General Gudi crossed his hands and saluted, bid farewell to Du Zhongxiao and other officials, escorted more than 20 carts, got out of the iron prison, and arrived at the Li River ferry. After crossing the ferry to Rufen Town, from there to Xiangcheng County, all the way north to Kaifeng Mansion.

Near Rufen Town is the ancient city of Kunyang, which is the place where Emperor Guangwu Liu Xiu summoned meteorites from the sky and defeated Wang Mang's army with fewer victories. After the furnace was opened, the iron supervisor was on the right track, Du Zhongxiao intended to turn Ye County into an iron prison station, and Ye County moved to Kunyang City. A few days ago, I played a concert, and I don't know if the court will allow it.

Goody is the general of the three divisions, this general is not the other general, he belongs to the first order of the martial arts rank, and the official position is very low. This time, he brought the good iron and steel produced by the iron supervisor into Beijing, which was regarded as a report, so that the imperial court knew that the iron supervisor had produced iron, and the money in front of him was not spent in vain.

In addition to a small number of iron ingots, Goody mainly brings steel bars of various specifications, as well as some steel plates. In order to verify the performance, the iron supervisor also punched a few swords and asked Goody to take them to the capital together. Nowadays, the main use of good iron is to make weapons. For swords, steel bars are the most convenient to use, and they can be formed by simply forging them.

The most important value of this prison is not the amount of iron produced, but the type of product. Mainly steel, the value is not at all comparable to other iron supervisors. In this era, iron is smelted into steel, not to mention how much labor is used, the loss is very amazing, and three catties of pig iron produce one catty of wrought iron. If the steel is made by forging or filling steel, it will be damaged by more than half. Really good steel, ten catties of pig iron out of one pound is good.

At this time, the price of pig iron in the north was roughly 20 wen per catty, and the steel varied from 50 wen to 500 wen depending on the quality. Like the steel bars produced by the Iron Supervisor, if it is at market price, it is at least 200 wen per catty. However, the output is too amazing, and the price will inevitably fall, but how can it not be lower than Baiwen. According to this price, 10 million catties of steel bars can be returned to the inner library of 500,000 yuan.

According to Du Zhongxiao's original idea, the output of the iron supervisor should be more than 50 million catties a year, and the income of selling iron alone would exceed 2 million guan a year. The figure of two million guan may not be staggering, but the salt tax and tea tax are much more than that. What really makes sense is not the numbers, but the low cost of the money, and most importantly, the absence of harassment and oppression of the people.

The higher the output of the iron supervisor, the more money it makes, and the more benefits the people in the vicinity get. This is very different from the tea tax and salt tax, both of which are accompanied by the oppression of producers and the plundering of social wealth.

With the production of a large amount of steel, the iron supervisor has cash flow and can invest and expand the chain of the industry. The next step is to build machines and farm 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 Gu Di and his party leave, Du Zhongxiao said to Su Song beside him: "After being busy these days, today is a big deal. Let's go back to the yamen to drink a few glasses of wine and relax. These days, I'm really tired. ”

Su Song said with a smile: "There are dozens of iron prisons in the world, and we are the only ones who can produce this kind of steel bar." This time the delivery to Beijing, the minister of the DPRK and the central government saw it, and there was no more rumors like before. An iron supervisor was set up, but there was no iron class, and many officials in the DPRK and China gossiped. ”

Du Zhongxiao said: "The court is sympathetic, our iron supervisor does not have an iron class this year. This time, I am afraid that the steel will be indispensable next year. I don't know how much work is saved by using this kind of steel bar to make weapons. ”

Liu Juan on the side said: "I'm afraid that the court will think it's easy to use, and there will be too many iron classes next year, and it will be difficult for us to do it." ”

Du Zhongxiao shook his head: "How many can there be?" The world's iron class is only 70 million catties, that is, the three lions opened their mouths, and it was a great deal to spread 10 million catties to us. If we want 10 million catties of steel, we can supply it, but I'm afraid that the third division doesn't have the courage to ask for it. ”

How many catties of steel are produced in the whole world? No matter how imaginative the officials of the Third Division were, they did not dare to imagine that a newly opened small iron prison would have such production capacity. If they dare to ask for 10 million catties, they must have extraordinary courage and surprising insight.

As an iron supervisor, the imperial court did not collect money from here, but collected iron, that is, iron class. Generally, private smelting furnaces are charged at one-fifth as a tax. Because this is a government camp, it cannot be counted in this way, but there is a quota. If the quota is exceeded, it will be the income of the iron supervisor himself. Of course, this money cannot be divided among officials, but is counted as local finance, and the transfer department has the power to call it.

How much quota will the imperial court give to this iron superintendent? 10 million catties? 20 million catties? Du Zhongxiao estimated that this delivery to Beijing, it is likely that the imperial court will require the iron supervisor to produce steel bars, and five million catties a year is the upper limit. No matter how much, the imperial court can't use it, how can there be so many weapons to build.

Five million catties, with the expansion of the iron prison, it is really not a large number. Two or three thousand tons only, for later generations of steel mills, this output can only be regarded as a family workshop. The rest is the capital of the Iron Supervisor to expand production.

If you have that money, you can build a factory, and the new slender man will no longer be overstretched, which can be regarded as opening up the situation.

At this time, it was the time for the iron-making workers to change shifts, and they gathered in groups to eat in the canteen near the yamen. Everything went well, the meals in the cafeteria remained at a high level, but there was japonica rice, as well as white flour steamed buns and noodles. The dish is simpler, generally pickles and broth. If you add money, you can also eat large pieces of meat and fried fish. This kind of food is something that ordinary people outside dare not imagine at all.

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

These technicians have their own small canteen, and the food is better than the outside, and there are meat and vegetarian dishes. This is according to the profession in which the work is done, not according to the official position. At the scene, manual labor was the mainstay, and petty officials and officials also ate in the big canteen and could not come here. As long as you do technical research work, even if you don't have an official position, you can eat and drink better than those petty officials.

Du Zhongxiao and Su Tian looked at the food inside, did not stop, and went to the pavilion next to it. With their identity, it is not too much to eat a small stove. The huge iron prison, which is not a big fish and meat every day, is already sharing weal and woe with the workers.

A few people sat down, and the person on duty came over to salute, asked about the dishes to be eaten today, and went to prepare them.

There was not much population around here, and suddenly so many people poured in, and there was no food supply at all. Grain and rice can be purchased and transported from other places, and chicken, duck and fish have no choice. In the outside market, the price of meat has risen several times, not to mention ordinary workers, even Liu Zhuo can't eat meat every day. Working in the Iron Prison, there is a monthly subsidy, but the price of meat can't stand up to rise faster, and it's still the same as before.

The supply can't go up, and no matter how much money the people in the iron prison make, they can't buy anything. In the past, petty officials and officials occasionally ate meat, and their families could not afford to eat it once they had a large population, but it is still the same. As for the ordinary workers, they can only rely on the broth in the canteen to satisfy their hunger.

After a while, 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 was a lot of game nearby, such as pheasants, ducks, roe deer and rabbits, which were extremely cheap. It's only been a few days, and the price has gone up. Not to mention mutton and pork, the price is now much higher than that in Kaifeng City. It's not a way to go on like this, and if the iron prison comes again, he really can't afford to eat meat. ”

Liu Liang said: "There are only a few thousand households in Ye County, and there are only so many pigs and sheep produced, what can be done?" ”

Du Zhongxiao said: "We will figure it out ourselves." Now there is no big deal, we must find a way to open vegetable fields, raise pigs and sheep, and we can't be disadvantaged when we eat. There is a lot of idle land south of the Li River, but it is just a hill, and the iron supervisor can carve out the land and raise some cattle and sheep. The place near the Li River is turned into a vegetable field and recruited people to cultivate. It's all about buying from outside, but I'm afraid it won't work. It's autumn now, and it's the farming season, so these things are starting to get started. ”