Ming Zuo

Chapter 234 Almighty God
"Everyone is optimistic, steam actually contains huge energy."

In Zuozhuang Academy, Zuo Menggeng demonstrated the function of steam to the students.

With the increase of the population, the number of students in Zuozhuang Academy has increased to more than [-], just like a small school.

As long as Zuo Menggeng is in Zuozhuang, he will definitely spare time to teach.

There are some things that only he can teach.

Even if he is not proficient, he can broaden children's vision and thinking.

Such as steam, such as electricity, such as aerodynamics, etc., he is teaching these children little by little.

As the children grow up, some people will inevitably devote themselves to the study of related subjects because of their interests.

It was as if he sowed the seed and waited for the harvest.

The reason why he gave the concept of the steam engine to the children this time was not on his own initiative, but was forced by the enthusiasm of the craftsmen.

For the first time, Zuo Menggeng felt why the military is the driving force behind the development of science and technology.

In the process of developing the heavy artillery this time, a problem that everyone did not expect appeared.

That is because of the increase in caliber, the bore of the barrel cannot be bored.

If it is cast like a red cannon and fires round shells, the requirements inside the barrel will not be so high.

However, the requirement of the new army is to be able to launch long-barreled explosive bombs, and the technical requirements for the inner wall of the gun barrel have reached a very strict level.

The craftsmen came together to brainstorm and come up with a vision.

That is to build a lathe, and then install a connecting rod on it, and drive the boring tool to bore the inner wall of the barrel through the connecting rod.

After the lathe was out, it worked very poorly.

Because the connecting rod cannot maintain stability during the forward and backward movement, and the speed of rotation cannot be fast.Once it is too fast, the connecting rod will melt due to high temperature.

At that time, everyone asserted that the barrel required by the military was impossible.

A craftsman named Luo Hong refused to admit defeat. He spent three consecutive months in the workshop and thought of a way to completely solve the problem of unstable connecting rod and high temperature, and make the gun barrel meet the requirements of the military department in one fell swoop.

After Zuo Menggeng went to see it, he was dumbfounded on the spot.

Do you want to be so powerful?
Even the balls and bars were made out.

Yes, Luo Hong's solution is to replace the original trapezoidal linkage with balls.In this way, the connecting bar is tightly engaged with the machine during the movement, and there is no problem of shaking.

Because of this invention, Luo Hong was announced on the spot to be promoted to a master craftsman, and he was also awarded a grand prize of five hundred taels of silver.

But the appearance of the ball connecting rod has brought a whole new problem.

That is the current water conservancy drive, which cannot fully exert the performance of the ball connecting rod.Craftsmen urgently need a larger and more stable output power to complete the upgrade of the foundry industry.

When the question came to Zuo Menggeng, he immediately thought of the steam engine.

When it comes to steam engines, people naturally think of Watt.But in fact, the history of the idea of ​​steam application will be earlier.

As early as the first century AD, the ancient Greek mathematician Hero of Alexandria invented the steam ball, which is recognized as the earliest prototype of the steam engine.

Zuo Menggeng mentioned this to Deng Yuhan, and Deng Yuhan also became interested and began to develop a pressure cooker.

Yes, the source of the invention of the steam engine is the pressure cooker.

European scientists in this era have known the relationship between air pressure and boiling point.But the pressure cooker had to wait more than [-] years before the invention of the French doctor Papin.

Deng Yuhan took over the work and formed a research group with Zhang Lingxi, Hou Fangyu and other young people, and Xu Ruolin and Zuo Xianmei provided calculation assistance for them.

But the problem is that Xu Ruolin has translation work and Zuo Xianmei has financial work, so the help they can provide is very limited, which seriously affects the progress.

Zuo Menggeng had nothing to do with this.

And he knows that even if Deng Yuhan and others work smoothly, the steam engine will not be born in a short time.

The steam engine belongs to the kind of work with simple theory but high technical requirements.

It is easy to make a steam engine with no practical effect, but it will take a very long way to put the steam engine into practical use.

In fact, this is also due to the insufficient memory Zuo Menggeng inherited.

He didn't know that it was precisely because of the application of connecting rods on machine tools that Watt had a cylinder that could build a steam engine.

If he knew, he wouldn't have to start cultivating relevant talents from the very basics.

Seeing the wooden cork of the spout fly out more than ten meters under the pressure of the steam, the students were so amazed that they went up one after another to test one by one.

When Zuo Menggeng raised his head, he saw a large group of people approaching in the distance, and said to the students: "Be careful when you experiment, don't get burned. Also, you are not allowed to play with young children, you know?" ?”

Those who were taught steam knowledge by him were all over fifteen years old.It's too small, it's impossible to grasp such a dangerous thing.

He walked out of the school, just as the group of people also arrived in front of him.

Hey, good guy, looking at the past, basically all of them have white skin and blue eyes.

Deng Yuhan happily introduced Zuo Menggeng.

"Left, this is priest Luo Yagu. He was ordered to send these people to Dengzhou to help Sun Jiaoyou."

Zuo Menggeng understood.

These Europeans should have been recruited by Sun Yuanhua to help him cast artillery.

Hey, he went that way after all.

Zuo Menggeng has already obtained the information.

Sun Yuanhua was still the same as in his previous life. He incorporated the Geng Zhongming Department of Dongjiang Town and arranged it to Dengzhou.

Of course, Sun Yuanhua also has difficulties.

On the one hand, Sun Chengzong's order had to be obeyed; on the other hand, Denglai's military strength was seriously insufficient. After the defeat of Li Mengming and Dong Dacheng, there were still small groups of Bailian sect rebels fleeing in Denglai.

There are only so many people in Zhang Keda's department, so they can only hold on to Dengzhou.In order to supplement the troops, the introduction of Dongjiang Town is also a helpless move.

A missionary who was nearly forty years old came forward and was very close to Zuo Menggeng.

"Left, I have heard about your deeds a long time ago. It is good news for this ancient land to have a knowledgeable and wise person like you in the East."

Zuo Menggeng didn't know much about Luo Yagu.

"Mr. Luo, welcome to Shandong. If you need anything here, just tell me."

His enthusiasm made the missionaries very happy.

After Luo Yagu's introduction, Zuo Menggeng knew that there were both missionaries and Portuguese mercenaries in this group.

There were twenty-seven people in this group, including artillery experts and military instructors, which showed Sun Yuanhua's ambition.

Unfortunately, as a technical talent, Sun Yuanhua is too poor politically.

However, among these Westerners, there was a man from Ming Dynasty, which surprised Zuo Menggeng.

"You... aren't you that Mr. Wei's disciple?"

The person Zuo Menggeng saw was the scribe who followed Wei Wenkui to declare war in Xu Guangqi's mansion that day.

Strange, why did Wei Wenkui's disciples, who were very hostile to Westerners, get mixed up with Western missionaries?
Mentioning this, the man was a little ashamed.

"Xue Fengzuo from Yidu, thank Zuo Canzuo for saving Sangzi."

Although under the city of Yidu, Zuo Menggeng and King Heng collapsed.But no matter what, the appearance of the new army prevented Yidu from suffering from the Bailian Sect, and the local people were very grateful to Zuo Menggeng.

"I don't know about Zuo Zuo. The dispute between the teacher and Xuan Hugong has ended. The Western calendar is indeed unique. The teacher suffered this setback and has already returned to his hometown to study it with great concentration. I want to know the truth, so I learned from the priest Luo Yagu."

He is actually an idiot with such a pure attitude towards learning.

However, Zuo Menggeng still agrees with this spirit.

"The way of learning is nothing more than seeking truth and being pragmatic. Mr. Xue has the essence, and he will be able to achieve great success in the future."

This belongs to Zuo Menggeng's ignorance.

In fact, this Xue Fengzuo was extremely knowledgeable, and he was definitely second to none in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, and he was a real scholar.

This person was born in a scholarly family, and he learned from his family, and later learned traditional Chinese methods of astronomy and calendar calculations.

During the reign of Tianqi, he traveled far to Dingxing County, Baoding Prefecture, and learned the theory of "Lu Wang" from Lu Jishan and Sun Qifeng.

After that, he learned Chinese calendar from Wei Wenkui, and then from Italian missionary Luo Yagu.

That’s not to mention, in the future he will learn from the Polish man Muniger and master Copernicus’s “On the Movement of Celestial Spheres”.

Xue Fengzuo learned from others' strengths and got the essence of things, such as astronomy, mathematics, geography, water conservancy, art of war, medicine and music.

It's a pity that he was born at an untimely time, otherwise he would definitely be a master with a brilliant history.

He didn't know this, and only regarded Xue Fengzuo as an ordinary person.

"Left, I want to take everyone to see our new astronomical discoveries, is that okay?"

Having been in China for a long time, Deng Yuhan already knew that Chinese people have the habit of cherishing themselves with their brooms.So he wanted to share the discovery of Uranus with his friends, so he asked Zuo Menggeng for his opinion.

Zuo Menggeng certainly wouldn't care if it didn't involve military secrets.

Moreover, these people are all great talents, and communicating with them will definitely benefit a lot.

"The sky belongs to all of us, doesn't it? So this kind of sharing is my honor."

(End of this chapter)