In his study, Zhao Xiong carefully studied the Dakang Law and a series of administrative regulations.

Under the hereditary system of military households and artisan households in the Dakang Dynasty, military households were required to send their families to serve in designated guard posts.

In the 43 guards near the capital, military households and craftsmen have to go to the capital to take shifts.

Even the Jining Wei in Shandong needs to send a certain thousand military households and craftsmen to serve in the capital or designated places every one to several years.

The blacksmith must serve in the Ordnance Bureau under the Ministry of War.

However, military households like Xu Feng are working hard, and they go to the capital to distribute to those favored ministers to the Ministry of War and Labor Department.

In the past three years, Xu Feng has built a house to move bricks and tiles, or he has patrolled the night, picked up dung, ate or drank with or without food, and did some menial work.

Therefore, whether they are subjectively willing or not, ordinary military and artisan households must leave their familiar countryside and go to places hundreds or even thousands of miles away to work on errands.

Zhao Xiong pointed to a basket next to Wang Tiezhu, which was in the frame, and the amount of steel was not much, probably only about 30 catties.

The steel is generally silvery-white, with some parts mixed with black, which is obviously not pure enough, or the carbon distribution is not uniform.

But that's not the point, the surface of the steel actually shows some patterns under the sunlight.

Zhao Xiong then asked: "You, steel, are made by the steel-filling method. ”

Wang Tiezhu looked surprised and replied: "My lord, the method handed down by my ancestors, as for whether it is a steel filling method, I don't know!" ”

Zhao Xiong nodded, and continued to ask:

"I plan to build a small blast furnace at the abandoned military village wharf, and your village will take over the work, and I promise that the people who work will get two taels of silver a month.

If there is a lot of iron, you still have a reward to take, how about it! ”

", two taels of silver a month!

Adult, I'll participate!

This, including food and accommodation! ”

Xu Feng, who was squatting on the ground to rest, stood up suddenly, and said eagerly with wide eyes.

"Our male master has always been generous.

A mouthful of spit and a mouthful of nails, what is a mere two taels of silver! ”

Liu Tongxun shook his fan and said.

Zhao Xiong laughed and said: "Eat and live three meals a day, and add a supper in the evening, how about it!" ”

Xu Feng and Wang Tiezhu were stunned, and Xu Ergou and more than a dozen young people, who were watching the excitement outside, heard this.

Immediately, the mind activity was opened, and they were whispering outside.

"My lord, how many people do you need!" Wang Xiaoqi, who bent down to add coal to the stove, hurriedly asked.

"Let's get one first, I'll take a look first!

As for how many people are needed? Lao Wang, you look at it!

Also, the supply of raw materials is sufficient, how many catties of iron can be produced in a day! ”

Zhao Xiong asked.

Wang Xiaoqi pondered for a while, and then showed the expression of a master.

replied a little seriously: "Lord Qiyu, according to the current manpower in the village, only the smallest iron furnace can be piled up, and it can produce more than 300 catties in a day and night. ”

"More than 300 catties, ah!"

Zhao Xiong is from the industrial era of later generations, and in the past, the steel factory in their township was more than ten tons.

Three hundred pounds, too little."

Zhao Xiong imagined that if there was a war, he would have to go through the musket stream, and when there were not many families, the use of iron chains was much lower than that used in the era of cold weapons.

At least most of his family members don't need to be draped all over!

But 300 catties a day is too little, it is better for him to take the seamless steel pipe directly from the space dock warehouse!

But every day, I take out a seamless steel pipe with a similar weight as myself, and if you want to build a gun on a large scale, it's still a drop in the bucket!

Zhao Xiong had read the miscellaneous notes left by his father and knew that at this time, the scale and technology of Dakang's private iron smelting were not only greatly improved compared with the previous generation.

It was also the world's leading level at that time.

At the same time, it has developed into an iron-smelting and casting center mainly in Foshan Town, Guangdong, forming a typical industrialized city, with more than 20,000 or 30,000 smelting and casting workers.

The largest government-run Zunhua Iron Works had only 5,500 people at its peak.

There are as many as 1,500 people in the iron smelting blast furnace in Longxi, Zhangzhou, Fujian.

During the first year of Yongping, 60,000 or 70,000 iron ore miners gathered in Wenyu Mountain, Xia County, Shanxi.

Now the open hearth used by the folk is larger than the official furnace, usually 10,000 catties of iron can be produced in one day and night, and the highest daily iron can be more than 20,000 catties.

Moreover, piston blowers have been used in folk ironmaking, and the structure and function are consistent with modern blower equipment.

Overseas blowers that use piston propulsion and compressed air were only used in the first industrial revolution.

The tandem smelting process of raw and wrought iron has greatly improved the production efficiency, and the coal iron smelting has also been promoted to a greater extent.

The technological revolution initiated from England in the 60s of the 18th century was a great revolution in the history of technological development, which ushered in the era of replacing manual labor with machines.

This is not only a technological revolution, but also a profound social change.

It was now 1836, and he still had twenty or thirty years to develop.

Now he estimates that the Western world is still on the eve of the first industrial revolution.

However, a few years after this parallel world, according to the inertia of history, he estimated that the British would launch an opium war.

This is a challenge from the sea power to the centralized state on the mainland.

Even if the Opium War is not launched, it will disrupt Dakang in other forms.

Zhao Xiong came from later generations, and of course he knew the importance of steel.

Like what weapons, farm implements, buildings, shipbuilding, machines, utensils...... All kinds of utensils are inseparable from steel.

It can be said that steel is both a country! Without enough steel, industrial and agricultural production will be less efficient.

If you don't have enough steel, you can't arm your army and defend your country.

However, he also knows that it is better to keep a low profile, start from scratch, and first build a small blast furnace to verify some ideas.

Wang Xiaoqi said: "Back to the adult, it's not a small boast, the small one was in the Acropolis Ordnance Bureau, and it was an ancestral craft when it came to stacking blast furnaces."

Our village made its own weapons and firearms, and the skills in this hand were not left behind, and it was the first in the guardhouse.

Even the short gun made by my son, I made one earlier, and I dedicated it to adults! ”

Zhao Xiong looked at Wang Xiaoqi's face as if he was sighing, recalling, and his expression was proud and lonely.

That's not his concern, though.

He casually asked, "I'll take the short gun, you said you would build a firebolt?" ”

Wang Xiaoqi replied:

"My lord, it's better to say anything else, but it's too difficult to make a gun."

"Oh, what to say!"

"The pipes are made of fine iron.

This kind of refined iron requires 10 catties of crude iron to smelt 1 catty of guns, which consumes a lot of iron.

Sixty or seventy catties of crude iron, and in the end, only seven or eight catties of refined iron were smelted, which cost a lot of money...... Yes! ”

That's it!

Zhao Xiong estimated that the price of fine iron in the Dakang Dynasty, plus the price of charcoal, the wages and food of craftsmen, and other expenses, etc., how could there be a firearm, the cost of three to five taels.