Tibet

Wei Jincheng and Wang Zhan were left in the room. Li Ye smiled and said to Wang Zhan: "No king in the past dynasties values ​​shipbuilding and navigation as much as I do. There are too many interests overseas and too many uninhabited places. Land. This is why I brought you to Chang'an."

Wang Zhan said with a smile: "In fact, the navigation ability of the Tang Dynasty is already very good. It is said that the sea ships have gone to Persia, and the food merchants are willing to take the ships of the Tang Dynasty to Guangzhou, the Tang Dynasty. Unfortunately, they are private sea ships. Your Highness can definitely Develop official caravans.”

Li Ye said lightly: "There are two major weaknesses in ocean navigation now. One is the power problem, which relies too much on the wind. All ships are waiting for the trade wind. They want to open up new routes, but they can't do it. They can't go to new sea areas. , I don’t dare to go. The second problem is that the ships are still too small. Nowadays, they are generally 10,000-stone ships or 5,000-stone ships. But I hope there will be 50,000-stone ships or even 100,000-stone ships in the future. Wang Shijun, This is what is expected of you.”

Wang Zhan was silent for a moment and said: "This time I brought a wooden box to Chang'an. It was my father and grandfather who left the shipbuilding blueprints. Among them were the plans for a 50,000-stone sea-going ship and an 80,000-stone sea-going ship, but they were not put into practice." accomplish."

Li Ye's eyes lit up and he quickly asked: "Can a fifty thousand stone ship be actually built?"

Li Ye's previous Jingzhou fleet had a 50,000-stone ship, but that ship could only sail on the Yangtze River or offshore, and could not sail long distances. Its sturdiness was far worse than that of sea-going ships. It would definitely capsize when encountering huge waves, so it was flooded again. The military called it the Big Hollow Carrot, and even Li Ye disliked it. He only rode it once and never rode it a second time. I heard it has now been demolished.

The real 50,000-stone sea ship is amazing. It is not simply a five-fold enlargement of the 10,000-stone sea ship. It involves changes in all aspects and is extremely technically difficult.

Wang Zhan nodded, "My father was allowed to build it in the 20th year of Kaiyuan, but there was no ready-made keel. After waiting for five years, the keel was finally available. However, the government was financially tight and canceled the project again. But those who have seen the drawings The craftsmen all say it will be successful.”

"Is there a sealed cabin?" Li Ye asked with a smile.

"Of course there is. Nowadays, there are large ships with thousands of stones. Without watertight cabins, it is too dangerous."

Sealed cabins were a breakthrough in shipbuilding technology during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, called the Eight Boat Ship, which divided the bottom of the ship into eight independent cabins, which were isolated and sealed from each other. If one cabin was flooded, it would not affect other cabins, and the ship could continue sailing.

In the Tang Dynasty, it had become a standard feature on seagoing ships, so it was a bit redundant for Li Ye to ask this question.

Li Ye pondered for a moment and then said: "Have you ever seen a car or a boat?"

Wang Zhan nodded, and Li Ye smiled again: "If you put the vehicle and ship technology on your 50,000-stone ship, would it work?"

Wang Zhan was stunned for a moment. He had never thought about this problem. After pondering for a moment, he nodded, "It should be possible, but I have to think carefully about my humble position!"

Installing waterwheel paddles on seagoing ships is not a whimsical idea. It appeared in large numbers during the Song and Yuan Dynasties, giving seagoing ships another power source. Sailboats were used when there was sea wind, and paddles were used when there was no wind or against the wind.

Li Ye smiled again at Wei Jincheng, who had been silent all this time: "To make the fine steel paddle, you need to use Wei Shijun."

Wei Jincheng was startled and said quickly: "This is easy. I am responsible for the design of the oars for cars and ships."

"But the paddle is really too easy. I recruited you to come to Chang'an, but it actually has another great use."

Wei Jincheng nodded silently. Of course he knew that being promoted from a ninth-grade official to a sixth-grade official, and receiving the same salary as a minister, was certainly not as simple as letting him teach.

Li Ye smiled slightly and said, "Let me test you first. Sea-going ships use paddles, and the holes will be filled with seawater. How do you block them?"

Wei Jincheng thought for a while and said: "It's actually simple. The paddle shaft must be above the waterline. No matter what material is used, it can block the hole. But we are afraid that the impact of the water waves will break away the blockage. We can The tunnel is made into a double-layered ship wall, which can resist the waves. At the same time, the tunnel is blocked with cork, which will have a better effect. A water tank is built inside, so that even if a little sea water flows in, it will flow away along the water tank.”

Li Ye gave a thumbs up. He could think of installing a double-layered ship wall on the outside. This simple and practical idea is very worthy of praise.

"Okay! Keep telling me what I think!"

Li Ye ended the exam and started to talk about the topic, "Remember what you said about Du Shi's hydraulic blower? I'm considering using it in reverse, so that the blower can automatically run forward and backward, and drive the propeller to rotate through the connecting rod and crank. If we install this on the ship, With the machine, we can go to places no matter how far away we are.”

Wang Zhan and Wei Jincheng looked at each other. It was unheard of for the blower to move on its own.

Wei Jincheng stammered and asked, "Then what power is used?"

As expected of a professional, he asked the key point in one sentence. The blower will not move by itself, it must be powered, just like a water-powered blower uses water power.

Li Ye smiled slightly and said, "That's the key. I'm considering using heat as power."

Seeing that Wei Jincheng didn't understand, Li Ye smiled again and said, "Why can the Kongming Lantern fly?"

Wei Jincheng slapped his forehead and said, "Your Highness, you want to burn hot air and push the bellows forward?"

Li Ye smiled and said: "I'm talking about water vapor. When you boil water at home, don't you see the water vapor pushing the lid of the kettle open?"

Wei Jincheng suddenly realized that His Highness was talking about water vapor.

He lowered his head and thought about it, but it was still a mess. It was easier for the water vapor to push the bellows rod forward, so how to push the rod back?

Of course Li Ye knew that he couldn't figure it out. How could a steam engine be so easy?

Li Ye then smiled and said: "Don't worry about the water vapor for now. Just study the bellows for me. If you study the bellows thoroughly, you should be able to think of a solution. But I can remind you to avoid taking some detours. Think about it." Make a few more trap doors in the bellows, that’s it, you can go back.”

Not to mention what shock Li Ye and his two men said to them, Li Ye had no time to think about it. On the seventh day of the first lunar month, he married another daughter of the Dugu family, Dugu Taiwei.

Strictly speaking, Dugu Taiwei was not qualified to get married in such a big way. As long as the princess objected, no ceremony could be held.

Fortunately, the princess was also the daughter of the Dugu family, so she tolerated her sister and allowed her to marry in style.

But even if you get married in a beautiful way, you still save a lot of important links.

The first important step is the wedding banquet. After all, the Dugu family is still in the period of observing filial piety. They cannot banquet guests or invite guests to the wedding.

The only thing they could do was to let their daughter go out in a glamorous way. Their wedding car could drive around the city in style. They could only make a fuss about the pomp and circumstance. They used the most gorgeous carriage and sprinkled money along the street, attracting countless people. They came to pay their respects, and they scattered as much as 30,000 yuan of wedding money along the way.

But in the end, only about 20 members of the closely related Changsun family and more than a hundred members of the Dugu family watched the wedding.

The second important step to cancel is the hair tie. There is no hair tie. This is the most basic respect for the princess. Only the original wife can tie the hair.

After drinking Hexin wine, the tent was spread, and with the blessings of relatives, the newlyweds were sent to the bridal chamber.

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[Lao Gao has always believed that the steam engine was invented by the Chinese. The dry cylinder recorded in history is the steam engine. China invented the connecting rod and crank in the Eastern Han Dynasty. The bellows technology is extremely mature. The main parts of the steam engine are all available. Even boiling water is farming. The struggle between civilization and disease is inevitable.

These are the crystallization of the wisdom of agricultural civilization.

How could the West without farming civilization think of using steam to drive bellows to operate automatically. 】