Chapter 1286 Changhua Industrial Zone

The purpose of Yu Xiaobao and his party coming to Shilu Mine was to inspect the operation conditions here and understand the current production level. However, they did not arrange any publicity activities here. After all, the audience in this place is quite special, so there is no point in holding publicity activities.

It’s not big. So after seeing the mine, even if the mission is completed, it’s time to take the train that leaves the mountain in the afternoon and return to Changhua. Qiao Zhiya doesn’t intend to let them stay at the mine overnight. The accommodation conditions in the mountain are relatively good.

It's simple, so it's better to go back to Changhua to rest.

So everyone returned to the train station outside the mountain and took the same train they came from. However, when they arrived at the station, the train was completing a U-turn through the curved track laid at the west end of the station. They waited on the platform for about a cup of tea.

It was only about time that I got in the car.

Needless to say, on the return trip, everyone in the inspection team had completed another task, and they were all in a relaxed and happy mood. Only Liu Shang had been secretly thinking about the steam excavator that he had not been able to observe closely. Although he was far away

, but after watching the excitement for so long, I can roughly understand its operation process, but I still lack observation of details.

If this kind of excavator is really widely used by Haihan, the speed of mining mineral deposits will inevitably increase by leaps and bounds on the current basis. What will follow will probably be a further increase in Haihan's steel production. More steel resources mean

What are you looking for? That means that Haihan can build more steam engines, arm more troops, and even build the legendary iron-armored giant ship. For Ming Dynasty, which is adjacent to Haihan and has complicated interests,

But it's definitely not good news.

Liu Shang stayed in Haihan for more than a month and was exposed to so much information that was considered confidential to the outside world. Naturally, his vision was much higher than before coming to Haihan. He had realized that the influence of this thing was not only

It will be limited to the mines here. If it is allowed to develop, then maybe in the near future, the scale of steel smelting in Changhua will continue to increase, and the strength comparison between Haihan and Daming will continue to change in a direction that is unfavorable to Daming.

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The most ideal solution is probably to try to destroy the only steam excavator in the world to slow down Haihan's development in the mining field. However, the Haihan mine is located in an inland mountainous area and is heavily guarded by military and police.

, it is undoubtedly a foolish dream to break into this place and destroy it by personal force. Unless there is a way to mobilize an armed force to attack this place, but that would be tantamount to officially starting a war with Haihan. That is not Liu Shang sneaking into the sea incognito.

Han’s original intention.

The more Liu Shang thought about it, the more he felt that this hidden danger would have far-reaching consequences. He was not in the mood to chat with the people next to him. He just kept looking out the window, pretending to look at the scenery to hide his deep thought state. However, everyone was a little tired after walking around for a day.

No one noticed anything unusual about his state. The old scholar next to him who was responsible for serving as a clerk in the inspection team had even fallen asleep on the small table in the middle of the seat.

There was no talking all the way, and everyone returned to Changhua County smoothly by car. It was already dinner time. Naturally, Qiao Zhiya wanted to show his kindness as a landlord and set up a few banquets to entertain everyone. Liu Shang was too lazy to worry about the things he couldn't change.

It's a lot of work, so I just put down my burdens and eat and drink with everyone.

According to the schedule, the inspection team's work arrangement for the next day is to visit the local smelting industry. Although Qiao Zhiya said before that there is nothing to see in Changhua, but Changhua is an industrial town in Haihan, so there is no way to skip it.

The reason here is that Yu Xiaobao and others not only have to understand the local production conditions, but also convene local grassroots officials in Changhua to conduct propaganda activities according to the plan. However, the content of the propaganda that Liu Shang is responsible for is business and trade, which is not the case in Changhua.

There is no audience, so he no longer has a preaching mission at this station, so he can rest assured.

The next day, everyone gathered early in the guest house. Although Liu Shang had no mission, he would never miss this opportunity to get a glimpse of Haihan's industrial strength. Although he did not know what the concept of industry was, he always felt that

Hearing that Yu Xiaobao and others were talking about this word, and Qiao Zhiya also called the local area "Changhua Industrial Zone", he naturally wanted to have a more comprehensive understanding of what the "industry" that the Haihan population center was thinking about.

The first thing Qiao Zhiya took them to visit was the largest iron-making blast furnace in the area. However, Liu Shang was a little frustrated that due to safety reasons, everyone could only stand about ten feet away from the blast furnace to watch the operation. This distance

Apart from seeing workers filling the furnace with ore and coke under the command of the furnace head, there are no more details that would allow him to understand the structural principles and smelting process of the Haihan blast furnace.

Qiao Zhiya had been introducing the operation of the blast furnace to Yu Xiaobao and others, but what he said was like a heavenly book to Liu Shang, and he could not understand the content at all. Liu Shang even doubted what he had read in the past.

Are all the books in vain? Why, even though I know the Four Books and Five Classics well and have no language barrier, can I still not understand the explanation given by the Shanghai Han people? Is it because I have too little education and cannot keep up with the rhythm of the Shanghai Han people?

This indeed breaks Liu Shang's own knowledge. He considers himself to be fairly knowledgeable in astronomy and geography, and he has never seen charcoal-burning and iron-making. However, when it comes from Haihan's mouth, he can understand every word.

I have no idea what it means to be together.

After listening carefully for a long time, Liu Shang finally roughly understood that the numbers Qiao Zhiya repeatedly emphasized should be a unit of measurement for temperature, and the internal structure and operation methods of this blast furnace seemed to be based on the measurement of temperature.

On the basis of precise control. But how the Haihan people did this, Liu Shang couldn't figure it out.

Regarding the concept of temperature, Liu Shang only knows the range of temperature differences expressed by words such as cold, cold, cool, warm, hot, and hot. This description is extremely subjective and there is no definite standard. Most of the time

It uses body temperature as the standard to measure the temperature of the surrounding environment. Even a skilled blacksmith engaged in the smelting industry can only judge the approximate temperature by observing the color of the flame based on experience. There is no accurate unit of measurement like a pound or a size. It seems that this is another

It is one of the exclusive inventions of the Haihan people. If the Haihan people can really control the temperature accurately, then their smelting technology must have surpassed the Ming Dynasty by a long way.

In fact, the first gas thermometer in the West was made by the Italian scientist Galileo at the end of the 16th century. It was not until 1641 that the first thermometer using alcohol as a working substance appeared. In the following decades,

Scientists continued to improve this thermometer and tried to mark the scale to measure temperature changes. By 1742, the astronomer Celsius made a mercury thermometer based on the temperature difference between the boiling point of water and the melting point of ice.

The standard defines the unit of measurement for temperature. It was not until 1750 that there was an official Celsius temperature scale. And it is only 1635. At this time, the only people in the world who can develop an accurate unit of measurement for temperature are people who have traveled back from the future.

Haihan people.

Naturally, Liu Shang didn't understand the twists and turns in between. He only knew that the Haihan people's invention was enough to leave the Ming Dynasty behind for a while. He could clearly hear the data Qiao Zhiya said, but even if he remembered these

Numbers were of no use, because he didn't know how the temperature was measured, so naturally he couldn't copy this iron-making method to other places.

Liu Shang was unwilling to accept this, but at this moment he heard Qiao Zhiya calling everyone to retreat again. It turned out that the furnace was about to be opened to release molten iron. The golden molten iron was poured into a huge crucible, and this crucible filled with molten iron was used by the workers.

The iron chain and winch pulled the control, slowly moving it to a row of arranged molds, and then tilted the crucible to let molten iron pour into it. Liu Shang knew that this was casting pig iron ingots. This was not a new thing, but this sea

The capacity of Han's blast furnace was so huge that it took several times to load the large crucible. The amount of molten iron that came out of the furnace at one time was probably several thousand kilograms of iron ingots.

After the casting operation was completed, the furnace head directed the workers to start filling the blast furnace again, mainly coke, iron ore and limestone as a flux. After the furnace was built and ignited, it ran day and night. Only when the furnace body needed to be repaired

The furnace will only be shut down for maintenance.

Although they are far away from the furnace, the temperature in the smelting plant has made everyone's clothes soaked. It has already entered summer, and the temperature is already relatively high, and with such a big furnace here,

One can imagine how he felt. Probably only Liu Shang wanted to stay here to watch for a while, while the others were eager to go out for some fresh air.

Qiao Zhiya actually thought that everyone might not be adaptable to the hot environment here, so she had already specially prepared herbal tea to relieve the heat, so that everyone could drink it by themselves as long as they felt thirsty. Finally, after seeing the production conditions here,

Everyone had to wait respectfully for Qiao Zhiya and Yu Zhang to leave here before following them to the next stop.

Walking out of the factory, Liu Shang noticed the piles of pig iron ingots next to him. Qiao Zhiya introduced to everyone that part of the pig iron would be transported to make various cast iron parts, while the other part would be transported to the steelmaking workshop for further processing.

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Liu Shang's understanding of steel smelting was extremely limited, and it was even more difficult to understand Haihan's various professional operations in this steel-making workshop. As for Qiao Zhiya's explanation, it seemed that it only made him feel more dizzy. What about decarbonization?

, dephosphorization, deoxidation, and desulfurization. I have no idea what kind of smelting method this is, so I can only act as a spectator and stand aside to watch the fun.

Compared with what he visited in Shilu yesterday, Liu Shang only felt that what he saw today was not very interesting. Of course, there are actually many applications of steam engines here, such as transporting various materials and iron lumps between factories.

They are all small trains driven by steam locomotives, but they still mainly rely on manual operations in front of the large and small smelting furnaces. However, this relatively superficial application of steam engines is now somewhat beyond Liu Shang's discernment.

He would rather see new and unheard-of things like crushers and excavators with more ingenuity.

But that afternoon he saw such new equipment, a rolling mill for rolling steel, a steam hammer for forging steel, and a machine tool that can cut metal parts. These various types of steam machinery with different functions,

In the end, Liu Shang was completely dumbfounded. Being able to knead and cut hard steel like dough is probably something only the Haihan people can do. This method of making steel objects, like the machinery here, was something he had never done before.

New things that have never even been thought of.

When Qiao Zhiya took everyone to visit the rail processing process, Liu Shang's mind could no longer keep up with the influx of information. He saw the red-hot steel billet passing through the rollers repeatedly, but what he was thinking about was what he had done earlier.

He actually foolishly thought that Haihan relied on countless blacksmiths to slowly build the track for passing trains. How could he imagine that he had such a clever method and could create such a long and straight track hundreds of times faster than manual labor.

From this point of view, the railway that took the Haihan people several years to build might have taken several times as long to be completed in the Ming Dynasty. As for the additional expenses incurred, I don’t know how to calculate it.

After visiting the steel rolling production process, Liu Shang finally found a new focus, because next, Qiao Zhiya took everyone to see gun steel - steel specially used to make artillery.

It is a well-known fact that Haihan's weapons are sharp. Of course, Liu Shang wanted to see how the Haihan people made artillery that was invincible on the battlefield. But when he arrived, he was greatly disappointed, because Qiao Zhiya just asked them

The inventory of gun steel was displayed - a large number of cylindrical steel materials of varying thicknesses. After Qiao Zhiya explained the situation, Liu Shang realized that the Haihan people's artillery was not produced here, but came from the Tiandu Industrial Zone in Sanya, which is just

It’s just the origin of the raw materials.

In fact, due to cost reasons, artillery that is actually made of steel is rarely equipped in the Haihan Army. The Executive Committee also believes that there is no need to spend a lot of resources to update the weapons when the current level of weapons is ahead of the times.

A generation of weapons. In this era when cast-iron cannons have not yet become popular, Haihan's existing heavy weapons are enough to gain a clear advantage on the battlefield, and this advantage will continue to be maintained for a foreseeable period of time.

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These gun steels are mostly used for military scientific research. On the one hand, they are used to improve steelmaking technology. On the other hand, the military industry department will continue to trial-produce new weapons to ensure that Haihan's weapon research and development and manufacturing levels continue to be ahead of the times. Liu Shang thought

The attempt to get a glimpse of the secrets of Haihan military industry from gun steel was completely defeated.
Chapter completed!