Chapter 64: All Ore Supplies to the Hongxing Rolling Mill

"Hiss—" Liu Haizhong drew a sharp breath, "No wonder they wanted us to go clean the toilets; we truly aren't worthy..."

Li Mingyuan stood with his hands behind his back, calmly admiring his own masterpiece.

"It just utilized a few basic physical principles, increasing oxygen utilization efficiency through the Top-Bottom Combined Blowing method, while simultaneously precisely controlling the timing and temperature of the chemical reactions."

To the ears of those in the workshop, these words sounded as incomprehensible as a heavenly book, yet they were incomparably shocking.

Several young workers looked at each other; one quietly jotted down the four characters for "Top-Bottom Combined Blowing" in a notebook, terrified of missing some historical moment.

Lou Changzhang finally snapped out of it and slapped his thigh.

"I must hurry and call the superiors to report! This is a great joyous event!"

After speaking, he darted out like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, forgetting even to take off his heavy work uniform.

In the office, it took Lou Changzhang three tries with trembling hands to successfully dial the Ministry of Industry.

"Hello! Is this Minister Yang? I... I am Lou Zhicheng of the Hongxing Rolling Mill! I have... I have heaven-sent, great news to report!"

Minister Yang on the other end of the line was clearly bewildered by Lou Changzhang's excited tone and asked with a frown, "Factory Director Lou, speak slowly, what happened?"

"Steel! Special Grade Steel! In our factory... no, it's Chief Engineer Li, he built a new type of converter, three days, it only took three days! The purity of the molten steel reached 0.03%! Five times, it's a full five times higher than what we had before!" Lou Changzhang was so excited he was incoherent, and he had pulled the telephone cord taut.

Minister Yang didn't react for a moment, "What? Factory Director Lou, don't get excited, speak slowly, what problem did you run into?"

"It's not a problem! It's a miracle! Special Grade high-quality steel! You must send someone to take a look!" Lou Changzhang practically shouted.

After a great deal of explanation, Minister Yang finally understood what had happened; the teacup on his desk fell to the floor with a "clatter" and shattered into pieces, yet he was completely unaware.

"Say that again, three days? A brand new smelting device? Carbon content 0.03%?" Minister Yang's rapid-fire questions each represented the shock in his heart.

……

Half an hour later, in the Ministry of Industry conference room, Minister Yang was sweating profusely as he reported the news he had just received to over a dozen high-ranking officials.

"This... this can't be possible, right?" an old official shook his head, "What virtue or ability does the Hongxing Rolling Mill have? How could they possibly build such advanced equipment?"

"Could the testing have been wrong?" another official with glasses questioned, "With this kind of purity, even the most advanced equipment from Mocheng couldn't achieve it."

Minister Yang took a deep breath, "I didn't dare believe it either, but I can recognize Factory Director Lou's voice; that was definitely not a joke, it was a kind of... a kind of trembling that comes from witnessing a miracle."

The conference room was filled with noise; some were excited, some were skeptical, but more were shocked.

Finally, a short but imposing old official tapped the table, "Stop discussing it, send people to go see and you'll know! If it's true, that is a major breakthrough in our industrial history!"

——

At dusk, three black sedans stopped at the entrance of the Hongxing Rolling Mill, and a group of people walked into the Open-Hearth Furnace Workshop with serious expressions.

"This is it?" Minister Yang pointed at the brand new converter, his eyes full of doubt.

Li Mingyuan smiled slightly, "Yes, Minister Yang, this is the Top-Bottom Combined Blowing Converter developed by our team; it can shorten the steelmaking time from the original 12 hours to 40 minutes, while simultaneously increasing the purity of the molten steel by 5 times."

"Boasting!" a grim-faced expert raged, "Even the most advanced foreign equipment couldn't possibly have such performance! You must be fooling people!"

The atmosphere in the workshop suddenly grew tense, and the workers looked at the rude expert with dissatisfaction. Li Mingyuan, however, remained unhurried, a faint smile hanging on the corners of his mouth.

"Then, would Professor Zhang be willing to witness it with his own eyes?" Li Mingyuan made a gesture of invitation.

Under everyone's gaze, the second test of the converter began.

This time, the inspection was even stricter, with the entire process supervised personally by experts from the Ministry of Industry.

The moment the molten steel was poured out, the blinding light reflected on Professor Zhang's stiff face; his expression shifted from skepticism to shock, then to awe, and finally turned into undisguised envy.

After the test results came out, Professor Zhang's hands shook even more violently than Lou Changzhang's.

"This... this is real! Carbon content 0.03%, sulfur 0.015%, phosphorus 0.01%! My God, this is even better than the theoretical values under laboratory conditions!"

Minister Yang grabbed Li Mingyuan's hand, his eyes turning red with excitement, "Chief Engineer Li, you... I..."

Li Mingyuan smiled modestly,

"Actually, the principle isn't complicated; it's just by blowing oxygen from both the top and bottom simultaneously, which increases the contact area between the oxygen and the molten iron, accelerating the oxidation process of the carbon. Plus a few small improvements, such as precisely controlling the temperature, adjusting the ratio of refractory materials..."

Li Mingyuan's explanation sounded both simple and clear, yet profound and mysterious to the ears of the experts.

Some of the professional terminology he tossed out casually had never even been heard of by the metallurgists of this era.

"This design must have been guided by experts from the Polar Bear, right?" Professor Zhang still refused to believe that such a technological breakthrough came from the hands of a young man from Long Country.

He guessed it must have been something Li Mingyuan worked on while studying abroad.

"It was purely figured out on my own, mainly derived based on the basic principles of physics and chemistry, plus some experimental verification." Li Mingyuan shook his head.

Once these words were spoken, everyone present fell into a shocked Silence.

A young man, relying on his own strength, derived such a revolutionary technology?

This was simply... unbelievable!

Several leaders immediately held an emergency meeting in the Rolling Mill conference room; the meeting had only one topic: how to rapidly promote the converter technology of the Hongxing Rolling Mill.

"We must expand production immediately!" Minister Yang slapped the conference table, "All ore supplies are to be prioritized for the Hongxing Rolling Mill!"

"Right, we must build more converters in the shortest time possible! Promote this technology to the entire national metallurgical system!" another official said excitedly.

……

The next day, a large amount of supplies began to pour into the Hongxing Rolling Mill in an endless stream.

Truck after truck, loaded with iron ore, coal, and various auxiliary materials.

"Chief Engineer Li, good news! The superiors have approved our expansion plan to build five more converters on the existing foundation!" Lou Changzhang ran into Li Mingyuan's office excitedly, waving a document in his hand.

Li Mingyuan was drawing at his desk; he said "Mm" without lifting his head, though his brows furrowed slightly.

Lou Changzhang paused, "Are you... not happy? This is a great thing!"

Li Mingyuan finally put down his pencil and rubbed his temples,

"Factory Director, I have looked at the current production situation; even with five more converters built, the production efficiency is still too low."