A working model of a steam engine, in another 35 years, the French physicist Papin will come up with it.

But this kind of steam engine is leveraged.

After another 11 years, it was still this Papin who proposed the idea of a piston steam engine, but did not really set out to build it.

It was not until the thirty-first year of Kangxi that the real industrial steam engine appeared, which belonged to the vacuum steam engine.

In the forty-fourth year of Kangxi, the atmospheric steam engine was born, which was quickly widely used in coal mines and could easily drain groundwater.

Watt's improved atmospheric steam engine can still only be used to lift water.

Later, Watt invented the reciprocating steam engine, which could be used in factories - in fact, decades ago, that is, during the Kangxi period, there was already the idea of piston workmanship, and even the piston cylinder was designed. What Watt had to do was to design the connecting rod and flywheel, and use the piston cylinder.

The European steam engine, which has taken a detour for decades, is purely the result of differences in commercial use. Everyone only thought about using a steam engine to drain the mine water, and they kept tossing and turning on it, and they didn't think about using it to drive the textile machine.

And Zhao Han proposed at the beginning that he should use a steam engine to spin and weave.

Under this line of thinking, neither vacuum nor atmospheric steam engines would be born (these could only be used for drainage). If you want to complete the task assigned by the emperor, you can only move closer to the piston direction.

However, it is still outrageous.

Xu Zhengming is simply a fairy, and it only took four days for this product to directly make a Watt steam engine. Pistons, cylinders, connecting rods, flywheels, slide valves, ...... Everything but the kitchen sink!

If you insist on asking Xu Zhengming how he designed it, he will definitely say this-

"Cylinders? Let the steam make the force, there must be a cylinder. "It's nothing, 35 years later, the first steam engines in Europe also had cylinders.

"Pistons? If the steam is to exert force, it has to push something to run, and that thing is a piston. It is also understandable that after 46, European scientists also had this idea.

"Connecting rods, flywheels? My flying chair (helicopter) uses a connecting rod, and doesn't the water-to-spinning wheel also have a flywheel? ”

"Spool valve? The flywheel is all spinning, isn't it logical to add a connecting rod and let the flywheel control the connecting rod? ”

Zhao Han has always been unhurried in what he does.

In his mind, it was acceptable to assign the task of inventing the steam engine and slowly grind it out in ten years.

But what the hell is it to draw a drawing in four days and knock out a prototype in a month?

It's like a parent who urges his child to pass the exam, but only to get a perfect score for his child.

Of course, there are a lot of areas that need to be improved.

From the French model of the steam engine to the improved steam engine of Watt, it has gone through a long 86 years. It took another 25 years from Watt's improvement of the original engine to Watt's perfection of the steam engine.

Xu Zhengming's steam piston uses a cast iron core, wrapped in leather and oiled. When the surface grease is worn off, the frictional resistance increases considerably.

The improvement scheme of this product is to wrap a layer of fine cotton soaked in vegetable oil on the outside of the leather, which can extend the effective working time of the piston.

Since there is no rubber, it is also substituted for leather, cotton, etc. The air tightness is not too far off, the main problem is that it is easy to wear out, it can't withstand the high temperature environment, and it has to be replaced in a few days.

In addition, compared with the full version of the Watt steam engine, Xu Zhengming's steam engine is still very unstable, and the work efficiency is much lower. Because there are no planetary gears, no governors, no safety valves, no pressure gauges, no cylinder outer insulation......

In front of Zhao Han that day, the steam engine suddenly stuck, because of the lack of a governor, which caused the flywheel to move at an uneven speed. Coupled with the lack of planetary gears, the reciprocating work can no longer be reciprocated.

Without a safety valve and pressure gauge, this defect is barely acceptable. Because of this simple steam engine, the steam pressure is very small, less than one-third of the Opium War, and only one-tenth of the Republic of China.

Generally, it will not explode, and even if it does, it will most likely not kill people.

Let's put it this way, even if a loom can be driven by a steam engine, with the unstable virtue of the existing steam engine, it is necessary to have professional repairmen in the factory. It doesn't turn when it spins, and small parts such as gaskets and cotton layers have to be replaced every few days.

However, no matter how many shortcomings there were, in terms of steam engine research and development, Zhao Han encountered a rare Tianhu start.

The next thing is to improve, and it will take ten, twenty, thirty years to improve this steam engine.

In Europe this year, the Italian scientist Torricelli has measured the atmospheric pressure value. Newton is also one and a half years old, a premature baby, and probably hasn't been weaned yet.

China has left Europe behind in many places in terms of physics and mechanics.

At the same time, thanks to the missionaries, scientific concepts such as theorems and formulas have been continuously introduced to China since the Longqing period. Now, through Zhao Han's education reform, it has taken root among the new students.

Just when Xu Zhengming made the steam engine, far away in England, the protector Cromwell, won the Battle of Marston Wasteland. This was the turning point of the English Civil War, Cromwell's real rise, and when he came to power, Britain would also embark on the road to maritime supremacy.

And in the northwest of China, Ge Erdan...... Well, Galdan was born this year, and the Dzungar tribe is thriving north of the Tien Shan Mountains.

The more Zhao Han thought about the invention of the steam engine, the more excited he became, and he smiled when he reviewed the music.

Good things come in pairs, officials of the Ministry of Industry reported that the construction of the Forbidden City in Nanjing has been completed.

To be precise, it is repaired, the Forbidden City of Nanjing in the Ming Dynasty, the city walls, and the foundation are all there. Some halls, even the pillars do not need to be dismantled, and they can continue to be used by painting a layer of paint. A lot of wood and glazed tiles, which can also be reused, are very strong.

The officials of the Qin Tianjian Planetarium, under the instructions of the Ministry of Rites, have selected an auspicious day for the zodiac, and they can move to the palace on the sixth day of the eleventh month of the old calendar.

Before Zhao Han moved into the Forbidden City, some female officials and palace maids needed to move in advance to sprinkle and sweep. The house was bigger, and the manpower had to be expanded, so the second large-scale recruitment of female officials and palace maids was carried out.

800 female officials and 1,200 palace maids were recruited at one time.

Most of them are miscellaneous laborers, that is, hired workers who work in the Forbidden City, and they are paid. Only female officials who have achieved leadership positions can be regarded as court officials, with rank and honor.

"Give it to the cabinet and let them approve it." Zhao Han drafted an edict.

Pang Chunlai, Li Banghua and Tian Younian didn't react when they saw the edict, so they signed their names in a slippery way, and finally Pang Chunlai drafted a formal decree.

What's the matter?

Increase the cost of royalty!

There are so many female officials and palace maids, and their salaries are tens of thousands of taels of silver every month, where is the previous royal budget enough?

This time it didn't rise much, and the annual royal budget increased to 1.2 million taels, which was probably equal to the royal expenses of the Chenghua Dynasty.

In the middle and early Ming Dynasty, the annual expenditure of the royal family was basically about one or two million, and Zhu Houzhao was a little loser. It wasn't until Emperor Jiajing ascended the throne that the royal family's consumption skyrocketed, and a lot of silver was used to cultivate Taoist temples and practice things. Later, there was no distinction between the private treasury and the state treasury, and the keys to the treasury were all in the hands of eunuchs.

Why do you evaluate a faint gentleman, often with the words "big construction", it is because of this matter that costs the people and money.

Emperor Wanli's own mother, who is also a virtuous empress dowager, fully supported Zhang Juzheng's reform. But this queen mother also likes to build temples, build a temple at least tens of thousands of taels, and often take silver from Zhang Juzheng to build a temple. And every time a temple is built, it not only costs two taels of silver, but also has to recruit a large number of people, and the people around the capital are miserable.

Zhao Han has already refined the rules, salt, tea, porcelain, silk and other commercial taxes, submitted to the central treasury as part of the budget, must be set aside every year to the royal budget, directly into the royal account of Datong Bank. The construction of the imperial mausoleum, the renovation of the Forbidden City, and the wedding of the emperor and the crown prince all have to be paid for by the national treasury, and the royal family will not pay for it itself.

However, if the emperor wanted to build a garden for vacation, and wanted to build a Buddhist temple and Taoist temple, the civil officials could directly reject it. The emperor can repair it if he wants, and pay for his own private house!

"Your Majesty, the Minister of the Cabinet and the Ministry of War is asking to see you, there is an urgent military situation!"

"Invite them in."

Good things come in pairs, and it seems that it is not enough.

Pang Chunlai stepped into the door and said with a smile: "Your Majesty, the pseudo-shun civil strife, Hao Shaoqi led the troops to defect to my Datong court. ”

"What?" Zhao Han stood up in surprise.

Hao Shaoqi is Li Zicheng's general in the Chinese army, and he was born as a standard-bearer for Li Zicheng. Now his status in the Dashun court is second only to Li Guo and Liu Zongmin, and he can at least rank in the top five among the Dashun generals.

Xu Ying said with a smile: "Pseudo-Shun steals Shanxi, Shaanxi and Gansu, all of which are bitter cold places in the northwest. In the past two or three years, Li Zicheng has rectified the rule of officials, recruited displaced people, and reclaimed grain, and has quite a desire to revitalize. However, the puppet minister of civil and military affairs, with a partial heart, knew that he could not compete with our army for hegemony. According to the news from Xizuo, although Li Zicheng repeatedly ordered that officials should not be allowed to engage in corruption and fraud, those hypocritical military leaders were lawless in the local area. They change their methods to make money, even if the pseudo-obedience is destroyed, they can still be a rich man. ”

"What did Hao Shaoqi do?" Zhao Han asked.

Xu Ying said: "This person is stationed in Zezhou (Jincheng), confronting my Huaiqing Mansion army, Tianjing Pass, Hengwangling and many other dangers, all of which are garrisoned by Hao Shaoqi's soldiers. He was powerful in Zezhou, and the local civil officials did not dare to offend, so he looted the people's fat and ointment without any cover. The trade route from Shanxi to Henan took Qinshui more often, and Hao Shaoqi also set up a card in Qinshui to collect tolls from those merchants. Last year, a businessman denounced him, and Li Zicheng personally wrote a letter to reprimand him, and also fined Hao Shaoqi for half a year, ordering him not to do evil. ”

Zhao Han probably guessed what the situation was.

Xu Ying continued: "Hao Shaoqi withdrew Qinshui's business card, but he still exploited the people. Li Zicheng estimated that he sent a secret agent to investigate, and after learning the truth, he planned to let Hao Shaoqi change his guard, and did not dare to hand over Zezhou to this person to guard. Hao Shaoqi was frightened, thinking that Li Zicheng wanted to kill him, so he secretly wrote a letter to join our dynasty. ”

"This letter was intercepted by Li Zicheng's secret agents?" Zhao Han asked.

"Exactly," Xu Ying said, "Li Zicheng didn't dare to come hard, and secretly contacted the generals under Hao Shaoqi, intending to trap this person bloodlessly." The matter leaked, Hao Shaoqi took 5,000 soldiers from the headquarters, and he didn't dare to take too much money and military rations, so he went south to join our dynasty. ”

Zhao Han asked, "Where is this person?" ”

Xu Ying said: "North of Huaiqing Mansion, on the bank of the Danshui River. The entire army has been disarmed, and the whole family has been detained in the city of Huaiqing (Qinyang). ”

Zhao Han was greatly disappointed, a general, with 5,000 soldiers defected, he thought that Li Zicheng was engaged in a civil war there.

Li Banghua said: "Your Majesty, you should treat this person very favorably, and there will be people who will follow suit." ”

Zhao Han said: "If you cut it off, send your head to Li Zicheng, and say that I also hate corrupt officials and corrupt officials!" ”

Chopped?

The crowd was collectively speechless.