There is a good thing in pairs, Zhang Chu's troubles at night were solved, and Deng Qingnian brought him good news during the day, and new steel was smelted.

Zhang Chu is busy in the Marshal's Mansion of the Security Army, the Marshal's Mansion listens to the wind, in fact, it is just a few ordinary houses, and now Zhang Chu is really not able to enjoy material wealth, Deng Qingnian entered the Marshal's Mansion from outside, his face was full of smiles, and the joy in his heart was overflowing. He held a piece of steel in his hand and handed it to Zhang Chu like a treasure, holding it carefully in both hands as if he was afraid that it would break.

"That's a piece of steel, uncle, what's the use of you giving me if it can be broken." Zhang Chu teased.

Deng Qingnian put down the steel, wiped his hands embarrassedly, and said with a smile: "This piece of steel is so good, I am reluctant to put it down, I have been working as a blacksmith for so many years and it is the first time I have seen such a good material." Its hardness is extremely high, we have cut it with the steel knife of the previous hundred steel, only leaving a little trace on it, and his toughness is good, the steel made of it bends and bounces back, full of strength, if it is made into a sharp sword, it is a rare magic weapon. ”

Zhang Chu didn't have much interest in building a divine weapon, because he knew that no matter how good a cold weapon you had, you were no match for a pistol, and the good time of martial arts would end when Zhang Chu crossed into this world. "You can use this steel to make the reeds of flintlock pistols and increase the rate of fire." Good things are still useful.

"Yes, this is a good idea, this flintlock pistol will not worry about not catching fire, the bunny cubs who use the gun, no longer dare to say nonsense that the musket we make is not good, the life of the gun will be greatly extended, if these steel can be made into a barrel, the gun can be made lighter, easier to carry without exploding." Deng Qingnian followed Zhang Chu's train of thought and suddenly thought of a lot of ways to use this material.

"You still follow the previous method, first produce some short barrels, reduce the weight of the short musket, and make it more portable, and the short musket will really become a sharp weapon. Produce more reeds and modify all flintlock pistols. The biggest use of this kind of steel is not this, it can be used as tool steel to process other materials, to create things that we wanted to make but could not make before, and can also process existing parts to produce more precise machines, if used in lathes, our manufacturing level will go to a new level. There can't be such a piece of material, right? Zhang Chu was afraid that Deng Qingnian and they accidentally got this piece of material in the process of steelmaking, so he hurriedly asked.

"How can it be that we have found a way to make this kind of steel, and in the future, we will continue to produce exactly the same steel, but now the production is a little low." Deng Qingnian said proudly.

After arriving in Zhongyang, various factories under the leadership of Deng Qingnian were established, and the iron ore and coal mines that were originally mined privately by some villagers were expropriated, and iron-making blast furnaces and new-style iron-making furnaces were established. Zhongyang's abundant mineral resources provided Deng Qingnian with a large number of new materials, and after switching to new refractory soil, the blast furnace and the new iron-making furnace had a longer life, smelting higher quality iron, and the cost was getting lower and lower, and now the steel they smelted was about the same as the cost of iron in other parts of the Ming Dynasty. Under Zhang Chu's prompting, they used the graphite resources in Zhongyang County to try to make crucibles, and after several failures, they have been able to make small graphite crucibles, and the new iron-making furnace made of graphite crucibles and graphite refractory bricks has greatly increased the furnace temperature, and has been able to melt the steel, and the steel produced is purer and of better quality. Although the furnace is small and the production capacity is low, it can continuously and stably produce high-quality steel.

Zhang Chu was in a good mood after hearing this, if he had these sharp weapons for time, he would not be afraid of the enemy's attack.

But now Zhang Chu has a more urgent thing to do, and if he can't do it well, it is more terrible than being defeated by a powerful enemy. If you are defeated by the enemy, you can make a comeback, but if this thing is not done well, it will really be a catastrophe. This matter is a matter of money, as the saying goes: "Money is not everything, and no money is everything." ”

What Zhang Chu lacks now is silver, and silver is lacking for everyone, but Zhang Chu's lack is a shortage in another sense, he lacks silver as a circulating currency, which is called "deflation" in modern terms. Of course, this is not Zhang Chu's problem alone, this is the problem of the entire Ming Dynasty, and a large part of the reason why Chongzhen's classmate finally hung up on the southeast branch was caused by this problem. Zhang Chu didn't want to hang on a tree to watch the scenery, so this problem had to be solved.

The Ming Dynasty implemented the silver standard, with silver as the currency reserve and circulation, but China's silver production was not much, most of the silver was imported from overseas, but after 1610, the amount of silver flowing into China began to decrease. The main reason is that the rise of British and Dutch pirates made maritime business very risky; Spain was in danger of deflation due to the outflow of silver on the one hand and the import of a large number of goods on the other, which caused the domestic money supply to be insufficient. The Spanish government began to consciously control trade in Manila, and China's exports were severely affected.

In addition, Japan's civil strife has greatly reduced the trade volume between China and Japan, and the flow of Japanese silver into China has slowed down.

Because of the decline in exports, China's economy has fallen into a crisis, mainly manifested in the deflation of the prices of non-food products, while the price of food has risen, and the export volume of important goods such as silk, ceramics and tea has been greatly reduced, and Jiangnan is the main producer of these items, and the economic crisis has hit the Jiangnan region particularly hard.

By the end of Chongzhen's reign, economic activity in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River Delta had actually come to a halt, and the prices of silver for raw copper, copper coins, raw silk, silk, cotton fabrics, silkworms, land, and other non-edible items were falling sharply, and tax revenues had fallen sharply with the outbreak of the economic crisis, but government spending could not be cut due to the continuous expansion of military spending. The consequence of this economic crisis and disaster was that people began to hoard silver for a rainy day. This further exacerbated the contraction of the currency.

In the market as a large number of currency in circulation has been greatly reduced, which has seriously affected the circulation of commodities and the development of the economy, and Zhu Yuanzhang, the ancestor of Chongzhen, has prepared a good way for him to crack it, that is, to issue new banknotes. But after Mr. Zhu's elaborate Ming treasure banknotes were crippled by his greedy descendants, Emperor Chongzhen also lost this last straw. This also gave Zhang Chu a big problem, the paper money was rotten in the minds of the people of the Ming Dynasty, and no one would recognize it if it was issued. There is no way Zhang Chu can only fight with silver, don't you like silver, give you silver, but to change the appearance, Zhang Chu decided to issue silver dollars.