The invention provides a reducing furnace. The reducing furnace comprises a furnace wall, at least one reducing tank and at least one combustion tank, and the at least one reducing tank and the at least one combustion tank are alternately arranged. The top of each reducing tank is connected with a raw material feeding device, and the bottom of each reducing tank is provided with a material outlet. The top of each combustion tank is connected with a fuel feeding device, and the bottom of each combustion tank is provided with an ash outlet. The invention also provides a technology for directly heating coal-containing pellets through preheating outside a coal base. The technology comprises the following steps: 1, mixing and pelletizing an iron-containing raw material, coal dust and a binder to obtain coal pellets; and 2, providing the reducing furnace, adding the pellets to the reducing tank(s) through the raw material feeding device(s), adding fire coal to the combustion tank(s) through the fuel feeding device(s), allowing the pellets and the fire coal to independently move from top to bottom, heating and reducing the pellets to form spongy iron, and discharging the spongy iron. The reducing furnace and the reducing technology have the advantages of high shaft furnace productivity, adoption of non-coking coal as a reducing agent in coal base reduction, adoption of cheap coal as a heat source, and production of the direct reduction iron for steel making.