Looking at the piece of steel in Liu Qing's hand, Song Huan had mixed feelings in his heart.
With the current forging technology of Daliang, it is simply impossible to make steel!
This small piece of steel was barely made by a few top craftsmen after days and nights of sleepless efforts.
The fundamental reasons are nothing more than two points -
First, if you want to forge steel, you have very high requirements for materials.
The purchase of these raw materials costs a lot of money.
Secondly, forging steel has extremely demanding and almost abnormal requirements on heat.
If the temperature is a little different, the material will not be able to be formed at all!
As for refining, plasticity, continuous casting...
These techniques place high demands on the craftsmen themselves.
There is no shortage of talents in Daliang today, especially in the capital, where skilled craftsmen can be found everywhere.
But it can be said that there is no furnace that can forge steel!
After finally forging this small piece of steel, all the furnaces used have been scrapped.
So the top priority right now is to build a good furnace that can forge steel!
Song Huan understands that with the current technological development, it is basically impossible to use technologies such as electric arc furnaces, induction heating furnaces and liquefied petroleum gas furnaces.
Only the blast furnace method does not require electricity and only uses charcoal and other combustible materials as raw materials to refine iron ore.
Therefore, the top priority right now is to reserve a large amount of raw materials and first build a furnace that can withstand high temperatures.
Once we have enough steel, we can easily build boiler plants and so on.
However, to put it bluntly, all of this requires a large amount of funds to support it.
Therefore, Song Huan paid special attention to the sponsorship of the steelmaking plant!
Liu Qing was very excited to see that many businessmen were very interested in this steel.
"Bosses, don't get excited!"
"one by one!"
"As long as everyone is willing to sponsor, no matter how much or how little, His Highness can promise everyone!"
“I will definitely put your company name on the steel packaging!”
"This...this is called advertising!"
Although Liu Qing didn't understand what the so-called "advertising" meant.
However, since Song Huan said so, he simply followed suit.
No matter what he means! Anyway, what the prince said is correct!
After hearing the word "sponsored", everyone who was excited just now suddenly stopped and became quiet.
After a long while, someone asked cautiously: "That..."
"May I ask, Your Majesty, if we are willing to sponsor, can you give us the secret recipe for forging steel?"
"Even if we have to sponsor a certain amount of money before we can get the secret recipe, we are still willing to do it!"
"Yes, my lord!"
"We promise that once this secret recipe is in our hands, we will never leak it!"
Hearing this, Song Huan suddenly became furious!
The reason why these businessmen were so excited just now was because they saw the business opportunities in this!
Although Song Huan had known for a long time that among these businessmen, although there were brave and loyal red-top businessmen, there were also many sly and cunning businessmen.
I just never expected that these people could scheme to such an extent!
Song Huan looked around at everyone coldly and smiled.
"Before coming here today, I didn't have much hope for you at all."
"So, I have set a principle for myself!"
"As long as you are willing to sponsor, no matter how much or how little, even if it is only a hundred taels of silver, I am willing to express my gratitude to you on behalf of Daliang!"
"After all, as royal merchants, you enjoy higher treatment than other merchants, so you should express it, right?"
"But I really underestimated the extent of your shamelessness!"
"The purpose of the steelmaking plant is not to make profits, but to benefit the people of Daliang and improve Daliang's national strength!"
"How good of you! You are so short-sighted that you can only see the petty profits in front of you, but you can actually see this matter as a business opportunity!"
"With your vision and mind, how can you become such an important businessman?"
"If I were you, you might as well bow your head, shut up, and leave this place of right and wrong as soon as possible!"
Song Huan's angry rebuke made all the businessmen present feel ashamed and lowered their heads in shame!
However, the reason why they were ashamed was not because Song Huan's speech awakened their inner conscience.
It was because they were too anxious just now, which made them all regret it!
If I had known earlier, I wouldn't have been so urgent just now.
Seeing that the scene fell into embarrassment, Chen Xin stood up again and said loudly to everyone: "I, Chen Xin, are willing to spend 10 million taels to sponsor Prince Rong to build a steelmaking plant!"
What?
Ten million taels!
Everyone looked at him in disbelief, and the expressions on their faces looked as ugly as if they had just eaten three kilograms of Ollie!
Didn’t you just take out five million taels?
Why did you come up with another ten million taels now!
How many assets does Chen Ji Pawn Shop have?
Seeing the disbelief on this person's face, Chen Xin smiled happily.
"I have long said that I am not here to regain my identity as an imperial merchant, nor am I here to gain any connections!"
"Just to have a clear conscience!"
"Every man is responsible for the rise and fall of the country. Since I have such ability, I am destined to make this contribution to Daliang!"
Looking at Chen Xin's firm gaze, Song Huan nodded appreciatively.
What he said just now was like a slap in the face to others!
Didn't these people just call themselves righteous men and accuse Chen Xin from the moral high ground?
At this moment, Chen Xin used his actual actions to shut up these people!
As soon as Chen Xin finished speaking, Shen Mei applauded: "Okay!"
"Boss Chen, what a 'Everyone is responsible for the rise and fall of a country'!"
"Although I am a woman, as a businessman from Daliang, I also understand this truth!"
"My Shen family is willing to spend another 20 million taels to support Prince Rong!"
Two...twenty million taels!
Everyone present looked a little dull for a moment!
I thought there was something wrong with my ears!
In their understanding, Shen Wanshan often donated money to the imperial court in the years when he was still there.
The Shen family's business has been going downhill. How could there be such a big deal, and they could get 20 million taels of silver in one go!
But what they didn't know was that before Song Huan intervened in the Shen family's business, Shen Mei really couldn't afford so much money.
But since Song Huan and Shen Mei cooperated, everything has become different.
Twenty million taels of silver is not a small amount, but it is not out of reach for Shen Mei!
No one expected that Shen Mei would have such courage.
For a moment, the whole place was silent, and everyone just stared at Shen Mei, as if they had never seen such a lunatic like her.
