Volume 1 of "Jiaqing Wuhu County Chronicle" has this passage: "There are dozens of steel mills in Hong, and hundreds of people have to work every day. At the beginning, the 'wrought iron' was forged in the furnace, and Xu Yisheng cast it under the iron, which was called 駅铁.
When the food is full, the food will not come in. When the dross is gone, hammer it into strips, and it will become steel."
Here, a method of pouring pig iron into wrought iron to make steel is recorded. This method is the pinnacle of ancient steelmaking technology - the Su Steel method.
The steel produced by this process has very good properties. According to the unearthed cultural relics, the quality of Su Steel is close to that of modern industrial steel. It is also said that the first ironclad ship of the Qing Dynasty was made of Su Steel.
What’s even more incredible is that the Su Steel Method is extremely simple to operate, and the output is much larger than the traditional “hundred steel making”. As doomsday survival enthusiasts, how could Lu Xu and his colleagues not learn this craft?
As long as you have high-quality steel, why worry about not being able to make good weapons? And when Su Steel's method is perfected, the old-fashioned steel-making technology will naturally be completely eliminated. Lu Xu really wants to know what Jiang Zhengcheng's face will be like by then.
How exciting?
Of course, Jiang Zhengcheng didn't know what he was about to encounter. However, something happened during the day that shook his determination to win.
Because he heard about Lu Xu repairing the fortress wall in a way he had never heard of before. This made Jiang Zhengcheng a little doubtful whether Lu Xu really knew the craftsmanship?
So that night, he specially found a young boy who came to help Lu Xu and asked Lu Xu what he had arranged for them to do.
When he learned that Lu Xu was leading them to make a completely new style of stove, Jiang Zhengcheng was completely relieved.
In his opinion, steelmaking is just one way to make steel. Since ancient times, this method has been the most suitable for making steel. As the saying goes, nothing can change without its origin, even if Lu Xu comes up with any new methods, it cannot be separated.
I have a lot of background in steel-making, and I heard that Lu Xu built a furnace that I had never heard of before, which only means that Lu Xu doesn't know how to make steel.
After the child left the Jiang family, Jiang Zhengcheng immediately found Jiang Wenhao and said, "Go and inform your uncles that we are going to start steelmaking!"
Jiang Wenhao was shocked: "Father, you can't! That Lu Xu has just started making steel, and we gave in. Doesn't that mean we are announcing to everyone that we are no match for him? Father, we can't give in so easily!"
Jiang Zhengcheng slapped Jiang Wenhao on the head with hatred: "Three generations of our family have been leaders, how come we gave birth to such an unworthy person like you?"
"Lu Xu clearly doesn't know how to make steel, but he insists on starting a furnace. What does he want?"
Jiang Wenhao asked quickly: "Please give me some advice from father."
Jiang Zhengcheng said: "Isn't it just to blame us for delaying military affairs after he made steel? At that time, as long as he fails to make steel, he can say that it was because we violated his military orders.
He failed, and then it was justifiable for him to attack us."
Jiang Wenhao was furious: "This Lu Xu is really cunning to the extreme."
When he said this, he completely forgot that they really wanted to make Lu Xu's steelmaking fail through overt and covert means.
Jiang Zhengcheng was obviously the same, as he pretended to be profound and said: "Then if we start the furnace at the same time as him, he will fail in steelmaking because he is self-willed and does not listen to our advice."
Now Jiang Wenhao no longer had any doubts. While sighing at his father's wisdom, he ran out the door in a hurry, preparing to call all his uncles.
When all those people arrived, Jiang Zhengcheng didn't waste any time and directly stated his purpose: "Among our more than 600 craftsmen households, the number of blacksmiths does not constitute the majority."
"Furthermore, these guys have been running their own businesses over the years. It's obviously not possible to say that they are completely on the same page as us."
"In the past, I, the leader, might have been able to suppress them. But now that there is an additional team officer and someone with a sword, my words may not be that useful."
"Now, we have to find a way to prove to the old and young men that even if we get to Wei'an Castle, they can only follow us! So this time Lu Xu wants to make steel, we must fight him in the ring to make the whole Wei'an
Everyone in the castle has seen that we are more capable people than Lu Xu!"
The people below knew what was going on as soon as they heard it. Since Jiang Zhengcheng was determined to lead everyone to do it, everyone would naturally share the benefits. So everyone basically agreed without thinking. This was a powerful move.
The old blacksmiths in Anbao have finally reached a consensus, and Lu Xu can no longer get support from them.
It's just that Lu Xu didn't care.
In order to ensure that he could make better steel, Lu Xu also built a hand-operated blower.
This kind of thing is very common in movies and TV dramas. It is used by old blacksmiths to blast blast furnaces.
Before the blower was invented, the temperature in the blast furnace was insufficient due to insufficient oxygen supply, and the quality of the steel was not good. The beam happened to be in an era when there were no hand-operated blowers, so Lu Xu built it conveniently.
Of course, this new thing once again aroused everyone's suspicion. Many people simply thought that Lu Xu was crazy! Some people also came to a similar conclusion to Jiang Zhengcheng. This made Lu Xu's prestige in Wei'an Castle more and more
Low.
However, there are exceptions, namely those young men who work with Lu Xu. They now like and admire Lu Xu more and more.
In their knowledge, the "official" they have come into contact with the most is Jiang Zhengcheng. Jiang Zhengcheng has a deep mind and likes to put on airs.
But Lu Xu is different. When has this happened? It’s the time when everyone needs to work together. How can Lu Xu put on airs?
And unlike outsiders, outsiders only think that what Lu Xu builds is not practical at first glance. But everyone who works with Lu Xu can see that Lu Xu’s technology is actually very good, and those things that everyone can’t understand
Lu Xu made them all by himself.
How could such a person not know how to make steel? So these young men have great confidence in Lu Xu.
However, their defense of Lu Xu was of no use. Because all the old blacksmiths in their family were on Jiang Zhengcheng's side, and the elders in the family had spoken. How could anyone believe the words of these young men?
With no choice, everyone can only wait for Lu Xu to prove himself to everyone.
Logically speaking, the Su steel method's process flow is simpler and requires less preliminary preparation work. Therefore, Lu Xu should have produced steel earlier than Jiang Zhengcheng, but because Lu Xu had built a blower, and Jiang Zhengcheng was unable to give Lu
Xu left an excuse, so he mobilized all the manpower to work overtime, and finally set the day of tapping the steel on the same day as Lu Xu.
The first round between Lu Xu and Jiang Zhengcheng will decide the winner!