I seek economic hegemony in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 375 Package Upgrade
On July 15th, the thick clouds were very low, and not long after, heavy rain poured down.

But Li Heng led his people to the south of the city.

"General, let's take shelter from the rain first."

Li Heng didn't seem to hear him. He rode his horse and accelerated.

By the time he arrived at Dahan Jiangling Iron and Steel Trading Company in the south of the city, he was already wet.

"General, I'll prepare some clothes for you." Jiang Binsi said on the side.

When those people in front saw the general coming, they quickly came over and saluted: "See you, general."

"Where?"

"General, please come this way." Xue Liang said.

Li Heng walked quickly through the corridor and led everyone into the iron smelting workshop.

"Student Liu Lin meets the general!"

"How many were found?"

Li Heng took off his clothes, leaving only one piece. He followed Xue Liang and others to the stove.

Travelers always have a lot of constraints, especially when they travel to an era where productivity is very limited.

However, Li Heng optimized the box and asked Xue Liang to make a wooden box-style blast box.

"There are a lot of them. We don't know how many there are at the moment. They are buried underground like mountains. We have dug up 300,000 kilograms and there is no bottom." Liu Lin said, "We transported a batch into the city."

As for the blower, in the early Eastern Han Dynasty, water was discharged to smelt iron, and water power was used to drive the blast and increase the temperature in the furnace.

Why did steel production not explode until the Song Dynasty?
It was because the Song Dynasty began to use coal to smelt iron on a large scale.

This ratio is one to seven, which requires a very high quantity of wood, let alone forging pig iron into wrought iron.

The wooden box-type blast box appeared in the Song Dynasty and was one of the important reasons for the rapid growth of steel production in the Song Dynasty.

The structure is to use a waterwheel to push the cowhide and supply air to the furnace.

As for the piston-type blower box, Li Heng, a half-assed person, had only a half-knowledge of it and couldn't figure it out for a while.

"It's not just a matter of the temperature increasing!" Li Heng walked back and forth, he was very excited.

Iron can also be smelted with firewood, but to smelt one million catties of pig iron, seven million catties of wood are needed.

In the iron smelting workshop, there are two shaft furnaces, and the temperature here is very high.

In fact, coal smelting began in the Western Han Dynasty, but it was rarely used because coal was not mined on a large scale.

The inventor was Du Shi, the governor of Nanyang.

"General, please come this way." Xue Liang knew that what Li Heng cared about most was practicality.

The speaker was a young man, probably in his early twenties, with dark skin, wearing coarse linen clothes, but his tone was calm and his manners were decent.

"Now that everything has been replaced by coal, the temperature is much higher than in the past." Xue Liang pointed downwards and said, "The tuo (blower) has also been improved."

The real large-scale application did not come until the Song Dynasty, so the steel production in the Song Dynasty was more than that during the British First Industrial Revolution.

In this era, the cost of felling and transporting wood is very high.

Coal contains more heat, burns longer, and is easier to store.

"Yes, Mr. Lang." Xue Liang also became excited, "Currently, many farmers in Nan County share the same farm tools among several households. Judging from the iron smelting we are currently testing, this year we will be able to realize that every farmer has his or her own farm tools. Agricultural tools, especially the Quyuan plow, can even be spread throughout Nanjun and Xiangyang counties."

Li Heng said: "There are also various iron tools used by the people, such as weights and household knives. In addition, the tools used in construction can be quickly put into the hands of the people."

He picked up a piece of coal from the ground, his hands shaking with excitement.

Next, let the steel from Jiangling and Xiangyang be forged freely!

He wants more soldiers to wear iron armor!
Moreover, the casting speed of metal currency can also be increased.

"Lang Jun, there is one more thing." Xue Liang said. "What else?"

"The cement you ordered before can be burned now. I have tried it with coal. I have brought you the cement."

With that said, Xue Liang asked someone to bring up a bag of cement.

Li Heng was startled, and quickly opened it. He didn't know what to look at, and was shocked when he saw it.

Is this really cement?
Good guy!
Xue Liang, Xue Liang! You are really enough...

In fact, cement was not difficult to make back in ancient times. It can be operated with limestone, clay and iron slag.

Limestone and clay are ground together into a raw meal.

The raw material is then calcined until partially or completely melted, which is called clinker.

Finally, cement is obtained by grinding clinker and iron powder or iron slag together.

That is what Xue Liang showed before his eyes.

"Lang Jun, I tried it, and it's no problem. It's very strong after drying." Xue Liang added.

"Okay, okay! Okay!" Li Heng became even more excited.

He turned around and his eyes fell on Liu Lin: "You have done a good job, and the governor's office will reward you."

"Students are just doing a small job for the big man."

"Immediately send more manpower to mine coal, and set up a separate cement plant. All the roads being built now will be replaced with cement!"

"Here."

"In addition, the salary for the workers in the government-run iron smelting workshops has been raised from 300 cents per month to 600 cents per month. I will build seven shaft furnaces in Gangneung and tell the Ordnance Superintendent that one will be added this year. Ten thousand men in armor.”

"Here!"

"Notify Yuan Kai that the cement factory and iron smelting factory will have more guards."

"Here!"

After coming out of the iron workshop, it was still raining heavily outside, but Li Heng was extremely excited.

If there is enough iron ore, especially if the smelting and forging production capacity is fully increased, you can try to cast cannons.

The premise is that gunpowder can be obtained.

Of course, this is another complex industrial issue.

But if iron resources are sufficient, you can try it.

However, Nanjun's iron ore resources are limited. Even if there are many, it would be difficult to find them all with current detection technology.

At present, iron ore mainly comes from several places, including Nanjun, Yidu County, and Xiangyang County, and some of it will be shipped from Yizhou.

Li Heng knows where there are more iron ores: Jiangxia County!

The Daye Iron Mine, which was very famous in later generations, was located in Jiangxia County.

In this era, it was Sun Quan's territory, next to Wuchang.

If Wuchang can be captured, Li Heng's steel manufacturing volume will soar across the board.

Of course, the current amount of iron ore is enough for him to upgrade Jiangling and Xiangyang to several levels.

In particular, if cement roads can be radiated from Gangneung as the center to the surrounding areas, logistics costs will be reduced and transportation efficiency will be improved, and business will usher in the next qualitative leap.

So far, neither Cao Wei nor Sun Wu have really detected any major changes in Jiangling at this time.

Sima Yi was busy dealing with Cao Wei's internal problems. In May of this year, he sent Guanqiu Jian to lead a 10,000-strong crusade on the grounds that Gao Gouli was causing trouble in Liaodong.

Subsequently, a large-scale re-appointment and dismissal of all Youzhou border defense officials began, and almost all of them were replaced by their own people.

(End of this chapter)