Several people were talking happily. Although they had been exiled in Qiongzhou Prefecture for a long time, Gao Heng could see that the three Sun brothers had never given up on themselves, let alone broken their jars. Instead, they worked hard in the mountain village to study what Sun Yuanhua had left behind. He wrote works and published unique insights based on his own knowledge, which can be said to be a kind of perfection of Sun Yuanhua's academic aspects.
"Alas! What a pity." Gao Heng sighed.
The voices of several people talking suddenly stopped. Sun Heding glanced at Gao Heng and said, "Why did General Gao say this?"
Gao Heng smiled bitterly and said: "The scenes just mentioned by the few are very fascinating. It would be a good thing if the Xinghua Army could have such equipment. Unfortunately, the territory currently controlled by the Xinghua Army only has one land, and the population is only five There is more than 10,000 people. Although we are already trying our best to expand the population, even if it continues to increase, it will not exceed 200,000 in a short time. If such a population base cannot form an industrial scale, it will be very difficult to implement the iron mold method. .”
"Mr. Sun also said just now that there are many methods of using artillery or firearms in the works left by Mr. Sun, but you must understand the truth. If you want to train artillery into such a technical arm, then each artillery must have its own skills. It is not an exaggeration to say that a person is a scholar in the military if he has a certain amount of knowledge. If he does not know how to read a word, telling him these methods is like playing the piano to a cow. So the top priority is education, but again, we do not have that condition now." Gao Heng was a little disappointed.
Sun Heding nodded and said: "I can understand the difficulties the general mentioned. I think the conditions and environment in northern Annan are not particularly good. Everything is difficult at the beginning. The Xinghua Army has only been established for a few months. It is not easy to achieve such a start. Read below , the general currently lacks three conditions. The first is education. Education is fundamental, but the effect of education will not be obvious for a while. It takes time to settle. But now Lang Son Province is not particularly safe and there is no stable environment. Education cannot be developed.”
Sun Hedou added: "I think the second is the large-scale workshops. We have been influenced by Western learning since we were young. The configuration of Westerners' workshops is very reasonable for the development of weapons. For example, building an artillery, Westerners are not in a factory. Problems are solved within the workshop, but a series of workshops, each performing their own duties. For example, there is a workshop for making wheels, a workshop for making screws and nuts, a workshop for casting iron, and a workshop for polishing. Each workshop only When you do something, practice makes perfect, and you can perfect it to the extreme. The artillery created in this way will be tightly matched and regulated, and its power will be greatly increased."
Gao Heng had four hundred years of knowledge ahead of him. He understood it as soon as he heard it. He suddenly realized: "Assembly line operation!"
"What?" Everyone was stunned, shocked by his words. Obviously, this was a brand new term for the three Sun brothers.
However, Sun Heding was the first to react, "Haha, General is a very clever metaphor and a good name. Yes, something made by Westerners is like running water. It flows from the previous step to the next step. Everyone assembles a little bit. At the last step, the finished product comes naturally.”
Gao Heng nodded. Assembly line operations, which seemed to be a very common method in later generations, are now a brand new concept. In fact, the principle is very simple. It means that each production unit only focuses on processing a certain segment of work, so as to maximize work efficiency and output. Although this concept had already appeared in the West in the seventeenth century, it was not integrated until the eighteenth century by the Englishman Josiah.
If I could build a set of workshops with assembly line operations in Annan, I would be a hundred years ahead of the West.
"The third point, let me speak for myself. The things mentioned above are all very idealistic. To realize this, I need people, or to be more precise, I need talents. I need a lot of top talents. I even need the help of machinery. , I’m afraid it’s impossible to accomplish these things with manpower alone.” Gao Heng lowered his head and said.
Sun Heding seemed to have remembered something and exclaimed: "General, wait a moment. Sun has something. Take it out for the general to see."
Gao Heng looked at the Sun brothers, and Sun and Ding quickly ran back to the cabin. I didn’t bring much else with me this time, but I did bring a lot of Sun Yuanhua’s works and the Sun brothers’ own research results and annotations over the years, filling more than a dozen large boxes.
Sun Heding ran back to the cabin and rummaged through the boxes to find the thing he was thinking of.
"Where is it? Where is it?" Sun Heding said to himself. Sun Hejing and Sun Hedou also entered the cabin to see what happened.
"Brother, what are you looking for?" Sun Hejing asked.
"Found it, found it, this is it!" Sun Heding dug out a letter from a box of books, held it in his hand and shouted. "If this device could be made, what we just mentioned wouldn't be difficult at all."
Sun and Ding rushed out of the cabin, returned to the deck, took out the letter and handed it to Gao Heng. "This is a letter written by an old friend of my father's to us three brothers. Although we were exiled to Qiongzhou, in fact we were not completely cut off from correspondence with the outside world. The head of the village is a good man and often finds opportunities to send and receive letters for us. letter."
Gao Heng nodded, opened the letter and read it. It was said to be a letter, but there wasn't much text on it. It was basically a drawing. Although Gao Heng was a soldier, he studied science in high school and could still understand the basic drawings. of.
I saw a strange machine drawn on this picture. Let’s call it a machine. Many places were also marked with their names. Gao Heng murmured: "Boiler, flywheel, pipe, slide valve, eccentric wheel, crank." The more he read, the more frightened Gao Heng became. He always felt that something like this appeared in a physics book in high school. Something, but I just can’t remember it.
His eyes moved to a line of notes written in small letters on the side, and he saw the letter read, "The white gas from the water in the boiler is introduced into the cylinder, exerting force on the piston, the connecting rod is connected to the crank, and the eccentric drives the slide valve. , when the piston moves to the left, the slide valve moves to the right, and when the piston moves to the right, the slide valve moves to the left, driving the flywheel to reciprocate, and the mechanical force is endless."
Suddenly, like a bolt of lightning hitting Gao Heng's head, he remembered. He remembered what was written in the high school physics textbook.
"This damn thing is a steam engine!" Gao Heng shouted. His expression was comparable to Columbus's discovery of the New World.
He grabbed Sun Heding's arm and said, "Mr. Sun, who is this? Who painted this? Tell me. Tell me quickly."
Sun Heding was a scholar. He couldn't stand up to the strength of Gao Heng, a general. He was almost shaken to pieces by Gao Heng. "General Gao, wait, wait. Why can't I understand what a steam engine is?"
Only then did Gao Heng realize that he had lost his composure. He immediately let go of Sun Heding and said, "Sorry, sorry, Mr. Sun, this is really shocking. I never expected that someone in Ming Dynasty would think of such a thing."
Sun Heding patted his clothes and said, "It's nothing, it's just that I don't understand. What is the steam engine that the general just mentioned?"
Gao Heng's mind turned. You must know that although everyone who has gone to school in later generations knows the story of Watt and the steam engine, what many people don't know is that Watt was not the first person to invent the steam engine. In fact, the world's first steam engine was the steam ball invented by the ancient Greek mathematician Hero in the first century AD. This was the prototype of the steam engine.
It was not until the late seventeenth century that the French physicist Papin built the first model of a steam engine after observing steam escaping his pressure cooker. The industrial steam engine was not built until the early eighteenth century by Newcomen. Later, After continuous improvement, the steam engine that was commonly used in later generations was formed.
But as Sun Heding said, everything is difficult at the beginning. Although it is difficult to manufacture the key components of the steam engine, the most difficult thing is to come up with this concept. Without the support of this concept, no matter how good the thing is, it will not be designed.
Gao Heng said: "For example, I believe Mr. Sun should know the working principle of the waterwheel."
Sun Heding nodded. The working principle of the waterwheel is not complicated. Even old farmers understand it. Gao Heng added: "Suppose there is something that does not use water power, wind power, or manpower. It only requires one person to add some coal under the boiler to heat the water, and then the water truck or other things can be used. The machinery is running all the time, and the rotation speed is hundreds and thousands of times faster than before. Even in the future, the carriage will not be pulled by horses. Only one person will need to boil water to make the carriage move. Dare I ask, what can such a thing do? Can’t it be called a divine weapon?”
Sun Heding opened his mouth, but couldn't calm down for a long time. Isn't this nonsense? He smiled and said: "Hahaha, how could there be such a thing in the world? The general is talking about something drawn on this drawing. To be honest, I have also seen this drawing, but I think it is a fantasy. It is just a fantasy. A beautiful imagination, if there were such artifacts, it would be worthy of the words "the world is turned upside down."
Gao Heng patted the side of the ship and said: "Well said, it's earth-shaking, sir. This is the steam engine. This is what this drawing depicts. If we can get this thing, within a year, the Xinghua Army will take off. Now I want to Do you know, who is the author of this picture?”
Sun Hedou interrupted: "Oh, it's Mr. Song Yingxing Song."
"What!" Gao Heng exclaimed again. He knew very well who Song Yingxing was, a great physicist in the late Ming Dynasty. If the Manchus had not taken over the Central Plains and the Ming Dynasty had continued to develop, perhaps Song Yingxing could have achieved greater physical achievements. No wonder, no wonder, if this picture was created by Song Yingxing, it would make sense.
Sun Heding handed over the envelope of the letter. Gao Heng took a look and saw that it did have the characters Song Yingxing written on it, but how did they get involved with Song Yingxing.
Seeing Gao Heng's confused look, Sun Heding thought he knew Song Yingxing. Sun Heding asked: "Could it be that the general knows Mr. Song?"
Gao Heng quickly waved his hand and said: "No, but I have been fascinated by him for a long time. Mr. Song is a genius. It would be great if we could meet him."
Sun Heding smiled and said: "Haha, I didn't expect Mr. Song to be so famous. In fact, he is not far from us, just in Guangzhou."
"Ah?" Gao Heng opened his mouth with a look of disbelief on his face.
Anyone who has studied high school history knows that Song Yingxing is the author of Tian Gong Kai Wu and a native of Fengxin, Jiangxi Province. His life was full of ups and downs, and he was very bumpy. He was an official for a while and was dismissed for a while. This will be the sixteenth year of Chongzhen. Gao Heng tried hard to recall Song Yingxing's current location, but he couldn't remember it. He really wanted to slap himself for not listening well in history class.
Sun Heding said: "Actually, Mr. Song is also a great scholar in Western learning at that time. He is about the same age as his father and we have many similarities. After we were exiled, Mr. Song often wrote letters to show concern. We were in contact more than two months ago. Let's talk about it. , it was also the imperial court that was ignorant and ignorant. A great talent like Mr. Song was actually forced to resign from his position as an official in Tingzhou, Fujian Province and return home, feeling disheartened. It happened that his brother Song Yingsheng had just become the prefect of Guangzhou, and Song Yingxing Come and stay here for a while, so we can communicate.”
That's it, that's it. I didn't expect Song Yingxing to be in Guangzhou at this moment.
Historically, Song Yingxing did return to his hometown to live in seclusion after resigning in the 13th year of Chongzhen. It was not until the end of the 16th year of Chongzhen, when the country was almost defeated, that he was recruited by the imperial court to serve as the magistrate of Bozhou, Fengyang Prefecture, Nanzhili. But soon, the officialdom was in chaos, and various places were captured by bandits. Song Yingxing resigned again and returned to his hometown. Later, he was recruited by several small courts in the Southern Ming Dynasty, but refused until Yongli died of illness in the 20th year of his life and spent his later years in poverty.
Gao Heng really didn't know about his brother's appointment as the prefect of Guangzhou. The reason why a great talent like Song Yingxing refused to resign many times was precisely because he was extremely disappointed with the decadent Ming Dynasty and was even more dissatisfied with the Manchu and Qing dynasty that followed. It is deeply disgusting. In this case, why don't you give it a try? This shows that Song Yingxing has different ideas from ordinary people. If he can pay a visit, will there be better results.
Thinking of this, he could no longer suppress the excitement in his heart. He pulled over Pudman and said, "Can the Hope's food and fresh water last until Guangzhou?"
Pudman was hurriedly called over. Hearing Gao Heng's words, he was suddenly startled and said immediately: "General, do you want to go to Guangzhou? No problem. The supplies on the ship are enough for one way. We can resupply after arriving in Guangzhou."
Gao Heng responded: "Okay, transfer Mr. Sun to other ships, and you accompany me to take the Hope to Guangzhou." Gao Heng was thoughtful. In fact, they could land in Guangdong in the Qiongzhou Strait and then go overland. Guangzhou is crowded and unsafe, so it is better to reach it directly by sea. In the past few months, the Annan people are licking their wounds. With Cheng Zilong and others in Lang Son Mansion, they should have nothing to worry about. If they can invite Song Yingxing back, it will be fine.
"Wait a minute, general, if you go to find Mr. Song, I am willing to go with you." Sun Heding said.
