On the south bank of the Yangtze River, in Daye, Wuchang County, Ezhou, Zhou State, countless miners in the mine were busy, carrying baskets of iron ore out of the tunnel, pouring into the cargo compartment of a four-wheeled carriage, and then transporting it to the foot of the mountain. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

At the foot of the mountain, there is no less bustling activity than on the mountain, where several iron-making furnaces are smoking, bright molten iron is flowing out, craftsmen are working together, and several more are preparing for the furnace to be opened.

The blower device used in all iron-making furnaces is a water drain, that is, a hydraulic blower, which saves a lot of manpower, and the air that has been preheated is blown into the furnace, which can make the furnace fire burn more vigorously.

The sound of clanging iron can be heard in the yard near the iron-making furnace, and the carefully designed hydraulic hammers are forging the red-hot iron, and the blacksmiths with iron tongs are clamping the iron and beating it into the desired shape.

Water drainage, air pre-heating and hydraulic forging hammer were the first processes to be put into use by the Bazhou Military Weapons Supervision Department, and they have been perfected after several years of exploration, so it is easy to promote them in Daye Supervision.

Although the spring is cold, the heat wave is rolling everywhere in the iron yard, many people sweat like rain, most of them are shirtless, and occasionally there are waterwheels shuttling through it, bringing cool boiled water for craftsmen and handymen to quench their thirst.

"The water is salty, put salt?"

"Exactly, the craftsmen and miners sweat a lot, they can't just drink water, they don't have the strength without salt, and if they don't have the strength, the progress will be affected."

"How many craftsmen are there in the ironworks today?"

"There are more than 1,000 miscellaneous laborers, and there are more than 2,000 miners in the mine."

Yu Wenwen, the governor of Huangzhou, is now leading Yu Wenming, the governor of Xiangzhou, to inspect the iron field of Daye Prison, accompanied by Zhou Fashang, the assassin of Ezhou, and there is another person in his company: Wei Diwen, the chief supervisor of Daye.

Zhou took Yingzhou, because there was also an Yingzhou under the rule of Xiangzhou in Shannan, so the new Yingzhou was renamed "Ezhou", and the state was still in Xiakou, and led the navy to break into Xiakou Water Village.

Zhou Fashang, who made great contributions to the Zhou army's capture of Xiakou, was appointed as the assassin of Ezhou.

This large mine in the south of Wuchang County, Ezhou, has been mined for iron ore and copper ore smelting since ancient times, but the scale has not been large, and more than a year ago, after Zhou Guo took Chen Guoyingzhou, he mobilized manpower and material resources to develop it, and the scale of the mine is getting bigger and bigger.

Daxing furnace is the origin of Huangzhou governor Yu Wenwen for naming "Daye" here, Yu Wenming deeply sympathizes with this, such a busy mine, is not "Daxing furnace metallurgy"?

In order to let Daye Jian open the furnace as soon as possible, Shannan Prefecture County mobilized a large number of craftsmen to gather here, and Yu Wenwen personally sat in the coordination, and the small mine in the hands of Chen Guo in the past became a behemoth in just one year.

The iron field was too hot, and the group was already sweating after walking around, but as an official, they couldn't be shirtless, so Yu Wenwen and others went to the ordnance workshop to visit under the persuasion of the accompanying officials.

Armor, knives, spears, arrowheads, and related leather ropes, feathers, and other raw materials were piled up everywhere, but many were neatly arranged, and many water tanks were in the corners, so that the fire could be extinguished in time for water.

The ordnance workshop was also full of people, craftsmen were busy making weapons, and some officials counted the finished products and transported them to the warehouse, and there was no movement at the scene.

"Yuwen Xiangzhou, Yuwen Huangzhou, Zhou Zhijun, the copper field is ahead, please!"

As always, the two Yuwen directors walked out of the workshop, and led the way to the copper field, where the heat wave was also rolling, and the copper ore mined was extracted from the furnace here.

Then it was combined with lead and tin, and the copper coins were made into copper coins by the stacking casting method through Qian Fan and transported to all parts of Shannan.

Yu Wenming casually took out a newly minted copper coin from the cash box, looked at it carefully, and then threw it back with satisfaction.

The soldiers' salaries, the grain for nothing, the mountains of cloth, and the money are not a problem.

Shannan County has never had any big iron ore and copper mines, but now Yuwenwen, the governor of Huangzhou, has discovered such a treasure mountain, and Daxingtai is naturally concentrated on mining.

Daye is located on the border of Ezhou and is under the jurisdiction of the Ezhou Thorn History, but in view of its important position, the Huangzhou Governor's Office sent troops directly under it to garrison it, and Daye's operation was supervised by Daxingtai.

Iron tools are made in the iron field, whether it is weapons or agricultural tools, with iron tools, then ploughing and fighting are twice the result with half the effort, and there is only one thing out of the copper field: copper coins. I can't help but pay less attention to it, so the candidate for the chief eunuch of Daye is very important.

Therefore, the iron-faced selfless and notoriously unapproachable Di Shi became the best candidate.

Yu Wenwen privately complained that Di Shiwen was the "Emperor of Facial Paralysis", who was patrolling the copper and iron yards with a straight face all day long, if anyone dared to cheat and swallow copper and iron materials privately, he would have to take off a layer of skin if he didn't die.

After walking around the copper yard, several people were sweating profusely, not caring about the official authority to sweep the floor, drinking salt and boiling water to quench their thirst, and then rushed to the material yard non-stop to see the charcoal and coke used in copper and iron smelting.

"What is coke?"

"Just as charcoal is smoldering for wood, so coke is smoldering for charcoal and is used as fuelwood, and the fire burns more vigorously than charcoal."

"It seems that charcoal can also be burned, so why bother?"

"If you use coal to make iron directly, the iron obtained is very brittle, and the coke obtained after smoldering will be much better for iron making."

"Better? Could it be that coke ironmaking also has hidden dangers? ”

"Exactly, if the coke is not smoldering well, the iron smelted is also very brittle, how to make the right coke, the craftsmen are still pondering, so the main use of the Daye Supervisor is charcoal."

Di Shiwen explained, in fact, these contents were taught to him by Yuwen Wen at the beginning, and now only Yu Wenming still needs to listen to the explanation.

"This official sees that both iron-making furnaces and copper-smelting furnaces have to be drained with water, and the forging hammer is also driven by hydraulic power, it seems that there are only lakes near Daye, and the so-called 'water flows to a low place', how does this water improve?"

"In Xiangzhou, Daye Superintendent uses all kinds of canals and windmills to divert water, and there are also mountain springs on the surrounding mountains, so it's a long story."

"Okay, the official asked casually." Yu Wenming waved his hand, he really asked casually, this time he came to Daye, in order to see with his own eyes what the strength of Daye Supervisor was, so as to carry out the next plan.

A lot of manpower and material resources have been invested, and there has to be a corresponding return, and now it seems that the return is much more than expected.

There are many wastelands in the Hancha area, and if they can be cultivated for a few years, they will definitely be fertile land, but these places are often affected by floods, and if you want to cultivate wasteland, you have to build water conservancy, and after repairing the river embankment, you have to cut grass and plow the land.

If Yu Wenming, the governor of Xiangzhou, wants to organize the people under his rule to open up the wasteland, he must first see if this iron field can provide enough tools, which is very important, so he can't help but not personally inspect the site.

On the other hand, he also replaced Daxing Taiyu Wenliang and went to Daye to check the actual situation, it can be said that today's Daye Supervisor is an equally important place in addition to the grain production area.

"Speaking of coal, where does it come from?"

"There is also charcoal production near Daye, which just replaces part of the charcoal."

"In this way, Daye and the surrounding people..."

This is a matter within the responsibility of Zhou Fashang, the assassin of Ezhou, and he immediately replied: "Xiangzhou, Daye City, together with Daye Supervisor and the families of the garrison, now have more than 5,000 households. ”

"That's as many households as a county." Yu Wenming sighed, "Daxing furnace smelting, it should be the same!" (To be continued.) )