Early July.

In order to put the iron yard into production as soon as possible, Liu Yan spent a lot of money and grain, and hired more than 100 craftsmen alone, and almost all the craftsmen near Wangjiazhuang were recruited. At the same time, Liu Yan also mobilized more than 400 military households from all over the country to be busy for more than ten days in the ruins of the bandit camp in the depths of Tiepu Mountain, and the iron yard was only beginning to take shape.

Of course, for the sake of secrecy, Liu Yan only ordered the construction of the corresponding houses this time, and did not mine iron ore.

The follow-up mining and smelting matters were handled by the director Gao Yunshan and his apprentices, as well as the military households transferred from all over Wangjiazhuang.

Liu Yan didn't have to worry about the matter of opening the mine, after all, Gao Yunshan originally did this, and directly handed over the preparation of the mine to a few apprentices. At present, gunpowder can be used in mining, which is very convenient, and the progress is also very rapid, and all kinds of equipment used in mining are also in place one after another, but it took Liu Yan a lot of energy to get these things.

Moreover, the operation of the iron ore is also carried out first, and the iron smelting will not begin until the iron yard has a part of the iron ore in reserve.

What really made Liu Yan interested was actually the process of smelting.

So after a while, after the first batch of iron ore was produced in the mine that was put into production first, Liu Yan came to the iron yard again and began his own guidance and inspection trip.

Liu Yan rushed to the iron yard, and Miao Shao, the chief flag officer, and Gao Yunshan, the director, came out to greet him. At this time, Gao Yunshan has been in charge of work here for a while, but he still has not fully adapted to his new identity, and he still maintains his original low profile towards the people and things around him.

After Liu Yan exchanged a few words with the two, he went straight to the point, accompanied by Gao Yunshan and Miao Shao, and came to the ironworks.

At this time, three blast furnaces had been built in the ironworks, and the remaining three blast furnaces were under construction, and some other houses and facilities were also being built. Of course, there are still busy craftsmen building here, basically all of them are military households in Wangjiazhuang, and for the sake of secrecy, foreign craftsmen have been removed one after another.

"Your Excellency is coming to guide you in iron smelting?"

Gao Yunshan and Miao Shao were very surprised, they didn't expect Liu Yan to know how to make iron. Gao Yunshan, in particular, thought to himself: "This adult will not be a layman commanding an insider, if this is the case, what else can I do!" ”

In fact, what Liu Yan has to do is very simple, that is, to add a regenerator to the ironmaking furnace in the ironmaking field.

At this time, the iron-smelting furnaces of Daming iron-making were all open, and the thermal efficiency of the fuel was very low. According to Liu Yan's method, a regenerator was built with heat-resistant materials to improve the thermal efficiency of the fuel.

The greater role of this regenerator is actually to increase the furnace temperature, which can be used in steelmaking. The furnace temperature for smelting pig iron is less than 1,200 degrees at most, and 1,600 degrees is obtained by melting molten steel. It's just that there are no enough heat-resistant materials for the furnace yet, so Liu Yan can only use the existing blast furnace to give it a try, and then seize the time to develop and build refractory bricks for the steelmaking furnace.

At this time, under the command of Liu Yan, although Gao Yunshan muttered a little in his heart, he still received the order, and was calling for the people of the iron-smelting yard to rebuild the iron-smelting furnace according to Liu Yan's wishes. It happened that the masons who were building the ironworks were there, and this happened to be done at the same time.

Through the transformation of the iron-smelting furnace, Liu Yan became acquainted with Tang Yuan, the director of the iron-smelting plant. This Tang Yuan is Gao Yunshan's apprentice, about thirty years old, but the whole person looks like he is forty or fifty years old, and he is scum.

The design of the new iron-smelting furnace is actually in Liu Yan's mind, and throughout the day, the iron-making yard is busy with the preparation work before steel-making, and the craftsmen of the iron-making yard are under the command of Gao Yunshan, burning bricks and preparing materials, and the carpenters also roll up their sleeves and start drying, and the entire iron-making yard is a busy scene.

That night, Liu Yan saw that the preparations for steelmaking were not over, and it seemed that it was going to be tomorrow, so he slept directly in the office room of the iron yard.

And Gao Yunshan is still busy, although Gao Yunshan is not very optimistic about Liu Yan's command, but I don't know why, after listening to Liu Yan's words, Gao Yunshan subconsciously believed that according to Liu Yan's method, he would definitely be able to refine fine iron, which is really strange to think about.

At this time, Gao Yunshan, who had been a part-time blacksmith all his life, seemed very excited, rolled up his sleeves and kept shouting loudly to the blacksmiths and apprentices under him, making final preparations for the transformation of the blast furnace and iron smelting.

"Everyone, work hard! We must be ready tonight, every morning, we will refine the first furnace of fine iron, and you are still waiting for our news! ”

In fact, according to the renovation drawings given by Liu Yan, the renovation project of the iron-smelting furnace in the iron-making yard is not complicated, and even the bricks do not have to be burned. Gao Yunshan and Tang Yuan discussed it, and then demolished a charcoal kiln that had been half built before, and together with the furnace that had collapsed, it was enough to make up the refractory bricks that Liu Yan needed.

All they had to do was prepare charcoal, iron, and everything within fifty paces of the new furnace.

According to Liu Yan, this iron-making is a test of the water, and for the sake of safety, the iron-smelting furnace must be emptied to prevent the furnace from suddenly collapsing and catching fire during the iron-making process.

Early the next morning, Gao Yunshan and a group of craftsmen gathered around the Xinye Iron Furnace after a busy night, and everyone's faces were full of joy and curiosity.

At this time, Liu Yan also rushed over and took a closer look at the new iron-smelting furnace.

I saw that this new iron-smelting furnace was actually digging another pit directly on the top of the pit next to the original iron-smelting furnace to build a small brick house, and the brick house was a honeycomb-like refractory brick structure.

After that, the craftsmen dug another passage to the blast outlet of the furnace, which was also built with bricks. On the brick house, a passage is also built with bricks, close to the top of the furnace, a chimney is built in the middle of the passage, and a convex pipe structure is set up, and a fan made of iron sheets is installed behind the convex pipe, and it is shaken by manpower, so that the heavy smoke and dust can go out from the chimney, and the light hot air can be pumped to the regenerator by the fan in order to increase the temperature in the iron smelting furnace.

The rest of the work is all the finishing touches, the work of carpenters and blacksmiths.

Miao Shao looked at this weird-looking blast furnace and muttered in a low voice: "Is this kind of furnace really easy to use?" ”

When Liu Yan heard it, he said with a smile: "Don't worry, it must be easy to use!" ”

Over there, after getting Liu Yan's guidance, I saw Gao Yunshan and the carpenters and blacksmiths transform the air vent so that it went straight to the heat storage room, and the air inlet was placed on the side of the heat storage room. These tasks were not difficult, and Gao Yunshan took a few carpenters and blacksmiths to complete the transformation in three strokes.

At this time, Liu Yan deliberately looked up at the top of the furnace, if it was refining refined iron, the ideal regenerator was of course to close the top of the furnace, but now because it was only a transformation, he had to consider feeding from the top of the furnace.

Therefore, Liu Yan's plan can only be to use iron sheets as a large horn, which can cover the top of the furnace after feeding. Above the bell is a curved iron pipe, the other end of which can be inserted into a brick passage.

In short, Liu Yan's design is very simple, and it is not much worse than the steelmaking furnaces of later generations, but Gao Yunshan and others were still shocked by one of the details.

"My lord, why does the iron fan blade of this fan turn so fast when people shake it gently?"

Gao Yunshan looked at the newly smelting iron furnace that was all ready, and asked curiously.

In fact, in other iron-smelting furnaces, the fan rotates very slowly, and no matter how hard the furnace worker is, it is impossible to rotate too fast, so in the blacksmith industry, there is a saying that the furnace worker is as tired as a ploughing ox.

The reason why the fan of this new iron furnace can spin so fast is that Liu Yan specially designed a variable speed gear made of wood to drive the hand-cranked fan.

The idea of this variable speed gear was inspired by Liu Yan who saw the pulley set he had taken out before on the ironmaking site yesterday, and asked Gao Yunshan to lead people to install it.

Although these gears were installed by Gao Yunshan with people, they didn't know what these things were, and they didn't know what their function was, so they naturally couldn't understand the mystery, so they asked.

"You have to learn a lot to understand this."

Liu Yan is not perfunctory Gao Yunshan, the reason why this fan rotates relatively fast, the principle is like a bicycle chain, those who know it think it is very simple, but those who don't know have to understand a lot of things to understand.

Gao Yunshan sighed a little disappointed when he heard this, but his face was natural and he was not angry.

After all, in this era, craftsmen and masters from all walks of life have guarded their own unique skills, which is a means of personal eating and family heirlooms. Since Liu Yan didn't want to say it, Gao Yunshan naturally couldn't ask.

"Director Gao, when I am free after a while, I will take time to give lectures and give you some things I know, and if you want to learn, you have to come to listen to the lectures. Remember to bring anyone in the iron yard who wants to learn, craftsmen and apprentices. ”

Liu Yan's words made Gao Yunshan's eyes widen, his mouth seemed to be stuffed with an egg, and he even thought for a moment that Liu Yan had a bad brain!

Gao Yunshan opened his mouth, and it took a long time to come back to his senses, and he nodded quickly, why don't you learn? Liu Yan's skills can be passed down to the family!

Tang Yuan, the supervisor next to him, listened to Liu Yan's words, and was also very excited in his heart, and muttered: "My lord is really not an ordinary person!" ”

Gao Yunshan glared at Tang Yuan and said, "Do you still need to say this?" ”

At this time, the new iron furnace has been built, the charcoal and iron materials have been prepared, and the rest is to accept the results.

Although Liu Yan's expression was still full of confidence, he was also apprehensive in his heart, after all, he had only seen how to smelt iron in books, but he had not practiced it. However, fortunately, Gao Yunshan and others are all experts, and even if there are any deficiencies in the techniques proposed by Liu Yan, these skilled craftsmen can correct them by themselves.

"There is a big lump of extra in this stove, maybe the cost of charcoal will be more......"

At this moment, a blacksmith next to him muttered quietly, and then was slapped by Gao Yunshan next to him, and the blacksmith quickly shrunk his neck and stopped talking, but there was still some hesitation in his eyes.

It's just that this blacksmith's words also attracted Gao Yunshan's attention, after all, if you really refine refined iron, it must cost a lot more than when you smelted pig iron before. And when the time comes, Liu Yan will definitely start steelmaking on a large scale, and the cost of this iron yard will increase dramatically!

"When the time comes, the cost of the iron yard is so large, will the adults have enough money and food to support it? Don't give up halfway! ”

Gao Yunshan also muttered in his heart, he had just found a good errand here in Wangjiazhuang, but he couldn't just give up halfway.

Just when Gao Yunshan was muttering secretly, Liu Yan saw that everything was ready, so he yelled: "Fire!" ”

Some people died, but not completely......