Not long after, Zhu Youqi arrived at the venue.
Zhu You Xin's arrival caused a huge commotion among everyone present. The craftsmen who were participating in the Iron Smelting Competition, as well as the commoners present, all craned their necks to look around, wanting to see what Prince Heng, who had saved the commoners from danger, looked like.
When some of the commoners saw the young face in the distance, they were a little excited.
"Look! Look! His Highness is smiling at me!"
" You're thinking too much. His Highness is smiling at everyone…"
……
Amidst the discussions of the people, Zhu Youqi came to a high platform in the middle of the venue.
Looking around, Zhu Youqi said in a clear voice,""Everyone, I'm sure some of you are curious as to why I've spent so much effort to organize this Iron Smelting Competition.”
"Today, this king will tell you why!”
"Iron, steel!"
"It's as big as marching and fighting, with knives, spears, swords, halberds, and armor. Small things like sickles, hoes, and iron plows. These things were all made of steel!”
" There are countless places that need steel in every aspect of our lives!”
"This is enough to show the importance of steel!”
"It can be said that if our country is compared to a person, steel is the backbone of this person!”
"A person without a backbone will be paralyzed and unable to walk.”
"In the same way, a country without a backbone is not far from destruction!”
"Especially now, when we're fighting wars, we urgently need steel, high-quality steel! We need a lot of steel!"
"It is also because of this that this king organized this iron smelting competition!”
"I just want to select a group of iron smelting experts through this competition.
A talented person who smelted steel for the country!”
"In short, as long as you have this ability, this king will definitely reward you generously!”
"Honor, status, title, money, you can have anything you want!”
"This king will keep his word and wait for you to claim it with your ability!”
Zhu You Xin's words caused a huge uproar.
The crowd was in an uproar, and some of the craftsmen's eyes were filled with a burning light.
It was a hope for the future!
Even the commoners beside him were a little excited. Some commoners were still regretting that they didn't know how to forge.
"Everyone,"
Looking at the crowd around him, Zhu Youqi cleared his throat and said in a clear voice,""Let's not talk about idle talk. The Iron Smelting Competition has officially begun! I wish everyone a good result!”
With Zhu Youqi's order, the Iron Smelting Competition officially began.
The rules of this Iron Smelting Competition were uncertain.
In the same amount of time, the winner would be the one who could smelt the most steel with the best quality!
After the competition began, the small teams began to get busy.
Some of the craftsmen began to build the furnace skillfully. The apprentices brought over iron ore, coal, and charcoal, and skillfully ground them into powder.
Another acolyte began to mix the powder together.
After the smelting furnace was built, they started to light a fire and put the powder into the furnace. Immediately, the acolyte started the fan. With a series of buzzing sounds, the wind was blown into the furnace. Above the furnace, brilliant flames rose.
In the entire competition venue, most of the craftsmen were repeating the same work.
For a moment, the entire arena was in flames.
Sparks flew everywhere.
not
After a while, hot red molten iron flowed out from the bottom of the furnace. Then, he poured it into the mold.
After the molten iron solidified, the apprentice took out the red iron piece and placed it on the big anvil to start hammering.
Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!
The crisp and pleasant sound of knocking resounded throughout the venue.
"Not bad, not bad!"
"These blacksmiths are very skilled!”
"That's right! Look at this movement, it's so practiced!"
"The acolytes are also very cooperative!"
"Looks like this team will definitely have good results!”
……
The surrounding crowd looked at the smelting team and praised them.
However, Zhu Youqi could not help but frown.
After seeing this team, Zhu Youqi shook his head with a bitter smile.
"Your Highness, what's wrong?"
Liu Jingxuan, the magistrate of Qingzhou, was a little confused. He asked,"Are you unhappy with this guild?”
"Very unhappy."
Zhu Youqi did not hide his thoughts and said directly.
Hmm?
Liu Jingxuan was stunned.
He furrowed his brows, feeling puzzled.
This team's skills were clearly quite good!
Why did he make his highness so unhappy?
It seemed like his highness 'expectations were really high!
Of course, Liu Jingxuan didn't know what Zhu Youxin was thinking.
For an ordinary iron smelting team, this team was obviously qualified and even outstanding.
Such smelting and hammering was very suitable for the daily needs of the people in the countryside.
This included sickles, hoes, plowshares, and ploughshares.
However, this was only a small-scale production.
What Zhu Youqi wanted was a large batch, more and better!
Therefore, such technology was obviously outdated!
From the rest of the competition
The team looked at them one by one, and Zhu Youqi looked a little disappointed.
Almost all the teams used the same method of smelting and hammering.
The molten iron produced by the iron smelting furnace was tempered into steel through hammering and forging.
This method was possible.
However, the efficiency was too low!
It was far from Zhu Youqi's expectations!
Occasionally, there would be one or two teams that had been modified and seemed to be using tempering methods to make steel.
Although the method was better, the yield and quality would be better than the traditional method.
However, it was still not as expected!
Sigh!
After all, due to the limitations of the era, it was still too difficult to smelt steel on a large scale!
It seemed that in the future, some large steel factories would need to test for acid and base, such as the basic furnace, the acidic furnace, and so on…
It seemed that technological advancement still required continuous accumulation!
If he took a big step, it was obvious that he couldn't!
He couldn't eat a fatty in one bite!
Forget it!
Take it slow!
Zhu Youqi could only sigh helplessly. He could only hope that science and technology would develop and improve bit by bit.
Just as Zhu Youjiu was feeling a little disappointed, he was attracted by the discussions of the surrounding people.
"Look! What is this team doing?"
"I've never seen such a tall smelting furnace before!”
"Yeah, is there a new method?”
……
Zhu Youqi was also attracted by the discussions of the commoners and turned to look in their direction.
As soon as he turned his head, Zhu Youqi was also stunned.
He saw that this furnace was as tall as three ordinary furnaces. The furnace had just been lit up, and two acolytes stepped on a huge fan to blow fresh air into the furnace.
Along with the rhythm of the fan, the furnace
Then, wisps of flames appeared.
The other two apprentices beside him poured baskets of raw materials mixed with powdered iron powder and coal powder into the furnace.
At the mouth of the furnace, clusters of flames were dancing…
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