Chapter 627: Steel as the Foundation

"Well done, let's go and show this king your achievements." Zhao Xu said.

Wang Chong responded with a yes, and went to the steel workshop of the Armory with Zhao Xu.

Here, the hand-pulled bellows of the craftsmen have disappeared, replaced by a huge metal bellows.

On one side of the bellows is a steam engine, which is connected to six bellows. Every time the connecting rod reciprocates, it will blow huge wind into the blast furnace.

In an instant, the flame in the blast furnace will turn from red to blue, and the fire will rise.

"Your Highness, since this steam blower was put into use, the efficiency of ironmaking and steelmaking has increased by more than ten times." After he came to the Armory, Wang Ying also followed.

Zhao Xu nodded. This is natural. The key factors to increase the temperature of the blast furnace are coke and the wind blowing into the blast furnace.

After all, there is oxygen in the wind, and oxygen plays a role in combustion.

In the past, he solved the problem of coke, so he successfully made liquid iron.

Now the blower has solved the problem of too weak blast wind, which greatly improves the speed of blast furnace temperature increase.

The faster the melting speed of iron ore, the higher the efficiency of ironmaking.

In addition, there is also a wind-heated furnace.

This thing also relies on blasting to burn coal, raise the internal temperature, and then blow it into the blast furnace.

The combination of the two places increases the efficiency of ironmaking by more than ten times.

For a long time, the ironmaking efficiency of the Bingzhangsi has been very low for him, but it has only improved a little compared with the past.

But compared with the ironmaking efficiency of modern times, it is far behind.

And now, Yanzhou's steel smelting has finally approached the efficiency of modern steel smelting.

After watching blast furnace ironmaking for a while, Zhao Xu's eyes turned to crucible steelmaking.

There is also a blower driven by a steam engine here.

Unlike blast furnace ironmaking, the blower here is not only responsible for raising the temperature of the flame, but also responsible for blowing wind onto the crucible through an iron pipe connected to the blower.

In this way, oxygen can fully burn impurities in the molten steel and improve the quality of steel.

After a round of inspection, Zhao Xu was very satisfied. Just as Wang Chong said, the conditions for converter steelmaking were really in place.

Because first, the efficiency of iron smelting has been improved. Due to the large size of the converter and the fast steelmaking speed, if the molten iron supply is insufficient, it will affect the efficiency of converter steelmaking.

So improving the efficiency of ironmaking is a prerequisite for converter steelmaking.

Second, in fact, crucible steelmaking is the predecessor of converter steelmaking. Now the steel mill uses top oxygen blowing and crucible steelmaking, which is similar to the top-blown converter steelmaking method.

It's just that in converter steelmaking, the lining material of the converter is different from that of the crucible.

Simply put, converter steelmaking is to make a huge crucible of different materials and then wrap it with an iron shell.

"Everything is ready, only the east wind is missing. In this case, you start to build an alkaline converter and transform the steel mill. You need to combine the steam engine here to achieve partial mechanized operation." Zhao Xu urged.

Since the steam engine has been used, it is natural to make full use of it in heavy industries such as steel smelting.

In addition to using steam engines for blowing, of course, steam engines can also be used to build a lifting system.

In this way, the molten iron smelted in the blast furnace can be hoisted and transported directly to the top of the converter through a cableway and poured into it for steelmaking.

"Yes, Your Highness, I will immediately have someone transport a batch of dolomite to make alkaline furnace linings." Wang Chong responded with excitement.

Steel is the foundation of all industries. After learning from the King of Yan for so long, he knows this very well.

Zhao Xu nodded, and Wang Chong got it right this time.

In the history of converter steelmaking, there have been two stages.

The first stage was the acidic converter. The defect of this converter was that it could not handle sulfur and phosphorus in the molten steel, and the quality of the steel produced was not high.

Later, the alkaline furnace lining appeared to solve this problem.

This alkaline material is a brick made of a mixture of dolomite and tar.

Dolomite was not rare in ancient times. Potters would use it when firing ceramics, so this was not a problem.

Tar is a byproduct of smoldering coke. It is not a problem to collect it when the craftsmen are smoldering coke.

Therefore, this time, Yanzhou's converter steelmaking industry does not need to go the wrong way of acidic steelmaking again.

But acidity and alkalinity are just the difference in steel quality. The real value of converter steelmaking is that it is the first time in human history that large-scale steelmaking has been achieved, making the price of steel very cheap.

Cheap steel has further promoted the development of industry.

After chatting with Wang Chong and Wang Ying about the details of the transformation of the steel mill for a while, Zhao Xu returned to the palace.

Before he sat down, he asked Feng'er to pack a few clothes for him and prepare to go to Pingcheng.

This time, although he asked Dong An to go to sea to resolve the conspiracy of Japan, he never put all his hopes on it.

He firmly believed in a saying that sometimes what you can't get on the battlefield can't be obtained at the negotiation table.

It would be fine if Dong An could resolve the conspiracy of Japan with his own words, but if not, war is inevitable.

So, he decided to go to Jinghai County to inspect the warships under construction.

At the same time, he was also preparing to hand over a brand new ship blueprint to Chen Shou.

This blueprint was naturally no longer a conventional sailing warship, but a hybrid warship combined with a steam engine.

In addition to the hybrid sailing warship, there were also some small steamship blueprints.

These small steamships will all be free of sails, with only a few chimneys on them, and will be purely steam-powered.

He wanted Chen Shou to first build these small steamships to accumulate technical experience, and then further manufacture larger steamships.

After the technology matures, they will be qualified to build steam ironclad ships.

After all, although he can provide technical drawings, it does not mean that one drawing can solve all problems.

In the contemporary world, even if the drawings for making atomic bombs are announced to the world, there are only a few countries that can make atomic bombs, because this involves many auxiliary industries.

Therefore, although Zhao Xu wants to have ironclad ships immediately, it is not possible without developing supporting industries.

Fortunately, the most important steel problem has been solved, and the remaining technical problems only need Chen Shou to overcome when building small steamships.

With theory, it is certainly possible to achieve twice the result with half the effort, but it is also very important to master technical experience in practice.

Two days later, he arrived in Jinghai County.

Because there are limited places suitable for shipbuilding in the Pingcheng Canal.

The Ship Department once again started the Jinghai County Shipyard. At present, in addition to the twelve warships built in Pingcheng.

There are also twelve warships under construction here.

"When can the warships be delivered to the navy?" As soon as Zhao Xu arrived in Jinghai County, he and Chen Shou came to Jinghai Wharf.

"It only takes thirty days for these warships to be launched." Chen Shou said.

Zhao Xu nodded with satisfaction.

This time node is very important. If the conspiracy of Japan can succeed, he estimates that there will be a large-scale naval battle in the next one to two months.

At that time, the role of twelve warships and thirty-six warships will obviously be different.

"It must be ensured that it is launched on time, and there must be no mistakes. "Zhao Xu said.

From the battle of the three cities in Henan, Jin, to the Japanese framing of the Black Shark pirates at sea, nearly two months have passed.

It is already November, and the cold wind from the north has already made Yanzhou feel like winter.

In another month, it will be December, and these 24 warships have been built for almost a year.

In addition, after the warships are launched, the students of the Naval Academy will have to adapt to the warships for a period of time.

Seeing the serious expression of the King of Yan, Chen Shou knew that something big must be happening at sea. He said in a serious voice: "Don't worry, Your Highness, I dare to guarantee it with my head."