On September 25, 1683, London Iron Mansion.

It was another rainy day. Cai Zhenguo opened the window of the room, and a fresh air with raindrops rushed in instantly, slightly dispelling a little mold and rot in the room.

"No wonder the British developed water pumps and water pumps as soon as they got the steam engine. In such a country where it rains all the time, how difficult it would be to live without a water pump." Cai Zhenguo, Ambassador of the East Coast Republic of China to the UK, looked at the rainy curtain outside, and said in a teasing tone: "Is the English steam engine technology unique to all over Europe? The secret is that the environment is rainy and humid?"

"Boss, you're kidding again." The secretary used to put the teapot on the table and poured a cup of mate tea for Cai Zhenguo. As the ambassador of the East Coast Republic of China to the UK, Cai Zhenguo still has a wide range of beverage hobbies, including green tea, mate tea, coffee, cocoa, milk tea and even alcohol. He often asked the secretary to change his taste, and for this reason, the cabinet was filled with various raw materials produced from all over the country, which was very luxurious.

Today I was drinking matte tea, which was transported from the northern part of Hejian, and was transported through diplomatic parcel channels, but the cost was quite high. However, the Cai family had a great family and had a big business. My brothers were either officials or doing business. What was the shipping fee? Cai Zhenguo didn't even blink.

"But seriously, ambassador, the British have been trying to graft steam power to some commonly used medium and large mechanical equipment. I went to see it. Many of them are machine tools used to process tools. Although their efforts are not very successful, this attempt itself represents some progress, and I think it should be taken seriously." The secretary quickly packed the documents on the table aside, and then brought a plate of special cookies to report to Cai Zhenguohui.

Recently, the East Coast Embassy in the UK received invitations from several British manufacturing companies and visited and inspected them. It had a relatively clear understanding of the steam engine application level and machining level of British manufacturing companies. Of course, this is just the level shown by the British. As for what they did not show, it is not clear.

The reason why the British invited people from the East Coast to visit repeatedly was to purchase many equipment from the East Coast. The most important one was undoubtedly the steam engine. Because there was no steam engine, especially the steam engine with higher speed, the rotation speed of the cutting head of the machine tool could not be very fast. If this speed was slow, the vibration level of the parts would be very high, which would make the processing accuracy unimproved, and the waste rate would remain high. These would undoubtedly make the industrial processing level at a lower level, so the British really wanted to obtain the high-speed steam engine technology on the East Coast.

Of course, if the British must have tried their best to get high-speed steam engine technology, it is not very accurate. After all, can some steam engines used by the British now be worse than some hydraulic machine tools? Regardless of those turbulent rivers, these can drive many machine tools to operate at a higher speed, but most rivers are actually very smooth, so they can only allow machines, water lifters, mills and other facilities driven by hydraulics to operate at a slower speed, which is far from comparable high speed of steam engines.

.What's more, rivers are also divided into aquatic and dry seasons. They may even freeze in winter and their flow rates will vary within a certain period of time, far less than the constant and high-speed steam engine. Therefore, even the worst steam engines have great advantages over hydraulic power. Hydraulic power is just cheap. It is suitable for some projects with low requirements for processing accuracy, such as the Shipu Reservoir built by the East Coast people. Its hydraulic power is used to drive sledgehammers to build armor, stamp silver dollars, etc. If it is used to process gears, it will not work.

Therefore, the British can only make their industrial production efficiency and machining level take a new level by relying on large-scale promotion and popularization of steam engines. The main reason why they are trying every means to get high-speed steam engines from East Coast people is that they are greedy for the "magic artifacts" of East Coast people. It is not that they have a great demand for such steam engines. You must know that they are already the best in Europe with their existing technology.

The staff of the East Coast Embassy who visited the British workshops all praised the British's industrial processing level when they came back. They generally believed that as far as these factories in the suburbs of London were concerned, they had almost caught up with some backward workshops in New China, Australia, and the San Francisco Francisco, which used a large number of hydraulic machine tools, but they were still not as good as some large enterprises established by the government. These factories not only surpassed those advanced enterprises in the suburbs of London, which were modeled in Britain, but also completely won in management and financial systems, and the leading position was all-round.

Cai Zhenguo's secretary summarized the various news from the people below, and then wrote a well-understood report to Cai Zhenguo. Therefore, he is still quite clear about the current British industry, so he said: "The British still have two major bottlenecks in the existing low-pressure and low-speed steam engines. One is the sealing problem, and the other is the machining accuracy. As for other aspects, they did not do well. Although their level is not very advanced, the progress is obvious."

In fact, as Secretary Cai Zhenguo said just now, the British have not yet completed the low-pressure and low-speed steam engines. To be honest, the difficulties they encountered in sealing are much smaller than ten years ago, but now they are still limited by materials, processing or design reasons, which makes the cylinder leak more serious, which has affected the thermal efficiency of the steam engine. In fact, this problem is the same as the second so-called bottleneck. If the British made great progress in the mechanical processing level, the gas leakage problem of the steam engine cylinders could not be so serious, so this is actually a problem of combining two into one. At present, if the British do not have the help of external technology, they can only use the steam engine with air leakage everywhere and low efficiency like in the early days of the East Coast. Of course, this is also the only way for technological progress.

Compared with the British, the level of other countries in Europe that began to officially use steam engines as an emerging power is much worse. Taking Portugal and Spain as examples, the two Iberian countries, the former produced two of them and imported four from the UK. As a result, they were damaged one after another within a year. Then they spent a lot of money to ask the British to repair them, and then used them for one or two years and then damaged them again and repaired them again. This cycle was obviously a failed attempt; and the Spanish were even more bizarre. This country first asked the East Coast people to buy steam engines, and clearly stated that even the early models were backward.

It doesn't matter. After being ruthlessly rejected, they were eager to "follow the trend" and ordered three latest steam pumps from Birmingham, England, installed them around the dry farmland in Andalucia for water conservancy and irrigation. As a result, they were the same as the equipment of the Portuguese next door, and it was declared damaged after more than a year of use. The Spaniards organized a repair by themselves, but failed, and then ignored them. Who told them that this was an official investment project in Madrid? They didn't care how the steam engine was actually used. It seemed that it was just a simple action to catch up with the trend.

Compared with these two funny countries, France and North Germany are much more serious, especially the latter. This region has always been a region with prosperous handicrafts, and the products produced are sold everywhere. Every year, a large number of industrial products produced in North Germany can be seen at various commodity trade fairs held in Central Europe and Italy, with a very good foundation. Therefore, after the steam engine was introduced into this region, it developed rapidly, and the acceptance of steam engines is not good, nor is it possible. Germany and Italy

The northern part of Zhizhong is relatively cold. In winter, the snow is snowy, the rivers are frozen, and all hydraulic machinery is shut down. You can only rely on hand tools and foot-stepping machine tools to produce goods. The efficiency will be reduced by many times. Now with the steam engine, this shortcoming will be made up for. Although the initial investment is high, you can combine stocks and crowdfunding for purchases. You can transform this steam engine at that time and connect several more shaft systems. Like people from the East Coast, you can almost recover a lot of costs by relying on rental power alone.

Cai Zhenguo once received information from Riga Trading Station from Brandenburg. He carefully analyzed the situation of using steam engines in North Germany in North Germany. Well, in fact, taking Brandenburg Prussia as an example, we know that this area has a relatively strong industrial foundation since the Middle Ages, and coal is cheaper, and transportation is relatively developed. Many steam engines produced in the UK are used across the country, and have begun to try to imitate them. Therefore, many craftsmen were hired from the city-state (industrial and commercial, navigation industry is relatively developed, and there are many craftsmen) who joined the city-state (industrial and commercial, navigation industry is relatively developed, and there are many craftsmen) to Berlin to carry out special research projects.

Of course, this country once passed messages through the Kurians to try to purchase "high-end steam engines" produced on the east coast, but it was rejected several times. Later, it was absent from the mind and began to do it by itself. Now it has achieved a level of partial maintenance, which is quite good.

"British people, this dog luck is really good! All kinds of minerals such as coal, iron, lead, tin are rich in reserves, domestic canals are crisscrossed, and there are many good ports near the coast. The cost of transportation is naturally very low. Food can be self-sufficient, and the industrial foundation has been good since ancient times. The total steel output has exceeded the total of other European countries. If you are eager to develop technology, you may not be able to hold it back." Cai Zhenguo drank the bitter matte tea and frowned and said, "For the sake of the present, we can only do our best to destroy the good relationship between Britain and the Netherlands. This country's industrial strength is already so strong. If they are allowed to obtain the capital and sales channels of the Dutch people, it will really become a problem. We must prevent this trouble in advance and prevent the combination of Dutch commercial capital and English industrial capital. This is not in the interests of our country."

"By the way, I heard that the export of British goods to Russia has surged recently, and the people from the Dongdi Company have become active again?" Cai Zhenguo asked suddenly after putting down the teacup in his hand.

"Yes, the British were able to concentrate on developing industry and commerce, so the results were significant and eroded many markets that originally belonged to other countries. Moreover, after so many years, the bad reputation of British regicide had long faded (and the king is now in power), and the trade between the Russians and them was very complementary, so they developed rapidly. These were confirmed by the intelligence sent back from Riga, Arkhangelsk, and Moscow." The secretary recalled the various documents he had contacted before and replied: "A few days ago," the secretary recalled the various documents he had contacted before and replied: "

Zhao Gui, who was actually in charge of the work at Riga Trading Station, sent a few pieces of intelligence, which mentioned the British infiltration of the Baltic Sea and Russia, which is worth paying attention. Ah, by the way, he also mentioned that the Austrians deviated from Germany and Poland and sent a large mission to Moscow. It is likely to be a feasibility of negotiating with the Russians to jointly attack the Ottoman Turkish Empire. The Austrians wanted to compete for the Balkans and the Russians wanted to compete for Ukraine, and they all had a feud with the Ottoman Empire, so the possibility of uniting was not low and worthy of vigilance."

"I have also seen this information, it's not easy to do." Cai Zhenguo sighed when he heard this, and only heard him say: "These two countries have territorial competition with the Ottomans, and they are in a very obvious period of rising. The domestic economic strength, scientific and technological strength and military combat effectiveness are all increasing, forming a sharp contrast with the Ottoman Empire. Moreover, these two countries are not very active in overseas trade, and they are almost all focused on fighting for land interests, wanting to hit him

We are afraid we are a little overwhelmed. Especially that Russia has a bad temper and is very disobedient. If we get angry, this bear will not think rationally and will turn against us directly. The Far East, Ukraine and other places will probably rekindle the war and business will be ruined. It is very difficult. So this is the reason why I hate mainland countries. The way they think about problems is sometimes not on the same channel as us, and their focus is different, which makes people unable to start."

"This matter should be handled by Special Envoy Gao Wenganggao of Cadiz. In the afternoon, you can summarize the recent information about Austria, Russia and Turkey, and then write a detailed report to me. I will try to review it in the past two days, and then find an opportunity to send it to the side of Cadiz, which will be decided by Special Envoy Gao. Well, our merchant ship from Amsterdam to Spain will have it in the middle of next month, so let the ship take it there. This information is more important. You can arrange for a smarter person to take it with you. Do you understand?" Cai Zhenguo reminded.
Chapter completed!