Xinshun 1730

Chapter 678 The Emperor Who Dreams
The craftsman repeated the strategic significance of this thing for the dynasty's rule with the principles he could understand.

His confidence within "20 years" comes from reality.

The steam engine is not difficult in terms of technology at this time.The only difficulty that Dashun had to face, the boring machine for boring cylinders, had been completed.

As for things like trains and steam locomotives, they are just a branch of the steam age.

The age of steam is somewhat similar to the age of gunpowder.

At the beginning of the gunpowder era, multi-barreled blunderbusses, bowl-mouthed blunderbusses, Hussian hand cannons, leather cannons, swarms of bees, magic arrows, fire dragons out of water... and so on, and so on. There are many ideas and even break through the imagination of later generations. force.

However, after practice tests, it was finally discovered that the combination of flintlock guns and field cannons is the correct way, and the rest is just trial and error in the era of blooming flowers.

The Age of Steam is pretty much the same.

The steam engine was not invented by Watt.

In history, ten years before Watt improved the steam engine, the French had already created a steam locomotive with great brains—that is, more than 20 years later, in 1769.

The physical object of this steam locomotive is still there today.And in 2010, it could still be started after simple maintenance.The maximum speed is 60 kilometers per hour and the maximum load is 8 tons.

This thing actually runs on the road, not on the rails.

But just like those gunpowder weapons such as multi-barreled guns, fire dragons, swarms of bees, and magic arrows, they are destined to be just a kind of imagination when a hundred flowers bloom.In the end, the correct path is still the path taken by Watt.

The monster created by Nicholas Joseph Cugnot 20 years later is destined to be only the bones under the cornerstone of the Steam Age.

Without Watt's idea of ​​separating the condenser and cylinder, the inefficient utilization of heat energy makes it have a speed of 60 kilometers per hour and a load of 8 tons, but it can only run for 15 minutes and has to be paused - Cugnot saw feeding horses pulling The trouble with the cannon, but the thing he built has caused even more trouble-it is true that there is no need to feed the horse, but it takes half a load of firewood to eat in 15 minutes, the stableman is saved, but it has to be matched with several horses For those who carry firewood, they have to dig a canal along the "Fazhi Road" to facilitate adding water at any time.

Before the advent of new era and new technology, it is always necessary to let a hundred flowers bloom and then try and make mistakes.

The day when the new era really comes must be far behind the day when the new era opens. After trial and error, those who are eliminated after trial and error, the bones are piled up as the foundation soil.

Just as the steam engine was brought up by Watt, it has been quietly pumping water in British mines for 70 years; when Albarat used steam tractors to plow the land, the steam tractors used by Cugnot’s tow guns were already lying in the French Crafts Museum. It's been 100 years.

Just as Europe has experienced a cruel war of equal power, the time of "survival of the fittest" has been accelerated, so the common multi-barrel guns, breech-loading guns, and mother-in-law guns in the 16th and 17th centuries gave way to simple and effective flintlock guns and fore-arm guns. Load the cannon.

Liu Yu is not a technical genius, but his existence has a great significance.

"Prophet" knows what is the right direction without trial and error.

As long as the direction is right, even a bastard or a snail can always climb there.

As long as you are willing to spend money, as long as you are willing to persist, as long as there is no change in direction, the 20 years that craftsmen think is not a lie.

Because there are only two outcomes of this matter.succeed, or fail.

But in fact, normally speaking, there is a third possibility: it has been made, but just like the multi-barreled blunderbuss and Cugnot’s steam car, the direction is wrong, so is it a success or a failure?
Normal evolution, the third possibility, is the norm.

Dashun bypassed the historical normality of technological progress, crossed the river by touching another time and space, Britain, and rushed forward in an absolutely deformed abnormal state until it was untouchable.

Of course, France's crooked path on steam locomotives is also closely related to France's social reality.

Ideas, consciousness and train of thought are not created out of thin air, but must conform to the material basis and social conditions.

The wonderful steam tractor towed gun cart that Cugnot developed 20 years later stems from the following material foundations and social conditions.

First of all, the French financial director who talked with Liu Yu about technology introduction. In his era, he launched a whole set of French road network construction, and formulated policies for regular labor road repairs and road construction indicators for each province.He stepped down in the future, but the policy has continued.

So 20 years later, France has the best road network in Europe.It can fully withstand the load of 8 tons.Many of the wonderful designs of the French artillery are based on this road network.

Then, the weather in France is very good, not as rainy as in the UK, and it stands on the best plains in Europe. Considering the country's environment, it increases the importance of roads instead of railways, and it is really difficult to think in the direction of railway tracks.

If there is no road network foundation in France, or the climate in France is rainy and the soil is yellow mud in the yellow flood zone, it is impossible to design such a "advanced" and wonderful thing anyway.

Finally, the artillery in France is systematic, and it does attach great importance to artillery, and has always relied on artillery to fight, which is inherited.The importance of artillery has been reflected, so there are more civilians in the artillery officers, because mathematics is something that nobles and people who certainly don't have a large base are more likely to produce talents.In contrast, although the French artillery also has seniority, its innovation is much higher than that of other military branches, and relatively speaking, it encourages innovation the most and attaches the most importance to science.

For example, in the era of the French Revolution, the names of the editors of artillery textbooks, Cauchy, Fourier, and Laplace, any one of them would be enough to support the mathematics department of a university in later generations.A large number of civilian science students, coupled with the mechanical materialism of the French Enlightenment Age, made the French artillery particularly enthusiastic about new technologies, and they were extremely encouraged. They also realized earlier that the steam engine is not as good as a horse, but its potential is unlimited. Many weaknesses, still invest money to support.

The above points are all important reasons why the French steam car went astray.

The same story is placed in Dashun, the core of the story remains the same, but the material basis and social conditions have changed, and the conclusions drawn are bound to be different.

First, Dashun has a vast territory, and has long recognized the importance of transportation. This can be regarded as the social awareness brought by the Grand Canal's maintenance of the north and the south.

The places where soldiers were used in the past are exactly as the craftsman said.The difficulty is logistics. If there is a stable, reliable and efficient line of communication, a thousand-man war with Russia can really be solved by a lieutenant-level officer.

Second, the battle of Dashun against Japan made the emperor realize the strategic significance of naval transportation.

The Dashun navy didn’t have much tactical significance in the battle against Japan—there was no large-scale naval battle, and the Japanese ships were huddled in the strait, so the warships built by Dashun with a lot of money were frightened. If you dare to go in, you are afraid of being created the myth of attacking ships with fire.

However, strategically, taking advantage of the sea transportation advantages of warships, the 1 field troops dragged Japan's 30 samurai beyond defense.

This is the strategic significance.

If you really want to talk about it, the Marine Corps is not counted. Did the Navy have any results in the Battle of Japan?A total of three or five small boats were sunk, which is not considered a victory at all, but the first achievement belongs to the navy, and no one can take it away.

The third is the huge pressure brought by population growth, and Dashun is very clear that the basic plate of a feudal dynasty is self-cultivating farmers.

There is vast land in the Northeast, but immigration is a big problem.The Songliao watershed across there has caused the population of the Liao land to multiply over the years, but after all, too few people have crossed the watershed.

Moreover, the emperor also heard from Liu Yu about the situation of the soldiers along the Songhua River.

Food cannot be transported out, and sea transportation has to go around the Korean Peninsula. If there is no communication line like the North-South Grand Canal, it will be difficult to immigrate on the one hand, and centrifugal forces will easily arise on the other.

Dashun is actually divided internally. The landlord and manor economy in the south of the Yangtze River and the small-scale self-cultivation economy in North China. If Dashun wants to last forever, it must find a way to stabilize the self-cultivation peasant class and expand the basic market.

At this time, the development of the Northeast has lost its original meaning of defending against the barbarians, but has become a more important meaning of continuing the life of the Dashun Dynasty.

Under this kind of social foundation, what Liu Yu said "the Grand Canal does not need water and trackers", in the eyes of the emperor, it is indeed "this achievement is beyond the reach of Beipingxi".

As for whether it will be successful, it is not a lie.With the foundation of trust laid by Liu Yu's leveling department and the invasion of Japan before, the emperor felt that ordinary things that seemed like magical lies, since Liu Yu thought it was correct, most of them could be done.

Flying into the sky, something that was unthinkable in the past, isn't it that many people in the capital look forward to the future, saying that in a hundred years, maybe rich people will have a hot air balloon in their hands.

As for technical matters, the little things that the emperor learned, he couldn't understand at all, so he simply didn't ask.But in matters of national policy, he is still good at using his brain.

If it can be done, it will kill two birds with one stone.

Once the trip to Nanyang is successful, Li Gan is determined to abolish the Grand Canal.Dashun’s ancestral mausoleum is not along the canal, and now there is sea transportation that can solve the food problem... Back then, Liu Yu did not participate in the discussion on abolishing the water and transforming it into the sea. It does not mean that he did not support it, but he understood that he must first go to Nanyang to eliminate the threat of the sea. just work.

Once the threat at sea is removed, there will be no worries about shipping, and by the way, the problem of the Yellow River taking the Huaihe River into the sea that has not been solved since the Song Dynasty can be solved.

Canal workers, why not use them to fix these things?
By the way, a large number of people in the Huanghuai area were migrated to the north; the governance of the Huaihe River brought the old place of the Huanghuai River back to the essence of the world before the Song Dynasty, and it was no longer a gangrene of the empire; A large number of yeoman...

If it is really done, it will really be the achievement of a celebrity through the ages.

At least in Li Gan's view, it is definitely on the same level as digging the Grand Canal, building the Great Wall, hollowing out the Western Regions, and reforming the southwest of the Ming Dynasty.

Coincidentally, if you go to Nanyang, you can really benefit from the taxes of three or five Henan provinces, and there will be fewer places to fight in the future. Isn't this money just right for this place?

The prefecturalization of North Korea and northern Annan can be left to future generations, as long as it can be done before death, not to mention the posthumous title, but to say that later generations will not be a problem compared with Han Wu Tang Zong, right?

Thinking of this, he felt a passion in his heart that he hadn't felt for a long time, and said to the attendant beside him, "But I don't know where the Marquis of Jing is now? When can I return to Beijing?"

(End of this chapter)