After solving the matter of the successor of the dean of the academy, Mao Wenlong and Wang Datie settled down in their hearts. Although Xin Wei is definitely not the best candidate for dean, he is the most ambitious, and Mao Wenlong feels that this is what the academy currently lacks, so the position of dean is none other than Xin Wei.

Xin Wei was nominated as the next dean without a sound, which brought a lot of shock to the entire academy. But with the support of Mao Wenlong, the absolute ruler, those unsociable voices quickly dissipated secretly.

After a small upheaval, the college soon returned to its usual calm. A few days later, Wang Datie successfully handed over the position of dean to Xin Wei, and Xin Wei became a veritable dean of the academy. And Wang Datie also began to be busy with the relocation of the Wang family, and there was no way to accompany Mao Wenlong.

This time he came to Weihaiwei in a hurry, and Mao Wenlong was to build a fleet that could sail for a long time. This fleet not only requires superior combat power, but also equips the most advanced things of the current Ming Dynasty on its warships.

The beginning of the voyage meant that the Ming Dynasty also began to enter the era of great exploration, colonizing and robbing those undiscovered islands and supplies. These are the purposes of Mao Wenlong's preparation for the voyage, and the previous Zheng He's fleet was forced to cut off the goal of the voyage early because of the lack of financial support.

This time, Mao Wenlong will not let such a regret happen, as the current emperor, he can completely mobilize the financial, material and human resources of the entire Ming Dynasty to serve the army of the voyage. But these are not enough, in Zheng He's era, whether it was the combat power of the Ming Dynasty or the construction of warships, the navigation technology was the world's first-class.

Today's world is different, and the Ming Dynasty began to close itself off for nearly a century after the fall of Zheng He's fleet. For such a long time, those Yi people have taken the opportunity to surpass the Ming Dynasty, especially in navigation and technology.

Mao Wenlong rebuilt the Ming Dynasty from the ruins, and on the surface, the Ming Dynasty is now thriving. But the actual situation may only be clear to Mao Wenlong himself, and the backwardness of industry cannot be changed overnight.

Weihaiwei Academy pinned great hopes on Mao Wenlong, and wanted to make the Ming Dynasty have a qualitative leap in science and technology. The pot wheel steam engine is undoubtedly the best choice, and Mao Wenlong has been working hard in this regard before. This time he came to Weihaiwei, and he also had the task of checking how the research and development of the pot wheel and steam engine was progressing.

After dealing with those trivial matters, Mao Wenlong called Xin Wei early this morning and asked him to take him to the yamen where the steam engine was developed to check. Xin Wei was full of smiles, the research and development of the steam engine has been several years now. From scratch, it has gone through a lot of twists and turns, but fortunately, there are ideas and templates provided by Mao Wenlong, which has made some progress in the past few years.

Xin Wei is very diligent, the power of the dean is not small, it can be said that he became the dean of the academy, and he was directly in charge of the power of the entire Weihaiwei. And Weihaiwei has its own unique place, and is not subject to the control of the current imperial court, and currently only obeys the orders of Mao Wenlong.

He had never had such an experience, Xin Wei's mood had always been surging, and Mao Wenlong was going to inspect the steam engine, which was definitely a good opportunity for him to perform. Since he was in charge of most of the steam engine before, and it was almost completed, as long as nothing else, the first achievement of the new official in office would have to come from the steam engine.

The deepest part of the academy is also the forbidden place of the entire Weihaiwei, and the high wall directly separates this forbidden place from the entire academy. The only entrance to the gate was heavily guarded, guarded by a thousand guards day and night, and it was difficult for a fly to fly in.

Xin Wei is now the dean, but if he wants to enter, he will not be an exception, and he needs to be verified by the guards before he can finally be released. And Mao Wenlong was not so troublesome, he directly took out the waist card he was wearing, and after the guards checked it, they confirmed that it was correct and immediately saluted and let him go.

After passing through the guards at the gate, they passed through three checkpoints in a row when they entered the forbidden land, and Xin Wei and Mao Wenlong walked out of the long corridor and came to a huge cement building.

Since Mao Wenlong made cement and widely used it in the Ming Dynasty, many later buildings have been replaced with cement houses. If it weren't for the severe shortage of steel production today, perhaps those tiled houses would no longer exist. The output of steel is related to the necessary minerals for the Ming Dynasty to meet the industrial age in the future, and only enough steel production can make the Ming Dynasty enter the real industrial age.

Under the impetus of Mao Wenlong, although the Ming Dynasty has not yet entered industrial mechanization, the forging method of the assembly line has also greatly improved the forging speed of steel. Nowadays, there is a great shortage of iron ore, and the speed of excavation cannot supply the current Ming Dynasty.

Mao Wenlong's planned voyage this time is to transport back iron ore from other overseas countries, and all strategic materials are the target of Mao Wenlong's voyage. He will do whatever it takes for the Ming Dynasty to truly take off, and the Ming Dynasty will become the real first kingdom in the world at that time.

After the two of them passed through the inspection of the guards again, they successfully entered the cement building, Xin Wei led Mao Wenlong in front, took him to the deepest depths, and told Mao Wenlong: "Chief soldier, the research and development of the steam engine has come to an end, if nothing else, the assembly will be completed next month, and the first test can begin." ”

Mao Wenlong was a little surprised, he had heard that the steam boiler was the first generation of products. However, due to the lack of standardization in the industrial age, the operation effect of this boiler is very unsatisfactory, and there is still a long way to go to achieve the effect of really driving the steam engine.

But only two years have passed, and listening to Xin Wei's tone, this boiler has obviously achieved the effect of driving a steam engine. With a hint of confusion, Mao Wenlong asked suspiciously: "Has the technology of boiler building met the requirements?" ”

Xin Wei's old face flushed, and he replied with some embarrassment: "There is actually no problem with the technology of the boiler, but the problem is that the boiler has no way to produce it in large quantities at present." The current boilers are still completely handmade, and only two boilers have met our requirements. ”

According to Xin Wei's explanation, in Mao Wenlong's opinion, it hurts a little. Once the steam engine is successfully developed, this boiler must definitely keep up, otherwise if there is a steam engine but no boiler, then everything is in vain.

Mao Wenlong said in a condensed voice: "Why is this happening, don't you still understand that only when the boiler is really mass-produced, can the steam engine be useful?" ”