6

This furnace sacrifice did not have any cumbersome procedures as Zhong Li originally imagined, but in order to save labor time and raw materials, the iron sand used by the Seven Divisions in one year was smelted together, and everyone was gathered for this purpose.

Zhong Li followed everyone to pour Tie Yingsha into the big urn in the hall, and after entering the hall, he realized that this hall was not as simple as it seemed from the outside. There is a stone pillar in the hall one day, I don't know whether it is naturally formed or artificially carved, the stone pillar is empty, straight out of the main hall, like a chimney. The bottom of the stone pillar is thick and thin, and the bottom is cut by less than half. Now this half is sealed with clay and filled with charcoal, like a large charcoal furnace. More than a dozen workers on both sides of the furnace stepped on the bellows, and the charcoal fire in the furnace was swollen red.

When the charcoal fire was in full bloom, the furnace master was led to the furnace and then untied the strip of cloth from his eyes. The moment he opened his eyes, Zhong Li caught a glimpse of his eyes like molten iron slurry, and if he looked at him, he would feel dazzling.

"Into the sand."

As soon as this sound sounded, the furnace master stood on the side of the sword furnace, his eyes never off the fire. He commanded the shirtless workers to add iron sand, charcoal, or control the size of the blast. Hundreds of disciples of the Seven Masters lined up on both sides of the main hall, clasped their hands together in the scarlet firelight, and silently recited different prayers to pray for a smooth smelting.

The furnace fire burned from noon to dusk, dusk burned until midnight, the shirtless workers changed several shifts, although the disciples of the seventh division were still standing in the hall, but there was no lack of convenience or food halfway, only the furnace master has been watching the hot burning furnace fire, reflecting the red and bright fire, not leaving an inch.

The roar of the wind like a dragon's roar pierced through the night, and the splendor of the stars was obscured by the fire. In the early morning of the next day, when everyone and Zhong Li were standing in a daze, they suddenly saw a feather fan waving in the hall.

"Break off!"

Everyone woke up suddenly, and said in unison: "The furnace master works hard. ”

"It's done, it's done." After the hard work, the hall was lively for a while, and everyone smiled as if relieved, celebrating each other or joking. An attendant held the furnace master, blindfolded him again, and led him to rest elsewhere.

The prepared liquor was now sent into the main hall, and all but a bowl of cloudy wine was a list of foods. After using it, everyone waited in the main hall for a while, and the furnace master walked out of the back of the hall again, and at this time he looked more than ten years older than yesterday, and his white hair was already matched.

"Open the furnace."

As soon as the furnace was opened, I saw that the disciples of the seventh division rushed to knock open the clay wall with the prepared iron hammer, and the embers surged for a while, as if a strong wind swept a mountain of red apricots.

After a commotion, the workers came up and cleaned the slag with a chisel, and when the slag was almost cleared, what everyone was looking forward to was revealed. The incompletely cooled iron lay quietly at the bottom of the furnace like a piece of jade, and the crimson of the flame had not completely faded. The workers struck it with a hammer, and the iron at the edge burst like ice, leaving a neat section with a black and dazzling sheen.

"This is the jade made by the fire." Seeing this scene, Ah Xu was extremely excited. Although Zhong Li understood the reason for his excitement, he doubted how this iron, which was as black as coal and brittle as ice crystals, could be made into a good sword.

"Master Xu received twenty-eight pounds of jade iron."

"How?"

Seeing Zhong Li questioning Ah Xu, he smiled and said, "That's the essence part." ”

7

Turning the day, Zhong Li heard the sound of clanging in the morning. Originally, I thought that the forging work had begun, but before I wanted to enter the house, Ah Xu was holding a small hammer and knocking jade iron like broken tiles one by one.

"Just what?"

"Selection." Ah Xu didn't raise his head and returned.

Zhong Li came closer, saw him pick up a piece of jade iron, looked at the sunlight again, and then beat it with a small hammer, and put it in one of the two piles next to him. "Isn't this all jade iron burned by the furnace master?"

"Yes, but there are differences."

Zhong Li took a closer look at the doorway, and saw that Ah Xu always put the section sharp and shiny, the sound crisp in one pile, and the uneven section in the other pile. "Is there a difference in hardness?"

After Ah Xu heard Zhong Li's guess, he stopped what he was doing. "Wise, if you had not joined the army, I would have taken you as an apprentice. The iron of the same furnace will also be different when combined with charcoal, the hardness of the combination is high, the section is sharp and the sound is crisp, which is suitable for making a knife edge, and the flexible one is made of the knife back. As he spoke, he pulled out another sledgehammer. Since you can see it, don't be idle, and go with the old decay. ”

The twenty-eight catties of iron were quickly divided, and Ah Xu cleaned the carbon pool with an iron drill and poured two baskets of yellow peat and charcoal. The bellows were pulled up, and the charcoal fire in the pool soon turned scarlet. Ah Xu took the crucible, put it in the iron block, and placed it in the pool, and after a short time, the iron turned into molten iron. Zhong Li moved the casting mold, and the molten iron slowly flowed in, and it didn't take long for the soft and hard iron bars used to cast the two knives to be cast.

Ah Xu heated the iron bar with charcoal fire until it was bright yellow, put it on the anvil and hammered it with a sledgehammer, and the iron flowers splashed and impurities precipitated out, until orange and red and then re-entered the charcoal fire. After each fold is 15 folds, the steel will be more than 10,000 layers. Ah Xu folded the soft steel horizontally, embedded the hard steel in it, put it into the charcoal fire until it was bright yellow, and then hit it with a hammer, and the billet of the knife was calculated.

It took several days to hammer the billet into the shape of a straight knife, and when the knife edge and blood groove were repaired with a steel file, it was the middle of winter. One day when the snow was beginning to clear, Ah Xu wanted to go to the city to find some quenching materials, Zhong Li felt that he might not be able to bear the loneliness, and went to secretly take a look at the little blacksmith, so he stayed alone in the mountains.

Ah Xu really went to look for the apprentice, but he was empty. When he returned, he saw that the new snow outside the courtyard was littered, and the flat snow that had accumulated on the courtyard wall half a foot high was also scattered.

Although he had expected that things were not good, but when he opened the courtyard door, Ah Xu Yi was shocked by the scene in front of him, only to see that the originally empty courtyard was now full of corpses, and the snow in the courtyard was dyed dark red. Looking at the door again, there was a person covered in blood and two knife-shaped steel bars in his hand, and when this person noticed Ah Xu, Ah Xu saw that he was Zhong Li.

"This ...... This ......"

"They wanted to exchange your life for something in my hands, and I cut them all down." He raised a steel bar in his hand and said: "The knife you forged is really good, the blade didn't open and let me cut more than 20 pieces, but there was no bending at all." ”

Ah Xu was even more shocked by Zhong Li's words, and stood for a long time before slowly asking, "What about the others?" ”

"Frightened and fainted, and now lying in the house."

Ah Xu walked up to Zhong Li, snatched two knife blanks from his hands, wiped off the frozen blood, and checked it repeatedly, as Zhong Li said, there was no damage at all.

He went into the house and lit a charcoal fire, and put the fresh snow in a bucket and heated it by the pool. After the snow melted, he took the urine of the five animals and the fat of the five animals, and poured them into the sink with the snow water. He took out the clay, furnace ash and ink, mixed it with water until it was viscous, and then smeared the mud with bamboo pieces on the knife blank little by little, so that only the blade part of the knife was exposed.

The blank of the knife covered with inky mud was re-fired, and after a while it was orange-red. Ah Xu took the knife with tongs and plunged it into the sink, then he heard a short "bang" sound, a white mist rose, and the blade of the knife instantly turned cold from fiery red. The mud shell cracked in the water, falling from the blade like ashes, and the blade seemed to be driven by brute force to quickly press against the back of the knife, forcing the back of the knife to curl up. The knife blank enters the water for only three to five seconds, and when it comes out, it has changed from straight to a graceful arc that curves towards the back of the knife. The parts that were originally covered with mud turned into a deep, cold silver-gray color, and the uncovered soil was smooth and bright. After Ah Xu inspected it, he quenched another piece of knife blank in the same way, but the knife that came out this time was still straight, and there were dark red patterns left on his body.

"How so?" Zhong Li couldn't help but marvel when he saw this.

"These two things are already alive when they are killed." Ah Xu replied with an unknown word, so he took the dry knife blank, and then took the oil paper and wrapped it separately.

"What is this?"

Ah Xu pushed the two knife blanks to Zhong Li, "The young people in the town have done a better job of cutting, polishing, and pasting the scabbards. General, don't leave it at that. ”

Thinking that there was still a corpse in the courtyard, Zhong Li understood Ah Xu's meaning. "It seems that I can't stay in Long Yuan." He took the knife and added, "But it's not easy for the two of you to go down like this. Well, if you are in trouble, you will ward me. ”

Zhong Li tightened his sleeves and opened the door, the mountain wind whistled into the door, and goose feathers and snowflakes rolled up all over the sky.

"The anger is too heavy, this knife is better to use less."

"Isn't the world just played? Don't just wait for humiliation. Zhong Li looked at the mountains and branches involved in the flying snow, and took this sentence in his heart. Say goodbye. ”

7

In a trance, Yuan Xian saw a knife with a fiery red body, repeatedly fighting with a group of humanoid black shadows. The knife flipped up and down in the inky chaotic background, like a rainbow of fire, passing through the black shadows from time to time. The black shadow was slashed by the fire knife and turned to dust in an instant, blending into the background. During the struggle, she seemed to hear her father's voice, and suddenly she came to her senses, and found that she was in the camp, and the candles were lit all around.

"I'm ......"

"Wake up, wake up, Major General wake up." Seeing Yuan Xian wake up, Mo Huan, who was guarding beside him, rushed out of the camp tent, and after a while, a general wearing a golden dragon bright light armor and a white silk and gold silk embroidered Nine Dragons cloak walked into the tent. He didn't wear a helmet, his hair was full of snow and mountains, Danfeng's eyes were sharp and unfavorable, so he didn't chill, he had a long hair, and he didn't grow old.

"Daddy?"

Seeing that Yuan Xian was about to get up, he hurriedly walked to the bed, and his majestic demeanor in front of him turned into warmth for a while. "Don't move. Although it is fine, it still needs to be recuperated. ”

Yuan Xian lay flat and left some space for Yuan Qizhi to sit down. "What's going on out there now?" She heard the noise and bustle of people outside the account.

"Do you want to lure the enemy with yourself today, and then destroy them in one fell swoop?" Yuan Qizhi asked rhetorically.

Yuan Xian nodded slightly. "I left a message in my bag, and I would give it to Mo Huan, but she ......"

"It's not that she didn't see it, it's just that you have ever thought that you and her are both alienated in this place, and it is not easy to secretly arrange the army to make peace with each other."

"Then after."

"Later, it was the spies who found your white horse, and then they saw the smoke and dust of the battlefield. It's a pity that when the army arrives, you are the only one left to survive. Although she completely annihilated Shi Fei's main force, Shi Fei herself escaped. Yuan Qizhi explained briefly and then advised: "Don't commit this taboo again in the future." Just because he was anxious, he wanted to use manpower to turn the tide, which was against the time and place, so how could it not involve the three armies? ”

"It's just that I thought that Zhong Li was still under siege......"

"Then you don't trust that kid enough."

Yuan Xian felt more and more ashamed when she thought about it.

"Get well quickly, I have something important for you." After seeing Yuan Xian realize the mistake of his decision, Yuan Qizhi turned to other things. "Just now Xuzhou came to report, 'Yingyue' Wang Li led 100,000 troops to attack Xuzhou, it seems that they have taken Jiaozhou."

When Yuan Xian heard this, he was only wrong, and hurriedly asked, "What about General Chang in Xuzhou?" ”

"The Qinglong Army has met with the 30,000 advance army that set off from Yangzhou, and it is difficult to distinguish between victory and defeat, and even tends to be inferior."

"How so?"

"The other party is leading the troops with Ninghai Chasing Wind Spear Wang Xin and Donghai Water Breaking Knife Takeda Anna."

"So what's going on now?"

Seeing Yuan Xian's anxious expression, Yuan Qizhi was busy appeasing him. "In this way, I will temporarily hand over the 40,000 infantry of my Canglong Army to your command, and the four commanders of the front battalion, the middle battalion, the rear battalion, and the Karakuri battalion will also be left for you, and I will bring my own iron cavalry battalion and hussar battalion to help. The war in western Liaoning will be handed over to you and Zhong Li. ”