Chapter 294: The Tower Furnace and the Beacon Message

After Lin Qian finished speaking, everyone fell silent for a moment, then Fang Ju knelt down to confess his fault.

Lin Qian helped the man up and said some words of comfort.

Zheng Zhilong said, "Helmsman, I understand. The Administrative Affairs Hall will issue a new version of the construction plan, and the new version will absolutely not take a single inch of commoners' land." Lin Qian nodded and said, "Also, try to build as few new government offices as possible. The original Three Offices' yamens in Guangzhou must not be torn down recklessly—they should be put to use."

"Yes!" Zheng Zhilong said with a cupped-fist salute.

Among the government office lands in Guangzhou, besides the Three Offices' residences, there was also the large examination compound east of the city. Tearing that down would be more than enough to house the Nan'ao government offices relocating there. As for future examinations, venues could easily be set up at Civilization University.

Lin Qian was unwilling to undertake large-scale construction in Guangzhou, not only for political reasons, but also for economic ones.

It was the same theory he had explained to He Kai before opening the bank.

Throughout nearly all of human history, the economic reality in almost every era was strong demand and insufficient productive capacity.

Modern society's overproduction and insufficient demand, which requires government investment or stimulating domestic consumption to drive development, is actually the exception.

Therefore, feudal dynasties' philosophy of governance had always advocated frugality and economy, opposing extravagance, war, and large-scale engineering projects. This theory had its one-sidedness, but by and large it conformed to economic laws.

Take the relocation of Nan'ao's central institutions to Guangzhou as an example.

This matter did nothing to improve productive capacity. Building large clusters of government offices would bring only limited gains to administrative efficiency, but would instead cause large numbers of commoners to temporarily cease productive labor and busy themselves with the relocation. The city's craftsmen and building materials would also be heavily occupied.

In the end, it would cause the already insufficient productive capacity to be further diminished and occupied. No matter how well silver compensation was paid, the loss of productive capacity could never be made up.

Therefore, for this kind of purely consumptive expenditure, Lin Qian would not spend a single copper coin more than necessary. But when it came to investment-type expenditures in technology, education, industry, and agriculture, he would pour in enormous sums of several hundred thousand taels of silver without batting an eye.

Especially the Lime Society, the Forge, and the university—their budgets had no upper limit at all.

Lin Qian organized his words and also explained the economic reasons for not building the government office complex.

Lin Qian knew that compared to moral considerations, far fewer people could understand economic reasoning. But Lin Qian still had to explain it—if they wanted to form a united force, the most important thing was to let the executors understand the decision-makers' intentions. Running a one-man show would not do.

After he finished speaking, all the officials and clerks were lost in thought. Ye Yifan, Zheng Zhilong, and Fang Ju all expressed that they understood Lin Qian's concerns and would put the commoners first in their future governance.

Lin Qian set his mind at ease and began chatting with Ye Yifan about the current state of the Forge.

At the beginning of the ninth year of Tianqi, that is, a year ago, Lin Qian had ordered Civilization University and the Forge to cooperate in establishing a production-study-research base, dedicated to tackling technical difficulties in metal smelting, forging, and mechanical processing.

Counting the days, this production-study-research base had been operating since September of last year—more than half a year by now. He wondered whether there had been any progress or breakthroughs.

Ye Yifan suddenly realized, "How could I have forgotten! Quickly, go fetch Master Huo from the Forge."

His subordinate acknowledged the order and headed downstairs, but was stopped by Lin Qian.

"Never mind. The distance between the two places is too great—don't make him run back and forth."

Ye Yifan said, "It used to be far, but now that the Guang'ao Road is open, Foshan and Guangzhou are connected as if they were one. On a fast horse, it would take less than four hours to get here."

Lin Qian smiled and said, "Then let's have the demonstration next time."

"Very well. Your subordinate does know something of the Forge's situation. I heard that a month ago, the Forge conquered a major difficulty..."

As Ye Yifan spoke, he noticed Lin Qian's teacup was empty, so he picked up the teapot and poured tea for Lin Qian.

Lin Qian stared at him eagerly: "Hurry up and tell me—since when did you learn to tease people's appetites?"

The tone was light, and everyone burst into laughter, easing the somber atmosphere caused by the government office construction discussion.

Ye Yifan laughed and said, "Your subordinate wouldn't dare. I heard that a heat-resistant large shaft furnace has been developed. This new furnace can withstand extreme heat, can burn coke, and can stably produce gray cast iron."

Lin Qian was somewhat pleasantly surprised and asked, "Really? What material are the new furnace's refractory bricks made of? Was the furnace design optimized? How much iron can one furnace produce per run?" Ye Yifan could not answer—as a provincial Governor, such minute technical details were indeed not his specialty.

After a moment's hesitation, Ye Yifan said, "How about your subordinate still calls the people from the Forge over? And Headmaster Xu—he's at the Forge today as well, so we might as well call him over too."

"No, we'll go over there." Lin Qian rose from his seat.

Most feudal dynasties treated technology as miscellaneous learning and craftsmen as base-registered people, ordering them about at will.

Lin Qian wanted to lead by example and change this situation, letting the empire's scholars see that being able to build a large shaft furnace was more worthy of respect than passing the jinshi examination.

The group descended Zhenhai Tower, took a carriage to the docks, boarded a ferry, crossed the Pearl River, and set foot on the Guang'ao Road.

Before getting into the carriage, Lin Qian deliberately inspected the road surface quality. By visual estimate, there was no peeling, no ruts, no chipped edges, and no uneven coloring.

Lin Qian deliberately bent down and looked against the sunlight. There were no obvious shadows from height differences, indicating the road surface was very level. He touched it with his hand—no sanding or dust coming off.

"Knife." Lin Qian reached out his hand beside him.

Geng Wu drew his blade with a clang and handed it to Lin Qian.

Lin Qian took the knife and stabbed and lightly scraped it across the road surface. All he heard was the sound of stone striking metal, and not a single pit or groove appeared—a sign that the road's strength passed muster.

The other Nan'ao officials all stood by the roadside, watching Lin Qian test the road with tireless patience, and inwardly felt nervous for the officials who had built the Guang'ao Road. Especially Fang Ju, Director of the Construction Department—the Helmsman's testing methods looked extremely professional to him, and he feared that even the smallest problem could not escape notice. Even though the Construction Department had not embezzled a single coin during the road's construction, and the entire road had been built to high standards with strict requirements, he still could not help feeling tense at this moment, cold sweat running down his back.

Lin Qian poked and prodded for a good while without finding anything unusual. He returned the knife to Geng Wu and walked over to inspect the expansion joints.

These edge seams were the stress concentration zones of a cement road—the most prone to damage, and the best reflection of construction quality.

He saw that the joints showed no warping, no blade marks, no chipped corners, no missing edges—the slab corners were intact.

Satisfied with his inspection, Lin Qian said, "Let's go." Then he patted his hands and got into the carriage.

The accompanying officials all breathed a sigh of relief.

The ox cart rode extremely smoothly on the cement road, giving a feeling of sailing on land while still on solid ground. The ox pulled without much effort, and they made good speed. Before long, they arrived at Foshan. Huo Ying and Xu Guangqi had long since received word and were waiting at the crossroads.

After getting out of the carriage, Lin Qian first greeted Xu Guangqi: "It's been nearly a month, Headmaster—your complexion is even better than before."

Xu Guangqi smiled and returned the greeting: "I've merely stolen some mountain days, sitting and watching the clouds roll and unfurl—a broad heart makes a broad body. But the Helmsman's visit adds luster to this Iron City."

Xu Guangqi already had an excellent reputation throughout the Great Ming. Since publishing the Complete Treatise on Agriculture, his fame had risen even further in the southeast. Moreover, as the headmaster of Civilization University, he did not participate in political affairs, occupying an extremely transcendent position.

With his status, he had absolutely no need to flatter Lin Qian.

The reason Xu Guangqi was so enthusiastic, besides Lin Qian funding the publication of his books, was most importantly that Lin Qian had let Lin Shaoyuan become his disciple.

Lin Shaoyuan had now been receiving his initial education for over a month. Lin Qian took the opportunity to ask, "That rascal of mine hasn't been causing you too much trouble, has he, Headmaster?"

Xu Guangqi quickly said, "What words are these, Helmsman? Before the ten-day holiday, the young master had already recognized five hundred characters and could recite the entire Three Character Classic from memory. He is truly gifted—indeed an uncut jade and unrefined gold."

Lin Qian laughed and said, "Most of that was taught by his mother during his early nurturing. The boy is just parroting what he learned—it doesn't really count."

Xu Guangqi cupped his fists and said, "The Helmsman's family learning runs deep—truly admirable."

Lin Qian laughed heartily at this. He, who came from a tenant-farming background and could not even recite the Three Character Classic, the Hundred Family Surnames, or the Thousand Character Classic in full, had ridden on the coattails of the Ye family and now had "deep family learning" too. Afterward, Lin Qian also greeted Huo Ying, and the group walked together toward the newly built large shaft furnace at the Forge.

Along the way, Lin Qian chatted idly with Xu Guangqi. When the conversation turned to the newly built Guang'ao Road, Lin Qian remarked casually, "Now that the Guang'ao Road is open, it will be much more convenient for the Headmaster to visit the Macao church."

This remark was actually a test.

Xu Guangqi smiled and said, "If one wishes to worship, there is no need to go to a church. One may simply find a quiet room at home, shut the door, and pray on one's own. It is only that I am weighed down by worldly affairs and have not worshipped or prayed in a long while."

This was, in effect, an assurance to Lin Qian that his faith would not affect Lin Shaoyuan's elementary education.

At that time, the Great Ming's attitude toward Catholicism was still one of wariness and prohibition. Nan'ao had no explicit policy on the matter, but from Lin Qian's repeated admonitions on ideology, one could discern Lin Qian's stance.

Thus, after teaching Lin Shaoyuan, Xu Guangqi, being a clever man, took the initiative to distance himself from Catholicism.

After all, the foundation of his identity remained that of a Confucian scholar-official, not a missionary. His belief in Catholicism was originally meant to "supplement Confucianism and replace Buddhism"—to use Catholic doctrine to fill the gaps in Confucian theory and achieve a rich state and strong military.

To put it bluntly and crudely, amid the great tide of the empire's decline, Xu Guangqi saw the power of science and, like a drowning man grasping at a life-saving straw, refused to let go, swallowing Western thought whole without chewing.

Now, under Lin Qian's leadership, Nan'ao had repeatedly defeated the Western barbarians in naval battles, the people were prosperous, and Fujian and Guangdong were thriving.

So what meaning was left in believing in Catholicism?

Wouldn't Xu Guangqi taking on more university students and helping farmers raise per-mu yields be far more valuable than pulling in converts?

Now he bore the grave responsibility of nurturing Nan'ao's successor. The allure of cultivating a sage ruler was irresistible—far better than cultivating a Christian.

For Lin Qian, whether Xu Guangqi's break with Catholicism was sincere or not didn't matter, so long as he didn't go around preaching.

So he quickly changed the subject, turning to the teaching achievements of Civilization Academy.

According to Xu Guangqi, since the founding of the Foye industry-academia-research base last September, the development of Foye's large shaft furnace had advanced by leaps and bounds.

The academy and Foye were both top-tier budget units. In the search for refractory materials, they had practically tested every material in the south, burning out no fewer than two hundred furnaces before finally developing a stable high-temperature large shaft furnace.

As they spoke, Lin Qian had already walked up to the new furnace.

Traditional Foshan large shaft furnaces were mostly two zhang tall, looking stout and squat, like a thick bottle.

This new furnace, at first glance, struck one as slender and tall—over three zhang in overall height, like a pagoda.

The tower's top separated the charging port from the chimney, and the charging port was fitted with a closable cover plate to prevent heat loss.

The furnace body was overall earth-yellow in color, supported externally by an ironwood frame that also served as scaffolding. At intervals along the furnace body were rings of shiny black iron bands. In appearance, it didn't look like an iron-smelting furnace so much as a demon-suppressing pagoda.

The furnace was built beside the water. A waterwheel drove connecting rods, which worked four wooden bellows to blast air into the furnace.

The air intake duct had a double-tube structure—inner and outer. Coal gas from the furnace top was collected via the chimney, then delivered through a ceramic pipe hugging the furnace body to the outer tube of the intake duct, using waste gas to preheat the cold air and further secure the furnace temperature. The waste gas was conveyed through another pipe to a separate chimney and discharged high into the sky. Huo Ying excitedly introduced the new furnace to Lin Qian: "... Because this furnace is tall and pointed, like a pagoda, the furnace masters all call it the Tower Furnace.... Thanks to Foye's centralized property rights, as the helmsman decreed, we had enough capital to keep experimenting even after blowing up over two hundred furnaces. And with the academy head and university students coming to help, we were able to develop this new furnace."

The furnace had now been in trial operation for a month. They had originally planned to test it another month, and only once it was completely trouble-free, report the good news to the helmsman.

But from what could be seen so far, the Tower Furnace produced stable output, the furnace body showed no cracks, and there were no strange sounds during firing—it should be a success!"

Lin Qian said, "Not bad. How did you solve the heat-resistance problem?"

Huo Ying had come prepared. He fetched a fist-sized lump of clay and introduced it: "Helmsman, this furnace was built with four layers of refractory material. This is the innermost layer—we call it the 'hot-face layer.'"

It was made from fifty percent chicken-eye sand, twenty percent kaolin, twenty percent horse-tooth stone grit, five percent coke powder, and five percent sea salt.

The chicken-eye sand was first calcined in a kiln; the kaolin was sun-dried, crushed, and sieved. All materials were mixed according to the formula, then glutinous rice paste and clean water were added, and the mixture was pounded and kneaded repeatedly until it could be squeezed into a ball by hand yet crumble apart when dropped on the ground. Then—

"... Finally, when used, it is directly rammed in layers onto the inner surface of the furnace body."

Lin Qian's mind had already wandered halfway through the explanation. He looked at the clay lump—it was grayish-brown, flecked with fine black particles, dull and lusterless overall, unremarkable to the eye. Yet from Huo Ying's account, the craftsmanship was truly extraordinarily complex.

And this was only the hot-face layer inside the furnace wall. There were also the insulating buffer layer, the structural reinforcement layer, and the circumferential constraint layer—each layer's process equally intricate, enough to dazzle the eyes.

Moreover, the materials were all referred to by their Great Ming names, which Lin Qian couldn't understand at all. Even if he could understand them, he probably couldn't grasp the principles.

The craftsmanship was simply too complex, with countless details and problems, so much so that Lin Qian felt it was sheer good fortune that they'd managed to build the Tower Furnace after only blowing up two hundred furnaces.

Back when they were producing gray cast iron, Lin Qian could still claim to be half an expert. Now he could only humbly seek instruction from Huo Ying.

"From what I've gathered, the Tower Furnace is entirely formed using rammed-earth and tamping techniques, without refractory bricks. Why is that?" Huo Ying replied, puzzled: "Why fire bricks? A Tower Furnace built by layered tamping has no seams throughout its body. Aren't its refractoriness, cost, and reliability all far superior to brick construction?"

Xu Guangqi interjected: "The helmsman may not know this, but the most important thing about an iron-smelting furnace is having no seams. Molten iron is liquid—if the furnace body has even a single gap, the iron will flow out along it and blow up the furnace.

Even if bricks are laid with insulating layers coated inside and out, there are still brick joints within, and these become weak points.

Even without brick joints, even if every brick were identical in size and material, the thermal expansion and contraction between brick and mortar would still differ. Over long-term use, cracking becomes extremely likely.

If one insists on brick construction, it can only be used in small furnaces, and only as padding at the furnace bottom."

Lin Qian understood now. Indeed, every craft has its master. Even modern technology needed to be localized and adapted.

He had always assumed that Foshan large shaft furnaces were built with bricks. He had even left a problem on refractory brick development among Foye's Thirty-Six Difficult Problems—clearly, that had been taking things for granted.

Thinking of this, Lin Qian asked, "The Tower Furnace has solved the two great problems of refractory materials and shaft furnace improvement. Have the bonuses been distributed?"

Huo Ying said, "This was developed by the university and the Foye guild—what bonuses would there be to give?"

"They must be given regardless. Master Huo, Academy Head Xu, I'll trouble you to compile a list of those who rendered meritorious service, and split the bonuses according to each person's contribution. Nan'ao cannot let its researchers' hearts grow cold."

"Yes!" Huo Ying felt a warmth in his heart and cupped his hands in acknowledgment.

Lin Qian continued his instructions: "Now that Foye has a stable output of gray cast iron, the industrial foundation is laid. In the future, we must focus on steelmaking, casting, and mechanical processing."

Huo Ying acknowledged the order.

Lin Qian then inspected the various production lines in Foshan, and also visited several furnace households, asking about their difficulties.

Most furnace masters didn't know Lin Qian. Seeing such a grand procession, they all felt intimidated and stammered, afraid to speak.

So Lin Qian chatted with the furnace masters about everyday matters, gradually getting them to open up.

Some furnace masters said life was better now, and they wanted their children to have schooling, to become scholars in the future, rather than burning furnaces their whole lives like their parents. Others said the big furnace households were swallowing up the small ones at a frightening rate, and with their furnaces gone, the small operators didn't know what to do.

Still other masters said the furnace households paid wages too low, treating men entirely like donkeys.

When Lin Qian came out from the fifth furnace household, one of the accompanying officials said, "These are all trivial trifles. Why should the helmsman stoop to visit them in person?"

Lin Qian said, "If schooling is difficult, doesn't that show Foshan has too few private academies?

If small furnace households face annexation by large ones, doesn't that mean the Foye guild has failed in guiding career transitions?

If wages are low, could there be illegal employment practices or usury? Do the craftsmen have nowhere to lodge complaints?

We must always remember: a small matter in the hearts of the common people is a great matter on the heads of the officials.

Nan'ao enjoys the people's support because the common folk feel we hold them in our hearts.

We cannot think that exempting the Liaodong levy and abolishing oppressive taxes and miscellaneous levies is some heaven-sent favor, and then rest on our laurels." Then Lin Qian assigned these livelihood issues on the spot to the accompanying officials, ordering them to resolve them as quickly as possible.

No sooner had the tasks been assigned than a dispatch rider approached on horseback from afar. Drawing near, he dismounted and handed over a military dispatch.

Geng Wu took it and handed it to Lin Qian.

"Helmsman, it's a military dispatch from Guangxi, sent by General Qin."

Lin Qian took it, tore it open, glanced at it, and broke into a smile.

The dispatch said that after Qin Liangyu entered Guangxi, she had won three battles in three engagements, recovering the prefectures and counties seized by Fu Zonglong, and driving the Ming border troops back out of Guangxi once more.

The chieftains who had been stirred into unrest by Fu Zonglong's invasion, seeing Qin Liangyu leading troops into Guangxi, one by one settled back down into obedience.

At present, Qin Liangyu was stationed at Guilin with her troops, awaiting Lin Qian's orders.

Lin Qian ordered Qin Liangyu's forces to hold their position in Guangxi and make no move, and a messenger was immediately dispatched by flying horse to deliver the order.

Watching the messenger's retreating figure, Lin Qian said to Xu Guangqi: "From Guilin to Guangzhou, a message travels downstream all the way—by fast boat it takes only two days. But from Guangzhou to Guilin, the entire water route is upstream, and some stretches of river require towing by rope, making it extremely slow. Fast horses, meanwhile, are cut off by rugged terrain and countless waterways, so they're not convenient for messaging either.

Mountain Chief, how do you think this problem should be solved?"

Xu Guangqi said: "Isn't the Ming's system of official roads and relay stations perfectly good? Between Guilin and Guangzhou, it's simply a matter of building a few more relay stations." "That method is still too slow—from Guangzhou to Guilin is over a thousand li; even a fast horse at full gallop takes three or four days.

If there were fighting in Liaodong, no matter how fast the horses and boats, a round trip would take the better part of half a month—it would certainly delay the chance for battle.

That's why the Yongle Emperor moved the capital to the capital city, to counter the Mongol threat.

But Nan'ao's future territory, on sea and land alike, will be vast. If the capital is fixed at the capital city, the sea is lost; if at Guangzhou, the land is lost; if at Jinling, both sea and land are lost.

We need a proper method to aid communication."

Xu Guangqi fell silent—this was a problem he truly had never considered.

But Lin Qian didn't need him to think of it anyway. In history, before the invention of the telegraph, someone had already solved the problem of long-distance communication, and the method had even been tested by Napoleon, with great success.

That was the Chappe semaphore.

Lin Qian picked up a tree branch from the roadside and began drawing the shape of a signal station—a square to represent the station house, with a T-shaped wooden board growing out of the house, and a short board at each end of the horizontal plank.

Each board could move freely relative to the others, so by changing the angles and positions of the boards, different messages could be conveyed—much like an oversized version of flag signaling.

By building a great many such signal stations between Guangzhou and Guilin, relay transmission of information could be achieved.

By enlarging the boards and equipping the operators with telescopes, the stations could be spaced as far apart as possible, even built on ridgelines and mountaintops, enabling communication across terrain and over ultra-long distances.

This system had already proven its effectiveness in Napoleon-era France.

By encrypting at both ends and periodically rotating the codebooks, there was no fear of information leakage either.

Compared to the Ming relay system, which required maintaining a large number of station keepers and horses, the Chappe semaphore's demands in manpower and material were not high either. Its only two drawbacks: first, it required a large number of telescopes.

Nan'ao could not yet produce telescopes on its own, but of the existing stock, a hundred or so could be scraped together, fully sufficient to cover the communication needs from Guangzhou to Guilin. Second, the system could not be used on dark nights or overcast, rainy days.

There was no helping that. Lin Qian's conception was to organically combine relay stations with the semaphore, letting them complement each other—when light was poor, fast-horse communication would still be used.

Compared to the added development and operating costs, if this system could be brought to fruition, the effective range of Huaxia's rule in the future would expand enormously.

It was already late in the day, and Lin Qian's personal guards brought lanterns and torches to light Lin Qian's sand drawing.

After Lin Qian finished drawing the signal station and explaining the operating principles of the system, he looked at Xu Guangqi and asked: "Well then, Mountain Chief, do you think this method can work?"

Xu Guangqi stroked his beard, concentrating in silence. After a long while he murmured: "Human eyesight is limited, and Guangxi's mountains and forests are dense—originally it would not have worked. But with the thousand-mile eye to aid it, perhaps it is feasible."

Lin Qian then went on to roughly explain some encoding rules to Xu Guangqi. Previously, He Sai, drawing on Spanish flag signaling, had compiled a set of Chinese flag signals for the navy—this could just be borrowed as reference.

Just as they were in the middle of their discussion, a dark figure flashed past a street corner in the distance.

Geng Wu's eyes blazed like torches as he barked: "Who goes there?"

The night was already deep now. Even if Foshan's curfew was not strictly enforced, by the living habits of the common folk, few people would be walking the streets—especially appearing near Lin Qian; this could not be taken lightly.

Geng Wu called out loudly: "Protect the helmsman! You few, go over and investigate—don't let him get away!"

Yahei

Fenyuan

Pen