Chapter 420: One Knife, One Kill
In addition to the crushed iron ore, charcoal for combustion and solvent for slag making are added from the top of the furnace.
The most common solvent is limestone, which can be found everywhere in the mountains surrounding the Ghost Prison.
I used it before when I was making paper in the eighth-class district.
Yun Fu had seen them in the mountains around the seventh-class area and had ordered people to bring some back in advance.
Quicklime can react with impurities in molten iron, causing the impurities to solidify and thus purify the molten iron.
As for charcoal, it can burn iron ore.
Under the action of hydraulic power, the blower delivers air into the furnace from the air supply port under the furnace. Under high temperature, the iron ore in the furnace removes oxygen and impurities from the iron ore, thereby obtaining iron.
The molten iron flows out from the taphole.
The reduced impurities in the iron ore and the limestone solvent combine to form slag.
The gases produced by smelting are discharged from the top of the furnace.
Everyone became excited as they watched the red molten iron flowing out.
"Look, it's molten iron!"
"Well, this method is too simple."
"From now on, we can smelt iron and make ironware ourselves."
In the bustling crowd, Yun Fu frowned slightly and did not look very happy.
"Xiao Fu'er, why do you seem to be thinking about something?" Qi Hanzhou noticed her expression.
Yun Fu shook her head. "I'm not really thinking about it. I'm just pondering some issues. I feel there's room for improvement. In fact, if conditions permit, it would be better to replace charcoal with coke. However, the coking coal needed for coking has certain requirements in terms of quality and properties. It can't be produced in ordinary coal mines."
"What is coking coal? Is it easy to find?" Xuanji Zhang also came closer, showing a look of eagerness for knowledge.
Yun Fu explained it briefly to him: "Coking coal is a type of bituminous coal. It has a certain cohesiveness. Only when it is heated can it produce colloid coking, and only when it is coked can coke be obtained."
The Guihuang Prison is rich in mineral resources. Yun Fu plans to establish a team dedicated to searching for minerals after unifying several districts of the Guihuang Prison to see if they can find coking coal.
As for now, let’s just use charcoal instead.
The molten iron produced in a blast furnace is still pig iron.
But compared with the previous method, the pig iron produced by the five countries' iron-smelting method is of higher purity and more efficient.
Water power replaced human and animal power, greatly reducing manpower.
In Xuanji Zhang's words, the pig iron produced by this large furnace is enough for dozens of craftsmen to work non-stop for a month.
But what Yunfu wanted to refine was not high-purity pig iron, but wrought iron and steel.
"It's not over yet."
Yunfu is cooked using the steel-frying method.
At this time, we have to admire the wisdom and ingenuity of the working people.
The steel-making furnace is much simpler than the blast furnace. A "can bottom"-shaped pit is dug on the ground to serve as the furnace, and a circle of refractory bricks is laid on the inner wall of the furnace.
A simple steel-frying furnace was built.
The smelted pig iron and charcoal are placed into a preheated steelmaking furnace, air is blown from above, and then stirred to increase the contact area between the iron and oxygen, allowing the carbon in the pig iron to oxidize.
Continue stirring in a semi-solid state and you will get wrought iron.
The process of steelmaking is similar, but you need to pay attention to controlling the carbon content during the process.
The steel with a higher carbon content is taken out of the furnace and repeatedly forged to obtain steel.
Under Yun Fu's step-by-step guidance, the first large steel knife was made.
Everyone's eyes were fixed on the shiny sword.
"This thing looks better than the big iron knife, but I don't know if it's just for show but not for use."
Next, it’s time to witness a miracle.
Yun Fu took the steel knife and chopped at the iron weapon beside her. With one slash, everyone saw that the strongest iron sword selected from many weapons was broken into two pieces.
However, the blade of the steel knife did not show any signs of curling.
Everyone gathered around and reached out to carefully touch the back of the knife.
"If this knife were placed outside, it would be considered a divine weapon."
"With this knife, let's see who dares to bully our seventh-class district!"
"Yes, with this knife, who dares to come and cause trouble for our seventh-class district? I'll chop them down one by one!"
…
However, this steel knife is just an appetizer.
With this method of making steel and wrought iron, they could obtain more iron products.
In addition to swords, spears, halberds, daggers, armor and other weapons and protective gear.
It can also be made into farm tools such as plows, shovels, hoes, and sickles.
There are even more common iron products in life, such as kitchen knives, scissors, axes, iron pots, stoves, iron basins, etc. There are also wheel knobs, wheel maces, horse bits, and horse bits.
In short, with this skill of iron smelting, I have the confidence.
From now on, these people will no longer have to worry about starving to death.
Immediately afterwards, the first kitchen knife, the first pair of scissors, the first sickle... appeared in front of everyone one after another.
Everyone is full of energy.
Even when sweating profusely in the high temperature, they were all smiling.
Now that they have the steel materials, Yun Fu’s next task is to make prosthetic limbs for the soldiers of the Qi family army.
Prosthetic limbs cannot be mass-produced and need to be customized according to each individual's condition.
She asked Wei Lin to call over all the soldiers with disabled limbs in the team.
Conduct preliminary assessment and design.
Inspect the patient's residual limb and determine the most suitable prosthesis.
The next step is to measure the size and shape of the residual limb to ensure that the prosthesis can fit the patient's residual limb.
"Princess, can I really still walk like a normal person?"
Rong Yao was only in his early twenties, but because of his bravery and skill in fighting on the battlefield, he was promoted by Qi Hanzhou to Vanguard General. After he had made some military achievements, he became jealous of the dog emperor, who accused him of dereliction of duty.
He was tortured alive with various punishments in the prison. One of his calves was smashed to pieces. The wound did not receive timely treatment and became festering and stinking on the way to exile. It was an old military doctor who was exiled with him who chopped off his calf and saved his life.
It was also thanks to his young age and the good physique he developed from years of living in such a harsh environment at the border that he was able to survive.
I thought I would have to rely on crutches to walk for the rest of my life, but now, there is hope.
Yun Fu met his eyes filled with longing and nodded, "Just follow my instructions, put on your prosthesis, and do your rehabilitation exercises. Not only will you be able to stand up, but you'll also be able to return to the battlefield and kill the enemy."
"Okay, then when I stand up again, I will follow the general to the battlefield to kill the enemy!"
"Return to the battlefield! Kill the enemy together!"
"Kill the enemy together!"
…
Yun Fu also found two other helpers.
Xuan Ji Zhang is responsible for making the prosthesis, and Qi Xu is responsible for the later rehabilitation issues.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
