Daqin Fusu: It is difficult to start the battle

Chapter 116 I am invincible in the Great Qin Dynasty!

The core of the iron-making area is a wall built of bricks with a height of two feet. Around the wall, soldiers with crossbows on their backs and armed with spears and shields patrol from time to time.

Inside the wall is a steelmaking factory building with a brick-concrete structure and an iron roof.

The corridors are used to connect the steelmaking plant and the warehouse for storing raw materials, which ensures that even in rainy days, the delivery of raw materials will not be affected.

When Fusu walked in, he happened to see two emaciated but energetic servants pulling a huge wooden cart with a load of at least a thousand catties out of the raw material warehouse with a rope.

Man lives by hope.

Under the Qin law, there are not many fixed-term sentences. Once a Chinese violates the Qin law, they are basically sentenced to life imprisonment!
Of course, Chengdan or Chong are exceptions, because it is difficult for these two kinds of prisoners to live until the day they are released after serving their sentences...

The reason is that the national policy of plowing and fighting has a hole in it.

Prisoners and ministers can also join the army. After beheading and winning the title, the title will be returned and they can be redeemed as ordinary people.

But the key question is how difficult it is to behead!

The garrison soldiers of Wu nationality often have no chance to go to battle to kill the enemy, let alone slaves or prisoners!

This is why the first emperor could quickly organize a second wave of offensive after the failure of the first conquest of South Vietnam.

For the conscripted prisoners, instead of ending their life under the never-ending high-intensity labor, it is better to fight on the battlefield!
People die and birds face the sky, and they will not die for ten thousand years!
This is also the reason why Zhang Han was able to lead the prisoners all the way forward.

So when Fusu pardoned the world and allowed these criminals who committed minor crimes and officials and officials working on the construction site to redeem themselves with money, they burst out with unprecedented enthusiasm for work.

After all, after redemption, if one can master iron-making or other crafts proficiently, one can stay on the construction site and become a craftsman.

Among other things, the daily salary of 15 yuan is enough to make them tempted.

More importantly, after Fusu introduced the KPI system, there are additional rewards for teams that overfulfill daily tasks.

The three teams with the highest scores will each be rewarded with a level of Duke!
So this is the reason why the two skinny servants that Fusu saw as soon as he entered the door were so powerful.

The wooden cart arrived at the side of the cauldron with a buzzing noise.

Fusu saw that under the wooden cart, there was a wooden track covered with iron sheets, which was another reason why two people could pull a heavy load.

Compared with the first version of the wooden track he designed, it can be seen from the iron sheet wrapped on it and the fixed rim on the wheel that the version of the track in front of him should already be the third generation.

The so-called track was originally a transportation system used to transport minerals in mines.

Fusu copied this system at the beginning of mining in various places, and the initial budget of the mine was a little bit exceeded for this reason.

However, compared with relatively efficient transportation, more investment is nothing.

Fusu walked further, and saw many blacksmiths who were busy.

According to his newly issued law, the craftsmen in iron smelting have the right to pay homage to the emperor and all the officials who came to inspect.

After all, what the craftsmen operate is a furnace with a temperature above [-] degrees. If there is a little carelessness, there is really no place to die!

After asking the engineer, Sima Chang walked up to Fusu and said, "Your Majesty, in half a quarter of an hour, this furnace of steel will be finished."

Fusu nodded, and concentrated on looking at the busy craftsman.

The industrial zone now uses crucibles, stone mills and clay developed by Westerners in the [-]th century, and the raw materials used are finished iron smelted in blast furnaces.

The principle of crucible steelmaking is to make a crucible by mixing graphite with clay, and then put wrought iron into the crucible for smelting.

Graphite is a substance composed of pure carbon elements. Once wrought iron is smelted in a crucible containing graphite, the wrought iron will absorb the carbon element in the graphite in the crucible at high temperature, thereby increasing its carbon content.

Wrought iron becomes steel.

The so-called steel, in the words of later generations, is an iron-carbon compound with a carbon content of [-]% to [-]%.

The plasticity and hardness of steel are suitable for most of the equipment, so the output of steel is a crucial figure.

After all, the carbon content of pig iron is too high and its plasticity is poor, which is commonly known as brittle; while the carbon content of wrought iron is too low, its plasticity has increased, but it is very soft and not suitable for making weapons.

In fact, regardless of whether pig iron or wrought iron, as early as the Spring and Autumn Period, a large amount of it could be smelted.

Only steel with a moderate carbon content cannot be mass-produced. The pig iron must be slowly forged before it can be forged into steel.

Therefore, this time-consuming and labor-intensive method has caused the high cost of steel.

This is also the reason why the Qin army equipped a large number of bronze weapons. After all, the bronze casting process has already reached its peak after the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties.

And isn't there that sentence?

No guns, no cannons, the enemy made us...

If you want iron weapons, go to the soldiers of the six kingdoms in Shandong to grab them!
"The second class is ready, the molten steel is out!"

A craftsman shouted, and the craftsmen waiting aside began to perform their duties.

Open the crucible lid, remove slag, pour, clean, cool, and then put the cleaned crucible on the furnace, ready to make steel again.

The red molten steel slides in the drainage trough, and even standing far away, you can feel the roiling heat.

Fusu suddenly remembered that in the Ming Dynasty science and technology book "Tiangong Kaiwu", he saw a carburizing method, which can solve the problem of uneven carburizing on the surface.

Moreover, it is said that this so-called 'steel stewing method' has been used until later generations.

The specific operation is to put the formed ironware into the crucible, then cover it with stirred charcoal, fermented soybeans and soil powder, and heat it outside the crucible.

Both charcoal and tempeh are carburizing agents, which provide carbon elements for carburizing, and soil powder is a dispersant.

As for the quenching method, Qi[qí]mu Huaiwen of the Northern Qi Dynasty once created a brilliant quenching method.

In the bath, the drowning of the five animals is used, and the fat of the five animals is quenched.

To explain it from a modern scientific point of view, it is the double liquid quenching of salt quenching and oil quenching.

Xiao He, who was standing by the side, learned from the engineer that this method can produce more than a hundred catties of fine steel per furnace, and he couldn't help but exclaimed: "If you are strong and sharp, our great Qin warriors will be invincible in the world!"

"Shangshu Youcheng's words are wrong!" Zongzheng Gongzi Dun came from a distance, and said with a smile: "Could it be that now, there is still an enemy in the world who can fight against my great Qin warrior?"

Xiao He smiled, bowed down to salute, and then stepped aside without saying a word.

After Fusu explained to Sima Chang about the steel stewing method and the double liquid quenching process, he turned to look at Gongzi Dagon.

"Why is Zongzheng here?"

"The old minister is here to present today's recommendation ticket to His Majesty!"

ps: Thanks to 'turalyon8316', 'Heroes and Heroes 2019' for the monthly pass!

(End of this chapter)