In Ding Qi's concept, after hematite is smelted, it should be formed by molten iron or not smelted out of molten iron, rather than the solid matter in front of you, which is temporarily called iron melt.

But if you think about it, the current furnace temperature is simply not enough to melt iron into molten iron. According to Ding Qi's estimate, the current furnace temperature is about 1,300 degrees, far from reaching the melting temperature of more than 1,500 degrees for molten iron. Therefore, this iron melt is supposed to be iron smelted out of ore, but it does not reach the state of melting into molten iron. Therefore, there are many impurities in this iron melt.

If you look closely, this spongy molten iron is not really solid, but a state between viscous magma and a mass of red-hot iron.

The first time he saw this thing, Ding Qi, who should have been depressed, became happy. Is it possible to divide a part of iron in this state and forge it after it has been cooled for a period of time, just like a blacksmith does when he strikes iron?

It is not a molten iron substance, so it cannot be cast, but it can be forged by separating a part of it!

So how to divide it?

With a bronze guillotine, cut it off!

Another way is to remove the clay jar that was to be connected to the molten iron and lay several layers of thick bricks on the bottom of the furnace. When a part of this solid object is brought out, it is directly hooked out with a bronze spear hook and placed on a flat bluestone or a whole bronze ingot for forging. What tools need to be made, how much material is needed, can be hooked directly from under the iron-making furnace, but the cutting step is omitted.

The more he thought about it, the more feasible it became, Ding Qi immediately arranged for someone to find or build the corresponding tools, and at the same time called ten highly skilled blacksmiths to come over, and dragged over a guillotine, ready to divide the large piece of molten iron in the clay jar.

After nearly a year of development, the tribe has created nine bronze anvils, and those that are not enough are replaced by large bluestone anvils that have been leveled and cut. Looking at the iron melt in front of him, which was like a large water tank, combined with the cooling time of the iron melt, Ding Qi probably needed ten people to build it together.

With the joint efforts of everyone, nine bronze anvils and one bluestone anvil were all transported, and the temperature just dropped partially. This is due to the strong physique of primitive people, of course, in the final analysis, because of the good food of the tribe.

Large and small bronze pliers were also brought in, and they were prepared to see which type of pliers to use based on the iron melt cut out.

In Tinch's plan, the first tools to be crafted are hammers and anvils, which are essential tools for blacksmiths. With these more durable and durable iron-striking tools, more useful and delicate tools will be made. From this point, it can be seen how exquisite the blacksmith skills of the Chinese nation are, as thin as an iron needle, as heavy as an iron gate, as fine as a knife and arrow, and as clever as a steel pipe, all of which are difficult for them.

Under the cutting of bronze guillotines, the people hurriedly divided the molten iron into pieces of various sizes, moved them to the anvil with bronze pliers and spear hooks, and began to strike the iron.

Bang!

Sparks flew everywhere, and the impurities that flew out of the molten iron flew out of the iron and flew around, extinguishing before they could hit the ground.

Bite! While! Ding! Dangdang! Ding Ding Ding! Dangdang!

As the first smash sounded, the clanging sound was heard incessantly, and the sound of clanging bells wafted around the iron-making furnace like a song of steel.

Crafting an iron hammer is considered a basic skill for these blacksmiths of the tribe, and it doesn't take much effort to build it. Mainly after forging and forming, it is more troublesome to punch the hole, you need to use a tool to punch the hole, and then expand the hole to the size you need. At this point, the shape of the hammer has changed, and it needs to be hammered back to its original shape and annealed with cool water.

In the process of forging, they kept walking back and forth between the anvil and the red-hot charcoal stove next to it, constantly forging, burning red, and forging again. The hammer that everyone makes is their own customary hammer style, for convenience

I'm going to build other tools.

There are two sizes of hammers, one is a small hammer held by the blacksmith himself, and the other is a large hammer held by another blacksmith. These guys are nothing, but the lifeblood of their blacksmiths, they have built it with great care.

The blacksmiths were there to build it, while Ding Qi squatted in front of the furnace to study how to raise the furnace temperature and turn the iron ore into molten iron for casting.

In fact, if Ding Qi thinks about it carefully, he can understand that it is not that they do not work hard, but that the current level of productivity is low, and if they want to make an iron furnace that can make molten iron, not only the furnace needs to be built well, but the fuel in it must also meet the requirements.

Ding Qi's iron-making process is actually similar to that of ancient people smelting iron, and that kind of iron melt was called block iron smelting in ancient times. Block iron smelting itself has low carbon content, soft texture and many impurities, and it is wrought iron smelted in the early days of human beings.

The ancient people were very smart, they used the block of iron as the raw material of iron, heated and absorbed carbon in a carbon fire, increased the carbon content, and then forged to remove impurities and infiltrate carbon to obtain steel. This kind of steel is called block iron-making carburizing steel.

At this time, the steel was still far from the mountain knife in Ding Qi's hand, the steel pipe made into steel spears and condenser pipes, and it was necessary to continue to forge iron striking techniques such as Bailian to obtain better quality steel.

Ding Qi did not have such a big luxury, he only hoped to obtain iron with the help of hematite, create some suitable tools and weapons, and improve the productivity of the tribe and the advanced nature of the army's weapons in the primitive society.

"What does it mean to refine the rigidity and turn it into a finger twisting soft!"

Ding Qi knew that this was the highest level of iron. Therefore, on the special tools of the blacksmiths, Ding Qi asked them to forge according to the standards of a hundred tempers. This is not something that can be done overnight, the road is pointed to them, and it is up to this group of blacksmiths to get there!

So back to the question just now, how can we increase the furnace temperature?

Or the material, or the fuel. The best fuels are coal and coke, and no coal has been found yet, so he can only let this matter go further, but he is not in a hurry, and when all the tribes are merged into the Ding tribe and all the forces are fused, all kinds of materials or fuels will be discovered one after another.

The rest of the work was arranged and supervised by the red deer here, including continuing to smelt the pieces of iron, and the little smelting was taken out of the furnace, whether it was cooled or continued to be forged, it was up to them to decide. Ding Qi had set a target for them, a hammer, a knife, and a pot.

Ding Qi is fed up with the trouble of cooking in a clay pot, and he can't be hot or cold, but he doesn't have an iron pot to make and durable. Besides, the food cooked in the iron pot is relatively delicious. It depends on whether the group of blacksmiths of the tribe can forge an iron pot, such as the well-known iron pot in the 21st century.

After finishing this work, Ding Qi went to the workshop where he made toothbrushes, which was the place where he arranged for Jing and Niu Er to make toothbrushes together after he returned.

In winter, there are very few branches that can be used, and the trees in sight around the tribe have long been broken bare. The branches used to make toothbrushes don't break off the trees every day, but the trees can't stand it for a long time! With the help of the ladder, only the top of the trees around Ningcheng was not broken, and the rest of the place was already light.

Therefore, after Ding Qi came back and showed the toothbrush he made to Jing and Niu Er, the two hit it off and sent twenty people each to make the toothbrush. The Jing people made wooden or bone handles, while the Niu Er people collected suitable hair from horses and sheep to make toothbrush bristles, which were then stuffed into holes in the toothbrush handles with bronze needles and fine threads. The assembly line operation is still quite fast.

At present, there are many small workshops in the tribe, such as clothing, pen, paper, wool, soap, and wine lamps, all of which are concentrated around the toothbrush workshop. Moreover, these small workshops are representative of refined products, which are quite different from the same things produced outside the city. In Tinch's words

Speaking of which, the factories outside the city belong to the factory, and the workshops inside the city belong to the R&D center.

After the snow stopped, in addition to the important work of ironmaking, the reindeer transport team, under the protection of two squads of soldiers, pulled the snow climbing plow, carried some materials to Tongcun, and continued to transport the copper plate back to Ningcheng. As the leader of this transport team, the bull pedals on his skis and constantly observes the front and back of the team, for fear of being accidentally attacked by lions, saber-toothed tigers or bears lurking in the snow or jungle.

A five-man squad was also sent out by the Brute Bull to act as a vanguard in the direction of travel, clearing trees in the way, possible snow pits, etc. The team behind followed the traces left by the five-person team and moved forward quickly.

In addition to an animal skin hat on each of the convoys, there was also a hat on their heads, which was used to protect them from the wind and snow. These hats were all made by the butterfly and their craftsman team according to Ding Qi's requirements. Although it was winter, the people of the Ding tribe who saw the appearance of the hat for the first time liked it very much and tried it on one after another.

The snow was deep, about half a meter thick, and it was not easy to ride horses, and the speed of walking on skis was comparable to that of reindeer in the snow, so the transporters and other fighters traveled on skis. There were also five or six vigilant dogs, lying on the snow plows and following the procession, only coming down to guard the surroundings when they were camping.

Although the snow did not continue to fall in the vast snowfield, the group seemed to feel a little lonely during the journey. The wild bull couldn't help but wonder, would there be other people or tribes walking in the snow like themselves on this cold day?

They are not alone, there are two teams of people and a group of horses running on this snowy field. One team is the people of the Jishi tribe led by Falcon, and the other team is the object of the five warriors led by Luo Yu who have arrived at the location of the Yuan Yu tribe: Elephant Trunk and three people. As for the group of horses, there were nearly a thousand members, and under the leadership of the beastmaster, they rushed over the lizard slope and went straight to the large meadow. After resting in the pasture to fill their bellies, continue to rush out of the Wild Horse Valley according to the memories in their veins, and run to their winter wintering grounds, if there are no accidents.

And looking at the vast wilderness world centered on Ningcheng, there are many tribes who have changed the previous rules of not daring to step out of the tribe's cave, holding homemade bows and arrows, nets, etc., looking for various animals around the tribe to supplement the tribe's fresh meat.

As the tribe exchanged various practical tools from the Ding tribe, such as pottery, coarse salt, bronze daggers, kitchen knives, fishing winds, axes, and bronze saws, the whole tribe obtained more food, fuel, and was able to protect its own tribe members from predators. There are even some powerful tribes that have even begun to attack fierce beasts such as wolves and saber-toothed tigers, putting the tribe in a relatively safe environment.

The leaders of the tribes knew that more people would survive this winter, and they could start increasing the tribal population in due course.

How to increase? Day and night exercise makes people!

As long as it is a tribe related to the Ding tribe, they have begun to accumulate strength throughout the winter and work hard to welcome the new spring. For example, the Blackwater Tribe, the Bey Tribe, and even the remnants of the Houtu tribe hidden in that valley. In addition to exercising every day, they eat and drink in the wooden hut and complete the daily plan to create a man.

This is the goal proposed by the leader Shang Tu, he wants to restore the strength of his tribe to the strength of a medium-sized tribe in a short period of time, kill all enemies who dare to betray the Houtu tribe and the alliance of the five major tribes, and finally usher in the glory of belonging to the first tribe. Only then did he feel that he had the face to face the dead people! In his heart, this is the only reason and excuse for his existence in the world. In order to achieve his goal, he will do whatever it takes to plunder women and survival resources for his tribe to grow.

And the Aragami who brought all this sat in Jing's carpenter's workshop and carved the bamboo blocks in his hands with Jing. These bamboo blocks are roasted over the fire and made into mahjong-sized, flat bamboo blocks. There are some familiar images depicted on it, just like mahjong.