At eight o'clock in the morning on January 19th, other passengers arrived at the station one after another and boarded the train one by one.

A large amount of work-related equipment and laboratory products carried by the craftsmen were also transported by small cranes into the freight car at the rear.

The three action leaders of Honglu Temple, the Ministry of Industry, and the shipyard went to check and confirm whether the personnel of their respective teams were present.

After all the goods were loaded and all personnel confirmed, the official train blew its whistle and dragged its long body slowly out of the station.

After the train passed through the special train gate in the old city of Jingshi and entered the Fengtai County area, its speed slowly increased and entered a stable driving state.

Zhu Jingyuan looked at the receding scenery outside the window and felt that something was not right, so he asked Guan Tianpei next to him:

"Guan Zhenfu, how long does it take for this bus to travel? When will it arrive at Tianjin Port?"

Guan Tianpei answered without hesitation and very accurately:

"In order to ensure driving safety, the speed of this shuttle bus is controlled at 60 kilometers per hour.

“The total journey is 160 kilometers and is expected to take two hours and 40 minutes.

"It is expected to arrive at Tianjin Port around 10:40 in the morning."

Zhu Jingyuan was a little stunned after hearing this:

"This... speed is really too conservative..."

The railway Zhu Jingyuan is traveling on is the highest-standard railway in the entire Ming Dynasty. It is a "dedicated line" connecting the capital to the coastal ports.

The capital's material entry and exit and the rapid movement of people are highly dependent on this artery leading to the sea.

Therefore, the railway security level is also the highest, with specialized road protection troops patrolling day and night.

At the same time, the Beijing-Tianjin business train that Zhu Jingyuan was riding was also the highest-end passenger train on this road.

It can run at an average speed of 100 kilometers per hour on this nearly straight Beijing-Tianjin special railway.

This is already the speed of the K-prefixed train in later generations, and has surpassed the lowest green train.

However, in order to ensure safety, its daily operating speed is limited to 80 kilometers per hour, which is exactly the lower limit of a K-shaped car.

As a result, for the sake of safety today, the operating speed was lowered again, directly adjusted to 60 kilometers per hour, which is the speed of the green truck.

The passengers on board the car are all very important, so I just want stability rather than speed. I can only understand it this way.

On ordinary railways in other parts of the Ming Dynasty, most trains run at around 40 per hour.

It may seem relatively low, but this is actually the level before liberation.

Zhu Jingyuan was thinking about the matter in his mind, and turned to admire the scene in the early spring of the new city in the capital that he had not seen for a long time.

Then Zhu Jingyuan once again lamented that in this largest city in the world, there are not many high-rise buildings at first glance.

Even outside the scope of Fengtai County, the surrounding buildings are still dominated by three- and five-story buildings, and there are many courtyards surrounded by two- and three-story buildings.

Zhu Jingyuan glanced at Niu Jian and Lin Zexu, who were also looking at the scenery, and half intentionally and half sincerely asked them for their opinions:

"Two gentlemen, in the old city of Jingshi, Fengtai, and Daxing, there are regulations restricting high-rise buildings, so there are no high-rise buildings.

"But why are there not many high-rise buildings in areas far away from these places?"

Niu Jian and Lin Zexu immediately became energetic when they heard the question.

The young people of this era have received modern advanced education, and their mentality when they just graduated is actually very similar to that of college students in later generations.

They are very interested in analyzing and discussing various issues and expressing their own opinions.

This time Niu Jian spoke first and analyzed:

“Students believe that although the regulations restricting the construction of high-rise buildings in the old city of Jingshi, Fengtai County, and Daxing County do not apply to other areas, they have objectively affected other areas.

“Because there are no high-rise buildings in the royal gardens, the nobility and the new elite do not pursue high-rise buildings. Then the common people learn from the nobility and elites and do not build overly high buildings.

"In the end, no one is pursuing too tall buildings, so now there are no too tall buildings around Jingshi New City. As a result, the urban area is getting bigger and bigger."

Zhu Jingyuan nodded slightly, feeling that what Niu Jian said made sense:

"So, if we consider it completely objectively, is such a relatively sparse and low architectural style beneficial to the development of cities and businesses?"

This time Niu Jian and Lin Zexu were both deep in thought.

If the question just now seemed like a simple curiosity, this question has obvious thinking and a certain depth.

A few seconds later, Lin Zexu spoke first:

"Students believe that objectively speaking, this is certainly not conducive to business development, and it is inconvenient for business clerks and factory workers to work.

"A more appropriate plan should be for the commercial banks to be as centralized as possible to facilitate the exchange of information between each other and facilitate purchasing choices.

“However, this is not insurmountable. The urban railways in the new city connect the sparse urban areas.

"Without these railways, there would have been more concentrated, high-density high-rise commercial and residential areas."

At this time Niu Jian opened his mouth and added:

"Actually, the situation Brother Lin mentioned has already occurred in some parts of Xincheng.

"I have paid special attention to it for a while. There is a commercial area with relatively dense high-rise buildings to the south of the central part of the new city. Now more and more businesses are concentrated there.

"Land prices and house prices nearby are rising rapidly, but more and more people are still concentrated there."

Zhu Jingyuan was also a little surprised. He didn't expect that the other party had specifically observed this situation, and then continued to ask for various thoughts:

"Do you two think this situation is good or bad? What impact will it have on the development of Jingshi New City?"

“Will such large-scale urban expansion continue to crowd out private fields and affect our food supply in the Ming Dynasty?”

"How much cultivated land is needed in the Ming Dynasty to ensure stable local demand?"

“Should the imperial court take the initiative to control the city’s development space?”

Zhu Jingyuan asked questions one after another, and the two best contemporary scholars were a little confused by the questions.

Both of them instinctively sighed that the matters that His Highness asked were really becoming more and more in-depth and complicated.

These questions are completely unlike those raised by a fifteen-year-old boy, but rather like things that one's classmates should do.

Neither of them were afraid or bored by it, but became more and more interested because they both found a like-minded feeling.

These young scholars usually like to think about similar things and like to get together to discuss such things.

So the two used the knowledge they learned, combined with their own observed and summarized experiences, started their own thinking, and discussed with Zhu Jingyuan.

There are no accurate answers to those questions, and Zhu Jingyuan himself has no answers that he can refer to.

Because the situation is different, the answers may be different and the choices may be different. The current situation in Ming Dynasty cannot be compared with any other country in the past life.

However, these problems that I encountered in my previous life can be used as an introduction to thinking and trigger the thinking of the scholars in this world.

Therefore, Zhu Jingyuan will not make an accurate judgment, but will only refer to and judge whether what the other party says is reasonable, and also join in the discussion.

From Zhu Jingyuan's point of view, this is three people guiding the country together, or in other words, key politics.

This discussion quickly built up the relationship between the three of them, making the two young scholars feel less restrained.

The three of them chatted enthusiastically for more than two hours. In addition to drinking more water, they became more energetic as they chatted.

Guan Tianpei felt drowsy after hearing this, but he didn't dare to fall asleep at all, so he could only get up and go out to patrol without listening to the three people's chatter.

The train Zhu Jingyuan took traveled in the southeast direction. After more than forty minutes, it left the boundaries of Jingshi New City and approached Langfang City.

However, the railway did not enter Langfang City, but went directly around from the side and continued forward.

The surrounding multi-story buildings slowly became sparse, and soon became dense again as the train entered the suburbs of Tianjin's old city.

Tianjin Old Town is the original river port city, and Tianjin New Town is the seaside shipping terminal city.

The train passed through the old city of Tianjin and continued driving for more than 40 minutes. At 10:40 in the morning, it entered the military port of the new city.

The passenger ship itself has been prepared, and the navy's escort fleet is also cruising at sea waiting, so there is no need to slowly start from scratch.

After the train stopped, the soldiers from Guan Tianpei's command and the Jinyiwei personnel first got off the train to check the surrounding situation, and then boarded the ship to inspect the interior of the passenger ship.

Zhu Jingyuan waited in the car until 12 noon and had lunch directly on the train before finally receiving the news that he could get off the train and board the ship.

Zhu Jingyuan, who was a little anxious about waiting, quickly got up, got out of the carriage with Guan Tianpei and two staff members, and took a transfer bus in the port to the dock.

As the car gradually approached the pier, the outline of the passenger ship docked on the pier became clearer and clearer, giving the impression that it was getting bigger and bigger.

When the car stopped at the bottom of the gangway, two young men, Lin Zexu and Niu Jian, stepped out of the car with their heads raised.

The two of them stood under the gangway, looking at the passenger ship hull above in the distance, with shocked expressions on their faces.

"I used to read in newspapers that this steel ship didn't look that big between the boundless sea and sky."

"Now that I'm here, I realize how huge it actually is."

"It's really as big as a city wall and like a mountain..."

Zhu Jingyuan heard the conversation between the two staff and looked up at the shape of the big ship again.

This passenger ship is different from what I imagined. It does not have the typical style of a modern Western cruise ship. I may never see that image again in my life.

Just like the sedans of the Ming Dynasty are really sedans, the superstructure of this ship is like an oriental palace.

It's just that in the middle of this palace-like building, there are four tall chimneys, showing the power of the industrial age as the saying goes.
To be continued...