May passes soon, and June is in a blink of an eye.

God seemed to deliberately make things difficult for Xu Xingxia. There was no progress in the research on thunder mercury. There was no decent result in finding alternatives to thunder mercury. Wang Zheng and others tried their best to explore and research. It can be said that they put all their thoughts on their work, but they were always a little bit away from thunder mercury. This made Xu Xingxia very annoyed. Could it be that he, a living person, would have been suffocated to death by this small thunder mercury? []

Ningxia Town in June is hotter than in May. With the hot climate and irritable mentality, Xu Xingxia was almost gone wild. During this period, the people who followed Xu Xingxia were trembling and cautious, for fear that the chairman would get angry and cause trouble for them. Even a rough man like Liu Chuang could feel that the chairman's expression was wrong. He issued a ban on the soldiers of the hunting cavalry, so he must not touch the chairman's bad intentions.

Tesna and other women were also secretly frightened, worried about Xu Xingxia's accident. Mrs. Lin and her daughter were more like quails after the storm. They were quite frightened, afraid that Xu Xingxia would use them to destroy them. Fortunately, at this time, good news came, but Wu Yunna was successfully pregnant. Xu Fuqing and Wang were both very happy, and hurriedly killed chickens, pigs, and sheep to sacrifice to gods from all walks of life. Xu Xingxia, who was a father, was in a good mood.

As if affected by the good news of Wu Yunna's pregnancy, Wang Zheng's laboratory finally received good news. However, the laboratory has made some good progress in launching drugs and bombs. The problem of launching drugs is the first to solve. Then, it is the production process of fixed-mounted bombs. Wang Zheng and his brains are still very flexible. They decisively used the steam engine as power and designed a set of machine tools to process the bullets and shells of the bombs.

At that time, this was considered an original machine tool. Although the bullets produced, both in appearance and in quality, were far from those produced. Most of the bullets in later generations were steel or copper shells, with good quality. The bullets produced by the White Clothes Army were iron shells, which were relatively brittle and easy to break. If they were to be used in actual combat, they had to continue to improve. However, in essence, it was indeed a fixed-load bullet. As long as the problem of thunder and mercury was solved, the emergence of the breech gun was just around the corner.

With the gradual maturity of steam engine technology, more and more factories have begun to use steam engines as power to replace the original human or animal power. This has greatly improved production efficiency and reduced production costs. More importantly, the steam engine has greatly expanded the distribution of factories, making the factories more free when choosing addresses. Gradually, many factories gathered together, and large industrial areas began to appear.

It seems that around Rayford Castle, there are many steel mills and steel processing workshops, steam engines, locomotives, rails, train cars, etc., all of which are processed here. Many people in Ningxia Town, whenever they talk about Rayford Castle, will subconsciously think that this is a huge steel production base. The high chimneys, boiling iron, and coal ash floating everywhere are the biggest features of Rayford Castle.

The coal mines in Helan Mountain are basically free of charge, just send people to dig. Xu Xingxia has no concept of sustainable development. Anyway, the coal mines in Helan Mountain are used up, and there are still a large number of coal mines around the world. As long as they are controlled in their own hands, they will never be used up. Therefore, the famous Taixi Coal was dug out and burned.

The development of breech guns is one key link, that is mercury. Wang Zheng focused all his energy on the research of mercury. During this period, good news came again, but it was made by the locomotive. To say that the fastest technological progress was the locomotive and railway. Because, the main design of this aspect is mechanical and physical knowledge, which is simpler than chemistry knowledge. As long as you continue to explore, you can always find a breakthrough.

Xu Guangqi's greatest ability is not in research, but in organization and coordination. The railway research group he led had remarkable results. In fact, many of the results were not developed by Xu Guangqi himself, but by the technicians under his command. Of course, Xu Xingxia's predecessor also had his own unique features in scientific research. In the Ming Dynasty at that time, the one with the longest vision was probably this old man.

After research, Xu Xingxia, Xu Guangqi and others decided to set the width of the rails to be about five feet (about 1.667 meters). According to the standards of later generations, this belongs to wide rails. Many railways in later generations actually had the width of only about 1.5 meters. Wide rails have the benefits of wide rails, and when turning, they can maintain the balance of the trains better. It is very necessary for railway systems with immature technology. If accidents are too prone to occur, it will definitely be a fatal blow to the enthusiasm of researchers. It is also very unfavorable to the promotion of trains.

As for the speed of the train, Xu Xingxia's requirement was that it was about 30 miles per hour, which is about fifteen kilometers per hour. The load-carriage carriages that were transporting goods at that time were almost the same. If it was a private carriage carrying manned, the speed would be faster. If it was a horse-driving horse, the speed would be faster. Of course, as the technology gradually matured, the speed of the train would definitely gradually increase. Otherwise, how could the superiority of the train be shown?

The first research section of the railway is about sixty miles long, from Zhangliang Fort to Yaofu Fort. There are flat wilderness between these two places, with almost no ups and downs in the middle. There is almost no need to change the terrain when laying a railway. The soil of this section of the road is also quite solid and does not require additional reinforcement. Just draw a railway line and dig a certain depth to lay the foundation, lay sleepers, and rails.

With cement as building materials, there is definitely no problem in building foundations. Some stones, some Helan Mountains are stones, sleepers, and some Helan Mountains are wood. The only thing that is difficult is how to make rails. Fortunately, the people in the steel mills are also very smart. They have long thought about how to infuse a complete long rail.

There are roadbeds, sleepers, and railway tracks. It is naturally difficult to pave the railway. With Xu Xingxia’s guidance, big problems will definitely not be mistaken. Small problems can be discussed and solved on the spot. Xu Xingxia adopted the strategy of starting construction in sections and moving forward together. He divided the experimental railway into six sections, each section was exactly ten miles, and was responsible by six different foremen. He himself was the biggest foreman.

A large number of civilians who fled from Shanxi, Henan and other places have become the main force in building railways. Every day, at least 3,000 civilians are busy at the entire railway site. According to the most optimistic estimate, this experimental railway can be laid in about three months. In other words, it can be tried in September.

...

June is coming soon, and July is coming.

Xu Xingxia was busy with the railway matter, and Zhang Tianhao suddenly came to report that it was the messenger of the Southern Ming Dynasty. Xu Xingxia estimated it and found that Cui Chengxiu might have returned to Beijing at this time. I have to say that the efficiency of the Southern Ming court is really a problem. No wonder King Fu was able to usurp the throne smoothly, and others are the real people. The Southern Ming court seemed to be scattering no matter how he looked at it.

There were a total of more than a dozen officials from the Southern Ming Dynasty, and there were at least 500 of them, including their entourages, guards, servants, etc. Fortunately, when they were in Xi'an Prefecture, their subordinates were intercepted by the White Army. There were only about fifty people who came to Ningxia Town this time. Among them, Zhu Guozhen, the new Grand Secretary of the Cabinet of Nanming, was the leader.

Zhu Guozhen was not a member of the Zhu family's royal family. His ancestral home was from Wuxing, Zhejiang (now Nanxun, Huzhou), and had nothing to do with Fengyang. However, his official position was very high. After all, he was a Grand Secretary of the Cabinet, and his status was only behind Xing and Ye Xianggao.

The member of the Zhu royal family was Xu Xingxia's old acquaintance, King Qing Zhu Shuaixian. The original King Qing, after running twice in shame, turned into a transformation from King Qing to King Rui, and was enfeoffed to Ruizhou Prefecture in Jiangxi. This time, he had no idea what, but he became an envoy of the Southern Ming court and returned to Ningxia Town.

What's more rare is that when this King Qing saw Xu Xingxia, he actually smiled and didn't seem to care that his territory was taken away by Xu Xingxia. Xu Xingxia didn't know whether this guy was really stupid or deliberately pretending to be stupid. If it was the happiness of surviving the disaster, it didn't seem to be very similar. Anyway, it definitely looks a bit abnormal. Xu Xingxia really wanted to find an opportunity to understand what this King Qing was thinking in his heart.

In fact, the entire Southern Ming envoy group was a bit abnormal. In addition to King Qing, there was a person dressed in the envoys of the Southern Ming Dynasty. When introducing the names of each party, she only mentioned her magic name, which seemed to be called Yuanzhen. This name easily reminded Xu Xingxia of the Pili Hand Cheng Kun in "The Legend of the Condor Heroes". The only difference is that this Taoist nun is a woman, with a beautiful appearance, which is completely different from the Hunyuan Pili Hand in her impression. It's really strange, what does a Taoist nun do in the Nanming Dynasty?
Chapter completed!