I am the prince of the Ming Dynasty, I don't give up

Chapter 20 Coking
The reason is actually very simple, because the ecology in the north of the Ming Dynasty had completely deteriorated at this time.

Just like when we look at some old photos from the Qing Dynasty, we will find that all over the country, whether in the south or the north, is bare, with basically no trees to be seen.

In fact, this phenomenon was very common during the Ming Dynasty. All the trees in the north had been cut down, but there were still many forests left in the south due to the climate and level of development.

Therefore, the price of charcoal in the north is three times the price of the same weight of coal, and the same weight of coal is much more durable than charcoal, which forced iron and steel mills in the north to switch to coal due to cost reasons.

Coal-smelted iron has high sulfur and phosphorus content, and will have obvious hot brittleness phenomenon. The output is high but the performance is worse than wrought iron. This is why cast iron cannons in the Ming and Qing dynasties were prone to bursting.

The "Shenqi Pu" of the Wanli Period of the Ming Dynasty records that Fujian iron must be used to make guns, as other irons are dry and cannot be used. When smelting iron, charcoal fire is the best, but charcoal is expensive in the north, so coal fire is used instead, so blasting is often used.

This problem was not solved until the invention of coking technology. This technology separated impurities such as sulfur and phosphorus from coke in the form of coke oven gas and slag, preventing them from mixing into pig iron.

The coking technology with industrial-scale production was invented by the British in the 18th century and was later called one of the most important inventions of the 18th century.

Zhu Houxuan was ready to take out the coking technology and let Daye Iron Mine use coke to make iron. Coke-based steelmaking is the trend of the future. As long as the iron-making furnace is further improved, the furnace temperature can be raised to the melting point of iron, 1500 degrees. When the furnace temperature reaches 1600 degrees, steelmaking can be carried out accurately.

Steel is the food of industry, so Zhu Houxuan attaches great importance to it. He plans to start coking today.

Zhu Houxuan was not polite either. He directly stated his ideas and the traditional method of coking. He also roughly explained the principles and asked Luo Dajiang to take the lead in this matter.

Jin Tong and Luo Dajiang looked at each other in bewilderment.

"Your Highness, this method is unheard of and is extremely costly. Please think twice!" Jin Tong advised.

"Remove impurities from the coal? Although I don't know where the prince heard this method from, it sounds reasonable. However, this time we need to use seven or eight thousand kilograms of coal. If we fail, we will lose a lot of money!" Master Luo frowned and thought for a while before saying, his attitude has become a little better now.

The coking method provided by Zhu Houxuan is the simplest open-air method. 2-4 tons of coal are piled into a semicircular pile on the ground with a bottom diameter of 3-4 meters. Straw is covered on top to start a fire. It can become coke in 4-5 days. The coking rate is only 50%. This method was also used during the Great Steelmaking Era, causing serious waste of resources and environmental pollution.

But now Zhu Houxuan could not care less. He searched out some drawings of coke ovens from his memory, but it would take time to transform the drawings into real objects through experiments. But he did not want to wait for that, so he planned to make some coke first and use it to improve the steelmaking technology.

"Don't worry about this, master craftsman. Don't be afraid of failure. I can still afford the money. If you succeed, I will give you another reward." Zhu Houxuan said with a smile. In his heart, he once again sighed at the purchasing power of silver in this era. One hundred kilograms of coal only cost one penny of silver, and seven or eight thousand kilograms of coal only cost seven or eight taels of silver.

However, the income of Ming Dynasty craftsmen was also low. A craftsman like Jin Tong was lucky to earn two taels of silver a month, while other craftsmen could only earn a little more than one tael.

"Then I will take this job." Master Luo bowed and said, he suddenly figured it out. Although the young prince in front of him was not very knowledgeable, the iron-smelting knowledge he talked about still made some sense. It was very tempting for him, who had been dealing with iron-smelting all his life.

He really wanted to try out whether this iron-smelting knowledge was useful, and now there was a good opportunity in front of him. Moreover, the treatment given by the young prince was quite generous. Even if he failed in the end, he would not suffer any loss.

After dealing with Master Luo, Zhu Houxuan began to assign tasks to Jin Tong. After observing him for a few days, he felt that Jin Tong was a good person and was trustworthy.

The most important thing is that the craftsmen of Daye Iron Mine make their living under the Jingwang Mansion, and some of them have personal dependence on the Jingwang Mansion. Zhu Houxuan still has some control over them.

So Zhu Houxuan asked Jin Tong to try to forge swords using the modern forging method of Damascus swords. The modern forging method of Damascus swords is actually very simple, which is to mix different steels together, forge and fuse, and then acid dip them. Because different steels react to different degrees with acid, beautiful patterns will appear on the surface of the knife.

The principle is simple, but it is very difficult to do it well. The difficulty lies in how to forge and fuse multiple steels; how to get the desired patterns and designs after forging and fusion; the stress in the steel after fusion and forging will become very complicated, how to ensure that the stress will not break the steel during quenching;

Finally, the swords created cannot just be beautiful, they must also have practical value. How can we ensure the hardness and toughness of a sword with such complex stresses?

Therefore, forging a Damascus sword requires a lot of experiments to accumulate experience step by step and to overcome these difficulties one by one.

However, once these difficulties are overcome, the Jingwang Mansion's ability to process metals will be taken to a new level.

Being able to produce good steel is important, but the technology to process metal is also important.

Today, Zhu Houxuan plans to let Jin Tong start with the most common stacked Damascus to try how to fuse different steels together.

Jin Tong listened patiently on the side. He was now accustomed to the young prince's strange ideas and was also familiar with the young prince's temper. He silently took note of all the key points.

Finally, Zhu Houxuan assigned tasks to the carpenters, and the entire Gongzheng Institute became busy.

Now that he has money in his hands, he must make use of it as soon as possible so that all the knowledge in his brain can be utilized.

"Great nephew!"

As soon as Zhu Houxuan walked out of Gongzheng Office, he saw his eldest uncle and second uncle calling him and waving at him from a distance.

Although he had a bad impression of them, Zhu Houxun couldn't just ignore them.

"I don't know what the two uncles are doing here?"

"We are waiting for you!" The two uncles held Zhu Houxuan on the left and right, "We have something to talk to you, but it is not convenient to talk here, please move forward a few steps."

Zhu Houxuan didn't know what these two people were up to, but considering their blood relationship, he waved his hand to signal his followers not to follow him.

The three of them stopped at a corner, and the eldest uncle Liu Changshou couldn't wait to say, "My dear nephew! You can lie to your mother, but you can't lie to your uncle. Tell your uncle the truth. Do you want to promote the flying shuttle loom to the world?"

The logic in his uncle's words left Zhu Houxuan speechless. What does it mean that I can lie to my mother but I can't lie to you?
"What I said yesterday was from the bottom of my heart, and there is no falsehood," Zhu Houxuan said neither arrogantly nor humbly.

"Don't be stupid, silly child! Your promotion is equivalent to giving away hard-earned money." Second uncle Liu Changyuan said hurriedly.

"Giving the silver to the poor? It's a sin!"

(End of this chapter)