As one of the hungry people, Zhang Chu attaches great importance to grain production, and he knows that there is a possibility of a significant increase in grain production now. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

When Zhang Chu was just able to stand on his feet and eat a full meal, he ordered someone to start the study of grain planting. It is difficult for Zhang Chu to find people who are knowledgeable and know how to farm, so he can only let some experienced old farmers and some young scholars continue to explore and record and summarize their experience together, and Zhang Chu can only help them to tell them to try to find ways from the two aspects of seeds and fertilizers. According to the experience of later generations, the crops with higher overall yields were exotic crops such as sweet potatoes and maize. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, these crops have been introduced, but the scope of planting is not very extensive, and the yield is not very high.

Zhang Chu's idea was for Song Yingxing to continue the promotion of sweet potato and corn planting, which are not very productive now, but have also shown the advantages of being drought tolerant and able to be grown on barren land. Through continuous optimization of seeds, these two crops may become a lifesaver for farmers in the future.

Of course, Song Yingxing will not shirk this, and the feeling of helping the world and saving people is still very strong in the hearts of most readers in this era.

"Zhang Dashuai, don't be polite to me, as long as you can let the poor people survive the famine, let me do anything. Where are those crops of yours to take me to see. Song Yingxing listened to Zhang Chu's research on these crops, and immediately decided to follow Zhang Chu to do a good job in this work for all generations.

"Don't worry, those crops are still in Shanxi, I am sending people to transport them to see if they can adapt to the climate and environment of the Northeast, Mr. Song has been tired all the way, take a rest first, and then start working." Zhang Chu knew the preciousness of this talent, but he didn't want to exhaust this rare talent.

"I'm not tired, I heard that you have a lot of new machinery and items here, take me to see them." Although Song Yingxing was already in his fifties, he was full of curiosity about what Zhang Chu had done by listening to the introduction of the security guards who came with him on the boat, and he seemed full of energy at this time, eager to see everything immediately.

"Okay, since Mr. Song is not tired, I will take you around." Of course, Zhang Chu would answer Song Yingxing's request.

Next, Zhang Chu and Song Yingxing and others did not rest, under the leadership of Zhang Chu, they visited the textile factory and arsenal of the security army in Lushun, Song Yingxing was immediately impressed by the various magical machines in the factory, he really did not expect that people could use the power of nature to this extent, the flowing stream turned out to be the best helper for people, and the flying loom could replace a large amount of manpower. The pound of hammer that people could not lift was lifted high by the water force, and the steel was constantly hammered, forging a large number of weapons and agricultural tools.

If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, Song Yingxing would have thought that these could only appear in mythology.

Zhang Chu saw that Song Yingxing was very interested in these machines, so he said: "We have just made a batch of more amazing machines, do you want to take a look?" “

"Look, of course." These things are so wonderful, what would the more magical machinery in Zhang Chu's mouth look like, Song Yingxing's curiosity became even stronger.

Zhang Chu took Song Yingxing to the outside of a large warehouse on the dock, where someone was debugging machinery.

"This is our latest model of steam engine, this kind of machine we have been trial production for many years, after continuous improvement of the design and use of new materials, now the machine is running very smoothly, running, rising, dripping, leaking is not so serious, can be put into practice." Zhang Chu enthusiastically introduced to Song Yingxing.

"What's the use of this?" Song Yingxing looked at this machine that needed to burn coal and had many wheels, and really didn't know what it could do.

"This one is very useful. I mainly use it to drive the pump now. Zhang Chu pointed to the machinery with long pipes next to it and said: "This is the water pump, which can lift water from low to high under the drive of the steam engine, and with them we can pump the water from the river valley to the high place to irrigate the arid land, so that the growth of grain can still be guaranteed in the drought." It is also possible to drain the stagnant water in the depression and turn the depression into fertile land, which increases the number of fields and allows more people to eat. Zhang Chu introduced the steam engine with great interest, because he knew that this was an important force of the industrial revolution, and it was really overkill to use him to pump water, but Zhang Chu couldn't manage so much, what he had to do now was to increase food production and ensure that more people had food.

"How does this work?" Song Yingxing listened to what Zhang Chu said very well, but he still hadn't figured out how to burn coal to boil water to a high place.

"Let's demonstrate and let Mr. Song take a look at our latest achievements." Zhang Chu said to the worker next to him who was debugging the machine.

The water in the steam engine has been boiled, the pressure of the steam has reached the requirements, the workers open the valve, the steam rushes into the cylinder, the strong pressure makes the piston in the cylinder reciprocate and move, the crankshaft drives the flywheel, the paddle on the water pump through the belt rotates, and the water in the agitated pond is lifted to a high place through the pump body of the water pump, and sprayed out from the pump mouth.

Song Yingxing kept observing the steam engine and water pump, and was reluctant to leave for a long time.

Zhang Chu didn't dare to let him stay next to the steam engine for too long. Although this steam engine is very stable, it also prevents an accident or something, if it hurts Song Yingxing, the loss will be great.

"This steam engine can be turned up by burning coal?" Song Yingxing asked with some disbelieving. It was the first time he had seen a machine that could move without the help of manpower, animal power, or wind power.

"Of course, as long as someone keeps filling it with coal, it will keep running, day and night. This is also its advantage, it runs tirelessly for a long time. Zhang Chu introduced.

"That's a good thing, the machine should be able to be used in many places, right?" Song Yingxing immediately thought that this steam engine should be used in many places, and it was impossible to just use it to carry water. Since Zhang Chu has been studying the steam engine for many years, he will definitely think of the application method, so he asked.

"There are many places where the steam engine can be used, for example, it can be mounted on a ship to drive a propeller, and it can be used to sail the ship without wind or headwind. We are trying to do this, and if we succeed, our warships will be able to use both sails and steam engines to provide dual power, so that the ships can be faster than others, so that they can easily defeat the enemy in naval battles. Later, in times of peace, we can also use cargo ships equipped with steam engines to cross the ocean and transport our goods all over the world to bring back what we need. In inland waterways, we can pull the fleet with such boats, which can make the canal more traffic. Zhang Chu was deeply impressed by the long fleet of boats that walked on the canal in later generations.

"How powerful is a steam engine?" Song Yingxing saw the steam engine running non-stop all the time, but he still didn't believe that the steam engine could drag a big ship. (To be continued.) )