After Zhao Ziliang and his entourage arrived at Xilin to guard and capture, Brehan and the others went out of the city, had a simple lunch in the city, and immediately rushed to the steel factory in the south of the city. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

A large number of manpower made the construction of the steel plant very fast, it was only about a month, Zhao Ziliang and others had not yet come closer, not only saw the three-meter-high wall surrounding the entire steel plant, but also saw that many houses were built inside the steel plant. High chimneys have been erected on the roofs of the two houses on the far right, which are supposed to be the ironworks and steelworks.

Before they reached the gate of the steel plant, Zhao Lin and Zhao Hu, the people in charge of the steel plant, took Liu Tianci and Liu Hongyi, who were in charge of ironmaking and steelmaking, and many craftsmen to greet them at the door, and there were many soldiers guarding the surrounding and wall.

Watching Zhao Ziliang and the others gallop towards this side on horseback, Zhao Hu whispered to Zhao Lin beside him: "Don't call my second uncle by name when I meet him later, it will be rude, although my second uncle will not be as knowledgeable as you, but what will others think of you?" Call the general in front of outsiders, don't let others laugh at our Zhao family for not knowing etiquette! ”

"Huh?" Zhao Lin reacted, touched his face quite embarrassedly, and said, "But I'm used to calling him by his name, and it's always a little awkward to suddenly change my words!" ”

Zhao Hu said coldly: "If you are not used to it, you have to become accustomed to it, otherwise you will not mix here!" I ask you, will the emperor's relatives call the emperor's name? Do they dare to call the emperor's name? ”

Zhao Lin opened his mouth wide, "Don't you dare?" Calling the emperor by his name directly is to kill his head! ”

"Do you know it's a crime of killing your head? The principle is the same, it is a crime of disrespect to call Shangguan by his name, understand? ”

A cold sweat broke out on Zhao Lin's forehead, and he nodded again and again: "I understand, I understand, this must be changed."

The two were talking, and saw Zhao Ziliang riding his horse in the front, and he had already reached the front, so he beckoned everyone to meet him, and bowed down together and said, "Congratulations to the general!" ”

Zhao Ziliang jumped down from the horse, handed the horse to the servants behind him, walked to Zhao Lin, Zhao Hu, Liu Tianci, Liu Hongyi and others and raised his hand and smiled: "No need to be polite!" ”

This is Brehan, Gao Shi and Cen Shen and others also dismounted and walked over, Brehan said: "The general heard that the steel plant has been largely completed and can be used for iron-making and steelmaking, so the general came here today to watch the iron-making process, how are you prepared?" ”

Zhao Lin immediately said: "Everything is ready, just wait for the general to arrive and open the furnace." ”

Zhao Ziliang nodded, "Then what are you waiting for?" Let's all go inside! ”

"General, please!"

Zhao Ziliang took the lead in the front, Zhao Lin and Zhao Hu led the way in front of the left and right sides, Zhao Lin also introduced Zhao Ziliang while walking: "General, here are the guards, the left and right are defensive towers, there are archers, there are people standing guard day and night, and the westernmost wall is the residence of ordinary craftsmen, there are toilets, washing baths, boiling water rooms, and drying rooms. The two rows of houses in front of the middle are pig iron warehouses, the back two rows of houses are steel warehouses, there are large open spaces next to them, if you increase production in the future, you can also build more warehouses, there are iron-making workshops and steel-making workshops in the east, if you want to increase the furnace in the future, you can also build again in the workshop, the vacant position is not small, and you can also build a workshop on the vacant land next to it. ”

Zhao Ziliang watched while walking, nodded from time to time after listening to Zhao Lin's introduction, and said: "This place is well planned, everything is in order, the house buildings are built in a planned manner according to the functions and needs, the production area, the living area, the raw material hoarding area and the finished product area are separated, not bad, who planned this?" ”

Brehan pointed at Gao Shi and said: "It is planned according to the assumption of Master Gao, we are all rough people, where will we understand this?" ”

Zhao Ziliang looked at Gao Shi and praised: "Tall and talented!" ”

Gao Shi hurriedly and humbly arched his hand and said, "The general praised it!" ”

Everyone talked and walked into the iron-making workshop, a high iron-making furnace was set up in the workshop, the craftsmen were ready, the charcoal and hematite ore of the raw materials had been stacked in the material preparation area one by one, because there was no coal mine found in this vicinity for the time being, so the fuel could only be replaced by charcoal, these charcoal are all high-quality charcoal, flammable, burn-resistant, firepower, originally a large hematite stone, at this time have been crushed by the city debris basket by basket hit in the frame.

Zhao Ziliang observed around the iron-making furnace, I have to say that the wisdom of the ancients must not be underestimated, under extremely simple conditions, these people can need to burn the kiln to burn refractory bricks in such a short period of time, and then use the refractory equipment to build this iron-making furnace is not easy.

Zhao Ziliang pointed to the surrounding craftsmen and asked Liu Tianci, "Do these craftsmen know their duties?"

Liu Tianci replied: "Yes, General! In the past month, the villain and others have given them some training, and they all know what they should and shouldn't do."

"Good!" Zhao Ziliang expressed his affirmation and instructed: "Let's start!" ”

"No!"

Under Liu Hongyi's order, the craftsmen began to perform their duties, and the craftsmen who were specially responsible for the opening and closing of the furnace door immediately opened the furnace mouth, some craftsmen carried the frame to pour raw materials into the furnace mouth, and some craftsmen poured fuel into the combustion chamber.

Soon, everything was ready, and Liu Hongyi reported to Zhao Ziliang: "General, everything is ready, just wait for the fire!" ”

The charcoal in the combustion chamber was poured with oil, a torch was thrown in, and with a "boom", all the charcoal burned instantly, and the temperature around the iron-making furnace soon began to rise, Zhao Ziliang and others had to retreat to a certain distance, and the craftsmen who added fuel at the door of the combustion chamber could only work naked, and a basket of charcoal was poured into the combustion chamber by the craftsmen under the command of Liu Hongyi, so that the temperature of the combustion chamber continued to rise.

When the temperature in the furnace reaches more than 1,000 degrees, the iron ore begins to melt slowly, and ironmaking is actually a process of deoxidation and removal of impurities, which requires multiple processes to complete.

When all the previous processes were completed, Liu Hongyi climbed down the stairs to the high place of the iron-making furnace to check the situation of the molten iron, and immediately instructed the preparation of abrasives to hold the molten iron, and the craftsmen holding the mold were already on standby, and more than a dozen big men in charge of operating the iron-making furnace immediately pulled up the furnace with a pulley, and then an iron chain pulled the furnace tilted under the force, and the red molten iron was poured from the nozzle into a funnel-shaped container, and the molten iron flowed from under the funnel container into a visible long grooved channel. At the end of the groove channel, the red molten iron flows into the small molds that have been prepared for a long time, and these small molds are immediately removed and placed in a ventilated place to cool down.

Zhao Ziliang walked to the place where the molten iron was connected, watched the craftsmen take away the small molds filled with molten iron, and asked, "Where did these small molds for molten iron come from?" ”

Gao Shi replied: "The main material is sand, made of clay and water to make a binder, in order to prepare for the construction of this steel plant, we also built a kiln not far from the steel plant, and the walls and buildings of the steel mill are made of square green bricks fired from the kiln!" ”

This gave Zhao Ziliang a big surprise, he didn't expect these people to come up with a way to fire green bricks and molds, and hurriedly asked: "How did you think of using fired green bricks to build factories and walls?" It is not a simple process to make green bricks from adobe bricks! ”

Liu Hongyi bowed and said: "General, the villain is not talented, when he was a master craftsman in the craftsman's supervisor, he inadvertently dropped a mud block into the combustion chamber of the iron-making furnace, and when the combustion chamber was extinguished, the craftsmen took out a cyan stone when they cleaned up the slag, and the villain knew that it was a clay block that fell into it when he looked at the shape, but he didn't expect this thing to be so strong after firing, and the villain thought at the time, if the clay block was made into a square, wouldn't it be able to use it as the main material for building the city wall?" You must know that the soil is everywhere, and then the villain after dozens of experiments, finally figured out the temperature control and process of firing it, after getting this result, the villain is preparing to dedicate its firing process to the imperial court, but he doesn't want to have something happen at that time, the villain and Brother Liu were sent to the Western Regions, so the process of firing green bricks has no chance to be dedicated to the imperial court! ”

Zhao Ziliang nodded, patted Liu Hongyi's shoulder and said: "It's okay, General Ben is very interested in your process of firing green bricks, before General Ben also ordered people to build a kiln to burn bricks and tiles in Hexi, but the process is not up to par, the quality of the bricks and tiles burned is not very good, but it can also be used to build cities and houses, if you use the green bricks fired by your process to build a city wall, it will inevitably be strong and strong."

Liu Hongyi hurriedly said: "Later, the villain will write the firing process into a book and dedicate it to the general, hoping that the general will use it to benefit the people!" ”

Zhao Ziliang nodded and said, "Don't worry!" ”

While he was talking, a craftsman came over with a mold and reported: "My lord, the molten iron in the mold has cooled down and turned into a hot iron block."

Liu Hongyi hurriedly ordered: "Come out and take a look!" ”

When the two craftsmen heard this, they immediately turned the formwork over, and a large piece of iron fell from the formwork to the ground with a muffled sound.

Zhao Ziliang asked, "Is the iron still hot?" ”

"It's not hot, and after the molten iron cools and solidifies, we water it with cold water again."

Zhao Ziliang squatted on the ground and picked up the iron block and looked it up and down, looked up at Liu Hongyi very happily, and asked, "Mr. Liu, how is your iron piece?" ”

Liu Hongyi took it, knocked it with a hammer, and said after listening to the voice: "The impurities contained in it are already within the expectation, this is pig iron, it seems that the iron content of this hematite is very good, otherwise the sound will not be so crisp, if the sound is dull, it means that there are still a lot of impurities in it."

"So that means it can be used to make steel?"

Liu Hongyi said: "Yes, general! ”

Zhao Ziliang was overjoyed, grabbed Liu Hongyi's arms and said, "Okay, Mr. Liu's talent!" Come, Mr. Liu practiced raw iron meritorious, rewarded 1,000 times, and the rest of the craftsmen in the ironmaking workshop were rewarded with ten, five and two times according to their ranks! After a while, General Ben will find a way to exonerate you and make you a free body, as long as you do well, General Ben will give you an official! ”

Liu Hongyi burst into tears for a while, how could the craftsmen have been so valued? Under the leadership of Liu Hongyi, all the craftsmen in the ironmaking workshop knelt down and bowed to thank them. (To be continued.) )