"What are you doing like that?" Zhu Li smiled, he vaguely sensed Zhu Su's apology in his heart, smiled and patted Zhu Su's shoulder.

Zhu Su also smiled back, now that the two of them have opened the mansion and are in charge, there are some things that don't need to be said, their own brothers, everything is just in plain sight.

"At first I thought it was a charcoal problem." Zhu Li continued. "So I invited myself out of Beijing, with the intention of looking around to see if I could find high-quality coal."

So I looked around for suitable coal, and when I arrived in Guangping Mansion, I stumbled upon a descendant of a blacksmith from the Song Dynasty. He had an ancestral secret method that could make the flames emitted by coal several times hotter than ordinary, and in just a few moments, he could melt hundreds of steels. ”

"Coke!" A flash of inspiration came to Zhu Su's mind, and he finally understood the problem of his failure in steelmaking.

"You know." Zhu Li's face was as expected.

Zhu Su patted his head regretfully, to put it bluntly, it was because he ignored the knowledge that when making steel, he must use good coke to provide a higher furnace temperature.

In the previous blast furnace steelmaking process, he only focused on building a blast furnace for steelmaking based on the knowledge of later generations, but forgot to build the coke oven needed to make coke. After a little refinement with the existing coarse coal of the Ming Dynasty, it will be used to make steel, and it is strange that it can succeed!

To put it bluntly, I made the mistake of taking it for granted, after all, I have never refined steel by myself, thinking that if I build a blast furnace, I will be able to drum up steel sooner or later!

"So, do you have a way to make this so-called coke?" Zhu Li said tentatively.

Zhu Su, who had become a little excited because he had figured out the trick, didn't feel the strangeness of Zhu Li's tone at all, he immediately ordered someone to bring a pen and paper, and according to the impression in his mind, he drew a standard inverted flame coke oven design drawing. This type of coke oven is extremely efficient, and can even collect benzene and other chemicals produced during the dry distillation of coal.

Thanks to the apartment I rented in my previous life next to the library, and thanks to the "Friends of Military and Civilian Talents". The various books he read before the crossing can be deeply imprinted in his mind, and this is the only golden finger he has after crossing over.

"Your method is even more perfect than that of the blacksmith's descendants." Zhu Li looked at Zhu Su with a smile, and he also took out a "family heirloom secret method" with kiln drawings. This secret method is much inferior, just an ordinary earthen kiln.

"Uh...... Hahaha......" Zhu Su was stunned, so he had to fool the past with laughter.

The ancestors also had their own crafts, and in the Song Dynasty, some Chinese craftsmen had already learned to refine coke. It was only during the Yuan Dynasty that this technology, like many other inheritances, was lost due to foreign invasions, and it was not until the middle and late Ming Dynasty that it was developed again.

was so excited that he forgot that the descendants of this technique had been found by Zhu Li......

Fortunately, Zhu Li didn't pursue it too much, he was used to the many knowledge that this younger brother suddenly came out of. It's just that now he no longer believes that what Zhu Su said is derived from "lost ancient books". Now that Zhu Su had a better method of coking, the two brothers immediately took action, commanded the craftsmen to build several coke ovens, and prepared with great interest to start a new attempt to mass produce steel in the Ming Dynasty.

This time, even the steelmaking blast furnace was remanufactured by the two brothers, using the new refractory bricks found by Zhu Li. In the past, the quality of furnace bricks was uneven, the insulation effect was limited, and even there were accidents where the blast furnace was broken and the molten steel flowed out.

The choice of new refractory bricks, the two are full of confidence in this test.

Finally, after a busy work, Zhu Su waited for the first furnace of molten steel to come out. During these days, in addition to taking care of all the things in the Guozi Prison, he and Zhu Li were almost soaked in the test base in the back mountain. Seeing the craftsman carefully smash the many steel molds open, revealing the metal blocks that shone with a cold light inside, the two brothers were nervous.

Although each blast furnace has successfully trained metals, the quality of these metals will not be known until they have been tried.

"Dang!" Hearing only a crisp sound, the craftsman used all his strength to cut a big knife on the metal block that was refined, which was almost the highest standard big knife of the Ming Dynasty Ministry of Industry, and the naked eye visibly collapsed a gap, and the metal block was almost not damaged.

"Congratulations to your two highnesses! It's steel! It's 100 refined steel! "As soon as the craftsman threw away the knife, he knelt down with a plop, and the whole person cried with joy and crying." The villain has been striking iron for decades, and he has never seen such a good steel! ”

"Is it steel?" Zhu Su looked surprised, and Zhu Li was even more weak, and almost slipped off the chair.

He pushed away the guards who wanted to support him, and approached Zhu Su's side in three steps and two steps, "Sure enough, it's the best steel, old five, God bless Daming, we have become!" ”

"With such good steel, I will be invincible in the world after tomorrow!" Zhu Su was also extremely excited.

Some people may think that it is just a hundred refined steel, and what is unusual. But Zhu Su knew the significance of this furnace of steel to Daming. The traditional 100-steel process requires the constant hammering and casting of craftsmen, often just a sword, which requires several craftsmen to work tirelessly for several days.

And this blast furnace steelmaking method can produce such high-quality steel in batches, which means that the Ming Dynasty can even use standard weapon armor made of 100 refined steel to equip the army, which is simply a dimensionality reduction blow in the era of cold weapons!

Imagine, as soon as the two militaries engaged, the weapons of the Northern Yuan soldiers could not penetrate the stainless steel armor of the Ming army at all. However, the weapons of the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty were extremely sharp, and ordinary armor could not resist them at all......

How can this be fought?

Moreover, Zhu Su also found that the sound of tapping steel from several marked blast furnaces was obviously more dull. Before the steel in the blast furnace was smelted, he specially instructed that it should go through several coal washing steps. The steel produced by these furnaces is obviously qualified mild steel!

Mild steel is the perfect choice for flintlock barrels!

In other words, the basic conditions for the manufacture of more modern guns and artillery are already largely in place!

"Dogs! Go and get the gold and silver! "Zhu Su was overjoyed." This king wants to reward the many craftsmen present! They are all heroes of my Ming Dynasty! ”

"I'm going to meet my father and ask him to vigorously popularize this method of steelmaking!" Zhu Li is also happy. I and Lao Wu have completed such a great feat, and my father will be very happy. It's just that these words reminded Zhu Su of something, and he grabbed Zhu Li, who wanted to report the good news: "Don't be in a hurry first." ”

"Large-scale construction of steel furnaces...... I'm afraid that the imperial court doesn't have this ability yet. ”

"Before, my fourth brother and I have already gone to look for my father. Dad said that the imperial court is now empty in the treasury, and I am afraid it will be difficult to have enough ability to allocate funds. ”

To put it bluntly, it's still a question of money...... It's hard to walk without money, and it's hard for a good woman to cook without rice!

"What?" Zhu Li was extremely unhappy. "If you practice more steel one day earlier, the Ming will be stronger."

"This is a militaristic matter, how can it be ignored? I went to tell my father that even if we sold everything from our Zhu family, we had to think of a way to get out the money and build more blast furnaces. ”

“…… I'll go with you. Zhu Su also gritted his teeth. Zhu Li is right, no matter what, there must be no shortage of investment in science. "Dad said before that there is a way, but it still needs to be considered for some time."

"Let's go and urge him, if it hasn't been decided yet, we will force my father to make a decision on the spot!"

(End of chapter)