The food is very rich, not a bit better than last year.

After the women and children had eaten dumplings, they went to the side hall to chat. Where there are many women, there will naturally be more topics. Li Xiao saw Tokugawa Senhime pulling Yanrong, as if she was asking for advice.

After Li Hao had eaten, he ran out with the fisherman's grandson. You didn't have to guess. This guy must have gone to find his friends, who were all children from high-level families, hoping not to cause any trouble.

Only Xiao Yuni was in Li Xiao's arms, listening to Mr. Yu and others talking to Li Xiao while drinking.

Alas...! No one is considerate, just a little sister like a little cotton-padded jacket.

"I have lived for these years, and these are the only few years that I have been happy and lived a personal life." The old fisherman took a sip of wine, with happiness and satisfaction on his face. For him, creating a superior machine is

It is the concrete manifestation of the value of life.

"I will have no regrets in my lifetime if I can see such a development in firearms!" Inatomi Yunao's lifelong thought is to create better firearms. The research and development of fixed ammunition was almost completed by him independently. Of course,

The suggestions given by Li Xiao also played a role in fueling the flames.

"The development of machinery and firearms is almost endless. Mechanically speaking, the steam engine can be made smaller. Finally, it is installed on the ship. The entire ship is made of steel. It can still be as fast as a galloping horse on the sea!" Li

Xiao Xiao looked forward to the future.

The warships of later generations can speed at forty or fifty knots at any time. Calculated, it is about the same speed as a horse. Li Xiao is not bragging!

Hearing that iron can be used to build ships, Li Xiu's eyes immediately lit up. As a seafarer, he knew very well how great the advantages a ship made of steel would have. What would a steam engine ship look like? Li Xiu expands infinitely

I used my imagination to think how a pile of iron could float on the water without sinking.

"The same is true for firearms. Now that fixed ammunition is already available, there will be continuous-fire firearms in the future. Some can shoot thirty or forty rounds continuously. Some can fire hundreds of rounds in one minute. At that time, only

It's a real rain of bullets." Li Xiao looked forward a little, and now it was Inatomi Yunao's turn to get excited.

"I have been building boats all my life, but I have seen Korean turtle boats. The outside is covered with a layer of iron, but the inside is still wood. How can this iron boat float on the water?" Mr. Yu is a boat builder.

The veteran expert is currently short of manpower, otherwise his favorite thing is shipbuilding. If Li Xiao could provide enough manpower and money, Li Xiu would have long wanted to start an ambitious shipbuilding plan.

The third five-masted ship that was renovated this year was finally put into service, but the three ships were clearly unable to cope with the vast Bohai Sea and Yellow Sea. Li Xiu looked forward to the new warship, and his eyes almost turned blue.

But Li Xiao really doesn't have the ability to build new warships for Li Xiu. In fact, the copper-barreled cannons used to renovate the five-masted ship have already given Li Xiao the urge to vomit blood. That thing is expensive!

Damn it costs money!

"Bring a basin of water!" Li Xiao ordered, and a servant immediately brought a basin of water.

Li Xiao saw the candy box in Xiaoyu's hand. This thing was very similar to the iron chocolate box of later generations. Xie Youcai specially ordered someone to send it from the capital in order to curry favor with Li Xiao.

The iron box was thrown into the water, and sure enough it floated on the water. The old fisherman stared straight at it, and when he was stroking his beard, he pulled off a few strands of his beard without even realizing it.

"Ah! It's floating, it's floating!" Xiaoyu clapped her hands and shouted happily.

"Don't say it's such a small iron box, even this copper basin can float in the sea." Li Xiao's words were considered a bad thing, Xiaoyu poured out the water in the copper basin, and asked

Go to the beach and play with the copper basin.

"It's too cold. I'll catch a cold later. You don't have to put it in the sea. The bathtub you take a bath in is big enough. It's the same if you put it in it!" Li Xiao fondly touched Xiaoyu's head, and finally managed to put the little one away.

The ancestor was coaxed back. Xiaoyu immediately took the copper basin upstairs to his room, preparing to study the buoyancy problem in the bathtub.

"Well! As long as it is built big enough, the ship can indeed float on the sea. It's just that the sails cannot carry such a heavy ship. You said that using steam engines as power is indeed the best way." Mr. Yu said.

At some point he came back to his senses and nodded.

"Brother, build me a ship like this, just one!" Li Xiu didn't mention the word ship in front of him. Hearing that such a good ship could be built, Li Xiu's face turned red with excitement.

"This thing is just a concept now. We won't be able to build it for at least ten years. Just miniaturizing the steam engine will take several years of research. Besides, there is no money to build such a ship now. If nothing else, building such a ship

You have to use special steel. Otherwise, after a few years in the sea, everything will be ruined." Li Xiao also wanted to have a battleship and show it off everywhere. In this era, if a battleship sails to Europe, it will be invincible.

Existence. It is truly a ship that can conquer a country.

But it really can't be made now. Although there are no magnetic mines these days, and naval ships do not need to be demagnetized. However, the steel used for naval ships still needs to be researched. In seawater with high salinity, the corrosion of steel is very serious.

In addition, the ductility and yield strength of current steel are far from meeting the requirements for building warships.

Not to mention, the steam engine was as big as half a football field. Li Xiao didn't even bother to calculate how many tons that thing had. It was on land anyway, but just pulling this steam engine on the sea would kill him.

"There are indeed many problems that need to be solved, and they may not be solved within ten years. It is enough for me to see such an iron ship launched in my lifetime!" Perhaps it is because he has been with Inafumi for a long time, the fisherman said

I also started to write nonsense words.

Li Xiu's face suddenly fell. He joined the ship too early to serve as a soldier. As a result, his cultural knowledge was seriously lacking. Now he can only recognize some words and calculate accounts clearly. I hope he can learn

I don’t even have the time to gain such in-depth knowledge of physics.

"Yes, you will live a long life. Come and have a drink!" Li Xiao picked up the wine glass, clinked it with Mr. Yu, and drained the Wuliangye from the glass.

"Commander! I don't know about that continuous-fire gun...!" Yunao Inatomi still likes guns. Hearing about the gun that can fire 600 rounds of bullets in one minute, he immediately became energetic. Just now, it was inconvenient for the fisherman to ask.

, how can I still bear it now?

"When the bullet is fired, there will be recoil. You can install a spring on the bolt, so that you can rely on the recoil of the launch to make the bolt repeat quickly. To achieve the purpose of rapid firing, six hundred bullets per minute is just a theoretical rate of fire.

In actual combat, it cannot be that fast." Li Xiao tried his best to explain the principles of machine guns in the most concise language.

Now almost everyone in the senior leadership of the Liao Army has a Western pocket watch, and the words "a few o'clock and a few minutes" have appeared on combat orders. In the past, everyone only said such and such a time, and everyone knew how long a minute was.

"Hmm! This is feasible. Why didn't I think of that? Uh...! But the barrel of the gun can't bear such a high rate of fire." Inafumi Yuzhi was indeed an expert with guns, and he immediately thought of another question.

"Oh! This thing is easy to handle. You can add a sleeve outside the barrel. Fill it with water, and the heat emitted by the barrel will be absorbed by the water. If the water is too hot, drain it and refill it with cold water.

Okay." Li Xiao smiled, the air-cooled machine gun is technically difficult. But Maxim is fine, he just needs to prepare more kettles.

"Yeah! This can be done, this can be done." Yunao Inatomi's eyes were straight, and he was probably thinking about how to tinker with this kind of machine gun.

"Hey...! Don't think so much. This kind of continuous-fire firearm has very high requirements for the steel used in the receiver. And the requirements for the barrel are also very high. Otherwise, even if it is cooled with water, it will take a dozen hits.

It jammed because of the deformation of the barrel." There was nothing Li Xiao could do about it. The basic subject of materials science is a grinding effort that is honed little by little over time. This kind of thing cannot be done.

"Oh! Oh!" The joy on Inatomi Yunao's face also dimmed. The phosphorus-added steel produced by Changxing Island Steelmaking Plant cannot meet this special demand. But think about Li Xiao's idea of ​​having a built-in firing array in the barrel of his gun.

, my mind became active again.

"These things cannot be rushed. They need to be completed bit by bit. Now the things produced on our island are enough for the troops, especially rockets, which are very useful. Although we and the Dahu Mountain Battle

The Tatars fought to a draw, but if they had used rockets, the Tatars' dense formation would have ceased to exist."

Li Xiao was talking, and suddenly there was a burst of cheers outside. It seemed that the children of Li Hao were shouting, and they were all very excited. Even Xiaoyu, who was studying the buoyancy of the copper basin upstairs, ran down and pulled Li Xiao happily.

He shouted: "Brother, go and watch the Kongming Lanterns."

"Kongming lantern...!" Li Xiao remembered that he had let this thing go before, and was even chased away by the police!

I was shocked and immediately followed Xiaoyu out. Yu Lao, Inatomi Yunao and Li Xiu had no choice but to follow Li Xiao out.

"Can't let go...!" Li Xiao shouted as soon as he went out, and swallowed the rest of the words back into his stomach.

The Kongming Lantern has already flown two to three feet high. At this time, even if it is stabbed with a pole, it cannot be knocked down. Li Xiao wanted to draw his gun, but found that the man who came out did not have a gun with him. Roast Chicken and the others only had knives on them, so far

I'm not used to revolvers either.

Although Changxing Island does not have dense forests, it does have arsenals and steel mills. If this sky lantern falls in a dangerous place and burns down, the consequences will be disastrous.

I stretched out my hand to feel the wind, and luckily it was blowing towards the sea. I was no longer afraid, as the Kongming Lantern would eventually fall into the sea and be extinguished. It was rare for the children to have fun during the Chinese New Year. Li Xiao decided to issue an order tomorrow,

It is forbidden to set off Kongming lanterns. Now in winter, there are dry branches on the mountain. Once it catches fire, it will be a big accident.

"Haha! This is an interesting thing for the boys to play. Commander, do you think that by releasing the number of Kongming lanterns, we can simply send some messages at night?" said the old fisherman, stroking his beard.

In these days, the ancient beacon towers are still used for warning, but the beacon towers are not so easy to use at night. Especially in rainy, snowy and foggy weather, the function of the beacon tower is even more compromised. But it seems that in this kind of weather, the Kongming Lantern

It doesn't seem to work that well either.

But Li Xiao soon thought of something else inspired by the Kongming Lantern.

"Yu Lao! Do you think you can make a large Kongming Lantern that can carry people up to the sky for a while?" Li Xiao naturally thought of a hot air balloon. Although this thing cannot be used as a bomber under the current technology,

.But it is still a good choice for reconnaissance. Flying high in the sky, you can clearly see where the enemy's infantry and artillery are.

"The commander is really a fantastic idea. It is said that the Kongming Lantern was invented by Zhuge Kongming. It has been thousands of years ago, but no one has thought of making a large Kongming Lantern and flying into the sky. Let me think about it, what is this thing?

How do you do it?" Old Yu's eyes lit up, and he naturally understood the meaning of this thing.

Flying to the sky! Wanhu made a large firecracker in order to fly to the sky. As a result, he did fly to the sky, but he only went to the western sky!

It has been a dream for many years and generations. Now that there is hope of success, how can the fisherman not be excited?

"Fuel is the key. Our current kerosene is not enough." Li Xiao shook his head helplessly and wanted gasoline. But where can he find oil now?

Liaohe Oilfield? Shengli Oilfield? Are you kidding? You need an oil production machine.

"Well! The current fierce fire oil is really not good." The old fisherman shook his head helplessly.

Li Xiao felt even more helpless than him. If you want good things, you must industrialize. But industrialization is not a single technological breakthrough, but a series of technological breakthroughs.

Taking guns as an example, the issue of ammunition standardization has been solved. Next is the issue of processing accuracy, as well as the materials used for the receiver and barrel. Next, there is the issue of standard ammunition for guns.

Copper-tube artillery is expensive now, but breech-loaded artillery is even more expensive. Gun steel alone is something that cannot be solved now.

If current steel is used, the most likely thing to happen is that the barrel explodes. Especially after firing one or two rounds, when the chamber temperature is extremely high, whether the breech block can be closed or not is a problem.

Li Xiao shook his head helplessly and wanted to solve these problems. He couldn't do it by himself. An idea that he had had for a long time came to mind. That is to set up a school. As long as there is a school, there will be talents.

As long as smart people participate in research, there will be a big breakthrough in technology sooner or later.

Li Xiao has a headache when he thinks about school. The reason is that there are too few teachers. The primary school on Changxing Island is actually like a private school, with two or three masters studying with hundreds of children. The talents he wants are not those few.

This can be taught by a master who only knows what the Master said in his poems.
Chapter completed!