Daming Military Empire

Chapter 22 Steel
Yinshi four quarters, that is, four o'clock in the morning, is the darkest time before dawn, most of the common people are still asleep, but the Qianqing Palace in the Forbidden City is already brightly lit.

Qin Mingyue led a group of maids, and walked into the emperor's bedroom with toiletries. At this time, Zhu Cijiong was fast asleep, and his small mouth was chattering, wondering what delicious food he was eating in his dream.Qin Mingyue walked to the dragon bed lovingly, bent down, and whispered in the little emperor's ear: "Your majesty, it's time to get up, the morning time is almost here."

Zhu Cijiong's biological clock is also relatively punctual, and he is about to wake up at this time, when he hears someone calling, he immediately opens his eyes, a beautiful face is reflected in his eyes, it is Mingyue!He immediately lifted his spirits, opened his arms and hugged Qin Mingyue, and gave him a slap in the face.

Qin Mingyue picked him up with a smile, and with the assistance of two court ladies, helped him put on the court clothes, and then helped him to wash up.

As soon as everything was tidied up, Cao Huachun's respectful voice sounded at the door: "Your Majesty, the dragon chariot is ready."

Hearing this, Zhu Cijiong opened his arms, and Mingyue next to him squatted down cooperatively, gently picked her up, walked slowly to the dragon chariot outside, and gently placed him on the dragon chariot.

At this time, Cao Huachun on the side looked over with a questioning gaze. Although Zhu Cijiong was a little bit reluctant, he still nodded slightly.

Cao Huachun immediately said loudly: "Get up."

The eight eunuchs who were kneeling on one knee immediately stood up, and the guards in front and behind also quickly raised the banners in their hands, and a group of people walked towards the Huangji Hall in a mighty manner.

Watching Long Nian out of Qianqing Palace, Qin Mingyue turned around and walked towards the side hall where she lived. The morning court lasted at least an hour, and this period was a good time to practice swords.

She has been in the palace for three days. Originally, when her aunt Qin Liangyu asked her to enter the palace to protect the little emperor, she was very worried. She has not grown up yet, so she is suddenly asked to take care of the child. know how to bring.

Fortunately, the little emperor is already five years old, so she basically doesn't need to worry about it, but she doesn't like walking a little, so she will carry her wherever she goes.Moreover, the little emperor treated her too well, specially arranged for her an independent side hall next to the bedroom, and directly appointed her as Shang Palace.This Shang Palace is the chief steward of the maids, a senior official of the fifth rank, but the little emperor seems to be not very satisfied, thinking that the rank is too low.

Now she has slowly adapted to life in the palace, and her aunt Qin Liangyu has also led the officers and soldiers of the Shenji Battalion into the city, and is stationed in the imperial city outside the Forbidden City.Every day when she has free time, she brings her two elder brothers to see her, and she is even less panicked when she has the comfort of her relatives.

She felt that this kind of life was quite good, and she had nothing to do all day long, as long as she was with the little emperor, at most she just hugged him around.Of course she doesn't dislike such a cute child. After a few days together, she feels closer and closer. If she had known that entering the palace is to hug a child, she wouldn't be so worried. She just hugs it. Yes!
Of course, these are Qin Mingyue's feelings, our little emperor Zhu Cijiong doesn't think so.Ever since Qin Mingyue entered the palace, Zhu Cijiong suddenly felt that the whole palace had become more cordial.He used to feel like he was living in the Palace Museum and he was just a tourist, but now he feels more and more that the Forbidden City is like his home.

Every morning when I wake up, I can see Mingyue, a peerless little beauty, and besides going to court and sleeping, the two are inseparable at other times.Zhu Cijiong feels like a young man in love, he can't help but take the initiative to cling to him, pretending to be silly and being cute, just to smile for Bomei.She even pretended to be tender without limit, refused to walk, and let Qin Mingyue hug her wherever she went.

If it were before Qin Mingyue entered the palace, if any court lady dared to hug him, he would definitely roll his eyes angrily.What are you hugging, I'm already in my 20s, you treat me like a child?Now he doesn’t think he’s in his 20s. He’s only five years old. It’s not a problem if he pretends to be three or four years old. Anyway, I’m not good at walking, so I need Mingyue to carry me!
Happy times are always short. Zhu Cijiong had only been with Qin Mingyue for three days when Xu Guangqi came to report that the first drilling machine was ready.

Zhu Cijiong suddenly came to his senses, now is not the time for love and affection, Daming is still waiting for him to save him, he can't imitate King Zhou of Shang and Emperor Ming of Tang, and destroy the country because of the Bomei people's smile.What's the "beacon fire drama princes", what's "a concubine laughing on a ride in the world of mortals", no one knows that it is litchi. 'That's a lesson!

Besides, he can't do anything other than smile at Bomei, after all, he is only five years old, his body doesn't allow it!
It was still important to get down to business, so he shamelessly opened his arms to Qin Mingyue next to him. Qin Mingyue naturally knew what he wanted to do, and immediately squatted down, picked him up with ease, and followed Xu Guangqi to the side hall where the drilling machine was installed. .

Xu Guangqi muttered as he walked in front: "Why is it that the emperor can't walk anymore? He used to be able to run without any problem!"

Zhu Cijiong naturally didn't know what he was muttering in his heart, and even if he knew, he didn't bother to pay attention to it. He was tired of explaining the drilling machine to her in Mingyue's arms. The old man in front of you.

Soon after they came to the side hall, Bi Maokang and others had already gathered around the drilling machine, waiting for him to give the order to start the experiment.

Although Qin Mingyue had already heard him introduce it on the way, it was the first time she saw such a strange thing and was shocked.

This is simply a bronze monster!

On the left is a huge gear with a small gear, and a round cylinder is attached to it, and a copper kettle for boiling water is attached to the cylinder.

On the right are two huge copper blocks nearly half a meter wide. There is a groove in the middle of the copper block, and a solid copper rod as thick as two fingers is sandwiched in the groove.

The left and right sides are connected on a horizontal line by two arm-thick round wooden poles, and these two round wooden poles are fixed at a height of one meter by two thick wooden boards.There is also a wooden table below, on which a rack is fixed, and there is a gear that can shake on the rack, and the gear is connected to the copper block on the right through a round shaft.

Zhu Cijiong took a closer look and felt that there should be no problem, so he ordered: "Let's start."

Hearing this, Xu Guangqi stepped forward and opened the steam valve of the new work, puffing all over his body, and following the movement of the cylinder, the drill bit immediately spun rapidly.

Song Yingxing carefully turned the gears on the workbench, and the copper pillar slowly approached the drill bit. There was a slight sound of friction, and the drill bit slowly penetrated into the copper pillar.Everything went smoothly, and within less than a cup of tea, the drill was already a third of the way in, but Song Yingxing obviously felt that the gears couldn't turn.He quickly reversed the gear, shook the copper pillar backwards, and the drill bit was slowly exposed. The two sharp edges and corners had been smoothed. Song Yingxing immediately turned off the steam switch, replaced it with a drill bit skillfully, and continued drilling. stand up.

It took about a quarter of an hour, and after changing three drill bits, the half-meter-long copper pillar was finally drilled through.

Song Yingxing opened the clamp, clamped the copper column into a bucket of cold water with iron tongs, let it cool down, and put it in front of his eyes eagerly to observe the condition of the inner wall of the copper pipe. The drill is much smoother, and such a barrel is almost impossible to explode!"

Zhu Cijiong is not concerned with this issue, but with the drill bit: this drill bit is too durable, you have to change three for a copper rod, and ten or so for an iron rod!

He asked Song Yingxing, and it turned out that the drill bit was made of high-carbon steel copied by the steel copying method. There were too many impurities inside, and the carbon element was unevenly distributed. After quenching, the hardness could not meet the requirements of the tool steel.

What to do, this gun can't be made of bronze, one or two is fine, if it is made [-] to [-], or even a hundred thousand, where can we find so much bronze?Besides, the material of this bronze is soft, and it is easy to deform after being heated. Once deformed, the gun is easy to explode, so it is really not suitable for use as a barrel.

He looked through it carefully in his mind, and found that there was indeed a method of smelting steel, and it was a simplified version of the blast furnace steelmaking method of later generations.As a process engineer, he naturally knows how blast furnace steelmaking works. The steelmaking furnace provided by this system is not as large as later generations, and it does not need to be wrapped with steel plates like later generations. A thicker small blast furnace will do.

Such a small blast furnace can process one or two hundred catties of steel each time, and the process is relatively simple. A certain proportion of charcoal and coal is added to fully burn the molten pig iron, and an appropriate amount of limestone and greisen are added to aid in the decomposition of impurities. agent, high-quality low-carbon steel can be produced.Then use the popular hundred-refining method of the Han Dynasty to repeatedly beat and carburize, and then high-quality medium-carbon steel and high-carbon steel can be produced.

Low carbon steel is flexible and can be directly used to make barrels.

Medium carbon steel has moderate flexibility and can be used to make springs and shrapnel after quenching.

High carbon steel is relatively hard and can be used to make drills and knives after quenching.

(End of this chapter)