Chapter 64

Shen Wanqing took the lead and said, "Alright, let's go." Then she gave Lin Yuan a nod and led everyone to the dock she had arranged earlier.

Lin Yuan, Shen Wanqing, and Deng Shichang walked at the front, while the soldier walked at the back, chatting and laughing with the other soldiers. Lin Yuan asked Deng Shichang in a low voice, "Commander Deng, do you know the background of that soldier?"

Deng Shichang shook his head and said, "I'm not sure. He came with me from the capital. I thought he was just my guard."

Shen Wanqing also whispered, "Are the martial arts skills of people in this era so high? Not many people could have dodged my move."

The three of them chatted all the way to the dock. When the boat captain saw a group of soldiers, he was terrified. The soldier immediately commanded his subordinates, "You, go and move the boxes onto the boat!"

One of the soldiers, emboldened, asked, "Sir, where is Commander Deng going?"

The soldier hit him on the head and scolded, "You little troublemaker!"

After everyone had moved the boxes onto the boat, the soldier got on first and said to Deng Shichang with a smile, "Commander Deng, please come on board quickly." Then he said to the other soldiers, "You can go back. If anything happens, just blame it on me!"

Lin Yuan thought, "No matter what he's up to, let's get on the boat first." So Lin Yuan gave the two others a nod, and the three of them got on the boat together.

Once the boat set sail, the soldier smiled and said, "Commander Deng, my name is Shen Tao. I knew you wanted to leave. I've been listening to your conversations."

Lin Yuan asked, "How did you know the content of that letter?"

Shen Tao smiled and said, "I don't know either. I figured Commander Deng would leave in the next few days, so I waited outside. I didn't expect to actually catch you!"

Shen Wanqing asked, "How did you dodge my strike?"

Shen Tao looked puzzled and asked, "Is it that hard to dodge?"

Shen Wanqing's palm strike was once highly praised by her instructors at the special agent training base. Shen Tao smiled and said, "Maybe it's because I've been practicing these things since I was young, so I'm used to it."

Deng Shichang asked, "I'm a man under sentence. Why are you following me?"

Shen Tao smiled and said, "Of course, to fight the Japanese with you. To be honest, I think our Qing Dynasty is beyond saving..."

Before he could finish, Deng Shichang angrily said, "Don't speak nonsense!"

Shen Tao looked helpless and turned away, no longer speaking.

The night passed without incident. The next day, they returned to Taiwan, arranged for Deng Shichang and Shen Tao to stay, and Lin Yuan, without attending to other matters, went to check on the steel mill.

Before reaching the steel mill, he saw a long line from the port to the mill. As he got closer, he realized that the equipment from the ships couldn't be transported to the mill. Although the mill was close to the port, there was still some distance. In this era, there were no large transport vehicles, so the local people had to be mobilized. Some pushed hand carts, others drove horse-drawn carriages, to transport the equipment parts to the mill for assembly.

The same problem applied to coal. The British had tried to replace high-quality bituminous coal with inferior lignite but failed. This time, they brought the bituminous coal honestly. However, due to the limited number of horse-drawn and donkey-drawn carts, which were all used to transport the equipment parts, the locals had to use baskets and sieves to carry the coal to the factory. Some even used large pieces of cloth to carry the coal.

As Lin Yuan was watching, he suddenly saw an old man waving to him. Upon closer inspection, he recognized the man in Ming Dynasty attire, carrying a bag, as Cheng Jiuye, whom he had visited before.

Lin Yuan hurried over and said with a smile, "Grandfather Jiuye, why are you here?"

Cheng Jiuye smiled and said, "Your Mr. Liu Jinqiu entrusted me to fire a batch of ceramics. We've completed them and are here to deliver them."

Lin Yuan thought, "I've never heard that Liu Jinqiu likes ceramics." So he asked with a smile, "What kind of ceramics does he want?"

Cheng Jiuye smiled and said, "What he wants is quite ordinary yet not ordinary. He wants to fire some ceramic bricks with a hole for ventilation. I've made one and am here to show it to him."

So the two went to the steel mill. On the way, Cheng Jiuye said with a smile, "I didn't expect building a steel mill to be so difficult. Even these things need to be transported by horse-drawn carts."

Lin Yuan smiled and said, "Everything is hard at the beginning! Our navy used to row sampans to fight enemy destroyers. Now we even have aircraft carriers!" Lin Yuan made these remarks without considering whether Cheng Jiuye could understand.

Sure enough, Cheng Jiuye was completely baffled and asked, "What did you say?"

Lin Yuan waved his hands and said, "Nothing, nothing, just forget it."

The two arrived at a workshop, which was for coking. The engineers were installing coking equipment. Lin Yuan found an engineer and asked, "Where is Mr. Liu?"

The engineer pointed behind him and said, "Mr. Liu is supervising the converter over there."

Lin Yuan and Cheng Jiuye went to the workshop and saw Liu Jinqiu holding a list of equipment, asking a British engineer, "Why is there no temperature measurement equipment in your setup?"

The engineer looked puzzled and said, "The temperature of molten steel is over 1300 degrees Celsius. I can't think of anything that can measure such a high temperature."

Unlike modern steelmaking, in this era, the temperature of molten steel was mainly controlled by the experience of the workers. Even in modern times, many small and medium-sized enterprises still rely on experience to judge the temperature, while advanced factories use infrared thermometers.

Lin Yuan asked, "Mr. Liu, what's the problem?"

Liu Jinqiu said, "These British are trying to trip us up again. I know we can judge the temperature by the brightness of the furnace and the color of the molten steel, but this method doesn't work for refining. We know that temperature can control the gas content in the molten steel. If the gas content is too high, it greatly affects the quality of the steel!"

Lin Yuan smiled and said, "Mr. Liu, don't be upset. In this era, there isn't such advanced refining technology. Just make do for now. Once we develop further, we'll have all these things. The Beijing warship has infrared thermometers, but they are used to monitor the nuclear reactor and can't be removed."

At this moment, Cheng Jiuye cleared his throat and said with a bow, "Brother Liu, I've brought the bricks you asked me to fire last time."

Liu Jinqiu's face lit up, and he said, "That's great! They are made from bauxite, right?"

Cheng Jiuye smiled and said, "Of course, of course." He then took a brick with a tube from his bag and handed it to Liu Jinqiu, who examined it carefully, unable to put it down.

Lin Yuan asked, "Mr. Liu, what do you need this for?"

Liu Jinqiu smiled and said, "This can be used for steel refining. We can pass argon gas through this tube into the liquid steel to remove impurities like hydrogen and oxygen."

Lin Yuan asked, "What does this have to do with bauxite?"

Liu Jinqiu said, "Bauxite is mainly composed of aluminum oxide. Using this material to make permeable bricks can withstand high temperatures." He then sighed, "We must admire the skills of our ancestors!"

Lin Yuan said, "You mentioned argon gas. Where can we get it?"

Liu Jinqiu smiled and said, "There are ways. Don't worry about it."

At this moment, Lin Yuan's communicator beeped, and a message came in: Shen Tao, who came with Deng Shichang, had gotten into a fight with Chen Fei.