Traveling through the sword to engage in military industry

Yang Village.

In front of the two earthen blast furnaces of the Yang Village Iron and Steel Consortium, a dark mass of fifty to sixty people stood.

These were all builders of the earthen blast furnaces and the high-level members of the Independent Regiment. Except for Zhang Dabiao, who was on duty, all officers above the company level of the Independent Regiment had come.

After all, today was a major event for the Independent Regiment. Many officers wanted to see the results of their tireless labor over so many days and nights, to see if they could actually produce molten iron.

Ren Zhong personally used dry firewood to ignite the coal, standing with Li Yunlong not far from the blast furnace, quietly watching the red-hot coal burning under the furnace. The soldiers beside them vigorously pulled the blower, and as air was injected into the furnace, the flames surged, and a cloud of smoke soared into the sky.

The first batch of iron ore had already been crushed into small pieces according to the design requirements and placed into the blast furnace, waiting to be smelted to test the results of Li Yunlong and his men's efforts these past few days.

Whether or not molten iron would be produced, and how much, would be clear today.

"Brother Ren, I'm a bit unsure. Just this thing, a furnace built with a pile of dirt and clay bricks, are you sure it can really produce molten iron?" Seeing the fire start, Li Yunlong felt inexplicably empty and began to get nervous.

He was even more nervous than when facing the Sakata Regiment.

As a semi-literate man, what supported Li Yunlong's willingness to build this irregularly shaped blast furnace, which was ugly on the outside, was his unconditional trust in Ren Zhong.

After all, Ren Zhong had already created many miracles. If today's earthen blast furnace could successfully produce molten iron, Li Yunlong would be willing to respectfully call Ren Zhong 'Master'!

In his eyes, scholars from the surrounding villages were like the reincarnation of the Star of Literature. Now, Ren Zhong could even extract iron from stone, wasn't that even more amazing than the Star of Literature!

"Old Li, calm down, calm down. It takes at least 4 hours of burning to see results. Even if the iron output is a bit low, as long as we keep burning, we will definitely succeed in smelting iron." Ren Zhong couldn't help but laugh at Li Yunlong's appearance.

But he couldn't control him.

After all, extracting iron from stone was completely unimaginable for these officers and soldiers, who were almost all illiterate.

In their simple minds, only immortals could do that, right?

"Everyone, rest assured, we will definitely succeed today. Everyone must believe in science." Ren Zhong turned around and said loudly, seeing that everyone looked a bit serious. "Today, everyone will witness a miracle. Next, you will follow me to learn to read and some scientific knowledge, just like when we made sulfuric acid before. Today's iron smelting has chemical laws in it. We mix coke with iron ore, and after the coke is ignited and melts the iron ore, the coke will have a magical chemical reaction with the iron ore, reducing the iron inside. This is science. If we don't succeed today, it's not that science doesn't work, but that we haven't done a good job in some part of the process. After checking and analyzing, we will definitely succeed if we do it again."

Ren Zhong didn't dare to guarantee 100% success for the first furnace today, after all, this was also his first furnace of iron in his life, and God knows what kind of accident might occur. But Ren Zhong never worried about not being able to make this thing, after all, historical experience told him that this earthen blast furnace once bloomed all over this land.

The summaries in the process books were all written after success, and no one dared to directly fabricate an earthen blast furnace that had not been tested.

What was unreliable in these experiences was that they did not fully consider energy consumption, environmental protection, and the quality of molten iron.

According to Ren Zhong's understanding, the pig iron produced by this type of earthen blast furnace was not very useful and was basically unlikely to be used for structural parts because the performance was too poor.

However, for making crude things like hand grenades and landmines, this kind of pig iron was indeed still useful.

In addition, he needed these semi-finished products for steelmaking next.

Ren Zhong's words made everyone's faces look slightly better, but not by much. Their eyes were fixed on the molten iron outlet, wishing they could immediately see something flowing out of it.

"Regiment Commander! The Brigade Commander is here!" After an unknown amount of time, a sharp-eyed soldier saw a familiar figure walking quickly along the path leading to Yang Village along the creek. Behind him were two soldiers, who looked like extraordinary people at a glance.

Everyone turned their heads in unison. Who else could it be but the Brigade Commander?

"Yo, everyone is here. I was wondering why I couldn't find anyone in Yang Village. It turns out everyone came to see the novelty." The Brigade Commander walked over with a smile, rarely congratulating them on getting rich before seeing Li Yunlong.

"Get lost, you kid never tells the truth," the Brigade Commander said with a smile and a curse. "You always hide good things. What, are you afraid that I will congratulate you on getting rich and take away this iron furnace? You kid doesn't even think about it, who can move such a big thing?"

"Hehe, Brigade Commander, you're wronging Xiao Li. We just weren't sure about the first furnace, afraid that it would be a mess and spoil your fun. If we do it well, we will definitely find a chance to report to you." Li Yunlong opened his mouth without blinking an eye.

Ren Zhong, who was watching from the side, couldn't help but twitch his eyelids a few times. Old Li's ability to adapt to the situation would really be a waste if he didn't follow him back to the main plane to be a salesman.

"Stop it, Li Yunlong," the Brigade Commander stepped forward and patted Li Yunlong on the shoulder. "This time, whether it succeeds or not, it's a new starting point for the industrial development of our base area. I'm here to make an advance visit, just to understand the actual situation. If there are any problems, we will solve them in advance. Later, the division commander and chief of staff from headquarters will all come to inspect."

"This blast furnace is no less important to our base area than eliminating a Japanese brigade. Li Yunlong, if you smelt iron, I will request credit for you and the Independent Regiment!"

"Oh, Brigade Commander, you're so kind. This is what we should do. Brigade Commander, if we smelt iron, can we cancel the ban on the Independent Regiment's development? Our Independent Regiment is confined to Yang Village and cannot move. This ban makes it difficult for us to develop." Seeing that the Brigade Commander was in a good mood, it was impossible for Li Yunlong not to take the opportunity to ask for a high price.

"Stop talking nonsense. The most important thing for your Independent Regiment right now is to engage in production, construction, and training. I heard that Boss Ren has brought you some new good things. I won't say much. The 771st Regiment, the 772nd Regiment, and the New First Regiment, I will let them each send 2 people to your Independent Regiment. You have to train a sniper seed for me." The Brigade Commander changed the subject.

I drank too much at a business reception last night (manual dog head .jpg), which delayed the update. Brothers, please forgive me. I woke up in the morning and started coding, this is the first update!