On the banks of Santai River, the newly completed Bazhou Military Weapon Supervision Branch is in operation. Many craftsmen are busy everywhere, and the prison is divided into several areas. The most eye-catching one is the two iron smelting furnaces.

The iron smelting furnace has been in operation for a while. Today, Bazhou Governor Yuwen Wen visited the scene and inspected the two iron smelting furnaces that embodies the hard work of craftsmen. The officers of the military weapon supervisor were worried about the danger on the scene and kept persuading Shangguan to stay away, but Yuwen Wen didn't care.

Not to mention the old iron smelting furnace in the city, he asked Yang Ji to participate in the planning of the new iron smelting furnace and military smelting branch. The safety level is much higher than the original one. Even if the iron smelting furnace leaks, it will flow into Santai River.

"Have the residences of craftsmen and craftsmen arranged?" Yuwen Wen asked, because it is located on the Santai River in the northern suburbs of the city, and is a little distance from Xiyang City. In order to facilitate craftsmen and craftsmen to do their work, there is a residence for them to live in.

"I have many more rooms back to the envoy." The sergeant of the Ministry of Works replied. The sergeant of the Ministry of Works was responsible for managing all the labourers and was the second life of the two.

"How about the iron I came out last time? Can it be used?" he asked. The corporal smelter who followed the side reported that the iron was going smoothly, while the corporal smelter and casting smelter reported one after another, saying that the iron refined could be made into agricultural tools.

The lieutenant is the lowest rank in the Zhou Dynasty official system, and is the first life. Although he is humble, he is an official with a salary of 125 stones, and there are also sergeants, who are the second life of 250 stones. However, except for the sergeants of the Ministry of Works, there are only corporals of low-ranking ranks.

"That's good. The people are about to open up land and farmland, and they urgently need iron tools." Yu Wen Wen nodded with satisfaction. If you want to do a good job, you must first sharpen your tools. In order to "sharpen your tools", he also racked his brains.

Both ploughing and fighting require an important thing: iron. Farming fields requires iron making tools, such as hoes, shovels, sickles, guillotines and the promoted curved plow, not to mention combat.

All kinds of auxiliary tools and materials such as knives, spearheads, spearheads, arrowheads, armors, helmets, and stirrups are inseparable from iron. Bazhou does not produce iron ore, so military weapon supervision relies on other states to supply iron ore or iron materials for reprocessing.

Iron smelting is the big one. In order to smelify, high temperatures are needed. If it is to smelify, the fire must be burned vigorously. So how to make the fire strong is the key. First, the fuel (wood, charcoal) must be sufficient, and secondly, the air must be blown.

Iron smelting furnaces require a lot of blowing to make the fire burn more vigorously, that is, the furnace temperature is higher, so that iron smelting furnaces can be effectively smelted. Common iron smelting furnace blowing wind is made of skin smelting, also known as ‘smelting’. The small air volume of the skin smelting bags should be used together, and multiple skin smelting bags should be used for an iron smelting furnace.

Many skin bags jointly blow the iron smelting furnace, which are usually lined up together, and are also called "drawing bags". However, even so, the blowing effect is not very good, so Yuwen Wen asked someone to make a wooden bellows.

A wooden bellows can be made very large. If the capacity is large, the air volume of the single-use blowing air will be large. If the blowing back and forth is constantly blowing, it can ensure the fire is strong. However, there is a problem in this way: it is very tiring to push and pull the bellows back and forth.

There is no shortage of strong men in military weapons, but pulling the bellows is very tiring. The iron smelting furnace will burn for a long time. Pulling the bellows requires strong men to take turns. The initial effort-saving solution is the winch.

Yuwen Wen designed a winch, and the servants turned the winch like a donkey pulling a mill. The crankshaft on the winch rotated, driving the push rod to push and pull the bellows back and forth, which saved a lot of effort.

But people still have to push and turn, which still occupies manpower. After the embankment on the south bank of Santai River was stabilized, Yu Wenwen spent money to build a new iron smelting furnace on the south bank. The biggest purpose was to use hydraulic power, one of which was to use hydraulic power to push the bellows.

The bellows driven by manpower are called human drainage, and the bellows driven by water are called water drainage. Strictly speaking, hydraulic blowing is not considered to be Yu Wenwen's "invention". It is said to have appeared as early as the Han Dynasty.

The water wheel is pushed by water, and the rotating water wheel pushes the crank. The crank rotates to make the connecting rod reciprocate, so that the hydraulic force can be used to push and pull the bellows.

It is very important to use a water wheel, but not a water wheel. Although it is all driven by hydraulic power, there are substantial differences: the water wheel is immersed in the river water, but the water wheel is not.

The water wheel can leave the water surface, and water flows out from the elevated water channel higher than it, and uses the drop to directly drive the water wheel. Such a water wheel is several times more efficient than a sunken water wheel (water wheel). Even a very small amount of water can drive huge mechanical devices.

The water level of the river will change significantly due to the seasons, and the flow rate will also fluctuate greatly. Traditional water trucks alone cannot provide stable power, so water wheels must be used.

There are no mountains by the Santai River, and it is difficult to divert water from the elevated sink, so the method of storing water in the water tank is adopted. Several water trucks drive the water to towering wooden water tanks and use the water tank to push the water wheel below.

The water outlet can be manually controlled, and sufficient water storage tank can ensure the continuous rotation of the water wheel, so the blower device can operate stably.

With the blower device in hand, another improvement is next: blower preheating.

The water is discharged to the iron smelting furnace, and the air blowing in is at room temperature, while the furnace temperature in the iron smelting furnace is over thousands of degrees. The "cold" air blows in and consumes a lot of heat to heat up, which will affect the stability of the furnace temperature, so it is best to preheat the air blown in.

In view of this, Yuwen Wen designed a preheating kiln between the iron smelting furnace and the water drainage. Of course, he was only responsible for putting forward the concept, which was implemented by the craftsmen. Experienced craftsmen could understand it at a glance. The preheating kiln was quickly formed and was officially put into use after the test.

The charcoal is burned in the preheating kiln, and of course the charcoal is also burned in the iron smelting furnace. The temperature provided by charcoal combustion is limited. If steelmaking is slightly insufficient, Yuwen Wen knows that using coke to smelize iron is the first choice.

The calorific value of coke is very high, and it is obtained by isolating coal from air. It is similar to the dry distillation of wood from air to air to obtain charcoal. To coke, there must be coal. Coal is called charcoal by the world, but the amount of coal mining in this era is very low and has not been used on a large scale.

There are not many ready-made coal mines in the territory of the states in Shannan. As the saying goes, a good wife cannot cook without rice. Yuwen Wen can only use charcoal to make iron according to the old method. As for whether he can make steel, it really depends on his face.

Fortunately, there is no shortage of wood in the northern part of Jiangbei. Not to mention anything else, Bashui originated from the Dabie Mountains. The cut wood was transported out by ship and made of charcoal kilns and then transported to the iron smelting furnace.

Next is the most important raw materials: iron ore or pig iron. Because there is no iron ore in Bazhou, military weapons use "incoming materials processing", but Yuwen Wen found a new source of mineral resources: selecting iron from river sand.

Iron is the river sand by the Bashui River. The selected iron sand has been accumulated. An iron smelting furnace was built next to the Bashui River Selection Field at the beginning of the year. Now Yuwen Wen has closed it and has gathered it here to smelify iron at the new site of Santaihe.

Although the iron site is a little far away, it is nothing to do with water conservancy. It is very convenient to carry iron sand from Bashui into Santai River through the water and transport it upstream to the edge of the iron smelting furnace. The only disadvantage is that the quality of the iron refined by the iron sand is not good.

I don’t know what the specific ingredients are. The iron sand selected from the river sand is brittle. Don’t think about it when using it to make knives. Even when using it to make iron plows, they are silver-sampled gun tips, which are not useful.

Fortunately, it can be used as an arrowhead, which not only solves the needs of archers, but also frees up precious iron materials to make knives, armor leaves and farm tools. However, Yuwen Wen did not give up and asked the blacksmiths to study how to use the iron sand in the Bashui.

Recalling the chemical knowledge that he had almost forgotten, Yu Wenwen knew that the brittle iron hair he had trained was about to have high sulfur content.

It is said that the iron ore in the Central Plains has not low sulfur content, so the iron tools refined in modern times are relatively brittle. He is not a professional metallurgy, so he is not sure whether this statement is correct or not, but the high sulfur content is indeed the culprit of iron becoming brittle.

It is impossible to know how much sulfur content is in the iron sand selected from the river sand. The blacksmith in Bazhou Supervision can successfully refine good iron with other iron ores. The iron produced by iron sand cannot be effective, which means that the iron craftsmanship must be improved in a targeted manner.

It takes time to explore and study the process slowly, but it will take a lot of time, but it is impossible to choose another iron ore source. The ore source he chose must be refined with good iron when he kneels down. Yu Wen still racked his brain to recall the knowledge he learned, and then slapped his head and said that he had it.

There is sulfur, right? This thing should be an acidic substance, so it is neutralized by acid and alkali. This is not something Yuwen Wen did randomly. When he collected information and wrote things, he had read the information on desulfurization of steel. Although he only knew the skin and fur, he also remembered that limestone was used to desulfurize when smelting iron.

As for the ratio when laying out the material, he didn't remember it, or used the old method: try slowly until it was done. Anyway, it was just to burn money and let the craftsmen try again and again.

After burning money for several months, at least iron materials that can make sickles were refined before the autumn harvest. The two new iron furnaces that were put into production soon also maintained a "higher" level of iron materials that were released not long ago and could be used to make hoes, shovels and crooked plows.

Although the iron production is not higher, it also solves the urgent problem. The original iron ore was made from Huangzhou, and there are many prefectures and counties with good quality. It can use iron sand to make useful iron, which can at least save share to build knives.

"It's out!" The craftsman next to the iron smelting furnace shouted loudly. Yuwen Wen and his entourage approached the heat wave. The furnace gate opened and the red iron flowed out along the pipes. The blacksmiths who had already prepared began to be busy.

When making iron, iron is required to make various tools. Of course, this is called forging. If the iron is poured into a pre-prepared mold, it is called casting. In any case, iron making is the most common process when making iron products.

Put the iron blocks in the furnace and burn them red, use iron pliers to place them on the anvil, and then use a hand hammer or a large iron hammer to keep hitting them, just like rubbing dough to make the iron blocks into the shape you want.

So making irons is a job of hard work. The master who uses hand hammers to make irons, and the one who swings the sledgehammers is a strong apprentice. Even if it is in the coldest part of the 90s, the craftsmen in the blacksmith shop are sweating profusely, and swinging the sledgehammers is the hardest.

The ironwork occupies a lot of manpower like a bellows. Yuwen Wen naturally needs to use hydraulic power to release manpower. After the hydraulic bellows, hydraulic forging hammers also appeared in this newly completed military weapon prison.

The principle of a hydraulic forging hammer is similar to that of a hydraulic forging rice. It is nothing more than a rice pounding pestle turning into an iron hammer. It is just that in order to ensure a higher frequency of forging hammers per unit time, a simple gear-component gear needs to be installed.

The forging hammer can be at least 2,000 times in one stick of incense. If you convert it to about fifteen minutes, the frequency of the forging hammer's ironing is more than 130 times per minute. Although there is still a lot of room for improvement, it is a huge difference compared to manpower.

Wave the big hammer for more than 100 times per minute, at least twice a second on average. Even if someone can do it within a few minutes, it cannot last long. This is the power of mechanical power.

The sound of iron slashing comes one after another, and several hydraulic forging hammers of different sizes are operating. With these novel machinery, blacksmiths can build iron tools faster and better. Yuwen Wen watched several blacksmiths build iron plows with fun, and before he knew it, he was already sweating profusely.

"Your Majesty, it's too hot here, so let's go outside and cool off." The Ministry of Works said after presenting a towel. Yuwen Wen nodded when he heard this, took the towel and wiped his head while walking:

"It's so hot, the craftsmen are sweating all over. Is drinking water guaranteed?"

"Eunuch, there are drinking water in the several water tanks there, and some salt is added."

"Is it boiled cooked water?" Yuwen Wen asked again. His requirements for drinking water are very simple and strict. He must be boiled water before drinking it. First, it is hygienic, and second, it is easy to get sick by drinking river water directly.

"That's right, the stove for boiling water is there." The Ministry of Works pointed to a stove not far away. Yu Wenwen looked at it and then asked someone to make a bowl of water. After taking a few sips, he confirmed that the water was a bit salty.

Blacksmiths sweat a lot and work hard. They not only need to replenish water, but also need to replenish salt. For this kind of technical craftsman, Yuwen Wen does not regard him as a humble slave like others.

"It's done well, and you must keep it." Yuwen Wen nodded and reviewed the busy blacksmith shop. He asked the next question: "Where is the thing?"

"Empress, please come here." After the Ministry of Works said that, he took a step forward and led the way. Yuwen Wen, along with other accompanying staff and entourage, followed.
Chapter completed!