Great Qing Dynasty talker

Chapter 498 Death of an Idealist

William was stunned.
blurted out:

"Your Majesty, do you mean the Newcomen engine?"

"No, no, it's too inefficient."

"Your Majesty is wise. A hundred years ago, Scottish coal mines used animal power to drain the endless water in the mines. A mine needed at least 300 horses. Later, with the Newcomen steam engine, the water-lifting efficiency was about equivalent to that of 5 horses."

Li Yu remained silent and stared into his eyes:

"What happens next?"

William's tailbone suddenly felt numb and he felt like he was standing at the crossroads of fate.

He organized his words.

Said:

"The inventor Mr. Watt has been working hard to improve the Newcomen steam engine. With the help of well-meaning people, he has made some breakthroughs. It is said that his latest improved machine has been widely used in coal mines, and each machine is as efficient as 50 horses."

……

Li Yu nodded:

“A big breakthrough!”

"Yes. However, the sales volume was limited and the use was single, so the kind sponsor, Mr. Roebuck, went bankrupt again."

The atmosphere was somewhat silent~
The road of scientific research is full of the smell of money.

once,

Someone on the Internet joked:

"The billionaire's son is a scientific congenital saint."

"A chemistry undergraduate student who is not very talented but is interested in pursuing a doctorate is the best candidate in the doctoral supervisor's eyes."

because,

Scientific research is really expensive.

For example,

Scientific research is like crossing a swamp, you need to keep trying and making mistakes.

After stepping on all the blind spots, the remaining road will most likely be the correct route.

……

The above refers specifically to scientific research.

Theory is another matter.

Major breakthroughs in theoretical systems depend entirely on talented people.

For example, Newton, Gauss, Einstein and the like~
The summary is,

The flowers of scientific research generally bloom in fertile soil.

But the flowers of theory will bloom randomly in fertile and unconstrained soil~
……

"What do you think is the biggest problem with Watt's improved steam engine?"

“It cannot be used as a power machine.”

William's words hit the nail on the head.

"Could you explain it more clearly?"

"The steam engine is constantly doing reciprocating motion, without displacement. From an industrial perspective, such power does not make much sense. Industry needs displacement power, but the simple reciprocating motion of the steam engine obviously cannot provide it."

"Is this Mr. Watt discouraged?"

"Yes. Two years ago, it was said that he was ready to move his family to St. Petersburg and live out the rest of his life in the snowy wilderness. Before he left, he was stopped by another kind-hearted businessman named Bolton. He believed that the steam engine had great potential, so he was willing to provide funds to support Watt's continued research."

Li Yu smiled:

"Is there hope?"

……

"Maybe in five years, maybe in ten years, maybe even until his death, he won't be able to produce a mature steam engine for industrial use. Who knows?"

William's eyes showed compassion.

As a colleague,

He knew too well how difficult the road of science was, and that it was normal to spend a lifetime in obscurity.

Investors are extremely valuable in the scientific journey.

In the Qing Dynasty,
Angel investors are often referred to as “big fools”.

Those who buy fields and hoard land and collect rent from home are the "smart people".

……

Li Yu was secretly delighted.

Crank drive - converts the linear motion of the steam engine piston into rotational motion, thereby driving machinery such as wheels.

Cylinder double linkage - further improves the operating frequency.

It seems,
Watt had to wander around in the maze for several years before he suddenly realized these two technologies.

The Wu State's steam industry has a good chance of taking the lead and thus gaining a first-mover advantage!
in case,

If the two countries were not too far apart,

Li Yu planned to send people to set fire to Watt's house. The third investor, Bolton, would definitely suffer from bad luck and go bankrupt at the speed of light.

As everyone knows,

Your Majesty is never bound by traditional moral concepts in what he does.

……

"Mr. Watt's perseverance is admirable! William, how does your talent compare to his?"

William thought seriously for a while.
Answer:

"I'm not as good as him!"

"Why?"

"I was born into a wealthy middle-class family in London and received the most systematic and complete education since childhood, so I was able to study mechanics at Oxford University."

"Well, the courtiers praised your Calculus course for being very organized."

"Thanks to Sir Newton!"

Li Yu was very interested and asked:
"I remember that you are also the vice president of the London Mechanics Association?"

"The association has 21 vice presidents, 15 presidents and more than 100 members. As vice president, I need to voluntarily pay a membership fee of £10 every year."

at this time,

The annual income of a middle-class family in London is around 50 to 100 pounds.

So, the 10 pounds membership fee is quite substantial.

……

William's face was full of frankness: Your Majesty, do you think I am sincere?
Li Yu couldn't help laughing.

I think the person in front of me is also a wonderful person and can be used!

Then he put away his smile,
asked:

"I want to set up an overseas academy of sciences under the Royal Academy of Sciences to recruit European scientists. Do you have any suggestions?"

"Five days! After five days, I will come up with a complete plan."

……

Li Yu still didn't forget to make plans.

Soberly:

"I think you should achieve greater success. It may be difficult to match Sir Newton, but it is not a problem to surpass Leibniz."

William was overjoyed.

He knelt humbly and accepted Li Yu's military boots in person.

This represents surrender.

He is so humble.
Because a clipper docked at Jinshanwei brought the latest news from London.

Deputy Envoy Staunton was conferred the title of Viscount by His Majesty the King for his contributions to the development of the region.

The other key members of the mission also received extremely dazzling promotions.

Even Macartney, who unfortunately died, received extremely rare posthumous honors, and his descendants were awarded hereditary noble titles.

……

The 18th century was the era of aristocracy.

The king was very cautious about ennobling nobles, even to the point of being stingy.

His contribution to the development of the East is too brilliant.

Therefore,
Kings and parliaments are so generous.

Translator Hong Renhui was appointed as the chief steward of the East India Company.

Although he has no noble title, he is very fat.

With the income from five years’ service, he could buy land in the suburbs of London and build a castle, where he could live a life of luxury and entertainment until he died.

Two captains in charge of the escort also received promotions, one became an important official in the Navy Department, and the other returned to Southeast Asia to become an important official in the colony.

All this shows that

The King and Downing Street attach great importance to diplomacy with the East~
Even a genius like Newton actively sought progress in his scientific research and mingled with the king.
I,
William,

Why shouldn't an ordinary talent from an overseas colony who relies on a 10-pound membership fee to maintain his title of vice president try his best to get in?
……

People have a misunderstanding about the West.

I thought that being a scientist or a wealthy businessman was the only career achievements that Europeans pursued.

Actually,
should be:
Bureaucrats, wealthy businessmen, and scientists.

These three are not clearly defined and most of the time they can cross boundaries.

Hundreds of years later, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai

The career concepts of ordinary people are similar. It is generally believed that these three items are the pinnacle of personal career achievements, and there is no particular order of ranking.

People in other regions also recognize these three items, but think that the above rankings cannot be reversed~
There are also a few areas where the concepts are quite different.

E.g,

In Zhili region, only the first item is recognized.

Fujian (South) and Guangdong (East and South) only recognize the second one. …

Put aside narrow and boring ideas and look at regional cultural differences from a high-level perspective.

It is not difficult for us to come up with a bold idea.

There is no difference among people themselves.

But people need to adapt to the environment they live in, so their behavior and thoughts gradually change.

This process of change takes hundreds of years.

finally,
The changes will be engraved in the genes and profoundly affect the vast majority of future generations.

This can support an argument:
Geography determines economy, economy determines culture, and culture is indirectly reflected in all aspects.
It’s not that people from Xuzhou are tough, but that people born in a “land of four wars” have to be tough.

It’s not that Fujianese people love to immigrate, but that those who were born in a coastal province with “nine parts mountains and one part farmland” can only go to sea.

It is not that the Spanish and Portuguese are born with a love of sailing, but that living in the "Iberian Peninsula where there is no flat land" they can only turn their eyes to the ocean.

Similarly,

It can explain the personality traits and cultural characteristics of many regions.

No matter how history develops,

Perhaps geography is the root of it.

……

Li Yu, who is good at analysis, was so smart that he saw through what William wanted at a glance.

In a few days,

The Director of Maritime Trade came to the door and said that Wu Guo hoped to do some small business directly with London.

One or two luxury goods
William can take the Wu merchant ship and return to his homeland. As a reward, he will receive 2% of the profit of this trade.

The remaining profit,

Will be used to recruit talents,
No restrictions on nationality, age or gender, covering mathematics, physics, chemistry, astronomy, military, literature and philosophy~
……

Merchant ships will fly the royal flag of Wu~
Half of the sailors for the long voyage came from the Wu navy, and the other half were sailors hired from the East India Company.

Anyway,

Take advantage of the current friendly situation and extend your reach to Europe as quickly as possible.

This is a warm-up for Li Yu’s cultural strategy as part of his foreign strategy - expanding influence.

A shipload of luxury goods bearing the royal name was enough to shock the entire European upper class.

Then, taking advantage of this favorable wind, all the profits were used to promote the Wu State and recruit talents, setting off another gold rush in the East.

Don't underestimate cultural influence.

If infiltrated properly, it can be like an invincible fleet!
However, the prerequisite is that the military strength is strong enough.

……

The imperial carriage returned to Suzhou from Songjiang by land.

Li Yu wanted to take the opportunity to inspect the road conditions and water conservancy progress.

now,

Cement roads basically cover the official roads between Hangzhou - Huzhou - Songjiang - Suzhou - Jiangning.

The response was very good~
The output of Changxing Cement Plant and Yingde Cement Plant, these two directly affiliated factories, is in short supply!
now,

Li Yu hopes that the steam engine can increase production capacity!
Relying solely on manual labor, we have reached the bottleneck of production capacity.

Cement is a typical raw material intensive industry and the site selection is very particular.

In addition to raw materials, Changxing and Yingde have one thing in common: developed water transportation!
Even after 500 years,
Water transport remains the lifeline of heavy industry.

Heavy industries that are not adjacent to shipping routes are bound to have extremely high costs and incur losses.

……

An official from the Labor Department came to report cautiously:
"Your Majesty~"

"Director Wang is seriously ill and is afraid that his illness will harm his body, so he asked me to come and report on his behalf."

Li Yu was stunned.
Asked further:
"What disease is it? How long has it been?"

"I have typhoid fever combined with malaria. It's been three months. I've consulted many doctors and taken many medicines. My condition has been getting better and worse. It suddenly got worse in the past few days when the temperature dropped."

"What about people?"

"Still at the temporary office at the river excavation site."

……

"Asshole!" Li Yu cursed, "Prepare the horses, and you lead the way."

The director who was reporting on behalf of the emperor was startled and quickly got into the carriage driven by the guards and led the way.

He also didn't know who His Majesty was insulting when he called him "bastard"?

Director?

Or doctor?

I'm still annoyed that I didn't know about it for 3 months.

The imperial guards were guarding from the front and back, wearing bright armor.

Li Yu was a good rider because he never put down his horse and would ride whenever he had the chance.

Wearing a woolen coat can protect you from the wind and keep you warm.

The river digging site was bustling with noise.

Countless laborers have been digging with their hands and shoulders, and the project has lasted for more than half a year.

A large group of cavalrymen were approaching, with flags embroidered with golden dragons.

Even the dumbest common people knew that the emperor had arrived, and they quickly avoided the opportunity to kneel down.

……

Inside the makeshift office building, a strong smell of traditional Chinese medicine hits the nose.

Li Yu took a deep breath and strode into the board room.

The first impression was that it was simple, with a strong wind outside and a light breeze inside.

To be honest,

It is definitely false that people don’t care about typhoid and malaria. The germs are 100 times more terrifying than those of the Qing army.

but,

Sometimes, people have no choice.

Wang Liu, lying on the sickbed, had a sallow complexion, protruding cheekbones and sunken eye sockets.

Seeing Li Yu coming in,
Struggling to pull the cotton towel in place:
"Your Majesty, you shouldn't have come~ cough cough cough."

Li Yu did not respond. He took a small stool from the guard and sat down, keeping a distance of 3 feet from Wang Liu.

I still smelled a faint stench in the house.

"Why didn't you retreat to your residence to recuperate? Why didn't you tell me?"

……

Wang Liu panted for a while.
Tears:
"Your Majesty proposed digging a river for the benefit of the country. All the ministers opposed it, but I was the only one who agreed. I dug for half a year and found that digging a river was difficult, difficult, too difficult~"

There was another round of wheezing.
Since Li Yu started his army, he has seen too many soldiers on the verge of death.
Before a person dies, he or she will be enveloped by the aura of death.

It's hard to describe, but anyone who has seen it will understand.

Idealist Wang Liu had a dead look on his face.

……

"Your Majesty, I have spent 6 million taels on the first-level river network with 8 horizontal and 21 vertical channels and 200 branches in Suzhou and Songshan alone, and it is not yet completed."

"If we keep digging, the national treasury will be ruined, and the country will be ruined too."

Wang Liu excitedly stretched out his right hand, with his skinny fingers spread out.

"Your Majesty, stop digging the river! Reinstate corvée labor!"

"I was wrong!"

"I don't have the face to go back home to recuperate. I thought too simply before, I~"

The officer next to him also started crying and fell to his knees:
"Your Majesty, the director himself also follows the laborers to dig the river every day. The muddy water is cold, so~"

Li Yu nodded slowly.

He stretched out his right hand and held Wang Liu's trembling hand.

"Everyone, get out."

inside the house,

Only the king and his ministers were left, and there was a faint whistle from the leaking wooden board.

……

"you're not wrong!"

“There is nothing wrong with idealism. What is wrong is having ideals without the means to meet the reality.”

Wang Liu's whole body was shaking violently, and it was hard to tell whether it was because he was terminally ill or because he was too excited.

"Water conservancy is the foundation of agriculture!" Li Yu's voice was a little fanatical, "I will also dig a channel for the Huai River to flow into the sea, and turn the thousand-mile Yellow River flood area into a granary."

"When the time comes, I will move your tomb to the place where the Huai River meets the sea, so that you can watch the waters of the Yellow River and the Huai River rush into the sea."

Wang Liu was panting like a dying ox.

But, I laughed~
He looked relaxed, as if he was completely relieved.

……

Looking at this minister who has already entered the Temple of Death~
Li Yu slowly let go:

"You, go with peace of mind!"

The trembling hands gradually became still.

Wang Liu's last bit of life was blown away by the wind.

Li Yu stood up.

In a voice that only I could hear, I muttered to myself:
"Digging a river is a great achievement for future generations, but it is difficult in the present."

"No one understands the difficulties here better than me. If we want to open up the Wanli River, it will either be a mountain of gold and a sea of ​​silver, or a mountain of corpses and a sea of ​​blood~"

(End of this chapter)