Mass production of iron swords, naturally, with the help of molds.

While the craftsmen of the Ordnance Casting Bureau were desperately trying to cast weapons, the craftsmen of the Smelting Bureau were making the molds needed for the molten iron sword.

Because they already had experience in making candle molds, the craftsmen of the Smelting Bureau seemed to be very handy when creating the molds, and they first pinched out the outline of the iron sword mold by using clay with better thermal insulation performance than ordinary clay in the past.

Molten iron melted from a crucible is then poured into a clay mold, and when it cools, an iron sword mold is obtained that looks like a candle mold.

On this mold, there are also ten square holes horizontally and vertically, one foot long, half a foot wide, and about the length of a sword.

I have to say that this square is like an iron platform-like iron mold, but it is far more large than the mold used to make candles in the first place, and it is also much heavier.

The craftsmen of the smelting bureau brushed the 100 square holes of this iron mold with oil, and then filled them with clay and stuffed them as much as possible.

Then, they sharpened a wooden sword out of hard wood, which was larger than the weapons used by normal armies, and the craftsmen inserted it into a square hole filled with clay, until the blade of the sword was lost.

Later, when the craftsmen cleaned the clay and pulled out the wooden sword, the outline of the wooden sword was left inside the clay in the square hole of the iron mold, which was the mold used to melt the iron sword.

After the clay has solidified a little, the craftsmen pour the molten iron into the cavity in the center of the clay, fill it up, and gradually transfer the temperature of the hot molten iron to the surrounding circle of clay, so that the clay gradually solidifies.

In this way, after the molten iron has completely cooled and condensed, the craftsmen of the Smelting Bureau can take out the sword embryo and the clay that encloses it, and then break the clay that is the outer shell. You can get a sword embryo that needs to be reworked and forged.

The only problem is that the sword embryo that is fused in this way does not have a hilt.

Don't think that you can simply weld the hilt of the sword with welding technology, in fact it is not advisable, after all, this is a weapon supplied to the army, and quality is especially important. In case one day, a soldier stepped on the battlefield with this iron sword with a welded hilt, and fought hard with the enemy, but the hilt and blade were separated at a critical time, which was not only related to a human life, but also related to this battlefield, the Wei State lost a brave soldier because of the quality of the weapon.

Don't think it's a trivial matter, maybe one soldier can't affect the victory or defeat of the whole battle, what if it's ten? What about a hundred?

If that happens. Then the Smelting Bureau is to blame, you know, the generals of the sixth battalion of the garrison are afraid that the roof of the Smelting Bureau will be overturned.

And just when the craftsmen were worried about this, Ding Jun, a young craftsman who made valuable suggestions when perfecting the candle mold last time, once again put forward constructive suggestions this time.

He proposed that the Smelting Bureau create a mold for a special part, an iron rod about the thickness of a finger. When the molten iron encased in clay had not yet condensed into shape, the rods were hung with ropes. It hangs into the molten iron, so that when the sword embryo condenses and takes shape, the iron rod will melt into the inside of the sword embryo.

In order to prevent the iron rod from detaching from the blade, Ding Jun also suggested that when making the iron rod mold, it should be widened a short distance at intervals. Like the joints of a human finger, a lock-like method is used to ensure that the iron rod cannot be separated from the inside of the iron embryo.

These suggestions not only amazed the craftsmen of the Smelting Bureau, but also made Zhao Hongrun feel a little interested in this craftsman named Ding Jun.

Zhao Hongrun felt. This craftsman is called Ding Jun, and his craft experience may not be as good as those older craftsmen, but his creativity even Zhao Hongrun is surprised.

On the same day, Zhao Hongrun promoted Ding Jun to the head of the craftsman without saying a word.

Generally speaking, only the old craftsmen who are older and have extremely rich experience have this qualification, and it is definitely not a young craftsman who is less than 30 years old like Ding Jun can serve as a young craftsman, after all, the Smelting Bureau is a department that pays great attention to qualifications.

Fortunately, Ding Jun put forward important suggestions three times and made great contributions, and Zhao Hongrun's status in the Smelting Bureau was special, so those craftsmen in the Smelting Bureau acquiesced in the young Ding Jun being promoted to the head of the craftsman and commanded them.

I have to say that Ding Jun's idea is indeed ingenious, and with the help of the method he came up with, the craftsmen of the Smelting Bureau quickly harvested a hundred sword embryos.

The reason why these iron swords directly cast with molten iron are called sword embryos is because the iron sword at this time, because it has been forged and quenched, its texture is not as good as the finished iron sword.

Of course, in fact, the best way is to use a heavy machine to roll, but this era does not have such technological conditions, so the only way to honestly ask the craftsmen to hammer one hammer after another, and then carry out a series of quenching, normalizing, tempering and other procedures, so that the sword embryo gradually stabilizes.

But in any case, the manufacturing process of melting and casting a sword embryo in one step, followed by a round of processing, is much faster than the process of directly making an iron sword from a block of iron embryos in the War Casting Bureau.

If it takes three to five days for a craftsman from the Ordnance Casting Bureau to start making a finished iron sword with a block of iron embryos, then the craftsmen of the Smelting Bureau can directly process the sword embryo through a new process, and the time can be shortened to one day at once, which is a earth-shaking improvement.

The days went by day by day.

Ten days later, the craftsmen of the War Casting Bureau had made about two or three thousand finished iron swords.

On the side of the Smelting Bureau, only ten iron molds for melting and casting iron swords were cast, and although some sword embryos were also mass-produced, there was not a single iron sword in the finished product.

In fact, there are nearly 2,000 experienced blacksmiths in the Arms Casting Bureau, plus craftsmen who assist in casting iron embryos, and apprentices who pull bellows, it is not difficult to guess how much manpower the Bureau has invested to increase production to this point.

It may be that this news leaked to the DPRK, so that many people in the DPRK and the Central Committee scoffed at the Smelting Bureau: It is a shame that these people went to challenge the Bing Casting Bureau before, and now after ten days, the Bing Casting Bureau has cast two or three thousand finished iron swords, what about these people in the Smelting Bureau? I don't know what I'm doing!

However, all the knowledgeable officials in the DPRK and China remained silent.

Especially the Yu Department, the Yu Manufacturing Bureau under their name holds more and more candle molds made by the Smelting Bureau, and the daily production of candles has been nearly astronomical, and it has already been produced to the point that the supply of raw materials for the household department is not enough, so they chose to temporarily suspend work in desperation, and wait for the warehouse under the jurisdiction of the household department to transport the raw materials for making candles.

Only they understand how terrifying the process of mass production of finished products with molds is.

In this regard, Zhou Pei, the commander of the Yu Department, secretly sneered: The candle molds of the Smelting Bureau have almost crushed the large and small candle workshops in China, forcing those workshop owners to change their way of making a living to help their Yu Department sell candles for a living. If the Smelting Bureau really comes up with a mold that can mass-produce weapons and equipment, I am afraid that even the Military Casting Bureau will be crushed.

Even, when this news reached Wei Tianzi's ears, Wei Tianzi also smiled and made a bet with the three ministers of Zhongshu in the Vertical Arch Palace, betting on who would win in this process contest between the Soldier Casting Bureau and the Smelting Bureau.

As a result, in addition to Feng Yu, the right man of the Zhongshu who was still a little suspicious of Zhao Hongrun and the Smelting Bureau, chose the Military Casting Bureau, Lin Yuyang of the Zhongshu Ling and Yu Ziqi of the left of the Zhongshu chose the Smelting Bureau without saying a word.

As this incident spread in the DPRK, more and more officials became curious about the outcome and silently paid attention to the matter.

Those who support the Armory Bureau, such as the officials of the Ministry of Officials, they secretly hated Zhao Hongrun because the Ministry of Officials was weakened by Wei Tianzi, and this time they stood on the side of the Armory Bureau, and kept saying that "the Smelting Bureau wants to beat the Weapons Casting Bureau in terms of weapon forging, it's a fool's dream!"

Even, there are many people in the household department who hold this view.

Of course, the most important thing is the mutual bargaining between the officials of the Ministry of War and the officials of the Ministry of Industry: the Bureau of Military Casting is the "own son" of the Ministry of War, and the officials of the Ministry of War naturally support the Bureau of Military Foundry, and although the Smelting Bureau is not the "own son" of the Ministry of Industry, and it has long been separated from the Ministry of Industry, no matter what, the Smelting Bureau is also from the Ministry of Industry, and this friendship will not be weakened.

It can be said that except for the officials of the Criminal Department and the Ministry of Rites, who are neutral, the rest of the ministries seem to have stood in line.

As a result, during these days, it was almost common to see officials from the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Officials arguing and scolding each other over a trivial matter, and the officials of the Ministry of Industry also refused to accept the application of the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Officials for the repair of the official office under various pretexts and reasons.

The entire court was in a lot of trouble, which made Zhao Yuanling, who heard about it, laugh.

In general, the officials in the imperial court are still optimistic about the Soldiers' Casting Bureau, but when only the officials of the Ministry of Industry shouted and cheered, the Smelting Bureau was not in a hurry and was still busy with its own affairs.

Yes, whether it is Zhao Hongrun or Wang Fu, there is no sense of panic.

As the saying goes, if you want to do a good job, you must first sharpen your tools, and the Smelting Bureau spent ten days casting the mold, but with the mold officially put into use, the number of iron swords cast by the Smelting Bureau is bound to exceed that of the War Casting Bureau, which is obvious.

Sure enough, after waiting for another ten days, the craftsmen of the War Casting Bureau only doubled the number of finished iron swords with two or three thousand handles, while the Smelting Bureau, with only more than four hundred blacksmiths and about double the number of craftsmen and apprentices, increased the number of finished iron swords from zero to four thousand in one go in one fell swoop in these ten days.

On average, it is indeed the speed at which a group of craftsmen (one craftsman, one craftsman, one apprentice) forges an iron sword per day.

When this news reached the DPRK, it really frightened a large number of people.

According to Zhao Hongrun's estimates, if both the Arsenal Bureau and the Fabrication Bureau produce iron swords according to the current casting trend, then, after the third ten days have passed, the Smelting Bureau will produce 8,000 iron swords, which will equal the Arsenal Bureau in one fell swoop, or even surpass.

What's even more incredible is that with the postponement of time, even if the Smelting Bureau does not increase the iron mold, the output of the iron sword can still gradually leave the War Casting Bureau behind with the advantage of 1,000 handles every ten days.

This is the change of the times, the new process is bound to replace and eliminate the old process, how can a small war casting bureau stop? (To be continued.) )