Chapter 115: This Part Must Be Cut and Not Written into the Novel
After a simple weighing, over ten tons of black iron sand yielded over two thousand catties of low-quality pig iron, over two hundred catties of pure iron, and about one hundred and thirty to forty catties of jade steel, with a conversion rate of about 12%.
This was not the total loss; the over two thousand catties of pig iron could not be used directly and required further manual hammering into wrought iron. If used for ordinary civilian tools, there would be about a 30% loss. If intended for armor, it would require at least five more rounds of hammering, leaving only three catties usable out of ten.
Similarly, jade steel needed to be cold-quenched before use, and then separated into soft steel and hard steel, also resulting in dozens of catties of loss.
Calculating this way, the iron and steel materials ultimately usable for weapons and armor would be only a little over a thousand catties, barely enough to forge over thirty sets of lamellar armor, or to manufacture over twenty matchlock gun barrels—the iron material standard for gun barrels was higher than for general armor; ten catties of pig iron would yield just over one catty after hammering, which was not cost-effective. It primarily relied on pure iron.
Furthermore, jade steel could not be used for forging gun barrels. It was a low-temperature bloomery carbon steel with uneven carbon content and other component distribution internally, making its overall stability very poor. Gun barrels forged from it were prone to bursting. However, it was still steel, with excellent strength and hardness, far surpassing ordinary iron materials, making it a good material for spearheads. In the future, spearheads would mainly rely on it, specifically for breaking armor.
Therefore, overall, this smelting process could hardly be called a success or a failure.
If one were to say it failed, all the necessary components were obtained: raw materials for matchlock guns, cold weapons, and armor were secured, so it couldn’t be called a failure;
If one were to say it succeeded, after working diligently for over a month, only a little over a thousand catties of iron and steel materials were obtained, enough to produce just over thirty sets of armor and over twenty matchlock guns. How long would it take to arm the troops and achieve strong armor and sharp weapons?
Could it only arm a few hundred people a year?
Yuan Ye’s mood was complex and indescribable for a moment, but he was a person who could accept reality. He ultimately judged it should be considered a success.
After all, a proper “modern armor” generally sold for around one hundred *kan*, and matchlock guns were similarly priced. It was estimated that prices would only drop in another ten or eight years when Southern barbarian iron began to enter Japan in large quantities. Therefore, his current monthly income could only afford a dozen sets of iron armor or a dozen matchlock guns.
Now, after over a month of effort, he could at least gather enough iron materials for over thirty sets of armor and over twenty matchlock guns, which already represented significant cost savings and accelerated development.
At the very least, it was a good start. In the future, as his territory expanded, finding more rivers would allow for scaling up.
Since the yield was lower than expected, he could only console himself this way. Otherwise, as a sophomore in chemical machinery, his foray into metallurgy was a significant leap. Moreover, he had nothing here; no rich iron ore for large-scale mining, no coal for coking to raise furnace temperatures, and no way to build a blast furnace to spew molten iron and steel. To achieve this much, he had truly racked his brain and given his all, unable to do any better.
If anyone was to blame, it could only be the unfortunate place he transmigrated to. This damned medieval Japanese era was truly beyond words!
He stood there looking at the iron materials, his thoughts wandering for a while. After forcibly consoling himself, he felt that if he could return to the modern era in the future and write this bizarre and unlucky ordeal into a novel, this part would have to be cut, or at least the data units changed. For example, he would change it to say that over ten tons of black iron sand yielded over a thousand tons of pig iron, which would be more in line with the typical transmigration protagonist’s style.
That was the only way. After all, other transmigrators never seemed to worry about raw materials. In ancient times, their iron materials seemed to fall from the sky, allowing them to easily arm tens of thousands of troops. He couldn’t fall too far behind them.
After a moment of wild thoughts, his mood slightly eased. He directly ordered people to move these iron and steel materials to the warehouse, coated with a mixture of plant ash and dilute clay to prevent natural oxidation and further reduce the yield.
As for how to turn these iron materials into tools, lamellar armor, and spearheads, that wasn’t difficult. People were cheap these days, most valued the same as livestock. Whether buying or hiring, he could find some blacksmiths at Atsuta Port or in the castle town of Nagoya Castle. Then, he could build workshops and have them slowly forge the items.
In any case, he didn’t require the armor to be aesthetically pleasing. As long as the lamellar armor pieces could be punched with holes and strung together with leather cords, it would suffice. Many modern armor enthusiasts did this sort of thing at home when they had free time; it wasn’t a task requiring high skill, and ordinary women could do it.
He assigned these low-skill tasks to A Man and Endo Chiyo, asking them to find excellent blacksmiths and build the workshops. He also established a new department and transferred the matters of iron fields and smelting to them. Once they collected enough black iron sand again, they would relight the furnace for smelting.
Of course, he wouldn’t be so closely monitoring it next time. He would let the people who worked with him this time handle it. At most, he would check in during the first few times to provide technical guidance.
After all this was done, he looked at the material list, crossed out the iron materials, and felt that the only thing currently lacking was saltpeter. He just didn’t know if the people on “Ship One,” which had departed a month and a half ago, were still alive…
…
Fortunately, Yu Da and the others were alive and well… most of them were alive and well, not lost at sea to become fish food.
Yuan Ye waited another seven or eight days. Before A Man could go out to deceive another captain into forming “Expedition Team Two,” “Ship One” finally returned to the makeshift pier in the small bay.
Upon receiving the notification, Yuan Ye rushed to greet them. From afar, he could see that “Ship One” was in a terrible state—this medium-sized Kan-sen ship was mostly just its hull remaining, the “main cargo hold” was damaged and half collapsed, and the hard sail was completely gone. It looked like they had rowed back.
Yu Da and the others had disembarked and were sitting on the pier, desperately drinking water. Some, after drinking, began to vomit on the ground. It was clear this was not a pleasant journey, and the number of people was also insufficient; eleven had departed, but only eight returned.
Yuan Ye quickly instructed his subordinates to fetch more freshwater and food. Yu Da, seeing him arrive, slowly stood up. He appeared even darker and thinner but still stood steadily. He slowly said to him, “Lord, the goods are in the ship’s hold, though some were lost. We only brought back about three hundred *shi*.”
“You’ve worked hard,” Yuan Ye quickly gestured for him to sit down and rest properly. He didn’t rush to attend to the guano and processed bird droppings but patiently asked about the journey, “Did an accident occur on the return trip?”
“Yes, eight days ago, we encountered a storm and didn’t completely avoid it,” Yu Da’s words were concise, and he didn’t offer any flowery words like “Thanks to your great fortune, Lord, we narrowly escaped.” He just stated it plainly.
Yuan Ye naturally wouldn’t quibble with him over such matters. He inquired about his health and, first and foremost, informed him about the well-being of his wife and child. He then told him to rest well for a period and not worry about anything else, before preparing to attend to the other sailors. Yu Da reached out and stopped him, taking a roll of parchment from his embrace and handing it to him, “This is the sea chart, Lord.”
Yuan Ye thanked him and took it, unfolding it to examine. He discovered that the “leapfrog tactic” had been successful. Yu Da had led this medium-sized coastal hard-sail sailboat on a winding journey, passing through over ten islands of various sizes to reach the destination. Moreover, after digging up the guano and processed bird droppings, they didn’t leave immediately but roamed the vicinity for two days, finding three more small islands in that sea area.
Seeing him examine it intently, Yu Da pointed to the sea chart and said, “This island, this island, and this island all have freshwater. If you wish to go again, you can organize a fleet and establish supply points at these three locations. Then, a round trip would take about twenty days.”
Yuan Ye nodded slightly. When “Ship One” departed, the destination was unknown, so they had to explore and travel circuitously, sometimes even turning back, taking many detours. Now, with this sea chart, some small islands could be bypassed directly, saving a lot of time on future trips.
He rolled up the sea chart and put it away, then asked him, “Are the stones and soil I wanted on the island plentiful?”
“Very plentiful, Lord,” Yu Da seemed unable to understand how Yuan Ye knew there would be such things on an island no one had visited before. However, at his age, his curiosity was almost non-existent, and he had no intention of asking further. He only said hoarsely, “It’s like you said, Lord. The sea around the island is blue, and there are many birds on the island. If you drive the birds away, the ground is covered with the stones and soil you want.”
As long as there was enough!
Yuan Ye was relieved. In later generations, Japan seemed to have exhausted its supply in two to three years. He had been worried that the islands were too small and the bird droppings insufficient, but now it seemed that was not the case. In the 19th century, Japan used it all up in two to three years. For him in the 16th century, using it alone for matchlock guns, it should last for thirty to fifty years.
The source of saltpeter was also no longer a problem. This was definitely good news. In the future, he could fire guns and cannons freely, unlike other Daimyo and local lords who, after firing their guns, would be heartbroken by the cost of two to three hundred *mon*, regardless of whether they hit the enemy.
Indeed, in this period, Owari only had Oda Nobunaga, a wealthy third-generation descendant with deep foundations, who dared to use matchlock guns and had the courage to form a matchlock unit. Otherwise, for an ordinary local lord, a volley of three hundred matchlock guns might cause a heart attack; they simply couldn’t afford the expense. And in the future, Yuan Ye would be another person in Owari who dared to freely command matchlock volleys!
Yuan Ye patted Yu Da’s shoulder forcefully and smiled, “That’s good. I’ll have to trouble you to train more qualified captains and sailors in the future.”
This meant that Yu Da could rest assured and retire in Wanjin, only needing to serve as a navigation instructor and not risk his life again. He was worth this price; his success saved Wanjin a considerable sum of money.
Yu Da’s expression relaxed slightly, and he nodded silently, seemingly understanding his good intentions.
Yuan Ye patted his shoulder again and had someone escort him to see his wife and child, while he himself went to inspect the guano and processed bird droppings brought down from the ship’s hold.
The guano was not particularly important for now. It was an excellent natural “fertilizer” that could greatly increase grain yields. However, the place he was in was not suitable for agriculture, so even with “fertilizer,” it could only be saved for later use. The main purpose of this guano now was to create a diversion; they would produce some saltpeter to show for it. The truly large-scale source of saltpeter was the unmineralized processed bird droppings, meaning the droppings from seabirds in the last ten to twenty years.
Finally, it was time to play with poop!
