The playboy county magistrate

When Diao Mao learned that Li Xuanzhi was going to build his own iron smelting workshop, he once again invited all the other local gentry to his home.

Diao Mao sat upright in the main seat, his face ashen. His fingers gripped the edge of the table tightly, his eyes filled with resentment and gloom.

"He actually wants to smelt iron himself?"

The Diao family monopolized the ironware trade in various prefectures and counties in the north for decades.

Every year, they could make huge profits just by reselling ironware. This was the main source of income for the Diao clan and also the main source of revenue for their "offerings" to their powerful backers.

He was also one of the key figures who enabled the Diao family to always have a powerful backer, and who was chosen by Li Xuanjing, the eldest son of the Chengen Earl's Mansion, to cause trouble for Li Xuanzhi.

If Fuyu County successfully smelts iron independently, it means that ironware will be sold at a fair price.

At that time, the lifeblood and source of wealth for the Diao family will be cut off in one fell swoop.

"Nonsense! Utterly absurd!" an old local gentry exclaimed indignantly. "Iron smelting is a complex art; the temperature, proportions, and forging techniques are all ancestral secrets. How can some inexperienced craftsmen, haphazardly scrambling with wild mountain ore, possibly produce usable refined iron?"

"In my opinion, it's just a young man showing off. After a few days of tinkering, he'll produce a bunch of scrap metal and will naturally back down quickly."

Everyone echoed this sentiment, all expressing disdain and contempt.

In their preconceived notions, a hastily built, makeshift workshop could never compare to the skills accumulated over many years by professional blacksmiths.

Li Xuanzhi knew perfectly well that the iron smelting in Dayong relied entirely on experience and intuition. They didn't understand proportions, temperature control, or impurity removal.

The ore contained many impurities, and the raw coal had weak heat output. The resulting iron was loose, brittle, and of extremely poor quality.

Li Xuanzhi had already decided on a simple high-temperature iron smelting method that was suitable for the current conditions.

No precision machinery or complex workshops are needed. The purity of iron can be significantly improved using existing resources.

There was nothing he could do; after all, Li Xuanzhi had a grandfather who was a retired cadre at a steel factory before he transmigrated.

On a wide open space by the river in the suburbs, a brand-new workshop area is rising from the ground.

The people worked day and night, and in just one day, a brand-new rammed earth iron smelting furnace was quickly built and completed.

Nowadays, what we commonly see are those low-lying earthen stoves with bulky cavities and simple designs.

Relying solely on natural ventilation for oxygen supply will inevitably result in insufficient temperature, making it impossible to completely melt the ore.

Craftsmen forge and refine iron entirely based on the experience passed down orally from their ancestors.

The heat control is all guesswork, the proportions are all guesswork, and the impurity removal is all luck. Iron produced in this way is wasted in nine out of ten furnaces.

Before construction even began, Li Xuanzhi had already personally drawn a set of furnace body blueprints that were completely beyond the understanding of his time.

Its lines are neat and its structure is clear, with scientific principles hidden in every design.

Li Xuanzhi personally oversaw the site, guiding the people step by step in ramming the earth and building the furnace. He controlled every detail throughout the process, allowing no room for perfunctory work or mistakes.

He specially increased the height of the furnace body and narrowed the furnace cavity to make the space inside the furnace more concentrated and prevent the fire from being scattered and lost.

Several regular ventilation ducts were also dug evenly in the lower part of the furnace body.

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The air duct is inclined inward and runs through the furnace wall, which perfectly solves the fatal drawbacks of insufficient oxygen supply and incomplete combustion in traditional earthen furnaces.

In addition, Li Xuanzhi specially drew up blueprints and ordered people to prepare many large manual leather bellows according to the requirements, which were firmly connected to the ventilation openings.

This allows for continuous artificial ventilation and oxygen supply, enabling precise control of the furnace fire intensity and accurate adjustment of the smelting temperature.

A group of veteran craftsmen gathered around the furnace, dazzled by the sight, and whispered amongst themselves.

"My family has been blacksmiths for three generations, and I've never seen or imagined that a traditional earthen furnace could be modified like this!"

"Adding ventilation ducts and artificially supplying oxygen—how come we didn't think of such a great idea? We'll make so much more money in the future, and we must send our children to school! Education is so good; they learn so much!"

"When my child goes to school in the future, I will tell him in advance that studying is not for passing the imperial examinations and becoming an official, but to be like Lord Li, with a head full of ideas!"

Of course, while some praised Li Xuanzhi, others felt that Magistrate Li was still too young and too unconventional, with some wild ideas.

Li Xuanzhi paid no attention to these discussions and continued to focus on all the details.

After the furnace body was built, the next step was the pretreatment of the ore, a crucial step that the craftsmen of Dayong completely overlooked.

Before iron smelting, the ore was simply dug out and thrown directly into the furnace in whole pieces. This resulted in a mixture of mud and sand, and numerous impurities.

When raw coal and iron ore are haphazardly piled up and mixed together for burning, impurities, slag, and dust are all left behind, resulting in extremely poor quality iron.

Li Xuanzhi would not allow anyone to operate in this way, and immediately personally instructed all the craftsmen to sort and process the raw materials.

"Stop sitting and watching the show, get up and move around! First, sort and pile up the iron ore and raw coal that have been mined. Then, remove the cracked, weathered, and poor-quality waste materials."

"Next, we rinse the high-quality ore repeatedly with clean water to thoroughly wash away the mud, grass roots and impurities attached to the surface, ensuring that the ore is clean and pure before it is put into the furnace."

Everyone started doing things according to Li Xuanzhi's instructions. Even some old people who thought Li Xuanzhi was messing around had no choice but to stand up and work together.

There was no other way; if they went against Magistrate Li, he could send them home to eat dirt with just one word.

This really proves the old saying: when you're under someone's roof, you have to bow your head.

Once the pretreatment is complete, the most crucial step is the proportioning and stacking process.

Li Xuanzhi recalled the stories his grandfather often told him, and finally determined the optimal ore-burning ratio for the current furnace.

"First, put in a layer of refined iron ore, then cover it with a layer of high-quality raw coal. Note that it must be neatly staggered and stacked layer by layer."

Li Xuanzhi watched everyone busily working with satisfaction, and didn't forget to explain to them why it had to be done this way—

"This layered layout allows the raw coal to burn fully and maintain a constant temperature, while also ensuring that the iron ore is heated evenly and melts steadily. The firepower inside the furnace circulates continuously, preventing localized overheating or cooling, thus maximizing smelting efficiency and iron purity."

The more they listened, the more they felt there was some truth to it, and they worked even harder.

Li Xuanzhi also knew that most of the older people would not accept his explanation, after all, experience was very important.

In their view, they were just young masters from the capital who had picked up this method from who-knows-where, so they could just use it haphazardly.

The reason they were willing to cooperate was simply because they were terrified of being poor.

Li Xuanzhi didn't care. He figured that once the finished product was out, it would shut everyone up. He wasn't in a hurry.

With everything prepared, Li Xuanzhi gave a satisfactory inspection, and then gave the order—

"Start the fire!"

Flames could be seen spreading rapidly along the layers of ore at the bottom of the furnace.

"Pull the leather bellows to keep blowing air!"

The airflow surged through the ventilation duct, causing the fire inside the furnace to blaze up instantly. Crimson flames leaped and rose, and waves of heat rushed towards us.