"My lord, the question mentioned just now is really to the point! Humble admiration. Song Yiming smiled like a lotus flower.

"Don't pat yourself on the back, this king doesn't eat this." Guo Qi said as he walked: "Let's take this king to the iron workshop to have a look." ”

"Lord, please come here."

"Yiming, do you know more about mountain winds and pangolins?"

"Although he is a person from Yongzhou, he doesn't know much about the two, and it is said that each of them uses hundreds of soldiers and gathers in the mountains and forests; Although he often goes down the mountain to rob, he rarely does anything that hurts the heavens and reason; If the lord wants to completely quell the bandits in Yongzhou, he feels that he should not just use the army to encircle and suppress, but to suppress and appease at the same time;

The lord has destroyed a mountain carving, and the other bandits must be afraid of me, and they are very jealous of our Yongjun; If at this time the lord can give an order to allow him to surrender and forgive his previous sins, he believes that most of the bandits will go down the mountain and submit to obedience, after all, the vast majority of them are mountain people; And for those bandits who refuse to surrender and continue to resist, the lord can order the army to continue to encircle and suppress. ”

"One is reasonable, this matter will be handed over to you, this king gives them half a month, as long as they are willing to go down the mountain and surrender to this king within half a month, they are not to blame, once it exceeds half a month, this king will immediately send troops to encircle and suppress."

"The lord is wise, and he is lowly commanded; In front of the lord is the iron mill. ”

The whole ironshop is surrounded by a low wall, and there is only a gate in front of it, and you can see the black smoke billowing from the ironwork outside the ironmill; Under the guidance of Song Yiming, Guo Qi entered the ironshop, all the blacksmiths were busy refining molten iron, the temperature was very high, and many men were wearing their upper bodies and their bodies were dirty; There are still whip marks on the back, and many people are still injured.

Guo Qi frowned and asked, "What's the matter with the scars on their bodies?" ”

"My lord, I didn't send anyone to beat them, these are all scars from the past."

"Tell everyone to stop work at once and assemble outside; The fifth son sent someone to bring in a military doctor. ”

"No! Commanded by humility. ”

Soon, more than 300 craftsmen gathered outside the iron workshop, and everyone waited for Guo Qi's disposal with their heads bowed as if they had done something wrong.

"Folks, you don't have to be afraid, this king is here to see you." Guo Qi said to everyone kindly: "The reason why this king asked you to stop work is because this king saw that you had scars on your body, and this king has already ordered someone to ask for a military doctor, and he will treat you one by one." ”

All the craftsmen looked at Guo Qi with incredulous eyes; Song Yiming explained to these craftsmen: "One of the things that my lord loves the people like a son, didn't this official tell you about Yongzhou's policy yesterday!" In the future, as long as you do a good job in a down-to-earth manner, you will have the same amount of food, drink, clothing, and use, and you can go to the shops in the palace to exchange things with meritorious service points. ”

"Lord Qingtian, it's really Lord Qingtian!" An old blacksmith knelt down and said with tears in his eyes.

For Yongzhou's policy, they already know it very well, Song Yiming specially sent someone to explain it to them, and the meat meal last night also made them more convinced that what they saw was true; But when Guo Qi asked them to stop work, they were scared, thinking that they had done something wrong and Guo Qi was going to punish them.

When Guo Qi said that he would let the military doctor treat their injuries, all the craftsmen were stunned, some didn't believe Guo Qi, thinking that Guo Qi was just here to make a show, and when Song Yiming explained it, they believed that it was true.

"Old man, get up." Guo Qi personally stepped forward and helped the old blacksmith up and said; "What's your surname, old man?"

"Lord Wang, the villain's name is Tieshan." The old blacksmith said excitedly.

"How many years have you been a blacksmith?"

"My lord, my family has been a blacksmith for generations, and I have been learning the craft from my father since I was sixteen years old, and it has been more than 30 years now."

As soon as Tie Shan's words fell, the military doctor arrived, and Guo Qi instructed him: "To treat these craftsmen one by one, use the best." ”

"No! Obey the king's commands. ”

"Old man, you see a doctor first, let the military doctor deal with the scars on your body, and then we will talk."

"The villain obeys." Tie Shan said excitedly.

In a small house next to it, the military doctor cleaned the wounds on Tie Shan's body with warm water, then baked the knife red in the basin, cut off the polyps on Tie Shan's back that had begun to rot, and then smeared the gold sores and wrapped them in a white cloth, even if the treatment was completed; The military doctor also gave Tie Shan a small vial of gold sore medicine and told him to change the medicine on time.

After Tie Shan came out of the small house, he saw Guo Qi walking around in front of the iron furnace in the iron workshop, these iron furnaces made of mud bricks, the molten iron is pig iron containing a lot of impurities, very brittle and easy to break, if you want to turn these pig iron into fine iron, you need to continue to heat and forge repeatedly.

Tie Shan came to Guo Qi's side and said: "Lord Wang, these are freshly baked iron billets, which are very fragile and cannot be cast weapons, and they need to be continuously heated and forged to remove the impurities in them before they can obtain refined iron." ”

"How much iron can you people produce a day now?"

"Lord Wang, we have more than 300 craftsmen here, and we can produce about 300 catties of refined iron every day, and these refined irons are generally directly made into war knives of about ten catties."

"This production is too small, it seems that we have to increase the number of people!" Guo Qi sighed.

Tie Shan secretly looked at Guo Qi, then knelt on the ground and said, "Lord Wang, the villain has something to tell. ”

"Old man, what's the matter, get up and say."

After Tie Shan got up, he said: "Lord Wang, in fact, the villain has a way to directly smelt iron ore into refined iron, and he only needs to transform the iron-making furnace, increase it, and use refractory bricks inside...... At this time, only a small part of refined iron is added to the molten iron that has not been solidified, and the refined iron after condensing into the iron billet is better than the current refined iron, which is more suitable for building weapons. ”

Tieshan is actually talking about the steel filling method, but this method is very difficult to master, because the hardness of iron depends on the amount of carbon in the iron, the higher the carbon content, the harder and brittle the high-speed iron, and the lower the carbon content, the softer the iron will become.

Guo Qi was very happy when he heard Tie Shan's words, "If you can really practice fine iron that is better than a hundred refined iron, this king will make you a first-class public soldier and serve as the supervisor of the weapons prison." ”

Guo Qi's words made Tieshan stunned, since ancient times, the status of craftsmen has been very low, although the industry and commerce of Shinong, the workers rank third, but in fact, the status of craftsmen is lower than that of merchants, after all, businessmen are rich! Not to mention the fact that craftsmen hold official positions.

"Tieshan, don't hurry up and thank you!"

"Thank you, Lord Wang." Under Song Yiming's reminder, Tie Shan hurriedly said.

"Well, as long as you can really do it, this king will never break his word." Guo Qi said: "Li Wu, select a team of strong soldiers to be temporarily commanded by Tie Shan, responsible for building a new iron-making furnace. ”

"No! Obey the king's commands. ”