In this study,the scale and internal oxidation of hot-rolled ultra-high strength steel sheets were characterized.It was found that both the formation of the scale and the internal oxidation of Si and Mn depended on the coiling temperature and position of the steel sample on the strip coil.At a relatively high coiling temperature,a large amount of internal oxidation was observed on the samples cut from the middle of the coil.The depth of the internal oxidation zone exceeded 10 μm and a thin iron layer covering the scale was observed in some cases.Pickling and cold-rolling experiments were conducted on selected samples.Scale pickling was found to be greatly delayed by the formation of an iron layer,which frequently resulted in under-pickled defects.In addition,pickling of the entire internal oxidation zone was difficult,except at the grain boundaries,where the degree of internal Si and Mn oxidation was enriched.The surface of the cold-rolled steel sheet was ruined by the remaining oxidation zone in the subsurface of the pickled steel.The internal oxidation of hot-rolled ultra-high strength steel must be precisely controlled to improve the subsequent surface quality of cold-rolled steel.