The rise of the prince

Chapter 209 Real Steel
"Wei Chaoren has been in charge of the border gates for decades. The Wei family is deeply rooted in Guanbei, and they hold one side with force. If we don't take advantage of this opportunity to get rid of him in the capital, it may become a serious problem for Jing Chao in the future. I never thought it would happen suddenly. Kill a He Zhao." Yu Chengan sighed and shook his head.

"Besides, Zhong Daoyu's military restructuring, although as he said, the abolition of the three government offices and the Privy Council in charge of the Imperial Army can save many complicated joints and greatly enhance the combat effectiveness of the Imperial Army, but it is only a short-sighted statement, only looking at the present and not future generations !"

Speaking of this, Yu Chengan scolded angrily: "Zhong Daoyu was a martial artist, did he ever think that once the Imperial Army falls into the hands of the Privy Council, the only thing that will lose the Imperial Army is a soldier talisman in the emperor's hand. Come, can you keep Jingchao Sheji stable from generation to generation?

He, Zhong Daoyu, was a loyal minister, but he was half buried in the ground, who might be the next privy envoy? "

As he spoke, he scolded again: "The martial artist has wronged the country!"

"Father-in-law is far-sighted, serving the country and the people, and my son-in-law admires him." Can Sheng said sincerely, clasping his hands.

"But father-in-law don't need to worry. Yang Hongzhao is not here, and there are Tong Guan and Zhao Guanghua in the three yamen. It will not be easy to change the military system. As for King Xiao, my son-in-law has managed to get Lord Lu to buy a large amount of Tieshi from Prince Xiao's mansion. It will be good for them to report the matter to the palace, so there will be no serious trouble."

Yu Chengan nodded: "King Xiao's lineage has always been hostile and aggressive. It was the same with King Xiao back then, and so is Li Xingzhou now. The emperor has been in three provinces and added him as an official, which shows that he still loves Li Xingzhou in his heart, so I have been worried for a long time.

It's just that I don't know what Li Xingzhou was doing, the emperor was assassinated, and he was most suspicious at this moment, but he bought several thousand catties of iron and stone at this juncture, this is not asking for suspicion, could it be a fool.
Since he is a fool himself, then I can’t blame the old man, in two days, the old man will go to the court to visit him and buy so many iron stones privately, and he is still in the capital, if the foreign ministers find out, it will be difficult for the emperor to protect him.”

"Everything depends on father-in-law."

Yu Chengan turned his head and patted Can Sheng on the shoulder: "Shen Sheng, although you are my son-in-law, I treat you like a son-in-law. The unfilial sons in my family are all inferior to you in terms of talent and learning. You want Keep in mind that the ban on military chaos and the peace of the country will not last long with the use of martial arts, but the prosperity of the country and the people will be peaceful with the use of culture. This is the case with the rise and fall of many dynasties in history.

The old man will try his best to cultivate you. If you are in a high position in the future, you must not be obsessed with martial arts and show off your might. You should respect etiquette, educate the world, and enrich the world as the first task. "

Yu Cheng'an said earnestly, and after he finished speaking, Shen Sheng put down his wine glass, bowed heavily and said, "My son-in-law will remember his father-in-law's teachings, and he will definitely obey in the future."

Early in the morning, Li Xingzhou invited Zhu Rong, the owner of Zhujiazhuang outside the city, a broad-shouldered man in his 40s. He worked in the kiln all year round and his skin was brown and black. He looked very strong, but he knew how to behave.

This time, he is not here to order the jade bottles needed for general brewing. The jade bottles are enough in the short term, but there are other things. I want Zhu Rong to help open a few kilns in the back mountain of the palace. Used to refine graphite crucibles.

Many people have very big misunderstandings about iron and steel.

Simply put, there are a lot of impurities in natural iron ore, such as sulfur, silicon, carbon, etc., and until the British used graphite crucibles to refine liquid steel in the eighteenth century, no one could remove other impurities in iron ore except carbon. Impurities.

The purer the iron, the higher the melting point. In theory, the melting point of pure iron may reach more than 500 degrees, which was not possible in ancient times.

There are generally two kinds of iron in the ancients.

A kind of pig iron, iron ore is heated and melted into molten iron in a furnace, and then solidified. Natural iron ore contains a lot of impurities, which will lower its melting point and make it melt at about [-] degrees.

Pig iron contains a lot of impurities, has good hardness, but low strength, is very brittle, and is easy to process. Currently, Li Xingzhou is using it to make grenade shells.

The other is wrought iron, which is decarburized by continuously stirring the molten iron formed from iron ore. During this process, because the carbon is detached, the molten iron becomes purer, its melting point becomes higher, and the temperature is gradually insufficient, and then it will condense with decarburization.The whole process is almost uncontrollable and irreversible.

The resulting solid mixture is called wrought iron.

The carbon content of wrought iron is mostly around 0.2%, which is very low, but it only achieves decarburization, and other impurities such as sulfur and silicon are still there.

The bigger problem is that the carbon content becomes lower, and wrought iron is very soft and has low hardness.At the same time, due to decarburization, iron becomes purer and its melting point rises. After solidification, it was impossible to turn wrought iron into liquid again in ancient times, let alone remove other impurities in it.

Real steel needs to remove other impurities as much as possible, while controlling the carbon content between 0.2 and 2%, which is a complicated process.The most reliable method in ancient times was to remove impurities in the iron through continuous forging. The so-called one-hundred-time smelting into steel, but the effect is limited, and the production capacity is terribly low.

This is why good weapons in ancient times were so valuable, because it is not an exaggeration at all, except luck requires a lot of manpower and material resources.

It can be said that before the British invented crucible steelmaking in the [-]th century, all steel was "fake steel", because even if the carbon content was controlled by various methods, there was still nothing to do with other impurities in iron, especially silicon.

Until the eighteenth century, an Englishman discovered the magical effect of graphite and invented the crucible steelmaking method.This is the world's first liquid steelmaking method, and also the first high-carbon steel that can be used as tool steel.

Its powerful performance also laid a solid foundation for the rise of the empire on which the sun never sets.

Graphite crucible is not only because of the strong heat and corrosion resistance of graphite, the pig iron is heated to a liquid state, so that a large amount of impurities in it float out of the liquid steel surface, but also because graphite is a simple substance of carbon.

During the heating process, the carbon and the silicon monoxide in the iron react to remove the impurity silicon.

At the same time, the carbon in graphite can also react with iron oxide to deoxidize iron and reduce it to pure iron.

After heating to a certain level, various impurities float out of the liquid steel surface, and then the carbon in the graphite will increase the iron-carbon content, and finally the real steel is obtained!

When this kind of steel appeared for the first time, it was used to make tool steel, let alone gun barrels, and it was more than enough to cut and polish other metals.

And these are exactly what Li Xingzhou is going to do.

As long as there are graphite mines, all these can be realized without any technical problems, only experience is needed.

He was not familiar with the refining of clay graphite crucibles, that's why he called Zhu Rong. His family was professionals with rich experience, and they were much better than him, a half-baked guy.

Zhu Rong had long wanted to climb onto the thigh of the palace to ask for protection. After listening to Li Xingzhou's request, although he didn't understand why the palace wanted to open the kiln, he happily agreed without saying a word, and patted his chest as a promise.

Early the next morning, I brought seven or eight members of Zhu's family over to start work.

Li Xingzhou can't let him do it for nothing, let Yan Yan pay Zhu Rong's salary according to the head, but Yan Yan is not very happy. His concept is different from Li Xingzhou. Isn't it an obligation for ordinary people to do things for the royal family? .
But Li Xingzhou insisted that he give it. He has his own model, and in his territory, everyone must follow his rules.

In the afternoon, De Gong also sent someone to bring a message to his door, telling him to talk to the emperor about the black gunpowder as soon as the Lantern Festival was over, so that he could prepare his speech. As for what he could win, it would all depend on his ability.

(End of this chapter)