Valley Emperor

The fierce competition between Changjiang Shipping Company and Feng's Shipping Company in the shipping market has extended to the emerging field of steam ships. As for who will win and who will lose in the end, it is hard to say.

But what is certain is that by the turn of spring and summer next year, there will definitely be commercial steamships that will be put into the market and put into operation one after another, allowing people to enjoy the convenience of trains and steamships at the same time.

As for the competition of domestic enterprises, this is naturally a good thing for the entire empire. There is competition and there is motivation. As long as it is not vicious competition, then the official headed by the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises maintains a non-interference attitude.

Otherwise, the Yangtze River Shipping Company would not be chased by a large number of private shipping companies behind it!

But then again, if there is no large group of private companies chasing after the buttocks, the Yangtze River Shipping Company will not be able to develop rapidly in just a few years.

Although it has always been the first in China, the scale of the Yangtze River Shipping Company is not comparable to that when it was first established. Other shipping companies are developing, and the Yangtze River Shipping Company is actually developing, but the development will be subject to more restrictions. That's it.

In the first half of the eighteenth year of Xuanping, the most eye-catching event was undoubtedly the Northeast Campaign, but since August, trains and ships have attracted the attention of the entire empire.

And it lasted until the nineteenth year of Xuanping!

In the provincial general examination and the Chengtianfu general examination in February, the questions related to steam engines appeared in the examinations. What is even more interesting is that, 19 years after entering Xuanping, many enterprises are announcing their future development plans. When speaking, words such as steam engines, trains, and ships are more or less mentioned.

Some large factories have successively announced that they will introduce high-pressure steam engines with higher efficiency, greater power and lower cost in the future.

Some companies are also promoting their entry into the surrounding industries such as high-pressure steam engines, trains, ships, etc., but the most conspicuous is the domestic shipping company!

In fact, trains also attract the attention of many people. Unfortunately, the railway industry is monopolized, and the empire does not give private capital the opportunity to enter, so many people's attention can only be shifted to the shipping industry.

Just after the new year, various shipping companies can't wait to announce their own ship plans one after another, all of which are high-profile announcements that they will purchase steam ships in the future, thus entering the field of steam ships. It is a pity that these high-profile announced shipping companies, Most are unlikely to get any steamers in two years.

Because they can't get a commercial carrier steam engine in two years!

There are only three domestic manufacturers capable of producing high-pressure steam engines, namely Tianjin Youbang Machinery Co., Ltd., Zhaoqing Machinery Co., Ltd., and Naval Steam Engine Factory, and the three ship-based steam engine production capacity needs to be given priority to supply the Navy, and the remaining production capacity. Only then can we supply the market, and among these surplus production capacity, the surplus capacity of Zhaoqing Machinery Company and AIA Machinery Company has already been covered by Changjiang Shipping Company.

And the remaining production capacity of the Navy Steam Engine Factory was also wrapped up by Feng Shipping Company!

If other companies want to obtain steam ships, they must first obtain commercial shipboard steam engines, but unfortunately, they will not be able to obtain them for at least two years.

The representatives of many shipping companies have already visited the three major manufacturing plants, and the answers they get are all the same, that is, their production capacity has reached the limit, even if they expand production, but the extra production capacity cannot be much. , not to mention that they also signed priority supply contracts with the Yangtze River Shipping Company and Fung Shipping Company.

In fact, these three major steam engine manufacturers are now regretful because of these supply contracts. If there is no such priority supply contract, then under the rush of many shipping companies, they can definitely raise the price a lot. thereby earning more profits.

But unfortunately, the contract has been signed, so they can only want to expand the production capacity as much as possible, and then finish the execution of the **** contract, and then freely supply to the vast market.

The three major steam engine manufacturers are unreliable!

But those shipping companies are not willing to lag behind others. Without Butcher Zhang, would it be possible to eat pigs with fur? impossible!

As a result, several large shipping companies joined together to acquire a machinery company located in Dangtu and changed its name to United Power Company, and injected a large amount of funds into the company for equipment upgrades and production lines. Improvement, and then found the Royal Institute of Technology to apply for the technical authorization of the high-pressure steam engine.

The Royal Institute of Technology naturally welcomes this kind of thing. As a research and development institution, it needs to continuously export technology patents to make profits, and then exchange funds to support research, so the more popular this high-pressure steam engine is, the better.

United Power Company, formerly Dangtu No. 2 Machinery Company invested by the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises, the main business of this machinery company is not actually a steam engine, but the repair of steam engines. However, due to poor management, Dangtu repairs steam engines in that small place. At the beginning, there was only one manufacturer, but later it became five or six.

In the end, it was packaged and sold as a whole due to poor management. Unfortunately, the investors who accepted it later failed to revitalize the machinery company, and were finally taken over by several major shipping companies.

Naturally, the goal of several major shipping companies is not simply to repair steam engines, or even limited to manufacturing low-pressure steam engines, but to directly manufacture ship-based steam engines in one step to avoid the embarrassment of being blocked by others.

After changing its name to United Power Company, it received a large amount of capital injection and obtained the patent authorization of high-pressure steam engine.

And they, who are rich and powerful, don't think of money as money at all, they just wave their cheques everywhere to purchase equipment and poach technicians, which actually makes them open up the situation in a short period of time.

A senior executive of a United Dynamics company declared in public: "No matter how difficult it is, we have nothing to fear!"

There was another sentence he didn't say: Even if it was smashed with money, it had to be smashed!

They made such a promise to the shareholders above, that is, several major shipping companies, that they must come up with a ship-based steam engine before this winter!

Anyway, the Royal Institute of Technology has already given a full set of technical information. United Power, like the other three manufacturers, has to build a steam engine according to the drawings, and the other three manufacturers can purchase the mechanical equipment, they also Can purchase, they have technical staff, they can also dig over.

If this cannot be put into production for more than half a year, I am afraid that those shipping companies will have to go crazy.

However, even if United Dynamics tried to catch up, it still couldn't catch up with Fung Shipping!

In mid-February, Feng's Shipping Company made an unprecedented advertisement on the Jiangnan Road section of the Datang Chaobao. What advertisement?

The first voyage advertisement of Yuanfang!

In advertising, Feng's Shipping Co., of course, can blow it as much as it can!

Not only that this is the first official commercial steamship in China, but also the first mature and reliable steamship, and also the largest steamship!

And it comes with some basic data of Yuanfang. The standard displacement reaches 350 tons. It adopts a standard inland coastal ship design, and uses pure steam power by leaps and bounds, completely abandoning sails. The backward things can already be completely thrown into the garbage heap of history.

In the case of steam power, its speed can reach fifteen kilometers per hour!

Whether these data are true or not, naturally few people know. Even within Feng's Shipping Company, few people know the details of the Yuanfang. The construction of this ship has always been a secret, and the trial voyage is only in the The trials conducted in the trial area inside the shipyard did not carry out large-scale public trials at all.

As for its power system, outsiders do not know, it uses a relatively complex parallel unit, to put it bluntly, it combines two sets of steam engines!

Moreover, these two sets of steam engines were not obtained from one place. One of them was purchased from the Royal Institute of Technology, and the other was purchased from the Naval Steam Factory. This steam engine was actually purchased from the Naval Steam Engine Factory. Even the Navy is afraid of unstable quality, so they don't want it.

Fortunately, these two sets of steam engines are actually the same model and specifications, and they are prototypes designed by the Royal Institute of Technology.

Therefore, the Yuanfang uses a combination of two coal-fired boilers and two parallel-bar steam engines, and its maximum power can reach 180 horses.

It can also be seen that only 180 horsepower can be obtained by using two sets. In fact, the development of ship-based steam engines is still relatively primitive. Although theoretical breakthroughs have been made, they will want to produce high-power steam engines for a while. , is still more difficult.

After the Fung Shipping Company advertised, the management of the Yangtze River Shipping Company was half dead. They knew that Fung Shipping also deployed steam ships, and also ordered commercial ships from the steam engine factory under the Naval Shipyard. steam engine.

But what they didn't expect was that the madmen of Feng Shipping Company dared to directly take out the prototype for the test and use it directly for commercial use.

That is a prototype for testing. Since it is said to be a prototype for testing, it means that many aspects are not perfect, and there will be problems when it is directly used for commercial use.

However, Feng's Shipping was so daring~www.wuxiaspot.com~ directly used the prototype for commercial use, and still adopted a dual-unit parallel scheme to obtain sufficient horsepower.

But none of this matters!

The important thing is that on the 26th of February, the Yuanfang officially set sail from Shanghai, took more than 100 passengers to Jinling City, and started its maiden voyage, announcing that Feng's Shipping Company officially entered the era of ships.

In the eyes of the people of the Yangtze River Shipping Company, the first steamship of the Tang Empire was officially put into use, and this very conspicuous crown was stolen by the sneaky **** of the Feng Shipping Company!

In order to save face, the Yangtze River Shipping Company directly acquired the ownership of the other part of the Ladies from the Royal Institute of Technology, and then announced the official commercial use of the Ladies, and began to execute the route from Jinling City to Shanghai!

On March 1st, the Ladies officially set sail in Jinling City, opening its maiden voyage!

The maiden voyages of Yuanfang and Ladies also officially set off the fierce competition between Changjiang Shipping Company and Feng's Shipping Company in the field of ships, and in this fierce competition, the curtain of the era of ships was completely opened!