After a short interlude, waiting for the longest mini train to slowly move away, Zhu Yuan clapped his hand and attracted everyone's attention: "Let's talk about the principle first, the principle of the steam engine has already been said, you must be wondering, why do you want to lay this track, heh...... In front of us is a copper rail, just for the convenience of production, the finished train in the future will only be a rail, so why should it be so? ”

Without waiting for everyone's response, Zhu Yuan had already signaled to the first page of the presentation board: "There are many reasons, which can be summarized into two. First, ordinary roads cannot carry it. The load of the train is huge, as you have just seen the longest train, counting three locomotives, but only 35 cars, in fact, the future train, even a hundred carriages are common. According to the calculation of 100 carriages, it is used to transport grain, 1,000 stone per carriage, and one train, which is enough to transport 100,000 stone of grain. 100,000 stone of grain is equivalent to 1.5 million catties, so if the train has no tracks, even if the stone road is laid, the ground will be quickly damaged and trapped. This is one of the railroad tracks, so it must be. ”

After saying this, Zhu Yuan directly clicked to the next article on the demonstration board: "Second, it's about efficiency." This involves a lot of knowledge such as mechanics. To put it simply, rails have less friction, and like the bearings that we have widely used, train wheels run on smooth rails, similar to bearings. It is also said that 100,000 stone of grain in 100 carriages, even if there are ordinary roads that can bear its weight, but under the strong friction resistance, the steam locomotive will be difficult to drive the heavy body, even if we add the locomotive regardless of the cost, to achieve enough power, the vehicle will inevitably travel slowly, if it can only travel 10 miles a day, the steam train will be meaningless. My expectations are coming and going. Through the rails, there is very little frictional resistance, so that the load can be carried more and faster. It's railroad tracks, so it's a must. ”

This time, as soon as Zhu Yuan's words fell, Li Shanchang couldn't help it again: "Pingzhang, as you said, if this railway track is laid all over the country, have you ever thought about how much steel is needed, and where does it come from?" ”

Li Shanchang's tone was obviously teasing, and Zhu Yuan still smiled: "This involves another knowledge point, Zuo Xiang, guess what, what is the overall iron content of the earth under our feet?" ”

Li Shan put his hands on his sleeves and shook his head directly: "I don't know, please ask Pingzhang for advice?" ”

"Five percent," Zhu Yuan spread out his five hands and indicated: "There is only a proportion of five points, which doesn't seem like much at first glance, but, think about it, huh...... You may have seen the globe, the planet we are in, the diameter of a circle is 80,000 li, and its total amount is difficult to estimate, on such a big ball, the proportion of a substance in five points, for us human beings, it can almost be said that it is inexhaustible. ”

Speaking of this, Zhu Yuan thought for a while, and gave another example: "Let's just say that the Taiping Iron Mine that the imperial court is brewing and developing, I gave my ancestors an estimate of 1 billion tons, this 'ton' is a new total unit, I think, in the future, it will be calculated as 1,000 catties, 1 billion tons, which is equivalent to 1 trillion catties." What kind of volume is this? It is said that in the previous dynasties, the Song Dynasty, which had the highest steel output, only produced 20 million catties of iron a year. Besides, the Yuan Dynasty that our Ming Dynasty replaced, because the foreign race was not good at production, the highest annual steel output was only 5 million catties. These are clearly documented, and if you are interested, you can go to the book. So, 1 trillion catties of iron ore, according to the consumption rate of the Song Dynasty, everyone calculates, how many years is enough to mine? ”

Everyone subconsciously calculated.

Zhu Yuan quickly took the initiative to give the result: "The answer is yes, 50,000 years!" ”

Many people subconsciously take cool air.

It's just an iron mine, enough for 50,000 years...... How long is the history of this China?

Zhu Yuan continued again: "You must be thinking, with the productivity of the Song Dynasty, it will take 50,000 years to mine, after the destruction of steel production by the Yuan Dynasty, even if we recover some, how long will it take to mine such an iron mine?" ”

After waiting for everyone to brew for a short time, Zhu Yuan had already continued: "Everyone, don't forget today's theme, what I want to show you is the future of the Ming Dynasty, a new future." What we see in front of us is an essential breakthrough in productivity, to what extent? Breakthrough to the extent that the productivity of the past has been increased by a hundredfold or even a thousandfold. That is to say, with the steam engine, we can increase the steel production of the Ming Dynasty to 100 times or even 1000 times that of the Song Dynasty, and at that time, will it be impossible to lay rails with steel? ”

】

A hundredfold and thousand-fold increase in productivity?

Many of these words seem to be understood by the people around me who do not know the science of economics, but they have a certain understanding.

Mainly......

Not to mention steel production, if ...... If that kind of grain, the yield can also be increased by 100 or even 1,000 times......

Kang Maocai, who was standing on the periphery and was about to take charge of the affairs of Daming Tuntian, even took a breath.

This kind of thing...... I don't dare to think about it.

Don't dare to think about it!

Seeing that the people around him were once again immersed in the foreground depicted by a certain teenager, Li Shanchang felt that he should stop in moderation, but he couldn't help it, and blurted out in the end: "Pingzhang...... I'm afraid that there is no basis for what I say. ”

Zhu Yuan gestured around: "Of course, there is no basis for what you say, but, Zuo Xiang, we are ...... now Seeing is believing. ”

Li Shanchang: "......"

Zhu Yuan didn't chase after him, opened the next page of 'ppt', and clapped his hands again to attract everyone's attention: "I have said some principles of steam trains, well, there is still feasibility." Speaking of use, this is the future train track route map of the Ming Dynasty planned by me according to the Yuanchi Road map, although the feasibility is inevitable, but I also have to admit that this matter, I am afraid that one or two generations may not be able to complete, it belongs to a century-old plan. ”

Everyone looked at it together.

Again, this is a small map, but it's not the topographic map of the pumping machine just now, but ...... It is written above, a schematic diagram of railway traffic.

After everyone looked at it for a while, Zhu Yuan spoke: "As I just said, the pumping machine involves 'production', and this train belongs to the 'distribution', which everyone should have a concept just now." I will mention only one, the Yuan Dynasty, the north is short of grain, and the south is rich. If there is a railway with smooth train traffic, then, just one train, is enough to transport 100,000 stone of grain from Jinling to Dadu in two to three days, and there is almost no consumption, then, think about it, will the world of the Yuan Dynasty be in chaos? ”

Everyone subconsciously shook their heads.

This time, it was Shangshu Qian of the Ministry of Rites who opened his mouth: "Pingzhang, the words are as you said, have you ever thought that this railway ...... Not to mention the various mountains and hills in the land of thousands of miles, but how to cross the three major natural hazards of the Huanghuai River? ”

"It's just eight characters, open the road in the mountains, and build bridges in the water," Zhu Yuan replied neatly, and further commented: "Don't think it's impossible for Lord Qian, if we reach the productivity level that can build railroad tracks, it will not be a problem to build bridges on the three major rivers or large iron bridges that can carry trains to pass." Heh, about this, there will be a demonstration later. ”

Qian Yongren nodded slightly.

It's just a pity.

I am already old, and I am afraid that I will not be able to see the magnificent scene of the train running through the world.

Seeing that Qian Yongren no longer spoke, Zhu Yuan turned back to the topic: "Just a grain shipment, it can be seen that the role of the train in 'distribution' is there, but in fact, he is far more than that. One of the sections called 'Resource Allocation at the Regional Level' is actually the study of the national allocation of resources, which is not only the materials such as grain, cloth, timber, and minerals that everyone can imagine, but also the so-called 'resources' that also includes human resources. This is about the current situation of our DPRK. At present, I am a Ming Dynasty, affiliated to the south of the Yangtze River, with a large population, while the Central Plains has experienced war, barren and withered, and the population is also sparse. If we want to restore the original plan, we must deploy a large number of redundant human resources to cultivate the fields and restore people's livelihood. Steam trains, which can also be used to transport people, are actually very important. ”

Speaking of this, Zhu Yuan paused and gave everyone time to digest before continuing: "Because according to the function, the transportation of trains is 'passenger transport' and 'freight transport'. Everyone understands freight. Speaking of this passenger transport, in the past, not to mention the common people, even if it was a court official, he may not have been to too many places in his life. However, if there is a train that can travel thousands of miles a day, it only takes a few months for everyone to travel all over the north and south of the river, traversing the splendid rivers and mountains. In addition, it can also change the common customs of the people to settle down and resettle. In the past, it was understandable that the road was too dangerous and too long, far from home, and once it was gone, it might be goodbye. With this train, everything is different, you are still in Jinling today, take the train, you may arrive in Dadu the day after tomorrow, come and go, even only four or five days, when the time comes, travel far, you don't need to worry about it. At the same time, the imperial court will carry out large-scale population migration and rationally allocate human resources, and there will be no great obstacles. Because, you miss your hometown, get on the train, and you may arrive at home after a sleep. ”

The scene was silent for a while.

Even Lao Zhu's three sons couldn't help but fantasize about certain scenes.

Although, the crown prince and his two younger brothers don't think the same.

Zhu Yuan waited again, and seeing that no one asked, he uncovered the next 'ppt', clapped his hands and said, "Next, it's 'military'." For this, because I don't understand, I never dare to say anything at will, but combined with the railway system, I can give my ancestors and everyone, a concept. That is, in the future, as long as the railway system is connected, any point on the map of the Ming Dynasty, note, I am talking about the future after taking the vast territory of tens of thousands of miles in the east, west, north, south and north of the former Yuan Dynasty, then, once there is a situation, 100,000 troops, 100,000 grain and grass, ten days can reach! ”

Zhu Yuan's loud and concise words fell, and everyone looked at the mini world map specially drawn on the page 'ppt', and the scene was quiet again.

Especially Lao Zhu.

As the founding emperor who laid down the country step by step, he understood better than everyone around him how attractive and shocking the three 'ten' prospects depicted by his precious twenty-third grandson were.

This means......

The expansion of the Ming Dynasty will far break through the limits of the supply constraints of the previous dynasties, as long as there is land, the Ming army can quickly arrive.

It also means......

The Ming court will have a powerful control over the armies that far exceeds that of previous dynasties.

Thinking about it, Lao Zhu's mind once again came to mind the 'prosperous era unseen in a thousand years' that his precious twenty-third grandson had promised.

Where will there be only a thousand years?

Ten thousand years of the country is also promising.