Li Zhi vigorously recalled the materials of the earth-based crucible steelmaking that he had seen before the crossing, and thought of another method: after burning the wrought iron into molten iron, it was poured into a crucible covered with a layer of iron ore powder, which could promote the formation of slag. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

Using this method, the steel produced is really better...

In short, Li Zhi did it himself, repeatedly experimenting with the various methods he saw in his papers, "local methods". Some of these soil methods are useful and some are not. But even if you count the time spent on useless methods, it's far better than having no clue to figure it out on your own. In the test again and again, the quality of the crucible steel continues to improve.

By the end of October, Li Zhi had finally produced crucible steel of significantly better quality than that of Sugang. The spring of the rifle was made from this crucible steel, and the firing rate of the rifle reached 9 out of 2. Although it only increases the hit rate by half percent, this half of the shot rate may be able to increase the hit rate and kill a few more enemies on the battlefield of 10,000 people.

Li Zhi asked Cai Huaishui to buy more graphite crucibles on a regular basis and start mass production of this crucible steel.

Li Zhi built a large crucible furnace in the south of the city, ten crucibles can be placed in the furnace, each crucible is filled with fifteen catties of molten iron, and each crucible position can be burned five times a day, this crucible furnace can produce 750 catties of crucible steel every day, and can produce more than 20,000 catties of crucible steel a month. Although this output cannot be compared with the steelmaking furnaces of later generations, it was already considerable in the Ming Dynasty.

After all, the result is one of the highest quality steels.

Li Zhi divided the production of crucible steel into 12 processes and hired 30 workers to operate each of these processes. These workers only know the steps they are operating, and they do not know what materials are used in other people's processes. None of the workers knew the entire production process, so that Li Zhi's crucible steelmaking technology would not leak out.

Counting the cost of labor, materials, fuel and crucibles, the cost of Li Zhi's crucible steel is five cents a pound of silver. This level of cost makes this excellent steel very versatile, which can be used to make bayonets, tool steel, and even helmets and armor.

The crucible steel produced by Li Zhi surprised Li Zhi's blacksmiths. For the first time, they knew that the steel that came out of the furnace could be so good. The steel made from this crucible steel makes forgings, and the hardness and toughness are more than those of the sugang steel. The blacksmiths remade the boring bars of the boring machine from crucible steel, which made the rifled barrel much faster. Nowadays, a blacksmith operates a boring machine and can bore out a barrel in half a day.

The general is so godly that he comes up with something new every few months. The craftsmen threw themselves to the ground and had nothing to say about the five bodies admired by the general.

Li Zhi finally decided to sell this crucible steel to the outside world.

Although the crucible steel is of good quality, it is about the same quality compared with the 100 steels obtained by thousands of tempers in this era, and it is better than the low cost and high output. There is no need to hide such a product

After making up his mind, Li Zhi put the crucible steel in a shop selling soap and sold it for one or two or five yuan a catty.

The Ming Dynasty did not prohibit the smelting and sale of steel by the people, for example, there were many private iron smelting factories in Chaozhou and Huizhou in Guangdong, and the amount of steel produced in a year was staggering. But dealing in steel requires some background, and the people who do this business are all officials and businessmen. If ordinary people run this and compete with the officials and businessmen, they will be troubled by the government and go bankrupt.

Li Zhigui is a general of the Tianjin West Road, and he can be regarded as an official and businessman, even the Son of Heaven knows that Li Zhi can fight well, and the Tianjin Qing Military Department does not dare to make things difficult for Li Zhi now.

Li Zhifang sent a family to send half a catty of small steel ingots to various states and counties in Gyeonggi to the blacksmiths, so that the blacksmiths could understand the properties of this crucible steel. Li Zhi asked the family to tell the blacksmiths that the crucible steel was sold in the Li family's shop in the east of Tianjin, and sat at home and waited for the business to come to the door. If he can sell 10,000 catties of crucible steel a month, Li Zhi will have a profit of 10,000 taels and thousands of taels.

Li Zhi was busy with the marketing arrangement of crucible steel, and found that the farmers were in full swing and began to pay land rent in Fanjiazhuang.

At this time, it is late October, which is the deadline for rent payment. The peasants had a good harvest of spring wheat in the first year, and they happily carried grain to the city to pay rent, and Zheng Hui was busy at the door of the granary in the south of the city.

Li Zhi asked Zheng Hui and learned that ninety percent of the peasants had already paid their land rent, and had received a total of 10,300 stone of wheat, and it was estimated that they would receive more than 11,000 stone of wheat this year. In those years, the price of grain was high, and 11,000 stone of wheat was worth 25,000 taels of silver, which allowed Li Zhi to recover the cost of cultivating new fields at one time, and there was a large surplus.

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Ni Laoda's family is a farmer in Deyuan New Village.

He was taken captive to Fanjiazhuang by the Tatars in August last year, and was about to be driven to Liaodong to do a lifetime of hard labor, but was rescued by Fanjiazhuang's generals. The general was benevolent and began to give him a family porridge to eat. Later, the general also fed the pipe, organized everyone to reclaim wasteland, and built irrigation canals.

Ni Laoda's family of four, in addition to his daughter-in-law, a 50-year-old father and a 10-year-old son, were assigned to the newly built Deyuan New Village last year, with two brick houses, and 40 acres of dry land from the general. These dry fields are all good fields with irrigation canals, and the general also issued farm tools and ploughing cattle, so that Boss Ni has a full set of tools to plant good fields.

Boss Ni is a good farmer, with ploughing cattle and irrigation water, he and his daughter-in-law showed their skills on 40 acres of dry land, and planted a good season of wheat. Although spring wheat was planted, Ni Laoda worked hard with fine compost and harvested eight buckets and five liters of wheat per mu. Forty acres of dry land, Ni Boss harvested thirty-three stones and five buckets of wheat.

Gouge away the land rent to the general for five stone of grain, gouge off one stone and two buckets of farming cattle silver, and then gouge out the money for one stone house returned to the general, two stone of asbestos jacket quilt money, five buckets of farm tool money, two stone seed money, and Ni Boss can leave twenty-two stones of grain. The four of them eat with an open stomach, eat eleven stones of wheat a year, and Boss Ni can still have eleven stones of grain leftover. Leaving Ershi grain as the seeds of this year's winter wheat, Boss Ni still has a surplus of nine stone grain.

With these nine stone grains, Boss Ni exchanged twenty taels of silver in the general's cheap grain store.

What kind of good life is a peasant who can have 20 taels of silver a year in addition to food? With the money, Boss Ni bought all kinds of daily necessities needed at home, and felt that he was suddenly rich.

On this day, Mr. Ni's family welcomed a relative, who was Mr. Ni's cousin Meng Yousan.

Boss Ni went back to Baodi County during the slack at the beginning of the year, and his relatives all knew that Boss Ni was now living in Deyuan New Village, Fanjiazhuang. Baodi County was plundered by the Tartars, and there were ruins everywhere, and the people who were not plundered by the Tartars were also struggling to make a living, and there were not a few people who died of hunger. Boss Ni went back to Baodi for a walk, and felt that it was not easy to live in Fanjiazhuang.

Meng Yousan asked for directions and found Boss Ni's house. As soon as he walked to the door of Boss Ni's house, he said loudly: "Ni nerd, Ni nerd!" Come out! You're living so well now! This is a weatherproof brick house! I've never lived in such a nice house! ”

Boss Ni heard someone shouting at the door and walked out, only then did he see his cousin Meng Yousan, and said with a smile: "My cousin is here!" Pillar, come out and call Uncle Cousin! ”

Seeing Boss Ni, Meng Yousan's eyes lit up even more, and he said, "Ni nerd, where did you get this new dress?" Looking at the autumn coat full of patches on his body, and then looking at the ninety percent new round-necked robe on Boss Ni's body, Meng Yousan felt like a beggar, and suddenly the sour words came up: "Ni nerd, you are rich now!" ”

When he saw Boss Ni's son Zhuzi biting a piece of candy and coming out, Meng Yousan was even more envious, and said loudly: "Zhuzi, what kind of candy did you eat?" (To be continued.) )