Since the opening of the iron and steel plant in Yuanqi, a research institute has been set up, and a large number of manpower, material and financial resources have been organized to carry out research in all aspects, and steelmaking technology -- breaking through the existing bottleneck and achieving a substantial increase in steel output has always been the most important topic. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

Looking at the joy from the bottom of everyone's faces, Yi Zhishu was also excited, excited, for him, for Yuanqi, for Daqing, the breakthrough in converter steelmaking technology is really too timely!

"The big shopkeeper." Wu Wensheng, the director of the research institute, made a gesture to take a step to speak, and the two of them left the laboratory, and then he continued: "It is indeed steel that is smelted by this method, but it is too brittle, it should be because of the high sulfur and phosphorus content, this problem is not very related, and you can get qualified steel by choosing iron ore with low sulfur and phosphorus content, such as iron ore from Annan." However, there is another problem, the steel made by this method has many pores, and the practicability is not very ....... ”

Lots of stomata? Not very practical? Yi Zhizhi is a little blind, is the co-author empty joy? He turned and glanced at the people in the lab who were still in a state of excitement and excitement, and for a moment he didn't know how to speak.

Wu Wensheng hesitated for a moment before he said: "This is made with a crucible, maybe it will be improved by refining it with a blast furnace." ”

"Switch to blast furnace refining immediately!" It's as if a drowning person has grasped a life-saving straw.

Wusong Iron and Steel Plant is large-scale, there are more than 10 large and small blast furnaces, a group of researchers are in high spirits, and immediately chose a smallest blast furnace for testing.

Yi Zhishu personally sat in charge, and the efficiency of Wusong Iron and Steel Plant was naturally unprecedented, but because it was the first time, all kinds of preparations were insufficient, and it took two hours to wait for the results to come out.

Looking at the few but not a lot of pores on the ingots, the pores of different sizes are easy to be content and speechless to the extreme, and many pores also means that the organization is loose, and such steel cannot be used to cast mortar barrels at all, let alone cannons, it is not good to make barrels, and it is easy to explode.

Li Yunzhi's face was very ugly, he finally understood why the guy who was the owner of the iron factory would sell him this technology, there was no practicality at all, but he had no place to spread the gas, the steelmaking technology sold by others was indeed steel that could be smelted, and it could greatly increase the output of steel, but this was scrap steel! It's worse than iron!

The steel ingot has pores like a basin of cold water, and everyone present is poured a cold heart, this method does open a door for them, but it has insurmountable defects!

Back at the research institute, Yi Zhizu summoned a group of researchers into the conference room, and everyone saw that there was no smile on their faces, and the atmosphere was relatively dull, he took out his jade pipe and lit a cigarette, slowly glanced at everyone, and said, "Why are you not happy?" Although it has not been able to smelt qualified steel, but the converter steelmaking technology has taken a big step, and it is a key big step, at least enough to prove that this method can greatly increase the output of steelmaking, at present, only the problem of pores needs to be solved. ”

As soon as the words fell, a researcher spoke: "The formation of the stomata is due to the blowing of wind into the molten iron, which is a dead knot!" ”

Knot? That's impossible! Yi Zhifen knows very well that the direction of converter steelmaking will definitely not be wrong! After a slight groan, he said:

"Don't rush to conclusions, many things often need to break the routine, the more impossible you feel, the more possible!"

As soon as the words fell, Wu Wensheng continued: "There are many pores, and it is not impossible to find that there are many pores when making iron, and the method ......of forging is often used to eliminate the pores. ”

Forged? Yi Zhishu didn't think about it to rule out this stupid method, and took the method of forging to eliminate pores, not to mention whether it can be eliminated thoroughly, first of all, there is no guarantee in quality, and forging is not only too laborious, it is impossible to greatly improve the output of steel, this is the way back!

After a slight mutter, he continued to inspire: "You might as well think about it, molten iron, it should be said that the temperature of molten steel is so high, why does it still produce pores......? ”

A Citigroup chemical technician said: "Blast steelmaking, the reaction is violent, the temperature does not drop but rises, this is actually a chemical reaction, what is the most important component in the air?" Nitrogen and oxygen, which can promote combustion, are only oxygen, and the formation of stomata ........ ”

Hearing this, Yi Zhishu suddenly popped up a word in his mind - deoxidizer, manganese ferroalloy, one of his classmates has a manganese ferroalloy factory in Hunan, which is mainly used to supply steel mills for deoxygenation.

Thinking about it, he was also happy in vain, where to find manganese ferroalloy these years? I don't know if Britain and the United States have it, anyway, the Qing Dynasty definitely doesn't have this thing, if you can think about it a few years earlier, it's easy to do, Hunan is rich in manganese ore, it's a big deal to go to explore mining and set up a factory, but now it's a little late.

“...... During the steelmaking process, stirring the molten steel well and allowing the oxygen to burn fully may minimize porosity. The chemical technician continued: "In addition, it is to control the air volume of the blower. ”

Yi Zhishu glanced at him and nodded approvingly, "Very good idea!" It's worth a try. After a pause, he then asked, "Is there a large-scale mining of manganese ore in European countries?" ”

Manganese ore? There was silence for a while, and then everyone spoke: "There seems to be a Whitford manganese mine in Tennessee, which has been mined for more than ten years, how big is the scale, I don't know ......, is it needed for steelmaking?" ”

Citigroup has already started mining manganese ore? Yi Zhi couldn't help but be overjoyed, but he was not sure, so he could only vaguely say, "It's the need to test alloys." ”

Just when Yi Zhizhi was busy breaking through the bottleneck of steelmaking, Russia, which was no longer able to fight, accepted Austria's ultimatum for armistice and peace talks, and the two belligerents of the Crimean War - England, France, Ottoman Turkey, the Kingdom of Sardinia, Russia, and Austria -- sent representatives to France to convene the Paris Peace Conference.

Russia had lost a lot on the battlefield, but at the negotiating table it had preserved the necessary decency, for the simple reason that Napoleon III of France did not want Russia to be weakened too much, because he feared that Britain would dominate the eastern Mediterranean coast.

In addition, Napoleon III had his own little calculations, Austria stabbed Austria in the back in the Crimean War, the holy alliance of Russia, Austria and Prussia had collapsed, and Russia must also have a grudge against Austria, and he hoped that in the future, France and Russia would be closer to each other to contend with Britain.

After fierce bargaining, the Treaty of Paris was signed on March 30, in which Britain, France, Russia, Sardinia, and Austria jointly guaranteed the "independence and integrity" of the Ottomans.

Russia recovered the occupied territories of the Crimean peninsula, ceded the mouth of the Danube and southern Bessarabia to Moldavia, returned Kars in the Caucasus to Turkey, and renounced the right to protect the Orthodox Church in Turkey.

The suzerainty of Serbia, Wallachia and Moldavia remained with Turkey and was jointly protected by the Great Powers.

The neutrality of the Black Sea prohibits the passage of warships through the straits and prohibits Russia from establishing or maintaining arsenals along the Black Sea coast.

Freedom of navigation on the Danube.

As for ordering Russia to cede the Kamchatka Peninsula to the Qing Dynasty, Britain did not even mention it at the Paris Peace Conference.

On the day of the signing of the "Paris Peace Treaty", the news that the Qing State had sent troops from the two cities of Ili and Tarbagatai to expand to the northwest reached Paris, which not only shocked Russia, but also Britain and France, and no one thought that the Qing Dynasty would take the opportunity to declare war against Russia!

European countries are looking to the Far East!

Russia, St. Petersburg, Tsar Alexander II looked to the east with a depressed face, the two countries were still engaged in a large amount of arms and grain trade in Ili last year, and they were intimate, and in a blink of an eye, they turned against each other and took advantage of the fire to rob, this Qing country is really enough.

However, Russia suffered heavy losses in the Crimean War, not only suffered heavy casualties, but also spent as much as 800 million rubles on military spending, the whole country was already on the verge of bankruptcy, and the weapons accumulated over the years were almost exhausted.

Britain, London, Prime Minister Palmerston looked at the East with a pair of eyes as sharp as an eagle vulture, taking advantage of the opportunity that the British Empire was busy with the Crimean War and had no time to look eastward, the Qing State frequently attacked in Asia, which has seriously infringed on the interests of the British Empire in Asia, and now it is time to fight back, otherwise the interests of the British Empire in the Far East cannot be guaranteed at all.

However, today's Qing State is no longer the Qing State of more than ten years ago, Yuanqi already has more than 100,000 naval and army forces, and also has a certain industrial base, and must find allies.

Napoleon III, who had just pulled Russia at the Paris Peace Conference, looked to the East and frowned, France was unwilling to weaken Russia's strength in the Near East, but the Qing State was expanding into Central Asia at this juncture, how could his wishful thinking be fought? Let the Qing weaken Russia's power in the Near East? Or is it to support Russia in a war in Central Asia?

Soon, Putiyatin, who was participating in the peace talks in Paris, received a telegram from St. Petersburg that the empire could no longer afford to go to war with the Qing in Central Asia, and must vigorously lobby Britain and France to send troops to the Qing country, and only in this way could the crisis in Central Asia be alleviated.

Looking at the telegram in his hand, Putiyatin was speechless for a long time, let Britain and France send troops, how big is this? It was not Crimea, not only was it a long way off, but the Qing did not threaten the interests of Britain and France in Europe at all.

At the same time, the British Foreign Secretary also received a telegram from Prime Minister Palmerston that the interests of the empire in Asia were above all else, and that it was necessary to curb the expansion of the Qing state in the Far East, find allies, and contain the Qing state!

While the representatives of Britain, France, and Russia were discussing how to solve the problem of the Far East, the ambassadors of Spain and the Netherlands, who had seized Luzon and Java, also heard about it.

Shanghai, Zhenhai Mansion, Changle Book House.

Cao Gensheng walked into the room quickly, glanced at the few people present, and reported: "Big shopkeeper, Groba is calling." ”

"Read-."

"The Crimean War has ended, Britain, France, Turkey, Russia, Austria and other countries have held peace talks in Paris, France, and attached, the casualties of various countries in the Crimean War: 20,000 British troops, more than 90,000 French troops, more than 40,000 Turkish troops, more than 2,000 Sardinian troops, and about 300,000 Russian troops."

Wei Yuan smiled when he heard this, "The total strength of the Russian army has been reduced by nearly thirty percent, it should be all elite, and the northwest expansion should be without pressure." ”

"Wars are fought for money and food." Yi Zhizu said slowly: "What really hurts Russia is the economy, hundreds of thousands of troops have fought the Crimean War for three years, and the Russian imperial court has not collapsed, which is very remarkable." ”

Zhao Wenlie echoed: "It's still the big shopkeeper who has seen it thoroughly, the expedition of four or five hundred thousand troops, one dozen is three years, and even Yuan Qi can't support it." ”

"I really can't support it." Yi Zhishu nodded, "There is news that Russia's military expenditure on this war is as high as three or four hundred million taels of silver....... ”

How much? Wei Yuan and Zhao Wenlie were dumbfounded when they heard this, three or four hundred million taels of silver, this is simply an astronomical amount, not to mention Yuan Qi, even if Yuan Qi and the imperial court join forces, I am afraid it will be difficult to support! However, considering that Russia has such a huge army to expedition to the Crimea, and it is three years in a dozen years, I am afraid that this number is not much water!

Seeing the stunned appearance of the two people, Yi Zhizu waved his hand and asked Cao Gensheng to retreat, and then said: "The northwest problem is not big, Russia is impossible, and it is not capable of fighting with us in the northwest, of course, the premise is that we can't go too far, we can't cross Central Asia, otherwise, it will cause unease in European countries, then the gain outweighs the loss, the northwest expansion, we must see the good and take it!" ”

Hearing this, Zhao Wenlie said with some concern: "European countries should be very concerned about our expansion in the northwest, right?" ”

"It's just attention." Yi Zhizhi said disapprehantly: "As long as we don't go too far, no country is willing to spare no effort to support Russia to start a war with us in Central Asia, the cost is too great!" Moreover, the threat of Russia to Europe is so great that no one wants to take this risk! The only possibility is to encircle Wei and save Zhao! ”

Wai Wei to save Zhao? Wei Yuan smiled, "What does the lord mean, is it that Britain and France invaded from the southeast coast?" ”

Yi Zhizhi lit a cigarette and said: "Yuan Qi has moved too much in the past two years, not only to curb the British expansion momentum in Southeast Asia, but also to pose a threat to India, in the trade between the two countries, Britain is also at a disadvantage, even if there is no northwest matter, Britain will provoke a war."

In view of the current military strength of our Qing Dynasty, Britain does not dare to send troops alone, and will definitely invite France, Spain's domestic situation is unstable, it is difficult to estimate whether to send troops, the Netherlands and Britain are allies, and they are in the revival stage in recent years, and the Java Islands are also very important to the Netherlands, and the possibility of sending troops is not small. ”

Wei Yuan said: "What about Citigroup? ”

Yi Zhizhi said with a smile: "There is an envoy group to Citigroup, the possibility of sending troops is very small, and for Citigroup, it is more beneficial to remain neutral." ”