Chapter 2: Hundred Trials (Part 2)

The two-layer refractory brick furnace is neatly stacked into a Zeng character, the upper layer is charcoal, and the lower layer is iron. Block the fire door with a large piece of wood, start the fire, pull the bellows, and the flame is poured upside down from the upper layer of the Zeng Zi furnace to the lower level.

"Two-thirds charcoal, one-third coke, poured fire from the fire hole, saw the pig iron yellow, provoked the pig iron, and roasted it close to the flame," Xiao Zinian muttered the "Compendium of Stir-frying Iron" given to him by Wen Tianxiang, and turned the iron seriously, sweat with oil, rolled down his black and white face, and soaked through the Confucian robe.

This is the iron frying technique taught to him by Wen Tianxiang, according to the Prime Minister, a good master can fry eighty catties of wrought iron from one hundred catties of pig iron, and can even directly fry iron into steel. At present, the baggage battalion obviously has not yet met this requirement, and all the soldiers and blacksmiths are counted together, and there are less than ten craftsmen who can fry seventy catties of qualified wrought iron from 100 catties of pig iron. The ordnance needed to be urgent, and Xiao Zi had to start several stoves at the same time and do it himself.

One day early out of the steel, go down the mountain early to kill the Tartars, Yongxin was slaughtered, Taihe was slaughtered, and the news from the mountain was bloody and tearful.

The once prosperous city has been turned into a rubble field under the iron hooves of the Northern Yuan. Zhang Heng, a native of Western Xia, and a Mongolian man, one of them sang with a red face and the other with a white face. One is good at appeasing the surrendered city, and the other is slaughtering the city and exterminating the people in the resisting city.

The eyes of Xiao Zi and the craftsmen flashed with anger, many of the craftsmen were from Jiangnan West Road, and it was their hometown that the Tartars slaughtered.

Under the blazing flame, the pig iron slowly turned white, and several baggage soldiers pulled the bellows together, and the blue-white flame pierced more than three inches long, baking the iron into a direct glaze. And what jumped between the heavy flames was the dream of the officers and soldiers to go down the mountain as soon as possible to take revenge.

Xiao Zi picked out the iron block with the tongs, looked at it carefully, and handed him to the craftsman next to him. The shirtless blacksmith had been waiting for a long time, took the iron, and beat the wrought iron into thin strips while it was hot on the stones by the mountain stream.

The soldier in charge of the next process collects wrought iron bars, which are cross-stacked in the steel furnace. A layer of iron bars and a layer of charcoal, after the steel furnace is full, the furnace is sealed, and the crude steel can be calcined with charcoal fire for seven days and seven nights. The crude steel was taken out and repeatedly calcined, which was the broadsword, the blade of the spear, which the soldiers could take to cut the tartars.

"Ninety-nine with a steel knife, kill all the Hu'er before stopping, I am a good son of the Han family, don't make horses and cattle for the Tartars", Li Er, the master in charge of the beating, whispered the military song of the Broken Army, and the sledgehammer and the small hammer jingled to accompany him. The steel is of different colors, thick and hard, beaten into strips of quenching, and will be rotary welded as a blade. If it is soft and tough, it will be quenched first, and then tempered and kneaded, which can be a crossbow arm.

Prime Minister Wen Cheng said that the civil and military are side by side, the officers and soldiers are equal, and the craftsmen have no craftsman status, and they are also soldiers of the Broken Army. In the future, if you have silver, you will receive the same salary, and you will receive the same reward after meritorious service. Thinking of this, the blacksmiths felt that they had not done it in vain, although the salary seemed relatively far away, and the reward was also a matter of no score, but after all, in the Broken Army, they could be a man with a straight waist.

Moreover, in the craftsman camp, you can also see Master Wen in person, and hear him personally instruct everyone how to fry iron and temper steel.

No one saw him as a craftsman anymore, and his children were free to change careers. Even go to study and become an official.

During the day, he struck iron, and at night he was literate with the soldiers and learned to read pictures. I'm so busy all day and night that I have to run to the toilet. But Li Er felt that he was living a solid life.

Under the teaching of Master Chen Longfu, he has lived for half a life, and when he picked up a brush for the first time, the trembling feeling was heavier than holding a hammer.

The first word that Old Master Chen taught everyone to write was only two strokes, one glance and one stroke. Old Master Chen said that you should work hard and be steady, just like a person, you will straighten your waist wherever you go, and you will be upright.

It's better to be a man for a day than to be a dog for a tartar, you say, isn't it?

Blacksmith Li Er grabbed the tip of the gun that had just been beaten, touched the tip of the hot gun, nodded with satisfaction, and put the head of the gun into the stream.

In the mountain stream, a puff of white smoke rose from the vacant land, and after the smoke dissipated, the blacksmith Li Er found that Prime Minister Wen Cheng was here again, this time not only did he come to the baggage camp to inspect it, but also took the deputy marshal Zou Wei and the superintendent Liu Yanwang behind him to join the army Du Hu.

In the morning, the training plan was arranged, and in the afternoon, Wen Tianxiang took Zou Xun, Du Hu and Liu Zijun to the baggage camp. The progress of the manufacture of ordnance had to be accelerated, and according to the news that the general had returned from the vicinity of Ganzhou, in recent days, the scattered rebels had moved closer to the vicinity of Baizhangling, which had attracted the attention of the conquerors. In the area of the Jianchang Army (Jiangxi Nancheng), the new annex army has begun to assemble.

"The new annexed army (the puppet army attached to the Northern Yuan) must be armed to the teeth before entering the mountains to suppress it. In the first battle, either we don't fight, or if we want to fight, we will make a prestige, so that the new annexed army will walk around when they see our banner in the future." Join the army Du Hu suggested. The main force of the Northern Yuan Dynasty has now entered the Guangnan West Road and the Guangnan East Road, defeating or intimidating the new annexed army on the Jiangnan West Road, and the Broken Army will have time to train the second standard of men and horses.

The baggage battalion was stationed in a mountain depression in the eastern part of Baizhangling, where the terrain was relatively flat, and the mountain stream that tinkled through it provided a source of water for the blacksmiths to quench their fire. If Wen Tianxiang had not been remembered by Wen Zhong, this kind of Zeng Zi furnace improved according to the chicken nest stove would not have appeared during the Anti-Japanese War. Now that it came out in advance, Wen Tianxiang hopes that what he is fighting is the last war on the Chinese mainland.

According to Wenzhong's memory, there is a country in the west that has been burned by war for 600 years, so the flag of that country has been planted all over the world. Wen Tianxiang did not seek to plant the banner of the Great Song Dynasty all over the world, but only hoped that those plunderers would go back to their hometowns and taste the burning of their homes for themselves.

"Brother, are you tired, do you want to stop and drink saliva", Wen Tianxiang squatted next to the blacksmith Li Er, picked up the finished product he had built, looked at it, and asked with a smile.

"I'm not thirsty, I have to hurry up, I can't let the brothers kill the Tartars empty-handed, your family said, no", blacksmith Li Er is estimated to be a Jinghu (Hunan), speaking to your family, it sounds very kind, and I have seen Wen Tianxiang many times, so I don't call him an official title.

"Yes, your family is busy, I'll go over there and take a look", Wen Tianxiang stood up, smiled and walked deeper into the valley. Along the way, he stopped from time to time to talk to the blacksmiths, as if he had wheeled an oil hammer in his previous life.

"It's just amazing," Du Hu picked up a piece of soft steel for making a crossbow arm, looked at it for a while, and sighed. As a member of the scholarly class, I usually regarded the skills of craftsmen as too low or too mysterious, but today I was fortunate enough to witness the various stages of the manufacture of mild steel, and the shock in my heart is indescribable.

Running, shuttling, busy craftsmen, in his eyes, gradually transformed into thousands of troops, thousands of horses, in front of a million iron horses, the general Du Hu immediately crossed the gun.

"Isn't it a wonder to see things without seeing them, hearing them, and judging whether they exist or not"! Wen Tianxiang knew Du Hu's thoughts, and smiled and quoted a famous quote from Su Dongpo to make fun of him. From everyone thinking that it was impossible to make a steel crossbow to now hoping to get a steel crossbow as soon as possible, it was only a month before and after. He was very satisfied with the progress of Xiao Zi's work. But what he was most concerned about at the moment was how much Xiao Zi had mastered the simple steelmaking technique he had described and how successful the experiment had been after more than a month.

Baizhangling can't be peaceful forever, so he chose the simplest, easiest to build and easiest to destroy technologies for Xiao Zi to study. Wen Tianxiang now agrees with part of the views of Wen Zhong in later generations, and is not in a hurry to develop technology to a higher and deeper level, but to digest the existing technology, promote, and manage every step of each process, first focusing on quality and then quantity. This is the way for the logistics department to survive in guerrilla warfare.

"Prime Minister, Lord Joiner, why are you here", Xiao Zi's face was full of fireworks, put down his work, and hurried to the salute.

"Come and see how you're doing, Du Junshi is still thinking about his soft sword," Wen Tianxiang replied with a smile.

"It's quite smooth, two sample bows have been made, the range can reach two hundred and thirty steps, not as far as the divine arm bow, but the winding and archery speed is faster than the divine arm bow, the key is not to bend down and step on it with your feet, saving effort." Xiao Zi excitedly reported.

"You burned the coke that Bun-sama said"? Du Hu asked tentatively. These days, he has been exposed to too many new terms. In the army, the saying that Wen Tianxiang was given the book of heaven by the immortals in a coma spread with a nose and eyes, and even the title and volume of the book were compiled as if they were true. It is also rumored that Xiao Zi is the founding disciple of Wen Cheng, who is directly responsible for making the treasures on the Book of Heaven. These rumors sometimes made Du Hu confused, and he didn't dare to be too blunt about Xiao Zi's questioning.

"It's burned out," Xiao Zi's voice was a little disappointed in excitement, "The craftsmen used peat to burn the coke, and the effect of mixing coke and charcoal when frying iron is much better than charcoal." But the peat found is running out soon, and now men are being mobilized to go down the mountain to find it."

"Don't worry, step by step, first give some farm tools to the people under the mountain with steel materials of not very good quality. See if the mountain people have peat in their hands", Wen Tianxiang smiled and gave Xiao Zi an idea, "Also, when making crossbows, let the craftsmen separate, only make crossbow arms, only drive wheels, and only crossbow machines, and you can also divide them into more detail, but each part must be marked with a number and a manufacturer's mark, so that if there is a failure, you can find out which process is not made well."

Xiao Zi nodded, and immediately sent someone to arrange the division of labor and cooperation. He didn't know that Wen Tianxiang arranged this way to speed up the manufacturing progress of crossbow arrows, but instead regarded the division of labor and cooperation as a means of secrecy.

The superiority of the steel crossbow is obvious, firstly, it does not deform due to the weather, and secondly, it does not require so many materials. The armament book says that to make a good bow and crossbow, it is necessary to "analyze the bow trunk in winter, treat the horns in the spring, treat the tendons in the summer, close the materials in the autumn, put the bow arm in the bow box in the cold winter to finalize, and repair the appearance in the severe winter and extreme cold." Although the process of making a steel crossbow is complex and the process requirements are strict, there is not so much time to pay attention to. Therefore, in Xiao Zi's heart, this kind of stunt cannot be mastered by the Northern Yuan no matter what, and then it is like using a divine arm bow to slaughter the soldiers of the Great Song Dynasty in turn.

This book was first published from 17k, the first time to see the genuine content!

#includevirtual="/fragment/6/3236.html".qrcode{width:590px; margin:0auto; background:#fff; border:1pxsolidc; padding:15px20px; overflow:hidden; }.qrcodeimg{float:left; }.qrcodeul{margin-left:120px; font:14px/1.5"microsoftyahei"; padding-left:15px; }.qrcodeli{list-style:square; margin-bottom:5px; }

Scan the QR code to pay attention to the 17k official WeChat, and the latest chapters can also be seen on WeChat! Click on the + number in the upper right corner of WeChat, select Add Friends, and search for the official account "wap_17k" to follow us. Reply to "Grand Prize + Your QQ Number" to participate in the event. 10 iPhone6, 10,000 QQ members are waiting for you!