"Oh? It's good news, we have another source of money in Akagi. ”

"Not only that, but does the general remember the last time the Uighurs sent a batch of jade? Didn't I also take a piece, but it was taken by a Khitan person. He said that now the Khitans have seized a lot of jade from the Uighurs, and now there is a love of jade among the Khitan nobles, and the Khitan people actually want to exchange 500 cattle for this piece of color on me, which startled me at that time. "It's a bit of an incredible thing to say right now.

"Such a high price? Your jade is only of medium grade, and he is willing to exchange it for five hundred cows? Are they stupid and have a lot of money? Qin Forget was really taken aback.

"That's it, we have a car of such beautiful jade, for them." Wang Wen took over the conversation and said with a smile.

Wang Wen's words caused everyone to burst into laughter.

"These Khitan nobles are really poor and extravagant, and now is the critical time for the Khitans to fight the Uighurs, and they actually lose their national strength in this way. Change, Jincheng, exchange with them. can not only make money, but also bleed the Khitans, why not? Knowing that Jincheng dared to touch that batch of beautiful jade, Qin Forget said, "But you also have to leave a little bit of fine art, maybe you can use it in the future." ”

"Okay, I'll go find that Khitan. In this way, we have a large number of goods in the account. But that can't be compared with Jiang Dongchen, this kid monopolized the entire Dayan's private salt business, and last time he went back to Chicheng to report that he had opened the market of Qi State, with a net profit of more than 500,000 taels per month. General, I didn't expect this kid to have such a skill, but fortunately I didn't kill him in the first place. ”

"Jiang Dongchen has opened the Qi market? Tell me more about it. Hearing this news, Qin Forget was very happy.

"I don't know the specifics, probably because he cooperated with Li Zhen of the Li family in Ulzhou to remove the biggest obstacle to entering the Qi country, the Zhu family in Xuzhou, and other things are logical." Kaneshiro replied.

"Okay, Jiang Dongchen did a good job. Tell him that no matter what methods he uses or what help he wants, what help we will provide him. There is only one requirement, that is, he wants to monopolize the private salt market of Qi as soon as possible, as long as he can do this, in case he faces Qi in the future, our chances of victory will be much greater. Qin Wang's vision obviously had to look further.

"Yes, I'll write to him when I get back." Jin Cheng nodded in agreement.

"Tell him that now he is the deputy director of the Akagi Commercial Division, and his status is second only to you and Mrs. Chen." For those who have the ability, Qin Forget never hesitates to reward.

Jin Cheng nodded in agreement, and glanced at Dong Zhuang, both of whom were keenly aware of Qin Wang's strangeness. First let Xue Zangfeng, Cheng Wu, and Chengli lead 10,000 horses, and then appointed Jiang Dongchen as the deputy director of the Department of Commerce, so boldly using newcomers is not Qin Wang's style. They knew that Qin Forget was worried about his body, worried that he wouldn't last long, and wanted to strengthen the strength of the Akagi Army as soon as possible.

"Tianxiang, do you want to choose the person you picked?" Bai Jingtang was going back to Khitan tomorrow, and Qin Forget promised to send two hundred good men back with him, so he asked.

"Rest assured, general, everything is ready

。 Knowing that Qin Forget didn't want to say it explicitly, Dong Tianxiang's answer was also very vague.

"That's good, there's no room for error." Qin Forget nodded, "Don't forget our five-year covenant, let's do it well." ”

Dong Tianxiang hurriedly agreed.

"By the way, General, Jin Xu sent a message that he has a few good things for you to see, and it seems that he is still in a hurry." Jin Cheng said suddenly.

"Oh? Jin Xu said that if there is a good thing, it must be a good thing. Qin Forget said expectantly, wondering if the water forging press was made.

"Water forging press? Did you make it? Looking at the hammer weighing dozens of catties in front of him automatically hitting a piece of pig iron up and down, Qin Forget said excitedly.

"Living up to its mission, it has finally been built." Jin Xu has lost a lot of weight, but his spirit is very good.

"Tell me how this works?" Qin Wangxing pointed to the spinning waterwheel next to him and asked.

"It's actually quite simple, that waterwheel is what provides the power." Jin Xu also looked at the waterwheel and said, the key is here, Jin Xu pointed to a half-moon-shaped, polished iron block fixed on the waterwheel, "This iron block will continue to rotate with the waterwheel, and when it rotates for a week, it will hit the long handle of the hammer." The general also saw that the long handle of the hammer had a round hole here, and through this round steel was fixed to the stake, and the whole handle of the hammer could be rotated around the round steel. The wooden handle is a little longer at this end of the hammer, and the hammer is naturally sagging, and once it is hit by the iron, it will be raised high, and when the iron leaves the hammer handle, the hammer will fall down and smash the pig iron. ”

"It's that simple?" Looking at the device in front of him, after listening to Jin Xu's introduction, Qin forgot this idea.

In fact, what Qin Yu said was not bad at all, the device in front of him was indeed very simple, so simple that it was just a few ordinary parts put together.

"Yes, it's easy." Jin Xu also smiled bitterly, "Technically, this is the case, many things are actually so simple, but it is covered with a veil, if you can think of it and uncover it, everything is not a problem, if you can't think of it and uncover it, it will be difficult." In fact, such a device is also available in our country, and it is recorded in ancient books that it is called Shuidi, but it is different from Vasily's country, and we use it to make rice. ”

"So, this device can be replicated by others?" Hearing Jin Xu say this, Qin Wang's brows furrowed, he didn't want his opponent to have such a technical means.

"No way, even if someone else has a drawing, they can't make it." Jin Xu shook his head firmly, "The device is not difficult to build, it is rare to be a material." Does the general know what is required for this piece of iron to strike the handle of the hammer? To be hard enough, to have enough toughness, but also to be wear-resistant, we have ready-made steel in our hands simply can't be used. Vasily and I experimented with it for two months alone. There is also this round steel for rotation, which we selected from more than a dozen blast furnaces and forged it through thousands of hammers, reaching a thousand refinements. ”

Hearing Jin Xu say this, Qin Forget put his mind at ease, "It's best if others can't copy it, the secret recipe is strictly kept secret for me, and it must not be leaked." ”

"The general can rest assured, his subordinates know what to expect." Jin Xu promised, "One waterwheel and one hammer, the efficiency is too low." I'm going to add a log in the middle of the watermill and put seven or eight sledgehammers and strikers on the log, so that the waterwheel can drive seven or eight hammers to work together. ”

"Yes, so that a blacksmith can finish forging a piece of plate armor by standing next to the felt. How, how efficient? Is there a finished product? Thinking about that kind of scene, Qin Forget couldn't close his mouth happily.

"A piece can be forged in an hour, and this is the finished product." After Jin Xu finished speaking, he asked someone to bring a black and shiny iron plate.

Qin Forget took the iron plate, and saw that the iron plate was as big as someone's upper body, half a point thick, and it was very heavy, and the surface was black and shiny.

Qin Forget is knowledgeable, and as soon as he looks at the iron plate in his hand, he knows that it is a good thing, "Duan Jiu, horizontal knife!" ”

Duan Jiu hurriedly handed him a freshly baked Hundred Refining Horizontal Knife.

"Ho!" Qin Forget let out a low sigh and slashed at the iron plate with all his might.

The Hundred Refining Horizontal Knife, which was as sharp as clay, only left a shallow scar on the iron plate under Qin Wang's vigorous chopping, "Okay, it's really good." Qin Forget was overjoyed, "The bounty is one hundred taels, and each of you has a share." ”

With Vasily smiling from ear to ear, Jin Xu was not so excited, "This is just a forged primary product, and it will have to go through a variety of processes such as small hammer forging, quenching, tempering, annealing, etc., and the quality can only be good but not bad." ”

"That's good, that's good." Qin Forget was even more satisfied, "Cropping in the later stage is also a problem, right?" Looking at the hard guy in his hand, Qin Forget immediately thought of the difficulties that Jin Xu and the others would encounter in the future.

"It's difficult. We're not going to crop, we're going to sand. Jin Xu nodded, "We have already built an animal power grinder, and it is still very fast to polish." ”

"That's good, you work hard, and when the technology matures, it will be put into production immediately. I heard that your blast furnace has been improved again, let's go, take me to see it. ”

Standing in front of the blast furnace, Qin Wang's brows furrowed, in his eyes, the furnace didn't seem to have changed at all except for being a little taller and thicker.

"Jin Xu, there is no change in this?" There was a question in his heart, so Qin Forget asked.

"Change is not superficial, it's internal." Jin Xu took Qin Wang closer to the stove and explained: "In the past, we used to drum cold air into the furnace to support combustion, but now it has been changed to hot air, which is to collect the hot gas discharged from the furnace and re-drum it into the furnace, so as to ensure that the temperature of the furnace can be maintained for a longer time." And now we don't use charcoal, we use coal, the steel burns faster, and the quality of the steel produced has risen a big step. ”

"Hey, Jin Xu can do it, you've found out." Qin Forget walked to the side of the steel that had just been produced, took a closer look, and found that the quality of the steel was indeed better by more than one level, and happily patted Jin Xu's shoulder.

"I stumbled upon the hot air, and it was Vasily's proposal to switch to coal." Jin Xu said modestly.