Chapter 29: Coking

In fact, many people don't know that the Suzhou steel in the Ming Dynasty was still in production until the Anti-Japanese War. Even many weapons to fight the little devils are made by Sugang. In terms of steel production, there was a Ming dynasty, and it was definitely not weaker than Xiyi.

And He Xi is looking at this era with modern eyes. It must be known that during the First Sino-Japanese War, Japan's steel output was only more than 100,000 tons, and now the Ming Dynasty has 15,000 tons of inventory. Moreover, in the Ming Dynasty, during the Hongwu period, only the official steel production was relatively large. In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the official steel production became less, but the private production became the main force, which was several times more than now. It's just that the statistics of the Ming Dynasty are a mess.

So there is simply not an accurate statistic in the middle and late stages. There are only some sporadic records, such as a furnace that can produce 6,000 catties of iron per day.

It is estimated that the steel output in the middle and late Ming Dynasty is not less than that of the Japanese Sino-Japanese War in terms of quantity, but it is estimated that the quality is much worse.

The production method of Suzhou steel was before the modern steel industry was opened in the West. None of them can be regarded as backward. Otherwise, it would not have stubbornly struggled to the anti-Japanese period, and it has not yet ended. It became history after the introduction of the Soviet Union Heavy Trade Union in New China.

Even in the time of large-scale steelmaking, there is a return to the light, the so-called local steelmaking, is these processes.

Although Daming Iron and Steel has not yet lit up the highest technology and Sugang skills, its own technology accumulation is very thick.

Many problems have been solved by others, or even solved repeatedly.

The reason why steel was not smelted once in ancient times. It is likely that there is a difference in philosophy, for example, the modern understanding of steel is different from the understanding of ancient people. Modern people refer to iron-carbon alloys with a carbon content within a certain range. But what did people think in ancient times?

It is the essence of iron. In this case, how can you get it without tempering?

A lot of times, that's it. In ancient times, steelmaking was the first steelmaking, and many ideas were extended from the steelmaking. This creates path dependencies. Even this path defines steel versus iron.

He Xi thought about it for a while and said, "What kind of fuel is used in the furnace?" ”

Craftsman Ge said: "Charcoal, good willow charcoal." ”

He Xi's heart moved, and he said secretly: "Maybe this is the reason." He immediately said, "Why not coal?" ”

Craftsman Ge said: "My lord doesn't know that the iron made from coal is very brittle. It's simply useless. Guy smelts iron when the five elements are complete. Iron ore, earth, charcoal, wood, and naturally there is fire in the furnace to get gold. The use of coal instead of wood is the lack of one of the five elements, so it is unusable. ”

He Xi was speechless for a while.

The Five Elements are only used for fortune-telling in modern times. But in this era, it is the philosophy that really guides production and life.

He Xi was speechless for a while, and he couldn't help but ask, "Isn't this still a shortage of water?" ”

Craftsman Ge said, "My lord, molten iron is also water. ”

He Xi was speechless for a while, he knew that this was not the time to teach them, if he insisted on giving a lecture, it was estimated that he would not understand, he would not understand the following, and it would affect the process, three months is a long time, but in fact, the time is very short. He couldn't afford to delay.

So He Xi said solemnly: "You don't know, coal belongs to wood, not to soil." Coal is tens of thousands of years ago, the mountains and rivers changed, a large number of trees were pressed into the ground, I don't know how many years later, it evolved into coal, you should have seen, many coal has the shape of trees. That's the proof. ”

As soon as these words came out, these craftsmen whispered, thinking it was good.

If you tell a group of scholars, they may not understand. But none of these craftsmen have left the front-line labor and have personally touched what coal looks like. Naturally, I knew that what He Xi said was right.

"Then why is it that all the iron made from coal is useless?" Foreman Ge asked the question in the hearts of all the craftsmen.

"There's sulfur in coal." He Xi was slandered in his heart, but he couldn't say this, he still said seriously: "Why don't you use wood to make steel, but use charcoal?" ”

"Charcoal burns more than wood." I don't know which craftsman spoke.

He Xi smiled: "That's right. How many years this coal has been in the ground has also added to the earth, and the coal must first be burned into charcoal to remove the soil properties before making better steel. ”

He Xi was very happy that these craftsmen were actively speaking.

After all, he knows very well that there are some things that he can't do on his own. It can only be done by mobilizing the enthusiasm of these craftsmen.

He Xi said: "Let's talk about it today, and Ge Lao will take the lead to do two things, the first thing is to make coal into charcoal. The other is to prepare a blast furnace. Start the first trial. ”

Craftsman Ge said: "The villain takes the order. ”

The other craftsmen were then sent away, leaving only Foreman Ge. He Xi asked: "Old Ge, I don't know much about iron smelting, when will the two things I explained be done?" ”

Craftsman Ge said: "There are many charcoal farms outside the city, and they only need to be slightly changed. And there are ready-made blast furnaces outside the city. It takes about a day and a night to get ready. This is the time of charcoal smelting. ”

He Xi never expected it to be so fast, and said, "Then the day after tomorrow." The day after tomorrow, I'll go out of the city to see it. May I? ”

Craftsman Ge said, "It should be possible. Is it just that adults need other changes this time? ”

He Xi said: "No, what was it like before." This time it will be the same, but just replace the charcoal with coking coal. ”

Craftsman Ge wanted to speak again and again, and finally bowed his head and said, "Yes." ”

------

By the time He Xi returned to the palace, it was already evening.

He Xi only felt that his legs were extremely sore.

The people who can ride horses in the palace are all high-ranking officials, and even Xu Da is humble and will not ride horses in the palace. So He Xi can't ride a horse either. When I arrived at the Yamen of the Ministry of Industry, it was not easy to ride a horse. At the end of the day, he walked an estimated tens of thousands of steps.

I just don't know if there is no satellite positioning, and the step count on his phone is not displayed.

In short, very tired, very tired.

"It's great to be able to move out of the palace." He Xi thought while soaking his feet.

Perhaps for some people, it can be said that it is a rare opportunity to be close to Tianyan in the palace. But for He Xi, the palace is too unfree. A lot of things are also inconvenient.

He Xi was enjoying a moment of comfort. Xu Zheng arrived. Eunuch Xu said, "Your Majesty is invited." ”

He Xi looked at the sky, it was already full of stars.

He Xi secretly said in his heart: "There is a workaholic boss, it's really unhappy, you can work overtime, just let me work overtime." But what can He Xi do, not to mention, there is no labor law in this era, and even if it is a labor law, it is impossible to restrain Zhu Yuanzhang.

No matter what He Xi thought, he could only obey the order to see Zhu Yuanzhang.

He thought that Zhu Yuanzhang was going to ask about ordnance. But after arriving, He Xi realized that Zhu Yuanzhang was not asking this.

He Xi is among the manuscripts on the history of the Ming Dynasty. I don't know how many small words are written. It seems that it is because the words written by He Xi with a golden pen are originally small, or Zhu Yuanzhang does not like fly-headed small letters. Zhu Yuanzhang switched to using a gold pen and vermilion ink for annotation.

There are a lot of problems in it, from the early Ming period all the way to the late Ming period. Especially the struggle between the monarchs and ministers in the later period, the delicate relationship between Jiajing and the first assistants, Wanli did not go to court for many years, and there were three major cases, the Donglin Party, the rise of the Jurchens and so on.

One question after another.

And the problem is tricky.

Many of them are asked strangely from the perspective of the emperor.

These questions cannot be answered by He Xi. For example, the relationship between Emperor Longqing, Gao Gong, Zhang Juzheng, Wanli, and Empress Dowager Li.

I'm sorry, where did He Xi know, there are many delicate relationships between them. He simply knows the answer given by history. He didn't know what the process was.

He Xi felt that some of Zhu Yuanzhang's problems were not for everyone who specialized in history. I can't answer it.

At the same time, He Xi also had to admit that Zhu Yuanzhang was extraordinary, with a strong desire for knowledge, and a super learning ability, even if he was in his fifties, he was also first-class in terms of concentration in learning.

It just made He Xi a little struggling.

Zhu Yuanzhang rubbed his eyes, although he lit more than a dozen candles, the visibility was still not high, and it took a long time. The eyes are still uncomfortable.

Zhu Yuanzhang said: "How are things going today? ”

He Xi breathed a sigh of relief and made a report to Zhu Yuanzhang about today's events.

Zhu Yuanzhang pondered for a moment and said, "Are you sure that you will do this thing?" ”

He Xi said: "I can only say that the direction is right. Can it be successful? It depends on the specific progress. ”

Zhu Yuanzhang said: "I still have some things I don't understand. Is steel so important? Since the founding of the country, every few years, we have to cut down mining and metallurgy, and the government treasury is sufficient for several years. for this did not burden the people. Second, so much iron is useless. What's the use of more steel? ”

He Xi didn't know what to say for a while.

Because this is a completely different way of thinking about governing the country.

In later generations, steel production is a fundamental measure of a country's strength. But here in Zhu Yuanzhang, the amount of steel is meaningless. Even superfluous.

He Xi substituted himself into the role of Zhu Yuanzhang and also found out. The use of Daming Iron is to build weapons. There are not many other uses, one and a half thousand tons of iron, and the plan is enough. There is no other use. If there were so many uses, there wouldn't be so much iron.

He Xi said: "Your Majesty is from a peasant family, you should know that in fact, not all the people in the world use iron farm tools. Many of them can't afford to use iron farming tools. Iron farming tools were also available only in some wealthy places. If all the world uses iron farming tools, or even better steel farming tools. What would it be like for the people to farm? ”

"What will it look like?" Zhu Yuanzhang was stunned for a while.

This is the obvious change in He Xi's expression from Zhu Yuanzhang.