The closer we are to Yingdu, the more dense the carriages and horses on the official roads are. It was the August month of the Chu calendar. The sun was scorching and the dust on the streets was filled with dust. Even if you were in a box truck, you would have a lot of soil on your face. Since entering Chu State, it had not rained for half a month, and the millet seedlings in the fields beside the road were curled yellow. Every time, evil came, they would talk about the Zheng Canal of Qin. This canal would be completed this year and could irrigate a million acres of farmland. Then they lamented that the Chu State had no such ability and could only let the millet seedlings go thirsty.

Before the evil came and went to Qin, he yearned for Qin. After going to Qin, he praised everything about Qin. Although he heard the prince of Chu tamed the six dragons and turned into a water truck from time to time along the way, he denounced the ignorance of gods and ghosts, and sneered at it. However, today in Yingjiao, the group finally saw the water truck: a narrow wooden box more than two meters long was mounted between the ridges of the field and the ditches under the ridges. The water in the ditches was only shallow, and the wooden box was just enough. The farmers were holding something at the end of the box, and the water of the canal was along the turbulent fields of the wooden box. Everything was thirsty, and the white splashes made people feel a little cooler.

The evil man who was standing in front of him stopped the car. When he watched the water truck stop moving, Xia Yang walked up and said, "Senior brother, that is what the Chu people said. The water flow is so big that one acre of land can be filled quickly."

"Let me go and have a look." Xia Yang didn't say anything, but he wanted to go and see it when he said evil. When evil came and went, Xia Yang also followed him. The closer he was to the water wheel, the louder the sound of the water was. The white splashes made people have the idea of ​​soaking it in it. The weather was too hot.

"The father-in-law is polite." The evil came to speak Chu Yu. When the farmer stared at the sword around his waist, he greeted him carelessly.

Xia Yang followed him and couldn't understand Chu Yu, so he had to take a closer look at the water truck that had already stopped: the carriage was like a ditch, with leaves in it, and it was hard to figure out how the car pumped water.

"I'll try it." Elai had the ability to get along with the poor. He swung his sleeves, grabbed two arms and started the traffic. At this time, Xia Yang saw that as he rotated, the teeth and leaves in the car continued to flow. It was they who lifted the canal water up little by little, gathered into water and poured into the fields. It was really amazing. As a disciple of the Mo family, Xia Yang had seen many artifacts, but had never seen such a clever one.

"This must be made by Lu Ban." Xia Yang said loudly with the sound of water.

The evil came in the traffic. The farmer next to him shook his head hard when he heard the word Lu Ban. He said something, but unfortunately Xia Yang couldn't understand.

"It was said that it was created by the eldest son of Chu State. "The traffic flowed, and the evil ones were completely wet.

"Big son Jing?" The eldest son Jing Xiayang naturally knew that as soon as he entered the Chu State, the eldest son Jing, was heard. "Senior brother, the water truck is very good, but such a water truck must be expensive."

"No." Eilai shook his head, "It's only three hundred coins."

"Three hundred coins?" Xia Yang couldn't help but look back at the water truck. The farmer started to rush into traffic again. According to Xia Yang's estimate, it would take two hours to irrigate acre. "How could this... be so cheap?"

"Ask me, who will I ask?" Elai said angrily. After saying that, he got on the car and drove straight ahead. Yingdu was already far away, and the nearly two thousand miles of itinerary was finally over.

"Where is the eldest son Jing?" Yingdu City, after reading the letter from Xianyang, the Lord asked Xiong Jing about Xiong Jing. In the past two months, he had reminded the spies in the palace to pay close attention to Xiong Jing's movements. Once Xianyang replied, he would take action immediately.

"Big son Jing has been refining the giant iron recently." The little maid seemed weak, but her eyes were sharp. She was the maid of the Lord, named Wu Jun.

"Refining the giant iron?" Mr. Yu smiled, "Your Highness understands the great iron thing, too?"

"Yes. The eldest son Jing has been to build a mansion these days, and the route is fixed. If he can..." The second assassination last time was carefully arranged by Jane, but he failed and four dead soldiers were sacrificed.

"No need." Yu Jun waved his hand, "Send it to Zhao Jing and ask him to persuade Li Yuan to persuade Huang Xie to help his eldest son Jing enter Qin as a magistrate."

"Enter Qin as a magistrate?" Zi Er was surprised at first when she heard this, and then she smiled: It is not easy to assassinate in Chu State, but it will be different when she arrives in Qin State. No one in Xianyang State can kill anyone but step on an ant. "Well, I will do it now."

*

In the eyes of Zaner, Xiong Jing was just an ant in the Xianyang Qigong Palace. Xiong Jing didn't know his future fate. Now his attention was all on the converter in the middle of the shed. Half a month later, everything was ready, and the conversion steelmaking trial was today.

Unlike the crucible method, converter steelmaking involves pouring pig iron, blowing the furnace bottom, and pouring the casting mold. This is not like the crucible method, one pot can solve all problems. It is composed of multiple parts. If any part is wrong, the entire steelmaking will fail. For this reason, craftsmen in all aspects of the building have thoroughly tested and inspected several times before starting the trial.

Besmai was just a mechanical engineer, and Xiong Jing cheered himself up in his heart. Besmai had never smelted iron and steel. He only occasionally found that pig iron and air reaction would directly turn into steel, so he concluded that it could be blown and steel. However, people in the steel industry at that time believed that blowing was a fallacy, and forced Besmai to find a steel factory to test it himself. Compared with him, he had a skilled blacksmith, sword casting master, wood craftsman, and clay maker... It can be said that the power of the entire Chu State was mobilized. As long as the pig iron was qualified, there was no possibility of failure.

"Your Highness, everything is ready." The old man, Gong Yindao, looked exactly the same as when he went to court. It is said that he had bathed and fasted for three days before, just for today's converter trial. At this time, he was covered in sweat, and the mysterious shirt was wet and stuck on his chest, but the person was unaware of it. He looked at Xiong Jing tightly, worried that he would have any instructions.

"Then start." Xiong Jing, Naojiu and others stood on a temporary overpass in the shed. From the overpass, the farthest part of the shed were three more than seven meters high, with fire steaming, and improved charcoal iron smelting blast furnaces. A little closer is the converter, and the iron of the blast furnace will flow into the converter along the ditches.

"Open the furnace!" Gong Yindao shouted to the lower part, and the craftsman in front of the blast furnace quickly opened the furnace mouth. The first thing that rushed out of the blast furnace was brown slag, and after the slag was red and white molten iron. As soon as the pig molten iron of the three blast furnaces came out, the temperature of the entire shed rose in vain. Even when standing on the overpass, Xiong Jing felt a hint of heat.

"Open the gate." Pig iron has excellent fluidity. The molten iron meets in the ditches and then flows along the ditches. The final destination is the converter. The molten iron is so hot that it is dazzling. After watching Xiong Jing's tears come out.

"Open the gate." The craftsmen rush around the converter. They quickly opened the gate, and the white-hot iron was injected into the converter along the cracked iron and copper.

"Are you full?" Xiong Jing's face was also sweaty. When he wiped his tears, his sweat accidentally got into his eyes. His eyes were so hot that he had more tears. He was only confused and saw that the color of the converter became very red and red. He didn't know if the converter was installed well.

"Your Highness, you have not yet turned full." Gong Yindao's eyes were narrowed, and he waited for a while before he said, "Your Highness, you are full."

"Yeah." At this time, Xiong Jing's eyes were already well, and he nodded and said, "You can start practicing."

What is the converter filled with iron and what should the workers do? I have repeatedly explained it before. Ou Chou, Kong Iron Official and various craftsmen below stayed away from the converter as in advance, and the refining was about to begin.

"Get up!" Outside the shed, shouting sounded. The air blowing was the same as the blast furnace blowing, and it used manpower. Hundreds of strong Eastern Palace soldiers began to push the bellows under the command of the craftsman. The air squeezed into the skin when the sac was pulled up, and then rushed to the bottom of the converter furnace at a high speed when the sac was compressed. The iron was hot, and the arrival of the air was like an explosive encounter with Mars, silicon, carbon, manganese, sulfur... At a high temperature of more than 1,300 degrees, the entire converter boiled instantly, the furnace body trembled, the flames spurted out of the furnace, and the steel splashed outside the furnace, and red smoke rushed straight to the roof, and the entire shed was as hot as a fire box.

"The furnace is about to explode!" I don't know who shouted, and everyone fought, including Naojiu and Gong Yindao on the overpass.

"Your Highness, what should I do?" Gong Yindao's face turned black. He had never seen modern steelmaking before and could not accept the current scene of hell. It seemed to be even more terrifying than a volcanic eruption.

"..." Xiong Jing was also watching converter steelmaking on the spot for the first time. Fortunately, he knew that the same was true for Besmai's first steelmaking.

"Your Highness..." Grand Sima Nao was also a little worried about the explosion-like iron furnace below.

"Don't panic, this is normal." Xiong Jing was confident. He now had two concerns: one was when to stop blowing, because excessive blowing of the gas would consume all the carbon in the pig iron, and he only made a furnace of dry iron; the other was the phosphorus content of pig iron. He did not want the iron ore in Tonglu Mountain in Daye, but he used the magnet ore in Kuaiji County, but who could guarantee that Kuaiji magnet ore was low-phosphorus iron ore?

"Normal phenomenon?" After getting along for a long time, he gradually understood some of the strange words that Prince Wang often said. When he saw that the converter under his feet was just sparkling with sparks and did not react more violently, he felt relieved for the time being.

"How long has it been?" Xiong Jing looked at the temple man beside him. It was an exquisite timing leak.

"Report to Your Highness, it's been ten minutes." The temple man was calm, but unfortunately the ten minutes he said were not the standard ten minutes.

"Stop blowing in fifteen minutes." Xiong Jing warned. The time of blowing the converter determines the carbon content of the molten steel, that is, the steel quality. The first time he had no experience, he could only guess.

"Ye." The temple people nodded, and the temple people who beat the gong to stop blowing even grabbed the hammer.

The converter was still boiling, but compared with before, the sound of sparks spraying was much smaller. Seeing this, Xiong Jing didn't want to wait for another fifteen minutes, he was worried that the carbon of the molten iron would be exhausted. "Ring the gong," he shouted.

‘Dang, dang, dang…’ As soon as the gong sounded, the craftsman who was blowing outside the shed immediately shouted, and the airbag stopped moving. The converter that had lost the airflow gradually calmed down. Except for the hot steel, everything in the shed returned to normal.

"It's time to start the furnace." Xiong Jing said again.
Chapter completed!