"And before that, the highest power record for a steam engine was twelve horsepower!"

Shi Huanren naturally wouldn't say that the previous record of the highest power of the steam engine was produced by a single-boiler steam engine, but their steam engine was said to be one, but in fact, it was a piece of two.

This is the latest low-pressure steam engine modification proposed by the Royal Institute of Technology!

In the case that the material could not make a breakthrough, and although the high-pressure steam engine had been designed for a long time, it could not be built alive or dead, the Royal Institute of Technology also took great pains to increase the power of the existing low-pressure steam engine!

They began to work on various designs to come up with a split chiller, a change that they expected would more than triple the power of the existing steam engine, among many other improvements.

Its biggest purpose is to increase the power of the low-pressure steam engine while maintaining stability and improving fuel utilization.

In addition to these improvements, they also tried to combine multiple steam engines and use multiple steam boilers to increase the power of a single steam engine system, and made shipboard improvements to see if they could be used on ships.

Later, when they heard that the navy was in urgent need of a test machine that could be used on the 680 merchant ship, they simply carried out a few simple tests of the test machine to see that there was no big problem, and moved it directly to the Yueji number.

Of course, they didn't have any package tickets before, and the smooth preliminary test does not mean that the actual use is also smooth, and at the same time, even if it is the latest steam engine, its power is only 35 horses, and it is very difficult to promote the 700-ton monthly number after the modification, and the speed will be very, very slow.

But the navy doesn't care!

The reason why they need a steam engine is purely to prevent the moon from entering the depths of the Pacific Ocean, and after entering the windless zone, the sails cannot play a role, so that the moon can have a spare power.

Even if it's slower, but as long as you can walk, then it's enough.

Moreover, the navy has long been eager to wear the steam engine, and has long wanted to equip it, and now I heard that the Royal Institute of Technology has made a steam engine with barely thirty horsepower, and they also want to actually test it, if it can be used, then they will move these steam engines directly to the battleship in the future.

It doesn't matter if it's slow, it's very troublesome to use, it's expensive, these are not a problem, just use it!

The navy's requirements for steam engines have always been very low, as long as they can be used!

The Moon, the Navy's armed transport, was converted into an expedition ship and became the first naval vessel to be officially equipped with a steam engine!

As for whether it is easy to use or not, we have to see if it is said!

However, in order to stuff this huge steam engine and carry coal, the Yueji also sacrificed a lot of space, but in Su Jiade's opinion, it was worth it, and he already had a plan for other material supplies, and when he arrived in the Ryukyus, he would bring two more merchant ships, full of supplies, as supply ships.

At the same time, in terms of personnel, he also carried out the greatest reduction, and the marines did not need to be all, as long as the sailors, if they needed to go on land to fight, they would be directly filled by sailors.

However, he didn't expect that to happen, because he didn't plan to fight people on land, he was just going to explore the shipping routes, not to establish a colony, and he didn't need to deal with the locals too much.

The expedition led by Su Jiade is not just one ship, but three ships are booked, the Yueji is the main ship, and on the Ryukyu side, it is expected that two supply ships of the Tang Navy will join it!

At that time, the expedition of these three ships will sail all the way east, towards the depths of the Pacific Ocean, and no one can predict what will happen and what will happen on the subsequent journey.

Just when Su Jiade led the Yueji to sail, another merchant ship was also undergoing refit, and this ship was the Jinyuan, which belonged to the Tang Western Company!

However, now this ship does not belong to Datang Western Company, because this ship has been requisitioned for more than a year, and as compensation, the Navy directly gave Datang Western Company a new 680 merchant ship!

Today, this merchant ship directly belongs to the Datang Navy, but it does not belong to any sub-fleet, but belongs to the Datang Navy Command, just like several other expedition ships such as the Yueji.

According to the plan of the Navy, the Navy will undertake the subsequent exploration of routes in the South China Sea and the Americas. As for the exploration of routes in the Indian Ocean, Africa and Europe, it will continue to be the responsibility of Datang Western Ocean.

The Jinyuan is now moored in Wusong Harbor, and naval officials and technicians from the Jiangnan Shipyard, Zhaoqing Machinery Company, and the Royal Institute of Technology are carrying out preliminary modifications on the Jinyuan.

The key point of the modification is to add a steam engine to act as a backup power, in addition to the cabin and sails need to be modified!

The goal of the change is to make this ship more survivable!

Staying alive is the key to an expedition ship!

Therefore, some of the ship's redundant facilities will be taken away, and even the artillery will only be left with only two five-pound guns as the most basic self-defense firepower.

The handling of the ship has also been modified to ensure that the ship can be operated with fewer people!

In fact, the use of 680 merchant ships as expedition ships is actually not very qualified, because of good maneuverability and high speed, it is useless for expeditions, expedition ships, need a larger cargo capacity, less manual control, so that they can carry more materials, so that the people on board can support longer.

As an expedition ship, it is not a matter of not seeing land for several months, or even half a year, it is possible.

In this case, how to survive is the biggest problem!

With the successful return of the Jinyuan, under the promotion of Li Xuan, a new round of route exploration of the Tang Dynasty will come to an end, and if the route exploration is smooth, then the Tang Dynasty will also enter the age of discovery.

And through the huge profits brought by the Age of Discovery, it feeds back the domestic industrial and commercial development, thus completely completing the industrial revolution!

When Li Xuan in China was ready to set off a new round of route exploration, Ying Zihua, as the first batch of explorers, was thinking about what to do next in distant Africa at this time!

After a difficult voyage, his fleet finally crossed the western Indian Ocean smoothly, and then arrived at the east coast of Africa, but after arriving at the east coast of Africa, his fleet had to pause, because his fleet was about to run out of supplies on the one hand and needed to be replenished, and on the other hand, in his fleet, the mast of one of the ships was broken, resulting in a significant drop in speed, and the navigation was difficult, and they needed to find a place to replenish and maintain the ships as soon as possible.

At this time, they were located in the eastern coastal area of Ethiopia, and further south, that is, Mogadishu, which was a port controlled by the Portuguese, and then Mogadishu all the way to the south, basically all the ports with anchorage and maintenance of large merchant ships were under the control of the Portuguese, even if they bypassed the Cape of Good Hope, many of the ports they encountered were also Portuguese trading posts, supply ports.

Other countries can't get in at all, it's such a powerful empire that the sun never sets, and in this sea area, it has to hide from the Portuguese!

Otherwise, in recent years, why the Spaniards stubbornly wanted to establish colonies in Africa, India, and East Asia was not forced by Portugal.

Nowadays, the route from Europe to East Asia is almost completely monopolized by Portugal!

In this way, many countries have opinions about the Portuguese, the Tang Dynasty is like this, and Spain is the same, otherwise, why whenever Spain comes to Nanyang, the Tang Dynasty is like seeing its own nephew, and rushes up to protect it.

Then the two had a very happy signing of various business cooperation agreements.

It's not because there is such a common enemy as the Portuguese.

It's a pity that the current Spaniards are still a little bit weaker, and the route they opened up from Europe to Asia has never been successful!

Therefore, the Tang Dynasty simply came by itself and established the Datang Western Company to open up European routes!

After discussing with a group of staff officers under him, Ying Zihua decided to suspend the southward movement first, after all, with the current state of their fleet, it is too dangerous to go south, and the Portuguese fleet will die!

Today's Portuguese, no matter whether you are the fleet of the Tang Dynasty or the fleet of the Spaniards, as long as you dare to pass by the coast of Africa, no matter whether you go to Europe or East Asia, they will all be sunk if they encounter them!

Otherwise, they can monopolize the route from Europe to East Asia for so long, relying on naval guns!

Therefore, Ying Zihua decided not to go south, but first go north to the Gulf of Aden, go to the port of the Arabs, resupply first, and then get in touch with the Ottoman Empire to establish diplomatic relations.

After all, Ying Zihua, or the ultimate goal of Datang Western Company, is to completely open up European routes, but when he goes to Europe, it is also for business, and the people who came to the Gulf of Aden to find the Ottoman Empire are also for business.

Moreover, the Ottomans controlled the Arabian Peninsula and Egypt, and did the business of two traders, transporting large quantities of oriental goods transported by merchant ships into the Mediterranean by land, and then selling them to European countries, and in the process, they made a lot of money.

Moreover, in the past two years, there have also been Ottoman merchant ships that have traveled across the ocean and arrived at the Datang coast for trade.

Therefore, Ying Zihua decided not to go south first, but to go north to talk to the Ottomans about business.