Steel Dynasty - Chapter 277

[Chapter 277 Cobalt and the Eighteenth Century]

Ten days passed in the blink of an eye.

After the joyful event of the completion of Galen’s ship, another happy festival arrived.

As if they couldn’t bear to disturb the festive atmosphere in Qingzhou, the heavy snow that lasted for more than ten days also stopped on New Year’s Eve.

“Yes, yes, yes, hang the lantern higher. You bastards, will you stop obeying my orders if my rich man Qian doesn’t come back for a few months? Huh, don’t forget, the butler of this palace is still Me.”

Qian Dafu pinched his waist at the door and scolded his servant dissatisfiedly.

After the heavy snow closed the road, Qian Dafu returned to Qingzhou. After a busy year, he naturally wanted to celebrate the New Year at the Prince’s Mansion. After all, the Qi Prince’s Mansion was his home.

Zi Yuan stood beside Qian Dafu. The real housekeeper was back and she had to give up her seat.

She knew clearly that her status in Xiao Ming’s heart was far inferior to Qian Dafu’s, and Qian Dafu had always treated her and Luluo well, so he always respected Qian Dafu from the bottom of his heart.

As soon as the wealthy man came back, she immediately became his deputy.

It was New Year’s Eve today, and Xiao Ming didn’t get up until very late. The temperature during the day was almost minus 15 or 16 degrees Celsius. He was sitting in the room, leaning in front of the charcoal basin, unwilling to go out.

Thinking that after today, it would soon be the eighteenth century, he suddenly felt a little uncomfortable.

In this time and space, the development of science and technology in the country of Chongqing lags behind due to years of war and the deep-rooted aristocratic clans, but this is not important.

The most important thing is that Dayu State, like other dynasties in modern history, has a problem: arrogance, narcissism, and extreme demonization of science.

This is about to be the eighteenth century. If his inference is correct, basically everything except East Asia has now become a colony of the West, and now the country of Chongqing is still suffering from internal and external troubles as it was in the late Ming Dynasty.

If the barbarian invasion succeeds, it is impossible to say that the next dynasty will be similar to the Qing Dynasty.

Frowning, Xiao Ming suddenly felt a little powerless at this moment, because he seemed to have the feeling that everyone was drunk and I was alone.

Now in the entire Great Chongqing Kingdom, he is the only one who can analyze the current world situation from a historical perspective. Others are just living in the dream of the great Chongqing Kingdom and the beauty of the country.

“Your Highness, it’s sunny today, why don’t you come out for some air?” Qian Dafu’s voice came.

Xiao Ming said lazily: “It’s too cold. I don’t want to go out.”

“How can this be done? Your Highness, there will be singing and dancing tonight. Don’t you want to see this?” Qian Dafu looked sure to know Xiao Ming. look.

Hearing this, Xiao Ming became more energetic and said, “We can take a look at this. Have Aster and Luo Luo gone to prepare? I will wait for them to dance.”

“Your Highness, the two of them will go after hanging up the lanterns, but Your Highness, although this song and dance is good, you should also think about other interesting things at night. After all, Niu Ben and other generals and Pang Changshi will come to entertain Your Highness this time.” Since

Pang Yukun and Luo Xin are both from Chang’an, he simply let it go. The two of them came to the palace to celebrate the New Year together, but since they were invited, they naturally had to bring others with them.

After all, it would be lively, and they all wanted to watch the New Year’s fireworks.

After a moment’s thought, Xiao Ming said, “There are a lot of interesting things, but I’m afraid they won’t even be able to watch this show tonight.”

“Oh? What other shows are there?” Qian Dafu asked.

Xiao Ming chuckled twice and said, “This will be kept secret for the time being. You will know it tonight.”

In addition to the singing and dancing of Aster and Lulu, Xiao Ming also asked the singers and dancers of the palace to choreograph some dramas. The reason for doing this , he wanted to start the Renaissance with the characteristics of Great Chongqing in Qingzhou as soon as possible.

Now that we have fallen behind, we have to catch up in all aspects. This drama is the beginning of the Renaissance, and it is also the easiest to penetrate into the folk. They think that a drama can contain too much information.

Wrapping up his cloak, Xiao Ming suddenly remembered something and asked, “Dafu, do you know about blue porcelain?”

“Your Highness, are you talking about blue glazed porcelain?” Qian Dafu leaned in front of the brazier, feeling warm. The charcoal fire made him feel comfortable.

Xiao Ming nodded, “It’s exactly this kind of porcelain.”

“Your Highness, this blue porcelain is available in the Prince’s Palace, and the blue color is called peacock blue. Why do you ask about this?”

“The point is not the blue porcelain, the point is the firing. Do you know where the clay used to make blue porcelain comes from?” Xiao Ming pondered.

Nowadays, Qian Dafu’s tungsten mine has not yet been found, but Xiao Ming cannot wait for the tungsten mine and do other things. After all, the composition of tungsten steel cutting tools is not only tungsten alloy. There is another ingredient in qualified cutting tools that is very important. That’s cobalt.

Because during the sintering process, cobalt is the binder of tungsten carbide, and tungsten steel cutting tools are rarely fired without cobalt.

Now that the tungsten mine has not been found, he can only find cobalt first, because cobalt is relatively easy to find in Dayu, because the blue glaze is fired from cobalt clay.

“This old slave had heard about it when he was in the palace. There was this kind of clay in Jingdezhen.” Qian Dafu said.

“Jingdezhen?” Xiao Ming nodded, as he understood, and said: “In that case, after the Chinese New Year, you go to Li Kaiyuan and ask him to sell some clay for firing blue porcelain from Jingdezhen, and wait until you find it After the tungsten mine, bring these two materials together.”

Qian Dafu nodded, “It’s your highness.”

He didn’t ask why, because for him, just follow Xiao Ming’s order.

After talking for a while, Qian Dafu went to the palace again to make arrangements. Xiao Ming liked Qian Dafu the most. He just did things and never asked why.

“Tungsten mine, tungsten mine, when can I find you?” Looking at Qian Dafu’s retreating figure, Xiao Ming sighed.

Because he was impatient to wait, he also asked Chen Qi to forge some high-carbon steel and use it as a tool. However, whether it is drilling or cutting, this kind of tool softens easily, and even if a job is not completed, the tool will be useless.

After all, although Qingzhou’s steel industry has made progress, the production of qualified high-carbon steel knives still cannot meet the requirements.

It would be much simpler as long as tungsten is available. After all, by adding tungsten and cobalt, you can get a knife that is much more durable than high carbon steel.

I stayed at the palace all day, and in the evening, Niu Ben, Lu Fei and others arrived one after another.

The palace also became lively in an instant. As night fell, the red lanterns in the palace lit up the night sky, and the lights and decorations everywhere looked extremely festive.

At this time, Xiao Ming also moved his place, from the dormitory hall to the main hall.

At this time, there were three rows of low tables on each side of the main hall. Niu Ben, Lu Fei and others were outside the door.

When they saw Xiao Ming coming, they all bowed to pay New Year greetings.

“Come in, everyone, it’s quite cold outside.” Xiao Ming said with a smile.

In the main hall, there are charcoal basins placed at regular intervals, and the room is warm.

(End of chapter)