Chapter 107 A Strange Knife for a Quarter of an Occurrence

Of course, Chen Ying, the landlord, had no intention of developing all the more than 50,000 acres of land into arable land, but was planning to build two-thirds of it into a heavy industrial zone in Chang'an City.

Because of Yang Rong's land in Laohuaili, Chen Ying's carriage workshop has expanded and greatly improved its production capacity. In particular, the assembly line operation method has been adopted. The factory has used more than 130 craftsmen to check the quality of more than 600 apprentices. He can already manufacture more than 600 wheels and supporting carriages every month. If he is not worried about the overcapacity of high-end carriages and the backlog of four-wheeled carriages, Chen Ying can produce 100 vehicles per month.

Although Chen Ying maintains the capacity to produce twelve carriages per month, it can bring 30,000 jin of profits to the East Palace.

In this world, there are no eternal friends, only eternal interests. Chen Ying formed a solid interest alliance with the East Palace.

Because he had paid for the profits of the four-wheeled carriage, when he learned that Chen Ying was preparing to build the steel plant, Li Jiancheng had no reservations. Li Jiancheng was worried that the development of the steel plant would make others jealous, and Chen Ying had no way to expand the production capacity. Therefore, the Crown Princess even started a diplomacy with his wife. Speaking of Yu Wen and his wife, the Lord of Shouguang, he asked Yu Wen and the land in Yu River to give Chen Ying almost free of charge.

However, Li Jiancheng could not remain calm. If it were true as Chen Ying said, this blast furnace could produce more than 10,000 kilograms of steel, and the profit alone would be as high as 300 jin, which would exceed 10,000 jin in a month. The key is that this steel is different from a carriage. A carriage is a must-have, but steel is different. This is a must-have for people's production and life. It controlled the steel production capacity of the Tang Dynasty. For the Tang Dynasty, it was simply a lifeline of the Tang Dynasty.

Coke steelmaking is different from charcoal steelmaking. The coke heats up quickly. In just one hour, you can see from the observation hole on the side that the iron ore has been shiny red and turned orange-red, and gradually liquid iron appears at the bottom of the furnace.

Li Jiancheng watched the shiny red iron appear in the furnace, and excitedly danced and said, "It's iron out, it's iron out!"

Chen Ying smiled bitterly and said, "Your Highness, it's still early now. If this furnace of nearly 30,000 kilograms of iron ore is melted into, it will take at least four hours. It's still early now..."

"It's just four hours, I can afford to wait!"

Li Jiancheng looked at the iron in the hole with great enthusiasm, as if this was the most wonderful scene in the world.

Steel was a very scarce resource for the Tang Dynasty. Since the early Tang Dynasty almost never fought, almost all steel was used in the military field, such as the people's use of money, Ai, Lu sickle, push sickle, squid, squid, weeds for the people, such as the people's use of money, Ai, Lu sickle, shredded sickle, weeds for cutting wood, etc. The threshing and Qing selected tools include flails, stone climbing phosphorus, fan trucks, etc. These agricultural tools are definitely more efficient with steel, but because there is too little steel resources, in the production field, farmers have to adopt wooden woks (pico), iron or stone weeds. Some people don't even have iron axes, and are still using the original stone axes invented by the Stone Age.

Take the price of steel in this era. In later generations, one acre of rice could be exchanged for one ton of steel. In this era, two acres of rice could be exchanged for only one kilogram of steel. Excluding the gap between the annual volume, the difference between the two is equivalent to more than two thousand times.

Chen Ying grew up in the era of cheap steel and serious overcapacity in later generations, and he could not understand the Tang Dynasty's need for steel.

In the next four hours, Li Jiancheng sat in the pavilion next to the blast furnace. No matter how Chen Ying persuaded him, Li Jiancheng had the same attitude: "If you don't look at the steel coming out, I won't go anywhere!"

Chen Ying was having a lot of things at this time. The troops had already begun to approach Tongguan when the attack was planned on New Year's Eve. As the commander-in-chief of this battle at Hangu Pass, Chen Ying could not sit in Chang'an City to command remotely.

However, Yuhe Iron and Steel Plant is a new construction after all, and metallurgy is a very dangerous industry. If the equipment itself fails or operates incorrectly, an explosion accident is likely to break out. Once the blast furnace explodes, more than 20,000 tons of steel and water will form a huge shock wave, and the area of ​​more than 1,300 acres will be easily moved to flat ground in an instant.

Even if there is no problem with the blast furnace, in the condensation process, as long as the mold is not completely drying and contains moisture, the high-temperature liquid steel will explode with water. Fortunately, the blast furnace will emit huge heat, just like gunpowder explosion. (Old Cheng's major is metallurgy, so if a time traveler is playing with steelmaking, he must be cautious, otherwise it is very likely that the steel will not be refined and the person will be blown to death.)

Chen Ying dared not worry about Li Jiancheng here. If something really happened, Chen Ying would just wipe his neck and commit suicide.

However, because of Li Jiancheng's presence, if the craftsmen do not know their performance, they would be really stupid. Li Jiancheng has been watching for the whole day now. Whether it is the craftsmen or craftsmen present, they are all spinning like gyroscopes.

In ancient times, steelmaking was just difficult to grasp. The finished products produced were mainly iron and medium and low carbon steel. If you have good luck, you can meet one or two pieces of high carbon steel - the probability is similar to winning a lottery.

Generally speaking, in steel products, the lower the carbon content, the softer the higher the carbon content, and the higher the higher the brittle and harder. Medium and low-carbon steel is soft and not sharp when used to make swords. The ancients also regarded it as "fabricated iron". Only when the toughness, hardness and strength of high-carbon steel meet the needs of making weapons, the ancients believed that it was "steel".

The carbon content determines the hardness and hardness of the steel. Therefore, it is performed by being hit by a forged hammer. Experienced subway smiths can tell whether it is a piece of soft iron or a piece of good steel that can make swords and swords.

When Chen Ying was installing the furnace and smelting, he had used fortifications to calculate the ratio of iron to charcoal. That is to say, as long as it is refined into iron within twelve hours, it can definitely be turned into steel, not iron. There are some subtle elements, and Chen Ying could not grasp these calculation methods. Chen Ying had already handed over to Ge Tong, Wei Meng, Yan Shihu and others. Finally, when the furnace was opened, Li Jiancheng looked nervously at the gate of the blast furnace.

Looking at the semi-solidified substance like jelly flowing out of the gate, these orange-red "jelly" slowly flowed into the mold, and then slowly flowed into the distance under the guidance of the rolling shaft. In the distance was a huge cooling pool, or a dark red steel billet entered the cooling pool one by one. The high-temperature steel billet and cold water had an encounter between ice and fire, and the entire cooling pool turned into fog, just like a fairyland on earth.

When the steel billet enters the cooling pool, there will naturally be cold water to cool down quickly. Of course, the steel billet that comes out of the cooling pool has become a steel billet with a blue light.

Li Jiancheng couldn't wait to rush to the cooling pool and asked Wei Meng: "How is it?"

Chen Ying didn't need to hold the hammer like Wei Meng. He could tell from the color of the steel surface that this was a very good piece of high carbon steel.

Every time Wei Meng hits the billet, sparks will sputter, but it cannot make deep marks. The iron billet is tough and hard. It is obviously a good pure steel!

"This is the real Baosteel!" Wei Meng knelt down excitedly to Li Jiancheng and Chen Ying, kowtowing repeatedly, his voice trembling: "Your Highness, General Hong Fu Qitian. The Lord is really the Nandou Star Lord descending to earth! The first furnace of steel is produced. I, Wei Meng, have never seen ironwork for twenty years!"

Chen Ying said disapprovingly: "Steelmaking, you need to understand the principle of steelmaking. The more charcoal is contained in the iron, the softer the iron is, the higher the charcoal content, the harder the iron is, and the more brittle the iron is. You only need to control the temperature and control the ratio of iron ore to charcoal. I can guarantee that every furnace will appear steel, not iron. Of course, according to my ratio, if you continue to burn for another hour, the viscous molten steel will become like soy sauce, and the final output will be mild steel. If you burn for another two hours, or even longer, then the only thing that comes out will be iron."

Ge Tong said in confusion: "General, what's going on?"

"Charcoal will burn!" Chen Ying knew that they might not understand the oxidation reaction at this time, but they could teach them with such a superficial method. Chen Ying thought for a while and said, "The smaller the charcoal, the worse the iron quality, so today, we must control the ratio of charcoal to iron, which is the most important issue!"

Wei Meng and Ge Tong suddenly realized: "So that's it!"

Wei Meng unconsciously asked his son Wei Qiang to prepare a special mold. This mold is about six feet long and can almost be regarded as a stick. When a mold is connected, this mold is not like other molds. Each piece weighs a hundred kilograms, but is equivalent to about twenty kilograms. It is equivalent to one fifth of other molds.

This mold was not cooled with water, but waited for the orange-red steel billet to darken, and Wei Meng took the big hammer and put it under the fine forging hammer and knocked it against the fine forging hammer.

At this time, the surroundings were already like a fairyland, with fog everywhere. When the water vapor encountered cold air, it turned into snowflakes again, and snow began to fall one after another.

Li Jiancheng looked at the hills with steel billets piled up one by one, and a sincere smile appeared on his face.

More than 10,000 kilograms of steel sounds a lot, but in fact, there is not much. If it is ten thousand kilograms of grain, it can fill a warehouse, but more than 100,000 kilograms of steel are just steel billets weighing more than 100,000 kilograms.

At this time, Ge Tong also counted all the condensed steel billets: "Your Highness the Crown Prince, General, this furnace produces 123 pieces of mastery, about 12,000 kilograms, and 46 pieces of pig iron, totaling about 4,600 kilograms!"

Chen Ying frowned. The result made him very dissatisfied. He was seriously thinking about which link was wrong.

According to the iron ore he invested, this furnace of steel should not be 16,600 kilograms of iron, but 20,000 kilograms. The difference is nearly 3,400 kilograms. What is the problem?

However, at this moment, the iron rod under Wei Meng's hand gradually took shape. This handle had a graceful curve, about six feet long, about four fingers wide, about one finger thick on the back, and the cloud patterns on the surface of the knife were faintly visible, like flowing water, like a star, with cold light shining, and the sword energy soaring into the sky.

Li Jiancheng's eyes were straight: "I built a Mo Dao in just a quarter of an hour?"

"Your Highness, the account is not settled like this!" Chen Ying explained: "If you use steel billets to forge the Modao directly, you may not be able to create one in an hour. Now Wei Jiangshi has just used the temperature of the blast furnace that has not yet returned."
Chapter completed!