Film and Television: Starting from the Journey to Guandong

Chapter 131 Train

Why does Lao Chang want to control the business world? Because the economy is the foundation of the country. Without the economy, there is no future, and wars can only be won temporarily.

Even if Lao Chang doesn't understand this, the people around him do.

The Magic City is the backbone of the country's economy. If you can control the Magic City, you can indirectly affect the whole country.

This is what Lao Chang wants Zhu Chuanren to do, and Zhu Chuanren is indeed doing this. His tentacles have extended from people's livelihood to the resource industry step by step.

Originally he didn't want to touch it, but Laochang gave too much, and people rushed to give it, because if they didn't want it, they wouldn't give face.

This is also the reason why Ni Sichun always goes to Sister Song's house recently.

Lao Chang is going to hand over two coal mines in Jin Province to Zhu Chuanren. Whose territory belongs to Jin Province? Lao Kong, if you want to grab food on someone else's property, you have to pay your respects to the pier in advance.

The most important thing is to make it clear to people that I am really unfamiliar and deliberately snatched food from you. It was Lao Chang who forced it on me. If you want to blame Lao Chang, don't blame me.

China has been using coal for nearly two thousand years, but after the five-port trade, foreign coal shipped across the ocean was cheaper than domestic coal, easily monopolizing the market and seizing the power to price coal.

If foreigners manipulate coal prices at a critical moment, it will be enough to destroy any achievements of the self-improvement movement.

This is also one of Lao Chang’s calculations!

Burlington, the U.S. minister, calculated an account in 1864 and found that Chinese ships consumed 40 tons of coal a year, mostly foreign coal shipped from Britain, Tuao and Nihong.

When the Qing government was preparing for the steamship investment promotion bureau, its biggest concern was the purchase of foreign coal.

Local coal is more expensive than foreign coal, mainly due to transportation.

Coal is a very bulky cargo, and the freight is too high when transported by traditional ox-horse carts;

In Europe and the United States, coal mines are transported to ports by rail, and transportation costs are kept to a minimum.

A wooden-wheeled ox cart can pull 800 kilograms, equivalent to 8 dan; a train can carry 20 tons, equivalent to 333 dan.

A train with 10 wagons has a transport capacity equivalent to more than 400 oxcarts, and its speed is incomparable.

Only by using railways to transport coal can we compete with foreign coal.

However, the Qing court regarded railways as a bad thing that "damaged our local farmhouses and ruined our people's livelihood" and banned the construction of railways. Therefore, foreign coal was unstoppable and dominated the Chinese market.

The success or failure of coal mines depends on transportation. In 1877, Li Hongzhang learned from the painful experience and opened the Kaiping Coal Mine. Not only did he use foreign machinery to mine, but he also started from the foundation of transportation and resolutely built railways to significantly reduce transportation costs.

As expected, Kaiping coal was sold at a much cheaper price than foreign coal, regaining its domestic market and making China's industrialization pace steady.

Firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, tea, and fuel are the first necessities of people's livelihood.

Coal was expensive and ordinary people could not afford it. They could only burn firewood, grass and dried dung for cooking and heating.

In the 1900s, new coal mines integrated with railways drove down coal prices and created cheap and high-quality briquettes, which became the main household fuel in cities and triggered a new wave of urban development.

It can be said that the Kaiping Coal Mine is not only the engine of China's industrialization, but also the promoter of urbanization.

China has a vast territory and rich resources, and there are coal mines everywhere. When Marco Polo traveled eastward, he was surprised to see the Chinese burning "black stones".

However, the black stone is very heavy and difficult to transport, and even coal-producing areas cannot afford to burn coal.

The richest coal deposits in the country are in Shanxi Province. However, the railways are not developed, so coal from Shanxi-Suiyuan cannot leave the province, and the goods are abandoned on the ground.

The old Wei Dynasty who was stationed in Jinsui witnessed the wonder of local people building walls and paving roads with raw coal.

He recalled: "When it comes to the coal in Shanxi Province, it is really an endless treasure. When we marched from Fugu to Shuo County and the loess plateau in northern Shanxi, we could see coal seams everywhere in the ditch. The thick coal seams were as high as one meter high. More than ten feet, and there are several floors. The walls in front of every cave dwelling are made of large coal blocks. A coal block is about three feet long, two feet wide, and more than a foot thick. It is estimated that a coal block is at least There are also two to three hundred kilograms. Sometimes when we are marching, the roadbed is the coal seam."

The traditional means of transportation in North China is the ox cart.

For long-distance transportation of more than 20 kilometers, the freight per ton of coal is more than 2 cents per kilometer.

Guisui, the capital of Suiyuan Province, is surrounded by coal mines. The nearest bituminous coal comes from Saraqi, which is 110 kilometers away from the provincial capital.

The price of a ton delivered to the sea at the Salaqi mine increased to 4 yuan and 7 jiao when shipped to Guisui City.

The common people could not afford it, and only the government, wealthy businessmen and Qiying Manchu people used coal as household fuel.

If you are far away from coal-producing areas, burning coal is even more of a luxury.

In the richest Yangtze River Delta, the traditional coal distribution market is in Guazhou Town, Yangzhou, but ordinary people cannot afford coal. The customers of Guazhou coal are mainly restaurants that cannot shut down their stoves and ironware shops that turn on high-temperature furnaces.

The daily fuel consumption of ordinary people in the north and south of the Yangtze River has remained unchanged for thousands of years.

There are many forests south of the Yangtze River. Rich people burn charcoal, while ordinary people burn miscellaneous firewood, reed grass and straw.

To the north of the Yangtze River, people in Tongshan were forced to use straw as the main fuel.

Straw is not resistant to burning, and when collecting it, one has to go deep into the stuffy green gauze tent, which is extremely painful.

After autumn, when the sorghum straw is burned out, the wheat straw, commonly known as "wheat straw", can only be hoeed out to be used as fuel.

Burning large kangs in North China requires fuel with long-lasting heat, but wheat straw is very small and has a lot of ash.

If even wheat straw was not available, they would have to dry human dung, cow and horse dung and use it as fuel.

Even capital-level cities still have to burn straw.

In Fengtian, which is close to Fushun Coal Mine, people use straw and hay as the main fuel.

Local literature and history records that Dongguan Chaicao City "mostly consists of sorghum straw, as well as hazelnut straw, bean straw, corn straw, sorghum, pine straw, etc. Grasses include cereal grass, barnyard grass, thatch, etc."

Beijing is an anomaly that uses coal for cooking and heating. Mentougou in the western suburbs of Beijing is home to a large coalfield.

But until the reign of Guangxu, coal was still a luxury item that ordinary people in the capital could not afford, because the coal kilns in western Beijing were “secluded in the mountains, and the houses were quiet and blocked.

All coal mines are located among the undulating hills and mountains," and they could only be transported into the city by camels.

The total length from Mentougou to Fuchengmen is less than 50 kilometers, but the cost of camel transportation for this mere 50 kilometers has tripled the price of coal.

When buying coal from Xishan Mine, the price of silver is 1000 taels per 2 kilograms, and the price rose to 6 taels for delivery in Beijing.

It is only because of the large number of aristocrats, officials and large merchants in the capital and the popularity of coal-burning in high-end residences that the “coal black” industrial chain in western Beijing has been supported.

After the Gengzi Incident, high-ranking officials and wealthy businessmen fled, and the coal industry in the capital collapsed.

"Chengxingshun Coal Store", a time-honored brand in Beijing and Tianjin, opened in 1900 to engage in coal retail business. However, "coal is a bulky commodity and has to be transported over long distances. After the Gengzi Incident, the market was depressed and no one was willing to engage in this business to make a profit." Not much", so he had no choice but to switch to selling cement.

The key to making coal affordable for the common people lies in transportation, especially railways.

Lao Li first realized that railways were the key to the success or failure of coal mines.

He once tried to develop the Liuhegou coal mine in Cizhou, but Cizhou was deep inland and "the road was very difficult". After a lot of calculations, it was impossible to do it. The only way to resist foreign coal was to build railways, which were a political taboo at the time.

During the Self-Strengthening Movement, public opinion generally believed that "steam trains" were a bad move by foreigners, and the ministers of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China unanimously opposed the opening of the railway.

Li Hongzhang himself once complained that the railway was a foreign conspiracy to "cut off our mountains and rivers, harm our fields and houses, hinder our feng shui, and take away the livelihood of our merchants and people."

It was not until the 1870s that Xiao Benzi introduced British technology to open coal mines. He not only mechanically dug shafts, but also laid coal-carrying railways, which greatly increased production, and Lao Li suddenly woke up.

In 1876, Lao Li sent Tang Tingshu, the general manager of the Steamship Investment Promotion Bureau, to Tangshan to prepare for the Kaiping Coal Mine.

Tang Tingshu was not from a legitimate background in Kejia, but was a comprador of British Jardine Matheson Company. He was full of the smell of foreign money and was incompatible with Kejia officials, but his vision was also very different from that of conservative bureaucrats.

Sure enough, Tang Tingshu's exploration report started from the traffic:

"The prosperity and decline of all mines in the world depend on the quality of the coal, iron and stone, the second inspection on the quantity produced, the third inspection on whether the materials are cheap, and the fourth inspection on whether the transportation is difficult."

Tang Tingshu clearly pointed out that the success or failure of coal mines depends on transportation, and a complete transportation network for sea and land transportation of coal is planned with railways as the center.

Kaiping Coal Mine is located northeast of Tianjin, 70 kilometers away from the Beijing-Tianjin market. If transported by oxcart, the cost is too high and there is no mining value.

Even if the coal is transported by ship and sea, the raw coal must be transported to Lutai, a small port 40 kilometers away, but the freight still cannot be reduced.

Therefore, Tang Tingshu generously proposed to build a railway:

"In order to make Kaiping's coal industry prosper in order to seize the benefits of foreign coal... Unless the coal is transported by railway, I'm afraid it will be difficult to revive."

The first railway concept of the Kaiping Mining Bureau was to build a 100-mile railway connecting the Tangshan mining area and the Haibin Jianhe mouth, with a total price of 40 taels of silver.

Tang Tingshu promised that once the railway is opened, the capital can be recovered within two years.

"If we transport 150,000 tons of coal every year, we can save 330,000 taels of silver from Kaiping to Lutai."

This annual land transportation of 33 taels of silver is the key to the success or failure of Kaiping Coal.

At that time, neon coal was delivered in Shanghai at 6 taels per ton.

Governor Hu Jian and Ding Richang opened the Keelung Coal Mine, China's first mechanical mine in Daiwan, and laid a 2-kilometer "horse-drawn train" light railway to Haikou and across the sea to Shanghai. The price was 4 taels and 5 yuan per ton, making it the most important coal mine in China at that time. coal mine.

It’s just that the quantity is insufficient to replace neon coal.

Tang Tingshu pointed out that as long as the railway reaches Lutai Port, the delivery price of Kaiping Coal Demon City can also be reduced to 4 taels and 5 yuan per ton.

The potential of Kaiping Coal Mine is much greater than that of Daiwan.

Keelung Coal Mine has been in operation for 5 years, with an annual output of more than 5 tons; Kaiping Coal Mine has also been in operation for 5 years, with an annual output of 24 tons.

As long as Kaiping coal mines build railways, foreign coal will be marginalized overnight.

But in the same year that Tangshan mine opened, the domestic anti-railway controversy reached its climax.

Jardine Matheson built the Songhu Railway without authorization, which caused fierce controversy. The Qing government negotiated hard and bought the entire road for demolition.

The Kaiping coal mine railway plan was subsequently shelved, and a canal had to be built instead.

The 70-mile-long Coal River runs from Xugezhuang next to the Tangshan mining area to Jiyuan River to Lutai. The inland river transfers to Jinmen and goes directly to the sea to the magic city. The delivery price is as low as 5 taels per ton, which is 1 tael lower than Neon coal. Two, it is indeed powerful to squeeze the neon coal.

It became a golden waterway, but the canal could not go over the mountain.

The Tangshan mining area is located in a highland, and the 15 miles between Xugezhuang and Xugezhuang cannot be diverted to open a canal. The land transportation cost of this short 15 miles is enough to destroy Kaiping Coal.

So Lao Li and Tang Tingshu secretly built the "Tang-Xu Railway" from Tangshan to Xugezhuang. Memorials and documents used words such as "hard road", "express road" and "horse road" to make things difficult.

In the early summer of 1881, the Tang-Xu Railway was opened to traffic through the clumsy method of using a horse-drawn train, and then it was cut first and then announced later, and real trains were used to transport coal, which caused an uproar.

Tangshan is 200 miles away from the Dongling Tomb of the Qing Dynasty. Yan Guanzou charged it with "shaking the Dongling Tomb".

But at this time, the military situation on the border was urgent. Lao Li and Liu Mingchuan joined forces with Prince Chun to publicly advocate the construction of railways. "Hot steam trains" were no longer taboo.

The Tang-Xu Railway actually overcame the difficulties and was allowed to run.

Since then, the railway has become a national salvation policy.

The continued construction of the Tang-Xu Railway enabled the Kaiping Coal Mine to rapidly develop into the largest mine in China.

In 1887, the Tang-Xu Railway was built to Lutai, and coal was transported to the dock by rail after being mined.

In 1888, it was built in Dagu and Tianjin and shipped directly to the largest consumer market in North China.

In 1894, it moved north to Shanhaiguan and assumed the important task of national defense in Northeast China. However, Kaiping Coal's water and land transportation network was still in the final step.

Kaiping Coal Mine uses Tanggu as its shipping base, forming a coal shipping route that connects Guangdong Province, Northeast China, Shanghai, Tianjin, Qilu and Xiangjiang.

However, Tanggu freezes in winter, and only by obtaining a freeze-free port can the full potential of Kaiping Coal be unleashed.

In 1898, Kaiping Mining Bureau opened a port in Qinhuangdao and established a steamship fleet.

With railways and ice-free ports in place, Kaiping Coal has gained a dominant position and holds the power to price coal nationwide.

In the 1880s, Neon coal cost 6 taels of silver per ton, while Kaiping coal had to compete at a slightly lower price of 8 yuan per ton (silver 5.84 taels).

Now, the delivery price of Neonjudao bituminous coal in Jinling is 13 yuan per ton, and the Kaiping bituminous coal is 14 yuan per ton. The price is slightly higher and can still compete.

Kaiping Coal Mine has pointed out the development direction for the new generation of "coal bosses". New coal mining companies have sprung up. Domestic coal production has increased significantly, which has also depressed coal prices.

Not only was coal used for industry and transportation guaranteed, but the common people were also able to burn briquettes.

But railways can build mines, and they can also destroy coal mines.

In 1907, industrialist Ma Jisen established the Liuhegou Coal Mining Company in Ci County and laid a light railway to Fengle Town on the Beijing-Hankow Railway.

However, light railways cannot be connected to heavy rail trunk roads, and the cost of changing trains and loading and unloading is high.

After struggling for more than ten years, he changed his strategy and gave up on running his own light rail. He asked the Beijing-Hankow Railway Bureau to lay a broad-gauge branch line and rent it heavily to stabilize his operation.

In 1917, Ma Jun, an important minister of Yan Xishan, founded the Tongji Mining and Road Company in Jincheng. The quality of anthracite coal was far superior to that of the British-owned Fuzhong Coal Company in Jiaozuo, a neighboring county. However, the British resisted the construction of railways, and there was no way for development.

It was not until the 1930s that the Jinbo Railway was built to connect with the Daoqing Railway.

The major mines have lowered the price of coal, but at a price of about 8 yuan per ton, only wealthy businessmen can afford it.

Moreover, the firepower of the coal is not easy to adjust, which is also a big problem.

Traditional houses in North China sleep on a large kang, and the stove is right next to the kang. Coal is burned in the same stove, and the open flame is large and long-lasting.

But south of the Huaihe River, if you don’t sleep on a kang and simply burn a big pot, it is better to use firewood.

What’s even more troublesome is that the new-age city dwellers don’t have access to large chunks of coal.

At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, the rural population moved to the city, and the land was small and there were many people. Real estate developers took advantage of the trend and built dense alley-style residences.

Two-story buildings have been built in the "Shikumen" residential area in Shanghai, and there are long rows of houses in Beijing's alleys. It is very dangerous to burn firewood.

Moreover, most of the migrant workers are small families of about five people and cannot use large pieces of coal.

An average worker's family has one room each, ranging from 8.3 square meters to 10.7 square meters. Half of the small living space is a kang. There is no need to cook a large amount of food, and there is no space to cook a big pot.

New urban residents are in urgent need of new household fuels with less firepower.

Kaiping coal transported directly to Beijing and Tianjin by train has solved the fuel problem of urban residents.

Chengxingshun Coal Storehouse in Jinmen sells more than 3 tons of Kaiping coal every year. It specializes in high-end business. Its business has entered the Forbidden City, causing the palace that originally burned silver charcoal to burn hard coal.

Prince Yu's palace, the poorest among the princes, does not buy hard coal, but only "coal powder".

Cheng Xingshun's boss Shi Zhusan went to investigate and found out that what Prince Yu's Mansion burned was "coal cake".

Raw coal is washed to remove impurities and becomes clean coal, which is sold in blocks and is easy to burn.

The broken and mixed coal dust is commonly known as "coal dust", which is not easy to burn and is cheap.

People who cannot afford large pieces of coal often buy powdered coal mixed with soil and pressed into coal cakes.

"Tiangong Kaiwu" records that in the Ming Dynasty, people made coal cakes from coal dust, "mixed clean loess with water to make cakes and burned them." However, the coal cakes were not resistant to burning.

Shi Zhusan devoted himself to research and found that changing the cake shape to a ball shape greatly increased the firepower.

Then the experiment found the ideal ratio of 18 to 20 kilograms of soil for every kilograms of coal powder. "Then the viscosity will be appropriate and it will not be loose and broken. After burning, the furnace ash will be loose and easy to fall, and the chamber will not be refined and coke will not be produced."

Briquettes are small and can be burned in small furnaces, perfectly meeting the fuel needs of urban residences.

What's even more gratifying is that the briquettes don't need to be lit frequently and the firepower can be adjusted.

Traditionally, burning large stoves and lighting firewood is a time-consuming and labor-intensive chore. After a strong fire is finished, the meal has to be started all over again.

However, if you burn firewood at the bottom of a small coal stove, light the briquettes and boil water in a kettle, and close the air outlet after burning, the firepower of the briquettes will decrease, and the briquettes will burn slowly and will not go out. When you need to use it again, open the air outlet and the fire will re-ignite and it will last for a long time.

Before the briquettes are burned out, add new briquettes to the furnace, and the fire will continue to burn, which is most suitable for the fast pace of urban workers.

As a result, the people in the capital no longer burned firewood.

People in the capital switched to burning small coal stoves in the yard for cooking. In winter, they no longer burned kangs and switched to coal stoves for heating. "In winter, they are placed indoors for both cooking and heating. In summer, coal stoves are moved outside the house." .

"Coal briquettes are used for large kitchen stoves and small white stoves everywhere. Even the poorest families have to reserve them in advance."

Cheap and high-quality briquettes quickly became popular in major cities in northern China, while those south of the Yangtze River started burning briquettes 20 years later.

In 1926, Liu Hongsheng, an industrialist in Shanghai, opened the "No. Chinese Briquettes Manufacturing Factory" and pioneered the machine-made briquettes industry, which became an instant hit. In just one winter, the small coal stove replaced the traditional firewood stove. The craze for machine briquettes quickly swept through major cities in Jiangnan.

The city switched to burning briquettes, which greatly reduced the risk of fire. We saw buildings getting taller and residential areas getting denser.

In the 1930s, during the Great Depression of the global economy, a large amount of hot money poured into cities, and residential areas were built. The "Shikumen" in the magical city boldly built "three-story pavilions", accelerating the pace of urbanization.

In fact, the key obstacle to coal mine transportation is transportation. These days, all transportation rights are in the hands of big shots, making it extremely difficult for ordinary people to travel.

For example, take Mr. Zhou. Ten years ago, Mr. Zhou, who had just bought his first house in Beijing, got on the train back to his hometown in Yuezhou. He was going back to his hometown in Yuezhou to welcome his old mother to settle in Beijing. .

Mr. Zhou got on the train at 6:00 in the morning and arrived in Tianjin at 12:00 noon. He spent 6 hours on the road.

In future generations, it will only take 30 minutes to go from Beijing to Tianjin by high-speed rail and 50 minutes by high-speed train. If you take an ordinary train, up to two hours will be enough.

But Mr. Zhou spent 6 hours. What does this mean? It shows that the train speed is quite slow.

Upon arriving at Jinmen, Mr. Zhou immediately got off the train and took another train to Jinling.

Isn't he going back to Yuezhou? Why go to Jinling? Because there was no direct train to Yuezhou at this time, he had to go to Jinling first. When he got to Jinling, he would change to another train to go to Magic City. When he got to Magic City, he would have to change to another train to Hangcheng, and then take a boat back from Hangzhou. Yuezhou.

On the afternoon of January 1, Mr. Zhou arrived at Pukou, Jinling. Pukou is a town under the jurisdiction of Jinling, but it is located on the north bank of the Yangtze River.

At that time, there was no bridge over the Yangtze River, and the train track stopped abruptly when it reached Pukou, so Mr. Zhou could only ride as far as Pukou.

He got off the train at Pukou, bought a boat ticket at the pier, took the boat across the Yangtze River, hired a rickshaw to rush to Jinling Railway Station, and then transferred to the train to Shanghai.

On the evening of January 1, Mr. Zhou arrived in Shanghai and stayed at the Shanghai Hotel for one night.

The next morning, he went to the Shanghai Railway Station to buy a ticket and got on the train to Hangzhou.

On the afternoon of January 1, Mr. Zhou arrived in Hangzhou and stayed overnight in a Hangcheng hotel.

The next morning, he hired a boat to go to Yuezhou and arrived home safely that evening.

The straight-line distance from Beijing to Yuezhou is 1000 kilometers. It takes up to 15 hours by car, up to 7 hours by EMU, and up to one day and one night by ordinary train.

Where is Mr. Zhou? We set off in the morning of January 1st and arrived home in the evening of January 1th. We actually spent four days and three nights on the road!

After returning home, Mr. Zhou naturally wanted to take a good rest and could not leave immediately.

So Mr. Zhou lived in his hometown for more than half a month, sold his house in his hometown, packed his luggage, and returned to the capital with his mother and third brother.

The journey back is the same as when we came, but the order is reversed: first take a boat from Yuezhou to Hangcheng, then take a train from Hangcheng to Shanghai, then take a train from Shanghai to Jinling, and then get off at Jinling. Guan took a boat across the Yangtze River, took a train from Pukou to Jinmen, and finally took a train from Jinmen to the capital.

Mr. Zhou and others set off from their hometown in Yuezhou on the afternoon of January 1 and arrived at their new home in Beijing on the afternoon of January 24. This time it took a total of five days and five nights, which was longer than when they came here.

Why does it take longer? Because we encountered headwinds when we took the boat from Yuezhou to Hangzhou, we walked slower.

Of course, the reason why Mr. Zhou spent so much time on the journey was not mainly because of the slow speed, but because he needed to constantly change trains on other lines midway, which in turn required him to keep buying tickets and waiting for trains, so changing trains The more times, the more time is wasted.

Why do I need to transfer? It is precisely because the railways during the Republic of China were too fragmented and scattered and not connected to each other.

It is not terrible that the railways are not connected to each other. What is terrible is that many places have no railways at all.

In the summer of 1924, Mr. Zhou was invited to give lectures in Chang'an. He got on the train from Jingcheng West Railway Station on the evening of July 7, headed south along the newly opened Beijing-Hankou Railway, and arrived in Shangdu one day and one night later;

On the morning of July 7, he changed to the westbound train in Shangdu and arrived in Shaanzhou in the evening.

At that time, Shaanzhou was the end point of the Longhai Railway. There was no railway further west from Shaanzhou. But Mr. Zhou’s destination was Chang’an, so he could only go down the Yellow River from Shaanzhou and take a ship upstream. .

On the morning of July 7, we disembarked from Tongguan, and finally drove to Chang'an in a car sent to greet us.

It took him a whole week to get from the capital to Chang'an.

Train transportation during the Republic of China was so backward, but fares were not cheap.

In 1919, Wu Yu, a writer from Sichuan Province, went to teach at Beijing University. He had to take a ship to Hankou first, and then take a train from Hankou to Beijing.

He wrote in his diary: "The price of a second-class train from Hankou to Beijing is 29 yuan, plus an additional 4 yuan for a first-class sleeper. The third-class train costs 14 yuan and 50 cents, without beds."

What he means is that the seats on the Beijing-Hankow train are divided into three classes: third-class seats, second-class seats, and first-class seats.

From Hankou to Beijing, the ticket price for third-class seats is 14.5 yuan (ocean), the ticket price for second-class seats is 29 yuan, and the ticket price for first-class seats, which are sleepers, is 33 yuan.

In 1922, Wu Yu returned to his hometown in Sichuan Province from Beijing. At this time, the trains on the Beijing-Hankou Railway were divided into fast and slow. The express seats were still divided into three classes. The fares from Beijing to Hankou were 40 yuan, 30 yuan and 20 yuan. ;

Local train seats are divided into two categories: sleeper and hard seat. Sleeper is 30 yuan and hard seat is 15 yuan.

As a professor, Wu Yu had a generous salary and was not short of money, so she bought a first-class express ticket for 40 yuan.

In 1924, Wu Yu went from Beijing to Shanghai to visit her daughter. The bus route was divided into several sections just like when Mr. Zhou returned to his hometown in Yuezhou in 1920 to visit relatives. Not counting boat hire, hotel accommodation and other expenses, Wu Yu’s train ticket The total cost was 49 yuan.

In Beijing in 1924, one ocean could order milk for half a month, buy 2 kilograms of fresh mutton, and buy 20 kilograms of machine-made rice. If you spent 30 oceans, you could go to the best restaurant in the capital to eat a swallow-wing mat. .

The purchasing power of an ocean is equivalent to 60 yuan in later generations.

A trip from Beijing to Magic City costs 49 yuan for the train ticket alone, which is equivalent to nearly 3000 yuan in modern soft girl currency. As you can imagine, the ticket price is very high.

Wu Yu works as a professor at Peking University, with a monthly salary of 260 yuan.

Mr. Zhou worked in the Ministry of Education with a monthly salary of NT$300. Later, he began to be in arrears with wages and was often unable to make payments.

Both of them belong to the high-income class. Although train tickets are expensive, they can afford them.

But the same cannot be said for ordinary people. In a month, the whole family can earn 15 yuan a month, which is not bad. The money earned by the whole family is only enough to buy a one-way ticket on the cheapest carriage from Beijing to Hankou.

The most important thing is that this cheapest ticket is very painful.

Cars follow a hierarchical system and are generally divided into first-class, second-class and third-class cars.

There are obvious differences between these three types of cars in terms of comfort, treatment, and fares.

First-class cars are undoubtedly the most comfortable, with gorgeous equipment, spacious seats, carpets on the ground floor, dressing rooms, bathrooms, etc.

The chair is covered with goose down. As soon as you sit down, the whole body will be close to you and support you softly.

Although second-class cars are not as luxurious, their decoration and equipment are slightly inferior to those of first-class cars. They also have upholstered seats and more spacious seats.

Third-class trains have the simplest equipment. The seats are hard and extremely cramped. Especially at night, when the lights are dim and there are so many people, it’s impossible to read books or sleep. Taking a third-class train at night is simply a hell of a journey.

In the arrangement of passenger cars, third-class cars are usually next to the locomotive, followed by second-class cars, and finally first-class cars.

The reason is simple. The closer you are to the locomotive, the more severe the vibration will be.

If a train accident occurs, the closer you are to the front of the train, the more dangerous it is;

In addition, the closer you are to the locomotive, the more soot drifts from the train, making your face dingy.

The first thing I did when I arrived at the station on the third-class train was to shake off the soot from my body.

However, in the cold winter, the arrangement of passenger cars is reversed, with first-class cars closest to the locomotives, followed by second- and third-class cars.

This is because the hot water in the train heater flows from the boiler. Naturally, the closer you are to the locomotive, the hotter the heater will be.

If there is a calamity year, there will be many people who strip the train. The scene is not much different from that of Ah San in later generations.

Although there are not as many migrant workers and students entering the city in this period as in later generations, there are also many ordinary people who have escaped from the war.

Especially during the famine period, 80 farmers emigrated from one area of ​​the Central Plains alone.

During the Chinese New Year, these people took trains to return to their hometowns. The flow of people increased dramatically in a short period of time, causing the railway hub of the Republic of China to become a deadlock and the train station to turn into a refugee camp.

After finally looking forward to a few days off, Mr. Zhou couldn't care much. The most important thing was to squeeze into the train and grab a seat.

In order to pass through the crowd, these celebrities lifted up their long mandarin jackets, placed wooden boxes in front of their foreheads to act as armor, and rushed forward at a speed of two meters per second.

Of course, Mr. Zhou is relatively thin, so he does not have an advantage in grabbing seats.

Crowds of people will cause chaos, and robberies and thefts abound.

There are many cases where people are robbed and fail to catch the train in the end.

"Chaos" is not only the management of the train station, but also all kinds of people.

If you are waiting in line to check in, someone will tell you, "Please be careful, the guy behind you has a gun in his waist, and the guy in front of you looks like a certain agent!"

In short, when you are waiting in line to check in, you must keep an eye on all directions, listen to all directions, stay still in the face of danger, and be calm when things change...

Beyond that, you have to be careful with the tickets you hold.

Because the train ticket at this time only had the ticket stub and no identity information, no matter who took it away, he could leave on the train with dignity.

Compared with later generations, a ticket is as expensive as an airplane ticket. If someone takes it away, it may be a month's salary, and there will be no place to cry.

If you catch up with the Spring Festival travel rush, grabbing train seats is a "technical job".

For reasons of face, many celebrities would rather celebrate the New Year in a different place than grab a car seat.

If it catches up with the Chinese New Year, the fare may double, and many people cannot afford train tickets.

The biggest feature of trains in the Republic of China is actually its "privilege"!

If you don't have privileges, no matter you are an ordinary person or a celebrity, you are inferior. Only those in power are the masters on the train.

These people may never spend a penny on the train, and they also have the right to ask others to give up their seats. If they encounter anyone who refuses to give up their seats, they will fight with fists and kicks.

Some people stand for more than ten hours, while others use the car seat as a bed and lie down for more than ten hours.

If you are lucky enough to grab a seat and sit all the way to the end, it may be a lucky one. Even if the seat number is printed on the train ticket, I am afraid that due to the "privilege", you will end up without a seat.

Of course, what is different from those doorstep writers is that under the protection of privileges, celebrities like Zheng Zhi and monopoly businessmen can sit in luxury carriages, comfortably taste French red wine, eat high-end steaks, fall in love, and occasionally dance to a song Beautiful waltz.

In short, the trains of the Republic of China were like a microcosm of society, with the poor struggling in hell and the rich enjoying themselves in heaven.

Many literati despised the train phenomenon in the Republic of China and even vowed never to take class trains. For example, Mr. Zhou and his friends were shocked by this, which was beyond the scope of "shock".

The above situations do not cover accidents. If an accident occurs, it will be even more tragic.

In July 1920, six months after Mr. Zhou took the train back to Yuezhou to pick up his mother from Beijing, his fellow countryman Sun Fuyuan also made a trip back to Yuezhou.

Sun Fuyuan set out on the afternoon of July 7. Like Mr. Zhou, he also had to take the Beijing-Fengcheng train from Beijing to Jinmen, transfer from Jinmen to Jinpu train to Pukou, take a ferry from Pukou across the Yangtze River to Jinling, and transfer at Jinling. Take the Shanghai-Nanjing train to Shanghai, then transfer to the Shanghai-Hangzhou train to Hangzhou, and finally take a boat home from Hangzhou.

The journey went smoothly and it only took Sun Fuyuan four days.

When Sun Fuyuan returned to Yuezhou, it was smooth sailing, but on his way back to the capital from Yuezhou, he encountered a heavy rain.

This heavy rain lasted for more than half a month. The heavy rain broke down the river embankment, flooded the roadbed, and the Jinpu Railway was disconnected. Sun Fuyuan was trapped in Pukou, Nanjing for two weeks.

Two weeks later, the railway was basically repaired, and the Jinpu train started smoothly and headed north at a snail's pace.

Sun Fuyuan looked out through the car window. There was a heavy rain in the sky and white waves on the ground. He was obviously sitting on the train, but he felt seasick.

After returning to the capital, he said to his friend: Fortunately, the train I took had a roof. If I had taken an open-top train, not to mention getting seasick, but also having to get wet along the way, it would have been a lot of fun.

There were indeed open-top trains in this era. These trains only had carriages and no roofs. Passengers sat in the open air on long wooden benches scattered around in the carriages. If it rained, everyone would be soaked in the rain. If it didn't rain, they would all be soaked. Sometimes the sun burns me like a roasted pig.

When talking about open-top trains, everyone will think of open-top sightseeing trains in Europe. They only have carriages and no roofs. The trains travel very slowly (if the train speeds too fast, your cheeks will be scratched). They drive slowly through the scenery of lakes and mountains. Passengers sit on the railings. It was very pleasant to play small cards, drink wine, eat hot pot and sing songs.

But the Republic of China version of the open-top train was definitely not as comfortable. It was the simplest and cheapest means of transportation for migrant workers and other low-income groups.

The open-top trains at this time were like this: almost all locomotives were imported (as of 1930, there were 1224 locomotives in the country, of which 1070 were imported and only 154 were manufactured by the Tangshan Locomotive Factory under the Beining Railway Bureau). The carriages are produced in-house wherever possible.

Because steelmaking technology and riveting technology are too backward, and in order to reduce costs, the bodies of third-class and fourth-class carriages are mainly made of wood.

The major railway bureaus hired several carpenters to saw the elm and locust wood into boards, assemble them into carriages, dig out the windows, install wheels, and hang them behind the front of the carriage so that people could sit there.

According to the driving speed, it can be divided into three types, namely "slow train", "express train" and "special express train".

In terms of carriage quality and ride comfort, train carriages in the Republic of China can be divided into four types, namely "first-class", "second-class", "third-class" and "fourth-class".

Of course, there are also some railway lines that do not have fourth-class carriages. For example, the Jinpu Railway and Longhai Railway only have first-class, second-class and third-class carriages, and usually do not carry fourth-class carriages.

The locomotives of the Republic of China were basically all steam locomotives. They made great noises and vibrated strongly when running. There were gray smoke and sparks on the top, and water droplets and white steam below. The white mist and billowing black smoke drifted backwards. The closer the carriages were to the front of the locomotive, the more It is easy to be contaminated, so third-class and fourth-class carriages should be hung at the front, and second-class and first-class carriages should be at the back.

Now comes the problem: the third and fourth class carriages are made of wood and are close to the front of the car. If sparks are splashed from the front of the car, it will easily splash onto the third and fourth class carriages. At this time, the third and fourth class carriages are likely to catch fire, killing the passengers in the carriage. Burn to death.

Even if there are no sparks flying from the front of the train, some unqualified passengers in the third and fourth class carriages may throw cigarette butts and cause fires themselves.

This is by no means alarmist. On a train from Beijing to Fengtian, a passenger in the third-class carriage lit a cigarette and threw away the burning match. The match ignited the cotton pads of the sleeping passenger next to him. The cotton robe ignited the wooden board under the seat, and thick smoke billowed out of the carriage. The passengers ran around, trampling on each other, seventeen people were trampled to death, and twenty-two people were burned to death...

In order to reduce the harm caused by fire, the "smart" railway bureau removed the roofs of some third- and fourth-class carriages and transformed them into open-top trains. This way, even if there is a fire, passengers can breathe air and will not suffocate to death quickly.

The "benefits" of open-top trains don't stop there. It can also further reduce manufacturing costs (because there is no need for a roof, one less piece of wood can be used when producing the carriages), and more passengers can be crammed into the cramped carriages (air enters from above anyway). , no need to worry about passengers being suffocated).

Every winter break and New Year's Eve are approaching, the trains from Cangzhou to Tianjin, the trains from Hangzhou to Shanghai, etc., will be equipped with several low-priced open-top carriages for migrant workers to ride.

Open-top trains are definitely local trains (express trains and special express trains do not have open-top cars). The reason why local trains are slow is firstly because the power of the front of the train is lower, and secondly because there are more stops.

Slow trains like this are best for migrant workers.

Along the Shanghai-Hangzhou Railway, there are dots of villages. The villagers go out to work. After walking for more than ten miles, you can find a small station, buy a ticket, board the open-top train, and leisurely arrive at the Magic City, rowing a awning boat than before. It's much faster and safer to travel.

What's more, the ticket price is also very cheap.

If you take the express from Hangzhou to Shanghai, it costs 19 yuan (legal currency) for a first-class carriage, 12 yuan for a second-class carriage, and 8 yuan for a third-class carriage.

If you take the express train, it costs 15 yuan for a first-class carriage, 9 yuan for a second-class carriage, and 5 yuan for a third-class carriage.

If you take the local train, it costs 9 yuan for a first-class car, 5 yuan for a second-class car, and 2 yuan for an open-top car.

Migrant workers are not in a hurry, nor do they seek comfort. They bring dry food and water before departure and ride in an open-top carriage to Shanghai. Two yuan is enough, which is only equivalent to one or two days' wages.

Without open-top trains, the cost of getting into the city would have been at least twice as high.

As the saying goes, cheap goods are not good, and good goods are not cheap. The fare of an open-top train is so cheap, and the comfort of riding is naturally greatly reduced.

On the Shanghai-Hangzhou line, the first-class carriage is like a booth in a cafe, the second-class carriage is almost the same as the economy class on the plane, and the third- and fourth-class convertible carriages are much different.

First, there are no fixed seats in the open-top cars. There are only four long wooden benches in each car, arranged in a rectangular shape against the car. These are the seats for the passengers. If you can squeeze in, you can sit, and if you can't, you can stand.

There is an open space in the middle of the carriage, where luggage is stored. Bedding and clothing are piled randomly. If there is anything valuable, you must put it in your arms.

Secondly, the open-top carriage cannot protect you from wind and rain, so you have to endure exposure to the sun in summer. In winter, you will inevitably be tortured by wind and snow, being heated during the day, freezing at night, and sleeping in the open air, which is unspeakable misery.

Therefore, before taking an open-top train, experienced passengers will definitely bring a roll of quilt and a large piece of oilcloth to wrap themselves in the quilt when it is cold and cover it with the oilcloth when it rains.

Third, whenever urchins along the railway line throw stones at the train, the passengers in the open carriage will be the first victims, because they are traveling too slowly and there is no roof above, and the stones will probably fall down. Smash your head.

(End of this chapter)