Opening game, American Tycoon

Chapter 187 A Bright and Blind Visit (Third Update, Please Subscribe)
In the days that followed, Zuo Zongtang and his group turned into the most ordinary visitors, but after only two or three days, they got used to the roar of the steam engine running. Ni was surprised, but later on he got used to it.

However, when they visited the farm and witnessed the efficiency of the horse-drawn harvester, they were still stunned by the novel modern farm tools.
After being amazed, they felt that this was the right way.It's based on agriculture.

It has to be said that for Chinese people, they always have a special plot for land and cultivation. When they see steam tractors plowing the vast land with ease, they will naturally be surprised at the fertility of this land.

And when he learned that this vast grassland actually has hundreds of millions of mu, he was even more shocked and speechless.After leaving Nanhua and heading north, after getting used to the stretches of farms along the way, before they could regain some of their familiar pastoral life, a smoke-breathing monster broke into their sight.

"beep……"

Amidst the deafening whistle, a train loaded with iron ore drove into a large factory. A large area of ​​the factory, houses, and black smoke rising into the sky from the chimney broke into their sight unobstructed.

"This is Nanhua Steel Company, the largest steel company in the southern hemisphere!"

Ding Bing's introduction is so interesting. In the southern hemisphere, besides Nanhua, are there other steel companies?
Does a small factory with an annual output of several hundred tons of iron count?
Looking at the contiguous factory area in the distance, Zuo Zongtang and others have already realized the magnificence of an industrial culture.

"Brother Zuo, at present, Nanhua Iron and Steel Company only has one iron-making blast furnace with a daily output of 100 tons and one open hearth furnace with a daily output of [-] tons, and the annual output is only [-] tons. , the production capacity will exceed [-] tons, of which steel and steel products will exceed [-] tons!"

At the end, Ding Bing specifically emphasized.

"Currently, the annual steel production in the UK is only [-] tons!"

In this era, iron and steel factories all over the world mainly produce iron, either pig iron or wrought iron. As for railways, they are also... made of wrought iron, why?Because the production process of steel is still based on crucible steel, not to mention the high price, and the output is extremely limited.Take the UK as an example, the output of iron is a full 400 million tons, but steel... only 15 tons, and the quality is uneven!

Relying on the Siemens open hearth furnace, Nanhua not only produces steel that is almost as expensive as iron, but also has an "astonishing" annual output of [-] tons of steel!In this day and age, that's nothing short of a miracle!
Of course, this miracle will not last long at all. When Europeans discover that steelmaking can be made by switching to gas or heavy oil in open hearth furnaces, the steel industry in European countries will soon develop rapidly, and cheap steel will further promote industrial development.

What kind of era is this?
In a nutshell - "steel is the country"!
In this era, the British Empire has become the most powerful empire on the planet by virtue of its annual output of more than four million tons of steel, which should be iron.

At present, this small iron factory in Nanhua must not be able to compete with those behemoths that are simply unable to compete with the United Kingdom.But what is certain is that Zuo Zongtang and others who had no concept of "[-] tons" were suddenly dumbfounded when they learned that the steel company's output was "[-] jin".

"Such a factory can smelt ten million catties of iron!"

"Almost! But it's not all iron, most of it is steel, the best steel! The kind of steel that can make guns and cannons!"

In an instant, they were all dumbfounded.

"What? Fifty million catties of steel!"

"How is this possible? One hundred steel smelting, how many people make so much steel!"

Seeing the astonishment on their faces, Ding Bing said with some complacency.

"That's the power of industry, gentlemen."

What is the power of industry?
More than an hour later, when they stood in the air hammer workshop of the iron and steel plant, they saw the steel ingot weighing more than ten tons in the deafening "dong dong" sound. As the head of the air hammer fell, the anvil was red The large steel ingot was kneaded like dough, sparks flew everywhere, and soon turned into a long round tube.

"Here, what is such a thick steel pillar for?"

Zuo Zongtang asked curiously.

"This is for the ten-inch cannon."

The factory technician on the side didn't hide anything, and replied directly.

"The arsenal is trial-manufacturing a 10-inch cannon, and here we have customized six barrel blanks."

How thick is ten inches?

Zuo Zongtang didn't know, but when he just looked at the steel pillar that was as thick as a person, Zuo Zongtang's expression became extremely unnatural, and he immediately thought of another possibility... This cannon might be used to deal with big guns. Qing Dynasty!

In fact, Zuo Zongtang definitely thought too much. He couldn’t use a ten-inch breech-loading rifled gun to deal with the Qing Dynasty. Well, to deal with the Manchu goods, all you need is a Dahlgren smoothbore gun. In order to produce this cheap artillery, the arsenal spent a "high price" of 5000 US dollars on purpose and imported the corresponding technology from the United States.

This kind of front-loading gun cast by the Rodman casting method has simple technology and low cost. Although it is destined to be a backward technology that will be eliminated, it has a large caliber!

Aren't ten-inch, eleven-inch, twelve-inch, or even fifteen-inch cannons good?
It is definitely not good for Nanhua, but for the Taiping Army, this kind of giant cannon that can bombard infantry and attack the city is not good!
It doesn't matter whether it is fragrant or not, the most important thing is that it can be sold at a high price.

Especially after the success of the "Mosquito Cannon Boat" and the order of ten "Mosquito Cannon Boats" from the Kingdom of Heaven, such giant cannons will naturally be very popular in the Kingdom of Heaven.

As for Nanhua, it is naturally the world of breech-loading rifled guns.

"Mr. Zuo, it is definitely not a blessing for the imperial court to have such a giant cannon to help!"

What is definitely not the blessing of the imperial court, it is clearly going to be over!

With such a huge cannon, even if there is a solid city wall, it can be done, but it is still trampled by a cannon.

At this moment, Zuo Zongtang's expression couldn't help but be called complicated. The impact Nanhua had given him was too much, and he couldn't accept too many of them, and the discovery at the moment shocked him even more. Can't sleep.

Perhaps his loyalty to the imperial court was quite limited, but facing such a "strike", it was naturally difficult to accept it for a while.

After visiting various places in Nanhua for almost a month, Zuo Zongtang finally returned to Nanhua City. Just when he thought that after returning to Nanhua, he would definitely be able to meet the Lord of Nanhua, but who would have thought that the Lord would actually Didn't see him!
It seems to have forgotten him!
(End of this chapter)