Europe has just finished the dark ages of the Middle Ages, and even if it is ahead of China in science and technology, it has not formed a crushing of the generations. This war seems to be at the bottom of the Ming Dynasty, but it has not yet reached the point of raising hands and surrendering!

Zhu Cihong pushed away the dining table and said, "When Mr. Kwai Xin and Tanshi finish their meal, invite them to come in." ”

"Your Highness, are you not feeling well? Or is the meal not to taste? Lu Suyao whispered.

Zhu Cihong just shook his head. He had already decided to fight this war of future scientific people, and naturally entered a state of war.

If Daming loses, he can only completely give up the status of Shijie hegemon and become a regional power. However, if the Ming Dynasty wins, all Shijie will have to accept the Ming science and cultural system in the future. And this advantage will grow stronger and stronger with the development of the times, just like the United States in later generations, and the intellectual elite of the whole shijie will lean towards them and flow in.

After Wang Zheng and Xiong Mingyu were summoned, Zhu Cihong took them to the ear room, and the three of them sat down on their knees and had an in-depth discussion on the topic of "cultural unity". For the old-fashioned scholars with extremely high literary sensitivity, the two did not feel that the crown prince was making a fuss at all, but only admired the prince's foresight and lofty position.

"Now the gap between me and Taixi is only in the use of scientific methods, and there is no cross-generational barrier. If there is a generation gap on Jishu, once Taixi blocks my Ming Dynasty and prevents Jishu from flowing out, Huaxia is likely to suffer from it. Zhu Cihong paused and said, "So I isolated John Tang on the jishu of the iron mold casting cannon." ”

Wang Zheng's face was condensed, and he said, "I'm afraid that Your Highness's concern has already happened. ”

"How?" Zhu Cihong was a little surprised, did the West realize the blockade of the East so early?

Wang Zheng shook his head slightly, stroked his beard and said: "The old minister remembered that Xu Haihai's letter said that he was at the beginning of translating the "Taixi Water Law". Xiong Sanba shirked several times and refused to help. In this letter, Xu Gong even used the harsh words of 'it can be seen how the people are', and reprimanded his character as unbearable. However, looking at his self-order later, it also means turning around. The old minister thought that if it weren't for the Xiong family's deliberate concealment. That must have been given a secret order to him by Long Huamin. ”

Zhu Cihong said: "I'm not surprised by this, the Westerners are not as selfless as they say. And now the people who deal with our country are still missionaries, and they are the best academics in Taixi. The Taixi nobles, warriors, and merchants are all barbaric and vulgar, mercenary, if they form a suppression in the future, I am afraid that our country is to Taixi, and Korea is to the Ming Dynasty. ”

This analogy is not too serious in Zhu Cihong's opinion, and it is even suspected of beautifying Taixi, because the Ming Dynasty has never colonized and plundered his vassal states...... But for the Ming Dynasty scholars, it sounded too terrible.

"So there is a thing. I'm afraid it's inconvenient for Mr. Tang to know. Wang Zheng said solemnly.

"What is it?" Zhu Cihong's heart moved.

"Your Highness, please move." Wang Zheng said: "This is what Chen and Professor Song found from the ancient book of Taixi translated by Professor Fang, and it stands to reason that Mr. Tang also knows about it, but for some reason it seems that it is not taken seriously in Taixi. ”

Zhu Cihong was even more curious, if it was an ancient book of Taixi, it should be a book from the pre-Renaissance, ancient Rome and even ancient Greece. Fang Yizhi's recent research direction is really a bit biased, but it is indeed in line with his character of tracing the source.

Xiong Mingyu wanted to avoid it, but was kept by Wang Zheng.

Even though Wang Zheng is a Catholic. still has the consciousness of Huayi's great defense. History proves that when the doctrine of Catholicism clashed with the idea of loyalty. Wang Zheng is bound to choose the latter. He could torture himself for the rest of his life with a concubine, because it violated the only doctrine of loyalty between Catholic couples. And when the Ming Dynasty fell, even though Catholicism strictly ordered suicide, Wang Zheng still resolutely went on a hunger strike and died.

……

Zhu Cihong changed into civilian clothes and followed Wang Zheng all the way to his own laboratory.

The windows in the laboratory have been replaced with large blocks of flat glass, and the room is very well lit. Judging by the experimental tools of the furnishings. Wang Zheng's main research area is still in mechanical engineering.

Wang Zheng's stepson, Wang Yongshun, was already waiting in the laboratory, he saluted the three of them, and immediately took out a one-foot-square wooden box under Wang Zheng's instructions.

Wang Zheng took out the key from his bag and opened the wooden box. "The power of this thing is so great, I'm afraid it's beyond everyone's ......imagination," he said, taking out a bizarre model made of brass and iron from the box.

"Steaming ball?" Zhu Cihong lost his voice.

"Your Highness knows this?" Wang Zheng was quite surprised, and immediately accepted this fact as a matter of course.

The crown prince was originally a knowledgeable person, and there were many Far Western strange weapons presented by Matteo Ricci back then, so it would not be surprising if he saw it.

The spinning ball is the work of the ancient Greek mathematician, inventor and philosopher Hero, born in the first century AD.

Hiro connected a hollow metal ball and an airtight pot with water together in two hollow tubes, and then heated the bottom of the pot to bring the water inside to a boil. Water vapor enters the metal ball from the hollow tube, and the zuihou water vapor is ejected from the nozzles on both sides, causing the ball to rotate.

Compared with the steam organ and vending machine invented by Hiro, the syringe ...... The spinner ball is just a purely ornamental toy and has no utility.

However, this thing is the ancestor of the steam engine in later generations, and it is also a cross-era key project that Zhu Cihong excavated after hard thinking and meditation, and made great efforts to tackle key problems after preparing for the peace of the country.

Wang Zheng repeated this experiment, successfully made the steam spin ball, and said to Zhu Cihong: "Your Highness, this is the power of steam. ”

Zhu Cihong nodded.

"But the real power contained in it is ......" Wang Zheng moved away from the small stove below, and after the water vapor gradually weakened, he plugged two wooden stoppers into the spout of the steam ball.

Soon, I only heard a "boom" from the closed tin pot below, which was recessed inward. The two wooden stoppers on the spout were also visibly sucked in.

"The water vapor cools down and forms a vacuum." Zhu Cihong said casually.

"Exactly," Wang said, "the suction is enormous. He put on leather gloves, tried to pull the cork, and said, "If you magnify it, I am afraid that the strength of a hundred people cannot match it." ”

- This is indeed the principle of the condensing steam engine, but it is like a mutated Magdeburg hemispheric experiment.

Zhu Cihong touched his chin and said calmly: "Actually, it's a matter of air pressure. Thermal expansion and contraction, the air pressure in the sphere is lower than the atmospheric pressure outside, so it seems to be sucked in, but it is actually pressed in. ”

The atmospheric pressure experiment is a very classic barrel destruction experiment, which Zhu Cihong also talked about in "Physics".

"How did you come up with this?" Zhu Cihong asked.

Wang Zheng did not struggle with the use of words, because of the prejudice of age, he always habitually forgot the level of Zhu Cihong's knowledge of things. He replied, "This is what Professor Song thought of when he was verifying the physical properties of qi. If qi is really a thing, and it has the effect of thermal expansion and cold contraction, it will inevitably produce force. The steam ball was just used to verify it, but it was discovered by chance that a new machine could be built based on this model. ”

"But the difficulty is how to make it repeat and continue to be viable." Zhu Cihong said.

Wang Zheng's beard trembled slightly, and he spit out two words that made Zhu Cihong dizzy:

"It's not hard."

Wang Zheng invited Zhu Cihong to his workbench, took out a circle of rice paper, and after unfolding it, it turned out to be a three-dimensional perspective view, and even light and shadow rendering. At a glance, it can be seen that he has learned the art of Tessie's oil painting.

"This is ghostwritten by my nephew Yongshun." Wang Zheng explained, pointing to the mechanical diagram: "Now that we know the principle and make a model, all that remains is to change the shape and measure the force arm to make it last." ”

Zhu Cihong's gaze followed Wang Zheng's fingers over the various exploded diagrams, and he completely entered a working state as calm as water. This was the first time he had seen an exploded view of a steam engine in his previous life.

As a liberal arts student, and never imagined that he would be reborn in the Ming Dynasty after his death, Zhu Cihong certainly could not have prepared all kinds of industrial knowledge like a prophet. With his common sense of science and engineering, he can still see the complexity of Wang Zheng's steam engine at a glance. However, under Wang Zheng's introduction, each component is the key, and it has been so concise that it can't be simpler. (To be continued......)

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