Chapter 88 Steel Smelting

The workers lined up to climb up to the feeding port, put the selected iron ore and charcoal into the steelmaking furnace, lit the furnace and started smelting iron.

The ironmaking in the Dawn Continent has developed a unique technology tree.

Alchemy includes steelmaking technology, and the refining of many special steels requires the help of magic.

Sophia had seen alchemical blowers and special catalytic reductions in the Kingdom of Markholm.

The alchemical blower can provide energy through magic crystals, and the ventilation effect is very good, which can be compared with large electric blowers.

However, the price of alchemical blowers is very high, and the Kingdom of Grant does not sell them.

If you want to buy this kind of large alchemical item, you can only order it from countries with developed magic such as Markholm.

It costs tens of thousands of gold coins to buy an alchemical blower from Markholm.

Without an alchemical blower, the vent can only be replaced by a large bellows.

The bellows manufacturing technology is very simple. Richard found two carpenters and described it briefly, and the carpenters made a qualified bellows.

The territory was not short of wood, and the large bellows were soon successfully manufactured.

Three people worked together to pull the large bellows, and a stream of air entered the steelmaking furnace.

The primitive smelting process, coupled with the insufficient temperature of charcoal burning, the quality of the smelted pig iron was average.

Not only was the texture loose, but there were also large and small holes on the surface.

However, the workers were very interested.

After all, without using magic alchemy technology, a furnace can produce several tons of pig iron, which is unprecedented in the Dawn Continent.

The pig iron smelted by ordinary iron smelting furnaces in the Dawn Continent is not only of average quality, but also very light. One furnace can only produce about dozens of kilograms of pig iron.

This kind of iron smelting furnace is the kind of clay furnace that is more than one meter high.

After smelting the pig iron, the iron smelting workers handed the pig iron to the blacksmith and entered the next round of processes.

After continuous hammering and forging, after thousands of hammers and tempering, it was put into the coolant for quenching and became qualified steel.

This kind of steel is very expensive. According to the normal price in peacetime, one kilogram is about twenty copper coins.

If the war is in progress, the price of iron may double.

Of course, the price of steel will fluctuate with quality. The better the quality, the higher the price of steel, and the lower the quality, the lower the price.

The worst quality pig iron just out of the furnace costs about six copper coins per kilogram.

Working part-time in the market, each person can earn about four copper coins a day.

One day's labor can only exchange for less than one kilogram of the lowest quality pig iron.

To buy a long sword weighing more than two kilograms, the price is more than three silver coins, which requires ordinary people to work for a month without eating or drinking.

In fact, ordinary people need to support their families, and it usually takes half a year to a year to save money to buy a sword.

A set of full-body armor weighs more than 20 kilograms, and the material cost is about two gold coins.

It also consumes a lot of charcoal and labor to make iron armor.

Blacksmiths who can make iron armor are excellent talents wherever they go, and their wages are higher than those of the soldiers in the main legion.

The price of a piece of iron armor in the market is often more than ten gold coins.

An ordinary family may not be able to save enough money to buy a piece of iron armor after ten years of hard work.

In addition to blast furnace ironmaking, Richard also knows a crucible steelmaking technology.

However, Richard is not sure what proportion of graphite clay is added to the crucible. In addition, making a high-temperature refractory crucible is also a prerequisite for crucible steelmaking.

Richard is not clear about the technical details, so he can only tell Thomas, the director of the steel plant, to study this technology.

Thomas successfully cast a large iron pot and became the head blacksmith.

His ironmaking skills are not the best among many blacksmiths, but this person is very smart. He likes to specialize in smelting technology, successfully made an iron pot, received Richard's reward, and stood out from many blacksmiths.

The steel plant is divided into four workshops: mining, selection, steelmaking, and forging.

There are more than 600 male and female workers for the time being. In addition, there are more than 500 elderly people and children living in the steel plant barracks, all of whom are family members of steel workers.

After entering the Harland territory, these people also became indentured servants and needed to work for the lord for five years before they could gain freedom.

After the steel plant is put into production, the furnace can be opened four times a month, and about eight tons of steel can be produced in a month.

Eight tons of steel production per month seems very funny. In the past, a village-run steel plant in a steel-rich province could produce millions of tons of steel.

However, the monthly production of eight tons of steel in the Haland Territory is already the highest among the lords in the Geda Province.

There are only a few nobles who produce more steel than Richard. The population invested by the nobles in the steel industry is at least more than 10,000.

The efficiency of the territory steel plant is about ten times that of other lords.

Of the eight tons of steel, one and a half tons are used by the territory itself, mainly for making farm tools and weapons and equipment.

If there is a surplus of steel products, a shop can be opened in Heihe Fort to sell them.

Two and a half tons are used to make weapons, equip new squadrons, and increase the coverage of armor.

With the increase in the number of blacksmiths, the annual production of armor in the Haland Territory has reached 80 sets of armor.

Richard is going to sell the remaining four tons of steel.

Four tons of steel, according to the market price, is about 222 gold coins.

Even if the large amount of steel from Harland Territory is put into the market, causing a certain market fluctuation and causing the price of steel to drop by 10%, Richard can still earn 200 gold coins every month.

In a year, he can increase his cash by 2,400 gold coins and save the cost of buying steel.

Coupled with the monthly income from brick orders, the development of the territory has finally formed a positive cycle.

By August, Richard had begun to repay the debts he owed.

After the Harland family was granted the territory and William became a hereditary baron, they had already owed 8,000 gold coins in debt in recent years.

In the first year, he owed 4,000 gold coins for buying slaves and operating the territory. In the following two years, he had to borrow money every year to survive. With some interest, the debt scale has doubled to 8,000 gold coins.

The first thing to pay back was the usury owed by William.

These usurious loans have an annual interest rate of 20%, plus the interest compounded once a year, which will double in three years.

To be able to lend money at high interest in Black River Fort, so that people like William dare not default, there must be a big man behind him.

Such a big man, the Harland family can't afford to offend.

With the income from the territory, Richard had a bottom line in his heart, and immediately drew cash to repay the usury.

As for the money borrowed from his uncle Soros and Mrs. Ola's brother Rand, he could only repay part of it first and pay it off slowly in two installments.

Now the Harland family is already an important noble family in the Geda Province, controlling three territories and more than 17,000 people.

There are five squadrons of soldiers in the territory, and their strength has surpassed that of most baron families.

Having such noble relatives is very beneficial to the development of in-laws.

Rand does business in Black River Castle and Light Castle, and will not be easily bullied. Uncle Soros can also make military achievements through the channel of Harland Territory without worrying about being deducted.

Although they owe money to their relatives, everyone can still accept it for the time being.