The emergence of the armored steamship made the Ming Navy break through the wind speed and water flow restrictions, and did not have to rely on monsoon navigation, greatly increasing the range of fleet activities. It took almost a year for the long American state to travel to the Central Plains, while the use of the armored steamship could be shortened to about four months.

Although the cost of ironclad ships is much more expensive than that of wooden ships, the excellent ing capacity can offset the difference between costs. Moreover, the construction of ironclad ships has a very big advantage. It does not require many years of wood to be dried to use. As long as there is steel, it can be built at any time.

After the first armored steamship was launched, twenty were built in the first year of the Ming Dynasty, increasing at an average rate of two ships per month, and the hull became heavier and heavier, with the largest ironed steamship reaching 3,200 tons.

Only two of the twenty armored steam ships were warships, and the remaining eighteen were armed merchant ships. In fact, with the advantages of ironed steam ships, even against the largest warships in Europe during the same period, they had a chance of winning. The Ming Dynasty naturally did not have to build too many special warships. The first purpose of these armored steam ships was to immigrate to the Americas.

It has been eight years since the discovery of the Americas. In eight years, the Ming Dynasty immigrated only more than 20,000 people in the Americas, and the average annual immigration was only more than 2,000. However, the benefits brought to the Ming Dynasty by these more than 20,000 immigrants were extremely rich. In the first year, the Ming Dynasty earned 150,000 taels of gold and more than 3.2 million taels of silver. Since then, it has remained above 2 million taels, and last year it has reached three million taels again.

Of course, such a high income is not farming. Most of the early transactions were obtained by trading with Indians. The backward civilization of the Indians could not resist the Ming Dynasty's goods at all. As long as the goods transported to North America were basically more than ten times the profit, and even hundreds of times the early stages. As for the huge land obtained from the Indians with a little item, it could not be measured by its value. In addition to trading with the Indians, they were also hired to mine silver mines.

Unlike the Europeans who simply plundered the Indians, the Ming Dynasty had enough goods to make the Indians excited to exchange with them. In order to exchange more gold and silver, the Ming Dynasty even guided the Indians to mine gold and silver mines. Therefore, for eight years, although the Indians on the West Coast of the Americas retreated and gave up many places, the two sides got along well.

The Americas are unique, not only with huge gold and silver mines, but also with fertile land. Immigration will be stable in the year and generate profits in the second year. With the introduction of steam engines into the textile industry, the output of cotton cloth in the Ming Dynasty increased significantly, but due to the shortage of raw materials, the domestic cotton textile industry could not be further expanded. In the Jiangnan area, the grain competition was serious, and the Americas had unique conditions to develop cotton production. The whole Ming Dynasty was eager to increase immigration to the Americas.

After the 19th year of Hongguang, the speed of immigration from the Ming Dynasty to the Americas was greatly accelerated. The number of immigrants exceeded the total of the previous eight years, with a total of more than 30,000 people.

Because the Europeans were restricted from entering the Ming ship line, after the Ming Iron Armored Steam Ship was launched, Europe knew nothing about it. Instead, it was discovered by Spanish people in Mexico that the steam ship subverted the Spanish's perception of ships. They did not know how something floating with white smoke, without sails, and like steel on the whole body could walk on the water. After several pursuits failed, the Spanish simply called this ship a ghost ship and avoided it from then on. Since then, many Europeans took the train, the Spanish vaguely guessed that the ghost ship might have come from the Ming Dynasty.

The advantages of steamships in ocean transportation have ripped the nerves of the Ming Dynasty. The Ministry of Industry announced that Hongguang would manufacture more armored steamships in the 20th year. The Jiangnan Shipyard was even more ambitious and designed 6,000 tons of ironclad ships. After the construction of more than 20 ships, the technology of the armored steamships has matured. The only thing that has troubled the development of armored steamships is the steel production of the Ming Dynasty.

The Ming Dynasty's steel technology has always been ahead of the world, and its output is naturally the first in the world. In the early years of Yongle, the national taxation record was that the iron output reached more than 19.57 million kilograms, which is more than 9,700 tons. During the Jiajing period, the iron output of Guangdong alone reached more than 3,000 tons, and it was exported to Japan, Cambodia, Myanmar, Java, Luzon, and Jiaozhi.

In the first year of Hongguang, when the Ming Dynasty was only half of the country, the pig iron production still exceeded 10,000 tons. After the seventh year of Hongguang unified the country, the national steel production reached 30,000 tons. More than ten years have passed. In the nineteenth year of Hongguang, the Ming Dynasty's steel production exceeded 200,000 tons.

The steel output of 200,000 tons is less than that of a small township factory in later generations. It was a very brilliant figure in this era. At this time, Russia's steel output was about 2,400 tons, and the total steel output of the whole Europe did not exceed 10,000 tons. The Ming Dynasty's steel output accounted for 95% of the world.

However, the annual output of 200,000 tons of steel is far from enough compared to the demand of the Ming Dynasty. In the 19th year of Hongguang, the demand for steel used in steam engines, construction, artillery, guns and ammunition has reached 150,000 tons, and the number of people using iron is also tens of thousands of tons. In addition, the railway from Nanjing to Shanghai is being laid, and tens of thousands of tons of steel is needed. The 200,000 tons of steel is no longer enough. The steel used in iron armored ships is actually squeezed out from steam engines and construction steel. If the steel used in shipyards is increased in the next year, the steel output will reach at least 350,000 tons to be barely enough.

It is completely impossible to increase the steel output by 70% in one year. At the suggestion of the emperor, the cabinet formulated a five-year development plan. From the 20th year of Hongguang to the 24th year of Hongguang, the steel output of the Ming Dynasty would reach 0 million tons/year, coal output would reach 8 million tons/year, ship manufacturing would reach 200,000 tons/year, steam engines/year, railway mileage would reach 5,000 miles, etc.

The most important thing to complete this five-year plan is steel production. Without the construction of steel, ships, railways, and steam engines, it is difficult to complete. In five years, increasing the steel production by five times will be a lot of pressure on the cabinet.

Although Wang Fu felt that he had made this plan, it was not too outrageous. It took 40 years for the British steel production to increase from 250,000 tons in 800 to 8.40 to 800,000 tons per year. However, by 850, the UK's steel production soared to 250,000 tons. It increased by more than three times in ten years, and by 870, it increased to more than 1 million tons.

The rapid growth of steel production in the UK is naturally the reason for technological progress. The conditions for the Ming Dynasty were far better than those of the UK. However, if there was no major progress in technology, it would be almost impossible to increase the steel production from 200,000 tons to 0 million tons in five years. Therefore, the Ministry of Industry issued a reward order to the whole country. If someone can improve the current steel smelting technology and greatly increase the output, the Ministry of Industry will reward 100,000 silver dollars.

In order to prevent this five-year plan from being seen by merchants from Western countries and frightened Europeans, the court did not announce it. The reward of 100,000 silver dollars was released, and countless people were jealous. Many people who had never been exposed to steel smelting were also concerned about it. They dreamed of getting a reward, and many Europeans were also ready to go. 100,000 silver dollars could buy a large manor in Europe and live a carefree aristocratic life from then on.

Unfortunately, these 100,000 silver dollars are not that easy to get. Europeans are simply impossible to get. At this time, Europe said that although it was already ahead of the Ming Dynasty, it was far behind the Ming Dynasty in practical applications. Many of their steel smelting used the technology from the Ming Dynasty more than a hundred years ago. However, the scholars of the Ming Dynasty never valued the magical skills. They had advanced methods but no one summarized them. The Ming Dynasty was lagging behind in basic theory.

What's more, if you want to improve large-scale steel smelting technology, you must visit the factories. All steel plants in Daming have used steam engines. How can Europeans visit? The most likely people to receive this reward are the technicians of the steel plants.

In the end, the bonus was taken away in the 22nd year of Hongguang. It was not one person but two people who took the bonus. One of them was Xu Zhixi, a technician of Ma'anshan Iron and Steel Plant. He first used a stirring process and stirred the metal solution in the reflector with long steel rods. In this way, not only the solution on the furnace surface, but also the entire furnace solution can contact air, thus making decarbonization more thorough and becoming a forged cast iron. The residual air of the agitating furnace itself is used to preheat the blower. This simple change, under the same raw materials, the yield of cooked iron can be increased by three times.

The other person is a technician of Wuhan Iron and Steel Plant. He improved the blast furnace, which uses the method of blowing preheated air from the lower part of the furnace along the air outlet around the furnace, so that the blast furnace, which originally produced several tons, can produce dozens of tons per day, and the production capacity will increase tenfold.

The two of them shared the reward of up to 100,000 silver dollars, and each received 50,000 silver dollars. I don’t know how many people died. Taking this opportunity, the emperor asked Dali Temple to formulate a patent law. The patent law stipulates that anyone with unique technology or secret recipes can apply for a patent from the court’s Patent Office. Depending on the technology and secret recipes, they enjoy patent rights ranging from fifteen to fifty years. Xu Zhixi and He Wei became the first batch of patent applicants. They enjoyed the patent for twenty years. Later, any factory that used the two-way method to make steel would have to pay a patent fee of one yuan/ton for two people until the patent expires.

This news was published in the newspaper. I don’t know how many people in the country have insomnia. They were planning how much money they could get in the future. Unexpectedly, 50,000 taels of silver were just a small head, and there were countless big heads behind them. Although I don’t know how much money they could get, it was definitely an astronomical figure.
Chapter completed!