My brother Ying Zheng, who dares to kill me?.

Chapter 840 This is a leap of times! The gods have millions of fully armored elites?
Seeing Ying Zheng's firm attitude, Ying Chengjiao did not get angry with Ying Zheng.

Reaching out and picking up an iron pickaxe head from the table, Ying Chengjiao handed it to Ying Zheng and asked, "What do you think?"

Although Ying Zheng was puzzled, he had already taken the still warm hoe handle in his hand.

First, he tapped the hoe lightly with the back of his fingers to listen to the tone. Then he held both sides of the hoe head with both hands and twisted it hard. Finally, he placed the hoe head on the table, drew the sword from its sheath and chopped it down with force.

"Dang~~~"

The sound of metal clashing rang out, and the hoe that had just come out didn't even hit the ground once, but Ying Zheng had already cut a gap the size of a fingertip!

Picking up the hoe again and carefully observing its cross section and patterns, Ying Zheng gave his evaluation: "This hoe has been forged for about ten times."

"Is that what you said, brother?"

Ying Zheng had a very confident smile on his face.

The reason why Ying Zheng clearly expressed his love for swords was to increase the enthusiasm of the metallurgical industry and to leverage the strength of all parties to vigorously promote the development of the Qin metallurgical industry.

Because Ying Zheng knew that only a sharp sword and strong armor could help Ying Zheng better unify the world!

However, Ying Chengjiao sighed softly: "Is it only at the level of ten forgings?"

The smile on Ying Zheng's face slowly faded, and he became even more puzzled: "This hoe was given to you by your younger brother."

"My dear brother, do you not know how many times this hoe has been forged?"

Ying Chengjiao did not respond to Ying Zheng, but pointed to the blast furnace beside him and said, "This iron hoe is cast directly from the molten iron from this blast furnace."

"How to forge?"

Looking at the broken iron pick in Ying Zheng's hand, Ying Chengjiao frowned and said, "Even if we use hematite, the finished product can still only reach the level of ten forgings."

"It's enough for farm tools, but it's far from enough for weapons and armor!"

"If we want to expand production in one step, we still need to develop an open-hearth furnace."

"But this thing is so difficult to make!"

Being able to improve the blast furnace, produce coke, extract coal gas, and complete the preliminary preparations for the coal and steel consortium has exhausted Ying Chengjiao's brain cells.

However, Ying Chengjiao had never seen a Thomas converter or a flat hearth furnace in his previous life. He only knew their principles. He also needed to combine the principles with the current industrial base of Daqin to design and manufacture them, and he also needed to improve the industrial level of the upstream industrial chain.

As for the oxygen top-blown converter and other steelmaking tools that Ying Chengjiao had seen in his previous life, they were far beyond the industrial base of the Qin Dynasty, so Ying Chengjiao did not even consider them.

Ying Chengjiao originally wanted to continue using the exhaustive method to try, but steelmaking is different from treating feces. If something goes wrong with this thing, it can be fatal!

Therefore, Ying Chengjiao could only study it stumblingly, and at the same time, he told the craftsmen all the steelmaking methods such as the pouring steel method, and while constantly promoting the growth of the craftsmen, he worked together to brainstorm and study.

Looking at the various 'open hearths' next to the blast furnace, Ying Chengjiao sighed softly: "I have been trying to figure out a way to smelt iron into steel, but I have made no progress so far."

"Brother needs better sealed pipes."

"I need a better blower system."

"I need more talents to study with me."

"Brother, this is the problem I am facing now."

"Brother, you are very knowledgeable and intelligent. Please help me think about how to solve these problems when you have time."

However, Ying Chengjiao waited for several breaths but did not receive any response from Ying Zheng.

Ying Chengjiao turned around and asked in confusion: "Brother?"

As a result, when Ying Chengjiao turned around, he saw Ying Zheng holding a hoe in his hand, staring at the blast furnace in a daze.

Lu Buwei, Wei Liao and all the other Qin officials stared at the iron hoe in Ying Zheng's hand, their eyes full of heat!
Ying Chengjiao's doubts grew even stronger, and he raised his voice and called out, "Brother!"

Ying Zheng subconsciously asked: "Is this a blast furnace?!"

I have already determined that this item is used for sacrificial offerings.

And you told me this was a blast furnace?!

Ying Chengjiao nodded as a matter of course: "Yes, this is the blast furnace."

Many people believe that blast furnaces are a modern product.

But in fact, as early as the Shang and Zhou dynasties, the predecessor of the blast furnace, the vertical furnace, had already appeared in China, which was used to smelt bronze on a large scale.

By the middle of the Spring and Autumn Period, with the development of bronze smelting technology, the vertical furnace had evolved into a primitive blast furnace. Although its appearance and structure were very different from those of later blast furnaces, its core principles were generally the same.

When China entered the Iron Age, China's superb bronze smelting technology was directly used in iron smelting. The blast furnaces originally used for smelting bronze were only slightly modified and then put into large-scale iron smelting.

Today, even the State of Yan, which has a relatively low level of metallurgy, has its own iron-smelting blast furnace.

Therefore, it would be a big mistake for Ying Zheng to fail to recognize the blast furnace!
Ying Zheng came back to his senses, stared at Ying Chengjiao and said, "Brother Nai has certainly seen a blast furnace."

"But you have never seen such a tall and thick blast furnace that is shaped like a pillar!"

"My dear brother, is this thing really a blast furnace for smelting iron and has no other uses?"

The tallest blast furnace produced by Daqin today is only a little over ten feet high (most are around three meters), and is square in shape overall. It looks more like a house than a furnace.

The blast furnace standing in front of Ying Zheng was not only much taller and wider than the common blast furnaces in the Qin Dynasty, but also had a very different appearance.

Ying Chengjiao sighed helplessly: "I hope this blast furnace can directly help me make steel."

“But it can’t do that!”

"The molten iron produced by the existing blast furnace is too low, the temperature is too low, and there are too many impurities, so I made some improvements to the blast furnace."

"Now this blast furnace can produce 72 dan ( tons) of molten iron, enough to supply three blast furnaces..." However, before Ying Chengjiao finished speaking, Ying Zheng's eyes suddenly turned to Ying Chengjiao and asked in disbelief:
"Take the young master?!!"

Ying Chengjiao was slightly startled, and repeated, "One furnace can produce 1,200 stones of iron."

Ying Zheng subconsciously clenched the iron hoe in his hand, his eyes filled with intense heat, and he asked solemnly, "My brother!"

"This matter concerns the country, there is no room for jokes!"

"Can this furnace really produce 1,200 stones of iron?!"

Seeing Ying Zheng being so serious, Ying Chengjiao also straightened his attitude and said in a deep voice: "Brother, I won't say a single word of falsehood!"

"This furnace of iron has just been poured. If you have time, you can wait here for ten hours."

"Ten hours later, you and I will watch the next furnace of molten iron come out of the furnace!"

Ying Zheng asked again and again: "What about the cost? How much is the cost?!"

Ying Chengjiao tapped his temple with his fingers and frowned, "I have never calculated the cost."

"The iron ore I used was transported from Fushi."

"The fire in this blast furnace is not made from charcoal but from coal. However, this coal was also transported from Tunliu by me, so the cost is really hard to calculate."

"If we only consider manpower and do not count the manpower consumed in transportation, the manpower required for this furnace to produce 100 kilograms of molten iron is only about 10% of that required for the Xianyang blast furnace."

Ying Zheng nodded repeatedly and then asked, "Is it difficult to build this furnace?"

"Can the workshops of our Great Qin imitate this furnace?"

Ying Zheng did not doubt Ying Chengjiao at all, but because the matter was of such a serious nature and the facts were so exaggerated, Ying Zheng asked again with trepidation.

As Ying Chengjiao answered Ying Zheng's questions one by one, both Ying Zheng and his ministers completely believed Ying Chengjiao without having to wait for ten hours.

Han Cang looked at the blast furnace that was spewing black smoke and murmured, "After my Great Qin conquered Han, I collected many skilled craftsmen from Han."

"By combining the skills of the skilled craftsmen of the four former states of Han, Wei, Chu, and Zhao with the skilled craftsmen of our Great Qin, our Great Qin blast furnace will finally be able to produce nine stones (540 kilograms) of iron per furnace!"

"When I heard this news, I lost my composure and started dancing."

"I never thought that the blast furnace built by Chang'an Jun could produce 1,200 stones of iron per furnace!"

"One thousand two hundred stones!"

Although Han Cang was delighted by Ying Chengjiao's research and development of fertilizer that led to a sharp increase in per-acre yield, it was still within Han Cang's acceptable range, as he felt that this was something that humans could do.

But the blast furnace in front of him and the increase in furnace production it brought were far beyond Han Cang's imagination!
The furnace output increased from 9 shi to 1,200 shi.

This is a leap of one hundred and thirty-three times!

If the person who developed this blast furnace had not been Ying Chengjiao, Han Cang would definitely have sneered and thought that the man was daydreaming!

Lü Buwei stared at the blazing molten iron, his gaze even hotter than the molten iron: "More importantly, this iron not only has a very high yield, it can even rival ten-forged steel!"

"This iron can not only be used to cast farm tools, but can even be used to cast armor plates and weave armor for grassroots generals!"

"It can be used in farming or in war!"

"God bless the Qin Dynasty!"

"This is truly God's blessing on the Great Qin!"

Pig iron is indeed not suitable for casting armor plates, but the fundamental reason why the Qin Dynasty did not use pig iron to produce armor was that the iron output was too low. Instead of using a large amount of iron to produce armor, it would be better to use the precious iron to forge farm tools.

But if the pig iron output of Daqin increased by more than a hundred times, and Daqin's pig iron could be comparable to ten kinds of forged steel, why didn't Daqin use pig iron to cast armor?

No matter how fragile cast iron armor is, it is at least much better than stone armor!
Li Si took a step forward, bowed loudly, and shouted:
"I, your humble servant, congratulate the king! Congratulations to the Great Qin!"

Seeing Li Si like this, the other court officials also came to their senses, and followed Li Si in bowing their hands and shouting excitedly:

"I, your humble servant, congratulate the king! Congratulations to the Great Qin!"

Listening to the cheers of his ministers and thinking of the future scene of the entire Qin army wearing armor, Ying Zheng excitedly clapped his hands and praised: "Great! Great!"

“Although this furnace is not used for offering sacrifices to the gods, it is more precious than the things used for offering sacrifices to the gods!”

Sacrifice to gods?

The gods have millions of fully armored elite soldiers?

Pull it out and let me see it!

Ying Chengjiao was at a loss whether to laugh or cry, and asked, "What do you mean this furnace is not used for offering sacrifices to the gods?"

"Brother, you don't think this blast furnace is used for worshipping gods, do you?!"

"This blast furnace does emit much more smoke than ordinary blast furnaces, but look at how black the smoke is."

"What good god would be willing to enjoy such offerings?"

Ying Zheng was slightly embarrassed, but he tactfully avoided the topic. He looked at Ying Chengjiao eagerly and said, "My brother has developed such a treasure, why didn't you tell me yet?"

"This is such a great joy that the whole world should celebrate together!"

Ying Chengjiao shook his head and said, "I have never spent too much time on this blast furnace. Everything I have done is just to make it easier to make steel."

"The output of this blast furnace is only 1,200 dan at present. It is not worth it for me to tell you specifically."

(End of this chapter)