My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 626 Is this also in the Lord's plan?

Under Zhuge Liang's effortless dispatch, the internal affairs of Shu and Qianwei counties soon entered a stage of rapid and steady development. The technical integration of water conservancy, well salt and fire gas also became more mature.

During this process, a group of capable ministers and officials quickly stood out and received special attention from Zhuge Liang.

From Huang Quan to Yang Hong, from Zhang Yi to Wang Lian, all are within the range of being promoted.

Time flies and it is July of the 13th year of Jian'an. As the busy farming season from May to mid-June of the lunar calendar has come to an end, the people in Shuzhong can more or less breathe a sigh of relief.

As usual, the government would levy corvée labor of around 20 days at this time of year to build some shorter-term projects - corvée labor during the Han Dynasty was generally performed once in late summer and once in winter.

In winter, the farming off-season was longer, and the conscription period was also longer, so farmers were often allowed to travel a little further from their hometowns to perform long-distance labor service. In late summer, however, labor service was often minor repairs done locally.

This year is Zhuge Liang's first year in office. Because of the war against Liu Zhang in the spring, the farming season in the counties surrounding Chengdu was more or less delayed, and the people's total harvest of crops for the year would naturally be affected.

Although the government had decided to reduce part of the land tax, Zhuge Liang was so kind that he always wanted to do more to help the people get through the years of poverty.

Considering that the delay in farming would reduce the workload of some people throughout the year, they would be idle anyway and urgently need opportunities to work to supplement their families. Zhuge Liang would naturally adjust the period and intensity of corvee conscription according to the actual situation of each county.

Fortunately, he and his elder brother Zhuge Jin started to pilot the reform of rent, labor service and labor service fees last year. In Jiangzhou, Zitong and other places, it has been running-in for almost a year. Now that it is transplanted to Shu County, Qianwei County and Guanghan County, it will naturally be much smoother and will not cause too many problems.

Considering that agricultural production in Shu County was the most affected and the area had the most people and the least land, Zhuge Liang decided to encourage the people in the surrounding areas of Chengdu, especially in Pi County and Du'an in the west, to pay less and serve more, and even to serve beyond their term to earn wages.

As for the eastern part of Shu County, because it was occupied earlier by Liu Bei's army and agricultural production was resumed earlier this spring, the people had more farm work to do. Zhuge Liang encouraged the local people to plant more fields and pay more money and grain in exchange for exemption from corvee labor.

After Zhuge Liang's policy was publicized, the local people quickly understood the pros and cons and responded spontaneously.

If Shu County wanted to concentrate manpower to build the Dujiangyan, it would probably have to recruit a lot of corvée laborers from all over the county. Many laborers had to travel a hundred or two hundred miles to Du'an County to build the water conservancy project before they could start working.

According to the original corvée system of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the government did not care about corvée labor within 500 miles, and this was an extra loss that the people should bear. The corvée period in late summer and early autumn was not long, with a total of only 20 days of work. If the people had to travel back and forth, they would have to spend an extra 10 days, which was too much of a loss.

Therefore, the people in the easternmost counties of Shu County, which are farthest away from Dujiangyan, have always been very disgusted with being sent to the west to build the dam.

Now they heard that the new envoy Zhuge had understood the situation of the people and asked them to pay more money and grain in order to exempt them from the corvee labor in late summer and early autumn. Naturally, the people cheered and responded enthusiastically.

In the counties close to Dujiangyan, the people were also very happy when they heard that they could work more and earn more food.

Zhuge Liang easily used his invisible big hand to integrate the originally rigid and inefficient corvee labor into a much more efficient one without increasing costs at all.

Huang Quan, Yang Hong and other officials who were in charge of the specific operations were even more impressed after helping to deal with these matters. They had to admit that Zhuge's talent in internal affairs was far beyond ordinary people.

Many of the most imaginative good governance initiatives can actually achieve the goal of "the government spends less money, the people suffer less, but the final results are more and better than usual."

Apart from Zhuge Liang and his legendary elder brother, who else in the world can accomplish this miracle of "wanting both and more"?

……

With the efficient conscription of corvée labor, the restoration work of Dujiangyan in Shu County made considerable progress in just twenty days from late June to early July.

Summer and autumn are rainy seasons. If water conservancy projects are repaired in a timely manner, they can better prevent floods and ensure the safety of people's farming.

In Jianwei County, with the participation of a large number of corvée laborers, the work of digging wells, laying bamboo gas pipes, and building supporting furnaces and salt-boiling factories also progressed rapidly.

On the tenth day of July, Zhang Yi finally excitedly submitted an official document to Zhuge Liang to announce the good news.

Inform that the first large-scale iron-making furnace using natural gas as fuel has been built in Jiangyang County, as well as a supporting steel-making workshop with steel pouring, and that the envoy is welcome to inspect it at any time.

Just a few days before that, Wang Lian also wrote a letter to report the good news, saying that using the latest heavy hammer piling method, Han'an County had dug the first brine well with a depth of more than 30 meters, and the brine output was extremely abundant.

Moreover, because the basin structure was penetrated, it could even form a self-spraying gas accompanied by fire. The fire generated could be safely collected through the mature technology that Zhang Yi had tested.

However, the location of this deep well is not very good, far away from densely populated areas, transportation is not very convenient, and there is no iron ore in the local area. Therefore, the fire generated is not suitable for iron smelting and kiln firing, so it is directly used for boiling salt on the spot.

Zhuge Liang received the good news. As the corvée labor period in late summer was almost over, he had some free time from his official duties in Chengdu, so he decided to go to Qianwei County for an inspection.

By the way, it would also be a good opportunity to bring back Huang Yueying, who has been living in Jianwei County for two months.

Zhuge Liang was now 28 years old, Huang Yueying was 25, and they had been married for nearly ten years, and their son Zhuge Zhan was already six years old. As an old couple, it was not so difficult to be apart for a moment, and Huang Yueying was really fascinated by crafts and machinery, so Zhuge Liang was happy to let her go out occasionally to relax and do something she wanted to do.

But Zhuge Liang was always very sensible. Each time he let his wife relax, the period would never exceed three months, which was just enough to relieve the relative fatigue and stress of daily life.

A few days later, Zhuge Liang, escorted by his attendants, first arrived in Han'an County.

Wang Lian went north dozens of miles in advance to meet Zhuge Liang and serve as his guide.

Considering that Zhuge Liang must have been tired from the journey, Wang Lian wanted to go to the county government office first to welcome him.

As a result, when they were halfway there, Wang Lian casually reported that the latest deep salt well was just north of the city.

As Zhuge Liang was diligent in his work, he immediately said that he did not need to return to the city to rest, but went directly to the salt field to inspect it. Wang Lian wanted to persuade him again, but Zhuge Liang just said that he was busy and did not want to go back. Wang Lian had no choice but to do it immediately, and he hurriedly introduced the situation of the salt field in detail along the way.

Zhuge Liang was impressed by his clear and organized report, and the fact that he did not panic when the itinerary was changed temporarily. He thought that he was the kind of person who "puts in the same effort as in normal times and works the same whether the leader is present or not", which made him more appreciative of him.

Soon, the group arrived at the salt field.

Under the guidance of Wang Lian, Zhuge Liang saw a newly dug salt well with a tall derrick. The wellhead was wide, and although the brine level was relatively deep, one could see it bubbling out from below when standing at the edge of the well. Apparently, brine and natural gas were constantly surging up. It was obvious that this was a very high-yield, high-quality salt well.

In order to collect as much natural gas as possible, a large funnel-shaped pot is inverted at the mouth of the salt well, with a bamboo pipe covered with paint and cement connected to the top.

Although there are still gaps around the leaky pot that can leak air, it can basically ensure that more than 80% of the fire gas is successfully collected. Obviously, the shape of this gas collecting funnel has fully taken into account the characteristics of "natural gas is much lighter than air and will automatically float up", and it is probably also the work of Huang Yueying.

Seeing this scene, Zhuge Liang was also very pleased. His wife had been studying the "Chemistry Secret Scrolls" left by his eldest brother over the years with as much diligence as himself. She was very good at utilizing the different specific gravities of various gases and liquids to separate mixed substances, and she showed off her skills again this time in the salt well.

Zhuge Liang could not help but ask in detail: "This well has been dug to a depth of more than 30 meters? Counting the time, you have been working at full capacity for only a month, right? With today's technology, how deep can you guarantee to dig it later?"

Wang Lian quickly explained: "Although the conscription of civilians has only been in force for 20 days, this well has been dug as a test well since the beginning of May when the pile driver was first tested, and it has been dug for nearly three months.

At first, they could dig one or two feet deep every day. After more than ten feet, it slowly dropped to two or three feet a day. After more than twenty feet, it slowed down to more than one foot a day. But compared with the original digging method that only relied on shovels and spades, the new method was at least ten times faster!
The method you came up with is truly amazing! I estimate that we can dig at least 50 to 60 feet with this method in the future, but it will take more than a year. It depends on whether it is worthwhile to dig further. After all, it is so deep now, the salt and gas are already very considerable, and it is possible that it will continue to gush for ten to eight years. "

Wang Lian’s explanation clearly and intuitively explained the new technology used by Zhuge Liang and how much it improved production capacity.

Digging salt wells is similar to digging for oil in later generations. Specifically, with the same geological structure, the output of a deep salt well may easily exceed that of many shallow wells in the same location.

If you can't drill through the deep rock wall, you may only get some seeping groundwater. Once you drill through, it's normal to drill deep underground brine rivers to form self-flowing wells. As for the production of natural gas, it is even more greatly restricted by the depth of the well.

In a nutshell, being good at digging deep wells can produce well salt and natural gas that far exceeds that of the contemporaries. This is definitely a dimensionality reduction attack of more than ten times the order of magnitude.

With such amazing room for improvement, it is no wonder that the local officials and craftsmen in Qianwei County worshipped Zhuge Liang's contribution in introducing new techniques.

After watching the salt well excavation and water extraction site, Zhuge Liang also visited the salt boiling factory next to it.

The natural gas that had just been brought out was indeed produced in accordance with Huang Yueying's previous second improvement suggestion. A leather bellows was added in front of the final outlet to verify whether the air pressure in the outlet pipe was high enough.

Before ignition, the gas outlet will be blocked to accumulate power. When the bellows is fully inflated and there is no backflow and backfire, the gas outlet will be opened. When the gas head is slightly emptied and the natural gas in the middle is relatively pure, ignition can be started.

Of course, when Zhuge Liang came to inspect, the salt-boiling factory was already in a stable production state and did not need to be reignited.

What Zhuge Liang saw were thick bamboo gas pipes with a hole drilled every few steps at the tail, and then a thin iron pipe connected to it. There were many small holes at the end of the iron pipe, and flames were coming out of the small holes, burning the large iron pot mounted above.

The fire for boiling salt is very strong and always burning. There is no need to add firewood or grass manually. It is all powered by natural gas, so the efficiency of boiling salt is naturally extraordinary.

Several craftsmen continued to add concentrated brine, and at the same time, they shoveled out the solid salt crystallized at the bottom of the pot after boiling, drained it and put it into bags.

After inspecting all the production links, Wang Lian also expressed his determination to Zhuge Liang and talked about his prospects. He said that as long as he followed the technology given by the envoy and was given a few years, he was fully confident that the output of Shuzhong well salt would be increased several times! Even ten or even dozens of times in the future!
From then on, Sichuan could be completely self-sufficient in salt, and even "Sichuan salt helps Chu", helping some counties in the west of Jingzhou that had inconvenient transportation and difficult to transport Huai salt. Qianzhong and Nanzhong could also benefit from the explosive growth of well salt in Sichuan.

The miserable life of the barbarians in the south, who had to rely on burning wood ash to supplement minerals, has become history - of course, this kind of trade that benefits the barbarians is definitely conditional.

The tribes in the south-central part of the country must have been like the Wuhuan tribes in the northeast of Youzhou today, trying their best to assimilate into the Han culture and adopt a friendly attitude towards the Han government's control, only then could they obtain the qualification to trade in the market and sell salt freely.

If they resist the king's rule like the Supuyan tribe did a few years ago, then let the tribe members continue to drink the ash water to replenish minerals. Maybe they will be annexed and attacked by other loyal tribes who want to be assimilated to Han culture and expand the market trade.

Of course, these are all things that happened later. Without several years of hard work, it would be impossible to reach that point.

After all, Wang Lian would need at least two years to make the well salt in the hinterland of Shuzhong self-sufficient. In the third or fourth year, he might be able to sell salt to Nanzhong. As for "Sichuan Salt to Chu", it might be ten or eight years later.

Before selling salt to Nanzhong in large quantities, Zhuge Liang did not have much leverage to seduce the barbarians in Nanzhong. So in his mind, this matter should be discussed after the unification of the world in the future.

Even in the best case scenario, it would take three years for Shuzhong to fully recover and the construction and reorganization to be basically completed. By then, if we could sort out and integrate Nanzhong as quickly as possible before launching a full-scale northern expedition against Cao Cao, it would be a good thing.

But no matter what, the priority of the Nanzhong issue is definitely much lower than the Jingzhou issue. By then, the Jingzhou issue will definitely have been completely resolved.

……

After inspecting the achievements of the well salt construction in Han'an County, Zhuge Liang went straight to the next stop, Jiangyang County.

There, Zhang Yi welcomed them warmly, gave them a detailed report, and demonstrated the latest natural gas ironmaking furnace and steel pouring plant.

Huang Yueying was also in Jiangyang County, so naturally she had the chance to reunite with her husband - in Huang Yueying's opinion, the work in Han'an was relatively simple and there was nothing to debug. After staying there for a month, all the problems were basically solved. The rest were all physical work related to large-scale production expansion, which could be left to Wang Lian.

The situation on Zhang Yi's side was relatively complicated, so Huang Yueying focused on Jiang Yang and stayed in Jiang Yang for a few more days.

Since Huang Yueying was here, there was no need for Zhang Yi to be a light bulb when explaining the specific details. Huang Yueying could explain it to her husband clearly and in more detail.

Huang Yueying took her husband on a quick tour and told him that the structure of the iron smelting furnace here was not much different from the traditional one, except that an additional pipeline was added to input natural gas to increase the firepower.

Moreover, because natural gas is lighter than air, it floats upward after entering the furnace, so the natural gas intake pipe can only be arranged at the bottom of the furnace, which requires digging a trench at the bottom of the furnace to bury the gas pipe. At first, she also tried to suspend the furnace, but soon found that it was unrealistic. The furnace was too heavy, and suspending it could easily lead to an unstable foundation. It was better to dig a trench and bury the pipe.

There is no need to go into too much detail about these. In short, they were all solved by stepping on the pits one by one. But Huang Yueying was smart. She quickly iterated when she found the pits and remembered the lessons from the mistakes and the principle analysis clearly. So in just a few months, she basically got it done.

Huang Yueying found that after switching to natural gas as the main fuel, the reaction efficiency of the furnace increased dramatically. Not only did the melting of molten iron become much faster, but the amount of slag that needed to be removed also decreased a lot.

The slag produced by traditional furnaces contains a large amount of solid components that are non-combustible impurities in the coal. For example, calcium-containing impurities will form lumps at the bottom of the furnace and must be constantly cleared out. Otherwise, over time they will completely form a large lump and block the discharge port. The furnace will be scrapped and the only option is to smash the furnace to remove the iron.

After the introduction of natural gas heating, the amount of coal/charcoal used is greatly reduced, and the solid impurities produced are naturally much less, and the frequency of cleaning the furnace can also be reduced a lot. After all, natural gas itself is a gas, and the amount of solid residues is zero.

Of course, after trying many times, Huang Yueying found that using only natural gas to melt iron ore without any solid fuel seemed to be ineffective, because the "reduction" efficiency of the ore seemed to be a bit problematic (Huang Yueying did not know the chemical term "reduction reaction").

Therefore, even if charcoal is not used as fuel, it is better to mix some charcoal as a reducing agent. At the same time, Huang Yueying also found that when charcoal is used as a "reducing agent", the thermal efficiency does not need to be taken into consideration, so charcoal is better than coal and will not cause more impurities to be mixed into the molten iron.

There is no need to go into more technical details, but Huang Yueying's several months of hard work and the introduction of natural gas have greatly improved the iron-making efficiency of the furnaces here.

After all, the flame temperature of coal combustion can only reach 1,300 to 1,400 degrees, while the flame temperature of natural gas combustion can easily exceed 2,000 degrees. The melting point of pure iron is only 1,500 degrees.

Even without modern facilities such as hot air furnaces, the boost to smelting provided by the massive increase in flame temperature alone is enormous.

When Zhuge Liang personally observed the furnace, he saw that the iron outlet at the bottom was almost always open and did not need to be closed for heating.

Only the craftsmen continued to pour baskets of iron ore and charcoal/coke from the top of the furnace, and then the taphole below would flow out molten iron continuously for twelve hours a day, like a trickle.

A laborer pushed a cart made of refractory materials, filled it with molten iron, and transported it to the nearby steel-filling workshop, where he poured the molten iron into the steel-filling trough for carburizing reaction.

In the intervals when several laborers were collecting molten iron, the molten iron could not stop dripping out. Fortunately, a groove had been dug in advance on the ground below the iron outlet, so that the molten iron that was not collected could be cooled again in the groove to form cast iron blocks.

Such a luxurious and "wasteful" production method would be absolutely unimaginable for those workshops in Cao Cao's camp that were still using traditional iron smelting technology.

The scraps that Zhuge Liang discarded in order to maintain continuous production could only be used to cast some farm tools, but they could be collected as valuable items by Cao Cao.

The only pity is that the exploration and mining technology of the Eastern Han Dynasty is still too backward. Only when digging salt wells in Qianwei County can some fire wells be drilled occasionally.

It is extremely difficult to develop natural gas without this land, and it is costly and inefficient, so it is totally not worth it.

Therefore, the new technology that Huang Yueying helped Zhuge Liang to improve and develop has no possibility of being transplanted on a large scale.

In the future, other states and counties under Liu Bei's camp will still have to use the previous refractory furnace and steel pouring method to smelt iron and steel, which is at most equivalent to the technological level of the Tang and Song dynasties in history.

Only Qianwei County, relying on its unique natural gas advantage, could barely reach the technical level of the early Ming and Qing dynasties. Therefore, Zhuge Liang planned to turn the metallurgical workshop in Qianwei County into a "high-end weapons and armor production base" for the lord's future.

The quality of the steel and iron here will be improved to a higher level, and it will be used to make weapons and armor for generals, officers and elite troops. Large-scale ordinary army soldiers still have to rely on the steel factories in the Kanto states.

Of course, the inability to transplant has its advantages, that is, there is no need to worry about the technology being leaked and used by Cao Cao. Because Cao Cao's rule did not have suitable geographical conditions, even if he stole these things, they would be useless.

Zhuge Liang also took this into consideration after the inspection, so when he said goodbye to Zhang Yi and Wang Lian, he also told them:

"Technology confidentiality is important, but your mission is more about trial and exploration. Today's salt wells are deep enough and the output is large enough, but the trial and refinement of well digging technology cannot stop.

In the future, we can keep a few wells to practice our skills and challenge ourselves to see how deep we can dig. As long as we record the lessons learned from the experiments, they will be a valuable asset.

The same goes for the Huoqi Ironworks in Jiangyang. Don't be satisfied with just having enough, but be brave enough to try something more radical. Anyway, even if the stuff you have here is leaked, Cao Ze can't use it, so just do whatever you think of!"

After hearing this encouragement, Zhang Yi and Wang Lian felt very warm in their hearts and became more confident in their struggle.

Before leaving, Zhang Yi felt that there was still one last question that he could not rest assured about, so he reminded Zhuge Liang:

"Sir, although the well salt and fire iron smelting matters are progressing smoothly, I think there is still a hidden worry that must be noticed."

Zhuge Liang: "Oh, go ahead."

Zhang Yi: "This summer's corvée service is only 20 days long. Even if we use the new system of paying for corvée service and give more wages to the people who volunteer to serve beyond the term, the government treasury can still support it.

However, when the farming season is slow in winter, the period of conscription is very long. This year, the governor specifically said that a large number of people should be hired and given more money and food to ensure that the people can safely survive this year of poor harvest that delays farming.

I am worried that the remaining money in the treasury is not enough to pay for the labor service. I wonder if you have thought of a new way to make money? This is related to whether the law of paying labor service fees can be implemented smoothly in the first year of Shuzhong. "

In response, Zhuge Liang simply waved his fan and signaled them not to worry: "That's okay, I have a small reserve of money and food in Jiangzhou and Zitong, just for today.

Although there is still some shortfall, I can distribute a large amount of silver-plated 500-yuan coins as wages for the people who perform corvée labor."

Zhang Yi was shocked when he heard this: "Is the envoy going to use the silver-plated coins to exploit the people? I'm afraid this will..."

Zhuge Liang: "How can I exploit the people! I pay 500 coins as wages, so of course I have a way to ensure that the people can really buy 500 coins worth of food and daily necessities after taking this money.

If any wealthy merchant dares to refuse to accept the 500 coins, or prevaricates about the price, I have my own way to punish him severely, and I guarantee that I will not cause public outrage - these things are not for you to know, so just focus on your own duties. "

Zhang Yi didn't dare to say more, he just bowed and thanked him, and finally added: "Forcing merchants to use it is not a long-term solution..."

Zhuge Liang did not explain further: "There is a backup plan. When I return to Chengdu, we will see the outcome. Now there are still two months before the autumn harvest, and it will be more than half a month after the autumn harvest before the winter labor service is enlisted. There is plenty of time."

-

PS: It’s almost 7,000 words, so I won’t break it up into chapters.

(End of this chapter)