It was an era of technological stagnation.

In this era, due to the vast land area of the Ming Empire, the relatively sparse population, coupled with the road guidance system resulting in extremely closed land transportation, the empire in the early establishment of more than 30 years, has not carried out effective, large-scale technical exchanges, under the craftsman household system, whether it is the father or the son or the teacher dies and the apprentice, there is a situation of "leaving a hand from generation to generation", and some technologies are left to be inherited, which makes the technological development in the metallurgical field extremely slow, almost stagnant, and even regressive.

At this time, the most widely used fuel in the metallurgical field is actually coal.

Strange to say, but not at all strange, is that in this day and age, almost no one thinks about what coal can become.

The proposition of "the product of coal" can be put into the future generations, and many people can think of a lot, gasoline, diesel, kerosene, urea, formaldehyde, asphalt, plastics, synthetic fibers.

But these are all scientific and technological products after the second industrial revolution, in the first industrial revolution stage, in fact, the most important product of coal is coking coal.

Coking coal is actually coal in the condition of isolating the air, heated to about 1,000 degrees, and then finally made through drying, pyrolysis, melting, bonding, solidification, shrinkage and other stages, this process is called high-temperature coking, and then the coking coal is mainly used for blast furnace ironmaking and blast furnace smelting of non-ferrous metals such as copper and lead.

The use of coking coal instead of coal and charcoal in the blast furnace of ironmaking laid the foundation for the large-scale of modern blast furnaces and was a major milestone in the history of metallurgy.

However, in the eyes of today's craftsmen, they are completely unaware of this, and the reason is very simple, the main role of coal is to heat the iron-smelting blast furnace as a fuel like charcoal in the smelting process.

And for craftsmen, the price of coal they use is actually very expensive, can not be wasted at will, it must be cherished to use, it would be a pity to give Huohuo at will, after all, this thing is more difficult to obtain than charcoal, there are not many coal mines in the south of the Ming Dynasty, and the output is not high.

But the craftsmen did not know that they could not obtain coke without throwing coal into a confined space to dry burn.

All in all, the main reason why no one tried, or someone tried but didn't spread, is that coal was enough for craftsmen.

However, the problems considered by the craftsmen are not a problem for Jiang Xinghuo.

This is like for a family, a bag of rice and a bundle of firewood are very important and cannot be easily wasted, but for a country, if it can try a new technical route at such a small cost, it is completely possible to try and make mistakes through "waste".

"Send someone to the fertilizer workshop that Yuan Heng is in charge of, is there a small-scale coke preparation setup there? Let them bring the coke over, and if not, start refining it now. ”

Although the current fertilizer workshop, the main production process is to dilute the guano regularly transported from Guano Island in Wanli Shitang, add various useful and useless other items, make fertilizer bags, stickers and then sell.

But at the time of the initial test, in order to obtain synthetic ammonia to demonstrate the efficacy of chemical fertilizers, there was a soil coking line, which was only to collect ammonia through green alum liquid, not to refine coke, coke was just a by-product, and Jiang Xinghuo never thought of using coke to increase the furnace temperature and then make liquid steel.

After all, the traverser is not an encyclopedia, and many connected knowledge points are difficult to realize its other functions when you just want to do one thing, so Jiang Xinghuo also subconsciously ignored this point, and only now did he remember it.

Although the current fertilizer workshop no longer needs such inefficient means of production, how to say that this kind of commemorative device has been preserved, just like the well-preserved former residences of many celebrities, the meaning is similar.

There are two kinds of coking, one is soil coking, and the other is serious coke oven coking.

What is preserved in the fertilizer workshop is a small furnace for soil coking and a long coke burial facility.

The actual process of soil coking can only be described by the words "unpretentious", the so-called long coke setting is just a rectangular pool stacked, the top and bottom are sealed with refractory bricks on all sides, and then the coal is ignited, and after a period of time, all the gas is burned out, no longer smoked, and it is smelted into coke

What are the technical difficulties? It's nothing, at most, it is to make a fuse on the side wall, so that the hot gas flow formed by the exhaust gas produced by coal combustion and a large number of unburned coal cracking products will continue to burn through the fuse channel of the side wall of the long buried coke setting, and part of the heat will be transferred into it, and then water will be injected into the hole to quench the coke, cold furnace, and coke.

The coking time of soil coking is relatively long, the coking rate is also low, the coal consumption is even higher, and the environmental pollution thief is serious.

But it doesn't matter, in a serious iron smelting field, Jiang Xinghuo will definitely let them find a way to improve the coke oven specially used for coking, Jiang Xinghuo has no doubts about the intelligence and hands-on ability of these people, what they lack may only be guidance in thinking.

The coking coal used in these was just used by Jiang Xinghuo to show them how to use new fuel to raise the temperature of the furnace fire to the point where it was enough to melt the molten steel.

Jiang Xinghuo and Hu Yuancheng went out to talk, and the craftsmen inside talked a lot.

"Coke? It sounds like the coal was burned again, is it the same as the wood burned into charcoal, is it a truth? ”

"Wood burned into charcoal can continue to burn, coal burned into charcoal, isn't that just a bunch of black lumps? Can you continue to burn? ”

"Who knows, but how do these big people get it, let's get it, let's get it, mix it up, why do you care so much."

"We don't have enough wrought iron, right? Still need to put pig iron in it? ”

Someone immediately said that they had just seen it, and if it was a large-scale refining, I was afraid that there would not be enough here, because a batch of wrought iron had just been sent away.

Although in this era, craftsmen could not directly obtain liquid steel, but the basic common sense still knows, pig iron contains more other impurities than wrought iron, the same reason, if the pig iron is returned to the furnace, the final molten iron will be more impurities than the molten iron of wrought iron. In fact, in modern steelmaking, unless it is special steel, it is theoretically possible to use wrought iron to return to the furnace, but few people do this, and there are complete sets of equipment and processes in place in a few steps.

"Master, do you think this can work?"

At this time, the craftsmen looked at the old man with a sallow face and a padded jacket who had been silent in the corner.

The old man frowned, he didn't like the blind Annan man, because he could judge at a glance that it was not feasible to increase the furnace temperature by reducing the air contact area of the iron-smelting furnace.

But the national teacher is different.

How can the prestige of the national teacher be compared to that of these Annan people?

Therefore, he didn't dare to question Jiang Xinghuo's decision, but he just snorted and said, "Let's take a look." ”

At this time, Jiang Xinghuo was discussing the construction of coking facilities with Hu Yuancheng.

After all, the output ratio is too low to achieve continuous smelting by soil method, and if you want to achieve regularized continuous smelting, you must get a coke oven in order.

But Jiang Xinghuo doesn't know much about this thing, but he has a general concept when he flips through the book, well, he also has a general concept of the atomic bomb. In short, let's describe it first, and then let Hu Yuancheng get it.

In fact, the coke oven is not only one appearance, after all, the application of coal coking technology has a history of hundreds of years in his previous life, and the structure and shape of the furnace have also undergone many changes. Later, it began to evolve into a semi-enclosed long kiln built of bricks, which is similar to the soil method used in fertilizer workshops today. Later, a fully enclosed circular kiln, commonly known as a "honeycomb furnace", began to be used, and its technical characteristics were carbonization and combustion together, and the rest of the coal was directly heated by burning a part of the coal and dry distillation gas to dry distillation into coke.

The coke oven that Jiang Xinghuo saw in the countryside when he was a child is a product after the mid-nineteenth century, that is, the coking stage from the kiln to the externally heated carbonization chamber, and the inverted flame furnace appeared, this version of the coke oven is to separate the coking chamber from the heated combustion chamber by a wall, and there is a ventilation channel in the upper part of the partition wall, through which the dry distillation gas of coal in the carbonization chamber flows directly into the combustion chamber, and mixes with the air from the air duct at the top of the combustion chamber to flow and burn from top to bottom. As for the later versions, which are a gradual improvement process, such as changes to recycle chemicals and changes to use waste heat from flue gases, there are not many changes in general.

"What are you going to do to build a coking workshop?"

"Please also ask the national teacher to show me." Hu Yuancheng replied respectfully.

Jiang Xinghuo shook his head when he heard this, and said, "Tell me what you think." ”

Hu Yuancheng can basically be called ignorant of this, of course, he doesn't have any good ideas, but the reason why Jiang Xinghuo asked him this is to imply that he doesn't need him to act like a marionette to reassure himself.

Hu Yuancheng probably said what he thought, Jiang Xinghuo nodded noncommittally, and then said.

"Find a room and draw a drawing for you first."

When he reached the door of the room, he stopped.

Jiang Xinghuo thought about it in his mind at this time, and then entered the room, and then sat down at the table and drew with a pen.

With a brush and a stack of rice paper, Jiang Xinghuo spent half an hour finally drawing all the patterns he could think of and attaching them, and then handed them to Hu Yuancheng.

After Hu Yuancheng looked at it carefully, he nodded and said, "I understand what the national teacher means." ”

"Has the coking coal arrived?"

"I just arrived, and I didn't dare to disturb the national teacher."

Jiang Xinghuo said with satisfaction: "Then hurry up and try coking coal." ”

Several truckloads of steaming fresh coking coal were brought over, and then sent into the iron-smelting furnace under the gaze of everyone.

Everyone is speculating whether this new fuel will be able to heat the furnace fire enough to melt steel into water.

Hu Yuancheng is no exception, although he feels that no one has ever tried this, but since it is something that Jiang Xinghuo commands so solemnly, even if there is little hope in the eyes of others, he must try.

But before that, Hu Yuancheng still had some things, he went out and instructed the officials outside: "Go find someone immediately, according to the drawings, hurry up and build a coke room over there, remember, be fast, you will get it out in a few days." ”

The little official turned around and wanted to leave, but Hu Yuancheng grabbed his sleeve again, thought about it and added.

"In addition, I want to use the best materials, the fastest speed, and the strongest masonry, and I ask for the most delicate and clever people to do the work."

Hu Yuancheng said a few more words to him, and then waved his hand and motioned for the little official to leave.

Then, Hu Yuancheng, who returned to the melting iron furnace, also looked at the furnace with everyone.

"Boom!"

"Zila-!"

The sudden noise in the molten iron furnace was deafening, startling the onlookers standing nearby.

After all, the iron-making furnaces of this era never used coking coal, so it was normal for a bit of a situation to occur.

Hu Yuancheng was stunned for a long time, and then turned his head to look at the person beside him: "National teacher? ”

No one knows what is going on in the iron furnace, because there is only the top inlet and the small hole below, so at this time, the craftsman who is holding a shovel to feed the material on the flyover does not dare to continue to move.

"Keep adding."

Jiang Xinghuo said calmly: "I can't blow it up, add it to Rig, except for the people who deliver the materials, they will all go to the outer site." ”

Hu Yuancheng hurriedly responded: "Yes!" ”

Then the crowd went on with their work.

Jiang Xinghuo waited silently.

A moment later, the flames of the molten iron furnace were anomalous like they had never been before!

Well, in fact, what most people don't know is that the color of the furnace fire can be intuitively judged by the temperature.

Although the craftsmen at this time did not have a specific concept such as Celsius, the things passed down by the ancestors by word of mouth still formed a formula.

Intuitively, according to different degrees Celsius, this is actually this evolution.

600 degrees Celsius: dark red

700 degrees Celsius: Deep red

1000 degrees Celsius: orange-red

1100 degrees Celsius: pure orange

1200 degrees Celsius: kumquat

1300 degrees Celsius: golden white

1500 degrees Celsius: pure white

1600 degrees Celsius: white-blue

All the craftsmen present recited the mantra, at most, to the golden white.

Rao is like this, and very few people have seen a golden-white flame in the actual smelting process.

Of course, this is not that the fantasy or the little minions in the cultivation of immortals have never seen strange fire, but that no one has really seen it in the real world, the reason is that the melting point of pig iron is 1100-1200 degrees Celsius, the melting point of miscellaneous iron is 1200 degrees Celsius, and the heat provided by coal or charcoal is only enough to heat to this range, so these craftsmen usually smelt pig iron at most, and have no ability to smelt steel (1400 degrees Celsius) or wrought iron (1400-1500 degrees Celsius).

And what shocked them today was that unlike charcoal and coal, with the use of coking coal, as soon as the furnace was opened, the flame below directly turned golden white!

"Golden-white fire!"

The craftsmen watched in amazement.

You must know that in the past, they used the best charcoal to see the golden-white flames with a very small probability, and the usually dark or light orange flames had already come to an end, but now, it was only a short time before the golden-white flames appeared!

What does this mean?

The people present were not stupid, and they were very aware of the meaning it represented, that is, the lower limit of coking coal is already the upper limit of coal and charcoal!

It's a game-changer for them!

"My goodness, I've lived most of my life, and it's the first time I've seen someone who was on fire from the beginning!"

"Yes, who would have thought that such a high smelting efficiency could be achieved with coking coal!"

"No wonder the national teacher said that coking coal can solve the urgent need."

"Haha, this is the most powerful iron-making method I've ever seen."

It's absolutely incredible, and what's even more incredible is yet to come, and that's the color of the flame, which is still changing!

The golden-white flames began to fade slowly.

The flames gradually turned pure white!

At this time, everyone was completely stunned, and even the words were silent.

"Whew~"

Looking at the scene in front of him, Hu Yuancheng let out a long breath, and only then did he feel that his palms were already covered with sweat.

The old man in the padded jacket approached with even more joy, staring at the flame in the molten iron furnace and looking at it carefully, and then even reaching out to touch it in obsession.

At this moment, he heard Jiang Xinghuo cough lightly.

The old master immediately retracted his palm, laughed awkwardly twice, and retreated to the side.

And just then, a crackling bang came from the bottom of the furnace.

"It's—"

An apprentice on the roof of the furnace who was in charge of feeding the material excitedly shouted at them: "The iron is starting to melt!" ”

The careful craftsman looked down at the discharge hole, and sure enough, exudate other than waste appeared in the charred black hole.

"It's really done, that's great!"

"Hahahaha!"

"It's finally succeeded, so that you can boil out the molten iron directly in the future!"

A crowd cheered.

"Don't worry, it's not a success yet."

Jiang Xinghuo waved his hand to stop everyone's ecstasy, and then continued: "This is just a preliminary result, there is still a distance from complete success, I estimate that I will have to boil for at least half an hour to exhaust the energy contained in the coking coal, and then it can be regarded as a real success." ”

When Hu Yuancheng heard this, he immediately looked serious and asked, "National Teacher, what do you need us to do?" ”

"No, no, I'll teach you how to control it, you just have to do it."

Jiang Xinghuo smiled.

Although Jiang Xinghuo has never made molten steel himself, to be honest, these people have not refined it either, Jiang Xinghuo's advantage over them is that in his previous life, he had personally seen rural local steelmaking, and in a certain life before, he had run a chemical factory, which could be regarded as a bit of a side, and he knew a little bit of relevant knowledge.

Soon, under the guidance of Jiang Xinghuo, the color of the flame really began another transformation!

The pure white in the flames began to slowly appear bewitching blue!

"This"

The people around were stunned, this kind of thing seemed unbelievable to them, who in this world had ever seen this kind of white and blue fire? It's the first time I've ever experienced it!

If you have to drill the tip of the horns, it can be said that the moment lightning strikes an object, it may produce blue fire, but what is in front of you is man-made! Completely controlled by people!

Jiang Xinghuo stopped and pointed to the wall and said: "If the blower box is purely human, the efficiency is still too low, if it can be driven by a water wheel and the wind can help the fire, the heat of this furnace can go to a higher level!" ”

Hearing this, everyone was convinced, after all, since the national teacher is such a strange person, since he said it, then there must be his reason.

As the feeder on the overpass reported that the molten steel had been formed, everyone sighed.

Jiang Xinghuo ignored everyone's exclamations and continued to explain: "In this molten steel, other ores can be added, for example, there is an ore that can be powdered and added to the molten steel, which may have the effect of making the solidified steel hard and corrosion-resistant. ”

"And this kind of thing? National teacher, where did you get this? Hu Yuancheng asked curiously.

Jiang Xinghuo patted him on the shoulder with a smile, then approached him and whispered a few words.

A look of surprise appeared on Hu Yuancheng's face, and he said, "National teacher, you. . . Are you really sure? ”

Jiang Xinghuo nodded and said, "I believe in my eyes, you just have to do it." ”

"That's good! The subordinate will dare to test it later. ”

After a while, as the fuel gradually ran low, the furnace temperature began to drop gradually, but at this time, the molten steel was also refined, and the molten steel was poured into the molds, which were originally prepared for the molten iron smelted from pig iron, and now they can only be used improvised, and it didn't take long for the molten steel to solidify into steel ingots.

Looking at the steel ingots, the master was amazed.

"Pure steel."

"What do you mean?"

"The impurities in the steel have been completely burned out."

In fact, of course, there are many impurities in the steel in this state, but this is invisible to the naked eye.

For the craftsmen of this era, this is already pure steel through and through, and in the future, they only need to go through cold processing to get what they want.

"Doesn't that mean that steel has been successfully made from coking coal?"

"Hmm."

Jiang Xinghuo nodded, looking at the ball of steel in front of him, and a smile appeared on his face.

Just as human beings have genetic locks, there are also technological locks in different eras.

The production of molten steel by human beings, and then obtained at low cost and high efficiency, is one of the most important technological locks in the era of the industrial revolution.

With steel, there are steam engines, ironclads, trains. And so on and so forth, which could not have been made in the agricultural era.

Don't underestimate these humble ingots in front of you, this is the real priceless treasure to the future.

Compared to copper, steel is harder, more durable, and can withstand very high temperatures and strengths, making it an excellent choice for casting guns.

When Jiang Xinghuo researched a light field gun and decided to replace the traditional cannon, he also considered adding a cannon made of steel cast barrels, but unfortunately, because of the lack of relevant technology, the cost of hand-rubbing steel was too high and the time was too long, and it was impossible to achieve batch installation, so he had to give up.

After all, even if you barely get it out by hand, the efficiency is low, and even one-tenth of the efficiency of the cast copper cannon is not comparable, so it has been delayed until now and there is no way to implement it.

It is only now that the method of mass manufacturing of steel has finally appeared.

At this moment, Jiang Xinghuo was full of emotion.

"National teacher, you expected it a long time ago, didn't you?"

Hu Yuancheng looked at Jiang Xinghuo, his eyes flashing with excitement.

"Hmm."

Jiang Xinghuo replied simply, and then waved his hand.

The craftsmen present immediately dispersed, leaving only a few people to help shut down the furnace completely to prevent danger.

At this time, Hu Yuancheng couldn't wait to say: "National teacher, you came this time to take us to smelt better steel, but the thing you just said"

Hu Yuancheng wanted to know how much attention Jiang Xinghuo attached to these aspects.

"Of course."

Jiang Xinghuo said as a matter of course: "You should know the value of this process of adding other substances to the steel, but the current process is still too rough, so some things have to be explored slowly." ”

Hu Yuancheng asked again: "National Teacher, how long do you think it will take to refine this so-called 'alloy steel'?" ”

It seems to be a question sentence, but in fact, this is Hu Yuancheng testing whether Jiang Xinghuo wants to set a deadline for him, if there is a deadline, he knows it in his heart, and he can do things next.

"It's hard to say."

Jiang Xinghuo pondered for a moment, and then said: "It depends on luck, but since there is coking coal, I think it will be a year or two at most." ”

Hu Yuancheng breathed a sigh of relief in his heart, the national teacher did not force him to get it out within a long time, and it seemed that he was still very aware of the difficulties.

Hu Yuancheng hesitated for a moment, but still said: "National Teacher, do you think I still have a chance?" ”

Of course, Jiang Xinghuo knows what the "opportunity" in the other party's mouth is, as a person who has lost his country, he has been buried in his heart for a long time.

"You want to go down this road?"

"Yes, I don't hide it from the national teacher, I am already tired of the court's deception, and I want to find a place to settle down."

Hu Yuancheng did not hide the desire in his heart, and said sincerely: "And there are many things I want to learn from you." ”

"You're a man who can do things, but you're not like your brother."

Hu Yuancheng coughed lightly twice, but it was not easy to answer.

In fact, what he said was the truth, Hu Yuancheng didn't like those intrigues, and it was the same reason why he didn't fight for the throne with his younger brother at the beginning, and he was annoyed when he sat in the palace every day and listened to those ministers arguing.

Now in a different environment, he is more willing to be an idle crane-like character, living unrestrained, having a skill, and having a career that he is fighting for, which is good.

But many times, he knew that this was actually an unrealistic delusion for people like them who were like rootless duckweed, but he was really unwilling, so he took this opportunity to ask Jiang Xinghuo for advice, wanting to win an opportunity to change the trajectory of his life, maybe it could change his future.

Jiang Xinghuo didn't say anything, just patted him on the shoulder.

(End of chapter)