After Zeng Yu waited for Pei Yuanshao and they left, he asked Zhu Wen what time it was, Zhu Wen looked at it, and it was almost noon now. At this time, there was no habit of eating lunch, Zeng Yu thought that he was going to find Li Hu when he went out in the morning, and he was interrupted in the middle, and now it was time to go to him to explain.

Zeng Yu came to Li Hu's workshop, followed by Zhu Wen and ten soldiers. At this time, Li Hu was building weapons, and there was a circle of people around him, all of whom were apprentices he had been carrying.

It turned out that when Pei Yuanshao came back from Jinniu Mountain, he transported a batch of iron ingots by the way, which were not extracted from iron ore produced by the mine, but more plundered from other places in Jinniuzhai. After Pei Yuanshao transported the iron ingot back, he pulled it directly to the workshop.

When Li Hu saw this, he immediately began to build, and he heard Pei Yuanshao say that the ready-made iron ingots were almost 100,000 catties, and he was happy for a while. However, thinking that if these iron ingots were only given to him to build alone, he didn't know that it would be the Year of the Monkey, so he has recently stepped up the training of apprentices to let them grow up quickly, so as to meet the needs of the cottage.

When Zeng Yu and the others walked in, Li Hu was explaining some of the skills that need to be paid attention to when striking iron to the apprentices while building, and he didn't pay attention to them at all.

Zeng Yu didn't have a background, but just walked behind the apprentices and listened to it. The apprentice in front felt that there was someone behind him, and when he looked back, it was Zeng Yu, and he wanted to salute. Zeng Yu hurriedly stopped him and told him to continue listening and not to interrupt Li Hu.

After waiting like this for an hour, Li Hu repeatedly beat it no less than ten times, each time he beat it hundreds of times, and gradually, the original piece of iron slowly took on the appearance of a long sword, and it had become an embryo.

Li Hu divided the process into two parts to explain to them, the first step is to make the iron into the required embryo through the hammering of hundreds of steel. At present, it is mainly up to him to make excellent armor weapons in the future, and he mainly lets his apprentices learn to build good embryos first, so that he can process them into weapons much faster.

After the embryo was formed, he put down the hammer in his hand and looked at the apprentices beside him, wondering how they had mastered. Suddenly found that Zeng Yu was also standing behind, and was shocked, and hurriedly walked through the apprentices to Zeng Yu, and at this time, all the other apprentices in the workshop also saw Zeng Yu and hurriedly saluted him.

"Please also ask the lord to atone for his sins, I was too involved just now to see you." Li Hu came to Zeng Yu and pleaded guilty.

"What a crime, if every craftsman can be like you, then the armor and weapons of our cottage must be better than others." Zeng Yu helped Li Hu up, patted him on the shoulder and said.

"Thank you for your compliment, I don't know what instructions your lord has for coming over today?"

"I came to you this time for some business, let's go to your resting place first."

"My lord, please." Li Hu asked the apprentices to build the embryo first, and he himself walked Zeng Yu and his party to his usual lounge.

"Li Hu, how many weapons or armor can be made in a day here in the workshop now?" Zeng Yu asked Li Hu after sitting down.

"Lord Qiqi, at present, there are a total of thirty-two people in the workshop, and I can build sixty embryos a day, but the rest of the process is now done by me alone, and I can build five weapons a day, and as for the armor, I can only build one set a day." This is Li Hu's report.

"It's too slow, can't anyone else build the next process?" Zeng Yu was a little disappointed when he heard that he could only produce so much in one day.

"There weren't many iron ingots in the workshop before, and everyone was rarely at it, so they weren't particularly skilled. It would take at least three months for these people to improve their skills to the point where they could build weapons. Li Hu heard the disappointment in Zeng Yu's words, and was also anxious, and hurriedly explained.

"Is there any way to do it quickly?" Zeng Yu asked unwillingly.

"This iron can only be done step by step, otherwise the technology is not good to build weapons, and the weapons built must be defective."

"You're right, I'm in a hurry. I'm going to expand the size of the workshop to 100 people, or you're in charge. When these people can craft weapons, the output of the workshop can be increased, and you can teach the apprentices well so that they can master the technology of forging as soon as possible. ”

"Yes, my subordinates must teach with all their heart and live up to the expectations of the lord." Li Hu replied with a fist.

"Li Hu, do you know how to smelt iron?" Zeng Yu only knew that Li Hu was an excellent blacksmith before, but iron smelting was different from iron smelting, so he asked deliberately.

"Back to the lord, his subordinates have family handicrafts, both iron-striking and iron-smelting." Li Hu replied.

"That's good, I think you have also heard that there is an iron ore vein in Jinniu Mountain, and the ore mined will be smelted by you, and I will allocate another batch of people to you."

"Lord, what should we do with the workshop?"

"Don't worry, now we have a batch of iron ingots, which is at least enough for three months. When these iron ingots are used up, and the rest of the workshop has almost mastered the technology, then you can build a blast furnace to smelt iron, and naturally there will be no delay. Zeng Yu had already planned for a long time, and knew that the construction of the iron-smelting furnace was not in a hurry for this month or two.

"It's still thoughtful as the lord thinks." Li Hu also patted Zeng Yu's ass a little.

"Li Hu, how do you generally operate iron smelting, I have a method for building a furnace here, you can see if it is feasible." Zeng Yu said to Li Hu, and at the same time, he told Li Hu about a kind of shaft furnace he mastered.

This shaft furnace is mainly in the Song Dynasty before the beginning of large-scale use, the whole shaft furnace with siliceous red, white sand stone or granite stacking, two ends of the bundle, the middle is waist drum shape, the height can reach six meters, a time can smelt about two thousand catties of pig iron, according to three times a day, can reach a daily output of more than 5,000 catties. As long as there are enough people in the workshop, the weapons produced can fully meet their needs.

After Li Hu listened to Zeng Yujiang's shaft furnace, he compared the iron smelting furnace of the Qin Dynasty Shaofu that he mastered, and felt that this shaft furnace was much better.

"Lord, I don't know where you got this shaft furnace from, but my subordinates think it's much better than the iron-smelting furnace I built."

"I learned this from a place, but I don't know if it can be used, since you said yes, then after you arrive at Jinniu Mountain, I will arrange a group of people to go to the mountains to quarry, and then you can build a few shaft furnaces to try." Of course, Zeng Yu couldn't tell Li Hu where he learned this, but only said that he would be responsible for building it.

"With the shaft furnace of the master, I believe that the output and quality of iron ingots will definitely be better."

"Okay, you will mainly train the other people in the workshop in the near future, and I will ask Zhou Cang to bring you tomorrow for the other seventy people, you must let them master the technology as soon as possible."

"Yes, my subordinates have orders!"

"Okay, I'll go back first, and I'll leave the workshop to you." Zeng Yu stood up, walked to Li Hu's side, patted him on the shoulder and said.

"My subordinates will send you."

Li Hu sent Zeng Yu out of the workshop, and then took hurried steps. Zeng Yu personally came to ask about the workshop this time, and he knew that this was Zeng Yu's expectation of himself and the workshop, and he must complete it to be worthy of it.

"Lord, I didn't expect you to know about iron smelting."

Zhu Wen: He just heard Zeng Yu tell Li Hu about the shaft furnace, he really didn't expect Zeng Yu to do this. It was not good to ask in front of Li Hu just now, but at this time they were on the way back, Zhu Wen couldn't help but ask directly.

"Chengyong, this shaft furnace is just some of the things I have mastered, and there will be more things for you to see in the future. If you don't have these, how can you have a big advantage just by relying on some foresight. Zeng Yu replied domineeringly.

"I don't know much about what you're saying, but I know one thing, that is, we have a big advantage now, right?"

"Almost, if you want to talk about the advantage, we don't have much right now. After all, some people are born with a golden key, even if they don't understand anything, there are a large group of people who understand to assist, and we don't have these, we can only rely on ourselves, so we must grasp every advantage, expand him to the point where it is enough to make up for the disadvantages of our origins, and then surpass each other. ”

Zeng Yu heard Zhu Wen say that they had a great advantage, shook his head and said. He thought of the clans and the strong in the world now, which one was the weakest. Just talking about those clans that are famous in the Han Dynasty, they can't casually pull up a team of tens of thousands of people, as for some small ones, they can also pull up thousands of teams, which are stronger than their current strength.

"Anyway, I listen to the lord, in the future, we will beat whoever we want, see who dares to disagree, I will beat him and he won't even recognize his mother." Zhu Wen's answer was simply direct and rude, but it also amused Zeng Yu.

"Haha, Chengyong is right, let's see who is not convinced, and when the strength is strong, we will do him." Zeng Yu said with a smile.

When Zeng Yu and the others returned to the meeting hall, a soldier came to the door to tell him that Zhou Cang had been waiting for him in the hall for a while. Zeng Yu knew that Zhou Cang would not come over if there was nothing to do, so it was estimated that there was some news. Seeing that Zhou Cang was sitting there, he asked directly after entering the room.

"Zhou Cang, is there any news about Zhonghu and them?"

Zhou Cang felt that the light was dim, and when he looked up, he found that it was Zeng Yu and they had entered the door, and quickly stood up and said, "Lord, you guessed right, I just received the news from the mountain, Zhonghu and they are already on their way up the mountain, and they should return here in three days." ”

"That's good, did you say how many of them went up the mountain in total?" Zeng Yu asked again, he was worried that Sun Hao and the others would not all come up.

"Yes, the news says that there are a total of eight fresh faces who have gone up the mountain, all of them are your former brothers, and I heard that there are some other people who remain in the county." It turned out that Sun Hao and they didn't all come up this time, and it is estimated that there were some other arrangements.

"Okay, I see. Since I found them, when they arrived, I would ask Zijin how he arranged them. Zeng Yu couldn't guess the meaning of Sun Hao's arrangement for a while.

"My lord, there is one more thing. I've already chosen the people I've asked me to go to the workshop, and they'll be able to go over there tomorrow. On the night of Zhou Cang's celebration banquet, after hearing Zeng Yu say that he was going to see Li Hu in person, he received the order to select people to go to the workshop.

"Okay, you will personally take them over when you arrive, and let them listen to Li Hu in everything, I have already told Li Hu just now."

"Yes, I'll quit first."

"Go ahead, you can take care of the things in the mountains."

After Zeng Yu finished speaking, Zhou Cang walked out of the hall after saluting, and now he is responsible for some specific trivial matters in the cottage. Zeng Yu is currently arranging the general direction, and then handing it over to Zhou Cang, and he will spend more time under the mountain in the future.