Foreman Li immediately took a few workers to carry the prepared haode fireproof mud up and quickly sealed the slag outlet. Ji Wusheng pulled the whistle violently, and the sharp whistle reminded the workers around the blast furnace that something was about to be discharged from the furnace, and everyone should pay attention to safety and avoidance.

Several workers began to stir the bottom of the furnace with iron drills, and with their combined efforts, like fireworks, many burning sparks flew out of the tap hole** and flew in the air. This is the wood at the bottom of the stove, and the ashes are blown out.

Ji silently instructed the workers to keep stirring, so that the ashes were constantly discharged. The ash is discharged to prevent the ash and slag from mixing together and causing the bottom of the seat.

When no more ash is blown out, the workers are taken care of to close the taphole. Then start sending the full wind. The blower whistled, the temperature in the workshop was getting higher and higher, and Ji Wusheng began to feel the sweat continue to slide down his forehead - the thick overalls prevented the heat from dissipating, but he still watched motionless in front of the stove. From time to time, I look at my watch and count the time.

"Okay" Ji Wusheng thought that the heat was almost over, and took care of Engineer Li, "From now on, you must always pay attention to the position of the furnace line, and gradually add air coke when the coke layer falls to the specified position." Add some slag - I've taught you how much to add each time, and if you forget, check the craft manual."

"I haven't forgotten" Engineer Li smoothly recited a series of data.

"Okay, from now on, until tomorrow morning's morning shift comes to take over, don't add ore, and start adding when I come. Coke should be constantly added to maintain the furnace temperature."

The second oven time takes about 24 hours, and only when the temperature of the whole blast furnace reaches a sufficient temperature can a small number of small batches of iron ore be added, all of which is to ensure the temperature of the furnace - in blast furnace smelting, the furnace temperature maintenance is an important topic, the furnace temperature is insufficient, not only affects the iron production rate, but also causes many blast furnace failures, Zuihou has to stop the furnace for overhaul.

Ji Wusheng went back and hurriedly seized the time to sleep. I woke up at night, and the mid-shift workers had taken over. He checked the handover records of the two shifts, and then drilled in from the probe hole with a steel drill to observe the combustion of coke and the temperature of the furnace wall.

"Continue to add coke in small batches and supply air." Ji Wusheng felt that the heat was still a little close, and decided to start adding ore on the morning of the 7th.

At noon on February 7, with Ji Wusheng's order, the first batch of iron ore concentrate and slag materials were finally put into the blast furnace and began formal pig iron smelting. Compared with the workers, Ji Wusheng was even more nervous - they did it according to Jishu information and their own experience, but whether this large copycat that was piled up with knockoffs could stand the test, and no one knew if it was operating normally. Ji Wusheng knew that the success or failure of the blast furnace determined how fast he could climb the technology tree

On February 8, the blast furnace finally released the first molten iron, and the main ditch was made of sand and gravel, filled with yellow sand. The casting bed is a pig iron mold. After the first batch of pig iron ingots came out, Ji Wusheng ordered people to take a car and bring iron bricks to Bairen's chemical laboratory to test the ingredients.

The results of the analysis were quickly fed back to the steel mill via cable telegraph. The quality of pig iron is very good, and the proportion of phosphorus and sulfur that affects the quality of pig iron is extremely low, far exceeding the various scrap iron and pig iron they get from the mainland. The convergence of high-quality iron ore and modern blast furnace smelting has created such high-quality pig iron.

Ji Silent's face lit up: "Great, with high-quality pig iron, it will be easier to make good steel." ”

After the molten iron has been discharged, the first slag is discharged. The steel slag is discharged into a large pond where water is fed from the water supply plant and treated with simple sedimentation. Cooled steel slag is the material from which cement is made. As for the cooling water that has been heated by steel slag, it is piped out to make use of the waste heat.

"From now on, iron will be produced once every two hours and slag will be produced once every 15 minutes," Ji silently ordered, he collected a sample of the steel slag that was cooled for the first time, and handed it to a staff member to quickly send it to Bairen for composition testing, so as to adjust the composition of the slag material at any time.

"Without a lab, you have to run to the dead." Watching the high-spirited clerk trotting out with the sample canister all the way, Ji silently sighed. The only way to communicate with the outside world is by road, and the speed of walking and cycling is too slow. In order to quickly deliver the goods, the Planning Institute allocated a motorcycle to the Ma Yuan Industrial Zone. When an emergency is needed, it is transported by motorcycle.

Soon the composition of the slag was analyzed, and it was photographed by wire telegram to the steel plant. The ingredients are roughly within the range of Ji Silent Prediction - the recipe and figures of the dosing are precisely calculated by him, and are a summary of more than 100 years of experience in modern blast furnace ironmaking. Now Ji Wusheng has enough confidence that the blast furnace can be stable for a long time. But he still did not dare to relax, he was in the workshop 24 hours a day, sleeping in the office when he was sleepy, and then getting up to look at the furnace - he did not dare to relax at all among the naturalized migrant workers under his command, after all, these people have only been real industrial workers for a year and a half. Bad habits and thinking still dominate the pattern. There are many new workers among the blast furnace workers, and there are few old workers, and it is easier to have accidents if you don't keep an eye on them.

Under his day and night surveillance, after 48 hours, the blast furnace was fully operational. According to the number of iron ore and coke input, the conversion rate of the blast furnace is about 0.79 - this level is not high, and modern blast furnaces can generally reach the level of 1. However, he is not worried, as long as he continues to improve the feeding ratio and slag making process, he is sure that the conversion rate will reach about 0.90. Even at the level of 0.79, the daily production of pig iron is much more than 50 tons. The capacity of the blast furnace is much higher than expected.

To celebrate the official commissioning of Blast Furnace No. 1, the Senate ordered additional rations to be added to the cadets at Yerba Buenaodi, including the students' favorite fruit candy. Years later, the "children of Yerba Green", who have grown into the backbone of the empire, often reminisce about the good days when they were "specially rationed". When it was time for the ration to be increased, the students would stand and cheer "Hurrah" in classrooms, dormitories and playgrounds – a new step forward for the Empire under the right, glorious and great leadership of the Senate.

At the same time, on February 9, a set of red notice headlines were published on both the internal and external pages of Lingao Times. Needless to say, the naturalized people, but also the natives who had a lot of dealings with the patriarchs also knew that the red headlines in the newspapers indicated that something great had happened to the patriarchs -- most of them were happy events. The members of the county advisory bureau did not understand the newspaper articles full of "new words", but the prefectural advisory bureau had a full-time liaison "female hair", and she was the most likely person to explain the contents of the newspaper and documents at every meeting of the prefectural advisory bureau. After hearing Tang Tang say that this is a big furnace that can produce more than 100,000 catties of iron, although they don't know what the specific meaning is, they still understand the significance of these 20 things from the solemn events of the patriarchs, and immediately wrote a "congratulatory letter" in the name of the county advisory bureau, wrote it on a big red paper, and sent it to Dongmen City. Zhang Youfu also took care of his subordinates, quickly bought firecrackers, and put them crackling at the door of the county consulting bureau.

Wu De closed the window - the sound of firecrackers outside was particularly noisy, interfering with the executive committee's standing meeting.

The meeting was convened at his request to address the issue of thermal coal supply. Of course, the so-called thermal coal supply problem is actually Hongji's problem.

“…… Well, the state of coal supply is already here. "I think everyone understands the current situation, the number of coal channels has not increased, but the number of users has increased a lot." If we don't solve the coal problem once and for all, I'm afraid it will be a problem to keep the industrial system running. ”

As if to test his claim, a warning whistle sounded outside when the boiler was deflated - reminding the elders present how many boilers were burning, how many steam engines were pushing and tirelessly providing a steady stream of powerful power for Lingao's industrialization. And in Sanya, Hong Kong, and Leizhou, there are many boilers waiting for high-quality coal to fill their huge appetite.

"It's unrealistic to expect Guo Yi to restore the coal transport channel for us immediately – and besides, the Pearl River Delta is not close to Lingao, and he can solve Hong Kong's thermal coal problem immediately at most. Zhanjiang coal shipped from Leizhou is now our main thermal coal force, which is the most stable supply of thermal coal at present. ”

He did not include the Jiazi Coal Mine in Qiongshan and the Nanbao Coal Mine in Lingao in the statistical standard of thermal coal. The former is a special coking coal for the Ministry of Chemical Industry and the Ministry of Metallurgy, and the calorific value of the latter is too low to be used as fertilizer.

"Is there any development value in Danzhou's coal mines? Remember where are the oil sands mines? ”

"Yes, there is a Changpo coal mine in Danzhou, which is one of the largest coal mines on Hainan Island." Bai Guoshi, who came to the meeting on behalf of the exploration department, said, "But the burial is deep and requires a large upfront investment." The quality of the coal is also not ideal - Changpo actually belongs to the same ore belt as the coal mine in Nanbao. ”

As for the Danzhou oil ore, the burial depth is very large, and it is more troublesome to mine. In addition, it has to be equipped with oil refining equipment, and the current demand for fuel oil is not large, and the increase in investment outweighs the loss.

"Ade, we understand what you mean," Ma Qianzhuo said, "and we will directly intervene in the development of Hongji, instead of relying on sporadic purchases from the Vietnamese trading company as we are now." ”

Wu De nodded: "Yes, that's what I meant." Now is the time to intervene directly. ”。