[Comprehensive] The days when I pretended to be a meow in the Forbidden City

In October of the lunar calendar, Yan Shu served as the Deputy Privy Envoy.

This Uncle Yan Tong, who also left the schoolwork burden for the later generations of elementary and middle school students, is young, but he has experienced the ups and downs of the officialdom for more than 14 years. He is a real young genius. Later, when Empress Liu intended to be a regency, he even directly moved out "listen to the government behind the curtain", and the word "listen" defined the incident.

Even better, his move temporarily marked a truce between Empress Liu and the ministers of the Manchu Dynasty. The two sides changed their previous state of black-eyed chicken and left a space that both sides could accept temporarily.

But for Uncle Yan Tong, who has always been upright and somewhat sharp, this has also become a feng shui ridge of his official style.

Once this day is over, he is no longer the Yan Qing of the past. Zhenzong, who loved and trusted him more, passed away, leaving behind orphans and widows.

And his performance today is no less than leaning towards Liu E in the eyes of civil officials. Since then, his official style has also changed from "tactful" to cautious in words and deeds just like his words and sentences.

But this is also one of the few officials in the Song Dynasty who can renew a batch every time like a comb pulling hair. Like Cao Wei, the general stationed in the northwest, they are all pursuing the type of letting it not happen instead of solving the incident later.

Xia Anran was full of curiosity in various senses about this newly appointed Deputy Privy Envoy.When he entered Bianjing, this person had already sunk in the court, and he pretended not to exist all the way, so the two of them never met.

However, judging from the court news, this person is still a popular candidate for various banquets, but Xia Anran doesn't attend the banquet at all, so he can't meet him, and he doesn't really care about the court until this day when Yan Shu was promoted. When the news of his resignation came, he suddenly felt——Oh!There is such a big boss in the court!

But at this time, he could only hide his desire to watch in his heart, because he hadn't gone to court for a long time these days, and this time it wasn't that he asked for leave, but Zhao Zhen directly approved it.

The reason is simple, Kobo cannot do without him for a while.

The peace gesture between Song and Dangxiang this time did not make Zhao Zhen relax in the slightest. On the contrary, his inner anxiety was almost irresistible.

How does a healthy wolf feel when it looks at you with its tail down and its head down?

very bad.

Zhao Zhen can feel the probing eyes and bigger intentions, and he himself is just an aging animal in the eyes of the other party. There is a person waiting for you to show your flaws, and if you have a slight slack, you will be ready. It's not a good feeling to wait for an opportunity to kill in one fell swoop.

When the official is in trouble, the subordinates will naturally try to solve the problem, even if it cannot be done, at least they should not cause more trouble.

And Xia Anran, who touched China's good emperor, was the first to feel that he couldn't blame his brother, so he made an application, and immediately devoted himself wholeheartedly to the enthusiasm of scientific and technological transformation!

While a large amount of coke was being refined, the Ministry of Industry built two new kilns all made of refractory bricks along the river in the north of Bianjing. extremely high.

Generally speaking, the taller the chimney, the faster the hot air rises, allowing more cool air to be drawn in.However, the height of the chimney is not unreasonable. After all, in today's era without reinforced concrete, the sturdiness and load-bearing capacity are put to the test, and the key is to grasp the best balance among them.

This key point is controlled by professional builders, Xia Anran only asked them to reduce the joint between the chimney and the original furnace.

The pressure carried by the upward expansion of the hot air will increase the pressure due to the reduction of the passing area, which can increase its ascent speed.The hot air rises rapidly, and at the same time, it will drive the entry speed of the cold air to achieve the purpose of increasing the oxygen content in the air.

This is junior high school physics knowledge, so the teacher always said that if you learn mathematics, physics and chemistry well, you can travel all over the world without fear of being true.

Xia Anran was so proud that she put her hands and paws in her big sleeve robe, and she was very proud to look at the two restructured Dasong Xinyao which were undergoing the final assembly project.

The assembled content is naturally connected to the supply pipeline.While it is uncertain whether the stove can exchange hot and cold air in a large range under full load, in order to add enough air to ensure combustion, a large blower is still added to the air inlet of the stove.

The blower and kiln were manufactured separately before, but now they are joined together for the first time.

The blower is not directly connected to the kiln to avoid affecting the oxygen absorption function of the kiln itself.

It took a corner and plugged a duct on both sides of the air inlet from left to right to open a wide range of air inlets in the middle.

At the same time, due to the upcoming winter and the cold current in Siberia, the air inlet of the kiln is opened from the northwest direction. It is hoped that the northwest wind in winter can give the kiln a certain boost.

And what to do when the southwest wind blows in summer and autumn... Isn't there a blower?The invention of machinery itself is to make up for the lack of natural forces.

The craftsmen commanded the servants to fit the waterwheel and the millstone together, and finally connected them to the blower. After the complicated inspection, the small red flag was waved, and several people on the bank of the river saw the signal moving across it flexibly. The water surface stepped into the middle of the river, and it was their job to remove the wedges that held the waterwheels in place to turn.

Seeing that those people moved flexibly and with great strength, they easily pulled out the wedges that could fix the huge waterwheel one by one. One of the young people's posture was exceptionally light, and he didn't even get water on his body when he landed.

This pair of young men are the younger brothers of the three or four twins of the Ding family who were selected in this martial arts competition.

Compared with the number one scholar Bai Yutang and Tanhua Yang Wenguang, these two brothers have a relatively low sense of existence, but they have also obtained a slightly higher position than ordinary martial arts. After all, their family is also a well-known military family.It's just that when the emperor learned that there was a girl in their family who also practiced martial arts, and she happened to be the one admired by Empress Liu, his expression was a little indescribable for a moment.

after all--

That girl once said that her two elder brothers had to join forces to defeat her, heck, but at any rate, this gentleman's ability in actual combat is not bad, so he was directly classified into the forbidden army by Zhao Zhen.Now this branch is sent to guard this group of weak scientists.

What awaits them is not the enemy, but the status quo that this group of scientists has bigger brains than the sky and weaker operation ability than paper.

After the wedge was pulled out, the Yellow River, which had not stopped flowing in autumn, immediately drove the waterwheel to rotate. Although the force was not strong in the dry season, it was relatively stable. Through the conduction of the cowhide belt, the waterwheel with the big wheel brought the power to the small waterwheel. The turntable of the wheel, and then the direction and size of the force are changed by the movable and fixed pulley block of the turntable, and the blower is pulled at an unhurried speed.

Pull in the first half circle and send in the second half circle.

One pull and one loose blow the leaves in the empty kiln.

"Success!"

The craftsmen applauded one after another, and immediately gathered around to check the airtightness and the wind speed. They took out a small homemade windmill with a number of holes on the leaves of the windmill, and judged the wind force by hanging heavy objects on it.

The first few rotations are difficult, and the speed and mass gradually become stable after the inertia gradually appears.Xia Anran held the board in his hand, and he breathed a sigh of relief after recording the effective blowing frequency and wind speed of the blower in the next stick of incense.

The data looked better than he imagined.

A small official came over to take the board he handed over, Xia Anran walked to the edge of the kiln, "Is the kiln ready?"

"My lord."

When he said this, a skinny young man came out of the kiln. Regardless of the dust on his face, he cupped his fists respectfully at Xia Anran and said, "It's correct, there are no cracks in the kiln."

"it is good."

The young prince rolled his eyes, and his round almond eyes were slightly narrowed because of his current mood, showing a bit of sharpness. He waved his hand, and the small blue flag was waved. After a while, the craftsmen approached one after another. They directed the servants to fill the furnace.

Their purpose this time is to experiment with how much the temperature can be raised with the best materials they can get today. There is no doubt that the ironware they have never melted is placed at the bottom.

Yes, ironware, not iron ore.

Because iron ore itself contains various chemical elements, its melting point generally only needs a thousand degrees, but the ironware that has been processed into pig iron or wrought iron has greatly reduced the impurity content. So far, their limit is to make the ironware appear dripping. Wax state, melting is never once.

In order to test its temperature, iron ore, ironware, and finished knives taken out of the forging room were placed in the discharge area where the heat is most concentrated.

At present, their goal is to be able to melt iron, and the possibility of forming a finished knife after repeated forging should be small.

After the fire broke out, craftsmen sat around and gesticulated. The temperature of the furnace fueled by coke rose rapidly. Under the pull of water power, two blowers breathed inward through long pipes, and soon let the The color of the flame at the observation port fades.

The temperature of the flame gradually rises as the color becomes lighter, and it quickly turns orange.

But their most crucial test is yet to come.

At this time, the sky has gradually turned dark, and the wind that blows is chilly. The fall of night means that the observation of the flame is more obvious. In this case, the temperature will be further increased.

The craftsmen were arranged to stay away from the kiln. At this time, the temperature had reached a relatively dangerous threshold, and flames had been brought out from the chimney, which was a sign of rapid temperature rise and sufficient oxygen in the furnace.

The craftsmen and officials of the Ministry of Industry were all whispering aside, the speed of heating up this time has been significantly improved compared to the past, but for bricks, the sudden increase in temperature is a huge test, and the chimney this time is even faster than before. In the past, it was much higher. If a key point is damaged, it is easy to collapse the furnace directly.

Therefore, for safety reasons, they evacuated farther this time than before.

In the anticipation of everyone, the fire light further dimmed at midnight, and a golden yellow color that everyone had never seen before appeared. The appearance of this color immediately awakened the sleeping craftsmen huddled in the tent, and they violently woke up their colleagues.There is no doubt that the achievement of their first step has been achieved.

The temperature has been raised and held for a long time at a temperature never seen before.

At night, the chimney standing tall in the north of Bianjing City and its small flames are like lighting up a star in the sky of Bianjing City. The people of Bianjing City have never seen such a bright color before.No less than the Song people who had a little understanding of the way of skill, they immediately realized that a brand new smelting technology appeared in the Song Dynasty. At this moment, their moods were complicated and they were generally happy. Not at all.

The caravans from various countries in the city of Bianjing planned to take a look at the first time. Of course, they knew that they would not be able to get in without asking them, but they had to try. The size of such a huge chimney kiln must not Small, you can get a rough idea of ​​the shape if you look closely.On the other hand, they also began to think about whether their kinship could allow them to pick up and approach them. If necessary, they could use the chess pieces that had been buried before. Information must be obtained as soon as possible.

At the same time, the emperor who was far away in the palace also raised his head, his eyes locked on the particularly eye-catching flames in the dark night, and after a long time, he returned to the room to rest under the consolation of the servants, but after closing his eyes, , that flame seemed to be burning in front of him.

He silently prayed to the ancestors in his heart, wishing this would happen.

For some reason, he slept very peacefully that night.

The night passed quietly, and in the second half of the night, the temperature of the flame became lighter and turned into a color similar to silvery white. The craftsmen kept looking at the sky without blinking their eyes. Every color change was carefully observed by them. I recorded it in detail, and recorded it together with the time of the change.

The firing of the kiln does not require manpower at all, which means that as long as there are the same materials and environment, if there is no accident, they can burn this temperature anywhere...

Hey, just thinking about it makes me so happy!

The craftsmen are gearing up, eager to speed up the time. They want to see the final result, but wish to slow down the time so that they can record every change. After all, there are various contingencies in experiments, and there are many experiments. It's all about once and never meet again in a lifetime, and the small changes may be the end point, and only by recording can it be used for reference in the future.

These people were too excited. Although they were worried that the prince's tent had not been opened and did not dare to speak loudly, they only whispered, but the excitement at this time had already mobilized the imperial guards who had no idea what they were jubilating, and stood there together with their hands behind their backs. Watch the fun.

After all, there are a bunch of scholars who are too excited to popularize science with them. It may be only once in a lifetime that they can see the color of the flame. I couldn't help but feel a little bit of joy.

However, their excitement is different from that of the craftsmen—you can see the fire once in a lifetime, it feels amazing, so why don't you make a wish?

"Look at this, it looks like a joss stick..."

"Hmm...I feel like incense"

"Hey, don't care which one it looks like, anyway, this is the Great Incense Candle that Reaches the Sky! And hurry up and make a wish before you wait."

Everyone was silent for a moment, but they still couldn't resist the temptation of "Tongtian", they all cupped their fists in their hearts and thought to themselves, "God bless you..."

There is no reason to meditate in the heart to make a wish to a god. Xia Anran quickly listened to "my sister finds a good family", "bless me to go to the battlefield as soon as possible", "I want to have a wife like Mu Xiaoniang", "I want to Salary increase!" "Bless me to find a good husband to accompany me for the rest of my life"

Xia Anran only felt pain in his head, only felt that he could not speak out at all, he endured it, but he couldn't hold it back, he opened the curtain and walked out.

Sitting in the tent, he didn't take off his clothes at all. Naturally, he who appeared at this time was completely different from the group of disheveled tech geeks, full of momentum.

Xia Anran glanced at the appearance of these people who were either not wearing clothes or shoes, and frowned, "Put on your clothes, the night is windy, don't catch a cold."

Seeing that everyone seemed to be in a mood, Xia Anran added, "The temperature will rise again, it's okay if it takes a while, but if it's caught in the wind and cold..."

He didn't say the next thing, and these craftsmen immediately changed into their clothes. Although Xia Anran didn't finish speaking, they knew very well that wind and cold are fatal in this era. Isolate to prevent infecting others.

At this time, there is absolutely nothing to impress the company by going to work with a sickness. Whoever dares to go to work with a sickness will really be beaten up.If anyone catches a cold at this time, there is no doubt that the result will definitely be excluded from the next onlookers.

How can this be!

At the stall where these people went to change clothes, Xia Anran had already sent a few small officials to the city to buy ginger soup for midnight snacks and cold.

The little official who was going to buy rode there, and soon the place was filled with the aroma of food. Their roasting table, so everyone has the experience of watching the kiln while cooking skewers in autumn.

Xia Anran directly picked up a bag of salt and pepper strips that had been placed temporarily, and chewed without hesitation in front of everyone, dutifully playing the image of him being the endorsement of pork for the royal family of the Song Dynasty.

Seeing that Xia Anran, as a prince, didn't care about eating pork in front of everyone, soon, the purchased pork products were sold out immediately, and his actions were so fast that people couldn't tell if someone really liked eating them, but they were embarrassed to take them. , or to flatter Xia Anran.

But these young people don't care about this. Relying on his various performances, the young King Pingnan has already gained a firm foothold in the highest technical department of the Song Dynasty.The people here obeyed his arrangement not because he was a prince, but because he did make the result step by step.

Only by strength can one gain respect here.

After a while, after their stomachs were full and they had the strength to stay up late, the craftsmen gathered together again. They lit the candles they brought with them one after another. They were reluctant to enter the house for fear of missing the state of the kiln, so they could only Write by the dangling candlelight.

This place is on the bank of the river, and the wind is strong and the water vapor is strong. Even if the candlesticks are made of glass candlesticks with the best effect today, the lighting effect is still poor.

Seeing this, Xia Anran had no choice but to take out the lantern that Bai Jinxi asked him to bring and lend it to them for lighting. Immediately, the focus of the craftsmen's attention turned to: what kind of fuel is used for the lantern?How can it burn for such a long time with only so few wicks?

Where are the vents?It seems that there is no vent hole!

They looked at the lamp so enthusiastically that they wanted to take it apart, but fortunately Xia Anran didn't see it all, and he entered the tent.After lending the windproof lamp, he naturally had to enter a windproof environment for lighting. If he saw the eyes of the craftsmen, he would definitely snatch the lamp back without hesitation.

...Unfortunately, there is no if.

The dawn breaks and the rooster crows.

Many officials who went to the court that day saw the white light burning in the dark night on the way to the court. It was really eye-catching in the middle of the night, and it was so conspicuous that anyone could see him from any angle.

Flames have always represented hope in the hearts of mankind.

Except for a small number of people, most of the people watched the special color of flames and then stepped into their carriages after a moment of silence. These courtiers closed their eyes and meditated while the carriage was shaking. All that flashed was this cluster of flames.

The flame color gradually turns white-blue during the coldest time of the day.

Xia Anran felt familiar with this color at first glance, it was the flame color that can only be seen in ordinary homes after the use of liquefied petroleum gas in modern times.Although it doesn't necessarily mean that the temperature has risen further, Xia Anran's heart is half relieved.At least as far as the current situation is concerned, the color of the flame at the gas outlet has already told him that the temperature inside the kiln has reached his expectations, and the next difficulty lies in whether the kiln can withstand this temperature.

He let out a light breath, feeling that it was useless to think too much, so he took a piece of paper and picked up a pen to write the next step.

Since the incineration temperature can melt iron, it is very likely that there is already a puddle of molten iron in the furnace now, and coke, lime powder, and fluorite were sprinkled into the iron before it was inside. The molten iron should react with these substances at high temperatures. The reaction, and if you're lucky, can take away the impurities.

At the same time, a large amount of oxygen poured in from the blower, apart from being partially digested by the burning of coke, there should be a lot of it that is trapped by the airflow and can react with the molten iron.

It's a pity that he couldn't think of a way to stir in such a high-temperature environment, but the craftsmen also said that the molten iron would bubble up in a high-temperature state, which can be regarded as a stirring state invisibly. It should be much lower than ordinary smelting methods.

After it is subjected to secondary smelting to further control the carbon content, preliminary molten steel can be obtained.

That's right, he was ambitious and wanted to manufacture not only molten iron, but also an important raw material for modern steelmaking technology - molten steel.

As long as there is molten steel, even if it is molten iron with a carbon content, it will save a lot of effort whether it is forged by the steel pouring method or the hundred steelmaking method.Even, if the liquid produced is molten steel of relatively high quality, he can still make plate armor when the technology matures.

Hey, not being able to measure the carbon content in molten steel is a huge problem.Xia Anran was particularly distressed.

Plate armor is a type of armor that became popular in Europe in the thirteenth century.

Different from the situation faced by the East, the development of armor in the East mainly relies on the farming peoples, and the nomadic peoples are the main defense targets of the farming peoples. host.

This directly led to the defense of the armor cast by the farming peoples in the early days, with swords and arrows as the main object of defense. Therefore, most of the Eastern weapon defense models focused on resistance to chopping.

Until the range and lethality of the bow and crossbow were further expanded, the armor became popular again in the armor world, and after the firearms became dominant, the armor mode changed to composite armor.

The reason why Xia Anran made the plate armor is that the plate armor is a kind of armor with the same weight, and its protective surface and flexibility are far superior to the armor and scale armor.

And most importantly, if his inferior "steelmaking" technology can be completed and molten steel can be produced on a large scale, then there is no doubt that the manufacturing efficiency of this kind of plate armor that only needs molds and pressing is higher. Much higher than other armors.

Speed ​​is everything.

However, making such armor requires a lot of resource investment and money investment, and the plate armor also has a fatal weakness. Its sensitivity is relatively strong, so it is necessary to wear a layer of auxiliary armor with shock-absorbing and shock-absorbing effects inside. Otherwise, the chances are the same as the Mongolian cavalry sweeping across the European continent hundreds of years later, because someone hit the chest with a small hammer and hit each one accurately.

But so far, he hasn't figured out the materials for the accessories inside. The most ideal is naturally cotton cloth, but cotton has not been brought into the Song Dynasty, and there is still a long way to go before it can be planted and popularized on a large scale. Ancillary products are woolen sweaters.

However, the raw materials of woolen clothes are relatively limited, so it’s okay in winter. If you go to war in summer, you will wear woolen clothes inside your iron armor... I guess you will suffer from heat stroke.

But all this is not in a hurry.

The key still depends on whether he can refine molten steel with such a method.

Xia Anran sat in the room quietly, the candles in the room were flickering, he let out a mouthful of stale air slowly, and when he opened his eyes again, it was clear.

His position in Zhao Zhen's heart, and the future political and military trends of the Song Dynasty and the two nomadic peoples all depended on whether he could improve the steelmaking technology.

If farming wants to overwhelm nomads, the only way is to overwhelm with technological points.

Nowadays, the technological points between Song and Liao are almost the same, unless there is a major breakthrough, they can only be stalemate.

While he was quietly waiting for the outcome of this smelting, the emperor, the political center of the Song Dynasty, issued a brand new order.

An official from the Song State who broke into the party's territory to chase the murderer due to "adventure" before arrived in the capital. After various investigations, this official confessed to his mistakes and had a good attitude of admitting them.

Because the emperor fined him and demoted him.

Unexpectedly, after receiving the imperial edict, the official had the audacity to submit his own petition, asking to go where he wanted to go. This move directly angered Zhao Zhen, and the emperor demoted him to the coast, making him suffer in winter. It was windy and rainy there, and the task of repairing dikes in winter was taken over.

However, the officials are benevolent and care about the people. After all, they still send people a lot of property for them to hire civil servants.

This person's name is Fan Zhongyan.

The place he was sent to was the place where he had written impeachment to Empress Liu and asked her to change the government-Xixi, Taizhou.

Those who are interested in the officialdom can directly see one thing from the emperor's series of actions: it's a good fall and a rise.

The author has something to say:

Plate armor can carry bows and arrows and knives, but it is not resistant to stabs and hammers.

In short, there is no perfect armor, only a perfect response. European plate armor rose almost in the 12th century...but the early ones were actually iron armor, for example, when they were hammered back by the Mongols, they were iron.After reaching the steel armor, the defense power soared.And it's not actually a layer of iron skin on the outside, but there are various cushioning cloth drops inside.

The ability to make plate armor is actually due to the sharp increase in smelting technology, and the emergence of hydraulic forging machines and blast furnaces in Europe. This article uses hydraulic presses, which are more advanced. (chest raised proudly)

After the iron ore is melted, it is only molten iron, and the molten iron is steel after adding various redox products to reduce the content of C, P, and S to between 0.03% and 2%.

In the era when the carbon content could not be measured, it was basically impossible to burn a furnace of molten steel.Need luck.After all, the composition content of iron ore cannot be the same every time.The product from the first pot is estimated to be molten iron, and it has to be fired again, and then it depends on luck.The most troublesome problem today is that there is no way to stir it, so the molten iron cannot react completely (brain pain)

Generally, the finished product has to be forged. Xia Miao has already made preparations for this, but it can save some time.

The only way to fight nomadism is to play the technology tree. I don’t want to tinker with gunpowder... I finally started with the combination of refractory brick reverberatory furnace, coke, oxygenation, fluorite + coke powder + lime powder, etc. Hey, if you want to make steel, why not? So easy to pinch.

Do you understand what happened to Mr. Fan?Rubbing your hands, it's not that Zhao Zhen doesn't know who is good or what is bad~ There are some little conspiracies in it~

Boss Fan is very pleased with the emperor.