Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 779 The Bank of the Black River ([-])

Tieling Fort is located on the banks of the Iron River.This is a small tributary that flows into the Heihe River, but it provides vital water for production and living for more than 3000 people around Tieling Fort.The people from the east coast who came here to open up wasteland relied on this river and some nearby creeks and wetlands to build seven or eight large and small reservoirs one after another, and then transplanted a large number of trees here, stunned to make this desolate area The land has been transformed into an impressive new town.

The construction of Tieling Fort began with the urgent need for high-quality alloy metals in the East Coast Republic.In the era when the industry began to burst out its own unique vitality, people in Dong'an were extremely eager for durable, strong, high-precision and special-purpose parts, so this led to the launch of the Tieling Special Steel Base project.At the same time, the construction of the Northwest Railway was undoubtedly invested to connect the only large-scale manganese mine on the east coast with the eastern coastal area.You must know that this hundreds of kilometers long railway line has a huge investment and consumes a lot of manpower and material resources. If there is no great long-term interest involved, the members of the East Bank Executive Committee would not be able to make up their minds to build it.With that kind of funds and energy, it would be better to extend the Luomei Line to Qingdao Port, which is a line flowing with gold.

After investing huge sums of money for several years in a row, the Northwest Railway has finally arrived at the gate of Tieling Special Steel Plant. At this time, the ironmaking workshop of Tieling Special Steel Plant has almost passed the initial trial production stage, and is about to fully produce various products. The ratio of ferromanganese is used to promote the comprehensive upgrading of the domestic machinery and machining industries on the east coast.

The factory currently has an iron-making blast furnace and a steel-making open hearth furnace. Except that the steel-making furnace is still undergoing final commissioning, the iron-making furnace has already met all the conditions for formal production: mechanical equipment is in good condition, raw materials are piled up like mountains in the factory area, Even skilled workers have been trained several times.In the first half of this year, various grades (different proportions) of ferromanganese produced by Tieling Special Steel have been used in various units for a period of time. According to the feedback, the strength, hardness, and flexibility of the metal have been improved. Still quite noticeable.The ferromanganese produced by the Tieling Plant has initially been recognized by everyone.

Vest himself is also very concerned about the Tieling Special Steel Works. He comes to the factory almost every week to discuss various matters with the factory leadership, acting like the overlord of the factory.However, Vest was born in metallurgy, and had been working in a steel factory for many years before time travelling. His knowledge in the metallurgical industry is quite deep, and some of the suggestions he made for the special steel factory were relatively pertinent.

For example, considering the difference between smelting ferromanganese and pig iron (iron can be fully reduced, but manganese cannot be fully reduced), Majia told the factory's technical department the ratio of the few types of ferromanganese sinters he knew.After that, the Technical Section of Tieling Factory conducted a large number of proportioning experiments under the guidance of the vest, and obtained a lot of valuable original data.After comparing and summarizing these data, Tieling Plant has basically figured out the proportion of ferromanganese ore put into the furnace and the proportion of manganese in the corresponding waste slag during the production process (manganese cannot be fully reduced, there will be A considerable part of manganese enters the waste residue, so it is an important technology to choose a suitable ferromanganese ratio and reduce the manganese content in the waste residue).These data were obtained step by step by people from the east coast through massive experiments and spent a lot of time and money. They have all been recorded and locked in the office of the craft department of the factory as a high-level secret of the factory.

Of course, Tieling Special Steel, as the first company in China on the east coast—and the only one in the world—produces ferromanganese. At the current stage, there are indeed many problems.For example, because the grade of the manganese ore currently found in development is not good (low manganese content), these will greatly affect the recovery rate of manganese, the load of coke and energy consumption, and these will undoubtedly increase the cost of ferromanganese .In addition, some impurities (mainly phosphorus) in manganese ore also caused great troubles to the steelmaking workshop of Pingan Iron and Steel Plant.

Since the successful production of ferromanganese, the Pingan Iron and Steel Plant in the northern Yazihu ​​Basin has abandoned some high-priced additives imported from Europe, and began to use ferromanganese as a deoxidizer and alloying agent for steelmaking (this can not only reduce costs but also can also reduce the harm caused by trade blockade).The instability of the quality of manganese ore will inevitably affect the production of ferromanganese, and once the quality of ferromanganese decreases, the input of ferromanganese will inevitably increase during steelmaking, which will add a lot of phosphorus and carbon to the molten steel, making The steelmaking process takes a lot of trouble, and the cooling range of molten steel will also be expanded, which will increase the energy consumption of steelmaking for no reason and increase the cost of steelmaking.

Fortunately, Tieling Special Steel Works has recognized these problems.On the one hand, they began to look for manganese ore veins with high manganese content and less impurities in the vicinity, and on the other hand, they began to increase technical investment, preparing to optimize the production process through a large number of experiments, and strive to stabilize the quality of ferromanganese.

It is not without reason that so many people in the East Coast Republic attach so much importance to manganese iron and manganese steel.At present, the appearance of ferromanganese has greatly improved the quality and reliability of various machinery, such as the simplest sliding bearing, after using parts made of ferromanganese alloy, the wear degree is greatly reduced and the service life is greatly enhanced. All user departments are extremely satisfied with this.For another example, after some steam engine cylinders are made of ferromanganese, tests have proved that the pressure that the cylinder can withstand is greatly increased, and the output power is greatly increased, which virtually increases the "thrust-to-weight ratio" of the steam engine.

A while ago, the No. [-] Heavy Machinery Factory, which had been relocated to the Tieling mining area, worked together to manufacture some new ferromanganese steam engines under the personal command of the factory director Li Hongxing.Without increasing the volume of the cylinder, these steam engines obtained far more driving force than before by simply increasing the air pressure of the cylinder. This shows that the efficiency of the steam engines produced on the east coast has reached a new level, which is of great significance.At present, the factory is making great efforts to verify the technology, and the next step will be to design and produce new steam engines.After they are finalized and produced, the three major domestic shipyards will be the first batch of users. The designers of these shipyards will design a new ship type according to the volume, weight and horsepower of the new steam engine. The ship, whether it is horsepower, tonnage or speed, will undoubtedly surpass all existing models on the east coast.

The development prospects of special steel and machining are booming. However, as the chairman of the Northwest Reclamation Bureau, the vest is obviously not satisfied with just a special steel and machining base.In the plan of the former Central Executive Committee, the Northwest Reclamation Bureau's jurisdiction will center on Tieling Fort and Merluo Fort on both sides of the Heihe River Basin in the future. The numerous settlements in this area were built to rival the bustling great towns of the coast.

In this plan, Tielingbao, an industrial town that not only produces metals such as manganese, iron, and gold, but also produces important energy sources such as coal, and also has strong machining capabilities, will mainly develop westward and advance to the Wujiang River. until the bank obtains the estuary (a river port where large ships can be navigated).At that time, the rich agricultural products and external materials in the Wujiang River Basin will be transported to Tieling by rail, and the commodities and energy in Tieling will also be transported by rail to the port on the Wujiang River, and then shipped to the outside world.I believe that if this plan can be realized, it will be a great thing for both the northwest region and the Wujiang region.

As for another key node, Fort Merlot, in the waistcoat's plan, it exists as a transportation hub.Ma Jia thought that after the country's financial surplus in the future, he would once again promote the third and even fourth phases of the Northwest Railway.That is to build a branch line from Fort Merlot to the north, all the way to the hilly area in the west of the lake, organically connecting the rich Yazihu ​​watershed in the north and the hinterland of the grassland in the south, so as to communicate with each other and prosper the local economy.If possible, Vest even intends to turn this so-called branch line into a main railway line, extending as far north as possible.This is also beneficial to the executive committee's development of the hilly area in the west of the lake. I believe that if the central government does not have financial difficulties, it should not be difficult to build.

Of course, before the "fudge" central government spends huge sums of money to build the main railway line, Ma Jia feels that it is better to enrich the population in the area under the jurisdiction of the Northwest Reclamation Bureau.After all, if the population is not abundant and the productivity is not developed enough, no matter how face-saving the vest is, the Executive Committee will not openly invest huge sums of money in such a foolish place, will it?After all, there is no such thing as the Tieling mining area on the east coast that must be developed and then quickly developed. If the reasons are not sufficient, it will be difficult to convince the members of the executive committee.

Under this guiding ideology, Vest intends to compete with several other regions (19.5 regions including the capital region, Xiling region, and Wujiang region) for population.Today is the beginning of October, and the batch of Polish female slaves that Mo San bought in Europe by "killing first and playing later" have arrived on the east coast under the escort of a few naval ships.After this group of people arrived, the population of the East Coast Republic of China would reach a record [-] people, a sharp increase of nearly [-]% compared to last year, which caught the officials of the Executive Committee and the Immigration Department by surprise.

It seems that most of these people will be arranged to the old settlements to balance the gender ratio, and the Northwest Reclamation Bureau under the vest has a very high proportion of bachelors, so it will not be a problem to get a large number of Polish female slaves from here.In addition, Vest is planning to visit the capital Dongfang County in the near future, and chat with a few acquaintances who are in charge of the immigration department, to see if a considerable part of the immigrants from the Far East and the Ming Dynasty who arrived in the mainland in more than two months can be reclaimed in the northwest The settlements within the jurisdiction of the bureau are enriched with population.Building some more settlements, if possible, will also be on the agenda.In short, in Vest's view, population is the primary productive force of the Northwest Reclamation Bureau.Only when the population is enriched, will the area under the jurisdiction of the Northwest Reclamation Bureau be built into a prosperous inland town.

(End of this chapter)