I am Emperor Wanli

Chapter 813: Fortunately, the hammer of the times is in the hands of the Ming Dynasty

The first thing that caught the five people's sight was six large chimneys, two over there and four here, each as big as a tower.

Straight like a spear, piercing the sky.

Then there are the factory buildings, which are frame structures and are all built with reinforced concrete.

Most of the factory buildings are as high as two stories, which is about six meters.

Some factory buildings are much higher, as high as three stories, a full nine meters.

Lao Wan walked in front, leading five people on the avenue.

The roads in the factory area are paved with cement, flat and straight, with bushes on both sides, and poplars, elms and pine trees planted.

Lao Wan pointed to the factory building in front with his left hand and spoke in Mandarin with a Jizhou accent.

"That's the power plant, which is full of steam engines. Steam engines are controlled equipment and are only open to Class B visitors."

Marcelo and Leon knew that they were foreigners from the West and definitely did not meet the standards of Class B visitors.

It's understandable that no one would show off their best skills.

The two of them could only lean their heads over and look over there for a while.

There is a railway connection to the power plant, and you can see oxen pulling rail cars carrying coal into the plant.

There is a row of chimneys outside, eight in total, thinner and shorter than the six before.

Are there eight steam engines providing power?

"Woo-!"

Suddenly, a long whistle sounded from the power workshop, and then a large cloud of white steam rose into the air in a corner, like a large white cloud, covering one-third of the workshop.

Based on what they had heard here and there over the past few days, Marcelo and Leon concluded that the whistle was telling time, indicating the end or beginning of a certain working hour.

Some people also say that this is the steam engine releasing steam to avoid excessive pressure.

The two were completely confused and had no idea what was going on.

Lao Wan and the five others continued to move forward.

"That was the first iron smelting workshop, which had four blast furnaces. The temperature inside was too high and very dangerous, so we could only visit the designated area.

follow me. "

Lao Wan walked a few steps ahead, then turned back and said to Marcelo and Leon in a serious tone, “You two must listen to my advice and never leave the team without permission.

There are furnaces everywhere here, and iron can be refined. If you run around and accidentally fall into a furnace, you will not even have to turn into ashes. "

Marcelo and Leon nodded repeatedly: "We listen to advice. We listen to advice the most."

Lao Wan led the five people to the left side of the workshop and walked onto a platform more than one meter high. The first thing that greeted them was the rolling heat wave.

In the heat, everyone found that the platform was built against the wall of the workshop and had an iron railing.

The workshop wall in front only has a few load-bearing columns, and the wall stops at a person's waist, which is just enough for people to stick their heads out and see clearly inside.

There are four stoves, and each stove is a work area.

The furnaces were tall, almost two-thirds the height of the nine-meter-high building, and flues ran through the wall behind them to chimneys outside.

The furnace was gurgling as the molten iron melted, emitting a dazzling red light.

Through the red light, I could vaguely see an aisle behind the furnace, which was higher than the furnace mouth. Someone was standing there, operating the conveyor belt and throwing iron ore and coking coal into it.

In front of the furnace, several workers wearing safety helmets and dark goggles held up a long pole together, reached into the furnace, and stirred the boiling molten iron.

Suddenly, the person behind the furnace poured something into it, causing a violent reaction in the furnace. Sparks flew out from the front furnace door along the long pole and landed on the ground not far from the workers.

The workers did not panic, and continued to swing the long poles in unison to stir the molten iron in the furnace.

After a while, a long trough was pulled in front of the furnace door. The workers waved long poles and another worker operated the furnace door. With a splash, the molten iron in the furnace flowed out along the long trough and was then diverted by the long trough into the mold grooves laid on the ground in advance.

The molten iron flowed into the mold and reacted with some unknown catalyst inside. Clouds of green smoke rose up and rushed straight to the roof. At the same time, the molten iron was boiling, and countless drops of molten iron jumped around mischievously, as if the iron tree was blooming.

After pouring more than a dozen mold grooves, the molten iron in the blast furnace was almost used up.

The long chute was removed, and the conveyor belt behind the furnace started working. Coking coal was continuously thrown in, and then iron ore. Then there was a sharp rotating sound, which should be the blower starting to work.

The blast furnace, which had been dark, suddenly lit up, so bright that it hurt people's eyes.

The molten iron in the mold groove has solidified and turned dark in color to liver color, with sparks flashing on its surface from time to time.

Several workers used the iron chains on the crane to lift the solidified iron parts in the mold and slowly lifted them to the other side of the factory for stacking.

Now everyone can see clearly that some of these iron pieces are long and narrow, some are square, some are rectangular, and some are cylindrical.

Some of the iron parts were lifted onto a flatbed truck and pulled out along the rails to another workshop.

"Everyone, let's continue." Lao Wan said with a cold face, leading everyone to the second smelting workshop.

There are only three furnaces in this workshop. The molten iron from the furnace on the left pours into another furnace along a long trough. Then, using gravity, the molten iron flows out by itself, like a spider spitting out silk, and iron wires are rapidly spit out from it.

The workers hooked the solidified red wire into a long groove, one section of which was a water trough, emitting steam.

After passing through the water trough, the dark red and soft iron wire becomes noticeably blacker and harder, and is placed by workers on a rotating shaft with a wooden core.

The rotating shaft is stuck on an iron shaft. Once the machine is started, the power of the steam engine is transmitted and it starts to rotate with a whirring sound.

Amid the roar, the fiery red wire was quickly pulled out of the spider box, along the slender groove, and quickly turned black after passing through the gutter, and was wrapped around the wooden core shaft.

In less than five minutes, a wire coil column with a diameter of one and a half meters and a height of one meter was rolled out.

The machine stopped and the workers used a crane to lift out the wire ring and the wooden core shaft and moved them to a flatbed truck on the nearby rails, where two wire reels were already placed.

The worker inserted a hollow wooden core onto the iron shaft and repeated the previous operation.

Sometimes you have to stop and adjust the diameter of the spider box's silk-spinning holes to pull out wires of different thicknesses.

The two furnaces on the left are for drawing iron wire, and the furnace on the right is for producing threaded iron, which is the main material in reinforced concrete in construction. The work area over there is another set of equipment.

The molten iron was poured into another furnace, more than one meter high, and a fiery red and soft iron rod dripped directly. The workers hooked it into a long groove on the ground, straightened it into a three-axis roller fixture, and squeezed it into an iron bar with uniform thickness and twisted patterns on the outside in the wisps of white smoke. It passed through the water tank and cooled rapidly.
Amidst the rising white steam, the long iron bars pass through a rolling mill and with a clang, they are cut into four-meter-long threaded iron bars. People like to call it rebar, which sounds more upscale.

Thirty four-meter-long threaded irons were quickly gathered together and tied into a bundle with six iron wires. They were lifted by a crane onto the flatbed truck nearby and stacked in bundles, just like the abundant harvest of sugarcane in the fields.

The nine flatbed carts next to the three furnaces were soon filled with wire rings and threaded iron. The workers hooked them together end to end, started the machines on the factory side, and connected them to the power system under the ground. The powerful steam engine power was transmitted through the long rod shaft, chain and gear set, pulling the steel cable, and pulling the nine flatbed carts creakingly along the rails to the outside of the factory.

Lao Wan folded his arms, watching silently, his eyes full of fanaticism.

Shu Youliang, Hu Yinglin and Wang Shisong were excited, thrilled and delighted.

Marcelo and León were shocked, lost and desperate.

Why is such a good thing not in our country?

And we've been watching for so long, and apart from shock and fear, we can't see any clues at all.

Lao Wan took the five people to visit the smelting workshops 3 and 4, skipped the steelmaking workshops 1 and 2, and took them to the forging workshop 1.

Why don't you let us watch steelmaking?

Steel!

Such a precious metal material. For European nobles, a set of armor and weapons made of fine steel can be regarded as heirlooms.

You actually used it to lay railroad tracks, build railways, and let trains run on them.

Such arrogance shows that your steelmaking technology is very advanced, with good quality and high output.

Such advanced steelmaking technology cannot be easily allowed to be visited by others.

what a shame.

The group followed Lao Wan to a six-meter-high factory building. They heard loud bangs from afar and felt the ground beneath their feet was shaking.

You can also hear a hissing sound and an occasional humming sound.

Behind this factory building, there is a built-in house with a long chimney.

This forging workshop is also equipped with a steam engine as its independent power source, which looks very important!

Before they reached the viewing platform, the loud banging noise stopped and the five people couldn't help but quicken their pace.

Through the open factory wall, we saw two tall mountains inside, one on the left and one on the right. Lao Wan said that they were forging hammers.

The workers on the right are using a crane to lift the huge iron piece out of the middle of the forging hammer and lift it onto the flatbed truck next to it.

On the contrary, the workers on the left are using a crane to lift huge iron pieces from a flatbed truck onto the base of the forging hammer.

The five people quickly realized that the iron piece should have been pulled from the second smelting workshop.

The forging machine is like a tower, with a heavy base at the bottom, which is made of solid steel and is very flat. The base is made of four huge pillars, which rise up to the sky and support the upper part.

The upper part has a huge iron hammer, which is square and looks very heavy, like a giant's iron fist. There are also many pipes connected to it.

After the iron parts were put in place, a foreman blew a copper whistle. At the rapid whistle, everyone retreated outside the cordon. Six workers clamped the iron parts with long-pole tools and fixed them firmly.

The foreman's whistle slowed down, he stared at the ironwork on the base, raised his right hand, and waved it down.

There was someone operating the machine nearby. The iron fist on the forging hammer came down with a bang and hit the iron work hard, sending sparks flying.

With a humming sound, the iron fist was retracted.

After a few hammer attempts, the foreman's whistle became faster and his hand gestures became faster.

Dong dong, the iron fist is like a hammer in the hand of a blacksmith, hitting the iron piece continuously.

At first, sparks were flying and the iron piece seemed very unruly, but soon under the continuous blows of the iron fist, it became very docile, like dough, being hammered from a cylinder into a round cake shape.

Six workers used tools to turn the iron piece over on the base and continued hammering it.

Boom-boom-boom!
The earth was shaking, and every heavy blow seemed to hit everyone's heart. The tremendous power that could destroy everything made the five people standing not far away terrified.

How could a flesh and blood body be able to resist such a huge force?
Everyone couldn't help but imagine replacing the iron pieces on the base with human figures.
They all couldn't help shivering and their legs became weak.

As Marcelo and Leon went down the stairs, they couldn't help but hold on to the railings on both sides and walked down slowly.

Shu Youliang laughed from behind and said, "Lao Ma, Lao Lai, no, your legs have become soft after just a few blows. It seems you are not strong enough!"

Marcelo and Leon were too lazy to pay attention to him.

No matter how hard it is, it will be hammered into dough!
After the two men followed Lao Wan around a corner and walked onto the main road, Shu Youliang, who was holding the railing and pretending to be still watching the forging hammer, shouted hurriedly.

"Hu, Xiao Wang, hurry up!"

"What's wrong, Master Shu?"

"Come and help your uncle. My legs are weak and I can't stand it any longer. This forging hammer has made my legs weak."

Hu Yinglin and Wang Shisong quickly supported Shu Youliang on the left and right and slowly walked down the stairs.

"Master Shu, I am so grateful for the visit after just a short while."

"Hu, what are you celebrating?"

“Thankfully, the Holy Emperor has led our Ming Dynasty into the industrial age first, and this era-changing industrial heavyweight is in our hands.

If we continue to be stuck in the agricultural age and let other countries enter the industrial age first, our Ming Dynasty will be in danger!"

Shu Youliang turned to look at him and nodded solemnly, "Hu, you are right.

If that were the case, the Ming Dynasty would be like the piece of iron on the forging machine just now, and could only be forged by the heavy hammers of other countries.

The consequences are unimaginable!"

(End of this chapter)