Imperial Master of the Ming Dynasty

This is an era of stagnant technology.

In this era, due to the vast territory of the Ming Empire, the relatively sparse population, and the road navigation system that led to extremely blocked land transportation, the empire had not conducted effective and large-scale technological exchanges for more than 30 years after its establishment. , under the craftsman family system, whether the father dies and the son dies or the master dies and the apprentice dies, there is a situation of "passing on from generation to generation". Some technologies are retained and then passed on. This makes the technological development in the metallurgical field extremely slow. , almost stagnant, even retrograde.

At this time, the most widely used fuel in the metallurgical field was actually coal.

One thing that seems strange to say, but actually not strange at all, is that in this era, almost no one has thought about what else coal can become.

The proposition "products of coal", in later generations, many people can think of a lot, including gasoline, diesel, kerosene, urea, formaldehyde, asphalt, plastics, and synthetic fibers.

But these are all technological products after the second industrial revolution. During the first industrial revolution, the most important product of coal was actually coking coal.

Coking coal is actually made by heating coal to about a thousand degrees in the absence of air, and then going through stages such as drying, pyrolysis, melting, bonding, solidification, shrinkage, etc. This process is called high-temperature coking, and then refining The coking coal is mainly used for blast furnace ironmaking and blast furnace smelting of non-ferrous metals such as copper and lead. Although Jiang Xinghuo is average in chemistry, he probably remembers that it functions as a reducing agent and a heat-generating agent.

The iron-making blast furnace uses coking coal instead of coal and charcoal, which laid the foundation for the large-scale modern blast furnace and is a major milestone in the history of metallurgy.

But in the eyes of today's craftsmen, they are completely unaware of this. The reason is also very simple. The main role of coal is to serve as the same fuel as charcoal in the smelting process to heat the iron smelting blast furnace.

For craftsmen, the coal they use is actually very expensive and cannot be wasted carelessly. It must be cherished and used. It would be a pity to give it away casually. After all, this thing is harder to obtain than charcoal. There are not many coal mines in the south of Ming Dynasty, and the output is not high.

But the craftsmen didn't know that if they didn't throw the coal into a closed space and dry-burn it, they wouldn't be able to get coke.

All in all, the main reason why no one tried it, or why someone tried it but didn't spread it, is that coal is enough for craftsmen.

However, the issues that the craftsmen considered were not a problem for Jiang Xinghuo.

It's like for a family, a bag of rice and a bundle of firewood are important and cannot be wasted easily, but for a country, if it can try a new technological route at such a small cost, it is completely Trial and error can be achieved through "waste".

"Send someone to the fertilizer workshop that Yuan Gong is responsible for. Is there a small-scale coke preparation facility there? Ask them to send coke. If not, start refining it now."

Although the main production process of today's fertilizer workshops is to dilute the guano regularly transported from the guano island in Wanli Shitang, add various other useful and useless items, make fertilizer into bags, label it and sell it.

But in the initial experiment, in order to obtain synthetic ammonia to demonstrate the efficacy of chemical fertilizers, there was a local coking line. At that time, it was only to collect ammonia gas through green vitriol liquid, not to refine coke. Coke was just a by-product. Xinghuo had never thought about using coke to increase the temperature of the furnace and then create liquid steel.

After all, time traveler is not an encyclopedia. There are many connected knowledge points. When you only want to do one thing, it is difficult to realize its other functions. Therefore, Jiang Xinghuo also subconsciously ignored this point and did not think about it until now. stand up.

Although today's fertilizer workshops no longer need such inefficient production methods, this kind of commemorative device is still preserved, just like the well-preserved former residences of many celebrities, which means that it is almost the same. of.

There are two types of coking, one is local coking, and the other is formal coking in a coke oven.

What is preserved in the fertilizer workshop is a small furnace for coking with local methods and a long coke burial facility.

The actual process of local coking can only be described as "unpretentious". The so-called long buried coke setup is nothing more than a rectangular pool stacked up, with the top and bottom sealed with refractory bricks on all sides, and then the coal is ignited. After a period of time, when all the gas is burned and no more smoke is emitted, it becomes coke.

What are the technical difficulties? It’s nothing, the most is to create a fuse channel on the side wall, so that the hot air flow formed by the exhaust gas generated by coal combustion and the large amount of unburned coal cracking products can continue to burn through the fuse channel on the side wall of the long buried coke. And transfer part of the heat inside, then pour water from the hole to quench the coke, cool the oven, and peel the coke.

The coking process takes a relatively long time, the coking rate is low, the coal consumption is incredibly high, and the environmental pollution is serious.

But it doesn't matter. In a serious iron smelting field, Jiang Xinghuo will definitely ask them to find ways to improve the coke oven specially used for coking. Jiang Xinghuo has no doubt about the intelligence and practical ability of these people. Perhaps what they lack is just ideas. guidance on.

These coking coals were just used by Jiang Xinghuo to show them how to use new fuel to raise the temperature of the furnace fire enough to melt molten steel.

Jiang Xinghuo and Hu Yuancheng went out to talk, and the craftsmen inside were talking a lot.

"Coke? It sounds like coal is burned again. Is it the same as burning wood into charcoal?"

"When wood is burned into charcoal, it can continue to burn. When coal is burned into coke, isn't it just a pile of black lumps? Can it continue to burn?"

"Who knows, but let's just do whatever the big shots above want to do, just make a living, why worry about so much."

"Don't we have enough wrought iron? Do we need to put pig iron in there?"

Someone immediately said that they had just watched it. If it was a large-scale refining, there might not be enough here because a batch of wrought iron had just been sent away.

Although craftsmen in this era cannot directly obtain liquid steel, they still know basic common sense. Pig iron contains more impurities than wrought iron. For the same reason, if the pig iron is remelted, the final molten iron will contain more impurities than wrought iron. Wrought iron has more molten iron. In fact, the same is true in modern steelmaking. Unless it is special steel, theoretically you can use wrought iron to remelt it, but few people do this. They all have complete sets of equipment. And the process is in place in just a few steps.

"Master, do you think this is possible?"

At this time, the craftsmen looked at the old man with a sallow face and a cotton-padded jacket who had been silent in the corner.

The old man frowned. He didn't like the Annan man who was messing around, because he could tell at a glance that it was not feasible to increase the furnace temperature by reducing the air contact area of ​​the iron smelting furnace. This was not the case before. No one has thought of this method. They have tried it many times, but no one has succeeded.

But the national teacher is different.

How could the prestige of the Imperial Preceptor be comparable to that of these Annan people?

Therefore, he did not dare to question Jiang Xinghuo's decision. He just pursed his lips and said, "Let's take a look."

At this time, Jiang Xinghuo was discussing the construction of coking facilities with Hu Yuancheng.

After all, coking is always made using local methods, and the output ratio is too low. If you want to achieve regular and continuous smelting, you must have a proper coke oven.

But Jiang Xinghuo didn't understand much about this. He just had a rough idea when he was flipping through the book. Well, he also had a rough idea about the atomic bomb. In short, just describe it first and then let Hu Yuancheng do it.

In fact, the coke oven does not have just one appearance. After all, the application of coal coking technology has been used for hundreds of years in his previous life. The structure and shape of the furnace have also undergone many changes. The initial coking process was to imitate the process of burning charcoal. Piles of retorting was still relatively primitive; later it began to evolve into brick-built semi-enclosed long kilns, which are similar to the indigenous coking methods used in fertilizer workshops today; and later, fully enclosed round kilns began to be used, that is, Commonly known as "honeycomb furnace", its technical feature is that carbonization and combustion are combined, burning part of the coal and carbonization gas to directly heat the rest of the coal to carbonize into coke.

The coke ovens that Jiang Xinghuo saw in the countryside when he was a child were products after the mid-19th century, that is, the coking stage developed from kilns to externally heated carbonization chambers, and the down-flame furnace appeared. This version The coke oven separates the coke-forming carbonization chamber and the heated combustion chamber with a wall. There is a ventilation channel on the upper part of the partition wall. The carbonization gas of the coal in the carbonization chamber flows directly into the combustion chamber through this channel and is connected with the air duct from the top of the combustion chamber. The air is mixed and burned from top to bottom. As for the later versions, it is a gradual improvement process, such as changes in recycling chemicals and changes in using flue gas waste heat. Generally speaking, there are not much changes.

"If you want to build a coking workshop, what are you going to do?"

"Please give me your instructions, Imperial Master." Hu Yuancheng replied respectfully.

Jiang Xinghuo shook his head when he heard this and said, "Tell me what you think."

Hu Yuancheng basically knew nothing about this, and of course he didn't have any good ideas. But the reason why Jiang Xinghuo asked him this was to imply that he didn't need him to act like a puppet to reassure him. .

Hu Yuancheng roughly expressed his thoughts, Jiang Xinghuo nodded noncommittally, and then said.

"Find a room and draw a drawing for you first."

When he reached the door of the room, he stopped.

Jiang Xinghuo thought about it in his mind before entering the room, sitting in front of the desk and starting to draw.

With a brush and a stack of rice paper, Jiang Xinghuo spent less than half an hour to finally draw all the pictures he could think of and label them, and then handed them to Hu Yuancheng.

After Hu Yuancheng looked at it carefully, he nodded and said, "I understand what the Imperial Master means."

"Has the coking coal arrived?"

"I just arrived, so I didn't dare to disturb the Imperial Master."

Jiang Xinghuo said with satisfaction: "Then let's try the coking coal quickly."

Several carts of steaming fresh coking coal were brought over and then put into the iron smelting furnace under the gaze of everyone.

Everyone is speculating whether this new fuel can heat the fire enough to melt steel into water.

Hu Yuancheng was no exception. Although he felt that no one had ever tried this before, since it was something Jiang Xinghuo so solemnly ordered, he had to try it even if it seemed hopeless to others.

But before that, Hu Yuancheng had something to do. He went out and told the clerk outside: "Go find someone immediately, follow the drawings, and quickly build a coking chamber over there. Remember, be quick, it will be done in the next few days." come out."

The clerk turned around to leave, but Hu Yuancheng pulled his sleeve again, thought for a while and added.

"In addition, we must use the best materials, the fastest speed, and the strongest masonry. I require the people who work to be the most precise and clever."

Hu Yuancheng gave him a few more instructions, then waved his hand to signal the clerk to leave.

Afterwards, Hu Yuancheng returned to the iron furnace and looked at the furnace along with everyone else.

"boom-!"

"Zila—!"

The sudden noise in the furnace was deafening, startling the onlookers standing nearby.

After all, the iron-making furnaces of this era never used coking coal, so it was normal for the situation to occur.

Hu Yuancheng was stunned for a while, then turned to look at the person beside him: "National Preceptor?"

No one knew what was going on in the iron furnace, because there was only an inlet at the top and a small hole at the bottom for discharging material, so the craftsmen who were feeding materials on the overpass with shovels did not dare to continue to move.

"Keep adding."

Jiang Xinghuo said calmly: "If you can't blow it up, just add it in. Everyone except those who deliver materials will stop outside."

Hu Yuancheng responded quickly: "Yes!"

Then everyone continued to work.

Jiang Xinghuo waited silently.

After a while, the flames of the iron furnace showed abnormalities that had never happened before!

Well, what most people don’t know is that the color of a stove fire can intuitively determine the temperature.

Although the craftsmen at this time did not have specific concepts such as degrees Celsius, the things passed down orally from their ancestors still formed a formula.

To be intuitive, according to different degrees Celsius, this is actually the evolution.

600 degrees Celsius: dark red

700 degrees Celsius: deep red

1000 degrees Celsius: orange-red

1100 degrees Celsius: pure orange

1200 degrees Celsius: golden orange

1300 degrees Celsius: golden white

1500 degrees Celsius: pure white

1600 degrees Celsius: white blue

The most recited formulas by all the craftsmen present were golden white.

Even so, very few people have seen golden-white flames during the actual smelting process.

This is of course not that people in fantasy or immortality novels have never seen strange fires, but that no one has seen it in the real world. The reason is that the melting point of pig iron is 1100-1200 degrees Celsius, and the melting point of miscellaneous iron is 1200 degrees Celsius. , and the heat that coal or charcoal can provide is only enough to heat up to this range, so these craftsmen usually smelt pig iron at most, and have no ability to smelt steel (1400 degrees Celsius) or wrought iron (1400-1500 degrees Celsius). ability.

What shocked them today was that, completely different from charcoal and coal, with the use of coking coal, the flame below turned directly into golden white as soon as the furnace was turned on!

"Golden and white fire!"

The craftsmen looked at this spectacle in amazement.

You must know that in the past, they used the best charcoal to see the golden-white flame with a very small probability. Usually the dark or light orange flame has ended, but now, not long after it starts, it directly Golden-white flames appeared!

This shows what?

The people present are not fools, and they clearly realize what it represents, that is, the lower limit of coking coal is already the upper limit of coal and charcoal!

This simply subverts their cognition!

"My dear, in all my life, this is the first time I've seen someone with gold and white fire at the beginning!"

"Yes, Sa, who would have thought that using coking coal can achieve such high smelting efficiency!"

"No wonder the Imperial Master said that coking coal can solve the urgent problem."

"Haha, this is the most powerful iron-making method I have ever seen."

This is absolutely incredible, and what’s even more incredible is yet to come, that is, the color of the flame is still changing!

The gold in the golden-white flame began to slowly fade away.

The flame gradually turned into pure white!

At this time, everyone was completely stunned and even said nothing.

"Huh~"

Looking at the scene in front of him, Hu Yuancheng took a long breath. Only then did he feel that his palms were already covered with sweat.

The old master in the cotton-padded jacket came closer with joy. He stared at the flame in the furnace and looked at it carefully. Then he even reached out his hand to touch it in obsession.

At this moment, he heard Jiang Xinghuo cough slightly.

The old master immediately retracted his palm, laughed awkwardly, and stepped back to the side.

At this moment, a crackling sound came from the bottom of the furnace.

"This is--"

An apprentice worker who was responsible for feeding materials on the overpass on the stovetop shouted to them excitedly: "The iron is starting to melt!"

The careful craftsman lowered his head to look at the discharge hole. Sure enough, there was exudate other than waste material in the charred hole.

"It's really done, great!"

"Ha ha ha ha!"

"We finally succeeded. This way, we can boil molten iron directly in the future!"

A group of people cheered.

"Don't worry, it's not considered a success yet."

Jiang Xinghuo waved his hand to stop everyone's ecstasy, and then continued: "This is only a preliminary result. It is still far from complete success. I estimate that I will have to stay up for at least half an hour to absorb the contents contained in the coking coal. The energy is exhausted, and then it’s truly successful.”

When Hu Yuancheng heard this, he immediately became serious and asked, "Master, what do you need us to do?"

"No, no need, I will teach you how to control it, you just need to do it."

Jiang Xinghuo smiled.

Although Jiang Xinghuo has never made molten steel himself, to be honest, these people have never made it either. Jiang Xinghuo's advantage over them is that he has personally seen rural steelmaking in his previous life, and in a previous life , I have run a chemical plant, so I have some experience, and I know some relevant knowledge.

Soon, under Jiang Xinghuo's guidance, the color of the flame began to undergo another transformation!

The pure white in the flame began to slowly turn into a coquettish blue!

"this"

Everyone around was stunned. This kind of thing seemed unbelievable to them. Who in the world had seen such white-blue fire? What a first time!

If we have to dig deeper, we can say that the moment lightning strikes an object, a blue fire may be produced, but this is man-made! Completely controlled by humans!

Jiang Xinghuo paused and pointed to the wall and said: "If the blast box relies solely on human power, the efficiency is still too low. If it can be driven by a water truck and the wind can help the fire, the fire can be even hotter." Floors!"

After hearing this, everyone was convinced. After all, if a strange person like the Imperial Master said it, he must have a reason.

As the feeder on the overpass reported that the molten steel had taken shape, everyone sighed.

Jiang Xinghuo ignored everyone's sighs and continued to explain: "Other ores can be added to the molten steel. For example, if there is a kind of ore that is made into powder and added to the molten steel, it may cause the solidified steel to become Hard, corrosion-resistant effect.”

"Is there such a thing? Imperial Master, where did you get it from?" Hu Yuancheng asked curiously.

Jiang Xinghuo smiled and patted his shoulder, then approached him and whispered a few words.

A look of surprise appeared on Hu Yuancheng's face and he said, "Master, are you really sure?"

Jiang Xinghuo nodded and said, "I believe in my eyes, just follow my instructions."

"Okay! I'll try it boldly later."

After a while, as the fuel gradually ran out, the furnace temperature began to gradually drop, but at this time, molten steel was also produced, and the molten steel was poured into the molds. These molds were originally prepared for the molten iron produced from pig iron. Now I can only make do with it. It didn't take long for the molten steel to solidify into steel ingots.

Looking at the steel ingot, the old master was amazed.

"Pure steel."

"What's the meaning?"

"The impurities in the steel have been completely burned away."

In fact, there are certainly many impurities in the steel in this state, but they are invisible to the naked eye.

For the craftsmen of this era, this is already completely pure steel. In the future, they will only need to cold work it to get what they want.

“Doesn’t that mean that steel has been successfully made from coking coal?”

"Um."

Jiang Xinghuo nodded and looked at the ball of steel in front of him with a smile on his face.

Just like humans have genetic locks, in different eras, there are also technological locks.

The ability of humans to create molten steel and then obtain steel materials at low cost and high efficiency is one of the most important technological locks in the era of the Industrial Revolution.

With steel, there are steam engines, armored ships, trains, and a series of other things that could not be built in the agricultural era.

Don't underestimate these inconspicuous steel ingots in front of you, these are the real priceless treasures leading to the future.

Compared with copper, steel is harder and more durable, and can withstand very high temperatures and strength, making it the best choice for casting cannons.

When Jiang Xinghuo developed a lightweight field gun and decided to use it to replace traditional cannons, he also considered adding cannons made of steel cast barrels. Unfortunately, due to the lack of relevant technology, the cost of hand-rolled steel was too high , it took too long, and it was impossible to install it in batches, so he had no choice but to give up.

After all, the hand-rubbing method, even if it can be done reluctantly, is inefficient, not even one-tenth of the efficiency of a cast copper cannon, so it has been delayed until now and there is no way to implement it.

Until now, the method of mass manufacturing steel has finally appeared.

At this moment, Jiang Xinghuo was filled with emotions.

"National Master, you have expected this, right?"

Hu Yuancheng looked at Jiang Xinghuo, his eyes shining with excitement.

"Um."

Jiang Xinghuo responded simply, then waved his hand.

The craftsmen present immediately dispersed, leaving only a few people to help shut down the iron furnace completely to prevent danger.

At this time, Hu Yuancheng couldn't wait to say: "National Master, you are actually here to lead us to smelt better steel, but what you just said..."

Hu Yuancheng wanted to know how much Jiang Xinghuo attached importance to these aspects.

"certainly."

Jiang Xinghuo said matter-of-factly: "You should know the value of this process of adding other substances to steel. However, the current process is still too rough, so some things have to be explored slowly."

Hu Yuancheng asked again: "National Master, how long do you think it will take to refine this so-called 'alloy steel'?"

It seems to be a question, but in fact, it is Hu Yuancheng testing whether Jiang Xinghuo wants to set a deadline for him. If there is a deadline, he knows it in his heart, so he can do things next.

"Hard to say."

Jiang Xinghuo pondered for a moment, and then said: "It depends on luck, but since we have coking coal, I think it will take one or two years at most."

Hu Yuancheng was relieved. The imperial master did not force him to get it out within a long time. It seemed that he was very aware of the difficulties involved.

Hu Yuancheng hesitated for a moment, then said: "Master, do you think I still have a chance?"

Of course Jiang Xinghuo knew what the "opportunity" the other party was talking about was. As a man whose country was subjugated, he thought that these words had been buried in his heart for a long time.

"Do you want to go down this road?"

"Yes, I don't hide it from the Imperial Master. I have long been tired of the intrigues in the court and want to find a place to settle down."

Hu Yuancheng made no secret of his desire and said sincerely: "And there are many things I want to learn from you."

"You are a capable person, but you are different from your brother."

Hu Yuancheng coughed twice, but it was difficult to answer these words.

In fact, what he told was the truth. Hu Yuancheng didn't like the intrigues in the first place. It was the same reason why he didn't compete with his brother for the throne. He was tired of sitting in the palace every day and listening to the arguments of the ministers.

Now in a different environment, he would rather be a free-spirited person like a wandering cloud and a wild crane. It would be great if he had a skill and a career for which he worked hard.

But many times, he knew that this was actually an unrealistic delusion for people like them, who were like rootless duckweeds, but he was really unwilling to accept it, so he took this opportunity to ask Jiang Xinghuo for advice. , wanting to gain an opportunity to change the trajectory of his life, maybe change his future.

Jiang Xinghuo didn't say anything, just patted him on the shoulder.