He Zhiyuan thought to himself, you must have followed the Qi family at the beginning, done a lot of bad things, and drank a lot of soup, right? Now that the Qi family has fallen, don't you have the consciousness to avoid the sorrow of the fox from death? Now it is said that they are so bitter and hostile, as if they were hostile camps in the past. It's a pity not to be an actor and win an Oscar with such a performance.

Thinking of this, he decided to take the opportunity to knock it: "Qi Hongfu has done a lot of evil, raped and killed, and his methods are cruel, and he deserves it." The Qi family in the city is not a good thing, in the past few years, relying on the Qi Yu family to collude with friends, embezzlement and bribery, and clever robbery, how much money has been earned. ”

"Yes, yes, that Qi Hongfu really deserves it, the Qi Yu family was assigned to the army, and the Qi family was forced to relocate, which is also to blame. Or Lord Liang has the means and official authority. Let's not talk about that. The Zhiyuan brothers are young and talented, erudite and talented, and have been appreciated by Lord Liang, and they must have a bright future in the future. Brother, I can ask for peace and stability in the office of the secretary is a blessing, and I hope that Uncle Shi and Brother Zhiyuan will have a lot of kind words in front of Lord Liang, and I am very grateful. ”

In fact, Zhang Tonghan was very frightened in his heart, and what he was most worried about was that Qi Yu's case involved him. These days, I have been digging out my mind to find a way and find a way, and today I finally caught the opportunity, can I not play with my life? In order to please the He family's father and son, he actually called himself "below" in front of Zhiyuan, which can be said to be shameless and has no lower limit.

He Shaoyun's father and son just agreed with each other.

The feast went on for an hour before it ended. Zhang Tonghan left two carts of things and left drunk with the miscellaneous servants.

He Zhiyuan drank a little wine with Zhang Tonghan at noon, and it was summer again, so he was tired after noon. So I hid in bed and slept for a while. When I was in a daze, I heard someone outside shouting: "Master, master......"

He Zhiyuan, who was sleeping, was awakened and thought to himself, who was shouting at noon? Thinking about it again, there is only Wang Zhixue who can call me a master. Why did he call me at noon? I haven't bothered him much in the past month or two. He was a lot quieter, and this time he suddenly came to him, something big must have happened.

So, he hurriedly got up, rubbed his sleepy eyes, opened the door and asked, "Wang Zhixue, what nerves do you have?" Didn't let the master sleep at noon? ”

Wang Zhixue had no guilt, and said excitedly: "Master, the cannon has succeeded!" Would you like to check it out? ”

"Succeeded? No steam leaks? He Zhiyuan asked. The steam cannon developed by Wang Zhixue has always solved the problem of steam leakage due to poor switching, so it has not made much progress. It's only been more than ten days since the last test, so did it succeed so quickly?

"Basically, there is no leakage, and the cannon can hit more than 300 steps!" Wang Zhixue said excitedly.

He Zhiyuan followed him to a large open space in the east of the village. This was originally a wasteland, since Wang Zhixue wanted to test the cannon, He Zhiyuan found someone to level out a vacant land and use it as a martial arts arena.

This martial arts arena is more than 150 zhang long from east to west, and only three or four zhang wide from north to south. At the westernmost end of the arena is a simple blacksmith workshop with several grass huts. This is where several craftsmen eat and sleep. For more than a month, Wang Zhixue and the two blacksmith masters almost ate and lived here.

The two blacksmiths are father and son, the father is called Liu Xing, and the son is called Liu Honglin. When He Zhiyuan first came, he promised them that if they cooperated with Wang Zhixue to develop a steam cannon, they would each be rewarded with one hundred taels of silver. also let their whole family move to Hejia Village to live, and each person paid five taels of silver per month. So the father and son followed Wang Zhixue day and night, and began to develop without sleeping and eating.

Under the guidance of Wang Zhixue, He Zhiyuan walked in front of the cannon. The cannon resembles a large kettle, but the belly is a boxy cast-iron pot with four legs underneath, and a coal-burning stove underneath the cast-iron pot. Above the pot is a raised mouth, unscrew the lid, and a piece of cork is stuffed inside. In front was a barrel about four feet long, with a steering wheel-like disc on the side below the barrel. Wang Zhixue unscrewed the disc and introduced it to He Zhiyuan: "Master, look, this is a new method we have come up with. ”

He Zhiyuan saw that this was actually a bolt, and then looked at the part of the gun barrel that matched it and there were also threads. Bolt nuts are the product of modern industry, and the earliest screws appeared in Germany in the sixteenth century, which were filed by hand by German craftsmen with a file, but they were not widely used. It was not until after the second industrial revolution that bolts and nuts in the real sense appeared with the advent of lathes. Several of them found bolts and nuts without any prompting.

He Zhiyuan said happily: "Do you know what this is called? It's called bolts and nuts, and their invention is far more important than this cannon. How did you come up with the idea? ”

Wang Zhixue replied: "One day I went to the carpenter Wang to have an affair, and I saw them drilling holes in the wooden planks with a drill at home. I had an idea for this. When I came back, I told them what I had thought, and they thought it was feasible. I made clay molds and cast some of them, but only a few of them were qualified. ”

"Okay, great. For this alone, I will also reward each of you with a hundred taels of silver! He Zhiyuan said happily.

Liu Xing's father and son were so happy that they were so excited that they wanted to kneel and kowtow. He Zhiyuan stopped the two of them. But Wang Zhixue said: "Master, I can't ask for this reward, I am your apprentice, you taught me so much knowledge, I haven't honored you yet, how can I be embarrassed to ask for your silver." ”

"How? It was because of your idea that the bolt nut was invented. In the future you will be written in the annals of history, and you will know their significance later. Tell me how such a long nut is embedded in the barrel. He Zhi asked Wang Zhixue.

"These are all cast, and when the barrel is cast, this square hole is cast beforehand, and then a square nut of the same size as the hole, with a round hole in the middle. Then the barrel is burned red, the hole will become slightly larger, and while the barrel is not cooled, the nut is gently hammered into it, and when it cools, it will be very strong. This doesn't leak at all. ”

After speaking, Wang Zhixue picked up the bolt again and said: "You see that there is also a round hole on this bolt, and after tightening it, this hole is just perpendicular to the barrel of the gun, blocking the barrel." As long as it is rotated outwards ninety degrees to align with the barrel, the steam is ejected and the cannonball is ejected. As long as a layer of cloth is applied to the thread, it can ensure that there is no steam leakage. ”

After He Zhiyuan took the bolt and looked at it carefully, he found that the threads on it were polished to be very smooth. The thread is also very uniform, and although it is a little thick, it does not hinder its use. He had to admire how much time and perseverance it took for these skilled craftsmen in ancient times to be so symmetrical and meticulous.

He lowered the bolt and said to them, "That's a clever idea, show it quickly." ”

Everyone said yes and added half of the water to the pot. Plug the cork, close the bulky cast iron lid and tighten it, then start a stove for a fire.

After a while, I heard the water in the pot start boiling, and as time passed, the boiling sound became louder and louder. He Zhiyuan was worried that it would explode suddenly, so he asked Wang Zhixue: "It's almost, right?" Do you want to burn it again? ”

"It's okay, the time to burn half a column of incense, the farthest cannonballs fired. I won't dare to burn it for a long time. Wang Zhixue looked at the timekeeper's incense strip and replied.

When the half-pillar incense was about to burn, Liu Honglin picked up a polished stone cannonball, stuffed it into the barrel, and then asked everyone to dodge it and unscrew the switch counterclockwise. With a loud bang, a column of white smoke erupted rapidly, and stone cannonballs were fired with it. Then, after the smoke cleared away, I gradually saw what was around me.

He Zhiyuan measured it with his steps, and the cannonball was shot out of more than 320 steps, which showed the great strength.

Then, add some more water and boil the pot. This time the time was faster, about half of the half pillar of incense, Liu Honglin stuffed a piece of paper into the barrel of the cannon and fired it again. After a loud bang, the iron nails and stones were sprayed out in a fan shape. However, this time there were no stone shells to hit far, only a distance of more than 200 paces, but the striking surface was wide, and the distance of more than 200 steps was full of iron nails and stones, and it was enough to use it to hit the enemy.

He Zhiyuan looked at this stout steam cannon, and thought to himself, not to mention using it to beat the horse, even if it was enough to attack and defend the city. This is no less powerful than the general's cannon that uses black & gunpowder. However, there are also many shortcomings, and the steam cannon is not the direction of the development of weapons in later generations. He decided to give them some inspiration not to waste too much energy on steam cannons.

Yes, he said: "Very good, with such a cannon, we don't have to be afraid of the bandits in Ma Qi Mountain anymore, if they dare to steal next time, a few cannons can blow them up." This time, you have made a lot of contributions, and the two masters will be from our Hejia Village in the future. In two days, I will go to the state government to go through the formalities for you. and a hundred taels of silver to each of them. ”

Liu Xing's father and son were already overjoyed, and when they heard that they were going to reward silver, they didn't want it anyway. Just now they had already received a reward of two hundred taels, which was enough for their family to live for ten years.

He Zhiyuan continued: "However, we don't need too many cannons like this yet, and a few more are enough." Moreover, this kind of steam cannon is not the mainstream direction of the development of weapons in the future, and the later cannons are still mainly gunpowder, which is too time-consuming to produce steam, and also requires a large amount of coal as fuel, which is inconvenient to carry when marching and fighting. ”

Wang Zhixue couldn't help but be a little disappointed when he heard his master say this, and he asked blankly: "Master, isn't it a pity not to use such a good power of steam?" ”

He Zhiyuan said: "In fact, this steam is very useful, and it can be used to drive the stone mill to crush cement materials in the future, and it can also drive the machine to pump water." ”

"Is this steam still so useful?"

"Yes, I call it a steam engine."