Volume 4: Hot! The whole world is a warring state Chapter 663 Technology is not outdated
The year 1638 was the 20th year of the Tianqi reign in the Ming Dynasty.
Before he knew it, Zhu Youdong had been on the throne of this empire for twenty years.
In the past twenty years, the Ming Dynasty has been thriving, and the people's lives have been getting better and better. Therefore, since last year, both officials and the public have been planning to hold a celebration for the emperor's 20th anniversary of his accession to the throne.
Zhu Youdong seemed indifferent to the actions of officials and citizens: If you are in the mood to do it, just do it. If you want me to be a mascot, I can attend the event, but don't expect me to be very enthusiastic. As for the flattering officials who wrote to the emperor and said that the emperor's civil and military achievements have surpassed the Han and Tang dynasties, and with the achievements of the emperor, he can definitely go to Mount Tai to offer sacrifices to the gods. Zhu Youdong sneered after reading it: Such memorials will definitely be kept in the palace and not sent out. Not only that, these officials who wanted to put me on the spot were recorded in his little notebook and became the focus of the next inspection in Beijing - their official careers were over here.
Humph, if he was the only traverser in this plane, he would have been enthroned long ago, why would you flatterers take your turn? Unfortunately, there are only two opponents left in this plane. And both of them are very strong!
So, at the beginning of this year, Zhu Youdong, who had no idea of achieving success, first went to Fangshan Academy of Sciences.
"Your Majesty is welcome."
"Everyone, please don't be so polite. I have been here many times. As usual, everyone should report on the progress of the projects they are responsible for last year and any difficulties they encountered."
"As you wish." Xu Guangqi, who had taken off the numerous affairs of the Ministry of Industry and was now in charge of Fangshan Academy of Sciences, was already 76 years old. Although his health looked good at present, thanks to the progress of medicine, he was still old after all.
He slowly turned around, looked around, and then said to Sun Yuanhua: "In that case, please let Chu Yang come first."
"Yes." Fifty-seven-year-old Sun Yuanhua stepped out and said, "Your Majesty, the firearms laboratory that I am in charge of has made two major achievements last year. First, we successfully cast a 305mm heavy artillery. According to the naming rules of our Ming Dynasty weapons, this cannon is temporarily named Longteng. It has a caliber of 25 times, a bore length of 6,800mm, and a body weight of 32 tons. If armor-piercing shells are used, each shell weighs 330 kilograms. The effective range is 8,000 meters, and the maximum range can reach about 10,000 meters. After preliminary testing, the steel plates on the existing 5,000-ton ironclad ships of our Ming Dynasty will be severely deformed or even directly penetrated after one shot. Two shots will definitely penetrate it."
"Very good. Thank you for your hard work, Mr. Sun."
"I dare not. I am only the chief engineer of the firearms laboratory. The real concrete work is done by the young people below. To be honest, it was this young man who played a key role in the development of the Longteng Cannon."
As he spoke, Sun Yuanhua pulled a slightly nervous young man out of the line and said, "Your Majesty, this man is Zhu Kuiyou, and he is only thirty years old this year. During the development of the Longteng Cannon, he successfully developed a large plate rolling machine, which is the second major achievement of our firearms laboratory this year. The emergence of this new equipment has completely changed the way we cast cannons. If it weren't for him, even if we built such a huge cannon, I think the quality would not be very reliable."
"Zhu Kuiyou? Well, are you a descendant of the Han King?"
"Your Majesty, I am the tenth-generation grandson of King Han Xian (the first King Han of the Ming Dynasty). However, my ancestors have been lieutenants of Fengguo since three generations ago."
"I see. Speaking of which, my new policy for the royal family has been in place for twenty years. What do you think?"
"I think it's great. When the emperor implemented the new policy for the royal family, I was only ten years old. At that time, my house was full of books, but there were only a few grains of rice in the rice jar. In order to survive, my father had to set up a stall on the street to write letters for people. Even so, he was still worried that he would be reported and the stall would not be able to operate. After the emperor's new policy began, my father started a business of writing four treasures of the study, and the family soon had enough food and clothing. Only then did I have the qualifications to study and go to school."
"Hahaha, very good, very good. Zhu Kuiyou, I am very happy to see you today."
Of course he was happy, because such a young scientist was born entirely because of his butterfly wings. The emergence of such talents, on the one hand, proved the correctness of his royal family policy. On the other hand, it also showed that the scientific research and teaching of the Ming Dynasty had entered the right track: it could independently and continuously cultivate high-end talents.
This is completely different from the feeling he had when he used the foresight of a time traveler to collect scientists such as Xu Guangqi and Sun Yuanhua who were famous in the historical plane.
"Your Majesty." Seeing that the legendary majestic emperor was so kind, Zhu Kuiyou became a little bolder: "The birth of this Longteng Cannon is not only due to the credit of my plate rolling machine. In fact, in order to withstand the impact of nearly half a ton of shells on the barrel in the future, the strength of the gun body must be high. But steel, the higher the strength, the greater the brittleness. If it is too brittle, it is impossible to roll the plate."
"That makes sense, so how did you solve this problem?"
"This is all thanks to the materials laboratory under the command of Her Royal Highness the Princess. They came up with a new alloy formula that ensures the strength of the cannon while also making it tough enough to withstand plate curling. At the same time, Mr. Liangfu (Wang Zheng) developed a new welding method, which made it possible for this giant cannon to be born..."
As expected, the further science and technology develops, the more it requires the cooperation of multiple disciplines. Once the research and development of a certain discipline cannot keep up, it will cause an obvious short board effect.
Well, speaking of which, the Spanish have already installed cannons with a caliber of more than 300mm on that 10,000-ton ship and put them into practical use. It seems that the construction of the discipline system in Europe is also very good.
Thinking of this, Zhu Youdong's mood unconsciously became a little heavy.
Then he naturally turned his attention to Song Yingxing, who was in charge of electrical research.
"Your Majesty." Seeing Zhu Youdong's eyes, Song Yingxing understood what Zhu Youdong meant. He stepped out of the crowd and said, "Your Majesty, the electrical research laboratory also achieved some results last year. Well, we followed your instructions and used tungsten filaments as wicks to make electric lamps that can continuously illuminate. Currently, batteries are used to provide energy, and a light bulb can continuously illuminate for more than . We also used steam turbines to drive generators according to the electromagnetic induction theory proposed by your Majesty, and we can generate electricity continuously. However, the problem now is the current intensity and resistance. We are not sure what fixed formula exists here. These still need a lot of experiments to provide data before they can be summarized and sorted out. We also conducted preliminary research on transformers according to your instructions, but since the relationship between current intensity and resistance is still unclear, the research and development of transformers is actually a bit empty..."
"..." After a moment of silence, Zhu Youdong sighed, "In theory, scientific research has its own rules, and I know that it cannot be urged by orders. But, Chang Geng, you just heard that this Longteng Cannon is too heavy. The army can only load it on a train. But even if it is a train gun, such a heavy shell will cause great damage to the train and rails when it is fired on land. Therefore, its real use still depends on the navy. And the navy needs big ships to install such a big gun. And the big ships must be electrified."
"I know that the navy had two ironclad ships sunk by the giant ships of the Western pirates in America." Song Yingxing lowered his head in shame. "Because of my incompetence, my navy officers and men suffered such losses. I feel very sorry. The electrical laboratory I lead is already working overtime..."
"Okay, Chang Geng, I don't mean to blame you. In short, research needs to be accelerated, but safety, the safety of researchers, is always the most important."
"Yes, I've made note of it."
After Song Yingxing left, Zhu Youdong looked at Fu Shan again: "How are you doing?"
"Your Majesty." Fu Shan was no longer as lively as he was when he first arrived at Fangshan. He was more calm and composed. "With the help of many colleagues, I have developed a new dye and a new material that can insulate electricity in recent years. Please take a look, Your Majesty."
Taking a piece of lavender cloth and a piece of black, light but relatively sturdy material, Zhu Youdong looked at them carefully for a while and nodded with satisfaction: "Is this lavender the dye you mentioned?"
"Yes, Your Majesty. In recent years, I have consulted a lot of information and visited many construction sites. Finally, I found a milky white crystal in the salt mine of Ziliujing, Sichuan. This is the condensation in the chimney after the local salt mine boiled brine with natural gas. It has excellent plasticity. I originally wanted to use it as a basis for plastic research. Who knew that after it was mixed with the solution, it actually appeared a lavender color, and it did not fade after being dyed on clothes, so... Of course, this is just an accidental discovery."
"It's not bad to make an accidental discovery. After this new dye is on the market, Fangshan will have more funds." Zhu Youdong then carefully weighed the 'new material' that Fu Shan handed to him.
Well, it feels rough, but light, and... He applied gentle force, and the material quickly deformed as his hands applied force in different directions, and finally formed an obvious white crease at the point of force.
"Your Majesty, this thing is also extracted from chimney condensation. However, it is different from the milky white crystals mentioned above. I extracted it from the black sediment on the chimney wall of a coal-fired steel plant, and then reprocessed it to get this thing. This thing can insulate electric current, has a certain degree of corrosion resistance to acids and alkalis, and can always maintain its shape at temperatures below 90°. It just doesn't feel very good, and it is also quite brittle."
"Hahaha~ Fu Shan, very good, very good. This is phenolic plastic!"
"Bakelite? Your Majesty, are you saying that I have successfully developed plastic?"
This, of course, was successful. After Fu Shan's explanation, Zhu Youdong finally remembered: the black sediment in the chimney that uses coal as fuel contains coal tar. It contains substances such as benzene and phenol. And these things are the main raw materials of the phenolic plastic series!
However, compared with polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic that Osman had invented a long time ago, phenolic plastic still has a considerable gap in physical properties and scope of use. However, Ibrahim is a material expert, so this cannot be compared. On the contrary, Fu Shan, a scientist who changed his career, invented phenolic plastic based on celluloid in just seven or eight years, which is already very remarkable!
"Very good, Fu Shan, I am very satisfied. How about it, have you thought of a name for this thing? I can tell you that this thing can be used as an insulating shell for circuits after electrical research matures in the future. It will also be useful in all aspects of people's lives. If this series of plastics is named after you, Fu Shan, your name will soon spread throughout the country and be remembered for generations!"
