It's not strange that Yang and Gao can't do it for a while, and Zhang Han asked him to do it not chain mail, but to pull the wire and then circle it into a spring, Zhang Han himself doesn't know the specific principle of this thing, and it is strange to expect Yang and Gao to do it well all at once.

"Lao Yang, you have to number the ruler and various tools, and at the same time take a notebook to record the time, and write down the strength of the wire every time it comes out, the time of the furnace and the level of the flame, but also to write down, as well as the purity of the origin of the iron, but also to write down, so that every time a different finished product comes out, you will gradually know what kind of wire you can pull out each time. After passing the brushing level, and then rolling it into an iron ring, slowly try it step by step, and after a long time, it can always be made. ”

"Yes, the proprietor listens to you, and I will do this well."

Yang Hegao specializes in making weapons, in his opinion, the spring is for the carriage, it should have been Li Changnian's long pole work, but Zhang Han handed it to him, and he didn't dare to call back the ticket, fortunately, Wang Debang has a good relationship with him, and often brings his own men to help him, but the help is also limited, Wang Debang is not manpowered, and the fire-making gun is a raw work for everyone, don't look at how many have been made, it is still very early from the mature hand, five or six people have to work a lot of hard work every day, and they have to do a lot of odd work, and the carriage is not enough to transfer people, I still have to read and write at night, and everyone is very busy.

"I'm afraid that there will be a shortage of manpower, you have all been suffering recently, and more people will be recruited slowly." Zhang Han had a gentle smile on his face, patted Yang Hegao's shoulder again, and said with a smile: "Lao Yang, you are a loyal and honest person, honest people are not afraid of hardship, they are afraid of losses, rest assured that I will not give you a loss, I see how much everyone does." ”

"Proprietor ......"

Yang Hegao's eyes were a little moist, and he quickly wiped them with his rough hands, for fear that people would see them.

Craftsmen are also dignified and do not like to cry in front of a large crowd.

Zhang Han turned his head at the right time, looked at Lao Cai, and said with a smile: "Lao Cai, I heard that you are from Lingqiu?" ”

"Yes, I'm from Lingqiu." Lao Cai hurriedly got up and said with a smile: "How did the proprietor inquire about this?" ”

"How did you do it?"

"Back to the proprietor...... Lao Cai's face turned red, it was hard to see that his face was so black that it could still be red, which showed that he was really embarrassed. He replied: "My brother and I were originally practicing iron, and then the furnace fell down, and we came to Xinpingbao, and I originally wanted to be a blacksmith, but there are not too many of these trades here, and I can't eat food, so I can only be a tiger. ”

Zhang Han nodded, smiled and pointed to a young man in his twenties behind Lao Cai, and asked, "This is your brother?" ”

"Well, that's Cai Jiu, it's my younger brother."

Cai Jiu was a little shy and a little nervous, he was about to be honest by nature, and he was a little hiding when he saw Zhang Han coming, but he couldn't hide at this time, so he hurriedly came over to greet him.

"Cai Jiu, come here, I have something to ask you." Zhang Han's tone is very easy-going, full of familiarity and affection, people like him know how to deal with people too well.

Cai Jiu's face really became much more normal, and when he got closer, he muttered, "If the proprietor has anything to ask, I must say it all." ”

"Have you ever set up a stove with your brother?"

"My brother is a furnace chiseler, I am a fan furnace, my brother also patrols the furnace, I sometimes transport mines out, anyway, it is all hard work, we are all hard people, not afraid of strength."

"How many people do you need for a furnace?"

"Our furnace is big, it took nearly 700 people, and it took several months to build the furnace."

Zhang Han has never dealt with such things in later generations, and he is at a loss in his mind, only knowing some things about local steelmaking, of course, it is shameful to fail, but there are some small skills and methods, he also vaguely knows, and after chatting with this Cai Jiu for a while, he knew that ironmaking in Daming was not a simple job.

After receiving the license of the official family to allow iron smelting, even if you can start work, in the Qing Dynasty, mining was strictly prohibited, the reason is very simple, the Qing Dynasty is weak, in the end, it is a foreign colonial regime, and the bones are weak, who are the miners? Different from the peasants, workers need a certain degree of organization, and to have the courage to go out, a mining area may be at least dozens of furnaces, hundreds of people per furnace, a large mining area gathered tens of thousands of people or even hundreds of thousands of people are common, the Qing Dynasty is not as good as the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty is not as good as the Song Dynasty, the Song Dynasty's mining development is far above the Ming Dynasty, the early Ming Dynasty also prohibited private mining, but also afraid of improper management of the miners will rebel, the early Ming Dynasty did have several miners rebellion, it took a lot of effort to calm down...... The combat effectiveness of the miners is not comparable to that of the peasants, what does Qi Jiguang's Qi family army rely on to form? It is the army established by Yiwu miners as the backbone!

While chatting with Cai Jiu, paragraphs of text also seemed to appear in Zhang Han's mind: "Where the iron furnace is made of salt and mud, and the furnace is mostly near the mountains, or the giant wood is used to shape the salt mud, the power of the poor moon is not allowed to be made, and the salt mud has gaps, and the whole work is abandoned." Where a furnace of iron carries 2,000 catties, or firewood, or coal, or charcoal, the north and the south are as convenient as they are. The fan of the fan must be dragged by four people and six people, and after the soil is turned into iron, it flows out of the waist hole, and the furnace hole is first plugged with mud. At six o'clock in the day, one hour out of iron. Both out, both fork mud plug, blast and then melt. ”

Cai Jiu is a fan stove, four people fan, six people pull the belt to help, day and night, just the fan has to be ten people a shift, in addition to the need for a large number of people, from the salt mud to build a frame furnace, and then firewood and charcoal need to be taken, the transportation of mud is also heavy physical work, the daily need for grain and beans should also be transported, after the iron is smelted impurities, and then melted into iron ingots, and then transported out, the price of each subway is different, the price in the origin and region is also different, Fujian iron in the origin of only a few cents of silver a catty, To the south it is worth more than five cents, in Xinpingbao and other nine-sided places, a pound of good Fujian iron will cost more than a penny, 10,000 catties of Fujian iron and 1,000 catties of silver, this price is already very expensive, and the profit is also extremely high.

Zhang Han is not thinking about Fujian iron, he also uses Fujian iron, the weapons and firearms of the dart masters are bought to build Fujian iron, the local is not enough, Datong has it, Xuanfu area sells Fujian iron more, even if the ordinary border army does not use, the generals and families are to use, the North Iron is smelted with coal, there are too many impurities, the quality of the iron is very average, Jin Iron is one of the representatives of the North Railway, after all, there are iron mines in the north of Jin, and the coal is not used up, so iron smelting is also a very common business, but Jin Iron is mostly used to build weapons used by battalions and guards, Or to make armor, the weapons used by the real elite soldiers will not be made with Jin Tie. Zhang Han is not interested in weapons, it is enough to buy Fujian iron with weapons, he is interested in making all kinds of ironware, horseshoe, iron pot, shovel, there are too many places where iron is needed, the iron of this era has been oxidized in a few years, and the amount of iron used by the people is very large, if you have a few furnaces, hundreds of thousands of catties of iron a year, and make all kinds of utensils, this is a very good financial road, 108,000 yuan of silver a year can be earned, the important thing is that the smuggling channel is passed, the demand for iron tools is how much out of how much, and the quality of Jin Iron is averageIn fact, I didn't have much to worry about being used by the Mongols or Jurchens to make weapons...... Of course, if it is really better to make weapons, this means that the sales have increased significantly, and compared with civilian utensils, it must be that the good iron that can make weapons is more expensive, more profitable, and how much is refined and how much is sold.

"Cai Jiu, it's a pity that you lost this skill, your brother has a lot of responsibility with me, and he can't leave him, if I start a stove in Lingqiu, are you willing to go back and take care of that stall for me? As the head of the stove, the monthly money is higher than that of the shopkeeper, and hundreds of people under your command are under your control, which is a hundred times stronger than helping to play horseshoe here, but it depends on whether you are willing or not! ”

Cai Jiu is not too old or young, about twenty-five or six, if he is a child of Jin Shang who has been trained early, he can also be a shopkeeper at this age, Cai Jiu went up the mountain to burn the furnace in his nineties, and before he went down the mountain in his twenties, he became a nomad with Lao Cai, looking at Mu Ne honestly, in fact, he has a lot of experience, but his personality is a little soft, Zhang Han has to ask him first if he is willing, if he is unwilling, then he can't help it.

"The proprietor ......" Cai Jiu's face turned red, he couldn't make up his mind, he wanted to look back at Lao Cai, but Zhang Han stared at him, telling him that he couldn't turn his head, thinking about it again and again, Cai Jiu said: "The villain never dreamed of such things as the head of the furnace, but if the owner believes in the villain, the villain is willing to try." There is only one case, go up the mountain to open the furnace and make iron, and you must hold the position, otherwise, if those squires don't say it, it will be difficult for the ruffians in the village to parry. ”

When the furnace is opened, the iron that comes out is actually silver, and it is inevitable that it will be extorted.

On the Lingqiu side, Zheng Guochang and Ma Chengen can't intervene, it is not a military guard, it belongs to the jurisdiction of the Shanxi Political Envoy, of course, the governor of Shanxi is also in charge, Zhang Han has no hard relationship on both sides for the time being, fortunately, there is a Puzhou Zhang family can help, Zhang Han plans to write a letter to the third uncle, this matter is called Zhang Xuezeng to help say hello to the magistrate, and the other is to wait for Zhang Quanchang to take office, there is a hard signboard of the general soldier of Shanxi Town, and Lingqiu will be stabilized.

Zhang Han continued: "You don't have to worry about the affairs of the gentry, I will take care of others." Ruffian, the man you are carrying is a dead man? Give you weapons to bring, let go of those who come to make trouble, don't be afraid of killing people, anyway, someone is carrying it, and you will not be asked to eat and hang. ”

Cai Jiu was a little scared and nervous in his heart, this year the mine really has to rely on fighting, the iron mine is not bad, if it is a silver mine and a copper mine, or even a gold mine, if you don't kill people, you won't fight up and down, even if it's an iron mine in Lingqiu, you can't stand up without a few fights.