After turning a corner on the mountain road, Tang Kongmu pointed to the halfway up the mountain in front and said, "Sign the judgment, that is where the supervisor fries steel." The two large households, the Chen family and the Niu family, each have several smelting furnaces, which are specially used for frying iron. The village below the mountain, called the Blacksmith Furnace, was full of blacksmiths who made ironware. Because there is a cold pool there, it is the most suitable for forging iron. ”

Du Zhongxiao looked ahead and nodded. There are many places where iron is smelted under the supervision of Odori, but there are only a few places where steel is fried and iron is forged, and this is the largest one. Next to the place where the steel is fried is a coal mine, and the pig iron used is bought from a nearby smelting furnace.

Li Gui is the magistrate of Jiaocheng County, and after receiving Du Zhongxiao, he returned to Jiaocheng, leaving Tang Kongmu to listen to Du Zhongxiao's call. Tang Kongmu is a native of Wenshui County next door, and has worked in Datong Prison for many years, so he is very familiar with this place.

When everyone arrived at the place where the steel was fried halfway up the mountainside, they saw that according to the terrain, it was divided into two places and seven or eight furnaces were dug for frying steel. Each hearth is not too large, and hundreds of catties of wrought iron are produced each time. Not far from the stove were one or twenty blacksmiths, beating around the anvil.

The blacksmith here does not make ironware, but only processes the fried steel, removes the residue, and beats it into ingots or steel bars of different specifications. The blacksmith here doesn't need any skills, just strength.

Seeing Du Zhongxiao and his entourage coming, two middle-aged people greeted him and bowed early: "Kong is here, I don't know what's going on?" ”

Tang Kongmu stepped forward, pointed at Du Zhongxiao and said, "This is the judgment signed by this state, come to check on Datong Prison." You are a big local steel speculator, so you came here to see how your situation is here. ”

The two listened and hurriedly saluted Du Zhongxiao.

Tang Kongmu introduced: "This one is Director Niu, and the other one is Director Chen, and the two of them are here to watch every day. ”

After the salute, Director Niu and Director Chen let Du Zhongxiao go down to the shed, ordered people to serve tea, and served them diligently.

Du Zhongxiao looked around, and the two directors of the department: "How many steel furnaces do you have here?" How many catties of steel can be produced per day? ”

Supervisor Chen said: "Back to the officials, there are five in the small family, and four in the Niu supervisor's house. Now the business is not good, my family has opened three, and the cow supervisor's family has opened two, and I can produce two or three hundred catties of steel every day to make a living. ”

"Yes, quite a bit!" Du Zhongxiao nodded. "Is the steel out here good? Is there a lot of residue in it? ”

Supervisor Chen said: "The small ones have been frying steel here for several generations, and they are extra careful, and the steel produced is excellent." In addition to the craftsmen of the blacksmith furnace below, many of them are sold to the mountain. It's not a small boast, the farm tools in several nearby counties are all made of steel by small people. ”

Du Zhongxiao smiled and nodded, turned to look at the iron next to him, sparks were flying. A dozen strong men were bare-chested, wielding sledgehammers and hitting ingots on anvils. The red-hot iron can be seen clearly, and there is really a lot of residue, and it is not easy to make.

Seeing that Du Zhongxiao didn't speak, Director Chen and Director Niu were both worried, and discussed in a low voice for a while, before Director Chen stepped forward and said: "Official, business is not good this year, the small two only open half of the furnaces, and the steel production is not much. There are really only so many iron classes handed in. ”

Du Zhongxiao turned to look at the two of them, smiled and shook his head: "Don't worry, I'm not here to urge you to rent a class." Now the iron in the prison is piled up, and there is no place to store your iron. I'm here today to see if you're understaffed here, and I have something to do. ”

Director Chen breathed a sigh of relief and arched his hand: "Don't hide it from the officials, the New Year has just passed, it is not a busy season, and there are still many helpers who have not arrived, and there is a little shortage of manpower." If you wait for the last month, the people are all ready, and you can be called by the officials. ”

Du Zhongxiao said: "How can I wait for a month? In Bingzhou City, I don't know how much I have to do, and I can't stay in Datong Prison for many days. Don't worry, I'm not sending someone to strike iron, but I'm looking for a few skilled people to help me build a few steel furnaces in prison. ”

Director Chen was stunned for a moment, and hurriedly asked, "Dare to ask the official, why do you want to build a steel furnace in the prison?" ”

"Over the years, most of the collected by Datong has been pig iron, which is not easy to sell, and it is difficult to make swords and farm tools. It is better to fry it into steel, and it is better to make swords and farm tools in the capital courtyard than to rust there. ”

Seeing that Director Chen didn't speak, Director Niu was a little anxious, and stepped forward and arched his hand: "Official, you see that we are here, there is a shortage of manpower, and we really can't spare manpower to help the officials do the work." The work of frying steel must be forged in time when it comes out of the furnace, otherwise it will become scrap iron. If the officials take people out, we have to stop a few stoves. Not to mention the livelihood of the family, the steel produced now is all paid by foreign businessmen, and there is no delay. ”

Du Zhongxiao looked at Director Niu, nodded, ignored him, turned to Director Chen and said, "There are not many people, as long as you find a few people who can fry the steel furnace, just follow me." Datong Prison has its own box army and can do things. ”

Director Chen looked at Director Niu, lowered his head and didn't speak, obviously unwilling in his heart.

Du Zhongxiao shook his head with a smile: "I looked at the stove you have here, although the shape is neat, I put a lot of thought into it when I repaired it. IMHO, it's not good enough. One is that the fried steel is not good, and the other is that it costs too much charcoal. If you look at the nearby mountains and forests, there are no big trees within ten miles because of iron smelting all year round. You cut down trees and burn charcoal to fry steel, not to mention that charcoal is expensive, and there are no trees on these mountains, and it is difficult to retain water and soil. ”

Director Chen hurriedly said: "Official, iron has been smelted here since ancient times, so don't you cut down all the trees." At present, the people who smelt iron in the mountains actually use more charcoal, and very few use charcoal, and there are not many people who cut down trees. We can't use charcoal to fry steel, but the stove is small, how many trees can we cut? ”

Du Zhongxiao sighed: "Although you use it less, there are not many trees in stock, and they can't be cut down." You smoke you to help me make the furnace for frying steel, and I will teach you a method, frying steel with charcoal. This method is used a lot in the Central Plains, but no one uses it here. ”

Director Niu shook his head again and again: "It's okay to use coal to smelt iron, I've never heard of frying steel." Official, I have been doing this work for decades, how can I not know this truth? When the charcoal enters the oven, it will be difficult for molten steel to come out—"

Looking at Director Niu's conceited appearance, Du Zhongxiao smiled and didn't speak.

The charcoal and pig iron are added to the frying steel pot together, and the pig iron is turned into a semi-liquid like bean dregs, and stirred vigorously to combine the oxygen in the molten iron with the charcoal to become wrought iron. This is a direct heating method, one is that the temperature is not enough, and the other is that carbon will consume oxygen as both fuel and reducing agent, which is very demanding, and it is necessary to use good carbon. Not to mention the use of coal, even the charcoal used for general roasting is not good. These two companies are here to fry steel, and they have already cut down all the big trees on the surrounding hills, so they can only buy charcoal from afar.

According to the knowledge of his previous life, Du Zhongxiao had a general understanding of the chemical reaction of frying steel. This process is to consume the carbon in the pig iron, and it is not right to contact with the carbon, so it is best to isolate it, which is the reverberatory furnace. This is not knowledge that transcends the times, the Central Plains region used reverberatory furnaces, but it was not transmitted here. Of course, when Du Zhongxiao was in Yongcheng County, he had already improved the frying steel furnace, increased the temperature, and also improved the efficiency.

Recruiting people from here to help them build steel furnaces is of course to requisition their manpower, but also to spread knowledge to them. came here to find these two big families, Du Zhongxiao was completely out of kindness, it depends on whether they know how to lift up.