The huge blast furnace was emitting billowing smoke. Next to the blast furnace, the workers of Miyun Iron Works were shirtless and working hard, shouting neat slogans, and all of them were sweating.
If it weren't for the melon-eaters watching the excitement from further away wearing thick cotton-padded clothes, it would really make people think it's a hot summer day.
Cart after cart of iron ore, limestone, coke, and dolomite were continuously poured into the blast furnace from the feed port at the top, and the huge blower next to it was whirring loudly as it was pulled by dozens of strong men.
"Tsk tsk, it looks a bit like it, but I don't know how much steel can be produced from this furnace."
Zhu Houzhao looked at the lively scene in front of him, and his whole person became energetic. He liked this kind of thing the most. Of course, as long as it was not related to learning to be an emperor, he was very interested.
"Let's go back and have a good meal. We'll find out in the afternoon."
Liu Jin turned around and walked towards his place of residence. Because it was the first furnace, he needed some time to wait.
"Let's go, let's go, I'm really hungry."
Zhu Houzhao touched his belly and said.
"You go and eat. I can't eat. I can't eat until I see this first furnace of steel come out. This is all piled up with money."
The British Duke Zhang Mao shook his head, looking a little anxious.
The blast furnace in front of him, to use his words, was really piled up with silver. It cost more than 100,000 taels of silver to build. If he didn't believe Liu Jin, he would really be reluctant to spend money like this.
"Brother Xu, let's go, let's have a good meal, and we can turn on the stove in the afternoon."
Liu Jin picked up Xu Guangzuo and Zhu Houzhao, and the three of them went to have a big dinner together, arm in arm.
Only Zhang Mao and Huang Jinquan are left here. Zhang Mao, a traditional feudal noble, has made a lot of money with Liu Jin, but it is still difficult for him to adapt to this industrialized operation model.
With such a large-scale investment and the recruitment of so many people, how will the funds be managed?
How should this iron factory be managed?
If too many products are produced, how will they be sold?
At this time, Zhang Mao fell into such a confusion. Of course, this was not just Zhang Mao. As Liu Jin, a butterfly, flapped his little wings, he brought too much to this era.
great influence.
Many coal workshops, cement plants, etc. have been established in Tianjin and Beijing. As the business is getting better and better, the scale is also getting larger and larger. Naturally, there are problems with corporate management and product sales.
Cost control, etc.
If you just rely on traditional and inherent methods to operate and manage, it will be difficult to adapt to the increasingly large scale of the enterprise, so more and more people are thinking about management and sales.
After all, most traditional workshops are mainly manual and have limited scale. If they can employ dozens of people, it is considered very good. However, cement plants and coal plants, even if they are labor-intensive industries, will only need to employ at least a few people.
Hundreds of people.
How to manage more people, how to save costs and produce more products as much as possible are all testing emerging capitalists like Zhang Mao.
Yes, although Zhang Mao was a great aristocrat in the feudal era, as Liu Jin made money, he gradually transformed from a traditional feudal aristocrat to an emerging capitalist.
In the past, the British government's main financial income came from rent collection from the huge land under its command. All the revenue collected from this rent collection was grain. Although the amount of grain was very large, it was actually not much when converted into silver.
.
In addition to renting, there are also some small amounts of store operation, business industry, and mining income. This part of the income is not large and the proportion is not high.
The calculated income of the British government family may only be tens of thousands of taels if converted into silver. Tens of thousands of taels of silver is of course an astronomical figure for ordinary people, but compared to the salt merchants, tea merchants, and grain merchants in the Jiangnan area.
Wait, it's nothing at all.
The wealth of people like Zhang Mao, Zhu Fu, and Xu Guangzuo is actually accumulated by their ancestors from generation to generation. This is true for every generation. Therefore, whether they are princes, nobles, gentry, landlords, or ordinary people, as long as they have money, first
The first thing is to find ways to purchase land, which in turn leads to the gradual concentration of land, and ultimately the change of dynasties.
But it's different now, because following Liu Jin he tasted the benefits step by step, Zhang Mao bought a huge industry, mining coal, setting up cement factories, engaging in ocean fishing, ocean trading, and even setting up an iron factory with Liu Jin
Wait, the profits of each industry are very high, far exceeding the profits that the huge land under his command can bring.
So he began to slowly sell the huge land in his hands to raise funds to continue to expand production capacity, thus transforming from a feudal noble to an emerging capitalist.
Maybe no one will realize this, not even Liu Jin, but if history continues to develop like this, it will definitely be written like this in future history.
With the rise of a series of emerging investments in the early stage, the traditional feudal nobles continued to differentiate. Some people got a taste of the emerging industries and gradually transformed into emerging big capitalists. The most representative of them was the British public at that time.
, Cheng Guogong, Ding Guogong and others.
Of course, Zhang Mao didn't think about this at all at this time. He was waiting anxiously for the first batch of steel to come out.
When it was time to set the time in the afternoon, Liu Jin, Zhu Houzhao and Xu Guangzuo slowly came to the steelmaking blast furnace again.
"Lao Zhang, have you eaten?"
Liu Jin looked at Zhang Mao and asked with a smile.
"I've eaten, I've eaten. I've never seen a prodigal like you. How can the workers' food be so good?"
"I always eat lunch with the workers."
Zhang Mao looked at Liu Jin and curled his lips and said, he finally understood how the investment of two million taels of silver was spent. The food Liu Jin gave to the steel factory workers was three meals a day.
It's okay to have three meals a day, but the important thing is that he still eats meat every meal. This rich landlord doesn't have such luxury.
"You have to be full and eat well to have the strength to work. Look at all this hard work, and the wool comes from the sheep. When the stove is turned on, you won't feel sad about the little food."
Liu Jin smiled and shook his head and said.
"Teacher, can you start the furnace?"
Here, Huang Jinquan has not rested and has been directing on the spot. The hills of iron ore, coke, etc. that were originally piled aside have all entered the huge belly of the blast furnace. As for the situation inside, there is no trace of it now.
People know.
"It's almost done, let's turn on the furnace."
Liu Jin calculated the time, nodded and said.
"Ready to open the furnace~"
As soon as Huang Jinquan heard this, he immediately got busy and shouted loudly, also speaking to his subordinates.
As Huang Jinquan finished speaking, the scene became even busier. At the same time, everyone became anxious and began to wait eagerly for the moment when the miracle would happen.
"Group 1 is ready~"
"Group 2 is ready~"
"Group 3 is ready~"
Next to the blast furnace, the stewards of each group divided their work said loudly.
"Turn on the furnace~"
Seeing that everyone was ready, Huang Jinquan shouted out loudly. As he shouted out, beside him, a strong man began to beat a bronze bell.
Well, ancient people still paid great attention to ritual, and now every workshop, cement factory, etc. have learned this.
"Dang~dang~"
Along with a loud ringing, everyone's eyes turned to the water outlet.
"Hey yo, hey yo~"
As the bell rang, two teams of strong men on both sides of the water outlet began to shout neat chants, and kept pulling the winch to pull apart the huge iron plate of the water outlet.
"Wow~"
Everyone looked towards the water outlet, and as a gap appeared, a dazzling white world was revealed. The inside of the blast furnace was red, and then a stream of molten iron flowed out from it, making a gurgling sound.
"The water is coming out~ The water is coming out~"
Someone shouted excitedly.
But this was just the beginning. Soon all the huge valves were opened. At the moment of opening, it was like a reservoir opening to release water, and a fiery red torrent surged out.
"Zizi~"
The dazzling white molten iron surged out, making a sizzling sound with the cold air outside. At the same time, the molten iron quickly began to cool down.
"Wow~"
Zhu Houzhao's little eyes widened. Anyone who saw such a scene for the first time would be deeply shocked by this scene. The molten iron poured out like a torrent, like a river bursting its banks, or like a flood. The red molten iron,
Terrible high temperature and sizzling sound.
Zhang Mao, Xu Guangzuo, Huang Jinquan, everyone at the scene was dumbfounded, watching the torrent continuously surging out in front of them, flowing along the passage that had been paved long ago.
Because there is no large-scale lifting equipment, the molten iron is released from the furnace. Liu Jin also specially laid a very long water channel. The specifications of these water channels are different. Some are used to make steel bars in one step, and some are used to make steel bars in one step.
The standard iron ore of this era, and some were long iron plates, all kinds of things.
The molten iron is poured into it, and while the dazzling white molten iron flows, a large number of sparks are constantly beating, and at the same time, there are also balls of molten iron splashing out, burning with blazing flames.
"How much iron is in this furnace?"
Some people opened their eyes wide and looked at the crimson torrent. Their minds were full of white money, because in their field of vision, a large area of the water outlet at the water outlet was completely covered by rolling molten iron, as if it were a vast sea.
