A few days later, Bai Feng left Yejiabao with a team of men and horses under the cover of darkness and went to Yuxian to start building a base.

Ye Chen remembered that Guan Yu and Tai Shi Ci competed that day, and Guan Yu cut off Tai Shi Ci's spear with one sword.

"It's time to build a powerful spear for Big Brother."

How can a military general not have a good weapon? The quality of this weapon has a great impact on the combat effectiveness of the generals, so Ye Chen must help Tai Shi Ci get a good weapon, so that Tai Shi Ci's combat effectiveness will be increased to a higher level.

Thinking of building weapons, Ye Chen thought of the steel filling method, although Ye Chen didn't know how to make steel, but he had learned in history before, the steel filling method is to add pig iron to wrought iron, as for the proportion, of course Ye Chen would not know.

It doesn't matter if you don't know, you can experiment slowly, let the people in the whole workshop experiment, and I believe that it won't take long to test the specific ratio, and then you can build 100 steels on a large scale.

Ye Chen came to the blacksmith workshop and gathered everyone together, now Yejiabao has completed all the outer walls, although it is still early to build the inside, but the defense has been greatly strengthened, and some secret things are easy to do.

The people in the blacksmith workshop are all the Ye family's own people, and their families have also been moved together, which is conducive to protection and secrecy.

After summoning all the blacksmith masters, Ye Chen will give them a lecture on the theory of the steel filling method.

The steel filling method is not difficult, and Song Yingxing's "Heavenly Creation" in the Song Dynasty wrote that "raw and cooked are combined, and practice is rigid".

In this way, there is no need to go through repeated heating and tempering, which can greatly save time, manpower and fuel, improve efficiency, and reduce costs.

Ye Chen only knew the theory, using pig iron as a carburizing agent, so that the carbon in the pig iron could penetrate into the wrought iron, so that it would become steel.

The theory told them, and the next thing was the experiment, and Ye Chen asked them to record in detail the amount of pig iron added to the wrought iron.

The blacksmiths are very enthusiastic about their work, because as long as they work overtime, they will be paid overtime, although it is not very high, but it can make the life of the family a little better, so everyone is happy to work overtime.

Moreover, the tasks that Ye Chen personally explained, as long as they are completed, usually have high bonuses.

When the steel of the first furnace came out, the two people knew that this method was feasible, although it failed, but it could prove that the method was correct, as long as the proportion was mastered.

Everyone joined in the steelmaking with greater enthusiasm, and finally trained qualified steel in three days, which was even better than 100 steels.

In fact, the iron is repeatedly heated and hammered, and it usually takes hundreds of times of heating and hammering to become steel, but the distribution of carbon in this method will still be uneven.

The steel smelted by the method provided by Ye Chen basically does not need to be tempered, and can be directly made into weapons or farm tools.

"Haha, everyone has worked hard, I will celebrate you in the evening." Ye Chen laughed out loud as he took the steel made by the two craftsmen.

All of them are also very happy, because miracles have appeared in their hands, and in the future they can often make iron tools from good steel, and for a craftsman, isn't happiness that he can make good works with good materials.

"Young family owners don't have to be like this, and it is also our honor to be able to realize the emergence of this epoch-making technology with our own eyes."

It was Song Cheng who spoke, he was the most skilled blacksmith master here, and his ancestors were all blacksmiths, and he has contributed a lot these days.

A few days of hard work in exchange for a huge harvest, the previous 100 steels need to be repeatedly folded and beaten, need to be heated repeatedly, and the impurities inside are discharged by forging many times to reduce the size of residual inclusions, so that its composition tends to be uniform, the structure tends to be dense, the grain is refined, and the performance of steel is improved. Ancient craftsmen heated and forged "fine iron" more than 100 times, one forged and one weighed and one light, until the catties were not reduced, that is, hundreds of steel.

This method is time-consuming and laborious, and also needs to consume a lot of fuel, which is very uneconomical, and now the step of repeated beating is reduced by the steel filling method, not only the quality is greatly improved, but even the cost is saved a lot.

Of course, Ye Chen did not forget to build weapons for Tai Shici.

The people in the blacksmith's workshop were all given a day off and received a bonus of one month's salary, and when they returned from the holiday, Ye Chen found Song Cheng and asked him to help build a spear.

"Young family master, according to your requirements, it will take at least half a month to build this, after all, what you want to fight can already be regarded as a weapon of the first level of a divine soldier." After listening to Ye Chen's request, Song Cheng calculated for a long time and said to Ye Chen.

"It doesn't matter about time, good weapons need to be polished slowly, I only need good weapons, not ordinary weapons." This is a weapon for Tai Shici, and it can't be sloppy at all.

Song Cheng thought for a long time, and after the expression on his face changed a few times, he seemed to have made a major decision, and then said to Ye Chen: "Young family master, my ancestor has a piece of cold iron outside the sky, if you use him to add good steel forging, you will definitely be able to create a divine weapon." ”

Ye Chen was very happy when he heard that he could create a divine weapon, but this Heavenly Cold Iron was Song Cheng's ancestral heirloom, and Ye Chen couldn't forcibly ask for it.

"I don't know what conditions Master Song needs, as long as I can do it, I will definitely not refuse."

A good weapon is too powerful for a general, so even if Ye Chen pays a big price, as long as he can bear it, he is willing to pay.

"Young family master, you have a great kindness to us, and this piece of Outer Heaven Cold Iron should be dedicated to you, there should be no conditions, but this piece of Outer Heaven Cold Iron has been passed down for several generations, and I dare not lose it easily." Song Cheng said to Ye Chen very sincerely.

"I understand that as long as I can build this weapon, please feel free to say anything you want." Ye Chen also understands people, after all, it is not an ordinary thing, people have guarded it for several generations, and it is also appropriate to exchange some benefits.

Song Cheng exhaled and said, "I only have one request, please ask the young family master to always shelter and treat me well." ”

Ye Chen was stunned, he didn't expect Song Cheng to put forward such a condition, which also made him very emotional, he didn't expect him to selflessly dedicate himself to others.

In fact, this Song Cheng is not stupid, he knows very well what kind of life they had before, and he knows what kind of life people outside are like.

Song Cheng had heard too many homeless people talk about their miserable lives, and Ye Chen had the heart to purify all sentient beings, which could be seen from the unconditional recruitment of homeless people and helping them resume their production and life.

He believed that as long as Ye Chen was there, he would shelter them for a day, so there was nothing reluctant to give Ye Chen the cold iron outside the sky, which was of no great use to him.

"Okay, as long as I'm here for a day, I will definitely shelter everyone in my Ye family, as long as I have something to eat, everyone will have something to eat." Ye Chen said to Song Cheng very solemnly.

In fact, this was originally one of Ye Chen's goals, and there was nothing to be embarrassed about, let alone go against this original intention.

"Song Chengdai, thank you, young master." Song Cheng actually only needed Ye Chen's promise, but he didn't expect Ye Chen to put them in the same position as himself, which made him very moved, and he felt that he would have to rely on such a person in his future life.

After that, Song Chengcheng began to prepare, and it took three days to prepare alone, not only adjusting his state to the best, but also repeatedly explaining some things to them to pay attention to.

All kinds of materials are prepared before you start building.

Ye Chen no longer needed to pay attention to the creation of this divine weapon, he only needed to take care of their logistics.

But the divine soldiers don't have to care, this ordinary armor has to be done.

Ye Chen calculated that it would take half a year to build five thousand pairs of weapons and armor, and the investment would require tens of millions.

When Ye Chen calculated the budget and asked Wu Xian to implement it, Wu Xian's flesh hurt for a long time.

The Ye family, who already had insufficient liquidity, was about to tighten their belts again, but fortunately, there was no need to invest so much at once, but Ye Chen dug another pit for sure.

Now Wu Xian has gradually understood that Ye Chen is laying out and preparing for a certain purpose, although he doesn't know what Ye Chen is doing, but through various measures, he also knows that the plan is not small.

So despite the difficulties, Wu Xian still chose unconditional support, mobilized funds, and purchased iron ore and coal to build weapons and armor.

As for whether the private creation of weapons and armor will be reported, Ye Chen is not worried at all, the workshop is highly secretive, outsiders can't get in, and most of those craftsmen live in Yejiabao.

Moreover, Ye Chen got a piece from the assassin Shi that he could be strong and persistent during the suppression of bandits, so he was not worried about this.

After dealing with these things, Ye Chen found that the autumn harvest had arrived, and it was the autumn harvest of the organization.

In fact, the main thing is to organize rent collection and purchase of grain, and those tenant farmers will collect their own grain, so there is no need for Ye Chen to worry.

What Ye Chen had to do was to send people to various villages to collect grain and collect the land rent.

And what Ye Chen really wants to do is to be fair, because many landlords will use weights and measures to pit farmers, and use measuring instruments to overcharge farmers' field rents when collecting rent, and what Ye Chen wants to do is to put an end to this situation.

Originally, Ye Chen still wanted to reduce the rent, but the current conditions were not ripe, so it was good not to pit the people.

Collecting land rent is one thing, and there is also the storage of grain, and now the Ye family has built many large warehouses just to store grain.

After the autumn harvest, there is more grain, and you can use this time to buy it elsewhere, but Ye Chen knows that this acquisition must be a big expense, and the Ye family does not have much available funds at this time, which makes Ye Chen feel a lot of pressure.

He must use this time to reserve as much grain as possible, at this time the major families have a lot of grain, and they are more willing to sell grain, and the price of grain will not be raised very high.

It's just that where the money comes from, Ye Chen must find a sum of money for the purchase of grain, otherwise the purchase of grain will not be realized.