The Rise of the European Emperor

In the shipyards of Beihai State, there are quite a few tung oil and raw lacquer imported from the Ming Dynasty, all of which were transported back by the Pacific route in recent years.

In recent years, Marin did not bring back much silk and porcelain from the Ming Dynasty, but instead brought back a lot of shipbuilding materials such as tung oil, raw lacquer and copper nails. Moreover, many strategic materials such as copper ingots, iron ingots, and saltpeter were brought back.

That is to say, the Ming Dynasty had relatively strict control over copper, so it was not able to import too much. But it's not impossible to get it. After all, in a country as big as the Ming Dynasty, there were always people who smuggled contraband. Even in the late Ming Dynasty, there were people who kept smuggling strategic materials such as ironware and cotton to Houjin. Moreover, Shanxi merchants cannot be blamed entirely, as many dignitaries in the DPRK and China participated.

Therefore, it is said that the outflow of copper is prohibited to prevent money shortage, but Marin still purchased a lot of copper ingots, with a total of 70,000 to 80,000 catties. There is no way, these days, the foreign trade of the Ming Dynasty has not yet opened, the great merchant Wang Zhi is estimated to have just been born, and it will take more than 30 years to travel across the East China Sea.

In addition, under the covert obstruction of Marin, Portugal has not yet opened the Ming Dynasty market, and even smuggling has not developed. Therefore, at this moment in the Ming Dynasty, silver is extremely valuable. Kong Tai (Kong Tai: I am not the chief eunuch) of Marin's Dongfan Earl's Mansion bought a lot of copper for a little money.

As for iron ingots, that's easier. On the opposite bank of Dongfan Island is Hujian, which is rich in Fujian Railway. Moreover, the price is cheap, only ten or twenty Wen a catty, and one tael of silver can buy fifty or sixty catties. And a ducat gold coin... Well, gold was cheap in the Ming Dynasty, so the Beihai Kingdom exchanged gold for silver, and then went to the Ming Dynasty to buy.

In fact, the iron and steel industry in Beihai State is already very developed. But because the source of iron ore is problematic, and the taste is not high. Therefore, it is still very cost-effective to import Fujian iron from Daming and put it into the reverberatory furnace for secondary smelting. Moreover, because Fujian iron is of good quality, it contains less phosphorus and sulfur than iron smelted from Lorraine iron ore and Luxembourg iron ore. Therefore, it is still very cost-effective to import the iron ingots of Fujian Iron from the Ming Dynasty and then smelt them into steel for the second time. Mainly, Lorraine and Luxembourg have really poor quality iron ore. In particular, the Lorraine iron ore has a high phosphorus content. Even if quicklime is used to make slag, it is difficult to remove. Unlike sulfur, quicklime is relatively easy to remove.

Strictly speaking, even if a reverberatory furnace is used, the desulfurization effect is not bad, but the dephosphorization effect is not very good. In later generations, the early open hearth furnace steelmaking also had poor desulfurization effect.

It was not until later that people directly used the converter method of top-blown oxygen that the dephosphorization efficiency was greatly improved. Because, when oxygen enters the molten iron and stirs, it can react with the phosphorus in the molten iron to form slag at high temperature, thereby controlling the phosphorus content of the steel at a very low level to meet the use requirements. Of course, if the open hearth furnace is fed with oxygen, it can also dephosphorize. If the air is passed through, the nitrogen element will easily penetrate into the steel, causing the steel to age and become brittle.

However, Marin has no conditions to produce pure oxygen, and it is still in large supply. If the amount is small, you can use a voltaic battery to produce some oxygen. Oxygen, which is used in large quantities in industry, is still exempt. Mainly, there is no high-power generator that can provide enough electricity to electrolyze water. What, you said that the industrial oxygen production method is not electrolysis of water? Boss, separate the air to make oxygen, just to provide the ultra-low temperature of minus 183 degrees, Marin can only kneel and say "the concubine can't do it"...

In fact, it is not impossible to produce a large amount of oxygen by using a diesel engine to generate electricity. But the problem is that diesel is scarce. Before the development of large oil fields, diesel engine diesel should also be used sparingly. Therefore, industrial oxygen production is a legend.

Besides, in this era, the walls of cannons and muskets are made to be extremely thick, just because they are afraid of exploding their bores. Therefore, the ore from the Lorraine Iron Mine seems to be barely usable.

But this is a hidden danger after all. It is okay when it is small-caliber, but it will go wrong when it is on a warship and a large-caliber gun. When Britain and France competed for maritime supremacy, the British naval guns not only had the technical advantage of reverberatory furnace secondary refining, but also an important reason why their iron ore was better than that of Lorraine iron mine in France. This also caused, many times, the French naval guns exploded.

The science and technology at that time did not understand the reason.

I can only blame the poor quality of Lorraine ore. Even the German army in World War II relied so much on high-quality iron ore from Sweden and Norway, but refused to use ore from the Lorraine iron mine to make artillery and barrels. Of course, the iron ore from Lorraine Iron Mine is still suitable for making farm tools and daily utensils.

The same is true for the steel in Beihai now. The iron ore imported from Lorraine is mostly used to smelt civilian ironware. For example, hoes, sickles, kitchen knives and so on. These things don't need to compete with other people's iron objects, they are almost fine.

The quality of iron ore in Luxembourg is much better than that in Lorraine. At least, not much sulfur and phosphorus. Therefore, the firearms of the North Sea State were basically made of steel smelted from Luxembourg's iron ore. The iron ore in Lorraine can only be used to make ironware for daily use.

Of course, Marin is also wicked. The steel smelted from the Lorraine iron ore is indeed not suitable for making firearms because the quality is not good. However, if it is used by Marin's opponent...

Therefore, Marin, a wicked man, often uses steel smelted from Lorraine iron ore to make matchlock guns for export. But he also knows how to save face, so this kind of broken gun that is easy to explode is sold in the name of passerby A passerby B to Nuremberg and Augsburg in the south of Germany. As for what happened to the bomb? Ask passerby A and passerby B to go, what does it have to do with my Beihai country?

Moreover, the people Marin sent to sell these low-quality matchlock guns also choose customers, and the opponents who specially choose Marin, such as many opponents who oppose Marin, will be targeted by the sellers. Unfortunately, they bought this batch musket.

In the face of kickbacks that are still effective in the 21st century, those officials under the princes who are in charge of procurement are easy to fall for. Moreover, these muskets made of steel produced by the Lorraine Iron Mine do not show any bad quality in appearance. Even, the workmanship is still very beautiful.

Many muskets are engraved with the German words "made by Master Hans". This is so stupid. There are a lot of people called Hans in the German area. If the Blacksmiths Association holds a meeting, if you call "Master Hans", a group of people will agree to you.

When something goes wrong, which Master Hans is the problem? Sorry, Master Hans will not say a word at this time... If anyone stands up and explains, saying "I am not", and denies three consecutive times, the suspicion may be even greater...

Then, "Master Hans" became a well-known meme in Germany. As long as it is a musket engraved with the words "Made by Master Hans", people will avoid it, regard it as an ominous thing, and will never buy it.

Later, because of this stalk, many craftsmen named Hans who made muskets in the German area were forced to switch to other crafts, such as making kitchen knives. Or, simply change your name to something equally common, like Heinrich (Henry) or Wilhelm (William). In short, no one dared to call Hans by the name anymore. Unless, he doesn't want to be in the firearms manufacturing industry...

(Note: Hans (Hans) is also called Johannes (Johannes), which is the abbreviation of Johannes, and is also the German name of the English name John)

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