Obviously, the 50,000 sets of armaments ordered by His Royal Highness Vertical Gong were prepared for the "Western Expeditionary Army" of Zhao Yuanzuo, the king of Southern Liang, to support Longxi.

In fact, Zhao Hongrun has always been curious, if his father really decided to support Longxi, which of the "six battalions of the garrison" would be sent to Longxi? After all, in Zhao Hongrun's view, the positions guarded by the "Sixth Battalion of the Garrison" are very critical, and it is not that they can be transferred away.

Now, the situation is clear: the imperial court has most decided to re-recruit and train an army, led by Zhao Yuanzuo, the king of Southern Liang, to launch a westward expedition to support distant Longxi and help the Wei family surnamed Ji, who is in the same line as the Ji Zhao family.

Under this general trend, if the Smelting Bureau refuses to help the Weapons Casting Bureau build weapons, I am afraid that it will not only fail to work, but will even let Wei Tianzi personally intervene in this matter, and the gains outweigh the losses.

Rather than this, it is better for the Smelting Bureau to take the initiative to grab some countries' weapons orders, and the War Casting Bureau will not be able to digest it anyway.

This is a good opportunity to intervene in the military industry openly and honestly, and grab a job from the army!

Touching his chin, Zhao Hongrun already had an idea in his heart: "Wang Fu, my smelting bureau, there are craftsmen who are good at casting weapons?" ”

Wang Fu was slightly stunned, and then his face immediately became serious: after all, the highness in front of him would only call him by his real name when he encountered a major event.

"Your Highness...... Want to build a batch of armaments on behalf of the Soldiers? ”

Wang Fu was really not stupid, and immediately guessed Zhao Hongrun's thoughts.

For this subordinate, Zhao Hongrun did not hide it, and said truthfully: "How much money can you make by helping to smelt iron embryos?" If my Smelting Bureau can also build weapons, instead of smelting iron embryos for the War Casting Bureau, it is better for my Smelting Bureau to build weapons on our own. …… Is there a craftsman in my smelting bureau who is good at crafting weapons? ”

In all fairness. If it weren't for the backstage of their smelting bureau in front of him, Wang Fu would probably point at the other party's nose and scold: What are you kidding?! The weapons and armor created by the Armor Casting Bureau, its specifications and styles, are all based on the improvement of weapons and armor by the Smelting Bureau.

But the problem is that the Metallurgical Bureau is equivalent to a R&D and improvement organization. The War Casting Bureau is the military industrial institution that is really responsible for the mass production of weapons, and the division of labor between the two is clear, but it cannot be built and built.

"Your Highness, the process standards for building weapons and armor by the Ordnance Casting Bureau are based on the craftsmanship of our Smelting Bureau. What they can build, we can build, and conversely, what we can build, they may not be able to build. But here's the problem...... It's not in order. Wang Fu boasted proudly. Cautiously persuaded.

"It's the rules again......

Zhao Hongrun smacked his lips with a distasteful face, and said expressionlessly: "What you mean, this king understands, but what if my Smelting Bureau is not to rob the job of the War Casting Bureau, but the ability of the War Casting Bureau is not enough to build those armaments?" ”

"Your Highness means ......"

Zhao Hongrun whispered a few words in Wang Fu's ear, only to hear Wang Fu smile and nod again and again.

"But the first step is to smelt the iron embryo...... Give them what they want, lest they get caught. ”

"Xia Guan understands."

In the company of Wang Fu. Zhao Hongrun casually ate some food in the canteen of the Smelting Bureau, and then the group took a carriage. They went to the hearth outside the city, which was made of bricks of fire.

In fact, at this time, the craftsmen in the hearth had already begun to smelt the iron embryos, and they used all kinds of firewood to pile up a platform inside the furnace, and poured baskets of iron ore on top of it, and then spread a layer of firewood. Then pour another layer of iron ore, repeating this to fill the inside of the furnace.

Since there are gaps between the firewood and the firewood, ventilation is not a problem.

And when Zhao Hongrun and the others arrived, the fire in the stove had already been lit. Dozens of stout craftsmen were bare-chested, pushing the huge bellows at the air inlet of the furnace, pouring air into the furnace again and again, making the fire in the furnace burn even brighter.

I have to say that the temperature of the hearth is terrifying, even if the heat-resistant fire bricks isolate most of the heat in the furnace, the high temperature in the hearth seems to scorch people directly, and there is a heat wave everywhere.

The water that came in from the outside turned into lukewarm water after a while, and you can imagine the temperature in the hearth.

In the process of boring waiting, Zhao Hongrun looked at the huge bellows outside the stove from time to time.

It is undeniable that the craftsmen who push and pull the bellows outside the stove are definitely the most difficult working environment in the world, even if the heat-resistant fire bricks isolate most of the heat and lock it inside the stove, but close to the stove, it is still hot and scary.

Zhao Hongrun could even vaguely see that the sweaty craftsmen had a looming white smoke on their bodies, which meant that a large amount of body fluids in their bodies were rapidly losing and turning into water vapor at such high temperatures.

"Let's go back and see if we can improve this bellows."

Zhao Hongrun turned around and said something to Wang Fu, which made Wang Fu slightly stunned.

"Improvements? Bellows? Wang Fu's eyes showed a little puzzlement.

And Zhao Hongrun did not explain in detail, after all, if you want to improve the bellows, it is inevitable to involve gears, bearings, shaft sticks and other fine parts, which is not a small project.

After all, the texture of wood is not reliable after all, but if it is cast with iron, the craftsmanship of the Smelting Bureau cannot be reached for the time being.

While Zhao Hongrun was thinking about the furnace air filling system, the craftsmen of the smelting bureau were still using almost the most primitive bellows, squeezing the air into the furnace with great difficulty, so that there was enough oxygen inside the furnace to fully burn.

To be honest, since it was the first time that iron ore had been smelted in this way, the craftsmen of the Smelting Bureau had little experience in this area.

They could not tell whether the iron ore in the furnace had been successfully smelted.

They can only honestly wait for all the firewood in the furnace to burn out, wait for the temperature in the furnace to gradually cool down, and then open the furnace to take out the iron embryo in the furnace.

This furnace of iron ore burned for several hours, and due to the backwardness of the ventilation technology, the craftsmen who were responsible for filling the inside of the furnace with bellows were replaced one after another. They were so tired that they couldn't even lift their hands.

To be honest, it is inevitable that these experienced craftsmen will be overkill.

After all, it stands to reason that there is no need for craftsmen to do this kind of thing, and there are craftsmen and handymen to do it on their behalf, but today is the first time that the Smelting Bureau has used this method to make iron. In order to accumulate experience and reduce the occurrence of unpredictable accidents, the selected craftsmen are all experienced craftsmen in the Smelting Bureau.

By the end of the night, when the temperature in the hearth had gradually cooled, the craftsmen tried to open the door of the stove.

When the door opened, the fire in the furnace had long since been extinguished, but there was still an inevitable wave of heat pouring out of the furnace. The temperature in the hearth rises rapidly again.

But this is a good thing, which means that this batch of newly burned fire bricks, its heat resistance, heat insulation, and thermal insulation performance are really good.

"It's started, it's started!"

A craftsman who had been promoted to foreman clapped his palms and called out to the craftsmen who were lying in the hearth to rest.

I have to say that the endless pouring of air into the inside of the stove just now really tired these craftsmen.

But tired and tired, the mood of these craftsmen is very high. It's no wonder, after all, that now is the time to accept the results.

It's not. Two craftsmen had already braved the scorching heat to rush into the furnace, and used their sticks to pluck through the ashes, pulling out pieces of black objects from the ashes.

These black bulachi blocks are wrought iron (wrought iron) formed after calcination at high temperatures, that is, iron embryos for casting iron.

These iron embryos are soft and can be reshaped after quenching. Therefore, it is suitable for use as an iron blank for forging qualified weapons.

But there will inevitably be some special pieces of iron.

"Huh?"

No, a craftsman picked up an iron embryo, wrapped it in a cloth and padd it in his hand, and his years of experience in striking iron made him question this iron embryo.

In order to verify the guess in mind. He walked over to a fire dome for lighting, placed the iron embryo on the iron shelf, and struck it several times with a hammer.

"What's wrong?"

Hearing this, Zhao Hongrun and Wang Fu walked over in unison, only to find that the craftsman was looking at the iron embryo in his hand in surprise.

"What's going on?" Wang Fu frowned and asked.

I saw that the craftsman had a surprised look on his face, and said strangely: "Jucheng, this iron embryo ...... The hardness is comparable to our twenty wrought iron. ”

"What?"

Wang Fu's eyes widened in surprise when he heard this.

You must know that in the past, the smelting bureau repeatedly hammered and forged wrought iron with a hammer to obtain high-hardness wrought iron, but now the craftsman said that they directly obtained high-hardness wrought iron by calcining iron ore, which simply subverted Wang Fu's understanding.

However, Zhao Hongrun was not surprised, because he knew that when calcining iron ore in such a furnace with excellent thermal insulation performance, there would indeed be some fully burned iron embryos that would cross the category of pig iron and directly form wrought iron with high hardness.

In fact, this high-hardness wrought iron, which is actually an alloy, is a metal produced by fusing the iron in the iron ore with the rest of the metal.

This alloy is not suitable for re-forging, it should have lost its ability to be shaped again, and it has little effect on the current smelting bureau, but it is an excellent material for steelmaking.

Unfortunately, the craftsmen did not know this, and although they were surprised by the hardness of the alloys, they had already classified them as "defective" in their hearts, after all, this wrought iron that could not be molded again, even if the hardness met the requirements, would have no effect on their smelting bureau.

Fortunately, there is Zhao Hongrun in the Smelting Bureau.

"These are not failures." Seeing that some craftsmen showed disappointment after carefully inspecting the alloy, Zhao Hongrun smiled and said to them: "Distinguish these high-hardness wrought irons and keep them properly, and we will use them in the future." ”

Hearing this, the craftsmen around looked at each other, unable to figure out what His Royal Highness King Su wanted to do with these pieces of iron that could not be shaped again.

In this regard, Zhao Hongrun did not explain in detail.

The appearance of these alloys, although somewhat surprising, is also expected, after all, as long as the temperature in the furnace reaches a certain level, and those ores are mixed with other metals, it is possible to directly calcinate the poor quality alloy.

In fact, these things, in Zhao Hongrun's eyes, are more precious than those iron embryos (wrought iron), because they can be used to make steel.

『Steel ...... What a distant word.'"

Touching the poorly textured alloy in his hand, Zhao Hongrun sighed slightly.

"But we've already taken the first step."

That's all he could do to comfort himself. (To be continued.) )