Xianggui

The Ding family stayed at the Princess Mansion until Xunxiang's health basically improved, which was three days before they left.

Several happy events happened at home during this time.

Xun Yibo was admitted to the Imperial College and ranked first. Ding Liren and Xun Yitang were admitted to the inner house, ranking 11th and 16th respectively, belonging to the upper-middle level. The fourth son, Xun Yihui, was also admitted to Waishe.

Because of Xunxiang's illness, there was no celebration planned.

Xunxiang's gift has been prepared a long time ago and will be delivered.

On this day, the girl from the Zhenhai Hou Mansion came to see Xun Xiang. Mrs. Sun gave Xun Xiang a jar of Buddha Jumping Over the Wall made by the cook in the house.

The girl smiled and said, "Our eldest lady said that these ingredients are the best. The sea cucumbers are red jade ginseng from Beisanghai..."

Xunxiang thanked her and gave the girl a purse.

After the girl came out, she quietly asked Jin'er where Feifei had been and why he hadn't been to their house for so long.

It was Sun Yumu who asked her to ask.

Sun Yumu was particularly depressed. It was difficult to live without Feifei, and it was difficult to even send a letter to Xiangxiang.

Jin'er said, "Feifei hasn't been home these days, so we're also anxious."

After the Sun family girl left, Jin'er came to talk to Xunxiang.

Xun Xiang said, "Feifei may have gone to play somewhere far away. He is so smart that nothing will happen to him."

Jin'er was worried, "How about I go to Beiquan Village? Did Feifei go to Fushan to play?"

Xun Xiang said, "No need. If it really goes back, it can play for as long as it wants until it comes back."

She believed that Feifei couldn't let her go and would come back after playing for a while.

The Buddha Jumping Over the Wall sent by the Marquis of Zhenhai tasted very good. Xunxiang, who had no appetite, ate a big bowl, which made the servants smile and narrow their eyes.

There are a lot of Xunxiang, a jar is full. He said, "Send me a cup each for Grandfather Ding and Grandfather Xun."

Xunxiang lived a peaceful life, but the court did not calm down with Dong Yihe's departure. On the contrary, it became more lively.

The calls for the establishment of a crown prince are getting louder and louder day by day, and now the King of Qi has an overwhelming advantage, leaving the seventh prince far behind.

Many of the ministers who had previously supported the seventh prince were partial to King Qi, thinking that he was elegant, diligent, benevolent and caring for the people, and would be a wise king. The King of Qi did not just read books like before. He would often discuss national policies with ministers and had a very unique view.

Several ministers who supported King Duan were ignored.

No matter how much news about the appointment of the crown prince flew into the palace like snow flakes, no matter how many ministers shouted, the emperor refused to express his position.

Many people think that the emperor is too emotional as he is waiting for the seventh prince to grow up.

Only Xun Xiang and others knew that he was waiting for the eighth prince to grow up.

Xun Xiang felt that the emperor had eaten a lot of good food from Jitou Peak, and if nothing unexpected happened, he would have no problem living for another ten years.

After Xunxiang recovered, she started to work on a major project again, which was "Baosteel".

At the beginning of the ninth day of the fifth lunar month, Xunxiang, Ding Zhuang, Ding Zhao, and Zhang went to Ding Mansion in He County, and took Hei Wa with them.

What she said to them was, "I have very important things to talk about when we get there. Daddy has to go."

Ding Zhao absolutely listened to his daughter and took a day off from the Yamen.

What she said to her father-in-law was, "It's boring in the house, so I want to go out and relax." Xun's son-in-law is a good father with 24 filial piety. If my daughter feels bored, she will go out to play for two days.

It was already late noon when we arrived at Ding's house. Mrs. Zhang went to prepare food, while Xunxiang, Ding Zhuang and Ding Zhao went to the study.

Xunxiang said solemnly, "When I was sick and unconscious, I went to a place. There were two fairies there, I think they were Grandma Ruyi and Grandma Ruyue. They took me to a steel-making room..."

Ding Zhuang opened his mouth in shock, "You dreamed about Ruyue and your aunt, and they took you to the steel-making room?"

Ding Zhao was also so surprised that he couldn't close his mouth.

Xun Xiang nodded seriously, "Not only did they take me there, they also explained to me how to make steel directly with molten iron."

Ding Zhuang and Ding Zhao were even more surprised.

They all believed in Xunxiang's dream, especially this time, she was inexplicably comatose and inexplicably awake, maybe she had some adventure.

Ding Zhao asked, "How to make steel directly?"

Xun Xiang said, "Using the steel-frying process, 'stir-frying' means stir-frying. It means to make the pig iron first, then heat and melt the pig iron to a liquid state, and use a blower to blow the liquid iron while stirring.

"Let the oxygen in the air react chemically with the carbon in the liquid pig iron to generate carbon dioxide, thereby achieving the purpose of decarbonization. When the carbon content in the molten iron is less than about two percent, the iron becomes steel.

“The strength, toughness and other properties of steel are better than those of ductile iron, and the service life of steel knives, swords and gun barrels will be doubled.

"Although this process can produce steel in large quantities and does not require rare earths, it is costly and troublesome and can only be used in the most high-end manufacturing. Private factories cannot produce weapons, so they only produce small quantities of high-quality kitchen utensils and some high-quality mechanical tools for craftsmen. .

"If you find it, the court will definitely be interested, and it can be regarded as a contribution to Dali. From now on, 'Bao Iron' will be called 'Baoqing Iron and Steel Manufacturing Co.,' or 'Bao Steel' for short."

Xun Xiang finished speaking in one breath. There were many new terms in it, which made Ding Zhuang and Ding Zhao feel dizzy.

Ding Zhao quickly studied the ink, picked up the pen and said, "Xiangxiang says it again."

Xunxiang said again.

Ding Zhao wrote it down, pointed to "oxygen", "liquid", "chemical reaction", "carbon dioxide" and other nouns and asked, "What do these words mean?"

Xunxiang explained in language that they could understand as much as possible.

"I also asked two fairies and they explained it. 'Liquid' refers to water, and liquid iron is molten iron. 'Chemical reaction' refers to the transformation process between substances under certain conditions.

"For example, copper and ironware will react chemically with moisture and other substances in humid air to form copper and rust."

Ding Zhao is the quickest to accept new things. Although he heard the word "matter" for the first time, he knew it refers to objects or things by association.

He suddenly said, "It turns out that the rust on copper and iron is a chemical reaction."

Xun Xiang nodded and said, "'Oxygen' and 'carbon dioxide' are very small substances that exist in air, water and other things and are invisible to the naked eye. Let's not get hung up on these words and just follow this method. that is."

At this time, Mrs. Zhang walked into the house with the girl and brought in several bowls of egg noodles.

Several people were eating noodles and talking.

Ding Zhuang and Ding Zhao asked again about some things they didn't understand.

Xun Xiang took out the drawings of the furnace and blower modifications, "I have been busy at Baotie during this period. I first renovated the factory building and these two pieces of equipment, and then tried steelmaking. This is more difficult than ductile iron and annealing. , it may take longer.”

Ding Zhuang was worried about having nothing to do, so he came up with this errand again, let alone tinkering with steel, which he had loved all his life.

He laughed and said, "I know, this is called 'attacking key points'. If we conquer this key point, our 'Bao Iron'... no, 'Bao Steel' will become even more famous."

What he wants now is fame, not money.