My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 313: Good things have no other disadvantages, the only disadvantage is that they are expensive
While Liu Bei and the Zhuge brothers were discussing the subsequent strategic roadmap, Yuan Tan's envoy Xin Pi was being led by E County Magistrate Xiang Lang to visit the construction of various industries in Jiangxia County these days.

It includes both the latest developments in the military industry and the achievements of civilian production technology.

This could be considered a display of muscle for Yuan Tan's camp, allowing Xin Pi to flatter him when he returned, thereby accelerating Yuan Tan's dependence on Liu Bei and ultimately making him unable to extricate himself.

Zhuge Liang developed the mineral resources of Daye Tieshan in the second half of the fourth year of Jian'an, after Liu Bei's army had eliminated Huang Zu.

Zhuge Liang built a blast furnace in Daye that used refractory materials and a new type of blast furnace. The furnace was at least twice as hot as the original furnace in the Han Dynasty, and the smelting temperature and iron yield were greatly improved. In the same year, a steelmaking workshop using the pouring steel method was built in Daye, realizing the entire industrial chain from pig iron to steel.

Now, two years have passed since this incident. During these two years, although Zhuge Liang himself has been less and less involved in iron ore and smelting, the development here has maintained a very high speed, which can be said to be changing with each passing day.

As the scale of iron ore mining became larger and larger, the profits were used to expand reproduction. Zhuge Liang soon discovered that the original mining method was too arduous. Moreover, as the mines became wider and deeper, and the operating area became larger and larger, the transportation of ore in the mining area became congested and chaotic.

Zhuge Liang had to occasionally complain about this in his private letters to his brother, and Zhuge Jin was willing to occasionally give him advice to solve specific problems. The iron mines and iron factories gradually expanded and developed in an orderly manner during the run-in.

Today, the scale of Daye Iron Mine and smelting workshop has nearly doubled compared to the end of last year.

If E County could produce about 400 tons of cast steel and 3,000 tons of pig iron annually at that time, then the figures have now increased to more than 700 tons of cast steel and more than 8,000 tons of pig iron.

If you have no idea about this number, you can make an analogy: the original national steel production in the Han Dynasty was only more than 1,000 tons and pig iron more than 10,000 tons per year.

Until the Tang Dynasty, the annual output of steel in the country was barely close to 2,000 tons, and the output of pig iron did not increase much compared with the Han Dynasty (historically, after the Tang Dynasty's steelmaking method, more pig iron could be turned into steel, but there was no obvious progress in ironmaking technology itself, so the ratio of steel to iron production increased)

In the Northern Song Dynasty, it reached about 3,500 tons, and pig iron was more than 20,000 tons, close to 30,000 tons.

At present, the total amount of steel produced by the steelmaking method in the territories of Cao Cao and Yuan Shao is only about 800 to 900 tons per year. A simple estimate shows that on average, each of the thirteen states of the Han Dynasty produces 100 tons of steel and 800 to 1,000 tons of iron per year.

In fact, large states like Ji, Yu, and Si are much higher than the average, with some states producing 300 tons and others producing 200 tons. Small states like You and Bing may produce less than 30 to 50 tons, so they have to buy from the mainland.

In the stable era of the imperial court, the steel production in Sili was very high, accounting for 40% of the country's total, because the imperial court's arsenal and official military industry institutions were there. However, after the Dong Zhuo Rebellion, these production capacities gradually dispersed to the Kanto Province as the craftsmen fled.

……

Early that morning, after a long journey, Xin Pi arrived at Tieshan in E County, covered in dust.

The roads in the mining area were blocked, and it was impossible to take a car or ride a horse to climb the mountain. Xin Pi initially felt a little resentful, thinking that Xiang Lang was neglecting him.

But seeing Lang himself walking briskly through mountains and rivers, Xin Pi developed a competitive spirit. He thought that he was not too old and should live up to the mission, so he gritted his teeth and kept up.

Arriving at the top of the mine, the view suddenly became clear. Looking at the huge mine in front of us, thousands of miners were working hard to dig and transport ore. The stones were loaded into sturdy iron-framed wooden carts, and then slid down the mountain along a strange slide on the hillside to the sorting pits along the river at the foot of the mountain for crushing and preliminary selection.

This bustling scene immediately shocked Xin Pi.

Xin Pi was not a nerd who could not distinguish grains. During the years he followed the Yuan family, he had witnessed many aspects of military production. Yuan Tan knew that he had diverse knowledge and was not easily deceived, so he kept him as an envoy, which further allowed him to travel around and become more knowledgeable.

But Xin Pi had never seen iron ore mined in this way before. He looked at the mine carts transporting ore to the ore dressing plant at the foot of the mountain and the river, and couldn't help asking curiously:

"These mining trucks can actually slide down the hillside by themselves. Aren't they afraid that the trucks will be destroyed and the cargo will turn over? Why can't we take this kind of truck when we go up the mountain?"

Xiang Lang proudly replied: "Look carefully under the carts, there are two cast iron rails that can block the direction of the mine carts. And the slope down the mountain is very uniform, which has also been carefully tested by Zhuge Fujun.

If the natural slope is too steep, the miners will add soil in advance to lower the slope. If the natural slope is too gentle, they will dig away some of the soil. Finally, after repeated experiments, the mine car can slide down the mountain at a moderate speed and will not crash at the foot of the mountain.

However, if people use this thing to sit on, it is still dangerous. Therefore, except for the people who drive the oxen to pull the empty cart up the mountain, no outsiders are allowed to approach the slide. "

Only when the transportation of ore is convenient can it be beneficial to large-scale production scheduling, such as pulling the ore to the riverside at the foot of the mountain or to a special ore dressing plant.

It is crushed with a hydraulic hammer and then with a hydraulic roller to achieve an effect similar to that of a modern ball mill, allowing the ore to roll and collide on its own for further crushing. Finally, buoyancy flushing can be used to remove more light impurities.

If transporting ore is inherently cumbersome and difficult, many steps can be saved if traditional production methods are followed.

For example, if you just build a furnace near the ore producing area and smelt it on site, your efficiency will be low.

Even if the technology used is the same, the refinement of industrial production links and social division of labor will itself lead to improved efficiency.

At this moment, the most direct impact that Xin Pi saw at the E County Iron Mine was the division of labor and refinement of Liu Bei’s army’s military production links.

Even though he could not see the specific mechanical structures and principles of the hydraulic ore dressing workshops at the foot of the mountain, just looking at the division of labor and management was enough to show that Zhuge Liang's production management was absolutely efficient.

Another thing that shocked him was: Did Liu Bei's army have such a rich supply of low-quality cast iron? Could they directly use cast iron to lay a slide rail for transporting ore in the mining area?

This kind of track is as thick as a child's arm, and two of them need to be laid. One zhang of this track should use more than 100 kilograms of pig iron. Even if it is only for a few miles, it will use more than 100,000 kilograms of cast iron.

If it was with Yuan Shao, wouldn't it be better to use these hundreds of thousands of kilograms of cast iron to cast tens of thousands more hoes and shovels, or hundreds of thousands of cast iron arrowheads?

Just by taking a look at the scenes of mining and steelmaking, Xin Pi knew that Liu Bei's military and industrial strength was far stronger than he had imagined before he came, and his idea of "surrendering" became increasingly shaken.

"Although Liu Bei only controls two states, he has nothing to worry about, and he has always maintained his position of righteousness very well. If he can do a much better job than Cao Cao in governing the local area, organizing the army and storing food, Cao Cao may not be able to seize the world..."

Xin Pi thought to himself.

Historically, the reason why he surrendered to Cao Cao so decisively was that he felt Cao Cao was already stable. In this life, he came to Liu Bei and kept wavering because Liu Bei's territory was small.

Now in Wuhui, we have seen Zhuge Jin repairing canals, controlling water and rectifying polder fields, demonstrating the potential of Liu Bei's army to increase grain production and encourage agricultural production.

When we arrived in Jiangxia, we saw the military preparation capabilities under Zhuge Liang's leadership.

Xin Pi's speculative bones finally softened. ...

While Xin Pi's attitude gradually softened, Xiang Lang's "tour guide business" had just begun.

After leaving the mine and ore processing workshop, Xiang Lang immediately took Xin Pi to the steel plant and forging plant.

There, Xin Pi got a glimpse of the tall new blast furnace. The size of the furnace and the scene of iron casting alone shocked him greatly. However, Xin Pi could only see the changes in size and scale, and could not see the technical principles behind it.

"How can there be such a tall furnace in the world? One that can produce hundreds of kilograms of molten iron every hour? Why can't the furnaces in Luoyang and other places be built that big and produce molten iron so efficiently?" Although Xin Pi knew it was unlikely to get an answer, he still couldn't help asking.

Xiang Lang really had nothing to say, and he just let him watch the fun from beginning to end: "I don't know about this. Lord Zhuge has his own magical skills. Although I have had a chance and heard about it twice, I am not very knowledgeable and can only understand a little bit.

It seems that after a furnace has been used for a long time, it is easy to get clogged with slag, causing the furnace to be scrapped. Although a larger furnace is more efficient in producing iron, it is much more expensive to build. If the problem of having to dismantle and rebuild the furnace after a long time cannot be solved, the compromise is not to build it too big.

As for how Zhuge Fujun ensured that the new furnace would not be blocked by slag and thus need to be demolished and rebuilt, I don’t understand.”

This statement was very official, and Xin Pi could not question it. After all, the technical difficulties were told to you, so that you could accept your defeat with conviction, but no solution was given.

After visiting the iron smelting furnace area, we arrived at the steel forging area. The steel-making process of the pouring steel method would definitely not be shown to Xin Pi, but after the steel was made, the process of forging iron armor could be seen openly.

There, Xinpi saw another experimental new weapon, a huge curved piece of armor that was almost as big as a human torso.

You can even see that the armor plates are shaped like a vest, leaving space for stretching the shoulders, arms and waist.

"Could this piece of steel armor be worn directly on the body to replace the armor on the chest, abdomen, waist and back?" Xin Pi asked tentatively after looking at it.

"Mr. George has a good eye. It is indeed a replacement for the chest, abdomen, waist and back armor. However, it is still under testing and cannot be mass-produced. So I heard that the aid weapons that the lord gave to Yuan Qingzhou did not include this item.

I have abundant steel in Jingzhou, and now I can provide enough armor for the army. In a year or two, even this kind of full-piece armor can be gradually replaced. However, full-piece armor is inconvenient to move, so it cannot be used for the whole body. It can only be used to protect the chest, just like a breastplate enlarged two or three times. "

In the past two years, Zhuge Liang also consulted with Zhuge Jin about the subsequent development of armor military industry. With the abundance of cast steel materials in Liu Bei's camp, Zhuge Liang also thought about making better armor, such as tube sleeve armor that is better than the current Liangdang armor, adding steel protection to other parts of the body besides the torso, and protecting the shoulders and arms as well.

Historically, the tube-sleeve armor was also improved by Zhuge Liang, so this is not considered cheating.

But Zhuge Jin thought that instead of rushing to make the sleeve armor, it would be better to further optimize the previous two-piece armor and turn the chest and abdomen into a whole piece of breastplate, which would reduce the difficulty of processing and improve the defense. At the same time, the chest, abdomen and back, which are large areas, do not need to consider the inconvenience of movement.

Anyway, Zhuge Jin didn't expect ordinary soldiers to rely on steel armor to protect their entire bodies. As long as they focused on protection, it would be fine. Using steel to protect the limbs was a privilege only for generals and middle and high-level officers. Just continue to rely on the old-fashioned fish-scale black armor. Each piece of armor would take a little more time and material loss, but there was nothing that could be done about it.

For elite soldiers responsible for attacking strongholds, their limbs can only be protected by thick cloth or leather. This is how the test product Xinpi saw today was created.

Xin Pi was disappointed when he heard that this device was still under testing and might not be able to equip the troops within a year or two, let alone reinforce Yuan Tan.

But he soon realized that this was probably a test of Yuan Tan's obedience by Liu Bei, so he eagerly showed off the good stuff that had just been tested to whet people's appetite.

Moreover, Yuan Tan lacks a steel industry and does not have the production technology to efficiently process cast steel. Even if the concept is told to him, he will not be able to imitate it because he does not have the industrial capacity.

With Yuan Tan's own steel production, if he had the materials, it would be more practical to make more old-style Liangdang armor.

Xin Pi ended his visit to the arsenal with only envy in his eyes.

Later there were some demonstrations of mass-produced gun barrels and arrow shafts made with "pencil sharpeners", as well as the craftsmanship of one-piece molded halberd blades. Xin Pi was amazed when he saw them all, but the impact was not as great as at the beginning, he was used to it.

Among them, only the new type of halberd is worth mentioning - most of the original halberds of the Han Dynasty were composed of a spear head and a horizontal blade of a halberd. The spear head was directly inserted into the anchor rod, and then a groove was opened at the top of the rod to insert the horizontal halberd blade into it and fix it.

This way, it can be used for both horizontal hooking and stabbing, and it is a qualified halberd. (Note: I won't post the picture, you can see it directly on Baidu Encyclopedia, it is very common)

The "Fang Tian Hua Ji" used by Lu Bu in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms is actually a very recent and niche type of halberd.

The halberds used by the soldiers were simply "spear + halberd" models, including the "halberd guards" who were guards around Yuan Shao. Therefore, the combat effectiveness of halberd soldiers was definitely higher than that of spear soldiers. After all, the halberds had the killing effect of spears and halberds, and the halberds also had the function of sweeping and chopping. The disadvantage was that it was expensive, used more steel, and could not be equipped in large quantities.

Of course, among the iron halberds of the Han Dynasty, there were some that were well-made. They would try to make the spear head longer, add an iron handle at the back, and then extend it to connect with the horizontal blade branch, that is, forge the "spear head" and "spear head" into a combined component.

Such steel halberd heads have occasionally been unearthed in later generations, but the processing cost is higher and they are often used by senior officers or generals. For example, Dian Wei's double iron halberds are believed to be of this type.

Yuan Shao certainly could not afford those "halberd guards", and ordinary soldiers still used the spear with separate heads.

But today, when Xin Pi, led by Xiang Lang, inspected the arsenal, what he saw were the "spear and spear combined" halberd heads that were being mass-produced.

The length of this halberd head is at least two feet. The front one foot is the blade part, and the back one foot is a flat iron rod with a horizontal branch of the halberd extending from the side.

Xin Pi estimated that the weight of steel materials used in this item would be two to three times that of the split type, but the improvement was also very significant.

Firstly, the blade of the gun head is longer, and the stabbing effect is better.

Secondly, the durability is also greatly improved, so the horizontal branch will not collapse directly when stabbing. Moreover, the horizontal branch of this halberd can be sharpened at the front and back, not just at the tip. When stabbing forward, the outer edge of the horizontal branch can also cut the enemy.

In the final analysis, "letting soldiers use one-piece forged halberd heads like Dian Wei" has no disadvantages in terms of combat effectiveness. The only disadvantage is that it is expensive and uses a lot of materials.

But this cannot be blamed on the weapons. If anything, it is Yuan Tan’s poverty.

Only Liu Bei could afford it.

If Yuan Tan clings to Uncle Liu well, he can get a small batch to try out. If he fails to cling to Uncle Liu well in the future, he will stop supplying.

(End of this chapter)