"What about pig iron and cement production?" Li Ke immediately asked, this is related to the mass production capacity of some of his products, of course he attaches great importance to it.

"According to the output of ordinary blast furnaces, pig iron is at least 100 times the current output of Datang, and the output of a single steelmaking furnace is 300 to 1,000 times that of Datang. The point is that whether it is blast furnace ironmaking or open-hearth steelmaking, we can build a large number of blast furnaces and open hearths. Tian Meng said in a low voice, he couldn't be careless, if this thing got out, it was estimated that the gate valve family would go crazy again, anyway, the eldest grandson family would go crazy.

Li Ke sneered, Datang's iron-making technology has improved a lot compared to the Han Dynasty, but what Li Ke took out was blast furnace iron-making based on modern foundations. Many people here are prone to a misunderstanding, that is, blast furnace steelmaking, the reason for this misunderstanding is that later generations have seen a period of crazy earth blast furnace steelmaking.

In fact, all the steel smelted out of the soil blast furnace is scrap steel, which basically cannot be used, and the raw materials of the soil blast furnace are not iron ore at all, but scrap iron, so it does not have any operability at all.

On the contrary, iron-making is feasible, and although the blast furnace iron-making scientifically designed by later generations is not modern iron-making, it is already the best in the case of weak basic conditions.

Coupled with the fact that people in this era did not use coal on a large scale, Li Ke had already found several large coal mines, which allowed him to expand the scale of ironmaking dramatically.

In addition, most of the coal has directly started to make coke, although the local method of coking consumes a lot, but who makes Li Ke more coal mines? It doesn't matter if you consume this, it is impossible to make steel from ordinary coal, the temperature is not enough, but coke can.

The method used in steelmaking is the open-hearth steelmaking method, that is, the Martin furnace, because many of Li Ke's current processes are still defective, and the open-hearth steelmaking can not do the same as in later generations, and it is possible to produce scrap steel, and it is officially because of this that the open-hearth steelmaking method is used, because the open-hearth furnace can flexibly adjust the ratio of pig iron and scrap steel.

This allows them to recycle some of the unqualified scrap steel they refine, and can also improve the efficiency of steelmaking.

In addition, the current open-hearth steelmaking is not as good as the common steel frying method and forging steel made by Datang, but the efficiency of this kind of steel is indescribable.

In fact, after these steels are refined, they still need to be forged to make swords, which means that there is actually no difference between the swords of the finished swords in the later stage.

"Several masters have begun to prepare to combine the blast furnace and the open hearth, and when they are ready to smelt pig iron, they will directly enter the open-hearth furnace and then make steel, so as to avoid reheating and melting, and aggravate the consumption of coke, which requires the consumption of funds." Tian Meng said in a low voice.

"Give them, money is not a problem, how much or how much is needed, in addition, tell them, just say that Lu Daqiang will become the first craftsman to be knighted, the reason why Lu Daqiang was chosen is because of the improvement of papermaking and printing, and if these craftsmen improve these techniques, they will be next." Li Ke said directly.

"Yes!" Tian Meng took a deep breath, knowing the news, he was afraid that those craftsmen would not even sleep. It's crazy, the craftsman can be knighted!

"Is the hydraulic press out?" Li Ke asked another question.

"It's out, there are still some problems with the sealing, Your Highness, the metal sealing ring you said can be used, but the production requirements are high, and it needs to be built and polished by the blacksmith master little by little." Tian Meng immediately said, speaking of this, Tian Meng's eyes were full of amazement: "Your Highness, why can such a small thing drive so much power?" This doesn't make sense! ”

"It makes sense! This is the power of Gewu! In fact, these truths exist in all things in the world, but we have not discovered them. Li Ke pretended to be forced.

Many people can't imagine that there is a technology used in ancient times without any sense of disobedience, and the difficulty is not high, this is hydraulic!

Hydraulic technology seems to be very advanced, but in fact, because the theory of hydraulics was discovered too late, and human beings naturally used it even later, but in fact, if you know its theory, you can really play it in ancient times.

The easiest liquid to find is naturally water, so Li Ke has already played with a hydraulic press in Datang, of course...... In later generations, his so-called hydraulic press is a toy, compared with the kind of heavy equipment that is more than 10,000 tons at every turn, he is really a toy among toys.

But Li Ke made this thing to give them this theory, and secondly, to see if he could make a bigger one for forging large cast iron abrasives.

"These aspects allow these craftsmen to study, ask for money for money, and ask people to give people." Li Ke admonished.

"Yes!"

"What about the amount of cement?" Li Ke asked again.

"It's very big, because Your Highness's requirements are not high, and the amount of cement we produce is not small, which should be completely enough for us to repair Chang'an City, and the cost is not high." Tian Meng said in a low voice.

Here I have to say that Li Ke's calcined are all soil cement, do not compare with the cement of later generations, although it is actually not bad, especially under the premise that the quality of ancient engineering is not high, there is no problem, but it is still a long way from modern cement, at least not now.

The effect of these soil cement production can not even guarantee that one batch is exactly the same as one batch, after all, the iron ore thrown into it by calcination, and the waste residue after ironmaking cannot guarantee the purity and proportion of the objects inside, anyway...... Again, it's enough.

"The production volume is large, which means that the cost is not high?" Li Ke thought for a moment.

"The main cost is the labor cost of mining the ore, plus the cost of transportation, but our coal mines and limestone mines are almost all open pit mines...... In the case of calcination, it is a bit expensive to build a furnace, but with our human resources, it is actually just like that. Tian Meng didn't know what to say.

In ancient times, the cost of labor was actually ...... It's too low, in this situation where the country doesn't pay for labor, and the money for ordinary work is very small, and most of the non-agricultural busy periods, it is too easy to recruit people! And there are even those who work for free, because taking care of food means that the people will not consume their own food.

Therefore, the labor cost is not high, at least in terms of the role of cement, which is simply too low and too low.

"Tell us the group of accountants we trained, make false accounts, and increase the cost for me by a hundred times!" Li Ke said decisively, nonsense! If you don't raise the cost, how can you spend more than 5.7 million yuan to renovate Chang'an City?! Oh no, how could it be more than 5.7 million guan, nonsense, it was more than 7.7 million guan, and he still had 2 million guan of Zheng's compensation in his hand!

"Anyway, I'll tell you, at least give me an account of this cost to more than eight million yuan!" Li Ke added.

Tian Meng: "......"

"How much do we actually spend?" Li Ke was curious.

"About 2.2 million guan will be able to complete all the renovations, including the roads you requested." Tian Meng gave a budget figure.

After a pause, Tian Meng spoke again: "And the important thing is that you told us that money can make money, and the money of these merchants goes directly to us, but we spend money...... But it is impossible to spend it all at once, and the expenditure in the early stage may be enough for hundreds of thousands. It's normal for the entire construction period to last one to two years, or even longer. ”