Liu Qi's death means that all the remaining problems in Jingzhou have been solved, and the generals including Guan Yu and the reformed personnel such as Yi nationality now have only one choice to assist Liu Cong. And the birth of Liu Ji made Liu Cong's rule more stable.

And because of Zhang Song and Fa Zheng, the strategy of Yizhou was gradually put on the agenda. Because although Cao Cao in the north is staring at Sun Quan at the moment, he may turn his gun on Jingzhou at any time, and strengthening himself as soon as possible is the first priority to survive in troubled times!

The daily military and political affairs are done by Wen Ping, Zhuge Liang, Wei Yan and others, and what Liu Cong needs is overall arrangement. But there is one thing that Liu Cong does not dare to relax, and that is the manufacture of weapons and equipment.

You must know that history is always written by the victors, and the victors always like to attribute the reasons for victory only to representing the interests of the people, but to obliterate the power of technology and steel in victory. As a soldier who is in harmony with future generations, Liu Cong naturally knows that the power and equipment of science and technology are decisive for war.

Liu Cong knew very well that the reason why Qin destroyed the Six Kingdoms during the Warring States Period was because iron defeated bronze, and army standardization defeated the disorder of the Six Nations armies. At the time, most people in the Six Nations believed that iron was 'bad gold' and would bring bad luck.

Only the Qin army used standardized iron weapons on a large scale, so the Qin Dynasty unified the world because of the large use of "evil" gold, which brought bad luck to the six countries, and had nothing to do with whether Qin Shi Huang represented the interests of the broadest masses of the people.

In the early Han Dynasty, Wei Qing pursued the nomads across the desert and won a great victory, mainly due to the invention of the unilateral horse pedal in the early Han Dynasty, which greatly shortened the time for the Han Dynasty to train a cavalry, and freed the Han cavalry to fight with both hands. Therefore, Wei Qing and Huo Qubing were able to chase the Huns for thousands of miles on light horses.

And after the Tang Dynasty, the reason why the Western Regions, invincible, this is because the sword defeated the sword, before the Tang Dynasty cavalry were used double-sided bladed swords as the main weapon, when the cavalry sprinted immediately, they could only use the method of chopping to the enemy, and the straight sword was inconvenient to slash when sprinting on the horse, even if the technique of using the thorn, it was easy to break short, only slightly curved, a knife with a certain arc, it was convenient for the cavalry to sweep on the horse, kill the enemy and win.

Therefore, with Liu Cong's 2,000 years of advanced knowledge, Jingzhou can completely defeat the enemy in terms of equipment, and with advanced combat methods, Liu Cong can make a fortune in Jingzhou, a relatively unfavorable geographical location, and can deal with Liu Zhang and Sun Quan in this era, and even defeat Cao Cao.

Especially Cao Cao, there is a strong cavalry in the north, Jingzhou can use the advantage of the navy to withstand the attack in the early stage, when you want to win the Central Plains, you must find a way to deal with the cavalry with infantry. In addition to making use of time and geography, it is necessary to rely on equipment, resourcefulness, and military training.

In terms of resourcefulness and army training, Cao Cao's group will not lose to Liu Cong in a short period of time, and Liu Cong may only be able to surpass Cao Cao's equipment, especially with Zhuge Liang and Huang Yueying, two equipment experts. But the premise is that Liu Cong must provide them with sufficient raw materials.

Think about the Anti-Japanese War period, China only has an annual output of 20,000 tons of steel, presumably everyone is angry, 40,000 people use 20,000 tons of steel, that is, 20,000 people use one ton of steel, and only 50 grams of steel are evenly distributed to one person, not to mention knives, even a new small handpiece per person is not enough. Little Japan, of course, will invade China.

On the contrary, if Liu Cong surpassed Cao Cao and Sun Quan in the production and use of steel, he would definitely be able to gain an advantage in equipment and equipment. The production of bows and crossbows and other instruments is Zhuge Liang's forte, but it is not too easy for other weapons and equipment manufacturing to win.

Therefore, ironmaking is urgent, it is imperative, if Jingzhou can train good steel, and use it in the army on a large scale, it will definitely be able to defeat other princes, and it will be able to promote the development of the Han nation.

When Liu Cong told Zhuge Liang, Xu Shu and others about his thoughts, they also agreed. It is impossible for Cao Cao to let Jingzhou and Yangzhou become bigger.

Iron smelting requires a large amount of iron ore and fuel, and the coal in Changsha County can provide enough fuel for iron smelting, and the neighboring Lingling County has a large amount of iron ore. After repeated selections, Bo Liuba, the former captain of the Diannong School and the current owner of the General's Mansion, was entrusted with an important task and went to Changsha to make steel.

Of course, refining iron is only the first step, but how to build a weapon that leads the era is not an overnight thing. Recruiting a large number of excellent craftsmen from all over the world is the quickest first step to achieve this goal.

Liu Cong knew that during the Three Kingdoms period, Pu Yuan, a famous weapon maker of the Shu Han Dynasty, was in Xiegukou (now southwest of Zhouzhi County, Shaanxi), "made of gold, special abnormal method", and cast 3,000 knives for Zhuge Liang. After the knife was cast, in order to check the quality, Pu Yuan asked the soldiers to fill the bamboo tube with iron beads, raise the knife and cut hard, such as cutting grass, the bamboo tube was broken and the iron beads were cracked, and people praised the steel knife cast by Pu Yuan as a "magic knife" that could "cut gold and jade, and sharpen iron like mud".

Pu Yuan was not only a well-known knife maker at the time, but also interested in various types of machinery, and was also quite talented in machine making. Before the Three Kingdoms, most of the vehicles used in China's land transportation were two-wheeled vehicles, which were relatively stable, relatively large in load, easy to grasp the balance, and very convenient to use.

This type of car is more suitable for driving on flat roads, but it is more difficult to use on some narrow mountain paths. During the Three Kingdoms, Shu was mostly mountainous and hilly, and the road was particularly difficult, and in the battle with Cao Wei, it was necessary to constantly transport grain and grass, so it was necessary to solve the transportation tools suitable for the mountain road. After continuous study, experimentation and exploration, Pu Yuan invented the wheelbarrow and solved the difficulties of Shu.

This unicycle is ideal for traveling on rugged mountain trails and has been used for more than 1,000 years. Such a "divine swordsman" has such superb skills in refining swords and other aspects, but it is not recorded in the official history, and it is only recorded in some folklore and other books, so that future generations can understand Pu Yuan's extraordinary skills and be remembered and admired by future generations.

Therefore, Huang Quan and Liu Yin soon received a new task, that is, to recruit well-known craftsmen from all over the world, such as Pu Yuan, with them, Liu Cong's Kuangfu plan would be twice as effective with half the effort.

Of course, as a traverser, it is not strange that Pu Yuan can practice the divine sword, but it has strengthened Liu Cong's determination that science and technology are the primary productive forces.

How is the "Divine Sword" made? This starts with the advanced steelmaking technology in ancient China.

Huaxia was one of the first countries in the world to produce steel. Archaeologists of the later generations of Harmony once excavated a bronze lattice "iron sword" in the tomb of Yangjiashan in Changsha, Hunan Province in the late Spring and Autumn Period, which passed the metallographic examination and proved to be made of steel. This is the earliest steel object we have seen in China so far. It shows that there has been steelmaking production in China since the late Spring and Autumn period, and steelmaking production has a history of more than 2,500 years in China.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the weapons made by the Chu State were famous all over the world. The blades of the weapons produced by Wan (present-day Nanyang, Henan Province) of the Chu State were as powerful as bee stings, which must have been made of steel. Iron swords are too soft to be as sharp as a bee's sting.

At that time, the swords used by ancient Roman soldiers in the West were wrought iron, and they were bent when they were stabbed on the battlefield, and they had to be placed on the ground and stepped straight with their feet before stabbing again. In the first century A.D., the European Pliny once said: "Although there are many kinds of iron, none of them can compare with the beauty of Chinese steel." ”

The main difference between pig iron, wrought iron and steel is the carbon content, iron with a carbon content of more than 2% is called pig iron; Iron with a carbon content of less than 0.05% is called wrought iron, and iron with a carbon content of 0.05%-2% is called steel. The earliest steelmaking process in ancient China was: charcoal was used as fuel first, and iron ore was smelted into a sponge-like solid block in a furnace, which was taken out after the furnace was cold, which was called block ironmaking.

Block iron smelting has low carbon content, soft texture and many impurities, and is wrought iron smelted in the early days of human beings. Then use the block of iron as raw material, heat and absorb carbon in the carbon fire to increase the carbon content, and then after forging, remove impurities and infiltrate the carbon, so as to obtain steel. This kind of steel is called block iron-making carburizing steel. The steel weapons unearthed in Yanxia, Yixian County, Hebei Province are all made of block iron-making carburizing steel.