Since the advent of accurate timekeeping tools, Datang's precision in many manufacturing aspects has risen to a higher level, and now, clocks and watches are no longer those big boxes that are one person high, but have shrunk to the size of half a fist.

If you look at it from Sun Xiangfu's eyes, it still has to be more than doubled, but the market doesn't think so, everyone thinks that it should be like the bracers worn by martial artists, and it should be more conspicuous.

To put it bluntly, all the people who bought this thing wanted to show off, and in the eyes of later generations, this was a very earthy behavior, however, in order to meet the needs of the market, the factories that made clocks and watches had to mass-produce this kind of watch with a wide and thick dial, and when it was produced, all the members of the research team were equipped with one for the first time.

With accurate data on time, mileage, fuel consumption, load capacity, etc., it is not difficult to calculate its approximate power.

After a short time, several members of the team in charge of the calculation handed over the conclusions they had reached to Marseille, and after he read it, he reported to Li Chengqian, "Your Royal Highness the Prince, if such a steam engine is installed on our Wanshi ship, it will be almost fifteen miles in one hour. Installed on our 50,000-stone ship, the propulsion role played is even smaller, only about three miles. ”

One hour, two hours, only three miles, that is really as slow as a turtle crawling, however, Marseille still has to follow, said, "If the size and kinetic energy of this model machine are magnified several times, and then two are installed on the left and right, and propelled at the same time, it can increase its speed to more than fifty miles per hour, and it is under full load."

If you go down the water, it should be faster, reach more than 60 miles per hour, basically you can reach Luoyang in one day, Dengzhou or Laizhou in three days, Hangzhou Estuary in five days, Guangzhou Bay in ten days, even if you return to the water against the water, the time you use will not exceed thirty percent, because it does not need to rest at all, you can sail day and night. ”

Because the upper reaches of Guanzhong are still the ecological environment of green mountains and green waters, and a large number of buffer lakes have been excavated to store water, coupled with the fact that the imperial court has carried out artificial diversion of the entire western section of Henan Province with large siltation, at present, except for the spring flood period, the Yellow River waterway has become very gentle, like the Wei River section, after entering the summer and autumn, it is almost impossible to feel his flow speed.

Then the Grand Canal, which is connected to it, is even more gentle, which is one of the reasons why the imperial court has made great efforts to transform the Yellow River waterway before, in order to facilitate all the boats, when the south comes and goes, it is more smooth and smooth, and there is no need for so many slender boats.

In this relatively gentle waterway, the steam ship is fast and safe, and the speed of ships with internal combustion engines of more than 1,000 tons in later generations is mostly 14 to 18 knots, and the maximum speed of cargo ships transported by sea can reach 25 to 26 knots, which is converted into kilometers per hour, which is 1.852.

That is to say, the speed of most ships is between 25 kilometers and 33 kilometers per hour, and the speed of long-distance ships is about 45 kilometers per hour.

In contrast, even if Marseille really theoretically built this kind of 50,000-stone ship driven by a three-cylinder and two-steam engine, the speed is only about 12 kilometers per hour, which is about twice as slow as the ordinary internal combustion engine steamers of later generations.

Moreover, there is this result, because Sun Xiangfu directly put them on the premise that the turbine enhanced power steam engine and the more scientific propeller to propel the ship, otherwise, with their original concept, if they use the paddle wheel, it is estimated that the speed of the first steam ship 'Clermont' built by Lao Mei is comparable, and it can only run about eight kilometers per hour.

The weakness of the steam engine is obvious, it is bulky, and huge, can not do without the boiler, the temperature and pressure of the new steam can not be too high, the exhaust pressure can not be too low, the thermal efficiency is difficult to improve, the reciprocating operation, resulting in its working process is not coherent, inertia limits the increase of its speed, even if the turbine design is added, it is still a weak chicken.

But it still has a lot of room for progress and development, now the three-cylinder steam model machine applied on the test ship should belong to the multi-expansion steam engine, and then can be improved into a single-stream type, steam turbine type, rotary type, its power and stability, but also have a large increase in space, and finally, let the speed of the ship reach more than ten knots, it is also possible.

In any case, as long as this power mode is correct and feasible, then it is a great success, Li Chengqian does not care much about the speed of large ships, but points to the small boat track where the model machine is loaded, "If it is only used as a propulsion for small boats, can it reach a thousand miles a day?" ”

Marseille replied, "If you use it as a small boat, it is not difficult to travel a thousand miles a day, but if the boat goes too fast, the feeling of bump will be very strong, and we need a lot of design for stability, and if the hull is made of wood, it will definitely not work, and it may be necessary to build a hull made of steel." ”

Hearing this, Li Chengqian knew that the wooden hull could not withstand the speed of chopping waves on the water, and the hull made of steel was different, as long as it did not hit the reef and capsize, no matter how it was bumpy on the water, it would not be able to break it up, so he said a little excitedly, "Sometimes, speed is very important, and you must design the fastest boat out when it is safe." ”

At this time, Empress Changsun was a little surprised and said, "A ship made of steel? If you put it in the water, won't it sink? ”

Li Chengqian laughed and said, "Hahaha, Queen Mother, you don't know this, those steel-clad ships with steel structure keels are not light, why didn't it sink into the water?" There is a scientific reason in this, and for a while, the sons and daughters will not explain it to you, and listen to when they will be able to build this steamship! ”

Marseille replied, "At this time, it is difficult to say, it is not as simple as imagined to magnify its size and power several times, and its stability needs to be constantly measured."

In addition, the actual application of it to long-term sailing use, the whole machine needs a lot of design improvements in terms of resistance to bumps and robustness.

Also, in the end, it will be installed on the ship, how to flexibly control and use it, it needs to be designed from scratch, there is no more than one or two years, it is estimated that the launch test can not be done, there is no more than three years, can not ensure that it can be used stably, even if the ship is stable, but also to train some crew members who can operate and drive, maintain this kind of steamship, which will take a long time. ”

After Marseille said this, Li Chengqian realized that the success of the model machine test was only their first step, and there was still a long way to go to truly apply it.

"This steam engine is extremely important to the future development of my Datang, your credit, my father and I, will not forget, later, there will be a heavy reward to you, I hope you will make persistent efforts to put it into application as soon as possible, if there are any aspects that need support, you can report directly to me, I will do my best to support." Li Chengqian encouraged the people in the research group.

When everyone heard this, they saluted and thanked them together, and then Marseille said, "Your Royal Highness the Prince, the application of the steam engine is by no means limited to pumping machines and shipbuilding, in order to make it apply to all walks of life as soon as possible, the minister suggested that the members of the research group be divided into multiple groups, expanded into multiple teams, and comprehensively started its application research." ”

When Li Chengqian heard this, he nodded without thinking about it, "No problem, Gu Hui will give you a conscription order, all things are handled by you, talents in any industry, as long as you feel that there is a need, you can be recruited into the research group, and there is no upper limit for research funds." ”

"Ministers, thank you for the trust of His Royal Highness the Prince, I will definitely get the results of the research as soon as possible." With such strong support from Li Chengqian, the spirits of all the members of the research group were shocked, and they bowed and saluted.

In fact, these people don't care about the material rewards at all, they are rich enough, and the lowest in the research group are all academicians on the top five grades, however, the work enthusiasm of the science and engineering men is not in these fame and fortune.

What they want is to make something shocking, like a steam engine.

After Li Chengqian returned to the palace, he wrote a letter to Sun Xiangfu as soon as possible, and the eldest grandson and queen wrote a letter to Li Shimin.

Sun Xiangfu, who was in Yanjin, received a letter from Li Chengqian more than half a month later, and his reply to this letter was to bring some pumping machines and new tools for land reclamation to Liaodong, which could be used when the Sanjiang Plain was being developed.

Because, he had just returned from surveying the terrain in the Sanjiang Plain with Su Dingfang, Shangguan Yi and others, and was doing planning and design.

Here, the current situation is basically the same as the barren scene of 'beating the roe deer and scooping the fish, and the pheasant flying into the rice pot' in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, but the wetland area is larger, which is very suitable for the development of rice fields.

Converting this output into stones from this period, that is, about 250 million stones, which can not only feed more than 8 million people in this area in later generations, but also produce at least 70% more grain to sell to the outside world.

And now, although Sun Xiangfu can't take these people who are not very good at farming to achieve the same scale and output as later generations, but there is no problem at all to make it able to feed the entire Andong Metropolitan Protectorate of nearly eight million people, after the overall planning effect was drawn, the laughter of Su Dingfang and Shangguan Yi almost knocked the roof over.

According to Sun Xiangfu's plan, the final form of this area is not the same as the Yuantian area of Shannan Province.

"Don't be too happy, this area, although it can open up more than 40 million acres of high-yield fertile land, but you don't have so many people who are suitable for farming, and the area is remote, the early development, and the money that needs to be invested is very huge, and it is not so easy to really want to become what I planned."

Sun Xiangfu's planning concept is to protect the ecological environment of this area as much as possible, so that the agriculture and animal husbandry, commerce, and administrative management here are very convenient, so in the end, he identified the area suitable for development into fields, which is much smaller than that of later generations, and many wetlands have been preserved.

But even if it is 40 million mu of land, it is not something that the hundreds of thousands of people mobilized by Su Dingfang these days can cultivate, because, even if it is a plain land that is relatively easy to cultivate, if it is necessary to cultivate intensively and achieve high yields, the average cultivated area per household is not suitable for more than 30 mu.

40 million acres, if you really want to cultivate all of them, almost 2 million households, which is almost all the people within the boundaries of Andong's Dadu Protectorate, this is obviously impossible.

was poured a basin of cold water by Sun Xiangfu, but Shangguan Yi didn't care at all, and still said excitedly, "We don't plan to get it right all at once, Shannan Road has developed more than 20 million acres of farmland, or millions of people, four or five years of credit!" Our requirements are not high, three years, 10 million mu is enough, this can be comparable to the output of the water irrigated land in Shannan Province, the output of 10 million mu of fields, all the people of our entire Andong Dadu Hufu can shake off their cheeks and eat for a year, and they can't eat it all. ”

Sun Xiangfu spread his hands and said, "Okay, according to the annual development of four million mu, you can start it!" In July, at least one million young people need to be in place, and at most in mid-September, the autumn harvest will be withdrawn, and next April, and then it will pass. ”

The reason why the goal is so small is that the freezing period in this area is as long as seven or eight months, and it is necessary to invest more time in housing infrastructure.

After all, it is located in a remote area, and once there is any accident, it is more difficult to rescue, and the quasi-Han people who launched from Yanjin may not be able to adapt to the weather environment that the people of Murowei can adapt to.