Kai Fu Han

Chapter 450 Steam Ironclad

The distance of material transportation determines the distance that the national army can travel normally, and also limits the maximum scope that the national power can cover.

The current social system of the Xinghan League is based on the two main advantages of the golden eagle messenger and loyal warriors. If Zhao State copies it, it will only cause a very serious redundancy of officials, and Zhao State's finances cannot support so many people who eat official food. Officials.

"I feel that if what they learned is borrowed and absorbed by Zhao State, it will make Zhao State stronger in disguise, which will always be detrimental to us." Xu Zhong explained.

"In fact, it doesn't matter. No matter how much Zhao Guo studies, they can't keep up with our progress." Liu Xinqi did not blindly deny Xu Zhong's work: "But since you mentioned this, I will take the time to meet them. Let’s see if we can persuade them to stay in Dengzhou voluntarily.”

With Liu Xinqi's current status, there is no need to treat Li Gang and Li Gang as corporals.

"Okay, I'll go see them first and agree on a time to meet."

...

The time was set quickly, and Xu Zhong came over to report the next day. Li Gang replied that it could be done at any time.

Liu Xinqi immediately understood that Li Gang and Li Gang were waiting for him in Penglai.

"Yesterday Liu Zhimu invited me to see the renovated Lushan Mountain. Let's arrange for Li Gang and others to go to Baishiwan with me." Liu Xinqi arranged.

"Yes!"

Squeezing out time to meet the two of them alone, I don't know how long the conversation will last, and it's a waste of time.We will go to Baishi Bend tomorrow, just in time to take advantage of the rush.

On July 24, just after midnight, Liu Xinqi went to the League Headquarters for a brief morning meeting, and then joined Liu Zhimu and went out together.

"This is a four-wheeled carriage specially built for you." Liu Zhimu introduced with a smile on his face.

Liu Xinqi looked up and saw a huge four-wheel carriage parked outside the door. The power source was not animal power, but a small steam engine.

"This! Success?"

"It's a success. Although this machine needs to be built entirely by hand, the technology has been mastered and mass production can be done soon." Liu Zhimu said proudly.

"What's the speed?" Liu Xinqi circled around the steam engine. The size of this machine was equivalent to a later Chery QQ. It was so exquisite that people could stand on it to operate the boiler.

"It can pull your customized carriage up to sixty miles per hour." Liu Zhimu introduced: "Although it is not faster than horses, the power is much greater than horses. After testing, this steam engine operates at full power. That’s the power of six horses.”

Horsepower is a unit commonly used to measure power in later generations of engineering technology. When Liu Xinqi previously suggested that Liu Zhimu test and quantify the power of steam engines, he also suggested comparing the power of horses.

The test method was not complicated. Liu Zhimu selected a hundred strong war horses and asked them to pull a weight of one hundred kilograms on the floor under the same conditions to test how far they could pull the weight in one breath.

Finally, remove five sets of particularly high data, and then remove five sets of particularly low data. The average of the ninety sets of data is one horsepower.

Liu Zhimu controlled the average value within three feet by adjusting the roughness of the base plate (iron plate) and the surface roughness of the weight (iron block).

Then the power of Liu Xinqi's carriage steam engine was tested through the determined base plate and heavy objects, and the final result was six horsepower. "Very good, you really surprised me." Liu Xinqi praised.I thought that it would take another year or two for a land-based steam engine to be truly usable, but I didn't expect it to be developed so quickly. It seems that I still underestimated the role of soldiers in promoting scientific research.

"What reward do you want?" Liu Xinqi asked.

"Of course it's a fairy talisman." Liu Zhimu replied directly without even thinking about it.

"No problem, I'll give you 440 six second- and third-tier talismans. This is my bottom of the box recently." Liu Xinqi took out all the remaining two-star and three-star military general cards from before, and handed them to Liu Zhimu.

"Thank you, ally."

"Come on, let me try your steam carriage." After saying that, he went straight into the carriage.

This custom-made carriage was very large, estimated to be four meters long and two meters wide, with at least seven square meters of space inside. Liu Zhimu also got into the carriage.

The decoration in the carriage was not luxurious, but simple and practical. Liu Xinqi felt very comfortable sitting on the seat covered with cool bamboo cushions.

After the two got on the car, the coachman outside started to operate the steam engine. When the carriage came over, the steam engine had already been started. Now it only needed to increase the firepower and connect the power to start it.

Soon, in less than five breaths, the steam carriage was started and ran very smoothly. It seemed that the shock absorption of the carriage was very good.

"In fact, you don't have to put heavy objects on the ground and pull them to test horsepower. The effect of hanging them in the air and pulling them upward is the same, and there are fewer influencing factors." Liu Xinqi suggested.

"Yes, why didn't I think of that? The earth's gravity is fixed. You only need to make a pulley block to measure horsepower very easily. It is more accurate than my method." Liu Zhimu patted his head.

In the past, horses pulled things on the ground, and Liu Zhimu's thinking was limited by this common sense.

"This still needs to re-measure the standard of one horsepower. Let's take our time. Let's talk about the Lushan. Are there any major flaws?" Liu Xinqi asked.

Liu Zhimu recovered his thoughts and began to introduce to Liu Xinqi: "It went smoothly to install two sets of steam engines on the Lushan. After our improved steam engines, the horsepower increased tenfold to 120 horsepower without much change in volume. Two sets of steam engines are [-] Horsepower.”

"During normal navigation, one set of steam engines operates and one set is on standby. During combat, the two sets of steam engines can operate at the same time, and the power can be combined into one and output to the propeller. The speed of the battleship will be greatly increased."

"This is amazing." Liu Xinqi praised.

Liu Zhimu instinctively introduced the success of Lushan Hao's transformation, and then realized that what Liu Xinqi just asked was a flaw, and continued to add: "After the Lushan's power was greatly increased, we tried high-power sailing, but found that the wooden hull was not It cannot withstand the powerful power output of two sets of steam engines operating at full capacity."

"After realizing that the power was overflowing, someone thought of the iron ship you mentioned before, and suggested putting a layer of iron armor on the Lushan to increase the weight of the battleship. This way, the steam engine power can be fully utilized and the battleship's defense can be greatly improved. .”

"In this way, after more than two months of transformation, the Lushan became the current 'steam ironclad'"

"Where are the flaws?" Liu Xinqi asked again.

"The battleship's load capacity has been reduced by half, and its maximum sailing speed has been reduced by [-]% compared to before without armor. The most serious flaw is that the armor is particularly easy to corrode in seawater, and even painting can only slow it down slightly." Liu Zhimu replied.

(End of this chapter)