Time into December, the North Island summer season arrived, Fanning has been to the North Island for more than three months, most of his time is in various places to inspect, as early as five years ago, the North Island has drawn a detailed map, and last year made a three-zhang long, three-zhang wide sand table map, extremely detailed North Island topography, rivers and coastline are marked.

The sand table is placed in the elders' hall, all ordinary people can come to visit, almost all the people have come to visit, and even many people have made a special trip from Songcheng and Yuecheng to visit this sand table, after all, the North Island is far from being developed, everyone knows almost nothing about the North Island, but they are eager to know what the big island they live in is like.

Fanning was at the sand table at this time, and he had just returned from the East Coast and found that the sand table was a little flawed in the East Coast drawing.

"This should be a peninsula!"

Fanning pointed out a mistake in the sand table, there was a huge bay on the east coast of the sand table, which is now Hawke's Bay, and there should be a peninsula in the north, but the sand table was flat, leaving the peninsula out.

The peninsula is important, the peninsula is meant to be sheltered from the wind and waves, and Fanning considered having three counties in the bay, so the border between the peninsula and the mainland is an ideal place to build a city.

Fanning handed the sketch he had drawn to the official in charge of making the map, and the official hurriedly said, "The lowly will add this peninsula immediately." ”

Fanning shook his head, he was not satisfied with this answer, "You should first confirm this peninsula and make sure that it does exist before changing it, instead of saying that I want to change it." ”

"Ignorance, understood!"

"In addition, there is Suzaku Castle on Nuami Island, and countless small islands around the north, which are all our land and need to be produced."

"Humble duty understands!"

Fan Ning said with a smile: "In general, this sand table is still relatively accurate, especially the lakes, valleys, rivers, mountains, and mountains in the hinterland are very accurate, and even the forest and grassland are distinguished, which shows that you have put in a long and huge effort, which is worthy of commendation." ”

"Thank you Your Highness for your kindness, we will continue to improve the sand table, and strive to make the most authoritative and accurate sand table in two years."

Fanning nodded, then turned and left, he had just returned from the East Coast, and he hadn't had time to go home yet, it was said that there was important news from the Shengong Academy, and he was going to rush over.

Fan Ning's eldest son, Fan Jing, also followed his father, and he also followed his father around during this time, and the father and son got into the carriage, and the carriage started and drove towards the Shengong Institute outside the northern city.

Seeing that his son seemed to have something on his mind, Fanning smiled and asked, "What's the matter, you've been silent?" ”

"Daddy, are you the king of the North Island?"

Fanning looked at him curiously, "How did you come up with the idea to ask this question?" ”

"Just now next to the sand table, the child heard someone next to him say that you are the king of the North Island, and the sand table drawing officials are respectful to their father."

Fan Ning shook his head and smiled: "The sand table official is respectful to me, that's a matter of attitude, I'm his boss, he should have this attitude, it has nothing to do with the king, as for you saying that your father is the king of the North Island, it can be said that it is, but it can also be said that it is not." ”

"The child understands the attitude problem, but the child doesn't understand the next words, why is it, but it is not?"

"It's very simple, Beidao was established by the Fan and Zhu families, as for how the Fan and Zhu families divide the share of the North Island, you can see the members of the trade chamber of commerce, the Fan family accounts for seventy percent, and the Zhu family accounts for three percent, this is the share of the Fan and Zhu families in the North Island, and it is destined that the king of the North Island will be the Fan family, to be precise, it will be inherited by me and my children and grandchildren, which was agreed upon by all parties back then, so you say that Daddy is the king, in fact, there is nothing wrong."

"Then why not?"

Fanning laughed, "Since you are the king, where is the country?" Beidao is just the name of an island, not the name of a country, and the country needs to be canonized by the Emperor of the Great Song Dynasty, just like the Zhou Dynasty canonized the vassal states, although Daddy is now the king of Chu, but Beidao is not a Chu country yet, so there is no country now, and I am not a king. ”

"Got it!"

Fan Ning talked with great interest, and said to his son: "Qin Shi Huang hopes that his descendants will be emperors for thousands of generations, but in fact, the second will die, so is there a way to let our family's throne of kingship be passed on for thousands of generations?" ”

"Father, is there such a way?"

Fanning nodded, "There is a way, that is to remove power, power is the root cause of the demise of all dynasties, if my descendants have no power after becoming kings, just a symbolic king, then the king's position can be passed down from generation to generation." ”

Fan Jing nodded silently, he understood what his father meant, no one would fight for a vacant position with no actual power.

..........

Located outside the North City, covering an area of about 1,000 acres, with beautiful scenery and numerous buildings, it is not only the North Island Technology Research Institute, but also the North Island Engineering College, where more than 700 students study and participate in the study of various mechanical tools.

The train developed by Fanning requested Beidao is still in the process of tackling key problems, and has not yet appeared in real life, but the ploughing cart they developed using a steam engine has come out.

When Fanning arrived, he heard a sudden sound from afar, and saw a strange machine moving slowly on the grass, it was actually the shape of a square ship, with one person at the helm in front to ensure the direction, and a small steam engine installed in the hull behind, the steam engine did the work, driving the four wheels forward, and three fine steel plows were installed under the belly of the ship, and as the machine moved forward, the iron plough dug the ground below.

This is probably the first steam car of mankind, inspired by the steam ship, the steam ship and the horse-drawn carriage were combined, and the paddle wheel of the steam ship was canceled and replaced with the rubber wheel of the horse-drawn carriage, so as to avoid the disadvantages of the paddle wheel instead compacting the land.

However, this steam car went very slowly, only slightly faster than the ox ploughing the field, but its appearance was an epoch-making change.

Fanning smiled and shook his head, it has come to this point, isn't it a train with a little modification?

"Is there a way to make it stop?"

The noise was so loud that Fanning had to shout.

A craftsman ran up and waved a red flag, and the boilermaker above opened the valve, a puff of steam erupted, and the car slowly stopped.

The deans of the Shengong Academy and the School of Engineering were both concurrently served by the county commander Zhu Qi, he didn't see Fan Ning coming, until the car stopped, he didn't find Fan Ning father and son on the other side, he hurriedly ran over to salute, and Fan Jing also saluted his uncle.

Fan Ning smiled and asked, "When you came to the capital before, you told me that the ploughing truck was successful, why did it appear now?" ”

Zhu Qi said embarrassedly: "There were still many problems before, such as not enough driving force, and I couldn't walk when I encountered hard stones, and I used to have three wheels, if the ground was uneven, it was easy to overturn, and then I improved it again, replacing the ordinary iron plough with a fine steel plow, increasing the steam engine, replacing it with four wheels, and it was really successful after trial and error." ”

"Is it okay to encounter a stone now?" Fanning asked.

"Generally, we will clean up the big stones in advance, if it is a small stone, there is no problem, and the fine steel plough can directly break the stone."

"Then what do you think are the advantages of this steam cultivator compared to cattle?"

"Of course, there are benefits, a cow can plough up to three acres of land a day, and the cultivator can easily plough three hundred acres a day, which is equivalent to a hundred cattle ploughing at the same time, the key is that a cow must have a person to follow, this cultivator only needs two people, which greatly saves manpower."

Fanning smiled slightly: "In fact, there is still room for improvement, such as putting the seat of the person at the helm next to the steam engine boiler, he can steer with one hand, and shovel some coke into the furnace with the other hand, can it save another person?" ”

A craftsman next to him smiled: "Your Highness is completely right, and we also realize that we can improve it in this way." ”

"What is at the helm controlling?" Fanning asked.

"The main thing is to control the wheels not to deviate, and the iron plough below not to deviate, just these two."

Fanning nodded and said to Zhu Qi: "Go and find me the craftsmen who developed the train!" ”

After a while, a group of more than a dozen craftsmen walked out quickly.

They all knew Fanning and stepped forward to salute.

Fanning pointed to the cultivator and said with a smile: "This cultivator can already walk automatically, and the train should also have eyebrows!" ”