The wind blows from the South Sea

Chapter 67 Battle Exercise

Early morning on the second day

After washing up, Feng Guohui, who had not slept for a few hours, was still full of energy, his eyes were bright and deep, and there was an indescribable confidence that made him soaring.

late last night

Regarding the matters related to opening a steel plant, Feng Guohui has thought everything through from front to back. He has thought about it thoroughly, and of course he is confident.

The biggest problem in starting a steel plant is the word "money". Today's Nanyang Company requires people, money, land, and resources. All difficulties can be overcome.

The planned steel plant will be the first modern steel plant in Nanyang and even Asia.

Its iconic equipment is the iron-making blast furnace imported from the United Kingdom. Its advanced nature is beyond doubt.

this age

Britain, which took the lead in launching the steam industrial revolution, is making great strides into the industrial era and experiencing the painful nirvana of transition from an agricultural society to an industrial society.

The coking coal blast furnace equipment imported from the UK has a monthly output of 240 tons of high-quality wrought iron and 285 tons of fried steel. The entire equipment weighs about tons. The core is a set of steel-making blast furnaces and other attached steel supports. Pipes and more.

It sounds very high-end, but in fact there is no secret at all. An insider who is proficient in smelting can see the design principle of the blast furnace at a glance.

The most valuable place

It was the British who optimized the indigenous steel-making furnace, designed a process capable of industrial production, put it into practice and verified its feasibility.

For example, the upper end of the furnace mouth feeds materials, and the lower end of the high-temperature molten iron discharges materials. This is something that a traditional steelmaking furnace cannot do.

In the traditional clay steelmaking furnace, materials are fed from the top of the furnace mouth. After the smelting is successful, the materials are taken out of the furnace one by one with an iron spoon, just like drinking soup with a spoon on the dining table.

This step alone has made a lot of progress.

In the French steel industry during the same period, small workshops and home-made steelmaking accounted for more than 70% of the entire French steel production, while the coking coal blast furnace steel production was only more than 20%.

In the Netherlands, there is not even a single blast furnace for coking coal, and all is steelmaking in small workshops.

If Nanyang Company can take the lead in opening a modern steel plant, it will have taken a solid first step on the road to industrialization.

Feng Guohui was very active in his work. He summoned Wang Dachui and the blacksmiths together early in the morning and announced that he would hand over all the more than 160 villagers to them, and would add two to three hundred indigenous laborers in the future.

The goal is to increase the number of indigenous steel-making furnaces to 20. If each steel-making furnace can refine more than 100 pounds of iron, 20 steel-making furnaces will be more than 2000 pounds.

The refined iron is first poured into iron balls and I-beams to reserve materials for the construction of steel plants and mineral processing plants.

I-beam iron beams can be used to erect steel-making furnaces and steel rolling stock, and can also be used as rails for transporting raw materials. These can be produced using molds made of clay.

The same is true for iron balls. If one iron ball weighs 30 pounds, at least several hundred iron balls must be produced.

The iron ball is the core of the ball mill. It is placed in a large drum for rolling friction and can grind the finely divided iron ore into powder. This thing can also be produced using molds made of clay.

As for the round steel turntable required for the ball mill, the load-bearing iron shaft, the iron plates required for making large cylinders, etc., clay molds can all be produced.

Many people don't know that the original steel castings all came from clay molds, which were also produced in blast furnace facilities imported from the UK, and making the molds required exquisite woodworking skills.

Feng Guohui arranged it one by one and conveyed the order to immediately transfer more than 20 highly skilled carpenters and masons from Surabaya City to the Lando Mountain Mine for appointment.

Those who have family members migrate with them.

There is no need to force this at all, as long as the wages are in line with the market level, and the masters who promise to work will provide two meals a day, and some craftsmen are willing to come with their families to work.

The Landoshan Mine needs several brick kilns, several coking coal kilns, and a large number of mud houses and wooden houses to be built. It will definitely not be possible due to lack of manpower.

After the arrangements were completed, Feng Guohui went to have a simple breakfast.

in his plan

In the future, the land of Landoshan Mine will not need to be farmed. At most, some remote plots will be opened to grow vegetables and fruits to meet the daily needs of the people inside the mine.

The area around Surabaya City has a typical tropical marine climate. Sufficient rain and sunshine allow crops to be harvested three times a year, so food production is not a problem at all. Rice is one of the main local agricultural products. It has a large output and grows well. Feng Guohui does not need to worry about food at all. He can eat all he produces.

He was bent on developing industry, and the steel mill was the latest attempt.

The first modern steel plant, mining plant, mineral processing plant, foundry, and more than a dozen coking coal kilns and brick kilns will be built here, creating a modern industrial town.

And here, it will become the industrialized core industrial area of ​​Nanyang Company, producing a steady stream of steel products.

After the steel plant is completed, Feng Guohui also wants to develop sugar mills, oil mills, tobacco mills, flour mills, food factories, etc. based on the advantages of local agricultural products, and arrange as much as possible to the safe and secure Landoshan Mine. .

The environment here is uniquely endowed with abundant hinterland space in the valley, making it the best place to develop the steel industry and agricultural product processing industry.

Its importance instantly rose to the first place.

With the emergence of a large number of products, the necessity of building ports has increased, and the two are complementary to each other.

The next step is to establish an ocean-going fleet belonging to the Nanyang Company and launch trade routes to the Shenzhou from the north throughout the Nanyang region.

This is a grand business empire plan, and Feng Guohui is expected to spend 3 to 4 years gradually improving it to build his own business empire and live a life of a rich man without shame.

In fact, the development trend of the Nanyang Company is that of a separatist warlord force, which uses strong force to protect its business interests.

Without a knife in his hand, he was afraid that he would be eaten alive.

9 a.m.

More than 830 heavily armed soldiers have all lined up neatly on the training ground, with flags flying and spears like a forest.

As the commander of the Fusiliers and the highest officer of the Nanyang Company, Feng Guohui appeared on the training ground, attracting cheers from the officers and soldiers.

Wearing a Spanish helmet, a breastplate, a revolver, and large shiny leather boots, he was fully armed and rode a Western horse. He reviewed the team under the influence of a group of officers.

Then, Feng Guohui delivered an impromptu speech, which was nothing more than encouraging the brothers to work hard to practice their pistols, never forget the highest purpose of "whose food they eat and who they fight for", and fulfill the sacred mission of a soldier.

The general idea is "I support you, so you have to work hard for me and never forget your roots." This is probably what Qi means.

In this old era, it is very consistent with people's traditional concepts.

The lecture ended amidst the warm cheers of the soldiers.

Feng Guohui waved his hand and ordered "the joint confrontation training between infantry and cavalry has officially begun."

Under the command of the officers, the neatly arranged queues changed. A company of more than a hundred people dispersed following the command of the officers.

There were more than 800 people in 8 companies. They formed a battle formation according to the four in the front and the four in the back. The atmosphere instantly became tense.

More than a hundred people in each company were divided into three horizontal rows, with more than 30 musketeers in each row. This was a standard battle formation.

There is a distance of about 4 meters between company battle arrays. The entire infantry battalion has a total of 260 companies and has a battle front of more than meters wide.

The second battalion is in front and the third battalion is behind.

The more than 20-meter gap between the company's battle arrays is a channel for the cavalry to attack from the front, preventing the cavalry from being unable to hold back and actually impacting the infantry formation.

That would be terrible and would inevitably cause unnecessary casualties.

(End of this chapter)