As Huang Xie said before, Ju Iron is not a soldier armor, even if Ju Iron is cheap and it takes labor to cast a soldier armor, it will not be cheap there. If the iron armor is one soldier and one gold, then the 300,000 troops need 300,000 gold, which is the financial income of the Chu State for more than ten years.

Huang Xie's worry Xiong Jing naturally understood, he took out the paper he brought back from the mansion, and said: "Father, please see, the papermaking has been completed, and it can be made after the process is stable, and the mirage required does not have to be purchased in Qi State, and our country can make it itself." By the way, the government can also dry salt in the future, and there is no need to go to Qi to buy salt. ”

The paper in Xiong Jing's hand was the one he showed in the morning, and it was now dry. Because it is made of broken hemp and tree bark, and there is no drifting, the color of the paper is not only yellow but also has some brown spots. Despite this, this thin thing still caused the courtiers to marvel. The concept of paper Xiong Jing has been mentioned before, but I didn't expect to see the real thing so quickly.

"Father, there is still this thing." Xiong Jing offered another small thing, which was even more moving, because it was a bead.

"Amazing!" Xiong Yuan raised the glass bead to take a closer look, and suddenly felt that this was different from the ordinary Lu Lizhu. The reason for this is that the charcoal is not purchased at a temperature and the sand cannot be burned, but this Lu Lizhu made of coke is completely transparent, and its crystal jade is clear, which makes people love it.

After Xiong Yuan finished reading it, he handed it to Huang Xie who was in the lower left, Huang Xie looked at it and handed it to the Gong Yin knife in the back, one by one, everyone was amazed, like Gong Yin Dao and Zhao Huang also picked up the Lu Lizhu hanging on the belt and compared it, and the surprise was even worse after the comparison.

"Dafu can make this pearl, and the cost of casting troops is worry-free." Zhao Huang finally returned the glass beads to the king of Chu.

"It's just ......" Seeing that everyone couldn't put it down, Xiong Jing, who wanted to say that this was a waste product, had to consider changing the word, "It's just a bead, what the child wants to do is Lu Lijing." There is a bronze mirror in my Da Chu family, and everyone regards it as a treasure, and there must be this thing for marriage and burial. The bead is just a gentleman and a rich man, and the mirror is needed by all the people, and the benefits of the two cannot be compared. ”

"Lu Lijing?" Ambiguity arose, and Nao thought of the telescope.

"It's not a telescope, it's a place for the women of the house." Xiong Jing corrected. "Crystals are limited, if you can use this kind of land as a telescope. Not only will it be cheaper, but it will also be more performant. There is also porcelain," Xiong Jing said again: "The fire of coke is very strong, and it can be burned before it can be burned, Tao Yin has been testing porcelain, if it is successful, the rich families in the world will no longer use pottery." ”

Paper, glass, porcelain, if these three can really be popular in the world, the cost of changing clothes for the Chu army is definitely not a problem, and it is not a problem to rejuvenate the Chu State. Thinking of this, Xiong Yuan smiled. Huang Xie sighed, and he said solemnly: "King, it is useless to have gold and silver money in the country. The country, agriculture is the foundation, and the bead mirror is the end. It is true that you can get a huge amount of gold by selling pearls and mirrors, but if the agricultural time is delayed because of the pearl mirror, and the countries do not sell grain to me, my Chu country cannot benefit from it but suffers from it, please think twice. ”

"Father, the child thinks differently." Xiong Jing euphemistically refuted: "The pearl mirror is sold to other countries, and it can be exchanged for gold and grain." He who does not sell grain to me, I do not sell his pearls. ”

"Your Highness is mistaken, the merchant is greedy for gold and silver and does not like the weight of grain, the pearl mirror is sold to the nations, and the recovery must be gold and silver instead of grain, even if there is grain, it is more gold and silver and less grain, if the countries practice the art of managing Zhonglu in a few years, suddenly forbid me to bead mirror, do not sell my grain, what can I do?" Huang Xie said again.

"Not really. There are not seven countries in the world, and bead mirrors, porcelain, paper, silk, and iron can also be sold in India, Egypt, and the Mediterranean countries. Xiong Jing still refuted, "The profits obtained can be purchased from his country and transported back to ......."

"Really?" Zhao Xiao, who supported Xiong Jing the most, was moved. Everyone in the non-seven countries of the world has long heard Xiong Jing say, but no one has ever been to India or Egypt. Doing trade with countries that you don't know where you are, and then shipping grain back, is like a fool's dream.

"In time, I can do that. It will be within ten years. "Xiong Jing is very determined. The origin of maritime grain transportation is actually very early, and the records he has seen are that in the Middle Ages, the Norsemen transported grain to Italy in the Mediterranean on a large scale; When the land transportation of the Italian peninsula was not smooth, grain was also transported by sailboat; There is also Turkey, which has also carried out grain shipping, but this is in the Mediterranean.

"Dare to ask Your Highness, how much does it cost to transport grain for thousands of miles?" Huang Xie is still uncompromising.

"Cost?" Xiong Jing thought about the example of medieval Italian grain by sea, and vaguely remembered that the purchase price of a farneg grain was 10 riyals, the freight from land to the sea was 3 riyals, the export tax was 5 riyals, and the freight of the Ragusa galleon was only 3.5 riyals (this was to Spain), and with the insurance fee, the farneg grain was about 22 riyals after arriving at the port. The ragusa galleon is only more than 700 tons, and it is not difficult to build a wooden sailing ship of more than 1,000 tons, and the ship is larger and the freight is lower.

"Thousands of miles of grain are transported, and the price of grain to my Chu country is only three times that of the original place." Xiong Jing estimated a price of three times, and when he saw Huang Xie's expression, he said: "Don't forget that porcelain, bead mirrors, silk and other material benefits are ten times and a hundred times." Triple the price of food, which is also advantageous. ”

"If that is the case, it should be a great good." The son argued with Huang Xie, but Xiong Yuan did not intervene, and only praised the great kindness after the argument.

"The child asks his father to give me full authority to build a mansion and a jade mansion, so that I can carry out the policy of enriching the country." Seeing his father's approval, Xiong Jing took advantage of this to make a request, which was exactly what Huang Xie was worried about before.

"The king, the creation of the mansion is very involved, and it is extremely inappropriate to return to the mansion." Huang Xie hurriedly objected.

"The king, it is difficult to make it difficult to go out of many doors. Taking the watermill as an example, if His Royal Highness does not have the full authority to make wood, it may be difficult to make 20,000 waterwheels. Zhao Huang hurriedly helped, he was the nominal leader of the mansion, and it was naturally good for the mansion and the jade mansion to be assigned to the mansion.

"My lord, what Zuo Tu said is very true, His Royal Highness is well-controlled, and the waterwheel is built very quickly. Paper, beaded mirrors, porcelain, iron, etc., if there is no control of His Highness, it may be difficult to make them, please allow His Highness to ask. "Gong Yin Dao on Huang Xie's side actually rebelled, he all supported Xiong Jing's party, and Huang Xie's color change was useless.

"That being the case...... Xiong Yuan looked at Huang Xie, "Zi Xie, the annual profits of the Mansion and the Jade Mansion will be a lot for you, how about these two mansions being handed over to Jing'er?" ”

The mansion was taken back, and Yingdu was also taken back, and now even the mansion and the jade mansion were to be taken away, Huang Xie's face changed several times, and he was really a little disheartened in his heart. But then again, the king can completely put the Mansion and the Jade Mansion under the jurisdiction of the Mansion without any reason, not to mention that Xiong Jing is now taking out Baili things one after another.

"Minister......" Huang Xie stabilized his mind, and when he was about to answer, he suddenly reported outside the hall: "Tell the king, the mansion has been built." ”

"The mansion has been built with a huge iron?!" The ministers were surprised, Xiong Yuan stood up, waved his hand, and said, "Summon, summon, summon." ”

After Xiong Jing left in the morning, Ou Chou began to test with the ink furnace, because of the lack of time to warm up in a hurry, eight of the ten ink furnaces were broken, but fortunately, the last two were not broken, and in the next spring, the ink furnace that had been calcined for several hours was opened.

The difficulty of crucible steelmaking is only on the crucible, how to make the crucible and how to preheat it is difficult. If these problems are solved, even Benjamin Huntsman, a layman clockmaker, can make steel, and Ou Chou, who was born in an iron-smelting family, will naturally not be a problem. After the ceasefire, the molten steel in the pot was red, and Ou Chou immediately poured it into Shafan. Molten steel is not as good as molten pig iron, and the fluidity of molten steel without silicon is extremely poor, but fortunately, Shafan is not complicated, but it is only cast into long strips to facilitate forging swords in the later stage. After the completion of the work, Ou Chou took the huge iron bar to the East Palace to announce the good news, and finally was guided by the temple people.

"This is Ju Tie?" Xiong Yuan had already left the seat and came to the case. The iron bar held by Ou Chou was nearly a foot long, about three fingers wide, and no more than half a finger thick. It's not the gray of pig iron, it's a different kind of silver.

"Tell the king, this is a great iron." Ou Chou said loudly, his forehead was full of sweat, and he smelled of scorching fire.

"Is this iron hit?" Nao was cunning in front of everyone, and what came to his mind was the violent iron test method taught by Kong Tieguan.

"Naturally." The giant iron had been quenched when it was cooled, and even if it had not yet become a sword, Ou Chou was full of confidence.

"I'll give it a try." Nao was cunning and anxious, grabbed the huge iron bar and wanted to go out of the court to find a copper pillar, saw a row of bells placed on the side of the court and turned around and walked to those bells, but after thinking about it again, the bells were too thin to try, and gave up the bells and walked to the bronze tripod half a person high in the north of the court.

From the moment he held the giant iron, everyone looked at him, followed him around the atrium for half a circle, and saw that he wanted to test the iron with Ding, but Jiang Xianglan, the chief servant, was stopped by Xiong Yuan - the weight of the iron is heavier than Hengshan. It doesn't matter what a bronze tripod counts, even if the entire main house is destroyed.

"Hey—" Nao shouted with the iron in both hands, and shouted again as he struck it out with all his strength. 'When——! Tongding suddenly let out a sound of gold and iron clashing, and the huge sound wave echoed in the atrium, deafening.

"Ahh The king, Ding'er...... Ding's ears are broken! "Chang Jiang's eyes are sharp, and after the heavy blow, one of the copper tripod ears was missing.

"Ding'er?" Xiong Yuan's eyesight was not good, and it wasn't until the temple people picked up the severed ear from Dingli and sent it to him that he looked at the severed mouth and was stunned.

"King, please look at Ju Tie." Nao's cunning hands were numb, and his right hand was cracked, and the iron was now held by Ou Chou.

"No damage?" Xiong Yuan took it, and in his opinion, the iron bar was still the same as before, unscathed.

"Yes." Surprisingly, Ou Chou said that there was. He pointed to a place at the top of the iron bar and said, "There is a seal here." ”

"It's okay." If you don't look closely, you can't see it at all, Xiong Yuan doesn't care. "It's a long article, what do you want to cast it with?"

"Tell the king, forge the sword." Ou Chou replied without even thinking about it.

"A five-foot iron sword?!" Xiong Yuan was puzzled. The Chu sword is only three feet, the Qin sword is less than four feet, and Ou Chou actually wants to cast a five-foot sword.

"Exactly." Ou Chou paused: "The sword of the king, the sword is five feet long." The villain is willing to cast the king's sword and dedicate it to the king. ”