The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 483: Ming Dynasty Continues to Become Stronger
This world is a world of the jungle.

Being weak is the original sin, and the strong are always right.

This statement seems to make no sense, but this is what the colonial bandits believed in.

Will the wild beasts in the jungle avoid hunting the rabbit because it is weak?
This is a joke.

In the eyes of wild beasts, the weaker and fatter an animal is, the more likely it is to be their prey.

If you look at the jungle, that's the truth.

The colonial bandits believed that they were the strong ones in the jungle and that the weak countries were their prey.

You can't expect the beastly colonial bandits to pity you, you can only become stronger than them.

Therefore, the Ming Dynasty must continue to become stronger.

At around 9:00 PM, the sun was shining brightly in the sky.

At the dock outside the former Miyun County, Wanli watched Li Guozhu's delivery fleet gradually go away, and immediately ordered someone to summon Yongnian Earl Wang Wei.

He also ordered the wooden barrels containing raw rubber to be moved to the yard of a large waterwheel workshop next to the dock.

Yongnianbo Wang Wei ran over and was stunned to see the wooden barrels piled up like a city wall in the yard.

After the emperor and his ministers exchanged greetings, he couldn't help but ask, "Your Majesty, is this rubber?"

The reason he asked this was not because he also knew the smell of rubber.

The key point is that this waterwheel workshop is prepared for processing rubber, and he is very clear about this.

Wanli nodded slightly and said, "Yes, this is the raw rubber that Guozhu sent back."

That would be great.

Upon hearing this, Yongnian Earl Wang Wei couldn't help but feel a little excited.

The sealing problem has been giving him a lot of trouble these days. Moving objects are difficult to seal, not to mention that steam is still hot, making heated objects even more difficult to seal.

The rubber has finally arrived, which can solve the sealing problem.

He couldn't help rubbing his hands and said, "Your Majesty, how do I use this?"

You want to use it now?
Still early.

Wanli shook his head slightly and said, "This needs to be processed into real rubber before it can be used."

Oh, by the way, this is a workshop that specializes in processing rubber.

Yongnianbo Wang Wei asked impatiently, "Your Majesty, how do you make this?"

To be honest, I'm not very clear about it either.

Wanli waved his hand decisively and said, "Let's go, let's try it now. This is something we have to test step by step."

what?
Still have to try?

I thought you would.

Yongnianbo Wang Wei really thought that Wanli would do it, because Wanli asked him to prepare a lot of things.

Who would have thought that Wanli would actually say that this still needs to be tried step by step!
He had no choice but to follow Wanli and the emperor's second son Zhu Changxu into the processing workshop.

There are indeed quite a few things in this workshop. I don’t know how many sulfur powders, molds, cutting tools, etc. are prepared. The most important ones are two large iron rollers that are about half a meter long and thicker than the waist.

The large waterwheel outside is used to drive these two large rollers.

These two large rollers are actually just improved versions of the large rollers used for road rolling, and they are not difficult to make.

After Wanli brought everyone in, he immediately ordered the craftsmen who had been prepared to knock open a wooden barrel filled with raw rubber.

He originally thought that there was just a barrel-shaped lump of raw rubber inside.

Who would have thought that as soon as a board was knocked open in the wooden barrel, a pool of water would flow out.

Moreover, the water was so sour and smelly that it made people want to cry.

Is this bad raw rubber?

Actually not.

Wanli was shocked by this and suddenly remembered something.

Adding acetic acid to the juice of natural rubber will cause it to coagulate quickly.

As for what acetic acid is, he is not very clear.

However, he knew that although acetic acid was not vinegar, vinegar was mainly composed of acetic acid.

It seems that the raw rubber that has solidified automatically over a long period of time is actually the sap of the rubber tree that has become sour by itself, producing something similar to vinegar, which causes the sap to gradually solidify into raw rubber.

While Wanli was pondering, Zhu Changxu couldn't help but pinch his nose and asked, "Father, what is this thing? Why is it so smelly and so offensive?"

It's embarrassing, I didn't expect that.

Wanli pretended to be calm and said, "It's okay, just rinse it with clean water. Don't open the barrel in the workshop in the future. Open it outside and bring it in."

The craftsman opened the barrel very quickly, one hammer on each piece of wood, and soon a circle of wood was knocked off.

The raw rubber in the barrel seemed to be full of holes of varying sizes.

This is not important.

Wanli directly ordered someone to bring a large knife like a guillotine, cut the cylindrical raw rubber into pieces roughly as thick as a palm, and then threw it directly between two iron rollers to press it.

When you press it, acid water will flow out.

It turns out that this is not real raw rubber, and there is a lot of acid water in it.

This really made everyone feel nauseous.

Wanli squatted down with great interest, looking at the raw rubber blocks in the trough below that were pressed into pieces about an inch thick.

This thing is actually milky white.

He thought for a moment and said simply, "Father-in-law, tell someone to get some more vinegar and soak this thing before pressing it."

The frame below is not small, so you need to get several buckets of vinegar, and they have to be large buckets.

Most people certainly wouldn't have that much vinegar, but fortunately, the Summer Resort had many artisans, from all over the country, some of whom also made vinegar. Once the vinegar was soaked, and then repeatedly pressed down on the two opposing iron rods, the raw rubber finally turned a slightly yellowish color.

Seeing this, Wanli couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

That's right, raw rubber should be this color, and the milky white one should still be natural rubber.

He saw that the raw rubber, which was originally a little soft, gradually hardened, so he ordered someone to bring a piece and pulled it hard in his hands.

This thing is really elastic.

He couldn't help but nodded slightly and said, "Yes, that's right, that's it. From now on, let them just pour some vinegar into the rubber tree sap and stir it evenly, so they don't have to soak it."

What does this mean? Is that it?
Yongnianbo Wang Wei couldn't help but stretch out his hand to pinch it, then asked: "Your Majesty, how do you use this? Do you put it directly into the mold?"

It’s still early.

Wanli shook his head slightly and said, "This is just raw rubber. Have someone pour out the vinegar in the frame below, wipe it dry, and then add sulfur powder and continue pressing."

This seems very simple.

Yongnianbo Wang Wei couldn't help but ask, "Your Majesty, how much more?"

Who knows.

Wanli shook his head slightly and said, "We need to try this too. First, add a pound of water, press it down, and test it. Then cut it into strips, put them in a mold, and heat it with steam to see how it goes."

Should I try this too?

They worked for a long time and finally used a mold to make a small ring with a diameter similar to the inner diameter of the barrel.

This is the sealing ring.

Wanli pinched it in his hand, pulled it, then shook his head slightly and said, "This doesn't seem to be hard enough. You have to order people to add different amounts of sulfur powder and continue to test it."

Is this not enough?

Yongnian Earl Wang Wei took the ring and squeezed it, then said carefully, "Your Majesty, may I test this in the steam engine?"

You can try this however you want.

Wanli nodded slightly and said, "Well, you can try it however you want. Anyway, I have found the things for you and told you the trial production method. Now it's up to you."

Well, I can only try slowly.

Yongnian Earl Wang Wei nodded repeatedly and said, "I understand."

This seems to be no problem, anyway, just try it over and over again.

Wanli stared at the constantly rotating roller and pondered.

He pondered for a long time before asking, "Father-in-law, if we use a one-inch thick iron plate to punch a half-inch thick iron plate, we only need to punch it once, right?"

Why are you suddenly talking about such a hot topic again?
Yongnianbo Wang Wei was stunned for a moment, then nodded repeatedly and said, "Yes, Your Majesty, a one-inch thick iron plate can be punched to half an inch thick in one go."

Wanli nodded slightly, then pointed at the two large iron rollers and said, "Father-in-law, we can actually use this to press iron plates. Just throw the softened iron ingots on top, and the result will be an inch-thick iron plate, right?"

Well, that’s what you say, but there are problems with this approach.

Yongnianbo Wang Wei thought for a moment, then said carefully, "Your Majesty, the iron plate pressed out like this will probably be a round cake, which will be difficult to put into the mold for stamping."

Isn’t this simple?

Wanli pondered, "You could add two thick iron blocks to the rollers as baffles. Make the baffles into two arcs with a sharp corner in the middle. The sharp corner extends directly between the two rollers. This way, you can press out iron plates of the required width."

This seems to make sense.

Yongnian Earl Wang Wei thought for a moment and then said cautiously, "Your Majesty, I dare to say that this seems to be even more troublesome than repeatedly punching with iron ingots. Why should we do this?"

Because I want to build an ironclad battleship.

The reason why Wanli suddenly thought of this was because he remembered the turtle ship he saw in Japan.

The Japanese turtle ship had iron plates nailed to the deck and sides of the ship.

This is the prototype of the ironclad warship. Such a warship was invincible in the era when the hardness and momentum of the shells were the only means of attack.

However, Japan also had only one turtle-shell ship, which was probably used as a flagship.

He wanted to mass-produce ironclad warships.

In this way, the Ming Dynasty navy will become even more powerful.

He thought for a moment, then gestured, "This is actually just a trial run at the beginning. After we have tested it, we will consider making a large-scale iron plate pressing machine.

There are two rotating iron rollers under the machine, and a platform is built on top of it, and a furnace is built on the platform. The molten iron in the furnace flows directly through the crucible trough, allowing it to gradually flow into a thickness similar to that of an iron ingot and then solidify into a red-hot soft iron block.

We then place a series of rotating small iron rollers in front to guide the red-hot soft iron blocks between the two large iron rollers. This way we can continuously produce iron plates one inch thick."

My God, how big a workshop would this have to be?

Moreover, this method seems to have problems.

Yongnian Earl Wang Wei thought for a moment, then said carefully, "Your Majesty, no matter how big or small the iron roller is, if it keeps rolling over the softened iron, it will gradually turn red and soften."

This is simple.

Wanli pondered for a moment, then gestured, "Isn't there a waterwheel outside? We can bring the water pumped up from the waterwheel in to continuously cool the iron rollers."

This is easier said than done.

However, it's not impossible.

Yongnian Earl Wang Wei thought for a moment and then said carefully, "Your Majesty, the iron plates we make this way will be very long. I don't know how big a workshop we'll need to build. Moreover, they have to be sawed into pieces and heated before being put into the stamping die."

This problem is not unsolvable.

Wanli pondered for a while, then gestured, "You can install a waterwheel next to it, specifically to lift the huge guillotine and chop it down, and it must be able to cut through an inch-thick iron plate while it's still hot.

In this way, you only need to adjust the size and spacing of the cams, and you can cut out the iron plate of whatever size you need."

Well, this is actually quite troublesome.

However, the problem was indeed solved.

Upon hearing this, Yongnian Earl Wang Wei slowly nodded and said, "I understand."

(End of this chapter)