After laughing, I heard Emperor Chongzhen say to Song Yingxing: "I will show you a drawing. Can you guess what this is for?"
After he finished speaking, he waved his hand, and a little waiter behind him immediately came forward and held a stack of paper in his hands.
Emperor Chongzhen took out the top piece of paper, which had an overall diagram of the steam engine drawn on it, and then motioned to Song Yingxing to pick it up.
Song Yingxing had been curious for a long time and didn't know what the drawings were. When he saw the emperor's signal, he quickly took it respectfully and took a look at it immediately.
It was another machine pattern, but at first glance, he naturally couldn't tell what it was. After all, he had never seen it before.
Emperor Chongzhen saw that he was watching carefully and did not rush him. He just waited for him to finish reading and see if he could see any results.
To be honest, as far as he was concerned, he wouldn't have been able to tell it if Liu Weichao hadn't explained it.
After waiting for a long time, Song Yingxing raised his head with a puzzled look on his face and reported to Emperor Chongzhen: "This thing seems to be similar to the hydraulic tool I saw before. It can transmit power and be used for work. But Wei Chen still doesn't understand it.
Where does this strength come from? It doesn’t seem to rely on water power!”
When Emperor Chongzhen heard this, he was a little surprised, and immediately nodded and said: "It is not easy for you to see this. As for the source of the strength, I can tell you a little bit!"
After he finished speaking, seeing Song Yingxing listening attentively, he said calmly: "Have you seen the scene after the kettle boils the water?"
Song Yingxing's family is not wealthy, so naturally there are no groups of servants. When he is so old, of course he has the opportunity to see them.
Therefore, he nodded.
At the same time, he was also confused, wondering what the current matter had to do with boiling the kettle and boiling water?
When Emperor Chongzhen saw him nodding, he immediately asked: "Do you know why the lid of the kettle moved when no one moved it?"
Upon hearing this, Song Yingxing was suddenly startled, then immediately lowered his head to look at the drawing in his hand. Then, he asked in surprise: "This...could this also be the principle of boiling water?"
"Oh?" Emperor Chongzhen couldn't help but be a little surprised by his reaction when he heard what he said, and asked again curiously, "How can you see it?"
On that drawing, the name of each component was not marked, but serial numbers such as 1, 2, 3, and 4 were marked to correspond to the drawings that would be decomposed later.
Therefore, Song Yingxing was able to react immediately, and Emperor Chongzhen wanted to know whether he had inferred it from his own words, or whether he really saw something from the drawings.
At this time, Song Yingxing excitedly pointed at the drawing and said to Emperor Chongzhen: "Your Majesty, please see, this is for burning fire, this is for storing water, heat it up, boil it, and the power will be generated from here..."
Everything he said before was correct, but after talking about it later, Song Yingxing was a little confused about how this power could continue to be generated.
But even so, Emperor Chongzhen was very satisfied because Song Yingxing's performance had exceeded his expectations.
So, he said to Song Yingxing: "Actually, this machine is very simple. I can tell you..."
While speaking, he motioned to Song Yingxing to hold up the picture, and then explained the principle of the steam engine to Song Yingxing while pointing.
These principles are indeed very simple, even ancient people could understand them.
When Song Yingxing heard this, he was immediately amazed: "Your Majesty's thing is really the result of fantastic ideas, turning mediocrity into magic. In this way, the source of power no longer has to be bound by hydraulic terrain. The future of this thing
, it’s really far-reaching!”
Normally, he might not be able to say these words.
But this time, he had seen the use of hydraulic tools along the way and was talking about the source of power. So when he talked about the steam engine again, with his knowledge, it was not difficult to imagine how versatile the steam engine was.
!
Of course, no matter how hard Song Yingxing thought about it, he could not imagine that the uses of steam engines would be much wider than he imagined.
At this time, Emperor Chongzhen was very flattered by his compliments. After smiling slightly, he turned to face Fang Zhenghua, who was standing with his hands down, and said: "Take these drawings and share them with the craftsmen in the game. What's wrong with that?"
Understand, just like before, collect the questions and ask me, and then build this steam engine as soon as possible!"
"My slave obeys the order!" Fang Zhenghua heard this and quickly accepted the order.
Afterwards, he went to the little chamberlain to pick up the drawings.
Song Yingxing, who was watching this scene, felt itchy in his heart. He hesitated for a while, and when he saw that Fang Zhenghua had taken all the drawings and turned around to get his overall drawing, he finally couldn't bear it.
He stayed and reported to Emperor Chongzhen: "Your Majesty, Wei Chen... Can Wei Chen stay in the War Bureau for a period of time?"
It seems that even a fifth-grade official rank cannot stop him from wanting to know about these ingenious objects in the military battle bureau.
After hearing this, Emperor Chongzhen pondered for a moment, nodded and said: "Well, you should familiarize yourself with it first. Later, I will also have the math and physics sides sent to you. I hope that after you become familiar with this place, you can also organize it into a book.
, for future use.”
When Song Yingxing heard this, he was overjoyed and quickly received the order to thank him.
"That's right!" Emperor Chongzhen was now thirsty for talents, so he said to Song Yingxing: "Any like-minded people who are talented and learned, whether they have fame or not, please give me a list."
Song Yingxing was naturally happy about this request and quickly agreed.
Afterwards, they got busy in the military battle bureau.
Song Yingxing also watched and analyzed the steam engine drawings with the craftsmen to see how to build them. He also had questions to ask Emperor Chongzhen and was busy until the evening.
All in all, Song Yingxing is estimated to have to stay in the War Bureau for a long time.
Fortunately, when he came to the capital, because he didn't know what he was doing in the capital, he didn't bring him with him. He was like a bachelor, he was very independent, and he could do whatever he wanted. If he stayed in the military war bureau, there would be no problem.
……………………
While we were busy building steam engines here, somewhere in the south of Hebei, a team was marching. There were about six thousand people, no flags, but judging from their clothes, they were definitely not official troops.
This was because this team wore a variety of clothes. Although there were some who wore the red mandarin duck jersey of the Ming Army, the number was very small, and the jerseys were so worn that their original appearance could hardly be seen.
At the front of the team, there were some people riding horses, who were obviously the bosses of the team.
One of them, a tall man with an ugly face, was talking to a gentle man next to him: "Master Du, the army is about to run out of food and grass, and you can't get food and grass. What should you do next?"
?”
Needless to say, this Master Du is none other than Du Yinxi.
So this team was recruited by him to go to Xiao Yuan Camp in the capital.
The person who spoke just now was Yuan Shizhong.
They walked all the way north, because they had to avoid other bandits, and even officers and soldiers like Zuo Liangyu who had evil intentions, so they walked slowly and could not go straight.
The original food and fodder in Xiao Yuan's camp was slowly depleted.
Originally, Xiao Yuan's camp had already accepted the recruitment. There were angels in the army carrying orders, and there was also Du Yinxi. Under the premise that there was an order, it was theoretically no problem to ask for military rations from the towns along the way.
However, the key issue is that it is already the fifteenth year of Chongzhen.
The Central Plains, including Hebei, has been tortured many times by bandits and officers and soldiers. Local officials are not only afraid of bandits, but also fear of officers and soldiers.
If nothing else, let’s just say that in the 14th year of Chongzhen, Ding Qirui took the title of Shangshu of the Ministry of War. As the governor of the three sides, he was governor of Huguang, Henan, Sichuan and the armies in the north and south of the Yangtze River. He was also given Shangfang sword, Feiyu uniform and seal.
As a result, when Ding Qirui was ordered to leave Tongguan and prepare to go to Jingzhou to take over the army left by Yang Sichang, Wang Chengzhao, the patrol commander of Huguang, reported that there were bandits in Henan, Jingzhou, and Xiangyang. There was no need for a large army, and all the ships on the Han River were hidden.
Ding Qirui crossed the river.
Ding Qirui had no choice but to go to Dengzhou instead. As a result, the people of Dengzhou did not open the city gates and refused to admit Ding Qirui. Ding Qirui had no choice but to go to the inner countryside again, but was rejected again.
In the end, the army of the dignified governor was forced to kill horses and weeds to satisfy their hunger.
Why is this happening?
Just because in the last years of Chongzhen, the prestige of the imperial court was already very low in the local area. In addition, the officers and soldiers were as ruthless as the thieves, or even more ruthless than the thieves, which ruined the reputation of the imperial officers and soldiers.
In order to protect themselves, local governments have closed their doors.
Anyway, the consequence of doing this is that at most the local official will be questioned by the court, and the local squire can provide money to protect him; but if the door is opened, if the officials and soldiers turn their backs, then the people of the entire city, including the squire, will suffer.
After such a comparison, it is naturally easy to choose.
Even Ding Qirui was treated like this, not to mention Du Yinxi, the former prefect of Changsha. Even if he had a royal guard in the army, the eunuchs in the palace would not be able to use him. After all, his team was still a team of bandits.
Now, there is still a long way to go from the capital, the army's food and grass are about to run out, and the local officials have no way to get food. Such a predicament has made Du Yinxi worried.
Facing Yuan Shizhong's questions, Du Yinxi was speechless, which really embarrassed him to death.
You can't allow Xiao Yuanying to rob local squires again when he goes north, right?
When Du Yinxi was in trouble, he suddenly heard a galloping horse and the rapid sound of horse hooves.
When Yuan Shizhong heard this, he immediately turned around and saw that at the fork in the road ahead was the scout horse he had sent out, galloping back.
As soon as he saw this posture, he knew something was going on. He immediately became nervous. He didn't know what the situation was.
The detective horse quickly arrived in front of him, he turned over and dismounted, panting and reported to Yuan Shizhong: "The boss, we encountered a team of sentinels in front, which seemed to be from the imperial army. The younger one did not dare to contact with them, so he rushed back immediately
Report!"
Hearing this, Yuan Shizhong turned to look at Du Yinxi. Seeing that he had no other expression, he turned back and ordered Tan Ma to say: "Tang again!"
Then, he immediately ordered his soldiers to pass on the order, speed up the team, and distance themselves from the imperial officers and soldiers as soon as possible to avoid contact.
As the order was passed down, there was a commotion in the team and they had to speed up their march.
However, things are bound to go wrong.
When the team first reached the fork in the road, they saw Tan Ma running back again. Behind them, dust was flying, and it was obvious that a large army was following them.
And judging from this posture, it seems that they are enemies rather than friends.
In this day and age, I actually don’t have many friends!
In desperation, Yuan Shizhong immediately ordered the entire army to shrink and prepare for the attack.
Du Yinxi next to him comforted him and told him not to worry too much. If he was really an officer and soldier, he should be able to speak with him.
However, Yuan Shizhong did not take this to heart.
Even the local officials in the city didn't try to block Yinxi and the others, and those military leaders who killed many people and tricked the governors without batting an eyelid, how could they block Yinxi?
Anyway, no matter whether others believe it or not, Yuan Shizhong doesn't believe it very much.
In fact, even Du Yinxi himself is not inferior. He is a former prefect of Changsha, so he is really ordinary. Which of the leading generals would take him seriously?
Soon, as the army got closer and closer, news came back one after another.
"What? The White Guard Army?" Du Yinxi was a little surprised when he heard the news, "Why did the White Guard Army appear here? As far as I know, they were ordered to guard Xiangyang!"
"It looks like there's going to be a battle!" Yuan Shizhong said helplessly after figuring out the situation, "This white-pole army must be led by Xiao Ma Chao, who hates us rebels. Look at this posture, it's a fight.
!”
Xiao Ma Chao is the nickname of Ma Xianglin. His daughter-in-law Zhang Fengyi died in the battle against the bandits.
Therefore, Yuan Shizhong's words are not unfounded.
As far as Du Yinxi is concerned, he definitely doesn't want to see the Baiganjun and Xiaoyuanying fighting. However, looking at this posture, they really look like they are going to fight.
While they were talking, the vanguard of the White Army had already appeared in front of them. They were already forming a team, obviously ready to fight.
When Du Yinxi saw it, he was a little anxious and immediately said to Yuan Shizhong: "They are all generals of the country. Don't take action until I stop them!"
Upon hearing this, Yuan Shizhong said with helplessness and a little admiration: "Sir, this is in front of the two armies. If you are not careful, your life will be lost. It is better not to take risks!"
After hearing this, Du Yinxi shook his head and said, "I can't watch you fight. No matter who loses the most, it is the loss of the imperial court."
After he finished speaking, he looked simple and said to the people around him: "Let's go and stop the White Army!"
Yu Kefang, the emissary at his side, told the truth that he was not happy.
It is very clear that this is the front of two armies that are about to fight. If they are not careful, they will hand over their lives here.
However, after Du Yinxi finished speaking, he patted his horse and moved on, and he had no choice.
Because Wang Chengen has confessed that Du Yinxi is very important to Long Live Lord and cannot make any mistakes. If Du Yinxi is gone and he goes back by himself, the end will not be good and Wang Chengen will definitely take care of him.
In desperation, he and the few imperial guards had no choice but to follow.