Steel Dynasty - Chapter 292

[Chapter 292 The gathering of craftsmen]

Laizhou, Qian Dafu looked at the busy slaves and took a sip of water.

He shouted all morning until his voice became hoarse, and he kept directing slaves to build various buildings in the mining area.

In order to deliver the tungsten ore powder as quickly as possible, some slaves are already digging tungsten ore, and some slaves are doing screening work to enrich the tungsten ore powder mixed with soil.

“Second uncle, your highness is here.” At this time, a young man ran over and said to Qian Dafu.

“Your Highness is here?” Qian Dafu almost jumped up from his chair. He said to the young man: “Qian Gui, please don’t talk nonsense when Your Highness is here. I will tell His Highness about your going to Bowen College.”

” Second uncle, I listen to you.” Qian Gui couldn’t help but nodded, with a hint of expectation in his eyes.

Some cavalry in armor appeared in the mining area at this time. These cavalry looked very brave. Needless to say, they were also the guards protecting Xiao Ming.

When Qian Dafu saw it, he immediately stepped forward. He had already seen Xiao Ming surrounded by cavalry.

“Your Highness, why are you coming here in person from such a long distance?” Qian Dafu greeted him with a smile all the way.

When Xiao Ming saw Qian Dafu, he smiled and said, “Come here and take a look. By the way, I will bring you the slaves Liang Dahai brought from the grassland. Five thousand people will be enough.”

Qian Dafu looked at the cavalry guarding him. The slave smiled and said: “Hey, Liang Dahai finally has some brains. The slaves he bought now are all strong and strong slaves. That’s enough, that’s enough. These five thousand people are worth the previous ten thousand people.” “

If he doesn’t think better, I will let him go home and farm.” Xiao Ming said as he got off his horse.

He looked across Qian Dafu at the slaves digging at the bottom of the mine.

Mining has been an extremely laborious task since ancient times. Without modern machinery, today we can only rely on slaves to chisel and dig, and a metal mining area often stretches for several miles.

Now these slaves have only dug about five meters of the surface layer. The content of tungsten ore powder in this layer is very thin.

“Your Highness, this mine is a black tungsten mine.”

Qian Dafu gave Xiao Ming a white and black stone. The ore looked a bit like coal. If it weren’t for the fact that the ore showed that there were some transparent crystals, he would definitely I suspect this is a coal mine.

Xiao Ming nodded with satisfaction. The scheelite ore is widely distributed, but it is generally poor ore, while the wolframite ore is less distributed, but it is generally rich ore. Moreover, wolframite ore is associated with two metals: tungsten and manganese. Found black tungsten ore. Tungsten ore is equivalent to finding manganese, while scheelite is a calcareous ore.

After laying down the tungsten ore, Xiao Ming felt bursts of joy in his heart. The reason why he asked Qian Dafu to look for black tungsten ore was because he needed tungsten and manganese at the same time.

After watching the slaves digging for ore, Xiao Ming went to see the place where tungsten ore powder was screened. He was very satisfied with Qian Dafu’s work efficiency. He had already achieved results in just a few days.

However, this was also at the cost of the slaves having to live in the open, because there is not a complete house in the entire mining area, only a few tents.

“Have you been sleeping in a tent these days?” Xiao Ming was touched. Qian Dafu could really be elected as a model worker in modern times.

“There is no way. It will take some time for the cement and bricks in Qingzhou to arrive. Now we can only pay attention to it. Fortunately, it is not cold anymore. If it’s nothing, the slaves came here carrying quilts. It’s not easy for a large group of people to live together. It’s not cold.”

“Hey, thank you for your hard work. You’ll have to work hard for a while. After a while, I will ask the government to come and reward you.” Xiao Ming said with a smile.

Qian Dafu laughed honestly. At this moment, he suddenly called his nephew. Seeing Qian Gui pull him out, he said to Xiao Ming: “Your Highness, his name is Qian Gui, and he is the nephew of the old slave.” “

Qian Gui? That’s right .

“That nephew of yours who was brought into the government as a slave?”

“That’s right, the empress was so kind that she begged the emperor not long ago to pardon his sins, so he came back from Chang’an and joined the old slave. Your Highness also knows that the old slave’s relatives have been reincarnated. He is the only one left, and the old slave is like this. The Qian family can only rely on him, so he wants to treat him as his own son. “

Qian Gui also bowed to Xiao Ming at this time. : “Qian Gui has met His Highness.”

When Qian Dafu said it, he was actually equivalent to the Yellow Gate in the palace, unable to have children for the rest of his life. Xiao Ming naturally knew how important this only remaining nephew was to him.

In the past, Qian Dafu rarely made requests to him, but now when he speaks out, he must be eager.

He took a look at Qian Gui, who was somewhat similar to Qian Dafu. Concubine Zhen specifically interceded with Xiao Wenxuan, which seemed to be a reward for Qian Dafu over the years.

So he said, “It looks like you have a loyal look.”

“Your Highness, the family tradition of our Qian family is like this, it can’t be wrong.” Qian Dafu laughed, “Your Highness, do you think Qian Gui can replace the old slave? Learn something at Bowen Academy, so that the old slave can concentrate on running the mining area, and he can go out to search for the mines instead of the old slave. Otherwise, the old slave will really be unable to bear it. “

“Well, you are right,” Xiao Ming. Taking another look at Qian Gui, he said, “In that case, let him go to Bowen College to study for a while.”

“Thank you, Your Highness.” Qian Dafu breathed a sigh of relief after hearing this.

Speaking of which, even if it wasn’t for the sake of getting rich, he still wanted to train a few mineral exploration talents. After all, Qingzhou could count the number of talents on his fingers today, and it urgently needed a group of young talents to support future industrial development.

After inspecting the mining area, Xiao Ming returned to Qingzhou with three tons of tungsten ore powder that the slaves had mined.

Taking the tungsten ore powder, he went directly to the Equipment Department.

“Your Highness, how should I produce this spring?” Song Changping sniffed. He had a cold recently.

The research on flintlock guns was put on the agenda, so he naturally wanted to assemble the most powerful research team in Qingzhou, and all the talents from the former Equipment Department were reunited.

However, Xiao Ming did not let them study flintlock guns together, but assigned them their own tasks. Zhang Liu and others were responsible for the production of tungsten steel knives and barrels.

Song Changping was responsible for the production of flintlock bullets and the most complex bolt mechanism. According to Xiao Ming’s plan, Chen Qi would be specifically responsible for artillery matters in the future, while Song Changping was responsible for the research and production of firearms.

Although the gun barrel has not been found yet, the production of small steel balls and the research on the gun mechanism can already be carried out. These steps can be completely synchronized. After all, Xiao Ming is not starting from scratch, but has the production materials of various types of firearms.

“How to extract tungsten from this tungsten ore powder?” Zhang Liu added.

Both of these problems are technical difficulties. The spring needs to solve the elasticity problem of steel. As for the purification of tungsten, Xiao Ming cannot guarantee the purification rate at the current level, but even if it can be purified by 20%, it will be enough.

“Come one by one. Zhang Liu, you go handle the mold first. Song Changping, you stay here. I will tell you about the structure of this gun.”

(End of Chapter)