This is simply a renovation and transformation, and the original crooked front has already been smoothed out by Gu Zheng's hammer.

A new spare wooden pole was inserted tightly by Gu Zheng.

Pick it in your hand, there is no disjointed feeling, just like new, with a sense of spirit.

Uncle Mao, who was very satisfied with this, handed over three coins to Gu Zheng without thinking about it, and only after he stepped out of the threshold with the tools did he turn his head back after thinking about it.

Uncle Mao, who returned again, directly handed over another twenty big money in his hand, and he didn't treat Gu Zheng as an outsider anymore, so he made Gu Zheng's first big business after he took over the blacksmith shop with a smile.

"Gu Zheng, there are a total of five large and small scissors in my shop, I don't take advantage of others, I will pay the money first, and when it is later, I will give you the scissors in batches. ”

"If you can't send it together, you'll be in trouble, and you'll change it in batches, you can't let all the tools that can be used in my shop be gone, right?"

Uncle Mao is really a good person, and when Gu Zheng heard this, a sincere smile appeared on his face.

"Uncle, I listen to you, if others ask, you help me publicize more, I know that your business is related to leather merchants, silk merchants, and so on. ”

"They all use it. ”

Hey, you're pretty shrewd.

People who do business are not afraid to meet smart people, so it is at least not difficult to cooperate.

It was a gesture, and Uncle Mao should come down with a smile.

And the neighbors gathered next to this shop, seeing that there was no more excitement to see, scattered in twos and threes.

The rest of the work that occasionally enters the door is also a small job that can be cooked in a few minutes, Gu Zheng finished dealing with it in twos and threes, and finally freed up his hands to do his big things.

……

That was also the second thing Gu Zheng had to do, providing iron ingots for the government-run workshop.

It is now the early years of the founding of the Yuan Dynasty, and it has been six years since the death of Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty, but the young emperor who sits on the throne has grown up.

Counting the age, it is the same size as Gu Zheng today.

And it was at this moment that the young and vigorous emperor was most eager to try to find a way for the country to prosper.

It's just that the young emperor, who has not yet fully grasped the power, is still fighting wits and courage with the most powerful woman in the world in the palace.

According to Gu Zheng's memory, the government-run workshops that have survived in various places have also been mainly focused on maintaining stability in recent years, and there has been no increase.

Then, this means that Gu Zheng's goal now is not to consider from the direction of expanding scale and increasing efficiency for the time being, but to start from the aspect of lean refining and quality leap.

Then try it yourself.

However, this batch of ten batches of iron ingots still needs to be made by the forging method of 'block carburizing steel'.

This process is an improvement on the original block ironmaking.

It can be said that it is the technological crystallization of ingenious Chinese craftsmen.

This is an innovative technology that countless craftsmen have repeatedly tried and tested from the most basic smelting technology.

In this process, it is also necessary to continuously and repeatedly heat to blow a certain proportion of charcoal into the molten iron ingot, and in the full hammering and fusion, the iron absorbs the carbon in the charcoal, improves the carbon content, and reduces the inclusions to become steel, which can make the iron ingot have a qualitative leap.

The iron ingots produced are called lump carburized steel.

This kind of steel has a tight structure and uniform carbon content, which is suitable for making weapons and knives.

It's just that the complexity of the process and the effort required are really not easy.

If it was Gu Zheng in the past, he would have to refine two groups, plus the kung fu of returning to the furnace to make them, and ten groups of iron ingots would require him to hammer them for seven days without stopping.

It's just that now it's in Gu Zheng's hands, let's test the results of his sleep and study.

Gu Zheng, who stepped on the bellows with a whirring sound, threw the rough billet with a relatively high purity ratio into the furnace.

According to the scale of the temperature corresponding to the flame color taught by the master, I carefully observed it.

When the flames were almost pure white, Gu Zheng gently lifted the discharge port of the furnace, and a stream of molten iron, which was as red as lava, flowed out of it.

Along the edge of the material mouth, it slowly rolls into the fixed abrasive groove.

The semi-liquid iron with high temperature needs to be precipitated and quenched at room temperature, and when the iron ingot is fixed and formed by the mold, it can be tempered and carburized in a solidified soft form.

At this time, it is time to see the true skills of the blacksmith, the wind and the hammer are one hundred and eight dozen, what kind of crazy magic hammer method and other nonsense moves, in front of the blacksmith who hammers steel, it is really nothing.

Only after you get your hands on it yourself can you truly marvel at the creativity of the Chinese working people and the difficulty of the blacksmith who is advertised as a three-bitter profession.

Because the iron ingot that is purely quenched by hand needs to be quenched.

How to remove impurities from iron ingots still relies on a hammer.

This kind of work is all about the hands, and the experience in it cannot be described in words.

This kind of mysterious feeling can only be felt by a blacksmith himself.

Even if Gu Zheng didn't study day and night, but for the first time, he finally sighed when he looked at the iron ingots after the cold water cooled down.

Failed.

This finished product, which was no different from the sample iron ingot in terms of appearance and color, bumped into a small depression on the iron ingot that Gu Zheng tempered after he lifted a piece of sample iron and collided violently with it.

It's like turning your head and being knocked into a piece, which is too brittle.

This is also the reason why there are too many unidentified impurities in iron ingots.

It seems that practice is the only criterion for testing truth, and this sentence is really not wrong.

So let's start all over again.

According to the details that Master has taught, let's do it again without pulling a step.

Gu Zheng, who was more careful, took off all the clothes used to keep out the cold in the big autumn.

He wore a sleeveless cardigan, naked and sturdy arms, and was honest about his strong muscles, and he buried himself in this shop as if no one else was around.

When the sky was dark and the first star was coming to prominence, the tinkling sound in the blacksmith shop that had been clanging for a long time was silent.

Gu Zheng was a little excited under the fire.

In front of him was the first standard iron ingot that he had tempered with his own hands, which was still slightly hot in his hand.

And from the beginning of his refining to the final successful molding, it took three full hours.

If this kind of efficiency is known by skilled old craftsmen, it is inevitable to praise it.

But for Gu Zheng, who strives for excellence, this efficiency is too low.

This one-time ten sets of ingots were summed up in state-run workshops throughout the country, and they were insignificant compared to the needs of the huge imperial army.

Because as far as Gu Zheng's memory goes, most of the stationing places of government-run workshops are in units above the city and county level.

There are very few workshops that can branch out to the township and county level.

According to the standard collocation of 3-5 private blacksmith shops under the First Palace Bureau, the official Yong weapon manufacturing at this time is really a hard injury.

The state of unequal supply and demand made the border army of the imperial court a little lacking in confidence when facing the Xiongnu, who were not lagging behind in weapons.

It is no wonder that the imperial court has been facing the pressure of the Xiongnu with a gentle policy in recent years, and when the situation is not good, it will take the initiative to dedicate its princess to ease the gradually deteriorating situation with relatives.

Alas, the general trend is so, let's take our time.

Gu Zheng, who sighed, rubbed his sour arms, carefully wrapped today's freshly baked results in linen, locked them in the toolbox on the side of the workshop, and checked the doors and windows of the pavement that had fallen early.

With more than 30 big money in his hands today, even if he was in the clothes he put on again, because the sweat stains had long since lost his heat, he couldn't stop Gu Zheng's thumping heart full of hope at this time.

How long has it been since this happened.