Chapter 37 Industry and Capital

The ground fire was raging, and the molten iron in the smelting furnace was tumbling.

However, after pouring three furnaces of molten iron in a row, the purity of the black iron is only about 95%, and it may be slightly higher. According to the strength of the appraisal light, it may reach more than 95.5%, but it will definitely not reach 96%.

It sounds good to make a further step forward, but it is even more difficult to go further! It's all over, how can we go any further!

Zhang Shengye frowned slightly: "Let all the craftsmen in the family forge and purify, and we will definitely get 10 tons of black iron in three days."

Zhang Hao shook his head: "Second uncle, I think what the princess wants is not only ten tons of black iron, but also our ability.

If we can't even produce 96% black iron, how can we convince the princess that we can build a big ship, a big ship that can cross the green sea of ​​death! "

Zhang Shengye nodded thoughtfully.

Next to him, Huang Mingshan said cautiously: "Master, if we use spirit stones and arrays to replace Earth Fire, and low-grade spirit stones to replace low-quality broken spirit stones, will the purity be improved?

I think that a considerable part of the impurities in the black iron come from broken spirit stones of inferior quality! "

Zhang Hao's eyes lit up immediately, "Why did I forget this?"

In fact, Zhang Hao didn't forget, but deliberately didn't say it. He wants to train Huang Mingshan and others, and let them form the awareness of active thinking, summarization, learning, accumulation and progress.

During the homework just now, Zhang Hao mentioned the scene of Fangshi publicizing the water forging technique many times.

The transformation started soon, and Huang Mingshan and others immediately began to calculate the approximate data.

"The purity of broken spirit stones varies, and the average spiritual energy content is about 18% of low-level spirit stones. With the interference of impurities, the effective spirit energy of broken spirit stones is only about 15% of low-level spirit stones."

"Crush the spirit stone to increase the effective contact area with the ore."

"After the selected ore is crushed, it will be selected again with water; to increase the purity of iron ore."

"Replacing charcoal with bamboo charcoal further reduces the impurity content."

"Although the blowing volume of one fan is sufficient, it is not uniform. It is recommended to use four fans to work at the same time, and the air volume should be controlled at about a quarter."

"Use low-level spirit stones to arrange the flame formation. The flame formation is calculated using the formula in the "Suanjing", and the temperature is controlled above 2700 degrees."

"By the way, the air supplied by the fan must be preheated by the flame array first, and then passed into the molten iron to prevent the molten iron from cooling down."

"There is a lot of dust here, and the smelting process is separated by arrays; the air from the fan needs to be filtered. For the time being, cotton is used as a filter layer."

Huang Mingshan, Bai Xiaodong and others got busy, while Zhang Hao watched from the side and smiled faintly.

Now, the Zhang family has initially got rid of the traditional handicraft mode. In the production process, everyone began to pay attention to measurement and calculation, and summed up everything mathematically.

Although the measurement technology is not perfect and the data is not accurate enough, the technology is finally sprouting and thriving.

What makes Zhang Hao most happy is that everyone's operation method is no longer based on experience accumulation, but directly starts from theory.

Air preheating, filtration, uniform air supply, ore and spirit stone crushing, attention to control impurities from raw materials, etc.; all these have already possessed the awareness of scientific production.

This is a qualitative leap.

Busy until midnight, a "refining workshop" appeared.

This is a ten-meter-square house. Four fans surround a smelting furnace. After water separation, dried ore powder and low-grade spirit stone powder, plus carefully selected bamboo charcoal powder are heated in the smelting furnace.

Below, the flames activated by spirit stones were purple-gold. In this small space, the roiling heat made Zhang Shengye a little uncomfortable. Zhang Hao and others in the Qi refining period were sweating profusely.

But, no one complained!

Everyone has invested in this unprecedented research and production with an unprecedented spirit.

Billowing brown smoke gushes out from the top of the smelting furnace, and is then sucked away by the fan and discharged to the outside world.

Above the Zhang family smelting base, more than a dozen brown columns of smoke billowed into the sky. In the early stage of industrial development, the ability to pollute the environment is directly proportional to industrial production capacity and technological progress!

The world is so big, I want to... pollute it~~~

Time quietly came to dawn, and the first furnace of brand-new molten iron finally stopped producing smoke. But the craftsmen did not pour it immediately, but continued to heat and wait.

Because, there is one more step - precipitation!

The wind volume began to slow down, gradually almost disappearing.

A spirit gathering array is placed at the air inlet of the fan, and a small amount of spiritual energy is slowly injected into the molten iron through the fan.

About an hour, that is, more than two hours, when the sun rose, Huang Mingshan gave the order to pour the iron ingots.

Now, Zhang's smelting furnace is very large, and one furnace of molten iron can pour more than three tons of iron ingots.

It was still a half-meter-square iron ingot.

Zhang Shengye couldn't wait for the iron ingot to cool down automatically, so he took some from the molten iron, and used spells to cool it down and identify it. After a while, Zhang Shengye opened his mouth:

"Purity 97%~~~"

The voice trembled, it was a success, a huge success!

Zhang Hao was very calm, turned his head and began to reward. This time the reward was very generous, but Zhang Hao rewarded 100,000 spirit stones to 50 people and craftsmen in one go! An average of two thousand per person.

Two thousand spirit stones are equivalent to two million iron coins!

Although the iron coins are depreciating a bit now, it is the low-purity black iron coins that depreciate.

Here in the Zhang family, craftsmen can exchange one spirit stone for 3,000 low-purity black iron coins.

That's how willful it is!

Our old Zhang family has no shortage of black iron.

Because black iron is difficult to smelt, black iron is not only a cultivation resource, but also has currency attributes, so the state encourages private coinage.

With the disclosure of the water forging technique by the Zhang family, the black iron market began to become unstable, and the low-end currency system dominated by black iron coins was also severely impacted.

But last time the princess didn't talk about it, Zhang Hao naturally wouldn't make fun of himself.

The real greatness of ingenuity is that you can tell others when someone asks you; only in this way can others know, oh, you are a smart person. Or, take it out as a bargaining chip.

Moreover, the depreciation of black iron coins will be of great benefit to the Zhang family. Now, the Zhang family is frantically minting coins to buy food, broken spirit stones, wood charcoal, cloth, horses, etc.; even fields, mines, etc.

Earlier, the princess said that she would use broken spirit stones and other raw materials in exchange for the Zhang family's black iron. Why did Zhang Hao refuse? Not only because the princess insisted on the 'market price', but also because the Zhang family can mint coins themselves, and the average price is only half of the market price!

For black iron smelting, the biggest cost comes from the 'broken spirit stone'. Although broken spirit stones are low-quality spirit stones, they are also spirit stones. There is still a market for arranging formations, cultivating elixir, smelting, etc.

Now, the Zhang family buys broken spirit stones by minting their own coins, reducing the cost of the Zhang family's broken spirit stones by about half in one go.

The Zhang family has a large purchase volume and can further reduce the price.

In the initial stage of capital expansion, it was barbaric and brutal. The Zhang family is also inevitable.

…………

At noon, the three iron ingots finally cooled down, but the craftsmen had already started smelting the second batch of iron ingots.

The purity of the first furnace was 97%; at the beginning of the second furnace, the requirements were appropriately lowered, and finally controlled at 96%.

Zhang Hao leaned against the door with a smile on his tired face.

Technology, finally blooming;

The door to industry is slowly opening.