s there a problem""This... This is too dangerous! Bandits are ruthless murderers, if you stay here, you're as good as dead!" Zhong Tao anxiously said.Yang Lin smiled: "Big brother Zhong, you don't nee..."Cost... Ugh!"

Upon mentioning this issue, Zhao Shunzi sighed.

"Madam, the cost of smelting steel is still quite high at the moment."

Li Yuxiang hurriedly asked, "How tall is it"

Now she just wants to know, can the cost of large-scale steelmaking be afforded

Zhao Shunzi thought for a moment and said, "At present, the cost of steel is three times that of iron!"

Zhao Shunzi sighed regretfully.

In his view, although steel is good, for ordinary people, three times the price is enough to make them daunting.

However, when Li Yuyao heard the price of steel, which was only three times that of iron, she was shocked again!

You know, in the capital, those hundred-refined swords often cost dozens of taels, even hundreds of taels of silver! Compared to ordinary iron swords, the price is tens or even hundreds of times more expensive!

Seeing Li Yuyao's surprised expression, Zhao Shunzi quickly said: "Uh... I know madam is unhappy with such a high cost, but now we have no choice. Even if the steelmaking process matures later, the cost will be at least twice that of ordinary iron, and it can't be reduced any further!"

Li Yuxiang was dumbfounded.

Could divine weapons be forged for twice the price of iron

What a steal!

Don't say anything about it, even if we just sell this kind of steel blade, one hundred taels of silver each, people in the capital would scramble to buy them!

Both of their reactions were seen by Yang Lin.

Yang Lin thought for a moment and said, "Uncle Shunzi, now that the steel has been successfully produced, the next step is to scale up production."

"What"

Zhao Shunzi and Li Yuyao were both stunned.

"Master, from now on, it can produce two thousand jin of steel every day. In a year, it could produce at least seven or eighty thousand jin. That's quite a lot!"

Thinking of the cost and effort involved in smelting steel, Zhao Shunzi couldn't help but feel sorry for Yang Lin.

And now Yang Lin is even asking to increase production

Li Yuyao was also curiously looking at Yang Lin.

Although she also thinks this magical steel is great, she doesn't think more is always better at this stage.

One year, it can forge 20,000 swords.

But could they raise an army of 20,000 men this year

If there aren't enough people, what use are so many weapons

Faced with Zhao Shunzi's doubts, Yang Lin just smiled faintly and shook his head. "Uncle Shunzi, although the current output is not too small, it is still far from enough!"

Last lifetime, his country produced millions of tons of steel, and there wasn't much in storage.

And now, with only a ton of output per day, it might seem like a lot to outsiders, but for Yang Lin, this amount is barely enough to get by. To quote an old saying, "good steel is used on the blade"!

Yang Lin didn't explain any of this, and directly announced his demands.

This house will eventually be too small. From now on, it will serve as the research and development base for the smelting workshop, mainly responsible for the research and development of new metals.

"The new foundry has moved to the vacant lot by the river. Uncle Shunzi, the new foundry will build at least two more steel furnaces and two iron furnaces like this one."

"From now on, our smelting workshop will be able to produce everything from pig iron to wrought iron and steel, a complete one-stop shop for all kinds of iron!"

Li Yuxiang couldn't help but ask: "But do we really need so many weapons"

According to Yang Lin's calculation, even if this old blast furnace is only used for research on new materials, the two new blast furnaces could produce up to four thousand jin per day!

"A year is forty thousand swords! Yang Lin smiled, "Did I say I was going to make weapons"

"Uh…" Li Yuyao was taken aback and asked in surprise, "Such good steel, besides making weapons, what else can it be used for"

In her view, such sturdy and resilient steel was most suitable for making weapons.

"Tools, huh!" Yang Lin said with a smile.

"Tools"

"My goodness, I see!"

Li Yuxiang was stunned for a moment, then she suddenly realized, and her eyes widened in surprise.

Yang Lin nodded. "Of course it's a tool. The biggest difference between humans and animals is that we know how to use tools. The improvement of tools means the improvement of efficiency. Don't you think that the tools we have now still have a lot of room for improvement"

Nowadays, most of the tools in the great dynasty are made of iron.

...such as saws, shovels, plows, axes....

But the biggest problem with cast iron is that it's easy to break and chip.

As a result, the cutting edge cannot be sharpened to the same sharpness as that of wrought iron or steel. Iron is still relatively expensive, and commoners are afraid of damaging it, so they have to sacrifice efficiency in order to increase its lifespan.

If these tools were made of steel, then these problems wouldn't exist.

Whether it's an axe, chisel, spade, or pickaxe, don't worry about it breaking. Just keep working!

“First, we’ll forge tools! We’ll replace all the tools used by our people in every major workshop with steel!” Yang Lin declared boldly.

Zhao Shunzi also immediately realized that steel tools were indeed very necessary!

They are now engaged in extensive construction projects all over the place, including opening mountains and splitting rocks.

Whether it's the quarrying team in Houshan, the coal mining team in Laohēishān, or the saltpeter mining team in Hēifēngshān, efficiency will be greatly improved with steel tools!

In fact, Yang Lin hasn't mentioned the most important role of steel yet.

That's machine tools and cannons!

The former represents the possibility of manufacturing more precise machines, instruments, and tools.

And the latter represents the strongest firepower of the cold weapon era! None other!

If we have machine tools, the future will be full of infinite possibilities.

It's too far-fetched to even think about, but once we build a steam engine, it won't be a problem anymore.

As for cannons, expanding territories and unifying the world! Within range, truth prevails!

However, both of these things are not easy and cannot be done in a short time.

For example, machine tools involve alloys.

But now that steel has been produced, refining other metals and then alloys is much more difficult technologically!

Of course, if it's only used for processing wood, steel could already be made now.

As for cannons, this involves deeper levels of steel refining technology, as well as the production of ammunition.

One should eat rice bite by bite, and travel step by step. There are more important things to attend to right now, so Yang Lin did not bring up these two plans for the time being.

“Once the new furnace is built, this one can be used to research smelting other metals. For example, that kind of ore I gave you a while back, that metal is called titanium. If any of you can successfully smelt titanium and fuse it with steel someday, Uncle Shunzi, I’ll give you one hundred taels as a reward! And the rewards for everyone else won’t be small either!”

This is Yang Lin's second plan.

Alloy!

At that moment, a sudden "clink" sound came from not far away within the smelting courtyard.

Next, a shaggy-haired boy shouted excitedly: "I did it! I did it! I made it!" blacksmith's shop, twelve in the coal mining team, ten in the guard team, twenty in the construction team, plus Wang Guishu who is in charge of purchasing, and my cousin Du Jing. In total, there are...