——Steel workshop

The steel workshop is the largest workshop in the Red Star Valley. In addition to making iron and steel, it also has the function of making ordnance and agricultural tools.

Today was the first time that the steel workshop started making iron. Almost all the senior officials of the Red Star Battalion were present. Even Huang Zhong and others rushed over to see how their future weapons would be made.

The current blast furnace is completely different from the one in Yangshugou. Yangshugou still uses the shaft blast furnace of the Han Dynasty, and the iron is smelted, while the one in Hongxinggu has an extra sintering step at the beginning.

"This furnace is so big, it can probably smelt a thousand kilograms of iron at a time." Duan Yu covered his mouth and looked at the huge thing in front of him.

"This...is really not that big." Ma Qiang looked at the blast furnace that he could not put on the table, and sighed. He is a scientist, but he is not Baidu Encyclopedia. He only dares to build a blast furnace first.

It's small, I'll improve it slowly in the future.

"Mr. Yue, let's start!" Ma Qiang said to Yue Liang, who had been preparing for a long time.

"Okay, let's start! Sinter!!" Yue Liang took off his clothes with a tear and put on the leather clothes of the iron smelting workers. This was to give them some protection from the splashing of molten iron when making iron.

It's normal. If you wear ordinary clothes, you'll be burned through them immediately.

Sinter is the first step in steelmaking. Wheelbarrows filled with iron ore, lime, and coal began to pour down a ramp into a large pit, and then a large wooden rod rotated by water began to pour into the pit.

It was stirring inside.

After the stirring was completed, someone else started to sprinkle water and then continued stirring.

"Is this iron making? Why is it similar to making noodles?" Duan Yu asked in a low voice.

Duan Ying also shook his head, how could he understand this.

"This is preparing for sintering. These mineral powders are like flour. They will agglomerate after mixing. Only in this way can we make iron and even steel better." Yang Chi, who was standing on the side, explained to Duan Yu. Duan Yu said lowly.

He nodded in response, a little shy.

"I didn't expect that Brother Yang also knew this method of making iron." Duan Ying said with admiration.

"I just know a few things. The one who is really proficient is my uncle-in-law. In addition, Qingcheng and Qingning are very familiar with chemistry, and they are also helping. You see, they are leading people over there to calculate the proportions."

Sintering requires burning. Reload the reconciled iron ore dough into the truck and put it into the first furnace to start burning. This burning is not to burn it into molten iron, but to release the lime and iron ore in the sintering material.

Reaction occurs, and the sinter is a material with more stable composition and more uniform particles than the original ore, which can be used for better iron-making or steel-making.

Then the ironmaking begins. The sinter is put into the blast furnace, and the coal and charcoal below begin to ignite. A total of six blowers at the bottom work at the same time, making the flames stronger and more concentrated, and the temperature higher.

Ironmaking actually takes a long time, but no one wants to leave. Even Ma Qiang is waiting nervously. The success of ironmaking and even the success of subsequent steelmaking will affect the future success or failure of Red Star Camp.

In the afternoon, the furnace was turned on for the first time. Several strong men banged on the furnace door. When the furnace door opened, black and red furnace water rolled out, like lava. Then, everyone felt a wave of

Heat and pungent smell.

"Is it successful?" Zhang Zhen asked nervously. This was also the first time he saw iron smelting on site. He kept stroking his beard with his hand. He felt that iron smelting was more stressful than giving birth to a child.

"No, this is just slag." Gan Shi knew better, and he guessed it just by looking at the boiler water flowing out and the attitudes of Yue Liang and others.

"Then...is this a failure?" Lin Huan looked at Ma Qiang.

"No, these slags are normal, don't worry." Ma Qiang reassured, "Slag is calcium carbonate and other oxides produced in ironmaking. These things have a relatively low melting point, so they will come out first, followed by iron.

.”

After listening to Ma Qiang's explanation, everyone felt relieved.

When it got dark and the lights turned on, the slag was released again. Gan Shi narrowed his eyes and said, "It's almost done."

After about half an hour, the first furnace of iron finally came out. It was golden-red molten iron, flowing rapidly along the installed pipes, which meant that the temperature of the molten iron was extremely high.

The molten iron flowed into a heavy metal vat. This vat should actually be called a ladle. Two iron chains connected the ladle, and then a pulley block was used to slowly lift it. Everyone was nervous when they saw this.

Clenched his fists.

If this vat of molten iron fell down, it would really be a human tragedy.

This vat of molten iron did not fall. Perhaps it was because the vat was relatively small, only about one ton. The vat of molten iron was carried to another blast furnace and then fell suddenly.

Then, another load of ore powder was added, which was manganese.

It’s your first time trying it, so naturally you have to try them all!

Then a few young men began to stir the molten iron in the steel-making furnace to mix the manganese and molten iron.

"Boys, come on!" Yue Liang shouted, and a huge thick pipe connected to a leather pipe was dragged to the top of the stove by men one by one, and then put in from the top of the stove.

"Qingcheng, start!" Yue Liang shouted to Qingcheng in the distance. Qingcheng nodded and started pressing the switch.

"What's this?"

"This is the oxygen pipe. What is connected there is the mechanism for electrolyzing water. Oxygen is input into the furnace along the pipe. It can exchange the carbon in the molten iron and turn it into carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. The carbon monoxide can further convert the iron oxide.

Exchange... is a way to turn iron into steel."

Yes, this is oxygen blowing steelmaking! Although it is not as advanced as later generations, there is no converter, there are no bottom blowing, double blowing, and there is no protection by inert gas, but compared with the original process of the Han Dynasty, it is already

It's a huge improvement.

When the sky turned white, the molten steel finally came out of the furnace. Over the course of the day and night, the final amount of molten steel was only about one ton.

A ton of steel weighs about as much as seven water dispenser barrels.

Ma Qiang looked at this ton of steel and felt like crying. He had worked so hard for so long to get this little...

But this means that the Red Star Battalion has successfully refined steel. Whether it is ordnance or external sales, the benefits are unimaginable!

"I'm so exhausted..." Yue Liang sat on the ground and said to Ma Qiang and others with a smile, "It's true to the mission. It's a success at least! This time, there are at least four thousand kilograms of good iron."

"It's steel! It's steel!!" cheers came from the distance. Yue Liang didn't know where the strength came from, he jumped up suddenly, and then rushed to the end of the molten steel. Here, the molten steel solidified through the mold and turned into
Chapter completed!