From Chief to Ball

Haha's laughter was louder than the sound of waves. Chen Jian stood up, poured out the wicker basket again, kicked away a heavy piece of dog's head gold, and found a slightly reddish stone instead, and stroked it hard with a copper sword , leaving a cherry-like powder that looks like blood.

"Who found this stone?"

"Me. It's on the top of a mountain. There are many stones there, like a leather hat on the mountain. There are no trees washed by the rain nearby, and there are many such stones. Don't you say that this thing is like the emerald green of our Copper Mountain. It’s like a rock, what kind of mine is it called. I just walked around there for an extra day, and there are indeed many such stones nearby.”

Chen Jian held a few stones and said with a smile: "You are lucky. The land slaves in Xiacheng belong to you. This is the stone I am looking for. Can you remember where it is?"

"Remember. Both places are easy to find, just go up the river."

After getting an affirmative answer, Chen Jian picked up the dog's head gold, laughed a few times, and handed it to several people jokingly: "Give this to you, and I won't give you those lands."

A few people knew they were joking, shook their heads and said: "No, this thing is soft, I'm afraid it won't work for making a hoe, let alone killing people, but it sinks very much. This thing doesn't change color in the water, it doesn't look like copper. It will turn green after a long time. I think this thing can be used as weights and weights.”

Chen Jian gladly accepted the reckless proposal. This thing is really good for standard weights and measures. It will not be oxidized and will not change with the years. It is an excellent material for weighing weights and measures.

He casually threw the piece of gold into the ship's cabin, and played with the black or gray-red stones again, his eyes filled with ecstasy.

The black is coal, the red is hematite, and the cherry-pink scratches are unmistakable. They are also natural outcroppings. If you are lucky, they may be rich ore.

These two places are very close to the river, which is convenient for transportation, and they are basically open-pit mines, so there is no need to consider any pollution protection and the like. They need to be bombed and dug, and they can be done as easily as possible and save manpower.

With the ore available, it is not difficult to make iron, but it is difficult to make steel.Both steel and iron are actually iron-carbon alloys.

Iron with high carbon content is called pig iron, iron with lower carbon content is called steel, and iron with lower carbon content is called wrought iron.

Pig iron is brittle and hard, wrought iron is soft and tough, and steel is the middle way, hard and tough.

Human beings started from learning to use iron, and their ultimate pursuit has always been steelmaking. However, it was not until the era of the Second Industrial Revolution that steel could be mass-produced at one time. Before obtaining steel, it was too difficult and cost too much manpower and material resources.

Chen Jian also knew his own weight, so he didn't plan to produce steel at all, and it was possible to get slaves to smash it out at any cost, but he thought it was meaningless other than taking it out to pretend to be forced, and it couldn't be mass-produced in the era. It's rubbish, the bronze sword is enough.

There are two primitive iron-making methods, one is sponge iron smelted under low temperature conditions with a lot of impurities, this is a kind of wrought iron, mixed with iron ore, stone dregs, etc. The ore dross was smashed out.

The other is to use bronze furnace technology as a support to directly smelt pig iron with high carbon content.The carbon in pig iron exists in the form of iron carbide. The highest pursuit of pig iron is to let the carbon inside condense in the form of graphite instead of iron carbide. The aggregation of graphite requires silicon as a guide agent. The higher the temperature, the freer in molten iron The more silicon there is, the easier it is to direct the growth of carbon into graphite.

At the current level, it must not reach such a high temperature.So this kind of pig iron is very brittle, let's put it this way, at the current level of Xiacheng, perhaps the first furnace of iron produced can be made into an iron rod, and it may be broken if it is strong.

And this kind of iron is similar to bronze, it can't be forged, it can only be cast, otherwise you can easily get a horseshoe, and it will probably be broken if you hit it with a hammer.

As for the meteoric iron that Chen Jian obtained before, except for the natural nickel alloy factor, it is basically a kind of wrought iron, so it can be smashed into shapes.

What replaced bronze weapons was not iron, but steel.Neither pig iron nor wrought iron will work.The former is hard and brittle, maybe even a bronze sword can't fight it; the latter is soft and tough, and if it bends after a while, you may have to straighten it with your feet.

In theory, pig iron can be turned into steel by removing carbon and adding carbon to wrought iron. However, without strict instruments and the smallest unit of weight and measure is the catty, it is unrealistic to remove carbon from pig iron. If there is too much removal, it will become mature iron.

It is feasible to add carbon to wrought iron, and it is feasible to forge it repeatedly, so that the carbon infiltrates into the wrought iron, and finally forms a layer of carburized steel on the outside, which can be used as a sword, but a slave can smash it for half a year. significance.

It seems that even finding iron is useless, but Chen Jian is still very excited, because in this world, besides swords, there are also pots and pans, plowshares and sickles, planers, saws, hammers and chisels. These are the things that promote the process of history.

The performance of bronze farm tools is not good. In addition, bronze is still the main source of weapons in this era. The remaining cities demand large-scale, and the relationship between supply and demand determines the high price of bronze.

Therefore, the slave owners in Xiacheng will not use bronze on a large scale-there is money for bronze, which can buy more slaves and stone tools, and the benefits are greater-the Xiacheng government is not rich enough to give each slave a The point of bronze tools.

The same bronze spear, if Xiacheng Yucheng can make an average of 2 catties of iron per person in ten years, it can still beat any clan - the average productivity of each person has increased, and more full-time people and professional soldiers can be raised. The same [-] people have completely different mobilization capabilities.

And the ignition grenade made of pig iron as the shell will be the biggest guest star of the dense spear phalanx that the clans in each city will inevitably appear in order to fight against Xiacheng's chariots and shock cavalry.

With the consideration of the simplest mass production, Chen Jian has decided to adopt the second method, that is, the method of smelting pig iron in a blast furnace.

One is that the technology of blower, carpentry bellows, windmill or waterwheel can ensure that the production of pig iron in this way is extremely high and the cost is not high.

The second is that casting technology is supported by bronze technology. It has developed to a certain extent and has been inherited in the same line. The proficiency of craftsmen can be mastered. Xiacheng's mold-making workshop can also be used as support. There is no need to train a bunch of blacksmiths who can forge iron.

The third is that the wisdom left by the ancestors in the previous life includes the method of frying steel. Although in fact, what is actually fried by the family members is basically wrought iron, but the technique is simple: simply put, after the pig iron is melted, in an aerobic environment, like Stir the pig iron water like cooking, let the carbon inside come into contact with oxygen, burn at high temperature and turn it into carbon dioxide to fly out, and remove the carbon inside.Even if it is not steel, raw and wrought iron can be produced on a large scale, at least one family can distribute a handful of iron sickles and fish intestines next year.

Taking out Onozawa Yucheng, where many plans and future prototypes have been written, Chen Jian took out a brush, and first drew a cross on the word Taoyao, which meant to cancel this workshop.

Now that there are iron ore and coal mines, and the pottery in Xiacheng is not very competitive, and the profit is small, it will be canceled directly, and the freed up manpower resources will be transferred to the new iron furnace, and all the pottery needed will be transferred from Sucheng Buy.

At the same time, the pottery industry in Xiacheng was abandoned, and the domestic sales policy and import control of pottery products were relaxed. Under the impact of the black pottery in Echeng, it was already half dead. I have been quite critical, and I took this opportunity to sell it well.

All the pottery-making personnel in Xiacheng were mobilized to Yucheng, including family members, women and children, and they were dealt with together.

Give up the sericulture industry that Red Fish managed to get secretly, and import all silk threads from Echeng. This industry is too delicate and labor-intensive for Xiacheng to afford.

The production of bronze farm tools in Xiacheng is completely banned. Under the premise of ensuring the bronze weapons of Xiacheng, all bronzes are melted into pieces and shipped along the river for export. The excess part is exchanged for pottery and female slaves, so as to balance the ratio of men and women in Onozawa. , for nightlife and the inevitable government-run wife-and-wife shops.The mold and agricultural tool production departments were all mobilized to Yucheng to improve the casting molds.

Of the [-] slaves in the big deal negotiated before, [-] female slaves will be left, and the remaining [-] will be sent back to Xiacheng to enrich the population to ensure Xiacheng's agricultural production and mining slaves. As a reward, stabilize Xiacheng's hearts and liberate some The public-owned slaves who have worked in Xiacheng for more than three years will buy some of the private-owned slaves to enrich the basic board.

Gunpowder workshops and wood workshops need to increase manpower. If open-pit mining does not consider subsequent development, bombing is the easiest way, and the amount of gunpowder used will inevitably increase.The simple shipbuilding industry of the wood workshop also needs to increase manpower for transportation.

The logging department can remove a lot of manpower because of the coal mine, and save most of the wood used for fuel——Yucheng will refuse to adopt the small-scale farmers' production method for at least five years, and all meals, sleeps, etc. will be allocated uniformly, so there will be no It is necessary to prepare firewood privately to save time.

Timber for construction and utensils can be imported from upstream towns and transported downstream in the form of discharge.The potassium nitrate produced by the nitrification pond and a large amount of crushed coal residue can be used to make honeycomb coal to replace the usual fuel.

On the premise of ensuring smooth production in the first year, a large number of iron farm tools and cattle exchanged in the first year can improve the production level of the village farm. The plan to plant hemp on a large scale in the village farms was cancelled, and manpower was freed up to import hemp cloth for the dyeing industry, and instead plant dye crops such as indigo and gall.

In total, about 2000 people can be freed up for the iron smelting industry. First, charcoal is used for smelting, and at the same time, some charcoal-burning skilled workers are assigned to try local methods for coking. Once the iron smelting furnace is successful, the temperature of the iron smelting furnace can be further increased.

As for the location of iron smelting furnace and coking kiln, it is in the southwest corner of Shanjiao Island.There is a small river with a great drop, which can be used as a water source for hydraulic blowers, power and coking in the future.And because the southwest corner is downwind all year round, the wind will not blow into the city, so the smoke and dust from coking by local methods are too large, and there are too many sulfur, phosphorus, arsenic and other things.

Chapter 88 Noble children who are not qualified to eat and wait to die

While Chen Jian was racking his brains to think about these things, the boat crossed the most beautiful river and turned into the boundless Onozawa.

It was the first time for the more than 40 young people in the boat to stand on the cruise ship to watch the beautiful scenery on both sides of the river. The geese were not flying south, the herons were chirping, the green hills were turning into sinister or soft lines, and the white waves were rippling. Intoxicating.

However, this scenery was broken when approaching the cape island. Countless smoke and flames rose from the shore, and a group of people were burning wasteland in the distance. Not to mention that this scene destroyed the beauty, it was the same as or even worse than the way they plowed the fields in the city. After falling behind, most of Xia Cheng's sense of mystery was lost.

When we got close to the cape island, the interest came again. The two capes are so steep that people look up and give birth to a small illusion, as if the cape will fall down at any time.

When they entered the promontory, a group of people suddenly shouted: "There is nothing here, where should we live?"

It wasn't just one person who shouted that, Yuemei was also stunned. Apart from seeing the busy construction site from a distance, there was only a huge brick wall with two Xiacheng characters written on it that she had never seen before. Just some huts.

In an instant, the legends of Xiacheng collapsed, and it was clearly not as good as his own city, not to mention that there were no women as coquettish and able to sing as Shi Chin, the women on the island were squatting on the ground and kneading bricks with mud, covered in mud.

Yue Mei noticed a slight difference. These seemingly slave-like people could hear a few songs when they were working. Although they were hoarse and unpleasant, they could hear the joy different from slaves.

The chaotic sound reached its peak after the ship docked.

Chen Jian is the leader and the husband. This group of people was taught by their parents to treat him like an uncle, but even an uncle couldn't treat him like this.

"Ji Xia, is this the Yucheng you mentioned?"

Chen Jian shook his head and said, "You can only say that this will be Yucheng in the future. Are you disappointed? Do you think the legends about Xiacheng are all fake?"

Several people nodded embarrassingly, Chen Jian smiled and said: "It's okay. I asked you to come here, just to let you see these. Xiacheng didn't have anything back then, but it didn't take long to have everything. I let you See for yourself what it's like to build a city from nothing."