"Senho-sama, the four wheels you are talking about. Big carriage, I also have it. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info and this thing, I have it in ancient China, but it is not a rare thing. After listening to Li Xiao's own ideas, Wu Liang replied with a smile.

"Oh. Is it? ”

Li Xiao didn't expect that this four-**** carriage, which was the first to be produced in southern Northern Europe during the Renaissance, was already made in ancient China. Wu Liang's faint sentence surprised him.

Wu Liang is right, in fact, four wheels. The big carriage is really not a rare thing. This thing appeared as early as the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. In the early Spring and Autumn Period, a bronze four-wheeled carriage model was unearthed in the Qin Mu Cemetery of the Qin State, which is now stored in the Lixian Museum in Gansu. However, at that time, the four-wheeled carriage had only one purpose: to transport coffins when the kings of various countries died and went to mourn.

"Lord Li, I also have a four-wheeled carriage in the Ming Dynasty now, but it is difficult to popularize it, do you know why?"

"Could it be that the road is limited?"

"Exactly, as far as I know, the four-wheeled carriage that I have in the Ming Dynasty can carry forty or fifty stones, and is pulled by horses or mules, and the horses drawn are six or eight. The big car is slow and easy to be damaged, and it stops when it encounters a river, a mountain, or a winding path. It's not as simple as two wheels, so it's difficult to popularize. (If you are interested in the research fetish, please see "Heavenly Creations" for details.) Boat and Vehicle)

Looking at Wu Liang's sincere face, Li Xiao fell into a deep groan.

The reason why the four-wheeled carriage failed to be widely popularized in ancient times is mainly due to the geographical conditions of China's mountainous and multi-river network, as well as the rough and insufficient road construction technology.

Because this four-wheeled carriage has no rubber cushions on the pure wooden wheels, it needs good road conditions to walk quickly and easily. Historically, these four-wheeled vehicles were almost always able to walk on official roads, so they were soon replaced by cheaper two-wheelers and even unicycles that were adapted to simple potholes.

It's just that this kind of two-wheeled vehicle, clumsy and slow, very poor design, two mules or pulls a horse, a car at most a dozen stone grain, it is difficult to load twenty stones, and generally at most more than two thousand catties of load, this transportation efficiency is really too small.

And that kind of human-powered wheelbarrow is the most popular type of car in China. That kind of car is said to be the invention of Zhuge Liang during the Three Kingdoms. When Li Xiao was a child, he had seen it in the countryside, and it had been used for thousands and hundreds of years, so you can imagine how strong the vitality is. In film and television dramas, it is common to see such a scene, a family fleeing, the male owner puts a belt on his shoulder, a woman and children and luggage sit in front of him, a cart is on the ridge and the ditch, the trolley squeaks, and walks forward. In the Republic of China, the wheelbarrow at that time already had rubber tires, more load-bearing, a car to push three or four hundred pounds is also very easy, a day to walk fifty or sixty miles is not a problem, in the later generations of the war of liberation, this kind of wheelbarrow is even more talented, Marshal Chen Yi said, the victory of the Huaihai Campaign, is the victory of millions of people with the cart to push out.

It's just that when I encountered difficulties, I gave up the four wheels. The idea of a big carriage can only use primitive and backward two-wheeled vehicles or even unicycles, and Li Xiao is really unwilling.

In the history of the world, the Russian Empire crossed Siberia from Europe and then conquered the Far East, a vast barren and uninhabited land, where there were not even human footprints, how could there be so many roads. Those Russian mercenary Cossack regiments, from the borders of Europe all the way to Central Asia and Siberia, one stan after another, one khanate after another, were trampled under their feet, and finally fought to the Heilongjiang River.

Wars and immigration, in the hundreds of years of Russian expansion history, have not stopped, including the later control of the huge empire, the entire Russian Empire in the wilderness, everywhere is the kind of four-wheeled large carriage galloping transportation, whether it is harvest or migration, or to support the expansion war, the role of the carriage is actually still on the cannon and firearms. After all, without logistics, gunpowder and bullets plus supplies are impossible to fall from the sky.

In a sense, it was the four-wheeled carriage that drove around that made the Russian Empire, known to the British as the giant beast of the ancients.

The Russians can do it with four-wheeled carriages, why Li Xiao and his subordinates can't do it, there is really no reason for this.

Because the biggest advantage of a four-wheeled carriage compared with a two-wheeled carriage is that the load of the carriage can be greatly increased.

The four-wheel structure of the four-wheeled vehicle makes the horses pulling the carriage no longer need to be a fulcrum to bear the bearing capacity of the carriage, but simply provide the pulling force, so as to greatly improve the pulling efficiency, according to calculations, only in the case of two horses, at least the load can be increased by nearly five times.

In addition to the difficulty of the road at that time, the four-wheeled carriage used by the Ming Dynasty now has one of the biggest shortcomings, that is, it is difficult to turn.

The fundamental reason for the lack of four-wheeled vehicles in ancient China is not actually the road problem, but the Chinese did not solve the steering problem of the four-wheeled vehicle, and the Chinese's four-wheeled vehicle simply installed four wheels on a fixed frame, so it is difficult to steer, resulting in little practical value. This vast problem has not been solved by the Chinese for thousands of years.

On the painter Zhang Zeduan's famous work "Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival", there are many four-wheeled vehicles, all of which are typical four-wheeled vehicles that cannot be turned. This kind of car was used from ancient times until the early fifties in modern China. Four narrow wooden wheels with iron hoops are mounted on the frame and pulled by three or four oxen, and the steering of the cart is pulled by the four oxen with great strength. (To be exact, it was the rutting that solved the steering problem, and the wheels pressed the road surface deep into two ditches, and the wheels rolled in the ditches, and Qin Shi Huang's car was on the same track for this convenience.) ）

This kind of rough and simple four-wheeled vehicle, born in the 40s of the last century, has been seen by people in the northern countryside, and it is said that it was the Great Leap in 1958. into the time because this kind of car seriously affects the society. Host. Yi Xian. Enter. sexuality, which has seriously affected society. Host. The Great Leap of Righteousness. The glorious image of Jin finally eliminated this kind of stupid four-wheeled vehicle, but it still has a bit of black humor.

So now to sum up the problem, Li Xiao has to set out to solve two key problems, one is the problem of difficult roads, and the other is the steering problem of four-wheeled vehicles.

Li Xiao has no ability to change the former problem at this stage, but he can solve it in a light-sensitive way. This is because the carriage and horse dealership business that Li Xiao plans to carry out now is the transportation of goods between cities, and it is basically an official road, and it is not a problem to take such a four-wheeled carriage. Now Daming's stupid four-wheeled vehicle can go, so the new four-wheeled vehicle developed by himself naturally has no reason not to go. However, Li Xiao will not carry out the distribution of goods to the countryside, so as to avoid taking rugged paths and mountain roads as much as possible.

The second problem is that Li Xiao, who came from later generations, knew that the reason why the four-wheeled carriage in the West operated freely was because of the invention of the bogie. The most innovative design of the steerable four-wheeled vehicle that appeared in the West is that the first two wheels are mounted on one frame, the rear two wheels are mounted on the other, and the rear frame frame is connected by a vertical axle on the front frame, which is actually a combination of two two-wheelers. Through this groundbreaking design, the four-wheeled carriage finally succeeded in stepping onto the stage of history and performing its own glorious repertoire in the history of the world.

The four-wheeled carriage in the West took decades from its creation to its finalization, and it was still being improved until the nineteenth century. In this world, there is no such thing as a casual success.

Li Xiao made up his mind to do what he should do, if he always looked ahead and hesitated, he would only achieve nothing.

"Mr. Wu, the four-wheeled carriage I want to make is different from the existing four-wheeled carriage in Daming, it must be easy to steer, in order to be qualified, you can do experimental research first, and this official does not seek to be perfect in one step." Li Xiao finally came to a conclusion.

He then summoned Zhang Tongzhu, a blacksmith, and Zhao Jie, the chief of firearms, and drew them a sketch of a four-wheeled carriage based on the memories of later generations.

Zhang Tongzhu and Zhao Jie looked at the picture in front of them, and they both had an eye-opening feeling.

They saw that the carriage painted by Li Xiao has a long body, the guard plate is high in front and low in the back, the front guard plate is inlaid with a seat nailed by a wooden board, there are legs below, two layers of boards are made of the coachman's seat, under the coachman's seat is the front wheel, there is a long rod and two sides of the handguard to connect the front wheel, this is the connecting rod, the two front wheels are not fixed on the wooden frame as in the previous carriage, but are connected with the middle roller and the connecting rod, the long connecting rod is fixed on the disc front axle, and the part of the wheel and the body connection is combined with the front wheel suspension. In this way, when the mule and horse turn, the suspension of the front wheels is also turned as a whole.

When Li Xiao was drawing, he was also thinking about the steering principle of the four-wheeled horse painting. Li Xiao believes that the four-wheeled carriage is quite similar to the car of later generations, and the two front wheels must deviate in one direction when turning, in order to turn smoothly. In this way, when the traction force in front changes direction, the wheel changes the direction of the axle through the axle sleeve, and the wheel rotates in the same direction of the traction force, and the steering of the four-wheeled vehicle is realized.

This is a common sense that ordinary people in later generations know, but it makes the craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty feel very fresh at this moment.

"This is the case with the sketch of this car, this official requires that the four-wheeled vehicle you have developed must be able to turn flexibly and be easy to use, if it is just a copy of the existing four-wheeled carriage of the Ming Dynasty, it will not be of much significance." Li Xiao talked eloquently.

"My lord, this Taixi four-wheeled carriage pattern is really fresh, but it also gives me a lot of inspiration, and I will wait patiently for a while, I will make the sample as soon as possible." Zhao Jie solemnly reported.

"Master Li, don't worry, Xiao Lao'er will try his best to cooperate with Mr. Zhao." Zhang Tongzhu also joined on the side.

"Well, I hope you will make it as soon as possible, this four-wheeled carriage is the key to the smooth operation of the carriage and horse shop we are going to establish, and this official will ask the two of you. If there are any material needs, you can ask Wu Zanhua for him to solve. After Li Xiao finished speaking, he arched his hand to the two.

Seeing that Li Xiao valued himself so much, the two of them were very excited, and they thought more and more in their hearts that they must do a good job of this errand that Li Xiao had confessed.

"Two, how long will it take for the trial production sample to come out according to this picture of the official?" Li Xiao couldn't help but admonish in the end.

Zhao Jie and Zhang Tongzhu discussed for a while, and Zhao Jie said: "My lord, we will make this car as soon as possible within a month." ”

"Okay, after the system is made, the official will be rewarded!" Li Xiao said with a laugh.