Ming Dynasty man

Chapter 109 Steelmaking and Cannonmaking
During this period of time, Li Jing mainly focused on the development of firearms and equipment, etc., and handed over all logistics supplies to Shen Zheng and Zhang Ao. Since both of them were budget-conscious, they often ignored many problems.

That is how to resupply in the event of an emergency, such as being besieged by officers and soldiers now.

Li Jing has repeatedly emphasized the food. There are a lot of reserves on this mountain, and the food sown in spring will be harvested soon, so there is no need to worry about food.

But what else?
For example, this table salt.

In addition, it is summer now, what if it is winter?Do you need to prepare some cloth and cotton?Otherwise, wouldn't so many people freeze to death?

Through today's lack of salt, Li Jing found that he had paid too little attention to logistics and supplies in the past.And these are all things that a copycat leader must consider.

Although Li Jing and his subordinates bear the name of bandits, what they do is actually completely different from bandits.It is impossible for him to rob the common people without logistical supplies.

"Be prepared and plan ahead. It seems that I haven't done enough!" Li Jing murmured to himself.

It's just that table salt is a national monopoly, and it has been strictly controlled in all dynasties. It is not something you can buy just by looking at it. How to solve this problem?
Suddenly, Li Jing's eyes lit up.

I know where I can find salt. As long as I find a salt mine, it will not only solve the problem of eating, but the key is to have a way to get money.

Li Jing was able to know where there are salt mines thanks to the tsunami that occurred in the island country a few years ago.

That tsunami caused a nuclear leak. As the nuclear pollution spread to China, many people in the country panicked and began to buy a lot of salt, causing salt shortages in many areas.

Later, some professionals told the public that there is simply not enough salt in China, and the salt produced by a salt well in the Qaidam Basin is enough for China to eat for hundreds of years.

For this reason, Li Jing checked the information specifically, only to know that people in later generations did not eat sea salt, but well salt.Sea salt contains a lot of impurities and is actually for industrial use.

But in the Ming Dynasty, most of the food eaten in the coastal areas was sea salt.

Moreover, salt merchants often adulterate the salt by adding some sand.

That is to say, through that inspection, Li Jing knew that there was an open-air salt mine in Qinghai.

If he can win that open-pit salt mine, it is equivalent to winning a gold mountain.

With this golden mountain, Li Jing can do many things that he wants to do but can't.

Li Jing flipped through the map for a while, but found that there was no map of the Qinghai area, which made Li Jing a little disappointed.

However, Li Jing immediately shook his head. It would be a bit fanciful to think about occupying the salt mine. The siege of thousands of officers and soldiers has not been resolved yet.

After pondering for a while, Li Jing left the house and walked towards Tiger Ridge.

Li Jing wanted to see Zhao Shuangxi lead the craftsmen to make steel.

In fact, the reasons that hinder the development of guns and artillery are not only technical reasons, but also materials.

Take the tiger crouching gun as an example, wrought iron is used to make the tiger squatting gun.

It is conceivable that the barrel made of wrought iron has a very limited ability to withstand gunpowder, heat resistance, and service life.

But what about steel?

That makes a big difference.

Li Jing is highly educated. He knows that steel is much stronger than iron in terms of toughness and strength. The main reason is that iron contains too many impurities, and iron can be divided into pig iron and wrought iron. The difference is the amount of carbon in iron. Whether the content is high or low.Only when the carbon content reaches a certain standard can it be called steel.

In fact, during the Ming Dynasty, the steelmaking process had reached a relatively high level. Craftsmen already knew how to heat and melt pig iron and wrought iron together to make the carbon content meet the requirements of steel. They even knew how to inject air into the furnace. Known to use lime cinder.

When the Laohuling reservoir was built, Zhao Shuangxi and others built a steelmaking furnace next to the reservoir for the convenience of cooling.

However, there was not so much iron on the mountain before, and it was impossible for Li Jing to melt all the weapons for steelmaking, so this steelmaking furnace was hardly used.

But this time the officers and soldiers were defeated and a large number of knives, guns and artillery were seized. With these things, Li Jing was confident enough.

Li Jing asked Zhao Shuangxi to give all the captured weapons to Zhao Shuangxi, and asked him to return to the furnace to make steel.

It has been more than ten days now, and Li Jing estimated that a lot of steel should be produced.

With these steels, Li Jing will first make some artillery.

Then replace the original tiger crouching cannon with a new one, and then return the original tiger crouching cannon, so that the soldiers can keep their weapons available, and they can be gradually updated.

When Li Jing found Zhao Shuangxi, Zhao Shuangxi was leading a group of people to tinker with the steelmaking furnace with an old craftsman, so he didn't notice Li Jing coming.

Li Jing stood behind Zhao Shuangxi and watched for a while. Seeing that these people were drenched in sweat, he smiled and said, "Shuangxi, it's a hot day, let the brothers rest. You see, the brothers are all soaked through." .”

Unexpectedly, Zhao Shuangxi didn't even turn her head: "I know, it will be over soon, and I will rest when I am done."

Suddenly Zhao Shuangxi remembered something and turned around hastily, only to see Li Jing looking at him with a smile.

Zhao Shuangxi was taken aback, and hurriedly knelt down for Li Jing.

Li Jing gently took Zhao Shuangxi's arm, shook his head with a smile and said, "There are not so many rules, just stand."

Zhao Shuangxi hurriedly said: "The subordinates didn't see the head of the family coming, so don't blame them for being rude. Brothers, the head of the family has come to visit everyone."

Immediately, everyone hurriedly stopped what they were doing, and ran to Li Jing to greet Li Jing, saying things like seeing the master.

Li Jing waved his hands and said with a smile: "It's a coincidence that I came here, and I have delayed your work."

"Hehe, the boss is here, the brothers must be motivated enough." The old craftsman next to Zhao Shuangxi laughed.

Li Jing smiled. This old craftsman was one of the earliest craftsmen who followed Zhao Shuangxi to Wang's Grange, and he was also the oldest one. He was over 60 years old and brought his two grandchildren with him when he arrived at Wang's Grange.

Li Jing felt sorry for his old age, and didn't let him do any work. Anyway, there was no need to raise another person on the mountain.

I don't want to meet him here today, and because of his posture, even Zhao Shuangxi has to listen to him when he is playing with the steel furnace.

"Uncle, it's really hard for you to come out to work in such a hot day." Li Jing laughed.

The old craftsman shook his head and said: "This little hard work is nothing. Last year, if the head of the family didn't feed and clothe our grandfathers, our grandfathers would have starved to death. I have no skills, old man, so I can tinker with some crafts Work, the old man's life is given by the master, so why worry about hard work for the master?"

Li Jing smiled, took the hand of the old craftsman, and then waved to the craftsmen who were working: "Everyone find a cool place to rest, Double Happiness, you arrange someone to boil some sugar water for everyone to drink, go Get rid of the heat."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Shuangxi hurriedly asked someone to arrange to go.

After finding a shady place to sit down, Li Jing asked with a smile, "How is it? Can you make steel?"

The old craftsman nodded and said: "Steel has been smelted, but there is something wrong with this furnace, it is slow to heat up, and it is not convenient to discharge the slag."

Li Jing smiled and said, "Uncle, if you say that, there must be a solution."

The old craftsman nodded and said: "I have figured out a solution, but we have to see if it works after we finish it."

Li Jing waved his hand and said, "Don't worry, take your time. If you can't do it in one day, let's take two days. When it's done, it's time to count."

The old craftsman shook his head and said: "Master, the old man knows that there are thousands of officers and soldiers around the mountain. I guess the master has been looking forward to smelting steel to make weapons as soon as possible. Therefore, I let everyone finish the steel first. Start fiddling with the stove. Gou Sheng, show that knife to the boss!"

The craftsman named Gousheng ran out in a hurry, and came over with a knife in a while.

The old craftsman took the knife and handed it to Li Jingdao: "Master, please take a look, this knife was made when we smelted the first furnace of steel to check whether the steel is unqualified."

Li Jing took the saber and felt a burst of cold air, and couldn't help but praise: "A good saber, indeed a good saber!"

The old craftsman said with a smile: "We didn't expect the steel edge of this knife to be so good. At first we thought it wouldn't work."

Li Jingqi said: "Why?"

The old craftsman smiled and said: "We used to use coke to make steel, but we don't have coke here, so we can only use wood. I didn't expect that the effect of wood is better than coke."

When Li Jingwen heard this, he suddenly realized that this was a mistake.

Using wood as fuel just adds to the carbon content.

As we all know, the island country's weapon making technology is very high. In fact, the island country's knife-making technology was passed down from the Tang Dynasty.

One of the reasons why the island nation's knives are greener than blue is because the island nation lacks coal resources, and most of the fuel they use to heat iron is wood.

Don't want to make any mistakes, this will make a better quality knife.

And Hongshanling also has no coal and can only use wood as fuel, so it has achieved the same effect.

But making knives and making guns are two different things.The knife can be forged repeatedly, and it can be quenched multiple times when it cools down, but the barrel and gun barrel cannot be forged, which requires the steel itself to meet the requirements.

After thinking for a while, Li Jing said, "Uncle, I'm not using this batch of steel to make knives, I'm going to use them to make cannons, so the requirements for steel are very high, I hope you will work hard to make better steel. "

"Building a cannon? That thing is more troublesome than making a gun. The key is that the hoops for the cannon barrel are labor-intensive." Zhao Shuangxi interjected.

Li Jing shook his head and said: "You are talking about a tiger squatting cannon. It is made of wrought iron. It needs to add a few hoops, otherwise the barrel is easy to crack, but it is different with steel. You only need to hoop the muzzle. In this way, let me draw a picture for you to see, let’s try to make a door first, and see if it works.”

As Li Jing said, he broke off a branch and began to draw on the ground.

(End of this chapter)