Tianjin.

Located in the north of Tianjin Port, it is the other side of the Bohai Bay. Compared with the busy Tianjin Port every day, it seems very deserted here, which is so busy.

Tianjin is much larger than the original one. After the revival of the capital of the Ming Dynasty, Tianjin, as the most important port city in the north, can be described as changing with each passing day in recent years. There are countless ships coming and going, and merchants from the east and the west are constantly flowing, and Tianjin is becoming more and more prosperous.

On this day, no one knew that a special train slowly entered Tianjin in the early morning. The entire Tianjin station was under high alert. People who came out of the special train got on a seemingly ordinary carriage under the escort of the guards, and then left the station. More than an hour later, the carriage and his group arrived at the area north of Tianjin Port.

Here, many people were waiting. When they saw Huang Luzhuang, who was leading the carriage, and several others, quickly met. The carriage slowly stopped in front of them, the carriage opened, and Zhu Yicheng's figure was revealed.

"I have seen the emperor..." Huang Luzhuang and others hurried forward to salute.

Zhu Yicheng smiled and waved his hand, telling them not to be too polite.

When I came today, Zhu Yicheng did not wear ordinary clothes, but was wearing a naval officer uniform without military rank. The naval uniform of the Ming Dynasty was the same as the army uniform, but the color was white. The straight uniform looked majestic and upright when worn on Zhu Yicheng.

"Thank you for your hard work." Zhu Yicheng nodded to everyone with a smile. Some of the people present were those who knew and some didn't. Most of them were elites of the Academy of Sciences, and several generals from the Navy Department. In addition, Pan Mengyuan of the Military Affairs Office is also here. Before serving as Minister of Military Affairs and Governor-General of Xinming, Pan Mengyuan was originally a naval general, and was the most familiar with the Navy Department.

"For the Emperor and the Ming Dynasty, these are all things that ministers and others should do." Huang Luzhuang replied with a smile, and pointed in one direction: "The Emperor, it's already arranged. Will the trial sail now?"

"Okay! Huang Qing, please lead the way." Zhu Yicheng nodded. Huang Luzhuang led the way. Zhu Yicheng and the others followed behind and walked forward. After a while, they came to a high platform on the beach. After getting on the high platform, Huang Luzhuang handed Zhu Yicheng a telescope and pointed to the sea directly in front of the high platform: "Prince, please look, that's there."

Zhu Yicheng raised his telescope and looked over there. A third-class battleship was anchored at the dock there.

The dock here is different from the Tianjin Port wharf. The dock here is much smaller than the dock at Tianjin Port wharf, and the facilities on the dock are also different. In addition, the entire dock is blocked by the army, and idle people cannot enter at all. Even the waters outside the dock are patrolled by naval warships to prevent ordinary ships from entering this place.

This third-class battleship is very different from the ordinary third-class battleship. Compared with the ordinary third-class battleship, this battleship has two tall chimneys slightly behind the middle of the hull, and now the two chimneys are emitting light smoke, as if burning something.

In addition to the chimney, there are four huge paddle wheels on the left and right sides of the battleship. These four paddle wheels are located in the front and back positions of the hull, which looks a bit awkward.

That's right, this third-class battleship is the latest steam warship developed by the Ming Academy of Sciences. With the increasing maturity of steam engine technology, the Ming Dynasty's current use of steam engines in various aspects of industry and transportation is becoming more and more common, among which the most common are railways, mines, textiles, and metallurgy.

The use of steam engines marked the beginning of human society from an era of change. In original history, the first industrial revolution began in Britain in the 1860s, and also marked the entry of human society from the initial manual work to a new era, laying the foundation for the subsequent second industrial revolution.

Now, the Ming Dynasty has been at the forefront of the world, and has entered the first industrial revolution decades earlier than the original British people. However, although the Ming Dynasty's first step has the upper hand, compared with Europe, the Ming Dynasty's leading position is not too strong. If there is a slight negligence, it will be surpassed by the Western world at any time.

Over the years, the Ming Academy of Sciences has become a huge research institution under the attention of Zhu Yicheng. The entire Academy of Sciences is divided into several departments according to different research directions, and is led and developed by the best in each department.

In addition, the Ming Dynasty's emphasis on basic science also led to the Ming Dynasty's cultivation of talents gradually moving towards a virtuous cycle. Although the Ming Dynasty still used the imperial examination materials, in recent years, Zhu Yicheng has gradually increased the selection of talents in other aspects and promoted the cultivation of scientific talents. In this way, it gradually eliminated the imperial examination system that lasted for thousands of years and carried out reforms.

In the current view, Zhu Yicheng's gradual imperial examination reform has been effective. Although there is some criticism and rebound among the people, nothing happened because of proper control and gradual advancement. More importantly, as time goes by and the court continues to subtly pass the publicity of the Propaganda Department, most people have slowly accepted this change.

The Industrial Revolution was a pioneering revolutionary era, and Zhu Yicheng would never give up the Ming Dynasty as the world leader. So when the steam engine was used to a certain extent, Zhu Yicheng gave the Academy of Sciences a designated project, that is, how to move the steam engine to the warship and use the steam engine as power to drive the warship.

The Ming Dynasty has now moved from land to ocean, and overseas territory is also an important and inseparable part of the Ming Dynasty.

In the next few hundred years, the ocean will be a very important part. It can be said that whoever controls the ocean will control the entire world.

This is a result that has been confirmed by history. Zhu Yicheng is of course very clear, so Zhu Yicheng attaches great importance to the ocean, and it is extremely important to control the ocean and have warships that surpass other countries.

The emergence of steam warships, or steamships, will be the decisive direction of changing the power of the ocean. This direction will not change in the next nearly a hundred years. Even if we enter the electric age from the steam era to the electrical age, the use of advanced machinery and energy will still replace the original sails.

Looking at the seemingly ugly warship in front of him, Zhu Yicheng felt a little excited and also had great expectations.

This is a warship that is about to change the world. It is the first warship in this era powered by steam engines. Its appearance is epoch-making and extremely exciting.

"Your Majesty, have you started the trial voyage?" Huang Luzhuang saw that Zhu Yicheng was holding the telescope and did not put it down. After a while, he couldn't help but remind him softly.

"Try the voyage and let me see your achievements." Zhu Yicheng said.

Huang Luzhuang responded, turned around and explained to the people who were ready behind him. Soon someone sent a signal to the high platform.

Shortly after the signal was released, the chimney on the parked warship began to spit out more intense smoke. After about ten minutes, with a whistle sounding similar to a train, the warship began to slowly start.

The warship did not hang up the sails when it started. In fact, during actual operation, the current steam warships still had to use sails. This is to make up for the lack of power of the first generation steam warships and reduce energy consumption.

However, today's purpose is to conduct a trial sailing on this steam warship, so it is deliberately not to use sails, but to use steam engines to drive them all.

"It's moving! It's moving!" When the warship began to move, many researchers looking at the naval officers couldn't help but shout, and Zhu Yicheng even stared at the battleship with a telescope.

The warship moved very slowly at the beginning. As the steam engine drove the paddle wheel, the paddle wheel began to drive the water flow to drive the hull forward.

After a while, the paddle wheel speed began to accelerate, and the speed of the warship gradually increased. After about a moment of planting, the warship began to advance at a speed of about 5 nautical miles per hour.

"What is the maximum speed of this warship?" Zhu Yicheng looked at it for a while and asked Huang Luzhuang beside him.

"The maximum speed of propulsion with a steam engine can reach about 6.5 nautical miles, but this speed cannot last long. If sails and steam engines are used to propel at the same time, the maximum speed can exceed 10 nautical miles, which is a speed of 10 to 11 knots." Huang Luzhuang had already understood these data and answered immediately.

Zhu Yicheng calculated and nodded slightly. At present, the maximum speed of the Ming Dynasty's sail warship is about 9-10 knots, and the small warship will be faster, about 12 knots. From this point of view, the warships equipped with steam poles actually have not improved much in speed.

But the problem is not so. The speed of the sailing warship is achieved through the wind. The sailing warship basically relies on wind power when driving on the ocean. Wind power plays a decisive role in the speed of the warship. Once the wind power is insufficient or the wind direction, it is impossible for the sailing warship to reach the theoretical maximum speed, so the ordinary cruise speed of the sailing warship is usually around 8 knots at best.

But steam warships are different. Because the steam engine is installed, it can make up for the insufficient wind power to a certain extent. This not only allows the warship to better control the navigation speed during cruise or performing tasks. In addition, during naval battles, steam warships can have the advantages of driving and speed, and can allow one side to seize geographical advantages faster and more flexibly, which is impossible for ordinary sailing warships.

"What about the working durability of the steam engine?" Zhu Yicheng asked again.

Huang Luzhuang hesitated and replied: "Return to the emperor, it is not possible to last for a long time. According to the test steam engine, not only does it take a certain amount of preheating before use, but also requires a large amount of refined coal as energy. In addition, the maintenance of the steam engine, etc., the machine must be shut down for about one and a half hours of high-intensity use. However, if necessary, it can be used for about two and a half hours to three hours, but if this is done, the damage to the steam engine will be irreparable."

Zhu Yicheng estimated and nodded to show that he understood that although the steam warships currently have many problems, the emergence of the steam warship is an invention that changes the times. He believes that as time goes by, the steam engine technology will become more and more perfect, and by that time the steam warship will be completely different from now.
Chapter completed!