Chapter 41 Section Eleven

Chen Yi, who was calculating the military weapons supervision case, naturally didn't know what Shi Yue was doing a few days after returning from Jiangxi. After handing over the manuscript of Ouyang Xiu's "History of the Five Dynasties" to the imperial court, Shi Yue made a request to the emperor—to lend copies of the books in the Royal Library within the three pavilions to Baishuitan College in batches and time periods according to certain procedures to help Baishuitan The academy established a library, in which valuable editions were used for publication after applying for the approval of the imperial court, and the profits were divided between Baishuitan Academy and the imperial court.As for Ouyang Xiu's "History of the Five Dynasties", it is naturally among the first batch.

Zhao Xu agreed without much thought, which is always a good thing.Moreover, his impression of Baishuitan College has gradually improved recently. After this matter was settled, Shi Yue began to return to work at the Ministry of Education—but even Wang Anshi could see that Shi Yue was more active in getting off work these days, and he disappeared without a trace after get off work. No one knew where he went .If Shi Yue hadn't become more proficient in handling public affairs recently, Wang Anshi probably wanted to find an excuse to reprimand him. Shi Yue was indeed in a state of excitement these days.

Somewhere by the Bianhe River, four or five blast furnaces were built in a workshop belonging to the Sansi Yantie Division. The blast furnace, which is more than two feet long, has an opening on each side of the blast furnace, one is the tuyere of the hydraulic blower, and the other is the taphole.Next to the blast furnace is a one-meter-high open hearth furnace with a low profile and a fan-shaped cross-section—compared to the blast furnace, this building is even more strange, not to mention the grid of regenerators made of refractory bricks. It is this design shape, which the workers have never seen before. At that time, blast furnace ironmaking technology had already been accumulated, so for researchers, blast furnace technology is not difficult. It is nothing more than coke selection and some experiments on refractory bricks. , the most important thing is the improvement of the blower.The other is that the volume of the blast furnace is too small - so the researchers designed a double blast furnace.However, the open hearth furnace steelmaking technology and the converter steelmaking technology that was not finally adopted have caused researchers to suffer countless hardships - the most typical is that when using solid fuel for experiments, sometimes the slag will block the regenerator, from the design to the improvement of the open hearth furnace The researchers have made great efforts to construct the structure.

In addition to blast furnaces and open hearth furnaces, iron ore, coke, blowers, waterwheels, and mules are all available.The workers who were mobilized here half a month ago didn't know what they were going to do. Occasionally, some strangers came to point and observe the progress of the construction.Although the workers guessed what they were going to refine, they were not curious. Who knew what the officials and gentlemen were going to do? Only in the last few days, the number of soldiers nearby suddenly increased. A white, tall young official and a thin yellow-faced middle-aged man often came to observe. The craftsmen usually looked at the big official. These two people were respectful, and those with sharp ears could hear them calling them "Master Shi (Shi)" and "Master Zeng".Following these two officials were a few blacksmiths who were well-known in the official workshops, and a few handsome young men—they looked like scholars.

These craftsmen can only know that what they do is important from these superficial phenomena, but they don't know how important it is. However, Shi Yue knew it very clearly. It can be said that he has been looking forward to the arrival of this day.But when Shen Guitian secretly reported to him that the Ordnance Research Institute had finally mastered the technology of blast furnace ironmaking and flat furnace steelmaking technology, he almost couldn't believe it. He has been working hard on this matter since he took charge of the Yu Buzhou case. The best blacksmiths and scientists in the Song Dynasty have invested countless time and money. Shi Yue has more than 30 experiments known to him. Although it is not nothing every time, it is not uncommon for the blast furnace to collapse suddenly when I started to increase the height of the blast furnace.Although he knows that there are many things that cannot be forced, Shi Yue is finally a little discouraged. After a year has passed, he has no hope for it...

However, the irony is that not long after Lu Huiqing entered the Military Military Academy, such a great achievement was finally invented by those researchers who worked and experimented day and night.Shi Yue was almost jealous of Lu Huiqing's "good luck". Fortunately, both Chen Yuanfeng and Lu Huiqing turned their attention to gunpowder—they were confused by the thunder, and Chen Yuanfeng stared at several firearms. The research team almost met all their requirements as much as possible, hoping to achieve some results, but in the end they ignored these humble blacksmiths—the blacksmiths' laboratory, by the river near Baishuitan, and the weapons research institute. There is a certain distance.

And these researchers also expressed their most basic position—the detailed information was first obtained by Shi Yue, which of course also benefited from Pan Zhaolin's prior planning and a large amount of "subsidy" issued to these researchers; The other one was sealed in the database of the Weapons Research Institute as normal data. In any case, Shi Yue was unwilling to hand over such achievements to Lu Huiqing—but he was also unwilling to let such an invention of great significance be sealed up, after all, this invention would greatly reduce the cost of steel tools. The cost will promote the use of steel tools in the whole society.Shi Yue still can't completely turn himself into a politician, he still has his own obsessions.

After some thought, Shi Yue chose Zeng Bu. Although Zeng Bu is a core member of the New Party, he has always had a good friendship with him; the relationship between Zeng Bu and Lu Huiqing is quite tense; most importantly, Zeng Bu is still the third envoy—— Apart from Lu Huiqing and himself, the official Yantie Division, which is currently the only one related to ironware, is under his control.Shi Yue, the official of the Jianzheng Workshop, already has considerable influence in the Ministry of Industry, which has a small scope of authority. In addition, Zeng Bu, who is dissatisfied with watching Lu Huiqing gain power step by step, new steelmaking technology is outside the military supervision department. When it comes out, it's not that difficult.

"Ziming, do you think these things are useful?" Zeng Bu, who was dressed in casual clothes, didn't quite understand the meaning of new technologies. It's not bad for a while", he may not be involved in this matter. Shi Yue, however, was filled with uncontrollable joy, he didn't care about Zeng Bu's doubts at all, and said with a smile: "Brother Zixuan, if it succeeds, it will be just a weapon of the Song Dynasty, and the cost will be reduced a lot. The savings, in the millions, alone is a huge achievement." Naturally, Zeng Bu has heard Shi Yue say these reasons, but he really doesn't know anything about steelmaking—of course, Shi Yue doesn't know much more than him. "Can it succeed?" Zeng Bu was still a little worried. Although it was the country's money, he didn't feel sorry for it, but if he failed, let the censor know that it would be a crime if he was not big or small.

If it wasn't for the great mood, Shi Yue would have been a little impatient. He pointed to the busy research backbones who had deliberately brought out from the Armament Research Institute, and said with a smile, "You have to ask them if you can succeed." Naturally, Zeng Bu would not ask them. In his opinion, it would be a shameful thing to do.Embarrassed for a while, Zeng Bu seemed to have a feeling and said: "Speaking of it, Ziming and Wang Xianggong are very similar. Brother Yu doesn't know the use of this kind of strange skill and obscenity, but Ziming can see it It is beneficial to the national economy and the people's livelihood, with this kind of insight, apart from Ziming, there is only a gentleman in the world."

Shi Yue thought disapprovingly in his heart: "That's not necessarily the case, at least Lu Huiqing must understand." But he said with a smile: "I don't dare to compare with Xianggong, but I like these things by nature, but brother Zixuan is now a 'planner' , It is your job to save money and earn money for the country, and you can't worry about it in the end." Zeng Bu laughed mockingly and said, "Ji Xiang, hehe, in the mouths of those who call themselves 'a gentleman', I am nothing more than a minister of words and interests." Zeng Bu was very disapproving of the old party members. It was inconvenient for Shi Yue to answer this question, so he had to laugh a few times, and said: "Whether words are beneficial or righteous, as long as you serve the country and the people, that is the truth. No matter what others say. Let's go, brother Zixuan, we Go and have a look..." In fact, from the report of the Ordnance Research Institute, Shi Yue already knew that blast furnace ironmaking takes six days as a cycle, and each furnace usually produces four to five tons of iron. Shi Yue was not clear about this concept. What surprised him was the difference between the blast furnace and the open hearth furnace. Disproportionate—the report claims that the open hearth furnace takes a day as a cycle, but it can smelt up to 100 tons of molten steel at a time, and the quality is stable—this is the most critical.Even if Shi Yue is an amateur—not to mention that he is not a complete amateur, otherwise he would not be able to give advice to the research institute—he also knows that the breakthroughs made by the researchers in open hearth technology are great. However, Shi Yue knew nothing about why the output of the blast furnace and the open hearth furnace were out of proportion.Maybe it should be like this in the first place, Shi Yue thought like that at the time. The responsibility of politicians is to encourage scientists to invent and create, so that the achievements of scientists can be turned into benefits, and reserve basic knowledge and talents for new inventions, rather than pointing fingers at inventors.This is the realization that Shi Yue had early on.If a politician puts his hand into a field that he does not understand, he will definitely become the greatest harm in that field. Shi Yue has been asking himself suspiciously for a long time, whether he has said too much in science - in science, he is far from a qualified enlightener, if he accidentally says something wrong, with his current state Status will make these researchers and even future researchers take countless detours. So in the end he chose a sensible approach-shut up. "I should trust professionals. I just need to encourage them to continue research and improvement. My responsibility is to turn blueprints and experiments into industry." This is Shi Yue's realization. Seven days later, when Zeng Bu was stunned to see dozens of tons of molten steel flowing out of a furnace, Shi Yue knew that it was time to fulfill his responsibilities.