I want to be emperor

Chapter 465 The Empire Needs Steel

On this planet, for the time being, there is no second country that can pull tens of thousands of people to work on the assembly line all day long to make iron, make machinery and make guns like the Great Chu Empire.

Not only because of the huge consumption, but also because the population is a very important resource.

In many countries, they don't even have hundreds of thousands of people...

For example, Dongyao, don’t look at how powerful they are, but there are not many Dongyao people. Even if their entire population is pulled over to make guns, they don’t expect to be able to produce as many guns as the Great Chu Empire.

Another example is the European countries, many of which have a population of only a few million or even less.

For example, Portugal, which first came to East Asia to colonize and trade, and established an extensive colonial empire on a global scale, don’t look at them running around the world, but in fact their population is only a million or so.

No matter how many overseas colonies there are, they were swallowed up by Spain... With their small local population, they couldn't withstand the Spanish attack.

For many years in the past, Spain and Portugal have been in the United Kingdom period, with the same king, but Portugal has always been dissatisfied and wants to regain independence.

This is also more obvious in overseas colonies. Portugal's overseas colonies and Spanish overseas colonies are two different things and do not belong to each other.

When the Portuguese were still in control of Macau, the Spaniards were not allowed to come to share their interests, and Spain was forced to go to the north of Dayuan Island to establish a new colonial stronghold.

That is to say, after Macao was returned to the Great Chu Empire without a second thought, the Portuguese, who had lost their colonial strongholds, immediately lost their strategic support in East Asia. Only then did they remember that the Spaniards had the same king as them, and they were so desperate to find Spain is trying to join forces and wants to rely on the strength of the Spaniards to regain Macau...

It just so happened that the Spaniards were devastated by the civil strife in the Philippines. At the same time, the situation on Dayuan Island became more and more tense. The Spaniards, who were short of manpower, simply regarded the Portuguese who came to their door as cannon fodder and sent them to the colonists in the northern part of Dayuan Island. In the stronghold...

As a result, Portugal, which lost its colonial stronghold, was treated as cannon fodder by the Spaniards when it changed hands. With the strength of the Great Chu Empire in the East Asian waters and its attempt to recover the entire Dayuan Island, these Portuguese probably will not be able to return to Europe. .

----

Luo Zhixue looked at the many iron-smelting furnaces in Dangtu Ironworks, and at the coal piled up on the coal warehouse not far away, he couldn't help smiling.

The Dangtu Iron Smelting Plant uses a large amount of coal to make iron, which is able to produce a large amount of cinders. In this way, the Dangtu Industrial Zone can use cinders to pave roads on a large scale.

Cinder paving, which represents not only a simple cinder road, but also the rapid development of the coal mining industry and industrial coal, especially the ironmaking industry.

Otherwise, where did you get the cinders!
Thanks to industrialized ironmaking, the iron production capacity of the Great Chu Empire is now very large, and what the huge iron production capacity has brought to the Great Chu Empire is not just as simple as more guns.

Also brought more cheap and reliable industrial and civilian ironwork!
More industrial iron products bring more mechanical equipment and improve production efficiency.

And more iron products for civilian use, especially all kinds of iron farm tools, brought more food to the empire!
No matter what it is here, it is extremely important!
This is also when Luo Zhixue arrived in the Dangtu Industrial Zone, the first stop he inspected was the Dangtu Iron Works!

Steel is the cornerstone of a country's rise!

Under the guidance of a group of officials, Luo Zhixue carefully observed the workshop of Dangtu Ironworks, and Hong Hanying, the Governor's Office of Dangtu Ironworks, was accompanying him to introduce the situation of Dangtu Ironworks.

"Thanks to the strong support of the superior organization and many friends, our factory has completed the second phase of the project and is currently building the third phase!"

"The two phases of the project that have been completed can produce [-] tons of iron per year. When the third phase of the project is completed and put into operation, then the annual production capacity of our Dangtu ironworks can reach [-] tons!"

"Most of the iron materials produced are directly supplied to Dangtu Armory Factory, Dangtu Heavy Artillery Factory, Dangtu Machinery Factory, Dangtu Hardware Factory, Dangtu Second Machinery Factory, etc. In addition to local government-run factories, a small part is also supplied to some local Some of the private factories supply factories in other regions, and some of them are directly sold to many private workshops in other places through private distributors."

Luo Zhixue didn't dare to be interested in the sales of these iron materials that Hong Hanying said later. As long as the iron materials are produced these days, they will not worry about sales.

What's more, iron and steel enterprises are upstream enterprises, and their tens of thousands of tons of pig iron and wrought iron products are not direct consumer goods, but industrial raw materials.

Their users are all kinds of factories, no matter how bad they are, they are private blacksmithing workshops.

Through numerous government-run or private factories and small-scale iron-making related workshops scattered all over the country, apart from a small part of the iron and steel produced by Dangtu Ironworks being directly used in the defense industry, more of it is actually used in the private sector. industry, especially cookware and agriculture.

In contemporary times, cooking utensils and agriculture are the biggest consumers of iron products!

Tens of millions of people, the kitchen knives, iron pans, hatchets, sickles, saws, hammers, hoes, plows and many other tools they need are the largest consumers of iron materials.

The two-year-style flintlock guns ordered by the military of the Great Chu Empire are only hundreds of thousands of them, and the iron consumption is actually very limited.

But the kitchen knives, iron pans, sickles, hoes and other tools used by the people are in the tens of millions.

If it is purely for the national defense industry, in fact, just one Daye Iron Works is enough, and there is even a surplus. A considerable part of the production capacity of the previous Daye Iron Works has been used by the private sector, and it has broken out Han Guo, which is famous and exported to several surrounding provinces, is the biggest proof of the rich iron production capacity of Daye Iron Works.

If there is no excess iron production capacity, how could the Ministry of Industry use the iron production capacity to make iron pots and sell them...

This is especially true when it comes to the Dangtu Iron Works. The iron production capacity used by guns is only a small part, and more iron production capacity is still used for industrial and civilian purposes.

And these demands are almost endless, and even more and more, and more can improve the overall productivity of society.

Therefore, for the current Great Chu Empire, the more iron production capacity, the better. At present, the total production capacity of several government-run iron smelting plants is about 14 tons, plus the production capacity of [-] to [-] tons of many private iron smelting plants. , It’s only [-] tons if it’s exhausted.

This is far from enough for the huge Chu Empire!

Luo Zhixue looked at the row of ironworks in front of him, then turned his head to look at the group of officials below, and said, "Steel is a good thing. It is used for guns in the army and equipment in factories. People make it." It is used for food, for craftsmen to make seats, and for farmers to cut firewood for farming.”

"Although there is a lot of iron production capacity today, it is far from enough for the empire, and the current iron price is too expensive!"

"In the land of Huaxia, many farmers are still using rusty or even wooden farm tools. How do they open up wasteland and farm with these broken tools?"

"The peasants of the empire need cheaper and better hoes and sickles!"

"Your steel industry has a long way to go!"

While Luo Zhixue was talking, the group of courtiers below were all listening attentively and memorizing.

No one would think that Luo Zhixue would say something casually at this time.

These words reflect His Majesty's high regard and ardent expectations for the steel industry!

Immediately, many officials thought in their hearts, this steel industry is a leader!

Why do officials think so?
Because of promotion!
His Majesty said that the iron and steel industry is very important, and if he gets involved in the iron and steel industry, it will not be a matter of minutes to get promoted.

Luo Zhixue inspected the Dangtu Iron Works for a whole day, and saw almost every link in the ironmaking process. In addition, he also saw an experimental iron-making furnace newly built by the Dangtu Iron Works. Better refractory materials were used, along with improved blowers.

The overall appearance is larger than the original iron-making furnace. According to Hong Hanying, Governor of Dangtu Iron-making Plant, this type of iron-making furnace can improve production efficiency, and at the same time, the quality of the pig iron produced is more stable.

Although all the pig iron produced by the furnace is limited by the technical level and the production process is not uniform, the quality of the pig iron produced by the same iron factory is often different, which will affect the subsequent secondary production process. Processing and steelmaking will also cause certain problems.

Although in Luo Zhixue's opinion, this thing is actually no different from the original iron-smelting stove, both are backward and primitive, but he is more aware that the progress of technology needs to be accumulated, and it is good to dream about such things as reaching the sky in one step , don't expect it in reality.

Even if Luo Zhixue can design the modern blast furnaces of the later generations as they are now, it cannot be done with the basic technical capabilities of the current empire.

Not to mention other things, there are no materials...

Luo Zhixue has enough patience to allow those technicians to ponder step by step and continue to improve. When the lightning strikes many small improvements, then the technological leap will be completed smoothly.

So Luo Zhixue praised a group of engineers who participated in the ironmaking furnace on the spot, and ordered someone to give them technical rewards.

After inspecting the Dangtu Iron Works, Luo Zhixue's second inspection factory was the Dangdu Arsenal.

After all, I came here this time mainly to look at the local defense industry and urge the local defense industry and related companies not to be lazy, and to quickly increase the production capacity of guns and ammunition.

Especially the two-year-old flintlock, field guns of three calibers of two and a half catties, five catties, and nine catties of field guns, and the core main equipment of the 48-jin mortar, as well as vital ammunition.

The production capacity of the above-mentioned weapons and ammunition is directly related to the combat effectiveness of the troops.

What Luo Zhixue didn't expect was that, apart from seeing a steady increase in the production capacity of various main equipment and everything going well, he also saw a pleasant surprise during his visit this time.

Dangtu Arsenal's ammunition factory has successfully produced the new type of grenade he ordered before!

They not only produced the new type of howitzer shells, but even in order to launch these new types of shells, they also specially trial-produced a 150-pound howitzer with a caliber of [-] mm and a barrel seven times the diameter to launch this new type of shells.

(End of this chapter)