In the first month of the seventeenth year of Hongxi, the Ming Dynasty was a master.

Just after the New Year, Emperor Zhu Gaoxu took everyone to see the first cement road in Beijing, the cement road from the Hongwu Gate in the south of the imperial city, straight to the Zhengyang Gate of the Beijing Division, connecting the Zhonghe Bridge, and then passing through the Zhonghe Bridge and entering the Ming Imperial Military Academy.

This cement road is quite high-end in ancient times, and many people in Beijing also came to watch on the scene, and some people were embarrassed to step on the road surface so smooth and clean.

Cement was invented two years ago, and then Zhu Gaoxu began to build cement factories in important areas in northwest China such as Jingshi, Daning Dusi, and Shazhou City.

There is only one cement road in Jingshi so far, and the required cement output has been used for sewer renovation in the past two years.

The renovation of the sewers in Beijing is an important project of Zhu Gaoxu, and the effect is surprisingly good, and now the sewers inside and outside the imperial city, like later generations, people can crawl underneath.

Well, Zhu Gaoxu used to want to make it possible for people to walk underneath, but the amount of work was too large and there was no modern machinery, so it was finally lowered by one level and changed to people who could crawl.

In addition, official cement is rarely used in other places, and is sold to the common people and the people, making a lot of money.

In the next step, when cement production increases, Zhu Gaoxu will gradually pave roads and forts in the northeast, Nuergan, and Shazhou to the west, so as to strengthen local control and rule.

According to Zhu Gaoxu's arrangement and arrangement, the Ming army will completely enter the era of all-firearms in about 15 years, when the fortress will be equipped with firearms, and the power will be infinite, and the nation that sings and dances on the grassland will soon lose its usefulness.

Therefore, in the next ten years, cement will be preferentially used in the side hammer for military use.

Zhu Gaoxu came to the scene early in the morning, walked a cement road with everyone, and then took a few ministers to the Science and Technology Department.

The ministers knew that the emperor was going to show them something new.

When walking on the road, Sun Heng, the secretary of the military department, Xia Yuanji, the secretary of the household department, and Xu An, the secretary of logistics, were called to the emperor's side, one left and one right.

The emperor looked left and right, Xia Yuanji was already the oldest in the cabinet, a little younger than Huang Fu: "Xia Butang is in his fifties?" ”

Xia Yuanji immediately said: "Back to Your Majesty, the old minister is fifty-eight." ”

He reacted quickly, thinking that the emperor wanted him to pay tribute, and immediately said: "The minister wants to resign and return to his hometown-——"

"Please, fart, you're so energetic, I look at you, you can work for at least another ten years." Zhu Gaoxu said.

“。。” Xia Yuanji was stunned, and soon a look of emotion appeared on his face.

In the original history, he worked hard for the Ming Dynasty, not to mention the hard work, and was imprisoned, degraded in the middle, sad and sad, and lived to be sixty-five years old.

This will follow Zhu Gaoxu, except for making him unhappy when he is asked to pay for food, he is happy at other times, and it is estimated that he can live to be over seventy years old.

Zhu Gaoxu said at this time: "There is no enemy on the grassland for the time being, and the western frontier is also in the hands of our Ming Dynasty." ”

"But in order to prevent these nomads from rising again, and at the same time oppress their living space and force them to enter the customs and surrender, we still have to work hard."

"Another war?" Xia Yuanji asked helplessly?

The black sheep and the white sheep have just been wiped out in front of this, didn't Your Majesty say that you will recuperate and consolidate your territory?

"Don't fight, build a fortress." Zhu Gaoxu said.

"I have already planned to build a fortress every fifty miles in the northeast, northwest, and west, with cement and bamboo as the concrete structure, equipped with eight cannons, 100 muskets, a team of 100 people, and 50 horses."

"A small city is built every 500 li, with a population of 5,000 to 10,000, and is used for farming, with rye as the main source in the northeast and northwest, and cotton cultivation in the west."

Xia Yuanji said: "Your Majesty, is this going to occupy the grassland permanently?" ”

"Exactly." Zhu Gaoxu said: "Don't give them a chance to come back." ”

"Wherever there is a water source, cities and forts shall be built."

"It's going to take a lot of money, I don't know what year or month?" Xia Yuanji sighed, this is another big project.

If it weren't for the prosperity of the Ming Dynasty now, with money and people, in the past dynasties, Zhu Gaoxu would be Yang Guang's goods, how could he be such a loser and work like this.

"Don't rush, take your time, there is no war now, there is no enemy, I plan to complete it in twenty years." Zhu Gaoxu believed that even in later generations, there were still too few people on the grasslands, so he planned to accomplish this feat in 20 years, and at the same time constantly immigrated to these places, including Han Chinese, as well as people from the places they conquered.

In fact, the Northern Expedition of Ping An a few years ago had already beaten the remnants of the Northern Yuan Dynasty far away, and they did not dare to come back at all in the past few years.

These places already belonged to the Ming Dynasty, but Zhu Gaoxu did not give them a chance to resurrect at all, and continued to demand to oppress the north and northwest, build forts one by one, and advance layer by layer, the ultimate goal was to drive the last forces of the Northern Yuan Dynasty to the side of Daluo.

Finally, after a few decades, he can make contact with the border of Da Luo, and if his descendants are fierce enough, he can even go all out to occupy the north.

When Sun Heng and Xu An heard this, they understood that their military department and logistics department were about to start fully cooperating with the household department.

One has to send troops, the other has to send supplies.

Zhu Gaoxu's plan was to build forts and repair cities while paving roads, and wherever the roads were paved, the forts and cities would be built.

We must not be in a hurry, and if we are in a hurry, we must mobilize the masses and advance in an orderly manner to the minimum degree of mobilization.

So he gave himself twenty years.

Whether he conquered Persia or attacked the northern steppes, he never talked about the speed of time, and paid attention to one stability and one slowness.

Because that's how you can really occupy it permanently.

If you suddenly mobilize hundreds of thousands of millions of people to build roads and forts in the north, it will still be painful for the current Ming Dynasty.

However, Ling plundered some people from outside every year, plus recruited a group of people from abroad, first used tens of thousands of people to slowly cultivate, slowly worked, and gradually increased labor every year, which had an almost negligible impact on the Ming Empire.

Moreover, many projects in Daming are now contracted to the private sector, and the efficiency is quite high.

While speaking, everyone came to the Science and Technology Division.

As soon as they came in, they saw a device that they hadn't seen before.

Of course, Zhu Gaoxu was in charge of the commentary.

"It's called a steam ball."

The steam ball is the earliest known machine to convert vapor into power, invented in 100 AD by Hero of Alexandria.

The steam ball is mainly connected by a hollow ball and a closed pot filled with water with two hollow pipes, and the water is heated at the bottom of the pot to boil, and then it becomes water vapor, and then enters the ball by the tube, and finally the water vapor will be sprayed out from both sides of the ball and make the ball rotate.

At that time, the steam spinning ball was just a novelty plaything, and there was no practical application for it.

Because the steam engine has not been able to make a breakthrough in the invention, one day Zhu Gaoxu ate the mutton that was not burned, and finally remembered the pressure cooker.

The pressure cooker is heated to produce steam, and the power is quite large, so I immediately thought of the steam ball.

The craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty are actually very powerful now, but many things cannot be made because they have never seen them at all, and they don't understand them, and it is useless to rely on Zhu Gaoxu to say it.

If you draw an airplane, it is useless for the craftsmen to look at it carefully, and they don't know what is inside the plane.

So they need to actually see something useful.

Now this steam ball is equivalent to obvious.

There is a pot on the spot, and two hollow pipes are used to connect a hollow ball together.

After a while, the water boiled and produced water vapor, which entered the ball through the tube and sprayed out from both sides, and the ball spun up immediately.

"Interesting, interesting." The ministers on the scene were amazed again.

Last year, the emperor took them to see electromagnetic waves, so that the metal ball sparked in the air, just like a spell, and now it is a very strange thing, without manpower and material resources to push, just boiling water, let the ball spin.

When the craftsmen saw it on the spot, they understood the power and role of water vapor.

"We're boiling water right now, and when the water boils, it produces water vapor." When Zhu Gaoxu talks about water vapor, everyone can still understand.

Who hasn't seen water vapor? Whether it's taking a bath at home in winter, or in the popular bathhouse now, it's everywhere, that is, hot steam, many people subconsciously think.

Just when everyone was praising the emperor's wisdom, Xia Yuanji suddenly asked: "May I ask Your Majesty, how does this water vapor produce the so-called power to make this little ball move?" ”

There was silence.

Everyone looked at Xia Yuanji strangely, there have been people who have asked similar complicated questions before, and the emperor usually says, you don't understand what I said, and then it was perfunctory.

After everyone gets used to it, they no longer break the casserole and ask the end.

But this time Xia Yuanji actually asked again.

"Ugh." Zhu Gaoxu scratched his head, and originally wanted to say that you won't understand what I said.

But after thinking about it, he thought that the craftsmen were also here, and it was important to make the craftsmen clear where the motivation came from, which might be an inspiration for their innovation.

"In physics, the power of water vapor is due to the fact that its molecules are very fast and that the molecules have a force that attracts each other. When water is heated, its molecules will start to move, and the mutual attraction between the molecules will weaken, causing the water molecules to gradually leave the liquid surface and enter the gas state, forming water vapor. In this way, the velocity of the gas molecules becomes faster, and at the same time, the mutual attraction between them becomes smaller, which can make the water vapor of infinite size gather together and form a huge force in an instant.

In addition, the volume of water vapor is also much larger than that of liquid water, taking air as an example, 1 cubic meter of air can hold a few grams of water molecules, but the same 1 cubic meter of air can hold many grams of vapor molecules, which also indicates that water vapor has a larger volume and stronger diffusivity compared to liquid water, and therefore has more strength. ”

Zhu Gaoxu finally recited it, but it was still quiet all around, and of course everyone didn't understand.

"Keep it simple."

Zhu Gaoxu had no choice but to say: "Water vapor is propelled by the air pressure of the sealed gas being greater than the external air pressure and the weight of the object, and according to the conservation of energy, the internal energy of water vapor is converted into kinetic energy--"

It was still quiet.

"Okay." After Xia Yuanji listened, he said a word leisurely, and everyone at the scene was quite speechless.

Zhu Gaoxu didn't bother to pay attention to him, and continued to talk to the craftsmen, I don't know if the craftsmen understood, but many craftsmen came out of college, and the general meaning is probably understood.

Once this spinner ball is made, you can make a pressure cooker.

Once the pressure cooker was built, further research could be carried out on the steam engine.

At this time, Yang Yuanfeng led them to an even stranger device.

This is their newly built cylinder.

Again, this is the wooden cylinder, which is the heart of the steam engine.

Zhu Gaoxu pointed to the cylinder and explained to everyone, this is closed at one end, and the piston at this end.

When several generals and people who had stayed in Yunnan heard this, their faces suddenly showed expressions of sudden realization.

The group first looked at the wooden steam engine, listened to the craftsmen explain its operation, and then went to another room.

As soon as you enter, you will see a large steam boiler with metal cylinders on the side.

As soon as they came in, the craftsmen began to speed up the burning of coal, and they also used blowers, and soon the cylinder was running.

This is another eye-opener, just now the ball can be understood, you can also think that the ball is relatively light, now the metal cylinder is moving, the ministers can't take their eyes off it.

This is a single cylinder, the manufacture is very rough, and there is a delay after each piston movement, and if there is a delay, it proves that the thrust is not enough.

Emperor Zhu Gaoxu was of course not satisfied with it, but he still asked with a smile: "Can it be of practical use now?" ”

"Back to Your Majesty." Yang Yuanfeng smiled bitterly: "According to Your Majesty's words, the first pumping machine is being built. ”

Now there are a lot of mines in Daming, because Daming occupies too many and too wide places, and then there are huge amounts of minerals in these places, and Zhu Gaoxu gives priority to mining and occupying the places.

Because there are many mines, the management rights are auctioned everywhere, and the treasury also makes a lot of money.

The biggest trouble with ancient mining is that it encounters rainy days, and even if the protection is good on rainy days, there will be accumulation of hearts in the ground.

That's the problem when it comes to pumping.

During the Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties, many mines would stop working on rainy days, and when there was water in the ground, they would also stop working, and then specially pumped water, more than 360 days a year, and only three-quarters or two-thirds of what was really used for mining.

So now Daming first built a pump, the pressure of the pump is small, equivalent to a needle, the air is discharged, and then the piston moves and starts pumping.

This can still be effective for Daming's current simple steam engine.

"When will it be put into practice?" Zhu Gaoxu was quite happy to hear that he could pump water.

"Back to Your Majesty, within a month." Yang Yuanfeng said.

"Okay." It's better to talk than nothing, Zhu Gaoxu can't help it.

The steam engine is relatively difficult, and the imperial court has invested a lot of manpower, material resources and time, and has been studying it for six or seven years.

So in the seventeenth year of Hongxi, the Daming steam pumping machine appeared, although the style is bulky and the area is large, but it can pump water faster than manually, adding work efficiency and time to major mines.

Originally, only three-quarters or two-thirds of the annual mining was carried out, but now unless there is a heavy rain, ordinary showers and light rain can continue to dry.

In the same year, one of the greatest kings in French history, Louis XI, was born.

(End of chapter)