Han Du did not blame him at all and waved his hand: "It doesn't matter if you are slow. It just takes more time. We can afford to wait. As long as you continue to buy, you can always buy it. Remember to tell me when you have bought enough."
"Yes." Xiong Shi lowered his head and responded.
Han Du nodded and continued to ask: "Where is Heizi? Is he recovered from his injury? I have important things that I need him to handle."
"It's not completely healed yet, but he's already somewhat healed. If he's not allowed to do strenuous work, he should be fine."
When Han Du heard this, he immediately stood up from his chair and said, "Then what are you waiting for? Go to the banknote bureau."
Xiong Zhu was behind and quickly followed.
Heizi knocked on Han Du's door.
"Come in."
Heizi opened the door and walked to Han Du.
"Sir, are you looking for me?"
"Sit!" Han Du stretched out his hand to signal him to sit down.
Heizi sat on the chair as instructed. He was wearing loose clothes, and the wounds on his body that were being applied with medicine could still be faintly seen.
After thinking for a while, Han Ducai said: "Heizi, what I ask you to do next is very important. You must promise me that you cannot teach it to others without my permission."
Handu finally decided to lay railroad tracks between the coal mine and the road to save manpower and material resources and facilitate mining. But the steel needed for the rails has become a big problem.
Although there was no shortage of iron during the Hongwu period, records indicate that the annual output of iron at this time was 18 million kilograms. But please see clearly, this is iron, not steel. The real start of steelmaking in the Ming Dynasty was from the middle to late period. At that time, people invented a method called "Suzhou Steel" smelting method, which used a method of pouring iron and oxidizing it. Instead, the slag and iron were separated and became Relatively pure tool steel.
But during the Hongwu period, if you wanted to get steel, you still had to hammer it with a hammer.
Han Du doesn't have that much time to knock.
Besides, the amount he needed couldn't be knocked out with a hammer.
A one-meter rail weighs about one hundred kilograms. According to Handu's calculations, a total of about two thousand meters of rails is needed, which means four thousand meters of rails are needed. The weight of a four-thousand-meter rail is approximately 400,000 kilograms, or 200 tons.
In modern times, two hundred tons of steel can be delivered to you with just a phone call as long as you have the money.
But at this time, the consumption of 400,000 kilograms of steel is a nightmare.
Therefore, blast furnace steelmaking is the only way for Handu.
But this method is too important. Once leaked, the consequences will be disastrous.
Thus, there was a scene where Han Du reminded Heizi.
"Sir, please rest assured, Heizi will not tell anyone a word." Heizi stood up and assured Han Du.
Han Du nodded, stood up and took out a long box from the bookshelf behind him.
Open it, take out the drawings he drew, and put them on the desk.
"These are the structural diagrams of what I want you to build. Just look at them here. If you don't understand anything, just ask me."
Heizi nodded and began to look at the drawings carefully.
The two of them kept busy all day long just asking and answering questions. After making sure that Heizi fully understood it, Han Du put the drawings away.
He wasn't going to put this thing here. He had to take it home and find a secret place to hide it.
Next, Han Du asked Mr. Huang to arrange manpower for Heizi and go all out to build the blast furnace.
The construction of the blast furnace was not as easy as Han Du imagined. Countless problems were encountered during the construction process. Fortunately, Han Du spared no expense in mobilizing craftsmen from the entire banknote bureau and worked together to build a simple blast furnace.
Han Du covered his forehead with his hands and looked up at the tall stove, "It's not easy. I thought it would be built in a few days, but I didn't expect it to take more than ten days."
"Sir, can this big jar really make iron?" Mr. Huang is a blacksmith, and making iron is his best skill. But he had never seen anything as weird as a jar before him. Moreover, whether it was imperial iron smelting or private iron smelting, there was no method like Han Du's. There was naturally a bit of doubt in his tone.
It is strange to say that Lao Zhu actually allowed private iron smelting. You must know that this was not allowed in previous dynasties. Because the profits from iron smelting are so great, there has been a saying since ancient times that "the benefits of salt and iron are enough to nourish the country."
But it happened that Lao Zhu came here. With a wave of his hand, he promised the huge profits of iron smelting to the people of the world. The euphemistic name is, hiding wealth among the people.
The people are getting rich, but it is not the people who are rich, but the officials and gentry groups. After these officials and gentry became rich, they had no intention of repaying the royal family, and they even intensified their efforts to cause trouble to the Ming Dynasty.
In Han Du's opinion, this was simply chaos.
Apart from anything else, if Lao Zhu could get some long-term money-making properties for the royal family while he was in power, the Ming Dynasty might not be destroyed if Chongzhen took over. If Chongzhen hadn't been so poor that he couldn't even pay his army and had the audacity to borrow money from princes and ministers, it would have been possible for the Ming Dynasty to be resurrected by him.
Whether it's a royal family or an individual, money comes first.
Without money, everything stops.
In line with the mentality of "a monk can touch it, a poor Taoist cannot touch it", Han Du will naturally not let go of the lucrative ironmaking industry. Moreover, he does not care about the profits of iron-making at all, and is ready to directly participate in the high-end industry of iron-making, steel-making.
"You'll know when the time comes." Han Du smiled and didn't tell Huang Laoming, temporarily letting it go.
After the blast furnace is built, all that's left is to make the casting mold.
Huang Lao and other blacksmiths were naturally familiar with this, but Han Du did not agree to their proposal to use clay molds for casting.
"Why don't you agree to clay mold casting? This is the best casting method in the world today. Only blacksmiths like us in the imperial court can do it. Ordinary folk craftsmen do not have this skill." Huang Lao asked with confusion. Handu.
"Although Ni Fan is good, it still cannot meet my requirements." Han Du shook his head.
Perhaps it was because Han Du had been so miraculous in front of Mr. Huang that many things that others could not do were easily solved by Han Du. So Huang Lao didn't bother to guess and asked directly: "Does your Excellency have any good ideas?"
"Use sand casting." Han Du decided.
Sand casting is the basic process of modern industrial casting. Because the modeling materials used in sand casting are cheap and easy to obtain, the casting mold is easy to manufacture, and it can be adapted to single-piece production, batch production and mass production of castings, so it has been used for a long time.
Mr. Huang nodded and agreed.
Next, Han Du carefully explained to Mr. Huang the method of sand casting, the mixing proportions of sand, clay, water, etc., and how to do it.
After hearing this, Mr. Huang nodded and said: "Put it down, sir. This method is actually not much different from clay mold casting, that is, the materials used are different. I will find a few people to think about it and make sure to get this sand mold. "
"Okay, then I'll trouble Mr. Huang."
A few days later, the molds were made, and a total of ten identical molds were made in a standardized manner according to Han Du's requirements.
The mold was not ten meters long as Han Du originally planned, because Huang Lao and others tried their best together with Han Du, but failed to make it even once. Seeing that it was too big, Han Du simply reduced the length of the rail to five meters. In this way, the production was successful easily.
Everything was ready, Han Du beamed, "Heizi."
"Here you are, sir." Heizi replied immediately from the side.
"Start." Han Du waved his hand.
Heizi then directed the blast furnace to start adding materials.
But Han Du still had something to do, so he left the paper money bureau.
Han Du came to the palace. How long has it been since Lao Zhu appointed him as the Treasurer and Treasurer? So far, even the shadow of the treasure notes has not been seen. Han Du thinks that he should come to Lao Zhu to learn about the progress of the production of the treasure notes, and get some of Lao Zhu's calligraphy by the way.
"My lord, Han Du, pays homage to the emperor."
Lao Zhu raised his eyes and glanced at Han Du with a smile on his face, "I was wondering a few days ago how long it would take for you to come again. I didn't expect you to come much earlier than I guessed. It's not bad. I'm very pleased. .”
After listening to Lao Zhu's words, Han Du suddenly felt cold in his heart. Listening to what Lao Zhu meant, "If he comes late, he will be remembered by Lao Zhu." Fortunately, he came here, otherwise it would not be fun to be remembered by Lao Zhu. The general ledger may be settled at some point.
kindness!
Lao Zhu's favorite thing is to calculate the general ledger, 'either don't do it or do it absolutely' is his motto. How many people are in Lao Zhu's hands just because of this.
"Okay, what do you want to see me for today? Tell me." Seeing that Han Du was in a daze, Lao Zhu asked directly.
"Oh, to report to the emperor, I am going to start making treasure banknotes. I want to ask the emperor to give me some words so that I can engrave them on the treasure banknotes so that all people in the world can admire the holy relics." Han Du said with a smile. .
Well, Han Du's move was mainly to pat Lao Zhu's horse without leaving any trace.
Of course, it is also a good thing for all the people in the world to be able to see Lao Zhu's handwriting. The common people naturally have innate trust in treasure banknotes that can be printed with the emperor's own handwriting. This invisibly increases the credibility of the treasure banknote. For the treasure banknote, it is simply a good thing that falls out of thin air.
After hearing this, Lao Zhu didn't even raise his eyelids, "I'm not a calligrapher. If you want to ask for calligraphy, you can find someone else. If you can't find it, I can recommend two to you."
Lao Zhu comes from a poor background and has been a cowherd since he was a child. Where can he get the chance to go to school? All his knowledge was learned by himself later, including calligraphy. Lao Zhu's calligraphy has never been taught by famous people at all, and he is completely self-taught. When I was young, it was because my family was poor and I didn't have the conditions to ask famous calligraphers for help. Later, when the heroes were divided, it was because I was busy and didn't have time. Later, when I became the emperor, it was even worse now, and there were no so-called famous calligraphers. I dare to teach Lao Zhu calligraphy.
