Chapter 15: Iron Mine

"Come, Scholar, walk beside me!"

Wu Zhuge walked at the very front, shouting, unaware of the heart-stopping events that had just occurred behind him.

Li You immediately followed, but he did not truly walk side-by-side with Wu Zhuge; his steps remained half a pace slower, so he was roughly walking alongside Zhang Zhuanggen and Cao Er.

The atmosphere among the crowd was relaxed; especially Cao Er and Zhang Zhuanggen were constantly joking and cursing, as if the dead Tian Si and a dead ant were much the same.

Li You walked silently, saying nothing.

In a short while, they arrived at the place for smelting iron, which was a wooden shed area; the sheds were lined up in a row, numbering five or six, and on the south side were three repaired rectangular water pools, these pools being used to wash the ore soil.

"Come, Scholar, take a look; this is the place for smelting iron ore. Usually, it is managed by the blacksmith households, which is a craft; generally, we are only responsible for mining."

Wu Zhuge pointed ahead, thinking of Li You as he spoke.

Just now, when Li You saw these pure black soil ingots, he knew this was a hematite mine; however, at this time people were accustomed to calling it ochre stone ore. This type of iron ore was mostly produced in northwest Gansu and southeast Quanzhou, and was considered to have a relatively high iron content.

These three rectangular water pools were naturally used to wash the ore soil; generally, it had to be taken out and washed first, then put into the furnace for smelting. The iron melted this way would see its quality improve by a large margin; theoretically, there was also a chance to produce steel.

At a glance, there were nine not-too-large furnaces; the furnaces were square, all connected to the stir-fry iron furnaces, and additionally there was one forging furnace standing alone.

The molten pig iron liquid produced by the iron-smelting furnace flowed directly into the stir-fry iron furnace, then apprentices took willow wood sticks and stirred ceaselessly there.

Li You only glanced roughly; he could not determine whether they could actually produce steel using this square furnace, but he estimated it was more likely they were producing wrought iron.

At this time, the Great Ming mainly had two steelmaking methods:

One was stir-frying steel, but the main products were wrought iron and low-carbon steel; the success rate of stir-frying high-quality steel belonged to the realm of metaphysics. Of course, in Foshan there were also some great craftsmen who, relying on years of experience, could achieve a success rate of half a percent.

The other was puddling steel, and two directions of improvement appeared in the Ming Dynasty.

The first was the "pig iron covering method," which had been promoted on a large scale across the country; the second was the "pig iron pouring method" of Su steel, which currently only remained in the Southern Zhili region.

Yang Kuan's article "History of the Development of Ancient Chinese Iron and Steel Technology" mentioned:

"This method, which creates an iron-oxidation process without using a crucible, separates slag and iron to become relatively pure tool steel, applied to the sharp edges of weapons. By using pig iron to coat the edge, the surface layer of the edge possesses a steel structure. This steelmaking technology was far ahead of the world at that time."

It was not until the 18th century in Europe that the method of placing wrought iron and pig iron in a crucible to make steel was invented, lagging behind by more than one or two centuries.

The unprecedented development of commerce and industry in the Ming Dynasty was most powerfully corroborated by the fact that Ming iron and steel production reached the highest level in feudal history. Huang Qichen mentioned in his article "Development of Iron and Steel Production in the Ming Dynasty":

In the early 9th century AD, Tang Dynasty annual iron and steel production was 5,000 tons; during the Song Dynasty it rose to 75,000 tons; during the Ming Dynasty it reached twice that of the Song, accounting for two-thirds of the world's total industrial output. Even during the Northern Song period, steel production had already exceeded the output of the British Industrial Revolution.

According to Professor Robert Hartwell of the United States, based on the consumption situation in Song Dynasty weapon manufacturing, iron coin casting, and agricultural tool production, the iron production in the first year of Yuanfeng under Emperor Shen Sect of Song (1078) was roughly between 75,000 and 150,000 tons. This output was 2.5 to 5 times the output during the British Revolution in 1640, more than six hundred years later.

Perhaps someone would say it is a problem of population density; per capita, theirs is still higher. But why always insist on per capita?

Population is also a manifestation of national strength.

By the end of the 18th century, the iron production of all European countries (including the European part of Russia) was roughly between 140,000 and 180,000 tons. This was the output when the Industrial Revolution had already occurred. If compared with the same era, this was completely on a different dimension. Therefore, sometimes calling them "Western Barbarians" was quite reasonable for the Great Ming.

For a race that still defecated and urinated on the streets, and where even the royal wedding bridal chamber night required collective on-site observation, the two words "Western Barbarians" were completely justified as an insult at that time!

"Greetings to the Great Leader!"

Seeing the three shopkeepers arrive simultaneously, the mountain bandits holding whips naturally whipped even more vigorously. Although there were cries of pain from the ore workers, before this beating, they were indeed working even harder.

However, seeing that Li You was actually walking side-by-side with the Leader, and even Niu Jinku and all the gang leaders were behind Li You, their hearts were filled with regret, and they suddenly envied Wa Qingyun.

In front of the wooden sheds, there were five or six ore workers with chains on their feet, washing ore in the water pools with winnowing baskets. Occasionally, a lame man would come over to take a look.

He wore a blue cloth shirt and trousers, a blue headscarf on his head, the upper garment had wide edges, and on his feet were straw-made slippers. He did not wear chains; this should be the blacksmith household Wa Qingyun mentioned.

There was also another blacksmith without chains on his feet, behind the wooden shed, leading several people to stoke the furnace. Not far away, two people were repairing the furnace with yellow earth bricks.

Looking slightly further away was the place for forging iron ingots. At the end of the wooden sheds there, some people were constantly clanging and clanging. Among them, one person wore short clothes and trousers with no bottoms for the socks, aged about forty, and was currently hammering iron ingots.

When Li You and the others arrived, the mountain bandits responsible for guarding here all shouted loudly at Wu Zhuge in unison, while the ore workers all knelt in fear to pay their respects.

Li You took all this in; regarding the affairs of smelting ore here, he only saw the general picture, his gaze focusing more on these three blacksmiths.

He knew from Wa Qingyun that these three blacksmiths: the one with the lame leg surnamed Liu, whose real name no one knew, was called Liu the Lame by everyone. He had a daughter named Liu Jiandao, who was also fifteen years old and served as a concubine for Wu Zhuge in Beizhai.

The other, who looked more sturdy, was named Qian Chengzhi. The two tending the furnace on his left and right were his two direct disciples, Qian Zhong and Qian Yong.

The master and disciples were all captured last year by the Third Leader during a robbery on the Han River. Qian Chengzhi himself had a biological young son named Qian Pinghai, only seven years old, who was held hostage at the Cao Manor in Mian County.

The last blacksmith in the back, with a wax-yellow face, was named Le Baofu, from Lueyang County. He also had a son, fifteen years old named Le Sheng, who was forcibly arranged by Zhang Zhuanggen to serve as a child soldier under his command.

These three blacksmiths plus two apprentices were naturally not enough.

So Cao Er had Liu the Lame take on three more apprentices, and Le Baofu take on two. This would definitely have broken the rules of the trade in ordinary times.

In ancient times, craftsmen were extremely strict in passing on skills; after all, teaching a disciple could starve the master. To ensure market scarcity, passing on skills basically meant teaching only one person every few years. If too many were taught, it would cause dissatisfaction throughout the entire guild.

But in the current situation, how could they still care about those rules?

Liu the Lame had agreed long ago for his daughter's survival; Le Baofu did the same for his ignorant, foolish son. But these mountain bandit grandpas, who were used to enjoying unearned gains, were none willing to endure this hardship. In the end, they had to select five obedient and sensible ore workers from the workers to serve as apprentices.

Li You here only took a rough look. Liu the Lame was startled by Wu Zhuge's arrival and hurriedly knelt down.

Wu Zhuge laughed heartily, saying, "Father-in-law, why perform such a grand ceremony... hahaha..."

The mountain bandits behind him also laughed without stopping.

On the other side, Qian Chengzhi had seen Wu Zhuge long ago. He ran out in a small trot, knelt down with fluid grace, raised his head with a flattering smile, and bowed his hands toward Wu Zhuge. Wu Zhuge deliberately waved his hand and said, "Rise!"

"Thank you, Great King!"

Wu Zhuge was instantly satisfied, wanting to suppress the smile at the corner of his mouth but unable to, so he burst into loud laughter again, looking entirely like a local emperor. Finally, he turned to Li You and said, "Scholar, you have seen the world. Do you think I look like the old Emperor with his majesty?"

"It is not just like it; it is exactly him! It is just that this corner of land is perhaps too small..."