Li Zhi tried hard to recall the information about the home-made crucible steelmaking that he had seen before traveling through time, and then thought of another method: after burning the wrought iron into molten iron, pour it into a crucible covered with a layer of iron ore powder, which can promote the formation of slag.
Using this method, the steel produced is indeed better.
In short, Li Zhi did it himself and repeatedly tested various "local methods" that he saw in the treatises of later generations. Some of these local methods were useful after testing, and some were useless. But even counting the consumption of useless methods
Time is far better than trying to figure it out on your own without a clue. In repeated experiments, the quality of the crucible steel has been continuously improved.
When he was busy until late October, Li Zhi finally produced crucible steel that was of significantly better quality than Su Gang. The spring using this crucible steel had a firing rate of 92%. Although the firing rate was only increased by half,
But with a half-percent firing rate, on a battlefield with tens of thousands of people, it might be possible to increase the hit rate and kill a few more enemies.
Li Zhi asked Cai Huaishui to regularly go to more graphite crucibles and start mass production of this crucible steel.
Li Zhi built a larger crucible furnace in the south of the city. Ten crucibles can be placed in the furnace. Each crucible can hold fifteen kilograms of molten iron. Each crucible position can be fired five times a day. This crucible furnace can produce 700 crucible steels a day.
Fifty kilograms, one month can produce more than 20,000 kilograms of crucible steel. Although this output cannot be compared with the steel-making furnaces of later generations, it was already considerable in the Ming Dynasty.
After all, this produces top-notch high-quality steel.
Li Zhi divided the production of crucible steel into twelve processes and hired thirty workers to operate these processes respectively. These workers only knew the steps they performed and did not know what materials were used in other people's processes. No worker knew the entire production process.
The process prevents Li Zhi’s crucible steelmaking technology from being leaked.
Including labor, materials, fuel and crucible costs, the cost of Li Zhi's crucible steel is five cents per pound. This cost level makes this excellent steel very versatile, and can be used to make bayonets, tool steel, and even
Can be used to make helmets and armor.
The crucible steel produced by Li Zhi surprised Li Zhi's blacksmiths. For the first time, they knew that the steel produced in the furnace could be so good. The hardness and toughness of the steel forgings produced with this crucible steel exceeded
Su Gang. The blacksmiths re-bored the boring bar with crucible steel, which greatly improved the speed of tube making. Now a blacksmith can boring out a tube in half a day with one boring machine.
Li Zhi finally decided to export this crucible steel.
Although the quality of crucible steel is good, the quality is about the same as the hundred-smelted steel produced in this era. It has low cost and high output. There is no need to hide such products.
After making up his mind, Li Zhi placed the crucible steel in the soap shop, priced at one or two and a half yuan per catty.
The Ming Dynasty did not ban private smelting and steel. For example, there were many private iron smelting plants in Chaozhou and Huizhou, Guangdong, and the amount of steel produced in a year was staggering. However, operating steel requires some background. Those who do this business are government and businessmen. It is run by ordinary people.
If you compete with the government and businessmen, you will be put in trouble by the government and go bankrupt.
Li Zhigui is the general guarding the Tianjin West Road, and he can be regarded as an official and businessman. Even the emperor knows that Li Zhi is good at conquering and fighting, and his colleagues in the Qing Military Department in Tianjin do not dare to make things difficult for Li Zhi now.
Li Zhi sent his servants to deliver half a kilogram of small steel ingots to various prefectures and counties in Gyeonggi Province to the blacksmiths so that the blacksmiths could understand the properties of this crucible steel. Li Zhi asked his servants to tell the blacksmiths that the crucible steel was at the Li family shop in the east of Tianjin.
He is waiting at home for business to come to him. If he can produce 10,000 kilograms of crucible steel a month, Li Zhi will make a profit of 10,000 taels.
After Li Zhi finished working on the crucible steel, he found that the farmers were in full swing and began to pay land rent in Fanjiazhuang.
It was late October. The spring wheat that farmers planted in the first year had matured, and the winter wheat that would be planted next had not yet been sown. It was the slack time. There were cattle and irrigation canals, and the farmers' first year of spring wheat was obviously
The harvest was good, and everyone happily carried the grain to the city to pay the rent. There was a lively scene at the entrance of the granary in the south of the city, and Zheng Hui was in a hurry.
Li Zhi asked Zheng Hui and learned that 90% of the farmers had paid their land rent and received a total of 10,300 shi of wheat. It was estimated that they would receive more than 11,000 shi of wheat this year. The price of food has soared these days.
It was expensive. Eleven thousand shi of wheat was worth 25,000 taels of silver. This allowed Li Zhi to recoup the cost of cultivating new fields in one go and still have a large surplus.
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Mr. Ni and his family are farmers in Deyuan New Village.
He was kidnapped by the Tatars and brought to Fanjiazhuang in August last year. He was about to be driven to Liaodong to do hard labor for the rest of his life, but he was rescued by the general of Fanjiazhuang. The general was kind and began to give him porridge. Later, the general returned
Guaranteed to provide enough food for everyone, organized everyone to reclaim wasteland and build irrigation canals.
Mr. Ni's family consists of four, including his wife, a fifty-year-old father and a ten-year-old son. Last year, they were assigned to the newly built Deyuan New Village, with two brick houses and four houses from the general.
Ten acres of dry land. These dry fields are good fields with irrigation canals, and the general also distributed farm tools and cattle, giving Boss Ni a full set of tools to cultivate the fields.
Mr. Ni is a good farmer. With cattle and irrigation water, he and his wife showed off their skills on 40 acres of dry land and grew a season of good wheat. Although they planted spring wheat, Mr. Ni made fine compost.
Through hard work, he harvested eight buckets and five liters of wheat per mu. From forty acres of dry land, Mr. Ni harvested thirty-three stones and five buckets of wheat.
After deducting five dan of grain rent from the land rented to the general, one dan of two dou of silver for the cattle, and then one dan of house money, two asbestos jackets and quilts, five dou of farm tools, and two dan of seed money, Mr. Ni can return it to the general.
Twenty-two shi of grain was left. Four people ate with open stomachs. After eating 11 shi of wheat a year, Mr. Ni could still have 11 shi of grain left. Two shi of grain were left to make seeds for this year's winter wheat. Mr. Ni still had nine shi of grain left.
Stone grain surplus.
Using the nine shi of grain, Boss Ni exchanged it for twenty taels of silver at the General's cheap grain store.
What kind of good life is it for a farmer to have twenty taels of silver a year in addition to food? With the money, Mr. Ni bought all kinds of living expenses for his family, and he felt that he suddenly became rich.
On this day, Mr. Ni's family welcomed a relative, Mr. Ni's cousin Meng Yousan.
Mr. Ni went back to Baodi County during the slack time at the beginning of the year. His relatives all know that Mr. Ni is now living in Deyuan New Village, Fanjiazhuang. Baodi County was plundered by the Tatars, and there were ruins everywhere. Those who were not plundered by the Tatars
The common people also had a hard time making a living, and many people starved to death. Boss Ni went back to Baodi for a walk, and felt that it was hard-won to have enough food and clothing in Fanjiazhuang.
Meng You asked around for directions and found Boss Ni's house. As soon as he walked to the door of Boss Ni's house, he said loudly: "Ni, idiot, Ni! Come out quickly! You live in such a good place now! This is not leaking.
A brick house! I have never lived in such a nice house!"
Boss Ni heard someone shouting at the door and walked out. Then he saw his cousin Meng Yousan and said with a smile: "My cousin is here! Zhuzi, come out and call your cousin!"
Seeing Boss Ni, Meng Yousan's eyes shone brightly, and he said: "Ni idiot, where did your new clothes come from?" He looked at his autumn clothes that were full of patches, and then looked at the nine pieces of clothing on Boss Ni.
Wearing a new round-neck robe, Meng Yousan felt like a beggar, and he suddenly started to speak harshly: "Ni Daizi, you are rich now!"
When he saw Boss Ni's son Zhuzi coming out with a piece of candy in his mouth, Meng Yousan became even more envious and said loudly: "Zhuzi, what kind of candy are you eating?"
