The two walked along Qingzhou’s hard roads toward the workshop district. Along the way, Rhodes was stared at like an animal.
Leading Rhodes, they arrived at the workshop area, where craftsmen were busy building new workshops.
Next to the buildings under construction, there were large piles of cement, sand, and gravel. Xiao Ming brought Rhodes over, and the craftsmen immediately stopped working and respectfully stood aside. Xiao Ming picked up a handful of cement and said to Rhodes, “This is cement. Mixed with water, sand, and gravel, these materials combined harden in three or four days to become as solid as the roads you just saw.”
Rhodes looked at the powdery substance, like flour, and seemed incredulous. He then watched several craftsmen stirring concrete. “Is this what makes the road so hard?”
“Yes. Don’t underestimate it. Don’t think only you Europeans have such a miraculous material.” Saying that, Xiao Ming went to the mixing site, picked up a few hardened lumps, and returned to Rhodes. “Try this. These cement blocks haven’t fully hardened yet. They aren’t very strong now, but after a few days, even swords and knives won’t easily cut through.”
Rhodes took one and squeezed it with considerable effort, crushing it to powder, his mind filled with shock.
He had thought the Great Yu Empire was just a backward civilization, that even though this Prince Qi had flintlock guns and cannons, it was just copying Europe. But now, everything was wrong.
Here was something Europe did not even have. It was unbelievable.
The cement was just a small part. Xiao Ming knew Rhodes wanted to see more than just this everyday material, so he took Rhodes to the Qingzhou army.
Seeing Qingzhou’s equipment and training, Rhodes became visibly unsettled. As they walked through the barracks, his body trembled. Lu Fei and the others seemed to train even harder, as if to intimidate Rhodes.
Later, Xiao Ming also took Rhodes to the machinery department. They briefly toured the military workshops and Qingzhou’s military production base. After seeing all this, Rhodes looked like a defeated rooster.
“Ambassador Rhodes, what do you think of Qingzhou?” Xiao Ming asked with a smile after visiting a few places.
Rhodes forced a smile and said, “Your Highness’s strength exceeded my expectations. I will report to Count Claire about the Ryukyu issue after returning.”
Xiao Ming nodded. From Rhodes’s expression, he knew Rhodes was shocked.
He had brought Rhodes to see these places to win without fighting. Now that the Dutch attitude had softened, scaring them a little more might allow Ryukyu to be taken back without bloodshed.
Seemingly affected, Rhodes had no plan to stay longer in Qingzhou. He kept a gloomy face and didn’t reveal his thoughts.
Seeing this, Xiao Ming said, “Ambassador Rhodes, it’s almost mealtime. Why not dine at the prince’s mansion?”
“No, I think I must hurry back.”
“Alright then,” Xiao Ming said. He didn’t really want to host this arrogant Dutchman anyway.
Rhodes declined the invitation and left that day under the guard of officials, heading to Dengzhou to return to Ryukyu.
After seeing Rhodes off, Xiao Ming turned to head back, when Liang Yubin rode up on horseback.
In front of Xiao Ming, Liang Yubin excitedly said, “Your Highness, Lin Wentao has built a steam pump!”
“A steam pump?” Xiao Ming was stunned. Could it be the Newcomen steam engine?
Thinking this, he immediately told Liang Yubin to go to Bowen Academy.
When he arrived at Bowen Academy, Liang Yubin directly led Xiao Ming to the physics lab.
The lab was packed with students, all focused on Lin Wentao’s new invention.
“Not bad!”
The steam engine before Xiao Ming was just a simple model, not a full-size engine.
The steam engine had two parts: a conical boiler, which was the steam section, and another part connected by a lever, which was the pumping section. The lever’s back-and-forth motion allowed water to be pumped up from a tank.
The success of the steam engine energized the students. Lin Wentao was full of tears. After the last explosion, he had finally completed the Newcomen steam engine.
Although this steam engine could only pump water and was not yet a true compound steam engine, it was still progress for Qingzhou and the physics academy.
“Wentao, you’ve done a great job!” Xiao Ming patted Du Zhiping’s shoulder.
So far, this steam engine was the most difficult achievement, as it was a huge leap from nothing to such a complex device.
Lin Wentao had to solve both steam and lever mechanism problems. He said, “Tell me, what reward do you want?”
Lin Wentao said, “Your Highness, I don’t want any reward. This Newcomen steam engine is just the most basic model. When I build a compound steam engine, please reward me then.”
Xiao Ming nodded. He was pleased. Lin Wentao had changed from researching steam engines for a title to loving science itself. “Alright, I promise you.”
Even though Lin Wentao refused a reward, Xiao Ming still gave him a thousand taels of silver. He wanted other students to see that with effort, anything was possible.
With the Newcomen steam engine model successfully made, Xiao Ming immediately assigned Lin Wentao to develop Newcomen steam pumps for the mines. Given the number of mines under his control, they would need over thirty pumps at once. This would allow the mines to dig deeper.
After all, many minerals were in deep mines. Once flooded, mining would stop. Now with the Newcomen steam engine, efficiency could be greatly improved.
However, this steam engine was still primitive, consuming a lot of coal and suitable only for mines.
The New Year was coming. Xiao Ming hadn’t expected such a surprise from Bowen Academy.
He planned to make building Newcomen steam engines a priority and also have the machinery department assist Lin Wentao to build a real steam engine. After all, what Lin Wentao experimented with was a small model; full-scale production still required many craftsmen.
After praising Lin Wentao and others, Xiao Ming excitedly returned to the prince’s mansion. Although the Newcomen steam engine was simple, later improvements on this engine would lead to Watt’s steam engine.
Science isn’t achieved overnight but through gradual exploration. Now that Lin Wentao had found the path to the steam engine, Xiao Ming believed it wouldn’t be long before the true steam engine was developed.