Chapter 132 The Wrath of the Elves
"It's done!"
Qin Mo's loud shout drew the attention of the surrounding craftsmen and Xiao Jingkun, who all turned to look at him.
“Uncle Xiao, the flames are bright white, and the heat is enough to melt the ore into water. In the future, have the foreman observe more and learn to read fire. The crystal sunglasses I gave you are not just for show.”
Qin Mo began to explain some key points and methods to these experienced iron-making craftsmen.
"Oh!" Xiao Jingkun hurriedly put on the crystal sunglasses he always carried and stared blankly at the flames in the furnace. There was only one pair of these sunglasses for each iron smelting furnace, making them a luxury item.
"Alright, Uncle Xiao, just keep the fire going. It will take at least three or four hours, maybe even ten. I'm going to rest for a bit. Call me when it's time."
Qin Mo fell asleep in his comfortable carriage. He was indeed exhausted recently. Since Wang Yushi left, he had devoted himself to the steel institute, working tirelessly for nearly half a month to complete the first blast furnace for ironmaking in Dayuan.
A shout startled Qin Mo awake. He flew out of the carriage and headed straight for the blast furnace. Having worked in a steel plant for many years in his previous life, he knew how dangerous iron smelting was, let alone these scaled-down, simplified blast furnaces.
In front of the blast furnace, everyone was cheering wildly as molten iron flowed out continuously, pouring into prepared molds and cooling into iron ingots.
"Your Highness... this must weigh tens of thousands of catties?"
Xiao Jingkun's eyes were wide open like copper bells, and his bloodshot eyes were hard to tell whether they were from the flames or from being burned by the fire himself.
"Tens of thousands of kilograms...is that a lot?" Qin Mo said calmly. For him, who had worked with furnaces weighing hundreds of tons in state-owned steel plants, not feeling ashamed of a furnace weighing tens or twenty tons was already a sign of his mastery of Machiavellian tactics.
"Your Highness, that's tens of thousands of catties per furnace!..." Xiao Jingkun emphasized loudly, looking at the unmoved Qin Mo. Even in previous years, this much refined iron wasn't produced in a whole year; this was less than a single batch! If this continued... Xiao Jingkun didn't even dare to imagine it.
"Oh! If you take good care of it and don't damage the furnace, the molten iron will flow continuously for several years, and it might even flow faster!"
Qin Mo responded to Xiao Jingkun with a sentence that finally made him feel like he was internally injured. He was almost fifty years old, but he was not as steady as a twenty-year-old prince. He had really lived in vain.
"Hurry up and prepare ore and coke. If the fire goes out, I'll send your whole family to the mine to mine."
Xiao Jingkun's roar was incredibly domineering, sending the group of crazy artisans and workers into a frenzy before he could finally vent his frustration.
The birth of the first blast furnace in Dayuan shocked many people, even Allen was stunned. Lin Bo even gave a death order: if the secret of the new blast furnace was leaked, the whole family would be wiped out, no matter who it was.
Meanwhile, Qin Mo was whispering with Ximan, preparing to create a groundbreaking weapon.
"Simman, do you understand what I mean?"
“Your Highness, I really don’t understand what you mean. After all, I’ve never seen your kind of cannon before. And why use bronze? As you know, bronze requires adding copper and tin to iron, which is very expensive. You have a blast furnace now, wouldn’t it be better to use iron?”
Ximan, who usually draws inferences from one instance to another, completely failed to understand Qin Mo's intentions this time. He didn't understand why it was necessary to make a straight pipe with a thickness that changed continuously from the opening to the bottom.
Qin Mo wanted to make cannons, but his blast furnace for iron smelting was not yet at a high level of proficiency. Cast iron cannons had too high requirements for iron materials, and once there were air bubbles, they would explode. On the contrary, bronze cannons were easier to cast, and they were resistant to high temperature and high pressure, and were actually lighter in weight for the same power.
"Forget it, I'll just build a cannon myself first, and then throw out some advanced ideas. Curious Seaman will naturally keep researching it." Qin Mo finally gave up the idea of being lazy and continued to work overtime.
In fact, any groundbreaking work is the result of many cutting-edge technologies of the time. For example, a successful cannon is inextricably linked to the development and improvement of casting and metallurgical technology and gunpowder.
Qin Mo and Xi Man were cracking eggs, scooping out the yolks and leaving only the egg whites. As the officials became wealthier, their living standards improved, and eggs were no longer a rare treat. However, wasting dozens of kilograms of eggs at once was still quite wasteful.
Later generations developed many chemical adhesives, but Qin Mo was not a chemical engineer. He could only use the most primitive and effective egg white to bind the gunpowder into granules, which not only made it less susceptible to moisture but also gave it greater explosive power.
"Your Highness, you also know alchemy? Your actions just now were truly eye-opening. What was that called again?... Purification?"
"Work harder, talk less!"
Qin Mo silenced the chatterbox Ximan, then picked up the prepared gunpowder and began stirring it until the large basin of gunpowder was granulated.
"Let's go, let's test it out!"
Qin Mo carried his first "cannon" and had Ximan carry the gunpowder he had just prepared, and went to the Wurao Seaside.
Qin Mo knew all the firing processes of muzzle-loading cannons, but he had never actually operated one. So for his first test, he didn't dare to go all out with the cannon. It was at most a two-pound cannon with a barrel weighing several hundred kilograms and a muzzle as thick as a fist. He simply stomped on it firmly as he lay down on the ground.
The firing device was meticulously crafted by Ximan according to Qin Mo's requirements. A firing tube was inserted into the rear top of the cannon, containing Ximan's unique formula powder. Once the rope on the firing tube was pulled, the powder inside would ignite, making it very "advanced".
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