Zhu Youxiao did not continue to check the firearms, but went directly to the place where the experimental blast furnace was conducted, which was also at the site of the Tiangong workshop, but it was located in the place where the carriage was made in the past, and there was also a water wheel transmission mechanism here.

A group of people walked into a workshop, only to see a thick transmission shaft from a wall side deep, and then through countless gear bearing transmission, drive a huge press head, the square press was brought high by the hydraulic force, and then fell suddenly, boom in the loud noise, the iron plate placed below was stamped and formed, and then the press was raised, the blacksmith waiting next to quickly replace the iron plate, and then press the handle, the press fell, and so on.

"Your Majesty, please see, this is the result of a recent period of time, the hydraulic stamping ......." Xu Guangqi gushed introducing, his expression was excited, and the loud sound of the press was like fairy music in his ears, which made him intoxicated.

Zhu Youxiao stepped forward with a smile and inspected the products that had been piled up next to him by the blacksmith. It was two dark iron plates, one in front and one in the back, and together they were roughly the shape of a person's upper body. Zhu Youxiao jumped two pieces, and said a little excitedly to the side, "Li Tu, come and try it." ”

Holding the two breastplates, he gestured at Li Tu. In the face of the emperor's movements, Li Tu did not dare to move, and let the emperor press two iron plates on him.

Knock knock!

Zhu Youxiao knocked twice, and found that there were still some gaps after the breastplate was closed, which could not fit the human body perfectly. However, he was already very satisfied with this level, and the inside only needed to be improved, and the inner lining of silk fur would be perfect. With hydraulic stamping to ensure sufficient iron material, a large number of cuirasses can be stamped continuously here, so that each person can have a piece.

Thinking that in the future, his army would be all dressed in iron armor and shining in the sun, and he couldn't help but be excited. With such an army, just by going to that station, I am afraid that it will be able to cause the enemy's morale to fall.

"Good, good!" Zhu Youxiao praised again and again.

After putting down the two cuirasses, which were still the first products, he continued to walk forward, this is probably the place where Xu Guangqi experimented with hydraulic forging technology, and the transmission pump was divided into many forks here, and his eyes were on one machine tool after another.

That's right, it's machine tools, although these machines are very primitive and very simple, but they have a variety of functions, and they already have the appearance of some old-fashioned machine tools in later generations, except that one is electric and the other is water-driven.

Hydraulic forging, hydraulic drilling, hydraulic lathes. Zhu Youxiao saw a lot of unexpected things, and he didn't mention these to Xu Guangqi at all, this was originally one of the purposes of his coming here this time, to teach Xu Guangqi some directions for the use of water power. It's just that before he could speak, he found that the other party had already begun to apply this aspect.

"These ......," Zhu Youxiao pointed to the primitive machine tools in disbelief.

Lao Chen saw that some carpenters had similar machinery, so he improved it slightly, added water power, and used it to turn iron. There are many similarities in the processing of iron and wood, but it is harder. Xu Guangqi explained lightly, he still looked at the emperor a little strangely, and didn't understand why he was so excited? The emperor who could think of such a use of water power should not be unaware of the things in these carpenters' trades.

"Hehe, I don't know if these can be used to drill holes in the barrel." Zhu Youxiao smiled and changed the topic to hide his ignorance. Judging from Xu Guangqi's attitude, these should be things that have existed for a long time in ancient times. It's a shame that I'm still self-righteous, and I'm going to come over and teach each other.

"Not ideal." Xu Guangqi shook his head, pointed to a machine tool and said, "Your Majesty, please look over there, have you found anything?" ”

Zhu Youxiao looked intently, and after carefully observing for a while, he said slowly, "The knife is not stable enough, and the tremor is too big." ”

"Your Majesty's discerning eye can see at once what the problem is, it is exactly like this, the tool used for drilling is too long, the tremor is too great, and there is no good way to stabilize it at present - the speed is too low to drill at all, and if it is too high, it will tremble violently." Xu Guangqi exclaimed, looking excited.

After taking over here, he could already roughly get a glimpse of the emperor's intentions, flourishing miscellaneous studies, casting firearms and armor, so as to strengthen the army, and if the army is strong, Liaodong will be stable, and Liaodong will be stable and the country will be stable.

"You can't drill holes, but you can use them to sharpen the barrel." Zhu Youxiao looked around the machine for a while and then suggested, "You can add a flywheel to the back of the machine tool." He gestured a circle behind the knife, "The flywheel stabilizes the rotation, makes it smooth, and the borehole does not need to be very high, so that the tool is stabilized, and the slow finishing can make the barrel smooth and corrected." ”

Xu Guangqi himself is a master of Western studies, and he has been buried here for three months, making guns, casting cannons and iron, and he is very clear and familiar with the doorway here.

"Wonderful, really wonderful, Your Majesty, the minister will find someone to experiment!" After clapping his hands and shouting a few times, Xu Guangqi wanted to find someone to put this idea into practice.

"Okay, Xu Aiqing, you wait for the experiment, I haven't finished my inspection yet." Zhu Youxiao stopped him funny.

"Yes, yes, the old minister was negligent." Xu Guangqi's old face turned red, and he continued to walk forward with the emperor. Ahead is the place where the iron is experimented.

After walking forward for a while, after passing through a door, the air heated up in vain, and several blast furnaces filled Zhu Youxiao's field of vision, and at this time, it was just the time when it came out of the oven, and the scarlet molten iron flowed out of the mouth, flowing into the mold that had been prepared long ago, and slowly cooling.

"Blast furnace ironmaking is relatively simple, it was practiced very early, and now a larger blast furnace is being built and will be put into production immediately." Xu Guangqi introduced with a smile. "It is currently being used here to meet the needs of the iron material."

"How's the steelmaking going?" Zhu Youxiao was not very happy when he heard this, but asked about steelmaking. Steelmaking and ironmaking have detailed technical information, which is one of the three most complete technologies in his mind, the other being shipbuilding and cement.

"It's still being tested." Xu Guangqi replied with a depressed face, "The information given by His Majesty is only a general summary, and the drawings are also very clear, and the old minister is still studying the specific structure." After speaking, he glanced at Zhu Youxiao strangely, not knowing where the emperor got the set of information.

Although Xu Guangqi has not yet grasped it specifically, it can be seen from those descriptions that this is a complete, powerful, and step-by-step steelmaking technology.

"That's it!" Zhu Youxiao frowned, he had already prepared for this situation, this time in addition to inspecting the Tiangong workshop, he came to tell Xu Guangqi a way of thinking. After sorting out his thoughts, he spoke his thoughts.

There are two kinds of iron, one is called pig iron and the other is called wrought iron, wrought iron has low carbon content and soft texture, and is rarely used in life. Pig iron has a high carbon content, is relatively hard, and is widely used in life. In particular, cast iron, which can now be produced in large quantities, was enabled by Xu Guang to produce iron armor and gun barrels.

Pig iron has a high carbon content, wrought iron has a low carbon content, if the two are melted and mixed, the carbon content will be neutralized, won't it become steel?

There is no problem with this method in theory, and after several months of exploration and experimentation, Xu Guangqi has been able to use different coke and iron ore ratios to refine pig iron and wrought iron without carbon content, and the preconditions are also met, but this method is Zhu Youxiao's view from a book, and whether it can be done is still a question.

And this method is also very stupid, if you want to make steel, you must produce a furnace of wrought iron, a furnace of pig iron, and then experiment with the ratio of the two, which is very time-consuming. At present, there is no instrument to test the carbon content of the two, so you can only try each ratio slowly.

But whether there is one or not, Zhu Youxiao will share his own ideas and dishes, here Xu Guangqi is an expert, and he is just a second knife with a little information.

After talking about steelmaking, Zhu Youxiao talked with Xu Guangqi about some more advanced industrial production concepts, such as assembly line operations, such as using the coordination of gears of different sizes to stabilize the speed, such as the feasibility of directly casting gun barrels. During the chat, he also gave the task of producing cuirasses and muskets with all his might, and all the manpower was tilted towards the two tasks.

In the Tiangong workshop, Zhu Youxiao stayed until sunset and returned to the palace.

【Author's digression】:P s%3A has been thinking very messily lately, a little tired, and writing is very scattered.