"So, what about Li Tao? Got in touch? ”

"I've been contacted, his side has stabilized, and we can withdraw for the time being, let's go to Haiphong Port to pick him up first, and then go to Macau together to recruit a few Portuguese sailors, which will save a lot of trouble."

"Okay, you're an expert in sailing, I'm fine, but safety should come first."

Lin Xiao felt that this was a big deal, but he also knew that the cabin on the ship could not accommodate too many people, "I'll talk to him later, and I'll let him bring a few guards with him." ”

"With Li Tao here, you can rest assured, in this era, there is no ship that can be faster than the Longsheng ship, besides, don't these sailors have guns and cannons?" Chen Yiming said confidently.

……

The next morning, Lin Xiao and Chen Yiming said goodbye solemnly, after boarding the ship, Chen Yiming stood on the side of the boat and waved frequently, Lin Xiao also kept waving his hand, and he couldn't help but feel worried.

He knew that the journey was a long and unpredictable journey, not only dealing with Native Americans and European colonists, but also the threats of bad weather, piracy, and disease, although it was worth the risk to get the rubber to China as soon as possible.

Seeing the figure of the "Longsheng" gradually moving away, Lin Xiao stood on the dock for a long time, his eyes were deep, and his back was like a pine.

……

After standing for a long time, he turned to leave, but found that his steps were staggering and a little unsteady.

Lin Xiao moved his limbs and told his boss to walk in the direction of Fangcheng Town, he wanted to go to Zhou Xiaojie's factory area to see, this is the light of science and technology, and it is an important factor for the Chinese nation to stand on top of the world from now on.

Nothing else, what he especially wants to know is that the smelting of pig iron and steel, Cao Jiawen's side, is waiting for the cannonballs.

The factory area is located on the opposite side of the Fangcheng River, across the river from Fangcheng Town, and a wharf has been built on each side of the river to facilitate the commuting of workers and the use of large quantities of coal and iron ore, mainly from Annam.

Lin Xiao stood on the deck of the ferry, looking from afar, inside a red wall, the entire factory area was very large, and white smoke was rising from several towering chimneys.

As soon as he entered the factory, Lin Xiao had a deep understanding of why Cao Jiawen highly praised Zhou Xiaojie, only to see rows of tall red brick and tile factories scattered, the ground in the factory area was extremely flat and clean, and there were constantly workers hurrying by, looking busy and orderly.

Obviously, Zhou Xiaojie is not only a senior engineer, but also outstanding in his planning and design skills and organization and coordination skills.

Zhou Xiaojie is directing steelmaking in the steelmaking workshop.

Unlike other factories, the steelmaking workshop, which requires good ventilation, is nothing more than a large brick shed with four small converters and a chemical furnace lined up on a hardened floor.

Zhou Xiaojie uses the small converter steelmaking method, which is a backward industry that the state has eliminated in later generations, but in this era, it is really the most advanced technology.

They have smelted several furnaces of steel, proving that it is possible to make steel with coke and local pig iron products, but the disadvantage is that it is difficult to grasp the proportion of materials, so what kind of steel comes out every time is completely unstable.

According to the composition of pig iron tested, Zhou Xiaojie used a converter side blowing method for steelmaking, which requires adding a certain proportion of wrought iron and a very small amount of sand, the role of sand is to cause acidic slag and absorb the impurities contained in pig iron, phosphorus.

After discovering the refractory materials of the real estate, Zhou Xiaojie and his team built an iron furnace, and with this iron furnace, they successfully smelted steel in several small-scale steelmaking.

Now, a new furnace of molten iron has been poured from the iron furnace into the converter to start blowing, at this time the wind pressure of the blower is very sufficient, the molten iron is constantly heating up under the urging of the hot air, Zhou Xiaojie stared closely at the fire tongue in the furnace, one by one iron flowers are constantly bursting, the fire tongue is red and yellow, then yellow-white, white, and finally completely white and shiny, which shows that the furnace temperature is constantly rising.

The blowing lasted for more than ten minutes, the density of the star-shaped carbon flowers continued to increase, and the white flame tongue changed from short to long, and the carbon combustion entered the peak at this time.

When Zhou Xiaojie saw that the tongue of fire began to shorten and the carbon flowers thinned out, he knew that the remaining carbon content in the molten iron was beginning to approach the content of steel, so he used the rocker rod to go up and down a few times to see if there were more carbon flowers bursting, and when he saw that the carbon flowers did not increase suddenly, he ordered the wind to be turned off.

Afterwards, workers wearing thick protective clothing and rattan hats removed the furnace lid and air ducts, and began to beat and scrape the slag for the final casting.

As for whether the ingot is high carbon, medium carbon or low carbon, Zhou Xiaojie can't control it for the time being.

Lin Xiao quietly watched the whole process from the sidelines, although he was a long distance away from the converter, he still felt that his bare skin was hot, and it was conceivable how high the temperature of a real steelmaker would work, not to mention that there were no goggles necessary for future generations of workers at all.

"Pig iron shells, Lao Cao's drawings have come over, and they will be produced immediately, and the current difficulty is to smelt qualified steel, and after producing ordinary steel with stable performance, then consider adding other metals, and at that time, your gun raw materials can be worry-free."

Zhou Xiaojie wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead and said, he knew that Lin Xiao would ask, so he spoke first.

"So, how long will it take?"

"It's hard to say, I'll work hard and try to get it done within a month."

"Okay, it's hard work, but don't work too hard, you must pay attention to the combination of work and rest, it's a big deal that Cao Gong will consume a little more stock steel."

While the ingots were still cooling, Zhou Xiaojie accompanied Lin Xiao to visit the chemical plant, where a small set of home-made soap production equipment was in operation, and about a dozen workers were nervously busy.

In this era, the soap produced will bring them a lot of wealth, and in addition, it will bring an important by-product - glycerin, which is the main raw material for the production of nitroglycerin, with nitroglycerin, to make smokeless gunpowder.

In another workshop, ammonia production equipment is still being installed slowly, and several machinists left behind by Chen Yiming are borrowed to work here.

"These equipment are made by Cao Gong's lathes, although simple, the precision is still very high, but qualified operators are too difficult to train, for science, they are completely a blank slate."

Zhou Xiaojie sighed, "If Lao Chen didn't send someone to help, let alone install the machine, it would take at least half a year just to train the operators." ”

"Yes, it seems that I was too naïve before, we people, who have read books for so many years since childhood, usually don't realize how valuable our knowledge is, and now it seems that we are all treasures."

Lin Xiao also felt and said, "Especially a few of you, every time you lack one, it will bring a gap to the science and technology tree, therefore, the construction of the new-style school hall has to be accelerated, 10,000 years is too long, just seize the day." ”

Zhou Xiaojie laughed out loud when he heard this, this guy is really sharp-toothed, and Taizu's words are at his fingertips.

(PS: Today's Chinese New Year's Eve, on the occasion of saying goodbye to the old and welcoming the new, Aoxue is here to give you a New Year's greeting!) Happy New Year to you! All wishes come true! ）