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

Chapter 47: Sharp Gold Energy? Gold Elixir?
If that's the case, then the steel he needs is iron-chromium alloy steel.

Because the principle of modern Damascus is to stack two types of steel together and fuse them together, and then stack them again, stacking hundreds of layers like this, and then acid-immersing them for a short time. The ordinary steel will quickly react with the acid and turn black, while the corrosion-resistant iron-chromium alloy will appear bright as new after acid immersion, so that there will be a clear contrast.

So in order to solve the material problem, Zhu Houxuan needed to create an iron-chromium alloy steel.

His goal is iron-chromium alloy steel with a content of 1%, because this 1% is relatively easy to control. As for the carbon content, under the current conditions he can only leave it to God.

The main reason is that 5160 steel is an excellent spring steel with excellent hardness, toughness, tensile strength and wear resistance, so he wanted to try his luck and see if he could produce a similar steel.

But if you want to make alloy steel, you have to raise the furnace temperature to the melting point of iron to melt the iron into liquid. Otherwise, how can you make alloy steel?
The melting point of iron is 1539 degrees, so the furnace temperature must reach 1600 degrees.

Zhu Houxuan searched out all the steelmaking knowledge in his mind, and finally concluded that under the existing conditions, the best choice to make the furnace temperature reach 1600 degrees was the open hearth furnace.

After coming to this conclusion, Zhu Houxun felt a sense of absurdity as if he had made a meal of dumplings just to satisfy his jealousy.

But since we have come this far, we might as well keep going. The technology of open-hearth steelmaking needs to be developed anyway.

Although the invention of the converter steelmaking process marked the beginning of cheap steel production during the First Industrial Revolution, the open-hearth steelmaking process far outperformed the earlier converter steelmaking process.

To be precise, it was not until the second half of the 20th century that the open-hearth steelmaking method was replaced by the emerging pure oxygen top-blown converter method. The Azov Steel Plant in Ukraine, which was very famous in later generations, retained the open-hearth workshop until 2023 (it should be gone now), which shows its vitality.

That's why Zhu Houxuan asked Luo Dajiang to study the open-hearth steelmaking method.

But it is not so easy to produce steel cheaply. This level of technology cannot be explained by drawing a blueprint. It is still necessary to know its principles. This is why Master Luo failed again and again.

It is already May, and Emperor Zhengde's birthday is in late October. He needs to make the Damascus sword before October.

That's why Zhu Houxuan decided to do it himself. Although he had never made steel, he had read a lot about steelmaking in his previous life and received a complete education in science and engineering, so he would definitely do much better if he did it himself.

"Oh no, oh no!" A young eunuch rushed into the theater.

The theatre is still packed, and the play on stage is still The Kingdom of Women.

"What's the matter that makes you so noisy?" Concubine Liu was watching the show and said impatiently when she heard this.

"Reporting to the Concubine Dowager, yes... yes... it's the young prince!" said the young eunuch, breathing heavily.

"Xun'er? What's wrong with Xun'er?" Concubine Liu sat up straight.

"The young prince is destroying the house!"

"Destroying the house?!" Concubine Liu was stunned. "How come it's only been two days since I handed over the power, and Xuan'er has already started destroying the house???"

When Concubine Liu arrived at the scene, she found that the two chief officials of the palace had also arrived.

When Concubine Liu saw the building being demolished, she felt relieved. It was just an abandoned barracks that was being demolished, which she could still accept.

"Your Highness, may I ask why you want to demolish the barracks here for no reason? But do you also want to build new houses?" Zhan Changshi asked first.

"We need to build a new house! But it's not a barracks, it's an alchemy furnace," Zhu Houxuan said very straightforwardly.

"Alchemy furnace?" This answer was beyond everyone's expectations. "Yes, I will also open the furnace to make elixirs!" Zhu Houxuan said calmly.

Zhan Bin wanted to give some advice, but he could not think of a reason to do so, because alchemy was a very popular thing among the royal family of the Ming Dynasty.

This brings us back to the Ming Dynasty's feudal restrictions.

Under the strict feudal prohibitions of the Ming Dynasty, the various princes who became "prisoners" could only find various hobbies for themselves to fill their empty spiritual world.

Many members of the royal family placed their spiritual hopes on the belief in Buddhism.

Since they all believed in Taoism, it was normal for the royal family members who had money and time to make elixirs.

"How big is an alchemy furnace? If Your Majesty wants to make the elixir, why not renovate this barracks and build the alchemy furnace inside the house? Why tear it down?" Shi Changshi seemed to sense something wrong and asked with a sharp look in his eyes.

"The alchemy furnace I want to build is very large and cannot be placed in the room," Zhu Houxuan glanced at Shi Changshi and said quietly.

Shi Changshi was becoming more and more suspicious, but he still had no clear understanding of what Zhu Houxuan meant by "very large". "I wonder what kind of elixir the prince is going to make? Why does he need such a large elixir furnace?"

"The elixir I refine belongs to the element of gold. It is a gold elixir. This kind of elixir needs to absorb a large amount of sharp gold energy when it is refined," Zhu Houxuan said without hesitation.

"Sharp gold energy? Gold elixir?" Shi Changshi was stunned. Although he felt something was wrong, he could not find any evidence.

"I wonder what this has to do with the Great Alchemy Furnace?"

"In order to obtain enough sharp gold energy, a large amount of pig iron needs to be put into the furnace, so the alchemy furnace needs to be built bigger." Zhu Houxuan said with a smile.

Anyway, they had never seen a flat furnace, and it was very different from the blast furnace that was popular in the Ming Dynasty. They really couldn't tell that it was a steelmaking furnace, so Zhu Houxuan blatantly made up lies.

Even if steel can be produced in the end, it can be explained away. After all, in China's history, the act of refining alchemy can produce everything except elixir.

For example, gunpowder, so it would be normal for him to smelt a pile of steel at that time.

Shi Changshi opened his mouth wide when he heard this. The logic made sense, but he always felt that the feeling of something was wrong in his heart was even stronger.

"I wonder what the Concubine Dowager thinks?" Shi Changshi could not find any reason to object, so he had to turn to Empress Dowager Liu.

"You just need to discuss this matter. I'm going back to the theater to watch a show." Concubine Liu was quite satisfied with Zhu Houxuan's explanation and didn't want to get involved at all.

Zhu Houxuan's demolition operation went smoothly.

The matter of building a flat furnace was also put on the agenda. Because there had been an accident caused by the collapse of a part of the flat furnace before, Zhu Houxuan planned to strengthen the strength of the flat furnace in the mansion this time.

After all, it was built in the palace, so of course the best materials and the highest safety standards had to be used.

Therefore, Zhu Houxuan prepared to make a batch of cement first.

The cement he chose to produce was Portland cement, an early 19th century cement that was easy to produce and strong and durable.

(End of this chapter)