The next day, Zhao Dan left the Dune Palace and continued to go north.

Since the rest of the journey was all the eastern plains of the Zhao Kingdom, this part of the area was flat and was the favorite marching terrain for the cavalry.

Therefore, in just a few days, Zhao Dan passed all the way through Feicheng, Gucheng and Zhongren City, crossed the Tuotuo River and the Tang River, and entered the Puyin River in the Taihang Eight Mountains.

Puyin is located in the northeast of Taihang Mountain, connecting Shanxi and Hebei, and at the same time is very close to Yunzhong County, that is, Shanxi Datong in later generations, the terrain is very dangerous, so it has become a passage for nomads to go south many times in history.

As long as you go south from the Monan grassland, pass through Yanmen Mountain and Hongshou Mountain into Datong, and then go east through Puyin to reach the Hebei Plain.

The east exit of Puyin is only a few hundred miles away from Jidu, that is, Beijing in later generations, and it only takes one day and one night for the cavalry to march quickly, and the normal march can only reach the city of Beijing in three days.

In the famous Tumubao Rebellion, the Warat Taishi also led the Warat army from the east of this road and once surrounded the city of Beijing.

It was also from the beginning of the Tumubao Revolution that the Ming Dynasty ended its heyday of expansion and entered a long period of decline.

Zhao Dan rode a horse and walked in the Puyin Mountain, with steep peaks on the left and bottomless streams on the right, which was daunting.

The road was narrow, but only two or three horsemen could walk side by side, curving and looping, and even the roar of wild beasts could be heard from the mountains.

The steepness of the Taihang Eight Mountains can be seen from this.

Zhao Dan rode his horse slowly, thinking: "Such a narrow road, it is so difficult for five thousand cavalry to pass, if a pass is built here, wouldn't it be impossible to open it for a single man?" ”

As he walked, suddenly a dilapidated pass appeared in front of Zhao Dan, which was built from under the mountain ridge on the left side of the road, and just sealed the entire Puyin Pass.

However, it is clear that this pass has not been built for a long time, and now it is in a dilapidated state and cannot be used for any defense.

Zhao Dan pointed to this pass and asked, "Why is this pass, He Ling?" ”

Li Mu on the side replied: "King, this is Pu**, built by Zhongshan Kingdom, and has been abandoned for a long time since King Wuling destroyed Zhongshan. This ridge is called Bauhinia Ridge.

"Bauhinia Ridge?" Zhao Dan was taken aback, and finally understood where he had come.

It turns out that this is the predecessor of the Bauhinia Pass in the later generations.

After thinking about it, Zhao Dan dispelled the idea of building Bauhinia Pass.

Because the Zhao State maintained an offensive posture against the Yan State on the east side of Puyin and the Xiongnu in the north, there was no need to worry about the enemy being able to enter Puyin.

It took Zhao Dan two days to leave Puyin, and another half a day to pass through Ulcheng and enter the territory of Yanmen County.

When I arrived here, it was only two or three days away from Zhao Dan's major destination - Zhaoguo Blast Furnace Ironworks.

This is also the location of the later Datong Iron Mine.

In the territory of Zhao State, there are coal and iron ore, which perfectly meet these three points, and naturally they are not the same.

Although there was still a distance of at least dozens of miles, Zhao Dan could already see a few black smoke floating into the sky from the other end of the mountain, which was very conspicuous in this clean blue sky.

Seeing this, Zhao Dan couldn't help but shake his head.

This extremely rudimentary and environmentally unfriendly way of making iron is bound to bring air pollution, which is unavoidable.

But fortunately, at this moment, I am afraid that there is only one place in the whole earth that is rolling into the sky and discharging exhaust gases, plus today's Yanmen County is originally vast and sparsely populated, and the ironworks are specially set up at the foot of the mountain far away from the people, so what kind of smog smog and the like should not appear on the people of Zhao State.

Zhao Dan did not rush to the ironworks immediately, but first rested for a night in Yuanyang City, the seat of the county seat of Yunzhong County, and then continued to rush to the ironworks the next day.

Although when you look at it from a distance, you will feel that the scale of this ironworks is not large, but when you take a closer look, dozens of blast furnaces stand at the foot of the mountain, and the billowing smoke is discharged from the smoke notice at the top of the high-rise building, which gives people a feeling of covering the sky and the sun for a while, which is still very shocking.

Zhao Dan did not come with a large group of cavalry, but only came to this blast furnace ironworks with about a hundred people.

Because it had already been notified in advance, it was said that before Zhao Dan came to the ironworks, the principal of this blast furnace ironmaking plant had already appeared in front of Zhao Dan.

"I've seen the king."

Zhao Dan nodded slightly, looked at the camp in front of him, and couldn't help but say with some curiosity: "This is built according to the standards of the military camp?" ”

The principal said very respectfully: "This is exactly the case with King Hui, the entire blast furnace steelworks are built to the standards of a military camp, and there are a thousand soldiers stationed all year round, and they are not allowed to enter or leave without a military order at any time, if not, then those workers are likely to escape." ”

Zhao Dan nodded, understanding something.

Don't look at this ironworks located in Yanmen County, but the county guard of Yanmen County really can't care about this place, and he doesn't even know what this place is for.

Zhao Dan walked into the camp.

Most of the slaves who came and went in this camp, and were busy working under the whips of the overseers, were from the prisoners of war captured by the Zhao State during the wars in the past few years, as well as the unruly Qin State in Hedong County, Qin State, and the young people of the Qin State who had an extremely strong will to resist.

You must know that working in such an environment for a long time is still very harmful to people's health.

In addition, Zhao Guo is now in a state of vast land and sparsely populated as a whole, so of course it is impossible for Zhao Dan to use the precious people of Zhao State to do this kind of coolie work.

Zhao Dan soon came to the front of a blast furnace.

I saw the smoke of the blast furnace billowing into the sky, and hundreds of slave laborers were busy adding coal, stirring molten iron, and frying steel and making steel.

On the other side, there are many topless slave laborers sweating and tinkling, and from time to time there will be a quenching sound, which sounds quite charming.

Li Mu and the others beside Zhao Dan had never seen this scene, so they were naturally amazed.

The principal pointed to the blast furnace in front of him, and said to Zhao Dan proudly: "King, the world-famous armor and weapons of armored cavalry are all produced by this blast furnace and several nearby blast furnaces. ”

Zhao Dan smiled and asked, "How much suitable steel can be produced in a year now?" ”

The principal thought about it in his heart, and then said to Zhao Dan: "According to today's output, it can produce about a thousand armored cavalry equipment a year.

After a pause, the principal continued: "The armored cavalry needs the best steel, but in addition to these, in fact, iron equipment and iron tools of slightly inferior quality can be produced on a large scale. ”

"Oh?" Zhao Dan's eyes lit up and asked, "How much is the annual output?" ”

The director smiled and said: "The king, the minister dares to assure the king that in no more than five years, the bronze utensils will be extinct in the king's army." ”

"Good!" Zhao Dan was overjoyed in his heart, and said: "You remember to produce more, don't worry about overproduction, do this thing well, and give you a great credit!" ”

It was an unexpected surprise.

Iron is more durable and durable for bronze, and the reason why bronze is difficult to eliminate is because there are not many subway mines in Huaxia, and the quality of iron ore is not high, so it is difficult to smelt iron that is better than bronze quality.

Now, after having a set of simple processes such as blast furnace iron-making, frying steel-making, etc., the quality of Zhao Guo's ironware has been completely improved, enough to completely replace bronze ware.

This is definitely good news for Zhao Guo.

You must know that bronze is not only used to make weapons and daily utensils, but also can be used to mint money!

Therefore, once Zhao Guo fully entered the Iron Age, a large amount of bronze was saved, and Zhao Guo was equivalent to getting a large amount of money out of thin air!

Zhao Dan was smiling, and was about to continue to praise this principal for a few words, when suddenly Li Mu came to Zhao Dan's side and said in a low voice: "King, the guards of Yunzhong County came to say that there was an urgent matter to repay, and it was related to the Huns!" ”