"It's still too primitive, and it's better to have a mobile boiler to connect the molten iron, so that the molten iron can be used to cast the desired casting."

"Well, there is a lack of large-scale lifting equipment, and it is still necessary to set up a gantry crane."

Liu Jin looked at the simple and rude way of the water outlet, the time was in a hurry, and the first furnace of steel was smelted in a hurry, and there were still many things that were not ready.

"Lao Liu, your method is really good, this furnace, I estimate that there must be 100,000 catties of iron."

Zhu Hou looked at the red molten iron and said excitedly.

"100,000 catties, impossible, how can there be so much iron?"

When Zhang Mao heard this, he shook his head again and again and said, the productivity of this era is extremely backward, and smelting steel is a technical activity, the output is very low, and the quality is very poor.

"I estimate that it is about the same, so much molten iron, there shouldn't be much difference between 100,000 catties."

"It is incredible that 100,000 catties of iron can be smelted in one furnace, and the investment of two million taels of silver is also worth it."

Xu Guangzuo looked at the red molten iron in front of him, with a smile on his face, as if he had seen countless white flowers of silver.

"It still depends on the quality of this iron, and only if the quality is good can it be sold at a good price."

At this time, Zhang Mao finally opened his mouth and said with a smile.

According to the records, in the Ming Dynasty, a shovel cost 50 copper plates, and a kitchen knife sold for 30 copper plates, as for the price of iron, it fluctuated very much, divided into different types and varieties.

The better the quality of iron, the more expensive the price, the most expensive iron even sells for hundreds of pounds, of course, this kind of iron is generally iron, which has been repeatedly forged by blacksmiths, and it is already very close to steel.

As for some very poor quality iron, the price is not cheap, and it costs dozens of dollars a catty, of course, this kind of iron generally needs to be forged repeatedly by blacksmiths before it can be used.

Zhang Mao already had an understanding of the market in advance, and it was very clear that the quality of this iron had a great impact on the price, and the same output, if the quality was good, the price was high, and it was often better to sell.

"I'll go get some and have a look~"

As soon as Huang Jinquan heard this, he immediately commanded a steward beside him, and the other party quickly took a long iron spoon and directly scooped out a spoonful of molten iron, and then someone brought a basin of water and poured it directly, accompanied by a burst of white smoke rising, and the red molten iron quickly cooled down and turned into a slightly silvery-white piece of iron.

Spoonful after spoonful of ice-cold water is poured on, the iron cools quickly, and you can hold it in your hand in a few minutes.

"Your Highness~"

Huang Jinquan handed over the iron to Zhu Houzhao's hands, and the steward under his command was still scooping the molten iron out, cooling it with cold water to form small pieces of iron.

Zhu Houzhao took the iron block and weighed it slightly in his hand, weighed it, it was heavy, and he felt it, then looked at it carefully, and then took an iron rod from the side and knocked it lightly.

"Ding~"

A crisp sound sounded in everyone's ears, which made those who knew how to help but light up their eyes slightly.

"Good Iron~"

Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but admire, don't look at his young age and don't seem to understand anything, but Zhu Houzhao is smart, as long as he is willing to learn what he wants to learn, he learns quickly, during this time, he has been building blast furnaces and smelting iron together, he has concentrated on studying a lot of related books and contents, and has also consulted a lot of experienced old blacksmiths.

So he knows how to distinguish between good and bad iron, the first is to look at the eyes, the brighter the color, the more silvery white, the better the quality, vice versa.

The second is to listen to the sound, by striking, the better the quality of the iron, the crisper its sound, and vice versa, the more muddy.

"Ding~"

"It is indeed the finest good iron~"

Here, Zhang Mao couldn't wait for a long time, took a piece of freshly cooled iron, and observed it carefully, it was also very expert in beating iron ore and listening to the sound.

After the inspection, Zhang Mao immediately smiled even brighter, the better the quality of the iron, the higher the price, which means that the greater the return on investment.

"Well, it's okay~"

Qin Yi is also checking the quality of iron, Miyun's iron ore is one of the very few good quality iron ores in the land of China, with many advantages such as high iron content, low alumina content, less harmful impurities, and good sintering performance.

The quality of the iron ore here is good, the temperature of the blast furnace designed by itself is high enough, the smelting method is also correct, and more importantly, it is also known that the use of chemical methods to eliminate the impurities inside, although the steel produced by this practice is still not comparable with the steel of later generations, all kinds of professional steel in later generations, to be hard, to be stainless but also to be able to stainless steel, add other metals into the steel, you can obtain a variety of alloy steel.

It can't be compared with the later generations, but in this era, it is naturally the best.

"Haha, stinky boy, you still have the ability."

Zhang Mao gave Liu Jin a thumbs up, he had to convince him, although Liu Jin's ability to spend money is very powerful, many times in his eyes he is like a loser, but this ability to make money is greater, and he will spend money and make money.

The flowing molten iron in front of him, where is the molten iron in Zhang Mao's eyes at this time, it is flowing gold, all white flowers and silver.

This finest iron can buy a few hundred wen a catty, a catty of iron is only a little bit, the flowing molten iron in front of me, I am afraid that there are 100,000 catties, and this pot of molten iron can be worth tens of thousands of taels of silver.

Simply calculate, there can be almost tens of millions of taels of silver this year, even if the expenses in all aspects are very large, the profits in this will still be very considerable and amazing, and it is definitely no problem to easily earn millions of taels of silver.

"I knew I would have invested a little more~"

Zhang Mao faintly regretted in his heart, he only invested 200,000 taels of silver, only one percent of the shares, which was too little.

"Zhang Gong has won the award, and now the iron factory is still very simple, and when all kinds of processing equipment are done, the iron factory will really make money."

Of course, Liu Jin saw Zhang Mao's mind at a glance, and what he was most concerned about was naturally making money.

Liu Jin doesn't want to sell only iron, but is ready to sell all kinds of iron products, such as iron pots, kitchen knives, hoes, farm tools, etc., which are in high demand, and when the time comes, it will be easy to make steam forging machines and maximize the value of his products.

Even in the field of more profitable military products, swords, armor, muskets, artillery, etc., the business of arms has been the most profitable business since ancient times.

However, it is not an easy thing to snatch this piece of fat from the hands of the ministers, but these ministers are insatiable, and the quality of the arms and weapons produced is extremely poor, and it is not without a chance to take it in the future.

What's more, the major shareholders of this iron factory are Emperor Hongzhi and Zhu Houzhao, father and son, they have no reason not to take care of their own business, right?

"It's a little simpler, all kinds of things to be built hurry up, this time is silver."

When Zhang Mao heard this, he immediately nodded again and again, originally he also said that Liu Jin spent money lavishly, and the silver was spent like flowing water, but now when he saw that the quality of the smelted steel was good and the output was high, he couldn't wait for Liu Jin to build the entire iron plant as soon as possible, so that he could make money faster and return to the capital.

"Haha~"

Zhu Houzhao and Xu Guangzuo on the side couldn't help laughing.

While everyone was talking and laughing, the molten iron also began to slowly cool down, with long strips of steel bars, pieces of steel ingots of the same size, and all kinds of other shapes of iron.

The workers of the iron factory began to weigh the cooled iron as they poured water, preparing to weigh how much iron was smelted in this furnace.