With the joint efforts of hundreds of craftsmen, the equipment for making iron wire was quickly built and immediately put to trial. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

Due to the experimental nature of the equipment, the size of the equipment is not large, and it does not take the power of steam engines, but only the equipment with a backlog of manpower.

When the semi-melted iron in the blast furnace is put into the wire making equipment, several craftsmen immediately squeeze it vigorously and successfully squeeze the semi-melted iron into iron wire, which is wound around the ceramic cylinder little by little.

"It's successful, the wire is made, oh oh oh!"

After the successful manufacture of the iron wire, the hundreds of craftsmen in charge of the experiment jumped for excitement, and they invented a new thing, and it will be very useful in the future.

The news of success quickly reached Ang Lee's ears, which made Ang Lee excited, the wire was easily manufactured, in the future, there is no need for the blacksmith to beat this stupid way to produce strip steel bars, just exqueeze it, of course, the manufacturing equipment required is larger, and mechanical power is used, so the equipment for manufacturing wire and steel bars needs to be further developed to meet the large-scale production tasks in the future.

Now that the wire-making equipment has been manufactured, it will be put into production immediately, and enough wire will be produced to serve Ang Lee's next test.

Looking at the wires that had just been manufactured, Ang Lee felt that the next step in the production of springs could begin, and immediately took the wires away, handed them over to the craftsmen who developed the springs, and told them what to do.

With Ang Lee's guidance, it should not be a very difficult thing for these craftsmen to successfully develop springs, it is only a matter of time.

Ang Lee is only responsible for the general direction and guidance, and provides drawings, and all the dirty work and hard work are all done by craftsmen, and as long as these craftsmen do it according to Ang Lee's ideas, they will definitely be able to develop it successfully.

After explaining the task, Li An, under the protection of a group of guards, went to the Ministry of Industry to find Guo Xuji, in addition to greeting the formation of the bridge department, there are still a lot of data to ask him.

"Li Shilang, why are you free today......

A small official smiled and greeted him.

"Don't forget, this official still has the official position of the Ministry of Works? What about Guo Shilang? ”

Ang Lee asked.

"Guo Shilang just went out, and he should be able to come back soon."

"What is your position?"

Li An felt that this person was a little embarrassed, and asked.

"Li Shilang, the villain is the assistant of Wailang, a member of the Yu Department, and he is an idle errand."

Li An nodded and said with a smile: "It's good to be idle!" It is easy to receive the salary, unlike the hard work and hard work of the official. ”

"Well, I really want to contribute to the court, but I don't have the opportunity."

The little official felt very stunned, in his opinion, idleness is a kind of humiliation, only those who are not favored by the imperial court will become idle, and they may not have the opportunity to be promoted in their lifetime.

"Well, this official asks you, what do you usually do, you don't just stand here all day to welcome guests!"

Ang Li was very curious, what kind of idle method Datang had.

"When I go back to Li Shilang, I have to help Lang Zhong and Wai Lang sort out and copy all kinds of documents, and I also go to various yamen to run errands, send and receive documents, and do some small things."

The clerk explained.

'Grass, this is called idleness, not errands and coolies?' ’

Li An was stunned for a moment, he didn't understand how a little official who had to do so much work could be called an idleman? Then, those officials who are not idle should not be busy with their feet touching the ground.

"Copying documents, it seems that you must know a lot of things, how many iron mines are in the whole territory of Datang, do you know?"

Ang Lee felt that this little official copied documents all day long, and he would definitely know a lot of data.

"I know a little, it seems that more than 300 iron ore mines have been discovered, and 200 iron ore mines are currently being exploited at an accelerated pace."

The little official replied.

"Oh, I see, so how much do you know about the number of craftsmen and the output of these iron mines?"

Ang Lee continued to ask.

"Li Shilang, about the number of people in each iron mine, are not fixed, the largest iron mine can have more than 1,000 people at the least, more than 10,000 people, small iron mines usually only have dozens of people, more than 1,000 people, that is, in the agricultural slack, the major iron mines will recruit a large number of people, and pay the people some remuneration, according to the following report, at the least, all iron ore craftsmen are only 50,000 or 60,000 people, and when the farm is the most, the number of people may exceed 1 million, as for the output, there are also more or less, It's really hard to keep statistics. ”

The little official replied seriously.

In fact, there are still a lot of iron ores found in Datang, but the demand for iron tools in agricultural society is not very large, and the primitive ironmaking technology is too backward, resulting in high ironmaking costs, which naturally affects people's enthusiasm for mining iron ore.

With the invention of black fire, medicine, and later the improvement of blast furnace and other technologies, the cost of mining was greatly reduced, and the demand for iron for laying railways and manufacturing machinery was huge, which made the price of iron always high, thus further promoting the enthusiasm of the major nobles to mine iron ore.

However, the speed of iron mining by the major nobles still can't keep up with the demand for iron in the entire Tang Dynasty, especially the more and more new things invented by Li An, and the demand for iron is also increasing.

The output of pig iron has become a bottleneck restricting the continued development of the Tang Empire, if the output of pig iron smelting is not solved as soon as possible, new railway lines, large railway bridges, and large-scale demand for steel bars will be seriously affected, and as for the current pig iron production, Li An still did not get a specific answer from the mouth of the little official.

According to the small official, in normal times, the entire Tang Empire, at least fifty or sixty thousand people are mining iron ore, and the total number of people is temporarily added when the farm is slack, and the total number of people exceeds one million, this manpower is already very considerable, and if you want to continue to add people, it will affect the development of other aspects, in the Tang Dynasty, where the population is not large, manpower is a very valuable resource, and it cannot be abused casually until it is absolutely necessary.

After thinking about it, Li An felt that the most advanced technology of ironmaking had not been fully popularized, and it was very likely that most iron mines still used backward old equipment, otherwise, with this manpower, the output should be more than expected, and it was artificially hidden.

When the Tang Empire was in urgent need of pig iron, hoarding pig iron was a serious problem that undermined the economic development of the Tang Empire.

Just when Li An was thinking about the pig iron problem, Guo Xuji, the waiter of the Ministry of Works, returned to the Yamen of the Ministry of Industry with a smile.

"Guo Shilang, you're finally back, I've been waiting for you for a long time, how is the formation of the bridge department, do you need help?"

Li An asked politely.

"Haha! Li Shilang is here, I've been busy with the affairs of the bridge department for the past few days, and I just went out to be busy with this matter, haha! ”

Guo Xuji said, and entered the inner hall of the yamen with Li An.

"Li Shilang came here today, he won't make a special trip to greet the bridge department!"

Li An nodded and said: "That's right, I have more important things to ask Guo Shilang, of course, this matter is extremely important, if it is not solved well, the construction of railways and bridges will be seriously restricted in the future, and there is not much to do in the bridge department that Guo Shilang has worked so hard to fight." ”

"Oh, what the hell is important?"

Guo Xuji realized the seriousness of the matter and asked with a frown.

"The yield of pig iron? If all the iron mines in Datang could not produce enough pig iron, it would be difficult to build railways and bridges, and now all departments are responding to the lack of pig iron, which is a serious problem that must be solved as soon as possible. ”

Li An said seriously.

"Well, what Li Shilang said is yes! If there is not enough pig iron, the bridge will not be able to get enough iron, and the railway and machinery will also be affected, which is a very serious problem. ”

Guo Xuji frowned and fell into deep thought.

"Guo Shilang, just now a small official told me that I already have two hundred iron mines in Datang, at least fifty or sixty thousand miners, and at most more than one million, if there are really so many people, and adopt the most advanced mining methods, it should not be impossible to meet the output! Is someone hiding it? ”

Li An asked urgently.

When Guo Xuji heard this, he frowned, and hurriedly replied: "The number of miners and iron ore is true, but most of these two hundred iron mines are local tyrants who suddenly pulled up a team to mine when they saw that the price of pig iron remained high, and they did not get the support of the imperial court, let alone have time to adopt the latest smelting and mining methods, and the imperial court did not trust these tyrants very much, and did not dare to rashly sell the black medicine to them. The imperial court will not allow it, so, the iron ore output mined by Xiaohaoqiang in these places is relatively low, far less than the iron mined by the nobles, as for the hidden iron material privately, this is of course inevitable, many nobles see that the Tang Dynasty is going to lay such a far railway, and the demand for iron materials will be greater and greater in the future, so there will definitely be more inventory, as for what is stored, the imperial court is not easy to check, and there is a problem of transportation, a large number of iron mines in the southeast and northeast, there are also some in Shu, The pig iron produced in these places must be transported by water to save the most money, but the water transportation is very slow, and many of the pig iron produced by Haoqiang in the first batch are still on the way. ”

"Oh, that's the case, no wonder more than 200 iron ore mines can't provide the iron needed by the capital, there are so many problems."

When Li An heard this, he frowned and began to think about countermeasures.

After all, pig iron is a very heavy cargo, and it is unlikely to take the stupid way of horse-drawn carriage transportation, and there is only one rail line at present, which cannot cover the origin of pig iron, and the slow waterway transportation has become the only feasible way.

As for the backwardness of most iron ore technology and production methods, Li An feels that there is still a lot of potential to be tapped, and the best way is to let the big nobles cooperate with these local Haoqiang, the big nobles provide black medicine and advanced mining technology, and take a share of the iron ore from Haoqiang, and at the same time be responsible for supervising the local Haoqiang, preventing them from secretly hiding gunpowder and black medicine, so that as long as the output of iron ore goes up, the big nobles and local Haoqiang can get more benefits, it is a win-win situation, and the operability is relatively large. As long as the imperial court decrees that the magistrates can mediate between them, this goal can be achieved.

Ang Lee spoke his thoughts and won Guo Xuji's great appreciation.

"Li Shilang, this method is completely feasible, as long as it is a win-win situation, these nobles and heroes will not refuse, when the time comes, the output of pig iron will definitely increase greatly, and the railway and the bridge will not have to worry about the lack of materials, it is better to report to Your Majesty today and let Your Majesty give an order."

Li An smiled and said: "Guo Shilang can just go and report to His Majesty, but the problem of someone secretly hiding pig iron must also be solved, if every merchant hoards Juqi, no matter how much pig iron is made, it will not be enough!" ”

"Li Shilang, this problem is not difficult to handle, just leave it to this official."

Guo Xuji seems to be full of confidence and does not feel that this problem is a serious problem.

"Okay, in that case, the official will leave."

Ang Lee has solved the problem of pig iron production, and it is time to return to the R&D center to continue to guide R&D personnel to develop and improve new equipment.

"Haha! Let's do it together! The official will go to the palace now to solve the problem of pig iron production for Li Shilang. ”

After Guo Xuji returned to the Yamen, he set off again before he had time to rest, but it was quite busy, but it was a good thing to be busy, at least, Guo Xuji's complexion now looked very good, his face was ruddy, and he was full of energy, if it wasn't for the fact that his hair was much whiter, from behind, he thought he was a young man?

After a few days, the spring was successfully made, and the manufacturing process is very simple, that is, the wire is wound around the cylinder to form a spring shape, and then a certain heat treatment is carried out to change the properties of these wires, so as to become a spring that can be used.

After the spring was first made, many of the craftsmen involved in the manufacture were puzzled, and they could not see what the practical effect of these things that could be compressed and stretched.

Of course, in this era when there is no application of springs, people who come into contact with springs for the first time must not be able to guess the usefulness of springs, however, the springs were made at the request of Ang Lee, and these craftsmen believe that these newly made springs must be of great use, otherwise, Ang Lee would not be so boring for them to spend so much effort to manufacture.

"Li Shilang is here."

One of the craftsmen shouted.

"Li Shilang, the springs you explained have been manufactured, but what are these things for?"

A craftsman asked, puzzled, pointing to the thick and thin springs.