The disgraced official I took care of was actually Zhu Houcong's childhood friend.

Chapter 598

Time flies, and two days passed in the blink of an eye. Soon it was the third day that Zhou Chu had agreed upon with Jiajing and all the officials.

The court assembly had just ended that day when Jiajing, along with his civil and military officials, arrived at the same train station platform as before.

Compared to three days ago, the platform now has countless seats ready, in order to facilitate the viewing of Emperor Jiajing and his civil and military officials.

Jiajing didn't stand on ceremony and sat down in the chair at the very front.

"Weighing instruments, let's begin."

Jiajing looked at Zhou Chu and said.

"Yes, Your Majesty."

After Zhou Chu bowed, he looked at the railway lines to the west. Four carriages had been added to the back of the train, but they were empty. Coal was piled up on both sides of the carriages, and there were countless Imperial Guards who were already prepared. However, these Imperial Guards were not dressed in their usual attire, but in short shirts, clearly indicating that they were there to work.

"Weigh it and load it onto the truck!"

Zhou Chu shouted.

The weighing process is essential. Since Yang Shengzhai gave specific figures yesterday and some people questioned them, the weighing and loading of the trucks must be done in front of all the officials to silence these people completely.

So, boxes of coal were loaded into wooden crates, then weighed using a large scale. After weighing, the coal was poured into the wagon, and someone was responsible for recording the weight of each box in detail. Finally, the weights were added together and the tare was removed.

The weight of the wooden box is the leather. It's impossible to weigh every single wooden box, so we take a roughly average value, such as eight pounds for each wooden box.

The wooden box was relatively heavy, so eight pounds is a reasonable figure.

On the platform, Emperor Jiajing and his officials watched the busy Imperial Guards below, while some officials with whom he had a good relationship whispered among themselves.

"Can this train really haul 500,000 jin (250 tons) of coal? Isn't that a fantasy?"

An official from the Ministry of Works said in a low voice to his colleague.

"Who says otherwise? What's the point of weighing it, with our Lord Zhou making such a show of it? These four carriages can hold about 500,000 catties of coal, but is that the point? The key is whether it can be pulled and run."

Another Ministry of Works official standing nearby said with a disdainful look.

"That's right. If you ask me, our commander is too young and too presumptuous. It's impossible for him to do something like this. Five hundred thousand catties would require five or six hundred horse-drawn carriages to pull. His train isn't that big, how could he possibly pull it?"

Other officials from the Ministry of Works joined the discussion. At first, their voices were quiet, but as more people participated, their voices gradually grew louder.

In fact, it wasn't just these officials from the Ministry of Works who questioned the train's transport capacity; most other officials were also skeptical.

Even Yang Yiqing, who was originally very confident, began to feel uneasy when he saw so much coal being poured into the train car box by box.

At first, Yang Yiqing didn't have much of a concept of 500,000 jin. Now, watching the mountain of coal being loaded into the carriages, Yang Yiqing looked at the locomotive in front of him. If it were three days ago, Yang Yiqing would have thought that the locomotive was a huge thing, but now, compared with the coal in the four carriages, the locomotive seemed rather small and weak.

Even Emperor Jiajing felt increasingly uncertain the more he looked at it.

"Weighing instrument, are you sure this can really be pulled?"

Unlike the whispers of the others, Jiajing looked directly at Zhou Chu beside him and asked.

"Your Majesty, let Hai Rui and Sheng Zhai answer this question."

Zhou Chu looked at Hai Rui and Yang Shengzhai beside him and said.

Three days ago, Hai Rui was indeed very nervous when he saw such a grand scene for the first time. However, he no longer felt the nervousness he had when he first met the emperor. Upon hearing this, he hurriedly bowed.

"Your Majesty, the weight of the coal will only increase the friction between the wheels and the rails. However, the rails and wheels designed by the teacher are extremely ingenious. Even with so much coal, the increased friction is not so great that the train cannot move."