Riding the wind of rebirth

"Huh? Really?"

"Hmm, guess which country it is?"

"I guess... hey, it's definitely either North Korea or an island nation! They like to imitate China, I guess they're an island nation."

"Yes, Yongle Tongbao coins are actually mostly imitations from island nations. They were made by islanders who mined copper on their islands, privately forged coin master pieces, and then circulated into China through trade."

"Therefore, regardless of the place of origin, the number of Yongle Tongbao coins in existence in island nations is far greater than in our country."

"Such a thing could happen?!" Liang Hong found it both laughable and absurd: "I remember reading an article about currency hegemony. Is this island nation handing over its hegemony so easily?"

"The purpose of hegemony is to compete for resources. I don't think island nations can be considered hegemons. At the time, it was more like poverty alleviation."

"That makes sense." Liang Hong took the money. "Hey, what's this hanging below the Five Emperors Coins?"

“These two items are even more valuable than the Five Emperors Coins,” Feng Xueshan said with a smile. “They are Zhouzi’s most prized possessions. They’ve even been on the news.”

"Really? Then I must have missed it."

"They're all from the Han Dynasty. Below the five emperor coins of the Xiao Miao, there's a mother coin for 'one knife equals five thousand coins,' and below the elbow itself, there's a jade three-piece set, a Gangmao and a Weng Zhong," Yang He explained. He's quite familiar with the early collections from Zhouzhi.

The gold seal script inlaid on the jade tablet, which was worth five thousand coins, was exceptionally beautiful. The skillful and concise carving techniques of Gangmao and Wengzhong, along with the excellent quality of the jade, also impressed Yang Honghui upon first seeing it.

"If Xiao Miao likes it, then we'll just throw it together anyway," Zhou Zhi quickly said, seeing the mocking look Feng Xueshan was giving him.

However, this didn't fool Feng Xueshan. Would Zhouzi just "haphazardly put together" something like this? Especially not for Mai Xiaomiao. It was clearly a case of gold and jade, meant to create a "golden and jade marriage."

However, we can't say it now. If we do, Yan Xiao and Liang Hong will definitely make a fuss. Zhouzi himself is thick-skinned and doesn't care, but he's afraid Xiao Miao won't be able to handle it.

Feng Xueshan pursed her lips slightly, a "secret emoji" they often used, meaning "I'm letting you off the hook."

As we chatted, the car turned down a slope, leaving the mountainside and heading into the valley, where the Meigu River came into view.

The scenery here also changes to a river valley landscape, with red soil and red stone beaches on both sides of the road. Because it is the dry season, the Meigu River has very little water. After driving for a while, several huge white creatures appeared on the high mountains where the forest is located in the distance, waving at the road we came from.

“Windmill! What a big windmill!” Liang Hong exclaimed.

"Why is it spinning so slowly?" Yang He asked. "How can it generate electricity at this speed?"

"There is a device similar to a car gearbox in the wind turbine generator set, which is used to control the speed and protect the motor. Because of its existence, even if the blades are not rotating fast, the gearbox can adjust the blade speed to the motor's generating speed, and automatically adjust it according to the wind speed to keep the motor at a constant speed."

"According to the principle of energy conservation, what determines the amount of electricity generated is not the speed of the blades, but the energy received by the blades. The determining factor is the force. When the blades rotate at a constant speed, the power will increase as the force on the blades increases. The larger the blades of the wind turbine, the greater the power and the more electricity it generates."

"The Blue Sky Sunshine wind power system in Lianhe Town consists of five units. Each unit generates 0.8 kilowatt-hours of electricity per revolution, averaging 40,000 kilowatt-hours per day per year." "However, not all of this 40,000 kilowatt-hours can be utilized. Water needs to be pumped from the Meigu River, transported through a five-stage pumping station to a reservoir on the mountaintop, and then flushed down from the reservoir to drive a hydroelectric generator. Only when the power output is more stable can we obtain truly constant commercial electricity. In other words, whether it's wind power or solar energy, it is ultimately converted into the potential energy of water to drive the hydroelectric generator and generate electricity."

"Isn't this too complicated?" Yang Honghui couldn't understand: "Using electricity to pump water, and then using water to generate electricity, isn't that what you call in Sichuan dialect... a blind man wearing glasses, what's that again?"

"It's like a blind man wearing glasses, an unnecessary circle." Zhou Zhi laughed. "There's no way around it. For a power system, how much electricity it can generate is not important. What's important is a continuous and stable output."

"Otherwise, why don't we utilize the energy released by a single lightning bolt, which can reach thousands of degrees? It's because the duration of lightning strikes is too short. The voltage of a single lightning strike is between 1 million and 100 million volts, while the discharge time is only 0.001 to 0.01 seconds. Designing a device that can withstand such a rapid energy release and store it would be too expensive."

"How much energy does this green energy system itself lose?" Yang He asked, "This kind of wind power-water conversion?"

"About forty percent," Zhou Zhi said.

"I still feel it's a pity," Yan Xiao said. "Isn't there any way to solve it?"

“We are thinking of a solution,” Zhou Zhi said. “An Sheng is investing in Lantian Sunshine Group to develop medium-voltage DC grid technology and high-power pulse capacitors. Once these two technologies are developed, high-power pulse current storage will be possible. After these two technologies are mastered, they can be used to store this kind of highly unstable energy.”

"Can it store lightning?"

"That's not the case," Zhou Zhi said with a smile. "However, the goal is to store energy at the second level."

"How much power does it take to be considered high-power?" Yang He asked. "It has to be at least in the megawatt range, right?"

"Yes, the target is two hundred megawatts."

"So how much have you accomplished so far?" Yang asked.

“Twenty… kilowatts,” Zhou Zhi said.

"..." Yan Xiao was stunned for a long time: "This is too far off."

"Haha, yes, it's a long and arduous journey, but it would be good if we could obtain a few special capacitors for five-axis CNC machine tools during the research and development process."

"Alright, alright, you boys never stop discussing these things. Is this Lianhe Town just ahead?" Liang Hong then noticed the large building by the roadside ahead.

“Oh, that’s the wall of the two national-level agricultural research and demonstration bases in Lianhe Town,” Zhou Zhi said. “On one side is the cherry seedling breeding and propagation research base, and on the other side is the Moroccan pomegranate seedling breeding and propagation research base.”

"Next to the base is the newly built town government and the planned new residential area. Some villagers who have exchanged their homesteads are already preparing to build houses there."

"It's a pretty place, why are people still working during the New Year?" Yan Xiao asked, looking at the villagers planting trees on the hillside behind the low white wall outside the window.

"Farm work waits for no one. From now until spring, the fruit trees will be mostly dormant, which is the perfect time for transplanting," Zhou Zhi said. "It's the perfect time for transplanting and layering. We can't afford to rest." (End of Chapter)