"What's your name?"

As Heifu paced past, the straight-hearted little blacksmith bowed his head, and could only see his sleeveless short strokes, and his arms were strong muscles.

Li Cang was beside him, and said again: "The prince asked you, what is your name?" ”

The little blacksmith raised his head, his chin had just grown a little black stubble, about eighteen or nineteen years old, his hair was covered with sweat, and he did not know whether it was hot by the forge, or frightened by the black man, but replied sneeringly:

"Junhou, the villain's name is Guo Shao."

"Guo Shao?"

Heifu nodded, it's a familiar name, I just don't remember where I've seen it.

"Listen to your accent, aren't you from Hengshan County, you moved from other places?"

"Yu Junhou, the villain is a native of Handan County, Zhao Di, who migrated here with his family a few years ago, and continued to engage in the ancestral business, playing iron and forging swords in Iron Mountain."

Heifu thought for a while: "Handan, Guo, blacksmith, are you the queen of Guo Zong?" ”

The young man was a little pleased: "The prince actually knows! Guo Zong is the ancestor of villains! ”

Guo Zong was the king of Zhao Wuling, Handan's famous big businessman, to operate the iron smelting industry and become very rich, after the fall of the Zhao State, the Qin officials will be nationalized by the iron smelting, Guo Shi tree big wind, a huge clan was dismantled, migrated to the county iron officials, but also by the way Zhao advanced iron smelting technology spread all over the world......

It seems that the young man in front of him is also one of them.

Heifu walked behind the boy, beside the blazing forge, and on the anvil lay quietly a four-and-a-half-foot-long sword, which had been forged......

The ruler is the Qin ruler, four and a half feet is more than a meter, and it seems to be a little short in later generations, but in the contemporaries, the sword that is generally three feet long has stood out from the crowd.

The bronze sword in the Spring and Autumn Period is generally no more than half a meter long, because the bronze material is brittle and easy to break, and the sword is wider and thicker.

After entering the Warring States period, iron swords began to prevail in various countries, and the blades and blades were thinner and sharper, and the length began to increase.

Heifu picked up the iron sword in front of him to weigh it, he was not an expert, but after more than ten years of military career, he could still distinguish between good and bad, and couldn't help but praise:

"Good sword, this sword is good, and it can be forged for such a long time, it is almost catching up with His Majesty's sword!"

Although most of the Qin army still used bronze swords, Qin Shi Huang was a catch-up with the trend, his saber was five feet long, because it was too long, when Jing Ke stabbed Qin, he couldn't pull it out in a hurry, so he could only dodge around the pillar. In the end, Qin was reminded left and right, and "Wang Negative Sword (Ship)" successfully pulled out the sword and hacked Jing Ke to death.

That's right, it's a slash, the sword opens with two edges, the body is straight and the head is pointed, it can hurt people horizontally and vertically, and the stab can penetrate the armor, and the stab is its main way of killing. But at that moment, Qin Shi Huang, who had never suffered such a great humiliation, was extremely ashamed, and he could only vent his anger by swinging his sword and slashing Jing Ke's thigh!

That's not the longest, Heifu has seen a long sword that can only be operated with both hands in Qidi, it is six feet long, nearly one meter four! No wonder there is a nursery rhyme in Qidi: "The big crown is like a basket, and the sword is cultivated", which means that the hilt of the sword can reach the cheek.

At this moment, the young blacksmith Guo was praised by Heifu, and raised his head happily: "If the prince does not dislike it, the villain is willing to forge a sword for the prince!" ”

Heifu shook his head: "The swordsman, the gentleman is armed, so self-defense starts in the Shang and Zhou dynasties, and its skills are at the beginning of the military array." Compared with the military horses, when the blades are intertwined, they resist the enemy with long weapons, defend themselves with short swords, kill from afar and fight closely, and complement each other. As for the Spring and Autumn Period, the sword entered the celebrities, the princes and generals, the masters, all admired the famous sword and learned its skills, understood its reason and understood its way, and used it for learning, then became a hundred schools; If it is used to govern the country, it will become a hegemonic power; If it is used for killing, it will become a strong general. ”

"However, although the sword is good, the sword I use more in the army at the moment is the sword."

Guo Shao loves swords, a few days ago, Heifu asked Tie Shan to forge a sword, but he didn't want to participate, and now he only felt that the sword was insulted, and he was a little indignant.

"Prince, the knife for chopping wood is a lowly weapon, how can it be compared to a sword?"

Heifu smiled: "Have you ever used a bronze sword to chop wood?" ”

Guo Shao shook his head: "No." ”

"Why?"

Guo Shao felt that this prince was knowingly asking: "Bronze is brittle and easy to break, it's okay to stab and kill, but it's too much to chop wood." ”

Copper is originally soft, so soft that it cannot be used as a weapon directly, and only when it is combined with tin to become bronze, it is a suitable material. But it went to the other extreme, becoming brittle and easy to break, and it was easy to break when it was chopped vigorously.

Therefore, throughout the Bronze Age, knives based on chopping and chopping were just a flash in the pan, at most small knives that pry shells and peel were popular in Yanqi, and gradually evolved into knife coins.

The sword is undoubtedly the most suitable bronze short soldier, and it deserves to be the king of a hundred soldiers.

In the people, the main force of chopping wood is also a copper axe.

Until the advent of the Iron Age, this situation began to change, although the military still followed the previous habit of using the sword, but in the people, the rough workmanship of the iron wood knife, has quietly appeared.

Especially in Nanjun, Yuzhang, Hengshan, Changsha and other places, in recent years, plantation owners in order to let slaves cut sugarcane, a kind of long ribs, wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, machetes without a knife tip are popular, the shape is quite similar to the Jingpo knife of later generations, Guo Shao has been here for several years, and he has naturally seen it.

"Have you ever chopped wood and sugar cane with an iron sword?"

Heifu seemed to be interested, so he sat down in the workshop and chatted with Guo Blacksmith unhurriedly.

"The iron sword is so expensive, how can it be used to chop wood!"

Guo Shao was a little confused, what's wrong with this prince, he can't get along with chopping wood, he, the marquis, can't he be chopping wood......

"Yes, the iron sword is expensive, a good long sword is hard to find, and my soldiers, not to mention tens of thousands, can't let them all be a hundred gold? I...... The imperial court can't afford it. ”

Heifu asked again, "How long did it take you to forge this long sword?" How many days did it take them to make a knife? ”

Guo Shao replied honestly: "I used it for a month." ”

The iron official on the side also came to report and said that on average, it only took three or five days for each iron knife.

This is natural, in terms of production process, the sword is much more difficult than the knife. The sword is double-edged, the body is narrow and thin, and the front is very sharp, so the material and smelting process of the sword are very demanding, not too soft, not too brittle, just right. A good sword, after the whole process, and then forged a hundred times, it takes at least a month, and some swords even take a year and a half......

And a machete that ordinary people can afford, good iron can be used on a single edge, the blade is wider, the back of the knife is thicker, and it generally does not break, and the process is sloppy. If it is slow, it will take five days, if it is fast, it will be two or three days, and if it can be mass-produced on the assembly line, it will be faster.

It is no wonder that later generations had a saying called "ten swords and one sword", which means that to make a sword and a sword of the same quality, it takes ten times as long to make a sword as a sword.

Generals must understand one thing: like soldiers, weapons are consumables, not treasures!

The army's standard equipment has always been cheap, simple, and easy to produce in large quantities under the premise of ensuring its power, which is why the Qin army has always been equipped with bronze weapons.

Hefu is the same, what he needs is a machete that can be mass-produced, cheap, and can adapt to the dense forests of the south, not only to chop trees and vines, but also to fight at any time. You don't need it to be refined into steel, you don't need it to be immortal for a thousand years, you don't need it to sharpen iron like mud, anyway, it's against the Yue people who are fighting naked, and no matter how blunt the knife is, it's enough to see blood when you cut it.

And the knife is faster than the sword, even in the encounter, because of the panic, the Qin soldiers forgot all the techniques, and learned from Qin Shi Huang to hit Jing Ke, just close their eyes and slash.

It is only a matter of time before bronze is replaced by iron, even if the steel process is not yet mature, the output is large, and the cost is cheap.

And in history, sooner or later, the sword will replace the sword, just as the noble gentleman will be replaced by the cloth man......

In the end, Heifu asked Tie Shan to make 5,000 machetes within three months, and asked Guo Blacksmith, who had good skills, to make ten good swords and swords for the generals in the army, but he said:

"Although the cost is expensive, there is no difference between high and low weapons, suitable for the battlefield, and those who can kill the enemy are good weapons!"

……

Hefu made more weapons for his army than a jungle machete.

After leaving the Iron Mountain, he went to the Tonglu Mountain forty miles to the south, even if there was a water drain fanning the flames, the quality of the iron smelted from charcoal alone was still worrying, except for the iron knife, other weapons were still mainly bronze.

Considering the Lingnan mountain forest area, good at attacking and ambushing, hand-to-hand combat, spears are not easy to use, in addition to the five thousand machetes of Tieshan, Heifu also customized 10,000 short swords in Tonglu Mountain, no more than one and a half feet long, it is not an exaggeration to call it a dagger, and it is also a single-sided blade, the shape is quite similar to the 95 military thorn, and strive for a hand.

"At that time, the equipment of each tun will be mainly based on shields and short soldiers, bows and crossbows, and a few long soldiers will be supplemented, which is much more reasonable than the previous spear and halberd."

After finalizing the army's standard weapons, Heifu ended his trip, he didn't want to go back to Exian and Wuchang, so he decided to take a detour, take a small road, and go directly to Changsha County.

In late February, when Heifu and his entourage arrived in Zhouling County, Gongao, who was training in the Wuchang camp, sent someone to report a message to him:

The overseers sent by the imperial court have finally arrived in Nanjun!

"Oh? Who is the Overseer? ”

Heifu secretly complained in his heart: It won't be Fusu again, right? It's okay once, it's okay for the second time, if Qin Shi Huang wants to let the two partner this time, Heifu even has to suspect that the emperor wants them to be together......

The messenger said: "There are two people here this time, one old and the other strong. ”

"The old man is the son of Lunhou."

"It turned out to be the Marquis of Changwu, ......"

It is true that the supervisor of the Qin Dynasty likes to send clans or emperor's cronies, and they must have a high status, so that they will not be hollowed out by the main general and lose the meaning of supervision.

This Gongzicheng is the grandfather of Qin Shi Huang, the youngest son of King Qin Zhaoxiang, and he has no great ability, but he can live, and he is the highest senior in the clan. A few years ago, as Wang Qian's supervisor, he made great contributions to the destruction of Chu, and was later named the Marquis of Changwu by Qin Shi Huang, one of the seven Lunhou of the Qin Dynasty, and the same level as the Marquis Heifu of Changnan, and he was indeed a suitable candidate.

It's just that the Marquis of Changwu is seventy years old, at most he will look at the grain in Nanjun, and it is impossible to go to Lingnan with Heifu, don't be the same as Yang Duanhe, it will be embarrassing to die in the middle of the road.

Therefore, Qin Shi Huang sent a double insurance, a young and strong person who can follow Heifu at any time.

"Who is the strong?"

Heifu asked casually, guessing if it could be a distant clan, anyway, it couldn't be Fusu, let alone Hu Hai, hehe.

"Junhou, that strong man is the chief of the left, the child!"