Chapter 311 Steam Machine

That night, the Grand Auditorium of the Academy of Military Sciences.

In the simple house, Zhen Youcai, Song Yingxing, Fang Yizhi and thirty Western academicians have gathered together, and more than a dozen Yangming University students with outstanding performance were also fortunate to attend the meeting, but they still gave more than thirty Western academicians to translate.

Wang Pu first expressed his gratitude to everyone, and then changed the topic and got to the point.

"Everyone, the construction of Jiande Arsenal is very successful. I am very satisfied with the work of the Academy of Military Sciences. Here, on behalf of His Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Empire and the people of the whole country, I would like to express my gratitude to everyone. Of course, verbal thanks are not enough. I will get some practical things. I decided to reward everyone here with a reward of 500 taels of silver each! If you have outstanding contributions, you will be rewarded with an additional 1,000 taels of silver!"

After more than half a year of life, the thirty Western pagans from the Academy of Military Sciences have basically been able to understand daily conversations. After listening to Wang Pu's words, these pagans immediately cheered. They have been living in the Ming Dynasty for more than a year. Of course, they know the price level of the Ming Dynasty, and even know what the concept of 500 tael silver is!

Wang Pushi is more practical. They left their hometown and came to the Ming Dynasty from thousands of miles away, originally to seek a better life. If the Ming Empire could not give them the life they yearn for, what else would they do? Of course, they also love science, but they had to fill their stomachs before doing scientific research activities.

"Also..." Wang Pu said this, and then threw out a bombshell, "I decided to set up a heavy prize temporarily!"

Everyone in the Academy of Military Sciences, including Zhen Youcai, Song Yingxing and Fang Yizhi, held their breath.

A smile appeared on the corner of Wang Pu's lips, and he continued: "The amount of this reward is as high as 500,000 taels!"

"Oh, God!"

"My lord, isn't this a dream?"

"Five hundred thousand taels? Oh, God, how much silver is that?"

There was already a breath of breath sound in the crowd. For these pagans, 500,000 taels of silver was definitely an unimaginable astronomical figure. If we follow the price level of the Ming Dynasty, we could almost buy 50,000 acres of fertile paddy fields. What is the concept of 50,000 acres? It is almost a small principality in the Western world.

If they could have such a large estate in Europe, they would be dukes.

In addition to Zhen Youcai, he still looked like an old god. Even Song Yingxing and Fang Yizhi's eyes began to become more enthusiastic. Although they were not very interested in silver, the amount of 500,000 taels was too huge. It would be impossible to say that they were not moved at all.

"Dear Governor, please tell me the specific matters." A pagan couldn't help but get up and asked, "What on earth should we do to get this huge reward?"

Wang Pu suddenly said in fluent English: "Whoever can build an industrial steam engine will receive this huge reward!"

"Industrial steam engine!" The pagan academician was confused and shook his head, "What's that?"

Most pagan academicians looked at each other, obviously they had never heard of the concept of steam engine. Just when Wang Pu was disappointed, a pagan who was not very handsome suddenly stood up and asked softly: "Governor General, I have heard of steam engines and seen them, but that was just a model and probably could not be used as industrial power."

Finally someone knew about the steam engine. Wang Pu was overjoyed when he heard this, "What's your name?"

"My name is Stephen Jack, His Excellency the Governor."

"Jack, why can't it?" Wang Pu said, "Since you can make a model, you can also make an industrial steam engine."

"Governor General." Stephen shook his head, "The steam engine must be driven by high-temperature and high-pressure steam. In this world, only steel can withstand high-pressure high-pressure, but with existing processing methods, there is no way to process steel components necessary. IMHO, industrial steam engines cannot be made."

Wang Pu asked back: "Is it really impossible to perform necessary processing of steel components? There are so many machine tools of various types in Jiande Arsenal that can't be done at all?"

Stephen hesitated: "This..."

Wang Pu stopped talking and walked to the blackboard on the front wall of the auditorium to draw a sketch of a horizontal steam engine with a chalk brush. Although this guy was just a third-rate college student in his previous life, he still knew the principle of the steam engine. He could draw sketches whether it was horizontal or vertical.

Wang Pu pointed to the sketch and explained: "Look at it, this is the working schematic of the steam engine. The mechanism is not complicated and the principle is very simple. The biggest difficulty is the airtightness, that is, the processing of the cylinder. Academician Jack just said that the steel components cannot be processed with existing processing methods, but this Hou did not think so. Don't forget how the barrel of the Invincible General's cannon was processed."

"Boring machine!" Stephen suddenly shouted, "I understand, use a boring machine!"

Wang Pu smiled and said, "Jack, have you thought about how to process the steel components of the steam engine?"

"Thinking of it," Stephen said inexplicably, "Please give me half a month... Oh no, please give me a week, Lord Governor, I can build a small horizontal steam engine in a week."

Seeing Stephen's excitement and inexplicable appearance, the other pagan academicians were disappointed. It seemed that the huge reward of 500,000 taels of silver had nothing to do with them. Wang Pu couldn't help but smile. Of course, he would not let the development of the steam engine become Stephen's own business. The development of the steam engine was a major event for the entire Military Academy, and everyone had to work hard!

Wang Pu said: "Now I announce the establishment of a steam engine research group, with Dean Zhen Youcai as the team leader, Dean Song Yingxing, Dean Fang Yizhi as the deputy team leader, Stephen Jack as the technical team leader, and the rest of the academicians will also participate. The development of the steam engine is a major event and requires everyone's joint efforts. Of course... If the development is successful, the huge reward of the 500,000 taels of silver will be shared by everyone."

"oh……"

"yeah……"

"God……"

All the pagans began to cheer.

When Wang Pu was in charge of the development of the steam engine in Jiande himself, the battle situation in Huguang was evolving in a direction that was not conducive to the Ming Dynasty. Due to the surprise attack of Li Dingguo and the Governor of Huguang He Tengjiao, who did not understand military affairs and was careless, the fall of Xiangyang eventually led to the fall of He Tengjiao himself became a prisoner of the Daxi Army.

The next morning, when Zheng Chenggong, Li Chengdong, and Liu Konghe led the three main musket battalions of the Central Army to arrive, the battle flags of the Daxi Army and Li Dingguo were already flying above the city of Xiangyang.

It's a pity that if the Central Army also marched urgently, these three musket battalions would definitely be able to arrive in Xiangyang before Li Dingguo. However, since He Tengjiao said that the bandits were still two hundred miles away, the Central Army only marched at the normal marching speed, which was more than ten hours later than Li Dingguo's Daxi Army.

Seeing the Daxi Army Flag flying above the city, Zheng Chenggong, Li Chengdong and Liu Konghe were shocked. They did not know the truth in the city, and they thought that a large group of bandits had attacked Xiangyang. The three of them ordered formation on the north bank of the Han River, and then gathered together to discuss countermeasures as soon as possible, and sent people to report the emergencies to Liu Rushi to know.

In front of the Central Army, Zheng Chenggong, Li Chengdong, Liu Konghe and more than a dozen deputy generals had gathered together.

At this time, the ranks of the Central Army have changed again. According to the latest regulations, the battalion officer of the Central Army is the rank of general, the troop officer is the rank of deputy general, the brigade leader is the rank of general, the squadron leader is the rank of thousands of households, the squad leader is the rank of hundreds of households, and ordinary soldiers below the squad leader are divided into one year soldiers, two years soldiers, three years soldiers until five years soldiers. If you have not been promoted to an officer after five years, you should be demobilized and returned home.

When they met, the impatient Liu Konghe shouted loudly: "His grandma, what is the security team in Xiangyang City for? How did He Tengjiao, the governor of Huguang? Xiangyang City is such a strong city, and the bandits took it away in one night? How did this battle be fought?"

Li Chengdong's ruthless eyes shrank back from the head of Xiangyang City, rubbed his hands and said, "I'm afraid I didn't fight this battle much."

"Yeah." Zheng Chenggong said with a heavy emphasis, "Brother Cheng Dong said very well. I also feel that Xiangyang City does not seem to have fought a big battle. The bandits have most likely successfully attacked them."

"Sneaking?" Liu Konghe said in a narrow voice, "There are nearly 100,000 bandit soldiers. How can so many people hide their traces? How can they attack?"

Li Chengdong said: "The sneak attack on Xiangyang must be just a small group of bandits. The large group of bandits are afraid that they will still bluff a hundred miles away to divert the eyeliner of the local security team. Speaking of which, the quality of the local security team is really poor. The bandits can successfully repair the plank road with such a simple move and secretly crossing Chen Cang!"

Liu Konghe said in a deep voice: "In other words... there are not many bandits in Xiangyang City, and the large group of bandits are still a hundred miles away?"

Zheng Chenggong said happily: "What do Brother Cheng Dong and Brother Kong He have any ideas?"

Liu Konghe and Li Chengdong exchanged glances with each other and said in unison: "Take back Xiangyang before the large group of bandits arrived!"

Zheng Chenggong said, "I think so too, but I won't leave too much time for us. Since the bandits have captured Xiangyang, the large group of bandits will definitely speed up the marching speed. If I guess it's not bad, as early as this evening and tomorrow morning, the large group of bandits should have arrived."

Li Chengdong nodded and said, "That is to say, the time left for us will not exceed twenty-four hours at most."

"Then we have to hurry up." Liu Konghe said, "If Xiangyang City is not captured by then and the thieves are killed in front of us, the fun will be great."

At the end of Xiangyang city, Li Dingguo hurriedly climbed the city tower surrounded by several generals of the Western Army.

Standing on the city tower and looking out, it is obvious that the Ming army in the wilderness in the north of the city is different from any Ming army I have encountered in the past. In Li Dingguo's impression, the Ming army has always been wearing battle robes and worn armor, but the Ming army in front of him is full of blue cotton coats, all of blue big blue caps, and all of black long-tube horse boots.

And the guys who were fucked by the Ming army were also all muskets!

Everything is telling a terrible fact. The Ming army in the wilderness in the north of the city is by no means an ordinary Ming army, but the legendary Ming Central Army!

Before this, Li Dingguo had never really seen the Central Army, let alone appreciate the military power of the Central Army. However, Li Dingguo was not unfamiliar with the Central Army. Almost as soon as Wang Pu established the Central Army, Li Dingguo had already collected information from the Central Army through various channels and began to study the Central Army's musket tactics.

Li Dingguo knew the three-stage shooting tactics of the Central Army, the intensive bombing of the Central Army's Dragon King cannon, and the terrifying lethality of the Central Army's artillery battalion. Unfortunately, there were no craftsmen in the Daxi Army, and Li Dingguo could not buy muskets and artillery from Macau, otherwise there might be muskets and artillery teams in the Daxi Army.

A general of the Daxi Army said in a serious tone: "Major General, this seems to be not an ordinary Ming official army."

Li Dingguo nodded with a serious expression and said, "That's right, this is the legendary Central Army of the Ming Dynasty and Wang Pu's army!"

"Hiss..." The generals of the Daxi Army around Li Dingguo took a breath after hearing this. The general of the Daxi Army who had just spoken changed his face and said in a deep voice, "Is this the Ming Central Army? The Ming Central Army, which had wiped out more than 200,000 Jiannu and Tartar soldiers with less than 30,000 people?"

In order to capture the bandits in Shaanxi and Sichuan from a psychological perspective, Wang Pu specially instructed all provinces to increase publicity efforts and exaggerate the results of the Battle of Jining. Under the deliberate publicity of the Ming Dynasty, the brilliant achievements of the Central Army of the Ming Dynasty had already spread throughout the country, and the soldiers of the Daxi Army were of course familiar with this.

"That's just a rumor." Li Dingguo said calmly, "The Central Army of the Ming Dynasty may be very powerful, but it will never be so powerful that it can wipe out more than 200,000 Jiannu and the Tartar coalition with just 30,000 people! If this general is not wrong, this should be the trick of the Ming Dynasty court, trying to psychologically destroy the confidence of our Daxi Army."

A general from the Daxi Army said: "But no matter what, the Battle of Jining was finally won by the Central Army of the Ming Dynasty."

Li Dingguo raised his sword eyebrows and said calmly: "That's because the barbarians like Jiannu and Tartars do not understand our Han military strategy. Even though they know that the Central Military Arms of the Ming Dynasty are sharp, they still have to force a decisive battle with the Central Military Army of the Ming Dynasty. How can they be defeated?"

After saying this, Li Dingguo continued: "If I were the commander of more than 200,000 Jiannu and the Tartar soldiers, I would never have chosen the battlefield in Jining!"

A general from the Western Army asked, "If you don't attack Jining, where should you attack?"

"Henan!" Li Dingguo said in a voice, "The Central Military Arms of the Ming Dynasty are sharp and have very strong attack power, but they also have a very fatal weakness, that is, they rely heavily on logistics supplies. If the Jiannu and the Tartars chose the battlefield in Henan, the Central Military Army of the Ming Dynasty would no longer rely on the transportation line of the canal. This would not only lose the protection of the powerful navy, but also increase the risk of being attacked."
Chapter completed!