisoners of war, they are the defeated side of the Eastern Civil War and have not had a direct conflict with the Chinese mainland, so the treatment is better than that of the nobles of the Nanyang countries who directly fought with the Kyushu army. up some.

After they were brought to the capital, they were unfamiliar with the place, and it was almost impossible for them to escape. Even if they fled back to Dongpu, they would be faced with the wanted by the new government, and they were already homeless.

The house where Tokugawa Iemitsu and others were temporarily housed is a common courtyard house in the capital.After the officers of the Kyushu Army left, more than a dozen important prisoners of war finally had the opportunity to chat in private.

"My lord, it seems to me that their capital city really has the help of a god. Only 40 years have passed since the Wenlu War, and they have produced many strange things. Although after the Wenlu War ended, we were busy with civil strife And there is no time to send people to keep an eye on the development of the Celestial Kingdom, but it is incredible to have such technology in 40 years." Mizuno said.

Many of the senior ministers present had participated in the invasion of Korea and fought against the Ming army.Although the Warring States army represented by Toyotomi Hideyoshi was defeated at that time, and there was still a gap in technology compared to the Central Plains, they had the impression that the technology of the Ming army had not yet reached the point of being completely crushed. As a result, 40 years later, Huaxia suddenly emerged in the Chinese mainland that was more than a hundred years old. The emergence of technology, various new firearms and inventions made it incredible for the Edo shogunate, which had not made much progress 40 years ago.

"Sakai Tadakatsu once led an envoy to visit here. Their rulers are about the same age as me. To be able to rejuvenate China should be due to destiny." Tokugawa Iemitsu can only blame the sudden widening technological gap between the two sides Yu destiny.

However, his guess is also close to ten, who let Chu Yun have a technological system from the future.

(End of this chapter)