After lunch, Zhao Xie began to devote himself to his work again, and he first asked the officials to select a group of people who were proficient in writing and sent them to the newspaper, and these people would be guided by him, how to write press releases, and how to maximize the propaganda role of the newspaper.

He again instructed the Ministry of Industry to set up a special printing workshop to print books and newspapers of the imperial court.

A few days later, Zou Tang returned to Xiangguo, bringing 300 breeding horses, and handed them over to a horse farm in the northeast of Xiangguo.

Zou Tang reported to Zhao Xie in detail on the situation of the horse farm, and in the new and expanded horse farm, the work was quite smooth.

Somewhere in Xiangguo City, this place was opened up as a steelmaking area.

The soldiers are closely guarded here, and the staff of the steelmaking area have relevant procedures for entering and exiting every day, and unrelated personnel cannot approach at all.

Most of the iron ore in Zhao was mined in the Taihang Mountains, and there was a processing area near the mine, and the iron ore was smelted into pig iron locally after mining, and then transported to various weapons workshops for use.

Since Xue Ding came, in order to research and test new technologies, considering the nature of technical secrecy, Zhao Xie opened a special steelmaking area in the city to transport pig iron here for further processing and refining.

In early March, Zhao Xie came to the steelmaking area to inspect the situation here in detail. This place belongs to the Ministry of Technology, and Huang Tingjing, who has been concentrating on the study of crossbow technology in the past few days, took time to accompany King Zhao to investigate.

Prior to this, Huang Tingjing had reported to King Zhao that under the guidance of Xue Ding, the iron-making craftsmen had tried and tested repeatedly, and the quality of the iron extracted from the iron ore had gradually improved.

Knowing that King Zhao was coming, Xue Ding came out of the gate to greet him, and then brought him in.

It is divided into several areas, including an ironmaking area, a warehouse area, an archive area, a lodging area, and a canteen. The craftsmen work and live here, and they are not allowed to go out unless there is a special matter, especially those in the ironmaking area, and it is forbidden to go out in the short term to prevent the leakage of technology.

In the warehouse area, there are several rooms where pig iron, wrought iron or steel after pig iron refining, ironmaking materials, etc., are stored separately.

Come to the archives area, where the paper materials record the operation of the steelmaking area. Including pig iron transportation records, test process, processing and refining and so on.

"My lord, this is the test record written by the minister!"

Xue Ding took a notebook and presented it to Zhao Xie.

Zhao Xie opened it and saw that there was a detailed record of the test inside, and it was also a daily work record of Xue Ding after he took office. The main content of the record is that Xue Ding guided the craftsmen to conduct experiments according to the steel frying technology provided by Zhao Wang, including the details of the specific process and the quality of the refined steel, and summarized the progress in a timely manner, as well as the problems encountered in the operation.

Xue Ding said: "The iron-making technology that Haotian God instructed the king is really wonderful, and according to this method, the iron smelted is getting better and better, but it has not yet reached the standard required by the king. ”

This Xue Ding is also really, he always talks about Haotian God, and attributes the invention of new technologies to the gods. Zhao Xie doesn't care about this, as long as Xue Ding has real materials, as long as he can do his job conscientiously.

In ancient times, there was also a method to test the quality of iron tools and weapons, before that, Zhao Xie had an in-depth conversation with Xue Ding, and determined that the steel refined by the steel frying technology must be able to reach a certain level of quality before it can be refined on a large scale with this quality as the standard, and then delivered to the weapons workshop for standardization and systematic construction of weapons.

Then, Zhao Xie came to the iron-making area again.

Inside, the temperature was noticeably much warmer than outside.

As we approached the furnace, the temperature rose even higher, and the craftsmen wore thin caftan brown to work.

The so-called "fried steel" is named because it is constantly stirred like stir-frying in the smelting process, and it is heated to a molten or basically molten state, stirred in the molten pool (called "frying" in ancient times), and the carbon contained in the pig iron is oxidized with the help of oxygen in the air, and the carbon content is reduced to the composition range of steel and wrought iron, so as to become steel or wrought iron.

According to Zhao Xie's request, coal is used as fuel here, which is easier to obtain the ideal high temperature than charcoal ironmaking.

However, under the current technical conditions, it is very difficult to control the carbon content when frying pig iron, and the products extracted are mainly wrought iron and low-carbon steel with almost wrought iron. Even so, in this Chu and Han time and space, it is already a great progress. The use of wrought iron and mild steel, which is almost wrought iron, as a material for the manufacture of weapons and production tools, has been able to ensure a certain technological advantage.

The craftsmen have a clear division of labor, some are responsible for heating coal, some are responsible for blowing air, some are responsible for mixing pig iron in the molten pool, and so on.

After only observing for a while, Zhao Xie, Huang Tingjing and others were sweating, and Zhao Xie took off a layer of clothes.

Zhao Xie asked Xue Ding: "By the end of this month, can we refine qualified steel?" ”

He hoped that when he fought the Han army, he would be able to equip a batch of weapons and protective gear of better quality.

Xue Ding replied: "My lord, there has never been such a method of iron-making before, and it will take some time for craftsmen to go from rusty to proficient, and they must not pull out the seedlings to help them grow. Chen dared to assert that it would definitely not be possible to do it within this month, and it would take at least two or three months. ”

He answered on a case-by-case basis.

Hearing Xue Ding's answer, Huang Tingjing frowned again, this way of answering was wrong, although the reason was this, but the answer was too blunt, making people sound uncomfortable.

Listening to Xue Ding's words, Zhao Xie was disappointed for a while, but thinking about it, he was too anxious and desperately hoped that various new technologies could be put into use as soon as possible. It's useless to be anxious, technology development has its own laws, even if Zhao Xie can provide relevant technical theoretical knowledge, but from the test to the successful manufacture of qualified products, this requires a process.

This is because if there is a talent like Xue Ding who is proficient in smelting technology, if he is still the original technician, it will take more time.

When the steel can be refined to meet the requirements, it will be shipped to the ironworks and arsenals.

In the government-run ironsmiths, blacksmiths would use wrought iron to create new production tools, including newly designed curved ploughs. For the new agricultural tools, Zhao Xie plans to distribute them to every farmer for free to improve farming efficiency.

On the side of the arsenal, weapons will be made using the technology of 100 steel.

The raw material of 100 steelmaking is neither pig iron nor wrought iron, but a kind of fried steel with slightly higher carbon content, which is the further processing and forging of general fried steel, repeated heating and stacking and deformation, repeated many times, or even hundreds of times, so it is called 100 steelmaking. This technique is mainly used to make high-quality weapons, and the resulting swords are very sharp.

The 100 steelmaking technology also has technical defects, that is, it is more time-consuming and labor-intensive to make, and to use this technology to build weapons on a large scale, a large number of skilled craftsmen are required, and the cost is high.

After the inspection, Zhao Xie walked out of the iron-making area and said to Huang Tingjing: "How is the crossbow studied?" ”

Huang Tingjing replied: "My king, there has been some progress, and we should be able to make repeaters that meet the requirements in the middle of this month." ”

Zhao Xie was a little relieved, although he couldn't make a better quality metal weapon in time, but at least he had made a breakthrough in the bow and crossbow, and there was Si Nan to identify the direction, ensuring that he had a certain technical advantage over the Han army.

Coming out of the gate, Zhao Xie got into the carriage and left.

The two courtiers watched the king leave, and Huang Tingjing pointed out to Xue Ding that the answer just now was inappropriate.

Xue Ding was very unconvinced, and said, "Juzi, I answered truthfully to the king, what's wrong?" ”

Huang Tingjing pointed out that the way he answered was inappropriate.

Xue Ding said: "Juzi, I will only answer truthfully, the truth is right!" ”

Huang Tingjing shook his head and sighed, Xue Ding is highly skilled in iron control, but he doesn't know how to deal with people, especially with kings.

The newspaper was on the agenda, and King Zhao's car stopped in front of the house on the west side of the palace.

At the gate of the house, the plaque above is engraved with the words "Dazhao Times Newspaper", and soldiers are standing guard.

Zhao Xie got out of the carriage and walked in, and there was a small courtyard behind the door. In the past few days, Zhao Xie has come here many times to guide relevant personnel.

"The king has arrived!"

The loud voice of the chamberlain sounded, and the staff in the newspaper office came to the courtyard to meet King Zhao.

Zhao Xie said: "Two days later, the newspaper will be published, how is the manuscript prepared? ”

In the newspaper, Zhao Xie appointed the president and editor-in-chief of the newspaper in accordance with the personnel structure of the Modern Times.

The first editor-in-chief was concurrently served by Sun Tonglai, the uncle of the Ministry of Rites.

This is not only because Sun Shutong volunteered to write the content of the newspaper, but he also hoped that the newspaper could promote Confucianism.

Again, this is also the result of Zhao Xie's comprehensive consideration, Confucianism and Legalism are suitable for governing the country, Zhao Xie needs to gradually promote the ideas advocated by Confucianism, and accumulate a public opinion base for the implementation of Confucian governance in the future.

However, Confucianism at this time was different from Confucianism during the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. Dong Zhongshu absorbed some of the ideas of Legalism, Taoism, and Yin-Yang to establish a new ideological system. Zhao Xie would give appropriate theoretical guidance to Confucianism at this time.

Zhao Xie hoped that when reporting news that was favorable to the court and king of Zhao, he would appropriately add opinions and comments on relevant news events that were biased towards Confucianism and Legalism, so as to imperceptibly influence the people.

However, Zhao Xie wanted to accommodate the hundred schools of thought, and explicitly forbade criticizing other schools of thought in the newspapers, and could not provoke disputes between schools, and could only target the enemies of Zhao State.

In the early press releases, Zhao Xie would strictly check the contents of all the manuscripts, and he would approve them before they could be published in the newspaper.

Shusun Tong replied: "My king, everything is ready, and it can be printed and distributed after my king's approval." ”

Zhao Xie walked into the house, there were many desks inside, and there were many papers that copied the content of the press release, and Zhao Xie wanted to look at them one by one.

One of the news reports on the spring ploughing situation in the first quarter of this year, describing the spring ploughing scene in a village in Zhuo County, Guangyang County, Yandi, when the county commander personally went to the countryside to investigate. The report pointed out that in the past Yan Wang Zangcha reign period, the people had to endure high taxes, after Yan land was included in the Zhao State, exempted from one year of tax, and the next year the land tax rate was lower than the previous reign of Yan Wang, and the imperial court implemented the policy of apportioning the land into the mu, whether it was a large landlord or an ordinary farmer, it was fair to pay taxes.

The news report clearly pointed out that these policies won the support of the people, and the common people supported the imperial court and the king of Zhao, happily farmed, and after seeing the county order, they all praised the good policies of the imperial court.

This incident is true, and the county's county order did go to the countryside to inspect it during spring ploughing, but there is an element of adding fuel and vinegar to the report.

It is also true that Zhao Xie and his courtiers made a decision to win the hearts of the people of Yandi after consultation, but there is a condition that the people of Yandi need to sell at least 20% of the grain to the imperial court after the grain harvest, and the imperial court will buy it at the normal market price. This is to ensure that the army has an adequate food supply.

Because of the implementation of the monopoly of salt and iron, the exclusive papermaking technology, and there will be new government sales one after another, the household department assessed that the government treasury income was able to support it, so Zhao Xie made such a decision.

Zhao Xie looked at this press release and was basically satisfied.

Then review the next article, the report is on the cavalry drills, pointing out that the cavalry soldiers were stroked, and there were many relatives, because Liu Bang sent troops to invade Zhao State, and died in the battle of Jingcheng to defend the territory, and the cavalry soldiers all hated the same enemy, and practiced hard to kill the enemy, if the Han army dared to invade again, it would definitely be defeated.

Looking at this report, Zhao Xie pointed out the shortcomings, and it was necessary to further expose Liu Bang's ugly face, and expose that he had been trying in vain to destroy the Zhao State, and was the public enemy of all the people of the Zhao State, and everyone was punished.

It took more than an hour for Zhao Xie to go through all the press releases, most of them met the requirements, and for a few manuscripts that were deficient, he made rectification instructions.

Sun Shutong and the other editors listened to Zhao Wang's instructions, and someone recorded them on the spot and then quickly corrected them.

In addition to reporting on news events, modern newspapers also have columns that publish articles written by someone, and Dazhao Times is no exception. In the first issue of the newspaper, there was an article written by Shusun Tong, in which he praised the achievements of Zhao in recent months and praised Zhao Wang as a generation of Ming monarchs.

After a busy day for half a day, I finally determined all the contents, handed over the manuscript to the printing workshop, and printed it in batches according to the content and typesetting.

At this time, movable type printing has been adopted, carved with a knife into a single word mold, after the press release is determined, according to the manuscript to pick out the single word, arranged in the word plate, can be batch ink printing.

After Zhao Xie returned to the palace, he summoned Shi Langzhong, the commander of the arsenal of the military department, and gave him two drawings, one was Sinan's spoon and the other was Sinan's plate.

He made it clear that the spoon had to be made of magnets; The plate is made of copper and must be very smooth inside the middle circle.

Lang Zhong was puzzled as to what was the use of creating these two kinds of utensils, but the king had an order and had to do so.

Of course, Zhao Xie will not say that this is the manufacture of Sinan, after it is manufactured, it will be kept by him, and when the army goes out, it will be given to a few trustworthy generals and told them how to use it. As long as you don't reveal the principle, even if you know that there are magnetic spoons and copper plates, it is not easy to know the mystery.

——————

As we entered March, there was basically no cold air activity, which was better than the same period in previous years.

King Donghu has always been thinking about the beautiful Wei Fang, originally waiting for the weather to warm up, holding a grand ceremony to welcome her, he couldn't wait, seeing that the weather was warm these days, he began to start.

Because of the first three times he asked the Xiongnu for money, Mao Dun lowered his posture and bowed his head to him, which made the king of Donghu even more arrogant. This time, the king of Donghu had a greater appetite, and sent people to the court of the Xiongnu to ask for a large piece of land at the junction of Donghu and the Xiongnu.

On March 10, King Donghu sent people to Wei Fang's tribe to inform the tribal elders that the king's greeting would arrive soon.

After learning the news, Wei Fang wept in her tent, and the maid continued to comfort her.

Although she knew that this day was going to come after all, she was mentally prepared for it, but this was not what she wanted, and when it came, she still couldn't help but be sad.

After crying for a long time, the elder walked into the tent, looked at his sad daughter, felt uncomfortable, and sighed: "This is a life that cannot be avoided, hey... I can only accept my fate! ”

Although Wei Fang was sad, her heart was quite strong, she stopped crying and said, "Father, when I get to the king, I will say more good things to him, and I hope he will take care of our tribe more." ”

The elder said, "Good daughter, take care of yourself in the future!" ”

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