When dinner was served, Xiao Zheng walked outside the courtyard and cut the frozen meat jelly into small pieces, put some shredded green onions, poured them with vinegar, and heated some broth to make a pot of soup cakes, and the family ate heartily. After dinner, Xiao Zheng said to his husband: "Master, tomorrow I will go to Xiao Hai to have a look, see how they make iron, I want to get a stove for our family." The gentleman was stunned for a moment and said, "Stove? I haven't heard of it, we have a kang at home, do you mean heating like a charcoal basin? Seeing that Mr. guessed correctly, Xiao Zheng said: "That thing is more troublesome to make than the pankang, but it is much more useful than the kang, and now the futile is almost thinking about it, when the time comes, we will use the iron sheet to try it first, I originally wanted to take you along, it is too cold outside, I am afraid that you will freeze or I will go alone", Mr. looked at him and said: "How to get it is your business."

The next morning, Xiao Zheng took a piece of frozen roe deer meat and a big bowl of meat jelly to Lou Shide's house first, saw that Lou Shide was still studying at home, and handed the meat jelly directly to him, this little guy took chopsticks and tasted it in his mouth first, so he accelerated the speed of his hands, ate a few pieces and suddenly stopped and jumped down the pit, brought the bowl to his mother, and held the meat jelly to his mother to eat, seeing such a scene, Xiao Zheng was very pleased.

Said two words of gossip and said goodbye to Xiao Hai's house, as soon as he entered the courtyard door, he saw a few people struck iron with a sledgehammer, although the weather was cold, but several people were wearing thin clothes, and the mouth shouted the number of work and the sound of hammering, which made people sound unique, next to Ershunzi and Meng Guang used a half-person high leather bag to blow air from the bottom of the furnace to the inside, the gas supply was insufficient, the fire was not very strong, and the iron sheet was taken out of the furnace after knocking for a while, and it became black in the cold weather.

When I looked at the fuel used in ironmaking, I couldn't help but feel a secret joy in my heart, I thought that charcoal was used for ironmaking in this era, but now I found that it was all coal. Asked Xiao Hai where the raw materials of scrap iron and ore used in ironmaking came from, Xiao Hai smiled and said to him: "This material is also simple, let's go west to the mountains There is a ravine, there is a small iron ore vein in it, this court and big families can't look down on it, and small families don't know how to mine it, we feel okay when we see it, so we pull these ores back and smelt them ourselves." Xiao Zheng asked again how this coal came from, Xiao Hai thought about it before he understood and said: "We are all called coal, it just happened to be a coincidence, not far from here there is also a coal mine abandoned by the ancients, we found it when it was dug up but it was abandoned and reused by us, this thing is useless except for ironmaking." Xiao Hai said with a smile: "We chose Lijiazhuang because we are optimistic that this place has coal and iron ore and is next to the river, mainly to meet the needs of striking iron", Xiao Zheng praised Xiao Hai for his shrewdness after listening.

Watching the furnace run out of molten iron and finish the work, Xiao Zheng said to Xiao Hai: "Brother Xiao, I have a way here to increase the output of your iron smelting, the quality of this iron is definitely much better than your current one, the price will not be higher than now, and it will not take much of your effort, would you like to try it?" Xiao Hai was stunned for a moment after listening to Xiao Zheng's words, and then looked at him with incredible eyes and said, "Brother Xiao, if you want to talk about Mr. and your medical skills, I admire my brother very much!" But how do you know that there is such a good way to make iron? ”

"You wait a minute" Xiao Hai turned around and walked into the house to call his father out, when it came to ironmaking, the old man's vicissitudes of life showed a confident demeanor and said to Xiao Zheng: "Child, it's not the old man who blows, my family has been four generations of iron smelting in Hai'er's generation, Hai'er's grandfather and I were among the overseers of the court during the former Sui Dynasty, this iron-making looks simple and thinks that it is okay to throw iron ore or iron into the furnace, but the doorway here is bigger, and the quality of the iron smelted by different people in the same furnace is different. Even if the quality of the iron tools from the court is not necessarily good, the iron smelted by the people is very brittle, and the forged knives will not take long to break, so people call the iron 'evil gold'. The 'Binzhou Iron' or 'Suzhou Iron' often said in the army is one of the rare ones in a hundred furnaces, and the Uzi steel and meteorite iron that came from the Western Regions have only been seen once or twice in the court of the previous dynasty. You said that there is such a good method, the old man is a little unconvinced, first of all, the secret art of folk iron smelting is passed on to men and women, and it will not be told to outsiders if they are killed. All dynasties and dynasties regard the best iron-making method as a secret that is not passed on, not to mention that our small family, even the rich and noble people do not necessarily know, you think of this method is so spiritual? Besides, you just have this method, and are you willing to tell us? ”。

Xiao Zheng smiled and said to Xiao Hai's father: "Old man, I think it should be no problem, how can you know if you don't try." But I can assure you that my method is definitely much better than the quality of the iron you are smelting now." Xiao Hai's father and son looked at each other, Xiao Hai nodded firmly and said to his father: "If the child believes in Mr. Xiaoxiao, it will not be successful, with the kindness of Mr. Xiaoxiao's master and apprentice who saved our parents and Ning children, we also have to give Mr. Xiao a favor, not to mention that it is a great opportunity for you and our ancestors."

Seeing that the matter had been decided, Xiao Zheng took out a few finished drawings from his sleeve and put them in front of the father and son, the old man was worthy of being a craftsman from the court supervisor, and after only a few glances, he said: "Your drawings are very exquisite, just look at these pictures The old man is still a little sure, but your furnace for molten iron is too big, I see how tall there are at least two people, how can such a furnace take the wind that can be blown into the wind?" The furnace we use now is half a person high, and we don't dare to make it bigger, because we are afraid that the wind is insufficient, and the furnace temperature is not higher than the scrap iron, and it is not difficult to build such a high iron-making furnace for you, but it is difficult to ignite such a large furnace, not to mention that the drum does not enter the wind, no! After speaking, he pointed to the leather bag next to him.

"What if we solved the problem of blowing wind?" Xiao Zheng said to the old man with a smile, slowly unfolding the other picture with both hands, and before Xiao Hai's father could speak, Dong Ershun came over next to him, and when he saw the appearance on the drawing, he asked Xiao Zheng: "Mr. Xiao, why does this thing look like a coffin with a stick in the middle", as soon as he finished speaking, he was kicked by Meng Guang behind him.

Xiao Zheng said with a smile: "Brother Shunzi, what you said is really similar, but I call this thing a bellows", and explained the method and use of bellows to everyone. Xiao Hai's father and son and a few others understood what was going on as soon as they heard it. Xiao Zheng smiled and said to Xiao Hai's father: "One bellows is not enough, we are adding one, if it doesn't work, we will make it bigger, won't we be able to blow the fire in this furnace vigorously?" After hearing this, Xiao Hai's father pondered for a while and then looked at the picture and said, "This method of iron-making is feasible!" ”

Everyone saw that there was such a good way to make iron, and they all wanted to build this furnace as soon as possible to see how the new method was, and a few of them were divided, Xiao Hai took people to buy a refractory brick furnace, Er Shunzi and Meng Guang went to the county to find a carpenter to make a bellows, just about to go out, but the two were stopped by Xiao Hai's father, only to see the old man say to the two: "When you make things, you should find a few more different carpenters, try not to show others, even if you look at it, you have to open it for them to see, don't do it for one family, be careful to steal our bellows!" ”。