1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 847 The Age of Steel
On October 1669, 10, Hanzhou, Montenegro (near Palmerston, Australia today).

For a long time, charcoal has been used as the only fuel for iron smelting in Europe.At that time, smelting one ton of iron required about ten acres of woodland (1 acre equals approximately 6.07 acres) of forest land, and the processing of ironware also required the same amount of charcoal as fuel.With the rapid development of the iron smelting industry, forest resources across Europe were quickly exhausted.

In Europe, every blast furnace is not only a pig iron production furnace, but also a forest incinerator. The speed of forest regeneration cannot be compared with the speed of the blast furnace.At that time, it can be said that the iron smelting industry of a country depends to a large extent on its forest area, and the iron smelting industry has also become a black hole in the consumption of forest resources.

Although there is no shortage of iron ore in Britain, in order to protect dwindling forest resources, the number of domestic blast furnaces had to be limited in the Elizabethan era (1558–1603).The depletion of timber resources led to the end of the British iron smelting industry.During this period, the forest coverage rate in the UK was roughly estimated to have dropped to about 10%. Therefore, a large amount of pig iron had to be imported, and 60% of the iron came from Sweden, which is rich in forest resources.

Since ancient times, Europeans have been forced to cut food, and generally eat food directly with their hands (no way, God forgot to give Europeans the ability to use chopsticks).Even in the early 18th century, with the advent of the Iron Age, iron knives and forks were not common.It was not until the middle of the 18th century that iron knives and forks gradually became popular. It was not until the 19th century that the majority of people in European countries, including the United Kingdom, basically ended the state of "picking rice with hands".

Viscount Maurice Macmillan, the British special envoy to the Far East, took the train, accompanied by several diplomats from the whole country, to Montenegro, New Huaian City (now Palmerston, Australia), Kaiyuan City (now Humpty Doo, Australia) Take a tour.Although I heard someone introduce the appearance and function of the train, I was still shocked when I saw the train.This huge steel monster dragged more than a dozen carriages full of goods and personnel and galloped quickly on the rails. In less than half an hour, he arrived at the most important industrial town in Hanzhou. His mood was long Can't be calm.

When he was on the train and saw that there were endless dense forests on both sides of the fire railway except for large tracts of farmland, Viscount McMillan couldn't help but think of the iron factory he invested in Cleveland County, which had been suffering from charcoal. shortages, so that production was intermittent.For this reason, he was very envious. It would be great if England also had such vast forest resources as Hanzhou.

"Lord Macmillan, as far as we know, the Hanzhou people don't use wood to smelt steel." The accompanying senior manager of the British East India Company, Simon Steven, said in a low voice: "They have mastered a technology, Coal can be used to smelt steel, and the production of steel is enormous.”

"Using coal to smelt steel?" Viscount McMillan looked at Simon Steven in amazement, "How did they do it?"

"This, we... have no way of knowing." Steven said with a little embarrassment: "The Hanzhou people's secrecy measures are very strict, and ordinary people cannot get a glimpse of the mystery. But I am very sure that the Hanzhou people are indeed using coal. Smelting steel."

In 1660, the steam locomotive was successfully developed, and the first officially operational railway from Jianye to Montenegro was completed and opened to traffic immediately, with a mileage of only 1668 kilometers.And until last year (630), Qi State had successively built Jiansong Railway, Weigao Railway (Weihai to Gaoping), Yunxiang Railway (Yunyang to Xiangjiang), Shaoxing Railway (Shaoliang to Daxing), and Changxing Railway. (Chang'an to Daxing), Yongxing Railway (Yongchang to Daxing), Nanjiang Railway (Nandu to Jiangling) and other nearly ten railway lines, with a mileage of more than [-] kilometers.

With the gradual replacement of wood by steel machines, the booming cotton textile industry in Qi State increasingly relied on the metal machinery industry.Since the Heishan Special Machinery Factory manufactured the first pure iron loom seven years ago, more than a hundred textile factories in Qi have started to use iron machinery to replace the iron-wood hybrid machinery that is being used on a large scale.

"The red-hot iron flows out of the furnace, as if spinning, and then turns into iron rods and iron blocks. The ease and speed of the operation is amazing." A representative of the Dutch East India Company who once visited the Black Mountain Iron and Steel Works once Describe the production scene of pig iron in this way.

"Although I don't know the size and combat effectiveness of Hanzhou's navy, but with their huge steel output, numerous machinery factories, and advanced technology far surpassing ours in Europe, I think that the strength contained in this country is quite Stunning and we in England had better not be our enemies."

After 30 years of development, Qi's industrial development has begun to take shape, the industrial categories have been gradually improved and expanded, and the technology has been continuously improved and iterated.Especially in terms of mechanical production, whether it is production scale or production precision, some of them can even reach the industrial level of later generations in the middle and late 18th century.

"Hmph, sooner or later the Dutch will pay a heavy price for their endless greed." Viscount McMillan sneered, "However, the Hanzhou people also extended their hands to the far southern tip of Africa, trying to control the relationship between the east and the west. trade, which would arouse deep fear and anger in all of our European countries."

Although, Charles II was not a commander who could put on a firm grip on the battlefield, but he was a scheming king.

Although Britain and the Netherlands ended the war and signed the "Treaty of Breda", the two sides also quickly resumed their pre-war economic and trade cooperation.But before the ink on the treaty was dry, Charles II began to prepare for the destruction of the Netherlands in one fell swoop.

The great prosperity of steel machinery requires a large and stable supply of steel.Last year, Qi's iron and steel output reached a new level. The iron output reached 48 tons, and the steel output exceeded 11 tons, reaching 1810 tons. Leading the world (Britain's steel production only reached 40 tons around 1865, but with the deepening of the industrial revolution, pig iron production soared to 480 million tons in [-]).

Although, a group of British visitors were not allowed to enter the Black Mountain Iron and Steel Plant to see what happened, but just walked around the periphery of the plant and the steel stockyard.However, several smelting blast furnace chimneys are constantly spewing billowing smoke, piles of steaming steel bars and iron blocks, several towering boom pulleys, and the carriages full of steel are dragged by steam tractors. Slowly driving to the station in the west of the city...All this amazed the visiting British mission staff.

Of all the uses of steel, the machine's place is self-evident.Steel, with its extraordinary hardness and ductility, is naturally the best material for building machines, and it cannot be compared with stone and wood at all.It can even be said that there would be no machines without steel, and the precondition for the advent of the machine age is the popularization of steel.Steel and iron, with their unparalleled properties of tensile and compressive strength, and their ability to form and retain that shape indefinitely, have become the basic raw materials of modern industry.

"Mr. Steven, in this world, any risk is directly proportional to the benefit." Viscount McMillan said with a smile: "Besides, in front of a huge amount of money, not to mention trampling on the law, it is death. Sometimes it will make people fearless. Believe me, as long as you get this kind of coal and iron smelting technology, you will definitely get a huge return of wealth."

As production increased, prices also fell sharply.In March this year, the latest price of steel was 25 Hanzhou silver dollars per ton of wrought iron, and the price of steel was 45 Hanzhou silver dollars per ton, which were down by nearly 30% and [-]% respectively compared with [-] years ago.

Compared with the wooden rails that came out more than 100 years ago, the rails are much stronger and more durable, but each kilometer of rail requires about 40-45 tons of iron.Twenty-five years ago, Qi State built a horse-drawn track paved with pig iron, connecting several counties in the inland with Jianye City.

"Lord McMillan, the Hanzhou people have extremely severe punishments for any type of espionage." Steven said with a bitter face.

The advent of the railway and the steam engine was revolutionary for the country.In a short time, railroads rapidly dominated short and medium-distance transportation, able to move passengers and goods faster and cheaper than was possible on road or coastal transportation.The large-scale construction of railways has made what was slow in the past faster now, and what was far away in the past is now closer...

Probably in order to show the strong national power to the British, Qi readily agreed to the request of the British mission to visit.However, in order to prevent technical leaks, the places and factories visited did not involve the display of technical details, and during the visit, more than a dozen military police and spies from the polling office accompanied and monitored the whole process.

In Qi State, various machine tools, as "machines for making machines", also have epoch-making significance in the process of industrial advancement.Machine tools such as planers, milling machines, lathes, and boring machines can process metals into very precise geometric shapes according to prior designs.It is precisely because of the precision machine tool that steel and iron have become promising materials as ideal materials for building machines.

Charles II formed a tripartite alliance of England, Holland and Sweden in the name of common defense of France.The conclusion of the tripartite alliance undoubtedly drove a wedge between the Netherlands and its traditional ally Denmark (at that time, Sweden was at loggerheads with Denmark in the struggle for Nordic hegemony).In fact, Charles II had no intention of maintaining this alliance for a long time, and all his diplomatic actions were nothing more than raising himself in front of the French.

"Our coal resources in England are extremely rich. If we can master the technology of coal smelting iron and steel, it will be nothing less than a subversive revolution for our iron smelting industry in England!" Viscount McMillan's eyes radiated a strange light, "You East India Company must do everything possible to obtain this technology. Even if it costs tens of thousands of pounds, it is a very cost-effective business."

Although the Heishan Iron and Steel Plant was the first iron and steel plant established in Qi State, it was limited by the low grade of iron ore in the area and the scattered mining areas, which restricted the further expansion of the steel plant's output. In 1654, its output was overtaken by the Linhai (now Port Hedland, Australia) Iron and Steel Works, and five years ago by the Nandu Iron and Steel Works, falling to the No.3 position.

In addition to these three iron and steel plants, the Ministry of Industry of the State of Qi plans to build Linjingbao (now Whyalla, South Australia), an iron ore producing area in Nan'an Prefecture (now Adelaide, Australia) in the south, and Yingzhou (now a coal producing area in Linzi Prefecture, southeast). In today’s Newcastle, Australia, two more steel plants will be built in order to double Qi’s steel production in five years to an astonishing 100 million tons or more.

Symbolizing the strength of a country, nothing can give people a stronger visual impact than massive amounts of steel and countless machines.As the earliest heavy industry center, Heishan City concentrated Heishan Iron and Steel Plant, Heishan Special Metal Smelter, Heishan Coke Plant, Hanzhou Coal Chemical Plant, Heishan Machinery Factory, Heishan Special Equipment Factory, Hanzhou No. [-] Agricultural Machinery Factory, Hanzhou General Military Factory, Hanzhou Locomotive Manufacturing Factory and dozens of large-scale heavy industry enterprises in Qi State are the most important industrial bases in the northern part of Hanzhou.

The expansion of steel scale and the reduction of production cost greatly promoted the railway construction in Qi State.Even, in a certain sense, it is better to say that it is steel than the steam engine that promotes the construction of railways.

Different from the cotton textile machinery that can use a large amount of wood as raw materials, since the practical steam engine appeared in Qi State more than ten years ago, it has urgently required relevant industries such as metallurgy and machinery manufacturing to make corresponding technological progress and continuous improvement. innovation.

To some extent, Qi's machine tool industry was the true pioneer of mass production.In the last year, a senior craftsman invented a thread lathe to produce screws.This kind of mass production has made screws completely cheap and ordinary (of course, only relative to the country of Qi).

In order to improve the kinetic energy of the steam engine and meet the high-precision processing requirements of cylinders and pistons, Heishan Machinery Factory successfully manufactured a precision boring machine four years ago.This boring machine uses a water wheel to drive the cylinder material to rotate, so that the tool advances from the longitudinal direction of the material to cut the inside of the cylinder.When using this kind of boring machine to process cylinders with a diameter of more than 1.5 meters, the error is only as thick as a Hanzhou silver dollar.This is extremely high precision in today's world.The boring machine processing technology makes the inner wall of the cylinder and the piston more tightly matched, greatly reducing air leakage, and the power of the steam engine is correspondingly increased.

After a month of meetings and negotiations, the UK and Qi have only reached a series of economic cooperation agreements. As for the establishment of the so-called two-ocean strategic alliance, the people of Qi obviously lack interest.As for abandoning the Dutch and instead conducting all-round in-depth cooperation with the UK, the people of Qi clearly expressed their rejection.

"Lord Macmillan, the Han Chinese have established several stable colonial strongholds at the southern tip of Africa." Steven said: "They have worked closely with the Dutch, not only in the Far East, but also firmly in control The Strait of Malacca cuts off the trade routes from other European countries to the Ming Dynasty, Japan and the East Indies, and is still trying to control the key node from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean and monopolize the entire Eastern trade."

In order to deal with the Netherlands, Louis XIV, who wanted to dominate the European continent, spent huge sums of money to buy Britain to stand in the same trench as himself. He not only paid 200 million livres (1 livre equals about 8 taels of silver) in military expenses to subsidize the United Kingdom The navy also pays for Charles II's extravagant court life-an annual sponsorship of 16 pounds to the British royal family.

It is precisely because Britain and France have begun to collude secretly, preparing to sharpen their knives against the Netherlands and completely destroy the Netherlands, that the British mission repeatedly proposed to Qi to deepen economic and trade cooperation between the two sides in the Far East and India, and even establish a two-ocean A strategic alliance, in an attempt to overthrow the Netherlands, the United Kingdom can replace the economic status of the Dutch in the Far East.

But what makes the British helpless is that Qi Guo seems to be in love with the Netherlands. They are like lovers of men and women.

"However, although the country of Hanzhou is developing rapidly and its strength is increasing day by day, they are too far away from Europe after all." Viscount McMillan murmured: "So, when some important events happen in our Europe, they will be powerless Get involved."

(End of this chapter)