Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 353 Xinzheng Iron Works (Part [-])
Gao Wushi simply explained the difference between light and heavy artillery and their different uses to Wubo Gao, and then he sighed: "Now that Sanbo is assisting the government in the capital, there are two things that matter: one is the administration of officials, and the other is finance. Not to mention, with our current financial resources, it is really difficult to invest in heavy artillery. The most urgent task is to organize and optimize light firearms, in order to form an advantage over the northern captives in the towns on the nine sides. In this way, the beacon fire is slightly extinguished, Only then can the imperial court come and go and clean up the evils with free hands."

Gao Cai seemed to have little interest in these countries' major politics. He didn't respond to Gao Yushi's words. He just pondered for a while and asked: "It's a good idea to send Gao Yi and others to the capital to do firearms research. If it weren't for me This uncle's health is really bad, and I wish I could help you... However, I don't think it's enough for you to just find someone from our Gao family. Although these people in the family are loyal, after all, the range of choices is too small. If you If we want to get this thing right, we still need to find ways to recruit talents.”

Gao Wushi nodded with deep sympathy: "Uncle Wu is right, I also want to recruit talents, but I am too young after all, and I have to study with the prince and study by myself on weekdays, and the time I can spare is not enough. limited……"

"Really?" Gao Cai said with a half-smile, "Jinghua Soap's lucrative industry, isn't it you who fiddled with it? Also, these servants under your hands don't seem to me to be trained specifically to protect you." Right? The name of the Jinghua Caravan, but even I have heard of it.”

Gao Wushi was taken aback: "Uncle Wu has heard of the Jinghua caravan in Henan?"

"Not only have I heard, but I also made a small deal with the Jinghua caravan." Gao Cai laughed: "When we separated, I got a lot of jujube forests. Our Xinzheng's jujube is quite famous. For sale in other places, someone came to our Xinzheng to collect dates this year, and the quantity was quite large, so they found me. I asked, and the person was going to Shanxi to transfer to the Jinghua caravan, saying that he was going to sell them to the Mongolians. "

Gao Wushi was a little dumbfounded: How come my Jinghua caravan has already done business in such a variety of ways, yet it still sells dates?So... is there a big red-faced man named Guan Yunchang hiding in it?
Gao Cai saw that Gao Yushi was a little embarrassed, and joked, "What's the matter, you, the boss, don't even know what business the people below are doing?"

Gao Wushi smiled wryly and said, "Uncle Wu is joking, I'm actually just a hands-off shopkeeper. I only set the general direction, and I don't ask about specific matters."

Now it was Gao Cai's turn to be surprised, and said curiously: "Then you are not afraid that the people below will fool you? This is your own property."

Gao Wushi shrugged his shoulders: "I invited brother Sanhuai to go to the capital to oversee the accounts for me." He paused and explained: "That is to say, I only determine the general direction, regardless of specific operations, but Reliable people are specially arranged to supervise."

"Aren't you afraid that the people under you will mess things up?" Gao Cai was still a little curious. After all, in this day and age, even if many people use the shopkeepers at all levels under their hands to handle things, it is rare for bosses to delegate power to such an extent. of.

Gao Wushi smiled and said in his heart: If a professional manager can't do well, just replace him. I'm a "chairman" who doesn't also serve as "CEO", why ask so many details?As long as the two things of setting a strategy and rewarding meritorious deeds are done well, it will be fine.

He briefly talked about this theory to Gao Cai, and suddenly remembered the matter of opening a mine in Xinzheng. The county bought it? Is there any iron ore in Xu County?"

"Yes, but the scale is small, not as good as Nanyang - Nanyang has iron officials since the Han Dynasty, and has a long history. It's just that Nanyang is a little farther away, and I don't need much iron here. From Xu County It’s enough to buy it... What are you asking for? You won’t be able to stay in Xinzheng for long, even if you want to study it, it’s easy for me to give you a batch.”

"Nephew doesn't want to do research. This matter can be done at the capital's side." Gao Wushi said, and he talked about his plan to open coal mines and iron smelting in Xinzheng.

After Gao Cai heard this, he looked surprised: "The coal mine is easy to handle, and Xinzheng has already produced it. As for whether the reserves are as sufficient as you said, I am not very clear, but there should be a lot, at least as far as I know , Coal has been dug out in many places in Xinzheng.”

He paused, frowned and asked: "But coal is not good for making iron. In the former Song Dynasty, coal was used to make iron in the Central Plains, but the iron made from coal is so bad that it can't be used as a farm tool." Durable, either brittle and easy to break, or soft and easy to bend, this kind of iron can be cast into a plow or something. When you build this iron factory, you don’t want to make farm tools? Or are you planning to sell iron pots to China? Mongolians, so you want to cast iron pots in Xinzheng?"

Of course, high pragmatism does not require cast iron pots. Although there is a big market for that in Mongolia, why do you have to travel thousands of miles to Xinzheng to make iron pots? You can do it directly in Shanxi. If you sell cast iron pots from Xinzheng to Mongolia, it is better to buy iron directly in Shanxi. It is a good deal to resell the pot to Mongolia and sell it.

He had no choice but to tell Gao Cai that he was able to smelt coke and iron.

Gao Cai was stunned for a while, then suddenly asked nervously, "Aren't you joking?"

"Of course not, how dare my nephew lie to Uncle Wu." Gao Wushi quickly expressed his opinion.

"Crack!" Gao Cai slapped his thigh, widened his eyes and said, "I've heard of the technology of coking, but it's the first time I've heard of the effect as you said. If you, an iron factory, really want to Let’s get started, if you need my help, Uncle Wu, just mention it!”

Gao Yushi remembers the fact that coking technology already appeared in the Ming Dynasty, but it is not very accurate, but in his impression, even if the coking technology recorded in "Tiangong Kaiwu" came out decades later, its technical content is not too high. High—In general, it can be said that this technology is available, but it has not yet reached the point where it can support large-scale steelmaking with this technology.

This is very convenient and pragmatic to promote coking and iron smelting. After all, it is easier for people to accept and understand than to completely create a new technology.

Although Gao Pragmatically mastered the method is not very advanced, it is just some local methods recorded in the national steelmaking book left by his grandfather in the Communist era, but it is much better than Daming's current technology .

You must know that although Daming's firearms development ideas surpassed those of Western countries at the same time, it was not necessarily in iron smelting. Most iron ores are lean ores with many impurities and are very difficult to smelt.Coupled with the fact that there are many impurities in the coal itself, it is certain that the quality of iron made with coal in the Song Dynasty was poor.

It is precisely because coal and iron were used to smelt too many waste products in the past, which caused people to lose confidence in it. Therefore, famous iron smelting places such as Foshan, Guangdong, almost all use charcoal to make iron and steel.

Gao Cai expressed his willingness to contribute to this effort so happily, of course he also knew that if this technology was really developed by Gao Yushi, it would not only be a huge source of income for the Gao family, it could be called a cornucopia, and would even be of great importance to the entire Ming Dynasty. meaning.

Maybe even be able to leave a name in history...

(End of this chapter)