Chongzhen's domineering

Chapter 187 The Secret of the Southernmost Cape (Part 1)

At this time of the Ming Dynasty, the population in the far south and far north was not large.

For example, the nomadic peoples in the north generally have tens of thousands of people per square kilometer, or hundreds of thousands of people per square kilometer, with less than one person per square kilometer.

Moreover, the further north you go, the fewer people there are. The southern part of the desert, with its millions of square kilometers, still has a population of one or two million, while the northern part, with its millions of square kilometers, has only a few hundred thousand people.

Although the far south is better, the population is still small. Qiongzhou Prefecture, with its more than 30,000 square kilometers, has a total population of only about 200,000.

Many of the Southeast Asian countries are actually quite large, yet they only have a few million or even a few hundred thousand people per country.

The reason is actually quite simple: most people cannot tolerate extremely cold or hot climates.

Therefore, before boilers and heating were widely adopted, the northernmost part of the far north, including the Gobi Desert, covered tens of millions of square kilometers, with a population of only a few hundred thousand, less than a million.

Before fans and air conditioners became widespread, the far south, covering tens of millions of square kilometers, had at most tens of millions of people, not hundreds of millions.

Originally, it was unlikely that the Ming Dynasty would develop the southern and northernmost regions at this time. Without a solution to the severe cold and heat, people could not be relocated to the southern and northernmost regions. Even if they were forced to relocate, the population would not only fail to multiply but would also continue to decrease.

The situation in Qiongzhou Prefecture is clear evidence of this. Only those who can withstand the scorching heat can survive there, while those who cannot will gradually perish. As a result, the population there has decreased rather than increased over the past two hundred years.

However, things are different now that Zhu Jue has developed both the boiler and the fan.

The far north was mostly under the control of the Northern Barbarians and the Jurchens, so he would leave that aside for now. He was preparing to develop the far south.

The Qiongzhou Prefecture, with its more than 30,000 square kilometers of land, can easily accommodate more than one million people to farm and live. If we add the income from rubber and sugarcane cultivation, as well as mineral, fishery, and forestry resources, then relocating several million more people there would not be a problem.

If development is to be considered, the primary issue is transportation. The Qiongzhou Prefecture area can only be transported by water, and the migration of people can only be done by boat.

The more than 600 assembled ships should be completed around October. It should take about three or four days to get to the Northwest, and then about ten to fifteen days to carry a full load of people and travel about 6,000 li. There will still be enough time to load cargo and go to the Americas.

If we calculate based on the carrying capacity of an 800-ton ship, a ship carrying fully equipped soldiers can carry about 100 people, and carrying 200 men, women, children and the elderly without any equipment should not be a problem.

The 800-tonne ship had a large boiler in the middle, which was in the way. On the 1,600-tonne ship, the boiler was installed below the deck, and the deck was just an empty cargo hold.

Based on this calculation, a ship with a capacity of 1,600 liang should be able to carry 500 men, women, children, and the elderly without any problem. If there are 100 ships, that would be 50,000. Adding the 200 ships already built, they can carry 400,000 men, women, children, and the elderly in one trip, which is about 100,000 households.

If we can bring 100,000 households over this year, we can bring even more people over next year.

In other words, this first phase only requires building 10,000 large houses, 10,000 boilers, steam engines, and tens of thousands of water-cooled fans.

He requested the production of a thousand boilers and a thousand steam engines per day. He didn't mention water-cooled fans, but these don't even need to be sealed, and they're easier to manufacture than boilers, so production volume shouldn't be a problem.

Zhu Jue pondered for a moment, then looked at the craftsmen who weren't sweating much while standing by the furnace, and solemnly said, "Chang Geng, I plan to relocate disaster victims from the Northwest to develop Qiongzhou Prefecture. This year, we will relocate 100,000 households, roughly 400,000 people."

"If you can manufacture 10,000 boilers, 10,000 steam engines, and 50,000 water-cooled fans before November and transport them there, will there be any problems?"

There are many, many questions like that.

After thinking carefully, Song Yingxing cautiously said, "Your Majesty, these factories can be put into production gradually this year, and it shouldn't be a big problem to bring in manpower step by step from Shandong and Southern Zhili."

If calculated by production capacity, 10,000 boilers, 10,000 steam engines, and 50,000 water-cooled fans would only take about ten days, so it wouldn't be a big problem.

However, raw materials are a major problem. So many factories consume tens of thousands of kilograms of copper and thousands of kilograms of rubber every day. In a hundred days, that's millions of kilograms of copper and hundreds of thousands of kilograms of rubber.

"There's another problem, Your Majesty. If we were to install water-cooled fans for the disaster victims in the Northwest, our steam engines would no longer be a secret. They are difficult to manufacture, but anyone with even a little knowledge of their structure can tell the difference."

The issues with copper and rubber wouldn't be resolved until after November, so he requested that the steam engine plant and foundry here be gradually completed and put into operation.

There was also the issue of confidentiality that he hadn't considered.

This steam engine will eventually be used for civilian purposes, and it certainly won't work without some means of secrecy. Zhu Jue nodded slightly, then led everyone to a water-cooled steam engine in the boiler room to examine and ponder it.

This place is incredibly hot. The high temperature outside, combined with the heat from the boilers and steam engines inside, makes it feel almost like being in a furnace.

Everyone was soon drenched in sweat.

Zhu Jue looked at it for a while, and seemed to have figured it out.

Most people wouldn't dare touch this steam engine, because the temperature is too high. Even the surface temperature exceeds 100 degrees Celsius, and touching it would cause a blister.

Therefore, it's very simple to keep out ordinary people; just add a protective cover.

As for professionals, apart from those they taught, there were no professionals in the entire Ming Dynasty.

There may already be people in Europe working on the steam engine, but that's not a big problem. Preventing people from European countries from entering the Ming Dynasty might be a bit difficult, but preventing them from seeing the steam engine is not that difficult.

In other words, if you can make it so that those who can see it can't understand it, and those who can understand it can't see it, then that's about right.

Zhu Jue thought about it carefully, then asked, "Chang Geng, is it okay to cast a square shell to cover the steam engine, leaving only the steam inlet and outlet pipes and the outlet of the connecting rod in the middle?"

A square shell?
Oh, I see. It's meant to make people think that the inside is also square.

Song Yingxing pondered, “The shell doesn’t have any size requirements, so it’s not a big problem. However, Your Majesty, it’s a bit difficult to fit the shell in, and a square box is also difficult to cast. If it were cast in two halves, joined together in the middle, and then tightened with screws, it would be easier to fit in and cast. It would also be easier to open if it needs to be repaired.”

Do you want it to be easy to open?

We need to make it inaccessible to the average person.

Zhu Jue nodded slowly and said, "You can cast it in two halves if you want, but the connecting screws need to be specially made."

You see, this ordinary screw has six edges. The wrench we use is used to loosen or tighten it by gripping the two outer edges. To put it simply, this wrench is just a notch, which is very easy to make. Ordinary craftsmen have quite a few of these.

We also need to make a special type of internal hex screw, which is round on the outside and has a hexagonal hole punched in the inside using a special punch press. It can only be opened with our special internal hex wrench.

An internal hex wrench has the same outer dimensions as a punch on a punch press, but it needs to be made into a long hexagonal iron rod, then bent into a figure-seven shape, so that it is easier to use force to unscrew the screw.

This thing isn't complicated.

Upon hearing this, Song Yingxing pondered and said, "Your Majesty, even a hexagonal iron rod can be forged by an ordinary blacksmith. If someone is clever, they can take a long hexagonal screw, bend it into a figure-seven shape, insert it, and unscrew it."

You are a very smart person.

It looks like we can't make it too simple.

Zhu Jue thought about it carefully, and then decisively said, "Then let's make a set of special equipment specifically for processing these kinds of screws."

The hexagonal socket of these screws must be rounded, making them impossible to loosen without a special wrench. The wrenches we made were only distributed to craftsmen specializing in steam engine repair, and they were strictly instructed to keep them safe and not lose them.

Song Yingxing thought about it carefully before nodding repeatedly and saying, "Your Majesty is wise. This way, ordinary people should not be able to open it."

Another issue is that we need to send someone to Qiongzhou Prefecture as soon as possible to investigate how much fertile land and mountains there are, and how to develop them.

This kind of thing needs to be handled by professionals. It seems that Xu Guangqi will have to take his disciples there.

Zhu Jue thought for a moment, then decisively said, "You should quickly order people to make such a steam engine, along with a boiler and a water-cooled fan. Prepare several sets, and select about ten reliable craftsmen. I will have my son take them over there to build a large house and test it out."

(End of this chapter)