Chapter Eighteen: Forging Steel

After Xu Guangqi withdrew, he took out the slip of paper tucked into the "New Treatise on Military Efficiency" and examined it carefully. Aside from the improvements to weaponry, there seemed to be little other progress. He put the paper away, left his study, and asked Li Jinzhong, "Is there an attendant in the palace named Wei Zhongxian?" Li Jinzhong replied, "I've never heard of him. There is a Wei Chao and a Wei Jinzhong, though."

Zhu Xiaoqi thought, perhaps Wei Chao had changed his name, or maybe he was somewhere else and Li Jinzhong simply didn't know him. No matter, he would eventually find out. As long as he didn't employ him, that would suffice.

"By the way, I want you to look into a few people for me. They're all officials, some civil, some military." He pulled out a slip of paper with the names of a few famous figures he remembered. "Find out where they’re from, their family backgrounds, and their reputations—be as detailed as possible."

Li Jinzhong had a friend in the Eastern Depot who, as it happened, was in charge of officials’ dossiers—he wasn’t high-ranking, but not insignificant either. This made Li Jinzhong the perfect person for the task. Li Jinzhong himself was happy to take it on; it was a good opportunity to let his friend know he was trusted by the heir apparent, something that would greatly raise his own standing.

The very next day, Li Jinzhong brought back the information. Zhu Xiaoqi took a look and couldn’t help but laugh—these little officials were all at their posts! Yuan Chonghuan was magistrate of Shaowu, Sun Chuanting magistrate of Yongcheng, Sun Chengzong was Left Adjutant of the Eastern Palace, a rank even lower than Xu Guangqi’s.

These were the only ones he could recall: Yuan Chonghuan and Sun Chengzong he knew from "Sword Stained with Royal Blood," and Sun Chuanting from "The Fall of Ming." There seemed to be someone called Zu Dashou as well, possibly a subordinate of Yuan Chonghuan.

The fact that these men held lowly posts was a good thing—it meant they hadn’t yet been noticed. If he were to promote them, at least their loyalty would be easier to secure. Still, he wasn’t entirely sure of their specific talents. Yuan Chonghuan he knew as the famous Inspector Yuan, father of Yuan Chengzhi. Sun Chengzong, it seemed, was also an Inspector. Sun Chuanting, in "The Fall of Ming," had a reputation as a ruthless killer of rebel armies—he was particularly adept at suppressing peasant uprisings. But Zhu Xiaoqi didn't intend to use him for that purpose; his plan was to give Li Zicheng and the like no opportunity at all for rebellion. Give them potatoes to eat, send them home to plant corn and sweet potatoes—why rebel when there was food on the table?

Ever since his arrival in this world, he’d often regretted not reading more about Ming history. If only he knew who excelled at warfare, he could send them to command the armies; if he knew who was skilled at managing the economy, he could put them in charge of the treasury. If he knew who were loyal ministers, he could trust and employ them; if they were traitors, he could keep them at arm’s length or demote them. That would make being emperor far too easy. Still, he believed that if he accomplished three things—first, ensuring the peasants had enough to eat and some money to spend; second, not executing Yuan Chonghuan, but letting him fight the Jurchen; third, relying on the Donglin faction and never using Wei Zhongxian—then the peasants would not rebel, the Jurchen would never breach the borders, and the Ming dynasty would not fall. His throne would be as solid as Mount Tai.

On April 27, Li Jinzhong reported that Sun Yuanhua had made a significant breakthrough, and Zhu Xiaoqi hurried impatiently to the Armory Bureau.

After greeting him, Sun Yuanhua produced a flintlock musket. At the muzzle was a socket, with a cold, gleaming bayonet affixed to it. “After Your Highness suggested the idea last time, I conducted several experiments and have produced this musket with bayonet. The bayonet doesn’t interfere with firing, but the blade is rather brittle. Improper use or repeated use could cause it to break. I am looking for ways to improve it.”

It turned out that the Armory Bureau already had muskets with blades, but the blade was attached to the stock. Zhu Youjiao had asked for the blade to be moved to the muzzle. Last time, Sun Yuanhua had added a hilt to the bayonet and inserted it into the muzzle, but Zhu Xiaoqi felt that would interfere with shooting. He had asked for it to be fitted onto the barrel instead—and now the improvement was made so quickly, it came as a pleasant surprise.

He examined it closely. The socket had a pin that fit snugly against a protruding part of the barrel. The bayonet was about a foot long. He flicked the edge with his finger—its note was rather dull. He pressed hard on the spine, but it barely flexed. Recalling his chemistry books, he mused, “This is due to the quality of the steel. Iron blades break easily, only steel blades have enough toughness to prevent that. This blade may be close to steel, but it’s still not quite there, which is why it wears out quickly.”

“Your Highness, the price of steel is too high—using steel costs five times as much silver as iron.” At this time, the Suzhou steelmaking method could produce steel, but in small quantities and at great cost. Using steel would drastically raise the cost of bayonets and hinder their widespread adoption. But if iron was used, the quality would be unreliable. If a bayonet broke during combat, it could cost lives—this was a thorny problem indeed. Of course, steel was ideal, but money was a serious concern.

Zhu Xiaoqi turned to ask Li Chaoqin, “That sword with the cloud pattern you presented—can you make more of those yourselves?”

“Your Highness, that sword was imported from India. I am ashamed to say we cannot make one ourselves.”

“The quality of iron and steel is a major issue—we must find a solution. Are there any state-run ironworks in Northern Zhili?”

“The Zunhua Ironworks closed in the ninth year of the Wanli reign. There are no state-run ironworks in Northern Zhili now, but there are several in Southern Zhili.”

“Which ones can produce steel?”

“The Suzhou Prefecture Ironworks can produce crucible steel, but in small quantities.”

“Send people to Suzhou. Find skilled craftsmen there, offer them generous terms, bring them to the capital, help us build the facilities, and improve the crucible steel process to boost output. Once the people arrive, Mr. Sun will be in charge. The first priority is to produce steel suitable for bayonets.”

After giving these instructions, he took Sun Yuanhua aside into a small room. “The reason iron can’t be used for blades is its impurity—coal is used to smelt iron, and coal contains what I call sulfur and phosphorus, which mix in and degrade the iron. To make good iron, these impurities must be removed. Also, iron must contain carbon—too much and it’s hard, too little and it’s soft. Both extremes are unsuitable. Generally, if iron contains more than two percent carbon, it’s cast iron; less than two percent, it’s steel. That’s about all I know—does any of this help you?” He did his best to explain with a jumble of formal and vernacular speech, drawing on his meager knowledge of chemistry—it was quite exhausting.

“Your Highness’s words are like parting clouds to reveal the moon. Understanding the principles is the key to mastering the craft. Since it is sulfur and phosphorus from coal that cause the trouble, we could smelt iron with charcoal, which contains none of those elements and makes good iron. But charcoal is much more expensive than coal.”

“If you burn coal in a sealed chamber, you get coke. Coke should be even better for smelting iron than charcoal, and it ought to be cheaper.”

“The coke Your Highness refers to, is it what we commonly call ‘coke’? If so, I have read that in the Song dynasty, they already used coke to smelt iron.”

“That should be it. Try it for yourself and see which method works best. Also, see if you can find a better way to increase output and improve quality,” Zhu Xiaoqi encouraged him.

“In addition, the fit between the bayonet and barrel isn’t tight enough. That needs attention. There’s a device called a screw…” He briefly described the structure of a screw. Seeing Sun Yuanhua look troubled, he added, “That can be worked on gradually. For now, use other methods and try to make it as sturdy as possible.”