Zhu Youxiao did not continue to check the firearms, but went directly to the experimental blast furnace. This is also the former site of Tiangong Workshop, but it is located in the place where carriages were made in the past. There is also a water wheel transmission mechanism here. After the steel is produced,

, can directly experiment with hydraulic forging and casting breastplates.

A group of people walked into a factory building, and saw a thick transmission shaft going deep from the side of a wall, and then driving it through countless gear bearings to drive a huge stamping head. The square stamping machine was lifted up by hydraulic power, and then suddenly

When it fell, with a loud bang, the iron plate placed below was stamped into shape, and then the stamping machine was raised. The blacksmith waiting nearby quickly replaced the iron plate, then pressed the handle, and the stamping machine fell down, and so on.

"Your Majesty, please see, this is the result of recent period, hydraulic stamping..." Xu Guangqi introduced eloquently, with an excited expression. The loud roar of the stamping machine was like fairy music in his ears, making him intoxicated.

Zhu Youxiao stepped forward with a smile and inspected the products piled up by the blacksmith. They were two dark iron plates, one in front and one behind. Together, they were roughly the shape of a person's upper body. Zhu Youxiao jumped two pieces and pointed at them.

The person next to me said excitedly, "Li Tu, come over and try it."

Holding two breastplates, he gestured towards Li Tu. Faced with the emperor's movements, Li Tu did not dare to move and allowed the emperor to press the two iron plates on him.

Boom, boom, boom!

Zhu Youxiao knocked twice and found that there were still some gaps after the breastplate was closed, and it could not fit the human body perfectly. But he was already satisfied with it. The only thing that needed to be improved was adding some silk fur lining.

It's perfect. With hydraulic stamping and enough iron material, we can stamp a large number of breastplates continuously, so that each person can make one piece.

He couldn't help but be excited when he thought about how his army would all be wearing iron armor and shining brightly in the sun. Such an army would probably demoralize the enemy just by standing there.

"Good, very good!" Zhu Youxiao praised repeatedly.

After putting down the two breastplates that were still in the early stages, he continued walking forward. This was probably where Xu Guangqi experimented with hydraulic forging technology. The transmission pump had many branches here, and his eyes went to the machine tools.

Yes, they are machine tools. Although these machines are very primitive and crude, they have a variety of functions. They already look like old-fashioned machine tools from later generations, except that one is electric and the other is water-driven.

Hydraulic forging, hydraulic drilling, hydraulic lathes. Zhu Youxiao saw a lot of unexpected things, but he never mentioned these to Xu Guangqi. This was originally one of the purposes of his coming here this time, to teach Xu Guangqi

Some directions of using water power. But before he opened his mouth, he found that the other party had already started to apply it in this area.

"These..." Zhu Youxiao pointed to the primitive machine tools in surprise.

"I saw that some carpenters had similar machines, so I modified them slightly, added water power, and used them to turn iron. The processing of iron and wood are similar, but one is harder." Xu Guangqi explained lightly.

, he looked at the emperor strangely, wondering why he was so excited? To think that the emperor who used water power in such a way should not understand the things in the carpentry trade.

"Haha, I wonder if these can be used to drill holes in gun barrels." Zhu Youxiao smiled and changed the topic to cover up his ignorance. Judging from Xu Guangqi's attitude, these should be things that existed in ancient times.

It’s a shame that you are so self-righteous that you want to come over and teach the other party.

"Not ideal." Xu Guangqi shook his head, pointed at a machine tool and said, "Your Majesty, please look over there. Did you find anything?"

Zhu Youxiao looked at it carefully. After observing carefully for a while, he slowly said, "The knife is not stable enough and vibrates too much."

"Your Majesty's sharp eyes can see the problem right away. That's right. The tool used for drilling is too long and vibrates too much. So far, no good method has been found to stabilize it. If the rotation speed is too low, it will not drill at all, and if it is too high, it will be violent.

Trembling." Xu Guangqi exclaimed with excitement.

After taking over this place, he was able to roughly get a glimpse of the emperor's intentions. He promoted miscellaneous studies and forged firearms and armor to strengthen the army. A strong army would lead to stability in Liaodong, and stability in Liaodong would lead to stability in the country.

"It can't be drilled, but it can be used to bore the barrel." Zhu Youxiao suggested after looking around the machine tool for a while, "You can add a flywheel behind the machine tool." He gestured a circle behind the tool.

, "The flywheel can stabilize the rotational speed and make it smooth, and bore cutting does not require a high rotational speed, so that the tool can be stabilized and finished slowly, which can not only smooth the barrel, but also make corrections."

Xu Guangqi himself was a master of Western learning, and he had devoted himself here for three months, making guns, cannons, and iron. He was very familiar with the art here. After Zhu Youxiao finished speaking, he frowned and thought about it for a while before he realized it.

"Wonderful, it's really wonderful. Your Majesty, I will find someone to experiment with it right now!" After clapping his hands and shouting several times, Xu Guangqi wanted to find someone to put this idea into practice.

"Okay, Xu Aiqing, you can wait for the experiment later. I haven't finished my inspection yet." Zhu Youxiao stopped him funny.

"Yes, yes, I was negligent." Xu Guangqi blushed and continued walking forward with the emperor. In front of him was the place where he was experimenting with smelting iron.

After walking forward for a while and passing through a door, the air heated up in vain. Several blast furnaces filled Zhu Youxiao's field of vision. At this time, it was just the time for the furnaces to be discharged. Scarlet molten iron flowed out from the openings and flowed into the furnace.

Prepare the mold and cool slowly.

"Ironmaking in a blast furnace is relatively simple and has been completed a long time ago. A larger blast furnace is currently under construction and can be put into production soon." Xu Guangqi introduced with a smile. "It is currently being used here to meet the need for iron materials."

"How's the steelmaking going?" Zhu Youxiao was not very happy when he heard this, but asked about steelmaking. He has detailed technical information on steelmaking and ironmaking, which are the three most complete technologies in his mind.

One, the others are shipbuilding and cement.

"Still experimenting." Xu Guangqi replied with a depressed look, "The information given by His Majesty is only a general summary, and the drawings are also very clear. I am still studying the specific structure." After saying that, he looked at Zhu Youxiao strangely, but he didn't know.

I know where the emperor got that set of information.

Although Xu Guangqi has not grasped it in detail, it can be seen from the descriptions that this is a complete, powerful, and step-by-step steel-making technology. The further the steel is made, the greater the amount of steel is made. Xu Guangqi is filled with doubts.

and shocking.

"That's it!" Zhu Youxiao frowned. He had already prepared for this situation. In addition to inspecting the Tiangong workshop this time, he also came to tell Xu Guangqi an idea. After sorting out his thoughts, he expressed his thoughts.

come out.

There are two types of iron, one is called pig iron and the other is wrought iron. Wrought iron has low carbon content and is soft in texture, so it is rarely used in daily life. Pig iron has high carbon content and is relatively hard, so it is widely used in life. Especially

It is cast iron that can now be mass-produced and was used by Xu Guang to produce iron armor and gun barrels.

Pig iron has high carbon content, while wrought iron has low carbon content. If the two are melted and mixed, wouldn't the carbon content be neutralized and it becomes steel?

There is no problem with this method in theory. After several months of experiments, Xu Guangqi has been able to use different ratios of coke and iron ore to refine pig iron and wrought iron without carbon content. The prerequisites are also met, but this

Zhu Youxiao learned the method from a novel. Whether it can work or not is still a question.

And this method is also very stupid. If you want to make steel, you have to make a furnace of wrought iron and a furnace of pig iron, and then experiment with the ratio of the two. This is very time-consuming. There is no instrument to test the carbon content of the two.

, you can only try each ratio slowly.

But no matter whether there was or not, Zhu Youxiao told everything about his thoughts. Xu Guangqi was the expert here, and he was just a second-hand man with some information.

After finishing talking about steelmaking, Zhu Youxiao chatted with Xu Guangqi about some more advanced industrial production concepts, such as flow operations, using the cooperation of different sizes of gears to stabilize the speed, such as the feasibility of direct casting of gun barrels. During the chat, he also

The task of fully producing breastplates and muskets was given, and all manpower was directed towards these two tasks.

In Tiangong Workshop, Zhu Youxiao stayed until sunset before returning to the palace with unfinished thoughts.
Chapter completed!