Chapter 238 Steel!

A month passed in a flash.

During this period, Wang Wenbo and other family heads also returned to their families.

Correspondingly, they paid the price of money and people.

Thirty-six noble families, each with 50,000 taels, Zhongshan Hou instantly became a millionaire.

And the millionaires in the Ming Dynasty are comparable to the billionaires in later generations. After all, the purchasing power of silver is too great.

Even the little emperor wanted to ask for autumn wind after hearing the news, so he asked Zuo Yidao to tentatively ask Tang Hao if he could take half of it back to fill the treasury, and then he was scolded by Tang Hao as expected.

Well, although the money was "blown by the wind", seeing that the fleet was about to be formed, there would be many places to spend money at that time, so Tang Hao naturally could not allow anyone to touch the silver.

During this period, Wang Xianwen also brought back graphite.

In fact, Qingdao, Shandong is the birthplace of China's graphite industry and has the reputation of "China's Graphite Hometown".

Therefore, with a clear goal and direction, it would be difficult for these guys to find it. Tang Hao just gave them a reason and excuse to get away with it.

Then, carts of graphite were sent to the iron factory, and then turned into high-temperature resistant molds under the processing of blacksmiths.

After a month of suspension, although the blacksmiths could no longer smelt iron, the wages promised by Tang Hao were paid on time, and even paid on a daily basis, so the blacksmiths did not make trouble, but admired Tang Hao very much. After all, there are not many good officials who can keep their promises in this era.

Having wages and getting wages is what the craftsmen really care about, so they obey Tang Hao's orders. After carts of graphite were sent to the iron factory, they immediately became excellent high-temperature resistant materials and became the inner wall building materials of blast furnaces.

In a month, the previous twenty iron-making furnaces were all knocked down, and replaced by blast furnaces that rose up one after another, as high as seven feet, straight into the sky.

Accompanied by Liu Dahu and other craftsmen, Tang Hao began to inspect these blast furnaces.

These blast furnaces are generally 75 feet high, with a volume of about 20 cubic meters - larger than any ironmaking furnace of this era, and are well-deserved blast furnaces!

Because it is next to the "hometown of graphite", graphite is not a rare thing, but people of this era do not understand its use. This thing is definitely the best refractory material, at least Tang Hao can only use it for this purpose now.

In fact, if you just build a small blast furnace for ironmaking, it is not a big problem to use clay or red bricks directly. The key is that Tang Hao hopes to increase its service life, so he used high-grade refractory graphite used in modern steelmaking furnaces in the lining of the blast furnace, and used it in large quantities, hoping that the life of these blast furnaces can be longer.

In addition to the blast furnace, during this month, Tang Hao also directed a group of craftsmen to build large bellows to provide sufficient oxygen to help combustion, so that the furnace temperature can reach the predetermined value.

Then there is crucible steelmaking, which is a more advanced steelmaking method than the stir-fried steelmaking method. Unfortunately, high-temperature resistant materials are rare. Fortunately, Tang Hao successfully found graphite.

These graphites are crushed and then molded by craftsmen, and then put into the kiln for high-temperature firing for more than ten hours. That is the graphite crucible.

The steelmaking process from ancient times to the present is divided into three types: stir-fried steel, hundred-refined steel and poured steel.

Stir-fried steel is actually stir-fried iron, and the stir-fried iron furnace can produce it, but the main thing is wrought iron, and there is a small amount of medium and low carbon steel, the quality is very unstable, both cold and brittle.

Nowadays, the standard firearms in the Ming army are basically all made of these wrought irons. It is not surprising that they will explode after a few uses.

Hundred-refined steel uses stir-fried steel as raw material, which is repeatedly folded and forged after heating, or repeatedly forged with several raw materials of different components. The process is complicated and the cost is high. It is only suitable for making precious swords. For example, the "hundred-refined sword" that generally appears in the novels means a precious sword.

The pouring steel method is recorded in "Mengxi Bi Tan": "The so-called steel in forged iron in the world is made by bending soft iron and then putting pig iron in between, sealing it with mud and refining it. Forging them together is called lump steel, also called pouring steel."

None of these three processes are suitable for large-scale industrial production.

What Tang Hao wants now is crucible steelmaking, large-scale industrial-level steelmaking!

In fact, crucible steelmaking appeared in the Spring and Autumn Period and was at its peak in the Han Dynasty. It supported the Han army to fight a powerful Han Dynasty. It's a pity that the crucible steelmaking method was lost in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. Instead, it was greatly developed in India and produced the famous Damascus knife!

Blast furnace ironmaking, large bellows, crucible steelmaking... These new and strange things are all things that Liu Dahu and other craftsmen have never seen in their lives. Their ancestors have never seen iron smelting like this.

But they wanted to do it this way, and they paid him the wages they should have paid. So even if the blacksmiths looked down on Tang Hao in their hearts, they were still respectful on the surface.

This is not a dog official, this is clearly the God of Wealth!

As long as you are willing to pay, let alone push the iron smelting furnace, even if you smash the Laiwu Iron Factory, everyone will dare to follow you!

Tang Hao looked at everything in front of him, his eyes kept flashing.

"Get ready to open the furnace!"

"Follow the steps you have done before, don't panic!"

This iron and steel smelting is not a child's play. If there is any accident, it is a high temperature of thousands of degrees, and people will die directly.

Liu Dahu has been a blacksmith all his life. He doesn't understand these principles, so all the people he arranges are experienced blacksmiths. Even if he senses that something is wrong, he will choose to evacuate as soon as possible.

Today is the first time that the furnace has been fully opened, and it is also an important day for whether Laiwu Iron Works can restart the furnace and start producing steel.

So not only Tang Hao and a group of blacksmiths, but also Wang Wenbo and other thirty-six family heads came over.

They came here not to see anything else, but to see if the Marquis of Zhongshan of the Ming Dynasty could do anything good.

After all, they spent a really big price!

Each family has 50,000 taels of silver, and the thirty-six families alone have 1.8 million taels of silver. This damn family is almost half of the Ming Dynasty’s annual tax revenue!

Would Zhongshan Hou really throw all the 1.8 million taels of silver into the Laiwu Iron Works in front of him?

Do not make jokes!

We are not fools!

Counting the wages of the blacksmith and the young laborers, if he could spend a hundred thousand taels of silver, that would be considered a kindness on his part.

That means that this thief Zhongshan Hou has embezzled at least half of the money!

But the problem is that the thief Zhongshan Hou will get out, but they won't!

These thirty-six gentry families are still counting on the Laiwu Iron Works in front of them to continue to make profits!

Money has been given to you and people have been given to you. Even if you just want to "spend money and listen to the sound", you still have to tinker with something new, right?

What's more, you also pushed away all the twenty iron-making furnaces that blacksmiths depended on for their survival, and replaced them with these towering iron-making furnaces. If iron cannot be made in this damn place, then what about the Marquis of Zhongshan? They pat their butts and leave, but how are these blacksmiths and gentry supposed to live?

Therefore, no one cares about their own interests.

They all looked eagerly at Zhongshan Hou Tang Hao, hoping that this thief could leave a way for everyone to survive.

Just make money, don't cut off everyone's livelihood.

Otherwise, the Laiwu Iron Works will be completely scrapped by then, and you, the Marquis of Zhongshan, will have no good fruits to eat!

Tang Hao met everyone's questioning eyes, and then decisively issued the order.

"Light the fire, turn on the stove!"

Following the order from Marquis Zhongshan, Liu Dahu spoke excitedly for some unknown reason.

"Boys, light the fire!"

All the craftsmen stretched their necks and shouted in agreement: "Light the fire!"

The two blacksmiths picked up torches and threw them into the blast furnace from the bottom tap hole.

When the green smoke in the furnace rolled out from the opening, a blacksmith squinted his eyes and looked inside, shouting: "This fire... is really strong!!!"

Hearing this, the blacksmiths all trembled.

The furnace fires are strong, which means that at least these blast furnaces can be used to make iron.

The things they relied on for a living were saved.

"Blow the wind!"

Liu Dahu did not hesitate and immediately ordered.

Then two burly men pulled the bellows, and behind them stood ten men of similar stature.

At this point, we have to rely purely on manpower, because there is no time to use water power here, and Tang Hao does not have this ability.

In fact, in the Ming Dynasty, the most indispensable thing was manpower!

As the bellows provide a steady stream of oxygen, the fire in the blast furnace becomes more and more fierce, and you can even see a large flame rushing straight out of the furnace mouth, showing its teeth and claws wantonly!

Seeing this scene, all the craftsmen were surprised.

Because they all know very well that the scene before them means that the temperature in the furnace is definitely enough, and there is even hope of melting the molten iron directly!

Of course, stirring is indispensable at this time.

Iron-frying stoves became popular in the Ming Dynasty. All were stirred manually. There were always one or two big men by the stove, stirring the iron rods back and forth. But they had to admit that this method was very dangerous. At least before, they only had to endure those... There was black smoke, but now it was flames with snarling teeth and claws.

Tang Hao saw this scene in his eyes and thought about how to improve it.

But at this moment, everyone was staring blankly at the blast furnace, watching this spectacle that they had never seen before.

After all, their previous iron-smelting furnace was just blowing out black smoke. Where could there be such a blazing flame?

The stronger the flame, the higher the furnace temperature, and the furnace temperature is the key factor that determines the quality of a furnace of iron!

All blacksmiths understand that such a hot furnace temperature is unprecedented, and I am afraid that a good furnace of iron can really be smelted!

Even Wang Wenbo and others were a little dazed at the moment.

Is it possible that he really did it?

Did Marquis Zhongshan of the Ming Dynasty still know how to smelt iron?

For a moment, everyone looked at each other and could only wait patiently for the result.

I don’t know how long it took, at least an hour or two. When Wang Wenbo and others became impatient, waves of exclamations came.

"Oh my God!"

"How can this be?"

“There’s actually molten iron coming out!”

Accompanied by bursts of exclamations, everyone's eyes turned to him.

I saw Liu Dahu standing at the observation port from the side of the blast furnace, and he could clearly see the molten iron gathering at the bottom of the furnace, showing a charming orange-red color.

Even this old blacksmith who has been working hard all his life has to admit at this moment that this is a real miracle!

"Turn on the furnace!"

"Take out the iron!"

Liu Dahu ordered boldly, his whole face turned red with excitement!

Hearing his words, everyone froze on the spot.

How could it be... so fast?

Even gentry like Wang Wenbo often come to the Laiwu Ironworks to hang out. Even they know that ordinary iron smelting does not take a day and a night to produce molten iron.

No, let alone molten iron, it is good enough to melt the iron ore in a day and a night. Basically, it takes two days and a night to open the furnace to produce iron!

But what about now?

How long has it been since the ignition?

No more than three or four hours, right?

But Liu Dahu is the oldest and most experienced blacksmith in the entire Laiwu Ironworks, so no one dares to question his decision.

Wang Xianwen immediately shivered and shouted: "What are you still standing there for? Open the furnace quickly!"

Hearing his words, all the blacksmiths woke up from their dreams and immediately came to their senses. They arranged the graphite crucibles in order and prepared to open the furnace.

Holding long-handled iron tongs, two blacksmiths violently poked open the valve of the iron outlet at the bottom of the blast furnace, and the orange-red molten iron flowed out happily.

The orange-red molten iron flowed out of the pig iron groove, and the slag floating on it was blocked by the baffle on the groove. The graphite mold had been placed on the ground of the groove. The molten iron, which had removed the large pieces of slag, flowed into the mold from the groove and cast into pig iron ingots.

After a while, more than a hundred pig iron ingots were cast, and the orange-red molten iron was still flowing out continuously. The blacksmiths hurriedly used other graphite molds.

Wang Wenbo and others were completely dumbfounded at this moment. There were nearly 10,000 catties of pig iron ingots on the ground alone!

What is the concept?

Ten thousand catties of pig iron, even if it was the largest iron smelting plant in the Ming Dynasty, the Zunhua Iron Plant with 25 iron smelting furnaces and nearly 3,000 craftsmen, it would take a full ten days and half a month to produce so much!

But now?

Right here in the Laiwu Iron Plant!

Right in front of all of them!

It only took about half a day for a blast furnace to smelt more than 10,000 catties of pig iron!

My God!

This is going to be a success!

Wang Wenbo felt his eyes go dark and he almost fainted.

But he was the head of the Wang family of Langya after all, and he had seen the world, so he managed to stand firm.

But this miraculous scene made everyone breathe fast and even their blood boiled!

Liu Dahu looked at the scene in front of him with tears in his eyes, and even wanted to slap himself twice.

How dare you question the Marquis?

"Hey, don't cry!"

Tang Hao's voice came, "Enough pig iron, close the furnace door to produce wrought iron!"

This time, without Liu Dahu speaking, the blacksmith closed the groove for casting and opened the groove leading to the iron frying furnace. The iron frying furnace was nestled below the horizon, and the molten iron flowed into the iron frying furnace that had been burning for half an hour.

Once the molten pig iron produced in the blast furnace is stirred, the carbon and oxygen in the air react violently at high temperature to produce carbon dioxide. The melting point of pig iron is lower than that of pure iron. When carbon combines with oxygen, the carbon content in the pig iron gradually decreases, and its melting point gradually increases.

In steel products, the lower the carbon content, the softer it is, and the higher the carbon content, the more brittle and hard it is. The carbon content determines the softness and hardness of steel, and also determines their final use.

There is no doubt that agricultural tools such as hoes are generally made of pig iron or low-carbon steel, while high-end military equipment such as weapons and armor must be made of high-carbon steel with high toughness and hardness.

So, can high-carbon steel really be produced after this series of processes?

There is no doubt, because Liu Dahu has given the answer.

He picked up a red-hot iron ball from the iron frying furnace with long-nosed pliers, put it under the forging hammer and kept knocking it, and then patiently listened to the knocking sound carefully. This scene aroused everyone's curiosity.

When the other blacksmiths saw that Liu Dahu had been hammering repeatedly, knocking off the surface iron filings one by one, with each strike of the forging hammer, sparks flew everywhere, but no traces were left. This piece of iron was tough and hard, and it was a top-grade product!

Obviously, this was a piece of top-grade steel!

The kind that was good enough to forge swords and armor!

"Oh my God!"

"Did you see it? Did you see it!"

"This first furnace actually produced fine steel!"

What a miracle!

Putting aside the greatly reduced firing time, the fact that fine steel could be produced in the first furnace alone simply overturned the cognition of all blacksmiths!

They have been forging iron for a lifetime, and have never seen such an incredible thing today!

"Let's see immediately what the probability of steel production is!"

Tang Hao ordered expressionlessly: "Yidao, keep a record!"

"As long as you are proficient in this production process and master the specific time of steel production, it is not difficult to produce as much steel as you want!"

For a moment, all the craftsmen heard this and their eyes turned red instantly.

Because, in view of the needs of the Ming army, fine steel and pig iron are completely different values, and there is no comparison at all!

"This is also a good piece of steel!"

"I have it too!"

A craftsman exclaimed, his face full of excitement and excitement.

Refining a piece of iron and frying a piece of steel are two completely different things.

How much difference is there in value between a hoe and a sword?

These two are almost the same.

Wang Wenbo walked to Tang Hao with a dull look and bowed to him in admiration.

"My Lord, I am really impressed!"

"You are really a miracle!"

The other family heads could not sit still and rushed over to flatter him.

Tang Hao smiled and waved his hand, then looked at Wang Wenbo and others.

"Two things, listen carefully."

"First, improve the treatment of these craftsmen."

"You also know the principle of making a fortune in silence. Before the order of this marquis, do not report this matter to the court, and do not publicize it. It is best to block this news. Then you must appease these craftsmen. How much wages should be given to them, you should discuss it, otherwise they will go to other iron factories and you can only watch."

Wang Wenbo was stunned when he heard this, and then nodded.

Although he did not understand why Zhongshan Hou did this, it had nothing to do with him.

He just wanted to make a fortune in silence, and the life and death of others had nothing to do with him.

Besides, these craftsmen have mastered mature iron smelting technology, which is a cash cow. It is reasonable to improve their treatment. Anyway, they are all ignorant things and don’t cost much money.

"Second, all the fine steel produced by Laiwu Ironworks in the future will be sent to Qinghe Shipyard. If one ingot is missing, I will massacre all 36 of you. Do you understand?"

Tang Hao smiled and said, scaring everyone.

Wang Wenbo's forehead was covered with cold sweat, but he still had to ask: "My Lord, the court..."

"This is the will of His Majesty. Of course, you should give the steel that should be given to the court. I only want this kind of fine steel, and you can take the rest. But remember one thing, send as much fine steel as you can. The Jinyiwei will come to check from time to time. I don't want to kill anyone anymore. Do you understand?"

"I understand!" Wang Wenbo immediately accepted the order, "My Lord, don't worry!"

"You are a smart person, don't do stupid things!"