Northern Dynasties Imperial Industry

These earthen furnaces were not large in size, and the smoke they emitted was not strong. However, when Li Tai walked nearby, he smelled a rather pungent smell. No wonder they were placed far away from other buildings in the school. Regarding the location, it turned out that it was not only for fire safety reasons, but also because the smell was really unpleasant.

There are more than a dozen people beside these earthen stoves, each wearing a mask to cover their breath. This is naturally a protective device that Li Tai promoted in his own workshop in his early years. These people were constantly observing and studying around the earthen furnace. Because they were too focused, they did not notice the arrival of Li Tai and his party.

It wasn't until someone shouted from behind Li Tai that everyone on the opposite side noticed the person coming here. When they saw that it was the King of Tang arriving, everyone looked surprised and embarrassed, and some people hurriedly walked forward to greet him. Some people just come to greet them where they are.

Most of this group of people were in their teens or twenties. Among them, a young man in his twenties seemed to be their leader. He hurriedly came closer to pay homage: "I pay my respects to Master Lang, Your Majesty, Your Majesty..."

Hearing that the young man had changed his title three times in one sentence, Li Tai smiled and waved his hand and said, "You don't have to be restrained to have a leisurely tour of the school today. Whose son-in-law are you?"

"The name of my lord, my lord, and my servant is Liu Mu'en. My father, my father, is taboo with three chopsticks."

After hearing the words, the young man quickly bowed his head and answered, and then stood up in a hurry and stood sideways.

"Sanqi's son is actually so old! I remember when I first came to the village, you were as big as my child!"

After hearing this, Li Tai couldn't help but his eyes lit up. After recalling for a while, he pointed at his son and said with a smile to the young man. This young man is not Liu Sanqi's biological son, but the child brought by a widow who married Liu Sanqi when he first entered Shang Yuan. Now it seems that he has grown up and is well-mannered. Li Tai is also quite polite. I feel happy for Liu Sanqi.

"Yes, yes, no, how dare I compare myself to Xiao Langjun..."

When Liu Muen heard that his master still remembered things from his childhood, he was quite excited and a little incoherent.

Li Tai exchanged a few words with them about family affairs, then pointed at these earthen stoves and asked, "What are you doing?"

"Your Majesty, the young servant came to study in the art village. He was clumsy and tired of learning, so he only learned a few miscellaneous skills of pottery. Now, some people are trapped in the furnace building because the price of charcoal in Guanzhong is getting higher and the smelting and casting is difficult to continue. "The graphite smoke is so strong that the iron cannot be made into a tool. I visited the school and asked if there is a solution for me to make it easier to test the charcoal here."

After Liu Muen heard this, he quickly lowered his head and said.

"Refining charcoal? Using coal or graphite?"

Li Tai was slightly stunned after hearing this. He couldn't understand it for a while, and then asked again.

After hearing the words, Liu Muen nodded, and then said: "The price of firewood in Guanzhong is getting higher every year, and it is difficult for the villagers to use it. Charcoal is made from piles of firewood to remove the smoke and retain the fire. Firewood is fine, but graphite must be It's possible. I've already burned ink to make charcoal, but the charcoal is not high enough, so I still haven't figured out the reason for it, so I'm still studying it."

Li Tai's eyes brightened when he heard this, and he couldn't help but asked quickly: "You have been burnt to charcoal? Come and take a look!"

Liu Muen quickly nodded in agreement, then turned around and walked towards the earthen stove, while Li Tai looked at his back with great expectations in his heart.

Needless to say, what Liu Muen said about burning wood into charcoal, but the so-called burning ink into charcoal is what later generations called coal coking.

Coal is an important fuel, and steel smelting requires a large amount of fuel, so it seems that the two are a perfect match. But in fact, ordinary coal has too high impurities and is generally difficult to be used for direct smelting of steel. It must undergo more refined processing, and the most important process is coking the coal.

With the development of science and technology in later generations, there will naturally be a more accurate definition of coal coking. However, for now, Liu Muen's summary of the method of making charcoal and burning coal to turn it into charcoal is still far away. It uses thermal reaction to remove impurities, retain and purify the effective parts.

Coking to replace charcoal is of great significance to the development of the steel smelting industry. However, due to some reasons, Li Tai did not pay much attention to this, but he did not expect that Shang Yuan Academy would spontaneously generate and study similar crafts in depth, which naturally brought him a great surprise.

Soon Liu Muen brought over the finished coke that had been fired before. Perhaps he was worried that the owner would not be satisfied with the view, so he used a trailer to pull two large baskets.

Although Li Tai didn't know much about coke, he could tell through observation that the fired charcoal material in front of him was different from ordinary coal. The appearance was more brittle and hard, and the faults had a fine pore structure, good air permeability, and the surface was There are also some sulfide crystals, which will not leave ink marks on your hands when touched.

"Can these charcoal materials really be used for smelting?"

Li Tai also didn't know what the standard industrial coke-making finished product looked like, so he could only ask about its efficacy.

After hearing this, Liu Muen nodded and said proudly: "Several smelters in Baishui have come here to buy thousands of kilograms of charcoal. Although the smelted iron is not as good as charcoal, it is already used for casting and forging. no problem."

"well done!"

After hearing this, Li Tai patted Liu Muen on the shoulder, and immediately asked to see his series of processes from material preparation to furnace refining.

When he saw Liu Muen instructing the craftsmen and apprentices around him to carry out various operations such as crushing and sifting coal, he filled the selected pulverized coal into the earthen furnace, and immediately expressed his position: "Why not Wouldn’t the charcoal selected in this way be more refined after some washing and sifting?”

"Why didn't I think of it? I didn't think of it! Master Lang is really, really a genius!"

When Liu Muen heard what Li Tai said, he looked shocked. After a moment, he stomped his feet and clapped his hands as if he was enlightened. Then he loudly ordered the apprentices to quickly take out the materials filled into the furnace, and then began to think about it. He was so fascinated by the related processes that he forgot about Li Tai and his entourage.

Li Tai heard Liu Muen murmuring to himself that if he had thought of this process earlier and selected more raw materials, he might have refined charcoal that is comparable to charcoal. He couldn't help but feel secretly happy. If this young man held If you continue to study with such thoughts, you will probably be disappointed. Before the chemical industry makes a big leap forward, it is almost impossible for coke to replace charcoal in steel smelting.

Replacing charcoal with coke for steel smelting is not an advancement in industrial technology, but rather a helpless choice under limited resources. Using charcoal to refine steel will inevitably cause a lot of vegetation damage and cause serious soil erosion, but there are no related problems when using coal.

But the problem is that in the process of refining steel, coke is not only a fuel that provides heat, but also a deeply involved reducing agent. This means that almost all the sulfur in the coke will be integrated into the steel products, resulting in a decline in quality. It is difficult to carry out deeper casting and forging processing. In order to remove the sulfur in these steels, a series of other desulfurization operations are required, but the performance of the finished products is still inferior to that of steel made from charcoal.

One of the biggest uses of steel smelting in Guanzhong is for the manufacture of military equipment. Since Li Tai came to this world, he has established his own military workshop from scratch, and then developed it to a leading level. Naturally, it is difficult to take into account the coking of fuel and the production of steel. All processes, including desulfurization, were established from scratch.

What he can do is to rationally allocate human resources, natural resources, etc. based on the current level of technology, expand and maintain the scale of the industry, and provide solid support for his military operations.

Therefore, he did not put much energy into promoting these industrial technologies before. In order to ensure the scale of Guanzhong's military industry, he also restricted the use and trading scale of charcoal among the people.

For example, Liu Muen said that Baishui Yefang came here to order coke, but Bafu has a strict limit on the amount of charcoal used by these private workshops. After reaching a certain amount, no one with money can buy charcoal anymore.

The coal coking that Liu Muen studies is naturally meaningful, especially in meeting the needs of the people. Even without further technological improvements, coke ironmaking is enough to meet the needs of folk farm tools or other iron utensils. As for the military industry, it is still far behind.

Before there is a big leap forward in technology, it is better to transfer the relevant military industry to the Huguang area of ​​Shannan where charcoal fuel is more easily available. It should be noted that the reason why later generations of Fujian and Guangdong irons were of better quality was because they still retained the charcoal refining process.

To be honest, this kind of experience of sowing inspiration, taking root, sprouting and bearing fruits is far better than the feeling of opening the technology tree by yourself. Li Tai saw that Liu Muen had no time to lead his friends to study the coal washing process. After dealing with his party, he decided to leave. He just whispered to the soldiers to write down the matter on the way. Later, when he returned to Shangyang Palace, he would confer a title on Liu Muen as a sign of praise.

"Aye, is this charcoal-burning method really that important?"

Hearing that his father valued this person and his skills so much, Jiang Lingle, who had been following his father, couldn't help but ask in a low voice.

After hearing this, Li Tai patted him on the shoulder and said with a smile: "Important, very important! This is a real good technique for benefiting the world. If you use it properly, I can give you a rich Guanzhong Tianfu!"

Thanks for the reminder, buddy. I don’t object to the description of technology, but my knowledge of relevant information is relatively shallow and my thinking is not very broad. . .