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Chapter 61 Future

After the war, the Ming army's job was to repair ships and equipment.

More than a thousand Spanish officers and soldiers were captured in this battle. After interrogation, Deng Ming found that the devil kite he designed had performed very well, far beyond his initial imagination. Deng Ming made a quick decision to carry forward this tactic. When he attacked Manila, Deng Ming felt that he should attack at night, redesign the face, draw a good picture, or simply draw a few more pictures. If most Spanish defenders were busy creating holy water or praying after seeing the devil, it would definitely be of great benefit to the Ming army's attack.

Now all students in Sichuan have to study chemistry and physics. Deng Ming organized a group of people to specialize in the translation and compilation of textbooks. Various strange and novel ideas sprung up like mushrooms after a rain. Five years ago, Deng Ming persuaded the institute to set up a fund to support inventions and provide necessary experimental funds. He also set up a department to review funding applications for this. However, not long after, a large number of private funds were established. Many commercial banks felt that investing in promising inventions could bring huge returns. As long as one of the many investment projects was successful, investors could recover all their invention investments and make a profit.

After these banks shared most of the required experimental funds, the institute and Deng Ming's invention funds could invest in inventions that may take effect for a longer period of time and are unlikely to obtain profits in the short term. However, even if they are intentional, Deng Ming may not be able to get the results he wants. For example, the development of steam engines. After the Battle of Northern Sichuan in the fourth year of Kangxi, Deng Ming described such a concept and then took out a sum of money to offer a reward for research. Then Deng Ming hurriedly led his army to leave Sichuan. When almost a year passed, when Deng Ming returned to Sichuan, he found that there was almost no progress in this research direction.

Because Deng Ming could not draw sketches of the steam engine, the research on the steam engine could only be explored from scratch, just like the original research of generators. After studying the idea proposed by Deng Ming, the participants felt that this thing had no future - even if Deng Ming's idea was correct and could create a machine with huge power, how to use this power was still a big problem. The researchers believe that this huge mechanical force needs to be subdivided so that small machinery can be used; and the factory must be built around this huge steam engine, otherwise there will be countless problems to be solved for long-distance transmission of power.

In short, the more you think, the more troublesome the researchers think this thing is. However, Deng Ming's idea reminded them that when Deng Ming returned to Sichuan, they had already made experimental models of generators powered by natural gas. The transmission and utilization of electricity were ready-made. Many merchants saw the potential value of this thing and invested in it. By the sixth year of Kangxi, Xuzhou, where natural gas is very rich, had established a power station using natural gas, using high-temperature steam to drive generators to generate electricity. The concept of reciprocating steam engines proposed by Deng Ming two years ago still did not even have the concept of the concept.

As for those powerful businesses, their ideas are often bolder.

Now Anlesi's arms dealership is already the leading large-scale dealership in Sichuan. The continuous introduction of new rifles and light artillery is an inexhaustible source of wealth for arms dealers - the old-for-new operation of rifles has continued to this day. Anle's arms dealership has been recycled for many years from the hands of fellow scholars and the army. After using new rifles to exchange for these scrapped old models, Anle's arms dealership brushed them with new paint and sold them to militias in other provinces at a high price to suppress Deng Zongli Yamen or other Qing governors who needed arms.

Last year, Deng Ming once again convened arms dealers, including Anlesi, who took over artillery orders, attended the meeting. Deng Ming proposed that the imperial army needed artillery with faster firing speeds, including land war artillery and naval artillery. At the meeting, Deng Ming also proposed the idea of ​​"arcine shells". In order to point out the direction for the arms dealers, Deng Ming even further proposed a series of concepts such as "rret", "cone warhead", and "arcine shell rotation". Before this time, Anlesina

The idea of ​​the cannon was startled Deng Ming. The other party claimed that the power of gunpowder now does not meet Deng Ming's idea requirements - alchemy is not advanced enough, and An Lesi and others are also clever. However, An Lesi's subordinates believed that they could consider making an electromagnetically driven cannon, hoping to rely on coil acceleration or magnetic energy conversion to obtain a higher initial velocity and fire rate than the black gunpowder bore cannon, and even realize the concepts of "rear installation", "cone shape", and "high-speed rotation of shells" proposed by Deng Ming.

Although he was skeptical about this idea, the arms dealership paid for the experiment on its own, so Deng Ming certainly did not oppose the electromagnetic gun experiment. As long as the effect was stronger than the black gunpowder cannon and the price was tolerated, Deng Ming was actually looking forward to the sail warship equipped with electromagnetic guns. When he thought of the scene where the sail warship formation used electromagnetic guns to decide the outcome, he felt extremely excited.

More avant-garde than Anlesi's thoughts was a shipyard owner named Jie Fa. He has always been the largest shipbuilder in Xuzhou and was one of the first to land on Chongming Island and start building shipyards there. A few years ago, although Jie Fa designed and tried to build European sailing warships according to Deng Ming's requirements, Deng Ming knew that this person's ambition was immeasurable. An alternative seaship designer funded by Jie Ship owner was named Wang Xiaopeng. Designer Wang once described the "concept" of turrets to Deng Ming-Deng Ming was sure that he was talking about turrets, or electric.

In addition to the turret, Wang Xiaopeng also wanted to install a power system for the ship. This is also the creativity of Deng Ming. After the concept of steam engine was denied, Deng Ming brought out the concept of an internal combustion engine. Although it was just a concept, Deng Ming said that if it was successful, it could provide power to the ship, and there would be no need to rely entirely on wind power in the future. Deng Ming also proposed two ideas of paddle wheel and propeller. However, Wang Xiaopeng's designer asserted that Deng Ming's idea was not feasible. He believed that if it was a paddle wheel design, it would be easy to be hit on the battlefield. Losing combat power, even if it encountered a storm, it might cause the sea ship to lose its power; but if it was the propeller Deng Ming mentioned, Wang Xiaopeng believed that sealing and power transmission were huge troubles. Therefore, the alternative solution proposed by Wang Xiaopeng was to design a vital gas (energy) core for the ship, that is, a generator, and then rely on wires to transport vital gas to the propeller or turret.

After learning about Anlesi's electromagnetic gun design, Wang Xiaopeng once again came to meet Deng Ming and further improved his new generation of warship design concept: driven by the central energy core, the warship can be equipped with several electric engines, and there are one or several rotatable electric turrets equipped with electromagnetic guns on the deck. A central electricity core can solve all the needs of future warship navigation systems and weapon systems.

Deng Ming didn't know the principle of electromagnetic guns. Although he didn't expect Anlesi, he still had a little hope in his heart. In his previous life, chemical energy weapons had a great first-mover advantage. Once electromagnetic weapons appeared, they needed to compete with very mature chemical energy weapons. And Anlesi's original electromagnetic energy weapon competitor was the original chemical energy weapons. Because Deng Ming was very eager to see the appearance of a sail battleship equipped with electromagnetic cannons, he always comforted himself like this. However, after hearing Wang Xiaopeng explain his idea enthusiastically, and then look at Jiefa Boss who kept smiling beside him, Deng Ming felt that neither of them had a chance to see this landmark battleship equipped with fuel generators, electric engines, electric turrets and electromagnetic cannons.

What made Deng Ming particularly interesting is that Wang Xiaopeng's battleship design still uses a wooden structure - due to the impact of the soft sail, the hard sail was neglected by people, which made the concept of propeller possible to be accepted; and the application of electricity, and Wang Xiaopeng had never seen an internal combustion engine, he could naturally give up the illusory internal combustion engine design using an electric engine; as for the weapon system, the European side-side gun window design did not last long, and Wang Xiaopeng also felt that electromagnetic cannons and black powder bore cannons were both feasible choices, since the electromagnetic cannons and his overall idea were more

After being harmonious, he naturally chose the former; but the ship must be made of wood, which is still a deeply rooted idea for people. When Deng Ming asked casually whether metal could be used to make the hull, Wang Xiaopeng subconsciously opposed it, thinking that it was impossible. Then he pondered for a while and asked Deng Ming: "Even if iron can be used to make a ship, the iron ship is so heavy, it must be sunk, right? If something happens to a ship, the sailor can still hold a wooden board and wait for help. But if something happens to an iron ship, what should the sailors hold?"

Anyway, just like the situation with Anlesi, Wang Xiaopeng's design room was not supported by Deng Ming, so Deng Ming did not interfere with whether the other party insisted on using wood to build his electric warship.

Now, most of the projects supported by Deng Mingyi Fund seem meaningless. One of the most typical projects is the electric abacus project. The cause is that the tax bureau has an accountant named Guanghuapeng. He feels that the numbers that the government needs to calculate are getting bigger and more complex now, and the traditional abacus seems a bit insufficient. Especially in some huge multiplication operations, each step depends on the man to pull the abacus. Once a small mistake occurs, all previous efforts will be wasted. Therefore, the tax officer wants to create a better calculation tool that does not need to manually enter each step. It is best to be able to put the numbers into the abacus, and the abacus can directly give the results.

At the beginning, Guanghuapeng's idea was to use electricity to drive the abacus to calculate by himself. People only need to be responsible for input and read the results. But this idea is simple to think about, but it is extremely difficult to implement. Most people can understand and control the quintal system of abacus, but it is difficult to let the machine operate on its own. Later, Guanghuapeng and several of his companions reduced and decreased again and found that only using binary system could be a little bit of execution. Translating decimal to binary system is much more troublesome than quintal system. At this point, Guanghuapeng's companions all understood that designing such a machine might be much more difficult than calculating and checking it ten times, so except for Guanghuapeng, everyone else gave up.

After learning about this, Deng Ming quickly included the electric abacus in his invention fund support project. In the past two years, not only did Guanghuapeng have no worries about food and clothing, but also provided all the experimental funds he needed. Last year, Guanghuapeng himself retreated because after calculation, he found that even if the human brain translates a binary that can be recognized by the machine, it still needs at least a few thousand parts to be able to calculate it. This design originated from the abacus, so it also carries a lot of genetic characteristics of the abacus. Huaguang

Peng naturally chose the same physical information carrier as the abacus for it. At first, he even planned to use wooden parts similar to abacus, but it was not until a long time later that he decided to change to iron. Later, in order to further increase the strength, he had to apply to Deng Ming to use all-steel parts; the huge machine requires precise control, and a slight negligence will lead to failure. Moreover, even if it is successful, the electric abacus may not be used a few times, and the parts inside will be worn and scrapped, and the biggest possibility is that they cannot move at once.

In short, this electric abacus seems to have no prospect or benefit at all. Even if it is successful, the investment and gains are not proportional. However, Deng Ming still encouraged Guang Huapeng to continue researching and continue to provide experimental funds. Once, when he was having dinner with Qin Xiucai, Deng Ming also mentioned that even if the abacus took five years or six years to manufacture, even if it could only be manufactured once, even if it could only be calculated correctly, it would be of great significance.

When the Imperial Navy was resting in the Babuyan Strait, Deng Ming couldn't help but think of the electric abacus that he strongly supported when he had nothing to do. Now Guang Huapeng has moved to the Fifty-One Pavilion and concentrates on studying his machinery. At the beginning, Guang Huapeng wanted to use the concave and convexity of wood to represent one and zero, but soon found that the wooden original was completely incompetent, and now it has been changed to all-steel - extremely expensive. Deng Ming felt that even if he used the most expensive steel components, Guang Huapeng's design could not be successful, because this set of machinery was too complicated. Deng Ming once went to see it once and felt his head was confused. He saw that Guang Huapeng and the assistants he hired could not guarantee the normal operation of the machinery no matter how much lubricant oil was placed on the parts. Not to mention that Sichuan now cannot do it, it is even titanium alloys in his previous life. In the era of high-precision, it should not be easy to make such a complex abacus run at high speed.

However, Deng Ming didn't mind Guang Huapeng's continued hitting a wall, and he would continue to provide funds as always. In order to reduce the difficulty, Guang Huapeng has reduced the initial goal of millions by millions to hundreds by hundreds now, and is trying hard to make the machinery operate successfully at least once and give Deng Ming an explanation of investment. Deng Ming comforted him and said that their research has great significance for machinery manufacturing in Sichuan. In fact, this is true, but Deng Ming was not most concerned about this in this experiment, and Guang Huapeng felt extremely uneasy, and he racked his brains every day to figure out good ways to make the machinery operate.

Before Deng Ming left Sichuan, Guang Huapeng told Deng Ming that he and his assistant planned to adopt a new solution, which was to energize and not power the steel parts that represent one and zero respectively, so that they could move separately instead of driving in a unified manner. Although Deng Ming praised it greatly, he felt that with the current mechanical level and electric engine level in Sichuan, this solution would have no chance of success. It would be impossible to see the dawn of success in a few years. Even if Guang Huapeng reduced the goal to one hundred times one hundred... If they really could do it, Deng Ming would continue to invest in allowing them to try to create computers with greater computing power.

However, this is still a good start. Now Guanghuapeng has begun to link whether the power is on or not to zero and one. Perhaps a few more years will the electric abacus research team will have an idea and realize that there is no need to use the concave and bumps of steel parts as the carrier of information at all. Perhaps this inspiration will appear tomorrow, and perhaps Guanghuapeng has not found a way out for another ten years, but sooner or later, the unfeasible electric abacus will evolve towards the electronic abacus, abandoning complex mechanical structures to obtain higher computing speed and feasibility.

When thinking about computer and information warfare in the flintlock era, or when one day people in this world would use computers to develop more efficient black powder weapons and bore guns instead of jet fighters, Deng Ming felt inexplicably excited. This scene could make Deng Ming more excited and fascinated than using electromagnetic guns to bombard sail wooden warships.

"If the cavalry inserted the bloody sabers and the bore guns back into the scabbards and holsters after the war, then took out the smartphones on the LCD screen, called home to report their safety to their wives and children, or simply videos..." Deng Ming fantasized a series of scenes in his mind: "Maybe one day, they will use the connected camera system to help the mount police chase the bandits who are robbing wooden armored vehicles; use satellites to detect whether the enemy secretly developed a bore fortress cannon of more than 100 pounds... that would be a dreamy new world." The technology tree in this world has been crooked, so let it crook more violently.

...

On June 10, the Ming army completed the simple restoration of most warships. The Imperial fleet set sail again, crossed the Babuyan Strait and entered the western waters of the Philippines, heading towards Manila.

Before sending troops this time, Deng Ming did not make it clear to the Chinese reclamation group in the Philippines for confidentiality reasons, but now there is no reason to continue to conceal it. After the naval war, the Ming army sent a large number of ships to contact reclamation groups in various places, asking them to make all preparations to assist the imperial army in the war.

In addition to these reclamation groups, there are also a large number of Chinese in the Philippines. Some of them have lived in the South China Sea for twenty generations, for about hundreds of years. Their ancestors immigrated to Luzon as early as the Yuan Dynasty and even the late Song Dynasty; the other Chinese have mostly visited Nanyang in the past 100 years. Most of their ancestors were fishermen and farmers from Fujian and Guangdong, who went out to sea because of their poverty, no land or heavy taxes. Now many of them are successful merchants or owners of a small manor.

After the reclamation group appeared in the Philippines, most of these old expatriates did not go to join, because in order to avoid the Spanish's fierce reaction, the reclamation group generally chose to stay in remote places, while the activity areas of most old expatriates were still under the rule of the Spanish.

While asking the colonial regiment to send armed forces to help the imperial army take over the city, Deng Ming also ordered to write to the expatriates in various cities to prepare to send representatives to meet with the imperial prime minister. The Spanish rule was about to end, and the imperial government designed a new future for the Philippines. As the expatriates who have the most affection for the empire and are most trusted by the imperial government, they need to know these plans and assist the colonial regiment in better control of large areas of sea and land.
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