The Grand Chief of the Jiang Tribe was an old man close to eighty years old. Although his mind wasn't muddled, his thinking was a bit slow and he was very conservative. He always had an attitude of not accepting new things. His ability to accept new things was very poor and he was very stubborn.
This was very normal. Generally, older people would have this problem. They always felt that they were older and had walked on more bridges than young people. They had more experience, so they were always right and young people's rash advances were wrong. In fact, this was very wrong. It was just that these old people were unwilling to accept new things.
Hearing that Ang Lee had come, the Jiang Tribe Chief hurriedly got up and prepared to welcome him. He also put on his official robe. He usually didn't wear this because he was really not used to wearing the official robe issued by the imperial court. This red robe was really uncomfortable on his body.
In fact, he didn't need to wear the official robe at all because Ang Lee didn't wear an official robe. What was the point of wearing it? Since Ang Lee didn't wear an official robe, he didn't have to either. The mountain was high and the emperor was far away. He was just the Provincial Governor of the Detention District. No one would care if he didn't wear an official robe or not.
The other small tribe chiefs couldn't stay in Stone City every day. Each of their villages had many things to deal with every day, so they could only come to take a look occasionally.
However, these days, they came to Stone City more frequently. The second and third tribe chiefs didn't even go back. They stayed by the Grand Chief's side to help him deal with some things. Ang Lee's team was stationed outside Stone City. This was a very important matter, so they had to pay attention to it.
After the Grand Chief put on his official robe, the second and third tribe chiefs also came over. They went to see Ang Lee together to show the importance of the imperial court's officials.
"Stones? Why did Assistant Minister Li bring so many stones? "
"Aren't these the big green stones on the mountain next to us? Is there a problem with these stones?"
The second and third tribe chiefs were very puzzled when they saw the large green stones that were more than fifty kilograms.
The Stone City they were in now had many of these large bluestones on the city walls. Even many of the houses in the city had traces of these large bluestones. These large bluestones could be said to be everywhere in the Western Detention Area. When people needed to build houses, they would choose to use these stones. These stones were very good building materials, especially when building city walls. These hard bluestones were very good materials.
The Grand Chief also curiously asked, "Assistant Minister Li, is there a problem with these large green stones?"
Ang Lee knew that these guys didn't know the value of the stones....................... ............. What a waste.............................
. "" Oh, these large green stones are good things. Is there gold in them? "
The second tribe chief was a businessman. Before he succeeded the position, he was in charge of the Jiang family's business. He was more interested in money. When he heard that these large green stones were good things, he naturally thought that there should be gold in them.
The third tribe chief immediately shook his head and said, "Gold mines should be golden. How can there be gold in these large green stones? It's impossible! "
The Grand Chief looked at the large green stones that he had seen his whole life and didn't say anything.
Ang Lee smiled and said, "Tribe chiefs, these large green stones are iron ore. After mining and smelting, they can be made into pig iron. With pig iron, you can make farming tools and tools."
In fact, iron ore was divided into many kinds. Not all iron ore looked the same. There were big differences in color. Some were green, some were red, some were gray, and so on.
According to the standards of later generations, any ore that contained economically useful iron element was called iron ore. According to the general classification, there were magnetite, hematite, limonite, siderite, and several other kinds.
Magnetite, as the name implied, was an iron ore that had a certain magnetism. After a long time of weathering, it could become hematite.
Hematite was also divided into many kinds. The biggest characteristic was that it was red in color. It looked more conspicuous, but it wasn't bright red. Instead, it was slightly darker.
Limonite was brown. It was also a kind of iron ore that existed in nature.
Siderite was also very special. Its surface was green and gray. Green and gray iron ore were generally siderite.
For different iron ores, the process of refining was completely different. Among all the iron ores, siderite had the lowest iron content. In other words, the iron ore here was a kind of iron ore with relatively poor quality. For the same weight of iron ore, the amount of steel that could be obtained was relatively less. But it wasn't much. That was to say, other ores could obtain seven parts, but this type of ore could only obtain five parts. The difference wasn't too big.
Generally speaking, no matter what kind of iron ore it was, it would contain a certain amount of impurities. These impurities mainly included phosphorus, sulfur, potassium, sodium, and so on. These impurities had a great impact on the quality of pig iron.
Before the iron ore was smelted, it was necessary to select the iron ore. This was mainly to consider the cost. Try to select the ore with high iron content and eliminate the ore with low iron content. This was to reduce the cost as much as possible and then smelt the pig iron at a cheaper price.
Many people mistakenly thought that iron ores were the same. They were all standard ores, but this was wrong. Iron ores were often accompanied by some other ores. These accompanying stones didn't contain any iron element. If they were put together for smelting, it would consume too much energy and cause too many impurities in the pig iron.
During the selection, all these accompanying stones had to be removed, leaving only the iron ores with real iron. The whole process wasn't very easy. After all, stones were very hard. It wasn't easy to separate them. A large stone weighing a few hundred kilograms was likely to have iron ore on the upper part, while the lower part was ordinary stone without iron ore. This was still considered good. It was even possible that a large stone weighing a few hundred kilograms had iron ore on the upper part and the lower part, but there was an ordinary stone in the middle. Moreover, the ordinary stone in the middle was very sufficient. During the selection, it would be very troublesome.
In order to select the iron ores with more accompanying stones, it was necessary to use a machine to break all these stones into small stones before the selection. Then, according to the amount of iron ore in each small stone, it was decided whether to smelt it in the smelting furnace. If a stone weighing a few kilograms contained more than half of iron ore, it could be regarded as an iron ore. If most of it was ordinary stone with only a small amount of iron ore, it could only be given up on smelting.
In the vast land of Hua Xia, the iron ore resources were still very large. However, most of the iron ore resources were ordinary mineral deposits with a relatively average iron content. There were relatively few rich iron ores with a very high iron content. This put forward higher requirements for selection and smelting.
In the case of a large output demand, there was a requirement for smelting speed. Therefore, it was very troublesome to select iron ores. In the era of the Tang dynasty, the demand for pig iron was obviously much smaller than that of later generations. Therefore, there was no need to be too anxious. The selection could be done slowly. Even if there were more accompanying ores, there was no need to be nervous.
The iron ores in Hua Xia were very widespread. They were distributed almost everywhere in the country. These were just the discovered ones. There were more undiscovered mineral resources. These undiscovered mineral resources were more abundant and the reserves were larger. When mining, the rich ores would be given priority because the cost would be lower. As for the poor ores, they could be mined later when the technology was better.
There were also some remote and undeveloped areas like the Western Detention Area. The value of mining was relatively low. However, the local people might not think so. Their living standards were very low. In order to buy ironware, they had to spend a lot of money. If they knew that there was an iron ore in their territory, they would definitely propose to mine it.
"This is iron ore? The stone that can smelt pig iron? "
The second patriarch was the first to exclaim. He had traveled extensively for many years and had some understanding of how pig iron was smelted. However, he had never directly entered a smelting plant, so naturally, he did not recognize iron ores. Moreover, there were so many types of iron ores. Even if he saw them, they might not be the same type as the stones in his territory.
"These stones are all over the mountain! I've seen them since I was young. I didn't expect them to be iron ores. "
The third patriarch was also extremely surprised. His face was full of disbelief.
The first patriarch frowned and said, "Assistant Minister Li, these are really iron ores."
The first patriarch's expression was full of disbelief. These stones were too common. He had seen them since he was young. Now, he could see them every day. The house he lived in had this kind of iron ore. This made him very surprised.
Ang Lee said with a smile, "I am an iron ore. Why would I lie to you? There is an iron ore workshop near Chang 'an City. It can produce tens of thousands of pounds of pig iron every day. These are definitely iron ores. There is no mistake. "
Ang Lee could identify iron ores at a glance. Identifying iron ores was not too difficult for Ang Lee. Without this ability, how could Ang Lee lead the continuous development of the Tang Empire?
"I didn't expect that there would be iron ores in this poor valley. This is a big treasure!"
The first patriarch seemed a little excited. When he was young, he also wandered in the mountains all day long. He knew very well how many of these stones there were in the nearby mountains. The number was very large. Such a large number of large bluestones were actually iron ores that could be smelted into pig iron. How could he not be excited?
For a long time, all the iron tools that the local people needed were all bought from the central region of Sichuan. The price of these iron tools was not cheap, it was relatively expensive. The local people mainly farmed and hunted, so their demand for iron tools was relatively high. In order to buy these iron tools, they had to pay a lot of food, prey, fur, and other materials every year. If the local people could mine pig iron and make their own farm tools, not only could they solve their own needs of pig iron, but they could also sell the excess pig iron, or make all the pig iron into iron tools and sell them. In this way, they could make a lot of money.
The second patriarch was good at doing business. The iron tools of the tribe were basically bought by the second patriarch from Central Sichuan. He knew the price of iron tools best. Although iron tools were nothing compared to gold, the price of iron tools was really not low when compared to food and animal hides. A cart of iron farm tools could easily be exchanged for dozens of carts of food.
Although the output of pig iron in the Tang Empire was very high at the moment and the price of iron had been reduced a little, because the Tang Empire built roads, bridges, and various large-scale buildings everywhere, the consumption of pig iron was huge. Therefore, the price of pig iron did not decrease by much. Even if the price of pig iron and iron farm tools was reduced by half, it was still much more expensive than food. The people still had to use it sparingly. For the people, iron farm tools were still important assets.
"Assistant Minister Li, these iron ores can be mined into pig iron, right? It's a pity that no one in our tribe knows how to smelt iron. Only a few people know how to repair iron tools. "
The third patriarch said.
Every stockade in the Jiang tribe had a blacksmith shop. There were even several blacksmith shops in the Stone City. However, these blacksmith shops were not responsible for making farm tools. Instead, they were responsible for repairing farm tools. They repaired the iron farm tools that were damaged by the tribesmen so that they could put them back into use. Using a whole piece of pig iron to make farm tools, their technical level was still somewhat lacking. The farm tools they made were always inferior in appearance and quality to those purchased directly in Shu.
After all, blacksmithing also required a certain level of skill. It was not possible to make excellent equipment by just hammering a piece of pig iron. The forging process was a big threshold. The quality of the forging process had a great impact on the quality of the products. Among the same swordsmiths, some swordsmiths could make very sharp swords, while the swords made by ordinary swordsmiths could break into two pieces when they hit a stone violently.
It was the same in terms of farm tools. The farm tools made by skilled blacksmiths were durable and not easily damaged. However, the farm tools made by unskilled blacksmiths would curl or even break directly when they hit a stone, thus losing their value. This was the charm of skill.
A large number of advanced blacksmiths' skills were naturally in the Tang dynasty. The Western Detention Area was too backward, so there were not many good blacksmiths. It was not easy to go to Central Sichuan to learn blacksmithing. Since ancient times, the skills of blacksmiths were inherited by their fathers after their fathers died. They were passed on only to the family and not to the family. Even if they accepted apprentices, there were strict requirements. Generally, they would not easily pass on their skills to strangers. Therefore, it was not easy for blacksmiths in the Detention Area to learn better and more advanced skills.
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