When Hu Yuancheng was in Annan, he was very interested in metallurgy and firearms, and he focused on these two aspects, and this attempt to improve iron-smelting technology in the iron-smelting field was actually promoted by him.

Of course, there is also a lot of resistance, and there are many masters and officials below who don't understand this.

But for the only few officials in the iron-smelting field, they don't need to work, so it's just a lively look, but the craftsmen in the iron-smelting field have to work hard and suffer, plus the traditional method has been used for so many years, and now suddenly a descendant from Annan wants to guide them to get new things, isn't this a blind toss?

In the eyes of some masters, the Annan people are barbarians and know how to fart! Since you want to use steel, you have to get the pig iron first, and don't always think about taking shortcuts, which is absolutely not possible.

If there are so many shortcuts in the world, why do you need the skills that have been passed down from generation to generation?

However, the official is the official, the official is the official, the people are the people, the people dare to resist the officials with the people, after all, they are a minority of the minority, this old master with a sallow face in a cotton jacket, you don't dare to let him resist Hu Yuancheng, but his mouth is broken, what can Hu Yuancheng do with people?

Of course, Hu Yuancheng has the power to confiscate people out of the iron smelting yard, or whip them, but if he does this, he is afraid that he will be given the power of dismount and lose people's hearts.

Originally, your attempt failed, and the big guy accompanied you to support you, but this is based on your official status, if you talk about private friendship, this master has a lot of prestige and favor for so many years, and if you say a strange word, you will be injured or even killed, who will dare to do it with you in the future? Even if you don't dare to oppose it openly, I'm afraid that you will go against the yin and the yin, and you won't be able to do your job.

Hu Yuancheng knew in his heart that at this time, he was also in a dilemma, if it was in Annan, then he would naturally simply kill him, otherwise it would damage his prestige, but this was in Daming, and he was also a newcomer If the matter is big and reaches the ears of the high-level of Daming, I am afraid that it will not only be unfavorable to him, but it will be a trivial matter for him to lose his official position, and it will affect the survival of the Hu family in Daming, which is a big deal.

At this time, someone found Jiang Xinghuo and others watching outside the furnace room of the iron-smelting field, and only then did they solve Hu Yuancheng's dilemma.

"I've seen the national teacher!"

Not only Hu Yuancheng, but even those craftsmen, as well as the old master who wore a cotton jacket and had a sallow face, as soon as they heard the news, they all hurriedly came over to greet Jiang Xinghuo, their expressions were extremely respectful, and there was even a faint trace of fear.

In front of the people, Jiang Xinghuo rarely shows up on weekdays, and his identity is special, so even if the people in Daming have heard of the famous national teacher, not many people have seen it.

But for these craftsmen who are refining, Jiang Xinghuo's prestige far surpasses that of others.

Not to mention anything else, the promotion level of these craftsmen was only implemented under Jiang Xinghuo's proposal, although it is only a grass creation now, and many things are not perfect, but after all, the Ministry of Industry has such a thing, which can be regarded as giving the craftsmen some head.

Hu Yuancheng has been in Daming for a while, knowing that the other party doesn't like luxury and enjoyment, and the courtyard he lives in on weekdays is even more simple than ordinary people's, and he doesn't like others to disturb his purity.

Therefore, there was no suitable reason, and Hu Yuancheng did not visit the mansion of the national teacher, and the two were quite strangers.

Today, the national teacher actually appeared in the iron-smelting field of the Ministry of Industry that he was responsible for, which made Hu Yuancheng secretly happy, which proved that the national teacher has a strong interest in the reconstruction plan of the iron-smelting field, as long as he grasps the opportunity, he may be able to obtain the appreciation and help of the national teacher, which is a godsend for them Hu to gain a firm foothold in Daming!

"Ambassador Hu, let's introduce me first."

Although Hu Yuancheng was awarded the official position of the Ministry of Industry, he was only an ambassador. The word "ambassador", in the Ming Dynasty, had a completely different meaning from later generations, referring to the officials in charge of sub-units, usually there are two kinds: Zhengjiupin and Bujin, and Hu Yuancheng is the former.

In the six ministries, each ministry has the position of ambassador, but the number is not the same, it all depends on how many sub-units under each ministry, taking the Ministry of Industry as an example, because of all aspects of engineering and procurement involved, so there are many sub-units below, there are Wensi Institute, Leather Bureau, Saddle Braidle Bureau, Baoyuan Bureau, Pigment Bureau, Ordnance Bureau, Weaving and Dyeing Institute, Miscellaneous Manufacturing Bureau, Bamboo and Wood Bureau, Firewood Division, Artillery Casting Institute and other sub-units named after "Academy, Bureau, Institute", the chief officer is generally an ambassador, and the adjutant is the deputy envoy.

Hu Yuancheng's current position is the ambassador of the Cannon Foundry, and this iron-smelting yard is subordinate to the Cannon Foundry.

Looking at the other party's calm expression, Jiang Xinghuo felt that this should be the meaning of the bottom of his heart.

In fact, if it is not completely formalistic, then it is easy to understand something by looking at the actual situation and asking questions.

However, if the supervisor does not understand the content of the business he is in charge of, whether he can cover all aspects, it is very simple to see his attitude and ability.

Jiang Xinghuo watched the TV series of the Three Kingdoms in his previous life, and they all said that the phoenix was crazy, but people could finish the backlog of half a year's work in a short time in front of Liu Bei, right? The explanation is still confident.

Sure enough, Hu Yuancheng used Chinese dialect that he could barely hear the accent, and began to introduce Jiang Xinghuo to the tools of the iron-smelting yard one by one.

"The name of this highest smelting furnace is Dajian furnace, one zhang two high, two feet five inches in the front, two feet seven inches in the back, one foot six inches on the left and right, it is based on the high temperature resistant bull head stone as the inner wall, with Jian Qianshi as the furnace door, and generally uses black sand (a kind of iron sand) as raw materials."

"Slightly shorter is the iron melting furnace, which is six feet high and eight feet high, with a three-layer structure, with cornhole sand (a kind of refractory sand) for the inner layer, fire bricks for the middle layer, and red bricks for the outer layer, which is mainly used to smelt iron and aquatic raw iron."

"This small one is specially used to fry steel, and it is called a white furnace."

"Where's the smallest one?" Jiang Xinghuo looked at the stove in front of him, which was similar to the pickle jar, and asked.

"This is called a retort furnace, the bottom is as thick as a big wooden retort for steaming rice, also called a cupola furnace, easy to move, two or three people can lift it up and pour out the molten iron, like the iron melting furnace, it is also used to smelt pig iron, but this small furnace is mainly used to make white iron."

White iron, to put it bluntly, is to fool around on unimportant scraps, such as the barrel of a cannon, which is either bronze or steel, but for other parts, it is a low-cost white iron.

Jiang Xinghuo had a general understanding of the main production equipment of the iron-smelting field, and then looked at the iron-melting furnace that had failed just now, and asked.

"Is this iron melting furnace the most commonly used furnace? How does it work? ”

Hu Yuancheng nodded and replied: "The iron melting furnace is the most commonly used, the top of this furnace is level with the feeding yard, and the material yard has an overpass to discharge material from the top of the furnace. ”

As he spoke, he pointed to the top of his head, and sure enough, there was a flyover on the second floor.

"Let's go, let's see."

Jiang Xinghuo had never seen how the metallurgical industry in this era worked, but at this time he was full of curiosity, seeing that the national teacher wanted to see it, these people did not dare to slack off, and took Jiang Xinghuo to observe the feeding yard.

But the feed yard is not here, it's next door.

To be precise, it is the first floor next door, and because of the ramp that is set up to transport materials, the first floor here is equivalent to the second floor of the iron smelting yard next to it.

Looking down from the overpass in the feeding yard, the iron tank is about one or two feet deep in the eight-foot furnace of the molten iron furnace.

Combined with the actual situation just observed, Jiang Xinghuo roughly understood the operation principle of this thing, what he just saw was that the molten iron and slag mouth at the bottom of the furnace were open devices, and the molten iron and slag came out together, and the slag was scattered with the wind.

"So what are you doing?"

"Try changing the bellows, can you increase the furnace temperature." Hu Yuancheng replied very directly.

Jiang Xinghuo was thoughtful, and asked again, "Take me to see the bellows." ”

The bellows of the iron melting furnace are in the compartments on both sides of the iron furnace, generally on the left and right sides, through the air intake to help the combustion of coal, and then burn the iron sand, the bellows are either hydraulic or manpower, there is no other way to start, here is manpower.

Jiang Xinghuo looked at the bellows, the bellows barrel in the cubicle was dug out of all the trees of the tree, and it was even possible to drill into a person by eyesight, and the inside of the barrel was covered with wax, and then the wind-pulling tray was about two or three inches thick, and all around it was wrapped and wound with chicken feathers, a bit like using a chicken feather duster.

Jiang Xinghuo stroked it with his hand, and sure enough, he didn't leave his hand.

"How much does the furnace normally cut each time? What is the normal amount of iron produced? How many people do it, what do they do? ”

If the previous questions can be understood with a little attention, then Jiang Xinghuo's current series of questions can only be blurted out with great care, which is also a real test for Hu Yuancheng.

Hu Yuancheng thought for a while, and then replied: "Normal cutting is every 100 catties of iron sand, with 200 catties of coal, the thickest iron sand is not more than two inches, every 100 catties of iron sand can produce 40 catties of iron, usually a furnace will put 300 catties of iron sand and 600 catties of coal." Two feeders are to be fed from the overpass with a shovel, two people in front of the furnace are collected with iron pliers, two bellows are four people, each bellows needs two people to take turns to pull, and there is a handyman, a total of nine people work in a group. ”

Seeing Hu Yuancheng's answer, Jiang Xinghuo's heart was also slightly approving.

Jiang Xinghuo had listened to the generals on the front line of Annan before, saying that the Fuliangjiang defense line was well arranged, and now Hu Yuancheng has the ability to command more than 100,000 people, and let him manage the artillery casting station, but it is overkill.

As for the so-called cutting-edge technology, it is kept secret.

Well, there is no cutting-edge technology in the Ming Dynasty, and besides, the Hu family and his son will definitely not be able to run out of the Ming Dynasty in this life, and it is needless to say that there is no doubt about employing people and not suspecting people.

"And what about the production method now?"

"It is mainly based on the steel frying method and the steel filling method."

Jiang Xinghuo nodded, he still knew these two classic smelting methods.

The frying steel method is the main method of turning pig iron into mature iron in ancient China, which was invented in the late Western Han Dynasty, and the principle is to heat the pig iron into a semi-liquid state, and constantly stir it, just like the action of frying meat, so that the carbon and impurities in the pig iron are constantly oxidized, so as to obtain wrought iron.

The popular sacred book "Taiping Jing" in the Eastern Han Dynasty, that is, the one used by Zhang Jiao, recorded that "there is an urgency to make the engineer hit the stone, ask for the iron, smelt it to make water, and then make the good work ten thousand forging, but to become Mo Xie (referring to the sword) yes", which describes the process of obtaining pig iron from ore smelting, and then frying and forging from pig iron water.

In fact, similar technology was invented by the British in the West until the middle of the 18th century, and at this time in the Ming Dynasty in the 15th century, the frying steel method has tended to reach its peak, so in front of the door of the industrial revolution, China actually has too many advantages closer to this door than the West.

As for the so-called steel filling method, it has not yet evolved to the ultimate form, that is, the emergence of Suzhou Steel, but the basic process has long been mature, and the main principle is actually four words if you want to use words that are easy for modern people to understand.

- "Egg Scones".

Understand the operation method of egg cake, you basically understand how to get the steel filling method, the process base is to combine the molten pig iron with wrought iron, wrought iron is the "cake", pig iron is the "egg", just as the egg liquid will evenly penetrate into the whole cake, the carbon in the pig iron will also diffuse to the wrought iron, and tend to be evenly distributed, and can remove some impurities, into a better wrought iron and even steel.

Shen Kuo's "Mengxi Writings" volume 3 recorded in detail the process of the steel filling method: "The so-called iron and steel in the world are bent with soft iron, which is trapped in the middle of pig iron, sealed and refined with mud, and the forging order is entered, which is called 'group steel', also known as 'steel filling'.

Among them, the flexible iron is bent up to increase the contact surface of raw wrought iron, improve the efficiency of steel filling, and promote the distribution of carbon content more evenly, and the sealing mud can promote slag making, remove impurities, and play a protective role.

Because of the poor grasp of this degree, at the beginning of the steel filling method is very troublesome, to pour many times pig iron, later the steel filling technology in the Song Dynasty has been continuously improved, reducing the number of times of filling, to the current Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty, basically are a success, the reason why it can be done at one time, is because of the current steel filling method, has changed the soft iron bending plate to thin wrought iron sheet, further increased the contact surface of raw wrought iron, accelerate its "raw and cooked harmony, smelting steel" process, mud sealing is also changed to grass mud mixed sealing, better sealing.

But what about the steel filling method.

Positive evaluation, it must be to improve production efficiency, low cost and high output, but in a negative sense, that is, and thin mud, is not conducive to the output of high-quality steel, so in Jiang Xinghuo's previous life, many forums also ridiculed that it was the large-scale use of the steel filling method that made Huaxia's weapons appear similar to the "archaeological cultivation of immortals" like the "archaeological blade", that is to say, after the Song Dynasty, the more advanced the time, the better the quality, and the Tang knife has become a swan song.

Most of the alien races in the north began to surpass the Han people in the quality of smelting products, such as the vests, armors, swords and guns of the Liaojin Xia Yuan, which were generally better than those of the Great Song Dynasty.

It can only be said that in most conditions, quantity and quality cannot be both.

As for talking about carburizing. "Tiangong Kaiwu" records the solid carburizing heat treatment process when making needles: the needle is drawn, cut, kneaded and then slowly fried in the kettle, and after frying, pine wood and charcoal are used as carburizing agents, and tempeh is used as a catalyst, and solid carbonization is carried out under the sealing of the end of the soil.

This thing is actually the same as poking a wooden stick into the mud, it is a principle, it can only be said that the symptoms are not cured, and the steel obtained through this method is barely up to standard, but if you want to say how good the performance is, you don't have to count on it.

Of course, not only the reason for the steel smelting process, but also the fuel factor in it, before the Song Dynasty, charcoal was basically used, and after the Song Dynasty, it was mainly coal, coal can make steel production increase rapidly, but it will affect the quality, because the quality of iron ore in China is generally not good, and coal is basically high phosphorus and high sulfur.

The Japanese have always insisted on using charcoal to make iron, in addition to the reason for Japan's high forest coverage, that is, Japan does not need the same proportion of steel production as China, and their steel is equipped with elite equipment, rather than equipping 100,000 troops at every turn like Huaxia, so the Japanese armor rate is not high.

"So why do you want to raise the furnace temperature?" After reading this, Jiang Xinghuo finally asked.

Hu Yuancheng said truthfully: "Find a way to produce steel with high efficiency, the current cannons are all cast in copper, not a long-term solution." ”

Jiang Xinghuo nodded after hearing this, it seemed that Hu Yuancheng also realized the problem.

In fact, the Ming Dynasty was a turning point in the development of Chinese artillery technology, in the early Ming Dynasty and before the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, China's artillery technology was still ahead of the world, but in just one or two hundred years, it began to lag behind the world significantly, in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, not only from Annam and Rumi (referring to Ottoman Turkey) to import guns, but also from Portugal and Spain to import cannons.

There are two main reasons for this, one of which is that as I just said, because the grade of iron ore stored in China is not very good, the cast iron smelted is very brittle, and it is very unsuitable for use as a firing tube for firearms or cannons.

The second is that forestry resources are increasingly depleted, and it is okay for the people to use, but if you want to make iron on a large scale, you can only use coal, but the coal in China is basically high phosphorus and high sulfur, and the iron pipe containing too much sulfur is very brittle and easy to burst, which makes the iron, which is easy to blow up, after the smelting of high-sulfur coal, it is easier to blow up.

Therefore, the use of bronze to cast cannons is really a helpless move of the Ming army.

If there were iron cannons that were more readily available, who would want to cast them in bronze?

After all, in this era, copper is money and wealth, which is the real literal sense of "burning money".

Now that the price inflation is so strong, the country is not enough to use copper to cast money, if it is not for the fact that copper cannons can only be used, Jiang Xinghuo really does not want to put a large amount of copper into the cannons.

In Jiang Xinghuo's plan, before crossing the sea to conquer Japan, the currency price of the treasure banknote must be stabilized in the range of 40-50% of the original currency value, otherwise it will be impossible to carry out the exchange of banknotes, as long as the money is exchanged, the entire national economic system will definitely collapse.

There are two ways to restore the value of the banknotes.

The first is what Jiang Xinghuo is doing now, that is, through means such as paying salt in banknotes and issuing treasury bonds, to return the treasure banknotes that are excessively flooded in the market, and reduce the total amount of treasure banknotes This reason is very simple, as long as the total amount of treasure banknotes is reduced, then the value of treasure banknotes will rise.

The second is to increase the total supply of copper coins, that is, to let the copper coins as anchors depreciate themselves, but there is no need for copper coins to keep up with the speed of the depreciation of the previous treasure money, which will also collapse, only need to make the original 10 copper coins/100 Wen face value of the treasure money can be bought, become 11 or 12 copper coins to buy, so that the actual value ratio between copper coins and treasure money will shrink rapidly.

As for whether the second method will cause the consequences of harvesting the wealth of the people, Jiang Xinghuo believes that it will not, because prices are also inflationary, even if the country does not increase the total supply of copper coins, this natural economic phenomenon will still appear, sooner or later.

It's just that Jiang Xinghuo didn't use the second method now, that is, the military industry used too many copper resources, resulting in not enough copper to mint copper coins, after all, the Ming Dynasty was short of copper as a whole.

"If you could cast a cannon with steel or iron, not with copper."

Jiang Xinghuo fell into deep thought, seeing that the national teacher did not speak, and the others did not dare to speak.

If Jiang Xinghuo remembers correctly, in fact, at the beginning, after the Thirty Years' War, Western countries also used iron cannons, not copper cannons, among which the outstanding performance was the British cast iron cannons, and the British iron cannons had infinitely close to the performance of copper cannons, so that the British iron cannons at that time were in Europe, and their prices were even equivalent to four to five times that of European homemade iron cannons.

The reason why the British were able to do it was because they used charcoal entirely to make iron, and of course, everything had a price, and the price of the British was that the entire British Isles were cut down.

There are three ways to cast a cannon.

(1) Iron smelting with iron cannon and charcoal

(2) Iron cannon and coal to make iron

(3) Directly use copper cannons

In terms of fuel, the road of charcoal iron-making, the Ming Dynasty could not go, and it was only suitable for island countries with high forest coverage such as Britain or Japan, and Jiang Xinghuo did not want the limited copper resources to be invested in the military industry, so he could only choose to use iron cannons to try a new method of coal ironmaking, which also coincided with Hu Yuancheng's thinking.

The problem now is that coal is high in phosphorus and high sulfur, and the grade of iron ore is not good.

"There should be two ways to solve the problem."

Jiang Xinghuo pondered for a long time before he spoke: "One is to start with iron, and the other is to start with coal. ”

This is certainly not two nonsense.

In the case of iron, although wrought iron has a lower sulfur content than pig iron, wrought iron is too soft and difficult to use as a cannon barrel, so pig iron is not good, wrought iron is not good, and the final result is to evolve iron into steel, not cast iron cannons, but cast steel cannons.

Jiang Xinghuo concluded: "Don't focus on improving the iron-smelting furnace, it shouldn't be possible to use your brains from the iron-smelting furnace, because no matter how you improve the iron-smelting furnace, the furnace temperature is not enough to get liquid molten steel." ”

If you want to get liquid molten steel, the first thing that comes to mind must be the Bessemer converter method, that is, relying on the physical heat of the liquid pig iron in the converter and the heat generated by the chemical reaction between the components in the pig iron (such as carbon, manganese, silicon, phosphorus, etc.) and the oxygen sent into the furnace, so that the metal can reach the composition and temperature required by tapping.

But the problem is that the method doesn't work!

Now the basic materials of Daming can't keep up, don't say that Jiang Xinghuo doesn't remember, even if Jiang Xinghuo draws the drawings of the Besemai converter, it will be in vain.

It's not that you can't make a stove, but there is no low-phosphorus iron at all!

As long as you know a little about the development history of the steel industry, you know that low phosphorus iron is good, but even if Japan enters industrialization, all the low phosphorus iron required must be imported from Britain and Sweden, until the outbreak of World War I, Japan can not produce low phosphorus iron in China, where is low phosphorus iron, Jiang Xinghuo does not know, can only hope that Liaodong has, anyway, the existing iron ore in the known Ming Dynasty, is not available.

Why do you have to be low in phosphorus iron? Because Bessemer began to test the use of phosphorus, sulfur and high manganese pig iron as raw materials, the initial success, when switching to other pig iron, the smelted steel is not good, although by adding mirror iron (manganese ferroalloy, is a desulfurization deoxidizer, because its section has a mirror-like brilliance, so it is called mirror iron) can be effectively alleviated, but the most important thing is to low phosphorus iron, even if the British Thomas later found that when using alkaline refractory brick lining, the slag becomes highly alkaline in the converter smelting process, which can be dephosphorized for iron ore, That is, the improved "Bessemer-Thomas method", but iron ore still has strict quality requirements.

Everyone knows that liquid steel has extremely high productivity and low cost, and the quality of steel is superior to that of semi-solid production of Pudelin iron, otherwise the Bessemer method would not have become the world's leading steelmaking method before and after World War I, but without low-phosphorus iron everything is useless.

In fact, as the world's low-phosphorus iron ore was exhausted and the accumulated scrap could not be used in the Bessemer steelmaking process, the Bessemer process began to decline and was eventually replaced by the open-hearth steelmaking method.

Therefore, under the condition that iron is not good, the Bessemer steelmaking method cannot be used.

Just when Hu Yuancheng, who was denied, was a little lacking in ideas, Jiang Xinghuo said firmly.

"You can start with coal."

"Start with coal?"

The craftsmen of these iron-smelting yards looked at Jiang Xinghuo in amazement.

This national teacher is really tirelessly looking for ideas for improvement.

But these ideas, according to past experience, are all wrong!

There are no other types of coal, and even if there is, it will have to be re-excavated, and it is not known whether it can be used.

However, Hu Yuancheng didn't think there was anything wrong with Jiang Xinghuo's thinking.

In fact, after the failure just now, he has realized that it seems that the method of raising the temperature of the furnace really does not work.

However, it is not possible to increase the furnace temperature, there are two main materials in this way, one is iron and the other is coal.

Although I don't know why the national teacher didn't start with iron, but I think there is a reason for him, but I don't understand it myself, so it seems that the only option that can be chosen is coal.

In fact, there is no iron with phosphorus and low sulfur, and there is another way, that is, desulfurization and dephosphorization technology, which turns iron with high phosphorus and sulfur into iron with phosphorus and low sulfur, but this cannot be done now, this scientific and technological point is too advanced, and it will normally not appear in the second half of the 19th century, and Jiang Xinghuo can't get it.

However, it is not possible to directly desulfurize and dephosphorize the steel, so as to obtain low-phosphorus and sulfur-free steel, and there is no low-profile version of the method at all.

Jiang Xinghuo just thought of it, that is, coking coal to make steel, and then dephosphorization alone.

Liquid steel is obtained first, and then dephosphorization is done in a stupid way, so that low-phosphorus steel is obtained.

Although the route is different from Bessemer's steelmaking method, the result is the same, and low-phosphorus steel can be obtained, which is the same way.

As mentioned earlier, to obtain molten steel, you need a high temperature of 1600 degrees.

In fact, in Jiang Xinghuo's previous life, few people thought about when the iron-smelting technology of the East and the West was on a modern business.

The criterion for judging the "generation difference" is also very simple, that is, when can the high temperature of 1600 degrees be stably.

The answer is not difficult, 1709 AD.

When the Qing Emperor Kangxi built the Old Summer Palace in the north of Changchun Garden in western Beijing and gave it to the fourth son of the emperor, Yinzhen, to live, the Englishman Abraham Darby used coking coal as a raw material to make iron for the first time, so that the temperature of the furnace fire rose sharply and obtained a stable high temperature of 1600 degrees.

Since then, the breakthrough in fuel has fallen into a bottleneck period, in order to obtain higher furnace temperature, obtain higher quality steel, Westerners began to start from the two aspects of blower appliances and iron smelting furnaces, the result of iron smelting furnaces is the emergence of Bessemer converter, and the blower was at the beginning through animal power to drive the water wheel, the water wheel to drive the blower, and then there was a Neukomen steam engine for pumping water, and the steam engine was directly used to drive the water wheel.

Coking coal, ironmaking→ animal-powered waterwheels→ steam engine waterwheels

In fact, if you want to completely remove or desulfurize and dephosphorize Jiang Xinghuo will not, but as long as you can obtain liquid steel, there are still several ways to dephosphosphorize, such as oxygen blowing to remove phosphorus, magnesium reduction and phosphorus removal, of course, it doesn't matter if there is no magnesium and high-pressure oxygen, because there is a simpler way - Daming always has limestone now, right?

If there is limestone, it can be dephosphorized.

As the main component of limestone, calcium carbonate can be used to reduce phosphorus, and its reaction principle is that under high temperature conditions, calcium carbonate reacts with molten steel in the furnace to generate carbon dioxide and other gases and calcium oxide, and calcium oxide reacts with phosphorus in molten steel to form gas and discharge it out of the furnace.

This method is suitable for molten steel with high phosphorus content, to put it bluntly, it is to sprinkle limestone powder into molten steel, without any technical difficulty, and there is no essential difference from sprinkling flour into water.

With low-phosphorus steel that can be obtained stably and efficiently at low cost, there is everything from heavy industry to warship artillery and lathe parts.

For example, the main role of the steam engine at the beginning was to pump water from coal mines and blast iron smelting, while the pre-technology points, that is, lathes, boring machines and other technologies, were invented for the production of artillery barrels.

Jiang Xinghuo, who had never connected these scattered knowledge points before, finally understood all this under the pressure of this situation.

At this point, he also got the most critical key to open the door to heavy industry in the first industrial revolution.

(End of chapter)