A small soldier of the frontier army in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 648 Iron Factory
Therefore, although the Qing Dynasty was more active in this peace negotiation than in history, it was dispensable to Ming Dynasty.

What particularly annoyed Bao Chengxian and the others was that with the psychological advantage of Jinzhou's great victory, many ministers and generals of the Ming Dynasty had subtle changes in their attitudes towards the Qing.

Although some people who secretly contacted may have a handle on the Qing Dynasty or are greedy for money, they seem to lack the fear of the Qing Dynasty in the past.

After running around for many days, the task of negotiating peace with Bao Chengxian and others has never entered the substantive stage. How can we not make them decadent and angry?
"Ambassador Bao, do we need to continue with the peace talks?"

A entourage said angrily: "It is obvious that these southern barbarians have no sincerity, and it is getting more and more difficult to see the face of the Minister of the Ministry of War of the Ming Dynasty."

Bao Chengxian's expression was gloomy, and he tapped his finger on the table: "You can take a while to negotiate peace. I will not fail to gain anything when I come to the capital of the Southern Dynasties! Looking at it now, although it shows that the country has no sincerity to negotiate peace with us, it is just a matter of careful consideration." Analyzing it, they are also powerless to attack our Qing Dynasty, whether or not the terms are reached is irrelevant."

He said: "Yes, the most important thing in this trip is to continue to alienate the monarchs and ministers of the Ming Dynasty, lobby their ministers, officials and generals, and once again invest huge amounts of food and salaries in the land of Liaodong, especially not to give up Yizhou... Also, pay attention to their domestic affairs. The matter of thieves..."

"Now, the ministers of the Ming Dynasty are quite suspicious of Wang Dou, this is not enough, we need to increase the fire..."

There were whispers in the room: "...among the cabinet ministers, although Wei Zaode is an eunuch, he is tactful, Chen Yan is from Sichuan, Zhou Yanru, Zheng Sanjun, and Ni Yuanlu are all from the Donglin Party and from Jiangnan. It's hard to fight against each other..."

In the division of power in the Ming Dynasty, the Donglin Party represented the interests of landlords, bureaucrats, and businessmen in the south of the Yangtze River, and the Eunuch Party represented the interests of bureaucrats, landlords, and businessmen in Shandong, Huguang, Shanxi, and Beizhili. Part of it is the interests of the eunuch party, after all, Xuanda is in Shanxi.

Regarding Wang Dou, although everyone in the Donglin Party has concerns, they are still far away after all. It is okay to complain, but it is impossible to have a substantive conflict. It is reflected in the cabinet. Donglin Party members Zheng Sanjun and Ni Yuanlu, Most of Wang Dou's actions remained silent.

Zhou Yanru, the chief assistant of the cabinet, also refused to show hostility.

"...although Chen Xinjia is from Sichuan, but he belongs to Wang Dou's family, but he has a lot to do..."

"We can continue to discuss a policy of peace, and find ways to get Chen Xinjia to ask Wang Dou's intentions. When he intervenes, he will publicize the matter. The Southern Dynasty will definitely be in an uproar. Chen Xinjia can go, and Wang Dou's intention to collude with the enemy..."

"The fierce struggle in the Southern Dynasties is beneficial and harmless to our Qing Dynasty. I heard that Wei Zaode, Chen Yan, and Zhou Yanru hated each other to the bone?"

……

In March of the 15th year of Chongzhen, a few days later, Xuanfu Town, Jiajiaying Fort.

The fort is about [-] miles away from the town, and many rivers flow west or south, sandwiching Jiajiaying Fort in the middle, and a few miles to the north of the castle, near the mountains and by the river, a huge iron factory is being built. stand up.

Here, the security is strict, and far away, there are fences and sentry posts in the area of ​​the iron factory, and idlers are not allowed to enter.

Jiajiaying Iron Works is one of a series of new iron factories built by Wang Dou after he arrived in the town, and not far upstream from Jiajiaying Fort, there is a Pangjiabao Iron Mine. As far as Wang Dou knows, the reserves are quite large. Large, with a total reserve of more than 1 million tons.

As early as in the East Road, although many industries have been gradually opened to the private sector, military factories, iron factories, etc. are still government-run, and the government still has the priority to purchase ore, coal, etc. from many merchant factories and mines.

The same is true for the Pangjiabao Iron Mine. The mine is controlled by the relatives of Zhang Guowei, the deputy chief soldier, and some powerful families in the town. Attracted by Wangdou's preferential price and huge orders, these mine owners, With the fastest speed, Wang Dou and Wang Dou expressed their attitude of cooperation.

And because the demand for iron ore is too large and the money situation is good, the Zhang family and others have tried their best to increase investment, and have also borrowed a lot of money from the Bank and Money Department, recruiting more and more miners.

This also formed a lot of surrounding industries. The more merchants came to trade, plus the workers and their families, the inside and outside of Jiajiaying Fort and Pangjiabao quickly became two emerging towns. Suddenly, I found that more people came to rent houses, which led to a lot of house price rises.

"As the general said, after using the water power, the power of the blast can be greatly increased. This iron furnace can also be as high as three feet."

Zhang Gui, Ambassador of the Department of Civil Affairs, and Qi Tianliang, Ambassador of the Logistics Department, accompanied Wang Dou. In addition, there were some officials from the Second Division, and Zhong Tiaoyang, the guard battalion general.

In front of Wang Dou, some of the most important equipment in the ironworks are some blast furnaces with a height of more than ten meters. These iron furnaces have a stone tapping place in front of them. The large wooden bellows that used to be pulled by several people have been replaced by hydraulic power. , There is also ironmaking, which also uses coke.

Around the town not far from the town, there are quite a few high-quality coal mines. Coke was used in many places as early as in the Ming Dynasty. There is a record in "Guangdong Xinyu" that the iron yard in Guangzhou was loaded with ore, and the locomotive was thrown from the mountain to the furnace at a high rate.

In Daming, the center of iron production was mainly in Daye, Hubei, and Huguang Ketie, which accounted for more than one-third of the country. Foshan, Guangdong, was also an important iron smelting center as early as the middle of Ming Dynasty. Daming’s iron output exceeded a year. Tens of millions of kilograms, most of which are in the south or south of the Five Ridges, or even the southwest region.

There is also copper, which is mostly produced in Sichuan, Yunnan, and Guizhou, tin, which is produced in Guangxi, Hunan, and Yunnan, etc., mercury, which is mostly produced in Yunnan, and silver produced in Yunnan, which also flow throughout the country.

Why is the center of gravity of the mining and metallurgy industry moving southward?

In these places, charcoal is mostly used, and the iron materials produced are relatively high-quality, while in the north, due to the lack of wood, most of them use coal, and the pig iron produced has high sulfur content and low quality.

In the north of Daming, although a lot of coke has been used for ironmaking, the wind power cannot keep up, and the height of the furnace cannot exceed ten meters. The iron materials produced are still not good, so Wang Dou has been thinking about how to increase iron production and quality.

However, he was born in liberal arts and has never been good at this aspect. He only vaguely remembered that the reason why later generations kept up with the quality of ironmaking was that one was to solve the problem of wind power and the other was to solve the problem of raw materials. Cloud Nine has gone.

He was also a craftsman in a military factory. Inspired by water-powered blunderbuss, he made a suggestion, saying that water power can also be used as power for iron smelting. hydraulic.

After overcoming a series of problems, iron furnaces made of salt and mud with a furnace height of more than ten meters were built. Afterwards, the craftsman was awarded a meritorious service because of his great contribution, and was awarded the rank of sergeant. Many craftsmen are more motivated.

It was fiery red, the molten iron was released, and the dazzling iron flowers splashed everywhere, along the stone trough, and flowed into a pond below. Many craftsmen, braving the scorching heat, and their lives were in danger, holding willow sticks in their hands, stirring them with willow sticks, and frying them to maturity immediately Iron, after it cools down a bit, is cut into cubes in the pond, or rounded with a tap.

Wang Dou looked at it. This was the method of ironmaking at this time. It was made into pig iron before being roasted out of the furnace. If it is roasted, it will be cooked, and raw and cooked phases will be smelted to make steel. The iron-making furnace and the iron-frying furnace are used in series to reduce energy consumption. As advanced, it is still used in many places after modern times, and it is also the origin of wiped steel and Suzhou steel.

"Another batch of first-class iron."

Zhang Gui laughed so hard that he couldn't see his teeth, and the people around him were also very excited. According to the division of the shogunate, iron materials are divided into three grades: A, B, and C. Grade A iron materials are used for military industry, and grades B and C are sold. As far as the folks are concerned, according to the current point of view, in the future, just selling iron will generate a huge income every year.

"Unfortunately."

Zhang Gui said: "Although the water power is good, sometimes the river is dry, so it's not enough strength, so I have to use manpower to blow the wind again."

Wang Dou nodded. The blast furnace in front of him uses the water drop between the upper and lower pools to generate power to blow wind. However, in the dry season, the upper pool does not have enough water, so how to transport the needed water to the upper pool?
In his eyes, the figure of the steam engine flashed. Unfortunately, this is a temporary disappearance. We have to take it step by step. Compared with the manual blasting in the past, the production and quality of iron materials have taken a big step forward. , I can’t eat hot tofu in a hurry, I’ll talk about the steam engine later.

After leaving the iron factory, everyone headed westward, and there, beside a river a few miles away, there was a new military factory, which was specially used to make blunderbusses, or flintlock blunderbusses.

Zhang Guowei, the deputy commander, was also waiting outside, but he was not qualified to enter the iron factory, nor was he qualified to enter the military factory. However, when Wang Dou inspected the Pangjiabao Iron Mine, he was accompanied. After Wang Dou and others came out, he Quickly follow.

Everyone passed along the way, Wang Dou looked to the south, the plain and river valley where two mountains intersected, already crowded with people, many houses and camps were built one by one along the river, and merchants' caravans came and went even more.

Qi Tianliang sighed: "I really didn't expect that in just a short period of time, Jiajiabao, Pangjiabao, Zhaochuanbao and other places will immediately prosper. This is what the general said, the function of a production businessman?"

Wang Dou smiled and said: "That's right, Lao Qi, seeing the situation in front of you, you should understand why the generals in Japan disdain distribution-type businessmen, but give great support to production-type businessmen, right?"

Qi Tianliang thought for a while, and then said: "This subordinate is ignorant, and understands a little bit. If you want to think about it, you are still ignorant. Please ask the general to clarify."

Zhang Gui said with a smile: "The general came down from the stars in the sky, and his knowledge is far beyond that of ordinary people. If you can understand, Lao Qi, I won't be a subordinate."

Wang Dou also laughed. Qi Tianliang and Zhang Gui were the first group of people he got close to. When chatting with them, there was always a warm feeling in his heart.

He said: "To put it bluntly and simply, productive businessmen can increase employment and create value. Most importantly, in the future, they can form more classes and support more people. This is a matter of great merit."

Zhang Guowei listened silently, he actually didn't understand, why Wang Dou looked at other people's iron mines differently, and raised it to the level of immeasurable merit.

After taking refuge with Wang Dou, he was quite cautious, but at this moment, he couldn't wait to listen to Wang Dou's explanation.

(End of this chapter)