On October 4, 1872, the operator carefully wiped all the water stains and oil stains on the anvil surface of the hydraulic press, and according to the regulations, it was still two groups of people before and after, and then the technician checked it again. The plan was to complete the hydraulic press by the end of 1871, and now it is delayed by almost a year. During the prototype test, there was an incident where there was liquid on the anvil that was not wiped clean, and when it was pressed, the high-pressure liquid flew out of the gap between the parts and the cutting board, and hit the chief engineer next to the hydraulic press in the chest.

In the 20th century, waterjets were developed to cut metal, and the pressure was high enough that the water jet could easily penetrate and cut hard metal. The water splashed from the anvil of the hydraulic press carried a tremendous amount of kinetic energy, even without the power of a metal-piercing waterjet, enough to destroy human flesh. The high-pressure water that poured into the chief engineer's body cut the arteries of his heart like a blade, and the chief engineer collapsed at that time, and there was no time to save him.

Weeser was really heartbroken after getting this bad news, a considerable number of engineers in these years have listened to Weeser's classes, and those outstanding engineers have been educated by Weser himself. They're great young people. But industry is like that, and the impetus for every safety measure is more than one life and a fair amount of blood.

In addition to strengthening safety measures, Weeser did not rush to catch up, and he trained eight new engineers from the technical team. This work has greatly delayed the progress of the time, but it has also tried to ensure that the loss of life does not significantly affect the progress.

Heavy industry is a money-burning machine and a gold-swallowing monster. In this industrial age, where faster movement is required, the lighter the weight and the more powerful the locomotive, the better. Increasing the wall thickness makes it strong, but it adds weight. This can barely be endured, crankshafts and other transmission parts need to be stressed for a long time, so naturally the more durable and durable, the better. If you increase the size of the component to increase the degree of durability, it really falls into the category of "tolerable or intolerable".

The development of alloy smelting technology requires a large amount of investment, the research of metal crystallization requires a large amount of investment, and the technology of using external forces such as hydraulic presses to improve the internal structure of metals requires a large amount of investment. The result of all these mountains and seas of input is to produce "rods, blocks, and pieces".

After all, Britain was a first-mover industrial country, experienced and technologically sophisticated in the study of how to use those low-level materials. It's all boiler steel, and the train parts of the British are better than those of the Chinese. The British train manufacturing company not only made a lot of money from China by selling locomotives, but also made money for a long time by selling parts. China's rails relied on thermite welding technology, which the British had not mastered for the time being, reducing construction costs and improving efficiency. In 1872, China stopped importing train parts from Britain, and all it wanted was to throw money at it to completely get rid of the demand for British train parts, which were getting higher and higher day by day.

When the important manufacturing of hydraulic press was being tested intensively, Wei Ze was inspecting the internal combustion engine department of Nanjing Institute of Mechanical Engineering. Usually when he went to school, Wei Ze's job was to give lectures to college students, master's students, and doctoral students, but he didn't have a degree himself, so he didn't get a degree. The inspection was mainly aimed at the new generator project.

In 1860, Lenoir of France designed and built the first practical gas engine in imitation of the structure of a steam engine. It is an uncompressed, electrically ignited, lighting gas internal combustion engine. Lenoir was the first to adopt elastic piston rings in the internal combustion engine. The thermal efficiency of this gas machine is about 4%.

Barnett of England once advocated the compression of combustible mixtures before ignition, and then wrote about the important role of compressing combustible mixtures, and pointed out that compression can greatly improve the efficiency of Lenoir's internal combustion engine. In 1862, after the French scientist Roscha made a theoretical analysis of the thermal process of the internal combustion engine, he put forward the requirement of improving the efficiency of the internal combustion engine, which was the earliest four-stroke work cycle.

The practical application of this four-stroke engine was completed in China, a single-cylinder, horizontal, 3 kW four-stroke internal combustion engine, still fueled by coal gas, using flame ignition, with a speed of 156.7 rpm, a compression ratio of 2.66, and a thermal efficiency of 14%, which was first used for power generation and public transportation. This time, Weeser inspected a generator with a power of 20 kilowatts and a thermal efficiency of 19% completed by the mechanical department.

After inspecting this, Weize inspected the steam turbine major of the Department of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering. The steam turbine major came up with the products completed by the team led by Weizer. A 3 kW steam turbine. The development of steam turbines is much older than that of internal combustion engines, and windmills are in a sense a steam turbine, at least on the same principle. In 1629, Gde Blanca of Italy proposed a rotor that rotated by a stream of steam striking the blades, but this idea was later drowned out by the wave of the steam engine improved by Watt. After the steam engine reached its bottleneck in these years, some people in Europe tried to make a breakthrough and find other design ideas. Weeser is undoubtedly very familiar with steam turbines.

After visiting these products with great interest, Wei Ze was preparing to make a speech on strengthening technical secrecy and guarding against arrogance and rashness. The secretary ran to Wei Ze and said, "Governor, the British industrial and commercial delegation and the people of the Ministry of Commerce are quarreling again!" The British ambassador had been asking for several days to see the Governor. ”

Isn't it that British trains and train equipment are no longer imported, and the amount of cotton and wool textiles imported from Britain has been reduced? Can you be so excited! Weese's good mood was affected a lot. Of course, Weeser is also well aware that these goods purchased from Britain are the most important goods that China has purchased from Britain in the past decade. Sino-British trade, which had been barely balanced, was immediately rendered unbalanced by the cuts.

"Let the Ministry of Commerce talk to them, we reduce imports because we don't have that much demand anymore." Weese replied.

"Britain has threatened to raise special tariffs on us." The secretary continued to recount the message.

"Hehe" Weeser sneered at the threat, "Raise tariffs? How much is he ready to improve? We haven't been worried about the 43% tariffs imposed by the United States, so how far are the British prepared to raise the tariffs? 200%? Let the Ministry of Commerce not worry, the British are just shouting a few words. Even if they do improve, we don't have to really be afraid of them. ”

After the secretary left, Weser suddenly became emotional. The original speech was a process speech, but now Wei Ze gave a lecture on technical secrecy to the mechanical department with full emotion. The Second Industrial Revolution was followed by an era of technological spurts, and it was more difficult to keep technology secret, so it was particularly valued by the state. China has made so many technological breakthroughs, and it is also necessary to keep it technically secret.

After the inspection, Wei Ze returned to the office, Minister of Commerce Chen Xin and Foreign Minister Zuo Zhidan waited at the door, as soon as he saw Wei Ze, Chen Xin said angrily: "Governor, the British have asked to settle the business dispute with us!" ”

"Seeing that you are so angry, are they threatening you militarily?" Weser laughed. The fact that Chinese ministerial-level officials can be angry like this shows that the British are even more angry. It can make the British popular and ruined, and Weeser is already very happy.

The three of them sat down in the office, and Li Xin immediately said: "Governor, the British have demanded that our market be completely open to the British. State-owned enterprises, in particular, must have their own purchasing rights, and the British must have the right to do business with state-owned enterprises. ”

"Oh......" Weeser felt familiar, he was in the 21st century when the Yankees were asking for the same, and the British were actually about the same. Wei Ze smiled: "We don't have state-owned enterprises that don't do business with them. ”

Li Xin saw that Wei Ze was so sloppy, and he was also angry, "Ha, Dudu, I said the same thing." But the British simply said that if our government could not make sure that British products accounted for a certain percentage of our state-owned enterprise purchases, we were infringing on free trade. ”

"Huh! Ha ha! Wei Ze couldn't help but laugh, "Chinese companies, especially Chinese state-owned enterprises, have to buy British products, is it not possible to do free trade?" ”

Hearing this extremely mocking remark, Zuo Zhidan also smiled bitterly: "I listen to the British, they think that China's state-owned enterprises are equivalent to enterprises controlled by the British royal family. ”

"Joke!" Wei Ze rarely expressed his opinion without listening to it.

"Your Majesty, don't be angry, everyone knows that the British are talking nonsense." Zuo Zhidan hurriedly persuaded.

Minister of Commerce Li Xin continued: "Governor, state-owned enterprises are the foundation of the country, and they control the lifeblood of the economy to ensure that the economy does not run in problems. You've said it so many times, how could we not know that. ”

Wei Ze's gaze swept over Zuo Zhidan and Li Xin's faces, and he didn't continue to say anything more on this issue, but asked, "Then after you refuted the British, what did the British say?" ”

Li Xin said: "The British said that if the Chinese state-owned enterprises are the enterprises of the governor, then they have to negotiate business with the governor. Since state-owned enterprises are enterprises of the Chinese state, and Chinese state-owned enterprises are unwilling to buy British products, which means that China's attitude towards British free trade, and Britain absolutely cannot accept China's national policy! ”

Hearing these clear and clear words, Wei Ze was not angry, let alone excited. If the Secretary of Commerce is right about the British, this is the first time Weeser has heard such a clear account of China's national policy. The British are right when they say that China's state-owned enterprises are implementing China's national policy. In the face of such a question, Wei Ze couldn't help but think of a question that had always made him uneasy, whether China's policy was a national policy or Wei Ze's policy alone. The last thing Weeser wants is the latter. It's not that Weeser doesn't have confidence in himself, it's that the national policy has become Weesser's personal policy, and too many executors under Weeser who have their own ideas will step up their own ideas in it. A significant number of these ideas would be contrary to Weese's intentions. Under the banner of Wei Ze, doing things that are contrary to Wei Ze's original intentions, this is something that Wei Ze cannot turn a blind eye to.

Zuo Zhidan didn't know Wei Ze's thoughts, he saw that Wei Ze was silent, and couldn't help but say: "Your Majesty, the British representative also proposed the First Great Smoke War, and the British reason at that time was to restore free trade. I think the British are threatening us, but I don't know if the British are just talking about it or if they are going to do anything. ”

"I think there must be something wrong with the British, otherwise they wouldn't be so excited. At least for now, I don't think the British will just pay lip service. Commerce Minister Li Xin couldn't help but say.

"Then let's wait and see." Weese made a judgment.

The next day, Weeser convened a meeting of the Standing Committee. After the Standing Committee meeting, Zuo Zhidan was sent to Henan to become a county magistrate. Wei Ze's reason was that Zuo Zhidan had been foreign minister for too long, and such a promising comrade needed to continue to make progress in his work. Li Xin, Minister of Commerce, took over as Foreign Minister.