The end of the Ming Dynasty swept the world

Chapter 570
Therefore, the most important thing for Ding Yi is to make more furnaces and use more workers, so that the situation of craftsmen waiting for steel and iron cannot occur in the past.

Therefore, on the west side of Changsheng Island, in the past two years, Li Zhongyi plans to build 160 Dajian furnaces, which can smelt 1 million catties of iron at the same time. Ding Yi even equipped him with a team of nearly [-] workers, which is quite large.

Of course, they don't have so much iron to smelt at the same time, but they have more furnaces and more work at the same time, which can ensure a steady stream of wrought iron and steel output.

When Ding Yi arrived at Changsheng Island, he happened to see Li Zhongyi and his workers making steel.

I saw that when workers made steel, they first put unforged wrought iron into the furnace and heated it with blast. After 2 minutes, clamp one end of the pig iron with tongs and place it obliquely in the furnace mouth, and continue to blow air to keep the temperature in the furnace rising.

When the temperature of the furnace rises to about 1300°C, one end of the pig iron resting obliquely inside the furnace mouth begins to melt, and molten iron begins to drip continuously. Move so that the molten iron is evenly poured over the wrought iron.

At the same time, the wrought iron is constantly turned so that all parts of the wrought iron can absorb the molten iron evenly.After two showers, the wrought iron was clamped to the anvil for forging.After removing impurities, the required billet is obtained, commonly known as "steel group".

Of the twenty Dajian Furnaces on Changsheng Island, ten of them are dedicated to smelting wrought iron.

Another ten dedicated to steelmaking.

A steady stream of wrought iron and pig iron was transported to the steelmaking side, and a large amount of steel was produced, which was then transported to the Craftsman Bureau.

There are many workers on the island, and they come and go frequently, so as to ensure that the craftsmen of the Craftsmanship Bureau have endless steel and iron.

Ding Yi saw how to make steel, and asked Li Zhongyi: "Now, how much steel and iron can we produce every month?"

The speed of steelmaking, of course, depends on the speed at which Ding Yi transports the iron ore and the number of workers.

It used to be Seinfeld, but later it was changed to Fran, and a new 6th Naval Battalion was formed to run Lushun and Iwami Ginzan routes in Japan.

Basically it depends on the season, about five to eight times a year.

The iron ore that can be transported at one time ranges from 20 jin to as much as 40 million jin. (The quality of iron ore in Japan is about 1.7-2 catties, which can produce a catty of pig iron, which is worse than Dayuan's hematite)

In addition, when Ruan Siqing's navy was running a business, he would also transport iron materials from other places in the Ming Dynasty, but most of them were pig iron.

On Li Zhongyi's side, Pig Island, Changsheng Island and other islands add up, and on average, about 15 catties of pig iron can be practiced a month.

In addition to Ruan Siqing's purchase, Ding Yi can have about 200 million catties of pig iron throughout the year.

It sounds like a huge amount, but after wrought iron is smelted, iron armor and spears are used in the shipyard, and the rest has to be smelted into steel, which takes time, and finally cannons are made.

"The annual output of steel is about 20 jin." Li Zhongyi finally said helplessly.

On average, less than 600 catties of steel are produced, and only [-] flintlock guns can be made.

But Ding Yi's department also uses steel in many other places, including ships, machinery, knives and guns. It is estimated that there are only enough to make [-] guns, and Ding Yi is now giving priority to Lumi guns.

That's why he was slow to make flintlock guns.

Li Zhongyi spread his hands: "There is still not enough manpower, and there are not enough skilled craftsmen to forge into steel. This step needs to be completed by craftsmen one by one."

It is easy to make iron, but difficult to make steel.

Ding Yi now has piles of pig iron and wrought iron piled up in warehouses on various islands. He didn't even count them. It is estimated that over the past seven or eight years, more than one million catties have been hoarded.

They can't be used up, but the steel is far from enough. If Zhao Dashan is here at this time, he must be excited to tell him to make iron pots for sale, and maybe a batch of iron materials can be consumed.

So here still need more craftsmen and Dajian furnace.

"My lord has built a school and trained craftsmen in the past few years, which has also added a lot of manpower to us. If we only rely on external search and recruiting, I don't know when we will have the current scale." Li Zhongyi was actually very proud at this time, Ding Yi's The Craftsman Bureau here is doing very well, and it will only get better and better.

At present, all Ding Yi's sites are added up, and it is estimated that there are about [-] craftsmen and skilled workers.

This is no easy feat.

Just look at the amount of iron they produce.

In the early years of Yongle in the Ming Dynasty, the national pig iron output was 1800 million catties. Now Ding Yi only relies on the Dongjiang River to reach one-ninth of the Yongle Dynasty. Can you not be proud?

Jiajing should have the highest output of pig iron in the Ming Dynasty. At that time, the annual output of pig iron in Guangdong province alone reached 2700 million catties. The whole country must have reached hundreds of millions.

Afterwards, it seemed to start to decline. Now during the reign of Chongzhen, there were refugees everywhere. Except for Jiangnan in Guangdong, there was chaos everywhere. I don’t know if the national output is still 5000 million catties.

Ding Yi now produces a lot of iron, so he made a lot of iron cannons and bird guns, and sold them to North Korea and Japan. This is where he currently makes most of his money.

Of the [-] Dajian Furnaces on Changsheng Island, [-] are currently completed and in operation, [-] are about to be built, and the locations of the other [-] have already been selected.

When all twenty Dajian furnaces are completed, Ding Yi's iron production rate will increase again.

The speed of steel production depends on how many craftsmen there are.

The more craftsmen you have, the faster you can produce steel.

After Ding Yi finished reading, he walked around by the way, stopped some workers on the road, and asked the people.

Those who can be called workers here can do some basic operations, such as dredgers, cast iron, firemen, etc. These people are paid every month, and they usually work for ten days and have one day off. If there is something in the middle, they can ask for leave, but a little wages will be deducted.

If there is no rest day, it can be deducted from other rest days. If there is no rest throughout the year, overtime wages will be paid.

When Ding Yi first established the Craftsmanship Bureau, many workers worked overtime all day long, almost all year round. After seven or eight days, the workers became deeply rooted in the local area, some married wives and had children, and some were promoted to craftsmen. One day off for ten days.

Every time Ding Yi goes to the islands, he always asks the workers and craftsmen if they live well.Do you eat well?Is there any deductions from wages?
So many workers know Ding Yi.

Today he stopped a worker who looked to be around 20 years old, very young.

"This is our master Pidaoding." Someone in the entourage reminded the young man.

The young man was overjoyed: "Greetings to Master Ding, Master Ding will live a long life."

"..." Ding Yi.

It was only later that Ding Yi found out that the young man was Xu Wei, who had come to Lushun from Pidao with his father when he was ten years old. He was the first batch of Liao people that Ruan Siqing bought in the past.

His father was a blacksmith, so he was brought here too.

But he died of illness within a few years after coming here.

Xu Wei was brought up by Lushun, and also learned his father's craft, blacksmithing. He is very grateful to Lushun and Master Ding.

But he failed several times in the past to assess the artisan, and he has always been a worker.

Seeing Ding Yi this time, he hurriedly asked: "Master Ding, can I go to school to study?"

It turns out that Ding Yi's school has no age limit. As Ding Yi's territory grows larger and more populous, it is divided into elementary schools, middle schools and universities. Exceed.

Because at this age, the learning ability and acceptance ability are relatively strong.

Xu Wei is too old, and has not been approved for several applications.

(End of this chapter)