"Since there is a shortage of skilled craftsmen in the manufacturing department of the ironworks, it is enough to produce according to the actual building capacity before recruiting enough craftsmen, and it is not necessary to complete it before the end of the year. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info the shortage of miners in coal and iron mining, and this king will draw 10,000 slave laborers from other places in a month to replenish them. ”

Zhang Gensheng and other ironmaking workshop directors had a heavy cushion in their hearts, and King Yan's words finally fell, and they all smiled, and they didn't have to work overtime to make weapons and armor in order to catch up with production in the future.

In the past four months, King Yan has not clearly replied to the matter of the iron-making workshop, so that their iron-making workshop has been working overtime in three shifts to produce weapons, and they are all miserable.

"That's right." Li Yu suddenly remembered and asked, "Master Zhang, your second son seems to be called Zhang Xiaofan, right?" ”

"Back to Your Highness, it's a certain dog."

"Didn't you say in your recital that he specialized in crucible steelmaking? Quickly pass him on to the king and explain how he came up with the crucible steelmaking method. Li Yu asked eagerly.

"Your Highness, the dog is in the steelmaking area, so I will send someone to find him to meet Your Highness."

Li Yu thought for a while and waved his hand: "Forget it, when I came to the Iron Casting City today, I haven't visited the ironworks yet." You lead the way now, and along the way, you will introduce the development of various departments of the ironmaking workshop, and then go to see Zhang Xiaofan's crucible steelmaking method. ”

"Whoa!"

Accompanied by Liu Tao, Zhang Gensheng and other officials of the cast iron city, Li Yu first visited the repaired cast iron city. Among them, the iron-making blast furnace in the southwest of the city moved out of the city a few months ago because of the large soot that affected the lives of the residents in the city.

At present, the inhabitants of the cast iron city are mainly ironsmiths, soldiers of the Broken Army and their families, and the population has exceeded the 20,000 mark. Regardless of whether they were craftsmen or soldiers, each household had a share of the land allocated to them by the Protectorate outside the cast-iron city, which was cultivated by their families.

In the ravine west of Dagu Mountain is a concentration camp where slave laborers live, and when the slave laborers are detained in the concentration camp after work, two-thirds of the soldiers of the Broken Army will gather around the concentration camp to guard.

Because the population of the cast iron city is more than 20,000, now that the autumn harvest has passed, Liaodong can not grow other crops in winter, and the people in the city have nothing to do to wander and chat on the streets, making the city appear to be prosperous and economically and trade-developed.

Li Yu has such achievements in the development of the Cast Iron City in less than two years, and he praises Liu Tao, who is a thorn history, for governing the place well.

Liu Tao couldn't stop laughing all the way because of this, and the whole person became a little angry. Whenever Li Yu visited a place and asked about the auspicious situation, Liu Tao immediately came up with a smile to explain to Li Yu, and robbed Zhang Gensheng and other ironsmiths of the job.

Outside the city, there are hundreds of blast furnaces burning red in the iron-making and steel-smelting areas, unscrupulously emitting excess heat to the surroundings, and walking into them is like a hot summer day. In the area where the manufacturing department is located, the swords are made from a stove with sparks, and the craftsmen sweat and wave the hammers in their hands to break the steel bars into long knives.

A frame of beaten armor leaves, bright light armor, arrowheads, blades, and spearheads were carried onto carriages by the slave laborers and pulled into another workshop for final armor weaving and weapon handle installation.

Visiting all the way, Li Yu was quite satisfied, the division of labor of various departments in the ironmaking workshop was clear, the coordination was orderly, and the production efficiency was quite high.

Hearing that his father had sent someone to bring His Royal Highness King Yan to the Cast Iron City to see the crucible steelmaking furnace he made, Zhang Xiaofan hurriedly ordered his subordinates to clean up the crucible furnace room to welcome King Yan.

From a distance, I saw King Yan and the others walking towards the crucible furnace room, and Zhang Xiaofan led everyone to pay respects.

"Meet His Royal Highness King Yan."

"No courtesy." Li Yu smiled and said, "Zhang Eryang, your father said that you have developed a crucible steelmaking method, which can be directly cast into a steel lake of molten steel, and the weapons created are extremely sharp, why don't you quickly take this king to see and understand." ”

"Your Highness, please, there is a crucible furnace in the house." Zhang Xiaofan greeted him with a smile, but he was a little embarrassed in his heart, his father's music has always been done by himself, saying that it was his father's play, but in fact, he played it himself.

Li Yu and his entourage entered the house, Zhang Gensheng walked up to Zhang Xiaofan and warned him that he should not know the severity of his words, Zhang Xiaofan smiled and nodded quickly.

Inside the house, a crucible stove shaped like a cauldron was simmering, and a small human blower was constantly pumping air into the furnace under the pull of three slave laborers.

"This is the cauldron?" Li Yu pointed to the three-meter-high blast furnace in front of him and asked with a smile, Zhang Shi, Xue Da and the others who came with Li Yu looked at this unique blast furnace curiously.

A thick lid covers the blast furnace tightly, and the steelmaking is like cooking rice in a pot, which looks very different from the blast furnaces outside the premises.

"Back to Your Highness, exactly." Zhang Xiaofan slowly introduced Li Yu and others: "The crucible furnace is like a cauldron where we usually cook......

Li Yu slandered: This is more like a pressure cooker in later generations!

"The crucible furnace is made of Guanyin clay (high-alumina clay) from the western bay of Jian'an Prefecture, which has extremely high temperature resistance to withstand the airtight smelting of the blast furnace. Pig iron and scrap steel are loaded into the furnace and smelted by coke fire, which can directly generate molten steel, and then the molten steel is introduced into the prepared mold from the discharge port and poured into steel ingots, steel bars, and ......"

"Because it is the steel smelted from the crucible, it is called crucible steel. This steel material has stronger hardness and toughness, and can be used to make swords without repeated forging to become a treasure sword, and it is extremely sharp, and it is used to forge armor leaves to make Mingguang armor, which is also lighter than other armor made of steel. ”

"It's a good thing to say, there is always a physical object to verify it!" Zhang Shi saw that Zhang Xiaofan praised the crucible steel very much, and shouted without believing the punishment.

Everyone looked at Zhang Xiaofan, just waiting for you to bring out the real thing to open everyone's eyes.

Zhang Xiaofan smiled lightly, "Niu Daxuan, a few of you take out the four knives and two pairs of armor that you made a few days ago and show them to Your Highness and all the ministers!" ”

"Okay!"

Niu Dayang, who had been working for Zhang Xiaofan, had a happy face, and moved out the horizontal knife, Mo knife, obstacle knife, instrument knife, a pair of Mingguang armor and infantry armor made of crucible steel, and put them in front of Li Yu and others.

Li Yu picked up the horizontal knife and unsheathed it, the bright blade and sharp blade gave people a cold sense of oppression.

Zhang Shi directly picked up the Mo knife, with a big waist and a round waist, he pulled out the seven-foot-long Mo knife with one hand, and with a bang, the blade of the knife suddenly appeared, and the eyes of several people next to him flashed with a bright cold light and couldn't look directly.

"It looks good, but I don't know if the actual chopping ability of this knife is good." Zhang Shi commented suspiciously.

"Niu Dayang, don't you want to take a steel plate to test the knife?"

"Okay!" Niu Da ran to bring a 1-inch thick steel plate and put it in front of Zhang Shi and said, "General Zhang, please try the knife." ”

"This steel plate is made by the steel filling method, please try it and know." Zhang Xiaofan smiled.

"Good!"

Zhang Shi held the knife in both hands, and used all his strength to swing the heavy Mo knife against the steel plate.

With a bang, the 1-inch thick steel plate broke in response, and the incision was neat, Zhang Shi's eyes jumped when he saw this, and his heart trembled, "Good knife." ”

The crowd watching exclaimed and exclaimed, "This is a peerless sword!" ”

"No, there is crucible steel, this knife is not peerless!"

Li Yu said happily, and personally tested the horizontal knife in his hand, although it could not be as powerful as the Mo knife and could break a 1-inch steel plate with one knife, but the sharpness and hardness could easily break the iron armor currently equipped by the Tang Army.

The defensive power of the Mingguang Armor made of crucible steel is easily improved by a large margin compared to the previous iron armor anti-blade.

"Congratulations to Your Highness for obtaining the world's best steel-making method!"

A group of officials and generals congratulated Li Yu one after another, some of which were a steady stream of good steel, and the soldiers and horses under the command of King Yan were sharp and invincible.

"Zhang Eryang, how is the output of crucible steel?" Li Yu asked urgently, Nuo is able to mass produce it, and it will be possible to equip the whole army with crucible steel weapons and armor in two years.

Zhang Xiaofan's face was clear, and he said in a deep voice: "The output of crucible steel is low, and the cost of one pound is more than four times that of the steel filling method. The cost of the crucible blast furnace is high, and the steel texture smelted after four times cannot meet the standard of crucible steel, and the blast furnace is basically scrapped after six times. ”

"So expensive?" The crowd exclaimed again,

"A horizontal knife costs six times, and a Mo knife costs forty times."

"Damn, this knife is made of gold!" Zhang Shiti exclaimed in surprise with the Mo knife in his hand.

Everyone couldn't marvel anymore, and they were stunned by the price of weapons made of crucible steel.

Li Yu was a little disappointed, from the crucible blast furnace to the refining of molten steel, to the production of weapons and armor, all of them were supported by high prices, and it was impossible to equip a large number of them with the national strength of the Tang Dynasty.