The Metallurgical Bureau under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Industry is located next to the compound of the Criminal Department in the northeast of Daliang City, and the area occupied by the Ministry of War is not small, and the Military Casting Bureau under the Ministry of War is listed as the largest two divisions under the six departments of the imperial court.

However, although the scale and the War Casting Bureau ranked first among the divisions, its status was not optimistic, and in the past, at best, it was only a hand for the ministries.

And this, in Zhao Hongrun's opinion, is incredible.

"What was the main task of my smelting bureau in the past?" On the way to visit the specific facilities in the Smelting Bureau step by step, Zhao Hongrun asked Wang Fu of the Bureau.

Wang Fu smiled and explained: "As the name suggests, iron smelting and making tools. ”

"Regarding iron smelting, this king has actually wanted to ask for a long time, the military department has a military casting bureau, but why is iron smelting in charge of my smelting bureau?" Zhao Hongrun asked curiously.

Hearing this, Wang Fu smiled and explained: "Your Highness, the War Casting Bureau of the Ministry of War is only responsible for building weapons, and the rest is not taken care of. …… Our smelting bureau is responsible for refining the iron-smelting process. ”

As he spoke, they came to an open field, where they saw two large bamboo baskets, which were filled with iron swords one after another.

Next to the bamboo basket, there were three people standing, all dressed as ordinary officials in the government, with the words "Smelting Bureau" tattooed on their chests and backs.

"What are they doing?" Zhao Hongrun asked.

Wang Fu glanced into the distance and explained, "It should be a test of the toughness and sharpness of the new cast iron sword. ”

As soon as he finished speaking, he saw a public servant in the distance take out a sword from the bamboo basket, stretch out his right arm and hang it flat, while another official took out an iron sword with a somewhat different style from another bamboo basket, and after taking a deep breath, slashed at the flat hanging sword.

Just hear a bang. The iron sword that hung flat was actually broken from it.

Seeing this, the third official took a few steps closer, carefully examined the sword in the hand of the second official, and saw that there was an obvious gap in the sword, shook his head in disappointment, and recorded a few strokes in the booklet with the brush in his hand.

"That's a failure." Wang Fu also sighed. Somewhat embarrassed, he explained to Zhao Hongrun: "Purely prolonging the number of forgings has not improved the hardness of the iron sword, and it is still at the level of twenty forgings. ”

At this time, when Zhao Hongrun heard this, Zong Wei Mu Qing interjected and asked, "Isn't it said that thirty forged iron has been smelted?" ”

Jucheng Wang Fu was stunned for a moment, and then lowered his voice and explained to Zhao Hongrun and others: "In fact, the number of forgings is just the number of repetitions of exercising and quenching the iron embryo, and it does not mean. Thirty wrought iron must be tougher than twenty forged iron......"

Mu Qing scratched his head in embarrassment.

At this time, Wang Fu returned to his normal voice and said: "At present, the more mature process of my smelting bureau is 25 wrought iron, well, in fact, the craftsmen of my smelting bureau are used to calling it 'Bi Bai Iron', and a craftsman named Bi Bai improved the iron-gold (ore metal) specific gravity of the original 20 wrought iron. A rare white iron ore was added to the original iron embryo and molded. It has slightly increased the toughness of the ordinary twenty wrought iron sword, but it still does not meet the standard of thirty wrought iron for the craftsmen in the bureau. ”

"The standard of thirty wrought iron? What is that? Zong Wei Shen Yu asked curiously.

I saw Wang Fu lick his lips and whispered: "Split the iron sword made of twenty wrought iron, and the blade will not hurt." ”

Hearing this, the group of sect guards behind Zhao Hongrun couldn't help but exclaim.

Only Zhao Hongrun glanced at Wang Fu with a strange expression.

"You're talking about steel, aren't you?" …… The process of making iron from blocks. Exercise out steel, this difficulty ...... Tsk.'"

Zhao Hongrun shook his head slightly.

After that, Wang Fu took Zhao Hongrun to a large shed in the smelting bureau.

The so-called workshop refers to the place where the craftsmen in the smelting bureau work.

At first glance, it looks like a simple shed. The shed was equipped with a cast-iron stove, an iron shelf, and some corresponding tools, such as tongs.

Wang Fu took Zhao Hongrun to a random workshop and stopped, only to see that in that shed, there was a blacksmith casting iron, repeatedly hammering the iron embryo with an iron hammer, casting it into the shape of an iron sword.

Probably suddenly aware of the presence of several people standing outside his shed, the blacksmith looked up in disbelief.

He naturally recognized Wang Fu, but Zhao Hongrun and the others in bright clothes next to Wang Fu obviously didn't recognize him, so he looked at Wang Fu suspiciously, as if he was guessing why Wang Fu of their Smelting Bureau brought a person who looked like a rich boy to an important place like a shack that was forbidden for idle people.

Seeing this, Wang Fu reminded the blacksmith: "Go on!" ”

The blacksmith nodded, and immediately greeted Wang Fu, and then hammered the iron embryo on the shelf again.

After watching for a while, Wang Fu guided Zhao Hongrun and the others to continue walking into the depths of the Smelting Bureau, and explained as he went: "As Your Highness can see, my Smelting Bureau also creates blades and shields, but this is only for testing the toughness and sharpness of wrought iron. After this process is close to maturity, our smelting bureau will hand it over to the military casting bureau of the military department. As he spoke, he added with some pride: "In fact, whether it is the process used by the Ordnance Casting Bureau to cast weapons in previous years, it is the 'Bi Baitie Process' that the Military Department is preparing to put into use when updating the armament of the Sixth Battalion of the garrison this year, and it is the technology inherited from our Metallurgical Bureau. ”

Immediately afterwards, Wang Fu took Zhao Hongrun to visit the rest of the facilities in the Smelting Bureau, so that Zhao Hongrun had a general understanding of the Smelting Bureau.

Poor!

Yes, after visiting the entire smelting bureau, what impressed Zhao Hongrun the most was that this department was simply tinkling.

It's obviously the technology research and development department of Dawei, but what are the most common facilities in this department?

It's a shed!

A shoddy shed!

Zhao Hongrun couldn't imagine that those blacksmiths had repeatedly improved the iron-smelting process of the Great Wei under such rudimentary conditions.

What's even more incredible is that the iron smelting process of the Smelting Bureau is obviously for the Ministry of War, but the iron ore, wood, coal and other materials applied to the Ministry of Household Affairs are still hanging on the head of the Smelting Bureau.

To put it bluntly, the craftsmen in the smelting bureau, except for a meager income, have no other subsidies, even the craftsman who improved the "Bi Bai Tie" only received a reward of two hundred taels from Wei Tianzi.

After that, the Ministry of War took over the new process of the Smelting Bureau without saying anything, and is preparing to use it in the construction of this year's batch of weapons used to replace the armament of the sixth battalion of the garrison.

After looking at it for a while, Zhao Hongrun shook his head, frowned and said, "Wang Jucheng, to be honest, this king is a little disappointed with the current situation of my smelting bureau. I don't understand, why don't you improve the facilities in the bureau? …… Yes, this king has already seen that you are poor and jingling, and this king is just wondering, why don't you want to get some money to improve the facilities in the bureau? In the king's view, the huts should be demolished and replaced with brick houses. ”

may have heard Zhao Hongrun say this, a little panic appeared on Wang Fu's face, and he hurriedly explained: "Your Highness, rest assured, my Smelting Bureau can receive a lot of work in the hands of the War Casting Bureau this year. When the time comes, the money will be used to renovate the sheds and replace them with the brick houses that His Highness said. ”

"Huh?" Zhao Hongrun suddenly stopped when he heard this, and looked at Wang Fu in disbelief.

But Wang Fu was mistaken, and added an explanation: "Xia Guan refers to the fact that this year's military department is not going to build a large number of armaments, according to the practice of previous years, the Military Casting Bureau will ask me to help the Smelting Bureau build iron embryos......"

"I'll go!"

Listening to Wang Fu's explanation, Zhao Hongrun almost spurted out a mouthful of blood.

He never thought that Wang Fu would understand what he said about "making money" as working for the War Casting Bureau of the Ministry of War and doing odd jobs.

"That's how you used to make money?" Zhao Hongrun asked with a glare.

Wang Fu opened his mouth and added in a low voice: "Sometimes the household department will also let us ......"

But before he could finish speaking, Zhao Hongrun raised his hand to interrupt him.

"This king finally understands why the Ministry of Industry is at the bottom of the six, and the Metallurgical Bureau is at the bottom of the bottom."

......When Wang Fu heard this, his face was red and white, and he could see that he was a little embarrassed and ashamed.

However, Zhao Hongrun seemed to have seen through the thoughts of Jucheng Wangfu, frowned and said: "It is not you who should be ashamed, let alone my smelting bureau, but those ...... Forget it, from today onwards, the Smelting Bureau will only be responsible for the research and development of new processes, and the rest will be handled by this king. ”

Jucheng Wang Fu was stunned for a moment when he heard this, and hurriedly replied: "Yes, His Royal Highness King Su." ”

"In addition, this king will give you 100,000 taels, and you will take this money and ask me to renovate and rectify the facilities in my smelting bureau, and all those sheds will be demolished for me and replaced with brick houses."

"Ten...... Ten ......" Wang Fu was full of surprise.

Zhao Hongrun didn't bother to pay attention to whether Wang Fu said 'yes' or 'ten', and continued to order in an unquestionable tone: "For the remaining silver taels, you ask someone to build a treasury in the bureau and stack the remaining money and goods inside." …… From today onwards, our Metallurgical Manufacturing Bureau will build its own treasury and manage its own financial expenditures. In addition, I will no longer apply for any money from the Ministry of Households, but in exchange, in the future, any imperial government office, including the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Industry, will need to pay a sum of money as remuneration when it is necessary to use our Metallurgical Bureau! ”

"This ......" Wang Fu endured the horror in his heart and whispered, "I'm afraid it's not suitable, right?" ”

"What's inappropriate?" Zhao Hongrun frowned, and said irrefutably: "In short, my Smelting Bureau will fend for itself from today. …… If someone in the court is dissatisfied, ask him to reason with the king! ”

“…… Be. ”

On the same day, there was a news that stunned many people, it is said that the Ministry of Industry and Metallurgical Manufacturing Bureau, which was in charge of Zhao Hongrun, the king of Su, announced that it would no longer provide assistance to any imperial court government to build any equipment free of charge, and at the same time, it would terminate the cooperative relationship with any ministry and department in the past, including the Military Casting Bureau.

"What the hell is that kid trying to do?"

In the vertical arch hall, Wei Tianzi carefully flipped through the news about the Smelting Bureau submitted by the inner attendant, and couldn't help but fall into deep thought. (To be continued.) )