Bringing the Railway to Daming

Upon hearing that Zhu Xiongying and Zhu Tan were coming, Liu Kuan and Tao Chengdao went to greet them.

Zhu Tan returned to the capital long after the Ming army defeated the reinforcements of the Western Chagatai Khanate led by Timur the Lame. It has been almost half a year since he returned.

Zhu Chong stayed in the Western Regions and Zhu Tan in Shaanxi and Gansu longer, and both returned to the capital this month.

Zhu Xiongying and Zhu Tan were both students of Liu Kuan. Although they had both left the main hall now, they were still very polite when they met.

After the ceremony, Zhu Xiongying explained, "We heard from my father that the Aviation Bureau was conducting an airship test flight near Xuanwu Lake, so we came here. By the way, this one is Wang Hui, the crown prince of Goryeo, and this one is Lee Bang-won, the fifth son of the Goryeo Lord Chungyi."

Halfway through his words, Zhu Xiongying suddenly introduced a child and a young man in the crowd behind him.

Hearing this, Liu Kuan understood that Zhu Xiongying wanted to ask whether it was convenient for him to bring these two people to watch the experiment.

In fact, Zhu Xiongying came here without sending anyone to inquire first, which was a bit rash, but fortunately, this experiment was not afraid of being known to outsiders, not to mention that Goryeo would soon annex the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Xiongying knew these principles, so his actions this time only appeared rash on the surface, but actually revealed a bit of tyranny and autocracy.

Liu Kuan was not that sensitive, and he did not think too much about it at this moment. He smiled and said, "Of course it's OK."

The hydrogen for the airship comes from the electrolysis of water. Even if the Koreans were to observe the entire process, they would not be able to imitate the airship.

Afterwards, Tao Chengdao briefly explained the relevant situation of "Feitian Test No. 1" to Zhu Xiongying and Zhu Tan, and then sent people to start the airship and conduct a test flight...

The Crown Prince of Goryeo, Wang Hui, was only six years old and had not received much education in Goryeo, so he naturally did not understand much of what Tao Chengdao said.

In fact, not to mention him, even Lee Bang-won, who had the title of Jinshi in Goryeo and prided himself on being well-educated, only understood half of what he said.

Therefore, when Wang Hui saw the experimenters enter the airship pod and begin to cooperate with the aviation bureau staff outside to carry out various pre-takeoff operations, he looked up and asked in Korean: "Li Shuzhuang (Li Bangyuan's concurrent position in the mission), what are the Ming people doing?"

Lee Bang-won was staring at the airship on the lake, unable to move his eyes away. Hearing this, he instinctively replied, "Test airship."

"What's a test airship?"

Li Fangyuan was a little impatient and finally looked away. He happened to see Wang Hui's confused eyes. Thinking of his son who was about the same age, he patiently explained, "Let the thing anchored on the lake fly up and take people into the air."

Wang Hui's eyes widened when he heard this. He exclaimed in amazement, "Oh my God, letting that big kite carry people to the sky? The Ming people are really too bold. What if it falls down?"

When Li Fangyuan heard Wang Hui mistakenly think the airship was a big kite, he secretly laughed but did not explain.

In fact, he also had some doubts in his mind at this time: Can this airship really take people to the sky? Then how to get down after flying up?

Although Li Fangyuan has seen many wonderful things in the capital in the past few days, such as bicycles, ships, telescopes, etc., he even visited the bridge across the Yangtze River.

Even so, he couldn't believe that the people of the Ming Dynasty could fly - if they could really fly, wouldn't they be almost like gods?
With this thought in mind, Li Fangyuan, Zhu Xiongying and others waited silently for more than a quarter of an hour.

Then I saw that the airship anchored on the lake actually rose slowly after all the ropes were untied!

At the same time, two cylinders (thrusters) equipped with propellers were lowered on both sides of the pod. No one knew what mechanism was inside, but after being activated by the Ming people, they began to rotate rapidly, making a humming sound and blowing downwards, causing countless waves on the surface of the lake.

And the airship rose into the sky at an even faster speed!

"The airship took off successfully!" Zhu Tan opened the champagne at halftime and couldn't help but shout out loudly with joy.

The others also cheered, but a few people, such as Liu Kuan, Tao Chengdao, and Zhu Xiongying, had smiles on their faces but were still worried, waiting patiently for the end of the entire flight test.

Under the gaze of everyone, the airship rose to about thirty feet in the air, and then controlled the thrusters and tail fins to make the airship hover slightly in the air, and then flew slowly towards the west bank of Xuanwu Lake.

Zhu Xiongying and Zhu Tan immediately took out telescopes to watch, which made Li Fangyuan behind them envious.

Among the many strange things he had seen in Ming Country in the past few days, the one he coveted the most was the telescope.

Unfortunately, telescopes can only be manufactured by the Imperial Mirror Bureau at present. It is against the law for private individuals to manufacture them or own them without permission.

Meanwhile, Liu Kuan asked Tao Chengdao, "This airship can't hover in the air?" "It's not that it can't, but it can only hover for a very short time—the bottom line is that the propulsion system isn't good enough."

Liu Kuan said, "If we want a propulsion system that can be used for various aircraft, we have to wait for the invention of the internal combustion engine. However, the manufacture of internal combustion engines requires solving many material problems, and we don't know when it will be realized."

"Therefore, I think it would be better for the National Aeronautics Administration to continue researching mechanical energy storage, similar to clockwork. Perhaps under the current conditions, it would be easier to achieve a breakthrough that would be beneficial to airships."

Tao Chengdao read every issue of Natural Science and even borrowed some of Liu Kuan's lesson plans from the main hall. He pondered and asked, "Can electricity be used as a substitute?"

Liu Kuan smiled and said, "Your idea is good, but as far as I know, getting a usable electric engine to drive the propulsion system requires solving more and greater problems. It would be better to wait for the internal combustion engine to be developed as soon as possible."

About a quarter of an hour later, the test airship successfully flew to the west bank of Xuanwu Lake and then flew towards Lime Mountain. It then turned around and flew back, and finally safely anchored on the surface of Xuanwu Lake.

Liu Kuan was not surprised that the experimental airship could not land accurately in the dock.

In fact, there is another important factor that enabled the airship to complete this flight test - there was almost no wind today.

If the wind is strong, I'm afraid the airship may not be able to take off.

It can be said that although the Ming Dynasty's hydrogen airship test flight was successful, there is still a long way to go on the road of developing practical airships.
···
After Lee Bang-won returned to Siigwan, his mind was still filled with the image of the airship flying in the air until Jeong Mong-ju came over.

"I heard from my followers that the Ming Dynasty's airship had a successful test flight?" Zheng Mengzhou asked.

Lee Bang-won came back to his senses and nodded with emotion, "Not bad."

Then he briefly recounted what he had seen and heard today by the Xuanwu Lake - finding out the truth about all aspects of the Ming Dynasty was one of his missions in coming to the Ming capital.

As the head of the delegation, Zheng Mengzhou also needed to know all kinds of information.

After finishing his speech, Lee Bang-won added his views on the matter.

"Based on the conversations between Zhu Xiongying, Zhu Tan, the Marquis of Jiangning, and the Earl of Dongning, it's clear that the Ming Dynasty wants to make this airship even better."

"If the Ming Dynasty could truly develop an airship that could fly higher, farther, and more comprehensively in the future, it could be used to scout enemy deployments from high altitudes, and could also carry kerosene and other supplies to attack the enemy from the air."

"By then, the Ming army will be even more powerful and invincible."

Zheng Mengzhou sighed, "Even without the airships, the Ming army is definitely not something Goryeo can stop. Forget about anything else, how can we stop a weapon like the Shenwei Cannon?"

Li Fangyuan no longer had any thoughts of resisting the Ming Dynasty. After a brief silence, he asked, "Ambassador Zheng, has there been any progress in the matter of submitting to the Ming Dynasty?"

After the Goryeo delegation arrived, Zhu Yuanzhang did not meet them immediately, but asked officials from the Ministry of Rites to "entertain" them first, which was actually to conduct some necessary communication first.

Zhu Yuanzhang would not summon Zheng Mengzhou and other main members of the delegation until some things were settled, just as a formality.

Zheng Mengzhou said, "The Ming Dynasty seems quite satisfied with our request for submission, so I have learned some things from the Ministry of Rites in the past few days."

"If Goryeo submits, only a few top-tier families like the Wang and Lee families can and must relocate to the capital."

"Other lesser-ranked families may be relocated to various locations across the Ming Dynasty, and they will all be required to split up—probably limiting the number of members each family can have in a given location."

"Also, when the Ming court takes over Goryeo, they may select a few aristocratic families and a small number of powerful families that have caused the most public resentment and punish them. Most of the time, they will have their property confiscated and exiled, or even execute a group of them..."

Hearing this, the young and energetic Lee Bang-won could no longer hold back and angrily asked, "We have all taken the initiative to submit to the Ming Dynasty, yet the Ming court is still treating us so harshly?"

Zheng Mengzhou sighed, "The person from the Ministry of Rites said that this is all because of the excessive number of noble families and wealthy clans in Goryeo. There are no noble families or wealthy clans like us in the Ming Dynasty now. Even the larger clans were broken up and moved to various places in recent years."

"Some wealthy individuals who have committed crimes are more suited to being exiled overseas or to wild and untamed places like Nanyang, Luohuang, and Jilin."

"Fifth Young Master is a man of experience. Tell me, if we were to apply the current laws of the Ming Dynasty, would there be a single noble family or clan in Goryeo who would be innocent?" (End of this chapter)