Chapter Forty-Five: Origami

  It seems difficult, but not impossible. Song Jiu knew that the technology of this era was backward, but if a large country's iron production was only 1,000 tons, then there must have been some serious problems in between. He didn't leave immediately and arrived at Kaifeng Prefecture again. He also didn't want to deal with the Second Great King, forced by helplessness, couldn't just muddle along to the mountains and countryside, went to Xiangzhou Iron Pit to take a look, and found out the problem. He wasn't a god after all.

  Zhao Kuangyi received him in the rest hall, and had tea and fruit served by the attendants. This could not be considered as making things difficult for Song Jiu. In this era, increasing one million jin of iron was too significant. Song Jiu spoke straightforwardly: "Second King, I think I should go to the Salt and Iron Office to take a look."

  "Yan Tie Shi?"

  "It's no use for me to go and take a look without having an overall understanding."

  "Line."

  "The second request is for the imperial court to reissue an edict, allowing me to inspect and verify the rights of the various salt wells in Hebei Province."

  Song Jiu!

  "Your Majesty, I know this request is excessive, but it's not really to inspect all the iron mines in Hebei. Firstly, I want to take a look at one or two iron mines' operation, secondly, I want to see the iron casting and steel smelting situation, thirdly, I want to see the coal mining situation, and then quickly return to the capital. My time is also precious, three years will pass in no time, and by then I must hand over the taxes to the court."

  "Why watch steelmaking and coal mining?"

  "The iron yield is small, I haven't seen it yet, can't judge, but it's likely that the iron in the iron ore can't be completely smelted out, and the smelted iron has many impurities. As for steel, steel and iron are different substances, good steel is an iron-carbon alloy with a carbon content of no more than two percent."

  "Charcoal?"

  "It's the carbon from the stone character, not the charcoal that people talk about. With it, you can increase the strength of steel, so the Tang Dynasty's Mo Dao could cut a warhorse in half with one slash. If you add other elements, it won't rust easily, but the strength isn't very high. If you change to different elements again, you can increase the strength and have corrosion resistance and toughness." Song Jiudao said.

  In reality, relying on some craftsmanship from the Song Dynasty, it is theoretically possible to add carbon, chromium, manganese, molybdenum, silicon, and tungsten to steel. There are two prerequisites: first, the court must provide research funding and personnel, as individuals cannot bear such a huge research cost. Second, although it is theoretically possible to develop various types of steel, whether it can be mass-produced is another matter, and the cost is also another issue.

  The alloy steels mentioned later, except for broadening one's horizons, are impossible to achieve with the technology of this era, and their practical uses are not great either. What's important is still iron-carbon alloy steel. Moreover, he has forgotten many theoretical knowledge he learned, and it's difficult to apply modern craftsmanship to primitive craftsmanship."

  Out of office, out of mind.

  If it weren't for the fact that all sorts of buildings would be constructed on the sandy island in the future and a large amount of steel would be used, he wouldn't bother with this matter.

  Just mention it casually.

  It doesn't matter whether you say it or not. The key point is just one sentence: steel and iron are substances of different properties, the rest of the explanations, Zhao Kuangyi also can't understand.

  "What's wrong?"

  "This little path of learning is just studying these things."

  "If you can achieve an increase of one million catties of iron, I will give this small Taoist sect a proper name from now on." Zhao Kuangyi said with pleasure, and continued: "Song Jiu, revise the imperial edict again. I don't have that authority, but I'll report to my imperial brother. It shouldn't be difficult. However, after you go down this time, you must pay attention to one thing - select a few brave men from the river as attendants."

  "Bodyguard?"

  "Attendants, what attendants! The court will also dispatch two soldiers to protect your safety, but the country must have rules, and the number of attendants is determined by the official rank. However, things are a bit complicated below. Your Majesty has given you the power to inspect, it's just convenient for you to make a comprehensive understanding. But it will cause misunderstandings among the people below, thinking that you are going to do something. If you were a few years older and had a slightly higher official position, going down would be troublesome but not too big of a deal. Now you're not yet..."

  "The two big kings said that there will be corrupt officials in the lower levels? Why don't they deal with it? Ah, clear water has no fish."

  "What water is so clear that it has no fish! It's not what you think, in short, if you're clever enough, go and take a look, you'll understand. If you're not clever enough, don't ask questions, thinking of a solution is your main task. If you go down there and make a mess, creating some trouble, even the official and the emperor won't be able to protect you."

  Zhao Kuangyi said this sentence has two layers of meaning, unfortunately Song Jiu did not hear it.

  He took Song Jiu to the Three Departments, until another person came out, and only then did Song Jiu vaguely feel the seriousness of the Song Dynasty this time, that is, the Envoy of the Three Departments Li Chongju. However, after hearing about Song Jiu's miscellaneous affairs, Li Chongju saw that Song Ji was always serious and couldn't help but smile, with a somewhat strange expression on his face.

  Zhao Kuangyi did not smile and remained very serious.

  Not yet, it seems that this kid still has a trump card, talking about coal and steel. Is this material science so magical? But didn't ask further, afraid of disappointment, also afraid of pushing Song Jiu too hard.

  Two senior officials led Song Jiu into the Salt and Iron Department of the Three Departments, which were divided into Salt and Iron, Degree Branch and Household Department. The Salt and Iron Department was the first of the three departments, in charge of seven cases: military affairs, armor, commercial tax, salt, tea, iron, and currency. The iron case was further divided into gold, silver, copper, iron, cinnabar, white vitriol, green vitriol, stone coal, tin, and drum casting. Seventy percent of the Song Dynasty's family property was in this Salt and Iron Department. The data that Song Jiu wanted to see was in the Iron Case Department of the Salt and Iron Department.

  There are many officials busy, eight or nine out of ten see Zhao Kuangyi and Li Chongju coming, not busy also have to be busy, real officials are rare, there are many small officials, if they have a future, Song Jiu's students may have a few people enter here as small officials in the future. In addition, there are many people doing odd jobs, occasionally one or two small yellow gates come and go to deliver messages.

  Song Jiulou looked at him with some curiosity.

  Zhao Kuangyi and Li Chongju were also watching him, curious to see if he was destined for greatness. Any ordinary person who had arrived at this national central institution would have been somewhat curious. They were looking at Song Jiu's expression, wondering if he would be like Liu Jiuniang, in which case his whole life would be a matter of one burst of energy. This is what it all comes down to: bearing!

  They think too much of it, it's just a commercial building from Song Jiuyi's past life, a slightly higher-end commercial building.

  Song Jiu's expression was curious, but very calm, so calm that it almost made Zhao Kuangyi and Li Chongju feel like they were going to crack a smile. This kid may not have big ambitions, but he has a lot of guts. He was brought to the Iron Case Department, where Li Chongju ordered a small official to bring over some iron and stone charcoal for storage together.

  Song Jiufu is looking at the information.

  If I hadn't studied classical Chinese for a year, looking at these materials would also give me a headache. Not to mention the complex characters, they are written vertically and there are no punctuation marks or Arabic numerals; after reading for a long time, it will make people dizzy.

  Song Jiuxi carefully flipped through it, really looking at it. What else could he do?

  Zhao Kuangyi and Li Chongju did not disturb him, Li Chongju ordered someone to bring a cup of tea and placed it beside Song Jiu. Song Jiu was so absorbed in thought that he casually picked up the cup and drank from it. The officials and minor officers at the iron case saw his rudeness and were somewhat displeased; if the two big shots hadn't been there, they would have immediately thrown Song Jiu out.

  Song Jiufan looked at it and found that the Song Dynasty was ruling the north at this time, and the iron pits were also in the north. They were mainly divided into three places: the first place was the area of Yanzhou and Laiwu, with 18 administrative offices, which means 18 iron ore production areas. According to reason, the number should not be small, but the annual output of these 18 iron mines was less than 500,000 catties, and each iron mine produced only about 15-16 tons of iron per year! What a large output, no wonder Zhao Kuangyi was anxious when he heard that he needed 400,000 catties of iron. Looking at this output, how can you not be anxious?

  Next is the area around Xuzhou, which is even smaller. The main ones are in the Hebei Road Xing, Xiang, and Ci areas, occupying more than half of the country's total iron production. There are also some remaining small mines. At the same time, it was found that Zhao Kuangyi's statement that the annual output of iron was less than 2 million catties was incorrect. This 2 million catties is the amount of iron levied, which means the amount of iron handed over by the imperial court to the iron pits. There must be a part of it lost in the middle to the private sector. There are also some private iron pits, but the number is even more pitiful. It is possible that the iron Li Tiejiang bought to make pulleys was these lost private iron and private iron pit iron. But the total output will not exceed 4 million catties.

  Some read selectively, some in detail, some are irrelevant, and some just flip through.

  What he found strange was that there were no records of relevant smelting technology.

  "Alas." Song Jiuxiao sighed bitterly. Dong Zhongshu harmed people to death, and then another Zhu Xi came out later. Can China become better?

  Feeling bad, started throwing randomly, put down the iron part, and began to look at the coal part.

  Finally putting down the volume, Zhao Kuangyi and Li Chong stared at him. The coal made them ignore it, and what they saw with their eyes full of iron ore was a large amount of iron ore.

  Song Jiuxiao said, "The two great kings, Li Sishi, originally the output was indeed so small, no wonder many soldiers on the front line used cotton armor, paper armor, and leather armor, inferior helmets."

  The Song Dynasty had a limited number of troops at that time, with only tens of thousands of imperial guards and tens of thousands of garrison soldiers. To the south were the Southern Tang, Later Shu, and Later Han, while to the north were the Northern Han and Khitan. This small military force was necessary.

  It wasn't easy to produce armor, for example. The weight of helmets varied among different types of troops, averaging around 50 kilograms. However, they had to undergo repeated hammering and a steel-making process. Each time it was hammered, the iron was reduced by a little, so after five or six times, over 100 kilograms of iron were needed. If made with more precision, requiring ten or eight hammerings, then 200 kilograms of iron would be required.

  Moreover, the weapons in the hands of soldiers, such as arrows and spears, used less iron, only having an iron tip. However, knives also required a large amount of iron, with even higher requirements. Therefore, on the market, a good knife sold for over three guan (a unit of currency) per piece, weighing around 10 kilograms, nearly two thousand wen (another unit of currency), and one kilogram reached two hundred wen.

  If fully armed to the teeth using the best steel, each soldier would need at least 300 kilograms of iron. With nearly 300,000 soldiers nationwide, that's over a billion kilograms! The Song Dynasty's iron production needed more than fifty years to meet this demand.

  In folklore, there are stories about Taizu Changquan (Taizu Long Fist) and Taizu Gunfa (Taizu Staff Method), which say that Zhao Kuangyin used a Panlong staff. It is estimated that due to the lack of iron, Zhao Kuangyin used a wooden staff instead of a weapon to hit enemies on the head.

  Peeling away the superficial false image, the truth would be laughable and tear-jerking.

  Song Jiuyue's arrogant attitude made some officials dissatisfied, and a small official said: "You little boy, what are you talking about? Even in the great Tang Dynasty, from west to Congling, north to Liaodong Goguryeo, south to Jiaozhi, east to the sea, the annual iron production is not much higher than our dynasty."

  "The times are progressing, for example, coal was discovered in the Han Dynasty, why did it take until our dynasty to gradually use it?" Song Ji suddenly stopped and thought of something, and said in a low voice to Li Chongju: "Li Sishi, officials in charge of the three departments must have business acumen, don't you want to try their talent?"

  "How to try?"

  "I'll pose a question: take a piece of paper one zhang wide and one zhang long, fold it 100 times. Whoever can do it will be rewarded with 100 pieces of gold by me, and you will also reward him with 100 pieces of gold. If they think carefully before attempting, they can stay in their position. If they rush to try immediately, these people cannot be used again. If they say it's impossible, then after being trained for a period of time, they can be reused."

  "Nonsense..." Li Chongju originally wanted to say that it's not easy to fold! It's not a small piece of paper, with an area as large as one zhang, but Song Jiu said that whoever tries to grab it first can't use it again, so he swallowed the rest of his words.

  Zhao Kuangyi stood at the edge and thought silently, saying: "Shou Ze, you try it."

  Li Chong looked at Song Jiu with a skeptical expression and said: "If someone really succeeds, don't cry."

  His Majesty rewards you with one hundred taels of gold!

  "Don't worry."

  Li Chongju repeated Song Jiu's words in the iron case again.

  As expected, a chorus of curses erupted, with everyone scolding Song Jiu for being reckless. Only about half the people were deep in thought, and hardly anyone said it was impossible. The rest all wanted to give it a try. The officials didn't, as they had to maintain their dignity, mainly just the minor officials.

  Li Chong ordered someone to bring a large piece of paper. The measurement and production standards were not uniform in this era, so the size of the paper was also inconsistent, with some being big and others small. After bringing over a large sheet of paper, he had it cut into smaller pieces and placed on the ground. A minor official rushed over to fold them up, and after just a short while, sweat dripped from his forehead like rain.