When it comes to steam, many people think of the steam engine, and when they think of the steam engine, they will think of a genius boy sitting on the edge of the stove boiling water. The boy was Watt, who saw the water boiling and put the lid up and down, so he thought of using water vapor as a power, and when he grew up, he invented the steam engine.

Although this story sounds inspirational, the author has to point out that this is a chicken soup article made up by later generations. Watt was not the inventor of the steam engine, he was only an improvement on the Newcomen steam engine. Of course, his invention of the split condenser, planetary gear, parallel linkage mechanism, etc., greatly improved the efficiency of the steam engine, making it eventually the pacemaker of the modern industrial revolution.

In the seventh year of the Apocalypse, the Austrian envoy Hiro paid tribute to the steam turner, which was the earliest mold to use steam power, which was nothing more than a coincident thing in the eyes of ordinary people, but Zhu Youxiao solemnly moved it to the Imperial Palace. Everyone sighed when they looked at such a thing, and secretly wondered if the emperor was too child's play.

Zhu Youxiao looked around, saw everyone's slightly puzzled eyes, and asked calmly:

"Ladies and gentlemen, can anyone explain why this ball keeps spinning?"

Steam movement is a very common phenomenon, usually people at home cooking, boiling water often appear steam to open the lid, but everyone's attention is focused on housework, and not many people are willing to seriously think about the principle. Regarding the question of the little emperor, everyone scratched their heads, and they couldn't say a reason for a while.

Seeing this, Zhu Youxiao nodded to the extras he invited, Bi Maokang squeezed his eyes knowingly, and immediately stepped forward and replied:

"Back to Your Majesty's words, the old minister thought that it was an upward lifting force generated by the mist that came out after the boiling water boiled, which drove the wooden ball to turn."

When everyone heard Bi Maokang's explanation, they felt that they understood this truth, but they didn't know how to express it, let alone why they should pay attention to it. Zhu Youxiao didn't wait for others to interject, and continued to ask:

"What would happen if the charcoal in the stove kept burning and the pot kept adding water?"

This conversation has been deduced by the two monarchs and ministers a long time ago, so Bi Maokang replied without thinking:

"The ball is going to spin non-stop."

Zhu Youxiao and Bi Maokang talked a lot in this way, explaining the principle of steam motion bit by bit, and everyone began to watch it seriously. Zhu Youxiao took the opportunity to order someone to replace the wooden ball with the impeller that had been prepared long ago, and connected it with another impeller on the top of the water tank through a simple transmission device, and after the water boiled, the impeller began to rotate, pushing a very small wooden boat under the water surface.

After seeing this scene, everyone already understood the little emperor's intentions, and instantly began to become active as if inspiration had been stimulated, and soon exchanged words with each other, as if they already knew. Zhu Youxiao didn't want to talk to them more, so he went straight to the point and said:

"This set of steam equipment has been improved and can be applied to ships, if you Aiqing can name other uses, reward him with a thousand taels of silver, and allow him to walk in the upper study."

First of all, let's discuss the value of this thousand taels of silver, the annual salary of the county order in the last years of the Ming Dynasty was forty taels, one tael of silver can buy two stones of rice, and one stone of rice is about 188.8 catties. In this way, Zhu Youxiao's reward of 1,000 taels was absolutely sky-high, and everyone spoke enthusiastically under the temptation of money, some said that it could be used to build a house, some said that it could be used to carry grain and grass, and some said that it could be used to weave cotton yarn.

After the end of the early dynasty, Zhu Youxiao rewarded a total of more than 20,000 taels of silver, as long as the ministers involved in the discussion had a red envelope, the government and the opposition were shocked. You must know that the emperors of the Ming Dynasty were famous for picking on the door, and such a large amount of money was unprecedented. Of course, these people who took the money wanted to do things for Zhu Youxiao, first of all, they had to publicize the principle of steam movement, and select skilled craftsmen from all over the country to Wang Gongchang and Taixue. With a sufficient talent pool, Zhu Youxiao decided to start with the textile industry and shipbuilding industry, and gradually began to promote this long-planned industrial revolution with the market as the guide.

At present, the warships and ocean-going sailing ships of the Ming Dynasty are built with reference to the technology of England and the Netherlands, and the main body has begun to lay keels, and the spinnakers have been added to the bow and stern, both tonnage and speed have been qualitatively improved. However, the disadvantages of wooden sailing ships are also obvious, first of all, the navigation is greatly affected by weather factors, secondly, the protection ability is poor, and the speed is only five or six knots, and finally the hull life is short.

For example, it takes seven days and nights to travel from Tianjin to Dengzhou, one month to Ningbo, two and a half months to Guangzhou, half a year to the Jiugang Xuanwei Division, and years to go around the Cape of Good Hope to Europe. In other words, the profits of goods shipped from Tianjin to Europe will be infinitely diluted by the long transportation time, which is why the Central Plains Dynasty is reluctant to develop ocean-going trade.

Now that all this has changed radically due to the advent of steam boilers, Zhu Youxiao knew that once the Ming Dynasty took the lead in the steam era, the warships of the Ming Dynasty would cruise the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea. At that time, he could unite Persia, England, and the Netherlands to squeeze the power of the Ottoman Empire in West Asia and the Middle East, take the opportunity to occupy Egypt, and then dig the Suez Canal to transport cheap goods from the Ming Dynasty to Europe.

Driven by interests, the steam movement progressed very rapidly, Bi Maokang, Xu Guangqi, Li Zhizao and others were responsible for the research and development of materials and the improvement of production technology, Zhu Zongyuan, Yang Tingyun and a group of Western scholars were responsible for drawing design and technical demonstration, and Qi Xingguo, Mao Wenlong and other naval generals were responsible for the sea trials of new steamships.

As for Zhu Youxiao, he was in the middle of the dispatch and helped various departments raise funds. As soon as the silver was mentioned, Zhu Youxiao's head was bigger, the sunset action had consumed a total of 15 million taels of silver, and the imperial court's finances had long been in deficit, if it weren't for Qi Baoguo's occupation of Iwami Silver Mountain in Japan, and Jiang Dejing's re-excavation of the gold mines left by the Spaniards in the Luzon Xuanwei Division, it is estimated that the Ming Company would have declared bankruptcy and reorganization long ago.

According to preliminary estimates, the Cabinet believed that at least 30 million taels of silver would be needed to promote steam technology throughout the country, and there was no guarantee that the cost would be recovered. In fact, Zhu Youxiao doesn't care if he can make a profit, what he wants is for the Chinese nation to enter the industrial revolution as soon as possible, use machinery to improve internal productivity, and resist foreign invasion. However, 30 million taels of silver is not a small amount, even if he is willing to take out all the private money of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but it is not in line with the law of development of the market economy to make money at a loss, and the final result will be that he will become a poor egg, and the steam revolution will not follow.

To this end, Zhu Youxiao decided to take three steps: the first step was to test a new type of steam ship in Qinhuangdao, and at the same time ordered people to skillfully excavate the Kailuan Coal Mine and Fengfeng Coal Mine to solve the fuel problem of the steam boiler; The second step is to allocate the steamship to the North Sea Fleet and Huayuan Trading Company, which can reduce the upfront budget to one-tenth; The third step was to sell and lease steamships to private ocean-going caravans, and to reduce the financial burden of the imperial court with the help of private capital.

Of course, Zhu Youxiao knew that after the appearance of steamships, European countries would definitely send a large number of spies to buy intelligence. To this end, he decided to amend a law on the protection of intellectual property rights to prohibit the use of steam technology by countries outside the Ming Dynasty unless authorized by the Ming Dynasty. In addition, he included silk and porcelain in the scope of protection, and did not allow other countries to make and sell them privately. Once these patents were secretly used by foreigners, Zhu Youxiao wrote them down in a notebook as a reason for declaring war on foreign countries in the future.