The Ningjia Iron Mine in Yunmeng County was boiling, blast furnaces were standing in Zhuangzi, and black smoke spread to the sky, like black clouds.

Slightly red-hot molten iron flowed out of the blast furnace, carrying a white mist, and the crowd let out cheers.

Ning Zhongxin, the old five of the Ning family who was in charge of the Ning family's mine, looked excitedly at the molten iron that had just been produced from the blast furnace, as if he had seen a myth.

When did it become so easy to make iron? It can even be said that this is not ironmaking, but steelmaking.

Looking at Ning Yu who was standing on the side, Ning Zhongxin opened his mouth, and finally swallowed the surprise into his stomach, and said with a smile: "Why do you kid have such a brain?" The quality of this iron is much stronger than what I saw on Daye Iron Mountain! The iron is not pure, brittle and not durable, but our iron is too pure! ”

Ning Yu said with a smile: "This blast furnace steelmaking method is originally made of steel, and it is naturally not surprising that the iron produced here is of high purity. ”

The so-called high-purity refined iron is actually the product of the earth-based steelmaking that Ning Yu knew in his previous life, which was built into a small blast furnace through adobe bricks, and then the wood was burned into charcoal, and the excessive carbon in the iron was removed, so that the carbon content was reduced and became steel.

Therefore, at the beginning of the eighteenth century, the technology that Ning Yu came up with was simply an epoch-making product, so Ning Yu also specially told not to let irrelevant people touch the core part of ironmaking.

Ning Yu has been here for ten days, and after more than a dozen furnace experiments, this blast furnace steelmaking has finally smelted the first furnace of high-quality pig iron. If this kind of iron is used to cast the cannon, Ning Yu believes that it can extend the life of the sub-mother cannon by as much as double. However, the iron is not used for personal use, but is forged into weapons and sold at a high price.

In addition to the fact that the sub-mother cannon is more sensitive, such as shotgun swords, these can be cast, and the quality is much stronger than that of the official camp, so it can also be sold at a price.

Ning Yu naturally did not object in his heart, because he understood that what the Ning family lacked most now was time and capital, and only after full development could they transform potential into strength.

As soon as the matter here was over, Ning Yu immediately returned to the Eagle Camp, Ning Si also had a lot of respect for Ning Yu in his heart after such a long time of guarding, so he had always been Ning Yu's charioteer and guard chief.

At this time, the Eagle Battalion is no longer just more than 200 students, after accepting a large number of children of salt workers, the number of students has risen to more than 350 people, but the age level is uneven, so Ning Yu will be under the age of 12 boys camp, belonging to the Eagle Battalion, the boys' battalion will be assessed at the age of twelve, those who pass the assessment can enter the Eagle Battalion, if they fail to pass, they will be assigned to other mines or farms.

However, the cadets who entered the Eagle Camp were reluctant to leave, so they all worked very hard to train, and even the boy camp was full of shouting and killing.

Sometimes Ning Yu also thinks about whether this is the right thing to do, but every time he has this thought, Ning Yu is telling himself that in fact, he has no choice, if he can't move forward, then the result will be extremely tragic.

Today, there is an office area in the Eagle Battalion, which is the General Staff Office, the Judge Advocate General's Office, and the Teaching Office, which are arranged to be on duty every day, and the relevant barracks regulations have been promulgated, and everyone must follow the regulations.

Dong Ce walked over with a stack of papers, saluted Ning Yu, and then said: "Camp, now that the military camp training is close to saturation, the daily meat supplement has also increased greatly, this is this month's military supply." ”

At present, the Eagle Battalion has not yet formally established a logistics office, and the supply of materials is directly in charge of the Ning family's old house, while the staff office is responsible for reviewing the logistics supply and assuming part of the logistics responsibility.

However, this situation will soon change, and Ning Yu will set up a logistics office in the near future, because a large number of logistics materials will soon arrive at the Eagle Camp.

Ning Yu flipped through it briefly, then signed it with a brush to express his agreement, then wiped his face with a towel and asked, "Did you send someone over there from Lei Huozi?" ”

Dong Ce said respectfully: "Tell the camp, Lei Huozi's apprentice has come over, saying that the son's previous instructions have made progress now, but there are still some problems that need to be solved." ”

Ning Yu hurriedly put down the towel, "Where is the person, hurry up and take me over." Also, during this time in the camp, it is necessary to strengthen the guard to prevent people from mixing in. ”

The person sent by the thunder camel was his apprentice, and Ning Yu had seen it with his own eyes last time, so he didn't say anything, and followed him to the cannon factory with the guards.

Today, with the strong support of Ning Yu, the artillery workshop has expanded to a large scale, and even makes use of an empty valley behind the mountain, where a large number of craftsmen make some iron agricultural tools every day.

These farm tools are mainly used in the surrounding prefectures and counties, still to hide people's eyes, but in addition to making farm tools, Lei Huozi also began to make cannons under the command of Ning Yu.

However, with the improvement of Ning Yu and Lei Huozi, today's artillery making process has undergone great changes.

Because although the original iron mold casting method greatly accelerated the casting speed and reduced the cost, the improvement in the quality of the gun was not particularly high, mainly because the core part still follows the old method - the iron core is wrapped in mud.

This method will lead to improper preparation of fan mud, and the moisture problem is difficult to solve. After the molten iron is poured in, the moisture is heated and evaporated, forming bubbles in the molten iron, resulting in the cannon still having honeycomb, but it will be much less than in the past.

Therefore, in Ning Yu's vision, the mud core is completely discarded, so as to completely solve the bubble problem. However, it was not so simple to solve the problem of internal chambering, because this technology was not until decades later, when the British relied on the brute force of the steam engine to hammer out the chamber directly on a solid iron pillar.

This method is too hardcore, and it is obviously impossible for Ning Yu to solve it today, so it can only be changed to another method, that is, the iron cannon core.

Lei Huozi studied this problem for a long time, but found that there was really no way to take out the iron cannon core, if the cannon core was taken too early, the inner chamber in it was not cooled, and if it was taken too late, the iron core would melt together with the cannon and completely become an iron pillar.

Ning Yu later thought for a long time, and asked Lao Gao, a carpenter on the artillery field, to set up an extra spiral crane on the platform, and then insert the iron core into the cannon model, and when the molten iron poured into it cooled and took shape, he shook the handle, rotated the iron core, and then hung it out, which could solve the problem of adhesion.

At this point, the iron mold casting method in Ning Yu's heart can be regarded as a great achievement.

In fact, only according to the original method of making cannons, it was originally enough to be used, at least it could throw off the current Qing Dynasty.

But in Ning Yu's heart, the really ideal cannon in this era was the Napoleonic cannon that became famous in the American Civil War. All this is just laying the foundation.