Half a month, on the first day Yang Guang arrived in Chang'an, he summoned five old ministers to the court, Gao Gong was Nayan, Yu Wenhua was the servant Shaoqing, Yu Wenzhi was the general as the young eunuch, Li Zixiong was the general of the fat cavalry, and Yang Chong was the servant of the outside cavalry. When the edict was announced, Gao Gong had already returned to Chang'an, and the second son Gao Hongde said happily: "Father is now back in the center, and he will be able to change the seven elephants of the court." ”

Gao Gong shook his head, Gao Hongde was still a lot worse than his eldest son Gao Shengdao, Gao Gong stepped back left and right and said: "The Holy Son of Heaven is acting like this, so that we can decide the winner at one time; If I don't hand over the old hall this time, if I don't get it right, I'll lose my head. When you arrive in Chang'an, you don't have to deal with the gang of people in the past, the assassination of martial arts will definitely anger Changsun Sheng, and a fight between him and Pei Ju is inevitable, Yu Wenhua and Yang Chong returned to the court at this moment, and Yang Guang had a pair of eagle dogs. ”

However, to the surprise of the ministers, Yu Wenhua was sent to Longyou to inspect the situation of horse breeding, and Yang Chong was sent to Wuchuan Iron Works, the largest iron factory in Guanzhong; Duan Wenzhen and Wei Xuan looked for Emperor Yang Guang of Sui several times, Yang Guang never let go, and finally admitted that Yang Da secretly pointed out that there was actually no suitable position for Yang Chong in the court, how could Yang Chong do everything on the bright side, and every thing was true, so the generals in the army who were optimistic about Yang Chong were not one or two, Rao was Yang Guang's arbitrary and arbitrary behavior, and he didn't want to be blamed in this matter, so he called Yang Chong back to the court.

Wei Xuan sighed and said, "It's better to let Yang Chong concentrate on business." ”

Wuchuan Iron Works did not say that the iron factory was in Wuchuan Town, but told outsiders that this iron factory belonged to the Guanlongmen valve who came out of Wuchuan Town; Yang Chong's task was to develop the process of bringing back the two Guiniao to improve the output and quality of the iron factory. For the sake of safety, Yang Chong still took Yang Heng, Wei Chili, Huang Zhen, Bai Litao, and Tie Di five guards, and even if he walked inside the iron factory, there were at least two or three people accompanying him.

After a few days of observation, Yang Chong determined that the iron factory used Qi Wuhuaiwen's steelmaking method, selected high-grade iron ore, smelted high-quality pig iron, and then poured liquid pig iron on wrought iron, after several degrees of smelting, the iron carburized into steel, and the steel smelted by this steel-filling method is also called Su iron. Yang Chong knew that the steel filling method was a great achievement in ancient Chinese steelmaking, compared with the hundred refining method or the frying method, it shortened the smelting time, increased the output of steel, improved the quality of the metal, and was easy to operate and easy to master.

It's just that compared with the Uzi crucible steel that is popular in South India and Sri Lanka, the steel of Dasui is much worse, and so far, it has been imported in large quantities from the Western Regions. Yang Chong learned steelmaking, listened to the teacher's analysis, the smelting method in ancient India is probably to seal the black manganese ore, bamboo charcoal and some plant leaves in a pottery furnace to burn and heat, when these things are melted, the dregs form a mass of metal, and then the metal is repeatedly melted, cooled four or five times, and smelted into metal blocks.

Yang Chong's teacher analyzed at that time that the quality of Uzi steel declined in the middle of the eighteenth century, perhaps because a specific vein was mined, the chemical composition of the raw materials changed, and one or several trace components in the ore disappeared, which the blacksmiths could not detect with their eyes alone. In the class, the teacher also took the example of cold forging armor, the Western Xia could use the cold forging method to make armor, but the Northern Song Dynasty could not make it, and the problem was in the material; The materials produced in the two places are different in hardness, plasticity, and strength, even if they are processed by the same method, the results are different.

Yang Chong has the formula for cold forging with the nest in his hand, and he has been studying this problem for the past two years, but he knows that now is not the time to take it out; For the iron plant, Yang Chong observed it for ten days and came to the conclusion that it was a blast furnace and de-impurities. In the current situation, if it is possible to build a high-temperature iron-making furnace that can manufacture more than 1200 °C to achieve the refining of steel at high temperature, and then use the bellows to deliver sufficient air to the high-temperature iron-making furnace to maintain stability, and finally use alkaline lime in the molten iron to remove impurities, promote the precipitation of slag and adsorb phosphorus and sulfur impurities at the same time.

But Yang Chong understands that whether it is a piston bellows or coke, it is too difficult for him, and as for the blast furnace, don't even think about it, these are not things that can be completed by oneself. Now only a little improvement can be made, so that the craftsmen can improve the refractory bricks, whether carbon-based or silicon-based; Insist on charcoal heating, there is no requirement for the height of the stove, but the shaft furnace can talk to the craftsmen to see if there is a genius master who can do it.

The manager of Wuchuan Iron Works is Yuan Shou's son Yuan Na, Yuan Na is very concerned about Yang Chong's words and deeds, as the fourth child in the family, and is born to a concubine, there is almost no future, Yuan Na's ideals and hopes are in the iron factory. Yuan Na has been in the factory for nearly 20 years, and with the support of Yuan Shou, he didn't think that anyone could danger his position at all, but as soon as Yang Chong came, Yuan Na was a little unbreathable, and Yang Chong's achievements in the manufacturing industry were too strong, and he had to take a high look.

Hearing that Yang Chong wanted to meet the craftsman in charge of the erection furnace, Yuan Na was full of curiosity, so after the master master Meng Zhao came, Yuan Na did not leave, and sat on the side to listen. Yang Chong handed the shaft furnace drawings he drew to Meng Zhao, and Meng Zhao smiled when he saw it and said, "Lord Yang means to make cast iron?" I heard the older generation say that the iron plate is first cast, then heated, and the formed device is forged. I understand that the lord means to separate the civil and imperial castings to increase the output of the iron factory. ”

Yang Chong nodded and said, "This is exactly what this official meant, Master Meng, can this kind of shaft furnace stand up?" This shaft furnace can also make steel. ”

The steelmaking blast furnace of later generations was developed from the shaft furnace, and Yang Chong was 100% sure in his heart. Meng Zhao is a real master, in the Great Sui, you can be called a master if you are not a craftsman; So Meng Zhao listened to Yang Chong's words, carefully scrutinized the drawings again, and spent about two hours before he said cautiously: "According to the villain, it should be no problem to build this shaft furnace, the key is that if the shaft furnace wants to make steel, the burning of charcoal is not stable enough, I don't know what method adults use to solve it?" ”

Yang Chong was greatly satisfied, this is the words of an expert, looking at the drawings can think of the shortcomings, Yang Chong replied smoothly: "I am going to build this road at the water's edge, using the kind of water power in the Han Dynasty to drive the pestle hammer, with the blower to forge repeatedly." As soon as Yuan Na heard this, he knew that he was in trouble, there was no such water source in the Shimen Mountain area, and if Yang Chong's suggestion was adopted, the shaft furnace could only be built in other branches.

Wuchuan Iron Works has twenty-two branches, large and small, and the remaining twenty-one are added together, and the output is not as high as Shimenshan's. Yuan Na understood that even if he didn't report it to the shareholders, Yang Chong would go to the chapter to reinstate his life, so he immediately summoned the backbone to make a conclusion about Yang Chong's suggestion, as for whether to adopt it or not, Yuan Na couldn't control it, it was the shareholder's business.

The ideas of the shareholders of Wuchuan Iron Works made people laugh and cry, and asked Yang Chongxian to design the drawings of the hydraulically driven pestle hammer, Meng Zhao said to Yuan Na uneasily: "The shopkeeper, you can't do this, the things on the production line are connected by rings, if you divide it into several pieces, you still have to find a master to solve it later." ”

Yuan Na pretended to be puzzled and asked, "Master Meng, don't you make it too?" ”

Meng Zhao shook his head and said: "Without diamonds, I don't dare to work on porcelain." The structure of a hydraulically driven pestle hammer is complex, and every detail is required, which is completely different from building a furnace. If the shareholders do not want Mr. Yang to intervene, I have a suggestion to ask for the help of the supervisor. ”

Yuan Naxin said that it would never be possible, Yuwenkai is now the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, and Yuwenzhi is about to be a young eunuch, how can they come to dismantle Yang Chong's platform. Yuan Na had no choice but to comfort Meng Zhao and said: "It's not your business to build a factory, as long as you announce it to Yang Chong, I'm afraid that Yang Chong won't come up with the drawings." ”

Meng Zhao had a good impression of Yang Chong, and said with confidence: "The shopkeeper is too worried, Yang Chong, an executive and the owner of Procter & Gamble, how can he be willing to waste time in the iron factory." In my opinion, he would quickly pull out the drawings and walk away. Yuan Naxin said that that is the best.

Sure enough, as soon as Shang Shutai's official letter arrived, Yang Chong spent six days producing the drawings and handing them over to Yuan Na, and then returned to Chang'an to resume his life. Yang Chong's mood was very calm, as if he had a business trip, no matter what the plan of Emperor Yang Guang of Sui was, it was an inevitable thing to close the Longmen valve and not let himself interfere in the iron factory, so Yang Chong was not angry. Regarding the information about returning to the bird, Yang Chong also played the chapter, but he didn't understand it, the steelmaking procedure was too complicated, and he didn't dare to talk nonsense, so as not to add to the chaos.