Ma Cheng stood at the door and watched Zhang Erpei enter and looked up at the time. It was just after noon. Today, Ma Shiying took Ma Cheng to Ruan Dacheng's house to make friends. It was very troublesome to eat in the Ming Dynasty literati, and it was very common to eat from noon to midnight. But today because Ma Cheng made such a scandal, the meal ended until halfway through the meal.

"It's still early now. The old man had something to say to himself and refused to go home. Where can I go?"

Ma Cheng thought about the fact that Gu Changwei and Xu Dahu were in charge of the military camp. There was no problem in a short period of time. Today, if you have time, why not go to Beicheng to see how the Blacksmith Workshop is like.

A few days ago, Ma Cheng gave Ma Shun the craftsmen who were asked to come from the Weapon Bureau and asked him to build an iron factory. I don’t know what happened. I happened to have time today, so I could give some guidance. Ma Cheng asked his servants to bring the horses, and then rode on them and rushed to the north city slowly.

Nanjing City is an irregular ten-sided type, built entirely based on mountains and rivers, so Nanjing North City is not a place where dignitaries live. Nanjing Imperial City is in the East City, some important yamen are in the West City, while the South City is the prosperous Qinhuai River, so the North City, located along the Yangtze River, has become a gathering area for workshops and farms.

The large number of military camps and farmlands distributed here in the North City were the most elite guards of the government during the Hongwu period. However, as the Ming Dynasty was built over time, the military was in decline, and the original guards of the governments in the Jinchuan Gate had become workshops, and the farmlands given to those guards at that time also became the industry for high-ranking officials and nobles.

Ma Cheng chose a very superior position for his industry, just here in Sanjiawan, Jinchuanmenli, which is the Sajiawan area of ​​Nanjing in later generations. This place belongs to the center of Nanjing in later generations, with housing prices of 30,000 to 40,000 per square meter, but in the late Ming Dynasty, it was still a large area of ​​farmland.

A Jinchuan River flows through Sanjiawan Lane, and Ma Cheng’s iron plant is built on the left bank of the Jinchuan River.

Having not been here for a few days, he had already changed from a farmland to a factory building. A group of people were busy inside and outside. Ma Cheng came to the door and looked around. At this time, a family member saw Ma Cheng coming, and quickly stepped forward to salute and asked, "Second Master is here! But are you looking for Ma Master?"

Ma Cheng nodded and said, "Second Master comes to see it today and let both Ma Shun and Xu Zhenye come here."

After following Ma Cheng, Xu Zhenye was sent here to be a master. There were probably not many people in the Ming Dynasty who used a juren as a master.

A family member informed Ma Shun and Xu Zhenye that they rushed over quickly. Ma Shun knelt in front of Ma Cheng and greeted him: "The Second Master is here!" Xu Zhenye respected his identity and could not kowtow, but he also bowed and said: "The Procurator is here!"

Ma Cheng waved his hand and said, "Get up, let's see how you are doing today. Ma Shun, tell me."

After receiving Ma Cheng's instructions, Ma Shun said: "Second Master, the blacksmith's workshop has been built. Yesterday, the first pot of cooked iron was officially released. Now some basic farm tools can be made. The gunpowder workshop has been moved here by villains, but for safety reasons, there are few people there, and even if there is any problem, the loss will not be too large."

He was very happy to hear that he could already produce iron Ma Cheng: "Okay, Ma Shun, you lead the way, Second Master wants to go and have a look!"

Ma Cheng led the way in front, Xu Zhenye was with him, and soon a few people came to the Blacksmith's Workshop.

In front of Ma Cheng was a blast furnace five or six meters high. Now there was iron refining inside. The fire was solemn. Standing ten meters away, you could feel the temperature of the fire.

Although Ma Cheng did not know how to make steel, his technology was developed in later generations. With the poison of time travel novels, Ma Cheng still had some insights into making steel.

The iron-smelting furnace in the Ming Dynasty was not closed and was completely open. This was done to facilitate feeding, but the furnace temperature was not guaranteed at all.

Ma Cheng looked around and saw a pool one meter square in front of the blast furnace, with a hole connecting the blast furnace.

Ma Cheng didn't know what this was, so he asked, "Ma Shun, what is this?"

Ma Shun was a housekeeper, and he knew what this was. When Ma Cheng asked about it, he quickly called the blacksmith's foreman Qi Liu: "Old Qi, come here, this is Master Ma Er of the boss!"

Qi Liu is a strong man in his forties. He heard Ma Shun say this and quickly knelt down and said, "The villain has seen the boss!"

Ma Cheng nodded and asked, "What is this Chi Zi doing?"

"Back to the owner, this is a steel stir-frying pool. The cast iron is turned into iron and is introduced into this pool. Then the craftsman will stir with willow sticks, and the cast iron will become cooked iron, and there is a high chance that the steel will be fried."

Ma Cheng nodded, and it turned out that this was the method of steel frying in ancient times. In fact, in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, China had invented the method of steel frying, which could produce steel without cooling and heating again, reducing fuel consumption and significantly increasing production.

The iron stir-frying furnace described in "The Kaiwu of Heaven" is actually a stir-frying furnace invented by Europeans in the second half of the 18th century. The difference is that the stir-frying furnace in Europe is usually stir-frying with cooked iron rods or steel rods to burn off the carbon from the pig iron and finally obtain low-carbon cooked iron.

China uses willow sticks to stir. While stirring, it will gradually burn the willow sticks, which can mix carbon into pig iron, or reduce the speed of carbon removal of pig iron. Through this step, skilled iron stirring hands are more likely to control the ingredients. They can directly stir-fry steel with carbon content lower than pig iron but higher than cooked iron, and even have the opportunity to stir-fry medium-carbon steel and high-carbon steel, which is called stir-fry steel.

However, this technology has a great luck component and is completely unsure of what iron material is produced in this pot. This is also impossible. In ancient China, due to insufficient technology and insufficient temperature of the steelmaking furnace, whether it is fried steel or fried iron, the fried steel blocks and iron blocks are all semi-solid paste steel blocks, so the steel in ancient China was very expensive.

Ma Cheng looked at the blast furnace in front of him. Although it was already the peak of iron smelting technology in the Ming Dynasty, there was still a lot of room for improvement in the eyes of Ma Cheng, an outsider.

"Qi Liu, why is the iron smelting furnace not closed?" Ma Cheng asked, pointing to the top of the fire.

When Qi Liu heard Ma Cheng say this, he quickly replied: "Second Master, waste gas is generated when smelting iron. If the top is capped, the furnace will be blown up, which is very dangerous!"

"Fuck, won't you leave a pipe on it to lead the exhaust gas out? How can you raise the furnace temperature like you?"

Qi Liu was scolded by Ma Cheng without saying a word. Although he didn't say anything, he muttered in his heart: You know, Mr. Qi has been practicing iron for more than 20 years, and you don't know much more? Qi Liu was whining in his heart, but Ma Cheng's next sentence made him even more angry.

"You guys are not good enough if you don't study. Isn't it a waste of money to smelify iron like this? Hurry up and put out the iron material in the furnace. Second Master, I want to transform this iron smelting furnace and you can directly smel out the steel!"

Qi Liu didn't believe what Ma Cheng said, just brag. I, Qi Liu, have never heard of a stove that can directly make steel.

However, the factory belongs to Ma Cheng, so Qi Liu did not dare to object, so he had to direct his craftsmen to release the iron material in the furnace and then extinguish the fire.

Turning off the heat cannot be done in a short time. Ma Cheng used this skill to write down the method of transforming the iron furnace.

Of course, Ma Cheng wrote not simplified Chinese, but Ma Cheng's oral description was recorded by Xu Zhenye.

The transformation plan is very simple. The first is the fuel issue. Ma Cheng just saw that charcoal is used for smelting iron, and there is no way to do so. China's iron ore is all pyrodite. If coal is used to smelize iron, it will become brittle. Therefore, since the Song Dynasty, charcoal has been used to smelify iron.

Of course, Ma Cheng improved not directly using coal, but coke. Coking is also very simple. There is no environmental protection method in this era. In order to save trouble, Ma Cheng directly brought out the coking of earth kilns in later generations. This method has a long coking cycle, low coking rate, high coal consumption, and high coke ash content. Fortunately, the method is simple and is very suitable for the industrial foundation of the Ming Dynasty.

A coking kiln is a small brick kiln. It is filled with coal in the brick kiln, and then ignites the kiln and seals it. After nine to eleven days of oxygen-free combustion, most of the coal will turn into coke, with a coking rate of about 60%.

After Ma Cheng finished painting the coking kiln, he handed it over to Ma Shun, asking him to organize people to start coking. The next step is to transform the blast furnace.

Ma Cheng did not understand the terms of converter and flat furnaces in later generations. He only knew that if he wanted to make steel, he had to increase the furnace temperature. In the Ming Dynasty, the furnace temperature could only reach 1,200 degrees. It was OK to melt pig iron at this temperature, but it was not possible to cook iron. As for carbon steel with a melting point of 1,500 degrees, it was even worse. Therefore, in the Ming Dynasty, he could only find another way to invent the method of stir-frying steel.

The method for Ma Cheng's transformation is to recycle the blast furnace exhaust gas, seal the blast furnace, use pipes to guide the furnace gas to the bottom, and heat the intake air after passing through the heat storage chamber to increase the furnace temperature. In order to increase the furnace temperature, Ma Cheng also needs to replace all refractory bricks to avoid excessive temperatures causing a furnace to explode.

Refractory bricks were made using refractory materials in the Ming Dynasty, but the raw materials were chalk soil and sea salt. The materials used by Ma Cheng were kaolin and sea salt, and kaolin, that is, Baiyun soil. This soil was widely distributed in the Jiangxi area. Jingdezhen porcelain was made of this soil. Kaolin and salt were perfect refractory bricks. This refractory material could withstand the test of high temperatures.

The last step is to prepare baking soda. China's iron ore is all pyroferrous ore, so it is difficult to desulfurize. However, Ma Cheng learned through the time travel novel that adding an appropriate amount of baking soda can desulfurize, but you don't know how much it is added. So, for the sake of safety, Ma Cheng told Ma Shun to prepare 1,000 kilograms of baking soda.

Ma Shun heard Ma Cheng's drastic improvement of the blast furnace, his face became increasingly unnatural. In the end, Ma Shun had no choice but to say: "Second Master, I'm afraid the money is not enough to change like this!"

Ma Cheng frowned when he heard Ma Shun say this. Isn’t the sugar factory still producing? Why are there no money?

"Ma Shun, how much money is left on the books?"
Chapter completed!