A blacksmith inside the fortress.

The old blacksmith was lame on one leg, and handed the fire beside the stove with a blackened wooden root, and the little blacksmith was lifting the sword tire from the furnace, and the blazing flame shone on his face and bronzed skin, which was a slightly immature and resolute face, and the lumpy muscles were rolling with sweat the size of beans, and he put the sword tire on the iron mill, and picked up the hammer and struck it.

The sound of gold and iron echoing in the small blacksmith's shop, and a sword, halberd, and even a half-finished shield hung from the beams and pillars of the house.

The old blacksmith squinted at the little blacksmith casting his sword with a pair of eyes red and swollen from the fire, and from time to time he stopped to wake up to the essentials: "Two points for gold, eight points for iron, three points for water, and seven points for fire." The sword is the king of a hundred soldiers, it is the gift of the great god of Haotian, it is easy to break if it is too rigid, and it is weak if it is too soft, and it needs to be just right. The most important part of a sword that is about to take shape is not the blade, but the neck above the sword, where it must be struck eighty times, and the force must not be too heavy, and it needs to be dragged and pulled, so that the sword can have toughness. ”

"Yes, my son remembers that my father said that the sword is a living creature, and the neck of the sword is like the seven inches of a snake. The little blacksmith struck the fist-sized hammer and struck the neck of the sword, and the sweat on the tip of his nose fell on the iron mill one by one, making a "zizi" sound, and a cloud of green smoke was rising, and his posture of striking iron was very special, and the hammer drew one arc after another, which was the perfect combination of strength and beauty.

After going to the fire, feeding the water, and in a short time, a sharp heavy sword was cast.

The old blacksmith held the sword in his hand, looked at it carefully, bent his middle finger and flicked it, listened to the crisp sound of the sword, and said with a smile: "Casting a sword is the same as being a man, it needs to be tempered a thousand times before it can be both strong and soft. ”

The little blacksmith smiled honestly: "Father, General Feng led the Chao Geqing cavalry to the fortress, and he repaired the city walls, renovated the streets and houses, and controlled the army very strictly, and did not commit any crimes against the people, it seems that this noble lord is a good man, and his son wants to join the army." ”

This is the sixth time that the little blacksmith has mentioned it, the old blacksmith hung his sword on the beam of the house, hammered the leg that was broken from the root of the thigh, and said coldly: "Our Tieqiu clan is the king of Yin, since we left Tieqiu and came here, we have been reduced from nobles to commoners, and we have been striking iron here for generations, and our ancestors and ancestors have also been called by Yu Jun many times to work for him, including my leg, but what is the result?" Civilians are still commoners, and even the previous Yu Jun actually wanted to classify my Tieqiu clan as a slave. Have you forgotten all this? ”

The little blacksmith said: "My son hasn't forgotten, but my son doesn't want to make iron for the rest of his life." ”

The old blacksmith was silent, knowing his son Mo Ruo's father, his son has been very smart since he was a child, not only with him to learn the art of forging iron, but also studied allusions and military texts, those precious books are all exchanged for life and blood by the Tieqiu clan for hundreds of years, relying on these books, no matter how the situation changes, the Tieqiu clan can always have a skill, therefore, it is not drowned in the cruel river of history. Originally, his son wanted to be motivated, which was a good thing, but now that the Tieqiu clan is declining, there is only such an incense, how can he be willing to send his son to the battlefield.

After a while, the old blacksmith said, "If you really want to do what your husband wants, then wait until you are married." ”

"Marriage?"

The little blacksmith frowned, who would marry his daughter to a man like him, whose family was in decay and could be reduced to slavery at any moment? If he married a slave woman, the old blacksmith was unwilling, so he had reached the age of marriage, but he had been delayed.

"Wang, Wang."

At this time, there was a sudden sharp dog barking in the backyard. The old blacksmith's face changed, and he ran to the backyard with his cane.

"The beast must be here again." The little blacksmith was also startled, took the hammer from the iron mill, took three steps and made two steps, overtook his faltering father, and went straight to the backyard with murderous vigour.

The old blacksmith had just walked to the backyard door.

The little blacksmith carried the hammer and said dejectedly: "I don't see it, Wangcai is gone." ”

Wangcai is a big yellow dog they raised, the size of a calf.

The old blacksmith panted on crutches and said angrily, "Do you see clearly? Is it a bandit or a bandit? Perhaps because of more than a hundred years of humiliation, the old blacksmith had a grudge against the nobles and their army.

The little blacksmith said, "Father, my son has long said that it is not a robber army, but a bird, a huge bird. The whole body is red, and the wings can be so big. He picked up the hammer and gestured to the size of the bird.

The old blacksmith stared at him and drew half of the backyard into it, and said suspiciously: "There are such big birds in this world, it is clear that those defenders who are also thieves and bandits, the night before yesterday, they stole a cage of chickens from our family, yesterday it was a goose, and today even Wangcai was poisoned by them!" As he spoke, an old face turned red, and his eyes were full of anger: "You still say that they have not committed any crimes in the autumn, and they are still hiding it for them, it is simply unreasonable!" I, I'm going to reason with them! The big yellow dog had been with the old blacksmith for more than ten years, and his friendship was deep, and he turned around and left, to find the theory of the great general Feng who came to the song city.

The little blacksmith also had a crimson face, and only muttered: "It's not a person, it's a bird, it's a bird!" ”

"Bird, I think you're a dumb bird!" The old blacksmith cursed angrily.

"Wang, Wang......"

But at this moment, a big yellow dog with leprosy skin came in from the dog hole in the courtyard wall, and rubbed around the old blacksmith for a while, barking aggrievedly and timidly. When the old blacksmith Dingqing saw it, his heart was shocked, and he saw that the big yellow dog had a big poisonous snake wrapped around his back, the snake was dead, and the seven inches were pecked to pieces, but the rest of the snake's corpse was intact, and even the most precious snake gall was still there.

The old blacksmith froze.

The little blacksmith took down the snake corpse, and his heart was also at a loss, since ancient times, snake blood and snake gall are treasures, and they are worth a lot of money, if this big poisonous snake is taken to the nobles, it can be exchanged for at least a dozen knife coins, for them, this is a big windfall, the little blacksmith said: "What's going on?" Could it be that the bird repented of his mistake and repaid his kindness, and knew that it was an unrighteous act to eat our chickens and geese, so he caught this snake again, and let Wangcai carry it back to make amends? ”

"Boss, is my husband there?"

Voices were heard in the front yard.

"Come on, come on."

The old blacksmith answered in a row, and walked quickly to the shop in front, and when he saw it, he was riding a majestic war horse, wearing a standard iron armor, and a large coat embroidered with a five-clawed golden dragon, and he was a young man about twenty years old, with thick and straight eyebrows, thin lips, and a scar on his cheek.

"Uncle, can my sword be repaired?"

The young man saw the old blacksmith, flipped off the horse, and when he landed, the iron armor on his body trembled, he stood in the sun and smiled slightly, his expression was quite amiable, his temperament was graceful and noble, yes, if it were not for the iron armor and the scars on his face, he was more like a noble man who traveled around the world, the old blacksmith was quite familiar with the temperament of the nobles, it was a kind of indifference and arrogance from the bones.

However, it has to be said that this young man is not cold.

"The sword sent by the distinguished guest, the sword tire is the best cold iron, and it took the old man and the dog seven days to fill the gap and quench it again."

The old blacksmith went under the beam, took off the iron sword that had just been cast, shook it in his hand, and gave it to the young man with some reluctance. For the swordsmith, a good sword has a soul, and when the sword first came, the edge of the sword was densely covered with large and small openings, some as the size of a grain of rice, and some as thin as a hair, and it was evident that it had been slashed and struck a thousand times, and even, when the sword was cast and quenched, the old blacksmith seemed to hear the resentful spirit on the sword weeping and roaring.

It's a sword that kills.

The young man took the sword.

The old blacksmith squinted at him and said, "Although this sword is not of the highest grade, it is also rare, the sword has its own spirituality, if you are a person who knows the sword, please simmer blood." ”

"Thank you, sir." The young man lifted the heavy sword and tried to dance twice, the cold light flickered, and Huo Huo made a sound, but the weight was just right. He held the sword vertically, wiped his index finger over the blade of the sword, and the slightest blood overflowed on the sword, but it condensed but did not disperse, as if blood beads rolled over the sword body, and the sword pattern on the sword was soaked in blood, and it suddenly shined, as if it really seemed to have a spirit.

"Good sword!" The young man praised.

At the moment, the young man paid for the repair of the sword and gave five more antnose money.

The old blacksmith smiled and took the ant-nose money, and gnawed it in his mouth, the ant-nose money was cast by Nanchu in the south of the river, compared to Dayong's knife coin, the golden lion money of Qi State, containing copper and gold is higher, and a bite will leave a tooth mark. Therefore, the ant-nose money is the most valuable universal currency in Zhongzhou, and the irony is that the princes of the northern region regard Southern Chu as barbarians, but they do not reject the ant-nose money of Southern Chu. On the contrary, some of the weaker princes would even encourage the merchants to exchange them for ant-nose money, from which copper and gold were extracted, because copper and gold were indispensable for the manufacture of chariots.

"Your guest has come to fetch a sword? I, I'm ......" the little blacksmith came over, looked enviously at the young man's outfit, and then at the old blacksmith, with a look of desire to speak.

The young man patted him on the shoulder, signaled, and was about to turn over and get on his horse.

"Woo, woo......"

Suddenly, a terrible, piercing trumpet sound was heard.

The young man's expression changed, and he shook the reins of his horse violently, and galloped towards the east of the fortress, the turquoise turquoise daze behind him flying in the sun.

"I'm afraid it's coming." The old blacksmith dragged the money bag and walked into the street on crutches.

At this time, the entire fortress resounded with the neighing of horses, the sound of heavy footsteps, the grinding of iron armor, and the loud shouting. The little blacksmith watched the young man go away in a daze, and watched in a daze as rows and rows of ironclad men came out of the barracks next to the blacksmith shop, their expressions were resolute, their eyes were cold and hard, and the blue helmets on their heads formed a vast ocean.

Suddenly, the little blacksmith turned his head and looked at the old blacksmith very cautiously: "Father, a good man is ambitious in all directions, fame is in literature, wealth is in martial arts, in order to gain fame and wealth, and forgive his son for being unfilial." After speaking, without waiting for the old blacksmith to speak, he rushed into the people's blacksmith's shop, pulled out a set of old and vicissitudes of armor from the gloomy darkness, and took down an iron sword of an ancient style from the highest beam.

"Ugh."

The old blacksmith sighed, walked in helplessly, helped the little blacksmith put on the complicated iron armor, stared at the embroidery on the armor, and said in a deep voice: "So far, you are Tie Qiuli, and you are no longer an unknown person. You have to remember that you are the queen of Yin. ”

"No."