Daming: At the start of the showdown, Lao Zhu was stunned

Chapter 434 Daming’s First Furnace of Steel

"What are you doing like this?" Zhu Yan smiled, he also vaguely sensed Zhu Su's inner apology, smiled and patted Zhu Su's shoulder.

Zhu Su also returned a smile, now that both of them are working in the house, some things don't need to be said, as my brothers, it's good to keep everything in silence.

"At first I thought it was a problem with charcoal." Zhu Yan continued. "So I invited myself out of Beijing to look around and see if I could find high-quality coal."

"So I looked around for suitable coal. When I arrived in Guangping Mansion, I accidentally found a descendant of a blacksmith in the Song Dynasty. He has a secret method handed down from his ancestors, which can make the flame of coal several times hotter than usual. In a short while, you can melt a hundred steels."

"Coke!" A flash of light flashed in Zhu Su's mind, and he finally understood the problem of his steelmaking failure.

"As expected, you know." Zhu Yan's expression was as expected.

Zhu Su slapped his head in remorse. To put it bluntly, it was because he had neglected the knowledge point that high-quality coke must be used to provide a higher furnace temperature when making steel.

In the previous blast furnace steelmaking process, I only focused on building a blast furnace for steelmaking based on the knowledge of later generations, but forgot to build the coke oven needed to make coke.It is a strange thing to be able to succeed in making steel with the existing coarse coal of the Ming Dynasty after a little refining!

To put it bluntly, I made a mistake of taking it for granted. After all, I have never made steel by myself. I thought that if I built a blast furnace, I would be able to tinker with steel sooner or later!
"Then, do you have a way to refine this so-called coke?" Zhu Yan tentatively asked.

Zhu Su, who became a little excited because he figured out the key points, didn't feel the weirdness in Zhu Yan's tone at all. He immediately ordered someone to bring a pen and paper, and according to the impression in his mind, put a standard down-flame coke oven The design drawings were drawn.This kind of coking oven is extremely efficient, and can even collect chemical substances produced during the carbonization process of coal such as benzene and the like generated during the coking process.

Thanks to the apartment I rented next to the library in my previous life, and thanks to "Friends of Military and Local Talents".The various books he read before time travel can be deeply imprinted in his mind, and this is the only golden finger he has after time travel.

"Your method is actually more perfect than that of the descendants of the blacksmith." Zhu Yan looked at Zhu Su with a half-smile, and took out a "family secret method" with the blueprint of the kiln.This secret method is much inferior, it is just an ordinary clay kiln.

"Uh...hahaha..." Zhu Su was stunned and could only fool around with a smile.

The ancestors also had their own craftsmanship. In the Song Dynasty, some Chinese craftsmen had already learned how to refine coke.Only during the Yuan Dynasty, this technology, like many other inheritances, was lost due to the invasion of foreigners, and it was not developed again until the middle and late Ming Dynasty.

In a moment of excitement, I even forgot that the descendant of this technology has been found by Zhu Yan...

Fortunately, Zhu Yan didn't pursue it too much, he was used to the knowledge that this younger brother suddenly showed up.It's just that the current him doesn't believe that what Zhu Su said came from the "lost ancient book".Now that Zhu Su had a better method of coking, the two brothers took action immediately, commanding craftsmen to build several coking ovens, and enthusiastically prepared to start a new attempt of Daming to mass-produce steel.

But this time, even the steel-making blast furnace was rebuilt by the two brothers, using the new type of refractory bricks that Zhu Yan found.The quality of the previous furnace bricks was uneven, the insulation effect was limited, and there were even accidents where the blast furnace was broken and molten steel flowed out.

With the selection of new refractory bricks, the two are full of confidence in this test.

Finally, after a lot of busy work, Zhu Su waited for the first batch of molten steel to come out.During these days, apart from taking care of everything in the Guozijian, he and Zhu Yan were almost soaked in the experimental base in the back mountain.Seeing the craftsman carefully smashing open many steel molds, revealing the gleaming metal blocks inside, both brothers looked nervous.

Although each blast furnace has successfully produced metals, the quality of these metals cannot be known until they have been tried.

"Dang!" Hearing a crisp sound, the craftsman exhausted all his strength and chopped a large knife on the refined metal block. The large knife was almost the highest standard standard of the Ministry of Industry of the Ming Dynasty, and it collapsed visible to the naked eye. A gap, and that piece of metal was almost undamaged.

"Congratulations, Your Highnesses! It's steel! It's [-]-refined refined steel!" The craftsman dropped the knife and fell to his knees with a plop. "The villain has been working on iron for decades, but he has never seen such fine steel!"

"Really fine steel?" Zhu Su's face was full of surprise, and Zhu Yan's whole body went limp, and he almost slipped off the chair.

He pushed away the guard who wanted to support him, and approached Zhu Su in three steps and two steps, "Sure enough, it is high-quality fine steel, fifth child, God bless Daming, we are done!"

"With this kind of good steel, I will be invincible in the world in the future!" Zhu Su was also very excited.

Some people may think that it is nothing but refined steel, so there is nothing unusual about it.But Zhu Su knew the significance that this furnace of steel brought to Daming.Traditional steelmaking requires craftsmen to continuously tap and cast. Often just a sword requires several craftsmen to work for days without sleep.

But this method of blast furnace steelmaking can produce such high-quality refined steel in batches, which means that Daming can even use standard weapons and armor made of refined steel made of hundreds of refinements to equip the army. It's a dimensionality reduction blow!
Just imagine, when the two militaries fought, the weapons of the soldiers of the Northern Yuan Dynasty would not be able to pierce the fine steel armor of the Ming army at all.However, the weapons of the soldiers of Ming Dynasty are extremely sharp, and ordinary armor can't resist it at all...

How is this played?
Moreover, Zhu Su also found that the steel produced by several marked blast furnaces had a duller knocking sound.Before the steel in those blast furnaces was smelted, he specifically ordered it to go through multiple coal washing steps.The steel produced by these furnaces is obviously qualified low-carbon steel!
Mild steel is the best choice for making flintlock barrels!
In other words, the basic conditions for the manufacture of more modern firecrackers and artillery have been basically met!

"Dog! Go get gold and silver!" Zhu Su was overjoyed. "This king wants to reward the many craftsmen present! They are all heroes of my Ming Dynasty!"

"I'm going to meet the emperor right now, and ask him to vigorously popularize this method of steelmaking!" Zhu Yan was also beaming with joy.Father will be very happy that he and Lao Wu have accomplished such a great cause.It's just that these words reminded Zhu Su of something, he held back Zhu Bian who wanted to announce the good news: "There is no rush."

"Construct steel furnaces on a large scale...I'm afraid the imperial court doesn't have the ability yet."

"My fourth brother and I have already gone to look for my father. My father said that the imperial treasury is now empty, and I am afraid that it will be difficult to have enough ability to allocate funds."

To put it bluntly, it is still a question of money... It is difficult to move an inch without money, and it is difficult for a smart woman to cook without rice!
"What?" Zhu Yan was extremely upset. "The sooner you practice more steel, the stronger Da Ming will be."

"This is a major military matter, how can it be ignored? I'll go and tell my father that even if we sell everything from our Zhu family, we must find a way to get money and build more blast furnaces."

"...I'll go with you." Zhu Su also gritted his teeth.What Zhu Fen said is right. In any case, investment in science cannot be lacking. "Father said before that there is already a solution, but it still needs to be considered for some time."

"Let's go and urge him. If we haven't made up our minds yet, we'll force Dad to make a decision on the spot!"

(End of this chapter)