"Father, my son is back."

"Oh, you're back. Have you eaten? Hey, I've been used to it for so many years. I always ask you if you've eaten. I just remembered that the food in your laboratory is much richer than at home."

"What my father said, no matter how rich the food in the cafeteria is, you can never get tired of eating the food at home. Because my son knew he was going home tonight, he deliberately didn't eat dinner in the cafeteria."

"That's a good feeling, old lady, hurry up and heat up the dinner."

As an academician of Fangshan Academy of Sciences, Zhu Kuiyou, the current head of the Internal Combustion Engine R&D Laboratory of the Academy of Sciences, like other academicians, has a separate small courtyard with three entrances. In this courtyard, his parents, wife and children all live together.

.

The mother went to warm up her son's meal. Her face was covered with grooves, her complexion was swarthy, and her hands were thickly calloused. She looked like the father who had suffered a lot in his early years. He took a puff from his cigarette and said, "This time I haven't been home for half a month.

Why, did you encounter a problem at work?"

"Yes, the emperor asked his son to lead a working group to develop an internal combustion engine, which is a machine that adds fuel, burns it inside the machine, and then uses heat energy to generate power. The son's early research direction was wrong. After the emperor's guidance, he told the emperor

The four-stroke I mentioned still has no clue. The battle that will determine the fate of the country is about to begin, but my son's research here has always been stuck. I really don't dare to relax at all."

"That is, this battle is the key to whether my Zhu family can prosper for another five hundred years. As a clan member, you should work harder. Oh, by the way, what is a four-stroke?"

Zhu Kuiyou's father, named Zhu Jingda, lived a hard life in his early years due to many restrictions such as the clan not being able to work as an official, farm, or do business. Although he didn't know a single Chinese character, the old man had a lot of experience in the world. So Zhu Kuiyou didn't look down on him at all.

My father’s thoughts. After the old man asked about the four-stroke, he patiently explained it to his illiterate father in detail.

"Hey! I thought it was such an unfathomable thing, but it turns out to be just that. Brat, you've been working on such a simple thing for so long?"

"What do you say, father?"

"In my opinion, this four-stroke, to put it bluntly, first allows the oil and gas mixture to enter at the same time, and then seals the space. And there should be an ignition device at the top of this space that can activate sparks without human operation. In a sealed space

The oil and gas mixture is ignited in it. After this thing is ignited, it will reach high temperature and expand. Then there should be a movable piston below this space that is pushed by the ignited gas to do work. After that, the other side of this closed space will then

As the piston moves, it will be pulled apart, allowing the exhaust gas to come out from the other side. No, suction, ignition, work, exhaust, doesn't the four-stroke come out? "

At this point, Zhu Jingda's interest was completely aroused. He directly asked Zhu Kuiyou to get a pen and paper and start drawing on the white paper.

The illiterate blacksmith couldn't write, and his drawing skills were average. But no matter what, what he drew was close to one of the most primitive internal combustion engine cylinders of later generations.

"Oh, why didn't I think that the piston can be connected to the exhaust device, so that automatic exhaust can be achieved? No, I can also connect the piston to the suction device at the same time. In this way, suction, work, and exhaust are all completely

Automation has been achieved. As for ignition, hey, I will get an electric ignition device, calculate the time, and light the fire every few seconds! Father, you are really an expert, how did you come up with the idea?"

"Hey, you, you were born a little late. By the time you were about to go to school, the emperor had already ascended the throne and changed the ancestral system of the clan. So you didn't do any illegal work in order to survive like our generation did.

Yes. Therefore, in terms of thinking, your breadth is actually far inferior to ours."

After the old man talked about the bitterness and sweetness for a long time, he took a deep drag on the cigarette and said, "I used to be a blacksmith. In order to solve problems in the furnace, I had to use airbags and pistons.

Well, you see, the furnaces used by our blacksmiths turn out to be like this... They also need to use a blower bag to blow air in, and then let the waste gas come out... This, the emperor has clearly pointed out the four-stroke, so what do we do?

It’s actually easy to think of it if you’ve been a blacksmith.”

"That's it. Thank you father for your advice."

"What are you doing! Are you leaving again? Your mother has just heated up the rice."

"I won't eat! How will my son be able to eat now? Father, mother, when my son gets the internal combustion engine out, I'll invite you to go to Nanyue for an authentic dinner!"

It was already March of 1647. Of course Zhu Youdong didn't know at this moment that everyone in Fangshan had been groping for the internal combustion engine for nearly ten years, and the last step was broken by an illiterate old man. He

At this time, I was reading Richelieu's letters over and over again.

As the war approaches, the silk porcelain tea smuggling route from the Ming Dynasty to the Ottomans to Europe has been subject to more and more restrictions. But the more so, the people who rely on this route to make a living have become more and more crazy: once the war starts,

The Silk Road will be completely cut off. We must make a fortune before this happens.

Due to this pressure, smugglers changed their previous transportation methods by carriage and walking. They bribed officials on a large scale and transported directly by train. Therefore, the time from Paris to Ili was compressed to less than three months.

.

After Richelieu's letter arrived in Ili, it was sent to Yarkand as quickly as possible by the local Jinyiwei, and then transmitted by telegram from the Chief Secretary of Xinjiang. In this way, Zhu Youdong could get such an important letter before departure.

information.

The deployment of troops and preliminary combat plans in Europe are actually not of great significance: for the Ming Dynasty, the Ottomans, and Europe, the Battle of India was almost a show of strength to fight for national strength. And the terrain of India is like that, which determines the strategic level of the two sides.

There aren't many options to choose from.

What he really cared about was that Richelieu mentioned that Europe had developed radio!

The emergence of this thing is really important. Among other things, in this war, India, the battlefield agreed by the three parties, is far away from its own homeland. Therefore, logistics and transportation are the foundation for victory in the war. To achieve rapid, large-scale

For transportation, we must rely on sea transportation. Therefore, whoever controls the sea will win this battle.

Judging from Richelieu's letter, due to the addition of the Ottoman navy, the Ming Dynasty was slightly at a disadvantage on the battleships, seven to nine. But this gap was actually within Zhu Youdong's expectation - in fact, the gap was larger than he originally thought.

A little smaller. But if the opponent has a radio, in a battle with more than 300 battleships, heavy cruisers, light cruisers, and destroyers on both sides, the enemy's advantage will be too great - you can't let it go

Zhu Youdong followed Cao Cao's example and connected the Ming Dynasty's more than 100 warships with telegraph wires to create a chain of warships, right?

In the past, when everyone's naval battles were limited to the double-digit range, whether there was a radio or not was not a big problem: all the warships lined up in a line and just followed the flagship. But now everyone has more than a hundred warships spread out on the sea. , the array is probably not tens of kilometers long. And with the radio, the European and Austrian combined fleets can be commanded in a unified manner, but the Ming Dynasty's fleet can only fight independently - what a waste!

This letter came in time. It seems that some plans have to be changed a little.

"Founderization."

"My slave is here."

"Call and ask the prime minister, deputy prime minister, two prime ministers, and Fu Shan from Fangshan Academy of Sciences to come to Qianqing Palace as soon as possible."

"According to the decree."

…

"Everyone, the original should still be on the way. This is a telegram. I asked Fang Zhenghua's eunuchs to copy a few copies. You can take a look first."

After everyone read Richelieu's letter, they all looked solemn, not at all happy about getting the opponent's troop deployment in advance.

"Your Majesty." Ma Shiying stood up: "This wireless telegraph, can you understand it this way? It is a telegram that does not require physical wires. It can send and receive information directly in the air."

"What Ma Xiang said is accurate."

"Hey~ This is troublesome." Privy Councilor Yan Siqi suddenly jumped up: "When I was commanding the fleet, I always dreamed of having something like this. Now, the Western Thief has actually made it?"

"With electricity, the emergence of wired telegraphy is inevitable. And with wired telegraphy, the emergence of wireless telegraphy is also a matter of time. I have already expected this. Therefore, after the wired telegraphy just came out, I let Fu Qingzhu took the lead in establishing a special research and development group."

As soon as the emperor finished speaking, all the senior officials in the room fixed their eyes on Fu Shan.

Fu Shan, who was just forty this year, stood up with a wry smile: "Your Majesty, distinguished officials, through hard work in recent years, the Radio Research Laboratory has perfected the theory of electromagnetic waves and measured the wavelength and speed of electromagnetic waves. The current The difficulty lies in the transmitter and receiver. To be more specific, it is mainly the oscillator and modulator. These things require repeated testing, and this is the most time-consuming."

"Mr. Fu, I don't understand these specific things. I just want to ask you, when will our radios be installed on warships for practical use?"

"It depends on luck."

"luck?"

"Yes. The longer the antenna, the higher the frequency, and the farther it can be transmitted. But we can't make an antenna hundreds of meters or thousands of meters high, right? So, how to convert low frequency to high frequency? frequency, and then how to match the length of the existing antenna in high frequency. When it comes to the receiver, how to convert the high frequency to low frequency, and how to match the length of the receiver's antenna to the frequency. These all require constant trial and error. If you're lucky and the proportions match, then it's a success. If you're not lucky, you have to keep adjusting the data until it matches. Besides, now that the Western thieves have radios, how do you distinguish between yourself and the enemy on the battlefield? Human signals are also something that needs to be studied..."

"Luck." Yan Siqi jumped up irritably: "We have hundreds of thousands of soldiers in the navy, we can't put our lives on luck, right?"

"Prime Minister, please be patient." Zhu Youdong waved his hand to ask Yan Siqi to calm down. Then he said to Fu Shan: "In this war, sea control is the key to success or failure. As for radio technology, if the Westerners have it but we don't, then

We are destined to lose control of the sea. Therefore, without radios on the ships, I cannot make up my mind to go to war. But now, with millions of troops all on the move, there is no way I can say that we will not fight if we do not fight. Therefore, radios must be

Will be on board within the last six months!"

"Your Majesty, scientific matters and will may not necessarily apply."

"I know, listen to me." Zhu Youdong took a deep breath: "I just listened to your description. In fact, you have already started trying to send and receive messages. The problem now is that the communication distance is not very far, right?

?”

"Uh, yes."

"Then it's over. I don't want you to come up with a radio device that can transmit directly from Beijing to Singapore right now. What I need now is for the navy to ensure that the navy commander can control every warship on the battlefield when fighting in large groups.

All can be effectively commanded. As for this distance... Yan Siqi, what do you think is the longest distance?"

"Your Majesty, I, Inukai and others have simulated war games many times. Three hundred warships from both sides fought together. The width and length of the battlefield will not exceed fifty kilometers."

"Did you hear that? Fu Shan. If the matter is urgent, let's not engage in any theoretical research. I want a radio machine that can be produced in a short time and ensure the transmission of signals within fifty kilometers. Do you understand?

"

"Yes, I understand. If it is just this kind of machine, then I will issue a military order and hand over the finished product to the military for trial within three months."

"Hey, isn't it settled now? Okay, that's it. Let's make things right. Let's pass on the meal. I'll treat everyone to a meal."
Chapter completed!