Dominate the Country

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Xiaonangou.

Chen Ming and his men have been back here for three days. Faced with the conditions offered by the Chen family, the craftsmen of Xiaonangou surrendered without resistance. Liu Wen recruited a total of 87 people from the three farms, 34 of whom entered the engineering school, and the remaining 53 people have begun to adapt to their new lives with their masters.

With the arrival of a new day, the quiet Xiaonangou became noisy. Today's Xiaonangou is no longer the Xiaonangou of yesterday. There are five new iron-making blast furnaces alone. If the ore in the mine is not in short supply, Xiaonangou can build a few more.

Looking past the five towering iron-making blast furnaces, looking forward is a row of water wheels and workshops on the side of Xiaonan Creek. The technology of hydraulic forging hammer has become the second secret of the Chen family after the iron-making blast furnace.

The forging hammer driven by water power has a force far greater than that of human power, and the landing point is fixed, and the force is also uniform. The same blade, if forged by human hammer, even the most skilled blacksmith would need most of the day, but what about the hydraulic hammer? It takes less than half an hour to forge it, including the time for heating the iron bar, and the quality is better than that of the waist knife forged by human hammer.

The blast furnace is full of iron ore, and the coal washing plant on the other side is also running at full capacity. The Chinese people are very smart. The coal washing plant does not need Chen Ming to speak, they have come up with a source of animal power.

Xiaonan Creek continues to flow. In winter, Xiaonan Creek does not freeze. It is not that the weather is not cold, but that the terrain difference here is too large and the water flows fast, so it cannot freeze. Going up from the village, a small dam has been built, and it can better control the water flow.

"Loading."

At the command of a gray-haired old foreman, two workers immediately drove mules to pull the iron ropes in the No. 2 blast furnace. The iron ropes made a squeaking sound along the pulleys, and baskets of coke were hung on the top of the blast furnace. With a "clattering" sound, baskets of coke were poured into the blast furnace. Each basket of coke weighed more than 100 kilograms, and the blast furnace would use 30 baskets at a time.

In the previous life, steelmaking, I remember that 300 to 400 kilograms of coke was enough for one ton of steel. But for this small blast furnace that Chen Ming had made, at least one ton of coke was needed to smelt one ton of iron.

In addition to coke, of course, baskets of iron ore were indispensable. Like coke, iron ore was also poured into the blast furnace from the top, a layer of coke, a layer of iron ore, and it took half an hour to load it once.

The bellows slowly turned under the power of the animals, and then turned faster and faster, driving the bellows to clatter. The huge wind passed through the heat storage chamber and blew into the blast furnace. The flames in the blast furnace shot up into the sky, reflecting the faces of the people around red.

As the fire lasted longer and longer, the temperature in the furnace naturally became higher, and the red fire pit shot out several feet high. The No. 2 blast furnace was no different from the other blast furnaces. It seemed that the heat that would melt the entire furnace would make the workers no longer feel the cold in late autumn.

Compared with the old-fashioned iron-making furnace, the current small blast furnace first increased the output, the speed increased, and the material of the iron material was better. So compared with the troubles of washing coal, selecting iron ore, coking, etc. that had never happened before, the Chen family could endure it.

All five blast furnaces were busy, the heat wave was pressing, and the flames in the furnace had turned into a faint blue. From the pores, it can be seen that the iron ore inside was slowly melting.

When the first furnace of red-hot molten iron today flowed out along the groove, it was just dusk. The molten iron filled the first mold immediately and automatically flowed to the second mold. The molten iron did not stop flowing until it flowed into the twelfth mold.

There were at least 200 kilograms of pig iron in that mold. Today's small blast furnace can smelt at least 1 ton of pig iron at a time. Considering the iron output rate and time of the ore, the daily efficiency of the small blast furnace is at least ten times that of the blast furnace in the past.

"Qigong, you are making it difficult for me. It is people who rely on splitting mountains and mining. There are only a few factors to increase the output of the mine, road construction and people. Road construction also requires people, so instead of making it difficult for me, you might as well let Uncle Wu and his men recruit more refugees and beggars from outside and quietly transport them into the mountains. And I don't think we will have to buy food for our family in the future. Maybe we will have to buy it from outside."

Chen Ming carefully supported Qigong and spoke with a smile. Qigong asked him to find a way to solve the problem of insufficient private mine production. This was a serious unrealistic problem, absolutely beyond Chen Ming's ability. In the middle of the Qing Dynasty, in the theater of 1765 when Watt's steam engine had not yet been successfully developed, Chen Ming could not solve this problem even if he was beaten to death.

"We have not sold grain to the outside world for a long time. Our three grain stores in Lushan and Ruzhou have all been converted into grocery stores." Qigong's face was full of relaxed smiles, and he told Chen Ming a piece of news that he didn't know yet. "Recruiting refugees and beggars is a good idea, much better than buying people. It's safe. As long as we are careful, we can send them to Tumenji without anyone knowing."

"Manage it more strictly, and outsiders can't find our private mines."

Chen Ming looked up at Xiaonangou, where the smoke was billowing, "Qigong, I really think we should recruit some little beggars. These beggars have suffered a lot, and those who have suffered know gratitude. We support them, teach them to read and write, and do abacus account books. Will they not work hard for us in the future?"

"Qigong, look at the blast furnaces in front of you, there are only five of them. The output of our private mine is not enough. Xiaonangou is not big, but it is easy to build ten more, right? As long as we make a profit, our Chen family will be rich in Ruzhou in less than ten years.

This is still on the surface. We will have more hidden money in secret.

Five blast furnaces, no shortage of ore and coking coal, can produce at least 10,000 kilograms of iron a day, and there are also crucibles for steelmaking, which can also produce hundreds of kilograms of good steel a day. How much is this alone?" The entire Qing Dynasty seemed to have only produced 50 million kilograms of iron, right? Chen Ming remembered what he saw in that book. The steel output during the Yongzheng and Qianlong periods of the Qing Dynasty reached 25,000 tons a year, which is 50 million kilograms.

In Xiaonangou, as long as the iron ore and coke can keep up, it is easy to open two more blast furnaces to reach one-tenth of the steel output of the Qing Dynasty in a year.

This is not inferior iron, it is all high-quality iron comparable to Guangdong Iron. The price of only 5 million jin of high-quality iron is worth 60,000 to 70,000 taels of silver. If part of it is processed into more expensive kitchen knives, scissors, axes, sickles, shovels, iron pots and other daily necessities, 60,000 to 70,000 taels of silver can become 100,000 to 200,000 taels of silver.

In the whole Ruzhou, how many industries have you heard of that can be counted in units of 100,000 taels of silver?

In a few years, the Chen family will be rich in Ruzhou, and even become the richest in the whole Henan.

—— The Chen family, the richest family in the entire Qing Dynasty, is not a luxury. Not to mention the salt merchants in Yangzhou, the Shanxi merchants, the Hui merchants, etc., not to mention the Thirteen Hongs in Guangdong, even the princes and nobles in Beijing, and Heshen and adults who will make a brilliant appearance in a few years, who dares to compete with them in wealth?

Qi Gong obviously thought of this, gurgle, his throat surged, and he swallowed hard.

"Seventh Master, this is a million-dollar fortune. Just ten years, just ten years, and every family of my Chen family will have a good life and endless enjoyment."

"As long as Uncle Wu and the others can bring people into the mountains!" Without people, everything is in vain. With people, everything is possible!