Between the mountains and valleys, the huge buildings, the endless flow of people, and the hot air in the lungs, everything makes people feel an unstoppable force rolling and boiling here.

A huge artificial lake, under the embankment, the rushing lake, emitting a deafening roar, with the kinetic energy of changing the world, impacted the huge steel blade fan of the waterwheel, driving a huge stone mill to rotate slowly but unstoppably, standing in front of the tall stone bowl, the individual person actually seemed small, the huge stone bowl that rumbled over, with his huge body to crush the fist-sized iron ore.

I grabbed a handful of iron ore that had become powder, and carefully pulled it in the palm of my hand, and I saw the fine black particles inside, which was iron powder.

"It's not a low ratio." Lu Shi sighed.

"Yes, although the veins are small, the lower they go, the higher the grade, and the higher the rate of iron powder." Blacksmith Zhao explained to Lu Shi with an excited look.

Lu Shi cherished the iron powder in his hand and threw it back to the giant mill, clapped his hands and said worriedly: "I just hope that the mining time is not too short, there is no rich ore in Shaanxi." ”

This time, relying on this iron mine, the four huge blast furnaces that were built, as well as the reservoir supporting them, etc., have consumed huge manpower and material resources in the base area, and for this iron mine, the base area has almost reached the point of no cost. And once the iron ore is depleted prematurely, it will really outweigh the losses.

"I explored, although the iron ore vein is small, but it has been extended to the mountain, I also sent someone to the back of the mountain to probe, according to the extension of the vein, there are also outcrops of ore veins on that side, so on the side, according to the current production scale, it should be able to last for five or seven years." Blacksmith Zhao comforted Lu Shidao.

Lu Shi looked at the mountain in the distance, the mine road that was like a huge wound on the body of a giant, and couldn't help but be overjoyed, if it really follows this production speed, the mining is not much, as long as five years, it will be enough, after all, in this era, several things that need steel on a large scale have not yet appeared, and railways and buildings are steel swallowing beasts, and Chen Ce said that the steel production he felt reached the whole year of the Ming Dynasty, the main thing is to say that the output of Gang, the Ming Dynasty can not make steel on a large scale, it can produce raw wrought iron, The output of iron was 6-100,000 tons in the early Ming Dynasty, about 150,000 tons in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, and 100,000 tons in the late Ming Dynasty. Steel is filled steel and 100 steel, used in the construction of weapons, with an estimated annual output of between 1,000-3,000 tons.

Now, I have adopted the blast furnace technology that I stole here, and instead of ore, I use direct refining of primary iron powder, and the annual output has reached more than 3,000 tons, which is fully capable of supplying the increased military industry and living needs.

"Are the mood of the workers still stable?" Lu Shi looked at the chain of several people discharged like ants and asked with concern.

Blacksmith Zhao laughed, "King Chuang, rest assured, except for those old bosses and old people who control the core secrets, the others are all employed and have no craftsman status, they come and go freely, and they are quite happy and stable with the money and food of the base area, especially they all know that they are doing things for the base area, in fact, they are doing things for themselves, where are they not careful?" There is also a method for your test success, and the reward of ten yuan a day is there, who is not tempted? This one is rich and the other is spiritual, so it has an efficiency that is more than ten times faster than the original work for the imperial court. ”

"What's so hard about production? Let's figure it out. ”

"There is nothing left in the process, everyone is also proficient, and the output and quality have been stabilized." Blacksmith Zhao replied cautiously: "It's just that there is a shortage of manpower, and if it is expanded, it will not be possible." ”

Lu Shi smiled bitterly, how could he encounter a problem that he couldn't solve today? Shaking his head helplessly, he said, "This can't be helped." Looking at the workers who lined up like ants from the mine here, then here to the riverside, and then to the blast furnace, he could only shake his head and say: "This is already a lot, if you recruit more manpower, it will affect spring ploughing, steel is important, but spring ploughing is more important." ”

"And what about after the spring ploughing?" Blacksmith Zhao asked cautiously with a look of hope on his face.

"After spring ploughing, we are based on the new construction, everywhere has to be manpowered, especially in winter, everyone is anxious, they are just digging the ground nest to shelter, now the spring is open, there is no guarantee that the summer will not drop rain, the ground nest is easy to enter the water and return to the tide, and then the plague will be troublesome."

This is what Lu Shi is most worried about, the plague, in this old era, in this era without a complete and advanced medical system and medicines, is definitely the biggest natural enemy to reduce the population, as long as the plague comes, it can only be eliminated by waiting for the arrival of winter, and there is no other way.

A Black Death, a typhoid fever, and smallpox, which wiped out three-fifths of the earth's population.

Blacksmith Zhao also knew that he was a little greedy, so he stopped talking.

"King Chuang, in fact, I can supply thousands of laborers in our base there." After a few days, now, Tie Ying's speech has begun to become easy-going, no longer as respectful and restrained as before, and no longer us, we are Huanglong, but we are breaking into the army, we are called from the base, this change, Tie Ying didn't feel it, but the careful Zhao Xing really saw it in his eyes. There are no worries, it is natural to join, and only the issue of personnel arrangements remains.

Lu Shi thought for a while, shook his head and refused, "You can't transfer people there, after you go back, you have to implement the policy according to the methods of the base area, and don't want us to support you on a large scale, even if it is Amitabha." ”

Tie Ying thinks about it, divide the fields and land, and suppress the landlords, things are complicated, and the places that need manpower are the sea, and the most important thing is that there is still half of the county's territory that is not included in the sphere of influence of the base area, which is a difficult task.

Since we can't increase the number of people, we should work on technology, or what should we do?

As for technology, it is a bit dwarfed by itself, the memories of the last era are all common sense of life, there is no high-tech content at all, and even if there is, it can't be created according to the current foundation.

Wait, what did you just think about?

Lu Shi's head suddenly flashed with inspiration, but it quickly disappeared, and he couldn't grasp it in a daze if he wanted to.

Lu Shi stopped suddenly, everyone was walking, and almost collided with Lu Shi, so he quickly stopped his steps, but he didn't collide, but a few people behind him collided.

But even so, everyone gritted their teeth and endured the pain silently, they knew that in such a situation, it was Lu Shi who had some new discoveries and new ideas, and every new idea was released, there would be a great promotion to the construction of the base area, and they couldn't be disturbed, so a few people quietly surrounded Lu Shi, one for protection, and the other for expectation.

What I just thought about was that the current production of steel was more than enough for my own use, because the real steel gold swallowing beast railway—yes, the railway.

Lu Shi clapped his hands, suddenly laughed, and hurriedly said to Zhao Blacksmith: "Hurry up and find Erlang, I have a way to solve the shortage of manpower." ”

When Blacksmith Zhao heard this, where did he dare to be lazy, he immediately called a brother and yelled at him to run to find Erlang.

While waiting for Erlang, Lu Shi lowered his head and paced slowly, slowly making the railway clear and practical.

The railway is now in this big construction site, it is the most suitable thing, but really to do the railway, it is still quite luxurious, steel at this time, the most expensive, since you can't use steel, then use wood, yes, just use hard wood, anyway, it's not a car to pull dozens of hundreds of tons, the carrying capacity is not very large, as long as a bucket pulls a ton, that is, two thousand catties, there is absolutely no problem, and these two thousand tons, is definitely the workload of twenty people in the wheelbarrow now.

Impetus? That's better, because the volume is small, and then there is little friction on the track, then we don't want the locomotive, then use horses or oxen, to build a multi-wheeled carriage, that is, usually on the dirt road, three horses can pull two or three thousand pounds of goods, then on this track, it should be no problem to turn over a few times. In this way, if the manpower does not increase, it is several times the capacity efficiency, if the iron ore and blast furnace are stuck, it can also save a lot of labor to be used in other development directions, and the cost of steelmaking can be greatly reduced.

The thought of the pride almost danced with his hands.

Erlang was smart, looking at what Lu Shi had drawn on the ground, he understood it at the time, and he didn't say much, let alone be polite, and ran back to his laboratory as soon as he slipped away, and began to work with a few craftsmen.

Later, the railroad wagons were drummed out, the wheels were not made of iron but bronze, and the outer circle was the outer circle and the inner square, and the outer circle was the shape of the train wheels drawn by Lu Shi, but in the middle was a square hole, and the two ends of the hardwood that were used as axles were cut into a square and inserted into it, just enough to be stuck. There's also a 'jurisdiction' on the outside to jam the wheels and prevent them from falling off the axles. The whole wheel is not big, only the size of a normal bowl, but it has no problem getting stuck on the track.

With such an axle as the core, the assembled rail-drawn carriage can only be said to be useful, but not good, and does not meet the requirements of Lu Shi's greatest expectations. In terms of technical content, it is not even as good as today's carriages, but it is easy to manufacture. But the results of the experiment are already very amazing.

It is indeed more convenient than using an ordinary carriage, and it is four carriages pulled by two horses, adding up to six thousand catties. Judging by the fact that the two pull-backs strode forward with ease, it should be possible to pull more.

In addition, Jiro and his partners drew inferences from each other and also designed two kinds of tracks, one was to build the track with hardwood according to Lu Shi's design pattern, and then put a special style of wheels on the track. There was also the idea of digging two parallel tunnels directly into the road surface, and then asking the stonemasons to chisel out stone tracks with grooves so that ordinary horse-drawn carriages could travel through the tunnels. In this way, as long as the pit is kept intact, the vehicle will not be affected by the damaged road surface, and the transportation capacity has been greatly improved.

A month later, on the premise of greatly increasing production and reducing costs by 30 percent, the iron and steel plant also laid off nearly 1,000 laborers, and the liberation of these laborers injected fresh vitality into the construction of the base areas.

When Lu Shi came to the ordnance prison with an admiring iron eagle, he watched the tumbling molten steel poured into the rows of models like coinage, and after cooling, he pried open the model, and the blanks of the saber were displayed in front of him, and then a donkey cart pulled out these blanks, and distributed them to the old people and children in various villages to polish and process them again, and then when they were taken back, a treasure knife that made outsiders greedy and enthusiastic was completed, and the iron eagle was surprised at that time and didn't know what to say.

"How? Iron Eagle Scoop Handle, what are your thoughts now? ”

At night, Lu Shi and Tie Ying sat opposite each other in the cave and asked confidently.

Tie Ying stood up excitedly, clasped his hands into fists and said, "Tie Ying, and 32,000 fathers, please take King Chuang in." ”