Bai Hui has a misunderstanding about the product of the blast furnace.

Strictly speaking, iron ore, coke, limestone combined, blast furnace refining products are pig iron, slag and blast furnace gas.

Steelmaking, on the other hand, uses pig iron, air, and other metals.

But Bai Hui always felt that the steelworks, the steelworks, so the furnace came out of the steel, which was indeed a joke.

But!

Who is Bai Hui?

Qin Dahejun has enough authority, and he is a unique figure, not to mention that under the auspices of Bai Hui, in Cold Spring Valley, he is indeed a furnace of steel.

Bai Hui didn't understand that the reason why the first furnace of Lengquan Valley saw steel was that it was made of high-grade rich ore, plus extremely high-quality coke, and the rest were high-quality materials, and the output was not high.

Cold Spring Valley is a research institute for steel, and they don't consume much steelmaking, just to study how to get good steel and make it into weapons, not large-scale steelmaking.

The iron ore used here comes from two places, one is the ore from the north-central part of the Tatsukuni Peninsula, and the other is the iron ore from the island where Fukuko is located.

The quality of the ore is not comparable to the high-quality rich ore that has been selected at the research level.

In front of the two blast furnaces, Bai Hui took out the saber of the guards beside him, cut off a slender iron ingot, and threw the knife back to the guards with an unhappy face.

He sighed heavily.

Bai Hui knew that his little knowledge was not enough to help the craftsmen, but Bai Hui had his own way.

"Passing on the order of this king, all the craftsmen will rest for two days, and each will be rewarded with three catties of fish and meat, half a catty of mutton, and a jar of wine. Try again after two days of rest, and have everything you need to camp in a baggage camp. ”

"No!"

Bai Hui gave the order and walked up to the two foremen.

The two foremen were also ashamed, they used to be the main furnace of Cold Spring, and they did see steel in one furnace at that time, but here, even pig iron is far from the Yiyang blast furnace with good quality.

Bai Hui didn't blame them, Bai Hui said: "Don't take this matter to heart if it fails." As the so-called failure is a success, sum up the experience, find the reason, don't worry. What this gentleman wants is only steel that can directly make utensils, not steel for ordnance. ”

The two foremen nodded silently.

Ordnance steel can be said to be the ultimate steel of the Qin State, this kind of steel is not allowed to spread outside, even the waste materials have to be put away and recycled.

"Take a break, take a break. Try again in two days, I don't mean to blame you, rest assured! ”

"Xie Dahe-kun."

Bai Hui hasn't eaten or slept well in the past few days, so he's looking forward to being able to make steel.

Bai Hui knew that there was the largest steel mill in Asia in later generations, because the quality of the coal here was good, especially after adding the iron ore snatched from the Chenguo Peninsula and the high-quality coal snatched from Liaodong, the output was extremely amazing.

What Bai Hui didn't know was that the highest-quality iron ore on the Chenguo Peninsula was not the north-central part of the Chenguo Peninsula, but the Maoshan Iron Mine.

That place can be excavated, but at the moment it belongs to the Marquis of the Kei clan.

Bai Hui left the two blast furnaces and went back to rest.

Watching Bai Hui walk away, the two foremen wiped their sweat.

One of them said, "The stove must be fine, it's better than the one that the stove in Yiyang tried to build in the first place." ”

"Yes, the stove is fine. I feel like on the ore, the ore here doesn't seem to be good enough. ”

In this era, there was no ore detection technology, it was all about the feelings of the craftsmen.

So there is no way to really compare the quality of the ore, and mass production and small-scale production of small open-hearth furnaces are two different concepts in themselves.

On the Yiyang side, there is only one experimental blast furnace, and the size is also very small.

The one who spoke first continued, "My idea is that since we have two furnaces, we might as well try refining them twice. ”

"How?"

"Rough refining once, then refining, and when refining, use the old method we used in Cold Spring Valley at that time, sprinkle charcoal powder."

"You can try."

The two foremen discussed and began to assign tasks to their craftsmen.

Bai Hui asked them to rest for two days before working, but the craftsmen also thought that it would be too embarrassing to not be able to do their work, and they could receive the salary of the master craftsman, and the ironsmith in Fugang was related to the strategic layout of the Qin State in Liaodong and overseas, so they were not willing to wait any longer.

Big fish, big meat, big bowl of wine.

Once you're ready to get everyone resting for the night, it's time to get to work.

Before the sake is ready, some of the preparations have already begun by the craftsmen.

The 500 coolie slaves who were responsible for smashing ore and carrying them also received high-class meals such as rice, cakes, and broth.

Bai Hui returned to the resting place, and Empress Dowager Xuan was sitting in his study looking through all kinds of papers.

Seeing Bai Hui coming back, Empress Dowager Xuan put down the paperwork in her hand: "This palace knows that you are anxious, you want to have enough iron to arm the battalions in Liaodong, but will it work if you are anxious?" ”

"Queen Mother, this has nothing to do with arming. I let this place produce a large number of iron tools in order to stimulate Zhao Guo. ”

"How?"

"Queen Mother, the largest and most high-tech Yehe in Zhao has been captured by us and the Korean army, it can be said that Zhao has no real significance in the large-scale iron mill at the moment, and the most important strategic materials in the world are in four things, namely grain, salt, iron, and skin."

Empress Dowager Xuan nodded silently, what Bai Hui said was not wrong.

Iron is not only used to make ordnance, it can be said that there are countless uses, according to the investigation of the Qin State, more than seventy percent of the knives used in the kitchen of ordinary people in the Zhao State are not made of iron, nor are they made of copper.

There are bone, stone, and even many poor families don't need these at all, just put wild vegetables and grain in a clay pot and boil them.

At the lower level, three stones support a clay pot.

A little better is the pottery tripod with three legs.

If it's really a kitchen, at least a stove, a stove, and a knife. The briquette stove and iron pot created by Bai Hui have not yet exceeded 50% in the Qin State.

There are still countless people in the Qin State who are using clay pots to cook rice, not to mention the Zhao State.

Bai Hui continued: "Queen Mother, the first thing I want to do is to let the people who surrendered from Liaodong use iron tools first. This iron tool was not used by the Qin army, but was used by ordinary people every day. If nothing else, the consumption of iron is huge for the ploughshare alone, not to mention that I wish I had at least two pots in my family. ”

Empress Dowager Xuan knew that Bai Hui's two pots were a great plan.

A large pot can be used to cook rice, or it can be placed in a bamboo cage drawer to steam food. The small pot can be used for cooking and also for cooking.

Stir-frying is something that is impossible for ordinary people. Only the snow-white refined salt, which is as fine as powder, limits stir-frying. What's more, the output of vegetable oil in the entire Qin State is less than 100,000 catties, and it can only supply the needs of the nobles.