On the second day, Yang Xi led Zulang and led a hundred people into the mountain with him and walked up the Caishi River.

At this time, the team is no longer like before, and the crossbow machine still uses bamboo arrows. Although the Ministry of Ordnance Industry under the charge of Yang Xiao does not have many people, only about 100 people, it can already equip the whole army with the production of crossbows and iron arrows every day.

Moreover, all platoon commanders, captains of ships and above can be customized with two handy weapons, but these weapons are made of 100 steel.

Most of these platoon commanders' weapons consulted Yang Xi, and Yang Xi drew drawings for them, which surpassed this era a lot.

Zu Lang's long mace is not bad, Yang Xi did not suggest changing it, but Yang Xi gave him a scimitar, this scimitar is the later Japanese and original knife.

Compared with ancient long swords, the katana still has certain advantages, such as when Qin Shi Huang was stabbed, why he pulled it out several times, but he didn't pull it out, because the sword is straight, it is inconvenient to pull it out, and the katana does not have this problem, it is very convenient.

Yang Xi specially designed a katana for Zu Lang, this product was actually used to wear a rabbit barbecue at this time, and Yang Xi was stunned when he saw it.

Yang Xi sat down, looked at the knife, and then looked at the meat and said, "It's very convenient!" Hehe! ”

Zulang didn't understand what it meant.

"Childe! You're really whimsical, this knife is very convenient, it's better than my self-defense little short knife, that's the thing, the barbecue can still be burned in your hands, this is good, long enough, and thin, in the words of Childe, it's ---- simply! Do you want to have a leg? ”

Yang Xi's face was a little blue, but he couldn't see it at night.

"Give me a leg, a hind leg!"

"Ahh Hind legs? That~That~Oh well! ”

"What? Not happy? ”

"No~ No! Didn't you say it, Childe, private property is sacrosanct! I wondered if this was private property! ”

"Why don't you die! Give me both hind legs, hurry up! ”

"Damn! Why is it so unpalatable! Yang Xi howled miserably.

"Childe, you're too anxious, I haven't sprinkled salt yet!"

There was a burst of laughter from the side, and the whole night sky became alive.

Passing by the coal mountain, Yang Xi led people to investigate, but there was no trace of anyone coming.

This is Yang Xi's treasure, although there is no one to guard it now, but occasionally come to take a look, don't have any mudslides or other damage.

After crossing the coal mountain, the road was smooth, and then we arrived at a mountain that was covered with heavy snow that day.

Colored Stone Mountain has arrived.

As the name suggests, about one-third of the mountain is naked and exposed.

"Dark red? It should be hematite! ”

Yang Xi looked at its color and made a preliminary judgment.

"Zulang! Let everyone disperse, each class of five people in a group, go up the mountain to collect stones, and gather here at noon. ”

"Order!"

Zu Lang figured out Yang Xi's character, it doesn't matter how he usually jokes, but when he gets things done, he is absolutely meticulous.

Yang Xi and Zu Lang left only one squad guard, waiting for the soldiers to bring back samples for identification.

At noon, all the soldiers returned one after another, and the stones from different locations were collected, and hundreds of stones were placed in front of Yang Xi.

Yang Xi inspected them one by one, carefully investigated, and according to the pictures and shape descriptions provided in the technology tree, he finally determined that this was indeed hematite, and the quality was very high.

"Get rich, get rich! Zulang! We're rich! Hahahaha! Yang Xi couldn't help but get carried away.

"Childe? Could it be that stones can be sold for money? Or is there gold in it? "Zu Lang is inexplicable.

"Gold? No, you think gold is the most valuable, and in my world, it's no worse than gold. Zulang listens! ”

"The subordinates are here!"

"From today onwards, you will arrange for 500 soldiers from the fighting battalion to search near Caishi Mountain, and be sure to clear all the people and animals within a radius of five kilometers. If it's an animal, I'll kill it, and if it's a person, I'll tie it up and send it to the Chenhe factory, which is a top-secret mission and must not be passed on. ”

"Yes!"

Once iron ore is found here, it still belongs to the imperial court in name, and Yang Xi doesn't want people to seize the handle.

When Dong Zhuo Dong is on the throne, the world is in chaos, and no one will care about this kind of thing.

Back at the Chenhe factory, Yang Xi called Niu Han and gave him a blueprint of an iron-making blast furnace for him to study first. Waiting for Zu Lang to send back the confirmed news, he then led the workers to mine directly and smelt iron on the spot.

It's still early to make steel, the converter for steelmaking is more complex than ironmaking, and it is not a day's work to build, Yang Xi has to wait for everything to be ready before going to this step, which is expected to be a few months later.

Three days later, with Yang Xi as the team leader, Niu Han as the deputy team leader, and 11 workers and blacksmiths who had served in the Northern Iron Works, they formed the Chenhe Iron and Steel Department Research Group.

Yang Xi worked with everyone day and night to study the technical difficulties such as the construction drawings of the blast furnace and the air converter.

In July, the research team led 1,000 workers and set out for the coal mountain with a variety of recently built tools.

The vigorous steel plant was officially launched.

In fact, at this time, the steel mills in the north already had relatively advanced technology, and at this time they basically used carbon as a reducing agent, so the steelmaking furnace consumed more labor. But Yang Xi is different, Yang Xi does not use charcoal.

He grinds coal into powder, which is dry distilled into coke, which is used as the main fuel for blast furnace ironmaking. It is ground into powder and sprayed into the blast furnace to become supplementary fuel for the blast furnace.

Moreover, the iron-making furnace at this time was a shaft furnace, with a straight cylinder of the same size at the top and bottom, and there was no cooling system, so the service life was extremely short. As long as you think about it, you can understand that without cooling, the furnace is calcined together with the inside, and even if it is a high-quality steel furnace, it will not burn for long.

But Yang Xi's blast furnace is different, after so many years of development, there has long been a cooling method, as long as between the inner layer of clay bricks and the outer furnace wall, the water filling device can be cooled.

Fortunately, the coal mountain is close to Caishi Mountain, and the fuel and reducing agent are easily available, which brings a lot of convenience to the Chenhe Iron and Steel Plant.

Technology not only saves labor but also improves efficiency.

At this time, it takes thousands of people to open one furnace for iron smelting, and one thousand people for Yang Xi can open two furnaces at the same time.

But there is a problem, although the coal mountain is close, there is always some trouble in transportation, Yang Xi is now using horses to pull the cart, and he has also built a road for this purpose.

"The first step to do is to improve efficiency, the amount of coal is large, and it is difficult to sail, so let's build a railway!"

Ancient Greece was the first country to have rail transport, at least since the Western Han Dynasty in China, where horse-drawn carts ran along the tracks.

Yang Xi can't make high-manganese steel now, and he doesn't need to take the train, as long as he can take the iron wheel.

"Then design a transport vehicle that is stepped on by man, just like a ship."

In fact, this design was used later, and finally after the steam engine came out, it was replaced, of course, it was only used for coal mining like Yang Xi.

The whole project, not a day or two, is really on the right track, and next year, Yang Xi arranged Niu Han as the commander-in-chief of the steel plant, and all problems will be given specific technical guidance by the research team.