1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 675 The Threshold of the Industrial Revolution

On May 5, Hanzhou, Montenegro (near Palmerston, Australia today).

The Ottoman envoy traveled tens of thousands of miles and went through hardships. It took more than four months to arrive at Hanzhou Continent, but they were not received by King Qi and the Prime Minister immediately.

Qi Tian and several important cabinet ministers were all in Heishan City to inspect and see the latest improvement of the steam engine.This technology, which is regarded as the most important and critical technology in Qi, has been continuously optimized and improved since it entered research and manufacturing more than ten years ago.Although I don’t understand why Your Majesty is so persistent and persistent in this technology, the Ministry of Industry and Science and Technology (separated from the Industrial Division in 1650 and established the Science and Technology Research and Production Department), as well as Tiangong Institute and Montenegro Research Institute follow Your Majesty’s instructions, and still respect this technology. Huge resources have been devoted to continuous research and testing of this technology.

Today, in several large coal mine pits in Hanzhou, the steam pumps in use have undergone four major upgrades.Five years ago, following Qi Tian's reminder, the separate condenser was successfully applied to the steam engine to avoid heat loss.The coal consumption of the entire steam engine is reduced by more than 40.00%, and the use of the steam engine is greatly expanded.In addition to the coal mining industry, it is also widely used in the pumping operations of copper mines and tin mines.

However, although the steam engine partially escapes the energy consumption limitation of coal, it can be used in more scenarios.But it is still some distance away from being used as a provider of industrial power.According to Qi Tian's idea, the final application of the steam engine must be able to gradually replace the current hydraulic applications, such as hydraulic boring machines, washing machines, stamping machines, abrasive tools, crushing machines, and textile machinery.

To achieve this, it is necessary to turn the reciprocating motion of the steam engine into a rotary motion, so that it can drive more manufacturing machines like the waterwheels and windmills currently in use.

Two years ago, Song Yingxing and others installed a flywheel and a crank on the steam engine, converting reciprocating motion into rotary motion for the first time.However, this device is not stable enough during operation to reliably and continuously output power, so that the working effect of the machine becomes extremely unstable, which greatly affects the manufacturing accuracy.

In February of this year, a senior craftsman named Xu Tieniu invented a more advanced planetary gear rotation system, which solved this problem in one fell swoop, making the output of the steam engine no longer a reciprocating motion of the piston but a stable circular motion, making it an industrial General Dynamics in laying the groundwork.

After several months of testing, the latest steam engine with planetary gears has been able to run stably and continuously output power. For this reason, with the efforts of many craftsmen at the Black Mountain Industrial Research Institute, this improved steam engine is connected to a large stamping machine. On the machine, it completely replaces its hydraulic device and provides continuous power for the stamping machine.

When Qi Tian heard about it, he immediately led a group of cabinet ministers, scholars, and master craftsmen to visit Heishan City to witness the coming of the era of steam engines in Qi State.

The stamping machine driven by the steam engine continued to work for more than an hour, and processed more than [-] iron parts. During this period, the power output was very stable, and the processing accuracy was also comparable to that of the previous hydraulic drive. This made many scholars and master craftsmen present particularly excited.

The continuous drought last year and this year caused many rivers in the northern and eastern regions of Hanzhou to dry up and stop flowing, which not only seriously threatened agricultural production, but also had a fatal impact on various types of machinery manufacturing that rely on hydraulic output.Many factories and mines built along the river or along the reservoir have more or less shut down and reduced production.

Now, with a steam engine with stable output power, many factories in Qi State will be able to completely get rid of the limitation of hydraulic power output one after another. As long as there is sufficient coal, the factories will continue to produce continuously.

"Increase improvements immediately, and strive to make a steam engine that can provide power for textile machinery as soon as possible!" Qi Tian couldn't restrain his inner excitement. After more than ten years of continuous investment and support, he can finally obtain an industrially practical steam engine. Then, in the future, Spinning machines driven by steam engines, blowers, iron smelting machines and stamping machines, and even steam locomotives that can move on rails will all be widely used in the next ten or 20 years.Qi's industrial technology and industrial scale will achieve unprecedented breakthroughs.

This may allow Qi to enter the threshold of the industrial revolution more than 100 years ahead of schedule.

Qi's current textile industry has basically realized the mechanization of the industrial process from spinning to weaving, and further mechanization is a matter of power.A few years ago, the Ministry of Industry of the State of Qi installed hydraulic drives in the textile mills located in Kaiyuan (now Humpty Doo, Australia), Weihai (now Cairns, eastern Australia) and Yunyang (now Mackay, eastern Australia). Devices to replace part of the manual operation of textile machinery, so that the production efficiency is further improved.However, if there is not enough water in the river and the water level is too low, it will seriously affect the normal operation of the factory.

With the rapid development of Qi's textile industry, the cotton cloth produced almost monopolizes most of the Nanyang region and part of the Indochina Peninsula. It is slowly but firmly encroaching on the Indian cotton cloth market, and it is also exported to Japan and North Korea through Ryukyu.

As a labor-intensive industry, the textile industry has been an industry for the general public from the very beginning.This is an important exception compared with other high-tech handicrafts in the world.For example, the blacksmiths who made armor and the watchmakers who made mechanical clocks in the Middle Ages possessed unique skills, but their customer groups were relatively much smaller, while the products of the textile industry could be sold to tens of thousands of people.Not only that, but from a producer's point of view, this means that individual households can also join the industry as workshops.The prosperity of the textile industry in India and Ming Dynasty fully proves this point.

The textile industry and wool spinning industry dominated by Qi State, from the very beginning, were completely aimed at large-scale industrialization. Based on scale, mechanization, and standardization, the manufacturing cost of the entire industry was kept as low as possible to offset Han Chau has a distance disadvantage in the market.

At present, limited by the size of the domestic population, the raw materials of the local cotton spinning industry have seriously failed to meet industrial production. Previously, from Daming, and now from India and Persia, more than [-] tons of cotton and wool are imported every year to fill the gap in domestic raw materials.The Dutch East India Company, which was responsible for the input of these raw materials, earned a lot of freight and re-export profits, which integrated the trade links between the two parties more closely.

The Industrial Revolution that occurred in Britain in later generations was an epoch-making breakthrough, which not only meant technological progress, but also created a form of civilization that was completely different from the traditional agricultural society.If there is only a steam engine without modern management methods and production processes, it is impossible to produce this change; but if there is only the latter, the latter will soon become water without a source and a tree without roots.

Digging into the historical details, we find that both of these breakthroughs could only have occurred under very specific conditions.For example, the research and development breakthrough of the steam engine has some very strict technical requirements, such as iron smelting technology, material technology and the discovery of the principle of air pressure, but most importantly, the high energy consumption of the early steam engine, this new technology must be in the coal industry market Only when the demand is large enough can we survive and make continuous progress.

At the beginning of Hanzhou's establishment of the industry, Qi Tian, ​​as a traverser, deliberately enforced the standardization of production in the field of industrial production, established scientific operating procedures, and encouraged technological innovation and technological progress.

Under material conditions, several coal mine resources discovered successively in the north and east of Hanzhou also provided the necessary conditions for the use and emergence of steam engines.Although it is only a small coal mine with reserves of millions of tons, it is an almost endless source of fuel in this era.

In terms of the principle of air pressure, Qi Tian pointed out the direction of research for many scholars and masters to avoid various wrong development paths.

In addition, the reason why Hanzhou is so obsessed with the research and manufacture of various new machinery and crafts, apart from Qitian's continuous promotion, there is another important internal reason, that is, the serious shortage of the domestic population base, whether it is agriculture, In terms of industry, there is a lack of a large number of labor forces.This forced government-led factories and private workshops to rack their brains to improve production technology and mechanical operation methods, gradually transitioning from the original manual operation to relying on hydraulic drive.

Nowadays, the steam engine, which has been invested in research and development almost by the whole country, has made substantial progress, which not only inspires many officials and scholars, but also secretly rejoices many private owners of factories, factories and mines. This means that during the manufacturing process The output can be raised to a new height, the tight manpower gap can be slightly alleviated, and even the wages of the workshop staff do not have to go up any more.
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"Although steam engine technology has made a breakthrough, it may still be some time before it can be used on a large scale in China. We should not be too happy about this." Song Yingxing said euphemistically: "It is estimated that in the next ten years or so, hydraulic machinery will still be our Han. It is the most important driving force for various factories and mines in Europe."

"Yes, the application of any new technology cannot be achieved overnight." Qi Tian nodded and said, "But we must continue to increase the research and improvement of steam engines. In addition to working hard to combine steam engines with existing industrial machinery, your Ministry of Science and Technology We need to cooperate with the Industrial Research Institute to try to develop how to move the steam engine to the carriage and ship, so that Hanzhou can also make a huge breakthrough in transportation.”

"Since that's the case, is Your Majesty willing to allocate additional funds to our Science and Technology Department?" Song Yingxing asked with a smile.

"Song Gong, the Ministry of Science and Technology should belong to the cabinet. You must have chosen the wrong person." Qi Tian spread his hands.

"The cabinet is out of money." Song Yingxing shook his head and said, "The continuous disaster relief last year and this year, plus the reduction and exemption of agricultural taxes, and the expansion of farmland water conservancy construction, have increased the budget deficit a lot. Expenditures have been compressed. I heard that this year the king has distributed a lot of dividends from the major trading companies, so I want to use this to make some connections with the king and ask for some money."

"...So, I will give you another [-] Hanzhou silver dollars to set up a power research institute." Qi Tian thought for a while and said, "In the future, the royal family will take [-]% of any new technology patents here, what do you think? ?”

"Yes!" Song Yingxing was overjoyed, as long as Qi Tian was willing to pay, not to mention granting [-]% of the patent right, even if he gave him the entire technology patent right, what's the problem?At that time, the domestic industry needs the application of technology, and the production needs to be greatly developed. Is it true that you, as the king of Qi, are still withholding money and not allowing others to use patents?Aren't you afraid of bearing the reputation of being greedy and competing for profit with the people?

"Your Majesty, the Ottoman envoys have been in Jianye City for seven days. In addition to proposing to increase the purchase of cannons, muskets and sword armor, they also hope to obtain the formula for cement." Jiang Ruliang, Minister of Honglu Temple, reported, "But , They insisted on proposing that the payment settlement be deducted by the population, which also includes a large number of young and middle-aged men."

"Population? Are they trying to sell us a large number of people obtained during the war?" Qi Tian couldn't help but smiled wryly: "Didn't I tell them, man, we don't need it. We only want women, and they are young and fertile. The woman... What, they have no money?"

The Ottoman Empire in this period was not the sick man of West Asia in the 19th century. Now they are fighting against the whole of Europe with their own strength, punching the Habsburg dynasty, kicking Ukraine and Poland. They are simply full of martial arts and dominate Europe, Asia and Africa.

What's the matter, if you sell a few cannons and muskets to Qi Guo, you can't get enough money to pay the bill?It is not in line with the status of the local tyrants of the Ottoman Empire to use the civilians and prisoners of war looted during the war to offset the payment!

One or two thousand female slaves are sold from Barbary pirates every year, just to balance the imbalanced ratio of men to women in the country.But your Ottoman Empire is going to sell us a large number of foreign men, how can we digest and absorb it.

For the Ottoman Empire, Qi State does not pay much attention to it at present, mainly because it is too far away from the Hanzhou mainland, and it has nothing to do with it.Even if you want to obtain its huge market, it is not necessary for the time being. Not to mention that the market in the Nanyang region has not been fully eaten, even India, which is not far away, is enough for Qi to digest and absorb it for a hundred years.

But Qi Tian was full of bad intentions, and he wanted to add trouble to the whole of Europe, thinking that he would sell more or less weapons and the Ottoman Empire, so as to consume Europe's strength.However, for our pure arms transaction, you have to pay.

"Tell the Ottomans that the cement can be sold to them, but you don't have to think about the formula. In addition, in the arms transaction, in addition to deducting some female slaves, the shortfall must be paid with real money." Qi Tian ordered: "In addition, They can also exchange horses, cattle and sheep. Arabian horses, camels from the peninsula, and Ankara goats are good, and they can be shipped to Hanzhou in large quantities, and we can collect as much as we want.”

As one of the best riding horses, the Arabian horse has excellent performance and stable genetics, and the effect of improving other horse breeds is extremely outstanding. If it is introduced in large quantities, it will naturally enrich and expand the local horse population in Hanzhou.As for the camel, it is natural to use the inland desert Gobi area to provide the necessary means of transportation and transportation for Qi to explore and develop the inland of Hanzhou.In desert areas, camels are much more practical than horses.

Angora goats, on the other hand, have a high wool yield, excellent wool quality, beautiful as silk, long and shiny wool, high elasticity and strong strength. Naturally, it is also the most expensive kind of wool.More importantly, this kind of goat has a gentle nature, is suitable for eating roughage, and is resistant to drought, so it is very suitable for the desert area in the west of Hanzhou.

"By the way, this time the Barbary pirates won't just take some common European sheep and pretend to be Spanish Merino sheep to deceive us like the previous two years?"

(End of this chapter)