Chapter 106 Passenger and Freight Transportation

Since the kiln has now mastered the welding technology, the boiler of the steam engine can be welded with rolled steel plates, and the pressure of the boiler can also be increased a lot. THE PRESSURE VALUE OF THE BOILER DESIGNED BY ZHANG ZHIMU THIS TIME IS 2MPA. In this way, it is necessary to redesign a pressurized water pump to fill the boiler with water at high pressure. Thanks to the basis of a manual piston gas compressor, the same principle applies to the pressurized water pump. But this time the pressure of the boiler was much greater, and it was impossible to press the water completely by manpower. Therefore, a worm gear driven water pressure pump is specially designed, with this device, it can be easily completed by one person to pressurize the boiler. This time, a small cylinder system was added to the system. The small cylinder system is used to drive the blower of the boiler. It can also be used to drive a water pump. When there is no steam, the blower and water pump can be replaced by manual. The boiler is equipped with a safety pressure relief valve and a pressure gauge. Now the pressure gauge pointer is protected by glass, so you are not afraid of touching the pointer and making the measurement inaccurate.

The boiler is of direct heat type, and a dry gas chamber is added to the boiler, which can dehydrate the steam as much as possible. When the steam comes out, it passes through the furnace through a pipe, and when the steam passes through the furnace, it is reheated into superheated steam, so that the steam is not easy to condense into water in the cylinder. The diameter of the cylinder is 10mm. Since 1MPA=10.3323kg/cm2, the pressure of the cylinder piston is 5x5x3.1415926x10.3323=811kg, and the cylinder stroke is 300mm. The work of the cylinder is 243.3 kilograms of meters at one time.

As for how much power this boiler can output, Zhang Zhimu didn't count it in his heart. After all, he had never built a steam engine, and in his previous life, he had rarely seen a steam locomotive train.

Now many structural parts can be welded. Therefore, the structure of the boiler is much simpler to design. This gave Li Yunhe and others who participated in the design a pleasure that they had never felt before.

Li Yunhe said to Zhang Zhimu: "I have a feeling that with welding technology, we will make a lot of things that we can't think of now in the future." ”

Since it was the first time to build a steam engine, many problems could not be solved at once. Zhang Zhimu was not too anxious about this. When the design is basically completed, it will be completely handed over to Li Yunhe's and let them do it themselves.

Here, Lu Chengxiang was also waiting for Zhang Zhimu in a hurry. "Mr. Zhang, it's time for us to prepare for going north."

"yes, let's have a meeting first and summarize everything." Zhang Zhimu said.

This was the last cadre meeting held in Yaogang before Zhang Zhimu went north again. The meeting had three contents, summarizing the work in the previous paragraph, arranging the work for the next period of time, and determining some matters related to going north.

Originally, Zhang Zhimu wanted to wait for the second batch of grain from those merchants in Zhangjiakou to be processed before going north, but the news from the wharf was that the goods had not been moved, and there was no news that they were going to be moved. Zhang Zhimu discussed with Chen Yufeng and others, and finally judged that they did not dare to act rashly until they found out who had robbed the grain. So Zhang Zhimu decided not to wait, and left this matter to Yan Xing. Anyway, it's impossible to sneak attack like last time. However, considering that they would increase their defense after this incident, Zhang Zhimu asked Liu Yun to leave his hundred musketeers on standby, and if Yan Xing made a move, they could be dispatched to cooperate. So Zhang Zhimu thought that if there were more guards for these merchants, Yan Xing would be able to deal with them. Because Yan Xing's people also had a lot of muskets, and Liu Yun also helped with the training. What kind of round-robin, free-fire, etc., are all in shape.

So Zhang Zhimu decided to prepare for going north now, and set off when he was ready.

This was the last cadre meeting before Zhang Zhimu went north again. The meeting had three contents, summarizing the work of the previous paragraph, arranging the work of the next period of time, and determining the matters related to the north.

This time, Fan Chengkun, Li Dong, and Wu Shan all returned to Yaogang to attend the meeting. The meeting was organized by Li Zhi.

Lu Chengxiang, who was the first to speak, said: "After returning from the south, the goods we brought back from the south have already been sold all over Shanxi. All kinds of famous teas, silks, etc. are in demand from all over the world. Not counting the relief we sent to various places, we also sold more than 10,000 stone of grain. A total of more than 200,000 taels of silver were recovered. Now we have our partners all over Shanxi. It's just that the carriage ordered by our partners at the last wedding has not been given to anyone, and many people have been urging it. ”

Zhang Zhimu took over and said: "From now on, the produced carriages can be given to them." We had enough cars going north. The quality of the carriages produced now is much better than before. One is that the steel is much better than before, and it is worth mentioning again that many places in the carriage are welded now. Much stronger than the previous riveted and screwed connections. ”

Lu Chengxiang continued: "Next, each department will say its own. I won't endorse it. Then the people from each department talked about their work.

The silage work is now more than half complete. The design of terraces and canals has been completed, and the work of converting some of the harvested sloping fields into terraces has begun. The work of making the waterwheel is also halfway through. The dam and sluice gate in the river are under construction, the materials of the waterwheel have been completed, and the large bearings for the waterwheel have also been processed, just waiting for the cement frame of the waterwheel to dry up again, and it can be installed.

There has also been a lot of progress in the infrastructure sector. The primary school has been built, and the school wall will be repaired in the next two days. The children will be able to attend classes soon. Moreover, Lu Bingyi has already arranged for teachers for primary school students, and the textbooks for Chinese, mathematics, music, art, general studies, and physical education have all been rewritten.

At the smelter, the situation is very good, and most of the chemical iron furnaces have switched to coke. Not to mention the speed of the iron, the temperature of the molten iron and molten steel is high, and the material of the steel has also been greatly improved. Now there are two coke ovens in coke. The question is, when will the coal tar be transported. Not to mention that thing occupies space, it is afraid of fire.

At this point, Zhang Zhimu told Li Dong that when he came back this time, he would use coal tar, and asked him to keep those precious coal tars.

The ash kiln in Wushan has built a new kiln with a higher production capacity. Now the old kiln burns lime, and the new kiln burns cement, and the output is enough to meet the needs of kiln construction. The alkali making workshop built on the side of the ash kiln is also under construction.

Fan Chengkun's staff is already very neat, and the big and small boats have already run to Tongguan a few times, and the team that is practicing has earned silver again, and now there are many old customers. The people sent by Li Zhi to Fan Chengkun are also very strong, and after a period of work, they have mastered the intelligence points of Li Zicheng and Dongchang at Lingshui Wharf.

Li Zicheng's intelligence officers are very capable, but a wise man must make a mistake. They lived in a very shabby, very unobtrusive house. But they ignore the outside eyes. The pigeons they released from time to time were discovered. In such an old age, the house can still afford to keep pigeons, which in itself is unreasonable. After a period of observation and the direction in which their pigeons flew, it was judged that this was Li Zicheng's intelligence.

The intelligence point of the East Factory is easy to find, and the people who come in and out there are arrogant one by one. In fact, they are not too afraid of others finding out about them. They felt that in the jurisdiction of the Ming Dynasty, there was no one to be afraid of.

In these two places, Zhang Zhimu said that he only watched them and didn't touch them. You move them, and they will make new ones. It's better to keep it like this, and you can use it when it's critical. Otherwise, moving them is to catch a few people, which is not a big deal. Li Zhi is also personally responsible for this matter.

This time, Fan Chengkun also brought a letter to Zhang Zhimu, which was sent by Li Mao to Tongguan for transfer. At the meeting, Zhang Zhimu also introduced Li Mao's recent situation to everyone.

Li Mao has now gained a foothold in Yangzhou, and trade has been carried out normally. The team was also expanded, and in the name of the Huwei Dart Bureau, a team of more than 50 people was recruited. Now I hope that the kiln gang can send some cadres. They had already sent three people to Quanzhou, where they could keep abreast of the situation of overseas trade, especially the market for Annam rice there. Now the news is that the price of rice in Annam has not changed. Hearing the news, these cadres in Yaogang were very excited. Because the kiln gang has the ability to directly transport the rice back, the rice will multiply several times when it arrives in Shanxi. After Li Mao knew that Yaogang bought a smelting plant, he said that there was a shortage of good steel and iron in Yangzhou. Let some be transported first, and you can exchange it for grain and transport it back.

Zhang Zhimu decided to ask Fan Chengkun to send two large ships and two small ships to transport some steel over. Not only these steel raw materials are transported. Steel utensils such as kitchen knives and scissors are also transported. Because the steel in the smelter is very good now, and the steel mouth of the cutting tool is also very good. Now Li Yunhe and they have burned various grinding wheels with garnet powder (emery) and porcelain clay according to Zhang Zhimu's formula, so the efficiency of processing these tools and cutting tools is very high. This time, I will also bring more of these things with me when I go north.

According to the newly appointed director of the glass factory, the glass factory has already begun to build a building. But the handmade glass has not stopped, and we are also trying to use different ingredient ratios to see what the finished glass looks like. Zhang Zhimu told them that the handmade glass should be installed in the windows of the primary school first, so that the first batch of students could attend classes in bright classrooms as soon as they went to school.

Huang Yukun introduced the situation of his family's farm. Now there are more than 1,200 chickens; more than 400 ducks; more than a hundred geese; more than 800 rabbits; Forty foxes in size; three hundred pigs; Twenty sheep. Six cubs under the tiger lived, two males and four females.

Zhang Zhimu has seen the little cubs of Saihu, all of them are blue-eyed, and it is estimated that they are cheating with wolves outside. The puppy is very lively at first glance, and it will definitely be a good dog to see the care home in the future.

About going north. Chen Yufeng suggested that it should be divided into two groups, one to kill Hukou first, and a lot of grain, salt and other goods should be transported along the way; The other is to Zhangjiakou to transport only other goods, absolutely not grain. so as not to be transported to the Manchus by those merchants. For other goods, according to Lu Chengxiang, the digestion of Zhangjiakou is far greater than that of killing Hukou. When the matter of killing Hukou was completed, two days before preparing to go to Wang Zhangjiakou, the flying pigeon sent a message, and the other part of the people set off from Yaogang, and then the two parties met in Fanjiaying, and those who transported goods from Hukou back could return to Yaogang first. Zhang Zhimu and the others can go to Zhangjiakou with the second caravan.

This time, there were 400 steel-reed carriages, 10 four-wheeled carriages, and 500 camels. The second batch went to Zhangjiakou with 200 taels of steel spring carriages and 500 camels. In addition to Zhang Zhimu, Chen Yufeng and other cadres, there were 1,000 cavalrymen with the team. Because this is also a military training, and when I come back, I am not a layman to help drive horses and cavalry. In particular, it is necessary to drive 10,000 sheep, 1,000 cows, and 5,000 horses.

Lu Chengxiang said: "The horse pen, cattle pen, and sheep pen at home have been prepared. When the animals come back, they don't have to think about it. ”

Regarding the matter of transporting railways to the south this time, Zhang Zhimu said: "When Fan Chengkun goes south, he will send a competent person. There are a few important things to do this time around. First, you must go to Jingdezhen. I heard the master who can fire the porcelain kiln say that Jiangxi has the kind of black pigment that colors porcelain. That is manganese dioxide soft ore. Our next step is to make colorless glass, and we can't do without this thing. This thing is also needed to make better manganese steel, and it will not be possible to make dry batteries in the future. So this thing has to be brought back. Then go to Xuzhou and let them harvest some corn and come back. You can't give them rice and white flour for this animal. ”

Lu Qi said: "Otherwise, let my son Lu Wenchen go with me." It was easier for him to get to the south than it was for the people here. ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "I look at Wenchenxing. Wenchen people are clever and have a lively brain. The matter of buying soft manganese ore is clear to him. If he goes, he can also take time to go home. Bring back the eiderdown from home. You can also bring a letter to the home of the person you came with last time. ”

Huang Yukun said: "Let's see if there are any other important things at home, you can arrange it." ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "That's right. Harvest some wheat straw, straw, and grain grass at home. This is for the cattle, and for the fungus, which is for the steelmakers and the weavers. This thing moistens the lungs and has a health care effect on the workers. ”

Lu Bingyi took out the textbooks of primary and secondary schools and asked Zhang Zhimu to take a final look, which was the final draft after several revisions.

Zhang Zhimu said: "It's changed. I'm going to stop reading it and print it right away. ”

Writing textbooks for primary and secondary schools, Zhang Zhimu had a big disagreement with the invited literati, and even quarreled a little bit.

Zhang Zhimu grew up that the children should first use vernacular Chinese for literacy, and then learn classical Chinese later. Because classical Chinese is too unscientific for the exchange of ideas and scientific descriptions, it is not conducive to the dissemination of more and more scientific knowledge in the future. For this reason, Zhang Zhimu also personally gave these literati a punctuation class. For them, even the punctuation marks of classical Chinese are very useful. Taking the opportunity to discuss the textbook, Zhang Zhimu also made suggestions for simplifying Chinese characters for those literati who were compiling dictionaries. The result was a wave of opposition. The reason for the opposition of these literati was that the words of the ancestors could never be changed. Zhang Zhimu said that if it can't be changed, then the oracle bone inscription should be written now. That's the ancestors'. If you write the current text, it is a betrayal of your ancestors. The people stopped talking. Zhang Zhimu was a little angry with these people. They are opposed to simplifying words, and some people do not want to know more words so that they have a sense of superiority. Zhang Zhimu said: "These traditional Chinese characters are difficult to learn and write, and continuing to maintain the status quo is disrespectful to the ancestors." Because when our ancestors created words, it was for their children and grandchildren to better exchange ideas. And not for those who are fed and have nothing to do. Our ancestors have always been constantly improving the written word, and we should carry on this tradition. ”

Later, there was a compromise. When writing a dictionary, use the original word. At the same time, each character with particularly complex strokes is written next to a simplified word. The dictionary is marked according to the original phonetic method, plus Zhang Zhimu's pinyin method. The dictionary is annotated in the vernacular, and sentences are broken by punctuation marks. Textbooks for primary school students are written in the vernacular, but some classical Chinese lessons are added.

This is already a great improvement for these literati. This is also in the current environment of Yaogang, these literati have also been greatly influenced to reluctantly do this. Zhang Zhimu knew that if it weren't for his own special position, it would be impossible for these literati to make such a compromise. There's no way, it's going to have to be tough.

Before leaving, Zhang Zhimu, Chen Yufeng, and Liu Yun discussed carefully and decided to send some capable cadres to Li Mao to support his work. In the end, 10 brothers were selected who followed them on their first journey to the north and then passed the test of their journey to the south.

Zhang Zhimu personally gave two lessons to these ten brothers. Tell them: "You are going out this time to represent this kiln, so you must be strict with yourself in all aspects." Unite with other brothers. In the future, we will develop more rapidly and more rapidly, and you are the pioneers. Then there was some indoctrination about the ideals and beliefs of the country. Fortunately, people in this era don't have much in their heads. It's easy to be brainwashed, and one by one is full of energy.

These ten cadres went south together with Lu Wenchen.

This meeting made the cadres of these kilns very excited, because the development and change of kilns are too fast. There are many things that I never thought of before, and now they are miraculously unfolding in front of me.

However, Huang Yukun's few words made another major decision at this meeting, which everyone did not expect before the meeting.

Huang Yukun said: "Now, many people in Shanxi know that we are going north. They begged me through various relationships and wanted to follow along. I can't say no, and I can't say yes. What do you think of this? ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "Just let them follow, which shows that everyone trusts us." It's not easy in this troubled world. ”

At this time, Zhang Zhimu had an idea in his mind, "Since there are so many people who want to go north, there must be many people who want to come back." These people don't dare to go on their own, and they can't afford to hire a dart board. Can we take advantage of our current reputation and send out a few regular buses? In the business of transporting people and goods back and forth. In this way, the difficulty of personnel exchange is solved, and we can also start a new business. We can even send personnel and goods from Zhangjiakou and Kill Hukou all the way to Jiangnan. We have the ability to do so, and we should do the same. This is a good thing that benefits the country, the people, and oneself. ”

When Zhang Zhimu said this, everyone thought it was feasible. Then there was a lot of discussion, and the more they talked, the more excited they became. All kinds of good ideas and good opinions keep coming out.

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By the way, I recommend another good book "Memories of the Southern Song Dynasty". This book tells the story of how after Yashan in the Southern Song Dynasty, he used the knowledge of later generations to establish a complete scientific and technological system in the Great Song Dynasty, completely drove the Yuan army out of China, and eventually caused a world war centered on Europe.