Southern Ming Rebel Army

Chapter 213 Iron Ore

Just as the system of awarding titles and military merits was announced, Lin Shiqi's military report came back.

Lin Shiqi sent a messenger to report that the army had been stationed in Ma'anshan. The garrison of Ma'anshan led his troops to surrender. Ma'anshan surrendered without a fight. Lin Shiqi left a battalion of 3,000 people from Wang Fugui's army to garrison Ma'anshan, which was adjacent to Dangtu County. As soon as the scouts arrived at the city, the county magistrate changed his flag and surrendered. The advantage of Nanjing being captured by Meng Jun had gradually become apparent.

The rest of the army rested for a day and then continued to move westward towards Wuhu. After capturing Ma'anshan, Meng Jun was very excited and prepared to go to Ma'anshan to inspect the iron mine.

Gu Yanwu and Yang En tried to dissuade him, saying to Meng Jun, "Your Majesty is no longer the same as you were before. As the old saying goes, a son of a wealthy family should not sit idle in the hall. Ma'anshan has just been reclaimed, and people are uneasy. We may have thieves. Why don't you send someone to investigate?"

Meng Jun smiled and said, "I have never been afraid of fighting in battles, let alone just going to inspect a place. You two are really worrying too much. This inspection of the iron mine is extraordinary. I want to develop firearms. If the iron mine is of high quality, the fire guns and cannons produced will not explode easily. This is also a top priority."

Seeing that they could not persuade Meng Jun, the two men could only advise Meng Jun again and again that the personal guards must not be transferred lightly, and that they must not do anything like using fish and dragon clothes for free.

When Meng Jun led his personal cavalry and arrived at Ma'anshan, he was a little disappointed. It was not that there were no mines in Ma'anshan, but that there were very few existing mining areas, only six mining areas. Meng Jun learned from Xu Ziyong, a local iron merchant, that there were iron mines in the Dake Mountain, Changlong Mountain, Jinshidun and other mountains. The iron was of high quality, but it was difficult to mine.

Meng Jun entered the only iron smelting blast furnace area in this place, and what caught his eye was a large smelting furnace. After listening to the explanation of Xu Ziyong beside him, he realized that the smelting furnace in the Ming Dynasty was actually very large. The height of the large furnace was twelve feet (about four meters), and the entire furnace was made of stone, with ox-head stone as the inner wall, Jian Qianshi as the furnace door, and iron sand as the raw material.

Stones were crushed to act as a flux, which allowed iron sand to be melted into iron. In addition, people at that time also used grass ash or bone ash as a flux, which could effectively lower the melting point of cast iron, and this blast furnace could be used continuously for nearly 100 days.

Every ten kilograms of ore can produce three kilograms of pig iron. This furnace can produce six hundred kilograms of pig iron every three hours. If the raw materials are stable and the furnace is turned on day and night, the daily output can reach three thousand six hundred kilograms. However, due to the shortage of iron ore, this blast furnace can only be operated for two days and stopped for three days.

Meng Jun looked for a while and then walked into the steel forging area. At this time, Xu Ziyong said to Meng Jun: "The steel here is still not as good as that in Wuhu. There are dozens of steel mills in Wuhu that produce Su steel, which is very tough."

Meng Jun was a little confused after hearing this. He looked at the sky and said, "Let's go back to the government office first and hand in these documents."

Xu Ziyong nodded and said, "Yes, Your Majesty. I will collect the information overnight and submit it to you tomorrow."

The next morning, after Meng Jun washed up and had breakfast, he came to the front hall. Xu Ziyong was already waiting at the door.

"Your Majesty, this is the document regarding local iron smelting and steelmaking. Please take a look." After placing the document, Xu Ziyong knelt on the ground and saluted.

"Get up"

Meng Jun looked at the stack of documents in front of him and picked up one to read. At this time, the documents were all in vertical format and traditional Chinese characters, which made it quite difficult to read. Moreover, there were so many documents that it would take him half a day to finish reading them. Thinking of this, Meng Jun coughed and said calmly, "Let me talk about the general situation first."

Xu Ziyi did not dare to complain in his heart, and hurriedly lowered his head and replied: "Yes, my king, here in Ma'anshan, there are six large and small mining areas, a blast furnace for iron smelting, the scale is not large, and there is also steelmaking. Wuhu Sugang is a further improvement on the basis of the previous steel pouring method."

"Tell me in detail," Meng Jun said excitedly after hearing this. If the quality of the steel is good, the chance of the musket exploding will be minimized.

"Yes, my king. This technology is called pig iron pouring. In the past, iron ore and ore were directly smelted, and carbon ash was added as a solvent to directly produce steel. This kind of steel has high hardness but low toughness. In order to make the steel more tough, it is necessary to add a forging process. After being hammered at high temperature, these steels are not so brittle."

Seeing that Meng Jun was still listening attentively, Xu Ziyong continued, "But this is too time-consuming, and the blacksmith's skills also affect the quality of the steel. Therefore, some blacksmiths have improved the steel pouring method that has been used since the Tang and Song dynasties.

It is to beat one-inch long wrought iron into thumb-wide thin sheets, then bundle these wrought iron sheets, clamp them with pig iron, cover them with straw, cover them with mud and put them into the furnace. Under high temperature, the pig iron melts and the molten iron seeps into the wrought iron sheets. Then they are taken out and hot forged. This is Su steel, which is quick to use, of good quality and has good toughness.

Meng Jun nodded slightly when he heard this and said, "The land of Wuhu will be recovered soon. Mr. Xu, I intend to set up a mine supervisor here. You will be the supervisor and be responsible for integrating the resources of various mining areas and further opening up new mining areas."

After hearing this, Mr. Xu was stunned and said hurriedly: "My lord, these mining areas all have owners. How can a small one have the right to integrate them?"

"All the iron ores in the mining area will be requisitioned and given a market price. I will leave a team of Qingluan Guards for you. Anyone who has any objection can be killed." Meng Jun said in a deep voice.

Xu Ziyong was delighted when he heard this, and he quickly bowed and thanked him, saying, "Thank you for your kindness, Your Majesty. I will do my best to live up to your trust!"

Meng Jun nodded and continued, "The position of mine supervisor is a heavy responsibility. Not only do you have to manage the existing mines, but you also have to expand the mines. In addition, you have to pay attention to the safety of the miners and not slack off. Remember, the Qingluan Guards will report your actions to Jinling one by one."

Xu Yuanwai showed a solemn expression and replied solemnly: "Don't worry, Your Majesty, I understand and will handle it properly. I will never let Your Majesty down!"

During the days when Meng Jun was away from Jinling, there were indeed unusual movements in the city of Jinling. Zeng Daowei, Zeng Ying, Liu Jiyan, Duke of Wei Xu Yunjue, Wang Duo, Duke of Baoguo Zhang Guobi and other six people frequently colluded with each other in private.

Meng Bian was depressed. These people were quite cautious. Every time they met, they never arranged servants or maids. In order to prevent leaks, even Zeng Daowei's Jinyiwei were sent far away. Zeng Daowei's aides always stood guard at the door. If someone passed by, they would cough, and the already subdued voices in the room would stop.

Meng Bian was quite troubled. The young master didn't want to cause any more trouble, but he had repeatedly requested. If he couldn't find out what conspiracy this group of people had, and if something went wrong, he was afraid that he would never be able to atone for his sins even if he died.

He even had the urge to arrest all these people and torture them, but he just thought about it and knew that it would not work. However, there seemed to be some chance with the other aide beside Zeng Daowei. Meng Bian looked at the military newspaper with a thoughtful expression on his face.