In the eastern suburbs of Chang 'an, a 15-meter-tall furnace was emitting heat waves.
"Molten iron is out!"
Cheng Yaojin straightened his back." Be careful. This thing sticks to your body. It'll be difficult for you to live."”
"Don't worry, sir. We are all veterans of the supervision department. Although this iron-making method is novel, we are not stupid enough to touch molten iron.”
Cheng Yaojin watched everyone move. Molten iron flowed from the stone trough.
He could not help but stroke his beard.
More than ten fast horses came over.
Cheng Yaojin hurriedly turned his head and bowed.
"Continue, don't be so formal."”
"Your Majesty," Cheng Yaojin said,"the molten iron is just in time."”
"Let's not talk about this first. Let's try smelting steel with a crucible."”
Fang Yang gave them the iron-making method and the steel-making method.
In Fang Yang's opinion, smelting iron was more important.
This was because producing more iron could bring about a huge change in the entire society.
Most importantly, he could earn a lot of money.
However, in Li Shiming's opinion, the most important thing was to make steel.
If the main force of the Great Tang could be equipped with steel weapons and defensive equipment…
Wouldn't it be a win-win situation if he went out to conquer?
A spy had reported to Li Shimin.
Songtsan Gambo of the Tubo Empire had gathered all of the Tubo Empire's strength and had been creating a type of heavy armored cavalry that could be used for defense.
Of course, it was very difficult to feed them.
However, this kind of cavalry could produce huge profits in a short period of time.
Li Shimin was responsible for the Great Tang, so he couldn't waste money and manpower to forge steel using local methods.
Therefore, Li Shimin valued the method Fang Yang gave him.
Cheng Yaojin pointed at something that looked like a big bucket."This is the crucible. It is made of cast iron and many other materials.”
Li Shimin: " Do you think this method can really produce steel?"”
The crucible smelting method was to cut the carbified iron material into small pieces and place them in a closed clay crucible. After heating the crucible, the iron material would continue to absorb the carbon in the graphene and melt into high-carbon molten steel. After casting it into small ingots, it would be forged into the required shape.
It sounded simple, but it had a few problems.
First, the crucible would not melt, but the iron inside would.
This required the crucible to have a higher temperature resistance than the melting point of iron.
Second, he had to know the carbon ratio of the steel he needed in advance.
Third, the cost was very high. Basically, not many private individuals could use this method.
Of course, in comparison, the cost was still much lower than Hundred Refined Steel.
Cheng Yaojin said," The molten iron has been produced anyway. Let's give it a try."”
"Your Majesty, you should stand further away. If this thing is not done well and it explodes…"
Li Shi Min nodded,"My dear minister, stand further away."”
The crucible was made of Quartz, clay, iron, and other materials.
In a sense, it was similar to alloys.
The key point was whether it was uniform or not.
If there was a mistake during the forging process, there would be a problem with a certain area.
How could that be?
It would burn through.
The temperature inside was so high. If the crucible outside was burned through, wouldn't it explode?
The crucible still needed some time. After the molten iron was out of the furnace, the casting of the iron pot had already begun.
A few workers poured the molten iron into a smooth stone trough with a round bottom using a miniaturized crucible.
Beside him, a large group of people were pulling a few ropes.
The rope was fixed by a huge wooden stake.
Under the rope, there was a huge stone ball with a concave hemisphere.
It was visible to the naked eye that this stone mortar and the giant hemisphere stone ball could be attached together.
"Release!"
The person pulling the rope moved forward, and the stone ball fell.
The stone ball fell into the stone mortar.
Some of the excess molten iron was forced out and sprayed out metal sparks within a meter before falling to the ground.
The molten iron at the bottom of the stone mortar could be seen with the naked eye.
Cheng Yaojin pointed at the stone mortar." Your Majesty, look. When this stone ball is pulled up, there's something called…Pulley blocks to fix the position. When it falls, the position is fixed.”
"When the stone ball is lifted, the temperature of the molten iron will drop, and it will solidify into the shape of an iron pot.”
The people pulling the rope retreated in unison, and the stone ball rose.
A red-hot pot had already taken shape inside.
Although the temperature had not completely dropped, it had already taken shape.
Two workers stepped forward and each of them used a hook to pick up the iron pot.
The worker poured the molten iron into the furnace.
This process was repeated.
Li Shimin sighed." This method seems quite simple. Why didn't anyone think of this before?"”
Cheng Yaojin: " If I had Fang Yang's brain, I would have been rich a long time ago. Why would I fight wars and become a general?"”
"Why don't you switch places with Xiao Fang?" Li Shimin raised his eyebrows.”
Cheng Yaojin was stunned." Uh…I'm just enjoying myself. Haha, it's good to be a general."”
Cheng Yaojin: " I've already tried using the method of smelting iron in the past. This iron pot isn't exquisite. It's just ordinary and can barely meet the standard.”
"Fang Yang also gave me a way to make a better iron pot.”
"Oh?" Li Shimin raised his eyebrows. What should we do?"
Cheng Yaojin: " We also use this kind of stone mortar. We use an unmelted piece of iron and place it inside. Then, we use a hammer made into a ball to hit it.”
"If you repeat it, you can make an iron pot in four hours. The finished product is much better than directly pressing it.”
After all, the finished product could not be controlled, such as not being fully compressed.
For example, the molten iron originally had bubbles, and after it was pressed down, there would be a small hole in the pot.
The rejection rate was almost 30%.
Although the scrap iron from the iron pot could be processed again, it was much worse than the molten iron that had just been produced.
"It's been almost an hour. How's the cauldron?"”
Cheng Yaojin: " I haven't tried this either. We'll know when they open it."”
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