After turning a corner on the mountain road, Tang Kongmu pointed to the mountainside in front and said, "Then the judgment is the place where our prisoner is selling steel. The two big families, Chen family and Niu family, each have several smelting furnaces, specially used for iron frying. The village below the mountain is called the Blacksmith Furnace, and is all blacksmiths who make iron. Because there is a cold pond there, it is the most suitable for wrought iron."

Du Zhongxiao looked ahead and nodded. There are many places for smelting iron under the jurisdiction of Datong, but there are only a few places for smelting steel and forging iron tools. This is the largest place. Next to the place where smelting steel is a coal mine, and the pig iron used is bought from nearby smelting furnaces.

Li Gui was the magistrate of Jiaocheng. After receiving Du Zhongxiao, he returned to Jiaocheng and left behind to wait for Du Zhongxiao to call him. Tang Kongmu was from Wenshui County next door. He worked in Datongjian for many years and was very familiar with it.

When everyone arrived at the place where the steel was stir-frying on the hillside, they saw that according to the terrain, they divided into two places and dug seven or eight floor furnaces for stir-frying steel. Each floor furnace was not too big, and each time it was several hundred kilograms of iron. Not far from the stove, there were 100,000 blacksmiths, who kept punching around the anvil.

The blacksmith here does not make iron tools, but only initially processes the fried steel, removes residue, and makes it into steel ingots or steel bars of different specifications. Therefore, the blacksmith here does not need any skills, just have strength.

Seeing Du Zhongxiao and his party coming, two middle-aged people came up and bowed early: "Kong is here, don't you know what's going on?"

Tang Kongmu stepped forward and pointed at Du Zhongxiao and said, "This is a verdict in this state. Come and check out the Datong Regulations. You are a local steel trader, so you come here specifically to see what the situation is here."

After hearing this, the two hurriedly bowed to Du Zhongxiao.

Tang Kongmu introduced: "This one is Supervisor Niu, and that one is Supervisor Chen. They are always watching here."

After the salute, Superintendent Niu and Superintendent Chen asked Du Zhongxiao to be under the shed, and ordered people to serve them diligently.

Du Zhongxiao looked around and two supervisors of the department: "How many steel stir-frying furnaces are there in each of your house? How many kilograms of steel can be produced every day?"

Manager Chen said: "I returned to the official, there are five houses in my small house and four housekeepers. Now the business is not good, so I have three houses in my house and two housekeepers in my housekeeper Niu. I can sell two or three hundred kilograms of steel every day to make a living."

"Not bad, quite a lot!" Du Zhongxiao nodded. "Is the steel produced here good? There are not many residues inside?"

Manager Chen said: "The young people have been here for generations to fry steel, and they are very careful. The steel they produce is excellent. In addition to the craftsmen of the blacksmith furnace below, many of them are sold to the mountains. It is not the smallest bragging, but the farm tools in several nearby counties are made of steel by the young people."

Du Zhongxiao nodded with a smile, turned around to see the iron thief beside him, sparks flew everywhere. More than a dozen strong men were naked, waving a sledgehammer, and hitting the iron ingots on the anvil. The red iron blocks could be seen clearly, and there were really a lot of residues, which was not easy to make.

Seeing that Du Zhongxiao didn't say anything, Superintendent Chen and Superintendent Niu were both nervous and discussed for a while. Then Superintendent Chen stepped forward and said, "Officials, business is not good this year. The two small companies only opened half of the furnaces and produced not much steel. There are only so many iron classes I handed over."

Du Zhongxiao turned around and looked at the two of them, and shook his head with a smile: "Don't worry, I'm not here to urge you to rent classes. Now the iron in the prison has come out, and you have nowhere to store your iron. Today, I'm here to see if you have enough hands and feet, and I have some things to do."

Manager Chen breathed a sigh of relief and bowed: "I'm not to hide it from the officials. The New Year has just passed, it's not a busy season. There are still many servants who have not arrived and there are some shortages in staff. If you wait for the last month, you will be able to get all the people, and you will be allowed to be ordered by the officials."

Du Zhongxiao said: "How can I wait for a month? I don't know how much more things I have to do in Bingzhou City, and I can't stay in Datong Supervision for many days. Don't worry, I'm not sending someone to make a blacksmith, but I'm looking for a few experienced players to help me build a few steel stoves in the supervision."

Manager Chen was stunned for a moment and asked hurriedly: "I dare to ask the official, why do you want to build a fried steel stove in the prison?"

"In recent years, Datong has mostly collected pig iron, which is not easy to sell, and it is difficult to make swords and agricultural tools. It is better to make swords and agricultural tools when it is fried into steel and go to the capital to make swords and agricultural tools than to put them there and rust."

Seeing that Director Chen was not speaking, Manager Niu felt a little anxious and stepped forward and bowed: "Officials, you see, we are short of staff here and we really can't get out of our hands to help the officials do their work. Steel-frying work must be forged in time when it comes out of the furnace, otherwise it will become scrap iron. If the official draws people, we have to stop a few stoves. Not to mention the livelihoods of the whole family, the steel made now has been paid by foreign merchants, and it cannot be delayed."

Du Zhongxiao looked at Manager Niu, nodded, ignored him, and turned to Manager Chen and said, "It doesn't take many people. As long as you find a few people who can build steel stoves, you can go with me. Datong Supervisor has its own wing army, which can do things."

Manager Chen looked at Manager Niu, lowered his head and refused to speak, obviously he was not willing to do so.

Du Zhongxiao smiled and shook his head: "I looked at the stove here. Although it was neatly shaped, I used my thoughts when repairing it. I am bluntly saying that it is not good enough. First, the steel fried is not good, and the charcoal is too much. Look at the nearby mountains and forests, because iron smelting is always smelted, there are no big trees within ten miles. You cut trees and burn charcoal to stir-fry steel. Not to mention that the charcoal is expensive, it is difficult to maintain water and soil without trees on these mountains."

Manager Chen hurriedly said, "Officials, since ancient times, we have cut down all the trees. Nowadays, people who smelter iron in the mountains use more charcoal. Very few people use charcoal, and not many people cut down trees. We cannot use charcoal to stir-fry steel, but the stove is small, so how many trees can we cut down?"

Du Zhongxiao sighed: "Although you use it very little, the stock of trees is not large, so it is impossible to cut it down. You can go and help me make a stove for stir-frying steel. I will teach you a way to use carbide to stir-fry steel. This method is used a lot in the Central Plains, but no one here uses it."

Manager Niu shook his head repeatedly: "It's okay to use carbonite to smelter iron, I have never heard of it being able to fry steel. Officials, I have been doing this for decades, how can I not know this? When the carbonite is put into the frying furnace, it is difficult for the steel to come out--"

Looking at Manager Niu's conceited look, Du Zhongxiao smiled and said nothing.

The one used to stir-fry steel here is a small floor furnace. Charcoal and pig iron are added to the stir-frying steel pan. After the pig iron turns into a semi-liquid like bean dregs, stir hard to combine the oxygen in the iron with the charcoal to become cooked iron. This is a direct heating method. First, the temperature is insufficient, and the other is that charcoal will consume oxygen as both fuel and reducing agent. The requirements are very high, and charcoal must be used well. Not to mention using coal, even charcoal for general roasting fire cannot be used. These two companies have already cut down all the big trees on several hills around them, so they can only buy charcoal from a distance.

Based on the knowledge of the previous life, Du Zhongxiao had a rough idea of ​​the chemical reaction of stir-frying steel. This process was to consume carbon from pig iron, and it was wrong to contact with the charcoal. It was best to isolate it, and it was a reflector. This is not a knowledge beyond the times. The Central Plains used the reflector, but it was not passed on here. Of course, when Du Zhongxiao was in Yongcheng County, he had already improved the steel stir-frying furnace, which increased the temperature and efficiency.
Chapter completed!