The successful trial of the Zheng He caused a huge sensation in Guangzhou, and as Da Chu Di News subsequently published the news of the successful trial of the Zheng He, it also caused a wave of heated discussions about steamships in China. .
Relatively speaking, the discussion is smaller than that of trains, but the overall hot discussion is still very large, and many people pay attention to it.
In addition to comparisons in the navy and shipping industry, many local governments are also comparable.
Even compared to trains, some local governments prefer steamers.
These places are basically places with rivers and lakes that can provide shipping. If the terrain is not very good, there are many mountainous areas, which makes the cost of railway construction high, and there is no hope of railway construction in a short time, these places It will be more like a steamship.
For example, Guangdong, Guangxi, Thang Long-Yunnan, Fujian, Jiangxi, Sichuan and other areas with poor terrain, large-scale railway construction, especially in provinces where outbound railways are difficult, are very difficult for steam ships.
They hoped that the convenience of steamships could solve the problem of long-distance transportation.
In addition to these provincial-level local governments, there are actually a large number of prefectural-level local governments, and they also operate steamships.
Railways still have relatively large limitations in a short period of time. The huge investment in railways is destined to be a long process. According to the construction strategy currently finalized by the empire's high-level officials, priority is given to economically developed areas and plains. Topography is given priority, and north-south and east-west strategic trunk lines are given priority.
This means that in the next ten or even twenty years, it will still be impossible for many places in the country to be connected to trains. Even if a province itself has a railway, it is impossible for railway lines to reach every prefecture and every county.
And how do these local prefectures and counties need to connect with the outside world, have convenient transportation, and develop their economy?
Land transportation still relies on horse-drawn carriages for a short period of time, but the transportation volume of horse-drawn carriages is small and the cost is high. Therefore, if there are rivers available, then river transportation becomes the best solution.
They did this in the past too.
However, sailboats were used in the past. It was okay to go down the river, but it was very troublesome to go upstream. It was not that it was impossible to go, but it was slow, expensive and very troublesome.
But now that steamships have been developed, the problem of reverse flow in river transportation will be directly solved.
There is great potential for inland water transport.
For this reason, some local governments with a keen sense of smell are already thinking about introducing steam ships, building docks for steam ships to berth, building coal warehouses and other infrastructure to facilitate the use of steam ships, so as to vigorously develop steam shipping.
As long as transportation is developed, many specialties in these places can be transported to the outside world through cheap steam shipping, and cheap industrial raw materials or industrial finished products can also be brought from the outside world.
These will have a huge impact on the development of local economy and the improvement of people's livelihood.
Many local governments operate steamships, and the top brass of the empire are no exception.
In late April, as soon as Luo Zhixue received the news from Guangzhou that the steamer's trial voyage was successful, he had already convened his ministers to discuss corresponding countermeasures. …
What countermeasures?
Naturally, how to make better use of steamships to contribute to the empire's economy, the empire's people's livelihood, etc.
At the same time, we must also balance the competition with railway development and strive to be complementary rather than competitive as much as possible.
In early May, after several executive meetings, the empire officially issued a series of policies to support and encourage the development of the shipping industry.
Including providing certain tax incentives to ship manufacturers and providing certain tax incentives to steam shipping companies, this will reduce the production and operating costs of ships as much as possible and accelerate the popularity of ships.
Higher-level financial support and subsidies will be provided to local governments for measures such as building new docks and coal warehouses, and certain higher-level financial subsidies will be given to local governments to dredge waterways and other financial support for local governments.
In addition to numerous supportive policies, the empire's top officials also issued instructions to the Railway Corporation, shipping companies, and provincial and local governments, requiring relevant enterprises and local governments to balance the competition between trains and ships, avoid direct competition as much as possible, and try to be as effective as possible. complementary.
At the same time, we must avoid blind investment and spend money wisely!
According to this principle, if some economies are not large, and the cost of building railways is relatively high, and there are external river connections, railway construction should be postponed and steam shipping should be given priority.
At the same time, direct competition with the inland shipping industry must be avoided in the selection of railway lines.
It is required that when conducting strategic planning for new railway lines and shipping lines, timely notification of information, mutual understanding, and avoidance of potential competitive conflicts must be achieved.
Now that the empire's overall national power is limited, it can't be wasted by messing around.
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With the issuance of a series of policies, everyone at the Guangzhou Shipyard burst into laughter. They were the first in the country to put a high-pressure steam engine on a ship and successfully test it.
Even after the successful test of the Zheng He, they worked overtime to design a variety of inland river ship types, including small steamships, ferry steam ships, long-distance passenger ships, ordinary bulk cargo ships, and specialized ore ships. Transport vessels, etc., with displacement ranging from tens to hundreds of tons.
And took advantage of the opportunity to sign the first batch of steamship orders with Liuhe Shipping Company. After Liu Jiaquan saw the trial voyage of the Zhenghe, he bought the Zhenghe on the same day and refitted it, mainly to improve passenger transportation conditions and prepare It is used to carry out passenger and cargo flights in the Pearl River Basin.
Of course, more of it is used for exploratory experiments to train steamship captains, maintenance personnel and other technical talents, and at the same time to accumulate various experiences in operating steamships.
In addition to the Zheng He, Liu Jiaquan also signed a batch of orders with the Guangzhou Shipyard to order a total of fifteen steamships with a total displacement of more than 4,600 tons, including a large steamship with a displacement of more than 800 tons. Inland river shallow water steamer.
This is only the first batch of orders. At the same time, they also signed a second batch of priority orders. The number of second batch of intention orders has reached 23 ships, with a total displacement of more than 10,000 tons, including several offshore steam ships of larger tonnage. ship.
These ships are not uniform, and come in various types. Most of them are shallow-water inland river ships with a displacement of two to three hundred tons, which are used for both passenger and cargo purposes, and large ones include offshore steamships with thousands of tons. …
The propulsion methods of these ships are actually different... After all, the construction time span of these dozens of ships will be very long. The early ships will adopt the method of double-sided paddle wheels. If the Guangzhou Shipyard later helps the Navy to develop propellers If the propulsion method is good, it will be changed to propeller propulsion method.
However, whether it is propelled by a paddle wheel or a propeller, it still comes with a sail. At least the steamships built in the early stage will carry sails.
This is mainly to provide insurance for high-pressure steam engines whose technology is not very stable... Who knows when the steam engine will break down, but when sailing on the sea or on long-distance voyages, you can't lose power just because the steam engine breaks down. !
Unpowered ships are very prone to various accidents.
For safety, two sets of power are necessary, so all sail dual power is used.
In addition to safety, continuing to use sails is also to reduce operating costs. Coal is still quite expensive these days. Liuhe Shipping Company must take the cost of coal into consideration!
Therefore, when sailing, coal should be saved if possible.
Besides, when the wind is smooth, sailing will not be much slower than pure steam engine-powered sailing, and it is even faster in many cases...
In addition, the use of sails to compress the running time of the steam engine not only reduces the cost of coal use, but also allows the steam engine to avoid long-term high-pressure operation... The quality of high-pressure steam engines these days is not very reliable. It doesn't matter if you keep running it for a day or two. However, if it continues to run for five or six days, the probability of failure is very high. If it continues to run for more than ten days? Haha, let me show you the explosion in minutes!
In short, the instruction manual given by Guangzhou Machinery Company for all models of their high-pressure steam engines warns users not to run the steam engine continuously for more than 24 hours without stopping, otherwise there will be a great risk of failure.
Liuhe Shipping Company has a total of two batches of orders, and the tonnage of the ordered ships reaches 15,000 tons, which shows its huge ambition!
Liu Jiaquan was very ambitious. He wanted to build a regular route along the empire's mainland coast, using large steam passenger ships with thousands of tons to operate from the mouth of the Liaohe River in the north to Tianjin, and then to Shanghai, Ningbo, Fuzhou, and Guangzhou.
There will also be a Yangtze River flight from Shanghai to Hantian on the way.
The combined operation of a coastal route and a Yangtze River route can provide passengers along the way with a more convenient and faster travel experience.
There is no need to worry about whether there is a monsoon or not. You can sail every twelve months of the year!
The Liu family was all determined to take the first bite of steamships. To this end, they spent huge sums of money to purchase steamships as soon as possible, preparing to build two major trunk routes at one go, and at the same time, they were also preparing to deeply cultivate the Pearl River Basin. Various short-distance routes within.
If the development on the Yangtze River side goes well in the future, he will also increase investment in the Yangtze River route and penetrate into the tributaries of the Yangtze River, such as the Xiangjiang River, Ganjiang River, and Hanjiang River. In the future, he will even venture into the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. It is the Sichuan-Jiang route in the Sichuan section.
The Liu family is all ambitious and courageous, and they dare to invest huge sums of money to suppress steamships immediately.
You must know that steamships these days are not cheap...after all, high-pressure steam engines are quite expensive. The purchase cost of just these dozens of steamships is very high. …
What's more, shipping requires more than just ships, but also people... sailing a sailboat and driving a ship are completely different. The training of personnel alone costs a lot of money.
Then maintaining steamships is also a troublesome thing. Steam engines are delicate things. Even if the shipyard and Guangzhou Machinery Company promise to provide a certain warranty and train technical personnel for free, the cost of manpower training for the shipping company itself is also huge.
Finally, we have to consider the supply of coal and water along the way. Not every dock has abundant coal for supply. If the Liuhe Shipping Company wants to engage in large-scale steam shipping, it cannot count on the supply of coal along the way. There is coal locally...
It is best to build a coal warehouse at the dock of the predetermined city and reserve enough coal to avoid the ship sailing over and then being unable to come back because it cannot find the coal.
This series of investments is a big challenge for Liuhe Shipping Company.
The huge trust and huge orders from Liuhe Shipping Company also made the Guangzhou Shipyard smile from ear to ear!
Their previous investment in the research and development of the Zheng He steamship made them a huge success!
Their Guangzhou shipyard is about to take the first bite of fat from domestic steamships!
And the most wonderful thing is that they will have a monopoly on steamships, a new type of ship, for a long time to come.
Because they signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Guangzhou Machinery Company to cooperate in research and development through investment, and make reservations by giving a deposit in advance.
They obtained the Guangzhou Machinery Company's advance purchase plan for a total of more than 100 naval high-pressure steam engines and the subsequent three-year priority purchase rights...
Through this series of cooperation agreements, as long as they are willing, their Guangzhou Shipyard can take over the high-pressure steam engines for civilian ships of Guangzhou Machinery Company in the next three years!
Three years is enough for them to swallow the first and most delicious bite of fat, and accumulate enough customers and market reputation, establish enough experience in building steamships, etc., and in three years' time, they can become other shipyards. When they also obtained high-pressure steam engines and started building steam ships, their Guangzhou Shipyard already had an absolute advantage in both hard and soft power.
This agreement has made other shipyards jealous. Nowadays, the domestic demand for steamships is so huge and the market is so hot... But the core component of steamships, naval high-pressure steam engines, can only be produced by Guangzhou Machinery Company. production, and its production capacity in the next three years is basically covered by Guangzhou Shipyard!
If we can't get involved in the steamship market within three years, the day lilies will be cold in three years.
what to do?
What else can be done? Guangzhou Machinery Company has nothing to do anyway. They previously signed a cooperative research and development agreement with Guangzhou Shipyard... The Guangzhou Shipyard also paid for the research and development of this naval steam engine, and it also paid for it. A lot of money.
For this thing, Guangzhou Machinery Company cannot bypass the Guangzhou Shipyard and supply other manufacturers in a short period of time.
After all, there is only so much production capacity, and if the production capacity is all taken care of, what else can be done. …
As for expanding production capacity, they are also doing it, but this will take time, and even if the output is expanded... there is a high probability that it will still be bought by Guangzhou Shipyard with priority purchasing rights.
In this regard, Guangzhou Machinery Company was also a little helpless. If they had known earlier, they would not have resorted to borrowing chickens to lay eggs... because they discovered that at first they thought the R&D funds provided by Guangzhou Shipyard were chickens...
But now, in fact, a series of technologies of their high-pressure steam engine prototype are chicken...
After Guangzhou Machinery Company fails to achieve a breakthrough, will other shipyards sit back and wait for death?
Are you kidding? These large-scale shipbuilding companies in China are not vegetarian. You think they are useless if they don’t have high-pressure steam engines?
It was not developed before and no one had to use it. Now that it has been developed, they will use it if the Guangzhou Shipyard uses it.
Since it is not possible to purchase high-pressure steam engines directly from Guangzhou Machinery Company, then we will find another way... For example, we can cooperate with Guangzhou Machinery Company to set up a factory. We will pay for the people, site, and everything else, and Guangzhou Machinery Company will provide a technical license. or something, and then produce high-pressure steam engines for ships in the new company.
Wouldn't this bypass the Guangzhou Shipyard's right of priority in purchasing?
You said that Guangzhou Machinery Company attaches great importance to patents and does not easily adopt technology licensing. What is so difficult about this? Just impose a quantity limit and it will be done.
As long as we survive these three or four years and survive the shameless reservation purchase rights contract at Guangzhou Shipyard, everything will be enlightened.
The Guangzhou Machinery Company took a look and realized that this was indeed a solution. Anyway, it would definitely make more money, and it would not violate its contract with the Guangzhou Shipyard.
The most important thing is to be able to quickly seize the market of naval high-pressure steam engines and block the way of newcomers as much as possible.
It has now been more than half a year since the Type 21 high-pressure steam engine was successfully developed. During this time, the competitors of Guangzhou Machinery Company have not been idle.
At the end of last year, Tianjin Machinery Company announced that it would not give up until it produced high-pressure steam!
Although Dangtu Machinery Company did not shout any slogans, they acted more decisively and resolutely. They directly sold off many non-core assets, borrowed tens of thousands of dollars from the bank, and used the money to recruit people in one go. Hundreds of engineers, a large number of top engineers were recruited, and a large number of test equipment were purchased.
For no other reason than to overcome a series of technical difficulties in high-pressure steam engines in a short period of time, and at the same time to bypass the patent barriers established by Guangzhou Machinery Company.
The Guangzhou Machinery Company has applied for patents for a series of high-pressure steam engine technologies they have developed themselves, and the empire still attaches great importance to the patent system.
If you rashly infringe on other people's patents, even if everyone is a government-run enterprise, you will be in trouble.
Therefore, whether it is Tianjin Machinery Company or Dangtu Machinery Company, if they want to develop their own high-pressure steam engine, they cannot directly use the Guangzhou Machinery Company's unique patent. They must find another way to bypass the patent.
The three major steam engine manufacturers in the empire emerged because they obtained the general authorization for low-pressure steam engines at the same time, and quickly grew into the three major steam engine manufacturers in the empire. Later, although dozens of manufacturers also obtained general patents for steam engines and entered the industry, none of them Can keep up with the pace of these three major manufacturers. …
Nowadays, the high-pressure steam engine developed first by Guangzhou Machinery Company can be imagined, which has brought huge pressure to Tianjin Machinery Company and Dangtu Machinery Company.
Nowadays, these two companies are trying their best to break through the high-pressure steam engine technology.
The technological research and development of these two steam manufacturers has also received support from many domestic shipping companies, even two major armed trading companies and the navy.
Although other shipping companies can also obtain high-pressure steam engines by cooperating with Guangzhou Machinery Company to set up factories and obtain a limited number of technical authorizations, the two major armed trading companies and the navy use military ship-based steam engines, which are inherently Not within limits.
So they can all get high-pressure steam engines from Guangzhou Machinery Company.
But Youdao is that all eggs cannot be put in the same basket. They don't want to see that there is only one manufacturer in China that can produce high-pressure steam engines, and they are very strict about complete technology authorization and do not provide complete technology authorization to external parties at all.
Therefore, it is understandable that they want to support other high-pressure steam engine manufacturers.
Therefore, two machinery companies, Tianjin and Dangtu, have also received support from these companies or institutions.
Now we are working hard to develop a high-pressure steam engine, but when it will be ready is still unknown. If we are lucky, it may only take a few months. If we are not lucky, it may take several years.
But it can be done anyway. After all, Guangzhou Machinery Company has already figured out the technical routes for them. What they have to do now is not to start from scratch, but to figure out how to bypass a series of exclusive features of Guangzhou Machinery Company. Just a patent.
If patents are not considered, they can actually mass-produce high-pressure steam engines now... After all, the production of this thing is not the work of Guangzhou Machinery Company itself... but is based on the overall basic technology of the Dachu Empire.
The fact that Guangzhou Machinery Company can build it actually means that other companies can also copy their technical route and build high-pressure steam engines.
After all, many equipment and materials belong to other companies, such as Hantian Machinery Company's large-scale advanced high-precision boring machines and a series of other high-progress machine tools, advanced materials from several smelting companies, and precision spare parts produced by some special companies.
As long as the two machinery companies in Tianjin and Dangtu purchase the equipment and purchase the parts, they can actually produce them directly.
The problem is infringement!
Just when the domestic industry was in turmoil due to steamships and fierce competition, the Songjiang Railway was officially opened to traffic as scheduled.
On June 28, the 22nd year of Chengshun, after more than one and a half years of construction, the Songjiang Railway was officially completed and opened to traffic.
On the day it opened to traffic, more than a dozen passenger carriages pulled by a Type 21 locomotive carried more than 700 early adopters and drove eastward from Shanghai County North Station. The skeletal train puffed out white smoke with two Moving forward at a speed of ten kilometers per hour.
Not only the passengers in the car were amazed, but also the people watching the excitement along the way were even more amazed!
The opening of the entire Songjiang Railway to traffic means that the Chu Empire has entered the train era. Even though there are only more than 30 kilometers of trains in front of it, many workers have already begun to repair the Susong Railway in another section of Shanghai North Railway Station. Intensive construction.
In Suzhou, there are also a large number of workers carrying out construction. The Su-Song Railway, which is being constructed in a double-headed manner, is expected to complete the basic project and open to traffic in the second half of next year.
At the same time, construction of several other links of the Jiangnan Railway, such as the railway from Jinling City to Zhenjiang and the railway from Jinling City to Dangtu Industrial Zone, has also begun.
If all goes well, the segmented construction of the railway from Zhenjiang to Suzhou will also begin next year.
The Jiangnan Railway is expected to be fully opened to traffic within three to four years.
After the Songjiang Railway was opened to traffic on June 28, the modified Zheng He was officially put into commercial operation in the Pearl River on July 19.
The new era of the Great Chu Empire has arrived!
