Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 1007 1002 [Electrical Age? ]

After chatting for a while, Zhu Guoxiang stood up and said, "Let me show you something."

"What is it?" Zhu Ming followed curiously.

Zhu Guoxiang smiled and said, "I guarantee you will be shocked after watching it."

It was winter and it was windy and snowy.

The father and son took a carriage to Dongkou City.

There is a small courtyard there, which was used to hide BMW cars in the past. Zhu Guoxiang also led his craftsmen to invent things there.

Although Zhu Guoxiang has moved away for several years, the courtyard has remained.

"Gah!"

The gate opened and several young men came forward.

One is the son of Zhu Guoxiang and Wen Xiaomei, named Zhu Wenzhu, and was given the title King of Min.

One is Yu Ang, a top craftsman who stood out from many craftsmen apprentices.

One was Zhang Congdao, who had studied at the Imperial College for ten years and was well versed in astronomy, geography, the Four Books and Six Classics, and mathematics and physics.

The courtyard gate was closed and the door to the room was opened.

On the table in the middle of the main room, there was an object about one foot high.

Zhu Ming looked at the wires next to the object, suppressed his excitement and asked, "Battery?"

"Not bad." Zhu Guoxiang nodded.

Zhu Ming asked, "How did you do it?"

"I have a vague understanding of the principle, so I'll do the experiments slowly." Zhu Guoxiang said with a smile.

Zhu Guoxiang spent five years to invent the battery.

At first, he used a coil to crank the machine manually, but it didn't seem like the right approach at this stage. He temporarily gave up on the physical method and turned to the chemical method, trying to remember the periodic table. Copper was the first choice, and he slowly experimented with other materials.

Zhu Guoxiang pointed to the battery and said: "A copper sheet, a zinc sheet, a hydrochloric acid sheet in the middle, and then stacked repeatedly, with a graphite rod in the center."

"Is zinc easy to produce?" Zhu Ming asked.

Zhu Guoxiang said: "The copper coins cast by the Daming Mint contain zinc. The tin-containing coins cast by Cai Jing are even more severe, with a lead content of 26% and a tin content of 13%. The current zinc-making process can already meet the requirements, but it can still be improved."

In Chinese history, zinc production technology reached its peak during the Jiajing period.

Later, a shipwreck from the mid-Qing Dynasty was salvaged, and the purity of the zinc ingots on the ship reached 98.99%.

"Where is the hydrochloric acid?" Zhu Ming asked again.

"At first I used salt water, but then I remembered..." Zhu Guoxiang turned his head and looked at the others, "You know, so I changed to hydrochloric acid. It took me more than a year to prepare hydrochloric acid. There are currently two methods. One is to use lead to catalyze the calcination of pyrite, and the other is to use gallstones, which can be directly distilled to obtain sulfuric acid. Then add sulfuric acid and salt to get hydrochloric acid."

Zhu Ming carefully examined the battery: "It seems to have a very simple structure?"

Zhu Guoxiang smiled and said, "As long as we make one battery, we can make countless more. It's countless times easier than developing a sewing machine. Wenzhu, show your brother."

Zhu Wenzhu immediately stepped forward and connected the positive and negative poles with electric wires, and the electromagnet sucked up an iron nail.

Zhu Ming stared at the battery for a long time and suddenly felt a little dazed.

Cotton has not been fully promoted here yet, but Zhu Guoxiang has actually developed the battery.

Are we going to skip the steam age and go directly into the electrical age?

After a long while, Zhu Ming said, "Batteries like yours have limited output power, right?"

"It is indeed very limited," Zhu Guoxiang said. "In fact, I have already made the most primitive hand-cranked generator. But if we want to use it on a large scale, we have to use steam engines to generate electricity first, that is, build a coal-fired power plant. The current shortcoming is actually steelmaking, and we need to improve steelmaking technology as well."

The technology trees that Zhu Guoxiang climbed did not follow the normal trajectory at all, and seemed a bit magical to Zhu Ming.

During the period between the Song Dynasty and the Song Dynasty, steam and electricity were both available. Although they were still in the laboratory stage and were far from being put into large-scale use, what would they look like in a hundred years?
Zhu Ming couldn't imagine it.

Zhu Guoxiang smiled and said, "You have to eat one mouthful at a time and walk one step at a time. I can use this battery first. I plan to invent a wired telegraph next."

"Wired telegraph?" Zhu Ming looked at the other three people and pretended not to understand.

Zhu Guoxiang said: "The three of them and I have already started working on it and are currently designing the code."

Zhu Ming was amazed: "How do you, a farmer, know all this?"

Zhu Guoxiang put his arm around his son's shoulder and whispered, "These are all physics and chemistry knowledge learned in junior high and high school. I know the general principles, and if I lead a large group of people and study them for several years, wouldn't it be too stupid if I still can't figure it out?"

Zhu Ming whispered to his father, "Where's the light bulb?"

Zhu Guoxiang said: "I have tried it, but it doesn't light up. I think I have to evacuate the bulb to make it light up. Anyway, I have tried it many times but it still doesn't light up."

"Are you sure about the wired telegraph?" Zhu Ming asked.

Zhu Guoxiang said: "Wired telegraph is very simple. I had the idea when I was studying hand-cranked generators. But I don't know how to make wireless telegraph. I only know that it uses electromagnetic signals. Do you know how to send and receive electromagnetic signals?"

"I'm a liberal arts student, you're asking too much of me." Zhu Ming reminded.

The father and son hugged each other and talked in a low voice, which made the three young men next to them dumbfounded.

Zhu Wenzhu, in particular, envied the deep relationship between his brother and his father. He had only been so close to his father when he was a child.

Zhu Ming asked: "When can the wired telegraph be developed?" "Within half a year," said Zhu Guoxiang.

Zhu Ming was speechless again. He could hardly imagine what a strange experience it was to convey military orders to Yue Fei at the front line by sending a telegram.

Yue Fei, telegram...

The combination of the two words is outrageous, full of the absurd beauty of steampunk.

The question now is, the steam engine and the battery have been developed, so what should we do next?

After much thought, Zhu Ming felt that it was best to let nature take its course.

Steam engines were first used in government-run factories and mines, such as iron forging and coinage. The use of batteries began with wired telegraphs.

It did not actively promote it among the general public, but it did not prohibit its dissemination among the general public either. At the same time, it used the Imperial Academy to impart relevant knowledge.

Zhu Ming allows the people to learn as much as they want and how fast or slow they learn without interfering.

Zhu Guoxiang and his team can continuously break through the technology, but it is difficult to cover all specific applications. There are smart people in the private sector who will fill in these details and expand the use of steam engines and batteries.

This is a long process.

Zhu Ming could imagine what kind of sensation it would cause among teachers and students when the batteries and electromagnets were brought to the Imperial College.

The two gadgets were simple in structure, and the teachers and students of the Imperial College were able to quickly replicate them in large quantities. Then they would continue to study electricity, using them as novel toys and trying out various uses for them.

After leaving the courtyard, the father and son rode in one car, and the others rode in another.

Zhu Ming sighed: "In the late Northern Song Dynasty, the development of firearms and cannons was a bit outrageous. Now you have steam engines and battery telegraphs. What will China look like in fifty years?"

Zhu Guoxiang had no answer and could only remind him again: "Steel, steelmaking technology must catch up. I really don't understand this, and I don't know where to start if I want to study it."

"Take it slow, don't be in a hurry, we are developing too fast." Zhu Ming said.

Zhu Guoxiang said: "Zhang Congdao is very good, absolutely a genius. He is also unmarried, spends all day studying and researching, and has no interest in being an official. I plan to marry my third daughter to him."

"It's up to you to decide." Zhu Ming didn't care.

……

In the Dali Kingdom, a princess was also getting married at this time.

When Prime Minister Gao Liangcheng's original wife died, Duan Yu married his daughter to him as his successor, further deepening the cooperation between the monarch and his subject.

However, even the combined efforts of the emperor and his ministers could not suppress the Gao family.

Gao Liangcheng was able to intimidate other big families in Dali, but he could not suppress the various forces within the Gao family.

Now, Gao Liangcheng's marriage to the princess has not only failed to calm the dispute, but has intensified the conflict!

Now, a group of descendants of the Duan family and a group of descendants of the Gao family are looking for allies to fight for power.

The descendants of the Duan family all wanted to be the heir to the throne.

All descendants of the Gao family wanted to be the heir of the Gao family.

Duan Yu has already designated the crown prince, but the other sons don't care. Gao Liangcheng is already the head of the Gao family, but the other Gao sons don't care either.

The reason for this complicated situation was that Empress Gao died without leaving any legitimate son.

Now all the princes of Dali, including the crown prince, are born out of wedlock. No matter who is appointed as the crown prince, the other princes will not accept it, and they have the confidence to do so.

That confidence comes from the Gao family.

The father of Prime Minister Gao Liangcheng was a bastard. His grandfather deposed the eldest son and enthroned the youngest son, which caused turmoil in the Gao family. Even Empress Gao was involved at that time.

Now, Empress Gao, who supported Gao Liangcheng, is dead, and the various factions of the Gao family are starting to quarrel again.

The descendants of Gao Taiming, Gao Taiyun, Gao Shengxiang... all of them have their own territories and armies, and none of them submit to Gao Liangcheng. Taking advantage of the fact that Empress Gao died without a legitimate son, they each chose to support a prince, helping the prince fight for the throne and also fighting for the position of the head of the Gao family.

"Your Majesty, no one from the Gao family came to the princess's wedding. They only sent people to deliver some casual gifts." The eunuch who was responsible for sending the princess to her wedding came back to report.

Duan Yu was extremely angry: "No one came?"

The eunuch replied: "No one came to congratulate them in person. They all made excuses. Some said they were sick and had to suppress the rebels. Anyway, no one showed up."

"I understand." Duan Yu took a deep breath and asked the eunuch to leave for the time being.

He had absolutely no idea how to solve it.

He didn't even dare to kill the extra sons, or let other sons besides the crown prince become monks, because each son had a Gao family force supporting him, and if he acted rashly, those people might rebel.

Gao Liangcheng is indeed the strongest among the Gao family, but he cannot withstand the combined strength of the other Gao family members.

After much thought, Duan Yu decided to just ignore it and leave the state affairs completely to Gao Liangcheng.

Once Gao Liangcheng is able to control the situation, Duan Yu plans to abdicate and become a monk.

If Gao Liangcheng cannot control the situation, Duan Yu will continue to be the emperor. He can love whoever he wants. He might even end up killing a few of his sons!

The premise is that no one takes the risk.

Duan Yu even decided not to leave the palace again, so as to avoid encountering assassins on the streets. He did not know how to use the Six Meridians Divine Sword.

(End of this chapter)