"Congratulations, congratulations, ......"

"Haha, of course congratulations, congratulations." Liu Xian, who came back from the steel factory, was full of joy. As soon as I entered the door, I received congratulations from the porter and laughed. "Tell the kitchen, there will be a table of good dishes at noon, and I will have a good drink with my uncle."

Zhang Shuping was holding a horsewhip in his hand, and he was in good spirits. Hearing Liu Xian's words, he replied with a smile: "I want to have a good drink." The younger brother congratulated his brother-in-law on getting his wish. ”

Zhang Shuping can still clearly recall the scene at the moment when the molten iron was baked. It was really etched into the depths of his mind. The first furnace takes two days, the second furnace, the third furnace, and the time continues to decrease, and both furnaces are not a problem until the last day.

Zhang Shuping knew how much a 'metric ton' weighed in the West, which was almost equal to the weight of 1,670 catties in the Qing Dynasty, and one furnace weighed 80 tons, and two furnaces a day was 160 tons. Of course, that is the most ideal state of the amount of iron, the actual output can only be 100 metric tons to 140 metric tons, two iron furnaces that are 200 metric tons to 280 metric tons, take the middle number of 250 metric tons, which is equal to 417,500 catties of the Qing Dynasty. Three hundred and sixty-five days a year, but it is more than 152 million catties, and how much is the annual iron output of the entire Qing Dynasty?

On the eve of the Xinhai Revolution and life, the Hanyang Iron Works reached an annual output of 70,000 tons of steel and 500,000 tons of iron sand, with more than 7,000 workers, and the steel output accounted for 90% of the national output. And that's still on the scale of forty years later, and now? 10,000 tons? 20,000 tons? Or 30,000 tons? Anyway, it's less than half of the Qinnan Iron and Steel Plant.

After understanding this fact, the huge impact completely washed away the world view formed by Zhang Shuping in the past 20 years. The word foreign affairs has left a deep imprint in his mind.

In these days in Qinzhou, Zhang Shuping's expectations for the steel plant are not at all low Liu Xian. Today, when I saw the molten iron coming out of the oven, the joy in my heart was also beyond words.

However, the two of them thought badly about the reaction of the porter Hexi. The concierge was still counting on buying a good one in front of his master, and he didn't put out the fire because of the asymmetrical reaction of the two, but walked next to each other, and followed Liu Xian's footsteps towards the courtyard, and said: "Congratulations to the master, madam, she is happy......"

Thundered...... A thunderbolt exploded in my head. Liu Xian forgot to take his feet for a moment, his mind was full of blanks.

"I have a baby?" Madame is pregnant? I'm going to have a queen!

Boy, boy, an heir-

The scorching joy made Liu Xian speechless. lest as soon as he opened his mouth, the surprise in his heart turned into a long roar.

"Congratulations to my brother-in-law, congratulations to my brother-in-law-" Zhang Shuping also forgot all the steel in his head, and only was happy for his sister and brother-in-law.

Liu Xian is over 30 years old and has no heirs. It's not just Liu Xian's family who is worried, but the Zhang family is also worried. And Liu Xian is not as good as Li Hongzhang, although Li Hongzhang is over forty years old and has no heirs, but the Li family is a big family, Li Hongzhang has brothers, and he succeeded his nephew Li Jingfang to his knees, and then he was lucky to have a middle-aged son, and gave birth to his son-in-law Li Jingshu eight years ago.

The Wudi Zhang family also had a headache for this matter. As far as Zhang Shuping knows, there are people in the family who mention that they will send a Zhang daughter into the door of the Liu family to ensure that Liu Xian's heirs are guaranteed. Now, my sister is finally pregnant again, which is simply a joy from heaven, a joy from heaven. "God forbid, it's a sister-in-law." immediately greeted the entourage, "The subordinates in the house are in charge, no matter what their status, they will all be rewarded with a month's monthly money." Money, out of the master. ”

"Send a letter to your home at once, a great joy, a real joy—"

The entire Liu Mansion, and even the entire Qin army system, were shocked by Zhang Miaotong's pregnancy again. It's just that because the Qin army is not a feudal town in the end, although those middle-class and upper-class officers are glad that Liu Xian 'maybe' have a future, the shock is not really earth-shattering. The significance of this incident still has to be based on Liu Xian's 'great ambition', and when Liu Xian raises troops, his role can be truly reflected. Now, except for Liu and Zhang, no one really equates this matter with such a major event as the steel plant finally opened its furnace and produced iron.

Therefore, compared with the fact that Mrs. Liu was pregnant again, it was the speed of ironmaking in the steel mill that shocked the officials and gentry of Liangguang.

On this day alone, no less than 20 official documents and letters were sent to other places by the Qinzhou government and some gentry and merchants. The hundreds of thousands of catties of iron that can be smelted in a day, in addition to eating coke, the number of people in the entire iron-making furnace is less than thirty, which is a fantasy for the conservative Manchu officialdom. Even if the officials of the two Guangxi provinces are more open than those in other places, and they are more 'well-informed', they are still stunned.

The Military Intelligence Department reported that the news of the Qinnan Iron and Steel Plant had spread throughout Guangdong in less than 10 days.

And in December, countless merchants rushed to Qinzhou like hungry wolves smelling the smell of meat. Although Liu Xian is not going to start selling iron this year, he will first accumulate some inventory and wait until next year to officially start selling it to the whole country. But the prices offered by the merchants who waved the white flowers and silver made him feel tempted.

A load of pig iron and two eagles.

At this time, a load of pig iron can be more than 120 catties, and one metric ton is about 13 quintals. That is, one metric ton of pig iron can buy twenty-six pieces of eagle ocean, which is seventeen taels of silver. Compared with the price of foreign iron imported from Shanghai and Guangzhou, it is only two or three percent lower. Compared with Liu Xian's production cost, there is too much surplus.

No one will take the initiative to push the business out. At first, Liu Xian thought that the name of the steel plant was not big and it still needed time to spread it, so he was unwilling to buy iron as soon as possible. Besides, Qin Jun's own iron is not small, Liu Xian has already prepared a bicycle factory, a tricycle factory and a rickshaw factory, the machine is in place, and the workers are training with technicians. In the future, these three factories will also be able to swallow a large share of iron materials.

Liu Xian's will succumbed lightly in front of the silver of the white flowers. In December, the No. 1 blast furnace was opened in the steel plant, the No. 2 blast furnace and the steel-making furnace of the Martin Steel Plant were still under construction, and the three major factories and four small factories began to operate, but the sales department first put a large satellite.

There are more than 80 trade agreements of various sizes, with a total value of more than 300,000 taels of silver. The production volume of the ironworks in the first half of the year next year will not be sold. Liu Xian can make at least half of the money from it.

This is still the simplest iron sales, if the steel produced by the steel mill itself is processed into rails, screws, nails, wires, wires, iron plates, steel plates, machine qì, iron castings, hardware, etc., then how big should the additional profit of the product be? R1152