The expedition led by Li Yi set out from Hekou Fort on February 1, 1642, and returned to the mainland on November 20, the entire operation lasted 9 months and 20 days. Not only did they successfully demonstrate the feasibility of this route, but they also set up a relay point in the southwest and southeast corners of the Australian mainland, and finally succeeded in setting up a decent base in the Far East.

After carefully reading a series of documents and materials submitted by them, such as the logbook, expedition diary, and work report, both the staff officers of the Admiralty and the bureaucrats of the Executive Committee sighed that the experience of these guys could be written into a novel. If it weren't for the fact that the plan needed to be carried out in a low-key manner, in order to take care of the sentiments of some old local citizens, especially those who were Livonian and French, the Executive Committee would have been ready to hold a celebration meeting for Li Yi and his gang.

However, although the celebration meeting was not held, the internal reference of "Pravda" made two pages in a big book, so that almost all the people who traveled through the country knew the process of Li Yi and others' actions. At this point, Li Yi's reputation has risen sharply within the Crossing Public, catching up with the current top three in the navy, Lu, Wang, and Guo.

While the details of the next set of action plans were being discussed within the Executive Committee, Li Yi had already returned to his private estate on the shore of Luoqia Lake in the south and spent his own vacation with his family.

"Brother Li, this time you are in the limelight, brother, I am very envious, grass, it can be called an epic voyage." Sang Kai, the newly promoted lieutenant of the navy, sat on a rosewood chair, turned his head to Li Yi and said with a smile. He also bought land and built his own manor-style villa on the shore of Luoqia Lake, and usually has a lot of contacts with Li Yi's family. The relationship is good. So this vacation, the two families got together.

Li Yi's wife was born into a family of merchants in Florence. This was introduced by Julian of the Pasquier family, and it is said that there is still a little bit of connection with the Pasquier family. Over the years, they had four children: three sons and one daughter, the youngest of whom was just over three years old. In the past two days, the youngest son seemed to have a cold, so he stayed at home to recuperate, and Li Yi even specially invited a Lang Zhong from the Ming Dynasty to stay at home to take care of his youngest son. It's not that Li Yi is making a big fuss, it's really that the current medical level of the East Coast Republic is too low, and if you get sick, you can basically only live next to each other. Because there is no medicine, and I don't know how to make medicine, the few doctors who have traveled through the crowd have the feeling that it is difficult for a smart woman to cook without rice.

Therefore, some doctors from the Ming Dynasty have become fragrant and sweet, and they have not only been given extremely high treatment, but the Ministry of Health has even organized them to compile teaching materials and vigorously promote the teaching of traditional Chinese medicine in China. Of course, Western medicine should not be wasted. Since the beginning of the chemical industry, after concentrated sulfuric acid can be mass-produced, a large amount of hydrochloric acid has been trial-produced. And gradually began the in-depth research of organic chemistry, especially the research of the pharmaceutical industry is the top priority. For now, though. The chemical and pharmaceutical industry has not made the slightest progress, and the northern pharmaceutical factory in Jushu Township, Ping'an County, has only come up with inorganic drugs such as sodium sulfate and ferrous sulfide to fool people, much to the disappointment of officials in the Ministry of Health.

Li Yi's eldest son, Li Zemin, is nine years old this year and was just sent to the 41st class of the Corps Fort last year to study. Today, he was able to rush back by asking the instructor for leave, and at a young age, he was wearing a dark green military uniform, a big cap, small leather boots, and an armed belt tightly tied around his waist, which looked a little extraordinary.

But Li Yi's wife was a little angry about this, insisting that her son was an aristocrat and should not be crawling around in a playground or a puddle with the sons of the peasants. He should have learned things like etiquette, social interaction, and poetry and literature, and he should not be like a rude military man, who gets dirty all day long, and always has small wounds on his body, so that every time he sees it, it is a heart-wrenching pain.

"I myself come from a peasant family. If the aristocracy does not study and work hard, it is not as good as a peasant, and the child suffers a lot from an early age, and when he grows up, he will understand that this is a wealth for himself. Li Yi scoffed at this, although he was very mild on the outside, he was still a militarist at heart, and he was very unaccustomed to those who played with their mouths all day long and boasted of superiority. Therefore, he sent his two sons, a nine-year-old and an eight-year-old, to the Corps Fort, so that they could learn to be practical people from an early age, and not to indulge in wealth and power, so as to lose their hearts.

"My dear, Zemin is the eldest son, and he should learn how to run the family business." Li Yi's wife, Samantha, said worriedly, "It is very inappropriate that we have sent both of our sons to the Château Corps and refused to let them learn the knowledge and manners required by high society, as we all need expertise to take care of in the farms of Port Rocha, the vineyards and wineries in Fort Xiangshan, the furniture factory in Henan Township, the sisal plantation in Xinhuaxia, and a shop in Florence." I heard that Bai Siwen's sons were able to publish poems in the school publications, and that they were very decent, and that the ladies enjoyed spending time with him. ”

"You don't understand a woman." Li Yi waved his hand a little impatiently and said, "You know too little about the Tao, and you don't understand the nature of this society, you will understand it in the future." Look at Wang Qinian, Lu Ming, Wang Tiehammer, as well as Zhu Liang, Xie Hansan and others from the army, which of them didn't send their children to the Corps Fort? If you are really worried, you can teach Zehai with your heart, he is only three and a half years old, and the family business will be handed over to him to take care of in the future. ”

Samantha sighed, knowing that she could not convince her husband, but fortunately her husband did not send his youngest son to the Guards Corps, known as the "Corps Prison", and that he had plenty of time to educate him as an elegant gentleman.

In fact, Li Yi's behavior is not uncommon among today's crossing people, especially those military families, almost everyone sent one or two of their children to the Corps Fort. In this way, a few generations later, a military aristocratic group with the descendants of these generations in the army and the descendants of their followers in time and space as the core will be formed, and this group will have a profound impact on the political direction and foreign policy of the East Coast Republic of China.

Sankai's wife, Fontana, came over and grabbed Samantha's arm, and the two women, also from Italy, took the children to the meadow by the lake to prepare food, leaving the two men to talk freely.

"Xiao Sang, you kid is fast enough." Li Yi sat on the chair and lifted Erlang's legs, pointed his finger at Sang Kai, and said, "This modern factory has just come out with a propeller thruster ship, and you are targeting it." The day before yesterday, I saw the letter of appointment for you in the Admiralty, and I was still very strange, didn't you be an adjutant on Lu Ming's ship, how did you transfer to a ship that was 'on the sea' as a captain? Take a closer look, I will take a look, no wonder, it turns out that this "Wandering Sea" is also a multi-functional exploration ship. It's just that how did they solve the underwater sealing of the propeller shaft? Reliable or unreliable? Won't the boat leak? ”

In fact, the Navy has long wanted ships equipped with propeller thrusters. It's just that the modern special shipyard has been unable to solve the underwater sealing and oil leakage problems of the stern tube, so it has not produced this kind of ship for a long time, but has successively produced two paddle wheel test ships to verify its performance. However, the Navy and Hyundai have not given up on the research of propeller thrusters, because their reliability is much stronger than that of paddle steamers.

This time, after collective discussion and repeated tests, the engineers of the Hyundai factory finally trial-produced the underwater seal of the propeller tail shaft tube. The seal is divided into three parts: the sealing chamber, the shaft sleeve and the propeller shaft, the shaft is made of bronze, the propeller shaft is made of ordinary carbon steel, and the propeller is made of cast iron.

At first, the material that came to mind was iron pear wood from Central America, but considering the need to travel thousands of miles to buy this precious tree from the Spaniards, everyone decided to try a bronze bushing with good thermal conductivity. The bushing has good thermal conductivity and is very wear-resistant, allowing it to perform the function of the bushing perfectly. In order to reduce the friction between the paddle shaft and the bushing, we also sintered a layer of graphite bronze (8% graphite, 6% tin, and 10% lead are added to the copper) on the surface of the paddle shaft to reduce the friction coefficient between the two, and also play a good sealing role.

Oil lubrication is used between the bushing and the paddle shaft. In order to prevent the leakage of lubricating oil, the engineers of Hyundai Factory worked together to process some oil retaining threads from the outer surface of the propeller shaft. Because when the oil adheres to the smooth paddle shaft, it is easy to be thrown out because the paddle shaft rotates, and the faster the paddle shaft rotates, the faster the oil leaks. However, when there are threads on the outer surface of the paddle shaft, when the paddle shaft rotates, the lubricating oil that wants to leak out will be blocked by the threads and remain in the sealing cavity. Of course, we also designed a double insurance, that is, several spring sealing rings are installed at the front end of the sealing cavity, which not only prevents the leakage of lubricating oil, but also blocks the entry of seawater, which can be described as killing two birds with one stone.

However, it has also been suggested that instead of lubricating oil, many graphite rings can be added between the shaft sleeve and the paddle shaft, which can not only play a lubricating role, but also play a good sealing role. Because of the characteristics of graphite, it is a self-lubricating substance, and it is also a very ideal sealing material, which can still be applied at high temperature, high pressure and high speed. In this design, the graphite ring actually plays the role of a sliding bearing and sealing material, which is used in some modern aero engines.

Wei Hua, the director of the Hyundai factory, after listening to the opinions of all parties, slapped his thigh and decided to simply build two ships and use propeller underwater seals of different designs. A steel paddle shaft using iron pear wood bushing + sintered with a layer of graphite bronze, lubricated with lubricating oil; The other uses bronze shaft sleeve + a large number of graphite rings, no lubricating oil, both of which are tried to know which one is better. The Ministry of Communications quickly agreed with their opinions, so Hyundai Plant started construction of two propeller-propelled steam engine sailing ships, the "Zhuhai" and the "Fubo", which were successfully completed earlier this month. (To be continued......)