Renovating the iron furnaces takes much less time than setting up new furnaces. There are many iron furnaces in the Xujia Ironyard. In less than ten days, all nine furnaces were renovated. The wet mud on them was dried, leaving only the furnaces to be opened to produce molten iron.
On the day when the furnace was reopened, the Xujia Ironyard was full of miners waiting to start the furnace.
"Young master, we have prepared enough charcoal fire. Do you want to start a fire?" Manager Xu said to Xu Shunqing.
Xu Shunqing waved his hand impatiently and said: "Make a fire, light a fire. If you get rid of the iron water, I can go back and report my merits to the old man."
The days he lived in the iron yard were boring him to death. He couldn't even play with a handful of money. The miners in the iron yard were poor, so it was not fun at all. Moreover, the miners were dirty and smelly. It turns out that he has no intention of making money at all.
"Fire!" Manager Xu shouted.
All the iron furnaces quickly ignited the coke, and waves of heat and thick smoke came out.
"Stovemaster, this stove stores heat really well! I've never seen such a good stove." The speaker was a veteran who had worked in the ironworks for many years.
Ventilation, heat recovery, and coke saving were all things that seemed mysterious at first, but after the renovation, I discovered that they were not that complicated at all.
Not far from the iron stove, a stick of incense was lit.
It takes almost an hour for a stick of incense to burn out.
The experienced furnace master calculates how long the iron furnace will take to burn based on the amount of iron stone and coal.
If the time is short, the molten iron coming out will be substandard; if the time is long, the iron furnace will be in danger.
From time to time, several furnace masters at the iron yard instruct the miners to open the small door of the regenerator and let in some fresh air.
Manager Xu listened to the crackling sound coming from the furnace and knew that as the fireworks in the furnace were rising and burning fiercely, the temperature of the furnace would naturally be higher and the molten iron coming out would be better.
The reason why the iron furnaces in Hutou Village produce more molten iron and less impurities is because the furnace temperature is high.
Several miners holding iron hooks were guarding the edge of the brick road. At the end of the brick road were shallow pits with some lines drawn horizontally and vertically in them. The molten iron from the iron furnace flowed into the pits and became iron plates.
One of the old miners was closest to the iron furnace. He heard something wrong in the furnace and suddenly shouted: "Something happened, the furnace is about to explode, run!"
While shouting, he waved to others and quickly ran away.
At this time, life is of course the most important thing.
The man in charge of the iron stove also ran away quickly. The iron stove was really going to explode, and it would be difficult for the people next to the iron stove to survive.
"Young master, hurry up, the furnace is about to explode." Manager Xu came over, grabbed Xu Shunqing, and ran behind him.
Butler Xu next to him also reacted very quickly. When he saw someone running, he immediately realized that something was wrong and hurriedly protected Xu Shunqing and fled away.
Xu Shunqing was still a little confused.
Although he is the eldest son of the Xu family and the iron farm belongs to his family, he knows everything about the iron farm and the rest.
At this time, he was being dragged away, his face still full of confusion, and he had no idea what was going on.
Suddenly, several furnaces made loud noises one after another, and the sticky molten iron splashed out, hitting many miners who had not had time to escape.
Many miners who were splashed jumped on the spot and screamed, and then continued to stagger forward.
There were explosions from the nine iron furnaces one after another. Bricks and molten iron were flying everywhere. The entire iron yard was in a mess, and many miners were running around like headless flies.
The foreman of the iron yard ran around among the crowd, but his heart was full of panic.
He is an old miner, and he knows the situation of the iron furnace very well. He always followed the instructions of the furnace master brought by Wang Shuochen, but the iron furnace in the Wang family's iron yard was fine. Why did the Xu family's iron furnace suddenly fail? The furnace exploded.
As soon as this thought crossed his mind, he thought of the possibility that the iron furnace renovation was a conspiracy.
It took half an hour for the molten iron to stop splashing, and the crowd at the Xujia iron yard finally gathered again.
"It's over, it's all over..." Manager Xu squatted on the ground, holding his hair with both hands.
All nine iron furnaces in the iron yard exploded. The Xu family iron yard was finished, and so was he, the manager of the iron yard.
Xu Shunqing's face was pale and bloodless.
"The Xu family is finished." Butler Xu looked at the molten iron in the iron yard that had not completely solidified and said in a low voice.
As the chief steward of the Xu family, he knew that these iron furnaces were the foundation for the Xu family's survival.
There are so many connections that need to be managed every year, and they are all done based on the profits produced by the iron yard. The deputy inspector in Taiyuan never makes less money every year, but he only talks about his own clan to the outside world. The name of property and distribution of money according to the system sounds better than bribery.
The nine iron furnaces were all large furnaces. Each furnace cost upwards of 2,000 taels to build. They all collapsed. It would cost upwards of 2,000 taels to clean them up and rebuild them. Moreover, molten iron would not be produced for a long time.
The Xu family needs food and wages to support so many people. I am afraid that more than half of it will be laid off. After careful calculation, the Xu family will lose half of the wealth they have saved over the years.
After all the extravagant wealth was gone, almost everyone left, leaving only houses, shops and fields. Some of the fields were even taken away by Hutou Village. The Xu family was completely weak this time.
More importantly, there is also the Dongshan Chamber of Commerce in Dongshan, which is eyeing it. When the Xu family iron yard is rebuilt, I am afraid that Dongshan will already be dominated by the Dongshan Chamber of Commerce, and there will be no place for the Xu family to gain a foothold.
At this time, Butler Xu had already guessed that he had fallen into someone else's trap.
It was fine for others to use, but something went wrong as soon as the Xu family iron yard was used, and the iron furnace was directly burned down, causing such a huge loss.
"Steward, steward, what's going on?" Xu Shunqing pointed at the ruined iron stove with a trembling finger.
Butler Xu sighed and said, "Master, please go back to the county seat. We can't hide this matter. We can only tell the master and wait for him to make a decision."
"Yes, yes, go back to the county town and find the old man. He will definitely have a solution." Xu Shunqing seemed to have grasped a life-saving straw.
Even if he didn't understand what was going on in the iron yard, he knew something serious was going on when all the iron furnaces were destroyed.
Steward Xu glanced at Steward Xu who was squatting on the ground, and when he saw that he was looking at the place where the furnace was blasting with empty eyes, he left the iron yard with Xu Shunqing without saying anything.
Such a big thing happened in the iron yard. The whole iron yard was destroyed and people were in panic. No one paid attention to the departure of Manager Xu and Xu Shunqing.
"Steward, what should we do next?" The iron manager squeezed out the crowd and found Steward Xu.
Manager Xu said hoarsely: "It's over, it's all over, I'm done, and the Xu family is done too."
The furnace master said: "The renovation of our iron furnaces is done according to Wang Dong's instructions. But now the iron furnaces in their iron fields are fine. On the contrary, our Xu family's iron furnaces are blowing up. I'm afraid this matter has nothing to do with them." It doesn’t matter.”
"I know." Manager Xu said in a dull tone.
As the manager of the iron yard, he is not a fool. At this time, he would not be able to guess what is going on behind the scenes.
Wang Shuochen's iron furnace was also renovated, but there was no problem at all. However, Wang Shuochen led people to renovate their Xu family iron yard, but there was a problem. It would be strange to say that this matter had nothing to do with Wang Shuochen.
But the top priority now is not to settle the score with Wang Shuochen, but how the Xu family will gain a foothold in Dongshan in the future.
After this incident, he believed that most of the proprietors of the Dongshan Association's iron factories would turn to the Dongshan Chamber of Commerce.
