The construction of the first coke oven was completed, and Li Guodong commanded the engineers to start work: "Put the coal into the furnace." The engineers put the Annan high-quality coal used to refine coke into a large bucket, then pulled the big bucket with a winch, loaded the high-quality coal into the furnace from the top of the coke oven, then closed the lid with an air outlet, and then connected an iron pipe to the air outlet.

This iron pipe is connected to the furnace under the furnace. Before entering the furnace, there is a valve that can control the switch. Li Guodong explained to others: "This is a gas pipe. The gas produced in the coke oven enters the furnace through this pipe, replacing coal combustion, and heating the coke oven."

However, the pipeline circuit using gas is still a bit complicated. The gas pipeline does not enter the furnace directly, but is connected to the same sealed iron can. The iron can has two air outlets, one air outlet is connected with a hand-cranked air extractor, and the other air outlet is connected to the gas pipe. With Li Guodong's order, an engineer shook the handle and sucked the gas in the gas storage tank away.

There is also a pressure gauge above the gas tank, which can be produced in Europe, and Li Guodong sent several imitations by himself. This thing was originally invented by Galileo, and it is no longer a novel item in Europe. However, no one has ever imported this thing in the Ming Dynasty. Li Guodong imported several barometers from Europe five years ago and successfully imitated it himself.

There is also a mercury thermometer, which is not uncommon in Europe. Li Guodong also imported several high-temperature mercury thermometers.

"Okay, I've got time." Li Guodong looked at the pressure gauge pointing to a negative number, and it was about to come to an end. He ordered the engineer to stop moving.

Before pouring the gas produced by the coke oven into the gas storage tank, the air in the gas storage tank must be pumped away, otherwise the gas will be mixed with the air and an explosion will occur once it is ignited.

Several engineers shoveled the coal into the furnace and poured some tinder oil into it. With Li Guodong's order to "ignite", the engineers put the torch deep into the furnace.

The turbulent oil burned rapidly, and soon ignited the coal in the furnace. As a result of a bellow pulling back and forth, the fire changed from red to blue. Then the engineers closed the upper furnace so that the heat energy in the furnace would not be wasted, and the bellows brought fresh air from another port.

"Quick, open the gas tank valve!" Li Guodong shouted at the pressure gauge of the coke oven.

An engineer quickly unscrewed the gas storage tank valve, and the gas generated from the coke oven was injected into the gas storage tank.

Li Guodong looked at the furnace temperature thermometer and saw that the temperature gradually rose and soon rose to a high temperature of 1,000 degrees.

"What is this? It looks very strange." Tao Gui, who came to visit, asked.

Before Li Guodong answered, Luo Yuanfeng spoke first: "This is a thermometer made by Taixi. You can know how much the temperature in the furnace is."

"Good thing!" Tao Gui sighed.

The parts equipped with this coke oven include not only thermometers and barometers, but also clocks. Through these modern measurement methods produced in Europe, it is much easier to control the coke oven, and these things can also be used on iron and blast furnaces.

Li Guodong watched the gas tank's barometer almost reaching its peak, and Li Guodong shouted anxiously: "Open the furnace gas valve quickly!"

The worker opened the gas valve in the furnace, and the gas was sent out from the gas tank and was sent into the furnace through the air supply pipe. A blue flame ignited again in the furnace, which was about to run out of coal, and the gas burned violently in the furnace. When the thermometer was about to exceed its limit, Li Guodong ordered: "Close the small valve."

The valve was closed down, and the engineers who pulled the bellows also stopped their work. At this time, they only need to keep a little flame and keep the temperature in the furnace. However, someone needs to keep a close eye on the thermometer at any time. Once the temperature is found to be too low, they must open the valve and pull the bellows to increase the furnace temperature.

After two days and two nights of coking, the coal in the coking oven could hardly produce gas. At this time, Li Guodong ordered the addition of coal to the furnace to maintain the temperature. It would take another day and one night to refine the coke, but there was no need for a large fire later, just maintain the furnace temperature.

When the time came, Li Guodong asked to turn off the fire and turned on the coking oven.

The flames in the furnace went out. After the temperature dropped a little, someone climbed up the top of the coke oven along the stairs, unscrewed the disc handle, and opened the furnace cover.

A passion ejaculation ejected from the coke oven. At this time, the temperature in the coke oven was still relatively high. When the temperature in the furnace dropped, the engineers, under the command of Li Guodong, pulled up the coke oven with a winch and poured out the things inside.

The first thing that was poured out was coke, and finally the brown oil flowed out from the bottom of the stove, which was coal tar.

The coke was loaded on a large truck, and the coal tar was collected by the engineers to replace the hot turbulent oil.

"Is this coke? It looks a bit like charcoal, but I don't know how the iron smelting effect is." Luo Yuanfeng picked up a piece of coke and looked in his hand. He thought to himself: This furnace of coke is at least 3,000 kilograms! If the effect is similar to charcoal, then the cost of iron smelting will be saved a lot in the future.

The price of every 100 kilogram of charcoal costs four cents of silver, and the price of three thousand kilograms of charcoal costs twelve taels of silver! The price of a hundred kilograms of coal is only one cent and three cents of silver. This is still high-quality Annan coal. About four thousand kilograms of coal can produce 3,000 kilograms of coke, and only five taels of silver is used, and the price is more than half the cheaper! Moreover, the refined "temperature oil" has other uses.

This is the best Annan coal. If it is coal of poor quality, it will take about 5,000 kilograms of coal to refine 3,000 kilograms of coke.

Li Guodong is not afraid of being copied by the coke oven. Luo Yuanfeng is already a shareholder, so he naturally cannot reveal the secret of the coke oven. If those guys who refuse to invest in the coke oven are copied, they may not be able to do so. The new coke oven in the coke oven will explode. If the coke oven is used to coke in the country, the consumption of coal will be extremely large. In terms of conversion, the cost will not be much lower than charcoal.

Luo Yuanfeng asked someone to bring coke back to his iron shop and conduct coke iron smelting experiments, and found that coke iron smelting is not inferior to coal at all. By this calculation, the cost of iron smelting can be reduced by about half in the future. How much money can you save in this year?

"The coal price in Annan is not expensive, and the charcoal production is good. Unfortunately, the current shipping in Guangdong still controls the hands of those in Guangzhou." Luo Yuanfeng said.

Li Guodong smiled and said, "This is the problem that my country's Duke is preparing to solve. Although Li's navy is not as good as those of the pseudo-Yongli Dynasty, someone will soon take action to deal with them."

The Guangdong Pearl River Navy of the pseudo-Yongli Emperor was second only to Zheng Zhilong's Zheng family navy, and the Huai Army Navy was still far from being able to compete with it.

The river in the estuary of the Pearl River is wide and can be regarded as a sea. With the current strength of the Huai Army Navy, if it fights head-on with the rebel Guangdong Navy, it will definitely not be an opponent. Li Guodong didn't know where Zheng Zhilong's navy had arrived. It was inconvenient for communication at this time. Without radio, the navy would not be able to contact the land after leaving the sea.

"Lord, someone came to report the news and claimed to be from the Zheng family army." A personal soldier walked into Li Guodong's central army tent to report.

"Let him in!"

The messenger walked into Li Guodong's central army tent and saluted Li Guodong who was sitting in the seat above.

Li Guodong looked at the person carefully and saw that the messenger had a fair face, a tall and handsome face, but a burly figure. At first glance, he looked like a handsome young man in white.

"The last general Gan Hui has seen Duke Chu!" The man knelt on one knee and saluted.
Chapter completed!