My Pen Pal Zhu Yuanzhang

Chapter 405 AC or DC
Of course, Li Han did not recommend Zhu to colonize these places.

Firstly, the cost of colonization is higher. If one is not careful, the colonies may become a burden to the sovereign country. During the British and French colonial periods, a lot of effort was spent in quelling uprisings in the colonies.

The Boer War caused the British Empire to suffer a lot, and it was even fooled by the German Emperor. As the leader of the trouble-making world, it was attacked from behind by Germany, and it ended up losing more than it gained. From then on, the British Empire went from prosperity to decline.

Not to mention Suriname and the Netherlands, a pair of perfect couple. The Netherlands is simply a disgrace to the colonial world. It was actually fleeced by the colonies, which is a rare oddity in the world.

Secondly, compared with direct colonization and direct conflict with the vassal states, the Ming Dynasty has better ways to control these vassal states. Is colonization still necessary under the tributary system?

The words of the Ming Dynasty are the imperial edict!
Moreover, using political and economic means is far more cost-effective than using military means. Moreover, what our Chinese nation values ​​is win-win cooperation!
You give me sugarcane, I give you sugar, you give me coal, I give you a coal stove. Isn't it good for us to help and support each other and get what we need? We are all civilized people, why do we have to fight and kill each other?
However, the plan to build the Western Pacific Super Economic Zone must have a major premise, that is, the Ming Dynasty must first integrate the domestic market, control Ryukyu and Japan with the eastern coastal areas, and control the Indochina Peninsula with the southwestern Yunnan Xuanwei Office. Moreover, the Ming Dynasty must have an outlet to the sea on the Indochina Peninsula.

Although Temasek has been taken control as Zhu said, Temasek is too far away from the mainland of Ming Dynasty, and Parameswara still has strong control over Temasek.

But if the Ming Dynasty had an outlet to the sea on the Indochina Peninsula, it would have more advantages from a geographical perspective.

So, how can we completely control the Indochina Peninsula? Garrisoning troops is too easy. There is only one answer - railways!
Of course, the prerequisite is that the Ming Dynasty itself has figured out the railway and is able to build the railway to the southwest region, otherwise everything is empty talk.

Then, Li Han continued to read on, and then he widened his eyes and stared at the letter paper. Wait, wait, what did Lao Zhu say Li Min came up with?
He wiped his eyes and looked at the words in disbelief, as if he didn’t recognize them. Steam generator, was he seeing things?

After confirming it several times, Li Han took a deep breath. This Li Min is a genius!
This guy is one of the rare perverts in the world who can combine the steam engine and the generator.

Wow, this is not the Minister of Works of the Ming Dynasty, he is clearly the first electrical engineer in China!
Was it the former Ming Dynasty that buried the talent of the first electrical engineer of the Ming Dynasty, or was it the knowledge that he brought to the Ming Dynasty that unearthed the engineer soul deep in Li Min's heart?

According to Lao Zhu, Li Han could roughly guess what Li Min had done.

He probably first invented the Faraday generator, and then felt that the hand-cranked generator was too laborious and inefficient, so he thought of using a steam engine as a driving machine to drive the rotor to cut the magnetic field and generate electric current.

What a genius idea!

If that’s the case, then the Ming Dynasty could quickly move from the steam age to the electrical age?
This leap is a bit too big, isn't it? It's easy to get hurt.

No matter what, since the Ming Dynasty was able to build a generator on its own, it shows that they were gifted. What's wrong with the electrical age? Who said that the 14th century couldn't enter the electrical age?
It seems that I need to prepare more knowledge about electrical engineering for Lao Zhu. Electricity has so many uses!
Old Zhu, your current fantasy about electricity is still too narrow. Now all production in the Ming Dynasty can be driven by electricity.

Not only that, electricity also has one of the simplest and most popular functions among the people: lighting!
Since the generator has been built by Li Min, the ruthless man, the next step is to further improve the generator. The electrical wires must also be made, and the issue of whether to use alternating current or direct current must also be resolved.

This is a huge project. Direct current is only suitable for small-scale power applications. If you want to expand the power grid and promote it on a large scale, you have to use alternating current.

This reminded him of the dispute between Tesla and Edison over alternating current and direct current. Although it seemed to be a technological dispute on the surface, it was actually a dispute over commercial interests.

Why? Because Edison's company was mainly engaged in direct current at that time. If all were changed to alternating current, Edison's company would be ruined. This is also why the power system in the United States is very inconsistent now, and both alternating and direct current are used.

Of course, this does not mean that direct current is bad. In some areas, the effect of direct current application far exceeds that of alternating current.

For example, in electromagnetic catapult, if direct current is used, the motor structure is much simpler, more convenient and more durable than alternating current, and its efficiency is also much higher than alternating current.

Fortunately, the Electromagnetic Saint is in China and not in the United States. God truly blesses China.

By the way, can Li Min be considered the Electromagnetic Saint of the Ming Dynasty?

Ming Dynasty is a vast country with abundant resources. If it really wants to roll out a comprehensive power grid, it would be better to unify the standards from the beginning and choose alternating current to avoid duplication of construction and waste of resources and manpower.

This brings up another question. Transmitting electricity over long distances requires high voltage, so how do we solve the transformer problem?

The world's first practical transformer was produced by Westinghouse Electric Company. Its core transformer component was made of E-shaped iron sheets stacked together. The manufacturing process was relatively simple and practical, so it should have no problem for Ming Dynasty to manufacture it.

Compared to making generators and transformers, Li Han feels that making electrical wires is more difficult.

The electrical wires are divided into two parts: the insulating outer sheath and the conductor. The material of the conductor is easy to solve, copper can be used, but it is more difficult to process it into copper wire.

Compared with the wires, the insulating outer wrapping is the most difficult. The insulating material of early wires was rubber, but where could the Ming Dynasty find rubber?

Rubber originated in South America and was introduced to Southeast Asia by the British in the 19th century. In the 14th century...

It is still a bit difficult for the Ming Dynasty to sail to South America!

So, can we find alternative materials in the Ming Dynasty?
Like using plastic now?

Then the Ming Dynasty had to extract the oil first, and then it would need an oil refinery and a large plastic factory.

Even though plastic has become a white waste disaster in the 21st century, there are only four countries that have a complete plastic industry chain, from oil extraction to polyethylene materials: China, the United States, France and Germany.

So, forget about plastics. With the current strength of Ming Dynasty, if you want to manufacture plastics, it would be more practical to go to South America.

So are there other suitable materials that can be used as substitutes?
Li Han recalled the early development of electrical wires. The insulating outer wrapping materials used included sandpaper, silk, and cotton yarn.

These materials can be found in the Ming Dynasty and can be mass-produced, but the problem is that they are not waterproof!
(End of this chapter)