My Daming New Empire

Obviously, there is only one reason why His Highness is taboo, that is, he originally planned to arrange for Huang Yuan to take over the navy, but now that he understands the marriage, it is tantamount to destroying his plan.

Seeing that Huang Yuan understood, Huang Fu smiled and said, "Your Highness always does things unexpectedly. A few years ago, who would have thought that he would let Zheng He, an eunuch, take over as the Governor of the Navy!"

"But the boy is only 33 years old this year. Whether in the court or in the army, he is a junior."

Huang Yuan still couldn't believe it, no matter how much he thought, he didn't dare to hope that His Highness wanted him to take over the navy.Even the rumors outside said that he would not be able to succeed Zheng He until Zheng He was old.

Zheng He is 50 years old this year, and he will have to wait at least ten years to take over. At that time, he was only 43 years old.

At that time, Chen Xuan was 66 years old, and of course it was impossible to stay in the position of governor of the bank with heavy responsibilities.

So Huang Yuan didn't think too much at first, seeing that Chen Zuo wanted to get married, he directly agreed.

But now because he is married to the Chen family, it may affect him to directly take over as the governor of the navy, which makes him feel absurdly disappointed.

Huang Fu looked at his son, and comforted him in a gentle voice: "It's yours, it's yours after all, and you still have a long time... Now the key is to figure out what kind of reply the grandson needs."

Huang Yuan came to his senses, but his brain was still not clear, and he looked groggy.Thinking of the possibility that he might take over the behemoth of the navy, how did he calm down!

In the palace, in front of Zhu Zhanji was the excited Zhu Di.Two days ago, he went to Xinjiangkou Water Village on purpose to see the huge sea-going ship of [-] materials.

With the ship's first trial voyage, I just came back today.After returning, I greatly admired the advanced and huge size of this incompletely built ship.

The load-bearing capacity of one piece of material is about 360 to 2000 kilograms, and [-] pieces of material is almost [-] million kilograms.

It sounds like a lot, but in later generations, it is equivalent to a 30-ton sea-going ship.It is not uncommon for later generations to have a sea-going ship of 40 tons, or even more than [-] tons, but today's sea-going ship of [-] tons is absolutely shocking.

In fact, the ship was not much larger than the original treasure ship.

But the treasure ship is all wood. In order to be strong, the structure of the whole ship is very tight, with wood joints everywhere, so there is not much room for people to move and load.

This is equivalent to a wooden lump in the water, and the space for people's activities is only the gap inside.

But with this huge iron keel cast by iron art, around this keel, steel is used to form the structure, and then wood is inlaid.

In this way, a lot of space is saved, the self-weight is reduced, and of course more goods can be loaded.

And this ship, because it is a test product, is not for loading, but to build a huge sea palace for Zhu Di.

Therefore, in addition to sturdiness, the consideration is not how much cargo can be loaded, but sailing ability and luxury.

On this ship, the most advanced technology of Ming Dynasty is applied.The eight huge steam engines were not installed on the deck this time, but directly installed under the cabin.

The two steam engines in the middle of the ship are responsible for the ro-ro wheels, the two steam engines at the stern are responsible for the ro-ro wheels, one is responsible for controlling the rudder and steering, and the other two are spare.

In addition, what shocked Zhu Di the most was that there was a steam turbine driving a heavy propeller.

He didn't understand the principle of steam turbines, but he still couldn't help but be shocked when he saw that huge machine of human industrial civilization.

In contrast, hundreds of boiler workers wearing only a pair of loincloths, revealing their dark, toned muscles, are methodically loading coal in the steaming steam room, which is a different kind of spectacle.

This huge boat has three huge layers below the deck, and the bottom layer is a pressurized water tank, which can store fresh water, but it is more for ballast.

The second floor is the operating cabin, half of which is underwater, and the upper window is less than two meters from the waterline.Such a height is obviously not enough in the sea. Big waves of three to four meters are just commonplace in the sea.

But now there is glass, and four layers of thick glass are installed. Although the light transmission is not good, it can barely withstand the wind and waves.

The third floor is the warehouse and the crew's rest cabin, which are separated from the front and back, and the crew cannot pass through their range of activities.

Above the deck, there are five floors. The first floor is the rest area for the maids and eunuchs, including the musicians of the Jiaofang Division, who also live here.

The second floor is the main hall. There is a hall that can accommodate 800 people. This hall occupies three floors and occupies more than half of the activity area.

But this is necessary. Even if Zhu Di passes away in the future, Zhu Zhanji will need such a hall when he takes this ship.

Zhu Di's main cabin is also on the second floor, located behind the main hall. Except for this side of the main hall, the other three sides are transparent, and there is a circle of balconies.

Because it spans the width of the ship, the total area exceeds [-] square meters, and more than a dozen rooms are enough for people who are close enough to live together.

On the upper floors, there are also cabins of different sizes for the concubines to live in.

On the boat, Zhu Di didn't ask to be high above him, not to let other people live on top of him.He has also been on a boat and knows that only the stern is near the center axis where the shaking is the least.

The areas above the hull deck and in front of the main hall are all for the crew to move about, and they basically do not affect the lives of the people on board.

The draft of this ship reaches six meters, and it can barely sail in the Yangtze River, and it has to be in the wet season.

Autumn is about to begin now, and after October, the river's water volume will drop, and boats may not be able to get out of the Yangtze River.

Therefore, the decoration and layout of the rear of the ship will be installed downstream.

It was also for this reason that Zhu Di couldn't wait to visit it, and when he came back, he was full of praise, wishing that the ship would be built soon so that he could enjoy it.

The emergence of steam turbines is of course also due to Zhu Zhanji.Don't think that steam turbines are very complicated. In fact, regardless of the material, a simple single-stage reciprocating steam turbine is easier to manufacture than a steam engine.

Because the most difficult part of a steam engine is not the boiler, but the cylinder that converts heat energy into power.

Today's cylinder is just a simple alloy cylinder block, and the piston is also alloy steel. Because it needs to be closed, only four piston rings can be installed to avoid air leakage and increase horsepower.

On the other hand, the steam turbine only needs to know the principle and pass the manufacturing materials, and then it can directly act on the propeller with power.

Zhu Zhanji was the captain of the ship for more than ten years in his first life, and he has repaired steam turbines countless times. He is more familiar with steam turbines than steam engines.

In the past, he didn't directly launch steam turbines because the materials were not up to standard. Now that there are many kinds of alloy steel, he had people manufacture several steam turbines according to his "design".

In terms of heat energy conversion, steam turbines are far superior to steam engines, and ships are also most suitable for installing steam turbines. A shaft can be directly extended out of the hull to drive the propeller.

Compared to building a steam turbine, the propeller is the real painstaking effort.

The complexity of steam turbines is to know the working principle, and then manufacture qualified accessories, which are not easy to be damaged.

But everyone knows the working principle and style of the propeller, but it is not easy to make a suitable one.

Leaving aside the firmness of the blade, the big deal is that it will be enlarged and thickened, which will consume part of the kinetic energy.

However, the number and angle of the blades are closely related to the size and speed of the ship.

Seemingly the same propeller, but because of the slight difference in the twist angle, it plays a completely different role.

Moreover, today’s Daming does not have the process of directly manufacturing propellers. Now the propellers are made of mud film at the beginning, and then cast separately, and then let the craftsmen polish the blades little by little, and then assemble them on the central shaft, which is very labor-intensive.

In the past two years, Zhu Zhanji had people cast more than [-] sets of propellers, and after rounds of tests, he selected a propeller suitable for huge seagoing ships, and had people build a few more.

However, at present, due to the shortage of propeller technology, although the steam turbine is barely usable, it is far from reaching the point of mass production and can only be used as a test product.

Opposite him, Zhu Di was still talking excitedly. "Who would have thought that such a huge ship could run just by relying on one steam...turbine and one propeller, and it was no slower than four rollers. It's just that it was less than a thousand miles along the way. It broke four or five times."

Zhu Zhanji said with a smile: "This is always the case with new technologies. What's more, with such a large blade, our technology is not up to standard, and it is normal to be bad."