Datang: Get a god-level selection system at the beginning

I promised Empress Changsun that after the blast furnace was built, I would let her visit it, and then Li Wenbin came to the Ministry of Industry.

Wen Daya, Shangshu of the Ministry of Industry, was not in good health, and he was sick at home—he was indeed ill, and he didn't mean to embarrass Li Wenbin on purpose.

Li Wenbin was greeted by Jiao Yan, the Secretary of the Ministry of Industry—there was originally a servant, but it was canceled in the seventh year of Wude, and it would not be restored until the second year of Zhenguan.

"Chen Jiao Yan pays his respects to His Royal Highness King Qin."

"Your Majesty Jiao, please don't be too polite. How are you going about what this king ordered you to do?"

"Everything is ready, just wait for His Highness to come down."

"Okay, take me to see it."

"Here."

As Jiao Yan came to the workshop, Li Wenbin saw several towering furnaces from a long distance away—this is the purpose of his coming here today, to put the finishing touch on the final shape of the blast furnace.

The blast furnace had already appeared in the Han Dynasty, but I don’t know why, but not many people knew about it in the Tang Dynasty. Most of the original blast furnace technology was lost, so that when Li Wenbin proposed the blast furnace, even Wen Daya looked at a loss.

When he came to the blast furnace, Li Wenbin looked up at the five-meter-high furnace and nodded.

This blast furnace uses steel plates as the furnace shell, and the shell is lined with refractory bricks. Li Wenbin inspected the furnace throat, furnace body, furnace waist, furnace belly, furnace hearth and other important parts, and found that the coke rock was indeed built according to his requirements. Came to build, very satisfied.

"Lord Jiao, you did a good job." Li Wenbin patted the shell of the blast furnace and heard the hollow sound, "I will say more good things for you in the memorial to the emperor."

"Well...it just so happens that there is no servant in the Ministry of Industry, so you can do it in front of you. The grade is tentatively set to be the top five."

Jiao Yan was stunned for a moment, then he was overjoyed and fell to the ground: "Thank you, Your Highness, King Qin, thank you, Your Highness, King Qin."

Jiao Yan's current position is the Minister of the Ministry of Industry, the rank is from the fifth rank, and now he has suddenly become the minister of the Ministry of Industry, and has become the fifth rank, which is equivalent to a three-level promotion. ecstatic?

Originally, the servant should be under the fourth rank, but Li Wenbin did not have the right to appoint and remove officials above the fourth rank, so he could only let Jiao Yan do this first, and wait for Li Shimin to come back.

"Is the coke ready?"

"If you go back to His Highness, everything is ready, and it's over there."

Looking at the charcoal piled up like a hill, Li Wenbin nodded: "In this case, everything is ready, and the only thing we owe is the east wind."

This coke was produced by Li Wenbin when he was firing cement.

Hired workers dug the limestone and, by the way, the coal.

To Li Wenbin's surprise, there is actually a coal mine in the Qinling Mountains, and it is a shallow mine, which is very easy to dig.

Now that you have coal, you can simply use it to burn coke—coke is a good material for steelmaking, and the remaining slag can be mixed with cement to make briquettes.

But now Li Wenbin is not so greedy, first get out the coke and make good steel.

Coke has good air permeability and can support the stack pressure of a large amount of iron ore.

Moreover, the use of coke for ironmaking can increase the furnace temperature, resulting in better quality iron and higher iron yield.

Following Jiao Yan's order, the craftsmen who were in charge of the prison lit up the fire, and soon a wave of heat came to his face——Jiao Yan wanted to invite Li Wenbin to rest in the tea shed, but he was determined not to, and he must see it with his own eyes. Watching the blast furnace smelt the first furnace of molten iron.

Craftsmen load iron ore, coke and limestone from the top of the furnace, and below it is a huge leather bag that is vented to the bottom of the blast furnace and is constantly inflated-this is used to add oxygen to the blast furnace.

Soon, the air near the blast furnace became hotter and hotter, and the molten iron flowed into the tank along the pipes reserved in advance—making molten iron was only the first step, and smelting the molten iron into real steel was the most important step. most critical.

In this era, the method of frying steel is used-that is, the pig iron is melted and then stirred continuously.

Let the oxygen in the air react with the impurities and carbon in the pig iron to reduce the carbon content in the iron.

Although this is simple, the ratio of carbon content is not easy to grasp. If it is not done properly, the entire furnace of molten iron will be wasted.

What Li Wenbin took out was the method of pouring steel - using wrought iron as the raw material iron, placing it in the furnace, and placing the pig iron plate at the furnace mouth.

When the furnace temperature rises to about 1300°C and the pig iron plate begins to melt, the pig iron plate is clamped with tongs and moved left and right, and the material iron is constantly turned.

In this way, the material iron can be evenly poured into the pig iron liquid.

It can produce very good carburizing effect, and can also produce severe oxidation to separate iron and slag, and produce steel with less slag and uniform composition.

Of course, this technology is a bit too advanced, and it only appeared in the Ming Dynasty in history, but Li Wenbin already knew the secret of it, so he simply used it directly.

He used words that the craftsmen could understand, and struggled to make them understand the steps—just knowing what to do, but not why.

But this is enough. What Li Wenbin wants now is a large amount of steel, and everything else can be pushed back.

I have been busy from noon to the beginning of the lanterns, and this is the initial result, but to really smelt steel, at least I have to wait until tomorrow.

Although Li Wenbin didn't do any physical work, he was extremely tired, and his face was flushed with sweat.

This is true of him, the prince of Jian Guo, not to mention those craftsmen who have been busy all the time, they are all so tired that they are about to shake, and they are almost unable to stand still.

With heavy rewards, there must be a brave man. Li Wenbin naturally understood that he immediately sent someone to bring wine and meat to reward all the craftsmen.

"For the prosperity of the Tang Dynasty, I have troubled all the master craftsmen today. Here, the king first presents you a bowl of wine!"

After finishing speaking, Li Wenbin drank his glass.

Along with the wine and meat, there is also a box of copper coins: "Here is a hundred guan coins, let's share it with everyone. Don't divide any official positions, just divide according to how much you work!"

"Thank you, Your Highness King Qin!"

If the one hundred guan is distributed equally, everyone can get three or four guan. This is the wages of these craftsmen for several months, and the cheers almost spread throughout the workshop.

"Now I can buy some mutton and go home. That kid in my family has been arguing all day long to eat mutton instead of smelly and smelly pork."

Hearing the exclamation of an elderly craftsman, Li Wenbin slapped his head: I am really divorced from the masses, how could I forget about it?

Pork in the early Tang Dynasty was almost eaten by no one - the pork at that time had an extremely unpleasant taste, as if it had penetrated into the bones.

At this time, people with status eat mutton, and only the rich and powerful can afford beef. The imperial court has a decree that private slaughter of cattle is not allowed.

Every farm ox is registered in the official register, and even if it dies of illness and needs to be slaughtered, someone from the government must be present.

As for why pork is like this, one reason is that pigs are regarded as a very humble livestock at this time.

Fat and lazy, they are not able to plow the land like cattle, nor can they produce wool like sheep, so they are despised by most people.

If it's just like this, then that's okay, the poor people can afford meat is already considered good, so naturally they won't be so picky.

The most important reason is that the pig at this time is missing a very critical step, so the pork will become fishy and smelly.

As for the procedure, Li Wenbin naturally knew - that is to castrate the princess before she grows up.

Only in this way can we really get rid of the fishy smell in the pork.

Suddenly thinking of this incident, Li Wenbin recalled the dishes he had eaten in his previous life.

Pork pork, twice-cooked pork, stewed elbow, stewed ribs...

Thinking of this, his saliva almost flowed out.

No, I have to find a chance to get a pig to eat.

It's time to get some stewed pig ears and drink some wine...

How delicious that taste is.

But it's too early to think about it now, let's settle the matter in front of us.

The craftsmen who served as supervisors stayed up all night until the rooster crowed the next day, and finally produced excellent quality steel.

And according to Li Wenbin's estimation, the efficiency has increased by at least five times compared to before.

Looking at the steel ingots that were still steaming, Li Wenbin knew that this was the cornerstone of the prosperous Tang Dynasty.