Among the last batch of 5 people, Zhang Tie was attracted by the last person"s introduction.

That was a young man at his 20s. Behaving elegantly, he looked a bit familiar.

"This humble man is Sun Qiming, from Hongyuan Business Group, Xuantian City; nice to see you, Fire Dragon Hermit!"

"Surnamed Sun?"

Zhang Tie suddenly figured out why this man looked familiar. Because this man"s face reminded Zhang Tie of the boy"s face on Lv Shasha"s side. After looking at him carefully, Zhang Tie confirmed it that this Sun Qiming was the very husband of Lv Shasha, his junior sister apprentice.

"What a coincidence! Honestly, this Sun Qiming should also call my senior brother apprentice like Lv Shasha."

After looking at Sun Qiming for a short while, Zhang Tie"s voice turned kinder, "Do you Sun Clan also excel at making mechanical equipment?"

"I dare not tell a lie in front of Hermit. Hua people in Taixia Country ranks top among humans in making machines. There are talents in this line across Taixia Country. Although our Sun Clan is slightly dwarfed by the major business groups and clans which rank top in making machines in Taixia Country, our clan has also been in this line for many generations. We still excel at making machines. Our clan mainly sells several types of locomotives, many kinds of mini steam laches and some steam city-defense equipment. Our machines branded Hongyuan are well-known in Youzhou Province, even across the Northeast Military Region. They"re also greatly favored by many old customers." Sun Qiming answered meticulously after hearing Zhang Tie"s question. Through his reply, he implied Sun Clan"s advantages in making machines and didn"t offend the other 4 clans at present.

"Now that Sun Clan has been immersed in this line for so many years, I have a question for you. Could you tell me about the difference between steam-driven machines and the machines with internal combustion engines which were popular before the Catastrophe?"

Sun Qiming replied modestly and seriously. Actually, any lad who had joined this industry could answer this question. Even though, n.o.body at present dared say that Fire Dragon Hermit was naive.

"The machines which were driven by internal combustion engines before the Catastrophe have more strengths than steam-driven machines, such as being smaller in size, lighter, more powerful, rapidly ignited and widely applied. That"s why humans preferred internal combustion engines than steam-driven engines before the Catastrophe."

Zhang Tie nodded as he continued, "In your opinion, where do you think an internal combustion engine could work most effectively?"

"The technologies about internal combustion engines have been mature over 1,000 years ago. It"s actually not difficult for us to make a perfect internal combustion engine with the modern technologies. What is difficult is that there"s no suitable fuel for internal combustion engines. Although we"ve lost the possibility to continue to drive internal combustion engines, as we still pursue the high power and efficiency of internal combustion engines in this age, we"ve developed external combustion engines, which combine the features of steam engines and internal combustion engines with burning alcohol as the indirect driving force for steam cycle. Even though, it still could not match that of internal combustion engines in purposes as it"s only limited to few limos, some city-defense equipment which requires rapid response and gears of some difference engines."

After sensing Zhang Tie"s pleasant att.i.tude when he asked the representative of Sun Clan, the other guys threw admiring looks at Sun Qiming at the same time. They wondered why Fire Dragon Hermit was interested in Sun Qiming.

"Honestly, although Sun Clan is a bit well known in making machines, it is not better than the other clans in Youzhou Province in this line. Why doesn"t Fire Dragon Hermit ask me about that? Is that because that Sun Qiming opened his mouth in the end? If so, I would not have been that positive."

The representatives of the other four clans just sat aside and listened to the conversation between Sun Qiming and Fire Dragon Hermit carefully. Besides sighing with emotions inside that Sun Clan was fortunate, none of them dared express their dissatisfaction.

As a great artisan master, Zhang Tie was almost on behalf of the highest craftsmans.h.i.+p in steam engines. As long as a great artisan master had enough time, he could create a steam civilization himself. Of course, Zhang Tie had long known about the knowledge that Sun Qiming replied. Not only that, he even knew it better than Sun Qiming. Zhang Tie didn"t expect to get an answer from Sun Qiming; instead, he just wanted to see whether Lv Shasha"s husband was reliable and could undertake the heavy burden that he would a.s.sign to Sun Clan.

"Hehe, I mean if we could drive machines by internal combustion engines, what sort of internal combustion engine do you want to develop?"

After hearing Zhang Tie"s question, Sun Qiming immediately replied, "As it"s in the holy war, humans are in a life or death situation. If we could have this sharp weapon, of course, we should apply it in human armies so that we could fight demons; protect your man and homeland!"

"Hahahaha..." Zhang Tie burst out into laughter generously. "Although Sun Qiming looks gentle and humble, he"s also hot-blooded on the other aspect. He matches junior sister apprentice Lv. No wonder they got married, "I like your answer. Come here, take a look at this."

Zhang Tie took out a roll of drawing from Castle of Black Iron.

As for a person like Fire Dragon Hermit, it was not weird for him to have a s.p.a.ce-teleportation equipment. The moment the roll of drawing appeared in Zhang Tie"s hand, two of the five people who hadn"t seen a s.p.a.ce-teleportation equipment were shocked. Because of this, they were more awe-stricken to Zhang Tie.

Right under the extremely admiring gazes of the other four people, Sun Qiming stood up and came to Zhang Tie"s front in a bit restrained way. After that, he took Zhang Tie"s drawing by two hands.

The moment he got the drawing, he had known that it was a very regular and professional mechanic design drawing from its familiar texture and weight. As there were strict requests on the texture, drawing methods and specifications of mechanic design drawings, they could not be casually drawn. Those plots that design drawings could be drawn easily in novels were nothing but sh*t.

"You can open the drawing over the table!" Zhang Tie pointed at a rectangular table in the parlor before throwing a glance at the other 4 guys who had long moved their eyes onto the drawing, "Don"t sit there, come here for discussion!"

After hearing Zhang Tie"s order, the other four guys flurriedly moved their small half of b.u.t.ts away from the chairs and opened the drawing together with Sun Qiming before watching it carefully.

That was a real complete mechanic design drawing instead of a draft. It even included various parameters and raw materials.

At the sight of that blueprint, they had identified that it was a design drawing of an 8-cylinder internal combustion engine.

The 8 cylinders, the reciprocating piston and the connecting rod had immediately reminded insiders that it was a blueprint of an internal combustion engine. Those who were familiar with the structures of internal combustion engines could see the waste supercharging device on the drawing at once.

However, it was not a common design drawing of an internal combustion engine because it was different than the common internal combustion engines in people"s mind in many aspects.

When he looked at the design drawing, Sun Qiming"s face turned weird at first; closely after that, his face turned surprised; finally, he turned very solemn.

The largest difference between this internal combustion engine and the common internal combustion engines was that the 8 cylinders on the design drawing were more like combustion chambers of a boiler than cylinders because the external layer of the 8 cylinders was hollow and filled with water. To a certain degree, the cylinders where the reciprocating pistons moved inside became the combustion chambers of an external combustion engine. When alcohol was burning inside, it would heat up the water layer outside the cylinders and produce steam power.

Sun Qiming slid his fingers across the design drawing slowly attentively. At the same time, he was imagining the operating condition of this engine. All of a sudden, Sun Qiming quivered all over as he got hang of the essence of this design drawing at once...

"Haven"t you figured it out?" The moment Zhang Tie opened his mouth, he shocked the 5 people instantly, who hurriedly bowed and pushed themselves away from the table.

"We"re too slow-witted and couldn"t figure out the design mindset of this set of engine!" One person replied in an embarra.s.sed way.

"Although this engine looks like an internal combustion engine, it looks more like an external combustion engine; therefore..." One person said slowly.

"This design didn"t appear before and after the Catastrophe..."

Zhang Tie smiled as he raised his hand. The others hurriedly became quiet. Closely after that, Zhang Tie started to slide his fingers over the design drawing, "This set of machine is indeed unprecedented. It"s a wholly new design. The idea of this design combines the essence of internal combustion engines before the Catastrophe and the essence of steam-driven force after the Catastrophe. Of course, you"ve not seen that before. It could be an 8-cylinder internal combustion engine and an external combustion engine with 8 combustion chambers. I name it..." Zhang Tie hesitated a bit as if he was recalling its name, "I name it dull-drive, full heat-power, high-effective driving system, briefly, dual-drive engine..."