On our side, open-hearth furnaces, which do not blow oxygen, but only hot air, consume about 150 kilograms of coal for every ton of steel. In other words, the open-hearth furnace consumes about 7,500 kilograms of coking coal per day.

The daily output of 50 tons is calculated to be more than 18,000 tons per year, and last year, the steel output of the entire Guanzhong and Bashu land was only about 100,000 tons, that is to say, just such an open hearth furnace has reached one-fifth of last year's steel output.

What a terrible number. You must know that in ancient China, the most successful steel production was the Song Dynasty, and some people used it as an estimate. Since the third year of Song Xining, the imperial court has set up 26 coinage prisons throughout the country, and more than 5 million copper coins and more than 800,000 iron coins have been minted (an increase in the Southern Song Dynasty)

The iron coins cast in the Song Dynasty were always 25.5 Song catties, about 15.3 kilograms of large iron coins (see "Two Song Dynasty Iron Coins-Song Dynasty Pujiang Huimin Iron Coin Prison History"), which was 13,000 tons based on 850,000 guan.

Of course, the iron money of the Song Dynasty added a small amount of tin, then it also needed to consume about 12,000 tons of iron, which is only the medium-term level, of course, maybe these are not all big money, but later the amount of iron money increased a lot, so the annual iron money consumption in the middle and late Northern Song Dynasty was at least 12,000 tons or more.

The Song Dynasty had the most and strongest heavy infantry in the world, with a weight of forty to fifty kilograms per person, although not all of them were heavy infantry, but the Song Dynasty would prepare a large number of weapons in order to guard against the Western Xia Liao in case of accidents, and it was not an exaggeration to say that the forbidden army would have more than forty kilograms of steel per person, and the box army would be much less.

The army of the Song Dynasty was uncertain, but in the later period, there were about 800,000 forbidden troops, at least 500,000 box troops, and the amount of iron should be at least 45,000 tons.

And the most important thing is the people, the Song Dynasty is relatively wealthy, and the iron output is very large, so there must be a large number of iron tools in the hands of the common people, merchants have scales, scissors, etc., farmers have iron farm tools, Quyuan plows, etc., the most important thing is that there must be iron pots, kitchen knives, etc., an iron pot has an ancient craft of about 15 kilograms, don't take the small iron pot in the 21st century to compare, that kind of thing is completely impractical in ancient times.

Of course, there are a lot of iron used in agricultural tools such as Quyuan plows, with an average of at least 30 kilograms per household, and there were 21 million households at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, which probably means that there are about 630,000 tons of steel, and according to the year-end bonus every 20 years, the average annual consumption is about 32,000 tons.

And the per capita of the wealthy class of one percent will be more than ten times that of the common people, which is the annual consumption of 3,500 tons. The above total has more than 50,000 tons of annual consumption, and the consumption is about equal to the output, so the minimum bottom line of steel production in the middle and late Northern Song Dynasty is 60,000, and later in the Ming Dynasty, there is a record that the annual output of iron is 97 million catties, which is also more than 60,000 tons.

For a large country with a population of about 200 million, 50,000 tons is not much at all, and it is very suitable as a lower limit (Yuan and Qing are naturally far from catching up). According to the American scholar Professor Hao Ruobei, the consumption of weapons production, iron coin casting and manufacturing agricultural tools in the Song Dynasty estimated that the iron output in the first year of Yuanfeng (10/) of the Song Dynasty was roughly between 75,000 tons and 150,000 tons, which was two to even five times the output during the British Industrial Revolution in 1640 AD, and the iron output of the entire European countries (including the European part of Russia) was roughly between 140,000 and 180,000 tons by the 18th century, and the iron production of the Song Dynasty could basically reach such a level.

Today, China's steel production has reached the median of the Song Dynasty's steel production. Today, the population under our rule is about 21 million, compared with 46 million at the height of the Sui Dynasty, we only occupy a little more than one-third of the population.

You must know that the territory we occupy now has reached more than two-thirds of that of the previous dynasty, which shows how much disaster the war has brought to China. Although the Central Plains is the main gathering area of the Chinese population, the years of war have caused countless innocent people to die in the war, lose their homes and be displaced in the war, or flee to other places.

For example, more than 5 million of the 21 million people under the Chinese Empire fled from the Central Plains. In other words, refugees alone make up a quarter of the population under my rule, which is a terrible number.

Fortunately, the wind and rain have been smooth in recent years, coupled with the large use of organic fertilizer, and the use of wheat for hybridization to obtain wheat with strong lodging resistance, which has improved the dense planting of wheat in the past, and also made the yield per mu of wheat have increased greatly.

In addition, under the guidance of those agricultural officials, the cultivation of rice has become more and more standardized and reasonable, whether it is breeding, deep ploughing or fertilization, so that the yield has been relatively stable and increased.

In addition, the cultivation of Cham rice in the land of Jiaozhi and the coastal areas of Lingnan has formed a large-scale planting, of course, the taste of this grain is really not very good, but fortunately, it is also food after all, and now, it is a blessing for the country to be able to fill the stomach.

A large amount of Cham rice can be used as a disaster relief grain and can also be used to make wine, although it does not taste good as food, but the yield and quality of sake are not inferior to the taste of high-quality rice.

In addition, the per capita grain consumption in the Guanzhong region of the Chinese Empire has shown a downward trend. That's because the territory we occupy has obtained a lot of high-quality pastures, coupled with a large number of cattle and sheep obtained through trade, so that the people's table is no longer a single vegetable, and the increase of meat, eggs and poultry has reduced the people's consumption of food.

In short, in the former Sui Dynasty, the annual production of steel would not exceed 40,000 or 50,000 tons, but now, our steel production has exceeded the output of the previous dynasty, and will surpass that of the Song Dynasty in the next three to five years.

Some people may ask, why do you need to make so much steel, is it useful? Of course it works, although I don't know the composition of the internal combustion engine, but for the steam engine, I believe that anyone from the 21st century will understand what the principle and construction of the steam engine is.

In this era, oil is available, but at most, it can make hot oil, that is, kerosene, and in the future, it may also be able to refine gasoline and diesel. As for other by-products such as plastics or synthetic rubber, they are not something that I can do with my lack of knowledge of chemistry.

So, the internal combustion engine is not something that can be designed and manufactured in this era, but the steam engine can. The steam engine is mainly composed of cylinder, base, piston, crank connecting rod mechanism, slide valve distribution mechanism, speed regulating mechanism and flywheel. The cylinder and base are stationary parts.

In a steam boiler, water is boiled into steam through the combustion process. Through the pipes, the steam is sent to the cylinder. The valve controls the time when the steam arrives at the cylinder, enters the slide valve chamber through the main steam valve and the throttle valve, and is controlled by the slide valve to alternately enter the left or right side of the cylinder to push the piston to move. The steam pushes the piston inside the cylinder to do work, and the cooled steam is introduced into the condenser through the pipe to re-condense into water. This process is repeated constantly while the steam engine is in motion.

To put it simply, a steam engine is a heat engine that can convert the kinetic energy in water vapor into work, and because the combustion process in it is carried out outside the heat engine, it belongs to the external combustion engine in the heat engine. Pumps, locomotives, and ships were once powered by steam engines.

In 1814, the Englishman Stephenson invented the first steam locomotive, and mankind accelerated the pace of entering the industrial age, and the steam locomotive became an important symbol and key tool for the cultural and social progress of this era.

Or it can be said that the advent of the steam engine prompted people to embark on the first industrial revolution, and the second industrial revolution was due to the emergence of internal combustion engines and electricity.

Even in the 21st century, nuclear and thermal power generation still used steam turbine engines to convert thermal energy into electricity. A steam engine requires a boiler that boils water to produce high-pressure steam, which can use wood, coal, oil or gas, or even garbage as a heat source. The steam expansion pushes the piston to do work

I remember that in history, it was the locomotive of the steam engine, from the beginning of the railway, until the beginning of the 21st century, you can still see the locomotive of this steam locomotive running non-stop. It is enough to imagine the longevity of the life of the steam engine.

With the steam engine, then, this represents the arrival of the first industrial revolution. This is not a hydraulic machine, it can only be used where there is water, but it can be used to work on fuel.

No matter what kind of industry it is in, the steam engine has excellent use, and the most important point is that the emergence of the steam engine made me see the possibility of the railway.

Nowadays, the cement straight road has brought great convenience to the Chinese Empire, and the smooth traffic has made the logistics faster and more convenient, and it has also made it easier for the empire to control the surrounding areas. However, the combination of cement straights and horse-drawn carriages still has a huge gap with the railway in terms of transporting materials.

Unlike horse-drawn carriages, which require multiple changes of horses and coachmen, trains only need to have enough coal and long enough railroad tracks to make sure the machinery does not break down. There is enough water and fuel. Well, even a week or two around the earth is fine.

I remember that in order to control other states, the most important means of the United States in later generations was to rely on railroad traffic to control, and even some states made a request to the government that before a certain year and a certain month, we must build the railroads in our state, otherwise, we will be independent.

It can be said that the steam locomotive, compared to the horse-drawn carriage, is definitely a huge leap forward development. Railways are highly valued by people for their speed, convenience and economy. At the same time, it is also one of the important representatives of the industrial revolution.

The importance of roads has been made clear to all, and the railway, this economical and convenient means of transport, is definitely far superior to horse-drawn carriages in terms of carrying capacity and economy.