Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 2075
Wu Hanlong muttered to himself, what's so interesting about this furnace room?The dignitaries want to see this stuff, it's so fresh!

Let the steward step down immediately, and he will lead the way himself.

The furnace room of the Wu family is the same as most of the furnace rooms here. They do not make iron themselves, but use purchased iron materials for production and processing. Therefore, there are only a dozen iron furnaces with a height of more than 1 meter in the open space. Like a rough vat.Although Xi Yazhou doesn't understand metallurgy, he can also see that the structure of this furnace is very simple, and reverberatory furnaces are not widely used in Lingao metallurgy.Except for the push-pull bellows, there is no special structure.

Look carefully at the stove, but it is made of mud.Can mud also be used as a refractory material?Xi Yazhou was slightly puzzled and asked Wu Hanlong.

Wu Hanlong quickly replied: "This is the best pure yellow clay. It is first mixed with salt and tempered in the pit for more than half a year before it can be made into a stove. After tempering, there must be no cracks, otherwise the stove will crack when it is fired."

Xi Yazhou vaguely remembered that when Ma Niao’s iron and steel plant was building blast furnaces, the refractory bricks did contain some kind of salt brought from the saltworks. It seems that certain chlorides have been known to be able to withstand high temperatures since ancient times.

The outside of the stove is tightly wrapped with thick vines, and it is supported by thick hardwoods such as iron wood and rosewood. It can be seen that although the stove is not big, once the iron is melted, the amount of iron and fuel inside is quite amazing. of.

These iron furnaces are arranged in a semicircle, and there are brick runners under the discharge port.At the center of the semicircle is a big pit, which is two or three meters deep, and the inside is empty.

Wu Hanlong said that this pit was used to cast large castings, such as bells, tripods, and cannons.The mold is placed in this pit and filled with soil on all sides.Because large-scale castings use a lot of materials, the output of a single furnace is not enough, and molten iron or copper must be released from multiple furnaces together to cast.After the casting is finished and cooled, it is dug out by manpower, and the casting is lifted out.

Xi Yazhou is quite familiar with this process. When the Fubo Army first started casting artillery, the craftsmanship was actually almost the same as this one. To say it is advanced, it is nothing more than a large-capacity and high-efficiency reverberatory furnace in Lingao, which can cast artillery in batches at one time. The other is Iron mold technology.

From this point of view, there is no technical difficulty in organizing the production of various smoothbore artillery barrels used by the army in Foshan. Of course, it would be better to make technological innovations, but it is not a problem to directly use local equipment and workers. The only major equipment lacking is A boring machine for boring the barrel of a gun.

The reason why Xi Yazhou had to consider the issue of artillery casting was that the smoothbore guns used by the artillery were almost all made of pig iron, and the life of the barrel was far less than that of the bronze barrel, which had to be replaced every 200 to 300 shots.If the production can be organized in Foshan, it will be possible for the artillerymen to repair and supply nearby.Moreover, with the expansion of the occupied area, more fortifications need to be fortified, and more artillery is needed-in many cases, as long as the cannon is fired, it is enough to destroy the rebels and bandits who are not determined to fight.

He looked around and couldn't help but his eyes lit up. It turned out that there were several red barbarian cannons lying horizontally under a reed mat shed not far away.

The Hongyi cannon is actually a European half-snake gun or a large snake gun. The casting technology is not much different from the Napoleon cannon. Since this furnace can cast the Hongyi cannon, there is no problem in casting the barrel of the Napoleon cannon.

When Wu Hanlong saw this "true Kun" saw the change in the face of the Hongyi cannon, he couldn't help but secretly worried, and quickly explained: "The cannons of the Ming Dynasty were pressed down by the yamen and asked to be cast by a small shop. The small ones didn't want to take it... "

These cannons were apportioned by Xiong Wencan to the furnace households in Foshan "as compradors".The furnace owners were not willing to accept this kind of business.Although it is not a white job, according to the regulations, the government must pay according to the labor price and materials, but in fact, either the price is very low, which will reduce the cost, or the payment will be delayed for a year or so, and finally nothing will happen.

But no one dared to say no to the governor's apportionment.After a lot of bargaining in the Furnace Industry Association, it was finally decided that each furnace owner would share the labor costs and materials according to their size, and the largest furnace owners would undertake the casting.If the government can pay some money, it will be returned according to the proportion apportioned by each family.

"It's nothing." Xi Yazhou was in a good mood, "You are all ordinary people, can you still say no?"

"Yes, yes, what the chief said is true!" Wu Hanlong breathed a sigh of relief, and hurriedly said, "You guys originally gave all these cannons to the Senate."

Xi Yazhou said: "Your attitude is good. But I am marching and fighting now, so I can't accept it." He turned to Lin Ming and said, "You are in charge of this matter. When the people from the Planning Institute come, bring them here. Receive these artillery."

Lin Ming quickly responded, "Yes."

Xi Yazhou saw that there were thousands of iron pots piled up under the thatched shed of the furnace room.After asking, I found out that these iron pots are all ready to be exported.Iron pot is the largest and most famous product in Foshan in this time and space. It is not only sold domestically in the seven southern provinces, but also exported throughout East Asia and Southeast Asia.In particular, foreign ships sailing to the West almost always carry iron pots, and even European traders will purchase large quantities of iron pots through Portuguese merchants in Macau for trade in Southeast Asia.

There are many kinds of pots, the big ones are Tangwei, Shenqi, Shenliu, Niuyi, and Niuer; the small ones are Niusan, Niusi, and Niuwu.There are three-mouth pots, five-mouth pots, niukui pots without ears, and Qinggu pots of various sizes. In addition to cooking, there are also pots for boiling sugar and cocoons.

In addition to the iron pot, there were many other large round iron plates. Xi Yaya didn't see any use for them. After asking, he found out that they were used by seaside stoves to fry salt.

Now that the traffic is interrupted, these cast pots and pans cannot be transported out, and they are already rusted in the straw shed.Wu Hanlong sighed again.

In the yard, pig iron ingots, charcoal and ashes piled up into hills, but there was no coal.After asking, I learned that the local smelting industry does not use coal.

"It's not that there is no coal. In fact, it is cheaper to buy and use than charcoal. It is just smelted with coal. First, it is dirty, and second, the iron is not good." Wu Hanlong said that for all furnace owners who use coal, the iron will become brittle and the quality will decline. After going back and forth, everyone would rather use expensive charcoal than coal.

"...Everyone says that Guangzhou Railway is good, but most of them say that iron sand is good. In fact, from a small point of view, Guangzhou Railway is good because it uses charcoal for casting instead of coal."

Xi Yazhou was a little surprised: Coal contains sulfur, without coking and desulfurization, it will indeed make iron brittle when used in smelting and casting, but this is known only after modern chemical analysis and metallography. Most ancient people can't understand it, and ancient scientists like Song Yingxing , I only know that Guangzhou Railway is good, but I haven't analyzed why it is good.Some people even attribute it to the theory of Yin-Yang and Five Elements.This furnace owner knows "why Guangzhou Railway is good" based on experience.

It seems that ancient China did not lack technical talents, but what it lacked was people who could record, summarize and disseminate these technological discoveries.In such a big environment, Song Yingxing, who wrote "Heavenly Creations", can be called a "strange person"——Thinking of Song Yingxing, he couldn't help thinking of something, and whispered a few words to the messenger, and the messenger immediately ran out.

"You are all castings here!" Xi Ya said, "Why don't you make other things?"

Wu Hanlong hurriedly said: "There are specialties in the art industry. The small Dazu passed down to make clocks, tripods, incense burners, cannons, iron pots... these clumsy things. If it is various farm tools, mulberry shears, and kitchen knives, there are other shopkeepers who make them. .Although everyone belongs to the same group in the furnace room, the objects they make are different.”

He introduced that the so-called Furnace Association in Foshan actually included many industries, including iron pans, foundries, steel frying, iron wires, iron locks, agricultural tools and miscellaneous utensils, nails, and so on.Anyone who involves ironmaking and metal processing is considered this business.There are as many as three to five hundred companies in the same industry.

"...It has failed in recent years, and many colleagues in the industry have lost—" At this point, he swallowed the following words abruptly, because the reason for the collapse was the influx of "steel", wouldn't it be nice to say it? Want to annoy this "real girl"?
Xi Yazhou didn't realize it, and asked, "Why did it fall?"

Wu Hanlong secretly complained, but he couldn't help answering, hesitatingly said: "...their craftsmanship is always not good, and they can't compare with foreign products...the price is high..."

"Because of the Australian ironware?"

Wu Hanlong laughed and dared not speak.

"The craftsmanship is not good, my Senate can teach them." Xi Ya said, "Your production technology and equipment are really too backward!"

Wu Hanlong hurriedly said: "Yes, yes, yes. The little ones have short-sightedness, and only know that all the craftsmanship of the Song Dynasty is superb."

"I'll send a few people to guide your production in the future!"

Wu Hanlong was taken aback for a moment, and thought to himself, what kind of way is this?If he took a fancy to their property, for him, the "veteran", it was really a matter of one sentence, what kind of "guidance?"

But he didn't dare to answer, so he had to say "yes" a few more times.

Seeing the mountains of pig iron ingots piled up here, some in the shape of round cakes and some in the shape of squares, Xi Yazhou asked where the iron ingots came from.

"It is produced in all parts of the province, and Luoding and Dong'an produce the most." Wu Hanlong said that the best pig iron is Luoding's Datangji furnace iron, which is the so-called "regular iron" with a "smooth" color and flexible iron. , that is, it is used for drawing iron wire, and it is also good for casting pots.

"Does this pig iron have to pay taxes?"

"Why don't you?" Wu Hanlong said, "Just outside the city of Guangzhou is the official iron factory. Anyone who wants to open mines and smelt iron must go to him to get a ticket before they can enter the mountain and open mines."

The iron merchants first went to the iron factory outside Guangzhou to pick up the ticket, and then went to the mountain to mine and make iron with the ticket of the Chief Secretary of Guangdong.

The tax rate is not high. In Hongwu years, according to the tax rate of "two out of thirty", now it is two taels of tax for every ten thousand catties of pig iron delivered to the factory.After paying the tax, the ticket will be issued, and the goods can be sold only with the ticket.When buying, the local yamen also needs to check and declare taxes according to the ticket: [-] qian for every [-] jin of pig iron, and [-] qian for every [-] jin of wrought iron.

　PS: Section 261 of Volume [-] - Guangzhou Governance will be updated tomorrow

　　
　
(End of this chapter)