Daming: I help my wife be the empress

After Aimee Zhu came outside the iron and steel plant, she didn't rush in directly. That would be irresponsible for her own safety, and it would easily cause an accident in the iron and steel plant.

Therefore, she waited outside the factory for Ma Dong, the director of the Nanjing Iron and Steel Plant, and other officials to greet her, and then let the Yulin Army go in to investigate and deploy defenses. It was also time for the steel plant workers to prepare. Man asks about production at steel mill.

"How many blast furnaces and open hearth furnaces are there in the factory? How much steel can be produced per month?"

Ma Dong is a capable man in his thirties, but his job in a steel factory is from the eighth rank of the Ministry of Industry.

Hearing the words, he bowed nervously and excitedly: "Your Majesty, our factory currently has six new iron-making blast furnaces, each of which can produce [-] catties of iron per day, oh that's [-] tons, so it can produce [-] catties of iron per day. Nine thousand tons of iron.

In addition, there are five new steel-making open hearth furnaces, each of which can produce ten tons of steel per day, so it can produce 300 tons of steel per month, which is [-] million catties! "

Ma Dong may be too excited, and he has not fully adapted to the new steel calculation unit, so he converted it into catties twice in his words.

(There is a difference between the Ming catty and the modern catty, and they are treated as the same here for the convenience of writing. If you have doubts about steel production, you can read the notes in the author's statement.)
Next to them, Zhu Dadian and Yang Tinglin, who had learned about the production situation of the steel plant for the first time, were stunned when they heard Ma Dong's words.

Yang Tinglin couldn't help but question, "Director Ma, you said that a blast furnace can produce [-] catties of iron in one day?!"

"Yes," Ma Dong nodded, "sometimes even more than [-] catties."

Even though he knew that it was impossible for Ma Dong to lie in front of Auntie Zhu, Yang Tinglin couldn't help but muttered, "How is this possible?"

He was a Jinshi in the fourth year of Chongzhen. At that time, the main attention of the Ming court was on internal and external wars. Therefore, not only many scholars studied military books, practiced riding and shooting, but also cared about military preparations.

Yang Tinglin also served in the Ministry of War, handling food and military affairs for the army, so he has a certain understanding of the iron-making situation in the Ming Dynasty.

As far as he knows, the level and scale of folk ironmaking in Ming Dynasty were even higher than that of the official ones, among which Foshan Town in Guangdong Province was the most famous. One thousand catties, the highest is more than six thousand catties of iron a day.

But according to what Ma Dong said, this Nanjing Iron and Steel Plant uses a new type of blast furnace to make iron, and it can produce [-] catties of iron per day!

It was more than ten times what he knew before!
Although Zhu Dadian didn't know much about the iron production before the Ming Dynasty, he knew a general idea.

But what shocked him the most was the output of steel, because in his perception, steel still needs to be forged from iron, and even if he wants to produce thousands of catties a day, he needs to hire many blacksmiths.

And this iron and steel factory actually uses open hearth furnaces to make steel, and one furnace can produce [-] jin (ten tons) per day!

What kind of terrifying steel output is this?

It's no wonder that the Royal Forest Army, Imperial Guard Army, and even the Border Guards can use steel plate armor, helmets, weapons, steel cannons, and even wrap warships with steel plates to build steel armored warships!
Zhu Dadian and Yang Tinglin were in shock, but they saw Zhu Yuxi nodded calmly, and said calmly: "This result is barely qualified, but you still have to fully mobilize the enthusiasm of the workers to further increase the production. We Daming will never have too much steel. of."

This can only be considered qualified?

Zhu Dadian and Yang Tinglin didn't know what to say after hearing this.

The little pride in Ma Dong's heart dissipated in an instant, and he replied: "My servant, please remember."

As the director of the iron and steel factory, and he himself was selected from the officials of the government-run iron factory, Ma Dong naturally understood how excellent the new blast furnace ironmaking and flat road steelmaking methods introduced from Chengdu, Sichuan are.

Especially the method of making steel.

As far as he knows, in the past, Sugang was the most important steelmaking company in Daming, but it could only be refined in small quantities by the well-developed steel pouring method.Not only is the output inferior to the open-hearth steelmaking method, but it is also far inferior in terms of convenient operation and quality.

When he first learned about these two technologies, he even regarded them as the "immortal arts" brought by His Majesty from the fairy world.

And as the director of the iron and steel factory, although he has only been in office for a short time, it is also a fact that he has not been able to fully exert the effect of "Xianju".

Aimee Zhu chatted with a group of officials about steel production for half an hour before the Imperial Forest Army finished their investigation of the steel plant.

Immediately, Aimee Zhu went in with a kind of official to inspect.

Whether it is the iron and steel plant in Sichuan or the Nanjing Iron and Steel Plant, the blast furnaces used are not worth mentioning compared with those of later generations.

The new blast furnace used by Nanjing Iron and Steel Works is the best blast furnace designed by Hao Guangming on the modern network according to the basic design of the iron and steel industry in the late Ming Dynasty.

The hearth has a diameter of 2.25 meters, a height of 2.51 meters, and a volume of 248 cubic meters. However, due to some technical and material limitations, the appearance of the blast furnace is actually larger than the two blast furnaces in Hanyang Iron and Steel Works.

The output is only half of it.

However, judging from the performance of Zhu Dadian and Yang Tinglin, we can see that such steel production is enough to overwhelm the current world.

Because these blast furnaces are only one or two feet high at most, it didn't shock Zhu, Yang and others.

Auntie Zhu has seen more spectacular production scenes from the Internet of later generations, so she naturally doesn't feel much about the scale of Nanjing Iron and Steel Plant.

She didn't know much about specific production techniques and processes, so the inspection didn't focus on them. She mainly focused on the working and living environment of the workers in the steel factory, and understanding their actual treatment.

A few people were found for questioning, and Aimee Zhu was relieved when she learned that the treatment was no different from the treatment stipulated in the new policy of the Ministry of Industry.

Auntie Zhu's inspection this time was very conservative in her opinion. After all, she did not witness the scene of opening the furnace and pouring molten iron and steel together with the craftsmen.

But after she left, the workers in the iron and steel factory were very excited and excited, as if they had been beaten with chicken blood.

"Yesterday, it was said that His Majesty came to inspect. I thought His Majesty was just casually looking outside the factory, but I didn't expect to enter the factory."

"It's so hot in the factory, and His Majesty is willing to come in and visit us. He set such a high salary for us, and he was still worried about the treatment, and asked in person. This is really unimaginable."

"I'm afraid no one will believe me when I tell it. We, all of us who are stinky iron smelters, can still get condolences from the emperor. Such an honor, even if we are exhausted to death in this steel factory, it is worth it!"

"···"

After the little official in charge came back, he talked about the workers, and felt that they were popular, so they all shouted——

"Since everyone is grateful for His Majesty's kindness, let's work quickly!"

"Didn't you hear what His Majesty said, producing more steel is the best contribution to Daming!"

The workers also yelled at each other and encouraged each other.

"Brothers, do it!"

"For Daming, for Your Majesty, make steel!"

"Strive to increase the steel output of our factory by another [-] catties!"

···
After leaving the Nanjing Iron and Steel Plant, Auntie Zhu led the group to the east and inspected the Nanjing Gun Factory and the Nanjing Ammunition Factory.

Since the gun factory has not yet been put into production, and the ammunition factory is relatively dangerous, Aimee Zhu who inspected these two places was just scratching the surface, and did not go to the front line of production to watch.

But she still did not forget to determine the wages, benefits, and working and living conditions of the workers.

Finally, an important speech was given to the officials and workers in the two sessions, urging them to do their jobs well and strive to become the armament guarantee of Ming Dynasty.

After inspecting these four factories, it was already afternoon.

Auntie Zhu could only order to go back to the Forbidden City, and tomorrow she would go to inspect the Nanjing Machinery Manufacturing Bureau, Longjiang Shipyard, Shipbuilding Bureau, military food factory, clothing factory and other military or civilian factories.