Starting from Zero

"Didn’t you say that this thing can reduce weight? Why do I hold it so heavy in my hand?"

"The air magic stone can only generate upwards when energy is input. Of course you can’t respond if you just hold a magic stone."

"so that's how it is." I nodded asked: "Does this thing consume high energy?"

"It should be said that it is very low. Anyway, it saves energy compared to the flying methods we used before, and the most important thing is that the projectiles made of magic stones are very safe, because even if the energy input is stopped, it will not immediately It loses buoyancy, but slowly reduces buoyancy. The single-player reconnaissance flight suit we made before flew in the sky and suddenly the magic crystal burst. After that, the projectile that lost power did not fall directly, but slipped and landed slowly. Nothing about the test pilot."

I heard what this muscular man said is good, but I am not a layman, so I am not foolish. "You said that this thing will slowly lose its buoyancy when it loses energy supply, which means that there are signs of incomplete energy circulation inside this thing. Can I understand that this thing is also slow to start?"

When the muscle man heard what I said, he immediately admitted: "But it is. The biggest drawback of this air magic stone is that it takes a long time to start up. Generally, it needs to start charging seven or eight minutes before it can fly, and the lift is also It will not reach the maximum in an instant, but will slowly increase by little by little."

"This thing is quite stable!"

"Unfortunately, it is too stable , So military use is not great."

"Who said that?" I held the air magic stone and shook in front of him: "You guys made a mistake about the use of the air magic stone from the very beginning. Method."

The old man who hadn't spoken much before heard my accusations that their use was improper, and immediately retorted: "Who said our method was improper? Can rely on the air magic stone. Isn’t buoyancy the way to make props fly? Can you use other methods?"

"No, since the air magic stone can produce buoyancy, then using this buoyancy is as it should be by rights. But you also know that this thing is too slow to charge or release energy, so aerial flexibility must be very bad. Such a thing cannot be used for military purposes at all, otherwise it will only fly in the air The live target. But why don’t you want to use other power to provide mobility? Adjust the weight of the aircraft to the same size as the buoyancy of the air magic stone, so that the aircraft as a whole enters a state of false weightlessness. If you can rely on the propeller to adjust the forward direction and flying height, don’t you need to control the air magic stone?"

"Huh? This is also a way! How can we not expect? "The old man was stunned by what I said, and the muscular man next to him also started thinking about it. Obviously, they were also considering the feasibility of this method. Of course, this method itself is very feasible, so they quickly figured out. Use air magic stone against gravity, and the remaining part depends on other propulsion methods to provide power. In that case, the technical difficulty is not very high, and the most important point is that this kind of aircraft will be unmatched by pure air magic stone power aircraft. The maneuverability, and this is the biggest drawback of the air magic stone powered aircraft.

The old man who got the new method was excited and almost ran to do the experiment on the spot. Fortunately, he was caught by the muscle man. Later, he was persuaded by his assistant, the muscle man and that fatty. The plan to experiment first was cancelled.

After watching the air magic stone, I looked at the other equipment in the arsenal with the muscular man, and found that the equipment of the Iron Empire seemed to rely on the magic crystal to a high degree, just like modern times. War is inseparable from all kinds of explosives and gasoline. The weapon of the steel empire is a pile of scrap iron without magic crystal.

After visiting the equipment depot, we went on to visit the living facilities in the city and the legendary Imperial Library. However, I felt that the city construction was OK, but the Imperial Library was a bit disappointing. Although this imperial library sounds quite majestic, but after being shocked by Isinger’s library, in my opinion, the library here is just the size of the township library, and it is basically the same as Isinger’s large library. It's incomparable.

"How? The library of our steel empire is very difficult to deal with, right?" The old man, as the Chief-In-Charge of the Department of Technology, looks quite proud of the library in front of him, but he I didn't notice that my expression was obviously not shocked.

I probably saw that I was dismissive of the library. That fatty, who had been keeping a low profile before, suddenly opened the mouth and said: "Look at the library or something. If you look through all the books, I don’t have to leave for a few years with the president of Purple Moon. I don’t think we should go to the port to see the spaceship of our steel empire first? You can also have lunch on the ship."

Because of the suggestion. It was the military department that Muscle Man was in charge of, so Muscle Man immediately began to support Fatty's suggestion. The knowledge old man looked rather depressed, obviously not very happy, but two of the three guides present supported him, so he had no choice but to support him. agreed.

I heard that I was going to visit spaceship before, and I immediately got excited. Speaking of which The technology of the Iron Empire is not very special. I just compared the technology of our guild to roughly confirm that the technology level of the Iron Empire is not much higher than ours. There are only a few technologies that I value. Basically, they focused on the energy conversion aspect, and apart from the energy conversion technology, the only thing that interested me in the Iron Empire was the air magic stone utilization technology. Although the muscular man briefly introduced the mining and utilization of this air magic stone before, such an important technology is impossible only by listening to it. It doesn't count if you don't actually look at it or even experience it in person.

Due to the relatively long distance between the airport and the airport, we did not walk over. Of course, this time the other party did not let me ride a flatbed cart but got me a pretty good automatic car. The shape of this car is very similar to the European carriage, but there is no horse towing, and it runs entirely on its own power. In addition, the operation technology of this thing adheres to the usual style of the steel empire, just like the previous flat car, it can be controlled by just a joystick. .

I found this port very interesting when I arrived outside the airport by this automatic car. In fact, this is not a simple airport as I imagined, but a multi-functional mixed port. Although it is underground, the space at the port is quite huge. At the entrance of the port is a large set of stairs, which can be used to enter the upper waiting area and the lower area on the ground of the port respectively.

The muscular man first took me to visit the lower area. This place is located much lower than the city ground, but the space is also huge. Among the ports in the lower zone, only one third is land, and the other 2/3/2021 are all water, with many ships docked on it. However, these ships are obviously different from ordinary ships, because their decks are very narrow, and the volume of these ships is not very large, and the strange thing is that all of these ships have no masts, so they appear to be lower than ordinary ships. Much shorter.

"Are these submarines?" I just glanced at the ships in front of me and found their common characteristics. Sealed cabins, no masts, high propellers, top collision angles, if this thing is not a submarine, I really can't think of why they have these settings.

Sure enough, the muscular man said admiringly: "President Purple Moon really understands. This is a diving battleship. You can directly attack the enemy underwater or surface to fight."

I nodded to express my understanding, and then asked: "But why do you use wood to build submarines?"

"Huh? Can you use other materials without wood?" I was pulled out before. The old man who had been sullen in the library asked rhetorically.

"Isn't it possible to use metal? In terms of ductility and pressure resistance, it is also an attribute of metal. Isn't it better?"

"Use metal? What are you kidding me?" old man Very disdainfully said: "The structure of the sea vessel is simple, and metal can be barely improvised. The structure of the submarine itself is very complicated. If the metal is used, the weight will increase by at least one third. Does this submarine float?"

" But the submarines in our guild are all made of metal. I feel very buoyant."

"What? Do you really use metal to make submarines?" old man at first thought I did not understand So I was talking nonsense, but when I said that our guild did have metal submarines, he immediately became calm. "Do you really have metal submarines?"

I nodded and said: "Of course, and there are more than one. There is also a submarine carrier, which is almost as big as your port, but it is not the same. Floating and sinking freely?"

"But, how do you cast such a large hull?"

"Casting? Isn't it just like that?"

old man knew I didn’t understand, and quickly explained: "I’m asking you how to shape the hull. How do you cast such a large hull at one time? Do you have a smelting furnace bigger than the port? Besides, even if the casting is completed , How do you forge it?"

"Why do you want to shape it at one time?" I asked in surprise, "Isn't it enough to cast separately."

"Forge separately? So is your submarine spliced ​​together?"

"Yes, is there any problem with this?"

"Is your boat leak-proof?"

>

"Leaking? Why is it leaking?"

"But metal is not as soft as wood, and the impossible structure during the casting process is too precise. There must be gaps between the castings. , How do you deal with these crevices?"

"The crevices? Just weld them together."

"Welding...?" The old man looked at me in surprise with a puzzled look. Asked: "What is welding?"

"Do you not understand welding technology?"

"Welding technology?" The old man shook his head and asked, "Excuse me What is this welding technology for? Is it specially designed for plugging?"

"It is not designed for plugging, but it can be used for plugging. Simply speaking, welding technology is a way to connect two pieces of metal together. Block technology, if your welding technology is good enough, the strength of the welding position can even exceed that of the one-time cast part. However, the technical requirements in that case are too high, and we can generally only guarantee that the welding point is slightly weaker than the cast part. , Anyway, it doesn’t affect the use."

"There is actually such a technology, it is really unimaginable!" The old man kept sighing after hearing my introduction about welding technology, but I But I don't think it's much. First, the welding technology itself is not a particularly exaggerated thing. Second, our guild has used it for a long time, and we have long been used to it.

After observing the appearance of several submarines from a long distance, I offered to go to the boat to have a look. The muscular guys all knew that the purpose of taking me on this tour was actually to cooperate with us, so listen I readily agreed to my request.

After boarding the ship, I found that these submarines are actually not as big as I imagined. Although the appearance of the hull does not seem to be small, the hardness of wood is not comparable to that of metal. Therefore, in order to ensure the strength, the steel empire has adopted a method of thickening the hull to meet the needs, and the direct effect of this method is to The internal space of the hull occupies a large area. The outside looks like a big ship, but when you go in, you will find that the inside is actually very narrow.

The first thing we arrived at after entering the boat along the suspended ladder was the cab. This design is similar to that of a normal submarine, but apart from this cab, there is almost no activity left inside the submarine. Space out. Going from the wheelhouse to the stern direction is the huge propulsion cabin. Apart from the huge mechanical body, there are only narrow passages that can barely be squeezed through. It's okay for people like the Iron Empire to look thin and small. Those who wear armor like me can only stretch their heads outside and think of it unless the armor is taken off.

The direction of the bow is slightly better than the stern, but it is also full. Ninety percent of the entire bow space is occupied by a bunch of giant compressors. Their main job is to control the floating and floating of the submarine. Dive. The remaining 10% of the space in the bow is the weapon compartment on the ship, but it is not a fish, but a weapon that surprised me.

"This thing shouldn't be a sonic cannon, right?" Although I didn't see the outer structure of the boat, I knew at a glance from the inner structure of the ship what principle the weapons on the ship used to work.

The muscular man saw that I guessed that this thing was a sonic cannon, so he immediately wanted to give me a detailed introduction, but he was interrupted by me before he could open his mouth because I didn’t want to know this thing. The specific attribute, and the reason is-our guild boats are all metal.

Everything has two sides. Our guild’s battleship is basically a metal hull, which is definitely stronger than the steel empire’s ship in terms of sturdiness. However, metal has The advantages of metal, but wood also has the advantages of wood. This sonic weapon is fine if it is installed on the ship of the Iron Empire, but if it is installed on our ship, it only takes one shot. I don't know if there is anything wrong with the enemy. Our own ship will definitely disperse first. Metal is hard enough, but its ability to absorb shock is too weak, compared to wood. The directional shock generated by the sonic cannon will cause high-frequency vibration of the hull itself. The wooden ship itself is a soft connection, so the vibration will be consumed in the transmission process, but the iron ship will not work. This kind of vibration will cause the hull to be It disintegrates due to resonance, so if we install a sonic cannon on a metal boat, we must first study how to eliminate the shock. But at least so far, we are still half-blank in this area of ​​technology, so I am interested in this sonic cannon. nor. Besides, the decay speed of sound waves is very fast, so the range is definitely not far away. Like our current naval battles, they are blasted across seven or eight kilometers. Weapons like sonic cannons that don’t even have a range of 100 meters are basically A decoration.

After interrupting the introduction of the muscular man, I voluntarily asked to go to the power cabin and take a turn. After taking off the armor, I squeezed into the mechanical room under the leadership of the maintenance worker on the ship, and then listened to the introduction of the other party. According to the introduction of the repairman, I can conclude that the propeller of the Iron Empire uses a completely different propulsion method from our propeller.

The water propeller in our guild uses magic array technology. It relies on the Water Element magic to inhale water, pressurize it, and spray it from the stern at high speed to generate propulsion. There is no propeller in this process. Or things like impellers are running in the water, so they are much quieter than normal propellers, and they are very efficient, especially at high speeds without losing power due to the speed of the water itself. But because the propeller from Atlantis used by our guild does not have a propeller rotating mechanism, it cannot be changed to a land-use engine because it has no rotating parts at all. In contrast, the propellers of the Iron Empire are much behind. This kind of propeller uses propeller propulsion, which is noisy and has a complicated structure, and the rotating shaft has to withstand huge torsion when working, so the failure rate is quite high. However, the magic conversion furnace used by their propellers is much more advanced than ours. This is obviously a specialty of the Iron Empire. It seems that as long as their technology touches the magic conversion aspect, it will have obvious advantages.

After visiting the internal structure of the submarine, we went back to the shore to see the submarine’s outing and returning. This port is actually much lower than the sea level, so it cannot be directly connected to the sea outside, otherwise the sea will flood back and flood the port. The Iron Empire here uses the same principle as the torpedo tubes on submarines. They repaired several thick pipes between the port and the sea outside. These pipes have sealing caps at both ends. When a ship wants to go out, first adjust the water level in the pipeline to be equal to the water level in the port, then drive the submarine into the pipeline and then close the sealing cover, then draw out the air from the pipeline and inject water into the pipeline, and wait until the pipeline is completely After being filled with water, open the sealing cover on the other side, and the submarine can sail directly into the sea. When a submarine wants to return, reverse this procedure, so that it can ensure that the submarine enters and exits the port without allowing the sea to flow back.

After leaving the submarine port, we returned to the height of the city ground, and then visited the surface port here. The height of this port is the same as the sea level outside, so there is no need for ship locks, and ships can be entered and exited directly. Compared to the wooden submarines in the submarine port, the ships in the surface port look like a lot. Metal ships are the mainstream ships here. Because there is no water pressure problem, the sealing of surface ships is much simpler than that of submarines. Even if the steel empire does not have welding technology, it can be done with some local methods. However, after the tour, I still felt that the ship technology of the Iron Empire was poor. But think about their main scope of activities are on land, and outside the island is a group of reefs, even if there are ships, it is difficult to get out, so it is understandable that they do not pay attention to shipbuilding technology.

After visiting the surface port, we returned to the entrance. The spiral staircase from the very beginning entered the airport area on the upper level of the port. This is the area where the spaceship I want to see the most. I know what the spaceship of the Iron Empire is like, I hope their spaceship is not just a flying sea ship. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to come to the starting point (qidian.com) to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets. Your support is my biggest motivation.)