Optimus One Pillar of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 46 The Industrial Revolution in the Steel Industry

It was a family banquet with ordinary food and ordinary wine, but everyone was like-minded brothers, so the banquet was actually enjoyable.

At the end of the song, people parted, and Gao Yi was sent to the entrance of the alley, and everyone parted.Facing Gao Yi's leaving figure, Wang Daoqiu sighed in his heart: Officials in feudal society, you are so unjust. People in future generations will think that your life is so luxurious.But people in later generations would believe that a sixth-rank Beijing official in your feudal society had to rely on his own eleventh road to travel.

After seeing off Gao Yi, he returned to the small courtyard, washed his face and feet with hot water heated by Sister Qiu, and then Wang Daoqiu returned to his room.Although you are the chosen one and can take open-book exams, if you want to cheat, you have to see the question and know which book to read, right?
He lit an oil lamp, and in the dim light, Wang Daoqiu began to read at night with a candle.Staring out of the window, I saw Fatty and Yin Zhengmao sitting upright reflected in the window.

Yin Zhengmao can understand it. He has already failed twice in his 30s. If he fails again, he really doesn’t know how he should go home.But Fatty, a greedy and lethargic guy, worked so hard, which put Wang Daoqiu under a lot of pressure.If you don't sleep, how can I have the nerve to sleep?
After holding on until the middle of the night, he couldn't bear it anymore. Wang Daoqiu lamented: "You guys are so cruel."Then he cowardly became the first person to turn off the lights in this small courtyard tonight.

The next day, Wang Daoqiu slept until he woke up naturally. He chatted with Sister Qiu for a few words, took a cake and teased the little girl Sanniang again, and then went to Jinyiwei.

This was an appointment made with Lu Bing yesterday, to build a "model house" for the future steel factory in advance for Emperor Jiajing.

When he arrived at Jinyiwei, Lu Bing was already waiting for him.To be honest, the work and attendance system for officials in feudal society is simply inhumane compared to later generations.

The morning court starts at five o'clock in the morning, which means that those officials who are qualified to attend the morning court have to get up around four in the morning, clean themselves up, and then line up in front of the Meridian Gate.

What is even more irritating is that the present Jiajing and the future Wanli have a record of absenteeism from the court for more than 50 years.But if someone else's emperor doesn't go to court, your minister has to line up at the Meridian Gate at five o'clock every morning.Think about how evil this is. Just this attendance system. If you leave it to future generations, your monthly salary is less than [-], how can you recruit people?

Senior officials work hard and work hard, and so do low-level officials.In ancient times, we had to order breakfast in the morning when we went to work, which was similar to the morning meeting in our later companies.And this point of Mao refers to Mao hour, which is equivalent to five to seven o'clock in the morning in our future generations.This means that in ancient times, if you worked in a government office, you would be there before five o'clock in the morning.

Bitter!It's too bitter, even more bitter than Huang Lian.So now I think of this evil feudal society and its inhumane work and attendance system.Wang Daoqiu now had the urge to quit taking the exam and go home to become a rich man.

Lu Bing didn't know that Wang Daoqiu was "lazy" at this time, but he was still very enthusiastic when he saw Wang Daoqiu.As soon as he came up, he clasped his fists at Wang Daoqiu and said with a smile: "It's too troublesome for Mr. Xie Yuan. It's really troublesome for Mr. Xie."

"It should, it should, but I don't know, Mr. Lu, where do you plan to build the iron-smelting furnace?"

"Oh, the place is in the weapons bureau of our Jinyiwei. It is responsible for manufacturing the weapons used by our Jinyiwei. There are more than 60 acres of land. The place is big enough. And it is also close to a river, but the river is not big, and the river surface is only five meters. Six feet wide. I already ordered them to work on it all night last night. How about, Jie Yuanlang, let's go over and have a look now."

"Okay, let's go and have a look!"

...............

While chatting, Lu Bing took Wang Daoqiu to the weapons bureau of Jinyiwei.When Lu Lu and Wang Daoqiu arrived here, it was already a bustling and busy work scene.People are digging trenches, building houses, and some craftsmen are installing turbines. There are more than 200 people working on the site.

Pointing to the busy construction site, Lu Bing said: "To be honest with Mr. Xie Yuang, I said goodbye to Mr. Xie Yuang yesterday. As soon as I returned home, my servants sent me the flying pigeon letter from Xuan Mansion. Then The boys working on the side were also thoughtful. In order to confirm whether the red stones were iron ore, they found magnets to try. Sure enough, after a try, the red stones could attract the magnets, so they sent them to me. I sent a letter to Fei Ge and told me the news."

"Xie Yuanlang, it's a big deal. Those red stones are indeed iron ore. Otherwise, how could they attract magnets? So after confirming that those red stones are iron ore, I ordered my men to follow your plan, Jie Yuanlang. , and started working all night. Last night, Lu went to Xiyuan for this purpose and reported the matter to the emperor. At [-]:[-] this morning, I ordered two ships of gunpowder and [-] strong men to go there to dig iron ore. stone."

"Xie Yuanlang, you know? Last night I reported your big steel plan to the emperor. The emperor was Long Yan Dayue, saying that you, Wang Daoqiu, understood him. He also reprimanded Mr. Lu for being petty and asked me to do more in ironmaking in the future. It’s all up to you. In order to see your new iron-making field, the emperor gave us three more days to show him what this iron-making field looks like. Jie Yuanlang, We have to hurry up, as the Yongding River is about to freeze in winter. His Majesty insists on seeing molten iron smelted from red stones, and going to Xuanhua to see the size of the red stone mountains before he is willing to take the next step. Time is tight!" Lu Wang Daoqiu understood what Bing meant. Jiajing was really a rigorous person. He had to confirm the production capacity and sufficient supply of raw materials before he made the decision to invest. He was a calm and rational person.

In my heart, I gave Emperor Jiajing a "like" for his reason and calmness.Wang Daoqiu said to Lu Bing: "The emperor is right to be cautious. After all, this matter requires a lot of manpower and material resources, so we can't be hasty."

"Yes! Yes! The emperor is right, but we are suffering!" After hearing Wang Daoqiu's words, Lu Bing complained with an embarrassed look on his face.

Then Lu Bing pointed at the construction site and said: "Look, Mr. Jie Yuan, according to your plan, last night I had people dig a waterway one foot wide and seven feet long by the river last night. There are three water turbines installed in this water channel, and the water channel is covered with houses. In addition, after the water turbines are installed, I will build a dam on the river above this water channel, raise the river level above this water channel three feet, and make the river water in the future It can only flow down from our waterway. In this way, the water energy is enough to drive our three hydraulic turbines, and because this water is running water that rushes down quickly from high places, and the houses built on the waterway are treated with cold protection, this Even in the dead of winter, the waterways will not freeze..."

Lu Bing kept talking and introduced to Wang Daoqiu his careful implementation of Wang Daoqiu's plan.After listening to Lu Bing's introduction, Wang Daoqiu thought for a while, then pointed to the river and added: "Master Lu, we can't just consider water energy issues, we must also consider flood control. I think it's normal for you to build a dam higher than the river. Three feet of the river level is enough. In this way, even if there is a flood, the flood can overflow the dam and flow downstream quickly. Also, the turbines must be set up at a relative distance..."

Combining the actual situation at the scene and the experiences and lessons of later generations, Wang Daoqiu added some good suggestions. After Lu Bing listened, he also asked people to bring pen and paper to write them down one by one.

After inspecting the water conservancy construction site, Wang Daoqiu designated a location for the blast furnace. He asked Lu Bing to send people to make preparations. They would first excavate the foundation and transport refractory bricks.He himself asked for a quiet room to draw drawings.

Entering a quiet room specially chosen by Lu Bing for him, Wang Daoqiu sat there, and his soul traveled back to the library to check information.To be honest, Wang Daoqiu wanted to launch a satellite and build a big one, but considering that in the city, it is really inconvenient for the blast furnace to be too big.But it was too small, which was not in line with the taste of Emperor Jiajing, who was very happy with his achievements.

After careful consideration, Wang Daoqiu chose a small blast furnace with a volume of thirty cubic meters.The thirty-cubic blast furnace was indeed a small blast furnace in later generations. It was too small, so small that it was not qualified to be called small. It could only be described as "micro".After all, the volume of these thirty cubic meters is equivalent to our small single room of nine square meters, multiplied by a space of three meters and three floors.

A blast furnace with a volume of thirty cubic meters was called "tiny" in the 21st century, but in the Ming Dynasty of the [-]th century, a blast furnace with a volume of thirty cubic meters was considered a giant.After all, the largest iron-making furnace in the Ming Dynasty could only smelt [-] kilograms of iron a day, while a thirty-cubic small blast furnace could smelt at least [-] to [-] kilograms of iron in one furnace, with a production capacity equal to that of the current Ming Dynasty iron-making furnace. fifty times.

The corresponding small blast furnace with a volume of thirty cubic meters is naturally a small converter with a volume of ten cubic meters.Yes, Wang Daoqiu wanted to bring the converter steelmaking method, which was invented during the European Industrial Revolution, to fruition in the Ming Dynasty 300 years ahead of schedule.

When it comes to the leap from iron to steel, Wang Daoqiu's angry youth comes to mind.Mud, the Europeans didn't know how to use coke to make iron when we were in the Ming Dynasty. Their iron-making technology was hundreds of years behind ours.

But during the industrial revolution, here we can only smash iron into steel in the blacksmith shop, with the master blacksmith hammering it!People in Europe have already begun to use converters, and large-scale industrial steel production there is tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of kilograms per furnace.

And the Europeans also took advantage of the rapid development of the steel industry to accumulate huge military strength.And with this kind of strength, Xiao Yingzi, with a hundred "shrimp and crab" soldiers and thousands of Asans, beat our country until they knelt down and shouted "Grandpa, spare your life".

So much so that Ah San later boasted that their military strength was stronger than ours.The reason is that their army has attacked China's capital twice, but our Chinese army has never attacked their capital once.

What Asans said makes sense, and we are speechless.After all, what they said was right. Asan's army was indeed under the command of the British. During the Second Opium War and the Eight-Nation Allied Forces' invasion of China, they invaded Beijing twice and burned the Old Summer Palace.And our King Master has indeed never entered Delhi or New Delhi in the entire history of mankind.

Shame!As for Ah San's aggressive style, he broke into our capital twice and stepped on our faces with his shoes.Our women let them do what they want, and our men have to kneel down and shout at them: "Grandpa, please forgive me."

What a shame!How embarrassing!Thinking of this, Wang Daoqiu couldn't stand it anymore when his temper flared up.The steel industry must be greatly developed. Our Ming Dynasty's dragon flag must be planted in London and Paris in the future. Ah San must kneel at our feet and work as a horse for us.

(End of this chapter)