Victor did not take the first military train. He boarded the second one with his guards and personal guard regiment.
He had originally wanted to take the first train, but his subordinates stopped him. The first military train carried Santos and a detachment from his regiment.
Because the steam locomotives in Two Rivers County still had rather limited horsepower, although the boilers could withstand greater pressure thanks to the strength of their materials, they could pull at most forty tons of cargo and six carriages, transporting only a little over six hundred people at a time.
Therefore, to send troops and supplies to the front lines as quickly as possible, the Two Rivers Territory Railway Bureau chose to increase capacity through high-frequency departures.
The first train was comparatively the fastest. Moreover, the military trains used flatcars with wooden carriages, which were designed specifically for hauling cargo and did not even have seats. They were terribly uncomfortable, so no one wanted Victor to ride one.
Even so, the second military train was not slow, traveling at thirty kilometers per hour. Victor sat cross-legged on the floor in the middle of the carriage, watching the guards around him get jolted about in every direction. If they rode like this all the way to the front, it would take at least five hours. By the time they arrived, they would probably have no combat strength left.
After some thought, Victor decided to make a note of it. Once this operation was over, he would find a way to improve the comfort of the flatcars and install a dedicated shock-absorption system to ease the passengers' suffering. Otherwise, there would be no point in rapidly redeploying troops—after all, the soldiers would arrive at their destination with legs like jelly.
On the Lime River, a