Zhang Bin looked at the father and son in front of him focusing on processing the wood in his hands, meticulously completing each process, and then looked at the wooden circle on the table like a jade bracelet, and couldn't help but be in awe.

The craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty can be said to be the most skilled and super-skilled craftsmen in the world today, and there is no one who can compare with the craftsmen of no country.

The essence of porcelain is handicrafts, and silk is not handicrafts, these two things can be said to be popular in today's world, and I don't know how much income it has brought to the Ming Dynasty.

However, these craftsmen did not get due respect, let alone due benefits, their status and their treatment is not even as good as ordinary civilians, and it is precisely because these people are not taken seriously, the Ming Dynasty is still at the top of the world's manufacturing industry, to the mite Qing more than 100 years to be overtaken, and finally even tasted the bitter fruit of bullying.

Of course, there are also reasons for the prevalence of steam power in Europe, but steam power is not the decisive factor, even if it is made by hand, with the huge population base of Mites, all the European powers combined are difficult to match.

However, one who does not pay attention to it ruins it all.

If you don't pay attention to it, there will be no development, and it will slowly be surpassed by the countries that you pay attention to, and it is precisely because of the importance of manufacturing that the European powers can surpass the replacement of the Ming Dynasty in just over a hundred years.

Speaking of development, steam power is not the sublimation of tools in the hands of handicraftsmen, and the inventors, scientists, and engineers of the European continent are not the sublimation of the combination of craftsmen and science, just as the ship they want to make is not a sublimation of wheels!

Zhang Bin deeply reflected that he still didn't pay enough attention to development.

For example, he had known about the wheel boat for a long time, and if he was not stimulated by the slow speed of the sailboat that made people vomit blood, he could not think of improving the wheel boat into a ship;

He also knew about the existence of the Ming craftsmen for a long time, but he didn't think to pay attention to them, create conditions for them, and help them progress.

The artisan households are under the management of the Ministry of Industry, and it is best to start from the Ministry of Industry to help them, change the system, strive for their interests, organize them to inherit their skills, and pioneer and innovate.

All of this takes a lot of time and energy, and I'm afraid I don't have the time or energy.

He couldn't help but sneak a glance at Bi Maokang, who was watching a few carpenters processing baffles around him, this product was the most suitable person, because he had both fame and qualifications, and more importantly, he was also very keen on manufacturing, and even invented a lot of things himself.

If you can let him be in charge of the Ministry of Works, guide him from the side, and help him find a way to persuade Chongzhen, then the spring of the Ming craftsman will come.

Guidance is not a day's work, let him deeply understand the benefits that the development of craftsmen can bring.

Thinking of this, Zhang Bin took the initiative to talk: "Master, have you heard of the Yuegang Foundry?" ”

The old carpenter nodded again and again: "I know, I know, many of our craftsmen in Fujian have gathered there to make muskets and artillery." ”

Zhang Bin continued: "There is a kind of lathe there, which is similar to the wooden gyroscope you have here, and it is faster and more efficient, and it doesn't need people to turn it, you know?" ”

Unexpectedly, the old carpenter still knew, and he nodded enviously: "The villain has long heard from the familiar craftsman that the drilling machine, lathe and other kinds of beds are all good things!" ”

Zhang Bin continued to ask: "By the way, what did the master do before, do household chores, repair buildings, build palaces, or something else?" ”

When the old carpenter heard this, he said embarrassedly: "This, don't hide it from the adult, the villain used to be often called to work in the shipyard, and what he did was shipbuilding." ”

Shipbuilding!

Zhang Bin looked around carefully, and then suddenly said: "Look at the planks everywhere on this ship, the most time-consuming thing for shipbuilding should be sawing planks, right?" ”

The old carpenter nodded and said: "Yes, it is going to be old, the planks of such a lucky ship, if two people tug their saws, I am afraid they will not be able to sawn them out for a year, so every time they build a ship, most of the carpenters go to saw, and the villain has also sawed a few times, and a sawing is a few months, and his arms are about to be sawed off." ”

Zhang Bin blamed himself: "It's the official who neglected and focused all his energy on making guns, in fact, this sawed plank can also be designed with a special sawing machine to saw, and the wider plank is sawed back and forth quickly with a piston pulling the saw, you just need to push it slowly." Narrow planks can be sawn with a circular wheel, which is also very fast. ”

When the old carpenter heard this, he imagined it for a moment and said with reverence on his face: "My lord is really amazing, if there is such a sawing machine, it can be at least four or five times faster to build a ship!" ”

When Zhang Bin heard this, he was slightly disappointed and said: "It's only four or five times faster, it's still a little slow, and the official also thought about changing the loom to steam power for the weavers, but the speed is more than ten times faster." Alas, it's a pity that this official doesn't know how to build ships very well, otherwise he could have thought of something else for you. It seems that you craftsmen should be taught how to use steam power, and you can develop some suitable beds by yourself, so that all walks of life will develop rapidly. ”

When the old carpenter heard this, he said excitedly, "Really, my lord? That's great. ”

Zhang Bin nodded, looked at Bi Maokang, and replied affirmatively: "Of course it's true, but you belong to the Ministry of Industry, and it's best to let the Ministry of Industry implement this, and this official will advise the emperor." ”

At this time, Bi Maokang's eyes really lit up, and it seemed that he understood, after all, he had been a waiter in the Ministry of Works for a while.

However, it is still too early to consider the matter of the Ministry of Works, and he is still just a Langzhong, so these can only be said later, and it is more practical to consider improving the wheel into a ship.

After a while, the baffle and the small wooden block were ready, Zhang Bin first stuffed seven small wooden blocks between the eight bullets, and then covered the baffle on top of the bullets and beads, and then pointed to the baffle and said, "Find some small nails to nail the baffle and the small wooden block together." ”

When the old carpenter heard this, he immediately brought a wooden box containing nails and a small hammer, and carefully nailed the baffle and the small wooden block together.

After he finished nailing it, Zhang Bin stuffed a piece of paper directly under these things, and then carefully turned these things over as a whole, and then covered the baffle on the other side, and then pointed to the baffle and said, "Nail it here too." ”

Soon, the old carpenter nailed this side again.

Zhang Bin excitedly picked up the world's first ball bearing, and smiled mysteriously at Bi Maokang: "The time has come to witness the miracle." ”

Bi Maokang immediately stared at the bearing in his hand with curiosity, and Zhang Bin proudly inserted his left index finger and middle finger into the inner ring of the bearing, crossed the two fingers, resisted the inner ring, and then turned the outer ring with his right hand.

As a result, it was super embarrassing, and the outer ring did not move after a few turns!

Zhang Bin took the bearing in front of his eyes with black lines on his face and turned it lightly twice, and immediately found the problem.

It turned out that the small wooden block in the middle was not fixed, rubbing the inner ring and the outer ring up and down, and the outer cover plate was also a little bigger, and it was also rubbing the inner ring and the outer ring!

He immediately said to the old carpenter: "Master, please pry open the baffle here, it still needs to be changed here." ”

When the old carpenter heard this, he took the bearing, took out a thin chisel, and carefully pried the baffle open.

Zhang Bin then pointed to the small wooden block in the middle and said: "This square is not good, you must make it wider, and then dig out an arc-shaped groove on both sides, and this baffle is grinding small inside and outside, so you can't touch the inner ring and the outer ring." ”

When the old carpenter heard this, he hurriedly nodded and said, "Well, the villain understands, please wait a moment, adult." ”

Hold on? Doesn't it take time to make seven small wooden blocks and dig out arc-shaped grooves on both sides of each small wooden block?

The old carpenter naturally didn't know the doubts in Zhang Bin's heart, he carefully removed all the small wooden blocks from the baffle, and grinded the inner and outer rings of the baffle into a circle, and then took an arm-long square piece of wood and split it into a small square wooden strip with an axe.

These are similar to the process just now, the next step is to plane, the old carpenter took out the planer and carefully planed all four sides, and the small wooden strips immediately became boxy.

Zhang Bin thought that the next step was to saw the small wooden strips into small wooden blocks, but he never thought that the old carpenter directly used a hammer to knock out the flat blade in the planer, and then took a blade with an arc in front and knocked it in, and then gouged a few times on the small wooden strip, and an arc-shaped groove came out.

It turned out to be so simple, Zhang Bin was dumbfounded.

Next, sawed into pieces, polished, and nailed back again, these did not need Zhang Bin's guidance, and the old carpenter quickly got it done.

Zhang Bin excitedly picked up the bearing again, directly inserted the index finger and middle finger of his left hand into the inner ring of the bearing, crossed the two fingers, resisted the inner ring, and then turned the outer ring with his right hand.

The outer ring spun rapidly, and there was no sign of stopping for a while.

He couldn't help but lift the bearing in front of Bi Maokang's eyes and laughed: "Hahahaha, it's successful, Meng Hou, it's successful, have you seen it?" ”

Bi Maokang looked at the bearing with a surprised face, and then looked at Zhang Bin with a puzzled face, this means, don't you just make a little toy, why are you so excited?

Zhang Bin is embarrassed, no one knows that the bearing is set on the rotating shaft at this time, he asked helplessly: "Meng Hou, you don't know what this thing is for, right?" ”

Bi Maokang nodded and said, "yes, I don't know what such a little thing can do." ”

When Zhang Bin heard this, he looked around, and immediately saw the wooden spinning top, he pointed to the fixed place of the turntable shaft and said to Bi Maokang: "Meng Hou, you see, this wooden spinning top is not used often, but a groove has been ground here." ”

Bi Maokang was puzzled and said, "This is normal." ”

Zhang Bin turned the big turntable again, and then said: "This turntable requires a lot of strength when it rotates. ”

Bi Maokang simply looked at him and stopped talking, the meaning was obvious, aren't you talking nonsense!

Zhang Bin rolled his eyes at him, beckoned the old carpenter, pointed to the iron hoop and said, "Master, think about it, what would happen if you put this thing between the iron hoop and the wooden shaft?" ”

The old carpenter took the bearing, followed Zhang Bin's example and turned it a few times, and then said in surprise: "If you put this in the middle, the wooden shaft will not be worn out, and it will be very easy to turn!" ”

Zhang Bin looked at Bi Maokang proudly, and then said to the old carpenter: "You know all about the board car, the carriage and so on, what if you make this iron and add it between the axle and the hoop?" ”

The old carpenter immediately replied, "Then the carriage and the cart will be much lighter, and the axle will not need to be changed often." ”

Zhang Bin continued to ask: "You also know the wheel, what happens if you add this between the axle and the hoop?" ”

The old carpenter immediately replied: "Then it will be easier to step on, and the axle does not need to be changed often!" ”

Zhang Bin nodded, and said to Bi Maokang proudly: "Meng Hou, think about it, what would happen if the tread plate on the rotating shaft of the wheel was replaced with a gear and pushed by a steam piston?" ”

Bi Maokang was stunned when he heard this, and then his eyes bulged, and he almost jumped up excitedly.

In that case, the wheels won't be able to fly!

The bearing sample was made, Zhang Bin also returned to the handsome ship, the fleet continued to move forward, fortunately, after a few days, there was a strong wind on the sea, it seemed that it was going to rain heavily, the speed of the fleet suddenly accelerated, Zhang Bin directly ordered the fleet to move along the coast and go to the moon port.

With the help of strong winds, the fleet arrived at Yuegang in a few days, and Zhang Bin did not rush ashore, but asked people to call Wang Zheng, Song Yingxing and others to the wheel.

When the four of them arrived, he pointed to the pedal and said, "You guys step on it and try it." ”

The four of them stepped forward a few times in turn, their strength was smaller than Zhang Bin's, and they didn't know the method, so they naturally couldn't step on it.

Zhang Bin pointed to the place where the hoop was held and said: "Look there, the shaft has been ground out of a groove, is this resistance very great?" ”

When everyone heard this, they all nodded in realization.

Zhang Bin then took out five delicate bearings like a treasure, one person sent one, and he took one to demonstrate how to rotate and then prompted: "Think about it, if you make this thing into iron, and then add it between the shaft and the hoop, will there be no resistance?" ”

Everyone turned the bearing in his footsteps, and immediately nodded in surprise.

Zhang Bin then pointed to the pedal and said, "Think about it, what would happen if you replaced this circle of pedals with gears and then drove them with steam pistons?" ”

Everyone glanced at the pedals, thought for a moment, and immediately showed ecstatic expressions, and said: "This, how fast this wheel must run, if all the ships are changed to this, then there will be no sails and oars!" ”

Zhang Bin nodded and said: "Yes, in the future, this kind of ship will be called a ship, with a ship, there is no need for sails and oars, and there is no need to care about the wind and wind direction, there is no need for any wind, the boat can run fast!" ”

Everyone nodded excitedly, this is simply an invention that changes the pattern of the sea! 、

Zhang Bin immediately said to Wang Zheng: "Liangfu, you are responsible for this, and make the sample as soon as possible." ”