Seeking Truth with a Sword

Chapter 416 - 367: Cost

The Spiritual Energy Locomotive surged forward, unstoppable, quickly disappearing from the onlookers’ view.

Before long, the horse-drawn carriage and the riders returned to the station, shaking their heads to explain that they had completely lost track.

The crowd instantly erupted into a buzz. The Spiritual Energy Locomotive was faster than galloping horses, and its cargo capacity far exceeded theirs.

The expressions of the crowd varied. The Chang’an citizens who had come just for the spectacle showed faces full of amazement, while merchants dealing in bulk commodities could hardly contain their ecstatic joy. Only on the periphery of the crowd did coachmen, porters, and boatmen appear somewhat uneasy, whispering to each other, worried that the Spiritual Energy Locomotive would steal their jobs.

After more than an hour, that characteristic clanging sound once again traveled from afar.

The Spiritual Energy Locomotive, approaching from the opposite direction and billowing steam, slowly decelerated until it finally stopped.

Su Feng smiled as he stepped down from the locomotive’s cab. He gestured to the porters, then opened the cargo cars, and they began to unload the goods from inside.

The onlooking crowd saw clearly: when it left, the cargo cars were loaded with grain, oil, rice, flour, cloth, tea, and wine, but upon its return, they were filled with logs, bricks and tiles, medicinal herbs, spices, fish, and more.

Even more significantly, there was a signboard from the Tong Pass Inn.

The crowd gasped. Tong Pass was over eighty li from Ba Bridge. A horse-drawn carriage would take at least three hours to cover that distance, and that was with changing horses. Yet the Spiritual Energy Locomotive had only taken a little over an hour?

By that calculation, couldn’t one travel from Chang’an to Luoyang, departing in the morning and arriving by evening?

Smiling, Su Feng patted Ou Zhiyuan’s shoulder and instructed his disciple to check the locomotive’s condition and record the data, while he himself brushed off the dust from his clothing and briskly climbed the stairs of a nearby restaurant.

Inside the pavilion, the Emperor, Crown Prince, Prime Ministers, and other ministers had shifting expressions, clearly full of questions.

"Dr. Su," Emperor Yu spoke gravely, "What is the speed of the Spiritual Energy Locomotive? And what is its consumption?"

"Your Majesty," Su Feng replied with a slight smile. He had already detailed these minor points in previous petitions, so the Emperor was certainly aware of them. This was merely an opportunity to inform the other ministers. "Ba Bridge is eighty-six li from Tong Pass. The round trip is one hundred seventy-two li and took a total of five 15-minute intervals. One of those 15-minute intervals was spent loading and unloading goods at the Tong Pass station. The actual travel time was four 15-minute intervals.

As for consumption, the Spiritual Energy Locomotive harnesses nature’s spiritual energy for power. The only consumables are mechanical parts needing replacement due to wear and tear, which is almost negligible."

Su Feng paused, taking in the astonished expressions of Chief of Staff Pei Su, Minister of the Secretariat Xue Ji, and the others, before continuing, "And this was achieved without the locomotive running at full speed. At full throttle, the Spiritual Energy Locomotive could travel 480 li every two hours."

"Leaving at dawn from White Emperor City amid colorful clouds, one can return from a thousand-li Jiangling within a day."

This poem instantly sprang to everyone’s mind. Returning from thousand-li Jiangling in a day? Four hours would suffice! This was truly a scenario of departing in the morning and arriving by evening.

"What about the cargo weight?" Minister Pei Su took a deep breath and asked in a deep voice, "How much cargo can it carry?"

"The load capacity of each cargo car depends on the quality of the rails. During the recent trip, one car was loaded with just under twelve thousand catties of goods. However, in the Academic Palace Forging Workshop, we’ve tested that a single car can carry up to eighty thousand catties."

Su Feng watched with satisfaction as the ministers’ expressions changed dramatically. He added, "And the Spiritual Energy Locomotive can pull six such cargo cars at once."

That’s equivalent to a capacity of 480,000 catties.

Most of the ministers present had risen steadily from the rank of county official through meticulous examinations and appraisals. They calculated a series of figures in the blink of an eye.

Chang’an City housed no fewer than three million people, which equated to three million hungry mouths to feed. They required millions of catties of food each day. Every day, an endless stream of horse-drawn carriages and cargo ships entered Chang’an City. The whole city resembled a giant beast that could never be satiated, drawing in resources from all directions without a moment’s rest. So much so that every winter, the garrison had to dispatch cultivators to blast away the ice on rivers like the Wei River, just to allow ships to navigate with difficulty.

If there were a few more Spiritual Energy Locomotives, these vehicles alone could potentially feed all the citizens of Chang’an, loosening the noose that hung ominously over the necks of Chang’an officials.

"What about the cost?" Crown Prince Li Si inquired, "Such a colossal device must surely not come cheap, right?"

"Your Highness," Su Feng began, "the components used in the Spiritual Energy Locomotive are exceedingly intricate and complex. Ordinary workshops cannot manufacture them; they can practically only be made using the Academic Palace’s Iron Melting Skill and Iron Casting Technique." Su Feng, who had come prepared, produced a thick stack of blueprints from his robes. "The Spiritual Energy Machine itself costs 600,000 strings of coins. The locomotive’s boiler, steam engine, chassis, and other parts cost 250,000 strings. The iron-plated cargo cars, including wheels, are another 100,000 strings. Adding the various seats, benches, and other fittings, the total cost for one locomotive and its cars exceeds a million strings."

"How much?!"

Even with some mental preparation, this figure still far exceeded what the ministers had anticipated. Ten thousand strings could buy a luxurious residence in Chang’an or construct an oceangoing sailboat; a million strings... would be more than enough to launch a small-scale war.

"This is just the cost of the Spiritual Energy Locomotive and its cars," Su Feng continued patiently. "The real major expense is the rails. A three-foot-long rail weighs approximately thirty-six catties, so a pair of rails for that length weighs seventy-two catties. At today’s price of iron in Chang’an, which is forty wen per catty, this means that every three feet of track costs 2,880 wen’s worth of iron. For one li of railway track, the iron alone will cost 1,440 strings. To extend it to Luoyang, a distance of 600 li, the total for iron would be 860,000 strings. To reach Dengzhou, it would be 3,450,000 strings for the iron."

A series of figures left the ministers with rapidly changing expressions, especially the Minister of Revenue, whose face turned pale.

"...And moreover, this is just the ideal cost." Su Feng continued, seemingly oblivious to their reactions, "In reality, the terrain is often uneven. We’ll need to build detours around mountains and construct bridges over rivers. The actual construction cost for the railway could easily be double this amount."

"Wouldn’t wooden rails suffice?" one minister couldn’t help but ask. "I’ve heard that in mines, ore is transported on wooden tracks, usually just wrapped in a layer of iron."

"That won’t do," Su Feng shook his head. "Wooden rails are too light and too frail. They might support small carts carrying ore, but not these larger vehicles. There would be a risk of derailment."

Crown Prince Li Si, well-acquainted with Su Feng’s character, asked helplessly, "Dr. Su, as the inventor of the Spiritual Energy Locomotive, why aren’t you advocating for your own invention?"

"Heh," Su Feng smiled. "Your Highness, there’s no need. The combined cost of the Spiritual Energy Locomotive and the rails might seem exorbitant at first glance. However, once you calculate and weigh the benefits, the conclusion is clear: it is far superior to transport by horse-drawn carriage or by river and sea."