General Gudi saluted with his hands, said goodbye to Du Zhongxiao and other officials, escorted more than 20 large carts out of the Iron Supervisor, and arrived at the Lihe Ferry. After passing the ferry to Rufen Town, from there to Xiangcheng County, and headed north to Kaifeng Prefecture.

Near Rufen Town is the ancient city of Kunyang, which is where Emperor Guangwu Liu Xiu recruited meteorites from the sky, defeating Wang Mang's army with fewer defeats. After the furnace was opened, the iron supervisor was on the right track. Du Zhongxiao intended to turn Ye County into the iron supervisor's garrison, and Ye County moved to Kunyang City. A few days ago, I wrote a memorial, but I wonder if the court would allow it.

Gudi is a general of the Three Divisions. This general is not the other general. He belongs to the first rank of military positions without any ranks and his official position is very low. This time he brought the good iron and good steel produced by the Iron Supervision to Beijing, which was a report, so that the court knew that the Iron Supervision had issued the Iron Supervision and the money in front was not spent in vain.

In addition to a small number of iron ingots, Gudi belts mainly consist of steel bars of various specifications and some steel plates. In order to verify the performance, the Iron Supervisor also made a few swords to let Gudi take them to the capital together. The main purpose of good iron now is to make weapons. For swords, steel bars are the most convenient to use, and can be formed by simply forging.

The most important value of this iron supervisor is not the output of iron, but the type of product. It is mainly steel, and its value is not comparable to other iron supervisors. In this era, when iron was refined into steel, the loss was amazing, not to mention how much labor was used, and it was considered good to produce one pound of cooked iron for three pounds of pig iron. If steel was used to produce steel by forging or filling, it would be more than half of it. For real good steel, it would be good to produce one pound of pig iron for ten pounds of pig iron.

At this time, the price of pig iron in the north is roughly 20 cents per catty. The steel is different depending on the quality of the steel, 50 cents to 50 cents. For example, the steel bars produced by the Iron Supervision now have a market price of at least 200 cents per catty. However, the output is too amazing and the price will inevitably drop, but why is it not lower than 100 cents? At this price, 10 million kilograms of steel bars can return the 500,000 cents of the warehouse.

According to Du Zhongxiao's initial idea, the output of the Iron Supervision Bureau is more than 50 million jin a year. If the iron sales alone cost more than 2 million jin a year. The number of 2 million jin may not be astonishing, and the salt tax and tea tax are much more than this. What is really meaningful is not the number, but the cost of this money is not high. The most important thing is that there is no harassment and oppression of the people.

The higher the output of the iron supervision, the more money you earn, and the more benefits the people nearby get. This is very different from the tea tax and salt tax. Both of these money are accompanied by oppression of producers and plundering of social wealth.

With the output of a large amount of steel, the Iron and Steel Corporation has cash flow and can invest and expand the industrial chain. The next step is to manufacture machines and agricultural tools to further increase the added value of the steel industry. The extension of the industrial chain is the real value of the steel industry.

Watching Gudi and his party leave, Du Zhongxiao said to Su Song beside him: "I have been busy these days, and today's major event has been decided. Let's go back to the yamen to drink a few glasses of wine and relax. These days, I'm really tired."

Su Song smiled and said, "We are the only ones who can produce such steel bars in dozens of places in the world. This time the delivery to Beijing was delivered to Beijing, and the ministers in the court saw that there were no rumors before. After setting up the Iron Supervisor, the iron class was not seen, and many officials in the court were gossiping."

Du Zhongxiao said: "The court sympathizes with us. Our Iron Supervisor does not have iron classes this year. I am afraid that it will be indispensable next year. I don't know how much labor it will save using this steel bar to build weapons."

Liu Wei on the side said, "I'm afraid the court thinks it's easy to use. There are too many iron classes next year and it's hard for us to do it."

Du Zhongxiao shook his head: "How many can it be? The iron class in the world is only 70 million kilograms, but Sansi Lion opened its mouth and spread it to us with 10 million kilograms. If we want 10 million kilograms of steel, we can provide it, but I'm afraid Sansi doesn't have the courage to do it."

How many kilograms of steel can only be produced in the whole world? No matter how imaginative the officials of the Sansi Department are, they dare not imagine a newly opened small iron supervisor with such production capacity. If they dare to demand ten million kilograms, they must have extraordinary courage and surprising insight.

As an iron supervisor, the court did not collect money from here, but iron, that is, iron courses. Generally, private furnaces are collected at one-fifth as taxes. Because this is an official business, it cannot be calculated like this, but there is a fixed quota. Exceeding the fixed quota is the income of the iron supervisor. Of course, this money cannot be divided by officials, but is counted as local finance, and the Transportation Department has the power to call.

How much quota would the court set for this iron supervisor? 10 million kilograms? 20 million kilograms? Du Zhongxiao estimated that this time the delivery to Beijing was likely to require the iron supervisor to produce steel bars, and 5 million kilograms a year was the upper limit. No matter how many, the court would not use it, so how could there be so many weapons to build it?

Five million kilograms, as the scale of the iron regulatory authorities expands, it is really not a large number. It is only two or three thousand tons. For later steel mills, this output can only be considered a family workshop. What remains is the capital for the iron regulatory authorities to expand production.

If you have the money, you can build a factory. The new boatman is no longer in a shortage of difficulty in raising fields, which can be considered a situation.

It was the time when the iron smelting workers changed shifts, and they went to the canteen near the yamen to have dinner. Everything went well, and the food in the canteen maintained a high level, but there were japonica rice, white flour steamed buns and noodles. The dishes were simpler, usually pickles and broth. If you add money, you could also eat large pieces of meat and fried fish. Such food was something ordinary people outside could not imagine.

When they arrived at the small hall next to them, Nie Mao, Tong Anlu and others were queuing up for dinner. When they saw Du Zhongxiao and others coming in, they hurriedly saluted.

These technicians have their own small canteens, and their food is better than those outside, with meat and vegetables. This is divided according to the profession of doing things, not according to official positions. On-site physical labor is mainly used, and small officials and officials also eat in the canteen and cannot come here. As long as they do technical research work, even if they do not have official positions, they can eat and drink better than those small officials.

Du Zhongxiao and Su Qing looked at the food inside, and did not stop, and went to the pavilion next to them. As their identities, eating small dishes was not too much. The huge iron prison was not as big as fish and meat every day, and they were already sharing the joys and sorrows with the workers.

Several people sat down, came to salute on duty, asked about the dishes they wanted to eat today, and went to prepare them.

The original population was not large, and so many people suddenly flocked to it, and the food was not available at all. Grain and rice could be purchased from other places, and there was no way to go for chicken, duck, fish and meat. In the outside market, the meat price has risen several times. Not to mention ordinary workers, even Liu Wei could not have meat to eat every day. Working in the Iron Supervisory Bureau, there are monthly subsidies, but the meat price rose faster, which was still the same as before.

The supply cannot be increased, and no matter how much money the people in the Iron Prison pay, they cannot buy anything. In the past, small officials and officials occasionally ate meat, but they couldn't afford it when the family had a large population. Now it is still the same. As for ordinary workers, they can only rely on the meat soup in the canteen to satisfy their cravings.

Soon, the wine and food came up. After drinking a few glasses of wine, Du Zhongxiao said: "I think when we first came a few months ago, there were many wild game nearby, such as pheasant, wild duck, deer and rabbit, which were extremely cheap. In just a few days, the price rose. Not to mention mutton and pork, now it is much higher than the price in Kaifeng City. It is always not a solution to continue like this. If people come to the Iron Supervisory Office later, they really can't afford to eat meat."

Liu Wei said: "There are only a few thousand households in Ye County, and there are only so many pigs and sheep. What's the solution?"
Chapter completed!