After having lunch at Zita's house, Chen Dexing returned to Nanfen Iron Workshop. He didn't go to the blast furnace to wait for the molten iron to be produced - although coke was used to make iron, and the box was sealed and blown with a water wheel, Chen Dexing did not know that there was a concept of "preheating pool". He is not a metallurgical professional, and it is a bit against the sky to know the metallurgical knowledge of Nanfen iron, Fushun coal, coal coking, coking iron, reverberatory furnace and crucible steel. If it weren't for the fact that the city he grew up in his previous life was already a steel industrial base, his parents and elder brother both worked in steel mills, and he heard and witnessed it since he was a child. In addition, I read a lot of historical time-traveling novels on the Internet later, so it is impossible to know so much anyway.

However, no matter how much you know, you can't compare with professionals. His profession is seafaring, so he can make an expedition fleet of sailing ships cross the Pacific Ocean to North America - there is nothing more difficult for him, it is nothing more than to find the right latitude where the North Pacific Warm Current is located, and then look at the character! Drowning in a great storm and discovering a new continent before encountering it...... In fact, Columbus was also a good character back then, and it was a dead end to encounter hurricanes that are quite common in the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean!

It may not be safe to cross the Yangtze River in these years, let alone the Pacific Ocean? So Chen Dexing will not take risks in person, he doesn't want to encounter a huge wave and be shot to death again, the life of this life is very interesting.

After a meal of delicious mountain delicacies, King Chen Daming went to the steelmaking work of Nanfen Tiefang, which is the small high ground where the two crucible furnaces are located.

In addition to the two crucible furnaces, there are also two forging workshops on the small plateau, which are mechanized forging workshops powered by water wheels to drive hydraulic hammers - it is possible to say that it is a primitive rolling workshop.

When Chen Dexing arrived. Sir Meng Datou was weighing charcoal powder with a rod scale - Chen Dexing also knew the secret of using lime powder to remove sulfur and phosphorus, but considering that most of China's iron ore is high in sulfur and phosphorus. And the only large mine with low sulfur phosphorus has been controlled by itself, so this secret has not been made public for the time being.

After weighing the charcoal powder. Mende poured all the charcoal powder into a crucible that looked like a wooden barrel. The "basin" also contains wrought iron that has been beaten into thin sheets, and the process of adding charcoal powder to the wrought iron sheets and then smelting them at high temperature in a crucible furnace is called carburizing. The aim is to increase the carbon content of wrought iron to meet the requirements of steel - in later generations, iron with a carbon content of less than 0.02% is called wrought iron or pure iron, and the texture is very soft. The carbon content between 0.02% and 2.11% is called steel. A carbon content of more than 2.11% is called pig iron or cast iron.

And the process of iron-making can be summed up in one word - take off! It is not to take off clothes, but to remove silicon, manganese, oxygenation, carburization, phosphorus, and sulfurization, in short, to strip all kinds of impurities in the iron ore to obtain pure iron with high purity. And the process of steelmaking is to add something to the pure iron. It can be carbon powder, it can be lime powder, you can say anything else, to get the best quality steel.

Of course, theoretically, the two steps of taking off and adding can be combined into one, and they can be done in one step in the process of "frying iron". However, in practice, except for the shit luck that can run into one or two pieces of metal that can be called steel, in most cases the result is wrought iron that has been decarburized quite thoroughly, if the material is not well selected. If high-phosphorus and high-sulfur ores are used or coal is used to make iron, then the result is low-carbon, high-sulfur and high-phosphorus iron. The quality is naturally terrible, and the armor used to build weapons and armor can only be overweight - more thickness in exchange for sturdiness. Therefore, the armor and ring-head knife of the Song army are very heavy, and they curl the blade after a few cuts. And then it's not about slashing people with a knife, it's about smashing people with a knife!

If it weren't for a strong man like Chen Dexing, it would be a real thing to go to the battlefield with the Song Army's ring-headed knife.

Moreover, even if you hit the shit and get a piece of steel. It doesn't necessarily make a good weapon. Anyway, in Chen Dexing's opinion, the blades of the so-called "Hundred Refining Divine Swords" he got were still a little soft. And the blade of the sword is a little brittle but not tough. I don't know if it's because the outer steel of the sword is decarburized because of too many forgings, and the inner layer becomes brittle because it contains more carbon......

"The King. The amount of charcoal powder in this crucible was determined after trial and error. "Meng Datou saw that Chen Dexing brought people to his side, so he suspended the work in his hand and introduced it." The steel produced in this way is moderately soft and hard, which is especially suitable for making plate armor. If you want to make a steel weapon, you need to add more charcoal. ”

After several months of trial and error, the craftsmen of Nanfen Iron Mill have found the basic rules of how much charcoal powder to add and how hard and soft steel is dù. It can smelt high-carbon steel and medium-carbon steel, the former is used to make steel-clamping or steel-inlaid weapons, which are the outside and soft on the inside, which are both sharp and not easy to break. The latter is the perfect combination of strength, hardness and workability, and is most suitable for making plate armor - but the price is too high for the wealthy upper military aristocracy to probably not afford.

Therefore, in the latest Beiming military armor configuration standard (in fact, it is a minimum standard, if the standard requires the military general to prompt the level of armor, then the Beiming Military Affairs Department will give the military general two choices: one is to use the bargain provided by the Military Affairs Division; Second, the Military Affairs Department sent money to buy it with some more money), and there was no plate armor, only two bargains, the inlaid steel knife and the steel gun tip.

Chen Dexing turned back to the two brothers of the Deng family and said, "This is all knowledge!" The science of metallurgy is also endless. The iron-smelting technique of Nanfen Iron Mill is just the first glimpse of the doorway, and it is still early to be profound! ”

"What the king said is very true." Deng Ming'an and Deng Mingli hurriedly said yes.

"Meng Qing, let's start making steel." Chen Dexing turned around and instructed Meng Datou.

Two barrel-like crucibles were carried into a crucible furnace made of refractory bricks, which was extremely hot because of the need to melt wrought iron, which required a temperature close to 1,600 degrees. If it is not reached, wrought iron will not become liquid, and it will be difficult to blend with charcoal powder. Therefore, the best refractory bricks are selected for both the crucible furnace and the crucible itself, and the thickness of the furnace wall of the crucible furnace is very thick, and it will not be burned by high temperatures in any case.

The design of the crucible furnace is relatively simple, with air blowing at the bottom, exhaust air from the chimney at the top, and coal stacked around the crucible. After igniting the fire for more than two hours, the iron finally turned into a liquid...... Or maybe not, but just turned into a gel - the iron is inside the crucible, and the people outside can't see it, and the temperature of the furnace can only be estimated. You can only wait until the crucible furnace has cooled naturally, and then take out the crucible and smash it to see if the contents are dissolved into a large piece of steel cake and a layer of steel slag floating on the upper layer. If it is, it's a success.

……

There was a crunch!

One hundred sword bodies, the blue and shining mirror-like Hundred Refining Divine Sword has been cut into two pieces! And what cut it off was a piece of steel that had been cut through! In the afternoon, Meng Datou used the "medium carbon steel" refined from the crucible to create a piece of steel casually, without a gauntlet, without a knife handle, so he wrapped it in a strip of cloth and opened the lower blade slightly. Chen Dexing used it to cut off a sword made of 100 steels in one fell swoop.

"Deng Ming'an, Deng Mingli," Chen Dexing threw the "steel sheet" in his hand on a desk with a clatter. "How? The Lone King didn't talk to you, did he? This steel ...... How is it better than the hundred steels of the Song Kingdom? ”

"The Great King is a true god...... This steel is better than a hundred times more refined! ”

"Can this be done?" Chen Dexing smiled faintly and looked at the two, "You guys...... You should know what the Lone King wants you to do, right? ”

The two of them glanced at each other, both slightly embarrassed.

"King, this homeland is hard to leave......" As soon as Deng Ming'an's words came out, Chen Dexing snorted coldly, which frightened him and quickly shut up.

Deng Mingli really understood the reason, and immediately said: "What kind of homeland is difficult to leave!" Let those poor sticks pay off the Hades account owed to our Deng family! ”

Chen Dexing nodded appreciatively, sure enough, it was a famous family of poetry! There's just a way...... He had already received a report from Liu Yang that ninety percent of the poor and middle-class peasants on Zhoushan Island owed the Deng family debts -- usury was the Deng family's second source of income in addition to rent collection.

In contrast, the unscrupulous profiteer of the family Shen, who never put the account of the king of Hades, often does good deeds, and opens soup kitchens in disaster years...... Of course, the premise is that the beneficiaries must be Changguo people!

The reason why this is so is because the Deng family in Changguo has Jinshi, but the family Shen does not! Therefore, the family Shen wants to recruit people in Changguo to pretend to be heroes, so that he can pull up a "Changguo Pirates".

"That's right!" Chen Dexing smiled and patted the table, "Those poor eggs are shaving in those few acres of land in Zhoushan, and they will never be able to repay your Deng family's money!" ”

"Yes, let them go to Nanfen and Fushun to mine as coolies!" Deng Mingan also reacted and shouted loudly. "Our Deng family wants them to come to Liaodong, so they have to come obediently!"

Chen Dexing nodded, with a deeply appreciative expression, "That's it!" If you can bring 3,000 households and 15,000 people to Nanfen and Fushun, you will pay for all the mobilization, transportation, and resettlement costs. Within a year, it was put in place for the lone king. In this way, the Lone King will let you take a two-percent stake in Nanfen Iron Fang...... All you have to do is give 200,000. In addition, the agent of Nanfen Iron Fang in Zhejiang East and West Road is also your Deng family. ”

200,000 guan plus 3,000 immigrants, in exchange for 20% of the shares of Nanfen Iron Mill plus two agency rights, this business is really ...... Too shrewd.

The entire investment of Nanfen Iron Fang, including Nanfen City and Fushun City, does not have 200,000 yuan! However, for the Deng family, it is also a sure win!

"Okay!" Deng Mingli clapped his hands, "This business can be done!" He stood up and bowed to Chen Dexing to the ground, "A certain family is for the Changguo Deng family, thank the king!" ”

Chen Dexing touched his beard and said with a smile: "Do it well, there will be many such businesses!" Don't your Deng family have a lot of relatives and friends in Qingyuan Mansion? In the future, they can be allowed to do business with the Lone King! (To be continued......)