The Ministry of Transportation wants to build long-distance railways and provide convenient, fast and low-cost long-distance ground transportation. Unfortunately, the cost of building railways is too high, and the transportation costs of horse-drawn vehicles will also be very high...
Those mine bosses are rich and have hard needs. At the same time, the railways in mining areas are generally not long, only a few kilometers or ten or twenty kilometers at most, so they invest money in building railways.
But the railway that the Ministry of Transport wants to build is a long-distance railway connecting two cities, which can easily be hundreds of kilometers long. The investment is huge...
Moreover, if carriage is used for transportation, the maintenance cost will be very huge, and it is estimated that the cost will not be recovered by then.
This is also the reason why the Ministry of Transport has been unable to make up its mind to build long-distance railways.
A lot of money was spent to build a railway that was extremely expensive. Not to mention achieving political achievements and getting promoted, it would be nice if he was not criticized to death by the officials in the court.
However, the emergence of the steam engine allowed officials of the Ministry of Transportation to see a new solution, which was to use steam engines to replace mules and horses as vehicle power.
By reducing costs in this way, it may be possible to increase speed and enable long-distance transportation.
Steam rolling stock and wrought iron rails, this is the solution that officials from the Department of Transportation want to see!
The only problem now is that the current steam engines are too long to be used as vehicle power!
Therefore, the Ministry of Transport has also invested money in the Steam Engine Research Institute of the Royal Institute of Technology to support their research and development, hoping to get a steam engine that can be used for transportation one day sooner.
That is, the latest and most important research project launched by the Institute of Steam Engines of the Royal Institute of Technology in the past year: high-pressure steam engines.
The Steam Engine Research Institute of the Royal Institute of Technology, since it completed a practical steam engine a few years ago, has not said that it will just go to Nanshan, but will continue to research steam engines.
They also want to develop a steam engine with greater power and lower energy consumption.
And if you want to increase motivation these days, there is no good way.
The simplest and most convenient way is to build a large steam engine. Whether it is building a large steam engine with multiple cylinders working together or expanding the volume of a single cylinder, they are all similar concepts. However, this approach does not require the steam engine research institute to develop it. The three major Steam engine manufacturers have begun to develop it themselves, especially the large-scale steam engines of Tianjin Machinery Company, which are very good. The single-cylinder volume of its large-scale steam engines is the largest, and it is also the manufacturer that dares to produce the most cylinders.
The power of its large steam engines can reach more than 300 horsepower. However, the size and weight of such large steam engines are too large. This kind of thing must be broken down into parts and then arrive at the installation site. After assembly, the volume is very large.
At the same time, the price is also extremely expensive, costing tens of thousands of Chu Yuan per unit.
At present, only some special industries can use it.
However, the path taken by steam engine research is not to simply increase the size of the steam engine, but to increase the power by increasing the air pressure of the steam engine cylinder.
By increasing the air pressure, the high-temperature and high-pressure steam naturally has greater kinetic energy, and can then push the piston to do greater work.
And by increasing the air pressure, the power of the steam engine can be increased several times or even dozens of times with the same cylinder volume.
This has been proven in some previous extreme steam engine experiments.
Using existing materials and technologies, they conducted pressure tests on the original steam engine and found that when the steam pressure increased to about 0.4 MPa, the power output increased by more than ten times.
The prototype machine used for testing had an output power of just over ten hp when using the standard 0.1 MPa, but when it was increased to 0.4 MPa, its power output soared to more than 100 hp.
This is also the reason why the Steam Engine Research Institute has continued to focus its main research efforts on the research of high-pressure steam engines in the past two years.
This is also the reason why Guangzhou Machinery Company established a high-pressure steam engine project a few years ago and entered into strategic cooperation with the Steam Engine Research Institute.
This is also because both the Navy and the Ministry of Transportation directly allocated funds to sponsor the Steam Engine Research Institute to develop high-pressure steam engines.
The prospects of high-pressure steam engines are so wonderful!
However, although the high-pressure steam engine has very good prospects, the technical difficulty is very high for the current Dachu Empire.
During the previous tests, the prototype basically couldn't last long. Sometimes it lasted for tens of seconds, and at most it only lasted for ten or twenty minutes. Then various problems would occur. High-pressure steam leaks, even cylinder explosion, etc.
The root of these problems lies in materials and processing technology issues.
If your materials and processing techniques are not good, the cylinders and steam pipes will not be able to withstand such high steam pressure, and various rupture problems will occur.
But there's that sentence again... Materials and processing techniques have always been a sinkhole. The Chu Empire has poured countless manpower and material resources into it in the past twenty years, but it has only scratched the surface of materials science. It wants to come up with more. If better new materials are available, it will be very difficult.
Therefore, the focus of today's steam engine research institute is not on design. If there is a good design for a high-pressure steam engine, just apply the original design and then increase the steam pressure. At most, it is just modifications, but basically The principles won't change much.
So what is the current research focus of the Steam Engine Research Institute?
Materials and processing technology...
This is actually what the Steam Engine Research Institute has been doing for the past ten years. When developing low-pressure steam engines before, they solved the material problems of each component one by one.
But these new materials are not available outside, so we have to start from scratch.
Therefore, most of the work of the Royal Institute of Technology's Steam Engine Research Institute is actually not to design steam engines, but to engage in material research and development.
This research institute, which bears the title of Steam Engine Research Institute, is truly the largest and most top-notch new materials research and development institution in the Chu Empire.
Unfortunately, the Iron and Steel Research Institute, which also belongs to the Royal Institute of Technology, is engaged in material research and development most of the time, but they focus more on the industrial mass production of new materials, while the Steam Engine Research Institute focuses on Research on the invention of new materials.
Most of the scientific research activities in the Dachu Empire are actually engaged in various messy materials research and development, either thinking about inventing new materials, or thinking about industrial production of the invented new materials.
This is true even for companies that do a lot of research. For example, Hantian Machinery Company, a top domestic machinery company that sells kitchen knives, iron pans, and machine tools, has invested most of its research funds in new materials.
Otherwise, their kitchen knives and iron pots would not sell so well.
Otherwise, their machine tools would not be so expensive, directly occupying at least 80% of the market share of high-end cutting machine tools.
Why they can occupy so much high-end market share is because their cutting tools perform well.
As for cutting machine tools, most of the technical content is actually on the cutter head...the remaining part is on the processing accuracy of the machine tool itself.
The machine tools of Hantian Machinery Company are top-notch in accuracy, and their machine tool tools are almost more than 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, apart from basic theory, the rest is a matter of materials. Even the processing technology is ultimately a matter of materials.
This is also the reason why the main scientific and technological research and development in the Dachu Empire is basically focused on the research and development of various new materials.
Because there are no materials, you can’t make the best advanced design.
High-pressure steam engines are the most typical example.
However, high-pressure steam engines will not be available for a while, but this will not affect the use of low-pressure steam engines in industrial applications.
After all, industrial steam engines do not have to be small-sized and high-power high-pressure steam engines. As long as the cost is acceptable, it can also be done by directly stacking materials.
But simply reducing the manufacturing cost and usage cost of a low-pressure steam engine is much simpler than building a high-pressure steam engine.
The prices of steam engines produced by the three major steam engine manufacturers have been reduced by almost half compared to the beginning. Moreover, the competition between the three major steam engine manufacturers is far from over, and is even only in the initial stage of rising.
In the future, the price of a sixteen-horse steam engine may be lowered to less than a thousand yuan.
As coal production continues to increase and coal prices continue to decline, coupled with the continuous improvement of low-pressure steam engine technology, energy consumption continues to decrease. In the future, there is hope that general industries, especially the textile industry, will also use steam engines.
With the large-scale application of steam engines, the production efficiency of the Dachu Empire's industrial sector has been further improved. The costs of various industrial products have continued to decline, and the output has further increased, greatly enriching the applications of domestic industrial products.
Luo Zhixue estimates that in a few years, ordinary factories may also be able to enter the steam age.
Water-powered factories will become history over time.
Luo Zhixue is looking forward to this day.
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However, industrial development takes time. One or two years is nothing, but it takes ten or twenty years to develop continuously, so there is no rush.
After entering Chengshun in July of the 20th year, Luo Zhixue did not focus on the development of industry and commerce, and even ignored the northern strategy against the Russians.
Now, Luo Zhixue's attention is focused on the Yellow River diversion project.
Not only Luo Zhixue, but actually most of the empire focused on the Yellow River diversion project.
After many years of continuous construction, spending tens of millions of Chu yuan, and organizing nearly one million people to leave their homes and settle in new places during the process, the Yellow River diversion project has finally come to an end.
In June of the 20th year of Chengshun, the third and final phase of the Yellow River diversion project was successfully completed. This also means that the Yellow River diversion can finally enter the final implementation stage: diverting the Yellow River to exit the Bohai Sea through Shandong.
Luo Zhixue, many officials in the DPRK and China, and even the people of several affected provinces have been waiting for this day for many years.
On July 13, at the imperial council meeting, Luo Zhixue finally approved the diversion of the Yellow River at the meeting after hearing the detailed report of the project!
After Luo Zhixue's order was issued, the Army Corps of Engineers, which had been prepared 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, and guide the water of the Yellow River into a predetermined new channel, then into the Daqing River in Shandong Province, and finally into the Bohai Sea.
The new river channels along the way, including the Daqing River, have been built in advance with dams, silt cleared, and curved river channels straightened. Especially in the downstream section of the Daqing River at its outlet, great efforts have been made to comb the river channels.
At the same time, more than ten flood storage areas were established, and Anshan Lake in Dongping County was even expanded. The large low-lying areas around it were included in the proposed lake scope.
When 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 even the second largest.
After subsequent expansion, Anshan Lake can not only be used as a flood storage area to accommodate a large amount of river water from the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River during the rainy season, so as to reduce the flood control pressure on the lower reaches of the Daqing River.
It can also serve as a source of water resources during the dry season in autumn and winter, continuously providing water to the Daqing River and 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 invading the Huaihe River, causing large-scale floods in Jiangbei, Anlu, Henan and other places, but also to enhance the shipping and irrigation values 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. Numerous irrigation canals were dug along the way to guide the Yellow River water to irrigate large areas of Shandong to increase local food production.
In the entire project, the actual construction volume was not large compared to later generations, because the Dachu Empire adopted expansion and expansion to reduce the difficulty of construction.
Officials have relocated a large number of people along the way, built numerous flood storage areas, and even planned to build a large man-made lake...and these require a lot of space.
How should I 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 relocate a large number of people along the way. This kind of thing is simply impossible in an ordinary feudal dynasty, 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 will not be able to move at all. 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 Chu Empire, the northern region suffered from natural and man-made disasters all year round, and the Shandong region suffered from various natural and man-made disasters frequently. The local population was not large anymore, so the number of people who needed to be relocated along the new river course was naturally not large.
Moreover, the Great Chu Empire finalized the Yellow River diversion project very early and began the migration long ago.
Otherwise, if it drags on for twenty or thirty years, even if the Chu Empire is powerful, it will not be possible to do this.
After all, that may involve the migration of tens of millions of people, which is simply impossible to do.
No matter whether you have money or not!
This is why Luo Zhixue decided early on to grit his teeth and change the course of the Yellow River, because if it is delayed for a long time, it will be impossible to do it. At that time, the Chu Empire will have no choice but to mend the Yellow River-Huaihe River Basin like the Ming Dynasty. , then there will be minor floods every year and major floods every three years.
In the past twenty years, the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, plus the Huaihe River, have been flooded almost every year, with major floods occurring every three years. To be honest, Luo Zhixue has been numb!
In the early years of the founding of the People's Republic of China, especially when he first occupied the Jiangbei and Anlu areas, Luo Zhixue became anxious whenever he heard about large-scale floods in Jiangbei and Anlu. He hurriedly carried out relief work, and then stared at various areas. Water conservancy facilities, especially the Hongze Lake flood control embankment and other projects.
Later, especially in the past few years, when Luo Zhixue heard that floods occurred in the Yellow River-Huaihe River Basin, Luo Zhixue was not upset at all. Regardless of whether it was a major flood or a small flood, there was a complete set of flood prevention and relief procedures, so that Officials just do it.
But if you want to say that there was any turmoil in his heart, there really wasn't any... Even in the 17th year of Chengshun, the Yellow River flood affected several provinces, resulting in large-scale food harvests and tens of thousands of people died in the flood. , Luo Zhixue is all calm.
If this had been done at the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, he would have personally gone to the disaster area to inspect and personally guide disaster relief matters.
The reason for this is simply that I was numbed by the flood.
The Yellow River has small floods every year, and big floods every three to five years. If he had been so surprised all the time, he would have become a psychopath.
However, after the Yellow River is successfully rerouted, all the past will no longer exist. As for the Yellow River carrying a large amount of sediment, the new Daqing River will sooner or later turn into an above-ground river, which will lead to frequent floods.
This conservative approach is still decades or even hundreds of years away.
By that time, science and technology will be more developed and infrastructure construction capabilities will be more powerful, so there will naturally be better flood control methods.
Besides, Luo Zhixue also promoted the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River early on, carrying out large-scale afforestation in the loess high-slope areas to reduce soil erosion and reduce the high sediment content of the Yellow River water.
You will definitely not see any effect for a while, but if you persist for decades, you will definitely see a big change.
To completely control the Yellow River is a long-term project that can take decades or even hundreds of years. It cannot be accomplished by one or two generations, but requires the continuous efforts of many generations.
And he can't control so much about the future. He can only set an example now and do his best while he is still alive. As for what will happen after he dies, that is a matter for his children and grandchildren. .
Now, after the artificial diversion of the Yellow River, I dare not say that floods will be eliminated, but it can also change the embarrassing situation of major floods that occur every year and every three to five years.
With the current strong flood control facilities in the new Yellow River channel, as well as a large number of flood storage areas prepared in advance, and the new river channel has no sedimentation, and has not yet evolved into an above-ground river, so for now, there is no problem with a flood that occurs once in 20 to 30 years. of.
As for the flood that occurs once in fifty years or even a hundred years...this cannot be stopped by human power, it can only depend on fate!
Not to mention the Yellow River, even if the Yangtze River encounters a flood that occurs once in fifty years or even a hundred years, large-scale flooding will occur.
There is always no comparison between human power and the power of nature.
In August of the 20th year of Chengshun, Luo Zhixue's decree was delivered to the "Governor-General's Yellow River Diversion Project Yamen" 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 level of the Yellow River was gentle.
The Governor of the Yellow River, Gui Hongwen, consulted with the Army Corps of Engineers, who were specifically responsible for the blasting, to confirm that everything was ready.
On August 14, Gui Hongwen officially ordered the blasting of the scheduled dam!
As the Army's engineering troops lit match ropes and used explosives to blast the planned blast embankment, Gui Hongwen watched as small gaps began to appear in the planned embankment, and then big gaps!
At the same time, the turbid Yellow River water flowed into the new river channel along the blasting gap... This is a brand-new river channel that was artificially widened and built using the local terrain and original small river channels.
Along this artificial new river channel, the river water will flow eastward. 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, which is the Daqing River, and finally flow all the way. Toward the Bohai Sea.
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 on a boat and followed the new river course, preparing to watch the movement of the Yellow River water in person.
They followed the water of the Yellow River all the way into Anshan Lake, then arrived at Jinan, and finally went all the way east, heading straight to the sea!
When Gui Hongwen watched the water of the Yellow River pour into the Bohai Sea, he couldn't help but shed tears!
He has been working on the Yellow River diversion project for more than ten years, starting from a small official, then to a mid-level official responsible for the construction, the right minister of the Ministry of Water Resources, and now the Governor of the Yellow River, who is fully responsible for the Yellow River diversion project.
No other high-ranking official in the entire empire worked harder on this project than he did.
More than ten years of hard work finally bore fruit today.
So he cried and laughed too!
Not long after, the Yellow River was successfully redirected and was rushed to Jinling City without any mistakes along the way. The senior officials of the Dachu Empire were jubilant.
The Da Chu Di Newspaper will publish relevant news in a large space in the next national edition.
The Yellow River has ushered in a new chapter!
And Luo Zhixue has not forgotten the rewards for meritorious personnel!
Gui Hongwen, who was the governor of the Yellow River diversion matter, was the first to be affected and was directly appointed as the Minister of Water Resources. Although Gui Hongwen himself was a second-rank official and also served as the right minister of the Ministry of Water Resources, it seemed normal that he would be directly promoted to the Minister, but in fact this was It was a leapfrog promotion because there was a Zuo Shilang in the middle.
Although the positions of left and right ministers, governors, governors of the Yellow River, and governors of the Yangtze River in the Chu Empire were all from the second grade.
But in reality, there is a big difference. Even though in theory these second-rank officials can be promoted to the second-rank minister, in fact, according to the rules of previous years, generally only Zuo Shilang of powerful departments and governors of important provinces can be directly promoted to minister.
The position of Governor of the Yellow River is equivalent to that of a governor of a small or medium-sized province or a right minister of an ordinary department. He is also separated from the minister, even if he is the minister of the Ministry of Water Resources, by a left minister of an ordinary department.
But Luo Zhixue gave him a leapfrog promotion. According to Gui Hongwen's age, even if he had to wait for many years, he could become a co-organizer of the Council of Ministers.
This shows how big the reward is.
As for the Minister of Counselor, don’t expect this. Although water conservancy affairs are very important, they can only be regarded as peripheral in the core of the empire’s power. In the past twenty years, no minister of the Ministry of Water Resources and other ordinary departments has been able to become a counselor in office. Minister of State.
The civil servants who can become counselors have basically remained unchanged in the past twenty years. They are basically ministers with a background in finance or taxation, and are mainly responsible for money and finance.
A person from the Ministry of Personnel or the Supervisory Office, mainly in charge of people and anti-corruption affairs.
A person from the Ministry of Industry or the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, mainly in charge of industrial and commercial economic affairs, including transportation, construction, etc.
He came from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and is responsible for agriculture, animal husbandry, livelihood relief, immigration and other matters, as well as water conservancy. The Ministry of Water Resources is generally in charge of the minister of state who is responsible for people's livelihood affairs.
Of course, the above-mentioned division of labor is not absolute. What the Counselor is responsible for will change frequently. Sometimes it is possible for a Counselor who came from the Inspectorate to be in charge of the Ministry of Industry... Well, it is usually for the purpose of establishing official capital enterprises. of anti-corruption work.
Gui Hongwen's ability to survive as a co-organizer is already the limit. Even if Luo Zhixue gives him a generous reward, it will be difficult for him to reach the rank of counselor minister.
In addition to Gui Hongwen and other meritorious personnel who currently vote on the Yellow River diversion matter, Luo Zhixue also gave awards to officials who previously served in the Yellow River diversion yamen, participated in the Yellow River diversion matter, and made outstanding contributions. Reward.
I won’t say that I was transferred from my original position, so the credit has nothing to do with you.
Well, the same is true for responsibility. The officialdom of the Great Chu Empire does not pay attention to things like predecessors planting trees and future generations enjoying the shade. As long as it is you who did it, even if you were transferred after half of the work, then the subsequent discussion When merit is rewarded, your share is indispensable.
What's yours is yours!
This also greatly stimulates the enthusiasm of officials to do practical work, and also prevents officials from one-sidedly pursuing political achievements during their term of office in order to achieve political achievements that can be used by themselves.
On the contrary, when discussing merit, life-long system is emphasized, and pursuit of responsibility also pays attention to life-long system. You will never just slap your ass and leave after doing a crappy project. Once something happens, no matter where you are, you will be unlucky.
In terms of clear rewards and punishments, Luo Zhixue has always done better.
Otherwise, with unclear rewards and punishments, he would not be able to conquer such a huge country with a group of founders, let alone allow his ministers to maintain their passion and open up a new era!
Because Luo Zhixue let them all know that as long as you can achieve good results, you can be promoted and make a fortune!
In the same way, if you dare to mess around, your share will not be lost if your family is confiscated and your family is exterminated!
(End of chapter)
