Han Du did not blame him at all and waved his hand: "It doesn't matter if you are slow. It just takes more time. We can afford to wait. As long as you continue to buy, you can always buy it. Remember to tell me when you have bought enough."
"Yes." Xiong Shi lowered his head and responded.
Han Du nodded and continued to ask: "Where is Heizi? Is he recovered from his injury? I have important things that I want him to do."
"It's not completely healed yet, but it's almost healed. If he's not allowed to do heavy physical work, he should be fine."
When Han Du heard this, he immediately stood up from his chair, "Then what are you waiting for? Let's go to the banknote bureau."
Xiong Zhu was behind and quickly followed.
Heizi knocked on Han Du's door.
"Come in."
Heizi opened the door and walked to Han Du.
"Sir, are you looking for me?"
"Sit!" Han Du stretched out his hand to signal him to sit down.
Heizi sat down on the chair as instructed. He was wearing loose clothes, and you could still vaguely see the wounds on his body that were being applied with medicine.
After thinking for a while, Han Ducai said: "Heizi, what I ask you to do next is very important. You must promise me that you cannot teach it to others without my permission."
Handu finally decided to lay a railway track between the coal mine and the road to save manpower and material resources and facilitate mining. However, the steel required for the railway track became a big problem.
Although there was no shortage of iron during the Hongwu period, there are records saying that the annual output of iron at this time was 18 million kilograms. But please see clearly, this is iron, not steel. The real start of steelmaking in the Ming Dynasty was from the middle to late period. At that time, people
He invented a method called the "Suzhou Steel" smelting method, which uses a method of pouring iron and oxidizing it to separate the slag and iron into relatively pure tool steel.
But during the Hongwu period, if you wanted to get steel, you still had to hammer it with a hammer.
Han Du doesn't have that much time to knock.
Besides, the amount he needed couldn't be knocked out with a hammer.
One meter of rail weighs about one hundred kilograms. According to Handu's calculation, a total of about two thousand meters of rail is needed, which means four thousand meters of rail are needed. The weight of four thousand meters of rail is about four hundred thousand kilograms, which is
That's two hundred tons.
In modern times, two hundred tons of steel can be delivered to you with just a phone call as long as you have the money.
But at this time, the consumption of 400,000 kilograms of steel is a nightmare.
Therefore, blast furnace steelmaking is the only way for Handu.
But this method is too important. Once it is leaked, the consequences will be disastrous.
Thus, there was a scene where Han Du reminded Heizi.
"Sir, please rest assured, Heizi will not tell anyone a word." Heizi stood up and assured Han Du.
Han Du nodded, stood up and took out a long box from the bookshelf behind him.
Open it, take out the drawings he drew, and put them on the desk.
"These are the structural diagrams of what I want you to build. Just look at them here. If you don't understand anything, just ask me."
Heizi nodded and began to look at the drawings carefully.
The two of them kept busy asking and answering questions like this for a whole day. After making sure that Heizi understood it completely, Han Du put away the drawings.
He wasn't going to put this thing here. He had to take it home and find a secret place to hide it.
Next, Han Du asked Mr. Huang to arrange manpower for Heizi and go all out to build the blast furnace.
The construction of the blast furnace was not as easy as Han Du imagined. Countless problems were encountered during the construction process. Fortunately, Han Du spared no expense in mobilizing craftsmen from the entire banknote bureau and worked together to build a simple blast furnace.
Han Du covered his forehead with his hands and looked up at the tall stove, "It's not easy. I thought it could be built in a few days, but I didn't expect it took more than ten days."
"Sir, can this big jar really make iron?" Mr. Huang is a blacksmith, and making iron is his best skill. But he has never seen anything as weird as the jar in front of him. And whether it is the imperial court
There is no method like Han Du in iron smelting or folk iron smelting. Naturally, there was a bit of doubt in his tone.
It is strange to say that Lao Zhu actually allowed private iron smelting. You must know that this was not allowed in previous dynasties. Because the profits of iron smelting were too great, there has been a saying since ancient times that "the profit of salt and iron is enough to support the country"
statement.
But it happened that Lao Zhu came here. With a wave of his hand, he promised the huge profits of iron smelting to the people all over the world. He called it "hidden wealth among the people".
The people were getting rich, but it was not the people who got rich, but the officials and gentry groups. After these officials and gentry became rich, they had no intention of repaying the royal family, and they even intensified their efforts to bring trouble to the Ming Dynasty.
In Han Du's view, this was simply chaos.
Apart from anything else, if Lao Zhu could get some long-term money-making properties for the royal family while he was in power, the Ming Dynasty might not be destroyed if Chongzhen was in charge of it. If Chongzhen was not so poor that he could not even pay military pay, he would be so rich.
Even if he has the nerve to borrow money from princes and ministers, it is really possible for him to revive the Ming Dynasty again.
Whether it's a royal family or an individual, money comes first.
Without money, everything stops.
In line with the mentality of "a monk can touch it, a poor Taoist cannot touch it", Han Du will naturally not let go of the huge profit of iron-making. Moreover, he does not look down on the profit of iron-making at all, and is ready to directly participate in iron-making.
High-end industry, steelmaking.
"You will know when the time comes." Han Du smiled and did not say anything to Huang Laoming, temporarily letting it go.
After the blast furnace is built, all that remains is to make the casting mold.
Huang Lao and other blacksmiths were naturally familiar with this, but Han Du did not agree to their suggestion of using clay molds for casting.
"Why don't you agree with clay model casting? This is the best casting method in the world today. Only blacksmiths like us in the imperial court can do it. Ordinary folk craftsmen do not have this skill." Huang Lao asked with confusion.
Handu.
"Although Ni Fan is good, he still can't meet my requirements." Han Du shook his head.
Perhaps Han Du had been so miraculous in front of Mr. Huang that many things that others could not do were easily solved by Han Du. So Mr. Huang didn't bother to guess and asked directly: "
Does your Excellency have any good ideas?"
"Cast it in sand mold." Han Du decided.
Sand casting is the basic process of modern industrial casting. Because the molding materials used in sand casting are cheap and easy to obtain, the casting mold is easy to manufacture, and it can be adapted to single-piece production, batch production and mass production of castings, so it has been used for a long time.
Mr. Huang nodded and agreed.
Next, Han Du carefully explained to Mr. Huang the method of sand casting, the mixing proportions of sand, clay, water, etc., and how to do it.
After listening to this, Mr. Huang nodded and said: "Put it down, sir. This method is actually not much different from clay mold casting, that is, the materials used are different. I will find a few people to think about it and make sure to get this sand mold.
"
"Okay, then I'll bother Mr. Huang."
A few days later, the casting molds were made, and a total of ten identical casting molds were made in a standardized manner according to Han Du's requirements.
The casting mold was not as long as Han Du's original plan of ten meters, because Huang Lao and others tried their best with Han Du, but failed to make it even once. Han Du saw that it was too big, so he simply reduced the length of the rail.
Five meters. In this way, it can be easily produced successfully.
Everything was ready, Han Du smiled happily and said, "Heizi."
"Here you are, sir." Heizi replied immediately from the side.
"Start." Han Du waved his hand.
Heizi directed the blast furnace to start charging.
Han Du, however, still had things to do, so he left the banknote bureau.
Han Du came to the palace. How long has it been since Lao Zhu appointed him as the Treasurer? Up to now, he has not even seen the shadow of Baochao. Han Du thinks that he still has to come to Lao Zhu and be beaten.
As for the progress of the production of treasure banknotes, I will also get some of Lao Zhu’s calligraphy by the way.
"My lord, Han Du, pays homage to the emperor."
Lao Zhu raised his eyes and glanced at Han Du with a smile on his face, "I was wondering a few days ago how long it would take for you to come again. I didn't expect you to come much earlier than I guessed. It's not bad. I'm very pleased.
.”
After listening to Lao Zhu's words, Han Du suddenly felt cold in his heart. Hearing what Lao Zhu meant, he thought, "If he comes late, he will be penalized by Lao Zhu." Fortunately, he made it, otherwise
It's not fun to be remembered by Lao Zhu. Maybe the general ledger will be settled at some point.
kindness!
Lao Zhu's favorite thing is to calculate the general ledger, "either don't do it, or do it to the best" is his motto. It is because of this that many people are in Lao Zhu's hands.
"Okay, what do you want to see me for today? Tell me." Seeing that Han Du was in a daze, Lao Zhu asked directly.
"Oh, to report to the emperor, I am going to start making treasure banknotes. I want to ask the emperor to give me some words so that I can engrave them on the treasure banknotes so that all people in the world can admire the holy relics." Han Du said with a smile.
.
Well, Han Du did this mainly so that he could pat Lao Zhu's horse without leaving any trace.
Of course, it is also a good thing for all the people in the world to be able to see Lao Zhu's handwriting. The common people naturally have innate trust in the treasure banknotes that can be printed with the emperor's handwriting. This invisibly increases the credibility of the treasure banknotes, which is beneficial to the public.
For treasure money, it is simply a good thing that falls out of thin air.
After hearing this, Lao Zhu didn't even raise his eyelids, "I'm not a calligrapher. If you want to ask for calligraphy, you can find someone else. If you can't find it, I can recommend two to you."
Lao Zhu came from a poor background and was a cowherd boy since he was a child. Where did he have the opportunity to go to school? All his knowledge was learned by himself later, including calligraphy. Lao Zhu's calligraphy has never been taught by famous people.
, he was completely self-taught. When he was young, it was because his family was poor and he did not have the conditions to ask famous calligraphers for help. Later, when the heroes were divided, it was because they were busy and had no time. Later, when he became the emperor, it was even more so.
It's all over, and no so-called famous master dares to teach Lao Zhu's calligraphy.