After sending away the confusing envoy of the Principality of Gedes, Malin suddenly heard the news that the steel plant was put into production...
Previously, in order to build a high-level reservoir, Marin specially built fly ash cement, and then set up a steel plant to produce steel bars to use the strongest reinforced concrete when building the reservoir.
In order to produce steel bars, Marin specially collected materials and built a 5-ton (5-ton per day) small iron smelting blast furnace, a 2-ton open furnace, and a coking oven that specializes in coking coke into coke.
Of course, it is not difficult to build a small blast furnace, and it is not troublesome to build a broad furnace. What is really troublesome is how to collect the by-product of the coke oven - coke oven gas, and lead to the open furnace combustion chamber for open furnace steelmaking.
For this reason, the craftsmen worked hard for several months, relying on manual labor and using expensive bronze to create copper tubes that can prevent rust for a long time to guide the coke oven gas to the steelmaking open furnace.
After several months of attempts, finally, at the end of April 1501, the commissioning was completed and the formal iron smelting and steelmaking began...
Although it may be a joke in later generations that a village-run steel mill produces 5 tons of iron per day and a small steel plant produces 2 tons of steel per day, it may also be a joke. The output of a village-run steel plant is much larger than that of a small steel plant, Marin. However, this also requires consideration of the historical environment.
In later generations, because of the extremely developed industry, steel production would not have to worry about no use. For example, the real estate industry that China built largely, each building needed a large amount of steel bars. In addition, the steel consumed in machine manufacturing was also very amazing. Therefore, steel production often became an important industrial indicator for a country.
However, in this era, because the machine industry has not yet appeared, the use of steel is very narrow. Steel is either used to produce agricultural tools, kitchen knives, iron pots and other daily necessities, or to produce weapons and armor.
Therefore, the use of steel in this era is very limited, and the consumption of the entire society is not large. If you really bring the steel mills of later generations and produce so much steel, no one will buy them.
The daily output of 5 tons of pig iron sounds small, but in a year, there are 1,825 tons. What is the concept of 1,825 tons? Maybe the owner of a township steel factory would despise it, but in ancient times, it was definitely a lot. You should know that according to the information, Russia in 1670 had only 2,400 tons of steel output.
And what era was 1670? It was the eve of Peter the Great's ascension. Russia at that time was already a European power with a population of at least several million.
1825 tons of iron, which is 365,000 kilograms. To build a 65 cavalry saber, it only takes 1.85 kilograms of steel. In the end, 1825 tons of iron can create nearly 100,000 pieces. A pair of Gothic plate armor weighs only 50 kilograms, and using these steel, it can create 7,300 sets...
In short, let the East Friesland country digest itself, and 1,825 tons of iron will definitely not be used up...
So, just put into production, Marin is about to have a headache about the steel sales...
"Oh, why have you forgotten Saxony and Guedes who are fighting?" Marin suddenly patted his head.
In later generations, which business is the most profitable? It is naturally the same as arms and poison. However, the manufacturing of weapons and equipment in later generations was very technical and most people could not handle it. For example, African black uncles could not handle it by themselves and had to buy it. Therefore, arms dealers could raise prices and squeeze buyers.
But in this era, whether it is swords or armor, the technical content is not high, so everyone can produce it if they hire a few blacksmiths. Therefore, it is difficult to sell weapons and armor at a very high price.
However, in this era, European iron smelting technology was too garbage, and the low-level iron smelting technology, "block refining method", was used in the early days. The iron smelting technology smelted by such iron smelting technology is relatively soft. Some soldiers even became bent after stabbing the sword after being assassinated. The soldiers needed to step the sword straight on the ground before using it.
However, with the development of the Renaissance, Europeans gradually emerged from the early religious constraints and science began to develop. The French first created large pieces of cast iron ingots in the mid-15th century, and then, during this period, the British iron smelting industry should have begun to develop greatly. In the early 16th century, the British created red cannons.
But in 1501, the British probably had not yet developed excellent red cannons. Moreover, European steel, for some reason, has always been soft. Therefore, their plate armor was not used in the early days. This also led to the fact that French knights wearing plate armor were always broken by English longbows in the early days of the Hundred Years of War in Britain and France...
But after the French created cast iron in the 15th century, the hardness of the plate armor increased greatly and they were no longer afraid of the English longbow. Therefore, the plate armor knights were very prominent in the 15th century. Unfortunately, after entering the 16th century, muskets emerged again. Muskets don’t care how hard your plate armor is. Then, the plate armor knights were sent to the historical garbage dump by the musketeers.
However, at the moment, plate armor is still very useful. Because there are very few troops in Europe using muskets. The pig iron produced by Marin made small blast furnaces is very suitable for making armor and swords. And the steel produced in the blast furnace is not to mention.
Since Saxony and the Gedes were fighting, they must need a lot of swords and armor. Just so Marin was worried about the sale of steel. So Marin planned to take out some of the steel to make weapons and armor, and then sell them to the warring parties...
You should know that in this era, iron swords and plate armor were still very expensive because of backward iron smelting technology. A set of Maximi armor produced in Innsbruck, Austria costs more than 200 gold coins. Of course, it is a fine product. Ordinary quality plate armor also has thirty or fifty gold coins. A two-handed sword costs about 5 to 10 gold coins.
Generally speaking, the two-handed swords used by the knights are repeatedly forged and take a long time. But in fact, the blacksmiths' forging mainly squeeze out the impurities in the sword at high temperatures.
However, the steel smelted by Malin's open furnace is also of excellent quality without forging. However, Malin does not intend to use the steel-made weapons and armor for others. Moreover, whether it is Saxony or Guedes, they are potential enemies of Malin.
So Marin decided to use pig iron to make weapons and armor and sell them to the Saxons and Gedes...
Moreover, Marin is not a scam. Because the mainstream weapons and armor in Europe are pig iron quality.
At most, Malin will add some quicklime to the pig iron to remove sulfur and phosphorus to improve the quality of pig iron. Anyway, the quality will not be worse than that of others. As for the steel smelted by the open furnace, it is naturally used by its own weapons and armor...
So Marin ordered to move to the weapons workshop near Orich and began to use pig iron to make swords and armor on a large scale, intending to sell them to both sides of the war.
Then, Marin also sent envoys to Saxony and Gedes, respectively, and promoted their own swords and armor...
When Duke George and Duke Charles II met Marin's envoy and learned that Marin wanted to sell weapons and armor, he looked confused...
However, if you think about it carefully, as the war continues, they really need to add swords and armor. After all, because of the battle, swords and armor are both depleted. Even the weapons and armor used by the guards of honor are depleted, let alone the two armies in the fierce battle?
Moreover, the cast iron-cast weapon and armor samples brought by the messenger sent by Marin were not inferior to others’ quality and were cheaper (blast furnace iron smelting was much cheaper than the small furnaces of the European blacksmith shops of this era, and they had no reason to refuse.
But in fact, because the blast furnace using coke is very efficient, the cost is reduced. A cast iron two-handed sword, Malin is still making a profit even if he only sells 1 gold coin. Now, he sells 4 gold coins, but he actually makes a lot of money. But as buyers, Saxony and Guedes, don’t know about this, they are still happy because the price Marlin gave them is lower than the market price...
Both the buyer and seller thought they had taken advantage of it, and Charles II, Duke of Gueders, believed that——"Marin is indeed a good ally, and I will sell my weapons and armor at a low price!"
George believed that—"The emperor's face is indeed great. This bad guy, Marin, is willing to sell him high-quality weapons and armor at a cheap price..."
Chapter completed!