Fenghou

Chapter 1544 Steam
It was late December. This morning, Chen Qing brought seven ministers to Taixue. Today is an extremely important day. The steam engine that has been developed for three years and improved for nearly a year finally came out. .

With the steam engine, it will have epoch-making significance in transportation. The steam engine train can be a little late, but the most urgent thing for Chen Qing is shipping. With the steam engine ship, not only can it go farther and faster, and the transportation volume Bigger, and through steamships, you can explore a wider ocean and land.

However, Chen Qing came to the farm first, and he wanted to know about the cultivation of sweet potatoes.

Yang Du led the crowd into the glass conservatory. It was cold outside, but inside the conservatory was very warm and sunny, making the conservatory feel like spring.

In fact, everyone can feel this feeling. The homes of Xiangguo and others are all equipped with glass. When the sun is good, the room is extraordinarily warm.

Yang Du brought Chen Qing and Zhong Xiangguo to the innermost part, where there was a lush green crop, and Chen Qing immediately recognized it as sweet potato vines and leaves.

"Can it still grow in such cold weather?" Chen Qing squatted down and asked.

"Of course it can grow a little slower."

Yang Du had experience in cultivating potatoes and was very confident. He smiled and said, "Your Majesty, please rest assured that crops like potatoes and sweet potatoes are very solid and easy to grow. I am sure that after the spring of next year, there will be a lot of Big gain."

"How about sowing potatoes?" Chen Qing asked again.

Yan Kuo tried his best to use a popular explanation to make Xiangguo understand, which was actually the explanation given by Chen Qing in class.

"Go and see!"

"If all kinds of financial and material resources are sufficient, one can be built in about a month."

"Reporting to Your Majesty, in fact, it was finished more than a month ago. We made repeated improvements, and it was finally finalized ten days ago. We have tried several times, and it has been successful and smooth. It will definitely satisfy His Highness."

Yan Kuo hurriedly said: "Your Majesty, what we need is not ordinary craftsmen, I'm afraid we won't be able to recruit them."

"How long does it take you to build a steam engine?"

Chen Qing nodded, "It's totally possible, but not necessarily now, maybe a few years, ten years later, steam engine trains will appear."

"Your Majesty, fellow ministers, this is a steam engine."

"Your Majesty, is it possible?" Jiang Yanxian asked.

Zhou Kuan suddenly understood, "These two shafts are connected to the outer wheel of the big ship, right?"

Chen Qing laughed, "Okay! Come back when the harvest is next year. Let's go to the engineering institute first."

Chen Qing nodded and said with a smile: "Jiang Xiangguo is right. If the runners of the boat are replaced with wheels, can the boat walk on land? Of course, it is not called a boat, but a steam locomotive, but this requires the construction of a steam locomotive. Special roads, this steam locomotive is like dragging hundreds of boats in the water, and it can also drag hundreds of carts on land, transporting tens of thousands of stone materials or soldiers to the Western Regions and grasslands at a time, and then from the grasslands The Western Regions transported tens of thousands of livestock or tens of thousands of shi of grain back, and they can arrive in a few days. Does this mean that we can surpass the Tang and Song Dynasties and completely control the grasslands and the Western Regions? Why are we afraid of the rise of foreign races?"

"We all know that when boiling water, the water vapor can push the lid up. This is a kind of heat. The flying of Kongming lanterns and the rotation of revolving lanterns are all driven by heat. The steam engine uses the power of steam. There is a copper plug inside. The steam first pushes The copper plug moves forward, and then changes the direction of the steam, pushing the copper plug backwards, and the copper plug moves back and forth like this."

When everyone came over, they saw two long copper rods protruding from the iron box, moving forward and backward at the same time. Yan Kuo explained: "This is a steam engine for ships. There is a runner on each side of the big ship, so it is Two copper rods are needed, and the copper rods are connected to the upper connecting rod of the shaft disc. When the connecting rod rotates, the shaft disc rotates. Did you see that there are two very long shafts on the shaft disc, which are constantly rotating."

"It's going well now. We have tried planting in Hanzhong Prefecture and planted [-] mu. Tomorrow, we will expand to [-] mu. We can plant twice a year in Hanzhong. The yield per mu is several thousand catties, which makes the local farmers very happy. "

"Excuse me, Dr. Yan, what is this?" Zhou Kuan asked, pointing to another copper pipe connected to the boiler.

A group of people came to the engineering institute, Yan Kuo greeted them, and bowed to salute, "My ministers see Your Majesty!"

Zhong Xiangguo smiled wryly, and Zhou Kuan said with a smile: "We are all looking forward to new crops. To be honest, we are more concerned about steam engines that can burn coal for long-distance voyages."

Zhong Xiangguo has become a little numb to the endless new agricultural products. At first, cotton and cotton wool solved the problem of clothing, and then pumpkin and corn came out. The pumpkin and corn have not been fully digested, and potatoes came out. The shadow of potatoes has not yet been seen. Here comes the sweet potato again.

Regarding the idea of ​​the train, Chen Qing has communicated with Yan Kuo and other master craftsmen. Their biggest difficulty at present is the insufficient production of pig iron. Increase rapidly.

Chen Qing smiled slightly: "Although you gave me a two-month guarantee, I don't care about your delay. I just want to see good results!"

Everyone was excited to hear that. Since the Han and Tang Dynasties, the imperial court has been unable to control the Western Regions and Mobei Grassland, and finally lost control. If there is such a steam locomotive that transports a large amount of manpower and material resources, it will arrive within a few days. Then it will really be completely controlled Grassland and the Western Regions.

"Financial resources and material resources are not a problem. Everyone, including students, is treated as a first-class craftsman. How much money, how many materials, and how many soldiers are needed can be guaranteed. I hope that you can recruit 50 more people and build two units a month. Steam engine."

"Use the gate valve!"

Everyone came out of the research and development workshop and sat down in the lobby. Chen Qing said: "The next step is to arrange for craftsmen to build steam engines, and to board the ship for sea trials. May I ask Dr. Yan, how many people are involved in the development of steam engines in Taixue?"

Everyone understood, and using the steam to push the copper plug back and forth, Jiang Yanxian asked, "How to change the direction of the steam?"

Yan Kuo said again: "Everyone, this kind of steam engine seems to be very simple, but it is actually extremely difficult to make, otherwise we would not have developed it for three years, and we once had an explosion because the furnace wall was too thin. Two craftsmen Only after his unfortunate death did we know the power of water vapor to expand, so the furnace wall must be thickened, and a portion of water vapor must be released every two hours to reduce the expansion pressure."

Jiang Yanxian smiled and said, "I was thinking, if a steam engine is turned on the cart, can it also drive the wheels forward, without using a horse?"

"Reporting to Your Majesty, there are 22 students, 37 craftsmen, including the ministers, exactly 60 people."

Yan Kuo led the crowd to a large room. In the middle of the room stood a boiler with a height of one foot, made of wrought iron. The walls of the boiler were very thick. There was a long black chimney leading straight to the roof. This kind of copper tube is different from the musket copper tube. It is made of two halves of copper tubes combined into one and welded with copper water. The other end is a huge black box that makes a rumbling sound.

Chen Qing stood up and said to Xiangguo: "This is also a potato-like crop called sweet potato. It is also obtained from Nanyang. This kind of sweet potato has a large yield per mu, and it is easy to grow and live. It tastes sweet. It is a kind of vegetable, but the sweet potato is the real food. It can be said that with the sweet potato, the famine problem that plagued the dynasties of all dynasties can be completely solved.”

Everyone nodded and understood, Jiang Yanxian smiled and said: "It's indeed very subtle, Dr. Yan, please continue to talk!"

"That's right, that's how the wheel keeps turning, taking the ship forward."

Chen Qing said to Jiang Yanxian: "Jiang Xiangguo, come and arrange craftsmen!"

"train!"

Yan Kuo smiled and said: "It's the relationship between the front door and the back door. When the back door is closed, the steam can only go through the front door. Push the copper plug forward, close the front door, open the back door, steam go through the back door, and push the copper plug back. That's it. repeatedly."

Yan Kuo nodded, "That's a good name!"

"Then there is a copper rod on the copper plug, please look at it!"

"That's the condensing pipe, and the steam goes back from here, condenses into water and flows back to the boiler."

Jiang Yanxian nodded, "The steam engine can be listed as a special item, which is equivalent to the iron fire thunder. The minister will ask the craftsman to arrange the best craftsman."

"Then there is the issue of confidentiality!"

Chen Qing said to Yan Kuo again: "I have told you before, and I need to emphasize again that all blueprints, technologies and key personnel must not be leaked, and internal guards will send people to supervise. Everyone, the world is big, not just us The Han Dynasty, in the far west, there are many powerful countries, once they learn our technology, we will miss many great opportunities, and we will be ashamed of our descendants."

Yan Kuo nodded, "Please rest assured, Your Majesty, we will never leak it!"

(End of this chapter)