Seeking Truth with a Sword-Chapter 418 - 369 Luoyang

Chapter 418: Chapter 369 Luoyang
It proved that when the Yu Country mobilized its national strength, no difficulty could stand in its way.
Cart after cart of ore was transported from the mines. Workshop furnaces blazed day and night, melting iron into steel. Tens of thousands of laborers worked busily in the mountains and forests like ants, cutting down timber and carving out roads to lay down railway tracks.
For this project, the Yu Country allocated a massive amount of resources. State Mansions dispatched over one hundred thousand laborers, and the Ministry of Industry alone consumed tens of thousands of talismans of varying levels to break rocks and excavate mountains.
The Academic Palace, Lu Li Academy, and other academies also sent a significant number of teachers and students who used Magic to dig tunnels through mountains and construct bridges over gorges.
Although the construction costs doubled and redoubled as the project progressed, once a section of the railway was completed, it quickly became operational, using Spiritual Energy Locomotives to continuously transport the steel rails and materials produced in the workshops to the construction front.
In this manner, building and using concurrently, it took less than three months to complete a railway connecting Chang’an and Luoyang.
For this reason, the court established a new department under the Ministry of Supervision, parallel to the Six Ministries, to oversee and manage all railway matters. Su Feng, who had no interest in holding office, was eventually assigned the position of Assistant Minister, and his rank was elevated. His disciples also all received official posts or rewards.
Of course, a railway could not function with just one locomotive running on it, so the Academic Palace worked overtime to urgently produce two trains. Spaced apart, they would travel along the railway, making stops at stations set up in the State Mansions en route. They transported goods and passengers alike.
With financial revenues secured, operating the railway was no longer simply a matter of burning through cash. The court quickly enacted new plans to construct railways widely throughout the State Mansions until they spanned the entire Yu Country.
Along the railway lines, State Mansions gathered more manpower and materials, erecting more taverns, tea houses, lodgings, warehouses, and workshops, providing even more employment opportunities.
In turn, the newly constructed workshops could use the railway to sell their products far and wide, enabling continued expansion. This created a positive feedback loop.
「At the end of autumn.」
"If the nation is a giant beast, then the railway is its vital network of blood vessels..."
Li Ang wrote a line on the scroll, then turned his head to look at the evening sky outside the window.
At this moment, he was sitting in a carriage of a train traveling from Luoyang back to Chang’an, opposite He Fanshuang who was quietly flipping through a book.
Luoyang had always been the Eastern Capital of the Yu Country. Since the Li royal family rose from Guanzhong, their control over Guandong had been weaker. During the early Yu Chu period, emperors frequently visited Luoyang themselves to reinforce their rule over the eastern part of the empire.
Furthermore, whenever the Emperor traveled, he would be accompanied by a large entourage of Imperial Family members, nobles, court officials, and constables, as well as common people and merchants. This custom had continued to the present.
After the railway was constructed, travel between Chang’an and Luoyang became much more convenient and fast. Li Ang and He Fanshuang, as outstanding disciples representing the Academic Palace, had visited Lizheng Academy in Luoyang for a few days of observation and study and were now on their return trip.
PSST!
The sound of steam bursting came from outside the carriage, and the train slowly came to a stop. Through the glass window, one could see the brightly lit station and passengers on the platform, carrying their luggage and boarding or disembarking from the train.
Traveling long distances in this era was truly arduous. Days on horseback left one’s body sore and aching, covered in dust from head to face, and riding in a horse-drawn carriage wasn’t much better.
But traveling by train was a different experience altogether. You could cover a thousand miles from morning to evening, not only quickly but also comfortably seated, sheltered from wind and rain. For this, many were willing to spend more money on a train ticket.
Some governmental officials in uniforms, holding megaphones made of tin, shouted across the platform, "Carrying flammable oils, stoves, candles, and other prohibited items on the train is strictly forbidden; swords and weapons must be surrendered in advance..."
Outside the station platform, on the flat ground, small stalls were erected, selling newspapers, food, tea, and other items. The scent of humanity was in the air.
For a moment, the memory of noisy and bustling train stations from another world overlaid the scene before his eyes.
"What are you writing?"
Perhaps disturbed by the noise outside the window, He Fanshuang lifted her head from behind her book and asked indifferently.
"Reflections on visiting Luoyang."
Li Ang responded. Ever since Mo Si spiraled out of control, he had begun to keep a diary, noting the daily fluctuations of his emotions, to guard against Mutated Objects altering his mind.
Of course, it absolutely did not involve any memories from the Otherworld.
"How should I put it? Lizheng Academy was more rigid than I expected. Their rules were more stringent."
He paused momentarily, then nonchalantly added, "I heard that ten years ago, they even had separate campuses for males and females."
The trip to Lizheng Academy was an experience that couldn’t be said to be either good or bad. The atmosphere there was more like that of the Imperial College, less relaxed and free than the Academic Palace.
Moreover, the local students who received Li Ang and He Fanshuang had complex and subtle attitudes. Their reception was a mix of a certain adoration and envy that peers might have for the accomplished, as well as a pride and restraint characteristic of the Luoyang people from the Eastern Capital, unwilling to be seen as inferior by visitors from Chang’an.
It could only be described as quite adolescent.
"Um. But their studies in Natural Science and talismanic study were very interesting."
He Fanshuang picked up a publication from the table and said, "Especially the recent Divine Evil Cloud Talisman."
The Cloud Talisman, an ancient talisman originating from Witches, was now engraved by Su Feng onto metal plates of Spiritual Energy Machines and formed the core of these machines.
Since Su Feng revealed the game-changing Spiritual Energy Locomotive in the Yu Country, all parties began to take action.
Spies from the Zhou and Jing Kingdoms were vigorously and urgently gathering intelligence. State Mansions across the Yu Country mobilized their connections, hoping to influence the court to build railroads locally. Noble families, sensing the court’s firm determination to push forward with railroad construction, were somewhat anxious. They knew that once the railroads were completed, the connection between localities and the court would become much tighter, further shrinking their operational space.
Wealthy merchants and workshop owners, on the other hand, were actively networking, wanting to apply the Spiritual Energy Machines to commerce as soon as possible, whether it be in textiles, sewing, papermaking, or smelting.
As for Philosophy Society Scholars across the country, they too were diligently studying the few published papers, trying to keep pace with Su Feng’s research.
"Do you have anything to say?"
Li Ang asked.
He Fanshuang was a true genius. Aside from her major focus on Sword Study and talismanic study, she also delved into Natural Science, Mathematics, music theory, painting, and poetry.
To use the words of the newspapers, she was well-versed in classics and history, and skilled in poetry and painting.
Especially in the fields of Mathematics and Astronomy.
After the invention of the telescope, all Philosophy Society Scholars used it to observe celestial bodies. They soon came to conclusions such as the Earth spinning and orbiting the Sun, and the Moon not emitting light but merely reflecting sunlight. They also calculated the specific orbits of celestial bodies and even speculated that light itself has a speed.
But He Fanshuang went a step further.
With the telescope, she discovered four moons of Jupiter and, after prolonged observations, noticed that one of the moons had an orbit close to Jupiter’s orbit around the Sun.
Therefore, at times, that satellite would go behind Jupiter and disappear from the view of the telescope.
She recorded every instance when the satellite vanished and reappeared. Eventually, she noticed that when Earth was far from Jupiter, the time difference between the satellite’s disappearance and reappearance was seven minutes longer (measured using Su Feng’s clock) than when Earth was closer.
Taking this number and factoring in the distance between Earth and Jupiter, one could vaguely calculate the speed of light.
The entire observation process took her two years.