I want to be emperor

Chapter 644

In the 17th year of Chengshun, one year after the practical steam engine (early Watt steam engine) was developed by the Steam Engine Research Institute of the Royal Institute of Technology, after a year of industrial mass production research and production line construction, the Great Chu Empire finally pushed forward the large-scale steam engine. door to practical applications.

And run all the way to the beginning of the steam age behind the door!
First the coal mining industry, then other mining enterprises, and then a series of advanced industries represented by the heavy machinery industry and the national defense industry, which have extremely high demand for power and have relatively large added value.

Finally, a few industries in some areas that have an urgent need for power but cannot meet human reserves and cannot use water power have also begun to use steam engines.

These industries began to use steam engines in half a year, and the scale and speed of their installations far exceeded the estimates of the high-level officials of the Great Chu Empire.

At that time, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce estimated that the application scale of steam engines could reach about [-] units within five years based on the conditions of various industries and regions.

But the actual situation is that only in the second half of Chengshun's 17 years, more than 50 steam engines have been delivered to users, and the delivery speed is getting faster and faster.

This is still the current delivery data. If we look at production capacity and estimated production capacity, it will be even bigger.

The production lines established by the three major manufacturers based on market feedback are expected to have an annual production capacity of more than 700 units, and they will all be completed and put into production in the middle of next year.

Although most of them are the production capacity of small and medium-sized steam engines, the problem is that when the Ministry of Industry and Commerce estimated the scale, the data adopted were mainly small and medium-sized steam engines...

When the initial estimate was made, there was no large-horsepower steam engine yet. The prototype produced by the Steam Engine Research Institute of the Royal Institute of Technology was a [-]-horsepower steam engine. When the data was first estimated, it was also based on a [-]-horsepower steam engine. standard estimates.

The five-year goal set by the top management of the Great Chu Empire to support the development of steam engines, now it seems that it may only take two years to achieve it.

Because judging from the construction of the steam engine production lines of the three major manufacturers and the orders provided by downstream manufacturers, the production and sales data for next year can reach at least [-] units, and may even be higher.

The enthusiasm of downstream manufacturers for steam engines is even more enthusiastic than the high-level executives of the imperial industry expected. Especially in various mining companies, the most popular topic nowadays is steam engines.

And it's not just steam pumps, those mining companies are also thinking about how to use steam engines in other ways.

It was still Chizhou Coal Mine Company. They first purchased and applied a batch of steam pumps, and then they entrusted Dangtu Machinery Company to use a steam engine purchased later as the power to quickly and conveniently lift coal from the mine by pulling the cable. come up.

Instead of relying on manual trolleys for transportation as before.

For this reason, we have to mention the rail carriages that are widely present in various mines or some freight terminals.

Very early on, Luo Zhixue personally proposed the method of using rail carriages to transport goods in order to solve the rapid transportation of large quantities of materials in ports or material transfer stations.

But this kind of track is not a railway track, let alone a steel track, but a wooden track, and the vehicles running on it are not trains, but carriages pulled by horses.

This wooden rail carriage transportation method has a great cost advantage in the transportation of bulk goods, but the cost is very high.

Because the wooden track is used continuously and intensively, and it is also exposed to wind and rain, even if there are various maintenance measures, it is not very durable and needs to be replaced frequently.

High-intensity maintenance and track replacement have led to the high cost of using this kind of wooden track... This is doomed to be impossible to promote on a large scale, and generally only in ports, mines, etc. there is a large amount of material needs This kind of wooden rail carriage is only used in transportation places.

Even in the city, it is impossible to spread out wooden rail passenger carriages...the maintenance cost is too high!
Later, as the iron production of the Great Chu Empire gradually increased, some ports of the Great Chu Empire tried to use direct casting pig iron bars to start building tracks. In this way, although the tracks cast at the beginning were higher, the follow-up maintenance costs were lower. .

Moreover, the horse-drawn carriage on the iron track is more labor-saving and can transport more goods.

Successively, many mines and ports in the Great Chu Empire, where there is a large demand for cargo transportation, have gradually replaced wooden tracks with cast iron tracks.

So... the railroad tracks in the Great Chu Empire came out before the trains, and they came out very early...

The same is true in modern history. In the second half of the [-]th century, wooden tracks began to be used in mines in Britain and Germany. Well, it is basically the same as the wooden tracks of the Great Chu Empire.

In the past few decades, the East and the West have successively used wooden rails in mines to transport a large amount of goods by rail carriages. This is an inevitability of historical development and the result of realistic needs.

It’s just that in Europe in the original time and space, it was probably in the second half of the night of the eighteenth century that the owner of the iron factory temporarily cast the unsold iron into iron bars instead of wooden rails for his own use because of the sharp drop in iron prices, and was preparing to wait for the iron After the price rises, the rails will be sold again. It turns out that the iron rails are more useful than the wooden rails... and because of the continuous increase in steel production, the price of iron continues to remain low, resulting in the lifetime cost of the iron rails. The cost of the track is even lower, and the transportation volume is even greater... The combination of various aspects has also opened up a wave of large-scale laying of iron tracks.

In the Great Chu Empire, it was actually the same. At the beginning, wooden rails were used to transport a large amount of goods. Then, as the domestic iron production continued to increase and the price of pig iron was relatively cheap, wooden rails gradually became pig iron rails, and they were widely used in Among the mines and ports.

Although Chizhou Coal Mine Company is a small and medium-sized coal mining company, there are iron tracks in their mines. The longest track extends from the mine to the inland port. The main factory is more than 2000 meters long.

The coal produced by them can be easily and conveniently transported from the mine to a coal inland wharf they own by rail carriage, and then directly loaded on the ship, then enters the Yangtze River through a small river, and finally arrives at Dangtu Industrial Zone for sale to Dangtu Iron and Steel Company or other customers.

With rail transit, they also tried to use steam engines to transport goods, but the method of making trains directly is unreliable. The current steam engines are too heavy and bulky, and the steam engines cannot be moved at all. what goods.

The approach of Chizhou Coal Mine Company is not to make trains, but to adopt a method similar to that of a water pump, using a steam engine as a source of power, and pulling the coal deep in the mine through small rail vehicles inside the mine.

That is the cable car!
Of course, only coal mining companies can do this... Anyway, their coal is almost free, and the daily use cost of the steam engine is also the cost of coal. When the coal is free, the steam engine is used. no cost...

That's why these coal mining companies can think about using steam engines in more ways to replace a large number of mules and horses in the mines.

Mules have a lot of food, and their stamina is limited, so they cannot be used all the time. Therefore, in the production process, the actual cost of using mules is very high. It does not mean that you put a rope on a mule and then it will stop eating Drink to work for you.

Those who can work without eating or drinking with a rope are the animals of the 21st century, not the animals of the [-]th century!
Animals of the seventeenth century were very valuable to use.

This is also why many coal mining companies have tried to replace those mules and horses with steam engines after getting steam engines to save costs.

For example, Huainan Coal Mine Company, their idea is more radical than that of Chizhou Coal Mine Company... They also tried to use steam engines to drive vehicles directly, mainly because the iron track from their coal mine to the wharf is relatively long, and the distance between their two mining areas is also The distance is relatively far, the total mileage of this track is seven kilometers.

This idea also attracted the attention of the Steam Engine Research Institute of the Royal Institute of Technology, and a group of engineers were very interested in the design and complex calculations.

But the ideal is beautiful, and the reality is very touching... According to their calculations, if they put the existing steam engine on the rails and then drive the goods, with the power and weight of the current train... the efficiency will be particularly touching... How should I put it, It's better to just call a bunch of people and drive away, it's cheaper, easier to use, and faster...

The final result is: it’s not impossible to do it... If you insist on making a train now, it can actually go, but in terms of speed, cargo capacity and the most important cost, it’s better to use people to push it away...

Although Huainan Coal Mine Company is a government-run enterprise and has a positive heart, it can't do things that lose money.

Therefore, according to the results of the data, after the train plan is not feasible, we can only continue to use the rail carriage honestly.

But this matter was sent to Luo Zhixue along with a steam engine application report.

Looking at the train test research conducted by the Huainan Coal Mine Company and the Steam Engine Research Institute of the Royal Institute of Technology, Luo Zhixue couldn't help but sigh that there are more smart people in this world than he thought.

Now people are starting to build trains. Although this kind of low-pressure steam engine is useless, the theoretical concept is very good. If this continues, the real train will not be far away.

In addition, Luo Zhixue also knew that Guangzhou Machinery Company would be developing high-pressure steam engines again, and the best customer of high-pressure steam engines in the early stage was trains.

After thinking about it for a while, Luo Zhixue issued an order to ask the Royal Institute of Technology Steam Engine Research Institute, Steel Research Institute and other institutions to transfer some researchers to launch a new research technology: trains!

And instructed the newly established train research institute to cooperate with Guangzhou Machinery Company, because the high-pressure steam engine that Guangzhou Machinery Company is developing seems to be very determined.

The two sides have a basis for strategic cooperation.

After making the instructions and making the layout, what Luo Zhixue has to do now is to wait for the train to blossom and bear fruit!
Luo Zhixue didn't know when he would be able to produce a practical train, but he knew that if he continued on this path, it might take ten years, maybe twenty years, but the train would eventually be produced.

Even if this process requires a lot of time and money!
Others may have doubts about the subsequent application value of the train, but Luo Zhixue can't, because he clearly knows the huge value of the train.

This point can be known in many key projects.

Among the many research projects of the Great Chu Empire, especially those national projects that cost a lot of manpower and material resources, most of them were carried out with the support of Luo Zhixue.
For example, the previous steam engine research project and the current train research project.

Then there is the related research in the field of electromagnetics and the field of internal combustion engines, which have not even been understood in theoretical research.

In addition, there is a series of research on agriculture and animal husbandry that the empire has invested heavily in for more than ten years!

In the eyes of later generations, agriculture and animal husbandry may not be tall enough, and it is far less attractive than research in industrial fields such as steam engines, trains, ships, and electromagnetism.

But in fact, in the current series of scientific research funds allocated by the Great Chu Empire, the research funds obtained by agriculture and animal husbandry far exceed the research funds obtained by industrial projects!
It's just that the research on agriculture and animal husbandry is relatively scattered, with too many projects, and each project is not too big, which makes it look out of scale.

But if the total amount is calculated, the research funds related to agriculture and animal husbandry, that is, the primary industry, will exceed that of the secondary industry!
There are many kinds of research in agriculture and animal husbandry, some of which are more familiar to later generations, such as the research on hybrid rice. The Great Chu Empire has set up three professional hybrid rice research bases in Guangxi, Hainan and Guangdong, specializing in the research and cultivation of hybrid rice. High yielding rice.

And rice is only part of a series of huge agricultural and animal husbandry researches conducted by the Great Chu Empire. It can only be said that the scale is relatively large and the name is relatively large.

But in fact, wheat research has received more funds and more human and material support, because wheat is the staple food of the contemporary Great Chu Empire. Even in the southern region, winter wheat is grown in many places.

Therefore, research on wheat is very important. Through selection and breeding, and by observing the adaptability of various varieties to various places, etc., for this reason, the Wheat Research Institute has established five professional test bases across the country. There are two more than rice bases.

In addition to the research on hybrid rice and high-quality wheat, the Great Chu Empire actually has a lot of research in the agricultural field that is very important and related to the national economy and people's livelihood, such as the research on several other types of grain that can serve as staple food.

These three crops are sweet potatoes, corn, and potatoes. These three crops have several things in common, that is, they are all exotic crops, they do not require much land, and they can all serve as the main supplementary food, and even under certain circumstances they can serve as staple food.

There have been records of a small amount of these crops being planted on the land of China before, but they have not been scaled up. The most important thing is that these exotic crops are affected by the climate and environment, and their yields are not high.

Unpopular common sense, when these foreign crops first entered the Huaxia region, their yields were actually not good. It took a long time for breeding and selection before crops with relatively high yields appeared. This is why sweet potatoes entered the Huaxia region in the Ming Dynasty. , but it was only in the Qing Dynasty that the large-scale promotion of planting began.

Of course, this is also related to factors such as whether the government pays attention to it, whether it has selected and promoted it.

The Great Chu Empire obviously paid attention to the selection of crops and the promotion and research of excellent crops. Therefore, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry has a special research institution to conduct research on various crops, including these exotic crops, in order to obtain more Excellent crops.

The hybrid rice project is also part of a series of crop research.

In addition to food, there are various vegetables, fruits, industrial raw materials and other messy economic crops, animal husbandry and other research.

Among the economic crops, mulberry trees, cotton, soybeans, tung oil, rubber trees and other economic crops in the raw silk industry are more typical, among which cotton is the most important.

The Great Chu Empire has a special cotton research institution, which specializes in cultivating excellent cotton seeds.

Cotton is much more important to the Great Chu Empire than raw silk and wool. Cotton spinning is the powerful weapon that supports the great Chu Empire's textile industry and drives the rapid industrialization of the Great Chu Empire.

In contrast, the silk spinning and wool spinning industries are a little worse.

Under such circumstances, the Great Chu Empire attached great importance to the selection and planting of cotton, not only selecting local cotton for cultivation, but also obtaining cotton from overseas regions for research through various channels, especially the famous Egyptian cotton. object.

Egyptian cotton is a very good cotton species. Its fibers are not only long, but also very strong. It is very suitable for mechanized mass production. Most of the cotton imported by the Great Chu Empire is this kind of cotton. The region is not Egypt, but India...

Although this kind of cotton is called Egyptian cotton, it actually originated in India and is widely planted in contemporary India. It was only brought to Egypt by the Arabs and planted, and then became famous in the European world, and then it was called cotton. It is Egyptian cotton.

But in fact, in today’s Indian peninsula, this kind of long-staple cotton is grown in many places. In the past, the cotton they produced was generally used for their own use, hand-woven and then used for their own use or exported, but now many landowners in the Indian peninsula who grow cotton The rich and powerful began to choose to sell cotton directly to the merchants of the Great Chu Empire.

Not because the price is higher, or even lower than ever...

It is because the handmade cotton spinning industry in the Indian peninsula is almost completely finished... At present, there are only some cheap homespun cloth spun by hand from Indian short-staple cotton. He was completely beaten by the mechanism of the Great Chu Empire.

Under such circumstances, a large amount of Egyptian long-staple cotton produced in India has no choice but to sell to the merchants of the Great Chu Empire!

Egyptian long-staple cotton is currently the largest imported material in the Great Chu Empire, and it is imported in large quantities every year.

The country also wants to solve the problem of cotton self-sufficiency, so it is a matter of course to research and promote high-quality long-staple cotton.

In addition to a series of economic crops, another major classification research in the agriculture and animal husbandry of the Great Chu Empire is animal husbandry, that is, research on the breeding and selection of various livestock such as high-quality cattle, horses, sheep, donkeys, chickens, ducks and pigs.

People are most familiar with it, and it is also the one that the Great Chu Empire has actually invested the most money in. It should belong to the cultivation of horses.

The cultivation of horses began in the early years of the Great Chu Empire, and many military horse farms were successively established across the country more than ten years ago.

And the results are quite outstanding, at least much more reliable than hybrid rice, high-yielding wheat, etc., where no hope of success can be seen at a glance.

The most prominent achievement is the newly bred New Central Asian horse, and because its main breeding base is located in the Damaying Army Horse Farm, which is located in the Hexi Corridor.

Therefore, this brand-new, new breed of horse bred by purely artificial crossbreeding is also called Hexi horse.

It is an excellent light-duty draft horse for medium and long-distance riding. Its advantages are excellent endurance, cold resistance, easy breeding, and good adaptability to plateaus. The disadvantages are its lack of explosive power and relatively limited load-bearing capacity.

From a military point of view, this is an excellent horse for light cavalry, and it can also be used as artillery or a draft horse.

At present, all cavalry units in the Great Chu Empire are equipped with this kind of Hexi horse on a large scale, which is why the Great Chu Empire has cultivated Hexi horse on a large scale.

The horse breeds bred on a large scale by the Great Chu Empire, in addition to the Hexi horse, the main light cavalry war horse, there are many other horse breeds, including excellent horse breeds collected from various places, including a variety of famous original horse breeds: sweat blood BMW Akhal Teke Horse, Arabian Horse, British Thoroughbred Horse and Spanish Horse in Western Europe etc.

Therefore, there are now some special military horse farms in the Great Chu Empire. There are a small number of these foreign horse breeds. It is to use male horses to improve other horse breeds and carry out crossbreeding research.

Well, in fact, it is similar to the previous Hexima research!

And the results were quite good. The Great Chu Empire used a heavy-duty draft horse from Western Europe to improve the Hexi horse, and bred a horse with a larger body, better pulling power, and a more docile personality. At present, it is mainly bred at Yidu Racecourse, and is mainly used as service horses for artillery and supply troops.

This kind of Yidu horse is a medium-sized excellent draft horse, with good endurance, but poor explosive power... Basically, this stuff can only be used as a working horse, pulling cannons or carts.

It's okay to ride, but don't expect him to run fast...

In addition, there is another kind of horse that can be regarded as the descendant of the Hexi horse. The Great Chu Empire bred Hexi horse, thoroughbred horse, Spanish horse and sweat-blooded horse at the Jinling Army Horse Farm on the outskirts of Jinling.

After such a breeding process, this new horse breed has the blood of various ancient horse breeds at the same time, including Mongolian horses, Arabian horses, Spanish horses, and sweat-blooded horses. A top-level war horse came out: Jinling horse.

This kind of horse is born to be a top-level war horse, with an average shoulder height of 1.5 meters 1.6, and the outstanding ones can reach more than [-] meters.

Even if his stamina is slightly inferior, a series of advantages are enough to make him a top-notch cavalry warhorse!
The only problem is that this kind of horse is very delicate... Not only is it delicate to eat, but it also has requirements for the environment. It can't be too cold, too hot and humid...

Even in the warm south of the Yangtze River, a little carelessness in feeding can lead to illness or even death.

This is why the Jinling horse, the top heavy cavalry horse, was obviously bred, but the heavy cavalry of the Great Chu Empire used foreign horse breeds on a large scale, such as Spanish horses or Arabian horses.

Because the paper performance of Jinling horse is beyond the charts, the actual combat pulls...

It belongs to the type that can only be seen but not used!
That's why many army executives have such a view, um, or the practice: Since it is too difficult to breed war horses that meet the requirements in all aspects, it is better to use Spanish horses or Arabian horses and local Hexi mothers separately. Even if the horse is simply bred.

Don't engage in too complicated breeding, you want everything, and you can't get anything in the end... It's better to be simpler, for example, to breed Spanish horses locally on a large scale, and first produce tens of thousands of Spanish horses to meet the needs of heavy cavalry. .

Although these foreign horse breeds still have some shortcomings, they are definitely no problem as male horses and Hexi horses bred as heavy cavalry horses.

This is also the source of Liaoxi horse!
The result of the simple breeding and breeding of Spanish stallions and Hexi mares...a kind of excellent heavy cavalry war horse despite its flaws!

(End of this chapter)