25 September 1683, London Iron House.

It was another rainy day, Cai Zhenguo opened the window of the room, and a fresh air with rain instantly poured in, slightly dispelling a little mildew and rot in the room.

"It's no wonder that the first thing the British developed when they got the steam engine was the pumping machine and the water pump. In such a country where it rains all day long, how difficult it must be to live without a water pump. Cai Zhenguo, the ambassador of the East Coast Republic of China to the United Kingdom, looked at the rain curtain outside and said in a mocking tone: "Could it be that the steam engine technology of the English people is unique in Europe, and this mystery lies in its rainy and humid environment?" ”

"Boss, you're kidding again." The secretary was surprised to put the teapot on the table, and then poured Cai Zhenguo a cup of yerba mate. As the ambassador of the East Coast Republic of China to the United Kingdom, Cai Zhenguo still has a wide range of hobbies in beverages, green tea, yerba mate, coffee, cocoa, milk tea and even alcohol, he likes it very much, and often asks the secretary to change his taste, so the cabinet is full of various raw materials produced in various places, which is very luxurious.

Today's yerba mate is drunk, which is transported across the ocean from the northern part of the mainland river, through the channel of diplomatic parcels, but the cost is also quite high. However, the Cai family has a big business, and the brothers are either officials or in business, so what is a little freight? He Cai Zhenguo didn't blink his eyes.

"But seriously, Ambassador, lately the British have been trying to graft steam power onto some of the more commonly used medium and large machinery. I went to see it, and many of them were machine tools for machining tools, and although their efforts were not very successful, this kind of attempt itself represented some kind of progress, and I felt that it should be taken seriously. The secretary quickly put aside the documents on the table, and then brought a plate of special biscuits and reported to Cai Zhenguo.

Recently, the East Coast Embassy in the UK received invitations from several British manufacturing companies to visit and investigate, and had a relatively clear understanding of the application level and machining level of steam engines of British manufacturing enterprises.

The reason why the British repeatedly invited people from the East Coast to visit was to purchase a lot of equipment from the East Coast, the most important of which was undoubtedly the steam engine. Guy because there is no steam engine, especially the rotation speed of the machine tool head of the steam engine tool with higher rotation speed, it is impossible to be fast, and this speed is slow, the vibration degree when processing parts will be very high, which will make the machining accuracy not go up, and the second will also make the scrap rate high, which will undoubtedly make the industrial processing level at a low level, so the British very much want to get the high-speed steam engine technology on the east coast.

Of course, it would not be too accurate to say that the British must have tried desperately to get the technology of high-speed steam engines. After all, some of the steam engines that the British are using now are worse than some hydraulic machine tools? Leaving aside those rivers with turbulent water for the time being, these can drive many machine tools to move at a higher rate, but most of the rivers actually have a very gentle water flow, which can only make machine tools, water lifters, mills and other facilities driven by water power move at a relatively slow speed, far less than the relative speed of the steam engine. What's more, rivers are also divided into wet and dry periods, and even freeze in winter, and the flow rate will change in a certain period of time, which is far less constant and high speed than the steam engine. Therefore, even if the steam engine is poor, it has a great advantage over water power, which is just cheaper than cheap, and is suitable for some projects that do not require high processing accuracy, such as the Shipu Reservoir built by people on the east coast, whose water power is used to drive sledgehammers to build armor, stamping silver dollars, etc., if it is used to process gears, it will not work.

Therefore, the British were able to raise their country's industrial production efficiency and machining level to a new level just by greatly popularizing and popularizing the steam engine. The main reason why they are still trying to get the high-speed steam engine of the East Coast people is that they are still eating from the bowl and looking at the pot, and they are more greedy for the "artifact" of the East Coast people, not how much they need this kind of steam engine. You know, with their existing technology, they are already the best in Europe.

The staff of the East Coast embassy who visited the British workshops came back full of praise for the industrial processing level of the British, and they generally believed that as far as these factories in the suburbs of London were concerned, they had almost caught up with some backward workshops in New China, Australia, and the Far East that used a large number of hydraulic machine tools, but they were still not as good as some large enterprises set up by the government. These factories are not only technically superior to these advanced enterprises in the suburbs of London, which can be called British models, but also completely win in terms of management system and financial system, and the lead is all-round.

Cai Zhenguo's secretary summarized the news from the people below, and then wrote a report with a deeper understanding and submitted it to Cai Zhenguo, so he is still relatively clear about the current British industry, so he will only listen to him and say: "The British still have two major bottlenecks in the existing low-pressure and low-speed steam engines, one is the sealing problem, and the other is the problem of machining accuracy. As for the other aspects, they are not bad, although the level is not very advanced, but the progress is obvious. ”

In fact, as Secretary Cai Zhenguo just said, the British have not even perfected the low-pressure and low-speed steam engines. To be honest, the difficulties encountered in sealing are much smaller than they were ten years ago, but they are still limited by material, processing or design reasons, which makes the cylinder leak more serious, which has affected the thermal efficiency of the steam engine. In fact, this problem is the same thing as the second so-called bottleneck, if the British have made great progress in machining, then the problem of air leakage in the cylinder of the steam engine cannot be so serious, so this is actually a problem of the two. At present, the British, without the help of foreign technology, can only use the kind of steam engine that leaks everywhere and is less efficient, as they did in the early days of the East Coast, and of course this is the only way for technological progress.

The rest of Europe was far behind the British in terms of the other countries that began to formally use the steam engine as an emerging power. Taking Portugal and Spain as examples, the former produced two units and imported four units from the United Kingdom, but they were all damaged one after another within a year, and then spent a lot of money to ask the British to repair them, and then used them for a year or two and then damaged and repaired again, and so on, which was obviously a failed attempt; And the Spaniards are even more strange, the country first asked the people of the east coast to buy steam engines, and made it clear that even the backward early models do not matter, after being ruthlessly refused, in a hurry to "catch up with the fashion", they turned to Birmingham, England to order three of the latest steam pumps, installed around the arid farmland of Andalusia, for water irrigation, the result is the same as the equipment of the Portuguese next door, after more than a year of use, it was declared damaged, the Spaniards themselves organized a repair, without success, Then they discarded it, who let it be an official investment project in Madrid, they didn't care how the steam engine actually worked, it seemed to be just a simple move to catch up with the trend.

Compared with these two comic countries, the princes of France and North Germany were much more serious, especially the latter. This region has always been a thriving area for handicrafts, and the goods produced are sold everywhere, and a large number of industrial products from North Germany can be seen at various trade fairs held in Central Europe and Italy every year, and the foundation is very good. Therefore, after the steam engine was introduced to this region, the development was relatively rapid, and the acceptance of the steam engine was not high, and the north-central region of Germany was relatively cold, with heavy snow in winter, frozen rivers, and all hydraulic machinery was suspended, and only hand tools and foot machine tools could be used to produce goods, and the efficiency did not know how many times to decline. Now there is a steam engine, all of a sudden to make up for this shortcoming, although the initial investment is higher, but you can join the crowdfunding procurement, we will transform this steam engine at that time, connect a few more shafts, learn from the East Coast people, just rely on the rental power can almost recover a lot of costs.

Cai Zhenguo once received information from Brandenburg from the Riga trading station, and the above has carefully analyzed the situation of the use of steam engines in North Germany, well, in fact, taking Brandenburg Prussia as an example, we know that this region has a relatively strong industrial base since the Middle Ages, and coal is relatively cheap, and transportation is relatively developed, and the country has used a lot of steam engines produced in Britain, and has begun to try to imitate, for which from the former Hanseatic League member city-states (industry, commerce, navigation industry is more developed, There are a lot of craftsmen) and many craftsmen have come to Berlin to carry out special projects.

Of course, this country has also tried to buy a "high-grade steam engine" produced on the east coast through the Courlands, but it has been rejected several times, and then it has given up on its own and has now reached a level where it can be partially repaired, which is also quite good.

"British, this dog luck is really good! Coal, iron, lead, tin and other minerals are abundant, domestic canals are longitudinal and horizontal, and there are many coastal ports, so the cost of transportation is naturally very low. Food can also be self-sufficient, the industrial base has been good since ancient times, and the combined steel production exceeds that of the rest of Europe combined. Cai Zhenguo drank the bitter yerba mate, frowned and said: "For the sake of now, the only way to do our best is to destroy the good relations between Britain and the Netherlands." The country's industrial strength is already so strong, if they are allowed to obtain the capital and sales channels of the Dutch, it will really be a problem. We must prevent this trouble in advance, against the combination of Dutch commercial capital with English industrial capital, which is not in the interests of our country. ”

"By the way, I heard that the export of British goods to Russia has surged recently, and the gang of Dongdi Company has become active again?" Putting down the teacup in his hand, Cai Zhenguo suddenly asked.

"Yes, the British were able to concentrate on industry and commerce, and the results were significant, encroaching on many markets that would otherwise belong to foreign merchants. And after all these years, the bad reputation of the British king-killer has long since faded (and now the king is also on the throne), and the trade between the Russians and them is very complementary, so it has developed rapidly. All this is confirmed by the information transmitted from Riga, Arkhangelsk, and Moscow. The secretary recalled all kinds of documents he had come into contact with before, and replied: "A few days ago, Zhao Gui, who was actually in charge of the work of the Riga Commercial Station, sent several pieces of information, which mentioned the British infiltration into the Baltic Sea and Russia, which is worth paying attention to. Ah, by the way, he also mentions that the Austrians have sent a sizable mission to Moscow in a detour between Germany and Poland, most likely to negotiate with the Russians on the feasibility of a joint attack on the Ottoman Turkish Empire. The Austrians want to fight for the Balkans, and the Russians want to fight for Ukraine, both of which have enmity with the Ottoman Empire, so the possibility of union is not low and it is worth being wary of. ”

"I've seen this information too, it's not very easy to handle." Cai Zhenguo also sighed when he heard this, and only heard him say: "These two countries have territorial disputes with the Ottomans, and they are both in a clear rising period, and the domestic economic strength, scientific and technological strength, and military combat effectiveness are all increasing, which is in stark contrast to the Ottoman Empire. Moreover, neither of these two countries is very active in overseas trade, and almost all of their bodies and minds are focused on competing for land interests, and it is a little powerless to beat them. Especially that Russia, short-tempered and very disobedient, in case of angering them, this bear will not think rationally, and if it is not even, it will directly turn against us, and it is estimated that the Far East, Ukraine and other places will rekindle the war, and business will also be ruined, which is very tricky. So that's why I hate mainland countries, they sometimes think in a way that is not on the same channel as us, and they don't have a different focus, which is confusing. ”

"This matter should be handled by Envoy Gao Wengangao of Cadiz. In the afternoon, you will summarize for me the recent intelligence materials on Austria, Russia, and Turkey, and then write me a detailed report. I'll try to review it in the next two days, and then find an opportunity to send it to Cadiz, and let the High Envoy decide. Well, our merchant ship from Amsterdam to Spain will be available in the middle of next month, so let this ship be brought over. This information is more important, you arrange for a shrewd person to bring it with you, understand? Cai Zhenguo admonished.

"I see, Ambassador, I'll keep an eye on this." The secretary nodded and replied.