Chen You nodded on the side, but the beads of sweat on his forehead became thicker and thicker.

His Majesty the Emperor is not satisfied, isn't it just that he Chen You is not satisfied?

"Where is your iron smelting?" Yang Mu looked for it, the entire Ministry of Industry was built in the outer court, of course, it was impossible to smelt iron in the palace, so it must be that some special utensils were brought here for processing.

Chen You hurriedly said: "Back to Your Majesty, all the departments and supervisors of the Ministry of Industry have a lower-level yamen outside this department, and some lowly work will be handed over to the lower-level yamen to complete, and then sent to the Ministry of Industry and the department, in fact, most of the craftsmen are not qualified to enter the department, and there are only a few craftsmen who make weapons today." ”

"The last time I saw it, the sword in General Wei Zhongquan's hand was extremely sharp, how was that forged?" Yang Mu asked curiously.

Chen You suddenly realized: "It turns out that Your Majesty is talking about General Wei's sword, that sword is cast by Ou Ye, the first blacksmith of my Cangguo, and some other metals are added to the iron ore, and then after more than a dozen tempering, it was finally cast into such a sharp weapon, but it is too complicated to make, and I don't know how much doping is appropriate, so it is not mass-produced, and two or three swords are cast every year, which are taken away by some generals and guards." ”

"Ingredient ......" Yang Mu's eyes lit up, doping other metals in iron, isn't that a catalyst? Isn't it carburizing steelmaking method to make the carbon content in the iron evenly distributed and the impurities out after many hammering?

Perhaps, this kind of technology is not mature, and the steel smelted is not really steel, but it is much more advanced than pig iron!

The sophistication of weapons and equipment is too important for an army, imagine who will win when the enemy sacrifices a silver sword and his own side holds a rusty iron lump and slashes together?

A good weapon can often achieve a surprising victory on the battlefield, and it is not a problem to be outnumbered.

What made him more interested was the blacksmith named Ouyeel, who was able to discover this method and continue to explore experiments, which itself had a certain scientific literacy, and what was lacking was only systematic theoretical knowledge and research support.

You know, in the current iron-smelting process, the iron will inevitably be doped with a certain amount of carbon, and the most important thing in steelmaking is to remove impurities, adjust the content of carbon, the current blacksmiths basically rely on inefficient calcining, other countries have invented steel frying and other technologies He does not know, but the current Cangguo, is absolutely not.

Immediately afterwards, Yang Mu asked Chen You and others to lead them to the smelting shed outside the city.

The so-called workshop is the lower-level yamen outside the city, where the craftsmen work.

From a distance, it is actually a simple earthen house, which is equipped with a furnace for cast iron, an iron shelf, and some corresponding tools, such as tongs, etc.

The group of people was huge, naturally attracting the attention of the people in the shed, and when they learned that it was His Majesty the Emperor and Lord Shangshu who were coming, they immediately panicked and didn't know what to do.

Chen You ordered them to do everything as usual, and then led Yang Mu and began to visit all parts of the shed.

Stopping at a random shack, I saw a blacksmith hammering iron embryos and casting them into the shape of spearheads.

Perhaps it was because of the presence of a big man watching from the sidelines, and the blacksmith was nervous, and his hand holding the hammer trembled a little.

Seeing this, Chen You reminded the blacksmith: "Go on." ”

The blacksmith nodded, and then hammered the iron embryo on the shelf again.

After watching for a while, Chen You led him to the depths of the shed, and the rows of guards next to him opened the way, looking around vigilantly to prevent any accidents.

After a period of time, Yang Mu also had some simple understanding of this shed.

Poor!

Yes, after visiting the entire shed, what impressed Yang Mu the most was that this Ordnance Supervision and Foundry Department was simply tinkling, a state institution, just like a blacksmith shop for making farm tools.

Yang Mu couldn't have imagined that the equipment of the 20,000 soldiers of Cangguo was actually from such a humble place.

It is not an exaggeration to describe it as shoddy!

Rao is Yang Mu had already prepared, and he planned a sum of money to invest in weapons, but he was also stunned by such difficult conditions.

To put it nicely, the Ordnance Superintendent is a superintendent under the Ministry of Industry, but in fact it is a workshop that works for the Ministry of War, and it has to look at the face of the Ministry of Household Affairs every day, and iron ore, wood, coal, etc., are all subject to others.

The environment is so simple, the wages of the craftsmen must be imaginable, not much better than ordinary civilians who farm, and the meager salary is estimated to be only enough to maintain food and clothing.

After watching it for a while, Yang Mu shook his head, frowned and said, "Chen Shangshu, I was a little disappointed after watching this circle. Your Ministry of Industry is the basic equipment of the whole country and the guarantee of the combat effectiveness of the army, why are the working conditions so simple? Why don't those adobe sheds be converted into blue brick and stone houses? ”

Hearing this, a look of panic appeared on Chen You's face, and he hurriedly explained: "Your Majesty forgives the sin, it is really that the money of the Ministry of Industry is too tight, and everyone can't wait to break a copper plate into two halves. ”

"No need, I am here for this today, and I will allocate 50,000 taels from the treasury to the Ministry of Works, of which 30,000 taels will be used for the ordnance supervision...... However, this money is not for you to spend like this, but according to my design. ”

"Please also make it clear to Your Majesty." When Chen You heard that there were 100,000 taels of silver, he was overjoyed, as for what His Majesty designed...... As long as you have money, what can't you do?

Yang Mu nodded, asked Shen An to fetch charcoal, spread out a large rough piece of paper, and drew on it.

Frying steel method!

The frying steel process appeared in the middle and late Western Han Dynasty, which is a kind of semi-liquid smelting, which uses pig iron as raw material, heats the pig iron to a liquid and semi-liquid state, and uses the oxygen in the blast to decarburize the pig iron to the composition range of steel and wrought iron, and the metal must be constantly stirred in the smelting process, so it is also called the frying steel method.

And what Yang Mu painted, mainly is the frying steel furnace, is a small pit in the shape of a refractory mud, coated with refractory mud, built below the ground, such as a reed-shaped or straight cylinder, the furnace mouth and the ground are straight, smelting charcoal first, then release pig iron, and then cover with coal powder, and then ignition, air supply, close the furnace mouth, when the pig iron is close to melting, open the furnace mouth, with an iron rod or wooden stick to constantly stir the metal, with the progress of the frying, the carbon content continues to decrease, the melting point of the metal increases, it is bonded into a sponge-like solid block, and then the hammer is clamped out to eliminate inclusions, And give a certain shape, that is, the roasted product.

This is a single-chamber steel frying method, the equipment is simple, it is the easiest method for Cangguo craftsmen to learn, after mastering it, you can then fill steel, and even blast furnace liquid steelmaking transition.

It can be said that this drawing directly allows the entire steel industry of Cangguo to step into another era, steel is the mother of industry, and some reforms will be much easier in the future.

Then, Yang Mu wrote some tricks on it, summoned some craftsmen, especially Ou Ye and others, to ask about some situations, including some problems that needed to be solved.

Who knows, these dozen craftsmen were very embarrassed and nervous, stammering, and couldn't speak clearly, so he had to give up, thinking about writing some methods for making steelmaking molds tonight, so as to improve the quality of steelmaking and the efficiency of weapon building.

Of course, if you want the horses to run, you have to let the horses eat grass, Yang Mu promulgated the system, as long as they can build the things on the drawings and successfully make steel, they will give three stars to the people and a reward of one hundred taels of silver.

This time, it directly made the blacksmiths overjoyed and thanked.