The blacksmiths were summoned together, some distance away from the mine. Except for the blacksmiths in the army, the craftsmen summoned from the people of the two countries were a little cautious.
After all, they were just ordinary people before, so they would naturally feel a little scared when they saw an official.
Looking at the somewhat fearful eyes, Zhao Kang smiled kindly: "Don't be nervous, everyone. I think everyone knows the purpose of calling you here."
"I'll just tell you, as long as you can refine the steel I need, each of you will receive five or two months' worth of money!"
The best thing to inspire people is money. As soon as Zhao Kang finished speaking, the eyes of the blacksmiths changed instantly.
Five taels of silver a month is much more than what I earn in my hometown shop.
A private blacksmith became excited and bold, and asked, "Sir, what kind of iron do you want to smelt?"
As blacksmiths, they are naturally experts in how to make iron. The quality of the iron ore also determines the quality of the iron.
They also looked at the iron ore mined in the past two days, and it was pretty good.
Upon hearing the question, Zhao Kang smiled and said: "What we want to smelt is not simple iron, but steel. The toughness and strength of steel are better than iron, and it is corrosion-resistant, high-temperature and impact-resistant."
After listening to Zhao Kang picking up a bunch of things, a group of blacksmiths seemed to understand. A blacksmith from the army in Jingguo hesitated for a moment and then said, "Master National Preceptor is talking about iron essence?"
Zhao Kang became interested: "What is the iron spirit you are talking about?"
The blacksmith replied: "It means beating the pig iron repeatedly until the weight can no longer be reduced. The iron beaten out in this way is called iron essence. It is very sharp when used to make swords, but it is time-consuming and labor-intensive and very difficult to form."
Zhao Kang understood that although he had never heard of steel being sold anywhere in the world, there would always be people who accidentally produced steel while making iron.
The blacksmiths didn't know what this thing was, so they simply called it iron spirits.
When the other craftsmen heard about the word "iron essence", they also started to talk about it. Zhao Kang listened to the forging methods of iron essence mentioned by these people one by one, and soon discovered that this iron essence was not steel either.
The difference between steel and iron is the carbon content.
At that moment, Zhao Kang and the blacksmiths briefly explained what steel was and that it involved five taels of silver. Everyone listened very seriously.
After a while, Zhao Kang said: "That's pretty much it. I've written down the specific methods here. You select a few people who can read and study it carefully. Let's start building a blast furnace for steelmaking."
Submitting the steelmaking plan to the blacksmith, Zhao Kang asked Ye Hongxue to call a group of people to start casting the blast furnace.
The blast furnace for steelmaking must withstand high temperatures. Only when the temperature in the furnace can reach 1,600 degrees can steel be produced.
In addition, you also need to prepare coke and so on.
The matter of casting a blast furnace cannot be careless. Zhao Kang told the craftsmen his requirements while inspecting them carefully.
Ye Hongxue was silent for a while, then hesitantly said, "Zhao Kang."
"What's wrong?"
Ye Hongxue: "I have a question. According to what you just said to the blacksmiths, it is very difficult to make steel. It does not happen overnight. Do you think we should send more people?"
Zhao Ankang smiled: "Fool, these people can't refine the steel we need even if they stay awake all their lives."
"What we have to do now is to let these blacksmiths learn how to make steel. After they are familiar with it, we can start smelting steel on a large scale."
"Now, in the final analysis, it's just an experiment."
Ye Hongxue nodded. Looking at her distracted look, Zhao Kang also knew what she was worried about.
So he comforted him: "You don't have to worry. Now the mining matter is on the right track. As long as we figure out the steelmaking matter, we can immediately send more manpower. With the Yunshan Iron Mine here, our two countries will have nothing to worry about." For steel.”
"In addition, we can also bring all the blacksmiths from the two countries together to create weapons and equipment."
The blacksmiths gathered in the valley are not all the blacksmiths in Qianjing and Jingjing. They just selected a group of the best ones to learn and experiment first.
When Ye Hongxue heard this, she also knew that she had acted too hastily. Like Xiao Linglong, she was a person who could sacrifice everything for her country.
It is normal to have this kind of mentality.
After comforting Ye Hongxue, Zhao Kang began to lead people to build a steelmaking blast furnace.
Steelmaking furnaces have relatively high requirements. In addition to high temperature resistance, the structure is also very complex.
What hot air outlet, slag outlet, tap hole are all mixed together.
Zhao Kang and others first set up a stove, but it turned out that the charcoal had just been burned and the ore mud cracked before it was heated, so it had to be recast.
It took two days for everyone to build a steelmaking blast furnace that Zhao Kang was quite satisfied with.
A layer of ore and a layer of charcoal are layered, and the blast furnace begins to heat up.
Feeling the sudden heat all around, Zhao Kang squatted in front of the blast furnace and watched nervously for five hours.
The molten iron slowly flows out from the taphole, and the surrounding workers prepare containers for the molten iron.
Wait until the molten iron cools and a black piece of iron will appear.
Zhao Kang stepped forward and observed carefully, he could still tell the difference between steel and iron.
Let someone simply test it.
Zhao Kang was quite disappointed. The piece of iron in front of him could only be regarded as wrought iron, which was slightly inferior to the so-called fine iron.
"How is it?" Ye Hongxue asked.
Zhao Kang shook his head: "It's considered a failure. Try a few more times!"
From dark to dawn, Zhao Kang didn't sleep a wink all night, just guarding the stove, and several craftsmen could only accompany him.
Early the next morning, Zhao Kang frowned as he looked at the cooled iron block.
Still not working, the carbon content determines the quality of the steel. It is natural that these iron blocks can be used for forging, but it still cannot achieve the effect you want.
What exactly is the problem?
The whole morning, Zhao Kang was staring at the iron block in front of him in a daze, and the group of people behind him did not dare to breathe for fear of being disturbed.
After Ye Hongxue, who was responsible for monitoring the mine, heard about it, she hurried over to look at Zhao Kang, who was frowning. She didn't know how to comfort him.
Suddenly, three words flashed in Zhao Kang's mind, and his eyelids twitched. How could he have forgotten this method!
"Quickly, find all the wrought iron from yesterday."
Zhao Kang shouted hurriedly, and upon hearing this, Ye Hongxue hurriedly summoned people to carry the wrought iron.
The so-called wrought iron is relatively pure iron refined from pig iron, with very low carbon content and soft texture.
Naturally, this thing cannot be used for forging.
Asking people to separate the pig iron and wrought iron, Zhao Kang was very motivated: "First melt the pig iron, and then add the wrought iron."
The blacksmiths were operating. Seeing him come to his senses, Ye Hongxue stepped forward and asked curiously: "What are you doing again?"
"This is called the steel filling method. Molten pig iron and wrought iron are combined. The carbon in the pig iron will diffuse into the wrought iron and tend to be evenly distributed. Some impurities can be removed, and it can become high-quality steel!"
With his eyes fixed on the furnace, after a long wait, the molten iron flowed out of the taphole, and Zhao Kang immediately asked someone to cool it down.
After a moment, a large piece of blue-gray steel appeared in front of everyone's eyes.
