Chapter Sixty-Seven High

  Song Jiu did not leave for the time being, and those twenty officials who had studied went first. At least they had learned and studied, and Song Jiu had also reminded them that they were half insiders.

  Song Jiuxiang brought his students to study another thing, first inviting three Song Dynasty glass craftsmen at a high price. There were still many Song Dynasty glass workshops, but they had taken the wrong path from the beginning, so what was fired was real glass, not glass. Some workshops were profitable, while others were not.

  However, relatively speaking, they all had some practical foundation, but deviated from the R&D direction. Song Jiuhu invited three old craftsmen, paid high salaries, signed a high-compensation confidentiality agreement, and the rewards were also surprising. Then, another courtyard was built behind the house, and an earth kiln was built in the courtyard.

  Song Jiuxi did not submit, nor did anyone ask him to. Even more than half of the people doubted whether he could burn out large pieces of glass. Song Jiuxi's learning came from that Western teacher, and it was not surprising that he could burn out glass, but even after burning for many years on the other side of the ocean, no one had ever seen large pieces of glass sold in China.

  It has something to do with whether the beautiful house he painted can be built, it's a luxury, and has little to do with military or civilian use. Maybe someone will covet after success, but it's not good to say it out loud. Besides, whether it can succeed is another matter.

  Zhao Kuangyi gave a horse to Song Jiuxue to ride.

  Riding a horse is a good thing, this era's speed is too pitiful, only riding a horse is the fastest. Song Jiu made time to practice, fell and got a swollen face, finally able to barely ride the horse at a slow pace, still unable to gallop. But Song Jiu didn't know that Zhao Kuangyi had him ride a horse for a reason, Zhao Kuangyin said something to Zhao Pu, Southern...

  A few days later, Song Jiu rushed along the official road towards that salt alkali land. Not too far from Dongshuimen, it was at the junction of Kaifeng County and Chenliu County.

  The entire Kaifeng area has a thick layer of soil, but the soil quality is poor, mostly consisting of fine sand washed down by the Yellow River. Saline-alkaline land is everywhere. However, the common people have their own methods, and the imperial court has its own methods. Planting crops is not suitable, but it is suitable for planting fruit trees and mulberry forests. The climate is cool and pleasant, making it suitable for animal husbandry. The imperial court can use it to create excellent pastures. Actually, there is another method: diverting the Yellow River water to continue washing away the soil, and after the water recedes, a large amount of silt will be left behind, turning barren land into fertile soil.

  Song Jiu knew this, but now the Song Dynasty is not short of land, but short of people. The situation in Hebei Province shocked him. Xiangzhou and Cizhou are not far from the capital, yet they are so desolate. He didn't want to make a big deal out of it, and wouldn't even mention it.

  Riding the horse, Zhao Kuangyi's horse is not bad, a top-notch black mare, about 7 or 8 years old, relatively docile and gentle in nature. Otherwise, these few days of practicing riding skills would have been even more miserable. If riding it into battle to kill enemies, I'm afraid its speed wouldn't be able to keep up, but as an ordinary mount, it's the best.

  Arrived at the construction site.

  There were many people, over a thousand, everywhere with officials and artisans. In the distance there were several kilns for burning bricks, China had a long history of brick-making. However, the cost was relatively high, during the Song Dynasty some earth kilns using coal appeared, but their design was not reasonable. This phenomenon continued until the Southern Song Dynasty, when bricks and tiles were still very expensive.

  Song Jiufu made improvements in the future, and first called many brick kiln workers to come. Then, according to the current kiln form sent by the imperial court, compare it with the memory of the brick kiln form in later generations. Eight earth kilns were designed.

  To burn bricks well, there are three key factors: the structure of the kiln, the temperature, and the quality of the clay.

  First, look at the kiln design that is best, this is easy to compare, with the same soil quality bricks, after burning a furnace of bricks, you can know. Then test the temperature and soil quality, by the time Song Jiu arrives, the answer will be out, only two types of kiln designs are most reasonable.

  This alone has already moved the imperial court.

  Wooden houses are warm in winter and cool in summer, but they are prone to insect infestation, cracking, and weathering, requiring frequent maintenance. Moreover, they are easily ignited by fire. Even better-quality houses often use a combination of bricks, tiles, and wood. This is true for imperial palaces as well as the homes of the Song family. As for ordinary people, their houses typically have earthen walls and thatched roofs, or at most tiled roofs, with earthen walls remaining the norm. When the famous Tang dynasty statesman Song Jing served as a local official, he saw how easily wooden houses in the city caught fire and decided to replace them with brick-and-tile houses. However, this effort was not recorded in history books, likely because the cost of bricks and tiles was too high, and many of these building materials were also subpar.

  The technique was released, and a considerable amount of money was spent, with more than 200 laborers and nearly 100 craftsmen. The officials of the three departments regretted the waste of money and silk, but also remembered a new term: experimentation. However, this did not mark the end. The bricks used for building blast furnaces are different from those used for building houses; they must be refractory bricks, such as clay bricks, high-alumina bricks, or corundum bricks. The latter two were not considered, but rather the former, which requires high-viscosity clay to burn clay bricks. Not only blast furnaces, but also coke ovens need refractory bricks.

  This doesn't cost much, the real spending is yet to come.

  Several warehouses, many people are making cement under the leadership of officials. Song Jiu requires that it is better to be lacking than to be excessive, and the quality of the cement may not be bad, but it leads to more waste and higher costs. After being made, they were put into storage. This is not where the money is spent, the most expensive place is the blast furnace.

  The blast furnace is not enough with cement, it's not that high-grade cement, to make it solid, a large amount of reinforced concrete structure must be used. Now the drawing technology is so backward, there are only steel bars, and can only use the method of refining iron into steel, and then slowly pulling it into various thick and thin uneven steel bars and wires. However, this is temporary, once the steel plant is officially put into operation, a large number of steel products will be obtained. This is the most expensive part, if Song hadn't come up with gunpowder and let the officials see its power, I estimate that the court would not have agreed.

  Also prepare some river sand and hard stones blasted out with gunpowder.

  This is a large construction site.

  Song Jiu looked around and first checked if the materials were qualified. Song Jiu also knew that the imperial court had spent a lot of money, but this was an interdependent relationship like fish and water. Without the support of the imperial court in terms of manpower and resources, it would be impossible for individuals to achieve this on their own. If the imperial court did not provide support, then they would not get any benefits either.

  Quickly, people began to organize and build a blast furnace. As the days went by, it got colder and colder, and in the mornings, a thick layer of white frost had formed outside. There were many people, more than enough, first digging deep pits, laying a solid foundation, then using wooden planks to build scaffolding, filling mud bags into it, building a sixteen-sided high platform that rose straight up into the sky. The platform was nearly twenty zhang (about 60 meters) high. Then, hundreds of specially-made thick steel bars were erected along the platform, starting from the bottom and weaving a steel mesh upwards, with a total of sixteen layers. Song Jiu was afraid of heights and accidents happening, so he ordered officials to bring in large quantities of dry grass to cover the area around the platform. It really came in handy when someone accidentally fell off and landed on the pile of dry grass, only suffering minor injuries. A minor injury versus a death is different; compared to this big project, human life was not valuable, but if someone died, it would be unlucky and also make the workers above worried. At that time, the workers were still not used to working at heights, and one timid worker standing on the high scaffolding actually cried from fear.

  Sixteen vertical columns, sixteen horizontal columns, then dismantle the scaffolding, re-erect the scaffolding outside, and start pouring concrete.

  On the other hand, there were also things to be done. First of all, it was a big wind box. Large blast furnaces must have powerful bellows. Song Jiu had already conducted some experiments in that house before construction began, and he had actually developed them. Firstly, the current wind box was changed from a long shape to a cylindrical shape, compressing the dead angle, with sufficient air pressure and no air leakage. Secondly, it was a multi-hole blower. Thirdly, it utilized the rapid flow characteristics of the Bian River section to create a waterwheel blower. This was something that Song Jiu had seen in his previous life when he ran to Europe, and he remembered it well because he was curious and asked about the principle at the time. He had learned a lot from his past life, and he had seen a lot of knowledge, but many of them were absolutely useless. There were also people in the imperial court who said at the time that our dynasty has it too. Song Jiu found it strange, and later the official said something different. That must be different, the water-powered blower of the Song Dynasty was far behind. Now what needs to be done is to make it practical and large-scale from the laboratory.

  The key is steel.

  The puddling process was an improvement, but whether it was pig iron being puddled into wrought iron or vice versa, there were two problems that could not be solved. One was that the molten iron was not a good absorber of carbon, and the other was the force of gravity, which caused the molten iron to flow downwards after melting, resulting in a higher carbon content at the bottom of the ingot and a lower carbon content at the top after cooling. If it were puddled repeatedly, its plasticity would become very poor. Therefore, further improvements were made during the Ming dynasty, including the mud-sealed iron puddling process and the Su steel stir-frying process. In India, there was also the crucible steel production method.

  These three methods Song Jiu didn't know, even if he knew the drawbacks were many. In fact, knowing the principle isn't that complicated either. The main principle is to make iron contain carbon. With a blast furnace, there's high-quality cast iron; without it, it won't work. Refining steel in a converter at this time is impractical, but there's a way. With high-quality cast iron, build a large-scale carburizing kiln, and inside the kiln, use pig iron bars and charcoal to alternate stacking. Charcoal must be used; otherwise, China's coal will contain a lot of sulfur, which will also penetrate during carbon penetration. If the sulfur content exceeds the standard, even steel is unqualified steel. Then, maintain high-temperature reaction penetration for four to seven days after firing, and after taking it out of the kiln, forge and reduce thickness to remove impurities, resulting in excellent steel, at least better than any steel today except for true tamahagane. Moreover, what Song Jiu values most is mass production, large-scale mass production.

  As the project progressed, the imperial court also fell into it. Song Jiu had everything he wanted, and at most, nearly two thousand laborers were sent to participate.

  Actually, Song Jiu was worried about the sulfur content, but using charcoal to smelt iron reduced the sulfur content by half compared to the original coal-smelting method, unless wood charcoal was used, which had even more drawbacks, especially in terms of temperature control.

  Problems keep emerging, waste keeps happening, and corrections are constantly being made. If Song Jiu didn't take charge personally, who knows what kind of trouble would arise.

  The weather is getting colder and colder, because this cement has poor cold resistance and slow solidification. Song Jiulang had people ignite charcoal around the perimeter and set up a bonfire to forcibly raise the temperature of the surrounding area. Finally, as the high oven got higher and higher, eight more high platforms were built around it, and bonfires were lit on top of them again to forcibly raise the air temperature. The effect was not very good, but raising the temperature by five or six degrees was still possible, which made a big difference for this cement.

  The three treasuries and the officials of the inner storehouse were terrified.

  But the blast furnace is taking shape day by day, and then a more dense scaffolding is built, and bricks are laid. Layer by layer, they are piled up. Because the cement has not fully solidified, the wooden mud platform inside has not been dismantled, and it will wait until the blast furnace is completely solidified before slowly removing them.

  United we stand, a month later, when the ice on the Bian River had just melted, a strange chimney finally stood by the Bian River.

  The bamboo scaffolding is still not daring to take, and some furnaces inside are still under construction. The charcoal fires around are also not dare to stop, but start to transport the mud and wood out of the blast furnace, theoretically, the blast furnace has been completed.

  Not far from the capital city, Zhao Kuangyin brought his ministers over to watch.

  It's not Song Jiubao's report, in fact, it will take at least a dozen days to see the best results. The blast furnace produces iron, then refines steel, smelting good iron and refining good steel, and then we'll see. I don't know how much money the imperial court spent, but I think it won't be little, even the money from his own shop has been used up early, but seeing the results will make you feel that this money is well spent.

  A mighty army came over, and Song Jiu and other officials went out to meet them.

  Everyone looked up at the blast furnace, and there were only three words in their minds: high, so high!