I want to be emperor

The extent of Luo Zhixue's knowledge of the steam engine project was known to almost the entire empire.

To be honest, many people still don't understand why Luo Zhixue attaches so much importance to the steam engine, isn't it just a thing for boiling water.

Even if the steam engine can be put into use, its poor power can't do much. The few experimental models produced by the steam engine project team of the Royal Institute of Technology are all big guys, but the power is only a few horsepower. Not much use to be honest.

You must know that the hydraulic machinery in some large factories in the Great Chu Empire may not look very primitive, but the hydraulic machinery driven by some super-large waterwheels is still very powerful, otherwise they would not be able to drive those large boring machines, etc. Large equipment too.

After more than ten years of continuous development and research, the hydrodynamic equipment in the Great Chu Empire has developed very maturely, and the application scale is very large. Most of the factories linked to machinery basically have hydrodynamic equipment, even in light industry. The textile industry in China also uses hydrodynamic equipment on a large scale.

Water-powered spinning machines and looms have become standard equipment for medium and large textile factories in the Great Chu Empire. Although water-powered textile factories have invested heavily, their production efficiency is higher.

The rapid development and application of water power is also the reason why most of the processing factories in the Great Chu Empire are built by the river.

For example, the major factories in the Dangtu Industrial Zone are typical... Almost all large factories are built on the banks of the Yangtze River. Build waterwheels in places to obtain more powerful water power.

In the eyes of many people in the Great Chu Empire, water-powered machinery is already very good, and there is still great potential to be tapped.

And the steam engine?

This thing now seems to be an iron lump with no practical use value, and it is also an iron lump that costs a lot of money!

The steam engine project team of the Royal Institute of Technology has spent more than ten years researching this thing, and the accumulated expenditure cannot be estimated.

Just counting the salaries of personnel, that is a very huge number.

More than 100 researchers work on this thing full time, and thousands of other researchers at various research institutions are indirectly involved, and the salaries of these people alone are a huge number.

Not to mention all kinds of messy experimental funds, two words are enough to describe: sky-high prices!
But in fact... these researchers directly or indirectly involved are only a part of it. In fact, in order to create this steam engine, strictly speaking, almost the entire science and engineering research institutions of the Great Chu Empire and many key enterprises participated.

Although some people didn't know that they were involved in it, or that the things they researched were not intended for steam engines, but they were used for steam engines.

This can be seen from the materials and processing used for the cylinder, the core component of the steam engine.

The new type of soft steel developed by Daye Iron and Steel Company for materials is relatively balanced in strength and machinability, but this kind of thing was not developed by Daye Iron and Steel Company for the cylinder of a steam engine...it was a failure of research and development as a barrel material product……

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The navy launched the mild steel artillery project last year, and signed a research and development agreement with Daye Iron and Steel Company to allow them to develop an advanced gun that can strengthen the strength of the material and the performance of wear resistance as much as possible on the premise that forging can be performed. Mild steel material.

Daye Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. adjusted the formula hundreds of times based on its various mild steel materials that have been successfully applied in practice, and finally obtained a mild steel material that is relatively balanced in all aspects of material performance and is suitable for use as a gun barrel.

At the same time, there are a lot of new materials that do not meet the needs of the military. In fact, these materials are not all waste, but their performance is very different.

After all, the quality of steel these days is actually the difference in carbon content, which leads to some differences in performance.

And this kind of performance difference, you can't say it is bad, but it depends on what project it corresponds to.

Some projects have higher requirements for toughness, some have higher requirements for strength, and some require more convenient processing.

Therefore, for iron-carbon alloy materials, whether materials with different carbon contents meet the requirements depends on the specific project.

The steam engine project team heard that Daye Iron and Steel Company had produced a large number of materials with a new formula, so they looked for information on these new materials in the past, and then they found a material that was very suitable for forging cylinders. Material.

Then took a sample to try, the effect is excellent.

This new material is more suitable as a cylinder material than dozens of materials they have used in the past.

In this way, it can be regarded as a preliminary solution to the cylinder material problem that has plagued the steam engine project team for more than ten years.

During this process, you said that Daye Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. participated in the steam engine research and development project, but they really didn’t... But you have to say that they didn’t participate in it. The cylinder material for the new generation of steam engine testing machine was really made by them.

Therefore, how many institutions and personnel participated in the research and development of the steam engine project in the Great Chu Empire, and how much money was spent are all a mess, and it is impossible to calculate.

If you have to be serious, that is, almost all medium and large enterprises and official research institutions in the entire Great Chu Empire have participated.

In fact it is true!

The steam engine, this very primitive and crude internal combustion engine equipment in the eyes of later generations, in the seventeenth century today, is a top-level technological product that can only be produced by the power of the whole country.

From theory to experimentation to mass production, the entire process requires the support of the entire empire to continue.

In the Great Chu Empire, to be precise, steam engines began to be developed more than ten years ago... It has to be done step by step from theoretical research!

First solve the theoretical problem, and then solve the material problem, increase the price of material processing...

Luo Zhixue draws a blueprint and finds a few craftsmen to make a steam engine?
how can that be!

And this, to some extent, is also the reason why many people do not understand.

The investment is too large, but the output is unknown. Even though Luo Zhixue has revealed the future application scenarios of the steam engine several times, in the eyes of some people, it is nothing more than that, and even thinks it is whimsical.

It cannot be blamed for their narrow vision, after all, they cannot predict the future... This is a common problem of people, just like the people of later generations, before 2000, they could not imagine that they would enter the era of mobile Internet in just ten years, and the smartphones Emergence has almost completely changed people's lives, and even changed the social model.

...

Not to mention the time span of ten or eight years, even one year before the appearance of the Apple mobile phone, most, no, almost all people could not imagine that the society would have such a big change in a few years, even if Jobs himself probably couldn't have imagined it!
Who would have thought that a thief, one of the oldest occupations of human beings, would face the dilemma of mass unemployment in the mobile age, which has existed for countless years...

The imagination of most ordinary people is actually very limited. Most people can only make simple deduction based on known information. Those who can do complex and far-reaching deduction are already outstanding talents. As for what information No, purely by imagination...either a madman or a genius.

Most of Luo Zhixue's courtiers are just ordinary people, so it is difficult for many people to foresee what will happen after the steam engine appears.

But this is not important, what is important is that Luo Zhixue knows!

The steam engine is definitely a production efficiency multiplier during the first industrial revolution.

Today, the production efficiency of the water-powered factories in the Great Chu Empire is already very high, but if steam engines are used, it will be even higher... After further development, the production efficiency of factories that use steam engines on a large scale will far surpass water-powered machinery. behind.

As for the manual workshop mode, it is not worth mentioning.

The steam engine can be used as the power source of the factory, so that the factory can obtain a more stable and larger power source, and it can also free the factory from the limitation of the river. A better place to build a factory.

In addition to being the power source of the factory and directly improving production efficiency, another major role of the steam engine is as a source of transportation power.

The specific manifestation is a series of agricultural machinery such as trains, steam ships and equally important steam engine tractors.

Agricultural machinery means that fewer people can plant more land, which has great strategic significance for the Great Chu Empire to develop the vast northern territory.

The Northern Territory is now very large, but it is not reliable to rely on traditional cattle farming or even horse farming, because many places are actually relatively desolate, the climate is relatively extreme, and the average yield of the land is very low.

If you rely on manpower and energy storage, you won't be able to plant much land, so the output will not be much.

But it’s different with machinery. Agricultural machinery, even steam engine tractors, are not as efficient in agricultural production as manpower or horses. After using steam tractors, a farmer can plant more land at the same time. .

In this way, even if the land in the north is poor, as long as the area of ​​land planted is large enough, the per capita output can be raised to an acceptable or even good level.

This has great strategic value for developing the Northern Territory and further increasing the domestic food supply.

And more convenient transportation can allow more goods to circulate cheaply and quickly, which will further reduce the cost of logistics, and at the same time allow factories to obtain more and cheaper raw materials, and obtain lower-cost goods transportation way to sell the goods to more places.

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At the same time, the improvement of transportation, especially after the large-scale application of trains, will allow more places to get rid of restrictions, and then be able to build factories, participate in the wave of industrialization, and ultimately improve the living standards of the people.

For example, in the north, the grain produced by farming with steam tractors was harvested and transported by train to coastal ports, and then transported by ship to the hinterland of the empire, such as the Yangtze River Basin, where there are many people and little land.

In this process of grain planting, transportation, and sales, countless people will benefit!
This is real people's livelihood!

As for the military uses brought by the steam engine, such as steam warships, trains to transport troops and supplies, these are actually only trivial practical applications brought by the steam engine.

Steam engine, its biggest role is to improve production efficiency!
Whether it is a factory power or a traffic power, it ultimately serves to improve production efficiency.

This is what Luo Zhixue wants too!
As for the military use, to be honest, Luo Zhixue didn't care too much!

For example, steam warships sound good, but you have to know that the Great Chu Empire can build hundreds of ships that can push any country in the world with sail warships alone.

The steam battleship is something better, but it doesn't matter if it doesn't exist.

This thing is not necessary!
He also doesn't care much about using trains to mobilize troops and transport supplies... It's also better and more convenient to have it, but it doesn't matter if it doesn't...

Now that there is no train, the Great Chu Empire also killed Hami and continued to infiltrate the Turpan area. In the process, the Zhungeer people were beaten and fled.

In the north, even in the face of thousands of miles of wilderness and even the northern permafrost, the Chu army relied on primitive means of transportation such as mules, horses, sleds, and boats to reach Lake Baikal. Not only did they build three large military strongholds in the southeast of Lake Baikal It is also a settlement and settlement point, and two strongholds have been established in the northwest of Lake Baikal.

Relying on these main strongholds, the Chu army defeated the Russians through several battles, and finally took Lake Baikal and the surrounding areas into its pocket completely, and called Lake Baikal the "North Sea". , established a 'Beihai Mansion'.

Not only that, but now the Great Chu Empire's garrison in the Baikal Lake area is still frequently marching north along the Lena River, and conflicts continue to break out with Russia in the upper reaches of the Lena River.

At the same time, in the area north of the Outer Xing'an Mountains, another part of the Chu army stationed here also marched northward along the upper reaches of another tributary of the Lena River.

The purpose of these two Chu armies is simple and pure, which is to try to go all the way north along the upper tributary of the Lena River, and then expel the Russian colonists who are entrenched along the Lena River, and take full control of the Lena River Basin.

In order to completely solve the security problem of the vast northern territory of the empire in the Baikal Lake area and the outer Xing'an Mountains area.

So, it’s not that you have to have a train to go to fight in the barren mountains and forests... In the era without trains, the Russians were able to colonize Siberia, and the Great Chu Empire could also fight against the Russians in these places and control them. The desolate permafrost...

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It is nothing more than a question of how much the cost is, how much the benefit is, and whether it is worth it in the end.

From the current point of view, although the benefits of some local specialties such as fur obtained by the Great Chu Empire from the northern region are not enough to make up for military expenditures, if the security of the Far East such as Mobei and the Outer Xing'an Mountains is added, interest, then it must be a big profit.

Not to mention anything else, just a Mobei Mongolia continues to move closer to the empire. In a few years, it is estimated that the Mobei Mongolia will be integrated into the Great Chu Empire as a whole, and then it will make a lot of money.

At the same time, rather than in the Mobei Mongolian area or the outer Xing'an Mountains area, a large number of troops will be stationed for a long time to guard against the Russians.

Luo Zhixue would rather spend some military spending to directly kill the Russians, and then push the empire's border westward to the Yenisei River Basin, or even the Ural Mountains. Then he can fight as he likes, rather than worrying about the strategic security of the hinterland. question.

From the perspective of national defense strategy and actual economic interests, fighting with the Russian colonists is still a very profitable business.

Well, the premise is to be able to win, and if you lose, you will lose a lot.

But the combat effectiveness of the Great Chu Empire Army is still very powerful.

The guns are more advanced than the Russians, the infantry can fight in line, the artillery has strong firepower, and the perfect army organizational structure and salary treatment all make the morale of the Chu army good, and the individual combat effectiveness is quite good. good.

Especially the combat effectiveness of the first-class division of combat readiness is not comparable to the Cossack mercenaries invited by those Russian colonies.

Even the Cossack cavalry is quite good, and they are good at fighting against the Siberian natives, but the cavalry in the Great Chu Empire, mainly composed of northern herdsmen's children, is equally strong, even stronger!
Whether it is a small-scale cavalry battle or a large-scale cavalry battle, the cavalry of the Chu Army dare to fight, and in most cases they can win.

In small-scale battles, the individual combat effectiveness of the northern herdsmen's children is nothing to say... They are all veterans who started riding horses when they were young. Coupled with their superior equipment, they basically have an advantage against the Cossacks.

Of course, in small-scale cavalry battles, the personal factors of the soldiers are too influential. Sometimes the cavalry of the Chu army will be severely beaten by the Cossack cavalry in small-scale battles... But in general, the cavalry of the Chu army still has a great advantage .

At the same time, the sporadic cavalry battles also caused headaches for the cavalry of the Chu army. Although the overall situation was dominant, the top leaders of the Chu army did not like this combat mode very much.

Because of this kind of sporadic cavalry combat, personal factors have too much influence, but it is difficult for you to effectively improve your personal combat effectiveness in tactics other than simply improving your individual combat capabilities.

This will make many middle and high-level generals, especially those generals who claim to rely on their brains to fight wars, very uncomfortable.

In contrast, the cavalry generals of the Chu army prefer to play medium and large-scale cavalry battles, and the larger the scale, the more they like it, because the more troops involved, the greater the advantage of the Chu army's cavalry.

Many tactics and even weapons and equipment of the cavalry of the Chu army were actually prepared for large-scale operations.

The dense formation charge, that is, the wall charge tactic is the most typical example. The purpose of the Chu cavalry's cavalry to engage in this tactic is to conduct hedging operations against the enemy's large cavalry.

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When the scale of the battle is large enough, the cavalry of the Great Chu Empire's cavalry tactics and line tactics of dismounted infantry, coupled with the combination of cavalry and artillery, temporarily beat the world's invincible cavalry...

It’s just that large-scale cavalry battles can’t be fought in this broken place of the Arctic Ice Field, because the northern ice sheet is extremely difficult to supply, whether it’s the Russians or the Chu army, there are very few troops actually deployed in this area .

It has been nearly ten years since then, but the Chu army and Russia have not fought a single battle with more than a thousand troops...

On weekdays, it is mainly small-scale battles.

But don't look at the small-scale battles and think that the effect is not great. In fact, the effect is very good if you fight well. Full control of Lake Baikal is a typical example.

From the army to the navy, it can be seen that in the current military field, Luo Zhixue actually does not need steam engines.

It is better to have, but it is acceptable without him!
But in terms of people's livelihood, Luo Zhixue must have a steam engine!

So Luo Zhixue temporarily changed his itinerary and came to have a look after receiving new progress in the research and development of the steam engine project, and the project team said that they had even produced a steam engine that could be put into practical use.

After arriving at the steam engine project team, Luo Zhixue saw the steam engine at first sight.

No way, this thing is too big, and it can be seen at a glance in a large semi-open test site.

Luo Zhixue took a few steps forward to take a closer look. The difference in appearance of this steam engine was similar to the steam engine test machine seen last year, and it already possessed the basic and necessary elements of a steam engine.

The design drawings for the research and development of the steam engine of the Great Chu Empire, in fact, after more than ten years of research, coupled with Luo Zhixue's frequent personal guidance, and even drawing the drawings himself!

In terms of design alone, the steam engine that has developed to this day is actually almost the same as the Watt steam engine in Luo Zhixue's memory, and the blueprint design indicators of this steam engine can not only be used as a water lifter for coal mines, but can even be barely used as factory power used.

Of course, the premise is that it can be manufactured according to the design drawings...

And the cost also needs to be controlled to a certain extent. If an ordinary steam engine costs several thousand Chu Yuan, it can be used even if you bite your teeth.

But if one is tens of thousands or even more expensive, then it may not be available.

The steam engine project team of the Great Chu Empire has worked hard for more than ten years, in fact, to create the steam engine on the design drawings...

Now, after more than a decade of work, they are finally getting close to a fix.

At this time, Song Fufang, the team leader of the steam engine project team, stepped forward and said, "Your Majesty, the steam engine in front of us is a model 17 that we improved from last year's test model. This is also the model we have designed and manufactured over the years. The No.17 test prototype of the company is also the first test prototype that can run for a long time!"

"In the previous test, the NO.17 prototype successfully ran for 24 hours continuously without failure. The subsequent failure was not the core components such as cylinders and boilers, but the bearings used could not withstand long-term high-speed operation. We chose After obtaining bearings with better performance, we will conduct the second continuous endurance test, and the goal of the test is to make the steam engine run continuously without failure for more than [-] hours!"

"Today we will also conduct multiple tests to obtain key data such as maximum horsepower value, time to maintain high horsepower, coal consumption, etc., and test the pressure bearing capacity of each component under some extreme working conditions for subsequent continuous improvement .”

Luo Zhixue has always been interested in the research and development progress of the steam engine, and he has also read the report on the durability test last time, and today he does not want to hear too many technical details from these people. Just look at the test report.

He came here today just to see with his own eyes this steam engine that can be put into practical use.

So Luo Zhixue nodded slightly and said: "My loves have worked hard, the preparations are done, let's start!"

He is looking forward to it!