After the steel helmets were all put on their heads, Li Youbu carefully checked them one by one to make sure that no one was wearing them, and then led them into the workshop.

A complete steel plant is generally divided into four parts: ironmaking, steelmaking, continuous casting, and steel rolling. In fact, there should be coking, but Yunxi doesn't understand coking, and is asking the workers of the steel mill to study, and now charcoal is used in steel smelting, so there is no such step.

Yun Hee first came to the ironmaking workshop. This step is the blast furnace ironmaking that many people are more familiar with. Yun Xi saw a blast furnace two or three zhang high set up more than a dozen zhang away, and many workers were busy working next to it.

"Wow!" A sound of inhalation sounded behind Yun Hee. To the officials who followed the inspection, the blast furnace looked so strange, like an enlarged bottle with a handle. "Why was the blast furnace built like this?" Someone asked Li Youbu, and Li Youbu should have agreed when he saw Yunxi waving his hand, and hurriedly walked to the person's side to explain.

Yun Xi looked at this blast furnace and felt very nostalgic, remembering the blast furnace in the factory that his father often mentioned when he was a child. Of course, the one in front of him was only what was commonly known as the 'earth blast furnace' in later generations, which was far worse than the blast furnace of a real steel factory, not only in terms of production capacity and iron ore utilization efficiency, but also in appearance.

But Yunxi still felt a sense of familiarity. After all, this is a blast furnace. A blast furnace that operates in principle like a modern product.

"Your Majesty, this is the blast furnace of iron, and the method of iron-making is ......; This iron plant can produce 50 stone of iron per day, and the entire steel plant now has 20 blast furnaces, which can produce a total of 1,000 stone a day. Li Youbu answered the man's question and walked back to Yunxi's side and introduced.

"A thousand stones?" Li Bo was surprised: "If it's 1,000 stone a day, isn't it possible to produce 3,560,000 stone of iron in a year?" ”

"Not much." Yun Xi said. 3560,000 stone is only more than 21,000 tons, and for him, it is not comparable to the output of the factory where his father worked in his previous life for an hour.

Of course, Yun Xi also knew that the total output of iron in the country in the last years of Hongwu was less than 100,000 tons, and it was already a lot that a steel plant built in the first year of Jianye could reach one-fifth of that of the last year of Hongwu.

"Your Majesty, new blast furnaces can still be built in the iron works, but it is difficult to increase the supply of iron ore now, so the current output is maintained." Li Youbu said again.

Yun Xi nodded, went around the blast furnace again, and saw that each worker was wearing a helmet, so he didn't look at it and went to the next workshop.

After that, there is the steelmaking workshop. If ironmaking is relatively simple, and small folk workshops can be completed, steelmaking is already high-tech in this era, not to mention that it is difficult for small folk workshops to smelt, even large steel mills are not easy, and because the cost of steel in this era is high, the price is also high, and the consumption is very small, so few people make steel. In the past, there were few steel-making furnaces in this factory, and most of the molten iron was directly sent to the continuous casting workshop after being baked, and the iron was smelted into a uniform specification, which was sold to the people by a special department. Yun Xi proposed to equip the army with steel helmets before adding a new steelmaking furnace.

"Your Majesty, the steelmaking workshop can refine 200 stone of steel in a day, and 72,000 stone a year." Li Youbu said.

After that, there is the continuous casting workshop. The continuous casting workshop is to turn the molten steel from the steelmaking workshop into a billet. Now, of course, it is also responsible for turning molten iron into billets. This step is quite important. If the molten steel is not refined, the steel will be unqualified, and it can only be rebuilt.

The last workshop is the rolling mill. The rolling mill is to roll the billet into steel of the right specification. However, this workshop caused controversy when it was first set up, because ordinary people basically did not buy steel, and all steel was consumed by the imperial court, especially the army.

The other yamen were no more, and the Governor's Office and the Ministry of War of the Five Armies believed that their own handicraft workshops had the ability to refine steel, and there was no need for the steel mills to roll steel at the end. The Yamen of the Ministry of Industry was weak, and Shangshu Shilang was unwilling to argue with the Ministry of War because of such a 'trivial matter', and he was almost about to cancel the steel rolling workshop.

After inspecting the four workshops, Yun Xi praised: "Ambassador Li has done a very good job. ”

He had just taken a closer look at the rules and regulations in the factory, and the workers were very effective and orderly, and he was even happier to learn that the steel plant had not had a safety accident for three months.

"The Ministry of Industry promoted Li Youbu, the ambassador of Meishan Iron and Steel Plant, to listen to the seal." Yun Xi said. Li Youbu hurriedly knelt down.

"I have an edict, add the deputy title of the Ru Yingzhi Institute, and eat the eight pins. I will reward you with a piece of silk for your finesse. ”

"Thank you, Your Majesty." Li Youbu said happily. He didn't care much about Zhengba Pinlu, but the silk horse used on it was a great honor for him, and it was suitable for him to use it or give it out as a gift.

After he stood up, Yun Xi commanded again: "The scale of the steel plant will be expanded. There is no need to worry about iron ore, there is an iron ore in Meishan, and the reserves should be not small, and the output of iron ore should be expanded. ”

"Your Majesty, there are now seven hundred and sixty-six workers in this steel plant, and according to the orders of the Shangguan, there is not a single craftsman from the past, all of whom are recruited from the peasant households. Because of the high salary, there are many applicants. ”

"But many people have been working in the steel mill for a few days and are too busy to do it. The blast furnaces of the steel mill could not be stopped day and night, and all the workers had to work in two shifts, twice every two days, and the afternoon shift would not be until after dark, which was very laborious, and they had to take turns to work the night shift, and many people could not stand it. That's why it took four years to accumulate more than 700 workers. Steel mills have been struggling to expand, which is also related to the difficulty of recruiting workers. Li Youbu said.

Yunxi nodded. The steel mill is a modern factory, although it is impossible to work at night because of the problem of night lighting, but only keep people on duty so that the blast furnace will not go out, but the management specifications are modern, and the requirements of the traditional agricultural society are far from the requirements, and it is normal for many people to be reluctant to come to the factory to work in the case of food, even if they are paid a high salary.

"But even so, we must pay close attention to training workers. If there are few people who are willing to come to work, then give them processing money. ”

Offered to go to the canteen where the workers ate and had a look. Li Youbu was stunned and said: "Your Majesty, I just came out of the workshop, and my body is full of sweat. ”

Yun Xi was not without suspicions, but it was really hot in the workshop, he was covered in sweat, even his shoes were soaked, and when he saw the eunuchs and guards following behind him, his skin was even red, and he nodded in agreement. Li Youbu immediately led them to the washroom where he usually used to inspect the workshop.

After a while, Yoon-hee took a shower and changed into the regular clothes he was wearing just now, and led them to the cafeteria.

Yun Xi listened as he walked to the cafeteria where the workers were eating. This was not the time for a shift change, so there was no one eating in the cafeteria, and a few cooks were washing and picking vegetables to prepare dinner. When they saw Li Youbu walking in with so many people who looked like big people, they immediately knew that this was the 'superior leader who had come to inspect' that had been reported not long ago, and immediately put down the food in his hand, knelt down and said, "The grass people have seen a few adults. "Occasionally, the Ministry of Industry Yamen also came to inspect, and they didn't know Yun Xi's true identity, so they were not afraid.

Yun Xi smiled: "Get up, you don't have to kneel around." "He also has no intention of identifying himself with these ordinary people.

Seeing that this senior official was very approachable, everyone became more relaxed, and kowtowed again and stood up.

"What do the workers eat on weekdays?" He asked again.

"To report to this lord, the factory provides workers with three meals a day, one in the morning, one at noon, and one in the evening. In the morning, it is fried dough sticks with eggs or noodles with eggs, at noon it is pies, and meat is eaten every two days, and in the evening it is served with rice, sometimes with pig's trotters or chicken. The leader said.

"It's a great meal." One of the guards muttered quietly. Of course, their guards eat better than this, if they want to have meat every day, but even if they are the guards in the guard, it is difficult to eat meat every day, and there are few eggs for breakfast.

Yun Xi didn't speak, just raised his feet and walked towards the kitchen. This person subconsciously wanted to stop him, but Li Youbu immediately gave him a look: Just kidding, what the emperor wants to do to stop it.

Yun Xi walked into the kitchen smoothly, put on gloves and rummaged around, looked at it for a while and said, "Ambassador Li, what that person said just now is the truth?" ”

Li Youbu immediately knelt down and said, "My lord, when the ministers inspect the canteen on weekdays, they all come in accordance with the regulations. ”

"But that's not what Lord Ben saw." Yun Xi sneered. When he was the emperor's grandson, he had personally rectified the hygiene problems of the imperial dining room for a while, and by the way, he also learned about the general rules of storing ingredients in the kitchen at this time, and what he saw just now obviously did not match what the man said. He then told him what he knew.

After listening to these insider words, the head of the kitchen wanted to continue to quibble, but Yun Xi said again: "You don't admit it? How about the official immediately call a few workers over to confront each other? ”

Upon hearing this, the leader knelt down and pleaded guilty. Yun Xi looked like a big official, at least much older than Li Youbu, he called people to come over to confront him, and the workers dared to tell the truth; And now the workers are very precious, Li Youbu is easily unwilling to be fired, and they have complained about him for a long time, and they will definitely add fuel and vinegar when they get the opportunity.

Although Li Youbu was surprised that the emperor knew so much about the situation in the canteen, he also kowtowed again and said, "The lower officials are not well inspected, and I ask for punishment." ”

"This cook's family was exiled to the northwest, and the rest of the cooks were inspected one by one and punished according to the amount of things they embezzled." Yun Xi said very sternly.

It is just that the oil for frying fritters in the morning has not been changed, and there will be such a time in the future generations, although it is unhealthy, but it will not directly die; The meat and eggs prepared for the workers were a little short, but there was even a lot less rice and noodles. He had just taken a cursory look, and it was at least half missing. That is, they embezzled half of it.

Li Youbu wondered in his heart: The final disposal of many much bigger corruption in the court is just the dismissal of officials for the people, this small kitchen corruption, there are not hundreds of times a year, the emperor is so angry, why is this? Not only him, but also the guards who came with Yunxi were also a little surprised.

The more Yun Xi thought about it, the more angry he became. He attached great importance to the workers of these steel mills. The steel mill was a modern factory, and although it still had a bureaucratic aspect, it was also a modern factory management model – thanks to his father's work in the steel mill, Yun Xi was more familiar with the management of the steel mill in his previous life, and forcibly promoted a new management method – in his opinion, it was more modern than the series of government-supervised and commercial-run factories built at the end of the Qing Dynasty.

Therefore, these workers who have undergone modern management are also very important. The workers of modern management, even ordinary coolie workers, were much better than the peasants and craftsmen, and even better than most armies, in terms of organization, discipline, and observance of rules and regulations. The vast majority of the soldiers in the country's guards may not be able to beat these workers when they want to be outnumbered and armed.

At the same time, although these workers have little knowledge, working in such factories gives them a lot of new insight, and they are much better than farmers and craftsmen.

All of this has led to Yun Xi attaching great importance to workers, especially now that the industry is just a little budding, these workers who have been trained with great difficulty are even more important, and the treatment is equivalent to that of the soldiers of the upper guard. Now that the food of these people he values so much is being deducted like this, he is very angry.

"Ambassador Li, such a big corruption, you only need to come to the cafeteria every day to take a turn, how did you become an ambassador?" Yun Xi asked again.

"The minister is guilty, please punish your majesty." Li Youbu kowtowed. At this time, those people have been taken down, and he can call himself a minister.

Yun Xi reprimanded him a few more words, and Li Bo persuaded: "Your Majesty, although Ambassador Li's supervision is unfavorable, the steel output of the steel mill is increasing, and he is also meritorious. ”

"For the sake of being diligent, I won't hold you accountable for your dereliction of duty this time, you get up." Yun Xi said. Although Yun Xi feels that he is also corrupt, it is not easy to train a qualified 'factory director' in this year, so it is better not to be dismissed easily.

'Go back and let Jinyiwei ambush a few people to the factory, so as to know his usual style, and I will make a decision later. Yun Xi thought.