But unfortunately, man proposes, God disposes.
All the way north, there were cloudless skies for five consecutive days!
Themistocles tried his best and used all kinds of sailing strategies, but he could only barely shorten the distance between him and the Roman fleet by one day.
With only half the time left, they had only caught up to a quarter of the enemy. This situation was clear to all the generals, not just Themistocles.
The Greek expeditionary force was incapable of intercepting the Roman fleet at sea. This left everyone somewhat discouraged, and no one understood why the king had made such a doomed decision.
In reality, Xia Zhe was simply impulsive, wanting to avoid a land battle with Caesar. He hadn't even considered whether he could catch up.
Now, after a few days, Xia Zhe has come to his senses and realized that his original decision was wrong.
However, the mistake had already been made, and Xia Zhe was too embarrassed to regret it. Otherwise, wouldn't the consensus that had been so hard to come by be thrown into chaos again?
He had no choice but to continue chasing, hoping that the situation would change after landing in Venice.
On the afternoon of the fifth day, the sun was about to set.
Xia Zhe was eating dinner on the flagship in a depressed mood when Archimedes came running over excitedly.
"Your Majesty! My auxiliary piston steam drive system has been installed on all ships! As long as the king gives an order, we can speed up our progress and it can also greatly save the rowers' physical strength!" said Archimedes.
Auxiliary piston steam drive system?
Hearing such a magical name, Xia Zhe was stunned for a moment, and then a look of joy appeared on his face.
"Is it on this ship too?" Xia Zhe asked.
"Of course! I've installed it on every ship these days!" Archimedes replied.
"Take me to see it!" Xia Zhe hurriedly suggested upon hearing this.
Then, Archimedes led the way, Xia Zhe and Lillian followed behind, and soon they arrived at the lower cabin.
This is the rower's position.
On both sides of the cabin, there are three rows of rowers, rowing in unison.
They were all sweating, having rowed for several hours in a row in order to meet the deadline.
The next shift of rowers after nightfall has not yet arrived to take over.
Of course, what Xia Zhe followed Archimedes to see was not the rowers, but a huge behemoth that had been newly installed in the past two days.
It was a round boiler placed in the center of the cabin. The lower half could be filled with fuel, and the upper half was filled with seawater.
A large number of transmission arms of varying thicknesses extended from the top of the boiler and then extended above the oars. Only the last joint remained.
"Is the piston cylinder on top of the boiler?" Xia Zhe asked.
Xia Zhe's impression of this primitive steam engine came from steampunk comic books. He had never actually seen a steam engine.
"Wang is right! On top of the boiler is the two-way exhaust cylinder you taught us. There is a piston inside, which may drive all these oars. I have calculated that it can be at least twice as fast as the current human rowing speed. It's just that the output is not very stable, and manpower is still needed to maintain inertia. Of course, that little bit of manpower will save much more effort than now!" Archimedes nodded and explained.
"Then how do we stop?" Xia Zhe asked.
"If you stop heating the boiler, it will stop naturally and quickly. If it is an emergency stop, just close the air intake valve. However, doing so will damage the boiler and reduce its design life!" Archimedes replied.
"Design life? This thing of yours has a design life! How new! How many nautical miles is the design life?" Xia Zhe said with a smile.
"Of course there is a design life! The design life of this steam engine is 100,000 nautical miles, which is enough for us to catch up with Caesar's fleet! Also, didn't you raise the concepts of design life and steam engine when you lectured me that day? Your entire set of ideas is really too advanced. After listening to your words that day, my entire way of thinking seemed to have been reborn!" Archimedes answered seriously.
The concept I proposed?
Did I mention "design life" and "steam engine" that day? How come I don't even remember?
Xia Zhe thought so in his heart, nodded slightly awkwardly, and then spoke again.
"Let's try it out! Let me see how it works! Also, Lillian, go get Themistocles, Alexander, Spartacus and the others. Let's come together to witness Archimedes' new invention!" Xia Zhe said.
"yes!"
Lillian nodded and left.
Then, Archimedes immediately asked the rowers to stop temporarily, and then had the transmission arms installed on each giant oar one by one.
After receiving Lillian's notification and noticing that the king's flagship had noticeably slowed down and seemed to have stopped rowing, all the generals quickly gathered in the lower cabin.
When they arrived, Archimedes had already connected all the transmission arms and had started to boil water under the large boiler.
Seeing this strange machine that they had never seen before, everyone was confused.
"Please witness the miracle!" Archimedes said excitedly.
"The water temperature is already very high and is about to boil." After saying this, Archimedes opened the air intake valve of the cylinder with his own hands.
White steam suddenly rushed in, and then the transmission arms everywhere made some kind of locking sound under force.
"All rowers, listen up! Push the oars clockwise!" Archimedes shouted.
Hearing this, the rowers began to pull the oars.
Then, something strange happened.
With the initial half circle of manpower, all the oars began to move spontaneously and no longer required human maintenance.
This situation surprised the rowers, and they all stepped back to avoid being hit by the spinning oars.
"Everyone go back to your positions, pay attention to adjusting the angle of the oars hitting the water at any time, and coordinate the rowing time! There are still many problems with my steam engine, and I need rowers to solve them on the spot at any time!" Archimedes gave the order again a little embarrassedly.
Hearing this, the rowers burst into laughter, then returned to their positions and began to monitor and adjust the position and frequency of the oars.
This kind of adjustment requires far less effort than pure human paddling. Sometimes, even dozens of rounds of paddling can be done without any human intervention.
Soon, the rowers were very satisfied with this new way of paddling, and their sweaty bodies gradually began to relax.
Of course, the generals who came to observe were not concerned with whether or not the effort was saved. What they cared about most was the speed of the oars, because that determined the ultimate speed of the ship and whether or not they could catch up with Caesar's fleet.
After the steam engine drives the oars, the first few revolutions are relatively slow. However, as the steam continues to output, the speed stabilizes at a very high frequency after seven or eight revolutions.
According to preliminary estimates, it is at least twice as fast as the fastest paddling pace of all the rowers.
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