After Ma Cheng came to the Blacksmith's Workshop, he found that the iron-smelting blast furnace had completely changed. The entire blast furnace was at least about one meter high because it was sealed. At the same time, the furnace air above was led out from a foot-thick pottery pipe and led from the top to the lower air duct.

The air duct has also been modified, and the middle is thickened with refractory bricks and isolated in layers to accumulate heat for air intake. The stir-frying pond in front of the furnace was removed. After this renovation, the furnace temperature can reach more than 1,600 degrees, and the steel can completely melt into molten steel. What else is needed? So in front of the furnace, more than a dozen crucibles were burned with refractory materials, and they were used to fill the sand mold with molten steel.

Ma Cheng's remodeling of this blast furnace was a small iron smelting furnace in the Ming Dynasty. Each time it was produced, it only took more than 100 kilograms of iron and the feed was only about 200 kilograms. This was just an experimental blast furnace. In the Ming Dynasty, the largest iron furnace could produce more than one ton of iron at a time, but now it is not something Ma Cheng can play with.

The blacksmith's head Qi Liu had already prepared the iron material, and the stove had been preheated last night, just waiting for Ma Cheng to start steelmaking.

When Qi Liu saw Ma Cheng arrive, he hurried forward to ask for instructions: "Second Master, you have everything now. Please speak out. You guys can do it!"

Ma Cheng nodded and said to Qi Liu: "Start it, if it succeeds, this steel mill will give you 30% of the shares."

Qi Liuyi was overjoyed when he heard this. Although this workshop was not large in scale, if it could be made directly as Ma Cheng said, it would be a hen that could lay golden eggs. You should know that the world is in chaos now, and the weapons business has always been booming. If Qi Liu has 30% of the shares, even if he doesn't work, he will have enough food and clothing.

With the motivation of stock incentives, Qi Liu quickly stood up and called his apprentices of all sizes to open the furnace and make steel. As for Ma Cheng, he naturally hid far away. This was the first time this experimental blast furnace was operated. Ma Cheng's knowledge also came from books. Who knows if there could be any emergency? Ma Cheng's life is very expensive, so it is naturally impossible to take risks in person.

Ma Cheng is 300 meters away from the blast furnace, but the distance does not mean that Ma Cheng knows nothing about the production progress. Ma Cheng arranged ten people to take turns to report the production situation, and at the same time resolved the problems that arise during the production process in a timely manner.

Before Ma Cheng came, the blast furnace had already set fire, and a layer of coke produced in the brick kiln was laid. After receiving Qi Liu's order, the ten people in charge of blowing began to increase the wind speed. After the fresh air was heated through the stacked heat storage chambers, the temperature was heated to more than 300 degrees.

The coke in the blast furnace began to burn violently with the blessing of fresh air, and the flame at the furnace mouth had turned from red to yellow and had a tendency to turn blue. There was no thermometer in the Ming Dynasty, and the grasp of the furnace temperature was entirely dependent on the experience of the foreman. Fortunately, Qi Liu was an old furnace worker with more than 20 years of iron smelting experience. Now, seeing the color of the fire, I know that the temperature has reached the temperature of the melted iron.

This was the first time that Qi Liu saw the iron smelting furnace reaching this temperature directly. After a while, he began to order the small workers to pour iron ore and coke into the feeding port. The iron ore was all given the preferred ore. 40% of the iron ore and 60% of the coke were mixed together and put into the furnace. Qi Liu stood at the observation port and saw that the iron ore was melted quickly in the extremely high furnace temperature.

The iron in iron ore exists in the form of iron oxide. At the extremely high furnace temperature, the oxygen molecules are slowly reduced, which further aggravated the rise of the furnace temperature. Soon the color of the flame in the furnace turned blue. At this time, the temperature had reached 1,400 degrees, and now it was cooked iron. However, Ma Cheng still felt that it was not enough and ordered his subordinates to increase the air blowing capacity.

Slowly, the flames in the furnace turned white, and iron flowers began to explode in the flames. The flames finally turned completely white and shiny. The density of carbon flowers continued to increase, and the white and bright flame tongue changed from short to long. At this time, the combustion of carbon reached its peak.

This is the time to add baking soda. China's iron ore is all pyrodite, so the easiest way to add alkaline substances. In the Ming Dynasty, there was nothing more suitable than baking soda. Ma Cheng didn't know how much to add, so he could only explore slowly. So according to his own calculations, Ma Cheng had to invest 60 kilograms of baking soda in the 200 kilograms of iron ore, so he ordered the baking soda to be put into the feeding port.

Next is stirring, at this time the iron ore has been melted into molten iron, and the input of baking soda produces a large amount of slag, but this is normal.

After the number of iron flowers in the mixing furnace began to decrease, Ma Cheng knew that the carbon molecules in it were basically gone, and it was a good time to come out. Qi Liu opened the discharge port at Ma Cheng's order, and the high-temperature iron in the furnace began to flow out and into the crucible that had been prepared.

Qi Liu had already made the sand mold, with tools and weapons. The next step was to use these molten steel to cast tools. After the molten steel was cooled, Qi Liu found that the molten steel produced this time was actually steel. Unexpectedly, he could directly train the ore into steel, which was beyond Qi Liu's perception.

Qi Liu took a newly cooled knife embryo and ran to Ma Cheng and shouted: "Second Master, Second Master, look, this is Bailian Steel! This is the first time that Qi Liu has seen Bailian Steel cast directly!"

Ma Cheng secretly scolded Qi Liu for not knowing it, while taking the knife embryo and watching it repeatedly. Ma Cheng is not a professional, and he can't see the difference between this dark knife embryo. However, there are many blacksmiths in the factory, so it is not difficult to make a knife. The reason why the 100-mix steel knife takes time is mainly because the raw materials are difficult to get. Each 100-mix steel knife has to be discounted hundreds of times. Now the most difficult material problem is solved, and the rest is just the matter of polishing and opening the blade.

Soon the craftsman sent the bladed steel knife to Ma Cheng, and Ma Cheng picked up the Baijing Steel Knife assigned to him by the Ministry of War. Although this cast steel knife does not have the exquisite cloud pattern of Baijing Steel Knife, its sharpness is no less than that of Baijing Steel Knife.

Ma Cheng held the knife in both hands and chopped each other. It was obvious that the material of the Bailiang Knife was not as good as the casting knife. The Bailiang Knife was cut out with a big gap, while the casting knife was only one gap the size of a sesame seed.

Ma Cheng was very satisfied with this result. After solving the material problem, he could start to implement it after many of his ideas. The material of steel is much stronger than iron. The armor made of steel with the same degree of defense is much lighter than the iron. Similarly, steel muskets are much lighter than those made of iron, and the same is true for artillery. Another thing that is, with qualified steel, the steam engine designed by Ma Cheng can be produced.

Ma Cheng was very happy to solve the problem. He gave Qi Liusanzheng shares and rewarded all the blacksmiths with great rewards, and then ordered all the weapons to be produced with this kind of steel. At the same time, the blacksmiths were prepared to produce flintlock rifles, which are called self-generated muskets in the Ming Dynasty.

The cheerful craftsmen were stunned when they heard Ma Cheng say this. Qi Liu said carefully: "Second Master, there is no problem with other firearms, but this young man who produces firearms can't do it!"

Ma Cheng was stunned when he heard Qi Liu say this. Didn’t this kind of firearm be invented by Daming himself? Why can’t you craftsmen make it?

"Qi Liu, why don't you? Didn't you create it before?"

"When I go back to the Second Master, the villain has only produced Lumi guns and other muskets in the Weapon Bureau. I have heard of this self-produced musket before, but the Weapon Bureau has not been put into production, and I have never seen the picture album."

Ma Cheng knew what was going on at the moment of hearing this. It must be that the production cost of this kind of musket is too high and the weapons are not liked to be produced, so it was not put into production.

Thinking of Ma Cheng secretly scolding these Ming bureaucrats, the north is full of a group of people but you have this weapon and do not put it into production, no wonder the Ming Dynasty fell.

The weapons are not produced, but Ma Cheng wants to produce them. This kind of firearm is far faster than that of a meteorite gun, so Ma Cheng will never let it go.

"Qi Liu, if you have the weapon picture album, will you produce it?"

"Return to Erye, as long as there is the manufacturing method recorded in the picture album, the little people can start production."

Ma Cheng thought for a while and asked, "Where is this picture album?"

"It should be in the Ministry of Industry."

Ma Cheng was in trouble when he heard Qi Liu say this. It would be fine if it was the Ministry of War. The Minister of War was his own son, and going to the Ministry of War would be the same as his own family. But there were no acquaintances in the Ministry of Works. At this time, Ma Cheng suddenly thought that Chen Zilong had drunk together half a month ago. Ma Luan said that he had compiled a book, but there were many classics on it, so why not ask Chen Zilong.

He started to do it when he thought of it. Ma Cheng handed over the steel mill to Qi Liu, asking him to start mass production of gun barrels in addition to expanding production and building several blast furnaces, and waited for himself to get the picture album to start mass production of flintlock rifles.

Ma Cheng rode his horse and came to the Ministry of War. The guards here had seen this second-generation ancestor many times. When they saw that they came again today, they quickly stepped forward and asked, "Second Master, you are here! I wonder who to look for this time?"

In the past, Ma Cheng always asked for money and food, but today he really came to find someone. Ma Cheng asked, "Second Master is here to find Lord Chen today. Brothers and I will help you inform me!"

The leader Xiaoqi smiled and said, "What did the Second Master say? Second Master is also our old acquaintance. Just go in directly. Lord Chen is working in the yard on the right side of the Second Hall!"

After hearing this, Ma Cheng clasped his fists to thank the small flag, and then walked into the lobby of the Ministry of War.

The staff member is not an official position, but a system. It is a supervision system established by Zhu Yuanzhang to restrict ministers from various ministries. This system is equivalent to a discipline inspection department compared to later generations, but it has much more power than the discipline inspection department.

Although the rank of the scholars is very low and only the seventh rank of the scholars is the first, the prestige and power in the court are very high. Even high-ranking officials like the Shangshu and the Minister of the Secretariat are often respectful to the scholars and will not treat them as ordinary small officials.

The influence of the sergeant department mainly comes from their control of the exchanges of court documents. Each department is specifically responsible for supervising the documents of the corresponding department, such as the sergeant department is responsible for supervising the documents of the Ministry of War.

There are copies of memorials presented to the emperor through the Tongzhengsi Department or through the eunuch's written room for reference. When the emperor approves these memorials, he will hand over the memorials to the corresponding memorials, and then they will turn to the relevant ministries to follow the relevant ministries. The six departments keep records of the edicts and decide the deadline for each ministries to reply according to the circumstances.

In this entire process, the staff can exercise the privilege of refuting and reporting on the subject at any time, and rejecting the emperor's memorials, decrees, or reports from various departments, on the grounds that it does not conform to the prescribed format or the content is unwise.
Chapter completed!