Under the arch of the cavalry of the brigade, a four-wheeled carriage drove along the official road in the direction of Benxi Lake, and the cavalry guarding them would always look at the surrounding wasteland from time to time, looking extremely vigilant, and occasionally if there was any trouble, they would send scouts to search it. Outside the pass is not like inside the pass, there is no human population for hundreds of miles in Fang Yuan, and even if there is a little human population, it is very likely that it is a fish that has slipped through the net, and it may even be a potential enemy, these cavalry naturally seem very cautious.

“…… Each region must be equipped with iron ore, because of the problem of transportation, the cost of transporting iron ingots from the iron factory of Liguoyi to the northeast is very high, if it were not for the fact that the iron ore in North Korea is a low-phosphorus sulfur ore, it is very suitable for casting naval guns, and it would not be a ...... to go far."

Looking at the vast world outside the carriage from the carriage and explaining the necessity of establishing an iron factory in the northeast, Zhu Mingzhong's words were not loud.

"After the large-scale migration of the Northeast in the future, whether it is farm tools or chariots and horses, a large amount of steel is needed, and these steels can be transported from Jiangbei by sea in the short term, but this is not a long-term solution, so it is extremely necessary to build Liaoyang Iron Works, and iron can be supplied nearby......"

Liaoyang Iron Works is one of the two government-run iron works planned in Northeast China.

"King, the first phase of the Benxi Iron Works project to build a stone blast furnace, 10 tons of iron per day, that is, 20,000 catties per day, no less than 7 million catties per year, so much iron, for the Northeast, it is more than enough, but now it costs tens of thousands of taels to build Liaoyang Iron Works, so, is it a bit of a waste......

As the governor of Northeast China, Fang Yizhi naturally hopes to have more government-run enterprises in Northeast China, and these enterprises pay far more taxes than land taxes.

Seven million catties, a year is more than 14,000 taels, plus each catty of coal and iron ore tax amount, a year alone this iron plant, iron mines, coal mines tax is not less than 40,000 or 50,000 taels, this is equivalent to hundreds of thousands of acres of land tax.

It is precisely because of the high taxes of the iron factory that the old small iron mines in Jiangbei have long been abolished, because the production cost of iron ore is high and it cannot afford the high taxes.

Of course, for the magistrates, the government-run iron works avoided the possibility of iron merchants sitting on the throne, and Fang Yizhi, who had traveled all over the world, knew very well that the ironmaking industry in any place needed to employ many workers, just like the iron furnaces in Zhenghe County, "one for each furnace, and hundreds of workers must be made." There are those who dig mines, there are those who burn charcoal, there are those who fan the furnace, and the rest of the furnace patrols, ore transportation, rice sales, wine sales, etc. are also dozens of people, and hundreds of people often gather in one furnace. "The head of the workshop and the big households recruited scoundrels from all over the world to come to the other side to control iron smelting, and there were as many as five or seven hundred people in each furnace. If a merchant owns more than one iron furnace, the number of employees under his command is very staggering, and there are more than 1,000 people, many of whom are thieves with chickens and dogs.

However, the government-run iron works do not have these drawbacks, so Fang Yizhi naturally hopes that the iron works are all government-run, not commercial iron factories that gather chickens and dog thieves. But even so, he knows that the current market in Northeast China is limited, and its production far exceeds the market demand.

"It's different!" Shaking his head, Zhu Mingzhong explained.

"There are now two large iron factories in Jiangbei, one is Liguoyi and the other is Haizhou, the former is mined locally to make coking iron, while the latter needs iron ore from North Korea, and coke comes from Xuzhou.

"Most of the iron smelted by Li Guoyi are ordinary wool iron, mainly used to make farm tools, iron pots, iron nails and other things, and the iron cannons, guns and other things used by the loyal and righteous army are all from Haizhou, because they are all high-grade fine iron, and its sophistication is far better than Fujian iron. However, most of the cannons were cast by Li Guoyi......"

In the Ming Dynasty, the casting of exquisite weapons were all made of Fujian iron, and there was even "Fujian iron must be used to make guns, and his iron is dry and unavailable." But in fact, it is not how good Fujian iron is, but the process determines that Fujian iron is better than iron in other places, and the most taboo sulfur-containing steel is the most taboo, if you can't remove sulfur This harmful impurity, steel artifacts are easy to crack, make it into cannons, and easily explode. The raw material for ironmaking in the north is coal, which contains sulfur, so it is not as good as the steel made from charcoal in the south. This is the reason why weapons experts in the Ming Dynasty exaggerated the use of Fujian iron. The Fujian iron sells well in the domestic market, which is related to the use of charcoal to make iron in Fujian. Fujian is known as the southeast mountain country, covered with dense mountain forests, since ancient times in China is an important firewood production area. The well-developed iron-making industry was built on this basis. In the north, the destruction of forest resources exceeds that of Fujian Province, and only coal can be used to make iron, and the quality is naturally inferior to Fujian.

In contrast, because of the use of coke, even the quality of iron produced by Li Guoyi is far better than that of "Fujian iron", but nevertheless, Haizhou iron, which is smelted from high-quality iron ore with low phosphorus and low sulfur, is the favorite of the loyal and righteous army, after all, the quality of Haizhou iron is higher, and the artillery and guns made from it have a longer life.

"Wang, do you mean that this Benxi and Liaoyang are like Liguoyi and Haizhou? One produces iron for ordinary use, and the other produces refined iron? Zhu Mingzhong nodded, and the other party said with wisdom.

"That's right, Liaoyang iron ore iron quality is average, its iron production price is low, suitable for large-scale use, as for Benxi, the iron quality there is far better than North Korean iron, it is most suitable for refining iron, for making artillery, making guns is very suitable!"

Low-phosphorus iron is the main raw material for the production of special weapons. The production of low-phosphorus iron in Benxi was caused by Japan, which mainly imported low-phosphorus iron for naval artillery in the late 19th and early 20th centuries from Britain and Sweden. After the outbreak of the First World War, the price of low-phosphorus iron not only soared, but also the phenomenon of cutting off imports. After the Japanese Navy made an investigation, its eyes were aimed at Benxi. The reason why they targeted Benxi is that the Miaoergou iron ore mine has the characteristics of low sulfur and low phosphorus. Smelting with charcoal as fuel can produce low-phosphorus iron. In addition to the characteristics of low phosphorus and low sulfur, the upper ballast coal of Benxi Lake Coal Mine also has the advantage of strong cohesiveness, which has become an ideal fuel for the production of high-quality iron.

Because of this, Benxi has become the first manufacturer in the world to use low-phosphorus coal to make low-phosphorus iron. Therefore, Zhu Mingzhong chose Benxi as the basis for the production of naval guns in the future, and obtained high-performance artillery by providing low-phosphorus iron with better performance, so as to ensure the Navy's technological leadership.

"The Northeast is different from Guannei, in the future, the Han people will settle here, and continue to migrate to the north, expansion, must hold a plow in one hand, a gun in the other, without the power of guns, there is no possibility of immigration, let alone the possibility of stabilizing the frontier, so it is necessary to set up a gun factory in Benxi, which is directly related to the stability of the Northeast in the future."

During the conversation between the two, the carriage had arrived at the iron factory, which was built with a high wall outside the iron factory in Liguo, and the iron factory was located in a small city, protected by a city wall, which was specially built to prevent the factory from being attacked. After entering the iron factory, in addition to a newly built stone iron-making furnace, you can also see a number of workshops, where hundreds of craftsmen are making fire guns and other objects. Compared with the "mechanization" of the Jiangbei Arsenal, the equipment here is insufficient, and many processes are made by hand or semi-manually, but despite this, the fire hammer still clearly shows that this arsenal has begun to take shape.

"Wang, at present, there are more than 700 craftsmen here, and most of them have experience in making bird guns in the past, so they can get started very quickly, and they can make 150 guns a day......"

In the supervisor's introduction, Zhu Mingzhong came to the shed, picked up a firecracker, and looked at the well-made firearm in his hand, he said softly.

"On the battlefield, the loss of firecrackers is very large, since the loyal army entered Liaodong, the whole army has lost no less than 20,000 firecrackers, and now the bird guns produced here are related to whether the northeast can be pacified in the future, of course, it cannot be limited to production, and a group of craftsmen are dispatched to repair those damaged firecrackers......"

It is said that when Zhu Mingzhong instructed the director of the factory to repair the fire guns that had been damaged during the march, a flying horse rushed from the north, passed through the city gate, and rushed straight to the factory, and the cavalry on the horse shouted.

"Eight hundred miles from the palace is urgent!" The so-called camp is naturally the camp in Shenyang, and when he heard the sound of "eight hundred miles urgent", he quickly stopped. The cavalryman had already jumped off his horse and said to Zhu Mingzhong.

"King, the palace is eight hundred miles in an emergency." Did something happen? If it weren't for something serious, how could it be that as soon as I arrived here, there was an "800-mile expedited" from the camp, because the telegraph in the northeast currently only has one telegraph line from Yingkou to Shenyang, and other areas still rely on 800-mile expedited cavalry to deliver the message.

The sudden urgent letter made everyone stunned and looked at the king together. I saw that after Zhu Mingzhong took the letter, he just glanced at it slightly, and then on the face that was originally smiling, the smile disappeared, and the face became even more iron-blue, and there was no emotion in his eyes. He even just said it mechanically.

"Back to Shenyang!" Then he put on his robe and walked in the direction of the gate. Looking at the cavalry who were ready to set off again after receiving the order, Zhu Mingzhong had countless thoughts rolling in his heart at this time.

The content of the sudden secret report is very simple. It was only mentioned that Zhang Huangyan wrote to the imperial court to ask the imperial court to return the Beijing division, and after Zhang Huangyan wrote the book, there was also intelligence on the Beijing division that Li Ziyuan also wrote the book. What everyone has been unwilling to face for a long time has finally happened.

When don't say go, just say go at this time! It's really after Emperor Xiaolie!

Thinking of this, Zhu Mingzhong went from head to foot, and his heart was even more clouded......

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