Chapter 359: It’s better to be difficult than impossible
“Do you still have that fine iron? Can it be smelted again?”
Huang Yueying repeated Pu Yuan’s question.
"It's gone. The labor...manpower was wasted too much. I could only make this much. Seeing that I was running out of time, I sent the kiln to the kiln and went back to Jincheng directly with my things."
Making something like this almost overturned the old people in Nanxiang, it was so painful!
"How many manpower are needed to smelt this thing? You have several thousand laborers... Ahem, how many manpower are there? It's almost tens of thousands, right?"
Huang Yueying didn't believe it, and glanced at Feng Yong with contempt, "If you have it, take it out and have a look. I'm not trying to rob you."
“It’s really gone!”
Feng Tibi started to scratch his head again. I am an honest and reliable young man. Why don’t you believe what I say?
"This iron is not easy to smelt, and hundreds of barbarian slaves died..."
With such a simple sentence, even the burly prime minister, who was stroking his beard and looking at him silently, was so frightened that his hands shook, and he pulled off a few beards, and then looked over sideways.
"You, you, you..." Pu Yuan was so frightened that he pointed at Feng Yong and lost his voice, "Did you use the method of sacrificing the furnace?"
"Sacrifice the furnace?" Feng Yong remembered what Li Yi and others said, and quickly shook his head and said, "No. It's just that there are some links that always have to be tried by someone to know if it works! I didn't expect it to be too dangerous, and I would die a little bit. too much…"
"You are still making excuses! This method of sacrificing flesh and blood to the furnace is an evil technique. It is too harmful to the peace of heaven, so you are not afraid..."
When Pu Yuan said this, he looked at Huang Yueying again. Thinking of his junior sister's hidden illness, a look of shock and anger appeared on his face, "How can you be so vicious at such a young age?"
When Feng Yong heard what Pu Yuan said, he was immediately angry. It's not your family that is dying, so what the **** does it have to do with you?
He has traveled so long and has seen quite a lot of things.
Not to mention whether Zhao Guang, Li Yi and others would normally treat those slaves as human beings, but the militia group run by Zhuge Laoyao didn't just grind the flesh and blood of slaves to enrich the land of Hanzhong, and then bring Hanzhong back to life?
Besides, it’s not like he hasn’t seen dead people in the past two years. The pretentiousness of pretending to be sick when he saw the deed of betrayal has long been lost on some Javanese island.
"How can this iron-smelting technique not kill people? The blacksmith accidentally hammered his hand and broke it off! I have never used this master's secret method. How do I know whether it will work? Naturally, you have to use people first. Go and try it, you’ll know how to do it later!”
“Besides, apart from having to die when you first try it, once you figure it out later, you won’t need to kill people to fill it in.”
From mining in the mine to smelting refined iron, it involves a series of processes such as civil engineering, metallurgical engineering, etc. Not only now, but also in future generations, in which year will no one die?
Feng Yong didn’t believe that Pu Yuan didn’t know the connection.
“You really didn’t use your life to sacrifice the furnace?”
Pu Yuan looked at Feng Yong doubtfully and asked.
“Of course not. If you reopen the furnace now, as long as you are careful, it will naturally not happen…”
Feng Tubao was about to confirm his opinion, but when he saw Zhuge Liang looking over, he had to change his words and said, "Of course there won't be so many people killed. The art of iron smelting will definitely kill people."
“The late emperor ordered people to mine iron from Jinniu Mountain to make weapons, and the craftsmen also suffered many casualties.”
Huang Yueying said something like a relief from the side, and then looked at Feng Yong, "You just said that you can reopen the kiln? Didn't you say that the kiln was closed?"
“It can be reopened after it has been closed.”
Feng Yong said nonchalantly, "It's just that I don't think it's necessary. It's a waste of time, energy and materials, and it doesn't produce much refined iron..."
If you have the time and labor to do this, you might as well get more cattle and sheep, and spin more woolen cloth.
It is both safe and stable.
After all, woolen cloth is hard currency.
If he hadn't been worried about Zhao Guang and Wang Xun, he wouldn't have bothered.
This thing looks precious, but it cannot be freely circulated.
If he hadn't had the status of a Hanzhong Metallurgical Supervisor, how would he have dared to touch him?
Say that you are looking for death!
Salt and iron were the exclusive business of the imperial court.
Why would he produce something with such a low price/performance ratio? Enough support?
Even if it is handed over to the country...well, the court, it is still a question whether Zhuge Laoyao can find the coal mine.
Without coal mines and coke, how can we smelt refined iron?
He is not stupid.
I repeat it emphatically, so much hard work has been done, and it’s so heartbreaking!
"Is necessary!"
Unexpectedly, the other three people didn't agree with Feng Tubao's values at all, so they immediately retorted in unison.
Looking at it, I knew someone would say that.
Feng Tibi let out a long sigh, "Prime Minister, this fine iron is not easy to work with!"
“It’s better to be hard to do than impossible.”
The Prime Minister of the Han Dynasty didn't care about **** and price comparisons, he just followed the bumpkin's lead and "did it".
“Using armor and weapons made of fine iron, a hundred people can defeat a thousand or even thousands of people. No matter what, it’s not a loss.”
There are still too few people in the Han Dynasty! It can't be compared with the Cao thieves in the north, so we can only think of ways from other places.
With such a good idea, how could he let it go?
"But this is your master's secret method. If you don't want to tell it, we won't force you." Huang Yueying took over the conversation again, looked at Feng Yong kindly, and said warmly, "But since you are willing to take it out, It seems that you don’t want to hide it for Erlang, right?”
Can I say it’s wrong?
“This secret method is nothing, it’s just that the required things are difficult to find.”
Anyway, the salt and iron of the Han Dynasty are not allowed to be produced by private individuals. Unless you are planning to rebel, there is no use hiding it.
“If you need anything, tell me first.”
Huang Yueying still asked kindly, "It's difficult for you to find, but it may not be difficult for a big man to find."
"I don't need to talk about the iron mine," Feng Yong said, clasping his fingers. "I don't need to talk about the labor. I'm afraid it's hard to find just the coal. Once you find it, you'll have to build a special mine. The kiln is used for burning, and the things burned can be used to smelt iron."
“Why is it charcoal again?”
Zhuge Liang frowned.
This thing is needed for building Gaiwubao, paving roads, and smelting iron?
Otherwise, why do you always follow others to get through trouble?
Thinking of this, the Han Prime Minister glanced at Feng Yong, his eyes were very meaningful.
If you continue to act like this, are you planning to force me to buy the charcoal field from you?
“It’s okay not to use charcoal. It’s probably okay to use charcoal, but I’m afraid I’ll use too much.”
Feng Tubao didn't know his last words and inadvertently saved his coal mine.
Charcoal can also be smelted into good iron, and was even used to make steel in later generations, but the cost is too high.
The key lies in the temperature that the two can reach when burning. Coke is higher than charcoal.
Later generations will have the technology to make steel with charcoal, but under the current conditions, the iron smelted with charcoal is not very good. In addition, he has coal mines in his hands, so Feng Yong must have chosen coke!
“Charcoal will do.”
Huang Yueying glanced at Zhuge Liang. As the person beside her, she could sense her husband's psychology better than others.
For this big man, he is not even afraid of the emperor, so what else is he afraid of?
“Don’t we all use charcoal to smelt iron now? Are we afraid there won’t be enough?”
“Madam, what you said makes sense. Speaking of which, you can try it with charcoal.”
Feng Yong knew that he had fallen into a misunderstanding again.
The main fuel for iron smelting now is charcoal - the amount of iron smelted in the entire Han Dynasty in a year is probably not comparable to the output of a small blast furnace randomly set up in later generations.
How much iron can’t be smelted? Are you worried about not having enough fuel?
Thinking about it, the woods all over the mountains and plains are not afraid of you cutting them down, but they are afraid of them growing wildly.
No matter what, if the forests on the land of China are cut down for more than a thousand years, won’t the unfilial descendants of future generations still live well?
And they cut it even harder.
Finally, the once-in-a-hundred-year flood that was encountered every year was eliminated, and then there was some restraint.
Since life is so hard, why should I worry about them?
(End of this chapter)