In the Song Dynasty, there was no law or order.

There are many poor people in Bianliang, and there are even more poor people in the world.

Zhao Jun can't take care of everyone, he can only do some things within his ability.

The Song Dynasty is still too short of money.

But making money is not something that can be done in a day or two. The domestic pie is so small. Making a bigger pie and doing business abroad is the right way.

However, ancient maritime trade and land trade are always limited by one condition-transportation.

Before the improvement of productivity, basically, Quanzhou and Guangzhou did business with Central Asia, and the annual export volume was tens of millions of guan.

Now the only big buyer is Japan, which has suddenly become rich after digging silver mines.

According to the "Silver Capital" written by Andre Gunder Frank, a later Western scholar, from the 14th to the 16th century, in addition to the Iwami Silver Mine, there were other silver mines with considerable storage in the four islands of Japan.

Among them, the Iwami Silver Mine has the largest reserves, producing 30 tons of silver per year, and 38 tons of silver at its peak. It has been mined for more than 400 years, and the total reserves are expected to reach 12,000 tons, worth about 300 million taels.

Including other silver mines, the silver produced and supplied from Japan to the Ming Dynasty reached about 200 tons per year.

However, it has just started. Although the Iwami Silver Mine has been discovered, the mining volume is still too low. Only about 15 tons were mined last year. Even if the Song Dynasty brought advanced production technology, the development there has just started. How can it be built so quickly?

So in fact, although a large silver mine has been discovered, the annual import volume of the Song Dynasty is actually mainly copper and sulfur.

Silver plus other originally discovered production areas only supply about 50 tons to the Song Dynasty each year. The silver inflow between the two sides is currently only a quarter of that of the Ming Dynasty.

According to the ratio, it is about 1.3 million taels of silver per year.

There is a lot of gold. According to Japanese scholar Mori Katsumi in "Continued Research on Japan-Song Trade", from the Northern Song Dynasty to the Southern Song Dynasty, Japan imported more than 10,000 taels of gold into China each year.

Now, with the help of Song Cai, Japan has "discovered" the Sado Gold Mine, and this gold mine also has a large number of associated silver and bronze mines. If it develops, it can provide more gold and silver for the Song Dynasty.

In this way, gold, silver, copper, iron, sulfur and other large quantities of minerals constitute the trade between the Song Dynasty, Japan and Goryeo, and the trade volume between the two sides is about 40 million guan.

According to historical records, during the Renzong period, the Mingzhou Maritime Customs received 500,000 guan. With a tax rate of 10% on sea trade, the private trade volume between the Song Dynasty and Japan was only 5 million guan at that time, and it was not until the Southern Song Dynasty that it broke through 10 million guan.

However, since the signing of the free trade agreement between the two sides in the first year of Kangding, it has increased eightfold in two years, thanks to active communication with Japan to help them expand their domestic gold and silver mines.

In this way, together with the trade with Goryeo, from the first year of Kangding to the third year of Qingli, more than 4 million silver has been brought to the Song Dynasty in more than three years.

Moreover, as time goes by, the trade volume between the two sides will only continue to grow, thereby driving a large number of industries and allowing Japan to upgrade its technology, which will naturally continue to expand the inflow of silver.

According to the "Study on the Quantity of Overseas Trade in the Ming Dynasty" by scholar Wan Ming, an average of 7 million taels of silver flowed into the Ming Dynasty every year in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, of which the inflow from Japan reached about 5 million taels per year, and the other 1 or 2 million taels came from American silver.

So as long as the Song Dynasty continues to trade, the Song Dynasty will be like the Ming Dynasty in the future, with a trade volume of 70 million taels of silver, and an annual income of 7 million taels of silver will no longer be a dream.

But what is most lacking now is time.

In January, Zhao Jun celebrated his 29th birthday, and Zhao Zhen planned to celebrate it in a big way.

But Zhao Jun refused.

He just had a meal with his family and continued to deal with state affairs.

In February, there was good news from the research institute.

The ammonium sulfate fertilizer provided by Zhao Zhen was finally developed successfully.

This thing belongs to the chemical direction, Zhao Jun didn't know it at all, but he remembered that his grandfather had made it himself when he was a child.

He was from the countryside. When he was a child, his family raised pigs. The pig pen and the toilet were in one room. A big pit was dug below and covered with wooden boards. The pigs stayed in the pig pen next to them, and the feces of people and pigs fell into the big pit below through the gap between the wooden boards.

I didn't understand these things before, but later I remembered that my grandfather had poured white powder into the manure pit, but I didn't know what it was at the time, and I mentioned it to Zhao Zhen and others.

But in the Song Dynasty, composting technology like this was actually popularized, and many rural areas were built like this, so there was no need for popular science.

The only problem was that I didn't know what the white powder was.

Surprisingly, Zhao Zhen asked Zhao Jun for a notebook to read novels at the beginning of this year, and he actually found the recipe in a historical novel.

Take 50 kilograms of human urine and feces (cows, sheep, pigs, and chickens are all OK), 5 kilograms of calcium sulfate (gypsum powder), add 20 kilograms of water, stir and mix evenly, and leave it for 10-15 days.

That is, human urine and feces, gypsum powder and water are made in a ratio of 10:1:4.

There is even a formula for ammonium carbonate fertilizer in that historical novel, which is made from human urine or cattle, sheep, pig and chicken manure, soybean powder and gypsum powder in a ratio of 100:1:8.

Zhao Jun then realized that the powder was actually gypsum powder.

It’s just that the formula for ammonium carbonate fertilizer requires soybean powder, which was not only eaten by people in ancient times, but also a strategic material. The cost of soybean feed for horses is too high, so it naturally cannot be used.

So ammonium sulfate fertilizer is the best.

The research institute produced the finished ammonium sulfate fertilizer in January, and then conducted experiments with "Songcai", which has a relatively short growth cycle, that is, pakchoi.

After more than 20 days, the mature Chinese cabbage grew better and stronger than the Chinese cabbage without fertilizer, and the yield was also much higher.

Newspapers immediately carried out follow-up publicity, and Jinzouyuan across the country mobilized to spread the news of Zhao Zhen's new fertilizer throughout the country. The proportions of the ingredients were also quickly spread, asking people everywhere to make their own fertilizers.

Zhao Zhen has shown great talent during this period.

Newspapers and Jinzouyuan gave him a good reputation. They not only publicized the effectiveness of the new fertilizer invented by the officials, but also encouraged the people to open up their minds, develop their own research, and make more inventions and creations, and the court would reward him.

For a time, there was an invention craze across the country. In the next few decades, many useful things were invented and reported to the Invention Bureau and applied for patents.

But that’s all a story for another day.

Zhao Zhen was so happy that he got such a big limelight for no reason, and most importantly, he had a reason to ask Zhao Jun for a notebook to play with.

I just want to find more inventions and creations from historical novels. What's wrong with me?

Zhao Jun rolled his eyes and was speechless.

In April, Zhao Jun went to Wu'an.

As we all know, Hebei Province in my country is an important base for steel in later generations and is also the number one steel-producing province in the country.

The reason for this is that there are a lot of iron ore and coal mines here, and the transportation is also the most convenient.

Among them, Handan Iron and Steel and Tangshan Iron and Steel are the most famous.

But in the Song Dynasty, forget about Tangshan.

That was the territory of the Liao Kingdom.

But why didn't Zhao Jun choose Handan, a famous coal and high-grade iron ore producing area in later generations?

Because of traffic.

In the Song Dynasty, there were only some small rivers in Handan, but no medium or large rivers.

The nearest large rivers are Fushui and Mingshui, which are 40 kilometers away.

Wu'an also produces coal and iron, but it is only a few kilometers away from Mingshui, and Mingshui is connected to Zhangshui, and Zhangshui is connected to Yongji Canal.

Therefore, Wu'an at this time was more suitable for steel smelting than Handan.

Zhao Jun gathered blacksmiths to build a small steel factory in Bianliang. After several years of experiments, he finally developed the Bessway air steelmaking method and the Bessemer converter steelmaking method.

Then setting up a steel plant is imperative.

Since last year, he has asked people to build a canal between Wu'an and Mingshui, and expand the Mingshui river channel. He started building factories east of Wu'an, which is the foot of the later Jiulongshan mining area.

After a year of hard work, the canal was built, the river channel was expanded, the factory buildings were almost built, and a large number of smelting equipment and tools were prepared.

On April 6, outside Wu'an County, Wu'an County Magistrate Han Gongyan and Cai Zhi, the technical official in charge of the construction, were already waiting.

Zhao Jun slowly came closer.

All the officials, large and small, quickly went up and said, "I've seen the Governor!"

"Um."

Zhao Jun got off the carriage, nodded and said, "Who is Cai Zhi?"

"The official is here."

Cai Zhi, Superintendent of Wu'an Mine Cast Iron Smelting, quickly stepped forward and said.

This person's great-grandfather, Cai Wan, was the Sansmelting Envoy of Wu'anyuan City in the early Song Dynasty, and he was considered to be responsible for smelting and manufacturing.

"Wu'an iron-making has a long history, but this time it is steel-making. Do you have confidence?"

Zhao Jun asked with a smile.

"I will not give up even if I die!"

Cai Zhi said hurriedly.

"Well, let me introduce the situation."

"yes."

Cai Zhi talked while everyone was walking.

The history of iron-making in Wu'an can be traced back to the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.

At that time, charcoal was used as the material for making iron. Later, with the invention of the blower, coal was used to make iron.

It's just that coal contains a lot of impurities, mainly sulfur and phosphorus, which results in poor quality. Therefore, the quality of ironware in the Song Dynasty is not very good. Historical records record that it is "extremely brittle and easy to break."

Jia Changchao once said, "If it is not made well, it will be brittle."

There is no way. In fact, after the Song Dynasty, coal has become the main refining method. The cost of charcoal is still too high, which will inevitably lead to a decline in quality.

However, Zhao Jun's Bestway air steelmaking method can perfectly solve this problem. By adding air, the sulfur and phosphorus in the molten iron are oxidized into easily separated oxides, thereby reducing the sulfur and phosphorus in the molten iron and turning iron into steel. .

In fact, the Bessemer converter steelmaking method and the Bessway air steelmaking method are complementary to each other. One can greatly improve the steelmaking efficiency, and the other can reduce production costs and improve steel quality.

At present, through several years of experiments, Zhao Jun has produced a steel converter suitable for these two methods. Now is the time to start large-scale manufacturing.

The group of people soon arrived at the steel plant. At this time, the steel plant was built on the original smelting plant. Due to the limited development level, it was definitely not the steel factory building of later generations. It was just built with rammed earth walls and bricks.

There are even some blast furnaces placed directly outside, which can only be covered with sheds on rainy days.

It looks very rough and crude, but this is already the best ironworks now.

When Zhao Jun arrived, everything had been set up. He looked around and saw that the ironmaking process was still the blast furnace ironmaking method of the Song Dynasty. Refractory clay was used to make a blast furnace and coal was used to make iron inside.

He used charcoal to smelt normal iron, and then used the Tang Dynasty's steel filling method to get a large amount of steel, and then poured it into a mold to create a converter.

The whole process was not a problem with the craftsmanship of the Song Dynasty.

After all, the mold manufacturing process of the Song Dynasty could make not only a converter, but also an iron man weighing several tons, and it was lifelike.

Moreover, the process of the Bessemer converter was not complicated. In fact, it was a large steel furnace with lever wheels installed on both sides.

When refining, the molten cast iron was poured into the converter from above, and then pressurized hot air was injected into the interior through a special pipe at the bottom.

The hot air passed through the molten iron, burning off the carbon and other impurities in the cast iron, turning it into steel.

As for the Bestwell air steelmaking method, it was even simpler. Just add limestone to the original clay refractory bricks. There was no technical difficulty at all. What was lacking was that someone discovered the method.

The reason why Zhao Jun took so long to make the thing was mainly because he had left Kaifeng long ago to inspect the local area and returned to Bianliang at the end of the second year of Baoyuan.

It only took a few months to successfully manufacture all the principles and tools for that small steel plant. It was not difficult at all.

At this time, everything was ready.

Hundreds of workers in the factory lined up outside to welcome him.

Zhao Jun looked around and found no problem, so he asked Han Qi's nephew Han Gongyan: "Have you tried it?"

"We have tried it."

Han Gongyan said excitedly: "As the director said, it only takes about a quarter of an hour to refine molten iron into steel!"

"Well, open a furnace and try it."

Zhao Jun said.

"Open a furnace!"

Cai Zhi ordered quickly.

In an instant, more than a dozen workers started to act.

They first came to a blast furnace, added coal into it, and then pushed the blower desperately.

After about 30 minutes, the workers took a lot of pig iron out of the blast furnace.

In fact, according to the records of "Heavenly Creations", the process of refining pig iron from iron ore should take about 6 hours.

But they naturally didn't dare to let Zhao Jun wait that long, so before Zhao Jun came, they had already refined a furnace of pig iron, and they just heated it after Zhao Jun arrived.

The workers used a steel frame to hold several hundred kilograms of pig iron, and then hooked the four corners of the steel frame with a hook rope, and then pulled it to the side of a converter through a tall frame using the pulley principle.

The people pulled the rope desperately again, lifted the steel frame, and poured it into the converter smoothly.

At this time, the pig iron temperature was very high, and then the workers in the steel furnace next to it began to pull the blower continuously. The top of the converter was like a volcanic eruption, with sparks gurgling.

If the workers pulling the blower were not protected by steel plates on their heads and on both sides, they would probably be burned by the flints that splashed out.

After about ten minutes, the converter completed the oxidation process.

Then the workers on both sides turned the wheel, and the huge converter slowly fell down, pouring out molten steel like magma.

These molten steels are temporarily put into molds made of refractory bricks. No matter what you want to make in the future, you only need to make a mold and pour it directly into it, even the molds of swords or cannons are no problem.

Watching the molten steel gurgling into the mold, Zhao Jun could feel the heat coming even though he was dozens of meters away.

Even though he had seen such a scene, he was still shocked by the greatness of the First Industrial Revolution.

To be honest.

These technologies are not difficult.

The difficulty is how people discover their existence.

Westerners once found a way.

And now.

It is time for the Orientals to stand at the forefront of industry.

Zhao Jun couldn't help but say: "The first step of industry starts here!"