In the following days, Zuo Zongtang and his party became the most ordinary visitors. However, after just two or three days, they became accustomed to the roar of the steam engine. From the first time they saw the lathe milling metal, it was like cutting iron.
Ni was so surprised that he eventually became accustomed to it.
However, when visiting the farm and witnessing the efficiency of horse-drawn harvesters, they were still stunned by the novel and modern agricultural tools.
In awe, they felt that this was the right way. It was based on agriculture.
It has to be said that for the Chinese people, they have a special attachment to the land and farming. When they see steam tractors plowing the vast land with ease, they will naturally be surprised by the fertility of this land.
And when I learned that this vast grassland actually covered hundreds of millions of acres, I was even more shocked and speechless. After leaving Nanhua and heading north, after getting used to the continuous farms along the way, I didn't even wait for them to find it again.
When they were enjoying some familiar pastoral life, a smoke-breathing monster broke into their sight.
"beep……"
Amidst the deafening sound of the whistle, a train loaded with iron ore drove into a large factory. The large factory area, residences and black smoke rising into the sky from the chimneys broke into their sight unobstructed.
"This is Nanhua Steel Company, the largest steel company in the entire southern hemisphere!"
Ding Bing’s introduction is somewhat interesting. In these days, besides Nanhua, are there any other steel companies in the southern hemisphere?
Does a small factory with an annual output of several hundred tons of iron count?
Looking at the contiguous factory areas in the distance, Zuo Zongtang and others have already experienced the magnificence of an industrial culture.
"Brother Zuo, although Nanhua Iron and Steel Company currently only has one iron-making blast furnace with a daily output of 100 tons and one 50-ton open-hearth furnace, the annual output is only 50,000 tons. But when the company's No. 2 and No. 3 blast furnaces and the new open-hearth furnace are put into operation
, the production capacity will be nearly over 150,000 tons, of which steel and steel products will exceed 100,000 tons!”
At the end, Ding Bing emphasized specifically.
“Currently, the annual steel production in the UK is only 150,000 tons!”
In this era, steel plants around the world mainly produce iron, either pig iron or wrought iron. As for railways, they are also made of... wrought iron. Why? Because the steel production process is still based on crucible steel.
, not to mention the price, and the output is extremely limited. Take the UK for example, the output of iron is 4 million tons, but steel... is only 150,000 tons, and the quality varies!
With the help of Siemens open-hearth furnaces, Nanhua not only produces steel with a price similar to that of iron, but its annual steel output has also reached an "astonishing" 30,000 tons! In this era, this is simply a miracle!
Of course, this miracle will not last long at all. When Europeans discover that open-hearth furnaces can be used to make steel using gas or heavy oil, the steel industry in European countries will soon develop rapidly, and cheap steel will further promote the development of industry.
What kind of era is this?
To put it simply - "steel is the country"!
In this era, the British Empire relied on its annual production of more than four million tons of steel, probably iron, to become the most powerful empire on the planet.
At present, this small iron factory in Nanhua is certainly unable to compete with those behemoths in the UK. But what is certain is that when it was learned that the output of this steel company was "ten million kilograms", I was originally worried about the "five kilograms".
Zuo Zongtang and others, who had no idea about "Ten Thousand Tons", were immediately dumbfounded.
"A factory like this can smelt ten million kilograms of iron!"
"Almost! But it's not all iron, most of it is steel, the best steel! The kind of steel that can make guns and cannons!"
For a moment, they were all dumbfounded.
"What? Fifty million pounds of steel!"
"How is this possible? How many people would it take to make so much steel?"
Seeing the shock on their faces, Ding Bing said with some pride.
"This is the power of industry, brothers."
What is the power of industry?
More than an hour later, when they stood in the large steam hammer workshop of the steel plant, they looked at the steel ingot weighing more than ten tons amidst the deafening "dong dong" sound. As the hammer head of the large steam hammer fell, the anvil was blazing red.
The large steel ingot was kneaded back and forth like dough, sparks flew everywhere, and it soon turned into a long round tube.
"Here, what are such thick steel pillars used for?"
Zuo Zongtang said curiously.
"This is used to build a 10-inch cannon."
The factory technician on the side did not hide anything and answered directly.
"The arsenal is trial-producing a 10-inch cannon, and six barrel blanks have been customized here."
How thick is ten inches?
Zuo Zongtang didn't know, but when he just looked at the steel pillar that was as thick as a person, Zuo Zongtang's expression became extremely unnatural, and he immediately thought of another possibility... This cannon might be used to deal with the enemy.
Qing Dynasty!
In fact, Zuo Zongtang definitely overthought. There was no need for a ten-inch breech-loading rifled gun to deal with the Qing Dynasty. In other words, such high-end goods were absolutely a waste to deal with the Manchus. Compared with the expensive, labor-consuming and time-consuming breech-loading rifled gun,
, to deal with the Manchus, all that was needed was the Dahlgren smoothbore cannon. In order to produce this cheap artillery, the arsenal deliberately spent a "high price" of US$5,000 to introduce the corresponding technology from the United States.
This muzzle-loading gun cast using the Rodman casting method has simple technology and low cost. Although it is a backward technology destined to be eliminated, it has a large caliber!
Wouldn’t ten-inch, eleven-inch, twelve-inch, or even fifteen-inch cannons be delicious?
It's definitely not good for Nan Hua, but for the Taiping Army, wouldn't this kind of giant cannon that can both bombard infantry and attack cities be good?
It doesn't matter if it smells good or not, the most important thing is that it can be sold at a high price.
Especially after the success of the "Mosquito Cannon Ship" and the Kingdom of Heaven placed an order for ten more "Mosquito Cannon Ships", such giant cannons will naturally be welcomed by the Kingdom of Heaven.
As for Nanhua, the world is naturally dominated by breech-loaded rifled guns.
"Mr. Zuo, having such a huge cannon to help you is probably not a blessing to the imperial court!"
What is definitely not a blessing for the imperial court, it is clearly going to end!
With such a huge cannon, even if there is a strong city wall, it will not be destroyed by one cannon.
At this moment, Zuo Zongtang's expression was extremely complicated. The impact Nanhua had given him was too much, too much for him to accept. And this discovery now shocked him even more.
Can't sleep.
Perhaps his loyalty to the court was quite limited, but faced with such a "blow", it was naturally difficult to accept it for a while.
After visiting various places in Nanhua for almost a month, Zuo Zongtang finally returned to Nanhua City. Just when he thought that after returning to Nanhua, he would definitely meet the Lord of Nanhua, but who would have thought that the Lord would actually