Three Kingdoms

Coal is the fuel of modern industry.

It's not that coal is better than charcoal, but coal has conveniences that charcoal doesn't have.

The charcoal must be cut down, then sealed in the kiln and smoldering, and finally the wood can be carbonized into charcoal, but the coal can be used after being dug out, and it is not restricted by the growth of wood.

When a large amount of energy is needed, the advantages of coal are more obvious.

But coal also has a more serious problem, that is, there are more impurities, especially sulfur. Fei Qian really didn’t know much about desulfurization. He just remembered that there was a sulfur calcification reaction in middle school chemistry class, so he just roughly washed it, crushed it and dried it in the sun, then mixed in a small amount of lime, and found that there was still a little bit of it. The effect, at least when burning, there is no longer the smell of sulfur dioxide...

Of course, this kind of desulfurization is still far from meeting the requirements of steelmaking. Therefore, to make good steel, charcoal is still used at this stage.

But in other aspects, coal as fuel can play a considerable role.

Fei Qian now had a lot of things that he could only talk to Huang Dou about. In order to keep it secret, Huang Dou had to do it himself. As a result, Huang Dou's original figure was like a large soybean. Lost a lot of weight.

Huang Chengyan took the fire tongs and smashed the remains of the burned briquettes in the brazier, and then said: "With this thing alone, Huang Dou can score another merit! But..."

Huang Chengyan didn't finish his words, but his actions just now fully expressed his concerns.

Although this thing is good, it is not suitable for large-scale sales of finished products. As long as anyone can get the original, they will be able to imitate it to some extent. Although some of the subtle additions may not be noticeable, if it is just used for ordinary heating, cooking, etc. If it is used, then even without these additives, the difference is not big...

The technical content is too low to form a threshold.

Fei Qian also agrees with this point. Unless he can capture the entire Bingzhou including Shangdang and Taiyuan, seal off the Eight Routes of Taihang, and control the entire Shanxi coal mine area, otherwise this technology, which is not difficult, will be used very quickly. Spread and spread.

However, what Fei Qian pays attention to is that because of the emergence of this small substitute for heating in industrial physics, it will promote the entire engineering technology...

Fei Qian said: "I don't plan to sell this, but we will use it ourselves. From Yong'an to Beiqu, there is a complete river. On both sides of the river, there are many suitable locations where large-scale projects can be built. Workshops, and most of the fuel for the workshops..."

Fei Qian pointed to the briquettes.

Unless the steel process takes coal a step further and turns it into coking coal, and then develops desulfurization technology, it will still not be as good as high-quality charcoal.

But other projects that do not worry about impurities such as sulfur and phosphorus, such as preliminary crude cement, glass with high sulfur content but more gorgeous, red bricks or cinder bricks, green tiles or colored tiles, etc. are large energy consumers, coal But it can become a strong foundation for these products...

Not much else to say, if all the wood and charcoal originally used for firing kilns and making bricks were saved and used to make iron, how much steel would be produced?

Also, direct heating.

Humans and livestock provide heating in winter, and plants even cooperate with the glass industry to develop greenhouse vegetables...

The Little Ice Age is coming, and coal will provide excellent protection for Fei's entire northern army and livestock!

This small change in physics often brings more possibilities and more room for development!

Needless to say, if there is only a little bit of green leaves in winter, it is almost as auspicious to the emperor!

In the Han Dynasty, colored glaze was still very valuable, and the vegetables grown in colored glaze houses were simply priceless...

And the source of all these lies in this small, black coal.

With coal, Fei Qian can at least ensure that during the next Little Ice Age, at least within cities and towns, there will be no loss of people or livestock due to climate reasons. Similarly, due to the large-scale use of coal, there will be no losses. Leading to large-scale tree felling in the region.

In fact, there was another consideration, which Fei Qian did not discuss with Huang Chengyan.

Historically, for heating purposes, in the era before the large-scale use of coal, everyone's eyes were fixed on trees. Excessive felling of trees not only caused vegetation damage and soil erosion, but more importantly, directly The entire ecological environment was changed, yellow sand eroded, and in the end, wasn't this how the remains of many ancient cities in the northwest were created in later generations?

The sooner coal is used on a large scale, the better it is to protect vegetation.

Fei Qian said: "The vast Luliang Mountains are filled with smoky light. There are layers of black coal slurry and green mineral deposits everywhere. Coal, lime, iron ore, clay, etc. are all available, and you can get them just by looking down. My son-in-law wants to be here, along the river. To build large-scale workshops, water power can be used on the one hand, and charcoal can be used on the other hand to build various types of military weapons and civil tools, and research and development of glazed tiles, tiles, farming tools, etc. Wait for it to be standardized and established again, and a book will be written so that craftsmen can be like Confucius and Mencius and pass it on to future generations..."

However, Fei Qian's description of Bingzhou's future overall plan was enough to attract Huang Chengyan. As Huang Chengyan listened, his eyes became brighter and brighter, but his expression became more and more entangled. After pondering for a long time, he just said with difficulty that he had to think about it carefully, and then drove Fei Qian away.

this……

What does it mean?

Although Fei Qian felt that the change in painting style was too sudden, it was difficult to say anything. After all, he was an elder, so he had to get up and leave first.

Huang Chengyan sat alone in the study, the expression on his face changing.

The Huang family has been based in Jingxiang for a hundred years. Most of the craftsmen and industries are near Jingxiang. It is indeed not an easy task to allocate manpower to Bingzhou for a while.

The situation described by Fei Qian is a place that all craftsmen, including Huang Chengyan, yearn for. There are water conservancy, minerals, fuel, places, and official officials like Fei Qian who absolutely support the craftsmen’s research...

If he could be twenty years younger, no, maybe only ten years younger, Huang Chengyan would go to Bingzhou with Fei Qian to see for himself. If that was the case, he might even resolutely move away, but now, Huang Chengyan had a hard time making a choice.

It’s really difficult...

Liu Bei: I am responsible for the power over the world, and you are responsible for being as beautiful as a flower.

…

Zhuge Liang thought for a while and said: Do you like older people or younger people?

…

Liu Bei looked at Zhuge, who was twenty years younger than him, and said sternly: I will always like the younger one...

…

Many years later, Zhuge looked at Jiang Wei, who was twenty years younger than himself, and said: I also like younger ones...