In an agricultural society, there was a huge demand for irrigation. Other than large rivers like the Wei River and the Huai River, as well as large man-made irrigation facilities like the Zhengguo Canal, there were also a large number of small irrigation ditches.
The large Zhengguo Canal needed to be manually dredged. The small irrigation ditches in the counties and villages also needed to be dredged. Therefore, there was simply not enough manpower.
With the current manpower level, they could only ensure that the small irrigation ditches in the counties and villages were cleaned during the dry season in winter. For large irrigation facilities like the Zhengguo Canal, they were really powerless. The dredging of the Grand Canal could only be done on the most important sections.
But now, with the invention of the cutter suction dredger, as long as it was mass-produced, it could completely solve the dredging of these large man-made irrigation facilities.
In order to facilitate the experiment, Ang Lee chose the canal west of Chang 'an City as the test subject. This man-made canal was the closest to the R&D Center, so it was easier to transport the cutter suction dredger there. Moreover, this canal had been excavated for seven or eight years, so the silt was very thick. It was indeed suitable for dredging.
The cutter suction dredger, which was not very large in size, was quickly transported into the canal and officially began the dredging operation.
With the operation of the cutter suction device, the silt at the bottom of the canal was stirred up. The pumping mechanism immediately sucked the silt into the pipeline and discharged it through a long pipeline to the shore.
There was still a large amount of water in the silt that had just been discharged to the shore. It flowed back into the canal, bringing back some silt. However, most of the silt remained on the shore, and only a small portion flowed back into the canal.
As usual, there were still many onlookers this time. Of course, most of them were idle people. After all, the dredging machine was not worth much. Even if the nobles owned hundreds of thousands of acres of land, they did not need to buy specialized dredging machines. When needed, they could temporarily hire manpower to dig the canal.
Of course, other than these idle people, there were also many officials from the imperial court, especially those from the Ministry of Works. The dredging machine was a very important piece of equipment to the Ministry of Works. As long as they had the dredging machine, the dredging task of the Ministry of Works could be completed more easily.
As the assistant minister of the Ministry of Works, Guo Xuji naturally rode his horse to the west of the city when he heard that Ang Lee had invented the dredging steamboat. He wanted to personally witness the dredging effect of the cutter suction dredger.
"Assistant Minister Guo, what took you so long? We've already started clearing the silt a long time ago."
An hour after the clearing began, the assistant minister of the Ministry of Works, Guo Xuji, finally arrived. He was panting as he walked to Ang Lee's side.
"Assistant Minister Li, this is your fault. You didn't inform this official in advance about such an important dredger. Otherwise, this official would have been waiting here long ago."
Seeing that Ang Lee thought he was late, Guo Xuji was very angry. Of course, he was not angry at Ang Lee, but at the incompetence of his subordinates. They only received the news after the experiment began, causing him to rush to the canal in a hurry.
"Haha, the process is not important. Assistant Minister Guo only needs to see the results."
Ang Lee said with a smile as he pointed at the mud that had just been removed to show Guo Xuji the effect of the dredger.
"It actually cleared out so much sludge, it's really good stuff! How long has it been cleaned? "
Guo Xuji's eyes were filled with excitement. This sort of divine tool for clearing silt was something that he desperately needed.
"It's already been an hour. Assistant Minister Guo, how much manpower do you think it would take to clear this silt?"
Ang Lee had never organized a team to clear silt before, so it was not easy to estimate.
"About two to three hundred people! Assistant Minister Li, this is good stuff! You must build more. One hundred will be enough in Guanzhong, and a few more in the Grand Canal. "
Guo Xuji's expression was very excited. In his view, the cutter suction dredger could not only replace two to three hundred people, but it also had no time or season restrictions.
If one wanted to use manpower to clear silt, one had to choose a dry season, and the time one could work was very short. On the other hand, the dredger could work 365 days a year without stopping. In this way, the dredger's actual use could be compared to one thousand people. One hundred dredgers could be compared to one hundred thousand people. It was more than enough to clear silt for a project like the Guanzhong Zhengguo Canal.
"Assistant Minister Guo, there is no need to be too happy. This is only a small dredger. In the future, this official plans to build a large dredger with ten times the efficiency in Luoyang's shipyard. Its silt removal effect will be ten times that of this dredger, and it will be specifically used to clear the Grand Canal. However, we currently lack resources and need to build slowly. For the first batch, let's build ten small dredgers to help Assistant Minister Guo with his urgent needs!"
Ang Lee gave Guo Xuji even greater hope and proposed the idea of a large dredger. At the same time, he used a lack of resources as an excuse to tell Guo Xuji not to expect to get all the dredgers he needed at once.
"Haha! It's enough, it's enough. As long as we have this, it's better than nothing. Everything needs to be done slowly. I'm not in a hurry, really not in a hurry. "
Guo Xuji was grinning from ear to ear, his old face brimming with satisfaction. Although he couldn't get all the dredgers he needed in one go, it was better than nothing. He could put it where he needed it the most and solve his urgent needs.
"It's good that Assistant Minister Guo is not in a hurry. This dredger will be given to Assistant Minister Guo for now. However, Assistant Minister Guo must gather people as soon as possible to learn how to use and maintain the dredger."
Ang Lee said.
"Okay, okay, okay. This official understands, this official understands."
Guo Xuji was beside himself with joy after obtaining the first suction dredger. He felt that he had obtained a great treasure, and he immediately ordered people to start gathering people to learn how to operate the dredger.
Ang Lee had just developed a small suction dredger. Because it was very small, it only needed seven or eight people. It was very labor-saving, and it was much better than having laborers dig mud from the riverbed during the dry season. Guo Xuji would also prepare people to operate the dredger according to the number of equipment he had.
The dredger was made up of four parts: the main structure, the steam engine, the steam dredger, and the steam suction equipment.
The last three parts were the core equipment and were produced in the R&D center. The main structure was produced in two places. One was the shipyard in Luoyang, and the other was the newly built shipyard near the capital.
In this way, the dredger could be quickly put to use and solve the mud problem in the Guanzhong region and the Grand Canal.
In order to operate the shipyard near the capital, Ang Lee transferred one thousand people from the R&D center to be responsible for the construction of the suction dredger and transport steamships. Although the water system in Guanzhong was not developed enough, it still needed steamships.
The Luokou shipyard already had several thousand people. However, in order to build the suction dredger, Ang Lee transferred more than five hundred people from the R&D center to the Luokou shipyard. Not only did he put them in charge of building the suction dredger, he also gave them a large number of blueprints and asked them to build the large dredger in the shipyard in Luokou. The core equipment needed for the large dredger would be built in the R&D center in the capital and transported to Luoyang by rail.
Because of the plowers and harvesters, these agricultural machines had been produced and sold. For this reason, many nobles continued to drive away some of the tenant farmers, so that the R&D center had more and more manpower.
In order to have better development in the future, Ang Lee also considered that the space in the southern part of the capital was not big enough. For this reason, he had to move the manufacturing industry, which had the most manpower, to a farther location and build a few manufacturing bases. However, the distance between the manufacturing bases and the R&D center could not be too far, so that it would be easier to guide and control.
After seeing the great changes that the development of mechanization brought to the Tang dynasty, the imperial court quickly approved the proposal to build a few manufacturing bases on the wasteland near the capital and immediately started to implement it.
Steam locomotives and various carriages were placed in one base, plowers, water pumps, and harvesters were placed in another base, freight steam cars were placed in another base, and some practical gadgets were placed in another base to reduce the pressure on the R&D center's land.
Many mature manufacturing links were moved dozens of miles away from the R&D center. In this way, the pressure on the R&D center's land was greatly reduced. At the same time, it also allowed the major manufacturing links to have more land resources. This was also an inevitable choice after the large-scale explosion of various scientific research results.
Of course, the reason why Ang Lee's various R&D could progress so smoothly was inseparable from the peaceful environment faced by the Tang Empire. At this time, it was only the third year of Tianbao. There were not too many wars with the outside world, nor were there any heavy losses. The surrounding powerful countries did not dare to provoke the Tang dynasty easily. This allowed the Tang Empire to spare more energy and financial resources to support Ang Lee's R&D work. At the same time, the implementation of the two tax laws also doubled the income of the national treasury. The railway operation also quickly recovered the cost of manufacturing and paving the railway. All kinds of agricultural machines were also sold to the great nobles at twice the cost price.
At this moment, most of the financial resources of the imperial court of the Tang dynasty were invested in industrial R&D and manufacturing. The military and the bureaucratic system only accounted for a small part of the financial expenditure, which was unimaginable in the past.
In order to prevent and control dangers, the national treasury always had enough surplus money in case the empire was unable to deal with the crisis calmly. In this way, the R&D and manufacturing of some machinery would inevitably be affected. But everything had to be done step by step. The steps could not be too big, and the national treasury could not be short of funds.
"Assistant Minister Li, General Guo is here."
"General Guo? That General Guo?"
Ang Lee did not realize it for a moment.
"Assistant Minister Li, it's me! I'm here again. "
Guo Ziyi strode over and looked at Ang Lee with a smile.
"General Guo, it seems that you really have a lot of free time! Don't you have anything to do at the border? "
Ang Lee finally understood why Guo Ziyi's official position was still so low at this age. The biggest reason was that he had no chance to show his abilities. As a general, if there were no wars to fight, there was no way for him to show his abilities. Moreover, there were conditions for promotion. Old Guo had neither military exploits nor a prominent family background, so it was natural that he would be promoted very slowly.
Moreover, Ang Lee felt that with his arrival, the famous General Guo in the future would probably not have a chance to rise. After all, Old Guo rose to fame when he quelled the An Lushan Rebellion. But with his arrival, how could An Lushan dare to start a rebellion? Even if he did dare to rebel, Ang Lee could kill him in a second with the power of modern machines. There was no need for Old Guo to lead the army and fight a fierce battle.
"The Turks have been fighting among themselves and don't have the energy to go south. The army of the Tang dynasty indeed has nothing to do. But this time, I'm here to escort the 2,000 solar stoves back, and also to ask Assistant Minister Li for the tempered medicinal jade needed for helmets under the order of General Jie. I wonder if Assistant Minister Li has any in stock?"
Guo Ziyi did not hide anything and directly told the truth.
"Haha! His Majesty is finally willing to equip the army with solar stoves. "
Ang Lee smiled and looked at Guo Ziyi. He nodded and said, "I have 1,000 of the tempered medicinal jade masks that General Guo saw last time. In addition, I've also built a more advanced fully-enclosed helmet, whose performance is far better than the existing helmets of the Tang dynasty army."
"Only a thousand? That's too little."
Guo Ziyi felt it was too little. He paused and asked, "What's a fully-enclosed helmet? Can I go and have a look?"
Li An curled his lips and said, "General Guo, all the medicinal jade products are my personal property. I spent my own money to make these tempered masks. The imperial court has never compensated me with a single penny. How can you complain that it's too little when it's free?"
"Hahaha, I'm just in a hurry. We have tens of thousands of soldiers. The tempered masks that we brought last time were only equipped for the 100 personal guards of General Jie. The main army can't equip them at all. These 1,000 masks can't equip many troops. The army urgently needs them! "
Guo Ziyi explained with a smile. He was blackmailing. Fortunately, Ang Lee was rich and did not fear this kind of blackmail. Otherwise, he would have gone bankrupt.
"The fully-enclosed helmets are in my workshop. General Guo, please come with me!"
Ang Lee was still very generous. Even though he knew that Guo Ziyi would not pay, he still brought Guo Ziyi to get the goods.
The so-called fully-enclosed helmets were similar to the motorcycle helmets in the future. Of course, it was not about the appearance, but the function of the helmet. It could completely block the wind and sand. When the wind and sand blew in the desert, one could still open their eyes and not be affected by the wind and sand.
"General Guo, this is the latest helmet. Try it!"
Ang Lee picked up the latest helmet and passed it to Guo Ziyi.
"Aiya! This is good stuff! It's stronger than the previous one. It's also better to use. "
Guo Ziyi's eyes were very sharp. He could tell that the helmet in his hand was stronger and better than the previous one.
"General Guo, this mask can be opened or closed. After it is closed, wind and sand can't enter. It can be used to prevent wind and sand. Moreover, this mask is smaller and sturdier. It won't be broken easily and is much stronger than the previous one. In addition, the main structure of the helmet is lighter and more reasonable. It is lighter and sturdier than the previous one. There are mesh strips installed inside, so when it is hit, it can better protect the soldier's head and keep the soldier unscathed."
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