If you talk about internal combustion engines or jet engines, Yang Rui may still know some skins, but when it comes to steam engines, he doesn't quite understand. In this era when marine diesel engines were just beginning to appear, steam engines were still being improved in order to obtain greater utility. Although the emergence of the steam turbine has fixed the steam engine at the level of three engines, the development of boiler technology is still continuing, from the very beginning of the flame tube boiler, to the smoke tube boiler, to the fire tube boiler, and finally to the current water tube boiler, the technology has been improving, and even the water tube boiler, from the earliest large tank boiler, to the current water tank boiler, is going to the steep tube boiler.

From the perspective of boilers, a steam boiler with less than 20 standard air pressures is a low-pressure boiler, a steam boiler with more than 60 standard air pressures is a high-pressure boiler, and a medium-pressure boiler in between. Now the water distribution tank boiler used in the merchant ship is the medium pressure boiler, and the medium pressure boiler has to use alloy steel in the selection of materials, such as the boiler's bucket, water pipe, smoke pipe, pull pipe, and even bolts, these parts that directly bear high temperature and high pressure must use seamless straightened molybdenum steel tubes, otherwise, the boiler will leak water, leak, and even be completely damaged after a period of use.

At present, China can only produce marine steel plates, but it cannot produce key materials for marine boilers and steam engines. As soon as Wei Han heard that Yang Rui said that he would go to war, he couldn't help but chase only the eighteen-year-old Jiawu, which was also a war at that time, and even if there was a slipway under the blockade, he couldn't produce a warship, so he had to interrupt Yang Rui's imagination, and the incomparably real status quo was pulled out.

Wei Han's words didn't make Yang Rui think much, but Xu Huafeng, who was standing beside him, felt a slight ripple in his heart. Previously, the metallurgical laboratory has been studying cannon steel, and heat-resistant and pressure-resistant molybdenum steel is also being studied, but it is not as tight as cannon steel, low-phosphorus and low-sulfur steel. So that the shipyard is still using imported goods.

"Ji Qian, the wartime standard ship that the prime minister said is not a warship, nor is it a merchant ship, anyway, ......" Xu Huafeng was a little difficult to explain the concept of Yang Rui's wartime standard ship, and finally said: "Anyway, it is a kind of urgent merchant ship, and it does not use water tube boilers." There is no need for any large water tanks and distribution tanks, and the previous smoke tube boiler and steam engine are not used. Only use the duplex, anyway, three thousand horsepower is enough, there is no need to put more than three thousand horsepower, then use three boosters; If the boat is a little smaller. For example, the two-thousand-horsepower one. We don't even need a duplex steam engine, we use a single-flow one, and we don't even need a steel plate of ten centimeters, five centimeters is enough. This wartime standard ship is how cheap it is, and the cheaper the better. ”

Xu Huafeng made a fuss, only setting back the era by thirty years. A smoke tube boiler is the kind of Dutch boiler used in steam locomotives, and the pressure of this boiler is only fifteen atmospheres. The temperature is not like that of water pipes, which can be four or five hundred degrees at every turn. Generally not more than 250 degrees, in this case, buckets, water pipes and other boiler parts can be made of molybdenum steel, with a good copper, at more than 100 degrees, copper also has a strength of 22 kg/square millimeter. As for the reciprocating steam engine or single-flow machine, it is not only cheap, but also does not have high material requirements, and the general low carbon steel is fine.

After Xu Huafeng finished talking about the technical requirements, Wei Han and several people were taken aback, and Zheng Qinglian said: "Mr. Huafeng, the smoke tube boiler starts too slowly, occupies a large area, and the coal consumption is extremely high. ”

Technology and production capacity are Xu Huafeng's business, and the market sales problem is Yang Rui's responsibility, Zheng Qinglian asked, Xu Huafeng missed Yang Rui, and finally said, "Once the war starts, what you want is to build the ship, and you want to build the ship as soon as possible." It is precisely because I am afraid that there is no molybdenum steel, so I use smoke tube boilers; In order to build more, thin steel plates are used. In fact, the prime minister took into account that our shipyard is newly built, and if we are familiar with it, it will not be a standard ship built in three months, but a standard ship in a month.

According to the overall arrangement of the Ministry of Industry, if you want to develop the industry, the best way is to start with shipbuilding, this industry has low technical content, a high school student can be trained in a few months, and all kinds of work can be done in a few years, that is, qualified technicians. However, this 60,000-ton shipyard needs tens of thousands of skilled workers, and I invite you to come today, one is to discuss the construction plan, and then to discuss the selection of standard ships. ”

"Another thing is that domestic river transportation also needs ships, and this time let's also discuss the ships of various inland waterways." Yang Rui added after Xu Huafeng finished saying that he was not holding a meeting for the standard ship this time.

Before Wei Han came, he only said that he would discuss the expansion of the shipyard, and he thought that the Jiangnan Shipyard, which had a 10,000-ton and a 5,000-ton dock, would expand again, but he did not expect that this was not only the expansion of the Jiangnan Shipyard at all, but the expansion of shipyards across the country. The national government-run docks, in addition to Jiangnan, also have Fuzhou Mawei and Tianjin Taigu, but this time the discussion did not see Yang Lianchen in Mawei, nor did he see Shen Ruiqing in Taigu, which really made Wei Han and Zheng Qinglian strange, but if it comes, it will be safe, not to mention that now Jiangnan Shipyard is the largest shipyard in China except Hong Kong, and the Jiangnan Bureau has discussed, that is, the whole country has discussed.

Yang Rui still talked about the topic that he hadn't finished talking about before, but he didn't say it anymore, but asked, "Let's talk about the difficulties in building a dock with a capacity of 200,000 tons within five years?" ”

Yang Rui said that it was five years, and a few people were a little less in a trance, or Wei Han said: "Your Excellency, I just heard that a 10,000-ton dock will be built, and the lower officials think that the dock of a shipyard is still a good match of size, a shipyard of 20,000 tons is enough, and then four 5,000-ton docks can be built, and the rest is better to build two small docks of 3,000 tons and 4,000 tons." At present, the Jiangnan Bureau mostly contracts for small ships of tens or hundreds of tons, and rarely large ships of thousands of tons. ”

After Wei Han finished speaking, he added, "Xia Guan still thinks that there is no need to build so many 10,000-ton docks, one shipyard is enough, and it is best to change another 10,000-ton dock to 8,000 tons, plus two 6,000 tons, two 3,000 tons, two thousand tons, and a shipyard of 38,000 tons." Such a shipyard only needs 5,000 people, three is 15,000 people, and now the Jiangnan Bureau has 3,000 people, plus Mawei and Tianjin Taigu. There are other private dockyards that can still find so many workers in five years. ”

"Hmm. It makes sense, "Yang Rui is actually just crazy about shipbuilding." He only thinks about building more ships in World War I, but now the tonnage of standard ships has not yet been decided, he only wants to build 10,000-ton ships, and now Wei Han has turned the dock into many laughing docks, he thinks it still makes sense, after all, the war is only a few years, and when the First World War is over. The shipyard can't be closed right away.

"How much does a shipyard of this size cost to invest?" Yang Rui asked, talent solution is funding.

"Investment?" Wei Han didn't seem to know anything about this thing, and after listening to the question, he only thought about Zheng Qinglian.

"Your Excellency. Jiangnan Bureau wants to expand because there is such a foundation, increase the digging dock, and then add cranes and other machines, thinking that two million taels should be enough. And if the Nanjing Shipyard is close to the Ma'anshan Iron Works. That would be the same as the Hanyang Shipyard. The iron-making furnace can be left, and the rest is the investment in the machine and the dock, which is estimated to cost more than three million taels per shipyard. There is a gun factory in Hanyang, and the machine there can be used together, while the machine in Nanjing can be used separately. Zheng Qinglian said.

"So the three shipyards won't add up to more than nine million taels?" Yang Rui asked.

Seeing that the Prime Minister said nine million without blinking his eyes, Wei Han sighed and said, "Your Excellency, this money is not a small amount." In addition, China's navy has only 35,000 tons, and the annual repair cost is only 100,000 taels. China Merchants only has more than 50,000 tons of ships, and Tiantong Company has more than 40,000 tons, and the total repair cost of these ships does not exceed 200,000 taels, and in order to feed these 15,000 people, the three shipyards must build at least 30,000 tons of ships every year. ”

Wei Han said that at least 30,000 tons of ships should be built every year, but Yang Rui thought that the tonnage of Japanese merchant ships is now more than 1.2 million tons, and China is more than 100,000 tons. ”

The reality only made Yang Rui go back to the plan just now, and when Wei Han and the others looked at each other, he said again: "Don't look at me like this, is it easy for an agricultural country to develop industry?" Not easy! Now to develop industry, the most feasible is to develop the shipbuilding industry, this is the lowest threshold industry, more than ten years ago we were able to build thousands of tons of warships, now even if the technology is backward, but the ship can still be built, now we are building the lowest reciprocating steam engine, but ten years later, what water pipes, what three-rise engine can be built, right? Twenty years later, a steam-turbine ship can be built, right?

The shipyard matter will be discussed here, let's talk about the ship type, now the domestic development of river transport, the waterway has been divided into several levels, just the ship, today to talk about this problem, after a while you come up with a plan, to see what type of ship to choose for different waiting. ”

Yang Rui wanted to escape the shipyard, but Wei Han and Zheng Qinglian chased after him: "My lord, there are ready-made shipyards in Taigu and Mawei in Fuzhou, why can't the other 80,000 tons of shipbuilding be placed in these two places, so that the scale of shipbuilding can be expanded, and the existing resources can also be used." There is also Guangzhou Huangpu, which also has an official construction ship bureau, is it also possible over there? ”

"Guangdong is not under the management of the Fuxing Society, if you want to expand, let people like Furen Cultural Society expand, they don't call taxes over there, what else is the expansion?" Yang Rui blamed, "If Mawei doesn't say anything else, where can I dig the dock again?" Tianjin Taigu, there is basically an undefended place, what should I do if the shipyard is robbed like before? ”

Yang Rui's series of rhetorical questions made Wei Han dare not say anything about expanding the horsetail, after he finished speaking, Chen Quartz, who came with Xu Huafeng, took out the ship type made by the Ministry of Industry behind closed doors, and let Yang Rui and Wei Han and others watch, he first took out a standard ship, there are two sets of plans, one is a standard merchant ship, and the other is a standard slag ship, that is, it is designed and built with a one-year engine and a three-year hull.

The former is divided into six thousand four hundred tons, four thousand five hundred tons, two thousand seven hundred tons, two thousand tons, and one thousand tons, with horsepower of three thousand, two thousand two, two thousand, one thousand, and seven hundred, respectively, all of which are smoke tube boilers and reciprocating steam engines.

The latter was divided into three types in order to reduce the variety, which were 6,400 tons, 2,000 tons, and 1,000 tons, with horsepower of 2,200, 1,000, and 450 horsepower respectively, and they also used smoke tube boilers. The 6,400-ton class is a reciprocating steam engine, and the latter two are not even reciprocating steam engines, but single-flow steam engines. Therefore, the speed is extremely slow, between seven and eight knots, the steel plate is thin, and the watertight compartment is also designed to be extremely wide.

Because of the difference in design, according to the current price. The former is lower than the cost of ordinary merchant ships, only 70 taels per ton, while the latter is cheaper. As long as it is more than forty taels per ton, such a low price only reminds Yang Rui of the ships of Tonghua Steamship Company at the beginning, which are also at the level of war slag, but they are still used until now.

Yang Rui did not speak after reading the number of these standard ships. Instead, we continue to look at the information on inland waterway transport vessels. That is, 1,000 tons, 500 tons, 300 tons, 100 tons of three kinds of inland river transport ship information, the three horsepower are 800, 400, 25, 80, in order to improve economic efficiency, increase the volume of goods, the first three use the water pipe water tank boiler, three expansion steam engine, the last 100 tons use diesel engine, the speed of these ships on the water is about seven knots. The water is more than 12 knots, and it is extremely strong and durable.

It also seems to take into account that some shipowners will use it for 30 years or more. The hull has also been considered for the future transport containers, which is actually the reason for the use of the water tube boiler of the water distribution tank, the smoke tube boiler not only starts slowly, and the heating area of the boiler is only 10-100 square meters, while the heating area of the water tube boiler of the water distribution tank is 100-2400 square meters, plus the three-expansion steam engine, the whole power system occupies a smaller area, and can be more effective for loading and loading people.

Thinking of the word 'load', Yang Rui thought of overloading, he waved his hand to let Chen Quartz come over, and then said: "Most of the inland river boats will be overloaded, did you consider this aspect when designing the ship type?" ”

"Prime Minister," Chen Quartz lowered his body as if he was looking up, and said with bated breath: "We have added 20 percent horsepower to the inland river transport vessels, the first is that we are afraid that the shipowner will load more, and then we are worried that when the current is against the current, the ship will not go." ”

Yang Rui didn't understand the relationship between the horsepower and speed of the ship and the volume, so he asked: "For example, if a 300 ship is loaded with 500 tons of cargo, can this ship still drive?" ”

"You can drive, but then you can't sail at economic power, the coal consumption will go up, and the speed of the ship will be slower because of the draft." Chen Quartz didn't understand the horror of overloading trucks in later generations, and he couldn't understand how the Prime Minister could ask such a question.

"Since coal consumption will increase, is it better to use diesel?" Yang Rui asked again.

"This ......" Chen Quartz did not know that the domestic diesel engine technology had developed so maturely before returning to China, especially the fuel injection pump technology, he condensed and said while thinking: "Prime Minister, in terms of our diesel engine technology at present, its power consumption ratio is 20 horsepower per gallon, which is 2.7 times that of kerosene engines, and when converted to the metric system, it is 3.2 kilograms, that is, each horsepower only needs to consume 0.16 kilograms of diesel, and at 7 cents per gallon of diesel, each horsepower is only 4 cents of silver;

The efficiency of the marine steam engine, the smoke tube boiler is only 7 percent, and the thermal efficiency of the water tube boiler is only more than 10 percent, so calculated, each horse needs one kilogram of bituminous coal, and the coal price is six taels, which costs six cents of silver. Although diesel engines have a price advantage, but now diesel is controlled by foreigners, if the domestic large-scale production of diesel engine ships, then once the price of diesel increases, then these two cents advantage will be gone.

Moreover, the cost of high-power diesel engine is higher than that of steam engine, too high price will only increase the price of the ship, and the reason why a 100-ton ship uses a diesel engine is mainly because the diesel engine occupies a small area, and there is no need to set up a coal bunker, only to be able to stack goods with more area and space. ”

Chen Quartz introduced the similarities and differences in the use of diesel engine steam engine, he was worried about the price of diesel Yang Rui deeply agreed, compared with the original cheap diesel price, seeing that China is exporting diesel engine tractors to the United States on a large scale, and now Mobil has raised the price of diesel fuel in the United States to the kerosene level, although China is mentioned, but there are more diesel engine ships behind, it is normal to raise the price, or as long as there is an oil field, if not, the price of foreigners will rise, then the diesel engine will not be able to use.

"Would you like to tell us about the price? Now there are a lot of sand boats in the country, how much more expensive are these river boats than those sand boats, and can those who use sand boats afford these boats? Yang Rui asked.

"The smaller the ship, the more expensive it is," Chen Quartz said, "for a ship larger than 1,000 tons, we set the cost at 100 taels per ton, and then set the price at 120 taels for 500 tons, 140 taels for 300 tons, and 160 taels for 100 tons, but considering the cost savings of diesel engines, we set the price at 180 taels."

The largest sand ship is a ship carrying 3,000 stones, which is 150 catties and 1 stone, that is, a ship of 230 tons, with a displacement of 300 tons. Now we are inquiring about the cost of 150,000,000 taels of silver to build a sand boat, and if it is smaller, such as 2,000 stones, the price is about 9,000 taels. ”

"So, we've built a ship that's about three times the price of theirs." Yang Rui calculated in his heart that a 100-ton diesel engine ship would cost 18,000 taels, and a 300-ton steam ship would cost 42,000 taels. "It's still a little expensive."

"Actually, this price is already the lowest." Xu Huafeng, who had been looking at the type of ship, couldn't help but interject: "It's really a conscience price, of course, if you make the ship a little worse, the price can save a lot, such as 35,000 taels of 300 tons is enough, but this ship will take up to ten years, and those who buy the boat want to repair the tomb, and they can't wait to use it forever." ”

Xu Huafeng said that Yang Rui only wanted to say that Guangxu's mausoleum was really unlucky, he thought about it in his heart, and then said: "Doesn't Japan have a merchant ship subsidy method?" Can we get one too? ”

"Japan's merchant shipping subsidy is only to subsidize ships over 700 tons, not to subsidize those under 700 tons." Xu Huafeng thought about the things of the Japanese and said, "I remember that it was more than ten years ago, and the regulations were 700 tons to 1,000 tons, with a subsidy of 12 yen per ton, and more than 1,000 tons, a subsidy of 20 yen per ton, and a subsidy of horsepower, which is not much, it seems to be a subsidy of 5 yen per horsepower." In this way, it is 15 yen and 23 yen per ton of cost. Of course, it depends on the ship. If we are subsidized, will the 100-ton diesel engine ship be included in the offline line? Will the household department give so much silver? ”

"Shanxi's industrial base, chemical industry, shipbuilding, and railways that have to be built, this is what we have to do in the past few years." Yang Rui whispered and walked to the other side, he didn't want others to hear the words of him and Xu Xu Huafeng, "If you invest 50 million in shipbuilding in the past five years, minus 10 million in shipyards, 5 million in personnel training, and 5 million in technology research and development, the subsidy is only more than 30 million, if it is spread over 500,000 tons, it is 60 taels per ton, isn't it?" ”

Seeing that Yang Rui seemed to be vague, Xu Huafeng smiled and said, "Actually, you can pay sixty taels per ton, which means that most of the boat tour is bought by us, if so, it is better to buy it directly, and then lease it to those shipowners." By the way, you still have money not counted, it is impossible to have a ship without a waterway, it is impossible to have a wharf, waterway dredging, wharf construction, these are all expensive money, you still let those people in the Ministry of Transportation take out the river transportation plan and see how much the subsidy is. ”

Xu Huafeng reminded Yang Rui that the 50 million yuan is not only for the shipyard, but also for the construction of rivers and wharves, which is much more expensive than shipyards and subsidies, which is equivalent to repairing the railway, not only how much money is bought for locomotives, but also how much money is used to build railways and repair railway stations.

Thinking about the waterway and wharf, Xu Huafeng asked again: "Actually, do you really want to build a ship to drive industry?" ”

"Of course!" Yang Rui is very sure, according to the experience of later generations, shipbuilding, this kind of capital, labor-intensive industry is the most suitable for late-developing countries, South Korea, Taiwan are all taking this road, now there is such a good opportunity for a war, China must choose shipbuilding as a breakthrough in industry, and then the chemical industry, which is a money-making weapon, such as synthetic ammonia, sulfonamides, and soda ash, but these things capital, technology-intensive industries, without the technology want to do can not be done.

"With China's current situation, the only choice we can have is shipbuilding." Yang Rui said with certainty. "Doing anything else won't let us do it. Shipbuilding makes money in the first year, the second can make steel, the third can bring the machinery industry up, and finally there are technicians, the three major shipyards, a few years down, skilled skilled workers are not 40,000 but also 30,000. Yang Rui said while waving his hand, and it could be seen that he was looking forward to shipbuilding. (To be continued......)