Li Chengyang returned to the study shortly after Li Gang left, and did not come out until it was dark.

After a simple two-bite meal, he told Li Yi to go to the coal mine yesterday to pull a few truckloads of coal back, and he had to determine what the coal could look like.

And he himself walked out of the palace with a drawing and went straight to the Ministry of Engineering.

The current Ministry of Industry seems to have become his back garden, allowing him to come and go freely, and everyone who sees him will bow respectfully.

This is the God of Wealth of the Ministry of Industry, how can I do it if I don't offer it well.

"Ouch, what kind of wind is blowing you, hurry up, please come in", Wu Li, who received the news, greeted him as soon as possible, and pulled Li Chengyang to go to the main hall to talk.

Li Chengyang hurriedly grabbed him, pulled people and walked to Wu Li's special courtyard:

"I have something to do with you today, do me a favor, if you do this well, maybe you will never be short of money in the future."

Wu Li's eyes were shining: "Your Highness, the matter of this Ice Control Division has been solved?" ”。

Li Chengyang shook his head: "No, I have found a new way for you to make money, if there is no problem, you can eat for a lifetime, but you can't play with it."

"No child's play, no child's play", Wu Li couldn't help nodding, and the first thing he did when he entered the small courtyard was to copy his forging hammer, and waved at Li Chengyang:

"Your Highness, you said that you need Lao Wu to do something, don't worry, no matter what, I will do it for you."

took out the drawings drawn last night from his arms and handed them to Wu Li: "See if you can build this thing."

Wu Li turned out to draw a strange-looking object on it, with a big belly, half a person high, open up and down, a few iron pillars below, and a small hole on the side near the bottom.

"Your Highness, what is this?" , Wu Li has never seen anything like this, so ask Li Chengyang first to prevent any mistakes and omissions.

"You don't care, just build it", Li Chengyang didn't plan to explain at all, he didn't know what the vent of the stove was, but it could be used.

Wu Li scratched his head in embarrassment, what he was most afraid of was this kind of thing he had never seen, what was this for.

"Your Highness, you have to make some requests, otherwise this can be built, but what is made, then it may not be said."

Li Chengyang thought for a while: "There are still two hollow tubes, one vertical and one horizontal, I didn't have time to paint, these two pipes must be connected together, the key to the whole furnace is that it cannot be breathable at all, except for the three three holes specially set aside, the rest of the places must be sealed."

With this is much better, Wu Li opened the stove, took out an iron chisel and picked it into the fire, pulled the bellows and pushed and pulled it a few times, and a flame came out with a roar.

"Do you have any other furnaces, the kind of iron-making", Wu Li is ready to start work, Li Chengyang naturally can't be idle, the main purpose of his coming today is not to simply build a furnace.

Wu Li put down the hammer and thought about it, then went to the side room to tinker for a while, and then began to move things out one by one.

Li Chengyang looked at it, a blower, a huge stove, and a rather large hourglass-like thing, adding the rest of the messy accessories.

"This is the furnace for making iron?" , Li Chengyang looked at Wu Li and asked.

"Yes, Your Highness, wait a minute, this is a priceless treasure that I have been collecting in the past few years, it is said that someone used this to directly train steel, but then I became a waiter of this Ministry of Works, and I forgot about this thing, if you don't say it today, I really can't remember."

Wu Li replied as he skillfully put everything on.

"Priceless?" , Li Chengyang picked up the hourglass-like thing and studied it carefully.

I don't see anything strange, how can I directly train the steel.

If the steel was so easy to practice, the current Datang would have already had a set of steel armor in his hands, and he would have wiped out Jieli.

"Your Highness, this is true, this is what I bought back with a lot of money in Xinping Town, I have seen someone practice a little steel with the same thing, and it was really true at that time", Wu Li saw that Li Chengyang did not believe it, and hurriedly explained.

"Xinping?" What a place this is.

"Yes, it's Xinping, the porcelain produced there is very beautiful, and almost every household is doing porcelain work."

Isn't this Jingdezhen, I have been to it in my previous life, and the name of Jingdezhen porcelain is known to everyone in later generations.

There is a kind of kaolin there, which is produced in a place called old age, which is why it is so named.

This kaolin is a rare clay that is resistant to high temperatures, and it is said that there was still a huge demand for kaolin in previous generations.

Until that time, it had not been eliminated, which is enough to prove the preciousness of kaolin.

Then Wu Li's words are much more credible.

Pig iron steelmaking is a process of removing the carbon content in pig iron, and when the carbon content is almost removed, the iron will become steel.

And in this removal process, the most important thing is temperature first, and time secondly.

First of all, there must be a high enough temperature to remove the carbon in the molten iron, and it is necessary to keep stirring to let the molten iron fully burn, so that a good furnace can be obtained.

The temperature can also be solved, and there are always some raw materials that can produce high temperature that can be burned.

But this heat-resistant material is not easy to find, and the iron-making things that are usually used can't withstand such high temperatures, and it won't take long to melt, let alone be able to train steel.

Now don't worry, since someone has used that hourglass to train steel, it means that this hourglass can withstand high temperatures, so it is not an exaggeration to say that it is a priceless treasure.

The output of 100 steels has always been a knot in Li Chengyang's heart, and there is no way, Datang's steel output is too low.

I had some vague feelings when I checked the accounts in the household department before, but I didn't care about it at the time.

After thinking about it last night, he was greatly dismayed by the conclusions he came to in the end.

Last night, using the modern base system, Datang's annual steel output is only more than 4,000 tons.

What is the concept of more than 4,000 tons?

The basketball court is covered with a one-meter-high block of iron, which is about 4,000 tons.

The whole Tang Dynasty, all year round, is just a little iron.

Not to mention the output of steel, during the Three Kingdoms period, Cao Cao planned to refine five treasure swords, and it took three years to complete them.

There is no need to pursue whether it is real or not, anyway, it is really not easy to make this hundred steels.

It is said that it is a hundred refinements, and many people think that a piece of pig iron is constantly folded and beaten, and it is considered to be completed after folding more than 100 times.

Li Chengyang originally thought so, but later Wu Li took him to see a few times at the work of the people who built 100 steels in the Ministry of Industry, and he didn't think so anymore.

Hundred steels are not made a hundred times, but this piece of pig iron has to be heated and cooled a hundred times, or even longer.

Every time I get up before dawn and burn the pig iron red, this begins the day's building, until the evening, when the fire is turned off and goes back to rest.

Continued the next day.

This is repeated for hundreds of days, and a piece of steel can be formed by a hundred steels.

And the amount of a knife can only be made at a time, and the craftsmen said that this is what kind of curse, Li Chengyang knows it, but because the pig iron is too large, it takes longer.

How many pieces of steel can a craftsman produce in a year? Well, it's basically negligible.

Now that there is coal and this high-heat resistant material, maybe Datang's steel output will usher in a soaring period in the future?

Wu Li installed the iron-making furnace and went to build a coal furnace, leaving Li Chengyang to continue his research around the iron-making furnace.

This furnace is too small, but it is enough to practice iron, but steel is not necessarily, and if you go back and test it, you must make a bigger furnace.

All that's left to do is wait, and as soon as the coal comes back, it's all settled.

Li Chengyang is still full of hope.

Wu Li had also used coal to make iron before, but it ended in failure.

The temperature is enough, but the iron is really brittle.

Not to mention comparing it with a hundred refining knives, it is compared with ordinary iron knives, which will be broken when touched, and after testing it a few times, Wu Li no longer has hope for coal.

There are many reasons for brittleness, and it is not very practical to use coal to make iron, because there is too much magazine content in coal, and the main thing is that because the content of sulfur is too large, a series of chemical reactions occur that cause iron to become extremely fragile.

Li Chengyang remembered what coke was needed for iron smelting, but unfortunately he only knew one name, which was enough for the exam, but if he really wanted to do it, I'm sorry, I don't have a clue at all.

The coal found outside Chang'an this time gave him a little hope.

The coal found this time does not have that pungent smell, which means that the content of the magazine in the coal this time is relatively small, and the coal mine is relatively pure.

Ironmaking may be enough, but steelmaking is not.

However, everything is just his imagination, and whether it can be done or not still needs to be tested by facts.

"Wu Li, don't we have any better way to make iron", Li Chengyang, who was extremely bored, began to gossip with Wu Li.

Wu Li stuffed a piece of red-hot iron into the furnace and thought about it for a while:

"It is said that there are still some, it is said that during the Eastern Han Dynasty, there was a person who came up with a better way to make iron and steel, and it is rumored that a large number of 100 steels can be made."

Li Chengyang immediately came to his senses: "Does that person have descendants to pass it down, or can that method be passed down?" ”。

Wu Li shook his head: "There was a lot of war back then, and many things were lost, and the waterwheel of the past few days was made by someone before, and it was also because of the war that the inheritance was lost, and in the end, Your Highness, you made it again."

"Alas, yes, I don't know how many families have been affected by the war", Li Chengyang squatted on the side and sighed.

"Hey, I don't know when I'll see the legendary steel filling method", Wu Li also sighed, lowered his head and continued to build his coal stove.

"Steel? Steel-filled method? Li Chengyang kept muttering in his mouth.

He is still familiar with this name, and he often mentions it, but he didn't expect it to have a prototype in the Eastern Han Dynasty.

That shouldn't be, since it hasn't been handed down, how did the name come about?

It would be too much of a coincidence that later generations remembered the same method and then added the same name.

Yes, there can be no such coincidence.

This is less likely than the existence of a person in the world who looks exactly like you, and it is basically impossible to happen.

Since this is impossible, it is that the steel filling method must have been recorded and passed down.

It's just that I don't know whose hands it is, or where it's buried.

It may be that after many years, it will be brought out by unworthy descendants, or gravediggers, and this method will be reproduced in the world.

It is impossible to let Li Chengyang dig the grave, but there is still some hope for finding the descendants of the unscrupulous.

From the Eastern Han Dynasty to the present, a family of poetry and books that has not died out, the Tang Dynasty has it.

Maybe there is such a sentence or two in the books in the collection of the family?

Otherwise? Try? If this is discovered, it will not be a problem for Datang's national strength to increase several times.