The rise of the prince

Chapter 250 Tool Steel + Guilt in My Heart

As the charcoal fire slowly heated up, Li Xingzhou and Zhu Rong put a quick-cut wrought iron piece from the bamboo basket into the graphite crucible.

"My lord, it's fine for a villain to do this dirty work." Zhu Rong said with a simple and honest smile.

Li Xingzhou laughed. He was more dirty and tiring than this one. He has done it before: "It's okay, but be careful. It's the first time I use this thing. Maybe the cauldron will blow up."

He didn't want to do it so quickly, because although he knows the principle, anyone who has studied chemistry and physics in high school can explain it to you clearly.

But the gap between practice and theory is like a gap, so we must be careful.

It is also his first attempt to make steel in a crucible. He planned to make a slow trial for a long time, and then gradually use mature technology. It is true that the crucible can melt steel after heat storage, but the problem is that it is very dangerous to operate in the open air at such a high temperature.

It's a pity he didn't have time to wait.

The emperor forced him to go south in March. If it was produced at this rate, without tool steel, there might only be more than 200 guns in the palace at the end of March, which is far from enough.

He even hopes to produce a few cannons to take with him, first to protect his own safety, and second, practice is the only criterion for testing truth, and it is the same for weapons.

The reason why it is not produced is because guns are no better than guns, and the material of guns is not enough to explode the chamber. At most, it will hurt the shooter.

If he had real steel, then he could also try to make a few guns before heading south.

On the other side, Tie Niu and Guan Er had already mixed a pile of wet clay wrapped in iron powder, and then prepared an iron spoon with a willow pole.

Li Xingzhou took a look. The iron sheet put into the crucible weighed about [-] to [-] kilograms. His hands were also scratched in two places by the iron sheet. Fortunately, he often practiced guns and his hands callused, otherwise the injury would be even worse.

"Let's increase the fire." Li Xingzhou said.

The two craftsmen nodded, and then began to blow the charcoal fire with a blower. This kind of charcoal fire is smokeless charcoal smoldered in an earthen kiln. It burns violently and the temperature is very high.

Zhu Rong said worriedly: "My lord, can these scapegoats really stand the fire?"

Li Xingzhou nodded: "It should be possible. Anyway, I have to try. Everyone stand back, just in case."

Graphite refractories can be seen everywhere in life, and you can find them with a little care. Those who have studied chemistry also know that the melting point of graphite is as high as 5000 degrees, and the charcoal fire is only about [-] degrees, so it should be fine.

But who can say for sure, a little negligence will lead to a thousand miles of error, if the Zhu family is not fine when firing, the crucible will have cracks.

Everyone listened to his words, retreated to more than ten meters and finished driving, leaving only one little brother trembling there to blow the wind. He was also a big man, but he had to bite the bullet and blow the wind.

After a while, the temperature was getting higher and higher, but there was nothing unusual about the crucible. The heating process lasted for about half an hour. Zhu Rong leaned over to take a look, then turned around and shouted to the crowd in astonishment: "It's melted, the prince is melted!"

The blacksmiths were taken aback for a moment, but still asked in disbelief, "What melted?"

"What else, wrought iron, the iron has melted into water!" Zhu Rong said loudly, and everyone was completely shocked.

A few blacksmiths didn't care about safety, they all gathered around to watch, the wrought iron was boiled into water, this was a sight they had never seen in their entire lives!
Li Xingzhou also leaned over, and everyone quickly moved out of the way. The orange molten iron in the crucible was clearly visible, and the heat wave was coming, liquid wrought iron!
He was excited. Graphite is not only resistant to high temperatures. After the wrought iron is sintered, the carbon in the graphite will reduce the iron to achieve deoxidation. At the same time, it will separate impurities such as silicon and sulfur, and float out of the liquid steel surface.

Li Xingzhou blocked the crowd: "Be careful, the surrounding gas is poisonous, don't inhale too much." At this time, harmful gases such as carbon monoxide and sulfur oxide will be produced, so the working conditions of crucible steelmaking are very harsh.

The molten iron in the crucible was transpiring, and the blacksmiths all stared wide-eyed, wrought iron was smelted into water!What they didn't even dare to think about before, wrought iron can at most be burned until the whole body is soft, and the little brother who blows the wind below is sweating profusely, but he is getting more vigorous.

Gradually, a layer of light black matter slowly floated up to the surface of the liquid. Although Li Xingzhou had never seen it before, he could almost conclude that those were the reduced impurities. "Quick, Tie Niu scooped out those things on the surface."

After hearing this, Tie Niu hurried to the other side of the yard, took the prepared willow branch iron spoon, and used the stool to scoop it.

"Stop breathing, hold your breath!" Li Xingzhou ordered. At this time, a large amount of harmful gas will be produced. If you remove the impurities from the top, you are most likely to suffer from it and get lung disease, but this is also a helpless method.

Tieniu nodded, holding his breath to remove the impurities on the surface of the molten steel, his face was already swollen and red when he came down.

Now, only pure orange-yellow liquid remained in the crucible, and the surrounding gas was distorted by the heat wave transpiration. The orange-yellow color was as bright as the scorching sun, so charming and dangerous.

Liquid steel!

When the impurities were separated and the carbon from the graphite infiltrated the clean molten iron, real steel was formed, only now it was in a dangerous and terrifying liquid state.

A few minutes later, Li Xingzhou asked the younger brother to gradually reduce the fire.

Wrought iron is smelted to remove impurities, and at the same time, the carbon in the graphite will gradually penetrate into the molten iron, increasing the carbon content of the relatively pure molten iron to become real steel.

The reason is this, but the eyes can't see any changes, so Li Xingzhou is also uneasy, and can only wait for the result quietly.

The firepower decreased, and the molten iron gradually solidified.

When it was almost a cherry-red solid, he had the cauldron set down and smashed it, the solid still-red mass falling into the debris heap.

Tieniu and Guan Zhong couldn't wait a long time ago, and used tongs to clamp the steel block to the iron felt.

The final test is coming, Li Xingzhou stared at the cherry red solid block intently.

Under his nod to signal, the iron ox swung the hammer to forge, but the iron ox didn't go down until the first hammer, and there was a loud noise, which made his ears buzzing, and sparks flew in an instant, shining brightly, and disappeared in a flash. .
No dents were left on the fiery red solid!

Tieniu was stunned, and the onlookers also laughed: "What's wrong with you boy, Tieniu, you haven't eaten breakfast."

"I think it was tortured by the mother-in-law last night, young man."

"Hahaha" everyone laughed.

"No." Tie Niu's face was red, he didn't know how to argue, he raised his head and said, "Guan Er, come and take a look."

Guan Zhong was surprised, stopped laughing and swung the hammer to smash it down. There was another loud noise, but still no trace was left.

"Damn it!" Xiaguan Er also exclaimed at this time, he finally found out that it wasn't the iron ox that released the water, but that the material was really hard. The material is still cherry red now, and the pig iron is also soft at this temperature. But this damn thing can't be beat!

The blacksmiths stopped laughing, and they were all stunned on the spot. The surroundings suddenly became quiet, and the atmosphere seemed to have suddenly turned 360 degrees.

Several blacksmiths looked at each other, and they seemed to gradually understand what was going on. Someone stepped forward to take the hammer from the iron bull, and then tried to smash the hammer, followed by the second, and the third.
Until everyone tried it all, the steel block had turned dark red without any dents.

All the blacksmiths were stunned and looked at him. Guan Er looked at him for a long time and exclaimed: "Your Majesty, what the hell is this! Could it be Shentie?"

Li Xingzhou laughed loudly, he knew that the matter was probably done.

After the British used graphite crucibles to smelt tool steel in the [-]th century, the way to test whether it was real steel was to heat it to [-] or [-] degrees and smash it with a hammer. The empire on which the sun never sets gradually rose.

But now, this steel has obviously reached the mark of tool steel, he said a little excitedly: "This is not iron, it is steel, real steel!"

"This kind of steel can't be moved when it's cherry red. If you want to forge it, you need to heat it to fiery red, otherwise you won't be able to move at all." He looked at the baby in front of him. If it wasn't for the steaming heat, he really wanted to hug it .

"There is such a miraculous thing in this world?" Tie Niu walked around the steel block that had gradually cooled down to dark red, and looked at it incredulously.

Li Xingzhou nodded, and then happily said: "Go and get the clay mixed with iron powder and spread it on the surface."

"Okay!" Tie Niu and the blacksmiths started to move immediately, they didn't know what was the use of it, they only knew that Shi Zi was absolutely right, it has always been like this.The prince knows more than a fortune teller.

Soon, the dark red steel block was covered with thick black gray clay.

"What is this for?" the youngest Tie Niu asked in confusion.

"Decarbonize, cool down." Li Xingzhou said and waited quietly.

Everyone began to chat about the experience just now. After all, it was too bizarre. Wrought iron was smelted into water, iron that had been heated to cherry red but still could not be broken, etc. It is hard to imagine how high its upper limit of strength is.

After about 10 minutes of decarburization, he ordered people to take out the steel block, and then used water for final cooling.

Finally, the finished product is finished. This piece of steel weighs about forty kilograms. The surface is dark and shiny, showing a metallic color, which is the characteristic of high-carbon steel!

Li Xingzhou suppressed the excitement in his heart, and pulled out the saber at his waist. This is the hundred-forged sword issued by the military commander, as the Ministry of War told him.

All the blacksmiths gathered around to watch. He raised his knife to the top of his head and chopped it down heavily.

when!
There was a crisp sound of metal joining, sparks flew, and a large gap had been formed on one side of the blade, but there were hardly any traces on the steel block.

Tool steel is called tool steel because of its strength and can be easily used to cut and grind other metals!

He slashed a few more times, and finally the blade broke from the position near the tip, and there were only white scratches on the steel block that were not painful.

Li Xingzhou knew that things had really happened, the first tool steel in human history!

In the [-]th century, the British used this complicated method to refine real steel, all thanks to graphite, a new material that has never been noticed before, which is corrosion-resistant, high-temperature resistant, and can increase the carbon content. Reducing impurities such as silicon and sulfur is more precious than gold to him.

With tool steel, the lathe work department in Wangfuzhong, tools for cutting wrought iron, and gun barrels can all use tool steel, which will greatly improve production efficiency.

"My lord, if you use this kind of real steel to forge a steel knife, wouldn't it cut iron like mud!" Guan Zhong said excitedly after studying for a long time.

Tieniu also interjected excitedly: "That's right, my son, if it is made of steel armor, it will be invulnerable, and it will be invincible!"

Li Xingzhou couldn't help laughing. Some people have practiced these methods, and they are in line with ordinary people's thinking, but good steel must be used wisely.

"This kind of steel can still be smelted. In the future, Guan Zhong will be in charge of the steel smelting. I will ask Yan Yan to assign you the manpower. You can smelt as much as you can. Zhu Rong is in charge of firing graphite crucibles and wrought iron slices." The rest of the staff were in charge of the first few batches of steel, all of which were forged into the working part of the lathe, and all the subsequent batches of steel were used to make barrels."

"Gun barrel?" Tieniu was a little puzzled, but Li Xingzhou nodded, and then said unquestionably: "You all remember what you said today, and you will do it in the future. If you don't understand the details, feel free to ask me."

After explaining, he turned around to leave, then suddenly turned around and called Guan Zhong over.

Call him to the wall, and whisper to him alone: ​​"In the future, let the servants do the cleaning of molten steel. You must wear a mask when doing it. You must remember it. If there is a mistake, I will ask you."

Seeing him so serious, Guan Zhong nodded quickly.

Li Xingzhou just smiled, turned and left.

The craftsmen behind were still cheering, surrounding the piece of steel like a treasure, boasting loudly, talking and laughing, and the atmosphere was hot.

Of course Li Xingzhou was happy in his heart, but after being happy, he felt even more heavy.

There are many things he didn't say, or he couldn't say, sometimes it takes courage to be a bad person.

Even if a modern high-strength composite material barrel fires about a hundred rounds of bullets, the barrel will heat up to the point where it cannot continue to fire normally due to the accumulation of heat energy, and it needs to be cooled. The best cooling method is water, or the soldier's urine. liquid.

In this era, the barrel made of iron is inconvenient to load and the rate of fire is very slow, but after eight or nine rounds are fired continuously, the barrel will be hot, and it needs to cool down after continuous loading and shooting.

If you continue, there will be a danger of blasting the chamber because the material cannot withstand the high temperature, and the hasty cooling will damage the barrel.

The combustion of gunpowder can generate thousands of degrees of high temperature, part of the energy pushes the bullet, and most of it is absorbed by the barrel.

Therefore, the reason for limiting the performance of firearms has always been the insufficient strength of the barrel material.

The emergence of steel can solve this problem. The high temperature of [-] to [-] is almost fatal to iron, which can cause its corrosion and qualitative change, but it has no effect on steel.

Because of this, he must urgently obtain real steel of tool steel grade.

The problem is that crucible steelmaking is an imperfect and unsafe refining method.

It is the first method for human beings to liquefy refined steel, the first method for refining real steel, and the first method for batch-refining tool steel.

But it is still very backward in terms of safety. When refining, there will be a large amount of toxic gas emitted by the vaporization of impurities above the crucible, which cannot be blocked by small masks. The working environment of workers cleaning impurities is very harsh.

When this steelmaking method was first used in Britain, most of the workers who cleaned up impurities died of lung disease early, and it was very painful. The average life expectancy was only over 40 years old.
This is disregarding human life in disguise.

So he repeatedly asked Guan Zhong not to clean up the impurities on the surface of the molten steel by himself.

He has no choice but to comfort himself with "no sacrifice, no progress".

After the cloud and rain, Shiyu's cheeks were rosy, and she lay softly in his arms.

"Are you really going to the South?"

Li Xingzhou nodded and smiled, "Don't worry, nothing will happen."

"How long will it be?"

"I don't know, it can be as short as a few months, or as long as a year or so."

"You, you really didn't go to war."

"No."

"no lie"

"No, why did I lie to you." Li Xingzhou said, wrapping her smooth waist under the quilt: "It only takes two or three days from Guazhou to the capital by water, and Qiu'er's boat is faster, and it can be reached in one day and one night after it is built." , if you miss your husband, hurry up and help Qiu'er build a boat."

"Smelly, who would miss you." Shiyu said disdainfully, and then slightly moved her shoulders.

He understood, and pulled the quilt to cover her smooth shoulders.

Li Xingzhou smiled, and then asked: "Do you think I am a bad person?"

"Of course." Shiyu replied without thinking.

Li Xingzhou fell silent. He had never cared as much about whether others said he was a bad person as he did today, probably because of his uneasy conscience during the day.

He clenched his hands tightly, buried his face in her hair, and said nothing.

"what happened to you?"

Li Xingzhou shook his head and smiled: "Haha, it's nothing, I'm a bad person, sometimes I tend to overthink myself."

"It's good that you know." Shiyu said softly.

"Yes yes yes." Li Xingzhou smiled and put his chin on the top of the woman's head: "I will know from now on, so I don't need to bother you old man with such stupid questions."

Shiyu didn't speak. After a busy day, he was a little exhausted, a little restless, and began to feel drowsy.

"actually."

"Huh?" Li Xingzhou agreed in a daze.

"Actually, people and things in this world can't be classified as good or bad. Good people are easy to do bad things, but to make good things, most of the time you need bad people instead." Shiyu said softly with her back turned to him, "So... so I say you You are a bad person, but it doesn't mean you don't do good things."

Li Xingzhou was surprised, and then he smiled knowingly, and hugged her tighter, feeling a little relieved.

The spring breeze was blowing outside the house, and the long night was long, and he fell asleep unknowingly, whether it was the south or the court, all worries were gone.
(End of this chapter)