"Hey Edmund, Thomas, long time no see."

"Oh~~Your Highness, the Imperial Grandson, your arrival makes your servant feel infinitely glorious."

The fifth laboratory, the Optical and Mechanical Laboratory, is hosted by two Portuguese people. Zhu Youdong also sent the linguistic genius Yang Tingyun here for reasons well known to everyone.

"Edmund, the eight-power telescope you gave me last time is very good. I can clearly see the faces of people on the street opposite from the tower of the Nanjing Imperial Palace."

"It is an honor for me to be praised by His Highness. Of course, I will be even happier if His Highness gives you more treasures because of this."

"Well, Edmund, according to our previous agreement, if you teach a disciple that I am satisfied with, I will reward you with one hundred taels of silver."

"Your Highness, please rest assured that I have absolutely no hidden thoughts. As God testifies, I teach the students you send without any reservation. After all, as a Portuguese, I only hope that after completing the five years of study with Your Highness,

After signing the contract, he returned to his hometown with enough wealth."

"Hahaha, as long as you can bring out my students to become like you, your wish will definitely be fulfilled."

Mirror grinder Edmund's belief is something Zhu Youdong likes very much: You like money, no problem, as long as the apprentices you make satisfy me, I will satisfy you. But watchmaker Thomas gave Zhu Youdong a headache

Now: This guy is a devout Christian.

Although it is incomprehensible why such a devout believer does not stay in Lisbon to serve his God, but instead sells his house and land and buys a ship to run a business. But for Thomas’s hands-on ability, not only Zhu Youdong, but even

It turns out that several old craftsmen from Honghe Village were also impressed by it.

He was able to complete all the parts of the entire clock by himself and assemble it completely. This ability allowed Zhu Youdong to tolerate him teaching the Chinese craftsmen who followed him in Fangshan.

Just bear with it, it’s hard to tell children anyway, but adult Chinese people, haha, generally won’t become fanatical believers.

After all, a watchmaker may say he makes clocks, but he is actually the master of all machinery. A person who can make clocks independently can quickly get started with any machine as long as he has the drawings.

"Mr. Yang, how is the production capacity of clocks here in Fangshan?"

"Reporting to Your Highness, except for a few parts that our Ming craftsmen cannot process at present, more than 90% of ordinary parts can be completed independently. Assembly is not a problem. As long as there are enough manpower, it is not a problem to produce twenty clocks per month.

.”

"Well, how are those North Korean craftsmen doing?"

"Very good, very obedient, very hard-working. I appointed twenty Ming craftsmen in this laboratory as foremen, and the two hundred Korean craftsmen assigned to this laboratory all work under the command of these foremen. With the cooperation of each other

As I become more and more proficient, the production of table clocks will increase in the future.”

"Okay, when the production capacity of desk clocks increases to sixty per month, I will ask Cao Sanxi to come to you."

"Your Highness, please rest assured that your Highness's requirements will be met in three months at most."

"Well, when producing this clock, we have to pay attention to the different grades. Didn't Mubang ship a lot of jade? Inlay some on it, or simply make a small amount of full jade case clocks or something like that."

"Yes, I understand."

"After the desk clock has been stably mass-produced, the mechanical laboratory has two tasks. First, strive to miniaturize the desk clock." At this point, Zhu Youdong rolled his wrist: "It can be reduced to a size that can be tied to a person's arm. Second, it can be miniaturized."

, help Mr. Xu solve some problems."

"Uh... To make the clock smaller so much, the accuracy of the gears... I know it. Starting next year, we will work hard in this direction."

As for what Zhu Youdong said about helping Xu Guangqi solve some problems, that was of course because Fang Shan's sixth laboratory was studying something epoch-making: steam engines.

The principle of the steam engine is very simple. The Greeks before the Christian era had already made the most primitive steam engine based on this principle. But if we really want to build a steam engine that can be used as a power for industrial production, there are too many problems that need to be solved.

On the basis of history, James Watt spent another twenty-five years on the basis of the achievements of Seville, Newcoe, Fulton and many other predecessors before he gradually solved many problems of the steam engine and created a real steam engine.

industrial steam engine.

As for what problems need to be solved in the development mileage of steam engines, I'm sorry, as a medical student, Zhu Youdong doesn't know. All he can do is to tell Xu Guangqi the principles of steam engines, and then directly explain what effects a mature steam engine should achieve

.He can't control the rest.

The seventh laboratory is the materials science laboratory. Under the guidance of the physical and chemical laboratory, the old craftsmen from Jingdezhen are more responsible for practical operations. The theoretical research is left to the juniors of the old craftsmen -

—Only they have enough energy to learn relevant knowledge of physics and chemistry.

If the investment in the steam engine laboratory is huge, and if it succeeds it will bring about huge changes in society, then basic science like materials science, at least at the current stage, only requires continuous net investment.

Therefore, don't blame Cao Sanxi for being ignorant and saying that Fangshan's spending is too exaggerated. It is actually because Zhu Youdong has taken such great strides that he has laid out many disciplines such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, medicine, engineering and even cutting-edge science.

But without such a comprehensive layout, it is impossible to simply climb the technology tree of a certain series. The progress of human science and technology requires the complementarity of various disciplines. Taking the current muskets alone, the gunpowder is stuck in the smokeless gunpowder, and once

As the power of gunpowder increases, higher requirements will be placed on metallurgy. After metallurgy meets the requirements, new requirements will be placed on the power of production machinery... In short, if the foundation is not laid solidly, after a certain level, a single

The technology tree of the system cannot develop upwards.

So, stupid people have stupid solutions, so let’s lay a solid foundation honestly.

In Fangshan, in addition to these seven laboratories and one school, there are two institutions.

One is the hybrid rice research base, and the person in charge is Xu Guangqi: his agronomic attainments are also very high. However, agronomic research takes a very long time, and most of the time is spent quietly waiting. So Xu Guangqi is able to do both.

Job. And to be honest, Ming Dynasty’s agriculture in the north is experiencing a problem of reduced production, but on a national scale, Ming Dynasty’s grain output is sufficient. Therefore, there is no need to worry about this.

As for another organization.

"Mr. Zhang, I took a look at the layout design you sent yesterday. It's quite good. Let's fix it like this."

"I obey. Then Your Highness, when will we start the official release?"

"Well, it's already August now. With better preparations and more time, if Zhang's side can control the Yangtze River Navy more firmly, it will be more convenient for transportation in the future. And my manuscripts will also have to be accumulated.

A little more. Let’s do this, the first issue will be officially released on the first day of October!”

Yes, as a time traveler, especially after seeing the time traveler from the east come up with something like comics, how could Zhu Youdong not want to start a newspaper? This is a great weapon to compete with the gentry class for public opinion and open up the people's wisdom!

…

After staying in Fangshan for more than a month, the garrison eunuch Wang Kun strongly protested against Zhu Youdong's failure to attend the ten-day meeting, which showed signs of Emperor Wanli's "lazy government", so Zhu Youdong had to return to the Nanjing Palace to take charge.

.

After coming down from the mountain, he set foot on his own ship. The slow autumn wind blew gently along the Qinhuai River, inflating the sails of the ship. Zhu Youdong looked back at Fangshan, which was full of hope. He roared with confidence.
Chapter completed!