In Liangzhou, by the Macheng River, two huge and towering masonry towers were erected.
These two tall towers look very much like a chimney with a narrow mouth and a large belly. There are several small openings at the bottom of both sides of the tower. There are also feeding ports for dumping items above. It is obvious that there are furnace throats and furnace hearths. kind of design.
Therefore, this is not a temple or pagoda, but an indigenous steel-making blast furnace built by Zhang Zhao based on records.
It was not easy to do this. When he first captured Shule City, Zhang Zhao gave Cao Shishi his ideas and rough drawings.
In four years, Cao Shisi spent more than 200,000 yuan on Zhang Zhao to conquer the construction of this blast furnace, which was enough to buy hundreds of sets of armor.
But Zhang Zhao was willing to smash it in, because he knew that in later generations, the local method of steelmaking was a waste, but in this era, it was a big killer.
In order to obtain the refractory bricks needed to build a blast furnace, Zhang Zhao even clicked on the red brick technology tree in advance. In order to bake qualified red bricks, he smashed more than 60,000 bricks into them.
However, the red bricks produced can only be used to build blast furnaces and low-rise houses. If they are used to build fortresses, their hardness is still far behind.
"Erlangjun, look at this blast furnace. From top to bottom, it is the furnace throat, furnace body, furnace waist, furnace belly and furnace hearth. They are all made of red bricks, Sanhe soil and glutinous rice juice. No matter how high the temperature is, it can Ensure the safety of the blast furnace.”
Cao Shishi stood next to Zhang Zhao and introduced with his hands on his hips, looking a bit like a chief engineer.
"Are you familiar with the steps? If you can do it, I, Hexi, will have an extra weapon!"
Zhang Zhao was also a little uneasy. He didn't know much about it. If this didn't succeed, hundreds of thousands of dollars would be wasted.
Cao Shishi nodded confidently, and the smelting began. First, the iron ore was crushed, lime and slag were added, then water was added to sinter it, and the coke was also prepared.
Then feed from the charging port at the top of the blast furnace, a layer of iron ore, add a layer of coke, and continue heating and firing to get the original molten iron.
But this is only the first step. Next, the uncooled molten iron must be transported to the converter set up nearby for refining.
The only function of the converter is to continuously stir the molten iron and blow air into the molten iron. This allows oxygen in the air to enter the molten iron, allowing the carbon and oxygen in the molten iron to combine to form carbon dioxide, thereby reducing the carbon content of the molten iron. Purpose.
In this era, the biggest reason for poor iron quality is the carbon content. Zhang Zhao's blast furnace can produce high-carbon steel and low-carbon steel relatively stably, each with its own uses.
Zhang Zhao sat with Cao Shishi from early morning until dusk. In the end, he even got steel that was close to the material of the horizontal sword in his hand from a furnace of steel.
The blue-grey raw steel looked like a metal. Dunzhu took one of the most common iron swords of this era and slashed it, and the iron sword broke with a sound.
Suddenly, there were thunderous cheers!
Man Xiong, Yan Jin and others on the side were overjoyed. Fan Zhi, who came to watch the excitement, even congratulated Zhang Zhao excitedly.
"Sikong has refined this kind of magical iron, which can be forged into magical armor. In the future, he will be able to compete in all directions and be invincible!"
Zhang Zhao accepted all the compliments from Fan Zhi and his group of heroes, and also told Guo Tiance to present the forged low-carbon steel to various officials, big and small, to let them know that I, Zhang Sikong, and Got a magic weapon.
But after everyone dispersed, Zhang Zhao and Cao Shishi sat on a hillside not far from the blast furnace, looking at the mess on the ground in silence.
After taking a few sips of wine, Cao Shishi turned his head and looked at Zhang Zhao.
"Erlangjun, the hydraulic hair dryer you asked me to make has been worn out, and three workers who stirred the molten iron fell ill on the spot.
The red bricks of furnace No. 2 were burned out by the high temperature. The blast furnace has been damaged. After more than a year of storage of coke, less than 30% is left. Three thousand kilograms of iron ore has been smelted, and only less than 700 kilograms of steel have been smelted. "
As he said this, Cao Shishi burst into tears and said, "Erlangjun, I'm sorry for you. Three hundred thousand guan of silver was used to refine only a few hundred kilograms of steel."
Zhang Zhao patted Cao Shishi on the shoulder, and then simply put his arm around his shoulder.
"Everything is difficult at the beginning. At least we didn't fail. I believe you can find a better way.
It doesn't matter if you can't find it. Even if a certain Zhang Erlang throws money at it, he will still get tens of thousands of kilograms of steel! "
While comforting Cao Yanming, Zhang Zhao sighed deeply in his heart. This golden finger is really hard to open.
It seems to be a very simple thing, but there is often a complete system behind it.
If Zhang Zhao wants to use local methods to make steel, he must at least have the ability to produce coke on a large scale, hydraulic and even steam mixers, hair dryers, better quality refractory bricks, and better methods of blowing carbon.
Otherwise, it will be like what he is doing now. He can only get the desired results by using stupid methods in all aspects, using the most primitive methods, relying on a lot of money and manpower to open the way, and paying a huge price.
However, this is destined to be impossible to continue. One pound of steel costs more money than twenty pounds of pig iron. Come on! Open your mother's golden finger!
However, he lost his temper, but Zhang Zhao decided to continue. Since he had already spent 300,000 yuan, he still wanted to make a sound.
It is necessary to create at least one thousand to fifteen hundred super elites who can pierce steel armor with steel swords. The model of the rebel army in the future will be to use a small number of elite forbidden troops and a large number of conscripted soldiers to fight.
"Okay! The grown man wipes away his tears and cheers up. We have to go celebrate! Tomorrow I will follow a certain person to the shooting range. It is said that Liu Di has already built the cyclone cannon. Let's go and see it together!"
Zhang Zhao grinned and coaxed Cao Shishi as if coaxing a child. Speaking of which, it seems that he, Sikong, had lost more than 300,000 yuan, right?
But in the end, he has to go around trying to coax people, and then make a fool of himself and pretend to be fat.
On the way back to Liangzhou with Cao Shishi, Zhang Zhao had a feeling that was getting stronger and stronger. In the future, he could not just spend money to promote this aspect.
He might consider building a college based on the model of later universities, where a hundred schools of thought contend, and use the development of science and technology to promote the development of productivity, instead of relying solely on him to drive it through personal force, as is the case now.
. . . .
In the north of Liangzhou City, there is a special military exercise and training ground. This is also the place where the local shooting ceremony is held.
Zhang Zhao took everyone to visit the blast furnace yesterday. He returned to the city with several hundred kilograms of steel that was of very good quality for this era. He even held a banquet to brag about it. Today he came to the training ground non-stop. The inspection has been done. The technologically mature Camel Cyclone Cannon.
Zhang Zhao took a closer look at the cyclone cannon made by Liu Di. It was still larger than he expected, but a Bactrian camel could still move.
This cyclone cannon is composed of more than eighty large and small parts and can be assembled in about two quarters of an hour.
Every two camels are equipped with a cyclone cannon and several spare parts, and are commanded by a flag captain.
It consists of two main gunners and team mates who are regarded as officers, six auxiliary gunners, three loaders, two sighters, five assemblers, one camel breeder, and three mules and horses.
This is the basic unit of a cyclone cannon, called the flag team, with a total of three officers, 17 soldiers, three mules and horses, and two camels.
Every five flags formed an action unit, with a general responsible for command. Liu Di made a total of 80 camel cyclone cannons for Zhang Zhao, with a total of 1,620 officers and soldiers, and 200 camels.
However, this is still strength on paper, because Zhang Zhao simply cannot afford a dedicated camel artillery force of about 1,600 people.
His current Guiyi Army has 5,000 people in Hanhai Town and Yucheng Town. After conquering Liangzhou and the Six Ministries, he recruited nearly 2,000 more people.
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He now has a population of more than 300,000 and maintains an army of 7,000. These are basically retired soldiers. The number one in the sky is a military force.
So now everyone in Liangzhou is a little restless, as if they are holding their breath.
This is inevitable. With seven thousand standing troops stationed in Liangzhou, it would be completely abnormal if they did not go out to occupy other territories or find a force to fight with.
In other words, the Jincheng Wang family in Lanzhou saw Zhang Zhao's situation clearly, so Wang Zongheng didn't want to join him.
His analysis is actually correct. Zhang Zhao does not lack troops now. What he lacks is how to arrange the territory and property of his thousands of troops.
Zhang Zhao has twenty camel tornado cannons of the flag team to conduct exercises today. The first thing to be carried out is a motorized exercise.
Forty-five camels plus 60 to 70 mules and horses, the speed of transportation on the battlefield is still very fast. Compared with the trebuchet, the camel cyclone gun is quite similar to the self-propelled cannon of later generations.
The main body of the cyclone gun weighing one to two hundred kilograms is mounted on a majestic camel, and the parts are carried by another camel.
The cyclone cannon has two modes. One of them is to mount the cannon body on the camel. It is less powerful but very flexible and can even retreat while firing.
When placed close to complex terrain such as hills, it can suppress the impact of cavalry to a certain extent.
Fanquan gave orders repeatedly, and the red flags fluttered in the wind under the waving of the flag soldiers.
Twenty cyclone cannons aimed forward, and rocks as big as fists hit the wooden figures in front of them who were tied with wooden sticks and wore armor and stomach to represent enemy soldiers.
Even though the wooden people had a stomach, they were immediately smashed to pieces. After this wave of stones were thrown, less than ten seconds later, the next round of stones hit them again. This time, the wooden people were completely smashed. Became piecemeal.
When the cyclone cannon hit the enemy, the soldiers belonging to the cyclone cannon flag team formed two rows of archers and a row of pear-shaped spearmen under the command of the officer.
The pear-shaped spearmen ignited the gunpowder at the bottom of the gun, and the blazing fire dragon spurted out. At the same time, the archers drew their bows and fired, only to hear the sound of swishing, and the ground was filled with arrows.
Bai Congxin, who was beside Zhang Zhao, wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and said to Zhang Zhao.
"Sikong, these whirlwind cannons are really sharp. If eighty of them are assembled and they are fighting and retreating, the sky is filled with falling stones and howling, and there are long gunmen surrounding the screen, I am afraid that even if thousands of cavalry come to charge the formation, they will not be able to please them. "
Zhang Zhao laughed loudly. Yesterday, more than 300,000 guan was used to produce only a few hundred kilograms of steel. The decadence was wiped out.
This camel cyclone cannon is a good thing. Historically, the Xixia people relied on this to make the heavy infantry of the Song Dynasty suffer enough.
And now, he is facing the same thing. The warriors of the Central Plains are tough and brave. Compared with them, the Hexi Army still has a certain gap except for the elite part.
If it can be supported by the Camel Cyclone Cannon, it can destroy the military formation from a long distance. This can greatly reduce the gap between the two armies.
While the two were talking, Fan Shun began to practice another method of using the camel cannon.
That is to disassemble the camel cannon from the camel's back and assemble it on the spot. The stones thrown have also changed from being larger than a fist to being about the size of a baby's head.
With an order, the camel cannon assembled on the ground sacrificed mobility, but its power increased.
Amidst the whistling sound, huge rocks smashed against an earthen city wall that was more than three meters high and one meter wide.
Twenty cyclone cannons followed the adjusted trajectory and focused on one of the areas. In less than five rounds, a large part of the city wall collapsed.
Now it was the turn of Yin Yaozi, who was good at defending the city, to break into a cold sweat.
"I don't expect this cyclone cannon to be so sharp. I'm afraid that in the future, except for big cities like Liangzhou and Lanzhou, in ordinary small counties, if there are dozens of cyclone cannons, they can blast a gap for an hour or two."
Zhang Zhao thought the same way. This kind of smaller cyclone cannon would definitely not be able to attack a tall city.
But it is still very useful to fight some small cities, some small forts, and military villages.
However, before he could announce the rewards to Liu Di and other craftsmen, a horse with three red flags on its back ran over from a distance.
Zhang Zhao took a closer look and found that the person who acted as the envoy to deliver urgent military information turned out to be Fanshun.
What happened that made it so urgent?
Everyone was puzzled. Nothing major happened in Liangzhou recently!
Fan Shun must have rushed all the way from Shenniao County. His face was pale. When he saw Zhang Zhao, he fell off his horse and shouted loudly while he was still on the ground.
"Sikong! Pei Sheren sent news from Kaifeng Mansion in the Eastern Capital. The imperial court has agreed to Sikong's request to be envoy to Hexi Jiedu. There is also a mutiny in Weizhou. Pei Sheren asked Sikong to be ready to send troops."
－－－－－－Digression－－－－－
Today, my company arranged a business trip to a place without expressway access. It took me six hours just to travel by bus. I have just arrived at the hotel and the update will probably be delayed tomorrow. Thank you for your patience!
Woohoo, I miss the days when I could fish casually!
