When Emperor Chongzhen and his party arrived at the gate of the Military War Bureau, they saw Fang Zhenghua, the eunuch in charge of the imperial horse supervisor, hurriedly leaving.
Seeing the smile on his face, you knew as soon as you saw him that there must be something good going on.
Sure enough, Fang Zhenghua didn't expect to bump into Emperor Chongzhen at the gate of the Military War Bureau. He hurriedly greeted him and said with a smile that couldn't be concealed: "Long live the boring machine, it's ready for use!"
Song Yingxing, who was following Emperor Chongzhen, was a little puzzled when he heard this. What are you talking about lying on the bed? How could he be so happy about such a thing? And he reported it to the emperor so grandly?
As for Emperor Chongzhen, he naturally knew what Fang Zhenghua was talking about.
In fact, he was thinking about this boring machine because Liu Weichao said that the boring machine can not only be used to process musket barrels and artillery barrels, but can also be used to build this epoch-making steam engine!
Originally, he estimated that the boring machine would be built within the next few days, but unexpectedly, he didn't need to rush him, and he heard the good news as soon as he came to the war station.
Therefore, Emperor Chongzhen was of course very happy and immediately ordered: "Lead the way, I have been waiting for a long time!"
Fang Zhenghua naturally saw a stranger wearing a uniform behind Emperor Chongzhen, but Emperor Chongzhen didn't say anything, so he didn't ask. Anyway, his duty was to serve the emperor well. As for whether he was an official of the foreign court or not, it had little to do with him.
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Therefore, he quickly led the way.
Song Yingxing, who was curious, naturally followed.
Looking at everything around him, he became even more curious.
First of all, this military station is heavily guarded inside and outside. You can tell at a glance that this place is different.
At least he had never heard of a similar alert situation before.
Later, Song Yingxing saw all the things in the war situation, and he suddenly stopped thinking about it and kept looking at it with his eyes wide open.
Although Emperor Chongzhen was thinking about the boring machine, he was also concerned about the people following him.
At this time, he saw Song Yingxing from the corner of his eye like a curious baby. He couldn't help but become interested. He stopped, pointed to the workshop not far away and asked, "This is a new type of fine steel smelting workshop. Can you understand it?"
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"A fine steel smelting workshop?" When Song Yingxing heard this, he immediately replied in surprise, "This... can Wei Chen go in and take a look?"
As far as he knew, if you want to get steel, you have to mix pig iron and wrought iron, smelt them, and forge them many times before you can get refined steel.
But looking at the appearance of the workshop, he couldn't see any such process at all. He was very curious and couldn't help but make a request.
When Emperor Chongzhen heard this, he smiled, nodded and said, "Okay, please go in and have a look!"
When Song Yingxing heard this, he quickly saluted and then quickly entered the workshop. Obviously, his curiosity made him eager to see the secrets inside.
After a while, Song Yingxing came out.
It wasn't that he didn't want to stay inside for a while, but before he entered, he saw that the emperor was standing there motionless, obviously waiting for him. No matter from that point of view, he didn't dare to let the emperor wait for him.
Seeing Song Yingxing coming out, Emperor Chongzhen smiled and asked, "How is it? Did you see anything?"
Song Yingxing had a look of admiration on his face. Hearing his question, he quickly replied: "Weichen really didn't expect that the heat of the furnace could be used in this way to increase the smelting temperature. But Weichen didn't understand.
, why when the temperature is increased, the final product is fine steel instead of pig iron or wrought iron?"
After a pause, he remembered that Emperor Chongzhen had said to him before that there is a profound knowledge called science, which is the knowledge of knowing the reason. The workshop here is very special now. It is obvious that the emperor knew the reason of fine steel, and he felt like it.
Desperate for an answer, he asked Emperor Chongzhen again: "I am stupid and I don't know what the essential difference is between fine steel, pig iron and wrought iron?"
He knew that if this internal reason was understood, he would know why fine steel could be produced by increasing the temperature!
Emperor Chongzhen was waiting for him to ask. When he heard it, he said calmly: "This is actually very simple. It's just because the proportion of carbon contained in the molten iron is different. The carbon contained in the pig iron..."
He had said this to several ministers, which aroused their great surprise and admiration. Looking at their expressions, Emperor Chongzhen felt very comfortable in his heart.
At this time, he talked about it again, and when he saw the expression of surprise and admiration on Song Yingxing's face, he felt comfortable again.
After he finished speaking, while he was waiting for Song Yingxing to compliment him, he heard Song Yingxing ask: "Your Majesty, why do different carbon contents have different hardnesses?"
"..." Emperor Chongzhen was a little surprised when he heard this, and was speechless for a moment.
Liu Weichao actually explained it to him, but it took a long time, and the concept Liu Weichao said was very weird, so he forgot about it.
Of course, this is also related to the fact that other ministers did not ask such questions after listening.
As a result, now he met a technical official who still liked to study. When he asked, he was stopped.
However, Emperor Chongzhen also wanted to save face, and of course he would not admit that he actually did not understand. Otherwise, the image he showed that he knew a lot would be shattered.
Therefore, Emperor Chongzhen said to Song Yingxing calmly: "The reason is a long story. If you want to understand the deeper reasons, you must do a good job in scientific knowledge. Do you understand?"
After Song Yingxing heard this, he immediately responded: "Your Majesty, I wonder when I will be able to take a look at science?"
A lot of the content on the mobile phone was transcribed day and night by Emperor Chongzhen’s harem. However, because it was dictated, there were many typos in it. Not only did it have to be re-proofread, but the content transcribed by different people had to be merged.
, there are still many things.
The content that has been completed includes the first volume of physics and mathematics. As for chemistry, it is still being sorted out.
At this time, Emperor Chongzhen listened to Song Yingxing's words and replied to him: "Wait a minute, I can give you two simple brochures first, and you can understand them first. If you don't understand anything, you can list them for me. I have
I’ll give you an answer as soon as possible!”
Actually, there is a high probability that he doesn’t understand. However, he can ask Liu Weichao.
When Song Yingxing heard this, he couldn't help but be overjoyed and quickly agreed. At the same time, he also felt that seeing it once is better than hearing it a hundred times!
The emperor I met before my eyes was really completely different from the emperor in the rumors!
As far as he is concerned, he really likes to have such an emperor!
Afterwards, they continued to move forward. Song Yingxing naturally watched all the way, and it seemed that he was really in high spirits, as if he was in the most wonderful world.
Because Emperor Chongzhen showed great willingness to communicate with him, Song Yingxing couldn't help but want to ask why when he saw something novel.
So, he asked questions along the way, and answered what Emperor Chongzhen could answer, making it appear that he was very knowledgeable in this field; if he could not answer, he would calmly ask Song Yingxing to go back and read the book by himself.
In this way, they saw steel smelting, saltpeter cultivation, hydraulic tools, etc., and finally arrived at the boring machine.
It was also at this time that Song Yingxing realized that the boring machine was somewhat similar to the drill barrel he had seen.
The drill barrels he saw require three people to operate. That is, one person fixes the object to be drilled, usually the blunderbuss tube, and the other two people pull the belt and rotate the drill bit, which is very time-consuming and labor-intensive.
The boring machine in front of him now was entirely made of steel, far from the drill barrel racks he had seen before, which were all made of wood. At this level of material, it was not in the same category.
For people at this time in the late Ming Dynasty, Song Yingxing had absolutely nothing to say in terms of knowledge.
After taking a closer look, he realized the exquisiteness of the boring machine in front of him. He couldn't help but admire it and looked at it from all angles.
When Emperor Chongzhen saw it, he felt happy to see it, so he introduced the use of the boring machine to Song Yingxing.
This time, he said that if Song Yingxing could lift three, it meant that Song Yingxing could understand without spending much more money.
Generally speaking, if you meet someone who knows how to behave, and the emperor introduces you in this way, you must be pretending not to understand and let the emperor show off.
But Song Yingxing was immersed in the ingenious and exquisite things in front of him, completely forgetting that the person speaking in front of him was the Ming Emperor, and treated it as a rare encounter with a like-minded person who was discussing the things he was most interested in.
Emperor Chongzhen was not unhappy about this, because at this time, he urgently needed someone who could understand science and be more accepting of science to help him digest and absorb science.
Song Yingxing's performance made him very satisfied. In this case, how could he care about whether he could show off? Of course, he was even more happy to find a reliable minister!
After a discussion, Song Yingxing pointedly pointed out that the water-powered machinery in the Bingzhan Bureau was still insufficient. At least the water power was not strong enough, and the artificial river needed to be expanded and the water flow height increased.
The best thing is that the hydraulic gap should be different for different purposes. If Bingzhan Bureau transforms the artificial river first, it may be able to improve better efficiency and higher quality.
No one else had noticed this problem before, but Song Yingxing raised it, which made Emperor Chongzhen very happy.
The craftsmen who actually do the work may also know. However, they are only the lowest level craftsmen. For now, they dare not make suggestions casually. What if the people above are unhappy?
What's more important is that these are all done according to the emperor's wishes, so they don't even dare to do it.
As for the people who should be able to speak, such as the manager of the Military War Bureau and the eunuch Fang Zhenghua of the Royal Horse Supervisor, they don't understand technology, so they know the impact of the water power gap.
From this we can also know how important an official who understands technology is.
At this time, after Emperor Chongzhen heard Song Yingxing's words, he laughed out loud and felt very happy!