The sky was gloomy, and the cold wind blew across the treetops, making a sharp sound. At some point, snowflakes were sprinkling all over the sky, swelling.

Du Zhongxiao was in the Iron Supervisor's residence, and there was a small pond in the yard, and a small pavilion was built next to it. Seeing it snowing, he ordered someone to call Su Song and Liu Wei to drink and enjoy the snow together. The two entered Du Zhongxiao's yard and saw that the wine and food had been placed in the gazebo, so they hurried over.

After entering the pavilion, Su Song stomped his feet and said, "In such cold weather, why are you drinking outside?"

Du Zhongxiao smiled and said, "It's just that drinking outside is interesting on cold days, otherwise what's the purpose of the stove?"

While saying that, they let the two of them sit down. A coal stove under the stone table was burning vigorously and warm. If you sit for a while, you won’t feel cold.

It is actually inconvenient to burn coal, especially when it is used at home, it is inconvenient to control the heat of a small furnace, and it is also troublesome to add coal and dig the slag. A few days ago, when Du Zhongxiao saw Shisanlang being fumigated by a coal stove, his eyes were red. Then Du Zhongxiao suddenly remembered that he could build a coal ball furnace.

Coal balls are very simple. Make a mold and press the coal powder into molds. The one that has real technical content is the furnace. The furnace must be easy to burn, easy to ignite and save fuel. The most important thing is that the damper should be conveniently controlled by the fire. Fortunately, there are many people in the iron prison, so Du Zhongxiao said his idea and quickly made the furnace. In a short while, coal ball stoves in the iron prison have become popular and have begun to be sold to the market.

Coal balls do not need to use good coal, especially the powdered coal that is considered useless in coal mines. It is best to use it. However, at this time, the price of coal is very low, and the selling price is mainly freight, which is not attractive. The iron supervision is less than a hundred miles away from the coal mine, but the freight is not low at all. Without water transportation, it is impossible to reduce freight, and a hundred miles is not much cheaper than a thousand miles of water transportation. What is attractive about coal ball furnaces is its convenience in controlling firepower, and coal balls sold outside are not cheap.

Under the stone table is a large coal ball stove, which has a strong firepower and makes the tabletop warm.

When the two sat down, Du Zhongxiao asked the soldiers on the side to take two bags and handed them over to Su Song and Liu Wei. They didn't know what was inside, but they were curious and hurriedly opened it, but they saw it was a brocade jacket.

Du Zhongxiao said: "In spring, I planted some grass cotton in Qingtai Town, and harvested it in autumn. I made a few brocade jackets from cotton at home, one for each of you, and I wore it to keep the cold."

Liu Wei hurriedly refused: "How dare the subordinates accept such a precious thing?"

Du Zhongxiao said: "How can you talk about being planted in the field and doing things? After two years, this thing will be planted all over Xiang Deng, and it will naturally become an ordinary thing."

At this time, there is very little cotton and it is expensive, which is a rare thing. Occasionally, there is cloth made of cotton, and the price is higher than silk. As for making quilts with cotton jackets, it is even more unthinkable. At this time, common cold-proof clothing is filled with silk cotton, a by-product of silk. The salaries of officials will be distributed to a certain amount of silk cotton to keep warm according to the grade every winter.

Seriously speaking, silk cotton has much better effect than cotton and much higher cost. After the popularity of cotton, the grade of silk quilts is not very high than that of cotton. It is just because it is rare that Du Zhongxiao can still give gifts now.

The price of silk cotton is high, and it is impossible for everyone to afford it. The common people's cold-proof clothing is filled with various things. There are reed floss, goose feathers, and even weeds. The most important thing about cotton is to benefit the general public, but it is not important to the rich.

The two thanked each other again, took the cotton jacket given by Du Zhongxiao, and put it up carefully.

After three rounds of wine, Du Zhongxiao said: "In the past few months, two more blast furnaces have been built in the Iron Supervision, both of which have been successfully produced. With these furnaces as the base, it is really easy to build the furnace now. Starting this month, the fiber-pulling chassis army will have a large number of people. According to the plan, there will eventually be about 20,000 people and dozens of blast furnaces here. We originally expected that the Iron Supervision would produce 60,000 or 70 million kilograms of iron a year, which is a great thing. Now it seems that this number will increase several times. In a while, there is so much iron in the world, so how to traffic is a major event. The three roads along the border have always used the iron from Hedong Road, and our iron is not easy to sell there in a short time. It is nothing more than the imperial court to make weapons and replace the iron from Xiangzhou with our iron, which is only a few million kilograms."

Su Song said: "This is indeed a big deal. Not to mention the sale, even if someone buys it everywhere, we can't ship it out."

Du Zhongxiao nodded: "That's true. Although Ye County is located on a major road in the north and south, there is no water transportation. During the reign of Emperor Taizong, he used to dig canals here, and it took countless manpower and material resources, but it was impossible to do it. Without water transportation, we must find another way."

Liu Wei said: "What are the solutions? If we just use a large cart, even if we transport it south to Tangzhou and north to Xuzhou, the carts, horses, food and grass needed will be amazing. No matter how good our iron is, the price is cheap. If we add this freight, the price will be increased."

"Yes, it's not possible to rely on big trucks. From the iron ore to the iron prison, a few days ago, it was much more convenient. Have you seen it? The iron ore is on the mountain. After installing ore, it goes downhill. It doesn't take much effort to go to the iron prison. When you go back uphill, it's empty again."

After hearing Du Zhongxiao's words, Liu Wei frowned and said, "The meaning of transportation judgment is to lay the railway tracks? It's okay to say that the iron ore is from the iron ore to the iron supervisor. The distance is not long and it is specially designed for transportation of mines. There is not much iron used, and the ore transported can meet the use of the iron supervisor. If it is placed in a local area, the amount of iron is amazing, the price will be too high. How can the court explain it to us if we use iron like this?"

Du Zhongxiao said: "Try a section first, there is always a way. It is impossible to sell so much iron, and it cannot be transported. It is not a way. If it cannot be sold to the world, the iron supervisor will store iron every year, and the furnace will eventually be discarded. The iron supervisor has no meaning. Apart from iron ore, the iron supervisor now has the largest transportation capacity. According to my opinion, after people come, the iron produced cannot be sold anyway, so first lay the railway tracks on the road to the coal mine."

Rail transportation is not uncommon. In history, it was not because of a steam engine that made the train, but because of a railway track, the train was built first. The Qin Emperor, the first emperor, had a book and a car, laid the foundation for China's unification. The reason why cars had the same track was because of important roads. Because of the years, the ruts were deep and the same tracks were the same, and the wheels just stuck inside and walked.

The iron supervisor's production climbed too fast, too few iron vendors came here, and a large amount of steel was produced. Du Zhongxiao suggested that railway tracks were built from iron ore to iron supervisor to facilitate the transportation of ore. The benefits of doing this are obvious. When the ore comes, it goes downhill and goes back uphill and empty vehicles are not required. It does not require special power, and it is also very convenient to transport people. The iron supervisor has produced a batch of transport vehicles, which replaced people carrying shoulders, greatly saving manpower. Because the reason is simple and the benefits are obvious, Su Song and Liu Wei support it, and this matter is very smooth.

While developing a steam engine and laying the railway tracks, Du Zhongxiao must have made plans on the train.

The two keys of railway transportation are the steam engine. This machine has a variety of uses, the benefits are visible and touched, and no one opposes spending money on it. And according to the progress of the group of people who are studying steam engines, the new machine should come out in the past two or three months. The other is that laying a railway requires a large amount of iron. Here, as the output of the iron supervisor has increased sharply, a large amount of steel is not a problem.

With all the conditions in place, Du Zhongxiao is going to build the first test line train.

Su Song participated in the development of the steam engine, which was not surprising. The machine weighed too much, made ordinary vehicles, had too high road requirements, and was not very practical. However, if it was run on paved tracks, it could play its strengths and avoid its weaknesses.

Liu Wei did not participate in these things. He felt that using a lot of steel to lay tracks, the mines were fine, but how could ordinary roads be possible?

Seeing Liu Wei's face full of doubts, Du Zhongxiao said, "There is no way. We produce too much iron here, and we must find a way to sell it. If it is produced, it is not different from soil. Without the money obtained from selling iron, how can so many people in the iron prison make a living? When new people come and build a blast furnace, steel will inevitably be backlogged. Iron is produced continuously and the furnace cannot be stopped for a moment. For the iron prison, it is meaningless to store iron. It should be sold as much as the iron is produced, or it is used. Now merchants are not in a good way, and there is no way to use steel as soil."

Seeing that Liu Wei still didn't understand, Su Song said: "The iron surveillance produces iron. When the ore is transported here, it will soon turn into iron. The iron cannot be sold, and it will take up more space in the iron surveillance, and it will have no use. Nothing elsewhere, iron can be sold for money after it is stored, but the iron surveillance cannot do it. Because new iron is constantly produced, the iron surveillance is not good and will never be useful. This is the meaning of the fortune judgment. I can store iron in other places, but the iron surveillance cannot do it."

Du Zhongxiao said: "If there is too much iron storage, it is meaningless to produce new iron in the court's eyes. Maybe they will lay off people and close the furnace. After finally building such a place, how can it slowly decline because of the sales channels. As long as the products of the Iron Supervision Bureau cannot be sold, various items can be made of steel. For example, agricultural tools, there are many places in the world that cannot be used for iron. Sharks, sickles, hoes, plows, etc. are very easy to make in the Iron Supervision Bureau. If they can be transported to all directions, selling these iron tools will make more money than selling them."

Although iron farm tools have appeared for more than a thousand years, they are far from popular. In the Song Dynasty, there are still a large number of farmers who do not use iron farm tools. The market is so large that it is far beyond imagination. Not to mention that according to Du Zhongxiao's idea, the iron supervisor will develop into a machine manufacturing center in the future based on its resource advantages. However, all of this is now facing a transportation bottleneck.
Chapter completed!