"This is the third version of the steam engine?"

On October 17, the eighth year of the Apocalypse, accompanied by Zhu Youzhen's voice, sounded in the armament courtyard, which was originally empty, was already lined with courtyards at this moment.

Originally, there were only three major institutes, but now they have been carefully expanded into more than a dozen research institutes, occupying most of the armament academy city.

Zhu Youjian is located in the courtyard of the Industrial Section.

In an open-air plaza in the middle of this courtyard, a huge and clumsy machine catches everyone's attention.

The machine is one foot high, one foot five feet long, and five feet wide.

It stood quietly on the square, and around it were hundreds of doctors from the Armaments Institute who were watching him, and Zhu Youzhen, Lu Wenzhao and other five people who came to see the excitement.

"Your Highness, this is the third version of the steam engine that Dr. Wang Zheng has improved!"

When Song Yingxing's voice sounded, Zhu Youzhen looked in the direction he was pointing and saw a man who was nearly sixty years old was fighting him.

This person is Wang Zheng, who improved and manufactured the third version of the steam engine, and Zhu Youzhen also remembered him on the road.

Speaking of him, many people are not clear, but if a book is mentioned, then many people will think of it.

The book written by Wang Zheng played an important role in the introduction of Western science and technology to the Ming Dynasty at the end of the Ming Dynasty, and what Zhu Youzhen remembers is that this book describes a lot of scientific knowledge, including geocentrism, the center of gravity and its solution, the volume of water, the volume of floating bodies, the specific gravity, simple machinery and its combined use.

As for the current Wang Hui, he had already developed water, wind and load machinery during the Wanli period, and wrote the "Illustration of the New Instruments".

Because of this, Sun Yuanhua recommended him, and Zhu Youzhen got the third version of the steam engine several years in advance.

"Reward! Reward! ”

Zhu Youzhen took a deep breath, and then said to Lu Wenzhao and Wang Chengen:

"Shang Shu, for Wang Zheng, Bi Maokang, Song Yingxing, and Sun Yuanhua, please be rewarded as earls!"

"Earl?!" Hearing this, everyone's eyes widened.

In their opinion, this steam engine has not done anything useful, and it is too exaggerated to make Wang Zheng and others counts?

"Your Highness can't......"

Hearing Zhu Youzhen's words, even Bi Maokang and the four of them were a little flattered to stop Zhu Youzhen.

In their opinion, Zhu Youzhen gave them official positions, and also let them concentrate on research, and provided gold and silver, which was already the greatest reward for them.

At present, it is only a steam engine that has been developed, and it is really surprising that he will be rewarded with the title of earl.

Not only them, but even Wang Chengen and Lu Wenzhao dissuaded: "Your Highness, if you research a steam engine, you will be rewarded as an earl, this is a bit too much, and it is estimated that it will be difficult for civil and military officials to convince the public......"

"Your Highness, this reward is indeed too heavy." Wang Zheng couldn't help but speak, after all, he had also been an official.

"Please take back your order!" Song Yingxing and Sun Yuanhua made a fuss, but Zhu Youzhen couldn't bear it.

"You have contributed to the imperial court, and you deserve to receive this reward, not to mention that you haven't read my book?"

"Don't you know what the steam engine represents after it appears?"

"We naturally know, but even so, but it is too far-fetched to be knighted directly, if we develop a steam locomotive, a steam locomotive, and overcome all kinds of topics, it will not be too late to be knighted again......" Bi Maokang persuaded.

"Please think ......twice, Your Highness," Song Yingxing and others began to jointly advise again.

"Gentlemen...... Alas! Zhu Youzhen looked at them and was speechless.

I have only heard of people being knighted and happily accepted, and I have never heard of anyone refusing to be knighted.

However, their actions also taught Zhu Youzhen an honest lesson, that is, no matter how advanced science and technology are, when it does not show great value in the eyes of the world, the world will not praise the inventor.

"Song Yingxing, Wang Zheng, Bi Maokang, and Sun Yuanhua were promoted to senior doctors, and the rest of those who participated in the steam engine project and the mercury thunderate gunpowder project were all promoted to Fengzheng doctors."

"Xie Qi Wang Long En ......"

When Zhu Youzhen sighed and announced the new promotion, Bi Maokang and the others finally responded to the reward.

The senior doctor is a second-rank civil official rank, while the Fengzheng doctor is a fifth-grade civil official rank.

Although it is a loose rank, it is still distributed normally, in the case of the "Official Dinglu" that has not yet been decided, the senior doctor is 2,000 taels of silver per year, and the Fengzheng doctor is 500 taels of silver.

Although the award was somewhat modest compared to their contributions, they were already flattered.

Throughout the ages, I have not heard of anyone who has been rewarded by the second and fifth grades just because they participated in the research and development of equipment.

They were happy, but Zhu Youzhen felt a little worthless in his heart.

"The idea of kinky tricks must be reversed......"

Thinking about it, Zhu Youzhen was ready to continue to ask about the power of this steam engine, but before he could speak, Bi Maokang brought Zhu Youzhen another piece of good news.

"Your Highness, you may also need to commend more than 80 doctors in military engineering, iron smelting, and civil engineering......"

"What? What's the breakthrough? Zhu Youzhen subconsciously thought of the starting gun, but it turned out that he thought too much.

"Back to Your Highness, here's how it happened...... Bi Maokang explained:

"Things started with the iron-smelting department, and they conquered the crucible iron-making process that His Highness said."

"They use crucibles to make the melting temperature high enough to meet the requirements of the carburizing process, and at the same time to be able to evenly pour out the produced molten steel and cool it to produce high-quality steel."

"After smelting according to a fixed ratio and time, a more stable steel appears."

"The first time this kind of steel appeared, doctors from various research institutes came to observe, and the military engineering department took the lead in thinking that replacing pig iron with steel to cast artillery may improve the performance of artillery."

"So they used the clay mold in the armament yard to build a crucible, poured molten steel into the clay mold, cooled it and got a new type of artillery."

"The weight of the Yanshan five-pound steel cannon of the same size exceeds that of the iron cannon, but the firing range also exceeds the two miles of the iron cannon, reaching the level of two and a half miles."

"After that, the military industry began to make the size of the cannon body smaller, and finally reduced the weight of the five-catty cannon to seven hundred catties, and after adding some mercury thunderate to the black powder as an initiating charge, the range of the five-catty cannon also reached two and a half miles."

"After that, they successively experimented with ten-pound guns and twenty-pound guns, and the firing range of the ten-pound cannon reached three miles, and the weight was reduced by two percent, and the twenty-pound cannon reached three and a half miles, and the weight was also reduced by two percent."

Bi Maokang is the main military industry, and he is naturally very happy that the military industry has achieved such results, so he will report to the work.

Don't look at it, this only reduces the weight of each cannon by a few hundred catties, but you must know that the disappearance of these hundreds of catties will greatly reduce the transportation pressure of the Ming army.

What's more, the endurance of cast steel cannons is also stronger than that of cast iron cannons, so they can withstand new types of gunpowder, and the firing range is naturally increased.

Although this is only an increase of one or two hundred steps, one or two hundred steps is enough to make the enemy pay more casualties.

"The equipment can be iterated on, maybe it's a good deal to sell the old equipment to the feudal clans...... But it will have to wait. ”

When he heard about the achievements of the military industry, Zhu Youzhen subconsciously thought of this, and then shook his head again.

On the basis of the present, Daming can directly add a certain amount of manganese to the crucible steel to obtain manganese steel with better strength and comprehensiveness.

Once you have manganese steel, it's much easier to use it as a broache and pull the rifling of a crucible steel rifle.

At present, there is a steam engine, and then there is manganese steel, or further search for tungsten ore, to obtain tungsten steel, even if the output of tungsten steel in Daming will be very low, but if it is used for broach and hydraulic, whether it is civilian or military, many progress can be made.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youzhen did not arrange it directly, but asked Bi Ziyan:

"Has Minke made any breakthroughs?"

"Minke's power looms, textile machines have been developed, relying on them, only a skilled weaver is needed to supervise and use it to weave three times the textile output of the previous water-powered loom!"

Bi Maokang said excitedly, and Zhu Youzhen was only happy for a moment, and his expression became ugly.

Steam-powered looms and looms are naturally good and can release more labor.

But the problem is that the current Ming is not ready to release a large number of labor.

If the power loom is rashly used, it will certainly allow the Imperial Horse Supervisor to make more cotton cloth, but a new problem has arisen.

What should we do with the nearly 200,000 textile workers in the south field of the Imperial Horse Prison?

At present, the water-powered looms used by textile workers can weave one horse of cloth a day, and the annual output of 70 million horses is produced.

Cao Huachun from Nanchang wrote a handwritten letter to Zhu Youzhen, which was dedicated to the production and sale of weaving in Nanchang, as well as market issues.

First of all, in terms of market demand, the textile field is mainly to directly supply the south field, and then the south field supplies the emperor store of the world, and the people of the Ming Dynasty are conservatively estimated to be about 150 million people, and a complete piece of woven cloth can be used to make three sets of clothes.

In other words, even if the people of the Ming Dynasty buy three sets of clothes per capita every year, they can only consume 150 million pieces of cloth.

In fact, ninety percent of the cloth in the southern field was sold in China, and only one percent was shipped to the Old Port and sold to Ottoman, Persian, and European merchants.

At present, when the manpower is sufficient, what will happen to the emergence of power textile machines with production capacity that is three times the efficiency of looms in the past?

Even if Huangdian monopolized the entire cloth business of the Ming Dynasty, it would still need to lay off one-third of the weavers, and it would transform the small-scale peasant economy of the Ming Dynasty.

Originally, the efficiency of the hydraulic loom is five times that of other general textile machines of the Ming people, once the power loom is promoted, then the unemployed textile workers, there may be millions of people.

Because there are enough fabrics on the market, and a piece of cloth for 300 wen is cheap enough, if the emperor lowers the price in order to retain the weavers, it will force everyone to follow the price.

The people are profitable, but these millions of weavers and major textile factories will also be consumed in the long-term protracted war, and finally withdraw.

At that time, Zhu Youzhen had to come up with a way to let millions of textile workers have a place to go, otherwise he would have to face the situation of textile workers smashing textile factories during the British Industrial Revolution in the future.

This is the disadvantage of a large dynasty, and it is also its advantage.

Just like why later generations did not implement the large-scale farm economy, as well as intelligent engineering.

It's not that you don't want to, it's that you can't do it.

Once promoted, a large number of low-educated workers can only return to their hometowns and face their own land.

"We still have to develop the market as soon as possible......"

Zhu Youzhen thought about it, after comparing the Ming Dynasty with the later generations, the Ming Dynasty actually had two advantages.

The first is that there are no moralistic rules of the world, and in this day and age, no matter which country is colonizing, and is still violently dealing with the indigenous people.

The reason why they are so violent against the aborigines is because they do not have the capacity to eat the aborigines themselves, and they do not have enough productivity to digest this huge market.

But here's the problem, Da Ming is different!

The population of the Ming Dynasty accounts for a quarter of the world's population, and there is no fear of not having the volume to eat the aborigines, and this increased productivity will not become a burden to the Ming Dynasty.

A Tianzhu, a market of nearly 100 million people is waiting for the textile industry of the Ming Dynasty, even if they only change a set of clothes a year, it is more than 30 million cloth market.

If Tianzhu is taken, coupled with the Ming Dynasty feudal system, and finally Donghu is also taken, then the direct market of the Ming Dynasty is 1500 million people, and the indirect market is nearly 1400 million people in South Asia plus Siam, Korea, Japan and other countries.

After the textile market of nearly 300 million people is fully won, the annual cloth market will be between 200 million and 300 million, and the profit of each piece of cloth will be as high as 200 wen.

That is to say, just for the cloth, Daming's net income of 20 million taels of silver is not a problem.

For Daming, the population is the market.

However, this does not mean that in order to make money, Daming has to take care of Tianzhu and Nanyang natives with good food and drink.

If you take care of them with good food and drink, who will dig the mines of Daming? Who will build the roads?

Not to mention, if we don't take good care of men and women, the old and the weak, then the Ming Dynasty will not be able to occupy the status of the main nation at all.

Therefore, adult men involved in the war had to go to a labor camp and be released after 10 years of labor reform.

As for their wives and children, Daming will definitely give them easy jobs to take care of them to survive.

Not only that, Zhu Youzhen will also let them exchange letters, and after these prisoners learn that their wives and children are doing well, they will also get hope, honestly, and will not be stupid to follow people to riot.

This method is the skill of controlling the people that Zhu Youzhen has learned in Daming for so many years.

Although he disdains the art of controlling the people, it is still good to use it against outsiders.

Whether it is weaving, worsted, mining, or agriculture, the emergence of the steam engine will affect many people.

Among them, agriculture is something that Zhu Youzhen wants to solve.

The problem of population employment in Daming is very simple for him, that is, the economic model of small and medium-sized farms with high-end talents.

In the vast Australia and Nanyang, Sanxuan Liuwei, Annam, and Northeast China, these nearly 5 billion mu of pasture can reclaim 3 billion mu of arable land, which is enough for the people of the Ming Dynasty to follow such an economic model.

However, if you want to follow this model, you also need a strong military force to defend the Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, Zhu Youzhen responded directly to Bi Maokang's words:

"All those who participated in the study of these three things were awarded to the Fengzheng doctors of the five products."

"In addition, the iron smelting department continues to conquer manganese steel, and strives to let the military industry use manganese steel as soon as possible."

"The military industry department also overcame the firing pistol, bullet primer, fire cap, as well as rifle lathes, grenades and other items early."

"The civil engineering department continues to select topics to overcome, and other academies of science have also overcome the topics in their hands early, and if you need silver, say it, and the imperial court that can meet it will try its best to meet it."

"Besides......" Zhu Youzhen paused and looked at the tall steam engine in front of him:

"Tell me about this steam engine, with its power, can it realize a steam locomotive and a steam engine ship?"

"Back to Your Highness......" Hearing about the steam locomotive and the steam engine ship, Wang Zheng became interested, and he said to Zhu Youzhen:

"Your Highness, with the current power of the third version of the steam engine, if you really want to build a steam locomotive and a steam engine ship, it is not impossible to achieve, but after they are built, their kinetic energy may not be able to satisfy Your Highness."

Wang Hui tentatively glanced at Zhu Youzhen, and found that Zhu Youzhen's attention was on the steam engine, and he couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief after he didn't show an angry expression.

He is also a person who has experienced the "torture" of Emperor Wanli, and he is really afraid of the moody character of the old Zhu Emperor, and after seeing Zhu Youzhen's character to the people around him, he can't help but feel a little sour.

"It would be nice if His Highness was born thirty years earlier, or if the old man I was born thirty years later......"

Life is rare, Wang Zheng is fifty-seven years old, and he only met the people in power who supported the machinery at this age, and it has to be said that it is his helplessness.

"Why didn't you say it?" Zhu Youzhen looked at Wang Zheng, obviously not knowing Wang Zheng's sourness.

"Yes......" Wang Zheng regained his mood, and then continued:

"Xia Guan has calculated that the current third version of steam motor can only support the construction of a locomotive with a net weight of 8,000 catties and a cargo load of less than 7,000 catties, and this version of the steam engine, in a simple deduction, needs to consume 1,000 catties of coal and 3,000 catties of water every ten miles, and can travel up to twenty miles per hour......

"Twenty miles?" Zhu Youzhen frowned slightly, he converted it, it was almost six kilometers per hour, and of the weight of seven thousand catties, four thousand catties were to be used to load fuel, and only three thousand catties could be used to carry goods.

The speed is six kilometers per hour, and ten miles consume 1,000 catties of coal and 3,000 catties of water......

These words added up, and Zhu Youzhen was a little speechless.

Although he knew that the steam locomotive was pitted when it first appeared, he didn't expect it to be so pitted.

"What about the steam engine ship?" Zhu Youzhen did not have hope for the steam engine ship in the short term, so he put his hope on the steam engine ship.

"That's the case, Your Highness......," Wang Zheng replied, "Your Highness will use the power of the chariot and ship to express the power of the horse." ”

"In the deduction, the horsepower of the steam locomotive is 100, the speed of each hour is 20 miles, and 10 miles consumes 1,000 catties of coal and 3,000 catties of water......

"A thousand steam engine ships and 100 horses, under the sails, each hour at a speed of thirty miles per hour, every ten miles consumes 700 catties of coal and 2,000 catties of water......"

Wang Zheng is worthy of being a person who introduced Western science, and compared with other people's reports, his report made Zhu Youzhen listen more clearly and clearly.

A ship of 1,000 materials can carry 150,000 catties, and consume 2,700 catties of coal and water per ten miles, which is nothing for a steam engine ship.

Even if you leave a third of the load for coal and water, and then you can only travel 200 miles, it is also a good motivation for sea transportation.

However, if it can be improved a little, it will naturally be the best, so Zhu Youzhen specially asked:

"In your opinion, when will this fourth version of the steam engine be studied?"

"Back to Your Highness, the problem of the fourth version of the steam engine, the lower official thinks that it is the strength and thermal efficiency of the steam engine, as well as the high pressure problem."

"If the current power of the steam engine can be increased to 100 to 200 power, then the steam locomotive can completely pull millions of catties of goods, and only need to use one-third of the load to supply the boiler, and it can achieve a leap of hundreds of miles."

Many of the words Wang Zheng said were words left by Zhu Youzhen on the topic, and he also made special annotations to these words.

Although he didn't know how to study, he couldn't stand up to his "rich knowledge", and in his opinion, the horsepower of the internal combustion engine in the car should be the same as the steam engine.

Therefore, among the many strange topics he left behind, the PhDs who studied always learned a lot of new words.

Wang Hui said that Zhu Youzhen couldn't solve the high pressure, force energy, thermal efficiency or something, but he believed that there were so many people in the industrial department, and someone could always come up with a way to solve it.

If there is really no one to solve it, then even with the current steam engine, Daming can be used for ocean trade and train military.

It's a big deal, he arranges a post station for ten miles, and each post station prepares a coal and water carriage that is enough to run ten miles.

Even if it takes 300,000 catties of coal to transport 3,000 catties of grain to 3,000 miles away, he personally admits it.

Although 300,000 catties of coal is a lot, in order to completely control the Western Regions, he can still give this silver.

Thinking like this, Zhu Youzhen regretted it a little, knowing that he had been a science student in the first place......

"Your Highness......"

When Zhu Youzhen regretted it, a brocade guard walked in from outside the hospital, and while observing the steam engine, he whispered next to Zhu Youzhen:

"There is news from Annan that the Nanzhang Kingdom has surrendered and is willing to continue to pay tribute to our dynasty, Hong Jingluo asked His Highness whether to attack the Nanzhang Kingdom."

"In addition, since Donghu entered September, he has been sending soldiers and horses to monitor Tengyue Baguan, it seems that he wants to see if our dynasty has recruited troops and horses to Baguan."

News came from the south, and Zhu Youzhen knew Donghu's thoughts when he heard it.

Obviously, it was the Ming Dynasty who completely conquered Jiaozhi, which made them worry about the death of the rabbit and the fox, so they were worried about whether the Ming would attack them.

However, for Donghu, Zhu Youzhen has no idea of mobilizing troops for the time being, after all, it is much more difficult to fight Donghu than to fight Annan.

As for Nanzhang's submission, this made Zhu Youzhen bow his head slightly.

Nanzhang Mountain is high and densely forested, there are not a few pieces of the plain, not to mention, to fight it, the Ming army has to build a road to enter.

Although there are some agriculture and mining, it is not worth sending troops to the Ming Dynasty.

With its topography, after the Ming army sent troops, even if it occupied him, it would need to fall into a long-term jungle guerrilla war, and the gains outweighed the losses.

It took the initiative to surrender, but it saved Zhu Youzhen from doing anything.

"Tell Hong Chengchou that after the matter of Jiaozhi is resolved, return to Kunming as soon as possible, and Nanzhang will not have to attack, and tell the king of Nanzhang that the annual tribute ......"

"Yes......" Hearing Zhu Youzhen's words, Jinyi Wei slowly retreated.

Zhu Youzhen watched him leave, and finally continued to focus on the steam engine.

It's just that his eyes flickered inexplicably, and it's hard to guess what he's thinking at the moment......

(End of chapter)