When molten iron was cast into iron ingots, if there were impurities or bubbles in it, then after the molten iron was cooled into an iron ingot, a honeycomb structure would appear inside the ingot. Under the backward smelting conditions in ancient times, the probability of this happening was very high. The technical conditions in ancient times were very limited, and it was very difficult to completely remove the impurities in the molten iron. Or, the craftsmen were not very serious when they worked. After discovering the impurities in the molten iron, they did not remove them, but let them cool directly. Anyway, the impurities were inside the iron ingot, and after cooling, they could not be seen from the surface at all.
Of course, as long as there were more beehives inside, the sound would still be a little different when knocked by hand. This was something that ordinary people would not be able to recognize. However, Li An was obviously not an ordinary person. He could recognize the internal beehives with a light knock. In addition, if bubbles were mixed in during the pouring process, it would also cause a beehive-like structure inside.
It was not only the case when molten iron was poured into iron ingots, but it was also the same for other materials. Bubbles were the scariest. For example, glass was the same. If there were bubbles mixed into the glass, one could clearly see the bubbles inside the glass. However, if there were beehives in other materials, one could only judge based on one's experience.
These craftsmen who were responsible for smelting iron ingots naturally knew. They could also judge whether there were serious honeycombs inside the iron ingot, but in their opinion, it did not matter if there were honeycombs inside the iron ingot. The buyers of the iron ingot did not particularly care. Iron ingots were sold according to their weight. If there were bubbles inside, the weight of the iron ingot would be relatively small. Moreover, as long as there were no deliberate fakes, the honeycombs inside would not be too serious.
In addition to smelting iron, these craftsmen had another task, which was to smelt the broken ironware into iron ingots. In ancient times, there was no electric welding technology. Once a weapon was broken, it needed to be melted into molten iron. It seemed that it was not impossible to weld it. However, with ancient technology, after melting and reconnecting the broken joints of the sword, the stability would be relatively poor. During a battle, it was easy to break it again. Therefore, once a sword was broken, the best way was to melt it into molten iron and then reforge it into a new sword.
Of course, in this backward era, brand-new swords were also easy to break. Even if they were made of tungsten, it was not guaranteed that they would not break. Whether they would break depended on the thickness of the sword and the impact force. As long as the impact force exceeded the limit of the sword's body, no matter how good the sword was, it would still break.
Even the swords and sabers of the future would break when they were pressed by heavy machinery. The so-called unbreakable was only because the swords and sabers of the future would not break when they collided with each other. How much strength did a human's arm have? The strength of the swords and sabers of the future was enough to withstand the impact of a human's strength and would not break. As for the swords and sabers of the ancient era, due to the lack of technology, even if two people used their arms to move the swords and sabers, it was still possible for the swords and sabers to break. In the fierce battles of the ancient era, there would always be a large number of broken swords, sabers, spears, and other weapons. Therefore, the ancient wars did not only rely on manpower, but also on logistics, food, and weapons. In a large-scale war, many additional weapons would need to be prepared. Don't think that only crossbows were expendable items. Close combat weapons like sabers and swords were also expendable items. Even crossbows were expendable items. In the process of pulling a crossbow, the bowstring would be damaged, and the bowstring could break. Once the bowstring broke, it would need to be replaced with a backup bowstring.
For example, during the Warring States Period, the Wei State's fifty thousand Wei soldiers were able to defeat the Qin State's army of five hundred thousand. Other than the strength of Wu Qi, the commander of the Wei State, it was also because the Wei State was wealthy. The Wei army was equipped with better weapons and had more backup weapons. Although the Qin army had more soldiers, their weapons were easier to break. The quality of their weapons was far inferior to the Wei army's. At the same time, the Qin army's logistical support was poor. After their weapons broke, they could not be replaced with new ones in time. If the soldiers fought with wooden sticks, it would be strange if they did not suffer defeat. On the other hand, because the Wei soldiers' weapons were better, it was not easy to break. Even if their weapons broke, they could be replaced by logistical support in time. Thus, it would not affect their fighting strength. Compared to the Qin army, the difference was huge. This was also an important reason why the five hundred thousand Qin soldiers could not defeat the fifty thousand Wei soldiers. For the army under their command, having better weapons was undoubtedly very advantageous to the commander. However, for the army under their command, having inferior weapons was a very painful thing for the commander. Because the weapons were too inferior, there were many times when they had to risk their lives and use their heads to obtain victory.
The quality of the iron ingots refined by these craftsmen was very ordinary, but compared with the indigenous craftsmen from overseas, they still had a slight advantage. The technology of the indigenous craftsmen from overseas was even worse. Their technology was not as good as that of the Tang dynasty's soldiers, and there was even a big gap between them.
The wind outside soon subsided. The weather on the sea was like this. A moment ago, the sky was clear and boundless, but in the next moment, there might be a storm. Similarly, the stormy weather was also likely to end soon and become clear and boundless.
The weather was getting better, so the craftsmen naturally went out to work. Most of them had to go outside to mine iron ore, and then smash the iron ore nearby, and then put it into the blast furnace outside for high temperature melting.
"These blast furnaces use wood, so the quality of the iron ingots refined is naturally not good."
Ang Lee saw more than a dozen blast furnaces standing in front of him. The quality of these blast furnaces was very ordinary, but they were not very high, and the thickness was enough. The fuel used for the blast furnaces was actually very ordinary firewood, and these wood were the useless leftovers from the shipbuilding on Jumu Island. This could save a lot of money, but if the quality of the wood was not good enough, there would be more impurities in the refined iron ingots.
In the era of the Tang dynasty, the best material was naturally coal. If there was no coal, charcoal would also work. However, they actually used wood directly, which was far beyond Ang Lee's expectation. It seemed that their requirements for the quality of the iron ingots were too low. The quality of the iron ingots produced by this method could be imagined.
"What's wrong with wood? Can't it be used?"
Niuer asked curiously.
Ang Lee said with a smile, "Wood can naturally be used as fuel, but blast furnaces are used to smelt iron ore. The effect of using wood is the worst, coal is better, and charcoal is second."
Hearing this, Niu Er smiled and said, "They all understand this, but there is no coal on our island. Charcoal can be made by ourselves, but there are no trees on Red Iron Island, so it needs to be transported from Giant Tree Island. Giant Tree Island doesn't belong to them, so they need to spend a little money to buy it. Iron ingot itself can't make much money, so it costs too much to buy a good tree trunk. In order to save money, they have to buy some useless branches and leftovers from shipbuilding. These things have different shapes, so it's too difficult to make charcoal with them. Therefore, they just use them as fuel, so it doesn't matter if the quality of the smelted iron ingot is a little worse!" Anyway, ordinary people can't see it, so the price of the iron ingots won't be affected much! "
Ang Lee understood that these guys were trying to sell shoddy goods to the local aborigines who didn't know the value of the goods. Why did they have to make the quality so good? Cheap was the way to go.
This was like the online commerce of the later generations, which sold cheap goods of poor quality. The sales volume was not generally high. The price of good quality products was naturally higher. In fact, the price-performance ratio was not necessarily lower than that of cheap products. However, because the poor were the majority, few people would buy expensive products, while cheap products were sought after by many people. Even if the cheap products were of poor quality, they would still have very good sales volume. This was the fact, and they had to be convinced.
The characteristic of the poor was that they liked to be cheap. This was in their bones. If they could get a lot of garbage for free, it was estimated that the poor would rush like a flock of ducks. Even if their house was full, they would not hesitate. As long as it was free and cheap, the poor would definitely like it. They would like it very much.
In the eyes of the overseas aborigines, cheap iron ingots were the best iron ingots. Even if the quality was not good, it was fine if there was a beehive inside. However, the price of high-quality iron ingots without a beehive was too high. They couldn't accept it. They just liked to buy these low-quality but cheap iron ingots.
In the overseas market, there were also high-quality iron ingots, but the market share was less than 20%. 80% of the market was occupied by these low-quality but cheap products. No one could shake this market.
And since the market recognized this kind of lower cost iron ingot, then why did they have to increase the cost to make high-quality iron ingots? Wasn't this tiring and unrewarding?
"Haha! I understand, I understand now. It turns out that it's like this. If the quality of the iron ingots is too good, the quality of the forged swords will also be better. It won't be easy to damage them in battle. The forged farming tools won't be easy to damage. In this way, a weapon or farming tool can be used for many years. In this way, no matter who the newly forged weapons or farming tools are sold to, if they can't be sold, then the business will be affected, hahaha! This is really a way to make money! "
Ang Lee said with a smile.
This kind of behavior of limiting the quality of products was also very common in the later generations. If the quality of the products was too good, then it would never be damaged. In this way, the market would soon be saturated. Then, who should the merchants sell their newly made products to? In this way, wouldn't they be ruining their own business? Of course, the quality couldn't be too bad. If it was too bad, then it would spoil right after it was used. It would also affect the business. Setting a damage deadline for the products, once the deadline was exceeded, the products would be damaged. This was the best effect.
For the products that could be damaged, the damage deadline could be set. For the products that couldn't be damaged, such as toothpaste, they would deliberately make the opening bigger. In this way, every time they used it, they would use a little more. After the opening of a box of toothpaste was made a little bigger, the time it could be used would be shortened. After it was used up, they would buy it again, so that the merchants could make more money.
In other words, the merchants and the common people were competing with each other. The merchants would try to make more money, while the common people would try their best to save money. In the end, it was for their own interests. It depended on whose means were better. Under normal circumstances, the merchants were often more evil. The common people who were greedy for cheap would often be schemed against, and the final result would be that they would suffer a big loss.
The common people only considered that the products were cheap and could be bought with a little money. However, the merchants would cut corners when producing these cheap products, greatly reducing the cost of these products. They didn't lose money and even made a lot of profits. In this process, because of the low quality of the products, they were easy to be damaged. After the damaged products were damaged, they had to be bought again. Thus, they unknowingly fell into the merchants' trap.
For example, in some blast furnaces, iron ore was not put in, but broken ironwares. These ironwares were damaged because of quality problems, and then they were sold to hawkers at the price of scrap. After the hawkers bought them, they sold them to the craftsmen of Red Iron Island. The craftsmen of Red Iron Island only needed to melt these damaged ironwares, and then they could cast brand-new ironwares. The cost was very low, even lower than the cost of collecting iron ore. This was the favorite method of these craftsmen.
Ang Lee glanced at these broken ironwares. These broken ironwares weighed tens of thousands of pounds. It could be seen how frequent ironwares were damaged in this era. A small island that produced ironwares could receive so many damaged ironwares.
Niu Er smiled and acquiesced. He had been in contact with these craftsmen for many years, so he naturally knew the tricks. These craftsmen were not rich, so it was normal for them to play tricks in order to survive. There was nothing worth mentioning.
After walking around Red Iron Island a few times, they found that there were a lot of iron ores here. The whole island was made of iron ores. It should be a special island formed when a volcano erupted. The location of the eruption happened to be iron ores. After encountering the sea, it formed such an island. The entire iron ore island was made of high-quality ores with high iron content. When smelting these ores, more pig iron could be obtained. If impurities were not counted, the pig iron obtained would be even more.
After staying on Red Iron Island for a few hours, the group left in the afternoon. Before the sky darkened, they returned to Bullhead Island and ended the day.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
