Chapter 21 Development

When the cold wind blew from the north, the temperature dropped sharply, and even the rivers began to freeze. Zhao Yu's blast furnace was finally completed.

The blast furnace stands beside the waterwheel at the drop of the canal in the backyard, and a blower is connected to the waterwheel. This blast furnace is not big, no more than two feet high. The inside and outside are forged from steel with runes embossed by Zhao Yu's magic power, and are integrated into one body.

A steelmaking blast furnace in the modern time and space two thousand years later must have refractory bricks inside, but Zhao Yu's does not.

The magical power of the talisman replaced many necessary structures, making this blast furnace very strange.

Not only does it not require refractory bricks, but it also does not require coke.

And it's extremely efficient.

According to Zhao Yu's estimation, as long as the raw materials are sufficient, this blast furnace can produce a minimum of five tons of steel with high hardness, high toughness, high wear resistance and corrosion resistance every day, and the maximum may exceed ten tons.

In fact, the steel formula that Zhao Yu developed is probably very different from the various steels in modern time and space. It seems to be a product of the fusion of the advantages of many different steels. Extremely practical.

Of course, this is nothing. After all, Zhao Yu is a monk, and now he has magic power. If he has the materials, he can even refine magic weapons, let alone such mundane steel. His formula is a steel formula that is suitable for mortals, based on the knowledge of books related to modern time and space, combined with some methods of weapon refining.

Although many of the illusions in the Tianyan Mirror are false, there are also many true truths. Zhao Yu has now gradually completed this process in various experiments, eliminating the false and retaining the true.

He has refined many of the useful weapon refining techniques in the illusion.

At the same time, there is also the art of talismans.

The current blast furnace can probably be called the mother furnace. When Zhao Yu was making this blast furnace, he racked his brains and decomposed the immortal methods contained in the forging method of this blast furnace one by one, and obtained a manufacturing process suitable for mortals.

In other words, using the process he decomposed, as long as there are enough materials, ordinary craftsmen can build a blast furnace with the same function. The efficiency may be much lower, but the same quality of steel can be produced.

Zhao Yu's purpose was not to create a magical blast furnace. Magical instruments are only suitable for monks. Unless many people in every generation in this world can become monks, otherwise, the method of refining magical weapons will be out of print. After he leaves, it will be deserted. But this is almost impossible. There are really very few rooted creatures.

His purpose is to break down the almost immortal means and make them applicable to mortals. Only in this way can the effect of long-lasting and severe impact on time and space be achieved.

Zhao Yu decomposed the blast furnace manufacturing process, and the resulting blast furnace must be different from the parent furnace. Because the talisman technique will not be used. Therefore, there are also other alternatives such as refractory bricks. To achieve the efficiency of this mother furnace, a blast furnace manufactured through ordinary processes would have to be at least five times larger in size.

In all aspects, although there has been some degradation, it is already excellent enough.

Zhao Yuzhi looked at the blast furnace with satisfaction and asked Wang Tiandao: "How much iron ore, limestone and coal are stored?"

Coal is coal. The Xia people began to mine and utilize coal on a large scale as early as the Western Han Dynasty. So things like charcoal don’t seem strange. Wei Zhen's trading company has been continuously transporting the materials on the silk cloth that Zhao Yu gave to Wei Zhen during this period, which forced Wang Tian to build another large warehouse for storage.

"A lot." Wang Tian said: "In the past month or so, the quantity of various materials shipped by Wei's Trading Company has increased significantly. The previous warehouse is almost unable to store any more. The iron ore has exceeded 300,000 kilograms, and the amount of coal has also been reduced. How much difference..."

"Three hundred thousand kilograms...is not enough." Zhao Yu thought attentively and said, "Let Wei Zhen increase large-scale mining. Anyway, the income from colored glaze and soap is huge, and it is useless to leave the money there. It will be useful only when it is used."

Three hundred thousand kilograms of iron ore is only three hundred tons, which is too little. Even if it is rich ore, hundreds of tons of iron ore cannot produce much refined steel. This mother furnace alone can be quickly digested. Once more blast furnaces are built in the future, not to mention hundreds of thousands of kilograms, even hundreds of millions or billions will not be enough to consume.

"Here."

Wang Tian agreed immediately and kept it in mind.

"The craftsmen need to be divided into groups." Zhao Yu's words were very jumpy, but Wang Tian was used to it.

Zhao Yu said: "At the cement kiln, just leave a few skilled craftsmen to guide them. Count them as one group. One group of water wheels, let them not be limited to my finished products. If they can develop more new functions, there will be rewards. Water Ten people are enough for the car crew, and the rest will be assigned to the steel crew. In the next few days, I will teach them the processes and methods of making this kind of steelmaking blast furnace..."

When Wang Tian heard this, he looked worried: "Master, I don't know the big reason, but fine steel is precious and the smelting method is too important. You can't teach it to others easily."

Zhao Yu laughed and waved his hand: "It doesn't matter. I believe them."

Zhao Yu didn't believe in them, but believed in himself. He didn't believe it, who would dare to mess around. Otherwise, this world is so big that there is no place for him.

Provoking Zhao Yu is more terrifying than offending Cao Mengde.

"You just need to pay more attention to it. If you really have other thoughts, you can find out as soon as possible."

"Here."

Seeing that Zhao Yu had made up his mind, Wang Tian said nothing more.

"By the way, have you harvested the potatoes yet?"

Zhao Yu suddenly asked.

"Collect it!" Wang Tian immediately beamed when he mentioned this: "Master, you don't know! The yield of potatoes scares people! Many farmers fainted at that time..."

Zhao Yu thought about it in his mind, and it seemed that it was true. But at that time, he was immersed in blast furnace manufacturing, and it seems that Wang Tian even came to report.

"How much is it?"

"The yield per mu is more than two hundred dan!" Wang Tian took a deep breath. Although several days had passed, he couldn't hide his shock when he talked about this: "Two hundred dan, boss! If potatoes can If you spread the word, there will be countless people alive!"

One stone is one hundred and twenty kilograms, and two hundred stones is twenty-four thousand kilograms, which is not beyond Zhao Yu's expectation. But in this era, it can shock people three times. Even in a good year, with good weather and good weather, the grain output per mu is only two or three shi. Two hundred shi, that's a hundred times!

Zhao Yu nodded lightly: "Okay. If you can't eat these potatoes, don't eat them. Keep them all. Sow them in the new year and plant them... By the way, how much land has been enclosed?"

Zhao Yu ignored many things because he was immersed in the process of making blast furnaces, and he didn't even know about them.

"Lao Zhang has enclosed more than 30,000 acres of land. Only a few thousand acres of it were bought with money, and the rest is ownerless wasteland. Before the new year, more than 50,000 acres of land will definitely not be a problem."

"Okay." Zhao Yu nodded: "Before sowing in the new year, remember to do a good job in allocating the land."

Zhao Yu paused: "I don't care about many things in Zhuangzi. You and Zhang Wang must do your best and not be careless, otherwise..."

Zhao Yu said it calmly, but when Wang Tian heard it, his expression immediately became serious and he said: "My boss, you are serious. Zhang Wang and I were desperate people, and we only got where we are today because of the grace of our boss. If we don't do our best, God will Everyone kills together!”

Zhao Yu nodded: "That's good."

The super bumper harvest of potatoes really made everyone in the village happy until the beginning of the new year.

People's heartfelt joy needs no words to describe it.

In an era like this, when wars and wars rage, having such high-yield food is a matter of life for every common person in the world.

Although Zhao Yu does not appear often, in the minds of the people in the village, he has long been a god who saves people in distress.

The new year has come, and during this period, Zhao Yu has more time on his hands than instructing craftsmen on how to make blast furnaces and the process of smelting steel. During this period, the Zhaojiazhuang guards led by Dian Wei also received a technique passed down by Zhao Yu.

Before arriving in this time and space, Zhao Yu created several techniques in order to practice his skills. What was taught to them was a thick earth skill in the Five Elements Boxing Sutra.

But Dian Wei was different after all. Zhao Yu passed on all the Five Elements Boxing Sutra to him.

After giving some guidance for a few days, he let it go and left it all to Dian Wei. If Dian Wei doesn't understand something, just ask him again.

In this era, the Spring Festival has not yet become the biggest holiday.

The first festival after the beginning of the new year is the Shangyuan Festival, which falls on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month.

Zhao Yu made a rare appearance on this day and had a day of fun with the people in the village.

Moreover, at the suggestion of Master Baili and others, they presided over the sacrificial activities on this day.

Master Baili is in charge of Tiantianju. In the past six months, Tiantianju's business has become more and more prosperous. In addition, the village's output has become more abundant. He has started to open branches in surrounding counties. Of course, this was Zhao Yu’s suggestion. Normally Master Baili rarely returns to the village, but during festivals, he will definitely come back.

The sacrificial activities of the Xia people are very solemn. It expresses the awe of the Xia people towards the nature of heaven and earth. That is to say, in these days, the great man fell, otherwise the emperor would have to preside over sacrifices every spring. Offer sacrifices to the Spring God, He Bo, Rain Master, etc. These gods are all the incarnations of nature. The sacrifices contain the ardent expectations of the Xia people for the new year.

There are big sacrifices in the country, and there are also sacrifices in the folk villages. The three highly respected elders in the village have an important responsibility. Offering sacrifices to ancestors and gods is to appease people's hearts.

The so-called national affairs are about sacrifice and military affairs.

Zhao Yu is not contemptuous of this. Zhao Yu believes that offering sacrifices to natural gods and ancestors is a reverence for the nature of heaven and earth and the memory of ancestors overcoming obstacles, and is an indispensable part of humanity. On the contrary, in the era two thousand years later, people thought that they had dominated everything and no longer feared them.

I won’t talk about the sacrifice. An old man will tell Zhao Yu the specific steps. Zhao Yu followed them one by one.

After the festival, it’s time to get busy again.

Especially after the Qingming Festival, farming has entered a busy stage. Before and after the Qingming Festival, melons and beans are planted.

In times of war, people will deeply understand the difficulty of peace. So, I am busy but I am happy in my heart.

Zhao Yu, on the other hand, became increasingly leisurely.

It's not that he doesn't have more things to do, he still has a lot of ideas, but it's not time to start doing them.

On this day, in Zhuangzi's study, Cao Chun and Xiahou Dun were sitting opposite Zhao Yu.