"Where are the boundaries of knowledge?"

In the public tour area at the summit of Bell Mountain, Woolf, who was mixed in with the crowd of people, was also asking such questions.

Trains rumbled in the distance.

Like a long line, the ten carriages, driven by the nose of the locomotive that constantly spews black smoke, drive along the railroad tracks to the terminal, which is a forest of chimneys. The black smoke and mist that filled the sky were countless stretches of factory buildings, and various buildings blackened by soot formed a black beast that could not be seen realistically. The beast swallowed countless iron ore and coal, copper and other metals, nitrate and brimstone, and then spat out a steady stream of new machinery and weapons to support the vast empire in amassing the world's wealth and supporting their armies to expand their territory......

"Is he magically driven?"

A blonde, blue-eyed Standard Germanic exclaimed beside him in German.

"Stupid infidels!"

The Portuguese consul said disdainfully.

Of course, in order to avoid conflict, he used Portuguese.

"The Pope's dog!"

The Dutch consul, who knew Portuguese, scolded the old rival in German not far away.

Well, this is the daily routine of the envoys of the various countries in the southern capital, although they are often accustomed to getting together due to the loneliness of being far away from each other, but they are not in harmony with each other. Especially now that relations between Britain and the Netherlands are becoming more and more strained, and the other envoys are also disagreeing with each other because of their beliefs and interests. The blonde and blue-eyed Danish consuls, who had just arrived in Nandu, were Protestants and the backbone of Protestantism. Denmark was also an important maritime trading nation at this time, having established a commercial presence in eastern India decades earlier and reaching the east even earlier than France. The Nanyang Company had trade dealings with them, the former transported the tea to their stronghold, and they transported the tea back to Europe, but Denmark had mixed up in Europe in recent years, and the rise of Sweden gave them a huge blow, and they were beaten by Sweden a few years ago, and had to sign a treaty on land reparations.

So they are more enthusiastic about overseas trade.

After all, trade can make up for losses.

Although the Swedes can beat them violently, don't they have to honestly give them gold coins to buy tea? Of course, there is no need to say that the Swedes can beat them up and then go back.

"Humph!"

Woolf continues to sneer at these idiots.

He has always prided himself on being clever and long-sighted, and he never bothered to talk to these fools, who had no idea how dangerous this vast empire was. How terrible it would be to have suffocating wealth, trembling armies, and crushing the industrial power of Europe when the Civil War was over and stepped into the chariot of expansion. Their voyage fleet has reached the Americas, and they have established their first colony on the west coast of North America, and their merchant ships have spread all over the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean, from the Persian Gulf to Zanzibar, and everywhere you can see Ming merchant ships flying the dragon and the moon flag. Even if the strength of their fleet is put in Europe, it is already the first rank, ten battleships and hundreds of cruisers, making them almost invincible in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, and what is even more terrifying is that their technology is also far ahead, and no one knows how many things they haven't taken out of their regent who doesn't know whether they are humans or demons.

If it is said that in the era of hydraulic machinery, there was still no essential gap between European countries and the Ming Dynasty, but when he created these monsters that spewed black smoke, it was no longer a gap that could be described.

It's not a level at all.

"Is it really water-driven?"

Woolf whispered to the secretary next to him.

"Yes, Your Excellency Consul, I bought it for ten thousand Spanish gold coins from one of their factory owners who had bought this machine, and according to him it was like a kettle boiling water, and then the water lifted the lid of the kettle, and this thing of theirs was called a steam engine, and it was powered by such power."

The secretary said.

In fact, these European consuls in Nandu were all part-time spies, and their main task was to get the secrets of the main export commodities of the Ming Dynasty.

However, the results are almost zero.

After all, playing this is not enough for them to see in front of Jinyiwei, as for the secret of the steam engine that they are discovering now, this is actually not a secret at all, and the Protector himself has said it publicly, but there will definitely be no Europeans when he says it. But the factory owners who bought the steam engine, the workers who used it, knew very well how it worked, and they didn't mind telling them that they could receive ten thousand Spanish silver coins. But even if they knew, it would be useless, and even if Watt was born early, they would not be able to build a steam engine. In fact, Watt is not the inventor of the steam engine at all, the original steam engine is a theory and model proposed by scientists in the seventeenth century, the first commercial steam engine was built by Newcomen in the early eighteenth century, and Watt improved the formal steam engine in the mid-eighteenth century.

This process took them a hundred years.

In the past 100 years, countless new technologies and processes have been born, and finally Watt has been achieved.

Watt's success is not because he is smart enough.

But it was the industrial development of England that had laid the foundation for his success, and there was no whole industrial system to accompany it, and at this time they could not build the blueprints of the steam engine to the British. First of all, they can't build cylinders, they don't have boring machines, and secondly, they can't build small steel parts, they don't have crucible steel, and they can't even make a tight valve, a connecting rod that's smooth and straight enough.

Everyone has a brain hole, and it takes the power of the system to turn the brain hole into reality.

But the system can't be found.

Yang Qingneng succeeded because he had solved all the problems step by step before this, even if this train took him eight years to build.

Of course, Woolf wouldn't know any of this.

"Send this news out immediately, don't use written things, keep it in your heart, those brocade guards are like ghosts!"

He said.

The secretary nodded.

They've been caught one before.

A British spy trying to obtain porcelain craftsmanship took advantage of the changes in Guangdong to infiltrate a porcelain factory in Foshan, obtain a large number of secrets, and then write down a notebook of information. As a result, when he left Humen, he was found out by the customs inspection team, and not only was he beheaded, but he was also arrested together with more than a dozen British people in Guangdong, and he was thrown directly to Hainan Island to dig iron ore.

Therefore, the safest way to send this information can only be memorized.

And that's when the train arrives at the terminal.

Terminal.

"Your Majesty, please!"

The Lord Protector regained his respect, stepped off the train, bowed his waist, and took the hand of Her Majesty the Empress, who also put on a graceful face, smiled and nodded in greeting to the workers, and then walked to a factory in front.

It was the first time that the Empress had come to the factory, which actually belonged to her husband.

"Your Majesty, it's dirty here, be careful."

The Protector said.

"Brothers workers can work here with peace of mind, am I still afraid of dirty? But it's a bit hot here, and it's really hard for the workers to work in such a place. Fortunately, it's spring, if the summer is hotter, I will add two yuan of high temperature subsidy to them every month in the summer! You must care about the workers, like the one in Guangzhou, I don't want to have a second time, and if there are any more mistreaters of the workers, I will never spare them! ”

Her Majesty the Empress angrily rebuked the Protector.

"Uh, I understand!"

The protector was terrified.

The workers were moved to tears.

"What kind of machine is this?"

Her Majesty's gaze quickly turned to a brand-new machine next to her.

This thing is like an alchemy furnace, except that there are trunnions on both sides, and gears and the like fall on the pig iron pedestals on both sides, the top is open, and you can see a piece of fiery red, and at the same time, there is a faint smoke coming out upward, and even a few drops of splashed molten iron. At the bottom of the circle is a full circle of six iron cylinders driven by a steam engine, and as the steam engine rotates rapidly, the pistons inside continue to reciprocate rapidly, and at the same time press air directly into this alchemy furnace through a very short connecting pipe......

"This is a new type of steelmaking furnace!"

Yang Qing hurriedly explained to his wife the baby in his factory.

Well, this is the converter.

Bottom-blowing air converter.

The key to this thing is the air blast, but the structure itself is not complicated, that is, the molten iron is poured into it and then a large amount of air is blown in, and the oxygen in the air is used to keep the molten iron in the reaction and heat itself, and finally the impurities in it are taken away by smoke. However, the old water exhaust blast must not meet the requirements, and it is a bottom blowing converter, which requires that the wind force must be strong enough, so the piston type can only be used when the centrifugal blower is still not very good.

That is, in 1760, John. Smiden blowers.

But Smitton is hydraulic.

And Yang Qing has a steam engine later than Smiddle, so he directly goes to the steam power, these are actually steam-powered large bellows blowers, and at the same time blow air to a wind chamber to ensure enough pressure inside. The compressed air is squeezed upwards from the air duct into the liquid molten iron, so that the carbon in the latter reacts with the oxygen in the air without external heating.

The end result is mild steel.

Of course, Yang Qing also uses acid linings.

Therefore, he can only smelt low-phosphate ore, and the iron ore on Hainan Island happens to have a low phosphorus content and a low sulfur content.

"The quality of the steel made from this thing is still not as good as crucible steel, but it ......"

Yang Qing looked at his wife and said.

His wife looked at him cooperatively.

"It's fast smelting, and it's huge!"

Yang Qing said.

As he spoke, the workers in front of him turned the wheel, so that the converter, which looked like an alchemy furnace, began to slowly pour to the side, and soon turned to the mouth of the furnace at a sufficient angle, and the fiery molten steel flowed out......