Chapter 35

Chapter 35 <The True Steel>

Kim Ki-woo called the steel mill manager right away. Then, Sharp Moonlight, the steel mill manager, ran towards Kim Ki-woo.

“Oh, Your Majesty! How long has it been since I last saw you?”

“Haha. Did you miss me that much?”

“Of course! I thought you had forgotten about me.”

“How could I?”

Kim Ki-woo and Sharp Moonlight had a long history together.

It was inevitable.

Sharp Moonlight was the one who had helped Kim Ki-woo with the initial iron smelting process.

“I’m glad to see you healthy and well. I was very sorry to send you away from the capital.”

“It couldn’t be helped. I’m fine. Ah! I heard that the crown prince was born. It’s truly a blessing for the empire!”

“Thank you very much.”

They continued to chat and catch up for a while.

But their time was not very long.

Kim Ki-woo soon got to the point.

“You know why I came here, right?”

“Yes. It’s because of the steel production.”

“That’s right.”

“I was curious about that. What’s different about the steel you’re making now from the ones we’ve made so far?”

The steel mill manager was referring to the carburization method.

The carburization method was a process of hardening the surface of iron with a crucible.

Naturally, there was a clear difference between the hardened part and the non-hardened part.

And even that was difficult now.

They were producing pig iron instead of wrought iron.

They had to remove carbon from pig iron to make wrought iron, and then put charcoal in a crucible to carburize it…

‘There’s no such waste.’

It was much better to use pig iron as it was by casting it into molds.

But what if they could make all parts of iron into steel equally?

Kim Ki-woo came to Black Sky himself to realize that and more.

“We can’t make the steel I have in mind with the pig iron we have now.”

“Then…?”

“We have to turn that pig iron into wrought iron.”

“So you’ve finally figured out how to turn pig iron into wrought iron!”

“You could say that.”

The steel mill manager asked with an excited face.

“Then what do I need to do?”

He looked like he would do anything Kim Ki-woo asked him to do.

As the manager of the steel mill, he was not satisfied with using low-quality cast iron.

“Take a look at this.”

Kim Ki-woo took out a blueprint from his pocket.

It was one of the blueprints he had brought from the capital. He showed it to the steel mill manager and explained.

“We need to make a large tank to store the pig iron that’s coming out. And we need to keep heating that pig iron continuously.”

A cylindrical tank. The top was open, exposing it to the air.

The structure was so simple that it didn’t take long to explain.

“I think I understand what you mean.”

“The important thing is that the molten pig iron has to be stored in this tank, and that it has to stay molten for a long time.”

“I’ll do my best to make it. Please wait. I’ll make it as soon as possible and report it to you.”

The steel mill manager was an excellent craftsman. That’s why he became the head of the steel mill.

Kim Ki-woo did not doubt him either.

He had a blueprint, and making such a structure should be possible.

“Good. Then make it as fast as you can.”

“Yes, sir.”

*

Kim Ki-woo left the steel mill and moved on to the next place.

Thump thump thump!

Screech screech!

The sound of hitting and cutting wood echoed loudly.

It was the carpentry shop.

“Put some bellows inside.”

“Yes, sir.”

Kim Ki-woo stopped in front of the carpentry shop and told his attendant.

Then, his attendant and some escort warriors went inside.

And after a while, the noise inside gradually subsided, and then disappeared completely.

They had stopped working.

“Please come in.”

Soon, his attendant came out of the carpentry shop and spoke to Kim Ki-woo.

Kim Ki-woo nodded and entered the carpentry shop.

“Huh!”

“Yo, Your Majesty…”

“Oh my!”

An unexpected visit.

The carpenters who were working in the shop bowed down as soon as they saw Kim Ki-woo.

It was a familiar reaction.

“Everyone, get up. Who is in charge here?”

“I, I am!”

A middle-aged man answered Kim Ki-woo’s question.

“Can I talk to you for a moment?”

“Yes, yes!”

He quickly approached Kim Ki-woo. He looked like a new recruit who had just joined the army.

“Are you the manager of this carpentry shop?”

“Yes, I am!”

“Haha. I’m not here to scold you, so relax. How can we have a conversation like this?”

“Yes…”

“Good. What’s your name?”

“I’m called Quiet Wind.”

The man, Quiet Wind, felt like he was dreaming.

He was face to face with the great emperor who had founded the Wakan Tanka Empire!

He had not imagined this moment. He was also one of the managers of the many carpentry shops in Black Sky.

But he had heard that the emperor’s visit to Black Sky was related to iron smelting.

So he had given up on that hope.

But it wasn’t.

The emperor had visited his carpentry shop. And he was talking to him.

Quiet Wind’s heart swelled with excitement.

“Good, Quiet Wind. I’m sorry to take your time, but I came here to ask you a favor. Will you listen to my request?”

“A, a favor? Just give me an order. If Your Majesty commands me, I will make and offer you any device!”

“Haha. You sound very reliable.”

He felt a lot of passion from Quiet Wind. Kim Ki-woo smiled and took out a blueprint from his pocket.

“This is…”

“Take a look.”

Quiet Wind took the blueprint with both hands and unfolded it.

“What do you think?”

“Can I check it for a moment?”

“Go ahead.”

Kim Ki-woo thought about the blueprint he had given him while he was interpreting it.

The blueprint showed a water wheel, a regular wheel, and two iron rods.

‘The key is the wheel.’

Of course, it was not a wheel that was attached to a cart and used for transportation.

‘It looks like a mobile.’

It was the mobile that hung from the ceiling of a baby’s bed.

The wheel was also hung horizontally from the ceiling.

And just like a mobile, the wheel could be turned if one wanted to.

Of course, people didn’t turn it. If they did, they wouldn’t need a water wheel.

‘The water wheel and the wheel are connected by one iron rod.’

That iron rod acted like a crank.

It changed the direction of motion of the water wheel.

Of course, it didn’t change linear motion into rotational motion, but vertical rotational motion into horizontal rotational motion.

The mechanism was as follows:

The water current made the water wheel rotate vertically.

Then, the iron rod attached to its side also moved along with it.

The iron rod did not stretch or shrink. Naturally, if the iron rod moved, the wheel connected to the other end also moved.

This made the wheel spin, and another iron rod that stretched down from it also moved along with it.

Like stirring coffee with a spoon, the iron rod rotated in a circle.

“Ah!”

Quiet Wind seemed to have noticed this too, and exclaimed.

“Do you get it?”

Kim Ki-woo smiled slightly at his reaction. Seeing Kim Ki-woo’s expression, Quiet Wind snapped out of it.

“Yes. I think I get it. If I make it like this, I can make the wheel hanging from the ceiling spin.”

“That’s it.”

He was indeed a craftsman who managed a carpentry shop.

He had grasped the core of the mechanism that Kim Ki-woo intended without much explanation.

“How is it? Can you make it?”

“I think I have to try it once, but it doesn’t seem too hard.”

“Good. Then try to make it. You can make it according to the size written there.”

“I understand. Leave it to me!”

Kim Ki-woo was not very worried. Once he understood the principle, it was not a difficult process.

“Good. Then I’ll wait.”

“Yes!”

With this, he finished one of the two most important things, the decarburization preparation of pig iron.

‘I want to make a converter or an open hearth furnace and make steel right away.’

He meant something like the Bessemer converter that led to the mass production of modern steel.

If this process was developed, the steel production he was trying to do now would be incomparable to the amount of steel that would pour out.

But it was hard to expect such a process now.

Then he had to decarburize pig iron in a way that suited his current situation.

‘The principle is similar to the puddling method.’

A method of stirring molten pig iron in the air to remove carbon.

Of course, there was no steam engine, and it was hard to build such an industrial facility, so he couldn’t apply it as it was.

But applying the principle of the puddling method was simple.

The important thing was to remove carbon by exposing pig iron to air.

‘In ancient China, they made wrought iron by stirring molten pig iron from above.’

It was very hard and unhealthy for people to go up and do this work themselves.

So Kim Ki-woo quickly erased the option of stirring it by hand.

What he came up with was this:

Put molten pig iron in a large cylinder and use the rotational force of the water wheel to stir the pig iron and remove carbon.

While applying enough heat to keep it molten.

This way, he could make wrought iron with relatively little manpower.

Of course, more coal would be needed.

‘Of course, this is just a sketch for making steel.’

The next step was to put in manpower in earnest.

*

“Huh. I have to make this damn crucible again.”

“Haha. Do you hate crucibles that much?”

“I hate them so much. I feel like throwing up just looking at them.”

The industrial director shook his head at the crucible.

He had made countless crucibles in the past to make steel.

“But it’s much better than before.”

“That’s true.”

As time passed, know-how accumulated.

Of course, he also learned how to make crucibles easily. He didn’t have to shape them by hand one by one like before.

The method was as follows:

He pressed clay with his feet to make it well kneaded, and cut off a certain part with a shovel.

He made the clay roughly cylindrical and put it in a crucible-making barrel.

It was similar to casting. He pressed an iron cap into a barrel shaped like a crucible and easily made a crucible shape.

The carburization method and the crucible steelmaking method he was trying to do now were both putting wrought iron in a crucible.

‘Of course, this is different from here.’

The carburization method put charcoal and wrought iron in a crucible and sealed it with a cap.

But the steelmaking method he was trying to do now put pig iron instead of charcoal in proportion and added lime powder to remove impurities.

He heated it strongly with coke around it.

Then the iron in the crucible melted completely.

‘Thanks to coke and water wheel.’

He could get heat of about 1,600 degrees in temperature.

Unlike the previous carburization method, he could melt cast iron completely.

So he could make all parts into steel and cast them into molds to shape them into steel.

‘It won’t be much in terms of production for now…’

He needed a lot of coke and manpower here. It wasn’t as hopeless as the previous carburization method, but it was hard to mass-produce it.

‘But it’s enough to arm the empire’s warriors.’

If that happened…

‘I’ll show them hell.’

The Aztec Empire’s warriors would feel it.

The overwhelming difference in weapons that they could never overcome.

< The True Steel > The End