I remember reading a strange book called "The Book of Gold and Stone", which recorded that the smelting of gold, silver, copper, and iron is not an ordinary firewood, and it must be made with coal.

And the coal is all buried deep in the ground, relying on the strength of a few of us to find it on this Southern Wilderness Continent, it is really more difficult than climbing to the sky.

But it is also a matter of the whole situation, without metallurgical fuel, all the hard work is in vain.

After deliberation, it was decided that if there was no charcoal, charcoal would be used instead.

Brother Lin and their copper and iron workshops in Fujian are all charcoal.

However, smelting and forging are different after all, and the copper and iron in the stone mine can be turned into liquid and separated from the stone slag.

But the metallurgical matter was already ready to be delivered, so Brother Lin and I made up our minds.

From today on, we will start quarrying and building furnaces, cutting salaries and burning charcoal, and we cannot delay for a moment.

All of us were divided into two teams, Qin Chong and I, and Guo Helmet were good at quarrying, and were responsible for mining stones and building smelting furnaces.

Brother Lin took his men to the mountains to cut wood, and dug a huge cave in the cliff wall in front of the mountain for charcoal.

Nowadays, we are most short of quarrying and timber tools, iron axes, iron saws, iron chisels.

Some time ago, the wood and ashlar needed to build a house and make sake can be replaced by stone axes and stone hammers, as the local natives do.

Now that metallurgy is imminent, large quantities of charcoal and ore are consumed every day, and these primitive and stupid tools can no longer keep up.

We need to build some solid and sharp copper and iron tools, and the only consumables we can use are the swords we carry with us.

My saber was changed into two iron chisels, and the Persian long knives of Qin Chong and the pot helmet were broken into six sections and made into six iron axes for logging.

These blades have been with us for many years, and they were invincible on the battlefields of the Eastern Roman Empire.

Such an artifact of the military family is broken apart like this and used as a farming tool for chopping wood, which is really a violent thing and a self-abandoning martial arts!

"Young master! This long knife is half my life, how will you pay me back in the future! ”

Qin Chong loves knives like his life, and he can't disobey my orders, so he can't help but shout at me in amazement.

"Qin Chong, your long knife is too murderous, it's not a good thing to split it like this, hehe."

I comforted me with kind words, and I felt very bad in my heart.

"Without this murderous aura, I would have been suspended when my life was in Beloea!"

Qin Chong was very angry when he saw that I didn't care, and he raised his long knife and slapped it fiercely at the Xuanshi next to him.

But with a piercing scream, the long knife had been broken into two.

"Don't be like this, the long knife will be folded and re-forged in the future! There is no way for everyone, those thick logs and those red copper mines, we will use stone axes and stone knives to cut and dig, when will it be the head! ”

I didn't expect Qin Chong to have such a big reaction, so Brother Lin hurriedly stepped forward to persuade us to make peace.

Little Inca didn't know what was going on, hugging Qin Chong's leg and crying.

is also from a military family, and only I understand Qin Chong's state of mind at this time.

The long sword and sword that has been with him for a long time have a soul, and they have long been like their own lives.

The knife is in the people, and the knife is gone.

For Qin Chong, the fierce general of the year, this is indeed the case.

"Qin Chong, you and I are brothers in life and death, I swear to the sky today, and the matter of the restoration of the broken knife is wrapped in me! If necessary, Jincheng is willing to learn from the cadre Mo Xie, sacrifice the sword with flesh and blood, and achieve the spirituality and murderous aura that General Qin said! ”

Qin Chong has followed me for so many years,

The first time it was so real, it also stirred up the blood in my whole body.

"The young master's words are serious, Qin Chong is guilty! If you don't have a long knife in your hand, you don't know how to protect the young master, so you can be so unbearable, and I hope that the young master will atone for his sins! ”

Qin Chong saw that I was furious, and his original arrogance suddenly disappeared, and after bowing to me, he picked up Inca and fled.

"Hahaha! The affection of your master and servant is eye-catching! One is the heart of the protector, and the other is the righteous Bo Yuntian! Great! Great! ”

Brother Lin patted me on the shoulder, smiled and complimented me.

"Hey! I'm mad too! This brother of mine is a fierce flyer, and tomorrow he will be punished to cut down a tree with a stone axe, so that he can also try it! ”

"I've tried it all, and I can't get a pit in half a day, hehe."

Brother Lin and I laughed helplessly, before there was progress in charcoal smelting stone mines, there were only dozens of catties of dark iron left for Qin Chong and Guo Helmet, two long knives.

It would be a pity not to use the resources at hand to the limit, and to use blunt stone as a tool like the natives.

The pot helmet was originally reluctant to hand over the long knife in his hand, but after seeing Qin Chong's toss, he stopped talking.

Calling Lin Qing, Brother Chun and others to set up a pile of firewood, mined a few square stones as anvils for striking iron, and drummed out a few stone hammers, and made a goldsmith who forged copper and iron in a good way.

In a few days, tools such as copper saws, iron axes, and copper chisels were all formed.

Although it is not as neat and beautiful as the craftsmen in the market, it is still quite sharp, and it is quite easy to use after installing the wooden handle.

Two months later, when the first barrel of bud sake in the dregs was brewed, Brother Lin and their first kiln charcoal had also been burned.

Thousands of catties of firewood-like charcoal, a layer of pale hoarfrost hanging from the ink-black inner pulp, and I, a layman, can also see that it is the best grade in the charcoal.

The smelting furnace that Qin Chong and I built with Guo Helmet was on top of a stone platform, like a well where Persians baked naan.

Four holes were also carved into the stone wall under the stage, which served as an outlet for blowing the wind and fire in the future.

This metallurgical stone furnace is made by gathering the wisdom of the crowd, laying out all the gold and stone smelting scenes that have been seen and heard, and then selecting the best of the best to come up with such an optimal plan.

The flue has been pre-buried, and in the middle of the shaft is a stone trough for storing copper ore, with stone strips for charcoal at the bottom, four walls and top

In the future, charcoal will be ignited, the stone slab at the mouth of the well will be covered, and the air will be blown around the clock.

By the time all the charcoal in the furnace is burned, the red copper and stone slag in the raw gold and stone ore should have been separated.

But there can also be surprises that our metallurgy doesn't work.

The raw ore in the stone furnace is still a stubborn lump, and everything has to be started all over again.

Of course, this is what everyone does not want to see, and it means that our plan to take iron from metallurgy and ship building to the west has completely failed.

I don't dare to think about what the consequences will be if I go any further.

But I always believe that God helps those who help themselves.

Plans are in man and success is in heaven, the compassionate Buddha will not be so ruthless!

Now the ore is there, the charcoal is there, the shaft of the furnace has been erected, and only the bellows for blasting are left.

Bellows, also known as the whizzard, is a necessary tool for the smelting gold and stone industry.

"Lao Tzu" contains: Between heaven and earth, it is still incompatible? Void but unyielding, moving and getting more and more.

And the original meaning is to fill the pocket.

The wind blows the fire, so that the charcoal in the furnace burns, the furnace temperature rises like purgatory, and the black iron or red copper in the ore can be turned into liquid and separated from the mother ore

Come.

If the furnace temperature is not reached, no matter how much charcoal you burn and how much manpower you pay, it will be all in vain.

Therefore, it is so important, but in my opinion, it is the most complex and advanced part of the whole metallurgical process.

Because all of us, including the experienced Tian Bo, don't know how to make and operate the basket.

When we passed through the country of Brahmana on our westward journey, we were deeply impressed by the Persian ironworkers who forged the fine armor of the dark iron.

I can still vaguely remember that next to his smelting furnace, there was a guy who kept pushing and pulling a long leather cylinder like a rocking oar.

Now it seems that this leather cylinder must be the basket used for wind blowing.

"The method of blowing the wind of the leather tube is nothing more than two steps: wrapping the wind and supplying the air. That is, the wind from the outside is wrapped in a skin bag and then sent into a burning smelter. According to this line of thinking, everyone is figuring out how to sew this leather tube in order to achieve the best effect. ”

After dinner, everyone gathered around the smelter, talking about their own experiences and strategies.

It was Brother Lin who made it clear at the beginning and explained the purpose of the basket very thoroughly.

"From our experience on land, the more mountain passes and valleys there are, the faster the wind flows. Therefore, this basket should be in the shape of a flare, wide on the outside and narrow on the inside, so as to have the effect of enhancing the fire. ”

"What Chong Tsai said is reasonable, just like the seepage of water in the cabin! The external pressure of seawater is the bell mouth, and the hole in the side wall deck is the bottom of the horn, and the distance of the seepage water spray is very related to the size of the hole! I think this basket must be difficult to operate, and no two people will definitely not work! ”

Qin Chong and Lin He also talked about some of their own feelings based on their experience on land and boating.

"The opening is too big to be manipulated, and I ran away before I could put pressure on the wind inside!"

"Make the leather tube longer!"

"If you want to make a leather tube, just make a bamboo tube for each person and take turns to blow on it! Hahaha! ”

"Tsai! Your cheeks aren't the urine bubbles of the boar, so you're not afraid of blowing up! ”

"Just move the furnace to the beach, it's windy there! Everyone is also cool! Maybe it can attract three or two wild girls, but I'm lonely! ”

"Sir! Yizi! Why don't you make a home here? There are many lands under the jurisdiction of the government, and the indigenous wild girls are quite upright, and they can marry as many ladies as they want! ”

The guys were already exhausted, especially the young men who had no wives and children in their homeland, and they had plans to settle down here.

So just now I was still discussing business, and in a blink of an eye, I switched from how to make a basket to the indigenous wild girl, and then the wild girl thought of the future future.

It is indeed a very good choice to abandon the feelings of family and country and blood and family, and to colonize the mainland in the southern wilderness.

There is no need to build ships, no more metallurgical mining, no need to work day and night.

A fire burned the boundless forest here, turning the eternal wasteland into acres.

In a few years, each of us can become a scholar who sits on thousands of acres of fertile land.

Surrounded by wives and concubines, the children under his knees are like clouds.

Wouldn't life be happy like this!

But after imagining it, after some playfulness and laughter and scolding, everyone still worked together to sort out the hides.

According to Brother Lin's suggestion, we are unusual.

The leather cylinder of the basket is prepared for the length, thickness and size, width and narrowness.

When the time comes, according to the effect of their respective blows, the best ones will be selected.

(End of chapter)

Shang and Buddha