My life skills in Daming Liver

"Sister-in-law, where is Brother Rulin?"

In private situations, Shen Shixing still calls Su Ze by his cousin name. After all, the two have been friends for many years. Shen Shixing came to Nanjing today specifically to visit Su Ze on official business.

Fang Ruolan's demeanor has become more graceful in recent years, she has given birth to a son, and Su Ze's subordinates also respect her very much.

Shen Shixing got married some time ago. His wife, Mrs. Wu, is a female medical officer at Suzhou Li Shizhen Medical College and a young lady from an official gentry family.

Shen Shixing was busy studying in the early years and did not get married. It was through Fang Ruolan that he met Wu.

New women like Wu are not uncommon in Jiangnan, Zhejiang and Fujian.

Since the mid-Ming Dynasty, the folk customs in these places have been open, and the profession of medical officer has been suitable for women with delicate minds.

Shen Shixing respected Fang Ruolan very much. This time he even brought Jiangnan snacks that Fang Ruolan liked to eat.

"Rumo, come in quickly. Your chief governor is playing with sand in the workshop behind the yard again."

Shen Shixing covered his forehead.

This time Shen Shixing came to the Governor's Mansion to report on the construction of the Shanghai Steel Plant.

The Metropolitan Government is planning to build two large steel plants near Taiping Prefecture and Shanghai County.

Taiping Mansion (today's Ma'anshan) is very close to Nanjing and has abundant iron ore resources nearby. The steel plant was built to meet the steel demand of the ordnance manufacturing workshops around Nanjing.

The steel plant in Shanghai County is located in Shanghai because the port of Shanghai is convenient for transporting goods. Coke and iron ore from the Yangtze River Basin and coastal basins can be transported by ship to Shanghai for smelting.

The Shanghai Steel Works is headed by Lu Tie, a master craftsman from Fuzhou Dajian Furnace, as the general manager.

Since Lu Tie was awarded the title of [Master Craftsman], he has transformed from a craftsman to an official enjoying the seventh-grade treatment. He has been getting stronger and stronger, and he has successively proposed several improved processes, which greatly increased the efficiency of blast furnace steelmaking.

Shen Shixing served as the prefect of Songjiang Prefecture, which has the most developed industrial industry in the southeast. Of course, he knew the importance of steel.

The design of the Shanghai Steel Plant has been completed, and the next stage is the investment and construction stage.

But Lu Tie's design is something that even Songjiang Mansion, now the richest in the southeast, cannot afford.

To put it bluntly, Shen Shixing came to Nanjing today to seek alms.

But Shen Shixing ran into a wall at the governor's office in Nanzhili. Xu Wei, an old fox, knew that Shen Shixing was here to ask for money, so he simply went out of Nanjing to inspect the counties.

Shen Shixing was rejected and had no choice but to go directly to the Governor's Office to ask for money.

The governor likes to play with sand. This is the latest strange story among the people in Nanjing.

When Shen Shixing came back to report on his work a few days ago, he didn't believe it, thinking it was a boring rumor from the people of Nanjing.

After checking with several old friends in Nanjing who had access to the Governor's Mansion, Shen Shixing learned that this was not a rumor at all.

Since the completion of the "New Commentary on the Three Classics", Su Ze has seldom intervened in military and political affairs in the southeast, except for giving lectures in the Imperial College. Instead, he has been busy in the backyard workshop of the Governor's Mansion all day long.

Several times Xu Wei went to visit Su Ze, but Su Ze took him to the backyard workshop to stir the sand together. After Xu Wei was disgraced, he did not dare to visit him anymore.

Nowadays, Nanjing officials all know a taboo, that is, never visit the governor when he is playing in the sand.

As for why, several of Shen Shixing's old friends were very secretive and refused to reveal the reason. They just looked at Shen Shixing with gloating eyes.

Shen Shixing put down the pastries in his hand and thought about whether to visit Su Ze at another time.

Who knew that Su Ze heard the news of his visit and immediately sent someone to call Shen Shixing to go to the backyard workshop.

Shen Shixing could only say goodbye to Fang Ruolan, and he followed Fang Aizhu to the backyard.

The Governor's Mansion where Su Ze lives is the house where Fang Wanghai used to be the Minister of Household Affairs in Nanjing.

The house was not small in size, but Su Ze did not decorate it at all.

As for the Su family, apart from a family of three, there were only a few maids from Fang Ruolan and a book boy like Fang Aizhu.

Of course, the Su family has terminated the selling contract with them. They are all paid employees of the Su family, and Su Ze pays their salary himself.

Of course, the Governor's Mansion also has a team of attendants and guards. These soldiers also live in this house, and their military pay is provided by the Southeast New Army.

Su Ze did not make any renovations to the house, but he demolished the garden in the backyard and turned it into a workshop.

Fang Aizhu was dressed in the attire of a manual worker, with a towel hanging around his neck. He was covered in sweat in early spring.

Seeing Fang Aizhu's appearance, Shen Shixing didn't want to see Su Ze anymore.

"Rumo! Come and help me!"

When they arrived at the backyard workshop, Shen Shixing finally understood why Fang Aizhu was sweating. A small coke oven was burning brightly. Su Ze was also dressed up like Fang Aizhu and was wiping the sweat on his forehead with a towel.

There was another person standing next to Su Ze. This person was checking the fire temperature of the coke oven. Shen Shixing recognized this person as Lu Gang, the master craftsman of the iron factory, who was known as the steel madman.

Lu Gang is Lu Tie's son. He has also traveled to Shanghai many times to assist his father in solving technical problems.

Shen Shixing also attached great importance to the steel plant and visited it many times for inspections. Over time, he became very familiar with Lu Gang.

Who would have thought that Lu Gang, a master craftsman who enjoyed the seventh-level treatment, was helping Su Ze carry molten iron at this moment.

"Lord Governor, stay down there!"

The two of them were carrying a crucible connected with iron rods, one on the left and the other on the right. They saw only the red molten iron flowing from the coke furnace into the crucible. Then Su Ze and Lu Gang carried the crucible to a sandbox and carefully poured it into the crucible. of molten iron into the pouring port of the sandbox.

Then Fang Aizhu pressed a large weight on the sandbox, and the three of them quickly pulled Shen Shixing and hid in a corner of the workshop.

Shen Shixing looked at the nervous three people and asked, "Brother Rulin, why are you running?"

Su Ze said calmly: "Because it will explode."

Shen Shixing quickly covered his head.

The molten iron eventually cooled down safely and no explosion occurred.

Su Ze and Lu Gang carefully walked to the sandbox. After confirming that the temperature had cooled down, Su Ze opened the sandbox with gloves on.

Shen Shixing also came over and saw only a metal gear lying in the center of the sandbox. Because the high temperature had just cooled down, some red temperature could still be seen.

Gears are not uncommon in the Southeast, but most of them are made of wood.

Copper and iron gears are also available, but the cost of copper gears is very high, and iron gears need to be cut by hand, so they are rarely used by the public.

The teeth of the gear cast by Su Ze are very regular, and the entire gear is also very regular and circular.

Shen Shixing is a smart man, and he immediately realized the value of this casting technology!

Parts such as gears are in great demand in various machines. Wooden gears are increasingly unable to meet the needs of steel machines.

Many workshops use metal gears.

But metal gears also have many problems.

Wrought iron gears are too soft and the gears wear very easily.

Pig iron gears are too difficult to grind and costly.

Craftsmen also thought about using the lost wax method to cast gears, but because the temperature of the molten iron was too high, pouring it into a stone mold could easily cause the grinding tool to crack.

Therefore, currently only copper gears can be manufactured by casting method.

The performance of copper gears is indeed good, but copper is originally a coin material, and the cost of copper gears is also high.

The craftsmen quickly came to a consensus that the best material for gears was steel.

With the emergence of new steel-making methods, the cost of steel has gradually dropped, and it can also be produced in large quantities.

As for the gear Su Ze cast, he only needs to pour molten steel into it and wait for it to cool. Is there a simpler method than this?

Shen Shixing looked at Su Ze's mold sandbox, and then he realized that the mold was filled with black sand.

"Grand Governor, what is this?"

Su Ze smiled and said, "Brother Rumo, this is called the ancient method of turning sand."

Lu Gang, who was standing aside, rolled his eyes and said, "Grand Governor, there is no such casting technique in ancient times, so please don't name it randomly."

Su Ze laughed. Peshawar was once the capital of the Kushan Dynasty, one of the four ancient civilizations. I don’t know what it looks like now.

Shen Shixing carefully looked at the sandbox and found that the mold used by Su Ze was actually sand. Only then did he understand why Su Ze played with sand in the backyard every day.

Su Ze pulled Shen Shixing and said, "This is not ordinary sand, it is clay sand mixed with oil, and there are many other ingredients. It was difficult for me to prepare it."

"Rumo, let me show you this ancient method of sand casting!"

Lu Gang rolled his eyes again.

I only saw Su Ze clamping out the gear just now, and then spreading a layer of sand in the sand box. After quickly spreading the sand, he put the gear in.

Immediately afterwards, Su Ze poured the sand into the sand box, compacted the sand, and sprinkled white release powder again.

Su Ze took out the other half of the sand box, pressed the other half of the gear into a sand mold, then carefully dug out the opening for pouring molten iron, and then carefully took the gear out of the sand box.

Putting the two halves of the sand box together, Su Ze said to Shen Shixing, "This is the mold."

Immediately afterwards, Su Ze and Lu Gang used the crucible to collect the molten iron and poured it into the sand box mold. Soon another identical gear was cast.

Shen Shixing said in great amazement: "The governor's sand molding method is wonderful! With this method, the cost of gears can be reduced again!"

Nowadays, the demand for gears is huge throughout the Southeast.

Water conservancy workshops, ironworks, cannon foundries, and boring and boring machines all need gears.

In the future, vehicles, machine tools, steam engines, and trains will also require a large number of gears, and they are not individual gears, but complex gear sets composed of a large number of gears.

Su Ze saw that his [Machining] skill was still a little short of experience to reach Level 5. He immediately mustered up his energy and said to Shen Shixing:

"Rumo, come and help, there are still several gears to be cast today!"

Shen Shixing could only change into work clothes and start casting gears with Su Ze.

In the evening, the disgraced Shen Shixing looked at the gears on the ground and felt very painful.

No one expected that the dignified Grand Governor of the Southeast would actually play with the sand in the backyard every day!

Su Ze looked at the gears on the floor with satisfaction. When the last gear was cast, his [Machining] skill finally reached Level 5.

[Skill 'Machining' breaks through Lv5, please choose passive skills! 】

[Skill 'Machining' breaks through Lv5, gains one free point, remaining free points: 1]

Three blue rays of light flashed in front of Su Ze's eyes.

Three blue rays of light? You're lucky, there's no guarantee for Lv5's passive, so it's good to have three blue options.

[Blue Passive - Fine Processing: When processing fine parts, the machining skill will be +2, and the relevant blueprint - gear set will be obtained. 】

[Blue Passive - Airtight Processing: When processing pipes and cylinders, the machining skill will be +2, and the relevant blueprint - pipe making process will be obtained. 】

[Blue Passive - Miracles can be achieved with great force: When processing large parts such as special-shaped parts and special-shaped parts, the machining skill will be +2, and the relevant blueprint - forging machine will be obtained. 】

This time Su Ze completely hesitated.

The gear set is one of the most important technology trees in the mechanical field, and the pipe cylinder is the basis of the steam engine.

Which passive should you choose? Su Ze started thinking.

There are more and more workshops in the southeast, and it is no longer enough to rely on water power and livestock pulling.

Although the southeast has abundant water resources, there are only so many places suitable for building hydraulic workshops.

The vigorous industrial development urgently needs a stable source of power.

As Su Ze's machining skills increased to Level 5, he also gained some understanding of steam engines.

In the early version of the steam engine, the air tightness requirements were not high, and rubber seals were not necessary.

But cylinders that can withstand steam pressure and sealed tubes that can conduct steam are the most urgently needed technologies.

Su Ze finally made his decision and chose the passive skill [Air-Tight Processing].

Only pipes and cylinders with good airtightness can allow steam to push the piston, convert the flame into kinetic energy, and ignite the whistle of the entire steam age!

After adding the remaining free points to intelligence, Su Ze's panel attributes became:

Su Ze, male, 27 years old.

Intelligence: 15

Strength: 11

Agility: 7

Charisma: 18

Remaining attribute points: 0

After so many days of liver skills, it finally paid off!

The manufacturing process of steel pipes came to Su Ze's mind. He couldn't wait to rush into the study and record the relevant manufacturing methods.

Although some technologies are not yet available, there is always room for improvement!

The worst case scenario is hand rubbing first. As long as a usable steam engine can be built, Southeast Asia will officially enter the steam age!

Seeing Su Ze busy, Shen Shixing forgot why he came to visit Su Ze.

By the way, I want money!

Shen Shixing secretly thought that he was dizzy and rushed into Su Ze's study.

Seeing Su Ze drawing the drawings carefully, Shen Shixing couldn't bear to disturb him.

Waiting until dark, Fang Ruolan came over personally to call the two of them to eat. Su Ze then raised his head, looked at Shen Shixing and asked:

"Brother Rumo, you haven't left yet?"

Shen Shixing said angrily: "I can't do anything serious, how can I leave!"

When he thought of the hard work he had done today, Shen Shixing stretched out his hand and said, "Grand Governor, give me the money!"