Perhaps the red fire ants and the Angel King Legion currently have their own advantages and disadvantages in managing the affiliated ant tribe, but the protagonist is not ready to change the current system for the time being.
At present, the four affiliated ant clans of the Divine Envoy King's legion have gradually formed a large scale, and their respective leaders have been designated by the protagonist. For example, the leader of the pavement ants, the male ant, is the descendant of King Fuye "Floating Leaf II", and the leader of the Sickle Ant Hunter The leader male ant is "Kite II", a descendant of Kite, the leader male ant of belly-lifting ants is named "Xinxin", and the leader male ant of leaf-cutting ants is named "Dakong".
Rushing to reform management methods now is like insisting on revolution in a well-functioning country, which can easily lead to chaos.
Moreover, there are no obvious shortcomings in the current management method. The protagonist decided to operate as usual without making changes.
——I am the dividing line——
After inspecting the four urban areas affiliated with the ant clan one by one, the protagonist rushed to the smelting blast furnace area near the southern periphery of the main city.
Today, if nothing goes wrong, the first batch of iron will be produced from the blast furnace. This is a significant event, and the protagonist must be present in person.
Before winter began, the Angel King's Army had acquired all the hematite ore stored by the red fire ants through trading, and spent a lot of money to hire thousands of ants to transport the ore in batches to [Xinyang City] ], and then transported back to the warehouse in the city by the big-headed ants.
Although winter started early this year, because hematite was the top priority cargo, all of it was delivered. On the contrary, other subsequent goods are stranded and will probably be delivered after spring. Fortunately, these goods are not urgently needed.
After obtaining the first batch of hematite ore and the blast furnace was built, the Divine Envoy King's Legion conducted its first experimental iron smelting.
The Divine Envoy King's Legion had only experience in smelting copper before, and had never smelted iron. What's even more troublesome is that the ants responsible for smelting copper before the Divine Envoy King's Army have all gone to the swamp and cannot come back. The protagonist had to train a new group of iron-making worker ants to do this work
The protagonist also reorganized the scientific research team. All members are composed of descendants of his own magical worker ants. He was named "Xiao Mi III" by the leader. Although there is no direct connection between her genes and Xiao Mi, the name is more of a For a kind of inheritance.
Returning to the matter of iron-making, although these iron-making worker ants newly trained by the protagonist received and learned the information package from the protagonist, they still lacked practical experience, which led to many problems during the first iron-making experiment, and there was also an accident. , several ants were killed or injured.
In the end, the first iron-making experiment failed. This was also foreseeable, but the reason was not due to operational errors.
After the protagonist waited for the blast furnace to cool down, he went in to inspect and found that among the ashes on the ground, the hematite ore remained solid, but there were some traces of melting on the surface.
This is a sign that the furnace temperature is too low. This problem has occasionally occurred when smelting copper in the past.
There are many ways to increase the furnace temperature, such as heightening the blast furnace to accommodate more fuel, thickening the furnace wall to enhance thermal insulation, improving fuel, increasing ventilation, adding combustion accelerants, etc.
Since it is difficult to improve the blast furnace now, the protagonist can only think of ways to deal with fuel and ventilation.
When iron was first smelted, the fuel in the blast furnace was some fire-resistant hardwood, and this fuel has been used in copper smelting.
The melting temperature of copper only needs 1000 degrees, while iron needs 1500 degrees. Obviously, the furnace temperature that this kind of hardwood fuel can provide is not enough to melt iron ore.
The protagonist decided to use charcoal as fuel instead. Charcoal can provide higher heat and is not difficult to burn. An iron-making blast furnace can be used to burn charcoal.
Fortunately, it hadn't snowed yet. The ants collected a large number of dry branches in the woods, moved them back to their nests, and then cut them into small sections with gravel cutters for storage.
By the time the first furnace of charcoal was fired, heavy snow had covered the ground. The protagonist estimated that the previously stored wood was not enough to burn enough charcoal for smelting all the iron ore.
But now that he can no longer go out, the protagonist can only use the existing wood to smelt as much iron as he can, and the rest will be decided in the spring.
This time for formal iron making, most of the blast furnace cavity is filled with charcoal, and only a small amount of iron ore is filled between the charcoal, so the consumption of charcoal is much greater than that of iron ore.
The protagonist has arrived at the blast furnace, and waves of heat sweep over him. The walls nearby are scorched dry, unlike other parts of the lair that feel damp to the touch.
There are only a few worker ants near the blast furnace mouth turning the blower. The blower was made by the protagonist and the research team. It is made of kneaded insect leather and extends forward through a small wooden tube. The last part of the tube is a mud-coated pipe. Copper pipes, connected directly to the blast furnace.
The copper pipes used here were heated and made with some copperware brought from the hometown, which also consumed a lot of manpower and material resources.
The blower can provide additional wind power and increase the furnace temperature. It is located several decimeters away from the blast furnace mouth, but it is still extremely hot there and is not suitable for ants to stay for a long time.
Ants who go to work at the blower have to smear their entire bodies with water drops before going to work. In this way, they can only stay for half a minute before escaping quickly. Team members must be constantly replaced to ensure the normal progress of the blower.
Maybe a water- or wind-powered blower should be developed next year, the protagonist thinks.
At this time, it had been half a day since the ironmaking blast furnace was ignited. The mouth of the blast furnace was completely sealed by mud, and the color of the fire inside could not be seen clearly. Based on the experience of copper smelting and the lessons learned from the failure of the first iron smelting, the protagonist estimates that the iron ore inside should have almost melted.
So the protagonist ordered the furnace to be turned on. The ants first braved the heat and used long wooden poles to push the pottery channels and molds that had been prepared to a low-lying designated position in front of the blast furnace mouth.
Then dozens of soldier ants worked together to pierce the mud seal with a long stick tied with pointed gravel.
The hot red molten iron instantly lit up the dark ground, causing all the ants to subconsciously raise their forelimbs to block their eyes.
The molten iron mixed with iron slag is flowing down the channels to the molds. Some worker ants and soldier ants work together to use long wooden sticks covered with mud to pull the iron slag. Otherwise, if the cast tools and weapons contain too many impurities, the performance will be greatly reduced. .
The molten iron rushed out, indicating that the iron smelting was successful. The remaining process was similar to that of casting bronze. The protagonist no longer stayed around, but hurriedly retreated to a cooler place.
The protagonist is very excited. He knows what the success of iron smelting means.
The Legion of the Divine Envoy King was not only able to continue to maintain metal technology, but also entered the Iron Age from the Bronze Age, which meant greater development of productivity and combat effectiveness.
In the protagonist's imagination, an invincible army, all equipped with steel jaw knives and covered with steel armor, is overwhelmingly defeating the Destroyer and counterattacking towards their homeland!
