The Rise of Ming Dynasty 1646

Chapter 20 Hundred Steelmaking

On the day of bidding, merchants rushed to the military camp early in the morning.

Although [-] pieces of military uniforms and leather boots were considered a big deal, they were not uncommon in the late Ming Dynasty when commerce was developed, especially in the affluent Jiangnan area.

However, as long as the business of the military is on the line, fighting the dead and recruiting new soldiers, there will definitely be a steady stream of orders in the future.Therefore, these merchants are particularly concerned.

When the sky was bright, Zhu Linmi had people set up tables and chairs at the gate of the barracks, and started the public bidding.

There were five bidders for military uniforms.

Their bids were packed in wooden boxes and lined up in front of Zhu Linmi.Soon the results came out, Ganzhou Prefecture Zhen won the bid, 2000 sets of military uniforms including military caps, and the same number of socks, a total of [-] taels of silver.

Zhu Linming immediately read the results, and then signed a contract with the steward of the Zhen family.

The style of the military uniform has been informed to the merchants a long time ago. In fact, Zhu Linmi copied the German military uniform of later generations. The color was changed to military green and three layers of thick cotton.However, the buttons can only be made of wood due to cost reasons.As for the military cap, the main body is still the traditional wide-brimmed cap of the Ming army, but the tufts on the top are removed, the brim is hardened and changed to dark green.

Thanks to the development of the capitalist economy and prosperous overseas trade in the late Ming Dynasty, these merchants often received orders from abroad, and they were familiar with customizing all kinds of "exotic clothes", so the prices were not too high.However, because Zhu Linmi gave too short a deadline for the delivery of the first batch of 1800 sets of military uniforms, the price was slightly higher, otherwise it would have been available for [-] taels.

Then there was the bidding for leather boots, and among the four competitors, Xueji Leather Goods Co. won the bid.

Three thousand pairs of leather boots totaled as much as 5500 taels. Of course, the main reason for the higher price was that the first thousand pairs were too urgent.In addition, the design of tying shoelaces also makes merchants scratch their heads, resulting in higher costs.

The boots refer to the appearance of the Type [-] military boots of the People's Army of later generations, with a leather-covered tendon sole and double-layer stitching.Of course, due to the limited craftsmanship, especially the limited polishing level, it is difficult to be completely similar to the zero-two style, but the overall style is definitely more magnificent than the leather boots of the Ming Dynasty.

There were only two bids for the wooden blunderbuss used for training, and in the end Zhenzhou Prefecture won the bid.This thing is not expensive, the poplar wood is processed into the shape of a bird's gun, and there is an iron spike made of thick iron, and it only costs 400 taels for [-] pieces.

Zhu Linmei thought that the whole bidding process would end smoothly like this, but an accident happened when she finally bid for the officer's saber.

Two stand out.

The price quoted by He Ji, a merchant in Longnan, was 450 taels for 1000 steel-smelting knives of [-] taels, and [-] taels for [-] refined steel knives of Ganzhou prefecture.

"I, He Ji, offer the lowest price, so I, He Ji, should be the one to do this business!" The shopkeeper He Ji said of course.

The steward of the Zhen family was an old man. He stood up and coughed a few times before he said slowly, "Shopkeeper He is wrong. My lord," he looked at Zhu Linmi, but he didn't know his identity, he just thought it was a military officer, " It has already been said that the one with the highest quality and the lowest price wins the bid. If you use [-] steelmaking steel to compare with my [-] steelmaking steelmaking, the price is lower, but the quality is lower.”

"Even if you use better materials, the price is still too high." Shopkeeper He immediately confronted him.

"Is it high?" The steward of the Zhen family still looked calm, "For every ten catties of steel, you can get more than four catties in [-] refinements, and less than two catties in [-] refinements. My knives are made of steel that has been extracted repeatedly. Made of essence, five taels, not high at all."

Zhu Linmei couldn't help smiling when she heard the words, what "steel essence"?Isn't it because too many times of forging caused a large amount of surface iron to oxidize and fall off, which led to the fact that only two catties could be refined out of ten catties.The main reason is that the steelmaking process is too simple.

When he was in the research institute, he often had to deal with various steel materials, so he was quite familiar with steelmaking knowledge.The so-called steelmaking is actually two points: First, remove sulfur, phosphorus and other impurities in iron.[-]. Mix different concentrations of carbon in the iron.More carbon is added to be hard and brittle high-carbon steel, and less carbon is added to be soft and malleable low-carbon steel.

However, due to the technical limitations of the ancients, iron could not be completely liquefied, at most it could be burned into a semi-melted "iron paste", like a piece of red dough.Therefore, they can only burn pig iron with high carbon content and wrought iron with low carbon content into iron paste, and then beat them repeatedly to mix the two evenly, so as to obtain the carbon content they want.In addition, the beating process will also expose the interior of the iron paste to air, oxidizing the impurities such as sulfur and phosphorus contained in it.

Therefore, the more times of beating, the greater the probability of impurities being oxidized, and at the same time, the carbon can be more evenly distributed in the whole piece of steel. This is the reason why the ancients praised "Hundred Refining".However, disadvantages such as low output and high oxidation loss are inevitable. Therefore, the name Baisteelmaking sounds fancy, but it is actually just a very backward steelmaking process.

These problems were not completely resolved until the eighteenth century, when humans were able to create a high temperature of 1600 degrees to completely liquefy iron.

The steward of the Zhen family continued: "Speaking of which, I still have a thousand steel knives here, and I need 12 taels more. According to what the shopkeeper means, isn't it even more expensive?" He smiled and shook his head, "But my Zhen family has thousands of knives Steel knives have always been in short supply, and next year's goods have been ordered because they are worth the money."

After speaking, he calmly looked at Zhu Linming.

And the shopkeeper of He Ji opened his mouth, but he didn't think of a rebuttal.

What they didn't expect was that at this moment, Zhu Linmi's mind was only filled with the sentence from the steward of Zhen's family just now, "I need 12 taels of steel knives."

A high-carbon steel knife with a length of one meter can be sold for 12 taels of silver!In an instant, piles of silver appeared in front of Zhu Linmei's eyes.

He knows better than anyone that war depends on the economy, so after arriving in Longnan, he has considered various ways to make money, mainly things that the Ming Dynasty in this era cannot produce by itself, such as making cement, glass, and horse-drawn carriages with shock absorbers, etc. wait.

It’s just that every plan has something that makes him dissatisfied: the cement production speed is too slow, the glass requires too much experience in color matching, and it is not easy to see benefits in a short period of time.

But today's words from the steward of the Zhen family instantly pointed out the direction for him - steelmaking is the best choice!With the materials and techniques of this era, a steelmaking furnace can be built very quickly. Whether it is an open hearth furnace or a converter, the quality of the steel produced will definitely beat any hundred steelmaking rounds in seconds.

The most important thing is that he can continuously tap steel from one furnace to another, and the output is measured in tons.

Compared with steelmaking, which requires repeated beating for seven or eight days or even half a month to get a few catties of steel, the production efficiency is not an order of magnitude at all.

At that time, not to mention 12 taels for a knife—and he is confident that he can produce steel with better quality than Qian Steel—even if a knife only sells for five or six taels, he estimates that it can sell for more than [-] taels a month .

Of course, the steel knife market certainly does not have such a large demand.But as long as there is good steel, it is equivalent to getting the cornucopia of this era-steel helmets, armor, artillery, various machinery, and even farm tools can make a lot of money.

Just as Zhu Linming was planning his steelmaking plant in his mind, he heard shopkeeper He and the steward of Zhen's family say at the same time: "My lord, please announce who will win the bid."

　It's not easy for a newcomer, holding a steel knife and begging for various tickets!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)