Liangzhou has its own iron mine, who would have thought that in Zhangjiachuan, just under the land they have lived in for more than ten years, there is actually a mine hidden? Ma Yue had expected that there was a small possibility that there was also iron ore hidden underground when he found scattered mines on the surface, but he never imagined that the ground under his feet would hide such a large amount of iron ore...... With these iron ores, after two or three years, his armored army is no longer an empty word, and these exposed iron ores alone are enough for him to arm all the armored troops.

Salt, iron, food, and money are necessary for soldiers.

Now, after running out of money and grain to fight for the great prestige of Liangzhou, although the situation in various places except Ji County is not known, but with the salt of Hedong and the iron of Zhangjiachuan, Ma Yue has the bottom of his heart.

Although now he does not have the confidence to fight with others.

"The news of the mine must be completely blocked, how is the ironmaking division now?" Ma Yue looked at the cracks in the earth for a while and said, "How long does it take to make an iron spearhead?" ”

Liu Bad was stunned for a moment, and said: "At present, I have more than 200 craftsmen in Liangzhou, and the inferior spearhead can shoot hundreds in more than a month, but the knife can't beat it, and we can't make armor." ”

"Why is that?" Ma Yue's ecstatic heart has cooled down, whether it is successful or not, at least there is already an iron mine, and other things will be talked about later, thinking about it, he pulled Pei Juan next to him and said: "You send someone to investigate, how much is the stock of this mine, and how much can the people extract in a year, I live in the pastoral mansion of Sichuan Central Prefecture these days." ”

With that, he turned his back, no longer looked at the mine behind him, and walked out of the dense forest with Liu Bad's arm. "Take me to the Iron Smelting Division, tell me what's going on, we can't make ring sword armor even if we have iron?"

While the two of them were leaving, Liu Bad nodded and said: "With iron, we must first make steel, whether it is fried steel or precision forging...... It took a skilled craftsman more than a year to make enough steel to refine two knives, so that it would not work for you to equip the army. ”

"Only two knives a year? Why is that? ”

"The spearhead is directly hit with iron, used as a stabbing attack, not cut by a knife and axe, it only needs to be sharp and sharp, even if it is directly smelted with ore, it can be used as a spearhead." Liu Bad said with a bitter face: "But the steel knife armor is different from the spearhead, it is easy to do a model, and it is just a pottery burner." However, the molten iron knife is not forbidden, and the blade will be broken more than ten times or dozens of times, but if you want to use a steel knife, we have to let every craftsman master the steelmaking ability...... The subordinates can dig mountains and stones, but the subordinates in iron smelting don't know more than those craftsmen, so we can't fight the sword, my lord. ”

"So, isn't there a craftsman in Kawanaka who specializes in making weapons?" Ma Yue frowned and said: "Burn iron to make steel, melt it into molten steel into small pieces, fold and forge, and enhance the hardness, won't this be?" What kind of craftsmen are you looking for? ”

"Carpenters, stonemasons, masons...... Folding and forging, how do you know this? Liu Bad was very surprised, these words from Ma Yue's mouth are things that only old craftsmen who are proficient in the way of iron-making will understand, and they must also be things that only famous sword-casting masters can understand, he doesn't understand how the lord can understand these things, his mouth was surprised to put down a big stone, and he stammered and said: "The lord arranges troops and fights with bows and knives for a while, and the political affairs of the court in Luoyang are not the same, and now even cast iron and steel?" ”

Ma Yue sighed, this time he was even more determined to establish a state school and increase the mind of craftsmanship, shook his head and said: "My family used to live in Zhangshanli, and the neighbors are all descendants of the war with General Fubo. ”

"Lord, this is easy to do, bring your senior, if the senior can not hide the art professor Chuanzhong craftsman, within half a year, his subordinates will guarantee to give you six hundred excellent thirty forging ring knives every month!"

Ma Yue looked at Liu Bad, who was full of energy, but couldn't laugh, and his tone was a little low, "A few years ago, that bastard of the kingdom burned Zhangshan in order to sell horses, and the seniors in the clan were ......in the ancestral house at that time."

Liu Bad stopped talking, and silently treated Ma Yue to the iron-making division, saying that it was the iron-making division, but it seemed that the houses were surrounded in a big village in twos and threes, and there were all kinds of utensils at the door of each house, including stonemasons, carpenters, and blacksmiths' forges.

In the center of the ironmaking division, Ma Yue finally saw an oval iron-making blast furnace commonly known as 'earth hearth', four or five meters wide in the north and south, about one zhang in the east and west, more than half a meter high, there is a workbench in front of the furnace, and there is a stone slab column base below, and there are two drainage holes in between. There is also a specially dug slag pit nearby, which shows that the skills are very complete, but there are no blowers, only a few air bags made of animal skins.

"They're not together? What is the rationale for this? Ma Yue frowned and thought that in this era, skills are still paid attention to, and every craftsman eats by hand, and it is difficult to carry forward the skills, which made Ma Yue come up with two words in a flash of inspiration.

Pipeline operations.

Craftsmen divide labor and cooperate to set a unified standard operation, which will be much more efficient, right?

"Liu, come here." Ma Yue thought of it, and ordered his entourage to send a sheepskin pen and ink, and pulled Liu Bad into the ironmaking officer's place, and then sat down and said to Liu Bad eagerly: "You tell me, it takes several steps to make a ring knife, start from the beginning, and tell me all about it." ”

The entourage sent the pen and ink, and Ma Yue held the pen and waited for Liu Bad's next words, and saw Liu Bad pondering for a while, and said to Ma Yue: "Iron smelting and steelmaking, quarrying, smelting, blocking, and forging require at least these four steps. After that, it is the making of the model, the filling of molten steel, the beating of iron bars, quenching, the pasting of steel, forging, quenching, and the final forming and grinding. Well, that's all there should be. ”

"Look at it, it's not these twelve steps." Ma Yue moved the animal skin in front of Liu Bad and said: "I wonder if it is possible to do this, separate the twelve steps, specialize in them, and work out a unified standard, not only for casting knives, but also for bow-making, one step per person, for a long time, the annual meeting will be skilled enough in this step, and the speed will be faster and faster." The quarryman is in charge of quarrying, and there is another person who distributes the stone to the iron dissolver, and the iron dissolver is in charge of dissolving iron, and it goes on in turn, like flowing water, what do you think? ”

Liu Bad was still stunned, this kind of skill had never appeared, although Ma Yue knew that the earliest assembly line operation appeared in the Qin Dynasty, but it may have been because of the war and the Qin Dynasty's strict supervision of ordnance and the dynasty, at least he had never heard of such a situation in the Han Dynasty books he had read and what he had seen and heard. While he was still imagining it in his mind, he saw that Ma Yue had already drawn something on the animal skin.

"With wooden boards, take two sides, the middle is connected by soft and tough animal skins, the animal skins are supported by two iron bars, the iron bars are punched, connected by iron nails, the animal skins are sealed, one end is equipped with air outlets, and the other end is connected with the opposite wooden board with a small opening." Ma Yue said while drawing the prototype of the blower on the animal skin, and said: "The fan is fixed next to the furnace, and if one person pulls the wooden plank, the air outlet will be closed, and the air inlet ......will be opened."

"Don't talk about it, the lord doesn't say it, this is the same as the principle of platoon, the subordinates understand, this is easy to do, and it is easier to blow the wind." Before Ma Yue finished speaking, Liu Bad had already eagerly interrupted what he was saying, but instead snatched the wolf hair on the animal skin and then perfected the drawing of the blower, and said: "This is much easier to use than the row, but my lord, can you say the previous one again...... What is it called to make ordnance like flowing water? The subordinates are dull and difficult to understand. ”

"It is worthy of being a master craftsman from Luoyang, and he can see through it at all!" Ma Yue looked at the blower drawing of Liu Bad's complete and praised, and then said: "You said the assembly line, in this way, each step has developed a standard, such as steelmaking, divided into pig iron, wrought iron, steel three levels, the iron bar is set as a two-foot-seven-inch saber model, even the carpenter who makes the handle of the knife is the same, listen to me, our Liangzhou women raise more cattle and horses, less ploughing and weaving, less silk thread can not be wrapped around the scabbard, with the carpenter for it, unified production of eight-inch wood chips and double grip ring knife, so that the craftsman is skilled in making a step, it is getting faster and faster, Individual skills can easily rise. ”

"In this way, it may be difficult for a single person to make weapons, but if they are collectively formed, weapons will be produced continuously."

"My subordinates understand!" Liu Bad slapped his thigh excitedly and said: "In this way, not only weapons, but also farm tools can be produced in this way, flowing water, assembly line production, after half a year and a year after the craftsman is skilled, not to mention the sword and armor, even if it is a crossbow, we can make it, and once we can do it, then we will continue to produce it when the resources are sufficient, even if a crossbow is broken, it can be replenished and repaired immediately, even if it is on the battlefield!" ”

"Yes, that's it!" Ma Yue nodded heavily, looked at Liu Bad and said: "I hope you understand, this ironmaking division is the first institution established since I returned to Liangzhou, craftsmen are the top priority in the army, don't take it lightly, craftsmen still need to continue to recruit, three hundred people are far from enough, the army I need to equip is now only more than a thousand armored army, but once the war starts, what is needed is tens of thousands of arrows, complete sets of armor, inexhaustible spearhead guns, and the current situation in Liangzhou The war has been unstoppable. Between the ten months, either Han Sui or Song Jian will move lightly, don't wait for me, Liu Bad, Liangzhou's armament is heavy, but it all falls on your shoulders! ”

Liu Bad nugged his mouth and twitched his nose, he never thought that he was so important, in Liangzhou, a military group headed by Ma Yue, the resourceful scribes who sat in the staff office, and the warriors who were strong in martial arts and entered the county, were full of all kinds of soldiers, and he was a craftsman who followed Ma Yue from Luoyang to here, in order to get Ma Yue's reuse, and no longer have to suffer the cold eyes of those high-ranking Central Plains scholars.

Even if the people of the Central Plains do not recognize Ma Yue's 'scholars', but in his eyes, such a side general who straddles the horse and raises the knife is already a soldier, and now, in Ma Yue's speech, it is revealed that he has the same important role as the craftsman and those soldiers, Liu Bad almost cried, he hurriedly bowed down and bowed to the ground, let the tears flow on the ground, kowtowed and said: "You don't need to worry too much, your subordinates will repair the book and the old friend of the Shaofu, please invite him to the cold to preside over the weapon casting, and he will definitely be the master of the iron smelting division for the source of weapons in Liangzhou!" ”