Daming pirates

However, although the construction of the earthen blast furnace was relatively smooth and there were no major accidents when it was put into operation, the steelmaking matter was far from being as simple as Yu Xiaotian thought. After a period of smelting, it was finally time to tap the molten steel.

But the result was that Yu Xiaotian was greatly discouraged. The two earthen blast furnaces simply failed to produce molten steel, and sintering occurred in the furnaces. This meant that the two earthen blast furnaces were directly scrapped, and all the raw materials, manpower and material resources invested were also directly scrapped.

After a period of smelting in several other earthen blast furnaces, although molten steel was released, after cooling, experienced blacksmiths took it for inspection and found that most of it was not steel at all, but was basically pig iron.

It cannot be used to make things, it can only be used as cast iron.

Yu Xiaotian was really speechless at such a result. No wonder in later generations, people would sneer at the word "Tu Blast Furnace" when it was mentioned. This thing seemed to be unreliable.

After all, when many places in later generations were building earthen blast furnaces, some so-called experts were invited to provide guidance, which at least had some technical content. However, he was tossing around with this thing here, but it was all based on his own ideas. He could not even

There is no one to provide guidance, so it is indeed not easy to succeed.

After struggling like this for several days, only two earthen blast furnaces finally produced some molten steel that could be called steel. After inspection by the blacksmiths, they thought that this kind of stuff was almost usable, at least not stronger than wrought iron.

few.

Yu Xiaotian was somewhat relieved. After all, he invested huge manpower and material resources in making steel this time and built so many earthen blast furnaces of different shapes. If they all ended in failure, then not to mention

Talking about how much waste it caused, there was no room for him to save his face!

You must know that everyone in Sea Wolf now treats him like a god. He has almost never failed in what he wanted to do in the past. Now he has made such a big noise, but in the end, he has produced piles of scrap iron slag.

It undoubtedly undermines people's trust in him.

However, in the end, two small earthen blast furnaces were able to smelt some usable steel, which somewhat saved his face. Otherwise, Yu Xiaotian himself would probably feel ashamed this time.

Even if he can say that failure is success, it will still have some negative impact on his personal image.

But at least this time the two small earthen blast furnaces fought for him and produced some molten steel. As long as these two earthen blast furnaces succeed, the steelmaking business will be much easier in the future.

Fortunately, Yu Xiaotian's strength has increased a lot now, so he dares to invest a lot of manpower and material resources to build so many earthen blast furnaces for testing at once. If he builds one and tests it once like before, God knows he will produce molten steel.

It’s the Year of the Monkey and the Horse.

So after struggling for a while, Yu Xiaotian finally confirmed that these two small earthen blast furnaces could indeed produce molten steel. Although he was unable to conduct metallographic examination for the time being, he could still use some indigenous methods to conduct inspection on these products.

Some simple tests.

After final inspection, some of the initially produced strips of steel were low carbon steel, some were medium carbon steel, and of course some were high carbon steel. They were finally usable, although not all of them could be used.

I went to make a musket and use it, but I couldn’t even throw it away.

So he ordered that all those earthen blast furnaces that had completely failed experiments be dismantled, and several promising blast furnaces were cleaned and adjusted. In addition, he borrowed the structure of two small earthen blast furnaces that had successfully tested, re-enlarged and rebuilt them.

Several larger earthen blast furnaces were built and steelmaking production began.

Although the quality of the steel produced by these blast furnaces fluctuates greatly each time, molten steel is still produced. The next step is for these craftsmen to gradually gain experience. Yu Xiaotian asked the craftsmen at the steelmaking plant to formulate a

Develop a set of strict operating systems and specifications, and conduct production operations in accordance with the specifications.

Because this thing is definitely a high-risk industry. If the operation is not done properly, the furnace may explode or a fire or other serious accidents may occur. Deaths are common. Not long after production started, when molten steel was released again,

There was an accident where molten steel splashed and injured people. Two workers were seriously burned on the spot and died before they could be sent to the hospital.

In addition, Yu Xiaotian also asked the craftsmen to weigh each input in detail, carefully record the proportion of input, and check the discharge situation, and finally gradually figured out a more practical method.

Ensure that quality fluctuations are reduced during tapping.

Although steelmaking was full of twists and turns, steel was finally produced. People will not remember those failures. What they are most concerned about is the successful steelmaking. When these craftsmen see these unattractive earthen blast furnaces

, there really was someone who could make molten steel, so there was joy again.

Although this kind of earthen blast furnace doesn't look like much, often has problems, and the quality of the molten steel it produces is unstable, it still produces steel after all, and each furnace can produce thousands of kilograms of molten steel at a time. This is much better than the furnace they used to use.

The steel method and the steel pouring method require too much to make a little steel at a time.

With the availability of these steels, Blacksmith Zhang was overjoyed. Blacksmith Zhang had also been troubled by the quality of the barrels of the Wolf Fang rifles produced by the gun manufacturer.

Because the barrel is made of wrought iron, after the rifling is pulled out, a barrel cannot fire dozens of bullets. The rifling will soon be worn away, so that the barrel can only be removed and replaced with a new one, and the old barrel must be shipped back.

Guns are either re-rifled or simply remanufactured, which is a huge waste.

Now that steel has been smelted in the blast furnace, they finally have a material that can replace wrought iron to make gun barrels. In the past, he also used steel made by some craftsmen using the fried steel method and the steel filling method, and made a small amount of it.

After these barrels are rifled, after trials, the life of the barrel rifling is at least two or even five times longer than that of a barrel made of wrought iron, eliminating the trouble of frequent barrel replacement.

However, the quality of the steel refined by that method cannot be guaranteed, and the quantity is really unacceptably low. It is impossible to significantly replace wrought iron to make gun barrels, and can only be used in very small amounts for equipment.

For use by special forces or snipers.

Now that Yu Xiaotian has finally figured out a way to "mass" produce steel, then the next step for gun production can be to use these steels to replace wrought iron to make gun barrels. In the future, the number of Langya rifles produced by gun production

It will increase day by day, and gradually those South Japanese flintlock guns can be replaced as the main battle equipment of the Sea Wolf.

You must know that because the production quantity of Wolf Fang rifles has not been high, and a large number of spare barrels have to be produced, and they can be replaced as spare parts at any time, the Sea Wolf Army is screaming anxiously, not to mention that it has never been able to equip Wolf Fang rifles.

The navy.

The navy now also has a naval company, which is responsible for garrisoning forts and cooperating with the navy to carry out operations. They have been unable to obtain the Wolf Fang rifle for such a long time. For this reason, people in the navy are also full of complaints, and they have to complain to Yu Xiaotian.

After receiving the agreement, he often harassed the gunsmiths in private, complaining that their output was too low.

The person in charge of the gun factory is now being harassed by these guys and hiding away when they see them. Now that we have steel, this problem can be alleviated a lot.

Therefore, some limited steel materials that had just been produced, after inspection, were barely enough to be used for gun production, and were immediately snatched up by gun manufacturers and began to be put into production.

Unfortunately, the current output of earth-blast furnaces is still very low, which is far from meeting their needs. This problem can only be solved after new earth-blast furnaces are gradually put into operation and steel production gradually increases.

In addition, as some high-carbon steel began to be produced, the development of bearings and gears was finally put on the agenda. Under the supervision of Yu Xiaotian, Blacksmith Zhang began to tinker with this matter.

In fact, bearings and gears are not difficult, and they are easy to understand. However, it is not very simple to produce them. There are many technical problems that need to be solved. At the same time, we also need to find ways to create some machines before we can produce them.

, the inner and outer sleeves of the bearings must be made very precisely, and it will definitely not work without using higher-precision boring machines and lathes.

If you expect it to be made by craftsmen, even if it can be produced, the cost will be prohibitively high, and the quality will definitely not be good. Therefore, if you want to develop such a seemingly simple thing, you must first overcome everything.

It's just a roadblock.

However, Yu Xiaotian is not very anxious. This kind of thing must be done step by step. After breakthroughs one by one, as the working machine is developed, machine tools with higher precision can be produced. Everything must be done slowly, and you can eat a fat man in one bite.

It's simply impossible.

While steel smelting was going on in Tamsui City in full swing, things at Dagou Port were also progressing steadily. In two or three months, Sea Wolf invested nearly 100,000 yuan in Dagou Port.

Tens of thousands of manpower and countless supplies made the work there progress relatively smoothly.

Even if there was a ruthless guy like Ma Tiancheng sitting there, these hard laborers were dissatisfied. At first, after causing some trouble, they watched Ma Tiancheng kill them immediately with thunderous means, leaving the remaining messy hard laborers.

I don’t dare to mess around anymore.

Therefore, the construction of the Dagou Port Terminal took only three months and was almost completed. The current Dagou Port Terminal has built six trestles deep into the sea, which can accommodate more than a dozen ships at the same time.

The cargo can be loaded and unloaded at the berth, which greatly increases the material handling capacity of Dagou Port.

As for the local indigenous tribes, when the sea wolves first landed, there were not many people who saw the sea wolves. They attacked the dock area and the camp many times in an attempt to drive these outsiders away from Dagou Port.