At this time, the iron-smelting workshop also ushered in a breakthrough.

If you didn't need to spend too much effort in your previous life, you could simply build it or cast it simply.

Seventy percent of steel smelting is made of coal, and three percent of it is charcoal.

This is a strange thing, and this charcoal is usually collected in the mountains and forests where there is no coal, and the blacksmith chooses hard sticks of wood to burn them into fire ink (commonly known as fire arrows, which do not turn into debris to block the vents when burned), and use him to smelt steel, which is more fierce than coal.

Pig iron can be made by smelting it for three hours in this way, and pig iron can be smelted back and forth five or six times to become wrought iron, and wrought iron can be smelted nine times to smelt steel.

This surprised Yang Xuan, in the past, it was often said that coal and iron ore were used to add a little limestone to make fuel to smelt steel, why can't steel be used now.

Although he was puzzled, Yang Xuan also asked Song Shihui to draw a figure of a steel smelting furnace at that time, which was originally mixed with coal and steel and burned together, and after the molten iron flowed out.

Hearing that Governor Yang Xuan was coming to watch the effect of iron smelting, the iron official specially bought half a cart of fire ink from outside, poured it into a very small furnace with iron ore, and after igniting it, two big men took turns pulling a huge bellows to drum air into it to pull the bellows.

On the other side, Tieguan mixed coal with iron ore and put it directly into a small furnace 2 meters wide and 1 meter deep, and after igniting it, four or five big men took turns pulling the bellows.

The Iron Officer constantly explained that it was difficult to make fire ink, not only that a large number of trees had to be cut down, but also that it was very difficult to burn them into fire ink.

It took half a day's work, the two furnaces of molten iron were made, and after condensing into pig iron, it was obvious to see the difference in the quality of pig iron.

The quality of the pig iron calcined by coal is very poor, and the big knife is cut over, and it is like cutting on a piece of gravel, and the pig iron the size of a palm is broken.

Seeing that Yang Xuan's face was full of doubts, the iron official next to him explained with a smile that this kind of pig iron from coal calcination was sold to farmers to make hoes, plowshares, and rakes, and if it needed to be made into weapons, it would need to be forged back and forth seven or eight times by craftsmen, so that it could be made into various weapons.

Or seeing that Yang Xuan looked quite angry, the iron official explained again and again that when the blacksmith master beats hoes, plowshares and other farm tools, he needs to forge back and forth many times, and the treasure knife in Yang Xuan's hand is made of stainless steel after hundreds of beatings.

From Guan Zhong, since Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty implemented the salt and iron monopoly system, the people have fooled ordinary people through this kind of scrap iron and scrap steel.

But in the previous life, it seemed that coal, iron ore and limestone were used to cast steel, why is it that the steel made from coal, iron ore, and limestone as additives is so poor now, and the quality of pig iron made by adding fire ink and iron ore and limestone is completely different.

Thinking of this, Yang Xuan convened all the craftsmen to discuss, and at the same time re-examined the method of making fire ink, which was completely coal, but it was just that hardwood needed to be burned into charcoal.

The experience of my previous life told me that the so-called fire ink is the same as the main composition of coal, but why the quality of coal smelting steel is so poor, it seems that the real problem lies in coal.

There may be impurities in the coal, there is an impurity that is difficult to know, if this impurity can be removed, then it can be completely made into fire ink.

Hearing that the governor proposed how to make coal into fire ink, everyone was in an uproar, and some old craftsmen shook their heads again and again, fire ink is fire ink, coal is coal, in their eyes these are completely two things, how can they be made into the same thing?

After a long day of discussion, a young craftsman of seventeen or eighteen years old sitting in the corner of the wall said, "Your Excellency the Governor, do you think this will work?" Didn't people everywhere burn tiles, and didn't fire ink also make them like this? It is lit and placed in the cave, and then the cave is closed, so that the fire ink is created.

Your Excellency the Governor, can we light coal and put it in a cave, so that we can make fire ink as well?

When everyone heard this, they shook their heads again and again, and some even said that if this is the case, then won't the coal be burned?

Yang Xuan had no better way, so he immediately asked the young man to take charge of his affairs, and ordered him to immediately find a cave and calcine half a cart of coal to see if he could make it into fire ink.

The Governor is very decentralized, and after determining the strategy, he basically doesn't ask, and completely puts this He Daming in charge, and suddenly takes on such a responsibility, although it is a little inappropriate, but in order to sit down and not embarrass people, He Daming has also completely fought these days.

On the seventh day, Yang Xuan sat in the four-wheeled carriage according to the appointment, which was faster than the ordinary carriage, and the distance of more than 50 miles would take at least half a day if the ordinary carriage was taken, and the four-wheeled carriage would arrive in an hour (2 hours) (the Frenchman Maupassant's novel "Sheep Fat Ball" once described that the four-wheeled carriage traveled 4 miles from morning to 10 o'clock in the winter, that is, 16 kilometers, 32 miles, such a long distance, but the author thinks that it is too slow to walk in the snow. ）。

Everyone was opening the sealed soil outside the cave, when suddenly a burst of smoke came out, a pungent smell came out, and a craftsman who was receiving the sealed soil was so smoked that he fainted to the ground.

Everyone panicked, and the surrounding crowd said everything, some said that He Daming disrespected the Bodhisattva, and the Bodhisattva was angry, and some said that this method could not make fire ink at all.

And Yang Xuan took a deep breath, this smell was so pungent, could it be?

Immediately, two buckets of water were brought and sprinkled at the smoke, and the smell reacted violently with the water droplets from a distance, and many weeds around the incense were smoked to death.

Seeing this scene, everyone was shocked, and Yang Xuan was full of confidence, this, isn't this the result of the sulfuric acid reaction?

It seems that this method can remove impurities from the coal.

Oh, in the past, it seemed that coke was used to smelt steel, but Yang Xuan didn't have an impression of what coke was, probably to remove the sulfur element in the coal.

Yang Xuan immediately asked people to open all the sealed soil, and the top felt that it was no different from coal.

When Yang Xuan was quite disappointed and was about to leave, He Daming was suddenly overjoyed, and as if he was crazy, he had to peel off the next layer, and actually pulled out a layer of fire ink, that is, the coke that everyone longed for.

Yang Xuan was overjoyed and ordered everyone to clean up immediately, so they got three truckloads of coke.

In the midst of the chaos, Yang Xuan did not solve the problem of sulfur in coal until he solved the problem of coal sulfur and began the coke production process.

Yang Xuan didn't care about the three seven twenty-one, and immediately put it in the furnace to calcinate the iron ore, and to everyone's surprise, the coke burning flame far exceeded the fire ink.

In anticipation, the hardness of pig iron produced is far stronger than that of pig iron produced with fire ink.

Let the blacksmith forge the pig iron produced here, coal iron can be forged five or six tenths before it can become steel, fire ink pig iron must be beaten out of three or four ten, and this coke pig iron only needs to be beaten one achievement.

Looking at everyone's abnormal eyes, Yang Xuan thought about it and explained it with considerable difficulty.

Didn't the ancients say that everything in this society can be divided into components according to gold, wood, water, fire, and earth? In fact, gold, wood, water, fire, and earth are just the properties of these materials, just like gold, silver, and steel are different things, but the properties shown are gold.

While all kinds of things exhibit different properties, everything is made up of different smallest things, which are combined and become different things.

Just like the coal, fire ink and coke, their main components are the same, slightly different because of the temperature, environment, etc., showing different forms, but the coal has more impurities, the fire ink is relatively less, and the coke has no impurities.

The quality of steel smelted with coke is better than that of fire ink, probably because the purity of the charcoal in the coke is much stronger than that of the fire ink, and the quality of pig iron produced in this way is much higher than that of pig iron fired by fire ink.

In this way, if we want to make good steel, we need to improve not only the purity of coke, but also the purity of iron ore.

In addition, didn't the ancestor say that the law is natural? We need to study the smallest components of different substances, and we need to understand the essence of things.

Because he was so happy, Yang Xuan used his speech talent to explain some ancient theories, but it was surprising that someone understood.

Thinking of the sycophants in his previous life, Yang Xuan was overjoyed, just like the modern times, all high-ranking officials fart probably many people will say that it is fragrant, in this case, why not let people introduce some steel smelting knowledge in the "Popular Daily", which is mixed with their own modern theories.

Yang Xuan also thought of a good way to solve the problem of sulfide gas by producing calcium sulfide through the reaction of limestone.

After solving the coke problem, the output and quality of steel increased greatly, considering the importance of steel, steel is needed for wars, and steel is also needed for building roads and bridges in the future, Yang Xuan founded a steel workshop to produce steel on a large scale.

Song Shiyi was appointed as the chief soldier of the steel factory, and He Daming was appointed as the coke factory to co-organize the steel smelting.

Considering that the smelting furnace was too small in this era, Yang Xuan built an earthen furnace to smelt iron and steel according to the model of the Zunhua Iron Works in the Ming Dynasty and the knowledge of the previous life, and ensured that the iron ore and coke were in full contact with the bellows and chimneys to make molten iron, and then repeated several times to make pig iron to create mature iron and steel.

In the process of smelting steel, due to the elimination of sulfide, a harmful substance, the quality of cold weapons and hot weapons created by the weapons workshop far exceeded that of Tartar and reached the world level, which greatly improved the combat power of the volunteers. (Some people say that Japanese knives are powerful, and one of the main reasons is that the sulfur content is quite low.) And the ancient Chinese weapons were far inferior to each other, mainly in coal, and in steel contained sulfides).

Due to the large production of steel, the front-loading red-coated cannons manufactured by the Volunteers were not only lighter in weight than the red-coated cannons and Francos cannons made by the Tartars at that time, but also had a much longer firing range.

While smelting steel and manufacturing red-coated cannons, Yang Xuan also began to consider making ships for production.

In recent years, the volunteers have been able to fight in the south and the north, and the achievements of the navy are indispensable, although the navy does not participate in the war much, but the grain is transported to the front dock by ship, and then transported by land, so as to reduce the damage to the local economy.

China is an agricultural country, and in the past, every time the northern nomads were conscripted, in addition to sending a large army, they often needed to send 3-4 times the labor to transport grain and grass (as analyzed when forming a baggage camp, 4 people could supply one person for a maximum of 30 days)

Considering that the Europeans had already crossed the ocean in this era, their knowledge of shipping was absolutely outstanding, and this day was dedicated to discussing European ships with the Portuguese missionary Ann Sven.

The Portuguese Answen was quite excited, talking about the three-masted ship, and all kinds of Western ships, and finally made a template in order to make the other party hear clearly.

Looking at this model, An Siwen explained again and again, claiming that as long as the wind blows, it can sail regardless of whether it is headwind or downwind.

In addition to this, there are sails, the Chinese use hard canopy sails, while the Tatars use sails, the main mast is often tens of meters high, and it can run quickly in large rivers.

The hard sail is different, the hard sail is very heavy, although the area is not large, but the force is very good.

In addition to the advantages of Chinese stiff sails on small ships, Western sails have a huge advantage over large ships.

As An Siwen introduced, Westerners are now able to build 1,700-ton large sailboats, and this time Yang Xuan decided to build a 200-ton warship that can gallop across the Yangtze River first.

There are two modes of 200-ton warships, one is a traditional shipbuilding method using a hard canopy sail and a traditional vehicle ship built with eight or sixteen waterwheels.

The other is a sailboat built entirely in the sailboat mode.

In this way, the volunteers formed a three-dimensional formation of 5-ton sampan ships for hand-to-hand combat, 20-ton Flying Tiger warships (vehicles and ships) for medium-distance support, and 200-ton vehicles and ships & sailboats for long-distance battlefield support.