Ming Dynasty and New Rome and Infinite Magic Machine

Chapter 1

It was the 4th year of Shaoping in the Ming Dynasty, the Victorian era in Rome.The Qing Dynasty did not exist, Napoleon did not exist, and the British Empire on which the sun never set did not exist.

Ming and Rome, two ancient empires united in the distant past, ruled the world unstoppably.For the people, this is a peaceful and prosperous age of "rejoicing with swallows, getting drunk and full".As far as the country is concerned, this is a peaceful world where 'the country has no soldiers, and the four sides have the same'.

The two sides have the Great Wall running through the continent as a hard dividing line in the Old World.But in the New World, the dividing line between the two sides is not so clear.

Between the San Francisco Bay Area of ​​Ming Dynasty and the Great Lakes Area of ​​Rome, there is a long neutral zone, sometimes called the "Great Plain".There are deserts and swamps all over the place, the rain and heat are in different periods, the floods and droughts are irregular, and there are often cold currents that sweep across the continent.

This kind of agricultural hell was not taken seriously in the past pre-industrial era, and only in recent years has a large gathering area with "special" functions such as "Las Vegas".

San Francisco, San Francisco, this is the easternmost metropolis of the Ming Empire.

Because the land was first bathed in sunlight, it was called the "Sunshine State"-America in Roman parlance.

The crimson bridge flies over the dark blue harbour, where Maya, Mexica, and Tawantingsuyu enshrine the "Great Pyramid of the Dragon God", which is bright day and night.What complements the pyramid is the "Golden Gate Building" with a height of 41 floors and 187 meters in the San Francisco Acropolis.

This building, covered with red bricks and covered with blue glazed tiles, is the tallest skyscraper in the entire New World and the residence of the Yangzhou Governor's Mansion.

At the gate of the Acropolis, in Shang's watch shop.Shang Luo sat behind his workbench.

The early summer sun shines in through the floor-to-ceiling windows and shines on the golden brass clock in the store.The golden light diffused on the case of a clock, illuminating the store in a warm yellow.The air is filled with the smell of wood and gear oil, professional and reassuring.

After soaking a cup of tangerine peel water, Shangluo was checking today's work schedule.At a young age, he has already soaked 5 goji berries, and even plans to soak a few slices of Yangzhou ginseng.

"Ah, another day of peace in the world."

Looking back on his 16 years of life as a craftsman so far, he is very satisfied.Compared with the previous life, there is no overtime work, no staying up late, no attendance, and no performance here.As long as you complete the errands assigned by the court on time, you can get a stable salary.

The most important thing is that the court is very rich, and the court pays, and the court pays a lot.So much so that even the allowance for business trips to Yangzhou, I have a considerable income of up to 52 taels a month, and I can buy a car.

Apart from the fact that he had to go to Yangzhou on an official business trip with his father, Lao Shang, a few years ago, he had nothing to dissatisfy with.

Shangluo himself does not actually need to work.Craftsman households are counted according to their household registration, and one person per household is enough.Moreover, it is not the turn of 16-year-old minors to run errands, at least 20 years old is considered an adult - 52 taels per month is not available to everyone, this is the price of old businessmen.

Two months ago, old Shang took the nearest military plane and left after receiving a phone call, leaving Shangluo alone.Now Shangluo's main job is to look after the store and do some daily maintenance.

As an outstanding student of Nanjing Wutaishan Training Institute, his skills are quite good.If he did not come to Yangzhou for business trips in the past four years, but continued to study in the training center with the children of other craftsmen until he graduated at the age of 16, most of his crafts would be able to directly enter the royal craftsman's supervisor, and the craftsman's identity of the old merchant would also be hung there. .

"They will be graduating soon." Shang Luo looked at the ceiling, where the light was still on. It was a precision light bulb made by Nanjing Liulichang, which had never broken once in four years.

The training center is a place to train artisans who can make precision light bulbs, and it is also a public school specially set up for the heirs of artisans. Correspondingly, military households also have training centers.This is very important, because the identities of military households and artisan households are now limited to themselves and cannot be passed on to their heirs, and the heirs have to pass other examinations to become new military households and artisan households.

The Wutai Mountain Training Institute in Shangluo is more special. It trains military craftsmen, and it is a brother school with the Wutai Mountain Training Institute next door, which trains the Imperial Army.Shangluo's father also graduated from there, and is now sent to the San Francisco guard on a business trip. This watch shop, which earns extra money on weekdays, also opened at the gate of the guard.

Stores that earn extra money can only be opened at the gate of the Acropolis.Because the Acropolis of San Francisco can only be entered by people from "Kinai", that is, the two capitals and the thirteen provinces.It is impossible to do business in it, otherwise he has to apply for a temporary number plate for each customer who makes an appointment.

"Well, I'm almost drunk." He glanced at the work log, and he arranged for himself the work of dismantling and cleaning the clock, starting work at 12 noon, and working until closing at 6 pm.

That's how he works.For some reason, since he went to the Mount Wutai Teaching Institute, he always felt that he had an unusual "inspiration" when manipulating mechanical parts.As long as he is familiar with each part, the structure of the whole machine will be understood suddenly, and the principles of operation from the outside to the inside seem to be exhausted.

Just like Pao Ding can follow the law of heaven, he does not have a complete cow in his eyes, only the structure of bones and muscles of a cow.It's like an oil seller can pour a gourd oil from the hole of a copper coin without wetting the copper coin-no one else, but he is familiar with it.

It's just that he seems to be very familiar with it very quickly, as if the principle of the operation of these clocks is already in his heart, and he can be familiar with it as soon as he starts to use it.This is also the reason why Shangluo was considered to be able to enter the Jiangzuojian at that time. He was indeed a genius.

After coming to Yangzhou, Shangluo did not continue to attend classes in the teaching center.But for some reason, he could feel that his craft was becoming more and more sophisticated, and he could even vaguely sense that something that could be called "Qi Li" was circulating among the gears.

This may be Gewu, although it is not Gezhu.Compared with the boring grid of bamboo, grid alarm clock is quite fun.

At 12 o'clock, the bells in the watch shop chimed in unison.Mechanical gears, cycloidal wheels, oscillators, brass movement running in a brass case, the simple and harmonious movement of mechanical parts played Beethoven's "Ode to Joy".

He put the tangerine peel water aside, ready to turn on the desk lamp on the table to supplement the light.The warm yellow light in the room is a bit dim, and I still have to increase the brightness when working.

Shang Luo put his hand on the lamp switch.

Shangluo flipped the switch.

There was a "bang", the desk lamp shattered, and the light bulb above his head burst. The Seiko light bulb that has not broken for 4 years is now powdered, and the glass shards have fallen into the teacup.

"My boy, what magical skill have I practiced?" He looked at his hand in disbelief.For a long time, he felt that his "inspiration" might be a sense of aura, and he could feel the aura.

"If it's spiritual energy, then there should be a spiritual root? Then what kind of spiritual root am I? Is it the thunder root that blew up the light bulb?"

Suddenly, the phone rang.Shang Luo, who was planning to repair Lei Fa, heard the call and could only get up to answer it.

After 10 seconds, he put down the phone.

"What's the matter? It made me think that I could cultivate immortality. It turned out that there was an accident in the power plant. I felt strange. It was less than 10 years since the invention of the generator. How could the civilian power grid be used so quickly? Fortunately, it doesn't cost money. Otherwise, the electricity will be cut off at two ends for three days, and I will not pay the electricity bill."

This outage was even more egregious than the previous ones.The previous few times it was just a sudden turn off of the lights, this time even the light bulbs blew up.Who knows what will blow up next time.

But the phone call wasn't an apology.The call was to tell him to go back to rescue the scene - that's why the store didn't open too far from the Acropolis.If there is an urgent matter like now, the old businessman can rush over immediately.Although the old Shang was not there, he said that he would come to invite someone no matter what, and Shang Luo was going to find a reason to prevaricate after the meeting.

After a while, an off-road military vehicle stopped at the door.

"Is Mr. Shang there?"

"He's gone out." Shang Luo poked his head out from the inner room.He stayed away from the workbench, lest anyone see that he could really work.

"You are... ah, you are Mr. Xiaoshang, right? The one who is very famous in Wutai Mountain Military Artisan Training Institute. I heard that you have an exquisite heart with seven apertures?"

"Well, someone said so."

That was a childhood thing.

Shang Luo remembers that sometimes he was fascinated by "getting things", and he still muttered words in his mouth. The teacher joked that he was "Little Bigan", because Bigan with "seven orifices and exquisite heart" can also communicate with everything in the world.

If Bigan had an alarm clock at that time, and he could have a good relationship with the alarm clock by virtue of the talent of "Seven Apertures and Exquisite Heart", then he could be an eighth-level fitter at least.

"That's right, come with me quickly. If you can repair it, you can make a good note in your resume. We don't understand how that thing works, and the old military craftsman in the guard is not too sure about it." I understand. The generator is a new thing, only available in recent years."

Shangluo wanted to shirk at first, but the guard came in and dragged him to the car: "It's okay! Just go and have a look! Take a look! If you can't fix it, don't blame you!"

With that said, he pushed Shangluo to the back seat.The off-road vehicle turned around and drove back to the Acropolis, all the way to the power plant in the Craftsman District.

The road was unimpeded, and the car drove to the gate of the computer room.The door was open, and the roar of these machines made his eardrums ache as soon as he got out of the car.The steam engine was operating normally, but the lights in the factory building were also off.

It was a tower-type high-speed steam engine that had just been invented less than two years ago. It could output strong power at a high speed of 450 revolutions per minute.Every cylinder and piston is crafted by professionals, even though there are less than 200 units in the entire empire.The boiler installed in the neighboring workshop is also high-end.

This power plant is the first batch of power plants built in the world, and it is a power plant in the true sense-before that, electric lights have actually been widely used.But like those steam engines in factories, buildings that use electric lights will also have their own small steam engine with a generator to generate electricity.

The power plant here in San Francisco has an experimental nature, because it is experimenting with two new technologies of "grid" and "long-distance power transmission".With the power grid, the power supply can be concentrated in the power plant, and the place where the electricity is used does not need to provide its own generator.This is a revolutionary new technology, and new technology will naturally cause new problems.

"So the question is the big guy?"

"No, it's small." Weisuobing pointed to a much smaller machine next to the connecting rod of the steam engine.The red and blue cables run from above all the way to the outside.That is the generator. At this time, the generator is forbidden to move, and a yellow paper spell is pasted on it.

The three old fitters were standing in front of the generator with their backs facing the gate, clasped their hands together and murmured.On the red bench in front of him were three cans of Wangzai Milk in green cans, and three cigarettes.The three of them bowed to the red bench while chanting something.

(End of this chapter)