August 20th was a good day for the Qing Dynasty. The Capital Iron Works, which had been painstakingly operated for many years, was built after swallowing up countless lives. It was the first industrial basic system of the Qing Dynasty. It was finally time for him to make his debut. That moment!
Three days ago, the iron factory had already begun preparations. On the loess paved road of Qingshui Po Street, the Yulin New Army was sifting back and forth like a sieve, just in case of an accident!
The workers at the iron plant went through several rounds of interrogations, and even those workers who passed the test were issued special badges. Without a badge, no one could even think of approaching the No. 1 blast furnace and No. 1 workshop when the emperor was in person!
The Qing Dynasty attached great importance to this first batch of molten steel. Xin Jian was one of the members of the technical team responsible for this first batch of molten steel. He was an engineer seconded by the Chinese and steel industry experts from the UK and Germany. They all arrived in the capital half a year ago!
A technical team of fifteen people controlled the production of the first furnace of molten steel in the Qing Dynasty, and these foreign devils and Chinese engineers were dumbfounded!
The German engineer casually said that the higher the iron content in the iron ore, the better the quality of the molten iron and the less residue!
After hearing this, the Ministry of Industry of the Qing Dynasty actually organized two thousand workers to manually screen iron ore at the train station!
Xin Jian and the others, as well as those foreign devils, were all dumbfounded. Two thousand ordinary people were swarming around, hand-selecting iron ore one by one. They wanted the ore with the highest iron content to the naked eye, which was almost impossible!
The first furnace of steel required three tons of iron ore, but the imperial court actually asked workers in western Zhejiang to carefully select from thirty tons of ore!
British engineers discovered that the coal used for coking was actually mixed with a small amount of coal gangue. Logically speaking, this ratio was within the reasonable range of the process and would not affect coking.
But when the officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs heard this, they immediately mobilized more than a thousand people to start washing coal along the Qinghe River!
For half a month, the clear river water turned into coal river water, flowing as black as ink. The Shanxi anthracite coal before coking was washed piece by piece by hand, and the disguised coal gangue was selected from it!
When drying the coal, I saw that hundreds of acres of farmland had been destroyed, and coal was neatly placed. Then let the engineers in charge of the team inspect it!
"This is not steel-making! Is this the Supreme Master's elixir-making?" Xin Jian sighed helplessly!
But Xin Jian knew very well that this industrial zone had cost tens of thousands of Manchu lives to build. The imperial court paid too much attention to him. The little emperor's life-long dream was condensed here!
The industrial dream of the Qing Dynasty will start from here!
There can't be any mistakes. The first batch of steel in the Qing Dynasty wants everything to be smooth sailing!
Such steel-making regardless of cost, such lack of care for manpower, made the engineers from Europe afraid to speak, for fear that these Qing officials would trouble the people if they just said something casually!
What’s even more funny is that when Xin Jian was having a drink with these European engineers at night, he accidentally chatted about the steelmaking method of the Warring States Period or even the earlier primitive era!
At that time, there was a method of making steel called human sacrifice, which meant that human lives had to be sacrificed for every magical weapon, and there were even tragedies like throwing boys and girls, virgin girls, into the furnace alive!
Xin Jian and the others treated it as a joke. After all, it was a bad habit from ancient Greece and Rome long, long ago BC, but these European engineers were so stubborn that they couldn't stand it!
Especially the Prussian engineers were as rigorous as stones and had no idea what joking meant!
From then on, the German engineer simply kept quiet and refused to talk to the court officials. Xin Jian later secretly asked him what was wrong?
The German with a big nose said aggrievedly, "Oh God! I can't let beautiful girls and innocent children be burned to death. I'm afraid these Qing people dragging their tails will throw people into the blast furnace!"
Um...fuck...what else can Xin Jian say? This foreign devil is so easy to deceive. If you give him a fairy tale, they will take it seriously?
How did Xin Jian know that the mysterious Eastern China from ancient times to the present, even in the 19th century, was still a very unknown and legendary country to ordinary Europeans!
Xin Jian decided to tease him, and deliberately said that you should teach us Chinese some unique skills. Now the Chinese steel factory also has many technical difficulties that cannot be overcome!
The German opened his eyes when he heard this. "What? Does the Führer also want to sacrifice his life for the stove? This is impossible. The Führer cannot be so barbaric and ignorant!"
Xin Jian deliberately teased him, "No, no, no... Of course the state-owned steel plant owned by the head of state is good, but it can't stand up to some small private steel plants that don't understand science!"
"You have to know that the Chinese are very progressive, but they also include many people from backward areas. They... well... maybe they can't think about it for a while!"
ah! The head of state is scientific and reasonable, but the Chinese race is too big, and there are still some superstitious and evil-minded people among them! This kind-hearted German with a big nose actually believed it!
What made Xiao Letian even more unexpected was that the German engineer actually visited Xin Jian before leaving China. Before leaving, he asked Xin Jian for 100 silver dollars!
Xin Jian was stunned at that time, "I don't owe you any money? How can you ask for money from me? Didn't the salary given to you by the court be paid to you? You earned ten thousand taels of silver from this trip to China!"
"You didn't let someone dance with you, did you? Did you let someone set up a bet and cheated you?"
The German engineer didn't know what Immortal Jumping was, and said helplessly, "I have a set of process manuals for steelmaking and desulfurization technology! It's the accumulation of my many years of experience!"
"I can't give it to you for free. I'll charge you a symbolic hundred yuan, and I'll sell this patent to you Chinese!"
Holy shit! Xin Jian jumped up at that time. Steel desulfurization technology is a century-old problem that has troubled the Chinese people for many years. It is a headache for the Yuan Dynasty!
This is a very helpless question, because iron ore cannot exist in the form of pure iron in nature, but steel contains many other elements!
The sulfur content in China's iron ore is generally too high, so the steel after steelmaking will also have a relatively high sulfur content!
On the surface, you can't see any problems, but the service life of steel with high sulfur content is not good, it is easy to be brittle, and it is easy to explode when making cannons!
Why did ancient China particularly admire Damascus steel exported from Central Asia? That is what many people often call wootz steel!
This kind of iron ore produced in ancient India, which later became Pakistan, is very pure, has very low sulfur content, and also contains many beneficial elements!
This iron ore is smelted into steel ingots, which is Utz steel! This kind of steel ingot was sold to Syria, and after deep processing, it became the highest level cold weapon recognized in the ancient world!
Damascus steel!
Xin Jian never thought that his lifelong experience in steel desulfurization could be 'cheated' from this German expert!
This business is just, so... amazing!
The German expert boarded the ship and returned to China with one hundred silver coins. When Xin Jian saw him off, the German expert held his hand and asked him to swear to God!
"You must swear to God and your Chinese ancestors! You will never burn girls and children to death again when making steel!"
"That's terrible! That's terrible..."
What else could Xin Jian say? I can only swear to God solemnly!
