Tibet

Li Ye listened to the reports from Li Chenghua and Chen Huan with a calm face. Under the fierce threats from the internal guards, all the monasteries in Chang'an had compromised and accepted the two red lines drawn by Li Ye. The fertile land could not exceed five acres per person. Control the good man.

As for the pledge of copper and iron, it is not a red line, it is a debt owed by the monasteries.

"Your Highness, preliminary statistics show that the government has added more than one million acres of land, more than 200,000 civilians, and countless amounts of copper and iron, at least several million kilograms."

Li Ye nodded and said with a smile: "They all say that temples are big producers of copper and iron, and it's true."

Chen Huan hesitated a little and said: "Your Highness, all the temples have compromised, but the temples still begged Your Highness to relax a little and allow ten acres of fertile land per capita. I also think that five acres per capita is a bit harsh."

"The life of the monastery is so good, so there are more and more monks!"

Li Ye said coldly, took two steps with his hands behind his back and said: "You can change the per capita five acres to ten acres per capita, but it must be replaced with copper and iron. I only took half of the copper and iron. It can't be done now. They can only keep 20%, either five acres of land or 20% of the copper and iron, let them choose, and then the internal guards will check it, and there is no way to hide it secretly! "

Li Chenghua and Chen Huan both bowed to receive the order, and Li Ye said to Chen Huan: "This is just Chang'an, and now we want to promote it to all areas under the jurisdiction of Prince Qi. The temple has been too full over the years, and now it must be vomited out!"

Wang Pingchuan's large carriage has been successfully developed and is very comfortable. It is actually an ancient RV and is very suitable for long-distance travel. However, mass production requires a large amount of copper and iron.

Mining and smelting takes time, so the fastest way is to collect existing inventory.

The other thing is shipbuilding. Li Ye hopes to build an iron-hulled warship with ten thousand stones. It is not difficult. In fact, it is just to put an armor on the existing ten thousand stone warship.

There is also the need for copper to make money. Their copper output is not high and they have been using the copper in stock. They are about to run out and they urgently need to increase their stock.

The construction of the Engineering School has not yet been completed, but teaching has begun. Wang Zhan is currently not only the director of the Ship Administration, but also the academic director of the Engineering School of Shipbuilding, which is equivalent to the head of the department. He is also responsible for the Shipbuilding Research Institute. There are currently four professors in the Shipbuilding Institute, thirty More than one student.

Without exception, these students and professors joined the Institute of Shipbuilding, taking classes and doing scientific research at the same time.

At present, the classes are mainly about learning drawing, then ship structure, and then ship design. Of course, it needs to be done step by step. They need to study for five years. The graduation standard is that each student can independently design a ten thousand stone ship.

When learning about ships, practice is very important. Now they are taking basic courses. In two months, they will rush to Quanzhou to study and participate in shipbuilding at the same time.

The reason why he did not go to Quanzhou immediately was because Wang Zhan was currently on a mission. He had to produce the paddle drawings of the Wanshi ship within a year.

The paddle has changed from wood to metal, and its performance is completely different. The material, size, and structure are all extremely important, and the slightest difference can make a huge difference.

The only way is to trial and error, again and again.

Wang Zhan planned to first succeed on the three thousand stone ship within two months.

This will give him a wealth of experience, and he will avoid many detours when he starts developing the Wanshi Ship's propeller.

Of course, this kind of development would consume a lot of copper, iron and labor, which was not something he considered.

In the institute, Wang Zhan was explaining his ideas for designing a propeller to more than 30 students.

"First of all, the propellers are made of metal. The current propellers for vehicles and ships are all made of wood and are only suitable for sailing in the inland sea. In the sea, they will be broken by a wave.

Because it was my first time to make it with metal, I had no experience, so I could only keep experimenting. First, I considered using iron, which is strong and durable, while copper is a little softer and easier to bend."

At this time, a student raised his hand and said: "Sir, would you consider using bronze? I think copper alloy is lighter and stronger."

The student who spoke is called Li Gao. His father is currently the chief craftsman of cars and boats. His father has no sons. He followed his father to study cars and boats when he was ten years old. Unfortunately, his father died of illness last year. Li Gao was admitted this time and he only studied After studying for five years, if you take the imperial examination, you will not be able to pass the subject of Tie Jing.

Wang Zhan also valued Li Gao very much and used him as his assistant.

Wang Zhan nodded, "I think bronze can be used as paddles, but as a frame, it is still not as good as iron. The frame should be made of fine steel, and the frame design should be as simple as possible to reduce the weight of the propeller itself.

In addition, it needs to be close to the hull, so when designing a large ship, both sides of the bottom should be recessed, leaving two gaps to install the paddle wheels. Do you understand? The paddle wheels I was thinking of were not on the sides of the big ship, but on the bottom of the big ship. "

At this time, Miao Chun raised his hand and said, "Sir, would it be inconvenient for the person to step on the bottom of the paddle at the bottom of the cabin?"

"That's a great question!"

Wang Zhan said with a smile: "Actually, the paddlewheels I am considering do not require manpower to step on them. I am currently working on a new machine to use it to drive the ships. Once successful, the fleet will be able to go further." The place."

Wang Zhan hung a drawing on the wooden board and smiled at everyone: "This is the metal paddle I designed. It has fine steel as the frame and bronze as the paddle. It has been sent to be made and is going to be installed on the three thousand stone Try it on the boat.”

Seeing that the time was almost up, Wang Zhan said to everyone: "When you go back, each of you will draw a picture of the paddle. You can refer to the actual wheel paddle now. This is it!"

Wang Zhan pointed behind him, and there were seven or eight different models of wheels and oars for cars and boats placed behind him.

"You have to think over and over for yourself, how to be the lightest and simplest, but also the strongest. This is your homework. Leave it to me in ten days!"

Yanzhou, about eighty miles east of Fushi County, is the open-pit coal mine being mined by the Prince of Qi. The history of coal utilization is too long. Among all coal mines, open-pit coal mines are the easiest to mine. First, It is relatively safe and has a large output.

The open-pit coal mine currently being mined covers an area of ​​about several thousand acres. After peeling off the three feet of soil on the surface, there is coal several feet deep.

There are a total of 3,000 people digging coal here. They are all young men recruited from nearby villages. They have one lunch and one hundred and fifty cents a day. They pay the bills on the same day. They take the money and leave every evening and come back at dawn the next day. .

It's not okay to be lazy. If you are caught being lazy once, you will be deducted 50 cents, and if you are caught three times in a row, you will be fired.

The coal mine is only more than a hundred steps away from the Qingshui River. A dirt road and a simple dock have been built here to make it easy to transport coal from the waterway.

But the efficiency was still too low. Three thousand people used hoes to dig into the coal seam, which was time-consuming and laborious. The output was not high. The monthly output was only enough for the people of Chang'an to cook.

Now that Li Ye is smelting a large amount of iron and copper, the problem of insufficient coal is imminent. There is only one solution, which is to increase production, either by adding more manpower or improving mining efficiency.

Li Ye chose the latter. The explosives he developed would be put to use at this time.

Three thousand people stood at a distance, and everyone was asked to cover their ears. They looked curiously at what a dozen soldiers were doing.

The firearms soldier drilled a hole in the coal seam, filled it with a ten-kilogram explosive bag, lit the match, and everyone ran away quickly.

After a while, I just heard ‘Boom! 'There was an earth-shattering explosion, and thick smoke rose into the sky. Three thousand migrant workers were stunned. They saw that the coal seam was like a city wall collapsing, with a large piece peeling off, weighing tens of thousands of kilograms. This was followed by two consecutive explosions. , nearly 200,000 kilograms of coal collapsed.

When the start-up bell rang, three thousand people rushed forward cheering. With explosives, the efficiency of coal mining increased a hundred times.