The sky was overcast, and the cold wind swept through the treetops, making a screeching sound. I don't know when, snowflakes fell all over the sky, and they were all over the place.

Du Zhongxiao lived in the iron prison, and there was a small pond in the courtyard, and a small pavilion was built next to it. Seeing the snow, he ordered someone to call Su Song and Liu Lan to drink and enjoy the snow together. The two entered Du Zhongxiao's courtyard, and saw that the wine and food had been placed in the pavilion, so they hurried over.

Entering the pavilion, Su Song stomped his feet and said, "How can you drink outside in such a cold weather?" ”

Du Zhongxiao said with a smile: "It's only interesting to drink outside on a cold day, otherwise what's the use of the stove?" ”

As he spoke, he sat the two of them down. A coal stove under the stone table was burning brightly, and it was warm, and after sitting for a while, it would not feel cold.

Coal is actually inconvenient to burn, especially when used at home, the small stove is inconvenient to control the heat, and it is also troublesome to add coal and dig out slag. A few days ago, when he saw that Shisanlang was smoked by a coal stove and his eyes were red, Du Zhongxiao suddenly remembered that he could make a briquette stove.

Briquettes are very simple, make a mold, press the pulverized coal into shape, and the real technical content is the furnace. The furnace should be easy to burn, easy to ignite and save fuel, and most importantly, the damper should be easy to control the fire. Fortunately, there were many people in the iron prison, so Du Zhongxiao said his idea and quickly made the stove. In a few days, the briquette stove in Tiejian has become popular and began to be sold on the market.

Briquettes do not need to use good coal, especially the powdered coal that is regarded as useless in the coal mine, and it is best to use it. It's just that at this time, the price of coal is very low, and the selling price is mainly freight, which is not attractive. The iron prison is less than 100 miles away from the coal mine, not far away, but the freight is not low at all. Without water transportation, it is impossible to reduce freight costs, and a hundred miles is not much cheaper than a thousand miles of water transportation. The attraction of the briquette stove is its ease of controlling the fire, and the briquettes outside are not cheap.

Under the stone table is a large briquette stove, the fire is very strong, and the table is warm.

The two sat down, and Du Zhongxiao asked the soldier on one side to take two burdens and handed them to Su Song and Liu Zhuo. The two of them didn't know what was inside, so they were curious, and hurriedly opened it, but they saw that it was a brocade jacket.

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

Liu Zhuo hurriedly excused himself: "How dare the lower officials accept such a precious thing?" ”

Du Zhongxiao said: "What is precious when it is planted in the camp? After waiting for two years, this thing is planted all over Xiangdeng, and it will naturally become an ordinary thing. ”

At this time, cotton is scarce, expensive, and rare. Occasionally, the price of cloth made of cotton is higher than that of silk. As for making quilts out of cotton jackets, it's even more unthinkable. At this time, the common warm clothing was filled with silk cotton, a by-product of silk. Officials will issue a certain amount of silk cotton to keep out the cold every winter according to different grades.

Seriously speaking, the effect of silk cotton is much better than cotton, and the cost is much higher. After the popularization of cotton, the grade of silk quilts is not known to be higher than cotton quilts. It's just that because it's rare, Du Zhongxiao can still be used as a gift now.

The price of silk cotton is high, and it is impossible for everyone to afford it for the common people, and there are all kinds of things filled in the warm clothes of the common people. What kind of reeds, goose feathers, and even weeds are there. The most important thing for the popularization of cotton is to benefit the general public, but it is not important for the rich.

The two thanked them again, accepted the padded jacket given by Du Zhongxiao, and put it away seriously.

After three rounds of drinking, Du Zhongxiao said: "In the past few months, two more blast furnaces have been built in the iron prison, and both of them have successfully produced iron. With these stoves as the base, it is really easy to build a furnace now. Starting from this month, a large number of people will come to the Fiber Stretch Army. According to the plan, there will eventually be about 20,000 people and dozens of blast furnaces here. We originally estimated that the iron supervisor would produce 60 or 70 million catties of iron a year, which was a great thing. Now it seems that this number will be multiplied several times. All of a sudden, there is so much more iron in the world, and how to traffic it is a big deal. Along the three sides of the road, we have always used the iron of Hedong Road, and our iron is not easy to sell there for a short time. It is nothing more than the imperial court making weapons, replacing the iron of Xiangzhou with our iron, which is nothing more than a few million catties. ”

Su Song said: "This is indeed a big deal. Not to mention selling it there, even if there are people buying it everywhere, we can't ship it. ”

Du Zhongxiao nodded: "That's true." This place in Yexian County, although it is located on the north-south artery, has no water transportation. During the time of Taizong, he once dug a canal here, and spent countless manpower and material resources, but finally could not do it. Without water transport, we have to find another way. ”

Liu Juan: "Is there any way to think of it?" If you just use a big cart, even if it is only transported to Tangzhou in the south and Xuzhou in the north, the need for trucks, horses, grain and grass is amazing. No matter how good our iron is, the price is cheap, and if we add this freight, the price will go up. ”

"Yes, it won't work with a big car alone. Between the iron mine and the iron prison, a section of railroad track was laid a few days ago, which is much more convenient, have you seen it? The iron ore is on the mountain, and after loading the ore, it is downhill, and it does not take much effort to get to the iron prison. Back uphill, again empty. ”

After listening to Du Zhongxiao's words, Liu Zhuo frowned and said, "The meaning of the judgment is to lay the rails?" It is good to say that the distance between the iron mine and the iron prison is not far, and it is specially designed for transporting ore. There is not much iron used, and the ore transported can meet the needs of the iron supervisor. If it is laid in a local area, the amount of iron used is amazing, and the price is too high. We use iron like this, how can the court explain it? ”

Du Zhongxiao said: "Try it first, there is always a way." There is so much iron that cannot be sold or shipped out, and it is not always a way. It can't be trafficked to the world, the iron prison stores iron every year, and the furnace will eventually be abandoned, and the iron prison will not be much interesting. In addition to iron ore, the largest volume of iron supervisors is now coal. According to my opinion, after the people came, the iron produced could not be sold anyway, so the section of the road to the coal mine was paved with railroad tracks. ”

Rail transportation is not unusual, in history, it was not because of the steam engine that made the train that there were rails, but because there were rails before the train was built. The first emperor of the Qin Dynasty mixed one Yu, with the same book and the same track, laying the foundation for China's unification. The reason why the car has to be on the same track is because of the important road, because of the age, the rut is very deep, like a track, and the wheels are just stuck in it.

The production of the iron supervisor has climbed too fast, and there are too few iron dealers here, and a large amount of steel has been backlogged. Du Zhongxiao suggested that railroad tracks should be built between the iron mine and the iron prison to facilitate the transportation of ore. The advantage of this is obvious, the ore is downhill when it comes, and the uphill back is empty, it does not require special power, and it is also very convenient to use people to transport. The iron supervisor produced a number of transport vehicles, which replaced the shoulders of people and greatly saved manpower. Because the reason is simple and the benefits are obvious, Su Song and Liu Zhuo both support it, and the matter is very smooth.

While developing the steam engine and laying the railroad tracks, Du Zhongxiao must make up his mind on the train.

The two keys to railway transportation are the steam engine. The usefulness of this machine is varied, the benefits can be seen and felt, and no one objects to spending money on it. And according to the progress of the group of people who studied the steam engine, in two or three months, the new machine should come out. The other is that a lot of iron is needed to lay railways. And here in the Iron Supervisor, with the sharp increase in production, a large amount of steel backlog, but not a problem.

All the conditions are met, and Du Zhongxiao is going to build the first test line train.

Su Song's involvement in the development of the steam engine was not surprising. The weight of the machine is too large, and the road requirements for making ordinary vehicles are too high, and the practicality is not great. But if you run on a paved track, you can play to its strengths and avoid its shortcomings.

Liu Zhuo didn't participate in this, thinking that with a lot of steel to lay tracks, the mine is fine, how can ordinary roads be?

Seeing Liu Zhuo's face full of doubts, Du Zhongxiao said: "There is no way, we have too much iron here, and we must find a way to sell it." When the output comes, it can't be sold, how is it different from the soil? Without the money from selling iron, what do so many people in the iron prison do for a living? When new people come and build blast furnaces, there will inevitably be a huge backlog of steel. Iron is produced continuously, and the furnace cannot be stopped for a moment, and it is meaningless for the iron supervisor to store iron. It should be sold as much iron as it produces, or it will be used. Now the merchants don't understand, and there is no way to use steel as clay. ”

Seeing that Liu Zhuo still didn't understand, Su Song said: "The iron supervisor is an iron producer, and the ore is transported here, and it will soon turn into iron. The iron cannot be sold, and it is of no use to put it in the iron prison to occupy more space. It's not like other places, the iron can be sold for money after it is stored, but the iron prison can't. Because new iron is constantly being produced, none of the iron stored is good, and it will never be useful. This is what the judgment means, iron can be stored in other places, but iron prison cannot. ”

Du Zhongxiao said: "There is too much iron, and it is not interesting to produce new iron in the eyes of the imperial court, so maybe it will lay off people and close the stove." It was not easy to build such a place, but it was not allowed to slowly decline because of the lack of sales. As long as it is convenient for the products of the iron supervisor to be sold, various items can be made of steel produced later. For example, there are many places in the world where iron is not used. Shovels, sickles, hoes, ploughs, and the like were easy to make in the iron prison. If it can be transported to the four directions, selling these iron tools will make more money than selling them for money. ”

Although iron farming tools have been around for more than a thousand years, they are far from widespread. Even in the territory of the Great Song Dynasty, there were still a large number of peasants who could not use iron farm tools. This market is far bigger than you think. Not to mention that according to Du Zhongxiao's concept, relying on the advantages of resources, the iron supervisor will develop into a machine manufacturing center in the future. However, all of this is now facing transportation bottlenecks.

The railway to be built by the railway supervisor does not need to be very long, and it can be connected to the canal system as far north as Xuzhou. To the south to Xiangzhou, you can enter the Han River to connect to the Yangtze River system. Hundreds of miles away, connecting the north-south water system, it will become the second north-south traffic artery after the Bianhe River.