open sea

Chapter 1268
In Tsinghua Garden, Zhou Sijing, head of the Steam Bureau of the Ministry of Industry, stared forward at the emperor with his hands tightly clenched in his official robe sleeves.

Emperor Wanli was not as nervous as he was, but he shook his head in embarrassment, spreading his hands and said, "Master Zhou, you said that you want to use the Huode Xingjun that was used to shovel snow in the Forbidden City. This is really difficult for me. Change it. If you don’t make one, it’s not in the Forbidden City.”

Zhou Sijing is a rather special figure in the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty. Although he is an imperial official, his identity is more like a researcher in Beiyang or a martial arts hall than other principals. Because he is so absorbed in work that he lacks sleep, and even happened three times in a row the year before last. The mistake of falling asleep at the court meeting.

At that time, it was a critical moment for Mr. Huode Xing to board the ship, so Wanli simply granted him permission not to attend the court meeting.

From then on, Zhou Sijing no longer participated in court meetings, did not have to go to the Yamen of the Ministry of Industry, and became a full-time researcher. Except for special periods, his task was to toss new steam engines in the Steam Bureau.

Later Wanli rarely saw him.

Zhou Sijing also lived up to Wanli's trust. Today's steam engines are more than ten times better than the earliest models of the year. They are used for land, marine, agricultural, industrial, and mining purposes. Versions change with each passing day.

The red jiao for ships, the green dragon for railways, the basalt for factories, the black cattle for agriculture, and the white elephants for mining, each of the special versions and accompanying machines has been transformed under the auspices of the Steam Bureau, and has become the driving force that drives the empire forward. power source.

Every year, the output of steam engines of various types is advancing steadily, and machine manufacturing has unknowingly become a huge industry lurking under the empire, involving more than [-] parts processing factories, large and small handicraft workshops, and [-] fixed handicraft households on both sides of the canal and along the coast. For more than ten thousand households, the Steam Bureau has formulated special laws for purchasing parts from these.

Parts are in units of square inches, and small parts below a square inch are handled by specialized factories and craftsmen. Once there is a problem, except for recovering funds, they will never be ordered from them; parts that exceed a square inch will be tracked directly to the factory or workshop. , likewise never to cooperate again.

There are more and more steam engines in the world, but only the Steam Bureau produces steam engines. The business is very good. In the tenth year of Wanli, the Steam Bureau handed over 12 silver to the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Households, and the Emperor's Internal Treasury. In the early 25s, this is still the profit after deducting the cost of the new machine.

Zhou Sijing worked hard, rarely asked the emperor for rewards or had any requests, and the emperor didn't know what to reward Zhou Sijing... As a subordinate chief official of the Yamen of the Ministry of Industry, Zheng Sanpin was on the same level as the Minister of the Ministry of Industry in terms of status. With medals as a symbol of honor, only four months have passed this year, and Wanli has already bestowed four gold and silver medals on Zhou Sijing, making him the most rewarded official in the country.

This time, Zhou Sijing very rarely found Tsinghua University by himself, and straight to the point wanted to get rid of the Huode Xingjun used for shoveling snow in the Forbidden City, which made Wanli face a difficult situation.

It's not that he doesn't want to give it.

"That Huode Xingjun is too small for me, and I rewarded it to Chen Hailong, a hundred households of Nanyangwei."

"Chen, Chen Hailong?"

Who is this?
Zhou Sijing froze for a moment, then clasped his fists together and said, "Then, I would like to ask your majesty to write a letter, and let me go to Nanyangwei to borrow from Huode Xingjun for half a year."

"You don't need to go to Nanyangwei, he is the capital, but his family can't go, they are all female relatives, oh forget it, let Wang An go." Wanli scratched his head, he also felt that this Nanyangwei's hundreds of households The official position is a bit strange, so I asked the eunuch Wu, who was serving beside me, to look for Wang An, and asked, "But Master Zhou, what do you want that for?"

In the eyes of Wanli, the Huode Xingjun is almost useless, just a well-maintained rocking car. Wanli thought it was fun for Chen Hailong to sit on it and babble, so he simply gave it to him. Last year, he used it to shovel snow outside Donghua Gate. , and a younger brother of the two mothers built a snow lion in front of the house, and asked Wanli to see it.

Can't tell, Director Zhou of the Steam Bureau is so old and still has a childlike innocence, so maybe he also wants to build a snow lion?

"I supervised the construction of steam engines and found that all steam engines are not good for walking on the land, so I wanted to find a Huodexing Lord who can shovel snow and compare them to see the difference. It has a long history and many events. I forgot that Huodexing. What do you look like?" Zhou Sijing was not at all embarrassed to talk about his forgetful things, cupped his hands and said, "So I want to borrow it from His Majesty to have a look."

"Then it's useless if you want him. It walks very slowly on the land. The stone road in the Forbidden City can only shovel snow, and it can't walk in Tsinghua Garden." Wanli clapped his hands and said: "It can walk on the dirt road. Who is walking, that... the big fire De Xingjun opened by Mr. Xu in the iron factory in the early years, you can look for him, he can walk on the dirt road, walk from the steam bureau to the city of Beijing, and even smashed the wall of Yongdingmen you forgot?"

Just as he was talking, Wang An, who was training with the Imperial Army at the back of Tsinghua Garden, trotted over all the way, his armor skirt and the lower edge of the breastplate jingled all the way, clasped his fists and said, "Your Majesty looking for a servant?"

"Well, but it's all right now. Forget it, you're here. Take the imperial edict to the Jinghaibo mansion outside the Donghua Gate. Chen Hailong's official position in Nanyang Wei Baihu is too ugly. Let's make a snow lion. Sheng Jinyi Thousand households."

Is it good to make snow lions?

Wang An:? ? ?
"What's the matter, you can't say that you have contributed to breastfeeding in the past few years, can you? Oh, you can just think of credit for me to draw up an edict, and the son Haihu got Jinyiwei together, or they are all Jinyi. Anyway, they have The earl's salary does not depend on the salary of a hundred households."

Wang An bowed his hands to take the order, but Zhou Sijing didn't react to this matter at all. He looked up at the sky in the Tsinghua Garden and fell into thought. After a long while, he suddenly screamed and clapped his hands: "Oh! Your Majesty, the Huodexing monarch and minister remembers, It has big wheels, and later moved to the small wheels specially replaced by the track, and the ruts pressed on the ground by the wheels are shallow, and the ground will not be damaged.”

Needless to say, Wanli could chat with Zhou Sijing about this kind of thing, and said convincingly: "You are right, this is the same as the same gunpowder that hits small bullets far away and big bullets close. If you push a small bullet with enough force, it will be able to move, but if you push a big bullet, it will not move, I think this is a truth.”

"But the big wheel is heavier." Zhou Sijing was only happy for a moment, then put on a bitter face and said: "If it is heavier, you have to use a steam engine with a higher power, and a steam engine with a higher power is heavier. It's so difficult... ...Your Majesty is smart, maybe you can teach me the solution? I want to make a steam engine that can plow the fields. It can travel a long distance. If it can be made, it may be used as a chariot for carrying soldiers in the future."

Wanli shook his head, not optimistic about this: "I don't know, but I think that even if it can plow the field, it will burn too much coal? Put tracks in the fields? Let him have tracks on his own wheels? Or use Something else for wheels?"

　Good morning!Checked a lot of things, Chapter 2 will be posted later.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)