Chapter 1 The Newly Arrived Carriages

"Your Highness, the carriages are ready. Directly transferred from the Ye Family Workshop, a total of six brand new four-wheeled carriages. They're very beautiful." A servant reported to Chang Huaiyin.

"Oh?" Feeling somewhat bored in Danyang, Chang Huaiyin put down the book in her hand and said, "Go and take a look. Finally, we can throw away those broken carriages."

Coming all the way from Chunnan, those exquisitely decorated Chunnan-produced carriages had really tormented them. The carriages' refinement did not contribute in any way to their comfort. The long journey from Yuhang to Danyang, even on a road that was already of a fairly high standard, had left Chang Huaiyin, her husband, and their children in considerable pain. On the road, they had heard that the Ye Family Workshop had been developing four-wheeled carriages for generations. In just a few short years, the workshop had launched increasingly comfortable carriages, developing to a terrifying twenty-second generation... Sometimes two generations of products were updated in a month.

"Your Highness..." Seeing Chang Huaiyin running out to see the carriages herself, an apprentice from the Ye Family Workshop, who was introducing the various features of the vehicles to the coachman of the Juxian Prince's Mansion, saluted.

"Get up," Chang Huaiyin frowned slightly and asked, "This carriage looks a bit strange."

"Your Highness," the apprentice carefully explained, "This new type of carriage was finalized just last month. In addition to the ten sent to Yunzhou for the Yunzhou Pacification Commissioner's Office to use, our workshop is honored to have such a distinguished guest as you to experience this new type of carriage first. I have noticed that the carriages used in your Highness's mansion are still old-fashioned wooden four-wheeled carriages. Because the style is really too outdated, I really don't know how to compare the huge gap between your mansion's original carriages and this new type of carriage. Please allow me to explain it in detail to your Highness..."

Initially, the somewhat restrained apprentice saw that Chang Huaiyin seemed to be quite interested in the workshop's carriages, and relaxed. He carefully explained the advantages of the carriages. And this new type of carriage from the Ye Family Workshop did indeed have unique features, applying a series of new materials and new processes. It would not be an exaggeration to say that it was a concentrated embodiment of various technologies of this era. The chassis of the carriage was a cast H-shaped steel frame, and the carriage body was also installed on the steel frame, providing excellent safety. Ordinary wooden carriages were easily destroyed if they overturned or something similar, while this type of carriage would not deform too much even if it rolled from the top of a hillside to the bottom. All four wheels of the carriage used independent suspension, not the simple spring set suspension, but a mechanical strut suspension. The triangular spring support group could convert vertical bumps into small-range movements in the front and rear directions, thereby better absorbing vibration and making the ride smoother and quieter. The windows were all louvered window frames. In sunny weather or when full ventilation was needed, the entire louvered window frame could be retracted into the car body and door with a crank. Each louvered window frame could individually adjust the tilt of the blades to adjust ventilation and lighting. And there was also a more wonderful small design inside the car: a central locking system. When all the louvered window frames were enabled, all you had to do was pull and twist to close all the louver blades tightly and lock them in place. For some people, these louver blades, with steel sheets at the core and wood chips pasted on the outside, might be able to buy themselves a little more time in an emergency, thereby changing their fate.

In addition to ensuring safety and reliability, these carriages allocated to Chang Huaiyin and her party this time had also reached the peak of this era in terms of decoration and comfort. In accordance with the Ye Family Workshop's consistent style, customization had become a tradition in terms of decoration. Because the delivery time for the six carriages sent this time was tight, and because Chang Huaiyin requested simplicity and low-key, there were no magnificent decorations. They were basically the same version as the batch of carriages that had already been sent to Yunzhou. But even so, the carriages already had many commendable features in this regard. The carriage had brass decorative strips, which complemented the overall bright black paint of the carriage. The carriage was equipped with small cowhide seats with an excellent feel. Although there was no electric heating or computer-memorized seat adjustment, the facing rows of seats, designed according to ergonomics with comfortable curves and headrest positions, were filled with springs and sponge, carefully adjusted for elasticity and flexibility, making people reluctant to stand up once they sat down. In order to adapt to the needs of long-distance travel, the seats could also be adjusted in several gears, and could even be laid flat to become a fairly comfortable bed. The bright, mirror-like walnut wood decoration in the car was not gorgeous, but it was very stylish.

When describing such a carriage, many words that Ye Tao and Tan Weixin were very familiar with could already be used: leather seats, central locking, walnut interior... etc. This extremely comfortable carriage, very suitable for long-distance travel, was expensive. But for Chang Huaiyin or Chang Hongquan, that was precisely the least important thing.

After Chang Huaiyin understood the entire carriage and sent away the apprentices from the Ye Family Workshop, her husband, Sun Jin, sighed and walked out from one side of the garden. Sun Jin looked carefully at the carriage with a scrutinizing gaze and became a little serious. Chang Huaiyin leaned gently in Sun Jin's arms and said softly, "What's wrong? Taking the children to Yunzhou, such a carriage will make us much more comfortable, isn't that good?"

Sun Jin smiled and shook his head, saying, "It's naturally very good for us... But..."

Noticing Sun Jin's hesitation, Chang Huaiyin asked, "But what?"

"Some troops in Chunnan are still equipped with bronze weapons, just because Chunnan's iron smelting capacity is insufficient, let alone steel. But Dongping has become so extravagant that it uses steel as the structure of buildings, as the frame of carriages, and many other things. The steel production alone is surprising. Of course, the Ye Family Workshop is special. They can naturally get good steel, and no one dares to say anything about what they use it for. But listening to the apprentice's explanation just now, it's fortunate that only the Ye Family Workshop can do these things." Sun Jin sighed a little.

"What's wrong? Isn't it good to have more of these carriages?" Chang Huaiyin still didn't understand what was going on.

"Not good, very bad." Sun Jin said with a wry smile, "The Prince has been asking around these days. Now Dongping's capabilities in carriages and horses are simply staggering. With full preparation, even the two private business firms, Federal Express and DHL, can achieve an average daily progress of two hundred *li* in transporting bulk goods. The speed of high-speed passenger transport has reached an average of two hundred and fifty *li* per day... That is to say, if we travel at this speed, it will indeed be more hard and tiring, but it will only take eleven days from Danyang to Ningyuan... For the same distance, as long as there is a decent road, it probably won't be much slower. What about in times of war? This speed will directly kill any opponent."

"Is it that powerful?" Chang Huaiyin asked hesitantly.

"...It's just that powerful." Sun Jin sighed, "Maybe it's just a small matter, or maybe we're overthinking it. But now Dongping is becoming more and more incomprehensible. It's a pity that there are still people in the court who think that they have gained considerable advantages in trade with Dongping in recent years from the purchase of military equipment and the training of craftsmen, and they still think that sending so many craftsmen to the Ye Family Workshop to learn will allow them to learn all the technical essence of the Ye Family Workshop. The Ye Family Workshop is very dedicated to teaching, and is like that to everyone, but... I'm afraid that the more they learn, the farther they will be from Dongping."

Although Sun Jin did not have great ambitions, from the moment he was asked if he was willing to marry Chang Huaiyin, his fate was deeply intertwined with the Chang family and the Chunnan royal family, making it impossible for him not to consider Chunnan. And on these small matters, those Chunnan merchants might sneer at it, but the various changes taking place in Dongping were really quite worrying.

"Is everything okay?" Chang Huaiyin frowned slightly and said, "Don't be like your father's subordinates. We're going to Yunzhou to have fun."

Sun Jin showed a gentle smile and said, "Of course. I'm just a very ordinary scholar, and I don't have the abilities of the Prince's subordinates." After a pause, Sun Jin asked, "When shall we leave?"

Chang Huaiyin thought for a while and said, "There's a big show at the Yizhan Building's lecture hall tonight. After we watch it, let's set off tomorrow, shall we?"

Sun Jin affectionately tightened his arms around Chang Huaiyin and said, "Okay."

For him, a person who has always loved poetry, history, and music, and other seemingly not very "practical" knowledge, Danyang's prosperous cultural activities and the attitude of completely separating the communication between literati and politics were extremely attractive and even made him feel a little incredible. Even the poorest literati, as long as they really had talent, could display their skills in various poetry gatherings and song gatherings. And even if their talent in this area was amazing, even if the officials of the court present admired them, they would not or dare not bring this goodwill into their daily work, and rashly introduce such a "talented scholar" into any department of the court... And this kind of thing of promoting talented scholars was precisely the elegant thing that many princes and ministers of Chunnan liked to do most. As for the trend of large-scale dramas brought out by Danyang, it had gradually begun to affect Chunnan. Several Chunnan envoys stationed in Dongping gave extremely high evaluations to a series of artistic categories that suddenly emerged in Dongping, such as "spoken drama," "opera," and "poetic drama," which were completely different from local dramas. At the same time, they also gave some descriptions of the origins of these things. These dramatic forms of expression, created by Tan Weixin in her leisure time and promoted by the famous art sponsor Tan Weishi to today's situation, had become a unique landscape in Dongping and Danyang, and had also become a concentrated expression of Dongping's cultural influence.

Originally, Chunnan had always prided itself on its flourishing literary governance and national wealth, which were difficult for other countries to match. But in recent years, Dongping had actively expanded foreign trade after accumulating considerable advantages in manufacturing technology. Local governments had always attached great importance to tapping potential on limited arable land and steadily reclaiming wasteland. Dongping had completely shaken off its dependence on Chunnan for grain. The fact that Dongping still purchased large quantities of grain from Chunnan every year did not mean that Chunnan could use this method to control Dongping, but only continuously enriched the various materials stockpiled by Dongping for launching wars. If there was anything that Chunnan could control Dongping now, it might be oil and sugar... Chunnan's vast southern territory gave Chunnan an eternal advantage in this regard, an advantage that would continue as long as Chunnan existed. Sun Jin began to suspect Chunnan's unusually strong domestic atmosphere of a great power and a strong country, that slightly vain and flamboyant atmosphere. When the military power of Dongping became increasingly leading in technology and economy, and rose in culture in a unique posture, and the entire country did not weaken its military ambition because of these changes, but instead went deeper to understand war and study war, what stage would such a country develop to?