Chapter 923: Ji Zijuan makes the best use of people’s talents and materials
Jia Yun is gone.
Of course, the purpose of his coming to Yongping Mansion was not just to visit Feng Ziying. Haitong Yinzhuang Jingshi provided a loan of nearly 120,000 taels of silver for the construction of this coal-iron complex in Yongping, which also included the construction of the Yuguan Port Terminal.
Such an investment also made him, the big boss of Jingshi Hao, bring people to take a look in person. Without a real look, he would not feel at ease.
Jingshi is the place where Haitong Bank has raised the most funds. In addition to having a large number of shareholders and large share capital, it also absorbs the largest amount of deposits. Its first-of-its-kind deposit interest calculation is enough to attract the attention of all non-professional banks. , and cannot even be imitated. Bank deposits in this era do not accrue interest and even require payment of custody fees.
In addition, the capital city is second to none in terms of officials and merchants, which means rich assets, which are unmatched by Yangzhou or Guangzhou.
As long as we can win the trust of these people, then the deposits will continue to come in. With Prince Zhongshun as the first clan member as the major shareholder, and the cooperation with the Ministry of Household Affairs, the credibility of Haitong Bank has also been favored by the Tianjia and the imperial court. Hidden endorsement.
Because of this, there are some differences between the Jingshi ship and the Yangzhou and Guangzhou ships. That is, there is no need to worry about depositing money. On the contrary, lending requires careful planning. The industrial and commercial atmosphere in the north is far less than that in the south of the Yangtze River. and Guangzhou.
So when Feng Ziying in Yongping Mansion leads such a coal-iron complex plus Yuguan Port construction package project, it is naturally the best place to lend money.
But no matter how relieved she was, as the head of the Jingshi Hao, Jia Yun still insisted on taking a look with her own eyes after the early risk reviewers came to verify and investigate.
Feng Ziying quite approves of this. At least this style is worth promoting. If you, a twenty-year-old shopkeeper, can't even maintain this style of work, then you will be embarrassed in your big job.
After entering the harvest season in June, the situation in Yongping Prefecture finally began to calm down.
As all the Liao family members were imprisoned, especially the crime of colluding with foreigners outside the customs and selling prohibited materials was finalized, and the crime of acting as an internal agent of the Mongolian horse thieves was also implemented after a large amount of stolen goods was seized. In comparison, what is hidden? Things like hiding in the house and working in the fields are no longer a problem.
Some members of the Liao family began to bite the Mao family and the Jian family, which caught the Lulong gentry off guard, and even implicated other families. This caused the entire Lulong gentry group to be in chaos and could no longer establish a united front.
However, Feng Ziying did not press too hard. After the Lulong gentry took the initiative to hand over the hidden military households and expressed their willingness to compensate these military households for escaping from hard labor to the government over the years, the matter Although the clearing of farmland is still progressing, the intensity and attitude are not as drastic and radical as originally promised.
The number of military households that have been sorted out one after another and reported to the government office totals more than 2,800. Some of them are still in Daning and Ningyuan in western Liaoning, but they can basically report before the end of June.
"Is this the coke produced?" Feng Ziying looked at the coke piled up in front of him with interest. To be honest, although he had made great efforts in craftsmanship, he was just a talkative expert. In real practice, it all depends on These craftsmen and craftsmen work hard day and night.
"Yes." Zhuang Limin was quite proud. "Actually, we have tried several times before, and the kiln has collapsed twice. Fortunately, everyone has become more and more experienced, and there are basically no major problems in the later period."
“Master Feng, the blast furnace here has been built, and it’s just waiting for you to light the fire and start refining.” Wang Shaoquan rubbed his hands, his face full of excitement and expectation.
I have to say that it is much more convenient to choose a good partner. With the help of a large number of craftsmen, everything from mining to building blast furnaces, including coking, is far better than recruiting local farmers to do the work. The efficiency and progress are All greatly improved.
After worshiping the gods and completing various ceremonies, as layers of ore and coke were laid into the furnace, Feng Ziying, Zhuang Limin, Wang Shaoquan and several other representatives of Shanxi merchants beside her watched nervously. On the contrary, The craftsmen around them seemed much calmer. Perhaps they were used to this kind of scene, so they were all orderly.
However, Feng Ziying believes that once this trial is successful, it will truly change history and even change the general trend. A new steel era is about to come. Of course, this may still take decades, but this torrent will never happen again. unstoppable.
With the lighting of the fire, the whole furnace is filled with red light and fireworks. The craftsmen are all knowledgeable and understand that the hotter the fire, the better the molten iron will be.
There are hundreds of craftsmen gathered around, and they all know that once this furnace of molten iron is smelted to meet expectations, then such a blast furnace will never be built just this one, and even a coking kiln will be required. Massive expansion.
As the iron-making blast furnace burned day and night, Feng Ziying, Zhuang Limin, Wang Shaoquan and others simply stayed by the furnace. For everyone, this was too important, and it could be said that it related to everyone's future destiny.
On the second day, as the temperature reached its extreme, the craftsman responsible for controlling the fire shouted, and several people suddenly opened the mechanism gate. The hot red molten iron rolled out, and a small part was introduced into the casting tank next to it. After cooling, it became The pig iron was taken out, and the other large part was pushed directly into the open hearth on the side.
With the ignition of the open-hearth furnace, the second and most critical round of steelmaking officially entered its climax.
This smelting is far longer than this iron smelting. It takes three or four days before it is completed. The molten steel is released from the furnace and poured directly into the cooling casting tank. The cooling water is poured in, accompanied by the rise of white gas. The water mist was lingering, and until the molten steel cooled down, a group of craftsmen swarmed up and picked up the steel billets that had been cast according to the regulations of the casting trough. They couldn't help but burst into tears.
This kind of direct steelmaking from pig iron eliminates the need for traditional repeated forging and direct shaping. It can be said that Feng Ziying's process guidance directly made Dazhou steelmaking technology leapfrog an era. In fact, this technology does not have too profound principles, but if you Lack of sufficient scientific guidance, and just simple and repeated operations, it may not be possible to find out the secret even after a hundred years.
The most excited person is Zhuang Limin, a veteran in smelting iron and steel. He knows very well what this means.
This means that the entire technological process from coke smelting to steelmaking is no longer shackles. As long as there is enough ore and coke, it can be continuously produced through this process. If you want pig iron, you will have pig iron. If you want fine steel, there is fine steel, and the quality of this pig iron and fine steel is even far better than previously predicted.
At this time, Zhuang Limin even regretted that there were too few blacksmiths brought from Foshan. Once the iron and steelmaking technology, which costs at least 50% or even higher than Foshan, comes out, Foshan's iron and steel will be directly eliminated. The material industry is being killed.
It can be said that the only factor restricting the iron smelting industry in Yongping Prefecture is transportation. However, with a smelting process of such scale and cost, the impact of mere transportation can be said to be almost insignificant.
We must know how huge the demand for steel is in this era, and the price of pig iron and refined steel has made even kitchen knives, hatchets, and iron pots rare among the people. Sometimes, even a large family may not be able to buy them all.
For Feng Ziying, this is all he can contribute, and this has emptied everything out of his head.
Compared to other time travelers who are proficient in various crafts, he himself feels a little ashamed. Perhaps the only thing he can do is to constantly urge Zhuang Limin to recruit Western Yi craftsmen to make up for his imbecile sin.
"Mr. Zhuang, I have done what I promised. Now it's up to you to show off and remember the agreement between us." Feng Ziying said calmly with her hands behind her back.
"Don't worry, sir. The steel materials for the first furnace have been released. Now there are an abundant number of craftsmen. Although these people have no experience in making firecrackers, they are all experienced. With a little teaching, they can basically get started. With me, The craftsmen brought here should be able to produce one or two hundred fire guns in a month, but the early quality may not be satisfactory."
Zhuang Limin patted his chest.
"I can't control this. The people's strongholds drawn from the military households here have been formed, and soon the firecrackers transferred from Liaodong by my father will be in place. I need enough firecrackers to equip these people's Zhuangs. I want to make these people familiar with and become basically qualified fire gunners in the shortest possible time, well, it only takes three to four months!"
This is also a no-brainer. The Chahar people may invade the border south in September and October, and everything in front of them may be destroyed. But Feng Ziying cannot wait until the Chahar invasion subsides this year before doing all this, so he Just bet on this one.
Zhuang Limin pondered for a moment, "Then I can only transport a batch of firecrackers from Guangzhou first. There are self-made firecrackers imported from Xiyi and firecrackers made by ourselves. The styles may not be the same. I’m afraid the price is a bit expensive.”
Zhuang Limin also plans to sell these self-made fire guns to Liaodong at an opportunity. If Liaodong does not want them, he also plans to sell them to Japan.
When Feng Ziying heard this, she felt at ease: "No problem, the more self-made firecrackers the better, I have enough money to pay for it."
I just got a handful from the Liao family, and I can put it to good use and make the best use of it.
(End of this chapter)