Temporarily bidding farewell to the people who gave Su Dongpo a funeral, Wu Haogu took He Tianran and Guo Xiaoxiao, and under the protection of a team of guards led by Wu Chengjiu, he pulled Ji Yi again, left the Pengcheng Pavilion in Xuzhou, where he was resting, and went north along Surabaya to Li Guojian.

The so-called "superintendent" is actually an administrative unit that has jurisdiction over the industrial and mining areas. Industrial zones including iron smelting, boiling salt, and brewing will be supervised and managed, and sometimes there will be affairs or departments below the supervision. The predecessor of the Li Guojian was the Diqiu Iron Smelting Office, which was promoted to the Li Guojian in the fourth year of the Taiping Xingguo. The jurisdiction is about the northeast of Pengcheng, Xuzhou, and there is an iron mountain called Panma Mountain in the territory, which is the largest iron mountain in the Song Dynasty at present.

Moreover, this iron mountain was not developed from the Song Dynasty, as early as the Han Dynasty, it was an important iron smelting town. However, after more than 1,000 years of iron smelting, it seems that there is not much progress in technology. Moreover, due to the depletion of forest resources near Xuzhou and the abundance of coal in Xuzhou, it embarked on the evil road of coal ironmaking, which made the iron-smelting technology of the Song Dynasty regress significantly.

However, Xuzhou is still very good here, there are coal, iron and canals, and there is a large port in the north nearby, Haizhou, surrounded by a large plain, and there is enough food supply to support the population gathering! This site is simply custom-made to allow China to enter the era of the Industrial Revolution. And the legendary germ of capitalism, large-scale wage labor, has long been produced near Xuzhou!

Thirty-six smelting pits, more than 5,000 workers, reported to the government with an annual iron output of more than 1.5 million catties, in fact more than 3 million catties (the government draws iron according to the output, of course, it has to conceal it), a proper early stage of capitalism.

Moreover, there is more than one Liguojian near Xuzhou, there are many carboniferous mines here, and there are a large number of porcelain kilns. A small half of the porcelain exported from Haizhou was produced near Xuzhou. The fuel used in these kilns and smelting pits is produced by the carboniferous minerals in Xuzhou. At the same time, Xuzhou's coal is not digested locally, and it has to be sold elsewhere through canals and seaports. Therefore, Xuzhou's porcelain kilns and coal industry, like the iron smelting industry, employ a large number of laborers, and have also stood on the starting line of the budding capitalism.

Iron smelting, porcelain and charcoal are only the leading industries in Xuzhou, and there are many peripheral industries driven by them, which are basically privately operated and hired labor. It can be said that everything needed for the evil capitalism is already available in Xuzhou.

That's right, it's all the conditions!

In Wu Haogu's view, the main reason why the Northern Song Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty in history were stuck on the threshold of capitalism until they died was not that China's wealthy people liked to buy land and collect rent—the return on buying land and collecting rent was not high, and the reason why the capital of the Song Dynasty would do this was not because they liked it, but because there was no better place to invest.

In fact, the high housing prices in Kaifeng Mansion, the sky-high prices of calligraphy, painting and literary play, and the reason why there are many copper coins in the cellar among the rich are that there is no place to invest in money, so it can only be used for collection and speculation.

The reason why there is no place to invest money is because of the stagnation of science and technology, and science and technology are the primary productive forces! The stagnation of science and technology naturally caused the industry and commerce of the Song Dynasty to be unable to carry out industrial upgrading. Low-level production also does not require a large amount of capital to be invested, so it makes capital appear relatively excessive.

So the merchant buys the land not as a cause, but as a result.

The reason for tracing back to the root cause is that traditional Chinese philosophy lacks the theoretical tools to support scientific research and cannot carry out systematic research, so that technology stays at the level of craftsmanship for a long time, and cannot evolve into science and technology.

Now, that bottleneck doesn't exist anymore.

Therefore, the evil capitalist Wu Haogu and Ji Yi, who didn't know that he was a capitalist, could finally happily discuss the issue of losing money on the way to Li Guojian.

Because scientific research is to lose money, only when you lose enough, can you make a lot of money. But if there are no research methods and tools, then you don't know where to lose money if you have money.

"Brother Chongdao, how much are we going to pay for iron smelting?"

How much are you prepared to lose?

As soon as Ji Yi's question came out, a group of attachés behind Wu Haogu and Ji Yi, including Guo Xiaoxiao, were a little stupid, how could anyone who didn't want to make money and just wanted to lose money in business?

"There is no limit to this, you can pay as much as you need."

Wu Haogu's answer made everyone's jaws drop. There is no limit to how much money you can lose...... How much money do you have? Open to pay?

"How much can you lose?" Ji Yi asked with a smile.

How could Ji Yi not understand the principle of losing first and then earning? The more you lose now, the more you earn in the future!

If there is no limit to the loss, wouldn't it be an unlimited profit?

"Yes!" Wuhao Ancient Road, "The way of metallurgy is a money pit, material selection, smelting, refining, forging, casting, as well as gold, silver, copper, iron, tin and other hardware...... Remember, think about it, how much money you have to throw into it! What do you think? Are you distressed? ”

Ji Yi laughed, the fat on his face trembled, "Isn't it money!" Not to mention, I can afford to lose hundreds of thousands or millions! ”

Wu Haogu nodded, "Millions shouldn't be needed in the short term, hundreds of thousands are indispensable......"

"Can you really lose that much?" Ji Yi asked with interest, "Where to pay?" ”

"Material selection and smelting and refining!" Wu Hao Ancient Road, "The process of a furnace of iron and refining into steel costs at least hundreds of yuan, and there is no shortcut, it must be the same, a furnace test." ”

"Positivism!" Ji Yi interjected, "I know, you call this trial and error method!" ”

"Yes!" Wu Haogu nodded, "Try a few hundred furnaces to lose tens of thousands...... Coupled with the money for hiring all materials, master craftsmen, professors, and small workers, as well as the money for the construction college, and the bonuses for the successful, hundreds of thousands of yuan will soon be gone. ”

Wu Haogu did not study metallurgy in his previous life, although he had seen on the Internet what damage caused by coal ironmaking to iron-smelting in the Song Dynasty, and he also knew a little about the crucible steel-making method, but he was basically a layman. Therefore, you can't open a golden finger, you can only use stupid methods, that is, rational inference, practical trial and error. Collect all the raw materials that can be collected in this era and may be used to make iron, plan various combinations, and then refine them furnace by furnace to find the best formula.

At the same time, the blast furnace needs to be continuously improved and designed – which of course requires trial and error! That is, blast furnaces were constantly built for experimentation, and the method of crucible steelmaking was also tested.

And these experiments will definitely burn money, and the professors and craftsmen who are responsible for conducting the experiments have to be hired with high salaries, so hundreds of thousands of dollars can really be burned quickly.

This is also the reason why Wu Haogu did not choose the metallurgical industry to make a breakthrough at the beginning - this industry does not have millions of investment, and it is impossible to make breakthroughs.

And money alone is not enough, there must also be a certain number of technicians, and craftsmen who don't know a few big characters are not enough. Because every trial must be accurately and detailedly documented and able to be summarized after the fact. This, in turn, requires some knowledge of mathematics, chemistry, physics and engineering.

You have to let Confucian students who have no basic knowledge of mathematics, chemistry, physics, and engineering to conduct experiments, and you will end up burning money for nothing.

And if Wu Haogu left the other things at hand and devoted himself to the ironmaking business, it would not work. How many trials can he conduct alone? How much time does it take to conduct a trial? I'm afraid that it will not take a lifetime to solve many metallurgical problems.

And Wu Haogu can't live forever, sooner or later, he will kick his feet the same as Su Dongpo. If he does not cultivate the source of China's scientific research progress in his lifetime, even if he builds an empire, it will not be able to maintain its upward vitality for a long time, and most of them will still enter the cycle of rise and fall.

Therefore, Wu Haogu is ready to make the research on metallurgy into a large-scale demonstration scientific research project. The so-called metallurgical institute is actually a research institute of metallurgical technology, or it can also be regarded as the ambitious technology giant in later generations who want to change the world.

In other words, not only do you have to lose money, but you also have to lose money scientifically, quickly and in large quantities! Only in this way can we pay for some advanced technology that is enough to change the world, oh, it should be enough to conquer the world!

"How long will it take to pay hundreds of thousands?" Ji Yi asked.

"A few years are always required." Wu Hao Gu said, "Maybe when Brother Yi returns from the Great Food Country, the Metallurgical Institute will definitely be able to achieve something." ”

"Can you start making money then?" Ji Yi still couldn't help but ask about making money.

"Can't!" Wu Haogu's answer was very simple, "Brother Don't hide it, I don't know when the money invested in the Metallurgical Institute will be profitable." ”

It's true! The goal of the Institute of Metallurgy is to develop technologies that can conquer the world...... Making money or something is just incidental.

"Oh." Ji Yi nodded, thinking: I don't believe it! Are you a traitor really going to lose all the time? And even if I have to keep losing, I'm determined, isn't it money.

Ji Yi has been imitating Wu Haogu in the past few years, it doesn't matter if he makes money or not, as long as Wu Haogu invests, he will definitely follow.

"Are you still with me?" Wu Haogu asked.

Ji Yi smiled and nodded, "Follow!" Hehe, isn't it just losing money! Brother Chongdao votes as much as he wants, and a certain family will follow! ”

"Good!" Wu Haogu nodded. "Then let's go back and let He Tianran draw up a contract, and half of our family will invest in the Metallurgical Institute...... What I funded here is the Yuntai Academy. ”

"My side is funded by Gezhi Academy," Ji Yi said, "but the Metallurgical Institute has to open a branch in Haizhou." ”

"Okay!" Wu Haogu said with a smile, "This can't be done by one family, at least two academies have to wrestle." ”

That is to say, it is not enough to lose one money, you must lose two shares, so that you can lose the competition and lose the efficiency.