Qin Chuan is making I-shaped rails similar to modern rail forms, the material is between pig iron and wrought iron, and the amount of toner is controlled during refining, and the molten iron with a carbon content of almost medium carbon steel is smelted, and it is cast into an iron mold.

In fact, before the 19th century, the world's railroad tracks were cast from pig iron, which could withstand several tons of carriages and last for hundreds of years.

In order to strengthen the bearing capacity, the middle of the I-shaped is slightly thickened, so that there is no pressure on transporting ore.

Sleepers are also the shape of later generations to achieve the best effect of bearing gravity.

The route of the track has already been drawn, the ground has been leveled, repeatedly compacted with a stone mill, and then paved with small stones and slag, etc., and compacted with graphite again.

Under Qin Chuan's command, the craftsmen laid the sleepers section by section on the pavement paved with stones and slag, flattened and straightened, and used long iron nails to drive them into the ground and fix them.

Then lay a one-zhang long rail on it, screw the thick screws into the screw holes left in advance, and fix the rails and sleepers.

Because of the need to connect the narrow space of the mine, the track gauge is only two feet three inches, that is, seventy-six centimeters wide.

Three days later, the railroad tracks that Qin Chuan wanted came out.

There are two in total, one is from the coking coal dump to the Dajian furnace, which is about 40 zhang long, that is, about 130 meters.

This is not far away, but Qin Chuan still decided to lay the railroad tracks, because a five-car rail car and a mule can complete the workload of five mule carriages or twenty chicken carts, greatly saving livestock and manpower.

The other track leads from the crushing yard and the fine material dump to the Dajian furnace, which is about 80 zhang long.

After the ore comes out of the mine, it is first piled in the coarse material yard, manually crushed in the crushing yard, the useless stones are removed, the iron sand is screened out, and the fine material yard next to it is piled up, and it will be transported to the Dajian furnace when it is to be used.

In the whole process, the transportation link consumes a lot of manpower and storage capacity.

On the day the railroad tracks were laid, Qinchuan deliberately let the mine have a half-day holiday, and 3,000 miners and workers from the lime factory of the cement factory not far away came, making the railroad tracks impassable.

Wang Jizong, Li Xuejing, Wen Cheng and many scholars and craftsmen who had just put into service also came, and they were circling around the railroad tracks and the railcars that had been loaded with rails, and they couldn't stop marveling at them.

Qin Chuan deliberately asked people to choose an auspicious time to drive, and when the hour came, he cleared his throat and shouted: "Everyone, let me go, get ready to drive." ”

Hearing his words, Wang Jizong, Wen Cheng and the others dispersed from the track and stood on both sides to watch hopefully.

"Drive." Qin Chuan shouted again.

An old man stood in the middle of the railroad tracks, grabbed the reins of a mule, pulled hard, and shouted.

The mule opened its four hooves, and when the rope was tightened, the mule was visibly struggling, and with his head bowed, he struggled forward, and the five carriages full of iron behind him moved slowly.

The carriages are getting faster and faster, and the mules are getting easier.

It wasn't long before the mule took a brisk step and pulled the five carriages along the rails in the direction of the Great Furnace.

The surrounding miners were in an uproar, and they were all amazed.

They used to use mule carts to pull iron, and a mule could pull up to 1,000 catties, and the chicken cart pushed by manpower could only pull 3 or 400 catties.

The five carriages were loaded with 5,000 catties of iron, plus the weight of the rail car itself, at least 7,000 catties, but a mule was very easy to pull.

Looking at this situation, even 10,000 catties can be pulled, at most, at the beginning, use manpower to help push it.

You can imagine how much manpower can be saved after having railroad tracks.

Among Wang Jizong, Li Xuejing, Wen Cheng and many scholars, many people understand the truth, but they are still amazed and amazed.

It is not difficult to understand the truth, the difficult thing is the idea, and the more difficult thing is to put the idea into reality.

When the mule pulled the rail car to the stockyard next to the Dajian furnace and completed a trial session, cheers rang out around the tracks.

"Qi Yuangong, you really found a good son-in-law." A middle-aged man - >>

The man stroked his beard and sighed to Wen Cheng next to him.

Wen Cheng was a little distracted, and sighed lightly: "I have been reading poetry and books for thirty years, and I can't talk and laugh as much as I can, alas, Wen's books are really in vain." ”

"Mr. Wen, don't sigh."

Lao Huang, who had just returned from the quarantine of Guandi Mountain, came over and said with a grinning grin: "The big boss said that the boat we are on has to have someone at the helm, someone to paddle, someone to give advice, and someone to fight in front." ”

"It's the same in our territory, the big boss is the helmsman, we rough people are responsible for fighting in front, the common people are responsible for farming and mining, and as for Mr. Wen, you are responsible for governing the place, leading the small people to plant the fields and run the workshop."

"Only in this way can our ship drive steadily and far, in the words of the big boss, ...... Things will be useful, and people will be good. ”

Hearing this, Wen Cheng shook his sleeves, bowed to Lao Huang, bowed, and said, "Listening to Huang Lao's words, Wen Mou's mouth suddenly opened, thank you Huang Lao." ”

"Hey, you can't, you can't, Mr. Wen, you want to torture the little old man."

Qin Chuan suddenly walked over and said with a smile: "It's all your own people, don't be polite here." ”

"Master Yue, let's go to the cement factory to see the new cement."

"Okay."

Under the leadership of Qin Chuan, a large group of scholars and craftsmen went to the cement factory five miles away.

As early as a few days ago, Yan Sanqi found the best formula, and fired the first batch of 500 catties of cement, and according to the method taught by Qin Chuan, he mixed cement and lime slurry with fine sand to obtain cement mortar and build a low wall.

He mixed cement with fine sand and gravel, and poured a five-foot square cement floor about four inches thick.

When they arrived at the cement factory, they surrounded the low walls and concrete floors that had been completely dried.

Qin Chuan had been busy with the railroad tracks, and he hadn't seen the effect of the cement, so after walking to the front of the low wall, he pushed the bricks on the top floor with his hand, and then knocked a few times with a hammer.

This is what later generations called two-thirds of the wall, made of two bricks crossed horizontally and vertically, and after the mortar dried, it was definitely not pushed to push, and it was only possible to knock it open with a hammer.

After knocking more than a dozen bricks in a row, Qin Chuan nodded with satisfaction, the effect of this cement mortar is not bad.

Then he slammed the concrete floor with a sledgehammer and down to the edge, but the four-inch thick concrete floor did not move.

It works great.

Qin Chuan clapped his hands with satisfaction, handed the hammer to Wang Jizong on the side, and said with a smile: "You can try it too." ”

Hearing his words, the surrounding scholars and craftsmen rushed up and smashed stones and sticks against the low walls and concrete floors.

Even Wang Jizong and Wen Cheng were hammering around.

Not long after, Wang Jizong put down the hammer, his face full of excitement: "With this thing, how much glutinous rice will you have to save in the future." ”

Wen Cheng also exclaimed again and again: "This kind of mortar is even stronger than glutinous rice mortar, and the cement slab poured out of mixed stones is as hard as a stubborn stone, incredible, incredible." ”

Qin Chuan sat on the big stone next to him and laughed proudly.

When the rebar is pulled out, he wants to be an infrastructure maniac.

He wants to use reinforced concrete to build the city wall of Mengjiazhuang, which is as high as a five-story building, not to mention the Hongyi cannon, even the gods don't want to enter it.

Then the main roads in Jingle and Lanxian are all paved into cement roads, and the straight roads can even be paved with railroad tracks.

In addition, he also wanted to build passes with reinforced concrete on several key roads in the hinterland of Luliang Mountain.

When the time comes, his territory will be impregnable.

……

After the group of scholars and craftsmen gave Huo Huo the low wall and cement floor, Qin Chuan took Wang Jizong, Wen Cheng and a few others to the Xitougou Reservoir.

A row of workshops has been built under the Xitougou Reservoir, and waterwheels and linkage devices have also been built.

Later, part of the barrel will be hydraulically drilled here.