When he arrived at the Royal Military Factory, Xu Guangqi had already made preparations, and the iron ore and coke were all ready.￥f small,...o blast furnace is still the 5o cubic cube, and a 3o cubic cube rebuilt.&1t;/p>

The emperor came and bowed again. Zhu Youxiao quickly helped Xu Guangqi up and said kindly: "Xu Aiqing, thank you for your hard work during this period."&1t;/p>

"I don't work hard. This time I live up to my expectations. I finally found ore and coal. Your Majesty, can you turn on the furnace?" Xu Guangqi asked impatiently.&1t;/p>

"Okay, turn on the furnace immediately." Zhu Youxiao ordered.&1t;/p>

"Open the furnace and ignite." Xu Guangqi immediately ran to the site for command. A group of workers lit the blast furnace and added the furnace materials and ores. The smelting work of the hot start began again.&1t;/p>

The blast furnace runs very smoothly, and this blast furnace has been continuously used during this period. Although the pig iron smelted is too brittle, it is still possible for civilian use. Therefore, the pig iron smelted by this blast furnace is used to build agricultural tools and some military weapons that do not require high quality of pig iron. During the continuous production process, the smelting details of the blast furnace have been improved a lot, and the workers have explored a relatively mature blast furnace operation experience.&1t;/p>

The iron ore and coke used this time are both low-sulfur and low-phosphorus, and it is obviously much more convenient to smel than those high-sulfur ores. The blast furnace continues to smel, and everyone is watching. The horses keep spinning, pulling the blower to operate. With the sound of whimpering, the iron ore in the furnace is constantly melted by high temperature and reacting with the blowing oxygen.&1t;/p>

After a continuous wait, the molten iron finally flowed out.&1t;/p>

This is no longer surprising, but what is the quality of the molten iron?&1t;/p>

The workers immediately separated out part of the iron and directly used it to pour pig iron devices. At the same time, they poured part of the iron into the converter. The iron in the converter soon began to undergo a violent oxidation reaction as the blower was running.&1t;/p>

Under such an oxidation reaction, it is as violent as a volcanic eruption. However, workers have long been familiar with such sounds. Although the noise is relatively loud, the danger is not high. They installed baffles above the converter to prevent the flying and ejected Mars from splashing out.&1t;/p>

After three large blowers, after fifteen minutes of continuous blowing, the oxidation reaction in the furnace finally began to slow down and then disappeared. Obviously, a furnace of molten steel had been smelted.&1t;/p>

However, whether the quality of the molten steel can meet the standards this time is the most concerned issue.&1t;/p>

"The steel is out." With a shout, the furnace slowly turned over and poured out the molten steel in the furnace. The workers saw the molten steel again and then carried out subsequent treatment.&1t;/p>

The craftsmen poured the molten steel into the mold and started manual forging.&1t;/p>

Miracle happened, and it was found that during the hot forging process, the steel still maintained its toughness and did not have the brittle cracks before it. Obviously, the problem of too high sulfur content has been solved. After the steel cooled a little, it was cold forged again, and the brittle cracks did not occur. The problem of too high phosphorus content has also been solved.&1t;/p>

"Your Majesty, we succeeded." Xu Guangqi shouted in ecstasy and excitedly. All the craftsmen were also excited and looked excited.&1t;/p>

With such technological progress, steel will no longer be so precious in the future.&1t;/p>

Zhu Youxiao was also extremely excited and quickly said to Xu Guangqi: "Xu Aiqing, I have decided to open an official steel factory in Cizhou. You can estimate the steel cost immediately."&1t;/p>

"Yes, the emperor." Xu Guangqi took the order and continued: "I roughly estimate that using blast furnace ironmaking and converter steelmaking, the cost of a pound of steel will not be higher than five cents. The main cost is mining and coking."&1t;/p>

The blast furnace has high efficiency in iron making and uses coke, which is much lower than that of the south using firewood. The efficiency and fuel savings reduce the cost by three or four times, and the larger the scale of the blast furnace, the lower the cost.&1t;/p>

Converter steelmaking is even more cost-effective. Converter does not even need fuel, and the iron oxidation is relatively fast. If it is a traditional steel stir-frying method, it not only requires a large amount of fuel, but also requires continuous manual forging after it is released, which requires unknown amount of manpower and material resources.&1t;/p>

Now, the price of a kilogram of steel transported from the south to the north is as high as 150 cents. A flints require about seven kilograms of steel, and the material cost alone is 1.75 taels. The wages of craftsmen to build a musket are only 5 coins of silver.&1t;/p>

In terms of mining, coking and transportation, the cost of steel per kilogram is only three cents, and the smelting cost is even lower, and the final cost will never exceed 5 cents.&1t;/p>

Thinking of this, Zhu Youxiao was very excited.&1t;/p>

The cost of 5 cents means that the cost of a flints will be reduced to less than 0.6 taels of silver. And the cost of military weapons that are easier to forge, such as steel knives, will plummet.&1t;/p>

This means that military expenditures are reduced. With the same military expenditure, more soldiers can be armed to the battlefield.&1t;/p>

At the same time, the huge profits of steel smelting were also placed in front of Zhu Youxiao. Because of the poor quality of steel in the north, high-quality fried steel can be sold for 150 cents per kilogram. If blast furnace ironmaking and converter steelmaking technology are used, it is no different from grabbing money.&1t;/p>

Of course, demand is a problem. After all, civil steel does not require such good quality steel. However, the benefits of blast furnace ironmaking are extremely high. People need agricultural tools, as well as production and living tools such as iron pots, all contain huge markets. Especially the market in the south is more considerable.&1t;/p>

As long as steel smelting develops, the problem of economic imbalance between the north and the south can be initially solved.&1t;/p>

As the saying goes, the benefits of salt and iron are now being developed. Nowadays, salt boiling in Huaibei region can be removed, and salt drying is placed in Hebei and Shandong region for exhibition. Steel smelting is placed in Handan and Xingtai region for exhibition. As long as the salt and iron management is grasped in the hands, there is basically no shortage of money.&1t;/p>

At this time, what Zhu Youxiao was thinking about was how to monopolize steel smelting.&1t;/p>

Obviously, if blast furnace and converter technology want to make high-quality steel, it must have high-quality ore and coking coal. This resource is relatively scarce in China.&1t;/p>

Without such resources, the quality of molten steel made by private steel plants is definitely not good, and the same is true for molten steel. But if you want to sell it at a high price, once a private steel plant masters blast furnace technology, it can also compete with the official business.&1t;/p>

So the question is, how to block the spread of blast furnace technology?&1t;/p>

Zhu Youxiao's three big words "Patent Law" suddenly appeared in his mind. This kind of thing has its own advantages, which encourages people to create clearly and improve production technology! However, the disadvantage is obviously also great, that is, it hinders the spread of technology and makes some advanced productivity unable to be put into application.&1t;/p>

However, patent law is a powerful tool for capitalists! Although Ming people can get benefits from Ming creation, they may not get a penny, or just get a small part. Because a patent must be put into application, there must be a platform first, but these resources are controlled by the capitalists. Capitalists can purchase these patents, thereby preventing other competitors from using the technology or gaining cost advantages through patents.&1t;/p>

There were many open source technologies in later generations, but they did not charge patent fees. However, in later generations, capital was the era of kingdom, so even if some technologies were open source, no one promoted them. For example, among the computer operating systems, among the open source technologies in later generations, there were operating systems that were more useful than Microsoft operating systems, but they were not popularized.&1t;/p>
Chapter completed!