Bringing the Railway to Daming

Chapter 276 Zhu Di's plan, the birth of the generator! [Please subscribe]

After hearing Lou Kui's words, Zhu Di nodded slightly.

He then said, "Arrange merchants to continue selling the weapons our army has acquired to the Toki and Yamana clans, and send people to give them advice and help them win the war against the Ashikaga shogunate."

"I will obey my orders."

After Lou Kui left, Zhu Di was still thinking about the affairs of Japan and the Northern Dynasties.

Compared with the Southern Dynasties, both the policies of "changing rice to mulberry" and "immigration" were promoted relatively slowly in the Northern Dynasties.

It was also thanks to the secret support of the Toki clan, the Yamana clan and several other daimyos, otherwise even the current achievements would have been difficult to achieve.

For example, since the beginning of July, the number of women's indentures signed by Ming Dynasty merchants engaged in "immigration" business in the Northern Dynasties of Japan has been less than 10,000.

It should be noted that the population of the Northern Dynasty in Japan is two or three times that of the Southern Dynasty.

This situation did not arise because the lives of civilians in the Northern Dynasty of Japan were much better than those in the Southern Dynasty, but because most daimyo were wary of or even hostile to Ming Dynasty merchants and were unwilling to cooperate.

However, when the civil war between the Northern and Southern Dynasties broke out, this situation was bound to change.

By then, more daimyo will inevitably break away from the control of the shogunate, and for their own benefit, accept the "changing rice to mulberry" and "immigration" policy, and make money together with the Ming Dynasty's maritime merchants...

It was late August.

The First Long-distance Exploration Fleet, carrying the North American and Central American Dusiwei Army migration fleets, passed through Tsushima Island.

On the day when the fleet stopped at Tsushima Island for replenishment, Zhu Di invited Chen Zhongming, who was the fleet commander with the title of assistant to the Navy Governor's Office, as well as Zhang Bingyi, Li Mingqi, the eunuch Wang Ping (who replaced Wang Shun), and the two commanders-in-chief who took office in the Americas.

Normally speaking, these military generals would be very averse to dealing with vassal kings in private.

But Zhu Di sent someone to deliver the invitation openly and even invited the eunuch Wang Ping, so it could not be considered private.

So several people kept the appointment.

Zhu Di set up a banquet in the private room on the second floor of the only restaurant in this port. After several people entered and paid their respects, he got straight to the point and talked about business.

"I invited you all here this time mainly to discuss a deal in advance with the two major American metropolitan commanderies and the long-distance fleet."

Although Chen Zhongming and the two American commanders were both of the second rank, when they sat together, Chen Zhongming was still the leader.

Chen Zhongming said, "Your Highness the Prince of Yan should know that the imperial court prohibits the military from engaging in trade."

Zhu Di smiled and said, "Most of our Ming army is indeed prohibited from engaging in trade, but isn't it loosened up now?"

"For example, the four major military governorates of Gansu, Jilin, Beiyang, and Luzon now have offices under the Ministry of Revenue's Commercial and Trade Department. The imperial court has granted these four major military governorates special permission to trade with the Commercial and Trade Department, effectively allowing them to indirectly engage in business."

"The two major capitals of North America and Central America are located far away in America, thousands of miles away from the Central Plains. I believe the imperial court also grants similar trading privileges, right?"

Upon hearing this, Chen Zhongming looked at Xie Deyou and Feng Qian.

Both of them were about forty years old. They were not only "veterans" in the army, but also related to the nobles who had been granted titles.

Xie Deyou was 42 years old and was the nephew of Xie Cheng, Marquis of Yongping. Although his military achievements and reputation were not as great as Xie Cheng's, he was also a general who followed Zhu Yuanzhang to conquer the world very early on.

Because his abilities were more focused on logistics, he was promoted to the rank of Guard Commander after his contributions during the Southwest Campaign. This time, he was willing to travel to America and be promoted two levels to the rank of Metropolitan Commander.

Feng Qian's situation was similar. He was 38 years old and the nephew of Feng Sheng, Duke of Song. However, he was not the son of Feng Guoyong, but the son of his third brother.

This man also performed mediocrely on the battlefield, his abilities leaning towards logistics and farming. He had previously achieved the rank of Deputy Commander-in-Chief through his meritorious service, and now, having volunteered to travel to America, he was promoted to Commander-in-Chief right there.

Before taking office, both of them had visited the palace to meet the emperor and knew Zhu's plans for the two major divisions in America. There were indeed officials from the Ministry of Revenue and Commerce accompanying them in the army.

So the two exchanged glances briefly, and Xie Deyou said, "The American Department does have the privilege of trading with the Commerce Department."

Zhu Di smiled and said, "If you can do business with the Commerce Department, I can do the same after I go overseas to serve as a vassal. Doesn't this mean that we can also do business?"

Xie Deyou asked, "I wonder what kind of business His Royal Highness the Prince of Yan wants to start? The businesses our company can do are very limited."

"Immigration," Zhu Di said, "After I take up my fiefdom overseas, the number of Han Chinese I can relocate from China will inevitably be limited, and I don't want to have too many locals under my command."

"I heard that the Native Americans look a lot like us, and their warriors are pretty good, so I hope you two can stockpile a group of them in the future."

"When the time comes, I will ask the Commerce Department to act as an intermediary and purchase several batches of native warriors to strengthen the vassal state's army."

Xie Deyou and Feng Qian breathed a sigh of relief after hearing this.

Although they had never been to America, they knew a lot from the documents given by the court and heard some from Chen Zhongming and others. They knew that there were many native Americans and their strength was not strong. They thought there was no problem in stockpiling a group of native American warriors.

In addition, as generals at the level of commander-in-chief, they cannot settle down in America. At most, their term of office can be longer - they still have relatives here, and they will return to Beijing when their term of office is over.

In this way, he naturally did not want to offend Zhu Di.

So the two of them exchanged glances again, and then said together: "We will do our best."

Zhu Di said, "These two words are enough. Come, I offer you a toast and wish you all a smooth journey!" For these people, being toasted by the prince was an honor. Some, such as Zhang Bingyi and Li Mingqi, even felt flattered and immediately raised their glasses and drank them all in one gulp.

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When the Beiyang First Long-distance Exploration Fleet took more than 6,000 soldiers and civilians from the garrisons to America, Liu Kuan continued to live the life of a "working man" in the Ming Dynasty.

Although Tiangong Academy had only been established for less than half a year, it had the support of Zhu Yuanzhang and Liu Kuan was currently only trying out a technical school in Zhili, so it did not encounter too many obstacles and the operation of various departments of Tiangong Academy was basically on track.

In addition to being the leader of the Institute of Technology, Liu Kuan's other daily job is to be a teacher in the main hall.

Fortunately, teaching becomes easy once you get familiar with it, especially when there are no superiors checking lesson plans regularly and no various mandatory teaching tasks.

Sometimes, Liu Kuan even enjoys spending time with students.

On this day, Zhu Xiongying and other students from the main hall brought Liu Kuan a good news, which was that they had achieved phased results in the development of the generator.

Therefore, Liu Kuan changed the location of the natural science class that day to the "Generator Development Experimental Group" compound under the Tiangong Institute.

In a "laboratory" in the compound, Liu Kuan saw the generator developed by Zhu Xiongying and others with the cooperation of craftsmen.

I saw that this generator was more than half a person's height and was mainly composed of magnets and coils - the magnets were smelted, and the coils were copper wires, and each coil was as thick as dozens of hairs.

As for the insulating material that wraps the copper wire, it is made of cotton.

Historically, in the early days of electrical wires, people explored various insulating materials for wrapping wires. Paper, silk, cotton, porcelain, and paint were all used as insulating materials for wrapping wires.

However, among these materials, paper, silk, and porcelain were eliminated for various reasons, or were only used in a small range. Only cotton and lacquer were used for a longer time and in a wider range, until they were later replaced by rubber, and rubber was finally replaced by plastic.

When Liu Kuan gave the task of developing the generator to students such as Zhu Xiongying, although he intended to train them, he would not let Zhu Xiongying and others take too many detours.

Therefore, the coil of the generator in front of us is made of a composite insulating material mainly composed of cotton and supplemented by paper, plus a special paint.

Although its performance is far inferior to later insulating materials such as rubber and plastic, it can be used in most occasions at present.

Connected to the generator is a pedal-operated power generation device.

The entire power generation device gave Liu Kuan the feeling of an antique human-powered generator from the early 19th century that came out of a black-and-white movie.

At this point, Zhu Xiongying, the leader of the experimental group, began explaining, "Teacher, please see, as long as someone keeps pedaling on this stationary bicycle, it can generate electricity."

"However, we haven't developed any electrical appliances yet. We can only determine whether electricity is being generated by the sparks generated by the contact of wires."

Zhu Tan, who was standing by, couldn't help but interrupt, "Teacher, if we give us a little more time, we can actually develop an electric motor."

"Although the kinetic energy provided by electric motors is small and unstable, they can be used to make electric fans."

This power generation device was not the first time Liu Kuan had seen it. He had seen it many times, so he was not surprised.

After listening to the two people's talk, Liu Kuan sat on the "bicycle" and started pedaling. He found that it was a bit tiring and far less labor-saving than the shared bicycle he rode.

Because although this "bicycle" also uses gears and chains to transmit power, the structural design of the chain is not as scientific and reasonable as that of later generations.

In fact, the Ming Dynasty craftsmen had the bicycle ridden by Liu Kuan as a reference, so they could directly copy the sleeveless roller chain that was born in the late 19th century in terms of design.

But knowing the structural design is one thing, and being able to produce it is another.

The production of sleeveless roller chains requires sufficiently precise industrial processing capabilities. The Ming Dynasty's industry has only been developed for a few years, and there is still a considerable gap between its parts processing level and that of the late 19th century.

Liu Kuan had no way to deal with this.

Even if he could download some useful technology and industrial knowledge in the future when he was connected to the Internet, he would not be able to help the Ming Dynasty create a certain industrial foundation out of thin air.

In the Ming Dynasty, many things in science and industry had to be started from scratch.

After Liu Kuan got off his "bicycle," he said, "You can try to develop electric motors and electric fans, but at present, the most suitable application of electricity in the Ming Dynasty is lighting, that is, developing electric lights."

"Later, I will ask His Majesty to transfer several skilled glassmakers from the Mirror Manufacturing Bureau and the Glass Factory to assist you in developing the electric lamp."

"However, the development process will be quite time-consuming. It's up to you whether to participate or not—this doesn't count as homework for the natural science class."

After hearing Liu Kuan's words, Zhu Xiongying was the first to speak out: "Teacher, I must participate in such an important task as developing the electric light!"

Zhu Tan followed up, "I want to join in too!"

Then several students from the main hall expressed their opinions, but most students remained silent, obviously not interested.

Research experiments are inherently boring things. Most children may like them at first because of the novelty, but most of them will get bored after a long time.

Therefore, Liu Kuan was not surprised by this scene.

He smiled and said, "Okay, from now on, you guys will continue to be responsible for developing electric lights, motors, and electric fans."

　First update.

　　
　　
　
(End of this chapter)