Chapter 155: Completion of the Iron Smelting Plant

On the way to the iron ore district of Hejiang Town, Chu Yun summoned those who had previously engaged in copper smelting and bronzeware manufacturing to gain a comprehensive understanding of the metallurgical technology of that era.

To his pleasant surprise, vertical furnace smelting technology had already been invented here.

Clearly, this region was at the peak of the Bronze Age, and it would not be long before iron implements emerged, propelling society into the Iron Age.

After all, the vertical furnace technology meant that iron smelting was already feasible.

However, if the furnace temperature was insufficient, the smelted iron would be nothing more than spongy pig iron—the primitive iron matrix that appeared at the dawn of the Iron Age.

The advent of vertical furnace technology indicated that heat-resistant material technology and coke manufacturing technology were already quite mature, and blast technology was also beginning to emerge.

This made iron smelting much simpler.

Chu Yun only needed to break through the blast technology and raise the furnace temperature to produce wrought iron.

Then, by pouring pig iron into the wrought iron, he could obtain the desired steel.

Of course, achieving the high-tech blast furnace iron smelting technology of the twenty-first century was impossible.

Not to mention that the technological conditions here fell far short, Chu Yun himself had never worked as a technician in a steel mill and lacked the advanced professional knowledge to realize it.

Before his transmigration, Chu Yun had merely visited an exhibition of ancient vertical furnace iron smelting during a school trip organized by his teacher in elementary school, giving him a slight understanding of the process.

This was precisely why he felt so overjoyed upon learning that vertical furnace smelting technology already existed here.

Having grasped the current level of metallurgical technology, Chu Yun quickly formulated a plan.

He led his massive contingent of 3,500 people directly to the banks of the Kuang River in Hejiang Town.

Hejiang Town earned its name because the northern Kuang River and the eastern Bishui River converged here to form the Nanhuai River. In a sense, Hejiang Town was a vast alluvial plain formed by the silt deposits of the Kuang and Bishui rivers.

Consequently, the soil in Hejiang Town was exceptionally fertile. Apart from the northern side, the terrain was relatively flat, resulting in high grain yields and a denser population. Though its territory was not as vast as Nanhuai Town, its population was twice that of Nanhuai.

The Kuang River was so named because the terrain in the northern part of Hejiang Town sloped steeply from north to south, with a continuously dropping elevation that caused the water current to flow far faster than that of the Bishui River and the downstream Nanhuai River.

Chu Yun brought everyone to the banks of the Kuang River with the intention of setting up an iron smelting operation there, utilizing the hydraulic power of the Kuang River to break through the existing blast technology and achieve the goal of elevating the temperature of the vertical furnaces.

At the same time, the hydraulic power of the Kuang River would be harnessed to drive material mixing.

After leading the crowd to the Kuang River to fell trees, construct housing, and pitch tents to settle down, Chu Yun immediately began organizing the construction of the ironworks.

He had professional carpenters build numerous water-powered trip hammers.

He instructed the artisans experienced in copper and bronze casting to construct numerous vertical furnaces.

A single iron-smelting unit consisted of four water-powered trip hammers and three vertical furnaces—one tall and two short.

Of the four water-powered trip hammers, two were responsible for providing blast power, one for powering the mixing of raw materials, and the remaining one for powering the stirring of molten pig iron and wrought iron.

Among the three vertical furnaces—one tall and two short—the tallest was used for smelting wrought iron.

Of the two shorter furnaces, one was connected directly to the tall vertical furnace, functioning essentially as an extension of it. Its primary purpose was to burn fuel to generate intense thermal energy, which was then blown into the blast furnace.

The other short vertical furnace had less stringent temperature requirements and was primarily used for smelting pig iron.

Both this furnace and the tall vertical furnace featured heat-resistant channels through which the molten pig iron and molten wrought iron flowed into a heat-resistant basin to mix together, where they were stirred into molten steel by heat-resistant paddles driven by the water-powered hammers.

Finally, the molten steel flowed into individual heat-resistant molds to become steel ingots or the iron and steel products Chu Yun desired.

This was a colossal undertaking.

However, organizing the 3,500 people into small, medium, and large household teams, as well as squad-level units based on groups of three households, made the work manageable.

This ensured that the 3,500 people had a clear division of labor, with everyone utilizing their strengths and performing their respective duties, leaving virtually no one idle.

Combined with a system of rewards and penalties that Chu Yun instituted on the fly, the construction of the ironworks proceeded at a rapid pace.

In just half a month, twelve iron-smelting units were simultaneously completed. As soon as the smelting raw materials were transported here, fires could be lit to officially begin iron production.

Another half-month passed, and with a large quantity of raw materials successfully transported to the site—and the arrival of an auspicious day according to the almanac—Chu Yun ordered everyone to prepare for the fire-lighting ceremony.

On that very day, however, several men escorted a stranger toward him and reported, " Lord Count, this man is not one of our locals. We suspect he has come to steal our technical secrets, so we brought him here."

Having learned from the former bronze artisans that Chu Yun's smelting apparatus was exceptionally advanced and that the local techniques were closely guarded secrets not to be shared with outsiders, the workers grew suspicious upon spotting a stray stranger and promptly detained him.

Chu Yun was somewhat pleasantly surprised. He had initially thought that keeping the iron-smelting secrets safe would be an extremely difficult task and had not placed excessive concern on it.

Moreover, since vertical furnace smelting technology already existed here, iron smelting was bound to happen sooner or later.

Even so, he remained supremely confident in keeping his own iron-smelting technology at the cutting edge.

Most importantly, he had already taken control of Hejiang Town, which possessed abundant iron ore reserves, freeing him from the constraints of scarce ore resources.

To his surprise, however, the people had proactively guarded the secrets with all their might.

With these thoughts, Chu Yun turned his gaze toward the captive man.

He saw a man with heavy stubble, unkempt and disheveled hair that looked like a bird's nest.

Based solely on this appearance, one might have mistaken him for a beggar.

Yet his clothes, though somewhat old, were impeccably clean, and he exuded an air of innate pride that marked him as someone extraordinary.

Upon seeing Chu Yun, the man immediately dropped to his knees and burst into weeping, crying out, "Thank goodness! Lord Count Chu Yun, I have finally found you!"

He was none other than Huang Taiyi.

Recalling how he had been hunted down everywhere by the Shamanic Cult, wandering aimlessly and escaping death by a hair's breadth on multiple occasions over the past few days, the emotional weight overwhelmed him.

Even though he prized cleanliness, he had not dared to trim his stubble or comb his hair into order, lest his face be recognized.

Unable to hold back his sorrow, his tears flowed more torrentially, and his sobs grew even louder.

Chu Yun was momentarily stunned, asking with a hint of bewilderment, "Are you specifically looking for me?"

Huang Taiyi nodded vigorously.

Chu Yun asked, "Who are you?"

Huang Taiyi replied, "Lord Count Chu Yun, do you not remember me? We have met before! I am Huang Taiyi!"

Upon hearing this, Chu Yun gasped in astonishment, "What? You are Huang Taiyi? The second-rank physician of the Shamanic Cult, the very Huang Taiyi who nearly caused my death in the royal city? The Huang Taiyi who later orchestrated the attack on Chu Family Town? The Huang Taiyi responsible for the near-total annihilation of the able-bodied men in Qingtan Town, and the one who poisoned the Sanqing River in an attempt to trigger a plague?"