Optimus One Pillar of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 48 No.40 Liu Jiajing wants a prince
Near noon the next day, Lu Bing led Emperor Jiajing and Lu Fang, the Chief Priest of the Supervisor of Ceremonies, who were all dressed in casual clothes, into the Jinyiweapons Bureau.

At this time, Wang Daoqiu was making molds for axles with the blacksmith from the Ordnance Bureau.

Seeing Wang Daoqiu squatting with the craftsmen without any regard for his identity, loudly discussing professional issues.Emperor Jiajing and Lu Fang smiled and said nothing, but Lu Bing was embarrassed. He hurried over and patted Wang Daoqiu on the shoulder, and said in a low voice, "Xie Yuanlang, come here quickly, we have business to do."

After speaking, Lu Bing winked at Wang Daoqiu.Lu Bing said he had business and still looked at him. How could Wang Daoqiu not know that Emperor Jiajing was here?So he hurriedly stood up and followed Lu Bing to Emperor Jiajing, where he cupped his fists and bowed to Emperor Jiajing from a distance of two or three meters.

From afar, he saw Emperor Jiajing wearing casual clothes today, presumably because he didn't want others to know his identity.Therefore, Wang Daoqiu did not dare to kneel down and salute, and did not dare to mention the identity of Emperor Jiajing. He could only say: "I have met the master. I wish you good luck."

"Hahahahaha!" Wang Daoqiu called himself "little" in front of Jiajing and called Jiajing "master", which made Emperor Jiajing amused.With Emperor Jiajing's intelligence, he certainly knew why Wang Daoqiu said this.So after laughing, Emperor Jiajing said to Wang Daoqiu: "You are a clear-sighted person. Okay, I will be the master! From now on, when I wear casual clothes outside the palace, you can call me the master! Okay, you Come and talk back."

"No, sir, because I'm afraid of making a fool of myself in front of you today, I was busy here with Mr. Lu yesterday. The furnace has produced two batches of molten iron. I just weighed 15 six kilograms, and now I have the third batch of molten iron. , it’s about half an hour, and it’s time to turn on the stove. I’ve been so busy since yesterday, I’m covered in stinky sweat, and I haven’t had time to take a shower or change clothes, so I don’t dare to come near, for fear of infuriating the master.”

"Hahahaha"

"Hahahaha"

"Hahahaha"

Wang Daoqiu's words made Emperor Jiajing amused again. When Lu Bing and Lu Fang saw Emperor Jiajing laughing, they also cheered and laughed together.

After laughing, Emperor Jiajing said angrily: "There is no need to express your merits to me. I know that you and Lu Bing have worked hard! Okay, you have worked hard for me. I don't mind you. Come and reply."

"Yes, sir."

Now that Emperor Jiajing stepped forward, Wang Daoqiu stopped showing off and followed him two steps behind.

Emperor Jiajing was very satisfied with Wang Daoqiu's knowledge of current affairs. He walked straight to the blast furnace, turned his head in Wang Daoqiu's direction and asked, "I heard from Lu Bing that you designed this furnace. It is better than other furnaces in our Ming Dynasty now." The iron-smelting furnace is much stronger."

"Yes, sir, this kind of furnace is called a blast furnace. One furnace can produce 30 to [-] jins of molten iron. It can burn four furnaces a day and produce [-] jins of molten iron. And other iron-making furnaces in Ming Dynasty can produce up to [-] jins of molten iron a day. molten iron."

"Forty thousand catties, six thousand catties, isn't this a difference of sixty or seventy times?"

"Yes, sir, and the blast furnace in front of you is just a temporary model for you to see. As for the future steel plant planned by Mr. Lu, the smallest blast furnace is several times larger than the one in front of you. , the daily output of molten iron should be more than one million jin."

"What, one furnace can produce more than one million jins of iron per day? Boy, are you kidding me?"

Wang Daoqiu said that one furnace could produce a million pounds of molten iron in one day, which made Emperor Jiajing doubt his life.At this moment, Emperor Jiajing really hoped that this was true, but was also afraid that Wang Daoqiu would treat him like a monkey.So he used his imperial majesty to glare at Wang Daoqiu and forced Wang Daoqiu to tell the truth.

To be honest, it’s really unpleasant to be questioned. Wang Daoqiu really wants to launch a satellite at this moment to tell this frog in the well that, let alone blast furnaces with a volume of [-] cubic meters, there will be dozens of blast furnaces with a volume of more than [-] cubic meters in the world in later generations. , among which China has the most, with more than a dozen.

But I thought about it in my heart, but I couldn't brag like that in front of him!So facing Emperor Jiajing's imperial glare, he said calmly: "There is no technical problem on my side to build a stove several times larger than this, with a daily output of one million kilograms. I also believe in my Ming craftsmen, their The craftsmanship is sufficient to build that kind of stove. I dare not hide it from Your Majesty. My dream is to build a large stove that can produce tens of thousands of kilograms of iron per day in my lifetime."

"Hahahaha, boy, your dream is really big. Your dream is so big that even I don't dare to dream about it. Okay, you are a real person. I am afraid that only you Wang Daoqiu is worthy of doing that. Dream. Okay, let’s not talk about the future, just talk about how long it will take for the furnace in front of us to be able to produce molten iron?"

"It will take a while. How about, sir, I will take you to see the mineral processing?"

"Ore processing, what is this?"

"Master, come with me, I will explain it to you on the spot."

Then Wang Daoqiu took Emperor Jiajing to the hydraulic forging machine. At this time, of the three hydraulic forging machines, two were forging iron and one was crushing ore.When he came here, Emperor Jiajing became excited as soon as he saw the memory of his childhood. He smiled at Lu Bing and said, "Lu Bing, isn't this our kowtow machine in Huguang? Oops, this head-eating machine It has so many uses, not only can it be used to grind rice, but it can also be used to make iron and break stones."

"Yes, sir, this is what Mr. Wang suggested. But the water in the river and ditch here is too small and the strength is not enough. In the future, if we put this head-eating machine on the other side of the Yongding River, it will be more powerful." Mr. Wang said , In the future, our head-eating machine will be at least ten times bigger than the current one, and it will have to be powerful."

"Wow, a thousand catties of strength, this is incredible. I must go and see it when the time comes."

"Okay, I will accompany you then."

After chatting, Lu Bing took over from Wang Daoqiu and introduced the process of beneficiation to Emperor Jiajing, as well as the benefits of ore being beneficiated first and then being refined in the furnace.After listening to Lu Bing's introduction, when he learned that the main method of mineral separation here is magnetic separation, Emperor Jiajing also became playful and took a magnet to the smashed red stones to suck on them.What can be absorbed is of refining value, and what cannot be absorbed is of no refining value.

After playing, Emperor Jiajing said to Lu Bing: "This mineral selection cannot be done here, it should be done over there in the mining field. Break all the stones into small pieces, and send those that can be attracted by the magnet for refining, and those that cannot be absorbed." Stones with no or little iron can be left at the mining site, so you can save a lot of freight every year."

"Yes, sir, Wang Boy and I have the same plan. In the spring of next year, we will build a dam on the Heisha River next to the mine to raise the water level, and then install a kowtow machine and the drum concentrator that Wang Boy mentioned. Those things I I don’t understand, but let’s leave it to Mr. Wang anyway. He has a good brain in those areas. He said that after beneficiation, at least [-]% of the ore shipped here can be guaranteed to be iron.”

"More than [-]% is iron! Not bad, then this iron is easy to forge. Hey, you told me on the way, what this kid forges is steel!"

"Yes! Come on, come on, come on, sir, come and take a look. Come and take a look. What is piled over there is the steel made by this boy in two furnaces."

As he spoke, Lu Bing took Emperor Jiajing to the 15 kilograms of steel that Wang Daoqiu had smelted in the first two furnaces.Looking at these new pieces of steel that had not faded from the pyrotechnics, Emperor Jiajing turned his head happily and asked Wang Daoqiu: "Is this really steel?"

He was questioned again, but he was the emperor, what could Wang Daoqiu do?So Wang Daoqiu said with a smile: "If your Majesty has a temperament, you can move it and see."

Let's move it around and see how heavy the iron block the size of a post board is in front of us?You even asked me to move around and look at it. You are looking down on me!When the man's face came up, Emperor Jiajing really took action.But this time, it was a comedy. Emperor Jiajing's face turned red. He only moved the steel ingot a few millimeters, which was far from being able to move it!
According to the measurement of the Ming Dynasty, this steel ingot is one foot long, half a foot wide, and half a foot deep. According to the measurement methods of later generations, a clothes foot in the Ming Dynasty is 34 centimeters.Then the volume of this piece of steel is 0.01 cubic meters, and the density of steel is 7.85 tons per cubic meter, which is 15700 kilograms, and 0.01 cubic meters is 157 kilograms.

It weighs 157 kilograms, and even an ordinary strong man cannot lift it with both hands!What's more, Emperor Jiajing was a weakling, so Emperor Jiajing suddenly became big-eyed.

Then the unconvinced Emperor Jiajing scolded Wang Daoqiu angrily: "Did you put a magnet under this piece of iron? Otherwise, why can't I move such a small piece of iron?"

"Hahahahahaha, sir, I'm sorry that I couldn't help laughing. Sir, I'll tell you the truth, every steel ingot here weighs more than 150 kilograms. This weight is what Mr. Lu is, our Ming Dynasty Even Wu Jinshi can’t move it!”

"What, such a small piece, it weighs 150 pounds?"

For such a small piece of iron, he weighed 150 kilograms, which made it difficult for Emperor Jiajing to believe him.Seeing that Emperor Jiajing didn't believe it, Wang Daoqiu didn't give an explanation. He waved his hand to two strong men and asked them to carry a steel ingot to the scale.

Emperor Jiajing was speechless when he saw the mark of 150 seven kilograms on the scale. He still can't believe that such a small piece of iron weighs 150 seven kilograms.So Emperor Jiajing, who did not believe in evil, called Lu Bing and they carried it together.But in the end, Lu Bing got up, but Emperor Jiajing remained motionless.

The steel ingots this time were on the ground. Emperor Jiajing couldn't blame Wang Daoqiu, so he buried a magnet under the ground to trick him!Besides, Lu Bing is up.

The reality was so shocking that Emperor Jiajing had no choice but to admit that it was just a piece of steel.Although it was a bit embarrassing, Emperor Jiajing was still very happy. After all, steel was much more valuable than iron.And not only does the pile of 15 kilograms of steel in front of him belong to him, but he will also take the bulk of the steel that Wang Daoqiu will refine in the future.

Just this furnace can smelt 15 kilograms of steel in half a day. If we need to build a steel factory with a row of furnaces, how many kilograms of steel will be produced every day and how much money will it cost?Gold and silver!

Looking forward to a better life with independent wealth in the future, Emperor Jiajing looks at Wang Daoqiu now, that is a cash cow!How about eunuching him and sending him to the palace to be tied by his side?No, no, how could someone enter the palace willingly if he was a dignified Xie Yuan? If he hurt his heart by force, what would he do if he didn't care about it in the future?Can stay outside………….

At this moment, should he castrate Wang Daoqiu and send him to the palace and tie him to him; or should he let Wang Daoqiu stay outside the palace and win over him with high officials and generous salaries.The two plans were fighting in Emperor Jiajing's mind, and it was really difficult to choose.

At this time, Wang Daoqiu didn't know that Emperor Jiajing was considering whether to turn him into a father-in-law.He was still feeling stupid in his heart, feeling so proud that he could make Emperor Jiajing embarrassed today!
(End of this chapter)