Chapter 459 Currency Assembly Line (Two chapters in one, please subscribe)

It is a problem that you cannot take the car back after buying it, but Elder Shang does not think so. The main reason is that they have never thought about buying a large number of cars. They just want to make a sample to take back and imitate it.

If the whole car cannot be taken back, can't it be disassembled and carried back by horses? However, he did not say this. Those who can become elders are not fools. In fact, on the way back, he had already figured out many things. For example, even if they got a car, they might not be able to imitate it. Why? Because they don’t have the tools suitable for processing wood.

This theory is indeed correct. In fact, the technological progress throughout history revolves around two focuses, which are as important as the two eyes of a person. One is a new power source, and the other is a more advanced material. What the Xin tribe lacks now is the material.

They lack iron tools, and even do not have suitable bronze tools. After all, when iron tools are insufficient, hard bronze can also be used to make some tools.

But it's useless to say this now. He is the Shang elder who manages trade in the Xin tribe. The research and development of tools has nothing to do with him. The current situation is that as long as he can get the car back, it will be a great achievement. Unfortunately, this only goal has not been achieved. Instead, he has paid a heavy price for it and was even threatened that he would not be allowed to trade on the grassland in the future. This undoubtedly cuts off their financial resources.

"Alas!" Elder Shang sighed. Thinking of going back and discussing countermeasures with the commander and many elders, he couldn't help but worry.

Time flies, and it's time to harvest corn in a blink of an eye. Winter is coming soon.

Dashu asked Luo Chong in advance a few days ago how to harvest corn. After all, this is not rice, so it can't be generalized.

In the early morning, the weather was a little cold, and people put on woolen clothes early. It was very interesting to say that they originally thought that corn also needed to be cut with a sickle, but they didn't expect the leader to write a letter saying that they only needed to break off the two corn cobs left on it, and then cut down the stalks and collect them.

So, the crowd entered the cornfield and lined up to break the corn according to the method of dividing into pieces. This job was not tiring, but the corn leaves and ears made the whole body itchy. Those who have been to the cornfield should know that this is definitely a very uncomfortable experience, but for food, this little itch is nothing, it is not life-threatening.

The broken corn was collected, and then the outer skin was peeled off, but it could not be pulled off. In this way, the corn skins were woven together one by one, and a pile of corn was tied into a string, and finally hung up to dry, or directly peeled clean, and then spread on the mat to dry, but this can only be done in the sun at noon.

The next step is to thresh the corn after it is dried, but there is no machine now, and it can be rubbed by hand. It is a very hard job, but for people who have nothing to do, it is also a game. Rural children grow up rubbing corn.

When the corn is harvested, it is already November. At the beginning and end of this month, it is also the time when the bay between the mainland and Zhudao is low tide, and it is the long-awaited time to go home.

Elder Shang and his group of more than a dozen people stepped onto the wet reef. This road was not easy to walk on. It was more than ten kilometers long, with potholes and rocks everywhere, covered with seaweed and crustacean excrement, but it still could not stop them from returning home. They walked forward with one foot deep and one foot shallow. They had to race against time. Fortunately, they had rested for half a month, otherwise they would be pushed into the sea by the rising tide before they reached the destination.

The road that originally only took a few hours to walk with pack horses took them a whole day to walk. It was not until the new moon climbed up the sky that they finally set foot on the land of their hometown.

Elder Shang cried. He was old, and it was not his turn to go out for trade. If it were not for the credit, why would he go there in person? But he did not expect that this trip would be so dangerous and almost lost his life. Fortunately, it was all over and they were home.

Instead of resting, they marched with torches all night, and were finally discovered by a village stationed on the seashore, which made them feel relieved. They stayed at the homes of fellow villagers and ate corn porridge cooked in bamboo tubes, which made them feel like they were back to the human world. The other side of the sea was too scary.

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Hanyang City, snow has fallen in the mountains here, the grazing team in the north has returned with the construction team of Fuma Pass, and the earthen houses in Ruyang County are also emitting smoke, and the kang has been burning, which made these new members of the Han tribe happy for several days. Although the brick and tile houses here are not as beautiful as those in Hanyang City, the adobe houses with kangs are not bad, and the large amount of animal skins and cloth sent by Hanyang City are enough to ensure that everyone can spend the winter safely. Every new member of the tribe has a smile on his face. This is the warmest winter they have ever had.

In Hanyang City, the metallurgical workshop started smelting iron again. Many people joined this year. In addition to the needs of foreign trade, the Han tribe needed a lot of iron pots, as well as various farm tools and tools. The tens of thousands of people in the entire tribe all depended on these two blast furnaces.

In the teaching building not far away, Luo Chong flipped through the newly printed books. The first batch of 3,000 copies of "Selected Poems and Lyrics" had been printed. Each of the 300 students had a copy. This surprised and delighted the students. They had followed the leader to carve characters for several months before, and now they finally saw the results. It turned out that this thing could really print books in batches.

Looking at the students chattering below, Luo Chong couldn't help but sigh in his heart. They would graduate in two months, and he didn't know if it would come in handy. However, from today on, in addition to continuing to learn Chinese characters, this new book was also listed as one of the compulsory textbooks. Soon, the classroom was filled with the sound of "hoeing the field at noon, sweat dripping on the ground under the field."

Snow fell all day, but it did not leave any traces on the roofs of Hanyang City. It soon melted into water, leaving crystal clear icicles on the eaves. The house had a heated kang, and the indoor temperature was high, so there would be no snow on the roof.

In this early winter, a major event in the Han tribe finally saw a glimmer of hope. After several months, Luo Chong's coin wax mold was finally carved out.

The currency of the Han tribe was similar to the modern monetary system. It was divided into three types: yuan, jiao, and wen, and then it was divided into multiple denominations. For example, wen was actually the same as fen, with a total of three denominations, one wen, two wen, and five wen. Jiao also had three denominations, one jiao, two jiao, and five jiao. Only the yuan had one more denomination, one yuan, two yuan, five yuan, and ten yuan.

These currencies, from the smallest one coin to the largest denomination of ten yuan, were also calculated in the decimal system. This did not have any special meaning. It was just for the convenience of accounting.

There are seven denominations of currency, with fourteen stamps on the front and back. From designing, drawing, to meticulous carving, Luo Chong spent several months alone, and now he has finally completed it.

The front pattern of the one-cent coin is a bunch of circular rice ears and a cloud, symbolizing good weather and a good harvest. There is the word "1 Wen" in the blank space, and the Chinese capital "Yi Wen" is next to it. On the back is the words "Cast in the first year of Tianqi of the Han Empire", and in the middle is Luo Chong's head wearing a flat crown and a crown. Although this thing does not exist now, it does not prevent Luo Chong from drawing it himself.

As for the portraits above, it is enough to have a certain degree of similarity, and they look a little more mature than Luo Chong's actual age. This is the case with portraits. The portraits that can be printed on coins are actually better looking than the real people. This is an unspoken rule. It has always been like this in history. Luo Chong's portrait is no exception. It looks more mature and more majestic. The obverse of the

two-cent coin is a pattern of a man wearing a bamboo hat and bending over to plant rice seedlings. The blank space is added with the face value. The reverse side is the same as the one-cent coin, with the version year and the portrait; the obverse pattern of the five-cent coin becomes a pattern of a man driving an ox to plow the land, with the face value in the blank space and the portrait on the reverse side.

The three face value patterns of the first level of Jiao use animals. The obverse of the one-cent coin is a horse, the two-cent coin is a saiga antelope, and the five-cent coin is a giant eagle with its wings spread. The reverse side is still the year number and the portrait.

The face value patterns of the first-level yuan are all light industry. The front of the one-yuan note is a woman weaving, the front of the two-yuan note is a strong man forging iron, the front of the five-yuan note is a three-masted sailing ship, and the front of the ten-yuan note is a palace. However, the three-

masted sailing ship and the palace on it have no actual reference objects. They are all imagined by Luo Chong himself. The pattern on the reverse side is still the year number and Luo Chong's portrait. Now the fourteen wax molds have been carved, and then the refractory kaolin and anthill soil are mixed with water to make a paste, and then these wax molds are placed in it. After drying, the wax blocks are melted and poured out, so that the mold for the steel stamp is ready.

However, if you want to cast a qualified steel stamp, you can only use good molten steel directly into the mold. It is not possible to produce steel using the previous steel pouring method. So this time, Luo Chong tried the converter top blowing technology for the first time.

This technology is not difficult, but it is also simple. It is just that for the current technological level of the Han tribe, it can be done, but it cannot be applied on a large scale, and the quality is definitely not as good as the modern top blowing technology.

The top blowing of the converter is actually to take out the molten iron and put it into a large vat, then insert a pipe into the molten iron from the top, and then use the pipe to pass a large amount of pure oxygen into it. The pure oxygen reacts with the carbon atoms in the molten iron to become a large amount of carbon dioxide, which then emerges from the molten iron, forming many rolling bubbles.

The top blowing technology uses this method of oxygen and carbon to become carbon dioxide and finally discharge it, so as to achieve the purpose of reducing the carbon content of the molten iron and turn the molten iron directly into molten steel.

Of course, Luo Chong does not have pure oxygen, but there is nothing wrong with blowing air directly. Anyway, the quality of the final product is definitely not as good as modern steel.

The pipe used for top blowing is a steel pipe made of previously produced steel, which is connected to a ceramic pipe at the back. The interface is sealed with mud and connected to a large manual blower at the back. Since this equipment uses pipes made of hard materials, it cannot be moved at all, so the other party can only take the initiative.

On this day, Luo Chong personally directed the work in the metallurgical workshop. He first smelted iron, then released the molten iron from under the blast furnace, and finally put it into a half-person-high crucible. Then he used a cart to move the molten iron to the bottom of the top-blowing machine, and then pushed the cart directly onto a lifting frame to fix it. Finally, he used several levers around to lift the lifting frame so that the nozzle fixed on it could penetrate into the bottom of the crucible, so that they could fully react with the air.

After everything was in place, the manual blower at the other end of the pipeline began to work, blowing a large amount of air into the molten iron in the crucible. As the hot molten iron came into contact with the oxygen in the air, a violent exothermic reaction began to occur. Not only did the bubbles released on the surface of the molten iron seem to be boiling, but the temperature of the molten iron was also gradually rising.

Although there was no fire to heat the top-blowing process, the reaction itself could increase a lot of heat, keeping the molten iron in a flowing liquid state to prevent it from cooling and solidifying.

Everyone was standing back, watching from a distance. It was too hot in front of the top-blowing machine, and the large number of bubbles made the molten iron seem to be boiling. Countless sparks were splashing around. Fortunately, it had been cleaned up long ago, and there were no flammable items.

This reaction did not take long. After about a few minutes, when Luo Chong thought the time was almost up, he began to call for a stop, and then lowered the lifting frame to observe whether the color of the molten iron was similar to the color of the steel before. When he felt it was OK, he could use it to cast the mold, because the molten iron had transformed into molten steel at this time.

This large vat of molten steel was used to cast 14 currency stamps, and the remaining molten steel was not wasted. It was cast into other production line parts for stamping currency, such as two large steel wheels for grinding the edges of coins, the steel rollers on the metal plate rolling machine, and the punches for stamping coins, as well as the models below.

After these important pure steel parts are cast, they need to be completely cooled and then heated again for tempering and partial quenching to increase the hardness of some parts, especially the fourteen steel stamps, which naturally have a higher hardness.

After quenching, the parts are cleaned with dilute hydrochloric acid made by the reaction of sulfuric acid and sodium chloride, and then polished and oiled for maintenance. This batch of currency steel stamps is completed.

Although the production process is extremely complicated, it is also a guarantee of currency anti-counterfeiting. It is extremely difficult for the Han tribe to make these steel stamps, let alone other tribes. Even the people of the Han tribe may not understand these technologies, but they cannot make steel stamps, and it is nonsense to want to imitate the currency of the Han tribe. Therefore, Luo Chong is not worried about anti-counterfeiting at all.

After having these parts, the next step is to make assembly line equipment, metal plate rolling machine, which mainly heats copper ingots or silver ingots, such raw materials, and puts them into the plate rolling machine, just like pressing noodles, pressing them into flat sheets over and over again until they are pressed into the thickness required for coins.

After the metal plate is pressed, the next step is to use a punching machine to punch out a large number of coin blanks. The punching machine is modified with a wind-powered automatic forging hammer. The upper hammer is replaced with a punch of the same size as the coin, and the lower anvil is replaced with a steel anvil of the same size as the coin. In this way, as long as the silver plate is placed on it and the punching machine is hit up and down, a lot of round coin blanks of the same size as the coin can be punched out.

Then put these punched blanks into the pedal-powered disc edge grinder, put the coin blanks in it, and grind the edges of the coins by squeezing two steel discs against each other. In this way, not only the edges of the finished products are smooth, but even the sides of the coins are pressed out with fine lines, which are still a bit rough to the touch.

The last step is to stamp the pattern. Put the edge-grinding coin blanks on a punching machine. The machine bed below this special machine is placed with the steel stamp of the reverse side of the coin, and the top is the steel stamp of the front side. Then there are several fixed tracks around it so that the upper and lower steel stamps can be aligned. Finally, use this punching machine to hit the coin blanks hard, so that the front and back sides of the coin blanks are pressed out with patterns.

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I am asking for monthly tickets at the end of the month, comrades, thank you for your support.

(End of this chapter)