Chapter Nine: The Blast Furnace

Agriculture is the foundation of all industries. After all, people must not go hungry; only when there is enough food can they contemplate other pursuits.

At this stage, Li Qingsong had initially solved the agricultural problem, producing enough grain to supply a number of clones who were not engaged in farming, ensuring they still had sufficient food.

Thus, industrial development became inevitable.

Without industry, the scale of agriculture would remain limited, confined to manual labor with low efficiency, making population expansion a mere dream.

After a brief assessment of his current population and agricultural scale, combined with his future development plans, Li Qingsong quickly formulated a strategy.

"Steel is the foundation for all subsequent development.

To continue expanding the population and developing industry, steel is indispensable.

Even if we only develop agriculture without pushing industry, steel is still essential.

At present, the planting racks, pipelines, and detachable components on the Deep Space vessel are all used up.

Without sufficient steel supply, I can’t even build a new planting base.

The output of the number one planting base only barely sustains 37 clones—that’s hardly enough.

Then… I’ll just build a steel smelting furnace! After all, during the initial survey, I found iron ore on Roshen Star. Although the reserves are not large, they are more than enough for me."

The Deep Space vessel’s knowledge base did not include the technology for building a smelting furnace, but with the fundamental principles at hand, Li Qingsong could design one himself, which was not a difficult task.

Besides technical data, the Deep Space ship had two devices capable of supporting the steel production needed to manufacture the smelting furnace itself.

One was a multifunctional intelligent ore refining device, capable of smelting and purifying various minerals according to parameters set by Li Qingsong.

Of course, being multifunctional meant it was compact and less efficient than specialized equipment, but it was sufficient as a starter tool.

The other device was a multifunctional metal processing machine.

It could shape different types of metal into various forms based on set parameters.

These two machines were specially prepared by the Earth team for Li Qingsong, so in extreme situations he could manufacture some parts himself.

Though the self-made parts wouldn’t match the quality of professional equipment, they would suffice.

Now, Li Qingsong planned to use these two devices to gradually produce steel and process parts, eventually “saving up” enough to build a steel smelting furnace.

The Deep Space ship’s knowledge base lacked the construction technology for a smelting furnace.

After all, as an astronaut, Li Qingsong had never expected to apply such technology.

Fortunately, the knowledge base contained the relevant basic scientific principles.

Thus, two clones aboard the Deep Space ship resumed intensive study day and night, while also awaiting the birth of five new clones.

After some time, the five new clones were born, raising Li Qingsong’s total population to 22. He also completed the design blueprints for the steel smelting furnace.

Carefully, he transported the two crucial devices from the Deep Space ship to Roshen Star, meticulously assembling them and connecting them to the power supply of Generator No. 2.

When he built Generator No. 2, Li Qingsong had anticipated the power needs of these two devices and reserved extra capacity, so the additional load would not affect crop growth.

After self-checks and setting the operational parameters, he crushed some iron ore—collected earlier along with oxygen and torin minerals—and placed it into the smelting furnace.

Electrical energy converted to heat melted the ore. Through a series of processes, the iron was purified and alloyed with carbon, chromium, nickel, and other elements to produce low-temperature steel capable of maintaining its properties in Roshen Star’s cold environment.

A 30-kilogram piece of this low-temperature steel was placed into the metal processing device.

Following preset parameters, the steel was fashioned into various parts of different sizes and weights.

According to his design blueprints, the clones slowly assembled and welded these parts together, eventually forming a large tank-like structure.

This large vessel stood three meters tall and measured one and a half meters in diameter. It was powered by electricity but otherwise operated entirely manually.

Temperature control, feeding, discharge, and monitoring all required manual operation, as Li Qingsong had no automation technology yet.

By design, this furnace could produce about 200 kilograms of steel per day at full capacity, with an annual output of 73 tons.

On Earth—if there were still humans there now—this output would be negligible, not even worthy of the smallest rural steel workshop. But for Li Qingsong, it was a miraculous tool.

A tool powerful enough to ignite his journey toward industrialization.

Looking at the crude, rough-hewn furnace, Li Qingsong was filled with joy.

He could almost envision the continuous flow of molten steel pouring from this furnace, transforming into planting racks, parts, and massive machines…

However, unfortunately, the furnace could not yet be put into operation.

The reason was simple: it consumed too much electricity.

Its power demand reached 80 kilowatts, but at present, his two generators combined produced just over 40 kilowatts—not enough to power it.

Moreover, steel smelting required a steady supply of ore.

Given the quality of the iron ore on Roshen Star, producing 200 kilograms of steel daily required at least 600 kilograms of iron ore each day.

The mining team of five workers currently brought back only 400 kilograms of torin and oxygen ore daily—collecting all iron ore was impossible.

There was no choice. Although the furnace was built, Li Qingsong had to idle it temporarily and focus on creating another device.

A steam generator with sufficient installed capacity.

The principle behind the generator was straightforward: the rotor continuously spins around the stator.

Li Qingsong did not want to build two separate machines—a steam turbine and a generator.

He planned to combine both into a single steam generator.

This would reduce engineering work and improve efficiency.

The multifunctional ore refining device resumed producing standard steel plates, and the processing machine shaped them into parts.

Then, eight clones worked together to assemble and secure these components.

After more than a month of effort, the steam generator with an installed capacity of 150 kilowatts was finally completed.