In the late autumn of the northern land, I can already experience the power of the coming cold, and the exhaled breath forms a string of white mist in the air.

On the bank of the Xinshui River, along the bank of the river has established a, well, in fact, strictly speaking, it is three large-scale camps, the camp is not far from the camp and the camp is not far away, about a hundred steps in the appearance, the camp wall was used in the earliest wood and earth structure, and now it is basically gradually replaced with red bricks, and it is about to become the shape of a dock fort.

In the middle of the camp, in addition to the workshop is the workshop, the wood on Luliang Mountain is cut down, and then dragged down the mountain, tied together, woven into a raft, by the way carrying some mined ore, down the water flow to here, the wood is stacked on the river bank waiting for drying, and the ore is basically into the towering smelting furnace in the camp, refining into various raw materials.

The black smoke of the thick blast furnace is constantly spewing day and night, and the water and land transportation has basically not stopped. Most of the original small-scale workshops on the Beiqu side have been relocated here, and ordinary spear heads, arrows, and iron armor are produced here, and what is left in Beiqu is further fine processing and smelting, such as the thirty refining war knives and the fifty practicing Mo knives are all from Beiqu.

Coal has become the main fuel, fortunately, even in later generations, Shanxi is still a lot of open-pit coal seams, for the current Feiqian, such three camps, even if they are fully started, it is estimated that three or five years will not be able to use up the surface of the layer.

However, the quality of iron made from coal is naturally inferior, but it also has an additional and interesting side effect......

Fei Qian took two iron spear heads, looked at them, and then handed them to Xu Shu, and said with a smile: "Yuan Zhi, look at the difference between the quality of these two spear heads?" ”

Xu Shu took the two tips, then habitually weighed them, and then tested the hardness of the tips on the soil, and then said, "Zhonglang, this ...... I can't see it, it doesn't seem to make much difference......"

Fei Qian smiled, and then motioned to the craftsman on the side to demonstrate.

The craftsman picked up the two spear heads, and then took Fei Qian and the others to a stove, where they used iron tongs to hold the two spear heads and heat them in the raging fire.

After a while, the head of the spear was licked red by the flames. The craftsman skillfully picked up the two spear heads, put them on top of the anvil, grabbed the hammer on the side and struck it quickly.

The head of the gun was quickly and gradually flattened, and then a distinction was made. One of the spear heads suddenly cracked under the blow, like a block of ice falling to the ground, shattering into several pieces of various sizes, while the other spear head was formed into a round cake-shaped piece of iron under the continuous blow, and did not crack......

"This ......" Xu Shu's eyes widened.

If there is no screening, and some lime is not added for desulfurization, then the smelted molten iron will contain higher sulfur elements after frying steel, and the sulfur element is more, and the steel will produce a hot brittle effect.

But not to mention that in the Han Dynasty, even in later generations, how many people could understand the hot brittle effect of steel? At room temperature, or when it completely melts into molten iron, this kind of hot brittleness is basically not expressed, but it is particularly obvious when it is hot processed at about 1000 degrees, and the steel with high sulfur content is like paper, which will be broken when it is smashed.

To put it simply, it is difficult to carry out simple secondary hot processing of ordinary steel without desulfurization......

Fei Qian nodded to the craftsman, and then moved away a little from some extremely hot blast furnaces, and after a while, Fei Qian was already sweating a little.

"These are the spear heads that were shipped to the east......," Fei Qian said to Xu Shu in a low voice.

Gold in troubled times, antiques in prosperous times. But in troubled times, there are more valuable things than gold, one is of course grain and grass, and the other is naturally weapons.

Xu Shu was immediately stunned, and then showed a tacit smile.

On the march, there is naturally some wear and tear on the weapon, but on the battlefield, it is impossible to erect a blast furnace that is completely melted and then injected, and it can only be maintained by rough and shallow thermal processing, and the gun head sent out by Fei Qian is at this time......

Moreover, Fei Qian also said that the land in Bingzhou is barren, and the quality of the gun head is poor, of course, the price is lower, and in the eyes of people like Yuan Shao, soldiers are a kind of consumables, as for the gun head and other items, it is almost a little worse, basically I don't understand, and I won't ask too much.

As for the craftsmen in Yuan Shaojun's army, after encountering this kind of problem, most of them will directly discard these problematic iron tools as scrap, unless someone pays special attention to it, and naturally will not take the initiative to report it, so the result is that the loss rate of ordnance has greatly increased.

Basically, the caravans heading east now are transporting these relatively high sulphur spearhead arrows, in exchange for grain, grass, cloth and other materials.

Xu Shu suddenly thought of something, and then said: "In this way, is there something wrong with the relationship between Yuan Cheqi and the Zhen family in Hebei?" ”

There are also iron mines in Jizhou, but they are basically controlled by the Zhen family. Yuan Che rode thousands of miles to find Fei Qian to buy these gun heads, one is that the price on Fei Qian's side is lower, and the other is probably not limited by the psychological factor of the Zhen family.

In the current Han Dynasty, the dependence on the scholars was too strong.

There is no one, and there is a family to look for.

If you don't have money or food, you have to find a family.

There is no salt iron tea, there are no daily necessities and everything else, you need to find a family......

In order to take back the salt and iron from the emperor, for a long time after Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the family succeeded one after another, and finally snatched this piece of fat back.

The family is a malignant tumor that only attaches to the body of the Han Dynasty, and after dragging down the Han Dynasty in the future, it has also fallen into decline.

Yuan Shao is in Jizhou, although he is the state pastor in hand, but the formation of the army, the materials for life and production are inseparable from the Hebei scholars, so people such as Tian Feng and Gao cadres can be in high positions and fight against the people of Yuzhou in Yuan Shao's queue.

Fei Qian shook his head and said, "There may not be any conflict, I'm afraid it's just that the conditions between each other have not been negotiated." Subsequently, Yuan Shao united with the Zhen family by marriage, which is estimated to be a mutually recognized transaction.

But as long as Yuan Shao is unwilling to be completely controlled by the local Zhen family, he will inevitably choose Feiqian to trade, just like when he is a ** merchant in later generations, he always has to prepare a few more.

Fei Qian looked to the east and said, "What's more, the amount of ordnance that Yuan Cheqi needs has been a bit large recently, and he has been buying it everywhere, and he can't supply it to Hebei alone for a while...... So this kind of business should continue for a while......"

"What Zhonglang means, Yuan Cheqi is ready to do it?" Xu Shu said, "If you want to go south, you must first ...... the north."

Fei Qian nodded and said, "Recently, the proportion of grain and grass exchanged in the east has ...... Well, it's that the quantity is declining, while the quantity of other supplies such as salt, tea, and cloth is rising...... These people in the east are also hoarding grain and grass......"

This winter may be the last window of time to hoard grain and grass, and then there will be wars in various places, and grain and grass are even more precious than gold......