Outside the east gate of Jinxia City, next to the salt pans.

A huge brick stove appeared on the beach.

It is about nine feet high, with an inner diameter of more than 15 feet, and the outer ring is made of bricks for three layers, and each layer of brick joints is filled with fine sand to prevent heat leakage and strengthen the pressure resistance of the furnace wall.

On the side of the stove, the soldiers were adding raw materials back and forth, and the person in charge of them was the person in charge of the Machinery Bureau, Mo Yun.

"Be careful, the iron ingots must be placed in the correct order, and remember to read the labels on them when you pick up the ingredients!"

"One bar is up, two bars are down, and the iron ingots are wrong in pairs, leaving a gap!"

"If you find a problem, you must report it to me, understand?"

"Yes, sir!"

"This is the new test product you are talking about?" As a familiar voice sounded, Ning Wanjun shook off the escort of the guards and walked quickly to Xia Fan's side, "You heard the incredible whisper in the dark again?"

"I've seen Your Highness!" the busy crowd saw the princess appear, and bowed their heads in unison.

"Go ahead with your work, don't get out of my way!" said the princess with a wave of her hand.

"Whoa!"

Xia Fan sighed helplessly, since she pointed out that Luo was a listener, now she justifiably regarded herself as a member of the listeners, although he had never heard any whispers, but when the other party met, he would always ask "considerately" if he had lost his mind, which made him cry and laugh.

"It's a new experiment, but it has nothing to do with whispering. Xia Fan pursed his lips, "Then again, why don't you ask Miss Luo if she is still rational?"

"People are more serious than you at first glance, do you still need to ask?" Ning Wanjun said without thinking, "I've never worried that anything will happen to her." ”

"Thank you for your trust. Luo on the side bowed his head lightly.

Well, it's time to reconcile. Xia Fan rolled his eyes silently, "In fact, I only started this project, and the real preparation and implementer is Miss Moyun. ”

"Oh, tell me?"

"This has to start with Miss Luo's ability......"

Xia Fan's thoughts that day were by no means just in his mind, but he ran into trouble when he tried to come up with a production flow chart at night - he did not know what the level of smelting technology of this era was, and he did not specifically understand the modern steelmaking process, just like theory is theory, but it has become difficult to transfer to practical operation.

So he approached Moyun with the idea of trying.

And the latter really has a lot of accumulation in this area.

In the final analysis, the Ministry of Industry manages the production and construction of the entire Qiguo, and iron smelting and forging steel are naturally included.

After a night of intense exchanges with the other party, a test plan that conformed to the level of the times and surpassed the times was born.

From Mo Yun's oral account, Xia Fan learned that Qiguo's smelting technology was not backward, or that some people had already realized that steel was between pig iron and wrought iron during the Yongguo period, and it was an excellent material for sword casting. It's just that iron is more difficult to melt than copper, and large metal utensils are still dominated by bronze.

After 100 years of research, the popularization of tower kilns and manpower blowers has led to an increase in iron production, and the Ministry of Industry has naturally shifted its attention to steel with higher strength. Nowadays, they advocate the method of burning pig iron into molten iron and pouring it on wrought iron sheets, which are mixed to form steel. In layman's terms, it is to fuse iron with high carbon content with iron with low carbon content to obtain iron with moderate carbon content, which is called steel.

Although the Ministry of Industry did not know that carbon was the element that determines the properties of steel, it was amazing that it was able to produce qualified smelters based on its experience. However, this method is limited by the temperature of the molten iron, and there are only a few steel ingots mixed in each batch, which are generally used by the Ministry of Industry to make the most elite weapons, or to make the core components of mechanical equipment. Even if it is used sparingly, steel is still in short supply.

It can be said that as long as the furnace temperature cannot be raised, the scene of large-scale smelting will be difficult to achieve after all.

Xia Fan's plan is to directly enclose a furnace, place pig iron and wrought iron in layers, and start to melt from the upper layer. In the process of flowing downward, the molten iron will increase the chance of contact with air and further reduce the carbon content - this is also due to the fact that the wrought iron smelting process at this time is mainly stirred, and the carbon content may be generally high, so this arrangement is made.

Once the heat source is freed, the entire process becomes simple and easy to implement.

Hearing that Ning Wanjun's eyes behind him had lost focus, he was obviously dizzy by a lot of nouns, "Uh...... I roughly understand the principle. Do you mean that once this method is successful, my soldiers will not be short of steel swords and armor?"

"So to speak," Xia Fan smiled, "but its ultimate purpose is to make the soldiers no longer need steel knives and strong armor. ”

Improving the performance of weapons is only one of the uses that come with a breakthrough in materials technology, and its greatest significance is to go back and improve the quality of the original components produced, so as to further expand the production capacity.

Luo Qing has only one, and it is tantamount to a strong man to rely on her ability to do it in one step, but the method of heating is not limited to dragon scales. With a good steel furnace, the arc generated by the Seismus streamer can have the same effect. Compared to the indescribable Listener spell, a magic weapon engraved with an amplification circuit sigil is at least expected to be copied in bulk.

The key question is where this original furnace came from.

Now the answer is right in front of you.

"My lord, all the ingredients are in place. The soldier reported.

Mo Yun ordered in a deep voice, "Check the ignition mechanism." ”

"Report - the ignition mechanism is normal!"

"Close the bottom furnace door. ”

"Newspaper - the door of the furnace is closed!"

"Everybody evacuated. ”

"Yes, all evacuate from the smelting furnace area!"

When everything was ready, she walked up to the three of them, nodded lightly to Luo, and said, "It's up to you next." ”

Luo gently stretched out one palm and aimed it at the brick furnace, "I'll do my best." ”

Under the watchful gaze of everyone, a sword blade with a faint golden light quietly appeared above the top of the furnace.

It then descends slowly and enters the inside of the furnace through a hole at the top.

Blocked by the wall, her vision was rendered useless, and all she could rely on was the experience and feeling she had accumulated from the previous simulation exercises—she flattened the blade and tried to retract it in her direction.

It was at this moment that the "ignition device" was triggered.

It was essentially a falling platform, and the iron ingots on it were pulled by ropes, and the moment the thin dragon scales cut through the hemp rope, the iron ingots smashed against the blade.

Lowe felt the change slightly.

The outer layer of the dragon scales temporarily disappeared, and the power flowing from the blade suddenly surged towards the iron ingot. This heat was quickly channeled and soon ignited the entire upper layer of the furnace.

"Boom-"

Everyone saw that the top of the brick furnace actually spewed out a flame several feet high!