The concept of temperature, Guan Gong and Zhuge Liang can understand that over the years, the Ministry of Industry has come up with a lot of new things, and the thermometer is one of the practical gadgets in life, but the uneven heating of different parts of an object will lead to deformation, and they don't know what the principle is.

Only Zhuge Liang probably knew that this phenomenon was very likely to happen, but he had never studied physics at the Great Han Longteng Academy, so even he, a peerless military advisor with many wisdoms and demons, did not understand what the principle was.

"It's a bit troublesome, but it can always be solved with snacks, since that's the case, then please ask Your Majesty to give an order to transfer the construction corps over." Guan Gong is also a resolute person, he will do what he says, since there is a solution, even if there are still many difficulties in this method, he wants to do it immediately.

"Forget it, second uncle, there are too many disadvantages of using wood to build ships, and I want to replace them with other materials." Then, Liu Hou said the shortcomings of using wood for shipbuilding, and everyone nodded again and again when they heard it, the shortcomings of wood were there, and the little emperor analyzed it very well, but what puzzled them was, what is used for shipbuilding without wood?

Is it bamboo? But the disadvantages of bamboo are the same as wood, and throughout the ages, they have never heard of building ships from other materials other than wood and bamboo. Could it be that the half-immortal Zuo Ci taught some strange things to the little emperor?

"Then I don't know what Your Majesty wants to use to build a ship?" Guan Gong couldn't help it at first, and asked.

"I thought we could build ships with steel. Think about it, if you build a steel giant ship, you can rampage on the Yangtze River, and you don't even need to install a collision angle, and then you can directly crash the wooden ships of Soochow to smithereens, what a cool thing it is. Moreover, steel can also be fireproof and arrow-proof, and all those attack methods in Soochow are ineffective. Liu Houyi was excited, and he actually called out directly.

The only person present was Guo Youyi, who looked thoughtful, he had been in contact with Xinxue and had a certain understanding of buoyancy, so he was not so skeptical about the feasibility of steel shipbuilding. The rest of the people all looked at each other, a little worried about whether the little emperor's head was broken, how to build a ship with such a heavy steel? Who doesn't know that iron sinks as soon as it is put in water? Don't make an iron ship that sank before it could be sailed out.

"However, the steel is too heavy, and it sinks when it enters the water, so how can you build a ship?" It was Guan Gong who took the lead in asking the questions in everyone's hearts.

"Hehe, second uncle, buoyancy is related to the amount of water discharged by the object, and has nothing to do with the weight of the material." Liu Hou said with a smile.

"How could it be not? You see, wood does not sink when thrown into water, but what kind of gold, silver, copper, and iron does not sink when thrown into water? "It's fair.

"Hehe, second uncle, you are talking about the situation when it is solid, the ship is not solid, there is a big and empty cabin in the middle. All of this knowledge can be learned in our college, and it is recommended that you take a course in the academy when you have time. ”

"Really?" Guan Gong asked suspiciously.

"Of course it's true, if you don't believe it, you can try it, the gold is heavy enough, you can make a boat, and if you don't believe it, you can have someone knock the gold into a thin piece of gold leaf, and then make it look like a boat, and put it in the water to see if it sinks. I promise that as long as the ship does not enter the water, it will never sink. ”

"Someone!" When Guan Gong heard this, he immediately called his soldiers to find a copper blacksmith, and took out a small ingot full of one or two gold ingots, and asked the copper blacksmith to knock it into gold leaf, and then make it into the shape of a ship. Liu Hou couldn't help but smile bitterly when he saw this, this is an important military meeting, what kind of trouble are you doing, old man?

Do you not believe my words or are you full of scientific research spirit, even if you have the spirit of research, you don't need to start experimenting right away, can you change the time? Liu Hou shook his head helplessly, he had to let him go, who let Guan Gong be his double elder, he really couldn't blame him, he just made trouble if he wanted, anyway, it's not a bad thing.

Liu Hou had no choice but to serve as a physics teacher himself, and while waiting for the craftsmen there to complete their work, he told the knowledge related to buoyancy, and even told the story of Archimedes' bath, which surprised everyone.

Everyone was curious about where Liu Hou's knowledge came from, and Liu Hou naturally pushed it all to Zuo Ci. Soon, the blacksmith walked in with a palm-sized, boat-like object made of gold leaf. Because of the limited time, the appearance of this "ship" is simply not flattering, and it does not even look like a ship at all, but more like a bathtub.

However, it finally met the requirements that Liu Hou gave him: first, the gold was beaten into a very thin gold leaf, as long as it did not leak, it was as thin as it was; Second, make a boat shape that does not enter the water. Fortunately, the texture of the gold was very soft, and the craftsmen who were accustomed to striking copper and iron were very fast in striking the gold, so the "ship" was completed in a short time.

Guan Gong asked someone to bring another basin of water, and then carefully placed the gold boat on the water, and sure enough, the boat made of gold leaf floated lightly on the water. Liu Hou blew lightly on the golden boat, and the boat was blown to the side of the basin, as light as a paper boat.

Everyone was amazed, and finally believed Liu Hou's words. Just when Liu Hou thought that he had persuaded everyone to re-propose the use of steel to build ships, Zhuge Liang threw this proposal into the abyss in a few words:

"Your Majesty, although the ministers believe that steel can be used to build ships, we still can't do that."

"What's the explanation?" Liu Hou asked in surprise.

"Because our steel production is too small, the Ministry of Industry only produced 200,000 catties of steel last year (about 100 tons), especially good steel, even less, which is mainly used to make various weapons.

Due to the continuous wars over the years, the demand for guns ~ cannons is very large, coupled with the construction of new steel-wheeled carriages, bicycles and other objects, these steels are simply not enough. A ship is the size of a ship, if it is built entirely of steel, the demand for steel is too great, and even if we use all the steel produced by the Ministry of Industry in a year to build a shipbuilding, it will not be enough to build a steel gunboat. ”

"Uh" Liu Hou was like a rooster choked by the neck, he was speechless, he patronized the majesty of the YY steel gunboat, but he didn't take into account the actual situation, it was simply not a family and didn't know that money and rice were expensive. Zhuge Liang is in charge of the country's internal affairs, and he knows all kinds of economic data well, and he remembers the figures of the country's grain output and steel output clearly.

He only used one number to shatter Liu Hou's dream of a steel gunboat, the annual output of steel! This is a hard indicator, and it is also an objective reflection of a country's industrial level and economic level. However, this number is a cruel reality for Liu Hou, with an annual output of 100 tons, what can he do? Yes, 100 tons of steel is enough to build a ship, but after building a ship, don't you do anything else?

Don't make guns ~ cannons? Don't make cars, don't make farm tools? Is that battle still fought? Is social production still going to work? This is obviously very unrealistic.

Of course, these 100 tons are only the steel output of the Ministry of Industry, and the people still have a certain amount of iron output, but the iron Liu Hou of the people can't use it at all, so do you want him to issue a holy decree to forcibly collect it? Isn't that a tyrant? Moreover, even if the iron of the people is collected, it is useless, and the quality of the iron is generally poor, and it is simply useless.