Start: Datang Wanli a lonely city

Chapter 216 Equipment and Steel

Time: Hu Biao and the group returned to Dou Gu's 15th day in the army.

Location: In the Hongbaishan Mountains, near the Hotan River in a hidden river bend surrounded by mountains on three sides.

Unlike the modern plane, this place has long been a serious desert; the environment here during the Eastern Han Dynasty, at least the environment on both sides of the Hetian River was quite good.

Looking around, there are large areas of Populus euphratica, red willow, and reeds, and there are even wild ducks flying in the reeds from time to time.

And wild rabbits and other small animals jumped out of it, and the fish in the river were also clearly identifiable.

After looking at it, everything is full of vitality.

Seriously!If it is a modern plane, there is such a quiet place with excellent scenery, there must be many young ladies taking pictures here.

It's a pity that Lang Qing, the head of the team's equipment manufacturing team, has no idea about all of this.

The only thing in front of me is a small blast furnace with a capacity of one cubic meter that has just been successfully built on the riverside, and the interior has been dried.

In addition to this in case, the eyes can no longer accommodate other.

The reason for this is because PLA veterans such as Fengrui and Lao Hei, can the training of the former slaves play a role, and how strong is the effect?
To be honest, even Fengrui and the others didn't have much confidence in these situations.

So in order to improve the combat effectiveness of these people and let them play a role in the follow-up missions, it seems that they can only think of a way in terms of equipment.

Aiming at this point, some time ago he commanded some natives.

Using layers of ground linen cloth and adding natural glue made from rabbit skin, a total of ten layers were glued together to make a cloth armor similar to the cotton armor of later generations.

How to say this thing, the defense against the attacks of the wolf tooth arrow is not bad.

If a layer of leather armor is added, the bronze straight knives of the natives cannot be cut through with a single blow. In terms of protection, it is considered strong in the entire Western Region.

The problem is that Lang Qing is still quite dissatisfied and wants to improve further.

And if you want to further improve your equipment, whether you are making various weapons or making powerful armor, it seems that you cannot do without the basic material of iron.

Because in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the aborigines in the Western Regions had not yet mastered the iron-making technology.

So for a while, even if they had a large number of glass beads, this kind of treasure with amazing purchasing power, they had nowhere to exchange for ironware.

In the end, I can only find a way by myself and build a clay blast furnace for smelting.

When they were in the West City back then, they did not hesitate to pay a sky-high price for three glass beads and bought two craftsmen who could smelt bronze, just to prepare for this.

Between bronze smelting and iron smelting, both belong to metal processing, so I have some experience.

So after arriving here, apart from smelting those bronze swords into various pots, pots, and agricultural tools, Lang Qing didn't care about anything else, and was busy with iron smelting with all his heart...

It took Lang Qing almost a day, and after many on-site investigations, he chose the address of the iron-making base here.

On the one hand, because it is sufficiently hidden here.

As long as some guard posts are arranged on the surrounding hills, and a circle of five or six-meter-high logs is erected around the blast furnace, it can be guaranteed that the iron-making methods they use will not be peeped and learned by others.

You know, they don't want to, and they don't dare to let the barbarians in the Western Regions learn the ironmaking technology so many years in advance, or this kind of ironmaking technology in the local blast furnace.

Otherwise, in case the barbarians in the Western Regions upgrade their equipment in advance.

For the compatriots in the Central Plains, it was a disastrous consequence.

On the other hand, after the base is built here, it is entirely possible to use water power after manufacturing some waterwheels based on some water level differences in the Hotan River.

Whether it is used to pull the bellows, increase the temperature of the blast furnace, or drive the hydraulic forging hammer, it is an artifact that can greatly improve work efficiency...

******
After confirming the location of the iron-smelting base, the next thing to do is naturally busy building the iron-smelting furnace.

Thank you for the secret book that Langqing learned and memorized repeatedly before the time travel. Specifically, it was "Advanced Experience in Several Indigenous Ironmaking Methods" produced by Shaanxi Provincial People's Publishing House in 58.

Because in the introduction, there are a total of five kinds of local ironmaking content, and Lang Qing believes that one of them is the "rice fat-style soil blast furnace ironmaking method", which is very in line with the actual situation at hand.

The construction process of this kind of earth blast furnace is very simple, and the cost is also extremely low.

It is to choose clay with relatively good viscosity, and first build a 5-meter-square soil platform.

In order to ensure the firmness and firmness of the iron-smelting furnace, it is necessary to tamp it with a hammer during the construction of this earthen platform; after continuous beating, the overall height can be about 3 meters high.

When this soil platform is built, the internal structure of the iron-smelting furnace will be excavated directly on this foundation.

It is equivalent to digging out the entire inner space of the iron-smelting furnace bit by bit.

After digging out a hollow space, first build a layer of stone inside, and then add a layer of refractory mud after pounding.

Finally, refractory bricks are used to build various internal structures such as vents, tapholes, and combustion chambers.

Finally, use a small fire to dry the wet inside of the stove little by little. Langqing brought five craftsmen to work together, and it can be done in one day.

The only troublesome thing is the production of refractory mud and refractory bricks.

According to the information, there are instructions on the specific materials. They need to use dry mud, coke powder, and broken porcelain powder, and mix one-third of each, and mix well before making it.

In order to get these things that are actually very common in the modern plane, it took a lot of effort for Lang Qing's old nose.

After two days of working around the surrounding area on horseback, it was considered that the materials that could be replaced were sorted out one by one.

It is not until today that the earthen blast furnace has been completely built, and after a day and night of low-fire smoking, the moisture inside the furnace has also been dried.

Lang Qing made a rough calculation. According to the internal volume of this soil blast furnace, it should be able to process one cubic meter of raw material at a time.

However, the specific iron extraction rate and the quality of the iron are still unknown.

In addition, for such a soil blast furnace, Langqing also made a small modification on the basis of the original materials.

For example, a hydraulic bellows is added to the air inlet, which can increase the wind force and increase the temperature inside the furnace; a large pit made of refractory materials in the shape of a crucible is also added to the taphole.

Everything is for the next step to be in place at a higher furnace temperature. It is impossible to directly get better quality clamp pot steel instead of pig iron.

Otherwise, he is a majestic transmigrator from the modern plane, who has read so many materials and bragged so much on the Internet.

After working for such a long time, just smelting some pig iron, does he want to lose face?
In short, after Lang Qing has put in such a huge amount of effort, whether it is a mule or a horse, everything depends on whether the stove can be turned on for the first time today and what kind of results can be achieved.

Therefore, Brother Langqing didn't say anything on the surface, but he was flustered in his heart.

(End of this chapter)