The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 134: Test Guns, Light Bulbs, and the King
Zhu Jianxuan listened to Song Wendao's explanation and picked up the telephone receiver on the table with a smile:

"Let's start the artillery test firing."

It's just a test firing, not a test. It's OK as long as it can be fired normally, reach a sufficient range and explode.

The artillery responsible for the test has already been ready.

As soon as Zhu Jianxuan finished speaking, four dull explosions were heard outside.

On the side of the Changfeng, four gun muzzles spewed out flames of four different sizes one after another.

Four shells flew across the empty sea.

More than ten seconds later, four thunderous explosions were heard in succession on the sea six kilometers away from the Changfeng.

Cheers also rang out from the fleets scattered in front, behind, and on the other side of the Changfeng.

The Chang Feng was going to conduct a gun test at sea, and the entire fleet was informed before the test began.

Have other warships avoid the intended target area.

This notice also aroused the interest of the officers of other warships, who were waiting on the decks and bows for the test of Changfeng.

When they saw the effect of the artillery strike, they were all shocked.

Both the range of the artillery and the huge sound and light effects of the shells exploding on the sea were beyond the imagination of all officers at the time.

Nelson, who was holding the telescope, was completely stunned:
"How can this be so powerful! It's not like no one has used shrapnel before, but it was never this powerful!
Nelson has now become an official captain, and his deputy is an officer from the Ming Dynasty.

After being stunned for a few seconds, the deputy captain said very confidently and excitedly:
"It must be the king's new invention! The king led his craftsmen and disciples to invent new cannons and shells!
"This force is too strong. If it hits a ship, I'm afraid it will be blown to pieces!"

Nelson has also realized that his current monarch is a great inventor:

"Your Majesty, if this kind of cannon is installed on a ship, how will we fight naval battles in the future?
"With such a powerful force, there is no way to defend against it. If you get hit, you will be destroyed immediately!

"The methods of naval warfare in the future will be completely different. Past experience will be useless!"

The deputy captain said in a relaxed tone:

"How else can we fight? This cannon must only be possessed by our Ming Dynasty. We can fire it however we want!

"Next time we encounter an enemy warship, we'll destroy it with one shot!"

Nelson was instinctively considering how to respond when faced with this kind of artillery.

Now he suddenly realized that he didn't need to consider how to respond, but how to use this weapon.

Zhu Jianxuan himself, as the person giving orders, after giving the order, heard the sound of artillery coming from outside, and suddenly an idea flashed through his mind.

Telephones and telegraphs directed artillery fire, one of the advances in dreadnought technology.

Zhu Jianxuan knew that Song Wendao and other master craftsmen and his disciples probably just wanted to give the king a job today.

Unexpectedly, I noticed this important naval technology node.

With telephones and telegraphs connecting all positions, the command, observation, and strike functions of the artillery can be separated.

A higher observation platform can be specially assumed to more accurately measure the distance and observe the landing point of the shells at a high altitude.

The command center can be placed in a safe bridge, receiving data from the observation platform via telephone, and then using the telephone to command all gun positions to adjust parameters and fire.

If all artillery calibers, times of caliber and other data are unified, all artillery can be commanded with one set of data.

Let all main guns hit the same target at the same time, use multiple identical shell landing point data as a reference, and quickly correct the initial shooting data.

Complete the calibration quickly and destroy the target quickly.

But every gun of this era is still "unique" for the time being, and each gun has its own performance parameters and special gun table.

There is no way to use the same shooting parameters for the time being.

But it is not completely meaningless to consider these things now.

At the very least, the observation unit can send more accurate target data and landing point data to all artillery groups.

It also allows the command center to arrange and assign targets to be attacked.

It is more efficient than having people shouting at each other.

Zhu Jianxuan said eagerly:
"This thing is great. All warships in the future will have generators and telephones.

“Connect different departments to improve the efficiency of command and coordination within the warship.

"It would be even better if we had a radio, so we could directly command the entire fleet..."

Song Wendao said with a little regret:
“There is still a big difficulty in radio research.

"We are exploring ways to control electromagnetic waves and how to make them carry the information we want to send and receive.

“Some laws related to fluid mechanics can be used as a reference, but the corresponding theoretical system is not perfect.

"We need more time to complete this part of the model construction..."

Zhu Jianxuan knew this was a difficult point.

What the craftsmen are doing now is probably constructing the Maxwell equations of their previous lives.

Maxwell in his previous life had referred to the model of fluid mechanics, but the fluid mechanics model at that time was far less perfect than that in Maxwell's time.

The Navier-Stoke equations had not yet appeared.

Zhu Jianxuan requires his students to be good at mathematics, but the main reason is that he himself is not very good at mathematics.

After graduation, I stopped studying professional knowledge and have long forgotten the specific contents of Maxwell's equations and Navier-Stoke equations.

I can only tell them the general idea and direction. But this has given them a huge advantage. The principle they are exploring is definitely existing, and their current research idea is also correct.

As long as they can persist in observing, summarizing, experimenting, and summarizing again, it is only a matter of time before they achieve ultimate success.

It may even produce some by-products, such as further improving fluid mechanics.

As a monarch, all Zhu Jianxuan can do now is to encourage:

"Take your time. This is a long-term goal and it certainly can't be accomplished overnight."

After Zhu Jianxuan finished talking about the radio with the craftsmen, they continued to discuss several other projects that were still under research.

First of all, the electric light bulbs using carbonized bamboo filaments can now be lit normally.

In the original history of the development of electric lights, the vacuum extraction process was stuck for a long time.

But later people realized that making light bulbs does not actually require vacuum, you just need to exclude the oxygen.

Retaining the remaining nitrogen component can actually increase the life of the bulb.

It's difficult to extract oxygen, but it's easy to use it up by burning something.

So later on, when making light bulbs, phosphorus would be coated on the inner wall of the glass, which would burn and consume all the oxygen when the bulb was heated.

Zhu Jianxuan guided the craftsmen to discover this idea in advance.

Skipped the vacuuming lesson.

But when it came to making vacuum tubes, we got stuck.

The vacuum tube must be as evacuated as possible; simply burning off the oxygen will not work.

If there is air in the tube, the electrons will collide with the air molecules and reduce the current, affecting the final effect.

So even though we have light bulbs now, we can’t make vacuum tubes.

I have to go back and take classes on vacuum technology.

Equipment related to vacuum pumps is highly related to the manufacturing process, so there is no way to force yourself to skip classes.

It has not been actually made yet and needs to be tested again when returning to Australia.

Zhu Jianxuan once again encouraged the craftsmen and disciples not to be anxious, saying that it was a good thing to make up for the craft lessons, as they would be useful in future battles.

After pressing the button on the vacuum tube, Zhu Jianxuan continued to look at the camera and the phonograph.

Now the test products are barely usable.

Zhu Jianxuan spent the whole morning looking at the results and felt that the scientific research achievements of the past two years were quite fruitful and could be put into production after returning to Australia.

As for the time on the return journey, Zhu Jianxuan’s main focus was to continue his classes.

He started to conduct pea hybridization experiments with his students, began to conduct in-depth research on fluid dynamics, explored the system of electromagnetic equations, and carried out research on vacuum pumps.

The fleet Zhu Jianxuan was on sailed northeast along the North Atlantic Current and arrived at the west coast of Europe a month and a half later.

Join the fleet of merchant and warships still in Europe.

The Ming fleet arrived in North America in March this year and unloaded most of the immigrants, supplies for immigrants to open up new land, and trade products to supply North America.

Then we went to Europe as a group to do business.

This time the fleet was unusually large, but the Ming Dynasty already had a base in Europe, so it did not continue with the door-to-door delivery trade.

Instead, goods are delivered to three fixed ports.

Antwerp in the Netherlands trades with France, Britain, the Netherlands, and western Germany.

Hanover Haderen in the German region faces the northern German states such as Hanover and Prussia, and Nordic countries such as Denmark, Sweden and Russia.

Taranto in the Mediterranean Italian region, serving Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Habsburg, and all around the Mediterranean.

After the relevant news spread, these three ports soon became bustling.

In addition to merchants, many nobles also became interested and went to watch the fun in carriages or on horseback.

The travel expenses of the merchants and nobles were naturally earned by those in and around the port.

Zhu Jianxuan had repeatedly emphasized that these trade ports were also beneficial to the local area, and now they have begun to show actual results.

After the Ming fleet delivered the goods, most of the fleet returned directly.

They need to return to the Ming mainland as soon as possible and continue to transport more immigrants out.

Only a small number of merchant ships and warships were left to maintain order in several trading ports.

In this era, if you have money but no army or weapons, you are just waiting to be robbed.

At the same time, they continued to carry some of the existing goods and deliver and trade them to places that were inconvenient to visit, such as the Ottoman and North African pirates.

Zhu Jianxuan's fleet first joined up with the Ming fleet that remained in Europe, and then escorted Zhu Jianxuan to the Netherlands.

However, the ship did not enter the Dutch mainland port, but instead stopped off the coast of the Netherlands.

The former ruler of the Netherlands, the current Duke of the Netherlands, William V, first returned to The Hague, summoned all the Dutch parliamentarians, and boarded the Changfeng that Zhu Jianxuan was riding on.

They worshipped the king together in the hall of Changfeng and officially confirmed Zhu Jianxuan's identity as the King of the Netherlands.

Zhu Jianxuan did not go ashore in the end. After accepting the worship, he was escorted south by the fleet and embarked on the journey back to Australia.

(End of this chapter)