Pig iron is also enough, China's pig iron technology is quite perfect, the smelting temperature is only about 1,300 degrees, with the current personnel and technical reserves of the institute, it is not difficult to mass produce high-quality pig iron.

As for the production of wrought iron, it is necessary to learn from the Pudling method in Europe, there is no large-scale production of steel in Europe (the crucible method can only produce a small amount of steel), and the most advanced smelting technology is the Pudrin method, which can produce wrought iron in batches.

According to the information obtained by Li Xian, the structure of the Pudelin furnace is similar to that of the peace hearth, but there is no lower regenerator.

The long flame formed after the combustion of the fuel is sent into the furnace, and the pig iron is heated by the reflection of the furnace top, and the bottom of the furnace is masonry with iron oxide, and the carbon and phosphorus in the pig iron are oxidized and removed due to the excess oxygen in the flame and the large amount of oxygen in the furnace bottom.

The furnace temperature is only about 1400 degrees, and after the carbon in the pig iron is removed to a certain extent, the melting point exceeds the furnace temperature, and the metal is in a semi-solidified state.

However, due to the iron oxide contained in the bottom of the furnace and the slag, the carbon can be removed to a very low level to become wrought iron, and then the iron oxide slag in the wrought iron is squeezed out after repeated forging and then made into a material for use.

From this point of view, the iron produced by the Pudelin method is actually gross iron, that is, unwrought wrought iron.

From the point of view of technical difficulty, Li Xian has been able to produce steel at a high temperature of 1,600 degrees, and the research on refractories and blowers is also very in-depth, and the technical parameters are initially mastered, as long as the blast furnace is established after a period of trial production, some details are determined, and production can be officially started.

It's just that once you want to use the Pudelin furnace, you need to consume a lot of fuel and iron ore every day, and the fuel is not enough, Foshan uses most of the ore provided by the iron mine near Shaoguan, and the iron ore can only be regarded as a poor ore, with low grade, and the output is not large, which is bound to become a bottleneck that limits the expansion of iron production, which makes Li Xian secretly hurt his brain.

Brass and cast iron were used for artillery in this era, wrought iron was used for muskets, and steel was mostly used in machine tools and other machinery.

Only when the output of iron is high enough can the output of weapons be expanded, and in addition to being used by his own army, he can also sell them to relieve the financial pressure, which is the top priority that Li Xian urgently needs to solve now.

However, if Li Xian wants to improve the overall industrial level of the Huaxia Army, it is not only iron ore that is missing, but also a lot of material shortages that need to be solved as soon as possible.

For example, to produce gunpowder, sulfur, saltpeter and charcoal, to produce muskets and artillery, pig iron, wrought iron, iron and steel, to coal and charcoal, to upgrade shipbuilding, to build warships or thousand-ton merchant ships, you need high-quality timber and cotton, linen for the production of canvas, and all kinds of bits and pieces of raw materials.

Under the circumstances of the Qing court's blockade of the transportation of materials in Guangzhou, it became more and more difficult to obtain such materials, which is a problem that needs to be solved urgently.

Just when Li Xian was in the blessed land, steelmaking and ironmaking to upgrade the industrial base, and having a lot of fun, there was a person in Guangzhou who couldn't sit still.

It turned out that soon after conquering Guangzhou, Li Xian and Xuanzheng entered the Fudi Research Institute and handed over the task of governing Guangzhou to Wang Jiuxuan.

At the beginning, Wang Jiuxuan felt that this was a good opportunity, and he would finally have the opportunity to take charge of himself and handle things according to his own ideas, without looking at other people's faces.

It's just that after managing the internal affairs of Guangzhou alone for three months, Wang Jiuxuan felt that this matter was very troublesome, he had to run out of trouble every day, there were a lot of things every day, and as soon as he finished dealing with one thing, three or four new things happened, which was endless.

The first thing to encounter in governing Guangzhou is to solve all kinds of riots caused by the shortage of materials.

Guangzhou is a megacity with a population of more than 2 million, and if the most populous city is selected in this era, Guangzhou will definitely enter the top three.

According to the production efficiency of the Qing Dynasty, it took seven or eight farmers to work hard to feed one urban population, that is to say, more than 15 million peasants needed to work diligently to feed the food and materials needed by the people of Guangzhou.

As far as grain is concerned, it is absolutely impossible for a few counties under Guangzhou Prefecture to supply the grain needed by Guangzhou, even for the whole of Guangdong, and it is necessary to import large quantities of grain from Guangxi, Hunan, Hubei, and other places.

After Guangzhou was occupied by Li Xian's side, the Qing court did not have time to send troops to exterminate it, but it also cut off the grain delivery route to Guangzhou at the first time, simply put, it set up a checkpoint in Wuzhou, Guangxi, to prevent grain from being transported to Guangzhou.

At the beginning, Li Xian was reluctant to occupy Guangzhou, because he felt that after occupying Guangzhou, the Qing court would prohibit the transportation of various materials, and when the economy of Guangzhou collapsed, then the Huaxia Guangfu Army would be defeated undefeated and lose all the support of the people.

According to Li Xian's idea, at least occupy Guangzhou after occupying the whole of Guangdong, or follow the example of a certain party, occupy all the rural areas and then slowly occupy the big cities, so that they will be able to ensure the food supply of the big cities.

It's just that the situation at that time dictated that the army below had been staring at the big city of Guangzhou for a long time, so they naturally didn't pay attention to Li Xian's vision, and in the end, Li Xian was no more than the enthusiasm of the people below, so he could only conquer Guangzhou first.

As for the high-end strategy of occupying Guangzhou first, grabbing the materials inside and taking them to Leizhou and other places with a better people's base, and then letting Guangzhou out and throwing the burden out when the Qing army attacked, Li Xian also considered it, but it was also quite difficult, and there were many difficulties in persuading Wang Jiuxuan, Qin Rigang and others to give up Guangzhou.

This is just a material object, and there are many things that make Wang Jiuxuan scratch his head.

Wang Jiuxuan wanted to replicate this set in Guangzhou, but he encountered great difficulties and resistance, not to mention that he wanted to straighten out the roads and dredge the ditches, so that the streets would not be muddy when it rained in the summer, and he met with resistance from almost everyone.

At the beginning, Wang Jiuxuan had stayed on Donghai Island for a period of time and was deeply impressed by the situation on Donghai Island.

Li Xian was not short of money at that time, and he was willing to invest in various municipal constructions, and Donghai Island was only a small island with a small population after all, so that Donghai Island was under Li Xian's governance, the roads were smooth and clean, the market was orderly and lively, the public security was very good, and there were no gangs or officials bullying the people, in short, it was better than the famous cities in Europe in many aspects.

It turned out that there were a large number of vendors and shops on both sides of the roads in Guangzhou, and even houses were built on top of the ditches, and if we wanted to clean up the ditches, we would have to clean up this kind of illegal construction, which would cut off many people's ways to make money, which would naturally lead to ordinary people and gentry protesting together against Wang Jiuxuan's "tyranny". 10