I want to be emperor

Chapter 662 New History: The Yellow River Successfully Diverted
The Ministry of Communications wants to develop long-distance railways and ground long-distance transportation that is convenient, fast and low-cost. Unfortunately, the cost of building railways is too high, and the cost of transportation with horse-drawn vehicles will also be very high...

Those mine bosses have money, and they also have a hard demand. At the same time, the railways in mining areas are generally not long, at most a few dozen or twenty kilometers, so they invest money in building railways.

However, the railway that the Ministry of Communications wants to build is a long-distance railway connecting two cities, and it is hundreds of kilometers at every turn. This investment will be huge...

Moreover, if it is transported by horse-drawn carriage, the maintenance cost will be huge, and it is estimated that the cost will not be recovered by then.

This is also the reason why the Ministry of Communications has been unable to make up its mind to build long-distance railways.

A lot of money was spent to build an extremely expensive railway, not to mention making political achievements and promotions, it would be nice not to be sprayed to death by all the officials in the court.

However, the emergence of the steam engine made the officials of the Ministry of Communications see a new solution, which is to use steam engines to replace mules and horses as the power of vehicles.

With such a cost reduction, it may be possible to increase the speed and carry out long-distance transportation.

Steam engine vehicles plus wrought iron tracks, this is the solution that the officials of the Ministry of Communications want to see!
The only problem now is that the current steam engine is too stretched to be used as vehicle power!

Therefore, the Ministry of Communications also invested money in the Steam Engine Research Institute of the Royal Institute of Technology to support their research and development, thinking that the steam engine that could be used for transportation could be obtained one day earlier.

That is, the latest and most important research project launched by the Steam Engine Research Institute of the Royal Institute of Technology in the past year: the high-pressure steam engine.

The Steam Engine Research Institute of the Royal Institute of Technology, since the completion of a practical steam engine a few years ago, did not say that it would go directly to Nanshan, but continued the research on the steam engine.

They also want to research a steam engine with greater power and lower energy consumption.

And these days, there is no good way to increase motivation.

The easiest and most convenient way is to build a large-scale steam engine. Whether it is to build multiple cylinders to work together, or to expand the volume of a single cylinder, it is a similar concept. In fact, this way does not need to be developed by the steam engine research institute. The steam engine manufacturers themselves have started to make them, especially the large steam engines of Tianjin Machinery Company, which have the largest single-cylinder volume among the large-scale steam engines, and are also the manufacturers who dare to manufacture the most cylinders.

The power of its large steam engine has been able to achieve more than 300 horsepower, but the volume and weight of this large steam engine are too large. After assembly, the volume is very large after assembly.

At the same time, the price is also extremely expensive, costing tens of thousands of Chu Yuan at every turn.

At present, only some special industries can use it.

However, the path taken by the steam engine research is not simply to increase the volume of the steam engine, but to increase the power by increasing the air pressure of the steam engine cylinder.

As the air pressure increases, the high-temperature and high-pressure steam will naturally have greater kinetic energy, which in turn can push the piston to do greater work.

And by increasing the air pressure, under the same cylinder volume, the power of the steam engine can be increased several times or even dozens of times.

This has been demonstrated in some previous extreme steam engine experiments.

They used the existing materials and technology to conduct a pressure test on the original steam engine, and found that when the steam pressure was increased to about [-] MPa, the power output was increased by more than ten times.

The prototype machine used for testing, when using the standard 100 MPa, the output power is only more than ten horses, but when it is raised to [-] MPa, its power output directly soars to more than [-] horses.

This is also the reason why the Institute of Steam Engines has continuously focused its main research efforts on the research of high-pressure steam engines in the past two years.

It is also the reason why Guangzhou Machinery Company has established a high-pressure steam engine project a few years ago and has carried out strategic cooperation with the steam engine research institute.

It is also the reason why both the Navy and the Ministry of Communications directly allocated funds to sponsor the Steam Engine Research Institute to develop high-pressure steam engines.

The prospect of the high-pressure steam engine is too wonderful!
However, although the prospect of the high-pressure steam engine is very good, the technical difficulty is very high for the current Great Chu Empire.

During the previous tests, the prototype machine could not last for a long time. Sometimes it lasted for tens of seconds, and most of the time it lasted for more than a dozen or 10 minutes. Then various problems would occur and lead to Leakage of high-pressure steam, or even cylinder explosion and so on.

The root of these problems lies in the material and processing technology problems.

If your materials are not good enough and the processing technology is not good, the cylinders and steam pipes you make will not be able to withstand such a high steam pressure, and there will be various rupture problems.

But that sentence again... Materials and processing techniques have always been tiankengs. The Great Chu Empire has spent countless manpower and material resources in the past 20 years, but they have only touched the edge of materials science. They want to create more and more. Good ones can be made with new materials, but it will be more difficult.

Therefore, the focus of today's steam engine research institute is not on design or the like. If there is any good design for high-pressure steam engines, just apply the original design, and then increase the steam pressure. The principle will not change much.

So what is the research focus of the Steam Engine Research Institute today?
Materials and processing techniques...

This is actually what the Steam Engine Research Institute has been doing for the past ten years. When developing low-pressure steam engines, they solved the material problems of each component one by one.

But these new materials are not available outside, so we can only start from scratch.

Therefore, most of the work of the Steam Engine Research Institute of the Royal Institute of Technology is not to design any steam engine, but to engage in material research and development.

This research institute with the name of Steam Engine Research Institute is the largest and the top new material research and development institution in the Great Chu Empire.

Unfortunately, the Iron and Steel Research Institute, which also belongs to the Royal Institute of Technology, is also engaged in material research and development most of the time, but they are more focused on the industrial mass production of new materials, while the Steam Engine Research Institute is focused on Research on the invention of new materials.

Most of the scientific research activities of the Great Chu Empire are actually engaged in the research and development of all kinds of messy materials, either thinking about inventing new materials, or thinking about the industrial production of the invented new materials.

This is true even for many companies doing research. For example, Hantian Machinery Company, the top domestic machinery company that sells kitchen knives, iron pots, and machine tools by the way, most of their research funds are invested in new materials.

Otherwise, their kitchen knives and iron pans would not sell so well.

Otherwise, their machine tools would not be so expensive, directly occupying at least [-]% of the market share of high-end cutting machine tools.

Why can they occupy so many high-end market shares, because their knives have good performance.

For cutting machine tools, most of the technical content is actually on the cutter head...the rest is on the machining accuracy of the machine tool itself.

The precision of Hantian Machinery's machine tools is first-class, and their machine tools are almost one generation ahead of other manufacturers. Of course, the price is also more than one generation ahead!
The so-called development of science and technology, in addition to the basic theory, the rest is the problem of materials, even the processing technology is ultimately a problem of materials.

This is also the reason why the research and development of major science and technology in the Great Chu Empire basically focused on the research and development of various new materials.

Because there is no material, no matter how good your advanced design is, you can't make it.

The high-pressure steam engine is the most typical example.

However, the high-pressure steam engine will not be available for a while, but it does not affect the low-pressure steam engine to show its talents in industrial applications.

After all, an industrial steam engine does not have to be a high-pressure steam engine with small size and high power. As long as the cost is acceptable, then the direct stacking method can also be used.

But simply reducing the manufacturing cost and operating cost of a low-pressure steam engine is much simpler than making a high-pressure steam engine.

The prices of the steam engines produced by the three major steam engine manufacturers have dropped by almost half compared to the beginning, and the competition between the three major steam engine manufacturers is far from over, and even now it is only in the initial rising stage.

In the future, the price of a steam engine with [-] horses may be lowered to less than [-] yuan.

With the continuous increase of coal production, the continuous decline of coal prices, coupled with the continuous improvement of low-pressure steam engine technology, the energy consumption continues to decrease, and it is hopeful that general industries, especially the textile industry, will also use steam engines in the future.

With the large-scale application of steam engines, the production efficiency of the industrial circles of the Great Chu Empire has been further improved, the cost of various industrial products has continued to decline, and the output has further increased, which greatly enriched the application of domestic industrial products.

Luo Zhixue reckoned that in a few years, ordinary factories might also be able to enter the age of steam.

Water powered factories will become history with time.

Luo Zhixue is looking forward to this day.

----

However, industrial development takes time. One year or two is nothing, but it takes ten to twenty years to develop continuously, so there is no rush for a short-term meeting.

And after entering Chengshun in July of the 20th year, Luo Zhixue didn't pay attention to the development of industry and commerce, and didn't even care about the northern strategy against the Russians.

Now, Luo Zhixue's attention is all on the Yellow River diversion project.

Not only Luo Zhixue, but in fact most of the empire's attention was put on the Yellow River diversion project.

After years of continuous construction, tens of millions of Chu Yuan was spent, and nearly one million people were organized to leave their homes and settle in new places during this process. The Yellow River diversion project has finally come to an end.

In June 20, Chengshun, the third phase of the Yellow River diversion project, which is the last phase of the project, was successfully completed, which also means that the Yellow River diversion can finally enter the final implementation stage: let the Yellow River divert to the Bohai Sea through Shandong.

Luo Zhixue, many officials in the DPRK and China, and even the affected people in several provinces have been waiting for this day for many years.

On July [-]th, at the Imperial Counselor Meeting, Luo Zhixue finally approved the diversion of the Yellow River after hearing the detailed report on the project!
After Luo Zhixue's order was issued, the Army Engineering Corps, which had already made preparations in advance, also entered the final stage of the project.

They will blast the dam on the north bank of the Yellow River in Lanyang County, Henan Province, guide the water of the Yellow River into the predetermined new channel, and then enter the Daqing River in Shandong Province, and finally flow into the Bohai Sea.

The new rivers along the way, including the Daqing River, have built embankments in advance, cleared the silt, and straightened the curved river courses. Especially in the downstream section of the Daqing River, where the estuary has been, great efforts have been made to streamline the rivers.

At the same time, more than ten flood storage areas have been set up, and the capacity of Anshan Lake in Dongping County has even been expanded. The surrounding large low-lying areas have been included in the proposed lake range.

After the water from the Yellow River arrives, the area of ​​Anshan Lake will increase significantly, and it may become the largest lake in Shandong, or the second largest at worst.

After subsequent expansion, Anshan Lake can not only be used as a flood storage area to accommodate a large amount of river water in the upper and middle reaches of the Yellow River during the rainy season, so as to reduce the flood control pressure on the downstream, that is, the Daqing River.

Moreover, it can also be used as the source of water resources during the dry season in autumn and winter, continuously providing water for the Daqing River and the canals along the way, ensuring continuous shipping and irrigation along the way.

The entire Yellow River diversion project is not only to prevent the water of the Yellow River from abusing the Huaihe River, causing large-scale floods in Jiangbei, Anlu, Henan and other places, but also to increase the shipping value and irrigation value of the Yellow River.

Therefore, in the entire Yellow River diversion project, in addition to a large number of flood control projects, there are actually a large number of irrigation projects. Many irrigation canals were dug along the way to guide the water from the Yellow River to irrigate large areas in Shandong to increase local food production.

In the entire project, the actual construction volume is actually not too large compared to later generations, because the Great Chu Empire adopted expansion and expansion to reduce the difficulty of construction.

The officials have relocated a large number of people along the route, created numerous flood storage areas, and even planned to build a large man-made lake...and these require a lot of space.

How to put it, although there is a lot of water in the Yellow River during the rainy season, as long as there are enough flood storage areas, the Yellow River can be tamed.

The only trouble is to migrate a large number of people along the way. This kind of thing is impossible in ordinary feudal dynasties, because it directly involves the migration of nearly a million people. The most important thing is that in peacetime, the population that needs to be relocated is basically Not just a hundred people, but millions or even tens of millions...

That is to say, in the early days of the founding of the Great Chu Empire, the northern region suffered from natural disasters and man-made disasters all the year round, and the Shandong region suffered from various natural and man-made disasters frequently.

Moreover, the Great Chu Empire finalized the Yellow River diversion project very early, and the relocation began a long time ago.

Otherwise, if it drags on for 30 to [-] years, even the mighty Chu Empire would not be able to do this.

After all, it may involve the migration of tens of millions of people, which is simply impossible.

No matter if you have money or not!
This is why Luo Zhixue decided early on to gnash his teeth and divert the Yellow River, because it would be impossible to do it if it was delayed for a long time. At that time, the Great Chu Empire would only be able to repair the Yellow River-Huaihe River Basin like the Ming Dynasty. , and then there are minor floods every year, and major floods every three years.

In the past 20 years, the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, plus the Huaihe River, have been flooded almost every year, and there has been a major flood every three years. To be honest, Luo Zhixue has been completely numb!

In the early years of the founding of the country, especially when Jiangbei and Anlu areas were first occupied, Luo Zhixue was anxious when he heard about large-scale floods in Jiangbei and Anlu in those few years. Water conservancy facilities, especially Hongze Lake flood control embankment and other projects.

Later, especially in recent years, when Luo Zhixue heard of the floods in the Yellow River-Huaihe River Basin, Luo Zhixue was not in a mood. Regardless of major floods or minor floods, there is a complete set of flood control and disaster relief procedures anyway, so that Officials just follow suit.

But if you want to say that there is something turbulent in his heart, there is really no... Even if the Yellow River flood affected several provinces in Chengshun's 17th year, resulting in a large-scale crop failure and tens of thousands of people died in the flood, Luo Zhixue was not disturbed at all.

If this happened at the beginning of the founding of the country, it is estimated that he would go to the disaster area to inspect the disaster area and personally guide the disaster relief.

The reason for this is purely numb by the flood.

The Yellow River has a small flood every year, and a big flood every three to five years. If he was always so surprised, he would have become crazy.

However, after the Yellow River is successfully diverted, all of the past will no longer exist. As for the Yellow River carrying a large amount of sediment, the new channel of the Daqing River will sooner or later become an aboveground river, which will lead to frequent floods.

This conservatism is also a matter of decades or even hundreds of years.

By that time, science and technology will be more developed, and infrastructure construction capabilities will be stronger, so there will naturally be better means of flood control.

Besides, Luo Zhixue also promoted the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River early on, and carried out large-scale afforestation in the high-slope areas of the loess to reduce soil erosion, so as to reduce the high sand content of the Yellow River.

It will definitely not see any effect for a while, but after a few decades of persistence, there will be a big change.

To completely control the Yellow River is a long-term project that will take decades or even hundreds of years. It cannot be achieved by one or two generations, but by the continuous efforts of many generations.

And he can't control so many things in the future, he can only set an example now, and do as much as possible while he is still alive. As for what he will become after he dies, that is the problem of his children and grandchildren. .

Now, after the artificial diversion of the Yellow River, we dare not say that the floods will be eliminated, but it can also change the embarrassing situation of a wave of floods every three to five years.

With the current solid flood control facilities in the new Yellow River channel, and a large number of flood storage areas prepared in advance, and the new channel has no sedimentation, and has not yet evolved into an above-ground river, so for now, there is no problem with floods that occur once every 30 to [-] years .

As for the 50-year or even [-]-year flood... This cannot be stopped by manpower, it can only depend on fate!

Not to mention the Yellow River, even if the Yangtze River encounters a 50-year or even [-]-year flood, large-scale floods will occur.

The power of human beings compared with the power of nature is always incomparable.

In August of the 20th year of Chengshun, Luo Zhixue's order was delivered to the "Governor's Office of the Yellow River Diverting Project" in Lanyang County, Henan.

At the same time, news came from the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River, saying that the weather was good, there was no large-scale rain, and the water in the Yellow River was calm.

Gui Hongwen, Governor of the Yellow River, negotiated with the Army Engineer Unit responsible for the blasting, and confirmed that everything was ready.

On August [-]th, Gui Hongwen officially ordered to blast the scheduled dam!

As the army's engineering unit lit the match and used explosives to blast the scheduled blasting embankment, Gui Hongwen watched the scheduled embankment begin to appear small gaps, and then big gaps!

At the same time, the turbid Yellow River flowed into the new channel along the blasting gap... This is a brand new channel that has been artificially widened and reinforced using the local terrain and the original small channel.

Along this artificial new river, the river flows eastward all the way, and a large amount of river water will first enter Anshan Lake. After being buffered by Anshan Lake, it will continue to flow eastward into the lower reaches of Qishui, that is, the Daqing River, and finally run all the way. To the Bohai Sea.

And the whole process actually takes a certain amount of time, so a large number of people still can't relax.

Gui Hongwen even took a large group of officials and engineers directly on board the boat, along the new river channel, preparing to personally watch the movement of the Yellow River.

They entered Anshan Lake with the water of the Yellow River all the way, then arrived in Jinan, and finally went east all the way to the sea!

When Gui Hongwen watched the water of the Yellow River flow into the Bohai Sea, he couldn't help crying!

He worked for more than ten years before and after the siege of the Yellow River. From a small official to a middle-level official in charge of construction, the right servant of the Ministry of Water Resources, and now the governor of the Yellow River, he is fully responsible for the Yellow River diversion project.

No one in the top ranks of the empire has put more effort into this project than he has.

Ten years of hard work has finally borne fruit today.

So he cried and laughed too!

Not long after, the Yellow River successfully diverted its course and was rushed to Jinling City without any mistakes on the way.

In the next issue of the national edition of Da Chu Mansion Newspaper, relevant news will be published in a large space.

Yellow River, ushered in a new chapter!
And Luo Zhixue didn't forget the rewards for the meritorious personnel!

Gui Hongwen, the governor of the Yellow River diversion, was the first to bear the brunt and was directly appointed Minister of the Ministry of Water Resources. Although Gui Hongwen himself was a second-rank senior official and served as the right servant of the Ministry of Water Resources, it seemed normal to be directly promoted to Minister of Water Resources. It is a leapfrog promotion, because there is a left servant in the middle.

In the Great Chu Empire, the positions of left and right ministers, governors, governors of the Yellow River and governors of the Yangtze River are all from the second rank.

But in fact the difference is very big, even though in theory these second-rank officials can be promoted to the official second-rank Shangshu, but in fact, according to the rules of previous years, generally only the left servant of the authority department and the governor of important provinces can directly be promoted to Shangshu.

The position of governor of the Yellow River is equivalent to that of the governor of small and medium-sized provinces, and the right servant of ordinary departments. The distance from the minister, even the minister of the Ministry of Water Resources, is actually still separated by the left servant of ordinary departments.

But Luo Zhixue gave him a leapfrog promotion. According to Gui Hongwen's age, even if he survived the years, he would be able to become a co-organizer of the Senate.

This shows how great the reward is.

As for the Minister of Counseling, don’t count on that. Although water conservancy affairs are very important, they can only be regarded as marginal in the core of power in the empire. Minister's.

The civil servant who can become the minister of affairs has basically not changed in the past 20 years. Basically, he is a minister with a financial or tax background, mainly in charge of money and finance.

One from the Ministry of Officials or the Inspectorate is mainly in charge of personnel and anti-corruption affairs.

One from the Ministry of Industry or the Ministry of Industry and Commerce is mainly in charge of industrial and commercial economic affairs, including transportation, construction, etc.

One from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the Ministry of Civil Affairs is in charge of agriculture, animal husbandry, people's livelihood, relief, immigration and other affairs, as well as water conservancy.

Of course, the above-mentioned division of labor is not absolute. What the ministers are in charge of will often change. Sometimes it is possible for the ministers who come from the inspectorate to be in charge of the Ministry of Industry...well, usually they are for the purpose of establishing official capital enterprises anti-corruption work.

It was already the limit for Gui Hongwen to be able to be a co-organizer. Even if Luo Zhixue rewarded him generously, it would be difficult for him to join the rank of ministers.

In addition to Gui Hongwen and other meritorious personnel who currently voted for the Yellow River diversion affairs, Luo Zhixue also gave to the officials who previously served in the Yellow River diversion affairs office, participated in the Yellow River diversion affairs, and made outstanding contributions. Award.

It won't be said that you have been transferred from the original position, and this credit has nothing to do with you.

Well, the same is true for responsibilities. The official circles of the Great Chu Empire don’t pay attention to such things as the predecessors planting trees and the descendants enjoying the shade. Your share is also indispensable when rewarding meritorious deeds.

What should be yours is yours!

This also greatly stimulated the enthusiasm of officials to do practical work, and also prevented officials from one-sidedly pursuing political achievements during their term of office in order to make achievements that they can use.

On the contrary, meritorious service pays attention to life tenure, and the pursuit of responsibility also pays attention to tenure tenure. It is absolutely not enough to pat your ass and leave just because you have done a tofu project. Once something happens, you will be unlucky no matter where you are.

In terms of rewards and punishments, Luo Zhixue has always done better.

Otherwise, with unknown rewards and punishments, it would be impossible for him to take down this huge country with a vote of founding mud legs, let alone let the courtiers continue to maintain their enthusiasm and open up a new era!
Because Luo Zhixue let them all know that as long as you can do well in grades, you can be promoted and make a fortune!

In the same way, if you dare to mess around, you won't lose your share even if you ransack your family and exterminate your clan!
(End of this chapter)