Scholars in the courtyard.

Chapter 3040 Electric Furnace Steelmaking
P.S.: One more chapter to finish, shamelessly asking for monthly votes!

After glancing at the time, Yang Xiaotao looked at Li Hongfeng.

"Old Li, still no news from Old Xu?"

Everyone checked the time; it was already past 2 a.m., more than two hours had passed since the power was turned on, and the data should be available by now.

"I just had someone inquire about it. They want to conduct more calculations and also need time to gather information."

Li Hongfeng replied from the side, "I estimate it will take a while."

Old Hong took out a cigarette to perk himself up, "Then let's wait."

"Honestly, if we don't get a number by now, we won't be able to sleep even if we go back."

Everyone laughed. Yang Xiaotao nodded and then looked at the crowd, "Since you're all here, how about we have a chat and a coffee party late at night?"

“I think that’s a good idea. Other departments hold meetings at the beginning or end of the month. I think we should hold meetings in the middle of the night from now on.”

Yang Youning appeared in front of everyone, talking happily, showing no signs of sleepiness. Behind him, Chen Gong spat and said, "What nonsense are you talking about? Why aren't you sleeping at this hour?"

"Is it because your spouse won't let you into the house?"

"Go Away"

The two's witty banter made everyone laugh, but it also relaxed them and made them feel less sleepy.

At this moment, Liu Lixue and Lou Xiao'e brought in a tray of coffee, adding a special smell to the room.

"Xiao'e, have someone find some more food. I estimate it will take a while for the results to come out."

Yang Xiaotao took the coffee and said something to the two of them.

Lou Xiao'e nodded with a smile, "Director Yang, the canteen is ready for those working overtime."

Chen Gong quickly said from the side, "I'm preparing to drink the victory celebration wine, so please don't eat it all."

Ding Xiangjun shook his head and said, "Director Chen, you can't have a celebratory drink in the morning. You'll have to prepare another table at noon."

"That's right, that's right, hurry up and have someone bring the food, we don't know when we'll get it."

Yang Youning urged her on, and Lou Xiao'e glanced at Yang Xiaotao. Seeing that he nodded, she hurriedly left the meeting room.

Yang Xiaotao looked at everyone and then continued, "Now that the nuclear power plant is powered, we will have a sufficient supply of electricity, which will boost all industries. We must seize this opportunity and not let things remain the same as before!"

"With electricity, many electrical appliances will have a use, so we must seize this opportunity..."

Everyone nodded in agreement; at least for now, it seemed that the nuclear power plant was generating quite a bit of electricity.

Based on the information gathered so far, the amount of electricity delivered from Dengzhou this time is more than planned.

At this point, Yang Xiaotao said again, "The cooperation with the Fourth Ministry of Machine Building needs to be put on the agenda. The Chinese operating system is almost ready, the computers are in place, and basic language can be implemented."

"We've gathered all the necessary components for a pager; now it's up to them to build their base stations!"

Old Hong nodded, "I'll contact them later. But should we try it on a small scale first? It's such a big country, it would be a bit troublesome and impractical to use it universally."

Yang Xiaotao nodded, "That's true. We need to proceed step by step, and the technology also needs to be more mature!"

After a moment, Yang Xiaotao made the decision and said, "Okay, let's set up base stations in three locations: Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangdong!"

"Let's get the comrades from the Fourth Ministry of Machine Building to cooperate and try to test it out before National Day!"

"can!"

Old Hong felt that three locations should be fine.

Bai Jingshu, holding his coffee, couldn't help but ask curiously, "Director Yang, I've heard about this pager many times, but I still don't understand what it is, let alone why it's connected to a computer. Could you explain it to everyone?"

Seeing everyone's curiosity, Yang Xiaotao explained, "Actually, this pager is just an information receiver."

"The computer acts as an intermediary in this process."

"Communication is achieved through telephone contact, computer relay, and pager response."

"With this pager, you can get in touch anytime as long as you are inside the base station."

After Yang Xiaotao finished speaking, everyone understood somewhat, but they still had some doubts about whether it was really as miraculous as Yang Xiaotao said.

In comparison, Lao Hong had more experience in this area and knew the importance of pagers to Yang Xiaotao. Before anyone could ask further, he said, "The technical operation of computers also requires people. How can you find so many people?"

Old Hong raised the question again, and Yang Xiaotao laughed and said, "Don't worry, this job doesn't require that much skill. We just need to recruit some junior high school students and give them a month of intensive training."

"I'll take charge of this!"

Hearing Yang Xiaotao say this, Lao Hong nodded, indicating he had a plan, while everyone else around him had their eyes light up.

With Yang Xiaotao personally taking action, if you can get on board this train, your future will be limitless!

The only pity is that if Yang Xiaotao were to select people, cultural knowledge would definitely be a hard requirement.

So, the kids at home still need to study!

With that in mind, they all set new goals for their children.

After Yang Xiaotao finished explaining the situation, Bai Jingshu wanted to ask about the expansion of the pharmaceutical factory, but Guan Zhiyong rushed to the front, with An Zhongsheng by his side.

Bai Jingshu raised an eyebrow and said, "Don't you know that ladies should go first?"
As a result, Guan Zhiyong completely ignored him. In his eyes, there were only revolutionary comrades, well, female comrades, not ladies.

Yang Xiaotao looked at Guan Zhiyong, who was standing in front of him, and laughed, "I'm not running away, why are you standing so close?"

Guan Zhiyong smiled and said directly, "Director Yang, our steel plant has an idea! Could you help me make a decision?" Yang Xiaotao turned to look at him, first glancing at Guan Zhiyong, then noticing An Zhongsheng, before asking, "Just say what you're thinking. I'm not a mind reader, do you expect me to guess?"

Guan Zhiyong smiled and then said to An Zhongsheng, "Old An, hurry up and say it."

An Zhongsheng scratched his head. He had just mentioned it to Guan Zhiyong, and the guy had pushed him into it.

This guy hasn't even figured things out yet.

However, given the rare opportunity, An Zhongsheng didn't hesitate and said directly, "Minister Yang, Director Hong!"

"Our alloy research institute and the steel mill have an idea."

"Director An, please speak!"

Yang Xiaotao was noticeably more polite to An Zhongsheng than to Guan Zhiyong, which outsiders would perceive as differential treatment.

But Guan Zhiyong didn't care at all. In his mind, he owed his success to just one person.

Yang's own people!

Yang Xiaotao then looked at An Zhongsheng, who took a sip of coffee to perk himself up before speaking, “Director Yang, our current alloy production is still struggling to meet demand, but the existing smelting methods have almost reached their limit. To change the current situation, we must change our approach.”

"Another way?"

Yang Xiaotao's eyes lit up, while Lao Hong, Bai Jingshu, and the others looked at An Zhongsheng with surprise.

They knew this person. Back then, in order to develop the steel industry and meet the demand for steel from the Ninth Department, Yang proposed to learn advanced foreign technology, namely oxygen top-blown converter technology.

That was the person in charge back then.

He has worked diligently at the Alloy Research Institute over the years, and his presence has been felt in many important projects.

Now that they're talking about changing the approach, the group is both curious and surprised.

"Director An, just tell me already, stop beating around the bush."

Seeing that they had been talking for so long and still hadn't gotten to the point, Guan Zhiyong hurriedly urged them on. An Zhongsheng nodded and then looked at Yang Xiaotao calmly and said, "Minister Yang, the method I'm talking about is electric arc furnace steelmaking."

"Electric furnace steelmaking?"

Old Hong and the others were curious, but Yang Xiaotao's eyes lit up.

He had heard of this term before.

Seeing Yang Xiaotao like this, An Zhongsheng knew what was going on.

"Minister Yang, electric arc furnace steelmaking is one of the two main steelmaking methods in the world today. The other is the oxygen top-blown converter method that we are currently using."

"Compared with oxygen top-blown converters, electric arc furnace steelmaking has advantages such as a shorter process, less pollution, and lower investment!"

"It mainly uses scrap steel, pig iron, direct reduced iron, and molten iron as raw materials, and electricity as the main energy source. It is a short-process steelmaking technology!"

"In comparison, electric arc furnace steelmaking is more suitable for refining alloys because we can control the electricity, thereby controlling the atmosphere inside the furnace, which is beneficial for dephosphorization, desulfurization, etc., making it very suitable for the production of high-quality steel and special alloys."

At this point, An Zhongsheng took a sip of his coffee. "Actually, I had this idea back when our alloy production was limited."

"It's just that this electric furnace steelmaking uses electricity, and we happen to be short of electricity here, so we haven't mentioned it before."

"Now that we have nuclear power generation, our electricity supply is guaranteed, which is why I brought this up."

After An Zhongsheng finished speaking, Yang Xiaotao finished his coffee, which tasted a bit bitter.

Upon hearing An Zhongsheng's words, the surrounding crowd immediately understood that he was after the electricity. They were all a little anxious. If there was enough electricity, it would be fine, but if there were too many wolves and not enough meat, then things would get complicated.
The group looked at each other and prepared to form an alliance.

At the very least, there shouldn't be a single dominant player.

Before Yang Xiaotao could answer, Li Hongfeng asked first, "Director An, do you have any information on this electric arc furnace steelmaking method?"

"Secretary Li, we have already started collecting information on this topic, and our country has been conducting research on this for a long time, but it has not been possible to implement and popularize it due to the lack of electricity."

Hearing this, Li Hongfeng nodded without saying a word. Then Old Hong asked, "I'd like to know more about the advantages of electric arc furnace steelmaking?"

Old Hong asked directly; if it's beneficial, then naturally we should improve.

If there are not many benefits, it is better to maintain the current mature situation. As for the steel demand brought about by the surge in electricity consumption, more steel plants can be built to solve the problem.

Faced with Lao Hong's question, An Zhongsheng thought for a moment before saying, "After doing some calculations, I found that for the same 100-ton furnace, this method can increase efficiency by 30%, resulting in an increase of 20% in output!"

"However, these are all my theoretical calculations. The specific situation needs to be considered on a case-by-case basis. Let's try it out."

After An Zhongsheng finished speaking, he looked at Yang Xiaotao.

Guan Zhiyong also looked at Yang Xiaotao nervously.

Whether this project succeeds or not depends on Yang Xiaotao's word.

At this moment, Yang Xiaotao realized that the development of the next nine departments would require more steel support and more alloy materials.

An Zhongsheng's proposal for an electric furnace comes at just the right time.

"Let's set up a project team and give it a try!"

"If it succeeds, we will provide you with as much electricity as you use in the future."

Yang Xiaotao made his promise in front of everyone, which immediately made An Zhongsheng clench his cup with joy. Guan Zhiyong, who was standing next to him, said loudly, "Minister Yang, don't worry, we guarantee we can make it and complete the task!"

After saying that, he smiled at An Zhongsheng, and the two reached a tacit understanding that the electricity supply would be stable this time.