The Soul of the Han Dynasty in the Late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 188 Steelmaking
Yongping Prefecture is rich in mineral resources. It not only has a large number of high-quality coal mines, but also has rich iron ore resources. Limestone, dolomite, quartz sandstone, refractory clay, graphite and other non-metallic minerals are also remarkable.

Huang Han knew the development of cement in the early days, and he knew that the cement made by mixing quicklime and clay in a ratio of [-]:[-] had the best performance, and these resources were easy to find locally.

He arranged for people to use a shaft kiln similar to that of burning lime in Daming to burn cement. The procedure is not complicated. The mixture of limestone and clay is calcined into clinker, and then ground to obtain cement.

Although the quality is not comparable to the cement of later generations, it can also meet Xu Guangqi's needs for building reservoirs and ditches.

Limestone has to be crushed and ground into powder to be fired. This first process requires a lot of labor and people have to dig the clay to mix it. Finally, the lumpy clinker that comes out of the furnace has to be crushed and ground again. to get cement.

What is the labor force required for such heavy physical labor? More than 2 refugees soon got jobs in workshop-style cement factories.

The common people in this era are actually the cutest people. There are basically no lazy people. As long as they can eat enough to get their wages, almost everyone is sweating and working hard.

This is the Han nationality, the Han nationality who works hard, the Han nationality who is hardworking and intelligent, and the Han nationality who accepts everything.

Now, the first batch of cement has been put into use, and the method of using cement is not difficult for the plasterer to master. In the ditches built and the barrel-type granary built at Funing Wharf, the plasterer replaced lime with durable cement.

The barrel-type granary under construction that produces grain from the bottom has many advantages. It will reduce the risk of grain mildew and reduce rodent damage.

The silos of later generations often store [-] tons of grain. At present, Huang Han does not have the courage and technology. The silos he arranged to build can store more than [-] shi of grain at most, which is about [-] tons of storage capacity in later generations.

In the future, Huang Han will spare no effort to stockpile grain, and grain storage is the most important thing. With a relatively advanced barrel-type granary, the loss of grain storage will be greatly reduced.

Since there is no conveyor belt, grain storage can only be carried by strong laborers on their shoulders and poured into the warehouse along the stairs surrounding the barrel-type granary. The rice will flow down.

It is actually very scientific to put in slowly and get out of the warehouse quickly, because there is food that needs to be stored, which means that there should be no hunger for the time being, and there is no need to worry about spending time carrying it on your shoulders.

It is necessary to urgently adjust grain out of the warehouse, and perhaps tens of thousands of ordinary people will starve to death. At this time, many Han people can be saved by taking a day out of the warehouse.

There are [-] strong laborers and healthy women building granaries under the guidance of professional plasterers. They will all get three meals a day, and they will get paid ranging from [-] to [-] yuan a day. There is no doubt about their enthusiasm for work.

And because the construction progress is very fast in summer, it is expected that when the winter wheat from Jiangnan arrives at Funing Wharf, it will not be a problem for more than ten silos to be put into storage.

After replanting crops after work, the farmers near Kaiping will be relatively idle for a period of time. Huang Han will pay more than ten yuan a day, and the generous conditions of three meals a day will mobilize the common people to do labor.

These people will participate in the construction of reservoirs, silos, factory buildings, and roads. Huang Han currently has money in his hands. Using these funds to increase investment in infrastructure construction will not only increase employment opportunities for farmers, but also show benefits. Huge profits, but sustainable development can be a win-win situation.

In this era, ironmaking uses natural wind blown by large bellows, and the ironmaking craftsmen did not know that heating the air would greatly increase the temperature of the furnace.

Huang Han opened Goldfinger and designed an uncomplicated tube-type hot blast stove, which made the temperature of the air supplied to the steelmaking furnace reach about [-] degrees.

This innovative technological revolution directly led to an increase in the temperature of the blast furnace in the Ming Dynasty by about [-] degrees, and the iron-making craftsmen thus obtained fully liquid molten steel in the true sense.

People in the Ming Dynasty were the first to use coke to make iron in the world. By the end of the Ming Dynasty, the quality of coke had stabilized. Kaiping had high-quality coal, and the quality of coke was of course even better.

Huang Han invested in small blast furnace steelmaking in Kaiping, a place blessed by nature. Thanks to the relatively low-end wind temperature technology, not only the quality of steel can be better than that of Suzhou Iron and Steel and Mintie, which have the best reputation in Daming, but the cost has also been reduced by a lot. Mostly.

With high-quality steel, Yang Laoshi is full of motivation. He no longer hammers and hammers armors and bird guns himself, but guides hundreds of blacksmiths and apprentices to work every day in a role equivalent to a quality director.

Huang Han took time out of his busy schedule for three mornings to formulate the quality standards for bird guns and unify the acceptance specifications for parts and components.

In Yang Laoshi's finished product warehouse, there are birdcracks marked with weight and dimension accurate to the micron, schematic diagrams of lifting gun parts, and there is a whole gun and two birdcracks disassembled into parts as samples and acceptance reference objects.

Xu Guangqi was also a mathematician. He not only revised the weights and measures standards for the blacksmiths, but also enthusiastically provided the craftsmen with relatively advanced measuring tools from the Military Equipment Bureau. Things similar to vernier calipers have long been available in this era.

Therefore, in the future, the parts and components of stereotyped products such as bird guns and lifting guns produced by Huang's can be used in common, which will greatly increase the speed of maintenance.

Subdivision of work is a modern management model that increases yield and reduces working hours. This has another advantage. It is relatively easy to train workers. Craftsmen make and grind a few familiar parts all day long. Practice makes perfect.

During the whole process of making the blunderbuss and raising the gun, Huang Han refrained from opening the golden finger again, so the blunderbuss produced by Huang's is still just a matchlock gun.

Huang Han clearly knew that the development of flintlock guns and rifled flintlock guns, and the use of Minie bullets was the ultimate product of front-loading black powder guns, but he was not in a hurry to prepare step by step.

Because the strength of the "Red Banner Army" is still very weak, Kaiping, which is relatively close to the capital, makes too much noise and is easily suspected.

Furthermore, Kaiping Town belongs to the imperial court, and there are court officials and officials who come and go here constantly. Who can guarantee that there are no spies of Houjin among these people?

The civilian and military generals of the Ming Dynasty did not know what military secrets were. They even knew about the formation of troops. Even the casting method of the Hongyi cannon was written and widely disseminated.

The advent of the cross-age product of the flintlock rifle cannot tolerate any mistakes, and cannot be fooled by pig teammates.

Huang Han planned to quietly produce flintlock rifles there when he had his own castle by the sea. It was less than a hundred miles away from Shanhaiguan and more than 600 miles away from the capital, and it was a military zone, so it would be easy to keep it secret. many.

(End of this chapter)