It is estimated that it will take more than ten days for thousands of catties of tea tree fruits to be squeezed into oil, so Chen Xu didn't want to continue to watch the excitement, so he cleaned up his chaotic mood and went to the blacksmith shop.

The new iron-making furnace had been repaired, made of refractory bricks and clay, and was just over a meter high, and in addition to the coal-fired earthen stove and bellows, there was a ring of loess stacked next to it, so that it was easy to see the inside from the high platform, and several crucibles of various sizes made of graphite powder and clay had been prepared.

"Ridian!" He and a few apprentices and helpers greeted him and saluted.

"How's it going?" Chen Xu dismounted and threw the reins to Wang Wu and the other four guards who were inseparable from his butt every day.

"This kind of coal and stone is indeed fierce, iron ore and cast iron can be melted, but we have tested several furnaces in a row in the past few days, and what we have obtained is still similar to the previous cast iron, and we can't do the same as you said that it can be forged and processed, and the forged things are easy to crack in layers, but they are not as brittle as before, you see, these are all ......" said the hemp pole, pointing to several iron products of different shapes thrown by the stove.

Chen Xu picked up a long strip that looked like an iron sword billet and looked at it carefully, there were indeed many cracks on it, and there were some places that were layered, which looked like burrs.

"Wang Wu, try it with your big sword!" Chen Xu handed the sword blank to Wang Wu.

Wang Wu grabbed the iron sword and looked at it, Wang Qi pulled out the golden sword from his waist, and the two of them took a posture and slashed at each other, and when a spark flew everywhere, the two stopped.

"Huh~" Wang Wu couldn't help but let out a surprised sound, because the iron sword blank in his hand was not broken, but only slightly bent, and Wang Qi couldn't help but let out a surprised sound after retracting the big sword, because a gap appeared on the blade of his big sword.

"Ridian, it seems that this iron sword is still good!" Wang Qi was stunned for a long time and said.

Chen Xu's short-term surprise was followed by excitement, which showed that after the crucible was heated and melted and drummed into the hot air, the impurities in the pig iron were reduced a lot, and it already had good toughness, but the reduction was not enough, and it was necessary to continue to smelt the impurities.

But at the moment, whether it is himself or hemp rod, there has never been experience in iron smelting and copper smelting, hemp rod is just a craftsman, will only cast the refined bronze ingot into a finished product, this process is not complicated, that is, the copper block is melted and cast into the approximate shape needed by the mold, and then after simple forging, bronze weapons can not be repeatedly folded and forged like steel weapons, can only be formed and then forged at one time, so if the speed is not good when pouring, This kind of bronze utensils will cause uneven internal connections due to temperature changes, and it is easy to have problems when used, but steel is different, it can be repeatedly heated, folded and forged, and the impurities and carbon inside can be tempered out, and even wrought iron can be used as a sword blank, pig iron as a sword blade, and after forging, they are combined together to form a weapon with high toughness and sharpness.

Where can I find a guy who is proficient in ironmaking?

Otherwise, it would be too difficult to smelt weapon-grade steel by relying on hemp rods and oneself alone.

"Wang Qi, you go to the health center to see how the worker slave we rescued from outside Wancheng last time is doing, if you can move, get him here!" Chen Xu thought for a moment and commanded.

"Good!" Wang Qi turned over and rode away, and Chen Xu picked up several other iron products on the ground and looked at them next to each other, some of them were basically useless, and they were directly broken into several pieces, but there were still a few things that were similar to the iron sword, with cracks on the surface, as well as peeling and burrs after beating.

Ten minutes later, Wang Qi returned, and immediately there was a middle-aged man who looked dark and thin, his hair was still unkempt, but he had changed into a half-new and half-used thick winter coat, and he also wore a pair of bast shoes on his feet.

This worker slave has been living in the health center since he was transported back to Qinghe Town, and Chen Xu went to see it twice at first, but he was in a semi-coma and couldn't talk to him, and then Chen Xu was busy and didn't go, but after more than half a month of careful care by the doctor Xu Yao, he had recovered from the seven-seven-eighty-eight, although he looked bad, but obviously this life was picked up.

"Poof~" After getting off the horse, the worker slave knelt directly in front of Chen Xu and kowtowed, "Thank you Lord Lidian for saving your life!" ”

Chen Xu accepted his gift very calmly, it was necessary to kowtow a few times to save his life, and only after the middle-aged man got up did he ask: "What's your name!" ”

"Back to Lidian, the villain's name is Gong Lose!" The intermediary replied respectfully.

"Public loss? This surname is rare, could it be the descendants of the former Lu State master Gong Losing Class? Chen Xu asked suspiciously.

"Back to Lidian, the public loss class is the ancestor of victory!"

"Then you don't know how to make wood?" Chen Xu asked curiously.

"Go back to Lidian, won't win!"

Uh~ Chen Xu touched his nose regretfully, it seems that this Gong Win completely lost the ancestral wood inheritance, so he could only sigh regretfully, and asked about some things about this Gong Win in Ran Feng's workshop, but I didn't expect to feel that I had picked up a treasure, this Gong Win was proficient in smelting copper and iron, and he was still a very powerful smelting expert in Ran Feng's workshop, but he was in an oppressed position, guarding the smelting furnace to smelt copper and iron day and night. Under the long-term influence of toxic gases such as carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide released by the refining furnace, he suddenly died of lung disease, but he was lucky enough to pull it out and not die, and was picked up by Chen Xu again.

Therefore, after asking clearly, Chen Xu didn't know whether to say that he was lucky to win or lose, or if he was lucky, and there was an unexpected surprise when he picked up a dead man and came back.

"Since you are proficient in smelting copper and iron, it just so happens that I have improved a smelting furnace that can completely melt iron and stone into juice, but the impurities in it cannot be removed, you have a way to solve it, if you can, I can not only help you get rid of slavery, but also hire you to be a craftsman in our Qinghe Town, and even settle here to reward the land......"

"Big ...... My lord, you didn't cheat me? "I was thrilled to win.

"How can I tell you, you can inquire about this Qinghe Town, as long as you are a capable person, you will be reused, not only household registration and settling down, as long as you do a good job, I will also give money and cloth every month to ensure that you live a worry-free life, how about it?"

"Good...... Well, I'll be able to do it! Gong Chuan Sheng, full of excitement, hurriedly agreed.

"Well, come and see, this is the smelting furnace I designed, using coal and stone to make a fire, the fire temperature is nearly twice higher than using charcoal, this is a blast furnace, you can drum into the coal furnace and the smelting furnace, and after the iron melts into juice, use the iron rod to stir the scum inside to fish out, and the last thing you get is this kind of iron, which can be processed and forged for secondary processing, but now the impurities in the iron juice are not very clean, so it is easy to crack and layer up......" Chen Xu took the victory to the side of the refining furnace and explained carefully.

And after listening to the victory of Gong Cheng for a long time, he said with an excited face: "Lord Lidian, if this coal stone can really raise the temperature of the fire to the point of completely melting the iron, it will be easy to smelt refined iron!" ”

"Really?" Chen Xu was overjoyed.

"Sheng dare not say nonsense, as long as the iron juice is added to clean sand and limestone and other slag materials, in fact, fine iron has long been tested, but because of the furnace temperature, has not been able to be used on a large scale, I have seen in the workshop, with more than 1,000 catties of good charcoal, with four blast bags to keep blowing wind, in a completely closed furnace after heating for four hours after the iron can be melted into juice, and then after several times of slag can get refined iron, but the price is too high, because a furnace can only smelt more than ten catties of refined iron at most, the owner of the shop gave up completely after a few experiments! "Say it quickly if you lose or lose.

"Haha, okay, then you are now a craftsman in the iron-smelting workshop, and this iron-making furnace is under your control, hemp ......"

"In!" Ma Pole hurriedly agreed.

"From today onwards, we must not slack off in closely cooperating with the public and winning and carefully studying ironmaking!"

"Don't worry!" Without the slightest hesitation, he agreed.

"Well, clothes, gloves, hats, and masks must be fully equipped! The body has not yet recovered, mainly to instruct you to wait for processing, and when the refined iron is successfully smelted to create a sharp steel weapon, I will go to the county government for you to ask for credit, and then recommend you to go to the county to open a blacksmith shop as a master! ”

"No, no, Ma Pole doesn't go to the county seat to be a master craftsman, I just want to follow Lidian in Qinghe Town!" The hemp rod shook his head again and again.

"Why are you so unmotivated?" Chen Xu couldn't help but criticize.

"Anyway, I won't go to the county seat!" Ma Zhu said with a red face.

"Okay, I'll leave it to you here, take care of Gongsun Sheng, if he has any accidents, I'll ask you!" Chen Xu said helplessly.

"Don't worry, nothing will go wrong!" Ma Pole hurriedly patted his chest and promised.

"By the way, where's my iron pot?" When Chen Xu was leaving, he remembered a big event.

"I got one, I don't know if you're satisfied?" The hemp pole quickly turned around and went to the pergola to move out a semicircular thing, which looked heavy.

After turning over and looking at this iron pot with a diameter of two feet and a thickness of half a centimeter, Chen Xu couldn't help but sigh and said, "It's too thick!" ”

Ma Zhu said with a bitter face: "Lidian, this is already the thinnest I can cast!" ”

"I don't care, it has to be thin anyway, the thinner the better!" Chen Xu shook his head, of course this is a real iron pot, but at least a coal stove must be used to fry vegetables in this kind of pot, and the temperature of the ordinary earthen stove for burning firewood and grass is not strong enough, so the temperature in the pot drops too quickly when stir-frying, and in the end it will still be made into stewed or boiled vegetables, which is not much different from the clay pot.

"My lord, I can improve the sand fan and the mold, and the thickness of the pouring can be reduced by half, I don't know if it's okay?" Gong Loser squatted down and carefully observed the semi-circular iron pot.

"Really?" Chen Xu was suddenly excited.

"Sheng doesn't dare to lie, in fact, it is okay to make it thinner, but if the heat inside is not drained cleanly when pouring, there will be leaks, in the casting room of the workshop, we have cast a very thin copper mirror, only one point thick, but the shape of the vessel is much smaller than this iron pot, and this pot is a mixed shape, and the sand fan should be made more finely, but it should not be too much of a problem to cast it carefully!" The public loses and wins, and it is very certain.

"Okay, if you can help me forge the iron pot, I will not only reward you with money and food, but also reward you with a mother-in-law!"

"Mother-in-law?!" Not only was the public stunned, but everyone at the scene opened their mouths wide.

"Hehe, I do what I say, what, you don't want a mother-in-law?" Chen Xu asked with a smile.

"Think...... I want to ......" Gong Loser Win came back to his senses and nodded his head like a chicken pecking rice, and his face was already a little excited and a little uncontrollable.

"Just think about it, do it well, the bread will be there, everything will be there!"