"How is the output of pig iron and cement?" Li Ke asked immediately. This was related to the mass production capacity of some of his products, and of course he attached great importance to it.
"Based on the output of ordinary blast furnaces, pig iron is at least a hundred times the current output of Datang, while the output of a single furnace for steelmaking is three hundred to one thousand times that of Datang. The point is that whether it is blast furnace ironmaking or open-hearth steelmaking , we can build a large number of blast furnaces and open hearths." Tian Meng whispered, he couldn't help but be careless, if this thing spreads, it is estimated that the wealthy family will go crazy again, anyway, the eldest grandson family will go crazy.
Li Ke sneered. The iron-making technology of the Tang Dynasty had improved a lot compared to the Han Dynasty, but what Li Ke came up with was blast furnace iron-making based on modern foundations. Many people here tend to have a misunderstanding about blast furnace steelmaking. The reason for this misunderstanding is that later generations have seen the period of crazy soil blast furnace steelmaking.
In fact, all the steel produced by the earthen blast furnace is scrap steel, which is basically unusable. Moreover, the raw material of the earthen blast furnace is not iron ore at all, but scrap iron, so it has no operability at all.
On the contrary, ironmaking is feasible. Although the blast furnace ironmaking that has been scientifically designed by later generations is not modern ironmaking, it is already the best it can do under the condition of weak basic conditions.
In addition, people in this era did not know how to use coal on a large scale, so Li Ke had already found several large coal mines, which allowed him to rapidly expand the scale of his ironmaking.
In addition, most of the coal has already started to make coke directly. Although the local coking method consumes a lot of money, who gave Li Ke more coal mines? This consumption does not matter. It is impossible to make steel with ordinary coal because the temperature is not enough, but coke can.
The method used in steelmaking is the open-hearth steelmaking method, also known as the Martin furnace. Because many of Li Ke's current processes still have flaws, open-hearth steelmaking cannot be done as it was in later generations, and scrap steel may be produced. It is officially because of this that The open-hearth steelmaking method is used because the open-hearth furnace can flexibly adjust the ratio of pig iron and scrap steel.
This allows some of the unqualified scrap steel they produce to be recycled and can also improve steelmaking efficiency.
In addition, the current open-hearth steelmaking method is not as good as the refined steel produced by the fried steel method plus forging common in the Tang Dynasty. However, the efficiency of this kind of refined steel is hard to describe. Although Li Ke's open-hearth steelmaking method is inferior, the quantity is greater. ah!
In fact, after these steels are refined, they still need to be forged into swords, which means that there is actually no difference in the finished swords.
"Several masters have begun to prepare to combine the blast furnace and the open hearth. When preparing to smelt pig iron, it will go directly into the open hearth and then make steel. This will avoid reheating and melting, which will increase the consumption of coke and cost money." Tian Meng said in a low voice.
"Give it to them. Money is not a problem. You can get as much as you want. In addition, tell them that Lu Daqiang will become the first craftsman to be knighted. The reason why Lu Daqiang was chosen is because of the improvements in papermaking and printing. And if craftsmen like them improve these technologies, they will be next." Li Ke said directly.
"Yes!" Tian Meng took a deep breath. Knowing this news, he was afraid that the craftsmen would not even sleep. It’s crazy that craftsmen can be knighted!
"Has the hydraulic press been assembled?" Li Ke asked another question.
"It's done. There are still some problems with the sealing. Your Highness, the metal sealing ring you mentioned can be used, but the production requirements are high. It requires a master blacksmith to build it bit by bit and polish it into shape." Tian Meng said immediately. Tian Meng's eyes were filled with wonder at this: "Your Highness, why can such a small thing drive such a big power? This is unreasonable!"
"This is very reasonable! This is the power of studying things! These principles actually exist in everything in the world, but we have not discovered it." Li Ke pretended.
Many people have never thought that there is a technology that can be used in ancient times without any sense of violation, and it is not difficult to use. This is hydraulic pressure!
Hydraulic technology seems very advanced, but in fact it is because the theory of hydraulic pressure was discovered too late, and it was naturally even later for humans to use it. But in fact, if you know its theory, you can actually play it in ancient times.
The easiest liquid to find is naturally water, so Li Ke has already played with hydraulic presses in the Tang Dynasty. Of course... in later generations, his so-called hydraulic presses are just toys. Compared with the heavy equipment of a big country that often weighs more than 10,000 tons, he This one really is a toy among toys.
But Li Ke used this thing to figure out the theory for them, and secondly to see if he could make bigger ones for forging large cast iron grinding tools.
"Let these craftsmen study in these aspects, give money if you want, and give people if you want people." Li Ke warned.
"yes!"
"What about cement production?" Li Ke asked again.
"It's very big, because your requirements are not high, your highness. The quantity of cement we produce is not small. It should be enough for us to repair Chang'an City, and the cost is not high." Tian Meng said in a low voice.
It has to be said here that Li Ke calcined all local cement, and it must not be compared with the cement of later generations. Although it is actually not bad, especially under the premise that the quality requirements of ancient projects are not high, there is no problem, but It's still a long way from modern cement, at least not yet.
The effect of these home-made cements cannot be guaranteed to be exactly the same from batch to batch. After all, the iron ore thrown in after calcination and the waste residue after ironmaking cannot guarantee the purity and proportion of the objects inside. Anyway... still the same sentence, Just enough.
"The output is large, which means the cost is not high?" Li Ke thought for a while.
"The main cost is the labor cost of mining ore, plus the cost of transportation, but our coal mines and limestone mines are almost all open-pit mines... and for calcination, there is some cost of building a furnace, but with our human resources, in fact, That's it." Tian Meng didn't know what to say.
The cost of labor in ancient times was actually... too low. In this country where corvee labor was not paid and the money for ordinary work was very little, it was too easy to recruit people during most of the non-farming periods! And some people even work for free if they are in charge of food, because taking care of food means that the people will not consume their own food.
Therefore, the labor cost is not high, at least equivalent to the role of cement, which is simply too low.
"Tell the group of accountants we trained to make false accounts and increase the cost a hundred times!" Li Ke said decisively, nonsense! How can we spend more than 5.7 million yuan to renovate Chang'an City without increasing the cost? ! Oh no, how could it be more than 5.7 million guan? Nonsense, it was more than 7.7 million guan. He still had the 2 million guan compensated by the Zheng family!
"Anyway, I'm telling you, let me account for this cost at least to more than 8 million yuan!" Li Ke added.
Tian Meng: "..."
"How much did we actually spend?" Li Ke was curious.
"About 2.2 million yuan can complete all renovations, including the roads you requested." Tian Meng gave a budget figure.
After a pause, Tian Meng spoke again: "And the important thing is that you told us that money can make money. The money of these businessmen comes directly to our hands, but when we spend money... it is impossible It will be spent all at once, and the initial expenditure may be more than a hundred thousand yuan. It is normal for the entire construction period to last one to two years, or even longer."
