Hongwu Survival Guide

Chapter 216 The Future ([-])

After a short episode, when the longest mini train slowly walked away, Zhu Yuan clapped his hands and attracted everyone's attention: "Let's talk about the principle first. The principle of the steam engine has already been explained. You must be wondering why you need to spread this The rails, huh... the copper rails in front of me are just for the convenience of making, and the finished trains in the future will only be rails, so why should it be like this?"

Without waiting for any response from the crowd, Zhu Yuan pointed to the first page of the demo board: "There are many reasons, and they can be summarized into two. First, ordinary roads cannot carry the load. The train has a huge load, just like the longest train you have just seen. , counting three locomotives, it is only 35 knots. In fact, even a hundred carriages will be common in future trains. Calculated based on 100 carriages, each carriage costs 1000 shi, and one train is enough Transport 10 shi of grain. 10 shi of grain is equivalent to 150 million catties. Therefore, if the train has no tracks, even if a stone road is laid, the ground will soon be damaged and sink. This is one of the necessary rails.”

After saying this, Zhu Yuan directly clicked on the next item on the demo board: "Second, it is about efficiency. This involves a lot of knowledge about mechanics. Simply put, rail friction is smaller, just like the bearings we have widely used, train wheels run On smooth rails, the principle is similar to that of bearings. It is also said that even if ordinary roads can bear the weight of 10 shi grains in a hundred carriages, under the strong frictional resistance, the steam locomotive will be difficult to drive the heavy body, even if we don’t count If the cost is to install a locomotive to achieve sufficient power, the speed of the vehicle must be slow. If it can only travel 10 miles a day, the steam train will be meaningless. My expectation is to travel thousands of miles a day. Passing the rails, the frictional resistance is very small, so it can be achieved The purpose of carrying more load and faster speed. This is the second reason why rails must."

This time, as soon as Zhu Yuan's words fell, Li Shanchang couldn't help it again: "Pingzhang, as you said, if this railroad track is laid across the country, have you ever thought about how much steel is needed, how much steel is needed, and where does it come from? ?”

Li Shanchang's tone was clearly teasing, Zhu Yuan still smiled: "This involves another point of knowledge, Prime Minister Zuo, take a guess, what is the overall iron content of the earth under our feet?"

Li Shan put his hands on his sleeves and shook his head directly: "I don't know, please ask Pingzhang for advice?"

"5.00%," Zhu Yuan spread out his five fingers and gestured: "It's only a percentage of five points, which doesn't seem like much at first glance, but think about it, everyone... You may have seen a globe before. The planet where we are located has a diameter of [-] miles in one circle, and its total amount is difficult to estimate. On such a big ball, one kind of material has a five-fifth ratio. For us humans, it can be said that it is almost indispensable Inexhaustible."

Speaking of this, Zhu Yuan thought for a while, and gave another example: "Taiping Iron Mine, which the imperial court is planning to develop, I gave my ancestors an estimate of 10 billion tons. This 'ton' is a brand new total unit. I I feel that in the future, it will be calculated as 1000 catties, and 10 billion tons is equivalent to 1 trillion catties. What is this volume? For example, in the previous dynasties, the Song Dynasty, which had the highest steel output, only produced 2000 million tons of iron a year at most Let’s talk about the Yuan Dynasty replaced by the Ming Dynasty. Because foreigners were not good at production, the highest annual steel output was only 500 million catties. These are clearly recorded. If you are interested, you can go to the book. Then, 1 trillion catties of iron ore , according to the consumption rate of the Song Dynasty, let’s do the math, how many years will it be enough to mine?”

Everyone calculated subconsciously.

Zhu Yuan quickly took the initiative to give the result: "The answer is, 5 years!"

Many people gasped subconsciously.

It's just an iron mine, enough for 5 years... How long is this China's history?

Zhu Yuan continued again: "Everyone must be thinking, with the productivity of the Song Dynasty, it would take 5 years to mine. After the destruction of steel production by the Yuan Dynasty, even if we recover a little, how long will it take to mine such an iron mine?"

Waiting for a short time for everyone to brew, Zhu Yuan continued: "Everyone, don't forget today's theme. What I want to show you is the future of Daming, a brand new future. What is driven by the steam engine in front of us is the essence of a productive force. Breakthrough, to what extent? Breakthrough to the point where the previous productivity has been increased by a hundred times or even a thousand times. That is to say, with the steam engine, we can increase the steel output of Daming to 100 times that of the Song Dynasty. Even 1000 times, will it be impossible to lay railroad tracks with steel?"

A hundredfold increase in productivity?
Many of the words are vaguely understood by people who don't know economics around them, but they have some kind of understanding.

mainly……

Not to mention steel production, if...if that grain, the production can also be increased by 100 times or even 1000 times...

Kang Maocai, who was standing on the periphery and was about to be in charge of the farming affairs of the Ming Dynasty, even took a breath.

This kind of thing... I dare not think about it.

I dare not think about it!

Seeing the people around him once again immersed in the prospect described by a certain young man, Li Shanchang felt that enough was enough, but he couldn't hold back, and finally blurted out: "Pingzhang... I'm afraid there is no basis for what he said."

Zhu Yuan gestured to the surroundings: "Of course there is no basis for talking, but, Mr. Zuo, we are now...seeing is believing."

Li Shanchang: "..."

Zhu Yuan did not chase after him, opened the next page of 'PPT', and clapped his hands again to attract everyone's attention: "I have said some principles of the steam train, um, it is still feasible. Besides the use, this is what I have based on Yuan Although the future train track route map of Ming Dynasty planned by Chidao Tutu is feasible, I must first admit that this matter may not be completed in one or two generations, and it is a century-old project."

Everyone looked over together.

This is another small map, but it is not the topographic map when the water pump was demonstrated just now, but... it says, a schematic diagram of railway traffic.

After waiting for everyone to look at it for a while, Zhu Yuan said: "I just said that the water pump involves 'production', and this train belongs to the 'distribution'. This point, you should have an idea just now. I only mention one, the Yuan Dynasty, the lack of production in the north. Grain is rich in the south. If there is a railway and smooth train traffic, then just one train is enough to transport 10 shi of grain from Jinling to Dadu within two to three days, and there is almost no consumption. Then, everyone thinks When you think about it, will there be chaos in the world of the Yuan Dynasty?"

Everyone shook their heads subconsciously.

This time it was Qian Yongren, Minister of the Ministry of Rites, who spoke: "Pingzhang, what you said is exactly what you said. Have you ever thought that this railway... not to mention the mountains and hills of thousands of miles, but the three natural dangers of the Huanghuai River? cross?"

"It's just a horoscope, open a road when you meet a mountain, and build a bridge when you meet a water." Zhu Yuan gave the answer quickly, and further explained: "Master Qian, don't think it is impossible. If we reach the level of productivity that can repair railroad tracks, we can build bridges on the three major rivers." , or a large iron bridge that can carry trains, it won’t be a problem. Oh, about this, there will be a demonstration later.”

Qian Yongren nodded slightly.

Just some regrets.

I am already old, I am afraid that I will not be able to see the magnificent scene of the train passing through the world.

Seeing that Qian Yongren stopped talking, Zhu Yuan turned back to the topic: "Just transporting grain, we can see the role of trains in 'distribution', but in fact, it is far more than that. My 'economics' The "distribution" involved, one of the sections is called "resource distribution at the regional level", which is actually to study the way of national resource allocation, which is not just food, cloth, timber, minerals, etc. that you can imagine The so-called "resources" also include human resources. This involves the current situation of our dynasty. At present, our Ming Dynasty is attached to the south of the Yangtze River and has a large population, while the Central Plains has experienced wars, desolation and decay, and sparsely populated. If we want to restore the livelihood of the Central Plains, we must Deploy a large number of redundant human resources to farm and restore people's livelihood. Steam trains can also be used to transport people, in fact, this is still a very important item."

At this point, Zhu Yuan paused, giving everyone time to digest, and then continued: "Because according to the function, the transportation of trains is 'passenger transport' and 'freight transport'. Everyone understands freight transport. Speaking of passenger transport, in the past, Not to mention ordinary people, even court officials may not have visited too many places in their lifetime. However, if there is a train that can travel thousands of miles a day, it only takes a few months for everyone to travel all over the country and across the beautiful rivers and mountains. In addition, this can also change the common custom of relocating people. In the past, it was understandable that the road was too dangerous and too long, and it was far away from home. Once you go there, it may be a farewell. With this train, everything is different. You are still in Jinling today. Get on the train, and you may arrive in Dadu the day after tomorrow. Once you come back, it will only take four or five days. At that time, you don’t need to worry about traveling far. At the same time, the imperial court is carrying out large-scale population migration and rationally deploying human resources. There will be no more obstacles. Because, you miss your hometown, board the train, and you may arrive at home after a night of sleep.”

The scene was quiet for a while.

Even Lao Zhu's three sons couldn't help fantasizing about certain scenes.

Although, the crown prince and the two younger brothers have different ideas.

Zhu Yuan waited for a while again, seeing no one asked questions, opened the next 'PPT', clapped his hands and said: "Next, it's 'Military'. Regarding this point, because I don't understand, I never dare to speak freely, but, Combined with the railway system, I can give my ancestors, and everyone, a concept. That is, in the future, as long as the railway system is connected, any point on the map of the Ming Dynasty, pay attention, I am talking about tens of thousands of miles from east to west, north to south, and north to south. After the vast territory, then, once the situation arises, a hundred thousand troops, one hundred thousand grain and grass, can be reached in ten days!"

After Zhu Yuan's loud and concise words fell, everyone looked at the specially drawn miniature world map on that page of 'PPT', and the scene was quiet again.

Especially Lao Zhu.

As a founding emperor who conquered the country step by step, he understands better than everyone around him how attractive and shocking the three "ten" prospects described by his 23rd grandson are.

this means……

The expansion of Ming Dynasty will far break through the limit of supply constraints in the past dynasties. As long as there is land, the army of Ming Dynasty can quickly arrive.

It also means...

The Ming court will have a powerful control over the armies that far exceeds that of previous dynasties.

Thinking about it, Lao Zhu's mind reappeared in the mind of his baby's 23rd generation grandson once again promised "a prosperous age that has never been seen in a thousand years".

Where is there only a thousand years?
Jiangshan Wannian can also be expected.

(End of this chapter)