Chapter 698 Technological breakthrough? High-quality iron ore!
Su Shu took Cao Zhengyuan and others to meet Wei King Su Hu.
Wei King Su Hu briefly introduced the accompanying Wei ministers to Su Shu.
Wearing a purple robe and a serious face, he is Qu Xiaolong, the Prime Minister of Wei.
Wearing a red robe, he is a plump man with a smiling face. He is Wang Dajin, Minister of Industry of the State of Wei.
After King Su Hu of Wei introduced everyone, he looked at Wang Dajin, the Minister of Industry, and said: "Lead the way, I will take my nephew to visit the industrial zone to show the strong industrial strength of Wei."
After several days of preparation, King Su Hu of Wei wanted to show the strongest side of Wei.
Some people may be secretive about their country's strength and want to preserve part of it.
King Su Hu of Wei did not think so. Wei was too far away from the Great China Empire.
There is no irreconcilable conflict of interest between the Wei State and the Dahua Empire.
On the contrary, if the Wei State becomes stronger, it will be more beneficial to the Great China Empire.
As long as the Wei State exists in the Americas, the Great China Empire will be able to obtain a large amount of raw materials and industrial product markets in the Americas.
The landless peasants created by the population expansion of the Great China Empire will also have a place to go.
Until Wei's strength does not surpass the Great China Empire and invades the interests of the Great China Empire, the two countries will be the closest allies.
King Su Hu of Wei chose to let Su Shu watch Wei's industrial strength.
He was demonstrating Wei's powerful strength and letting the Great China Empire see Wei's potential.
In this way, all forces in the Great China Empire will invest more resources in Wei.
Relying only on Wei's own strength to develop slowly was too slow.
Only with the continuous investment from the Dahua Empire, Wei's strength can develop rapidly.
King Su Hu of Wei will lay a strong foundation for future generations. Even if there are dim descendants, they will have enough foundation to allow them to squander freely.
The carriage walked steadily and quickly on the cement-paved road.
Su Shu looked through the car window and saw a huge industrial park ahead.
Thick black clouds formed above the industrial park.
He now felt that his breathing had become heavier, and coughing sounds could be heard from time to time in other carriages.
He looked at the road in front of the industrial park. There was a layer of gray-black powder on it.
This sight is enough to prove that there are many steam engines in the industrial area.
The number of steam engines can completely measure industrial strength.
The group of them walked to the carriage and began to visit the Wei Industrial Park.
Prime Minister Qu Xiaolong said confidently and modestly: "The industrial strength of our Wei State is completely incomparable to that of the Empire.
I have seen the industrial towns of the empire, and I would shed tears when I walked there. I only stayed there for two or three days, and it felt like my body had been fumigated, and the smell of coal smoke lingered for days.
I had just wiped the window sill in the morning. When I came home in the evening, I saw that the soot powder was already as thick as two pieces of paper.
The black clouds above the industrial center of the empire were so thick that even the stars could not be seen at night, only a vague full moon could be seen.
When will this place become like the industrial center of the empire, I will die with peace of mind."
Su Hu, King of Wei, said firmly: "We, the monarch and the ministers, work together to achieve this level.
Only a few years after the founding of Wei State, we were able to build a huge industrial zone.
If we, the emperor and his ministers, are given a few more years to build an industrial town, there will be no problem at all."
Prime Minister Qu Xiaolong immediately bowed and saluted King Su Hu of Wei and said: "Thank you for your trust, Your Majesty. I will definitely live up to Your Majesty's trust."
Su Shu saw that Uncle Su Hu, King of Wei, still wanted to win the hearts of his ministers under such circumstances. He secretly admired him and felt that he had learned something.
Wang Dajin, Minister of Industry of Wei State, asked respectfully: "Your Majesty, the industrial park is too big. It will take dozens of days to visit it all.
There are some unimportant factories that Weichen does not recommend visiting."
King Su Hu of Wei looked at Su Shu and asked, "Nephew, which factories do you want to visit? My uncle will accompany you to visit them."
After Su Shu received the news, he discussed with Cao Zhengyuan and others which factories must be observed.
Now that he heard Wei Wang Su Hu's inquiry, he already had a plan and immediately replied: "Uncle Su Hu, the most important industries for the country are nothing more than steel, machinery, and military merit. The core of them is steel.
Steel is the backbone of industry, let’s take a look at steel smelting first.”
King Su Hu of Wei saw that Su Shu's nephew was going straight to the core. He said in a calm tone: "Okay, let's go to the steel factory first."
Wang Dajin, Minister of Industry of the State of Wei, led the way and led everyone to the steel plant.
He has notified the steel plant in advance to prepare.
Cut some production capacity, let most workers maintain factory safety, and cancel all jobs that can cause danger.
The King of Wei took these people to visit the factory, just to show the power of Wei.
It is impossible for these people to risk their lives to visit a steel plant.
Steel plants are relatively low-risk plants, with workers injured every day and workers dying every month.
Wang Dajin has made arrangements to activate only a few dangerous processes in each factory.
In this way, there will be no danger when visiting from a longer distance, nor will it cause a disaster that affects the whole place.
Su Shu approached the steel factory and saw the workers here busy.
This is not a slightly larger blacksmith shop, but a large-scale steel factory.
He saw eight large-scale blast furnaces, each of which was an important steel production workshop.
Wang Dajin, Minister of Industry of the State of Wei, led everyone to one of the production workshops that had been prepared.
Su Shu walked into the production workshop and immediately looked for the most important blast furnace.
The location of the blast furnace in Wei Guo Factory is very obvious. The blast furnace is now in operation, and several workers are adding coke and iron ore into the blast furnace.
The red firelight shines through the cracks in the blast furnace.
Su Shu observed that this kind of blast furnace is only the second generation of traditional blast furnace.
The empire now uses the fourth generation of top-blown oxygen blast furnaces.
Only the fourth generation blast furnace can produce the steel used in the Taishan battleship.
The steel used in firearms and artillery also requires third-generation blast furnaces to produce.
Blast furnace is only the most basic technology. The most important thing in steel smelting is the heat and steelmaking formula.
This is the undisclosed secret of major steel mills.
But if the basics are not good enough, even if one discovers the temperature and formula for steel smelting, it will not be possible to produce good steel.
When Su Shu saw the second generation blast furnace, he felt a little disappointed.
The steel produced by this technology produces steam engine pipes that are relatively brittle and cannot withstand pressure, and are often damaged.
This steel is too brittle to be used in guns and steam engines.
If Wei used this kind of steel to make steam engines, the cost of their industrial products would be too high.
Even if the empire's industrial products come across the ocean, they can defeat local industrial products.
King Su Hu of Wei saw the disappointed expression on Su Shu's face. He smiled and said, "Nephew, you think Wei's iron and steel smelting technology is very weak.
Our country, Wei, relies entirely on its superior quality steel to gain a firm foothold in the American continent.
If we had not been able to produce our own guns and steam engines, the Spaniards would not have been able to persist in their war of attrition.
They had already sent troops to take Wei back."
As soon as Wei Wang Su Hu finished speaking, he waved and ordered the round steel pillars forged with freshly made molten iron to be brought over for everyone to take a look at.
Su Shu had seen the round steel column that he had brought over, and was now processing iron pipes, whether they were gun barrels, gun barrels, or steam engine pipes.
They all use cutting methods to cut off the middle part of a cylinder.
Only through this technology can the strength of a steel pipe be guaranteed.
The quality of this round steel column determines everything.
If the quality of the steel is not good and it is too brittle, it cannot be used at all.
Su Shu saw the round steel column he had brought over and touched it with his hand.
Regarding steel technology, Su Shu only had a general understanding, and he could not tell the difference at all.
Su Hu, King of Wei, said proudly: "Half a year ago, the steel pipes produced in this factory were processed.
It became the cylinder of a train steam engine and has been in continuous use for half a year without any problems."
Su Shu opened his mouth wide and couldn't believe it.
The Wei State was able to produce high-quality steel with a relatively low technical level. How did it do this?
Among the imperial party, Zhang Zhi, an engineer who was responsible for steam engine maintenance, was also curious.
He asked: "I know something about steel smelting, and I am particularly good at checking the quality of steel.
This cylindrical steel allows me to use the factory's machinery to conduct a simple inspection."
King Su Hu of Wei did not cheat at all, and he generously let Zhang Zhi conduct the inspection.
Zhang Zhi's inspection speed was very fast. After he finished the inspection, he said in disbelief: "This is really amazing. Wei State used relatively low-end technology to smelt high-quality steel.
Steel has excellent toughness and hardness, and can be used in steam engine cylinders and pipes without any problems."
Su Shu asked curiously: "Uncle Su Hu, you have developed a better steel-making technology. This is really shocking."
King Su Hu of Wei waved his hand and said happily: "The basic education in Wei is not good, and most of the people are illiterate.
Even among the Han immigrants, there are not many literate people.
The empire should leave all illiteracy to vassal states like us.
How can people who can have an excellent life in the empire take uncertain risks and travel thousands of miles to come to us to seek a living?
The steelmaking technology we use is the ordinary steelmaking technology passed down from the empire.
The material of steel is not gradually improved.
After the steel plant is stabilized, the quality of each batch of steel is extremely stable.
The Ministry of Industry has sorted out this situation, and I don’t know the details. Wang Shangshu will tell me.”
Wang Dajin, the minister of the Ministry of Industry, received the order from Wei King Su Hu. He first bowed and then explained.
“Our Ministry of Industry is also very curious about this situation.
It's obviously the same technology, but the steel smelted in the empire is brittle.
Now it can only be used to make farm tools and simple machinery.
At that time, the life of steam engines was very short, and they needed to be overhauled after only a few months of use.
Using the same technology, the steel smelted by our country in Wei shows no problems at all.
After careful analysis by the Ministry of Industry, some coal and iron ore were imported from the empire in small quantities.
We finally figured out the reason. The iron ore in the Empire is of poor quality.
The quality of coal will also affect the quality of steel, but choosing high-quality coke and removing impurities through coking technology will have little impact on the quality of steel.
The quality of iron ore affects the final quality of steel.
We have not learned about the third and fourth generation blast furnaces, but I think the technology must include the technology to remove impurities from iron ore.
The iron ore produced in Wei State contains very low impurities.
Even if you use relatively low-end smelting technology, you can still smelt high-quality steel.
Use this kind of steel to make steam engines, guns and machinery, which are of high quality and durable.
Our technology is not as good as that of the empire, but one mine can cover up all our flaws."
Su Shu's eyes widened. He didn't expect that the quality of iron ore would have such a big impact.
The quality of the empire's iron ore is still at a relatively poor level.
He thought carefully and quickly accepted the concept.
If the quality of the wheat is not good, the wheat that grows will be short and weak.
The quality of the war horses is not good, and the war horses that are born are not even qualified to pull a cart.
If the quality of the iron ore is not good, the smelted steel will definitely be affected.
Su Shu immediately thought that Wei's technology, using Wei's iron ore, produced excellent steel.
If the smelting technology of the Dahua Empire is adopted and the iron ore of Wei State is used, the steel produced will definitely be better than what it is now.
With breakthroughs in steel, many stagnant technologies in the empire can usher in breakthroughs.
Wei has high-quality steel, and there will definitely be a breakthrough in steam engine technology.
The combination of steam engines and high-quality steel gave wings to industry. No wonder Wei's industry developed so rapidly.
They left the steel factory and continued to visit the steam engine factory.
Su Shu saw the steam engine processing in Wei. Except for a few boring machines processing cylinders, most of the processes required manual processing by workers.
Workers use pliers, files and other tools to process a piece of steel into a part bit by bit.
The empire's factories have already adopted a large number of machine tool processing, but Wei's factories have not yet gotten rid of manual processing.
But Wei Guo Factory has solved the problem of having and not having them. As long as these people are given a period of time, machine tool processing will not be a problem at all.
Su Shu then visited the arsenal, which opened his eyes.
Saltpeter from Qi State was also sold in large quantities to Wei State.
Wei State has no shortage of saltpeter and can produce a large amount of nitric acid, so the production of gunpowder will not be a problem.
The Wei State had the technology to process steam engine cylinders, and there was no difficulty in producing guns.
However, Wei State is now unable to produce bullets and can only use paper shell bullets.
The power of Wei's guns was not strong, but it was enough to dominate the American continent.
Su Shu and his party took a quick tour of Wei's industrial park.
Wei's technology is not as good as the small industrial bases of the Dahua Empire. The only saving grace is that the quality of the iron ore here is very good.
Su and Shu passed through various countries and did not want to purchase local specialties. The fleet did not have the extra tonnage to transport these specialties.
But he saw the quality of Wei's iron ore and the impact of breakthroughs in steel technology on the empire.
Su Shu bought a thousand tons of iron ore from Wei State, and he planned to return to the country to let the factory experiment.
After he visited the industrial park, the fleet also purchased enough supplies for the next long voyage.
It was also time for them to leave Wei and continue their journey.
Su Shu bid farewell to Uncle Su Hu and once again received a letter addressed to his father.
The group of them took the train back to the port.
Wait until all supplies have been loaded onto the cargo ship.
Su Shu and others boarded the battleship Taishan and continued to sail north along the coastline of the American continent.