Fox of France

"Why can't you see the paddle wheel on this boat?" Polina asked, looking around.

"Paddle wheel? How can we use such a backward design?" Joseph said disdainfully.

"Without paddle wheels, how do you move the water? Could it be that you use reciprocating levers to paddle?" Polina said, "If so, it seems very beautiful."

"This... Paulina, maybe you should also receive a little education in mathematics and physics." Joseph shook his head, "Our boat uses a propeller. This is an underwater propulsion device, and its efficiency is higher than that of a propeller. Much higher than the paddle wheel, and the average storm won't keep it out of the water, and the enemy's cannon can't hit it—what's the point of the Englishman's stupid paddle wheel!"

"Professor Bonaparte's propeller is indeed a great design." Fulton said sincerely on the side, "I really didn't expect that there would be such a propulsion method, and the efficiency is indeed much higher than that of the paddle wheel. "

"It's actually very simple to think of." Joseph immediately pretended to be a wolf with a big tail. "Actually, this design was first derived from the water turbine planned by Zeus. The design of the water turbine was actually developed from the windmill. Fu Mr. Leon, you know that many processes in physics are reversible processes. Since the windmill can be blown by the wind, then the opposite windmill can blow out the wind; The water turbine can push the water flow. So you see, this is not a particularly difficult design. However, the water seepage problem of the propeller shaft is much more complicated to solve.”

A smug smile suddenly appeared on Fulton's face. This problem was solved through the joint efforts of him and several other engineers. Of course, it has not been completely solved. The water seepage still needs to seep, but the speed of the water seepage has been controlled to a certain extent. Adding a small water pump can completely solve the problem.

Fulton took several people to the flat deck at the bow. There were chairs and parasols. There was also champagne on the table.

"Professor, as long as you give the order, the sea trial can begin." Fulton said.

"Okay." Joseph stood at the bow vigorously, waved his hands and said, "Forward! Forward! Our goal is the sea of ​​stars!"

So the boat shook slightly, and then slowly left the pier. It first sailed westward along the current for a while, and quickly passed several other ships encountered on the road, then turned around and sailed eastward against the current.

"How fast can this boat go?" Paulina asked.

"'Fool' can theoretically run to about thirteen knots." Fulton replied.

"What? Why does this ship have such a strange name?" Polina was taken aback.

Fulton glanced at Joseph, but Joseph was expressionless. He would not say that he took this weird name, and he took this name entirely because he mentioned Fulton's steamboat in a text he learned in his previous life. as "Fulton's Fool", but was a huge success.

Considering that some traditional cultures learned in the eastern country in the previous life mentioned that it is easy to raise a child with a cheap name, and considering that "Fulton's Fool" was not the first steamboat, but it became The first steamship that achieved great success, Joseph felt that this traditional superstition might be true... So he gave the ship the weird name "Fool".

But Joseph would never admit that he had decided on the name. So when Polina asked this question, he didn't say anything at all.

"Ah, about this question, it's...that's the thing...we have been arguing about naming it, and finally...finally...we finally decided to simply look in the dictionary to decide, and then we found this word. But everyone has already It has been decided, no matter what is translated, it will be used, a man should be trustworthy in his words, and he can use whatever word is translated, so he will use this word, so it is settled like this.” Fulton The current editor explained that he was stuttering at the beginning, but the more he said it, the more he said it. Later, he almost believed it himself, um, that's what happened.

At this time, the boat had turned around and began to accelerate against the current. In the upstream state, the advantage of this boat becomes more obvious. It spewed thick smoke, quickly left one sailboat after another behind, and returned to the starting point after a while.

"What a fast ship. Is that their top speed?" Polina asked again.

"No, today is the official sea trial. As for the high-speed navigation experiment, it will not be carried out today." Joseph replied.

In fact, in the "informal sea trials", high-speed sailing tests have already been carried out. However, the high-speed test needs to increase the boiler pressure, and increasing the boiler pressure will increase the risk of boiler explosion. So, of course, such an experiment cannot be carried out today.

This successful experiment came very timely, because Ireland has reached the most critical moment.

The Irish Independence Army has just repelled a new round of raids by the British recently. And achieved considerable results in the anti-sweeping campaign. In this anti-sweep, the Irish Independence Army showed for the first time a strong attacking ability. They used a special explosive ejector in the battle, which made almost all the defense facilities that the British had equipped for those military stations before. decorations.

This so-called "dynamite ejector" is actually a "flying thunder cannon" used by a certain Eastern army in later generations.

Use a large iron tube, fill it with propellant powder, stuff it into an explosive bag that is about the same size as the caliber, and then ignite it, the explosive bag can be thrown nearly two hundred meters.

The explosive package of about ten kilograms fired by this thing is so powerful that the walls of the British military depot are like paper in front of it. Of course, the range of this thing is limited. If it is daytime, the defenders can effectively prevent the installation of the "dynamite ejector" of the Irish Independence Army by firing a volley of rifles. (This thing needs to dig a hole in the soil, then erect the launch tube inside and adjust the angle.)

But the cunning Irish will take advantage of the cover of night to quietly place the "dynamite ejector" at night near the wall of the British military depot and camouflage it. At dawn, they acted as if they were attacking, attracting all the British defenders to the city wall here, and then ignited the "dynamite catapults", allowing the hurried British troops to fly into the sky with the city wall.

Relying on this thing, the Irish who turned over quickly captured several crucial military posts at a speed beyond the British's estimation, and even approached Dublin at one point. However, the British still maintained a fairly strong mobile force in the rear, so the British army immediately mobilized the reserve team to launch a counterattack.

The First Division of the Irish Independence Army had an encounter with the 1,000 British troops who came to rescue near a military depot more than 60 kilometers away from Dublin. This battle ended with the retreat of the Irish Independence Army with a strength of about 1,000 people, but the casualties of the two sides in this battle were not much different. The British suffered more than 200 casualties, and the Irish casualties were probably higher, but not more than 400. This result naturally shocked the British.

Although the British troops who fought against the Irish in this battle were mainly recruits, they were regular troops after all, and the equipment of various weapons was more suitable for frontal combat. And it also has cavalry. When the Irish retreat, these cavalry should be able to bring huge damage to the Irish. But even so, they failed to take advantage of encounters with similar numbers of people. Especially the cavalry, when they were chasing the Irish, they fell into the ambush of the Irish's broadsword mines, and one guy lost almost a hundred people. Such a result made the British really feel the growing power of the Irish rebels.

In the base area, the Irish Independence Army, also with the cooperation of the bandits, continued to attack the "security forces" and the British army who accidentally kept a distance from the friendly army, constantly using black guns to lure the British army to chase after them. , and then use the broadsword to ambush them to bully the British and black dogs. As a result, although there was no large-scale fighting in the base area, the daily losses of the British army and the "security forces" were not small.

If it was before, the British should retreat at this time. But this time, the British gritted their teeth and continued to support. Because the British discovered that the weapons and ammunition in the hands of the Irish rebels began to gradually run out of supplies. Especially in recent days, there have been few reports of troops being attacked by broadsword mines. There are also far fewer reports of the Flying Thunder Cannon being used by the flung Irish Independence Army. This shows that there are not many French goods in their hands.

"I know that whether it is in the non-security area or in the security area, our army has lost a lot. But this time, we must grit our teeth and persevere. Now the strength of the enemy army is obviously fading. As long as we persist After a while, they will be finished. Now it depends on who can persevere more. And the more tenacious side can win the whole of Ireland." The Duke of Norfolk told his subordinates in the beautifully decorated conference room of the Governor's Mansion Say.

"Now, our struggle has reached a critical moment. We must persevere. Persistence is victory. We are now experiencing a shortage of supplies, especially weapons. This is indeed a problem, but there are no new weapons sent by French comrades. Can we not fight the enemy and defend our base areas and the people in the base areas? Now, on the one hand, we must save weapons, and on the other hand, we must also improve the efficiency of the use of weapons, so that every bullet can destroy an enemy , On the other hand, it is also necessary to use as many captured weapons as possible, and use self-made weapons to attack the enemy.

Now it is difficult for us, but equally difficult for the enemy. As long as we persevere, we will see the dawn of victory..." In the swamp camp, Russell rolled up his trousers and was barefoot, saying this to the independent soldiers around him.