The battle of the Northern Expedition, as expected, when Xuzhou was broken, Shang Kexi and Kong Youde saw that the situation was not good, and overnight with the soft and personal guards, crossed the Yellow River and fled north, Suzhou and Bozhou, the two cities, almost did not make any resistance, and were successfully occupied by the East Road army. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

The Xuzhou area was taken by the Ming army, and Li Dingguo's Western Route Army occupied the important town of Xi'an, and now almost all of the entire south of the Yellow River was taken by the Ming army.

Dorgon finally panicked.........

The Ming army's offensive was so strong that the Qing generals who had been defeated before were reactivated, regardless of whether they were guilty or innocent.

Wu Sangui, Shang Kexi, and Kong Youde, the three Han princes, were all sent in the name of meritorious service, leading the remaining army of about 100,000 Han and Eight Banners to garrison the Cangzhou area.

In addition, Manchu generals such as Azig, Duoduo, and Han Dai were also sent to lead a total of 150,000 cavalry, taking advantage of the mobility of the cavalry to launch a "movement war" against the Ming army.

This time, Dolgon learned to be obedient and did not force them to defend to the death, but he had to resist the Ming army for at least half a year to buy time for the Manchus to retreat outside the pass.

Half a year may seem like a long time, but for the Ming army, whose means of transportation were even inferior to those of the Manchu Qing (the Qing army had a large number of cavalry and was much better in mobility than the Ming army), it was necessary to waste a lot of time just on the march.

For example, Li Dingguo's Western Route Army, from the Northern Expedition to the present, has basically not experienced much battle, but when he and Qi Hongying converged, it took four months.

Dolgon wanted to transfer half of the country's wealth (there was no hope in the later period, and Dolgon began to plunder on a large scale) to the outside of the border, and half a year was already quite tight.

And this is also the limit that Wu Sangui and others can hold on to with the cooperation of 150,000 Manchu cavalry..........

The Northern Expedition army has won successive battles, but this has nothing to do with Li Hongfei, after all, the commander-in-chief of the Northern Expedition is Li Dingguo.

Li Hongfei's task now is to tour the south, and Baoshan Industrial Zone is the top priority of Li Hongfei's trip, for no other reason, steam engine research expert Li Zeshui and his team, after two years of hard work, once again developed a major invention - steam train.

After five years, with the efforts of the top scientific researchers in the whole Ming Dynasty, Baoshan Industrial Zone has changed greatly.

Two years ago, Li Hongfei sent an envoy to Europe and invited back a large number of European scientists.

Perhaps Li Hongfei was unlucky, at that time Europe was in the Renaissance period, the conflict between the old and new forces led to turmoil in the whole of Europe, many scientists who were obsessed with research, but hoped to leave Europe and find a peaceful place, and the bright prospects of Baoshan Industrial Zone just met the needs of these scientific research maniacs.

The rich knowledge accumulation of thousands of years of Chinese people, coupled with the bold innovation of Westerners, the effect of combining Chinese and Western styles is very terrifying.

The development of this steam locomotive is one of the products of the combination of East and West........

Due to the rapid development of the steam engine, the ore output of Baoshan and even the entire major mining areas in the south of the Yangtze River has increased sharply, and the increase in output is a good thing.

However, after the increase in production, problems followed, the most prominent of which was the transportation problem, and the mining area near the river was fine, relying on water transportation, but it was able to turn the ore into cash in time.

But what about those areas with inconvenient transportation?

Tricycles were limited in their capacity (after the advent of bicycles, tricycles were also introduced, and due to their high carrying capacity, they soon became widely used in areas where horse-drawn carriages were scarce), employed a lot of manpower, and were too costly.

With the explosive growth of mining areas in various places, the price of raw ore has begun to decline, which has made some mining areas with inconvenient transportation begin to face the danger of bankruptcy.

If you want to get rich, you must first build roads, although the yamen in various places have discovered this situation and have also increased the construction of roads in mining areas, but if the transportation capacity cannot be effectively solved, it is just a drop in the bucket and useless.

The town of Baoshan was not studying steam trains entirely to support the development of other mining areas, but they understood in their hearts that the transportation problems were not only plaguing those mining areas, but also the Baoshan Industrial Zone.

Limited by the traffic environment, most of the products in Baoshan Industrial Park are difficult to sell to inland areas, relying on patent authorization, which has caused Baoshan to lose a lot of silver.

If there is a means of transportation similar to a steamship on land, then the economic development of Baoshan Industrial Park will make a qualitative leap.

However, it is not easy to dig rivers in the provinces, and the cost is too high, even if the whole country gathers its strength, it is difficult to achieve.

Fortunately, Li Hongfei had already had a plan, that is, to let people study steam trains.

The steam engine can push the paddle wheel to rotate, but it may not be able to push the iron wheel to rotate, as long as there is a way to make the iron wheel rotate, then even if the success is half the battle, the rest is a matter of power.

After all, if the power is too small, it is not enough to just run by yourself, the train needs to carry goods, the friction of the road surface is too great, coupled with the influence of topographic factors such as the hillside, the steam engine on the steam ship is far from the level of the steam train.

Li Zeshui is a person who does not admit defeat, and he can invent a relatively perfect steam engine from scratch, which is enough to prove that this is not luck.

As his team began to publicize the steam train project, the power of the steam engine was once again an obstacle in their way.

However, at this time, Li Zeshui was not alone, his team included chemists from the United Kingdom, physicists from Switzerland, and so on........

These scientists, who were also interested in dynamics, began to upgrade the steam engine again.

In February 1647, Li Zeshui's team invented the planetary gear, which changed the reciprocating motion of the piston of the steam engine into a rotary motion.

In July 1647, Li Zeshui's team invented the "double-action steam engine" with high power, and used a flywheel to solve the problem of stability of the steam engine.

In May 1648, Li Zeshui's team invented the parallel motion linkage mechanism to solve the structural problem of the double-action steam engine.

In addition, in order to enable the steam ship to "automatically control the running speed of the steam engine", Li Zeshui invented the centrifugal governor and throttle valve, as well as the pressure gauge used for the steam engine, which made the efficiency of the steam engine three times higher at once, and it was complete, excellent in performance and practical.

What is the probability of triple efficiency, that is, if this new steam engine is equipped on a ship, the speed of the steam warship will increase from about 6 knots (under the normal use of sails) to 18 knots.

With such a powerful power, even if an ironclad ship with a larger displacement is launched, it is no longer a problem.

The power system of the steam locomotive was solved at the end of 1648, and the reason why it has been delayed until today (March 1649) is that in addition to various improvements and commissioning, it is more important to improve the laying of the rails.

No matter how powerful the steam train is, it is currently impossible to run on gravel roads, and the rails are the best combination of steam trains............

"Hey! Li, this big guy is shocking enough! I put a lot of effort into building it! Hopnav pointed to the steam locomotive parked in the hangar and boasted to Li Hongfei.

"You made it for? Are you sure this locomotive is man-made by you? Li Hongfei held back the twitching of the corners of his mouth and asked with a straight face.

"Uh....... Of course, I'm not alone, everyone has credit, but my credit ........ It's not small. The more Hopnauff spoke, the more unconfident he became.

Originally, he wanted to say that he had the lion's share, but the thought of installing only a few pieces of transparent glass on the locomotive immediately made his heart empty.

As a representative figure of Western researchers, Hopnav is now in the Baoshan Industrial Park.

Unknown in Europe, even if he came to China, the glass craftsman who could only make money by abduction and abduction at first became one of the most sought after figures in the Ming women's circle after being appreciated by Li Hongfei.

It's not that Hopneuf looks handsome, the aesthetic views of Chinese people can't change much in a short period of time, and the main reason why he can be highly sought after is glass.

Two years ago, there was really no one else but Hopnauff in the manufacturing technology of large pieces of glass.

Even though it took two years for the craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty to learn this technique, Hopnave's talent in glassmaking was never surpassed.

With the research ideas provided by Li Hongfei, Hopnav successfully invented the mirror in just half a year.

The clarity of the glass mirror is fatal to any beauty-loving woman.

As soon as it was released, it caused a rush of thousands of empty alleys in the Baoshan area, and even Zhu Youzhen, who has always been famous for his savings, had to open a private small treasury and let Wang Chengen make a special trip to purchase a lot of decorative mirrors for the palace.

Although Hopnauff can only get one percent of the net profit of the mirror (normal R&D personnel or teams can get five percent of the net profit, but the other party is a foreigner and the remaining four percent is deducted by Li Hongfeike), he also relied on this patent to earn enough money.

If Hopnaf's greatest contribution to the steam train may be the spiritual impact of his experience as a small man on the researchers who have traveled thousands of miles.

With the example of Hopnave, researchers from Europe no longer have to worry about the future, sufficient research funds, a stable research environment, and generous returns, making these people like stimulants, and all kinds of new inventions are coming out almost every day.

It was in this environment that the steam train was able to come out quickly.

"Yes, your talent for glass color is indeed unmatched, and a few pieces of transparent glass in front of the locomotive are of great significance to the train." Li Hongfei couldn't help but praise him in the end.

With today's state of technology, it is indeed not easy to make large pieces of transparent glass without any impurities.

The glass on the front of the train is too important for the safe operation of the train.

Although the speed of the steam train is not fast at present, the safety aspect can not be ignored, after all, today's people, have never seen such a "behemoth" before, if because of curiosity, rashly walk on the tracks, and the train driver can not find out in time, it is easy to cause a tragedy.

In today's social environment, it is nothing to kill a person, but if it is because of the new product of the national reform, resulting in the death of innocent people, then Li Hongfei, including a series of reform measures he promoted, will be suppressed and attacked by his opponents.

This is not alarmist: in 1865, the British brought their steam locomotive and laid the first 500-meter-long railway in China outside the Xuanwu Gate in Beijing, but the huge monster frightened the local residents, and the Empress Dowager Cixi was forced to order its demolition.

Later, in 1876, the British built a second railway from Wusong to Jiangwan in Shanghai, which may be the first railway in Chinese history, but because of the death of a person, Lafayette ordered again to redeem it from the British with a large sum of silver, and then dismantle.

That's right, the railway, which cost a lot of manpower and material resources to build, was ordered to be demolished by the Qing government at that time because one person died.

This shows the rejection of anything new by the Chinese people.

The Ming Dynasty may be much more enlightened than the Manchu Qing Dynasty, but it is difficult to ensure that after an accident, it will not be made a big fuss by those who oppose it.

Therefore, the safety of steam trains is the key to whether it can be implemented nationwide.

Li Hongfei chatted with Hopnauff for a few words, and then sent him away, because Yao Qisheng, the magistrate of Shanghai, came over.

"How is it, is there any arrangement in Shanghai?" Li Hongfei asked.

"Lord Hui, it has been arranged, and in cooperation with the mayor of Baoshan, there are special guards along the way, and irrelevant personnel are not allowed to approach within 100 meters of the railway, so as to ensure that nothing goes wrong." Yao Qisheng replied.

"Can you guard such a long road?" Li Hongfei couldn't believe it.

After all, starting from Baoshan Railway Station and arriving at Songnan Wharf in Shanghai County, there are more than ten miles of road, and a county government and a township government can guarantee to stop those curious people?

"In order to ensure the safety of this time, the Wu Governor specially transferred a thousand garrisons from Suzhou City, plus some soldiers who stayed at the Baoshan Military Base, as well as the county officials, there are almost more than 2,000 people, and all of them are equipped with bicycles, which can definitely ensure that there will be no accidents." Yao Qisheng said.

"Such a big battle! You won't be talked about! Li Hongfei spoke again.

Before serving as the prefect of Suzhou, he could rely on his own preferences for everything, and he had a vigorous and resolute taste.

But now that the official is getting bigger and bigger, he has some gains and losses, and the main reason is that he has been too high-profile along the way, so that he has made too many enemies, and he has a big family and a big business, so he has to be cautious.

"Don't worry, you are the minister of the Qincha, in Suzhou, Lord Wu will send troops to protect your safety, and no one will dare to say anything." Yao Qisheng understood Li Hongfei's distress, and had already thought of a rhetoric for him.

The treatment of the minister is really not to say, not only can he make a lot of money, but he can also mobilize local troops to "escort him".