Chapter 44 Chapter 44 Building a Shaft Furnace
Although the Hu people knew nothing, Lin Sike had no interest in exploiting slaves.
Of course you have to be paid for the work you do.
In this way, a few Hu people can occasionally be seen on the streets of Li County today.
Many people had never seen Hu people before and were shocked at first, but now they have become accustomed to it.
The Hu people also integrated well into Li County, and even followed the local customs, asking the fruit sellers to give them a lower price in their broken Chinese.
The children in the manor received Lin Si's orders to brainwash the Hu people from time to time.
If you stay here, you are part of Li County, the people of the county lord. You will not go hungry or cold. No matter which grassland you came from before, from now on, you are Li County people.
Xubu Chuo could understand most of what was said and translated it to the remaining Hu people.
The Hu people immediately burst into tears, saying that this was a damn grassland and even dogs wouldn't go back.
Lin Si could clearly see in his mind the rapid increase in people's hearts and reputation. Of course, the base was too small, so the increase was not high.
Mining iron ore is only the first step in ironmaking. The most important thing is to use coal to make iron and build a blast furnace.
Liang Nian asked Lin Si, "Everything is ready, but what if we need a blacksmith? Sun Chang only knows how to connect forged iron to wood. Where can we get one?"
Lin Si was confident about this: "A blacksmith will be available soon."
Liang Nian was puzzled, thinking Lin Si was really going to kidnap a blacksmith. He asked, "Where are you going to kidnap him, my Lady? It would be best if you could kidnap an unmarried man whose parents are no longer alive. After you kidnap him, lock him up and don't let him leave the house except to forge iron."
Lin Si rejected Liang Nian's proposal, "Thank you, County Magistrate Liang, for your suggestion. I already have a plan."
Liang Nian was still worried and kept asking Lin Si where to solve the problem.
Lin Si replied, "Since County Magistrate Liang told me there was an iron mine near Li County, I sent a few servants to Shizhou and Enzhou to learn from masters. They don't need to learn in-depth skills, just the basics will be enough."
Liang Nian: ...
Why did she feel that the servants in the county lord's mansion were like bricks, to be moved wherever they were needed?
As for the three unlucky guys who were sent out, they even staged a drama of becoming apprentices. The very generous apprenticeship fees made it impossible for the blacksmiths to refuse.
Ding Pu's eyes were filled with tears. Why was it him again?
He really just wanted to be a good servant. He couldn't count how many skills he had learned.
Don’t let him learn anything next time!
When the ore was almost mined, Lin Si asked this group of Hu people to build a tall vertical furnace with refractory clay.
Mining and building vertical furnaces are both physical work. During this period, they had three meals a day, and everyone had gained weight visibly, and their strength had recovered a lot, so the work was not too difficult.
The vertical furnace must be made into a waist drum shape, that is, tight at both ends and wide in the middle.
Xubu Chuo didn't understand why it was built in such a strange shape, but it didn't matter. After all, he could eat and get paid for working.
The vertical furnace is an important step in iron smelting, and the other step is hydraulic blast.
In this era without electricity, water power is the best way to save manpower and material resources.
Liang Nian would come to check on Hu Ren's work progress every now and then, so Lin Si teased her why she seemed more anxious than herself?
Liang Nian didn't know how to respond to this. Was she going to say that since things had already come to this, why not just kill all nine generations of the family together?
These Hu people were among the population hidden by Lin Si. Although there were not many of them, Liang Nian had to register them, but she did not report them to facilitate management by her and Lin Si.
However, Liang Nian soon felt strange about his own idea. How could it make it easier for Lin Si to manage?
The most difficult part of registering the Hu people is their names.
These Hu people cannot speak Chinese yet.
Liang Nian could only assign the houses to them first, and temporarily recognize people according to the houses, leaving the name column blank, and wait until they became familiar with Chinese before registering.
In order to speed up the learning process of Chinese, the Hu people now try to use Chinese when speaking to each other. They only use Hu language when they really can't express themselves clearly.
Xubu Chuo remembered that the day before yesterday was a month since he came here, and it was also the day before yesterday that his family was assigned a shabby little house.
This was the first time that Xubu Chuo's family lived in the house.
This feeling is magical, completely different from living in a dome. You don't have to worry about the dome being blown down by sudden strong winds, and you sleep on a special bed, which is not as cold as sleeping on the ground.
Although the house was small, Xubu Chuo's family cherished it very much. They cleaned the house carefully, and for the first time they had a wonderful feeling.
Xubu Chuo felt that this was a sense of belonging.
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Ding Pu hated learning the craft of blacksmithing, not for any other reason but because forging iron was too hot and required a lot of strength, which hurt his hands.
How could a salted fish have such great strength! It would be difficult for a salted fish to even turn over.
As for Zhao An and Tao Yanghui, Ding Pu could imagine what kind of mentality they had when they went to study.
Zhao An: I will live up to the county lady's trust and learn the basic blacksmithing skills.
Tao Yanghui: I’ll fight for the subsidies!
Fortunately, the county lady only allowed them to learn some basic skills, and they did not need to learn such advanced techniques, such as carving complex and complicated patterns on ironware.
In this regard, Ding Pu held the idea of stuffing ducks and chickens, and was determined to only learn the basic operations and not learn anything more.
The blacksmith who received the money was a little confused. He didn't want to accept this apprentice at first, but the other party was very sincere and the apprenticeship fee was very generous, so he accepted him. He thought it would be nice to have an apprentice to help him with his work for more than a year.
But I didn't expect that this apprentice was a bit strange. Now he can use the most basic anvil, sledgehammer and sink.
If you teach me further, this person won't want to learn anymore.
All he said was that he had to lay a solid foundation by mastering the basics.
The blacksmith was very confused. He had already learned the most basic things, so how could he lay the foundation?
Ding Pu said, "I want to learn thoroughly!"
Only after repeated urging from the blacksmith did Ding Pu begin the next step of learning.
Quenching and annealing.
After teaching the entire basic process of iron forging, the blacksmith was still sighing that finally someone had helped him with the work.
Unexpectedly, the next day, the apprentice said that there was an emergency at home. His expression was really anxious and it didn't seem like he was lying.
The blacksmith thought that although he had learned the basic skills of iron forging, there were still many tricks to apply them in practice. He paid the money to learn, so he would not just leave like that.
This is such a loss. There must be something urgent at home.
Ding Pu's expression was indeed very anxious, he wanted to go back to the County Lady's Mansion so much!
The blacksmith waited and waited, one day, two days, three days, four days.
A month later, the blacksmith sighed sadly.
He felt that this disciple might have met with an accident! What a young man, what a pity.
*
The vertical furnace only needs to be built with refractory clay according to the drawings, and the most important part is the hydraulic blast.
With hydraulic blast, air is continuously supplied to the vertical furnace, which can increase the furnace temperature.
In addition, Lin Si uses coal as the consumable material and adds some limestone, so there will be no impurities at all.
Lin Si solved all the backwardness of Dachen's iron-making technology at once.
It's hard not to make good iron.
The hydraulic blast consists of three parts: a water wheel, a connecting rod, and a piston wooden box.
Whenever there is a need for wood, Sun Chang and Fan Li have no choice but to go.
Sun Chang is a carpenter and uses iron when making farm tools, but that was all applied for by Liang Nian. Sun Chang only needs to adjust the shape and connect the wood. Sun Chang does not know the forging craft. Lin Si also thought about letting Sun Chang and Fan Li learn it, but when he thought about what the two had done before and they were almost doubting their lives, he finally let the master and apprentice go.
The water wheel part of the blast wheel is simple and is made in the same way as a small water wheel. The connecting rod and bellows are not complicated either.
The main attention of the bellows is to make the inside of the wooden board smooth, coat the outside with mud, seal it with the box body, and then design a bamboo valve to connect it to the air outlet of the vertical furnace.
These three simple things, when combined, have become the core of improving ironmaking technology.
Zuo You and Feng Ling also came to watch.
Feng Ling looked at the tall vertical furnace and muttered to himself, "Swords, spears, swords, bows and arrows, when the time comes, I will make them all for the children in the manor to use. I will definitely teach them all."
Zuo You believed in Lin Si unconditionally. She found that as long as Lin Si wanted to do something, he would succeed.
So she began to wonder if there was any ironware in her house that needed to be replaced.
Finally she thought.
If there is any extra iron, she will make a new pot. The hot pot that Lin Si invited her to have last time was delicious, so she will also make a new pot to eat hot pot at home.
After looking at the vertical furnace, Feng Ling left with satisfaction.
She was going to the estate to tell the children.
Zhao An and three other people who went out to learn skills also returned successfully.
The arm muscles of the three men became visibly more obvious, especially the thinnest Ding Pu.
Lin Si also formally assigned the three people new positions and issued them a generous subsidy.
It was so rich that Tao Yanghui burst into tears immediately. "County Lady, if there is anything else you need to learn in the future, just let me go. I am willing to serve you."
Ding Pu wanted to ask him not to call him in the future, but he didn't dare to, so he could only thank him in a cowardly manner.
He and Zhao An seem to have been promoted to technical managers now, and Tao Yanghui is the deputy technical manager, two levels lower than him.
In other words, from now on, the three of them are no longer considered servants.
Ding Pu also wanted to shed tears on the spot. After all, his mouth was faster than his brain and destroyed his dream of becoming a servant. Now he had no place to cry.
The hydraulic blower was still in the final debugging stage, so the three men moved to another state to purchase the anvils, hammers, and water tanks needed for forging iron.
Ding Pu sighed softly, "How did I become the technical manager? Why me?"
Tao Yanghui was very excited. "I will definitely learn more in the future, for the subsidy, ahem, no, for the county lady!"
Zhao An also inexplicably became excited, "I will live up to the County Master's trust and do my best to be the technical manager!"
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