After receiving an affirmative answer from Jin Jun, Xiong Huai immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

Although in this era, breaking one's word and deceiving betrayal is as simple as breathing and eating, but Xiong Huai is conceited, as long as Jin Jun's brain is not bad, as long as he does not plan to commit treason, then he will definitely not deceive himself, the king of Chu, in this matter.

After getting Jin Jun, Xiong Huai asked Zhaoyu: "Sikong, I don't know how many high-quality iron swords can be provided every year when all blacksmiths make iron swords." ”

Zhao Yu pondered carefully for a moment and replied: "King Hui, most of the weapons of my Chu State are mainly bronze weapons, and the number of iron swords cast is very low, and the iron swords used by captains and generals are about less than fifty every year. ”

"But if you give an order to order those who can make good iron swords to suspend the construction of farm tools, and let these blacksmiths make iron swords with all their might, and all the blacksmiths of the whole country will be requisitioned to forge swords, according to Wei Chen's estimate, about four or five hundred fine iron swords can be produced every year."

Xiong Huai was taken aback, he didn't expect the output of high-quality iron swords to be so low.

Of course, this is also because the blacksmith in the feudal lord's territory was not recruited.

Thinking of this, Xiong Huai asked Jin Jun, "I don't know how many good iron swords Xianqing can provide every year." ”

Jin Jun arched his hand and said: "Back to the king, most of the craftsmen in Weichen's territory are blacksmiths, and the blacksmiths in the territory are basically senior craftsmen who mainly make agricultural tools and ordinary iron swords, and can make high-quality iron swords, but there are only more than ten people, and they can provide about fifty or sixty high-quality iron swords every year. ”

“···”

No wonder Zhaoyu has been admonished three times in succession just now, it seems that in addition to the manpower and material resources, there is also the reason that the yield is too low.

Although blacksmiths will continue to be trained, it still takes time, and all the 3,000 guards will be equipped with iron swords in a short period of time, even if they can practice a large number of good iron, I am afraid it will not be possible.

Thinking of this, Xiong Huai's determination to train blacksmiths became even stronger.

He thought for a while and said: "King, although Wancheng in our Chu State is a world-famous iron-smelting powerhouse, but where it can be compared with Wancheng, there are Linzi in Qi and Handan in Zhao State, especially Tangxi in South Korea, and the iron swords produced are even more famous all over the world. ”

"If the king wants to equip all the guards with iron swords, why not borrow some blacksmiths from Korea?"

As for the idea of buying iron swords from other countries, no one mentioned it, most of the excellent blacksmiths in this year are craftsmen directly controlled by various countries, and most of the folk blacksmiths are mostly made of tools, so when it comes to buying iron swords, other countries will not sell them, and Chu has no place to buy them. The second is that the best iron swords are all settled in gold, as little as a dozen gold, as much as hundreds of gold, so many iron swords, Chu State can't afford it at all, or build it yourself, the craftsman does not have to pay the wages, and the materials are also provided by themselves, and they only need to spend manpower and material resources.

He has asked Korea to borrow the advice of a blacksmith. Suddenly Xiong Huai's eyes lit up, and his words were a word to wake up the dreamer, it takes a lot of time for the blacksmith to cultivate himself, but there are a lot of blacksmiths in other countries, and he can go to borrow people from various countries.

When the Three Jin Dynasty had not yet perished, the Jin State in the era of Zhao Jianzi had been able to cast an iron tripod, and now, two hundred years later, the Three Jin Dynasty in the iron smelting industry, compared with the Chu State, is not worse at all, and even more than the first line.

Especially in Korea, which is about to send its daughter and son to Chu State, the most famous specialties are strong crossbows and sharp swords (bronze swords and iron swords), and the most famous Korean army is the strong crossbow and iron army (army using iron equipment).

Of course, South Korea's iron equipment is better, in addition to South Korea's casting level is slightly higher than that of other countries, more important is South Korea's Yiyang, which has one of the best iron ores in this era: Yiyang Iron Mine, so the quantity and quality of South Korea's armaments are all coveted by all countries.

It is precisely because of these reasons that South Korea is better equipped than other countries in terms of equipment, so although South Korea is weak and may be slightly deficient in attack, when defending the city, the advantages of more equipment and better can be brought into play, and it can quickly arm a large number of people, and the city is difficult to break, no matter which country wants to bite it, it must always break its mouth.

In the past, Wei Wushu broke through the Xihe of Qin, the Great Liang of Chu, and Handan of Zhao, but when South Korea lost all five wars, he still encountered blood in Xinzheng (not only Wei, but also Qin and Chu also encountered this problem, and when attacking Korea, the confidence of being hit was lost).

Thinking of this, Xiong Huai said: "Yes, the widow can indeed borrow people from South Korea." ”

As for the reason for borrowing people, Xiong Huai remembered Princess Wencheng in later generations, so he smiled and said to Zhaoyu: "Sikong, the widow heard that the daughter of King Han is gentle and elegant, virtuous and virtuous, and the widow has admired her for a long time. ”

"Therefore, the widow is ready to give a heavy gift to the king of Han, in addition to the good crossbow and good sword of Korea, the widow also likes it, I hope that when the king of Han sends the princess to Chu, he can also give some craftsmen to the widow."

Zhao Yu said: "The minister will send someone to explain to Ling Yin." ”

Xiong Huai nodded, he wanted to improve the status of the blacksmith again, or get a blacksmith hierarchy or something, but after thinking about it, forget it, now is not the time.

It's not just that others don't want to see the blacksmith get out of the state's control, but more importantly, the blacksmith can't hold himself up yet.

Subsequently, Xiong Huai was happy and worried during the visit to the sword-casting, and there was some faint disappointment.

The only knowledge he had was blast furnace and blast iron smelting, but after seeing the blast furnace and blast bag in the swordsmithing workshop, Xiong Huai felt that he had closed his mouth.

In the bronze industry has been very mature now, the two skills of blast furnace and blast have long been pointed out, but the blast furnace used in copper smelting, although it can melt copper and tin, but may not be able to easily melt iron, cast iron is time-consuming and laborious, and may not be able to obtain high-quality iron.

Although this situation shows that blast furnace ironmaking has accumulated a lot of experience and does not need to start from scratch, on the other hand, it also shows that ironmaking can not develop by leaps and bounds in a short period of time, and can only continuously improve the ironmaking furnace.

Faced with this situation, Chu had three methods, one was to continue to explore the iron-making furnace by himself, the other was to look for high-quality iron-making furnaces from Han and Vietnam, and finally, to seek the help of alchemists from Qi State.

Although the iron-making furnaces owned by the latter two may not be advanced compared with the iron-making furnaces of the Chu State, they are not always of great significance.

Coming out of the sword casting workshop, Xiong Huai was still relieved, and then he got another news that Tingli solemnly left a book in his office to apologize and commit suicide.

That is, after Pan Jun and An Lingjun, another important minister died.