Nie Mao went out the door and saw that his father's wife was carrying a big basket next to him and hurriedly came out. He hurriedly curled his hands and saluted: "My sister-in-law is so early today. She is in a hurry, and I don't know where to go?"

Sister Lian said, "I went there to drive the bus. I brought some pastries, candies and novel items we made here and sold them to Xiangcheng County. At least I could make some money. When I came back at night, I would not delay dinner. Now, many people are here in Xiangcheng selling goods."

Nie Mao was stunned for a while before saying, "So that's it. It's not too late, so it won't delay my sister-in-law."

When the train was opened, from Tiejian to Xiangcheng, one early and another was unstoppable. The first one developed was a small vendor like Lian Dasao. The big shops were not sensitive. Although the train had been opened for some days, no one had used the convenience of transportation to open a shop in Xiangcheng. However, the family members of the Tiejian occasionally found that this was a way to make money, which became popular for a while. Many people, like Lian Dasao, got up early to bring goods to Xiangcheng and took the evening bus back at night. In addition to the travel expenses, they could earn hundreds of dollars a day.

Nie Mao walked on the road and saw that the barracks were obviously much more lively than they had been in the past few days. Some went out to visit relatives and friends, some came to guests at home, and it was not as deserted as in the previous few months. There were even people who took the train along the route every holiday. But the ticket price of a few dozen cents was nothing for the workers in the railway station, the light burden on the family was nothing.

Finally, before the spring plowing, the railway line was paved with the Tangzhou-Xiangcheng line, connecting the four counties of Biyang, Fangcheng, Ye County and Xiangcheng, which stretched hundreds of miles north and south. The train is not fast now, one hundred miles a day, and it takes half a day to reach Biyang County, a resident of Tangzhou, 300 miles away. Many people who like to wander around think that they have a day off and cannot go there to play. Xiangcheng County, a hundred miles away, only takes two hours to go back and forth, and is the destination of many people. It is located at Ruhe Wharf, not far from Xuzhou. With the train connection, commerce and trade have developed rapidly.

Nie Mao was not interested in traveling everywhere. They were different from ordinary workers and had flexible working hours. Although today was a day of rest, some people continued to work in the factory. When they got money, Nie Mao had to save money while they were young, and went to the factory like usual.

As the scale expanded, the factory area for making machinery was separated from steel and was divided into a pattern. There were track connections between each area, whether it was ore, fuel, or raw materials such as steel, which were transported through rails. However, the trains were not allowed in the factory, and all were driven by manpower, and the road seemed quiet. Not far away, Nie Mao saw several workers pushing a car full of steel ingots and bars. He knew that they were sent to his factory, so he said hello, jumped into the car, and grabbed the side of the car.

The track is in contact with iron, and the friction resistance is much smaller, so a few people can push thousands of kilograms. And once the car moves, it is not too difficult. Several people pushing the cart talk and laugh with Nie Mao, and soon they arrive in their own factory.

After the steam engine matured, except for some workshops such as hand forging, the manufacturing machines changed to steam power. As soon as they entered the site, a roar came, which was particularly lively. Nie Mao got out of the car and entered the factory.

The most important product now is of course the steam engine. The horsepower is fully powered here, unless the machine is inspected and repaired, almost day and night. Each worker brings at least two apprentices, and explains to the apprentices while producing.

These disciples had the Xiang army who moved here, but most of them were recruited from the early military camps. There were nearly 20,000 soldiers who arrived in the Iron Supervisory Army. In a few months, one-tenth of them had been opened for graduating due to various reasons, such as gambling, disobeying management, and not studying, and so on. They went to farm in the local area. Every time one person was opened for graduating, one person was added from the local area. The supplementary requirements were high, young and smart, and willing and able to learn, and most of them had entered technical positions.

This kind of small society is most afraid of self-enclosure and becoming a stagnant pool. The iron supervisor has high treatment and of course high requirements. The most important regulations are Kaige. After Kaige comes out of the iron supervisor, he is incorporated into other wing troops and goes to the local area to camp in the fields.

After walking through a large area of ​​machines, Nie Mao arrived at a big house at the end.

There are only a dozen machines in the house, all of which are very huge. One is sandwiched with octagonal bars, which are slowly cutting. The other is equipped with steel columns cut into round shapes, which are slowly drilling.

When they saw Nie Mao coming in, the few people who had arrived greeted each other.

Nie Mao looked at the steel rod drilling on the machine tool and said to the young man standing on the side: "Brother Qi, is it still going well?"

You Qilang said: "Fortunately, from yesterday to now, I have never broken the knife when I drilled this steel rod. But now the steel rod is hot and it is not easy to spray water inside. I can only drill and stop."

Nie Mao nodded, went to his cabinet, changed his coat, put on a glove, and began to check several machines.

Nie Mao didn't know why he drilled holes in such a thick steel rod. Du Zhongxiao told me that the Iron Supervisor specially chose Nie Mao to make it. These machines are specially made, and it is expensive to drill holes of this size steel rod.

The processing capacity of steelmaking is limited, so that it can only be forged into octagonal steel rods to ensure uniform material. It is not difficult for the rod to become a circle outside. Several machines work continuously and cut it bit by bit. It is difficult to drill holes inside. The steel rod is too long and everything is normal at the beginning. If it is drilled a little deeper, it will cause great heat inside. The water pipe used for heat dissipation cannot reach inside and can only spray from the opening, which does not play much role.

Du Zhongxiao initially asked to drill holes at one end. After trying it a few times, it was absolutely impossible to do it. He could only drill through holes. Now, working on both ends is equivalent to reducing the length by half, but it is still difficult.

Nie Mao thought of countless ways. The only thing that can be done now is to make the knife rod hollow, and the water pipe is connected inside, which can maintain sufficient heat dissipation water at all times. However, the hollow knife pipe is another problem and it is still a long time to solve it.

The ideal method is to cast steel directly when casting steel. The holes inside are not high, as long as they can dissipate heat. However, many methods have been tried in steel making, but they cannot be smoothly forged after casting steel pipes.

What Du Zhongxiao wants to do is naturally the gun barrel. With this scale and technical strength, it is impossible to make a cannon with copper. Copper is too expensive and heavy, far less light than steel cannons. Now, with the processing cost, the steel cannons made will actually be much more expensive than copper cannons. But the strength is that the steel strength is better, which can greatly reduce weight. The same caliber makes transportation much more convenient.

But Du Zhongxiao still underestimated whether the steel rod drilling holes was drilled. If a bunch of machines was used, the problem of drilling deep holes could not be solved. If the steel pipes were cast directly, due to the limitations of steelmaking technology, there would be too many air holes inside, so they would not dare to use them. They could only be determined and accumulate manpower and material resources. There would always be a solution. The biggest advantage of the iron supervisor is that it can be mass-produced. Once the technical problems were solved, the cannon could be mass-produced.
Chapter completed!