Time: Hu Biao and his party returned to the 15th day of Dou Gu's army.

Location: In the Red and White Mountain Range, near the Hotan River, in a hidden river bay surrounded by mountains on three sides.

Unlike in the modern plane, this place has long been a desert quite severe; During the Eastern Han Dynasty, the environment here, at least on both sides of the Hotan River, was quite good.

As far as the eye can see, there are large areas of poplars, red willows, and reeds, and even wild ducks flying up from time to time in the reeds.

and small beasts such as hares jumped out of it, and the fish swimming in the river were clearly visible.

After it looks, everything is full of life.

Tell the truth! If it is a modern plane, if you can have such a quiet place and excellent scenery, there must be many young ladies taking pictures here.

It's a pity that for all this kind of things in front of him, the team's big director in equipment manufacturing, Wolf Qing, this little brother has no idea at all.

The only thing in front of me was the small blast furnace that had just been built on the riverside and had been dried and had a capacity of one cubic meter.

There is no room for anything other than that.

The reason why this is so is because of whether PLA veterans such as Feng Rui and Lao Hei can play a role in the training of a group of former slaves, and how strong is the effect?

To be honest in these situations, even Fengrui and others actually don't have much confidence.

So in order to improve the combat effectiveness of these people and let them play a role in the follow-up tasks, it seems that they can only think of a way in terms of equipment.

In response to this, some time ago he commanded some natives.

Layers of linen cloth were used, and natural glue made from rabbit skin was added to glue a total of ten layers together, and a cloth armor similar to that of cotton armor in later generations was made.

What the hell is this thing saying, the defense against attacks like wolf tooth arrows is not bad.

If you add a layer of leather armor, with the bronze straight knives of the natives, it can't be cut down with a single knife, and the protection is considered strong in the entire Western Regions.

The problem is that Wolf Qing is still quite dissatisfied and wants to improve further.

And if you want to further improve your equipment, whether it is to create various weapons or make powerful iron armor, it seems that iron is a basic material.

Because in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the natives of the Western Regions had not yet mastered the technology of ironmaking.

So for a while, even if they had a large number of glass beads on hand, this kind of treasure with amazing purchasing power, there was no place to exchange it for iron.

In the end, I can only find a way to build an earthen blast furnace to smelt.

At the beginning, they did not hesitate to pay the sky-high price of three glass beads in Xicheng to buy two craftsmen who could smelt bronze, and it was for this to prepare.

Between bronze smelting and iron smelting, both belong to metal processing, and there is some experience.

So after arriving here, except for the first time when those bronze swords were smelted into various jars, pots, and farm tools, Lu Qing didn't care about anything else, and was busy making iron with all his heart......

It took Wolf Qing almost a day to choose the address of the ironmaking base here after many on-the-spot investigations.

On the one hand, because it's secluded enough.

Just arrange some sentry posts on the surrounding hills, and erect a circle of logs five or six meters high around the blast furnace; It can ensure that the iron-making methods they use are not spied on by others and learned.

You know, they don't want to, and they don't dare to let the Hu people in the Western Regions learn iron-making technology so many years in advance, or this kind of iron-making technology of the earth blast furnace.

Otherwise, in case the Hu people in the Western Regions upgraded their equipment in advance.

For the compatriots in the Central Plains, it is a completely disastrous consequence.

On the other hand, after the base is built here, it is completely possible to make some waterwheels according to some water level differences in the Hotan River, and then use the water power.

Whether it is used to pull the bellows, raise the furnace temperature to a higher furnace, or drive the hydraulic forging hammer, it is an artifact that can greatly improve work efficiency......

******

After determining the location of the iron-making base, the next step is naturally to be busy building the iron-making furnace.

Thanks to a secret book that Wolf Qing has repeatedly studied and memorized before crossing, specifically it is a book that is still in the 58th year of the last century, and the "Advanced Experience of Several Soil Methods of Iron Smelting" produced by the Shaanxi Provincial People's Publishing House.

Because in the introduction, there are a total of five kinds of soil iron smelting content, and Wolf Qing believes that one of the 'rice fat soil blast furnace ironmaking method' is very in line with the actual situation in front of him.

The construction process of this kind of soil blast furnace is very simple, and the cost is also unusually low.

It is to choose clay with good viscosity and build a 5-meter square soil platform first.

In order to ensure the strength and sturdiness of the iron-making furnace, in the process of building this earthen platform, it is necessary to use a hammer to tamp it; Under constant beating, the overall height can be 3 meters high.

When this earthen platform is built, the internal structure of the iron-making furnace is directly excavated on this foundation.

In other words, it is good to dig out the entire internal space of the iron-making furnace bit by bit.

After digging out a hollow space, the interior is first covered with a layer of stone, and then a layer of refractory mud is added.

Finally, refractory bricks were used to construct various internal structures such as vents, tapholes, and combustion chambers.

Finally, the inside of the moist stove is dried little by little with a low heat, and Wolf Qing brings five craftsmen to work together, and it can be done in a day's time.

The only thing that is a little troublesome is the production of refractory mud and refractory bricks.

According to the information, there is a description of the specific materials, they need to use dry mud, coking coal powder, broken porcelain powder, each one-third of the amount of mixing, mixed evenly before it can be made.

In order to get these things that are actually very common in the modern plane, it took a lot of effort for the wolf to make the old nose.

It took two days of busy work around the area on horseback to get the materials that could be substituted one by one.

It was not until today that the earthen blast furnace was completely built, and after a day and a night of small fire, the water vapor inside the furnace was also dried out.

Wolf Qing roughly calculated, according to the internal volume of this soil blast furnace, it should be able to process one cubic of raw materials at a time.

However, it is still unknown how much the exact iron yield and the quality of the iron is.

In addition, for such an earthen blast furnace, Wolf Qing also made a small reconstruction on the basis of the original data.

For example, adding a hydraulic bellows to the air inlet can increase the wind force and increase the temperature inside the furnace; A large pit made of refractory materials was added to the taphole.

It's all about being able to get it in place at a higher furnace temperature, and you can't get a better quality tongs steel instead of pig iron.

Otherwise, he is a dignified traveler from the modern plane, who has read so much information on weekdays and has blown so much with people on the Internet.

After working for so long, just smelting some pig iron, doesn't he want to lose face?

In short, after making such a huge effort, Wolf Qing is a mule and a horse, and everything depends on whether today's first furnace can achieve what kind of result.

Therefore, Brother Wolf Qing didn't say anything on the surface, but he was panicked in his heart.

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