Luo Zhixue's level of concern for the steam engine project was known to almost the entire empire's top brass.
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 water-boiling thing?
Even if the steam engine can be put into use, its poor power can't do much. The several experimental models developed by the steam engine project team of the Royal Institute of Technology are all big ones, but their power is only a few horsepower. This little power To be honest, it's not very useful.
You must know that the water-powered machinery in some large factories in the Dachu Empire may not look very primitive, but the power of some super-large water-driven water-powered machinery is still very huge, otherwise it would not be able to drive those large boring machines, etc. Large equipment.
After more than ten years of continuous development and research, the hydrodynamic equipment in the Dachu Empire has developed very maturely, and its application scale is very large. Most factories linked to machinery will basically have hydrodynamic equipment, even in light industry. The textile industry also uses water-powered equipment on a large scale.
Water-powered spinning machines and looms have become standard equipment for medium and large textile factories in the Chu Empire. Although water-powered textile factories have huge investments, 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 Chu Empire are currently built along the river.
For example, the major factories in Dangtu Industrial Zone are typical... Almost all large factories are built on the banks of the Yangtze River. In order to make better use of water power, some large factories will even build special aqueducts, and then build them on the lower ground. Waterwheels were built locally to obtain more powerful water power.
In the eyes of many people in the Dachu Empire, water-powered machinery is already very good, and there is still great potential that can be tapped.
And the steam engine?
This thing now seems to be an iron lump with little practical 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 studying this thing, and the accumulated funds spent cannot be estimated.
Just counting personnel salaries, that is a very huge number.
More than a hundred researchers are working on this thing full-time, and thousands of researchers from other research institutions are indirectly involved. The salary of these people alone is a huge number.
Not to mention the various messy test funds, two words can describe it: sky-high prices!
But in fact...these researchers who were directly or indirectly involved were just a part of it. In fact, in order to build this steam engine, strictly speaking, almost the entire science and engineering research institutions of the Great Chu Empire and many key enterprises were involved.
Although some people don't know that they are involved, or the things they researched were not originally intended for use in steam engines, but they were used in steam engines.
This can be seen from the materials and processing used in the cylinder, the core component of the steam engine.
The new mild steel developed by Daye Steel Company is relatively balanced in strength and processability. However, Daye Steel Company did not develop this kind of steel for steam engine cylinders... but failed to develop it as a gun barrel material. product……
The Navy launched the mild steel artillery program last year and signed a research and development agreement with Daye Steel Company, allowing them to develop an advanced artillery piece that can enhance material strength and wear resistance as much as possible while being able to be forged. Mild steel material.
Daye Iron and Steel Company adjusted the formula hundreds of times based on its various mild steel materials that have been successfully used in practical applications, and finally obtained a mild steel material that has balanced performance in all aspects of the material and is suitable for use as a gun barrel.
At the same time, there are also a lot of new materials that do not meet the needs of the military. In fact, these materials are not all waste, but their properties are very different.
After all, the quality of steel these days is actually due to the different carbon content, which in turn leads to some differences in performance.
And you can't say this performance difference is bad, but it depends on what project it corresponds to.
Some projects require higher toughness, some projects require higher strength, and some require easier processing.
So 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 Steel Company had come up with a new material formula, so they went to get the information on these new materials, and then they discovered a material that was very suitable for forged cylinders. Material.
Then I took a sample and tried it, and the effect was excellent.
This new material is better suited for cylinder materials than dozens of materials they have used in the past.
In this way, it can be regarded as an initial solution to the cylinder material problem that has troubled the steam engine project team for more than ten years.
During this process, you said that Daye Steel Company participated in the steam engine research and development project. In fact, they really did not... But you said that they were not involved. They really made the cylinder materials of the new generation steam engine testing machine.
Therefore, it is impossible to calculate the exact number of institutions and personnel involved in the research and development of the steam engine project in the Da Chu Empire, and how much money was spent.
If you have to be serious, almost all medium and large enterprises and official research institutions in the entire Chu Empire are involved.
In fact, this is indeed the case!
The steam engine, a very primitive and crude internal combustion engine equipment in the eyes of later generations, today in the 17th century, is a top-notch technological product that can only be produced by a whole country.
From theory to experimentation to mass production, this entire process requires the support of the entire empire to proceed.
In the Da Chu Empire, to be precise, we started working on steam engines more than ten years ago... We had to do it step by step through theoretical research!
Solve the theoretical problems first, then solve the material problems and increase the price of material processing problems...
Luo Zhixue drew a blueprint and found a few craftsmen to build a steam engine?
How can this be!
And this, to some extent, is why many people don’t understand it.
The investment is too great, but the output is unknown. Even though Luo Zhixue has revealed the future application scenarios of steam engines several times, some people think it is nothing more than this, and even think it is whimsical.
This cannot be blamed on their narrow vision. After all, they cannot predict the future... This is a common problem among people. Just like people in later generations, two thousand years ago, they could not imagine that they would enter the era of mobile Internet and smartphones just ten years later. The advent has almost completely changed people's lives and even changed social patterns.
Not to mention a time span of ten or eight years, even a year before the advent of the Apple mobile phone, most, no, almost all people could not imagine that society would undergo such big changes a few years later, even if Jobs himself probably couldn’t imagine it!
Who would have thought that thief, one of the oldest professions in mankind, which has existed for countless years, would face widespread unemployment in the mobile era...
The imagination of most ordinary people is actually very limited. Most people can only make simple deductions based on known information. Those who can make complex and far-reaching deductions are already outstanding talents. As for what information No, purely based on imagination... Either a madman or a genius.
Most of Luo Zhixue's ministers were just ordinary people, so it was difficult for many people to foresee what changes would happen after the advent of the steam engine.
But this is not important, what is important is that Luo Zhixue knows!
The steam engine was definitely the productivity multiplier during the first industrial revolution.
Nowadays, the production efficiency of the hydrodynamic factories in the Dachu 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 that of water-powered machinery. behind.
As for the manual workshop model, it is even less worth mentioning.
The steam engine can be used as a power source for the factory. In addition to giving the factory a more stable and larger power source, it can also free the factory from the constraints of rivers. In the future, when the factories of the Dachu Empire are choosing locations, they can choose to be without rivers, but A more suitable place to build a factory.
In addition to being a power source for factories and directly improving production efficiency, another major role of the steam engine is as a source of transportation power.
The specific embodiment is a series of agricultural machinery such as trains and steamships, as well as equally important steam engine tractors.
Agricultural machinery meant that fewer people could plant more land, which was of great strategic significance to the Chu Empire in developing its vast northern territory.
The northern territory is now very large, but relying on traditional oxen or even horse farming is unreliable, because many places are actually relatively desolate, the climate is quite extreme, and the average yield of the land is very low.
If you rely on manpower and accumulated energy, you won't be able to plant much land, so the output won't be much.
But it’s different when it comes to machinery. Agricultural machinery, even steam tractors, are not as efficient in agricultural production as human power or oxen and horses. With the use of steam tractors, a farmer can plant more land at the same time. .
In this case, even if the land in the north is barren, as long as the cultivated land area is large enough, the per capita yield can be increased to an acceptable or even good level.
This is of great strategic value for developing the northern territories and further increasing the domestic food supply.
More convenient transportation will allow more goods to circulate cheaply and quickly, which will further reduce logistics costs, while allowing factories to obtain more and cheaper raw materials and obtain lower-cost cargo transportation. way to sell goods to more places.
At the same time, the improvement of transportation, especially the large-scale application of trains, will allow more places to get rid of restrictions, and then be able to build factories and participate in the wave of industrialization, ultimately improving people's living standards.
For example, the grain produced by steam tractors in the north was harvested and transported to coastal ports by train, and then transported by ship to the Yangtze River Basin and other hinterlands of the empire where there were many people and little land.
Countless people will benefit from this process of growing, transporting, and selling food!
This is the real people’s livelihood!
As for the military uses brought by steam engines, such as steam battleships and trains for transporting troops and supplies, these are actually only insignificant practical applications brought by steam engines.
Steam engine, its biggest function is to improve production efficiency!
Whether it is used as factory power or transportation power, it ultimately serves the purpose of improving production efficiency.
This is also what Luo Zhixue wants!
As for military use, to be honest Luo Zhixue doesn't care too much!
For example, steam battleships may sound very good, but you have to know that with sail battleships alone, the Chu Empire can build hundreds of ships to rival the navy of any country in the world.
Steam battleships are things that are better if they are available, but it doesn't really matter if they are not available.
This thing is not a necessity!
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 really matter if it doesn't...
Now that there are no trains, the Chu Empire also reached Hami and continued to penetrate into the Turpan area. In the process, the Jungar people were beaten to death.
In the north, even when faced with thousands of miles of wilderness and even northern frozen soil, 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 southeastern region of Lake Baikal It also established resettlement settlements and established two strongholds in the northwest of Lake Baikal.
Relying on these major strongholds, the Chu army defeated the Russians in several battles, and finally took over Lake Baiga and the surrounding areas. They called Lake Baiga the 'North Sea' and also occupied the southeastern area of Lake Baiga. , established a 'Beihai Mansion'.
Not only that, the Chu Empire's garrison in the Lake Baiga area is also frequently moving 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 Waixing'an Mountains, another part of the Chu army stationed here also marched north along the upper reaches of another tributary of the Lena River.
The purpose of these two Chu armies was simple and pure, which was to try to go all the way north along the upper tributaries of the Lena River, and then expel the Russian colonists entrenched along the Lena River, and fully control the Lena River Basin.
In order to completely solve the security problem of the Lake Baiga area and the large areas of the northern territory of the empire in the Xing'anling area.
Therefore, it does not mean that you have to have a train to go to the barren mountains and forests to fight... In the era without trains, the Russians could colonize Siberia, and the Chu Empire could also fight the Russians in these places and control them. Desolate frozen soil...
It’s just a matter of how much it costs, how many benefits there are, and whether it’s worth it in the end.
For now, although the benefits of the furs and other local specialties obtained by the Dachu Empire from the northern region are not enough to make up for military expenditures, if coupled with the benefits of ensuring the security of the Far East regions such as Mobei and the Outer Xing'an Mountains, benefits, then he must have made a lot of money.
Apart from anything else, if Mobei Mongolia continues to move closer to the empire, it is estimated that Mobei Mongolia will be integrated into the Dachu Empire in a few years, which will make a lot of money.
At the same time, in the future, a large number of troops will be stationed in the Mobei Mongolian area or the outer Xing'anling area to guard against the Russians.
Luo Zhixue would rather spend some military money to directly kill the Russians now, and then push the empire's border westward to the Yenisey River Basin or even the Ural Mountains. Then he can fight as he likes without worrying about the strategic security of the hinterland. question.
From the perspective of national defense strategy and actual economic interests, fighting the Russian colonists is still a very profitable business.
Well, the premise is that you can win. If you lose, you will suffer a big loss.
But the combat effectiveness of the Da Chu Empire Army is still very impressive.
The guns and artillery are more advanced than the Russians, the infantry can engage in line combat, the artillery firepower is powerful, and the perfect army organizational structure and salary benefits and other measures have improved the morale and individual combat effectiveness of the Chu army. good.
In particular, the combat effectiveness of the first-class combat readiness divisions is not comparable to that of the Cossack mercenaries invited by the Russian colonies.
Even though the Cossack cavalry is quite good and can fight well against the Siberian natives, the cavalry in the Great Chu Empire, whose main members are the children of northern herders, is equally powerful, or even more powerful!
Whether it is a small-scale cavalry battle or a large-scale cavalry battle, the Chu cavalry dares to fight and can win in most cases.
In small-scale battles, the individual combat effectiveness of the northern herdsmen's children is beyond words... They are all veterans who have been riding horses since 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 have a great influence. Sometimes the Chu cavalry will be severely beaten by the Cossack cavalry in small-scale battles... But overall, the Chu cavalry still has a huge advantage. .
At the same time, sporadic cavalry battles also caused headaches for the Chu army's cavalry. Although the overall situation was advantageous, the top brass of the Chu army did not like this battle mode.
Because of this sporadic scale of cavalry operations, personal factors have a great impact, but apart from simply improving individual combat capabilities, it is difficult to effectively improve personal combat effectiveness tactically.
This will make many mid-level and senior generals very uncomfortable, especially those who have a staff background and claim to rely on their brains to fight wars.
In contrast, the Chu army's cavalry generals prefer medium-to-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 Chu army's cavalry were actually prepared for large-scale combat.
The most typical example is the dense formation charge, that is, the wall charge tactic. The purpose of the Chu cavalry to engage in this tactic was to engage in hedging operations with large groups of enemy cavalry.
When the scale of the battle reaches a certain level, the Chu Empire's cavalry's wall-mounted charge tactics and line tactics of dismounted infantry combat, coupled with the combination of cavalry and artillery, temporarily defeated the world's invincible cavalry...
It's just that there can't be any large-scale cavalry operations in this poor place like the Northern Icefield. Because of the extremely difficult supply situation in the Northern Icefield, neither the Russians nor the Chu army have actually deployed very few troops in this area. .
It has been nearly ten years since then, but the Chu army and Russia have never fought a battle with more than a thousand troops on either side...
On weekdays, they are mainly small-scale battles.
But don't think that the effect is not great just because of small-scale battles. In fact, the effect is very good if it is fought well. Comprehensive control of Lake Baiga is a typical example.
From the army to the navy, it can actually be seen that in the current military field, Luo Zhixue does not actually need steam engines.
It's better, but I can live with it without him!
But in terms of people's livelihood, Luo Zhixue must have a steam engine!
Therefore, after receiving new progress in the research and development of the steam engine project, and the project team said that they had even built a steam engine that could be put into practical use, Luo Zhixue temporarily changed his schedule and came over to take a look.
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 can be seen at a glance in a large semi-open test site.
Luo Zhixue took a few steps forward and took a closer look. The difference in appearance of this steam engine was similar to the steam engine test machine he saw last year. It already had the basic necessary elements of a steam engine.
The design drawings for the steam engine development of the Dachu Empire were actually the result of 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, today's steam engines are almost the same as the Watt steam engines in Luo Zhixue's memory. The drawing design indicators of this kind of steam engine can not only be used as a water lifter in 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 within a certain level. If an ordinary steam engine costs a few thousand yuan, it can be used with just one's teeth. At most, it will be invested in research and development.
But if one costs tens of thousands or more, then it may not be affordable.
The efforts of the Dachu Empire steam engine project team in the past ten years were actually all aimed at creating the steam engine on the design drawings...
Now, after more than ten years of hard work, they are finally close to correcting the problem.
At this time, Song Fufang, the leader of the steam engine project team, stepped forward and said: "Your Majesty, the steam engine in front of you is the Type 17 that we improved from last year's test model. This is what we have designed and manufactured over the years. The seventeenth test prototype is also the first test prototype that can operate for a long time!"
“In the previous test, Prototype No. 17 successfully operated continuously without failure for 18 hours. The subsequent failure was not the cylinder, boiler and other core components, but the bearings used could not withstand long-term high-speed operation. We chose After obtaining bearings with better performance, we will conduct a second continuous endurance test, and the test goal is to make the steam engine run continuously without failure for more than twenty-four hours!"
"Today we will also conduct multiple tests to obtain key data such as maximum horsepower value, time to maintain high horsepower, and coal consumption, and to test the pressure-bearing capacity of each component under some extreme working conditions for subsequent continuous improvement. ."
Luo Zhixue has always paid attention to the development progress of steam engines. He has also read the last endurance test report, and today he does not want to hear too many technical details from these people. If it is just to listen to the explanation, he does not need to come here at all. , just look at the test report.
He came here today just to see with his own eyes this steam engine that could be put into practical use.
So Luo Zhixue nodded slightly and said: "Everyone, you have worked hard. The preparations are done, let's start!"
He is looking forward to this!
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