When I was worried, the people in the Ministry of Engineering only expressed sympathy for my suggestion...... Of course, I suspect that these officials simply did not see the true potential of the steam train. Otherwise~ if I decide, even if I hollow out my family, I have to build this railway! This is an epoch-making product. In my memory~ the first industrial revolution of later generations was based on this thing!

Unwillingly, I also deliberately fooled His Majesty the Emperor and brought many court bigwigs to visit the academy once, especially to demonstrate the operation of the locomotive......

It's just ~ I don't know if it's because this locomotive and rails are made in half the proportion. Therefore~ even if these bigwigs are allowed to experience it in the carriage themselves~ no one has discovered the advantages and potential of this thing...... There are even people who dislike the railroad tracks for wasting a lot of valuable materials. And once again, I was re-mentioned the title of 'loser'......

It's for these economic reasons. So in the end, the steam locomotive that was finally built was only left in the playground of the college. No one at all agreed to pay for the construction of a real railway......

I had no choice but to leave this half-sized model on the academy playground here as a souvenir, and then give up on continuing to build the locomotive......

"It's just~ how did this big guy develop back then!" I muttered in frustration. Now I begin to regret that I didn't study history properly, especially when I was studying the history of industrial development...... Now, even if the locomotives of later generations were copied, they turned out to be opposed by everyone because of the large number of iron tools consumed...... I'm starting to get confused!

At this time, Yuan Fang, who had been silently following me, suddenly pulled me aside and said, "Hey! Why do you ~ have to build this 'galloping road'? Oh yes! It's called a railway! If you spend too much money, why don't you use wood! ”

It is said that since this Yuan Fang followed me from Luoyang to Chang'an City, he has been staying in my Zhuangzi and not going out or taking care of other people. It wasn't until I took her back to her mother's house during the Chinese New Year that it made Yuanfang feel a little better. So this guy was left in Luoyang City for more than a month, and after returning to me again. This girl has been following me all the time, and she has to be my bodyguard......

Although this girl is still a bit of kung fu. But among the people around me, her kung fu can be said to be the worst except for those maids who don't know kung fu. Even Xiao Ling, who has only been practicing for a few years, is much stronger than her. The last time I saw the two of them fighting each other, Xiaoling defeated Yuan Fang in threes, twos, threes!

Not to mention that there are now two 'big killers' like mandarin ducks and ducks next to me, hiding and protecting them. So there's no need for this girl at all.

It's just that seeing her idle is also idle, and it is also a pleasing thing to follow a very smart girl as a bodyguard, especially since the identity of this girl is still my 'concubine'...... That's why I kept letting her run around with me.

Anyway, I haven't been far away lately, except for the shopping street, which is my own home and then the college. Even the palace and the restaurant, I rarely go there. So this girl can still keep up with me.

Now that I had suddenly made a suggestion, I felt that the girl's suggestion was useless, but I explained to her why I didn't use wood to make the rails a real 'gallop'...... I don't have that skill!

And I also gave her a half-day lecture about the role of rail transport. Because no one believes in the value of the locomotive in this era, I can only complain to Yuan Fang.

However, after hearing that the value of locomotives is a large number of high-speed transportation. She even proposed: why build railroad tracks and run trains? Isn't it possible to directly use the various canals that are very convenient in Datang? Canal water transportation is the largest transportation method in this era! It is much more powerful than the transportation of overland carriages. Therefore, as long as the entire Datang is a city that can be connected by canals, it must be an extremely prosperous city......

"Uh...... Oh, yes! You're so smart! I didn't think of that! It dawned on me.

After listening to Yuan Fang's words, I suddenly realized that maybe it is not that people in this era do not agree with the ability of train tracks. It's just that in this era, since there is water transportation that is not inferior to rail transportation. Then why is there still a lot of people who are working hard and losing money, especially the consumption of a large number of the most important 'strategic materials' iron tools of this era to build an expensive railway!

It turns out that water transportation can already meet the function of mass transportation...... I can't help but think of when I 'forcibly snatched' the poisoned grain in Luoyang City, I saw the bustling appearance of people coming and going on the Luohe wharf, and there were all kinds of cargo ships docked at the wharf, and there were already endless cargo ships flowing on the Luohe River. Only then did I realize that the most important thing in Datang's transportation is actually the canal!

So why should I build a railway? Now we just need to make good use of this waterway transportation. In particular, if I can increase the efficiency of water transportation several times, it can also achieve the effect of rail transportation!

As for other small places without canals and water transportation, we will forget about it for the time being, and when water transportation is strengthened, we will use other methods to solve it! I estimate that as long as the efficiency of water transportation is increased several times, the economic development of Datang will definitely accelerate several times. When the time comes, when Datang is rich, it will be okay to spend money to build a railway!

"Hmmm! It turns out that I misunderstood the path of development! ”

Thinking of this, I took the opportunity to hug Yuan Fanghou, who gave me advice and gave me new inspiration. I crossed back into the mall and went straight to the toy counter......

Nowadays, the research on transportation actually depends on the toy counters in the shopping mall! When I sketch them or find them at the library counter in the mall, the researchers don't understand what they do. So I had to use a toy to demonstrate, so that the researchers could study and imitate the toy as it looked. The steam locomotive, at least, was developed on a complete set of railroad toy models, as well as a few 'fragments' of a book dedicated to steam trains.

So, this time, I took a model airplane and showed it in the small pond of the academy with this remote-controlled toy boat, which made the researchers understand what I was going to do...... I wanted them to make a direct replica of a ship powered by a 'steam engine' that could sail quickly through the canals.

It was just while working on a steamship that we ran into a technical hurdle. The sealing and waterproof performance of the propeller is really unsolvable! Although according to the proportions on the model, the researchers really used a lathe to turn a propeller out. However, even if it is on the bottom of a wooden boat, it cannot avoid the problem of water leakage.

Fortunately, after I studied some knowledge of ships, I realized that maybe the current level of technology cannot do the problem of sealing and waterproofing the underwater propeller. But if we abandon the propeller and use another way, we can completely avoid this kind of cause caused by insufficient technology.

Oh yes! For this reason, I also deliberately sent people to the southern region. Looking for rubber trees related to 'rubber'...... It seems that the academy is running out of manpower again, and I have to dedicate a team to study the problem of rubber. After all, without this thing, many industrial equipment cannot be manufactured! At least insulated wire can't be manufactured. Now I still use the commodity wires I brought out from the mall and the dismantled insulated copper wires to make do with them!

"Hmmm! This rubber and plastic problem needs to be solved sooner rather than later! ”

But I can barely imagine that rubber actually plays a big role. But if there is a more convenient plastic, it will be more convenient. Unfortunately, I know that plastic is supposed to be a chemical product extracted from petroleum. But there is a knowledge in this area, whether it is in my mind or in the library area of the mall, I can't find any information at all! The only thing we know is the very general knowledge that plastics are made from petroleum......

I can't even figure out whether the oil, or the 'fiery oil' I got from the grasslands, is the same thing......

So put that aside. After the rubber problem is solved, I will continue to study the underwater propeller boat. And now, when I rewatch that steampunk movie. However, I remember that the boat inside is not powered by propellers, but is a kind of ship called an 'outer ship'. This type of outer steamer is carried forward by large waterwheel-shaped wheels on both sides of the board to move forward with water. Since it is not possible to solve the problem of sealing and waterproofing of the propeller drive shaft at the bottom of the ship. So why don't you just put the propeller shaft on the water?

Therefore, this kind of "outer steamer" with two waterwheels on both sides of the boat and then used a steam engine as a power drive was quickly built by the researchers of the academy because of its low technical content. The first outer ship directly dismantled two waterwheels to use as a 'powered outer wheel'! And it works surprisingly well. The only regret is that the noise is a little louder. And the watermills on both sides of the hull can also pose a threat to other ships in the vicinity.

However, if you use a steam engine as a power engine, you can sail at high speed in a canal where the current is not very fast! You can even sail against the current.

You must know that many canal ships pass through some places where the water is gentle, and even need to use a 'slender man' on the shore to pull the fiber to move!

Therefore, many ships on the canal cannot be built too large due to the problems of water flow and mobility.

Steam power is different, only some coal is needed to burn as power, and it can drive a large enough ship to move and sail! Therefore, this kind of 'outer ship' can be built very large.

Fortunately, the emperor of the previous dynasty, that is, Emperor Yang of Sui, liked big boats and liked to play in the canals. So when the people of the academy really built a steam-powered outer ship and demonstrated it to the people of the imperial court. We were unanimously appreciated by everyone. Even when the imperial court learned that it was possible to drive larger ships with this kind of power, it mysteriously handed us a dock hidden by the Luoshui water, and then we were surprised to find that there were more than a dozen extremely large wooden boats stacked inside, which were stacked in a warehouse at the dock.

Although these boats were in warehouses on the shore, I was shocked when I saw such huge wooden ships. Most of the ships turned out to be five or six floors, and each floor was four or five meters high. Now it seems that the average cruise ship in later generations is nothing more than that!

It's just that how the hell does this thing sail! If it's a sea boat, it's okay. After all, if there are wind, sails, and currents, any ship can sail.

But how did the calm appearance of the canal drive such a large ship to move? ~Wait a minute, I suddenly noticed that there was a problem in the bow of all the boats. When I looked over, I realized that someone had destroyed the bows of all the ships. It looks like the bow of the boat looks like a dragon's head~ Is this a dragon boat?

"Could it be Emperor Yang of Sui's dragon ship?" The thought popped into my head.

As a result, the court official who brought me here really nodded and said, "Hmm! He really deserves to be a famous immortal disciple! I even knew the dragon ship of the emperor of the previous dynasty. It's not easy! However, this kind of laborious and costly-for-money item can only be driven by a slender man. Therefore, His Majesty, who cherishes the people, ordered that these things be temporarily stored here, ready to be destroyed later! ”

Listening to what the court officials said, I remembered where I had seen a similar picture, in my favorite TV series back then, as long as it was about Emperor Yang of Sui, I would basically describe this kind of super-large dragon boat! When I thought that these were all scenes of being stretched by a slender man and a woman~ I couldn't help but be curious. How good is this former emperor! It's so extravagant that it uses beautiful women to pull fiber...... also built this kind of magnificent, but in the canal can only be a cumbersome huge ship out~ No wonder in later generations of books and TV series, this guy is called a faint king!

Just why give me these? Do you want me to find a beautiful woman to pull the fiber? And then experience the poverty and luxury of that famous faint king? It's a little exciting to think about! I just don't know if I hire so many beauties to pull fiber, will my reserves still be enough?

Of course, this is just a delusion of mine. It is not for me that the imperial court has given me these ships to learn from the faint king. Instead, you want me to transform this thing into a steam-powered ship!