[It's before six o'clock, so it's barely afternoon.] There's also an update from the previous chapter.,There was a joke after the most lucrative.,Now it's been corrected.,Thank you for your correction.。 】

Zhou Quanhu strode out, and there was a little more confidence in his steps.

Han Gang watched him walk out of the corner of his lips from behind.

If you can treat people, you can use them well. Zhou Quan was a descendant of the Han family before, and with today's customs, even after he becomes an official, he will not change. But this matter, everyone just knows it, and there is no need to remind it all day long. The resentment of destroying the family and destroying the clan is often planted in an inadvertent attitude, and Han Gang has always been very careful in this regard.

"Go to the plate armor bureau and find Zang Zhang."

Han Gang called the little official outside the door in and told him to go out to find someone, and think about it again.

Zhou Quan is now a psychic in the weapons prison, and he is a very useful cronie. But that's all, outside of the Ordnance Prison, there is no way to help. Han Gang thought about it, and found that his personal strength was still too shallow, and there was not even a person around him who came up with ideas. Zhang Dian and Wang Shao were only allies, and Wang was still serving in the Yamen of the Prefecture of Baima County—otherwise he might have been a credible assistant—in other words, he had been fighting alone.

The previous three staff members have already dispersed. After Fang Xing and Wei Ping really became officials, they were both released to serve as prefectures and counties - they were able to have an official position so quickly, which was also the result of Han Gang's activities - but none of them were born, and they couldn't go far in the officialdom under normal circumstances. Therefore, You Yu is still preparing to be admitted to the Jinshi, went to study in Guozijian, and is ready to meet this year's tribute, and now he lives in the dormitory of Guozijian.

If nothing else, these three people can become a help in the future, but at the moment Han Gang still needs a few assistants who can be handy, although the position of the superintendent does not need Qingke to assist in official business, but he will have to be released sooner or later in the future, what is not a few Qingke and curtain guests, and it is also troublesome to do things in the state and county.

Sighing, Han Gang was still looking forward to the classmates of Guan Xue's lineage coming to him. He had already mentioned this in his letter to Zhang Zai, hoping to recommend him a few suitable candidates.

Zang Zhang soon arrived, and due to Han Gang's recommendation, the head of the original furnace became the same Guan Gou official of the Plate Armor Bureau, and the other Guan Gou official was concurrently served by the inner servant, responsible for timely communication of the affairs of the bureau to the Son of Heaven, just like the situation of the Horse Chopping Bureau. Seeing the extra eunuchs in the prison, Han Gang didn't know what to say. Zhao Ji is too broad, is this what the Son of Heaven should do? Fortunately, several of the chamberlains who were sent to be the prison army were very smart and did not dare to mess around in front of him, but honestly waited for the credit to be shared, otherwise Han Gang would definitely not be able to bear it.

"Sacrifice people." Zang Zhang saluted first after coming in, "I don't know what the Sheren called the officials here, what are the orders?" ”

"It's just that there's something to ask about the hook." Zang Zhang's status in the ordnance prison is not low, if it weren't for the fact that his official position was obtained by striking iron, even if he took over the position of the ordnance superintendent left by Bai Zhang, it would not cause dissent in the prison. For such a technical bureaucrat, Han Gang maintained some respect, "The preparation of the plate armor bureau has been completed, and the plate armor has also begun to be produced every day according to the predetermined goal. When I met the saint yesterday, I reported this to the Son of Heaven, and the Son of Heaven also said that this thing was indeed done well. ”

glanced at the old craftsman with a happy face, "But there are some things that you must have heard about, if the workshop of the Plate Armor Bureau moves outside the capital in a few days, I wonder if you can arrange it properly?" ”

Zang Zhang hesitated, "There is no big problem with others, whether it is a person or a workshop, if you move over, you will move over, as long as you have a job to do, where is not life." Besides, it's not far from the capital. It's a matter of pig iron, and if it is moved to the water's edge, it will definitely not go out day and night. At that time, could the pig iron used in the workshop be supplied? ”

"There should be no problem with the pig iron in Xuzhou, but it really can't be done, and there are Xiangzhou and Cizhou."

"Li Guojian's iron ore is so big, the amount of pig iron that Xuzhou can send may not be enough. The distance from the pit to the waterway in Xiangzhou and Cizhou is farther than that of Liguojian, and the use of coal is too high, and the texture is not good. Zang Zhang said, "And last year, the world's iron class was only five million catties, not even as good as Emperor Yingzong, and there were eight million catties at that time!" ”

"Can there be 'private purchase' of iron smelting during the Zhiping period? At present, the smelters in the mines in various places have not all been changed to the government to draw points. It's normal to have fewer iron classes, but the total production is still increasing. ”

As Zang Zhang said, the total number of 'iron classes' in the country today is five million jin per year—the 'class' here is taxation—nearly half less than the eight million jin at the time of Yingzong. However, this is because the imperial court has changed the iron smelting management system. The mining supervisors in various places are still controlled by the government, but the mining and smelting at the bottom have gradually become a private contract system - 'call the people to take, bring their own materials for cooking, ten points for the rate, the official income is two cents, and the eight cents are allowed to be sold by the pit households' production is extracted by the official two and the people - that is, the pig iron produced by the government is taken by the government as a tax, and the rest is sold by the pit households themselves.

From the point of view of industrial production, handing over ore smelting to private contracting is actually a step backwards. From a management point of view, outsourcing the most cumbersome mining and smelting out of the court saves a lot of labor in the imperial court and can also attract more people to engage in the smelting industry. Compared with the old situation when smelters were oppressed by the government and continued to lose their hukou, it was much stronger.

"And there are mines all over the place, as long as there are people, they can be mined. The production of Xuzhou Liguo Jian alone can actually be far more than now. ”

Although today's mining technology is still mainly based on shallow mineral deposits, it is enough to meet the demand for iron products throughout the country. A complete set of iron armor is only twenty or thirty catties, one million sets, only tens of thousands of tons of iron, in fact, the annual need is only one-fifth, a year of 200,000 sets is enough, even if you add the iron tools to be produced in the future, it only needs 50,000 tons.

Of course, with the existing technical conditions, the difficulty of smelting and forging 50,000 tons of iron a year must be far greater than that of later generations, but it is only the ore and coal that are used as raw materials, and if you want to mine enough quantity, there is no problem, as long as you increase the efficiency a little. Xuzhou's famous Liguo iron mine in later generations, Han Gang has not heard of it, but he now knows that the word "Liguo" comes from this time. That's a fraction of the yield.

"But there have to be people. The sixteen pits of Li Guojian are only tens of millions of catties of mines in a year......"

"If this official remembers correctly, the ore is basically carried out of the pit on the shoulder, right?"

Zang Zhang nodded: "Where is there a good road in the mine, it is bumpy everywhere, not to mention that the carriage can't be used, even the wheelbarrow doesn't last long, so it can only be done by manpower." ”

Han Gang took out a piece of paper and handed it down, this is the pattern of the track and the railroad he drew with charcoal, and the explanation of thousands of words was written in small block letters in detail.

Zang Zhang looked down, and immediately frowned suspiciously: "This is ......"

"This is the horse-drawn carriage that I am going to use in the mines, and the principle is similar to that of a sled car. It can be used in mines or on docks. It would be much better than using a normal horse-drawn carriage. Han Gang instructed Zang Zhang, "When it comes to the craftsmen in prison, you are much more familiar than me. Go back and recommend a few suitable people to see if they can build the track and the railroad. At that time, it will be used on the road from Wuzhang River Wharf to the prison, and it will also save the need to use Taiping vehicles to transfer pig iron back and forth. ”

Wuzhang River is the waterway for transporting pig iron to Xuzhou, and there are ships docked at the wharf of the Ordnance Supervisor every day, but although the wharf is not far from Xingguofang, the transfer of raw materials such as pig iron and coal is still very troublesome. Han Gang has long been interested in laying railways, and although it is not possible to use iron yet, it should not be a problem to use hardwood as rails.

"In addition, in prison, a reward is to be offered for the axle and hub. Horse-drawn railcars need a more stable axle and hub, and wood is fine, but it would be better if it could be cast in steel or iron. ”

"Xia Guan understands." Zang Zhang nodded without saying a word, with the plate armor and the spaceship in front, no matter what Han Gang said he wanted to build, it would not cause doubts in the weapons prison.

Zang Zhang went down, Han Gang knocked on the table, and flipped through the pamphlet he was carrying, remembering that there was also a charcoal fire that needed to be solved urgently. In the future, the iron ore production of Xuzhou Liguojian will come up, and the amount of charcoal may not be enough. However, if you switch to coal, the quality of the iron smelting is not good.

Han Gang remembered that iron smelting in later generations was coke, and I wonder if it was because there would be any problems with using coal directly. However, with his current status, it won't be much trouble to order someone to make coke, so it should be regarded as burning charcoal. The coal in each place should be tried to see which coke produced by coal is more suitable for ironmaking, and then it will be transported to Xuzhou by water.

Thinking of this, Han Gang was suddenly stunned, he remembered that there seemed to be coal near Xuzhou, and the later generations of northern Jiangsu and northern Anhui - that is, today's Lianghuai - were coal mines everywhere, and friends who made a fortune from small coal kilns, Han Gang also knew a few in the old years. Although there is not much oil in China, it is a lot of coal, and it is the same before and after the millennium.

In fact, whether it is mining or smelting, these cannot be regarded as his internal affairs, if the plate armor bureau cannot provide enough products because of insufficient pig iron, the responsibility cannot be counted on his head Han Gang. The iron supervisors in various places have their own system, and they are not under the jurisdiction of him Han Gang, which is the errand of the salt and iron division in the three divisions.

I don't know if Yuan Jiang, the current third envoy of Lu Dao, will be dissatisfied because he interfered in this matter. However, Han Gang thought about it for a while and put it aside, if Yuan Jiang really couldn't get along with himself because his authority was violated, Zhao Xuan would not necessarily protect this third envoy.