The world is big, the surname Zhang is innumerable, if it refers to the blacksmith shop of the "Zhang" family, Hangzhou Mansion, Quzhou Mansion is as far as Fuzhou Mansion, there are many families, but if it is said that it is the "Zhang family three knives" in Jinxian County, these three places are one family.

Which three knives? Scissors, razors, pedicures. But where there is a "Zhang" word on the knife are authentic licensed, Jinxian Zhan Jia's north and south goods bank franchise, so far no one has counterfeited, even if you privately type a "Zhang" word is useless, as the saying goes: goods have to be thrown around. This technical threshold is not something that ordinary people can peep into, and it will be called core competitiveness in later generations.

That's right, the current young shopkeeper of this Zhangjia blacksmith shop is called Zhang Yingquan.

Speaking of the blacksmith shop's history of the extension of the revolution is not long, from his grandfather Zhang Tiesheng began to rise, until today, after hardships, the output has decreased year by year compared with the heyday, but the scarcity is expensive, and the market has also risen, that is to say, the name is still loud, the quality of the objects is absolutely superior, especially the excellent steel fire performance, so that the surrounding peers can not match.

Jinxian City marries a girl who likes to carry a pair of scissors for female red, and people with good conditions can envy many girlfriends who love female red, which shows the good reputation of this Zhang's "three knives" in the people.

Zhang Yingquan's grandfather Zhang Tiesheng is a legend, at the age of ten apprenticeship to learn hammer, at the age of twenty for the division to serve, was recruited by the Ministry of War into the craftsman's workshop to build weapons, and then sent to smelt iron, all kinds of ironwork industry, learned all over again, at the age of twenty-five discharged, at this time the master has told the old man to go to another country, there is no way out, and he returned to the mountains alone.

Do you have to do something to eat? So, Zhang Tiesheng set up a forging furnace, pounded out an anvil (the pier of iron), hung the image of Taishang Laojun (Note 1), kowtowed to the incense and offered tea, and then bowed in the direction where the master went away, and this was opened. At the beginning, I made a living by recycling scrap iron to make a nail and finish the furnace, and slowly began to make kitchen knives and machetes, repair some farm tools to maintain income.

But Zhang Tiesheng always felt that there were shortcomings, in that era, the source of iron was difficult, and salt and iron belonged to the monopoly of the imperial court, with high price and poor quality, and even limited the development of the private agricultural and industrial industry.

When he was working in the workshop of the military department, an old official once said to him: In the Southern Song Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty in the mountains of Fujian, Zhejiang and Jiangxi, there was once a fine iron material, comparable to the iron (see Note 2), and the Longquan sword forged from this iron material is still stored in the palace. He said: I was fortunate enough to be recruited into the palace to evaluate the treasures, I have seen a knife and a sword, the knife is a Damascus knife from the Western Regions, the sword is the Longquan sword from Fujian, Zhejiang and Jiangxi, the two can not distinguish the high and low, which knife has the imprint of thousands of tempering, focusing on tempering, and the sword is definitely cast, that is, it is expensive in smelting, but unfortunately I can't find the source.

Why not give it a try? So Zhang Tiesheng began to pay attention to the iron mine, and quietly looked for a place to build a smelting furnace. The imperial court forbade private mining, too! This land is owned by the imperial court, if everyone rushes up to blow up the mountains and make holes everywhere, messing up the rules and regulations is small, and breaking the feng shui is big, but the emperor is far away from the mountain, as long as there is no movement, why not?

With a heart, Zhang Tiesheng found an excellent place to build a furnace.

He asked Mr. Feng Shui to see the address, and after Mr. saw it, he called a good place, where is it? The old gentleman shook his head, and made a comparison for a while: There is a mountain barrier in the south, gather qi! The north is close to the ten-zhang straight wall, avoiding evil! If it is inappropriate to build a yin and yang house, it is too hard! can't suppress the earth's qi, if you talk about starting a workshop, it's excellent.

Zhang Tiesheng couldn't see it, and he didn't understand it, he just felt that this place was hidden in an abandoned quarry, not attracting attention, and the stone wall was more than ten zhang high, and the chimney was built along the wall to make a solid picture, of course, the higher the chimney, the better, and the higher the stone wall was ideal. In addition, it is close to home, and it is convenient to get water and transport materials. Only later did he learn that his unintentional choice had changed the fate of himself and his descendants, and that he had successfully used the geographical resources to build an irreproducible smelting furnace, which was known as the "Laojun Furnace" by the guys.

There is a small abandoned mine kiln nearby, someone has dug iron ore without permission earlier, I don't know what reason to give up, from the color of the iron ore can be seen, it is said that there are blacksmiths nearby who have been tested, and the iron smelted can also hit an iron nail or something, as the saying goes: good iron does not nail! It can be seen that it is not ideal. Zhang Tiesheng is of course an expert-level figure at this time, otherwise the food cooked by the craftsmen of the military department for several years will not be eaten in vain? Use it selectively first, and then talk about it, so as to solve the dilemma of insufficient iron on your hands.

The next thing is the problem of money, it costs money to build a blast furnace, add household goods, buy charcoal, and hire helpers!

During that time in the north, he got acquainted with an errand officer of Caoyun Yamen, Brother Zhan, a fellow villager in Jin County, who had a life covenant with a substitute for worship, and now he has also returned to his hometown from service and started a dart business.

Seeing that my brother was worried about money, he didn't say a word and poured out all his savings when he was on an errand, as the old saying goes: Saving the emergency is not helping the poor. What's more, it's a worship brother?

The weather turned cooler and the north wind rose, and the new chimney was pulled out by the wind from the top of the mountain rising from the gentle slope in the north, the stronger the wind, the greater the suction, Zhang Tiesheng smiled, this is the most powerful small blast furnace he has ever seen in his life, this terrain is too wonderful, unintentionally planted willows, and God favors him.

Next is the selection of materials, the ore here, the grade is not high, some of it is blackened, I don't know if it can be used, and some of the yellowing can not be used at all, there is still half of it available after the selection, fortunately, it is good to make some knives and scissors and the like, the material is not much, after careful selection, the first will try a furnace, so the stone is put into the tongs pot......

Before the fire, there was another major event, that is, kneeling down to invite Taishang Laojun to worship the teacher and respect the ancestors.

After the ceremony, the small blast furnace started!

The first furnace was quite successful......

The furnace body has strong extraction performance, high furnace temperature, good quality of iron, and the subsequent forging of the knife is of course not ordinary, but if it can be said that it can smelt a good "iron", it is still not good, but this is already the leading in the same industry, and the blast furnace is powerful.

Of course, if the goods are good, there is no business, Brother Zhan also helped, and handed over the dart bureau to relatives and friends, and opened a north-south goods firm in Jinxian County, using the relationship between Cao Yun to go to some goods, focusing on specializing in the scissors business of the "Zhang" family.

The so-called brother settles the account, Brother Zhan lent the Zhang family money at first, although it was not much, but it was urgent, the two lived and made a friendship, stating that they did not need to pay it back, and it was considered an investment, and the Zhan family held three percent of the shares of the Zhang's blacksmith shop. The Zhan family's north and south goods firm, specializing in the "Zhang" family name knives, is very profitable, plus the Zhang family paved a batch of goods when it was opened, which is also regarded as an investment, and the same thirty percent of the shares belong to the Zhang family, helping each other to carry each other, and it is prosperous for a while.

Zhang Zhan's two families remarried, and the daughter of the Zhan family became the daughter-in-law of the Zhang family, and changed from a world friend to an in-law.

When it was passed to Zhang Yingquan's grandfather Zhang Deli to take over the shopkeeper, it once reached its heyday, apprentices, hammers, and buddies with a big scraper, and thirty small people, tinkling and tinking, so lively, it was not a blacksmith shop at all, it was more appropriate to call it a workshop, and the big workshops in the city were just like that, and they really lived a good life for a few years.

Note 1: Taishang Laojun alchemy is the founder of Taoism, and the furnace maker needs to worship the patriarch - Taishang Laojun from Taoism.

Note 2 "Iron iron" means steel, a type of steel from the Western Regions.