Shen Daotai was actually willing to hire his clan uncle to work in the mountains with generous gifts, which was definitely an unexpected surprise for Song Mingde.
So in the middle of his inspection work that day, during his lunch break, he hurriedly compiled a letter, asked Shen Shuren to read it, and immediately sent a courier to his hometown in Nanchang.
From Wuchang Daye to Nanchang, the Yangtze River waterway is more than 400 miles. After entering Poyang Lake, you have to transfer to the land route. Normally, it takes four or five days to travel to the station.
Considering that Song Yingxing was already old, fifty-seven, he would be somewhat hesitant about his future. He also needed to prepare to move before setting off, and he would have to sail against the current on the return journey, so it would be at least half a month before he arrived in Daye.
Chen Shuren would not waste these half a month. He would discuss the mining and metallurgical layout with his nephew first, and then think about improvements in machinery and technology when Song Yingxing arrived.
There is a sequence of learning, and there is a specialization of skills.
Song Yingxing is not omniscient and omnipotent. Science, engineering and technology are also divided into many detailed categories. His strengths lie in mechanical structure and agricultural technology.
As for metallurgy, mining, geology and materials science, Song Yingxing had little involvement. This can be seen from the content of "Tiangong Kaiwu". Of course, Shen Shuren must take advantage of the other party's strengths when employing people.
…
After Song Mingde finished sending the letter home, he continued to accompany Shen Shuren to inspect the Daye Iron Mine that afternoon.
On the first day, Shen Shuren was also quite tired. He rode a horse for thirty miles along the way, so he didn't arrange any inspection sessions that were too difficult. He just rode horses and watched the scenery.
What Song Mingde talked to him about was general and general information.
While visiting the iron mine, Shen Shuren also gained an understanding of the current metallurgical industry data of Ming Dynasty and the data of Daye Iron Mine.
There are few official statistics on steel production in the Ming Dynasty, but Song Mingde was interested in this industry and had collected historical data. According to him, the annual steel production at the peak of the Ming Dynasty was 10 to 20 million kilograms.
Mingjin is about 600 grams, divided into 16 taels, and each tael is 37 grams. So the data mentioned by Song Mingde, when converted, is approximately close to 10,000 tons of annual output. In addition, there are tens of thousands of tons of raw and wrought iron.
Of course, this figure should be from the heyday of the Ming Dynasty in the middle and late Ming Dynasty. It is now the last year of Chongzhen, and the productivity of all walks of life has been severely damaged. Therefore, the national steel output should be equivalent to 7,000 to 8,000 tons, and 30,000 to 40,000 tons of raw and wrought iron. .
This number still includes the occupied areas and the provinces controlled by the Ming government. The total is estimated to be only 6,000 tons of steel.
Combining Needham's "History of Chinese Science and Technology" and other historical materials he had read in his previous life, Chen Shuren felt that this number should be reliable.
The metallurgical industry technology of the Ming Dynasty did not advance much compared to the Southern Song Dynasty. Technical progress basically stagnated by the middle of the Ming Dynasty.
Historically, at the peak of the Northern Song Dynasty, the country's steel production was close to 4,000 tons, and raw and wrought iron was 20,000 to 30,000 tons. The Southern Song Dynasty was more technologically advanced than the Northern Song Dynasty. Unfortunately, half of the country was lost, and resources and scale were shrunk. Although the unit output increased , the total output never exceeded the peak of the Northern Song Dynasty.
After the Ming Dynasty, although the technology did not advance much compared to the Southern Song Dynasty, the entire Han Dynasty was restored, the territory and resources were expanded, and the total production capacity was doubled compared to the Southern Song Dynasty.
Six thousand tons of steel and thirty thousand tons of iron. This is the current production capacity that the Ming Dynasty occupied area can have.
The Daye Iron Mine in front of us, according to Song Mingde's statistics from the previous year, can produce about 1,200 tons of steel and 6,000 to 7,000 tons of raw and wrought iron.
It accounts for the vast majority of the steel production in the entire Huguang region, one-third of the southern region, and nearly one-fifth of the national production capacity.
In the three major areas of Sichuan, Chu, and Wu south of the Yangtze River, the production capacity of Daye Tieshan has exceeded the entire production capacity of Wudi, and is only lower than the full production capacity of Sichuan (Sichuan has many mountainous areas, and there was also a lot of mining exploration and mining in ancient times. There are relatively few minerals in plain farming areas)
"With an annual output of two million kilograms of steel and ten million kilograms of raw and wrought iron, Zuo Liangyu has held such a precious land for two years, but he has not yet been able to build a powerful army in the world. It is really a waste.
Assuming that it takes an average of five kilograms of iron to make a weapon, all these ten million kilograms of iron are used to make weapons, and two million swords and guns are made."
After Chen Shuren learned about the production capacity, he couldn't help but sigh, what a fortune this is. If he had known that he could have so much capital without additional farming and expansion of production, if he had left it to him in the past two years, he would have been able to take off long ago. Already.
Of course, the accounts couldn't be calculated like this, so Shen Shuren just talked about it casually.
Song Mingde was more serious and explained from the side: "To make weapons, ordinary raw and wrought iron cannot be used. These ten million kilograms of iron are mainly used to make agricultural tools, tools and iron pots for the people."
Huguang has a vast territory, and the Jianghan Plain is fertile. There are more than 10 million people in the province, not counting dedication and seclusion. Each common person spends an average of one pound of iron every year to make agricultural tools, and all these ten million pounds are spent. .
Two million kilograms of steel is the material used to make swords, guns and other heavy weapons. There will also be losses during the manufacturing process. If all the swords and guns are cast, half a million pieces can be produced. In fact, there are not that many.
Also, armor consumes a lot of steel, with one piece weighing dozens of kilograms. Heavy weapons also consume a lot of steel. Hundreds of thousands of heavy weapons can use up all the steel.
During the two years that Zuo Liangyu was in Wuchang, the imperial court had stronger control over the local area than it does now. Although Zuo Liangyu was like a warlord, his involvement in local civil affairs was not as strong as yours now. He could take advantage of the imperial court's control. If he deceives and seizes a small half of the steel and uses it for his own use, that’s pretty good.”
It has to be said that the last few sentences of Song Mingde's words are actually very devoid of emotional intelligence. At first glance, it seems that he deals with science and engineering subjects every day and is unsociable in worldliness - he said that Zuo Liangyu does not have enough control over the local economy. Wouldn't it be clear that Shen Shuren's current "warlord" attribute is actually no weaker than Zuo Liangyu's?
After hearing this, Chen Shuren was silent and thought about it for a while. Now it seems that ten million kilograms of iron per year can meet the daily needs of people. If he increases production in the future, he should focus on high-end, high-quality steel, and It’s not just about increasing the quantity of low-quality raw and cooked iron.
Unless there is any need for large-scale construction, construction or development in the future, there will be a large new demand for raw and wrought iron.
For example, Shen Shuren had read the "Wuzhong Water Conservancy Notes" written by Zhang Guowei, who was the former Minister of Household Affairs in Nanjing and now serves as the Minister of Household Affairs in Beijing. At that time, he was building seawalls in Suzhou, and he had to waste more than 100,000 kilograms of iron tools at a time.
Extensive mining of stone, logging, building rivers, and renovating wetlands to build fish ponds and polders will cause huge wear and tear on iron tools. This part of wear and tear can be regarded as the largest expense in government projects, second only to artificial rations.
If Shen Shuren can expand the raw and wrought iron production here in the future to meet his needs for other project construction and raise his own iron tools, then he can at least reduce government project expenses by one-third.
…
After thinking about all these, Shen Shuren had a rough idea of how to build the steel industry: increase the production of raw and wrought iron based on his own project needs, and add a little extra to benefit people's livelihood.
In the case of resource priority, it is guaranteed that after reaching this level, the remaining metallurgical, mining and construction resources will be tilted towards high-end steel.
The first day of inspection came to an end after clarifying these outlines. The tired Chen Shuren went back to rest for the night before continuing the next day.
In the evening, Liu Minsheng, the magistrate of Daye County who came with him for inspection, originally wanted to flatter him and ask him to return to the city and live in the county government office or post house to entertain him.
But Shen Shuren found it troublesome and had to ride an extra sixty miles on horseback to go back and forth, which was a waste of time, so he insisted on living in the iron mine, in the yard of the little official in charge of the mine.
Liu Minsheng was helpless. Master Daotai was so approachable and friendly to the people, but he, the county magistrate, could not return to the city alone, so a group of his entourages had to live in the mine.
Everyone's views on Shen Shuren have also changed subtly, and they realize that this Taoist who came from a wealthy family can really endure hardships.
Early the next morning, Chen Shuren, who had regained his energy, had been burned with the same standard as ordinary miners, drank pickle porridge, and under the leadership of Song Mingde, finally went into the mine in person for the first time.
Originally, many local officials in the Wuchang area were concerned about Tieshan's production, but there were still almost no people who went to the mines themselves.
Shen Shuren even wore a pair of thick hemp rope straw sandals to prevent slipping when climbing, and Song Mingde did the same. However, the other accompanying officials and minor officials still wore official boots, and they did not look like they were working.
After roughly climbing around and inspecting the mine, Shen Shuren quickly realized that there were indeed not many mines in this era that required tunnel operations——
Daye Iron Mountain has been mined since the Three Kingdoms period. It can be seen that the iron ore layer is relatively shallow, and a considerable part of the area is open-air and can be mined directly. Only a few points with particularly good-grade rich ore layers have been excavated over thousands of years, gradually forming Deep pits or even mines.
There were no technical standards for mine operations in the Ming Dynasty. The roof of the cave was reinforced simply by cutting down a few trees, and no one knew how to calculate the stress points of the structure.
Shen Shuren took a quick look and didn't dare to go deep. It wouldn't be worth it if he was buried alive in a landslide.
After coming out of the cave, he just asked casually: "How many digging and mining sites like this are there in Daye? Will there be landslides and death?"
Song Mingde: "There are only five or six places in total. Last year, two caves collapsed once each, burying anywhere from seven to eight to more than a dozen people each time."
When Chen Shuren heard this, his temples couldn't help but twitch: "This is too dangerous. There are so many rich mining areas here, and it's not like there is no open air for easy digging.
Occasionally, the iron layer overlaps with the rock layer. At worst, you can use an iron drill to drill holes, bury gunpowder blasts, remove the entire rock layer, and then dig out the iron layer below. Don't add new mines in the future, and try to open as much as possible in the open air. .”
Song Mingde was taken aback for a moment and then praised: "Your Majesty is so kind and considerate that no one in the past has thought of it... It's a shame to say that my subordinate only studied how to prospect for mines. I never thought about how to dig out stones with the tool body." However, I just feel that these hard workers are too far away from us scholars, and they always have their own methods."
Shen Shuren didn't have any difficulty with him. He knew that the scholars in the Ming Dynasty could pay attention to how to improve technology and production capacity, which was already very good. They were considered to be the top one percent of scholars who cared about industrial practicality.
However, they will not think about production safety, whether workers will die, and the improvement and optimization of these safety technologies. This is a historical limitation.
Only the workers themselves will be responsible for their own lives. Unfortunately, this kind of hard work often does not know a word, does not know how to plan, and does not think about the long term. It takes one day at a time. Therefore, in the eyes of Shen Shuren, the accumulated problems They are all very weird.
Before the production capacity could be improved, Shen Shuren had to think about how to reduce the number of workers dying every year.
"The road in this mine is not good either. I need to find a way to make it a gentle slope in circles, spiraling around the pit. Nowadays, the hard workers all dig out the ore and climb out of the pit directly on their shoulders, right?"
After making it a smooth and gentle slope, you can use a wheelbarrow at least, and you can also board a donkey and mule cart on the gentler section. Isn't this less labor-intensive than carrying a load? I don't like this part. There are too many improvements that can be made."