On the morning of the twenty-sixth day of the lunar month, Chen Jian opened his red eyes and ran to the annealing furnace early. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

The workshop workers got his permission to take out the first batch of cast iron farm implements for the test and lay them out on the ground in rows.

Chen Jian took out a hammer from the pile of iron pieces, installed the wooden handle that had been prepared long ago, and placed a ploughshare on the huge granite.

A group of people watched as Jian Chen spat and wiped his hands in the palm of his hand, suppressing the uneasiness in his heart, but they knew that they could not be discouraged at this time, so they could only agitate: "I tell you, if I hammer down, the ploughshare will probably break." Don't feel bad if it's broken, just improve it. ”

Several people laughed and said: "Ji Xia is also scared in her heart, you see that your arms are still shaking, do you want to change someone?" ”

But when it was time to change people, everyone was scared again.

These people may not have smelted these iron tools by hand, or even from the smelting department, but they can really feel that there is also their own work in this simple farm tool. From transportation and mining to logistics support to those winter clothes, without all this, there would be no such simple smelting furnace, and even those clansmen who were far away in Xia City who had not seen this scene with their own eyes had their sweat.

The entire Yucheng has been focusing on these irons since the ore was found, and no one wanted to fail this time.

After waiting for a long time, the clansmen who could carry a two-hundred-pound sack on weekdays seemed to be unable to hold the twenty-pound hammer in front of him, Chen Jian gritted his teeth and picked up the sledgehammer himself.

The greatest force was slammed down, and everyone's hearts rose to their throats.

Bang! Bang!

With a few loud bangs, everyone swallowed their saliva, and then let out a burst of joy.

"It's not broken! It's not broken! ”

It's really not broken, it's just deformed. This means that the iron is annealed and completely surpasses bronze in the use of agricultural tools, because once broken, it can be hammered out without the need to re-furnace.

Bronze farming tools have surpassed stone farming tools regardless of cost, and the people are well aware of how powerful iron can be once used in farming.

Chen Jian threw down the sledgehammer, and secretly breathed a sigh of relief, as if all the strength in his body had been drained, he sat on the ground with his buttocks, and was almost pierced by the tip of the ploughshare.

The people took out the cannons made of skin and clay that had been prepared for a long time, and in the crackling sound, the whole Yucheng was boiling, it was iron, but it was something that fell from the sky, and now the city can make its own things that fell from the sky!

Now it seems that the iron-smelting business is progressing quite well, and according to the current speed of division of labor, it will take less than three months to allow the farms here to distribute a batch of farm tools.

The means of production must be owned by the public property of Xia Cheng, and those farm employees could not afford to buy a piece of iron farm tools, and the land near Onozawa was owned by Xia Cheng, although it did not make sense, but it made sense.

If there are no floods this year, Yucheng should be self-sufficient in food by the autumn, and trade with the rest of the city will change dramatically.

Once the largest quantities of food are not needed, either let them make some lower-grade handmade products, or they need to be made a source of raw materials.

Without a common currency of precious metals, a trade surplus would not be of much benefit, but would cause resentment among the surrounding cities.

The cities along the Caohe River are regarded as their own basic plates, and they are also the most closely related to themselves in this small alliance, and the first batch of benefits must be brought to them.

After arranging the production tasks of the smelting division for three months, Chen Jian found the messengers from Xia Cheng.

"After the New Year, you will go back to Summer City. There are a few things to do after going back, first of all, let Si Xiang invite the leaders of Echeng and Acropolis to come to Yucheng for a gathering in March. ”

The first thing made the envoy a little puzzled, scratched his head and said, "Ji Xia...... There was no such thing before, they were in their own city, but it was possible to go to Xia City. But such a long distance, let them come to Yucheng...... Does it make them feel unhappy? ”

The alliance is nominally equal, this kind of convening has never been done before, Chen Jian nodded and said, "So let the master prepare enough gifts, and I will also bring some gifts to them from here." Let's just say that I'm too busy here to leave, so please make sure they come and let the company apologize first. ”

Clapping his hands, the people outside walked in with a few gifts, all of which were very laboriously made, divided into several sets according to the number of Caohe Cities.

A batch of iron ploughshares, a batch of shovels, a few iron pots...... It was very heavy and cumbersome, and although there was no iron pot before, it was obvious that if this thing was transported to the grassland, it could be exchanged for hundreds of clay pots to exchange for sheep and horses. Moreover, this iron pot is pig iron, and it is impossible for the grassland departments to smelt it into weapons, and they do not know how to anneal, let alone reach such a high temperature.

In addition, there is a bunch of iron triangular arrowheads, which are cast by the sand turning method, that is, the physical object is made first, and then the physical object is covered with two layers of plastic sand to leave a gap for casting, and the sand can also be recycled.

"Take these gifts and give them to the chiefs, and say...... These things are going to make a lot of difference, and I want them to come here and talk about it. The rest told the goods and didn't say anything, they came if they wanted; If you don't want to come, don't force it. ”

Thousands of miles apart, according to the previous story, there are only two situations. Surrender, or joint sacrifice.

Chen Jian is not the common leader of the Great River tribes, and he is not qualified to invite them to worship together, so Chen Jian's subtext is very clear, and he hopes that these leaders will seriously consider the alliance: it is no longer the equality of the past, but there needs to be a center.

This center will not use violent plundering as a means, because it is relatively inefficient, and those cities may not be able to reach the total output value of the Yucheng workshop for half a year.

The Grass River Alliance, with its large potential population, but being held to the land by slavery and producing only a pitiful amount of output, had to change, and the first step in that change was to find a way to get them to accept a large number of iron farming tools.

The price of normal trade was too high for them to afford, and with Xiacheng's self-sufficiency in grain, there was almost nothing to trade except silk and black pottery, so Jian Chen didn't want to have an empty workshop and no market.

Therefore, wool, population, mining, new spinning technology, cattle farming promotion, etc., must be learned by these cities, so that there are contacts and at the same time inseparable from Xia City. The techniques of weaving, smelting, wool spinning, and dyeing will not be passed on to Jian Chen for the time being, and in a huge world, there is only one place for the purchase of mineral wool and yarn in Xia City, which will bring them more benefits, and they should have no reason to refuse.

Relying only on Xiacheng's own domestic sales capacity, the workshop group can only support at most one and a half years when it starts at full capacity, and there will inevitably be overcapacity after a year and a half.

It's not that the rest of the cities don't want it, it's that they can't afford it, this time it's a real headache for Chen Jian, Chen Jian really doesn't know what he can exchange with the rest of the cities after the farms in Yucheng become self-sufficient next year.

Only by farming for two or three years at most, the Yucheng workshop will use scissors to sweep away the wealth accumulated by the nearby cities for decades, while Xia Chengkong has a large amount of capital and production capacity but loses the market will be equally depressed, I am afraid that when the time comes, it will not lead to a war against the barbarians, but will trigger a war within the Great River Alliance, after all, it is closer.

In the face of this situation, it can only be used in a form of covert manipulation to drive the development of the rest of the cities through the workshop group of Yucheng, so as to ensure sufficient production capacity and make Xiacheng profitable. Including helping Caohe City to establish new manors and farms, and may even finance them to open mines, build roads, secretly manipulate and cultivate agents in the form of technology shares, and drive their development in the form of paid assistance, and even trade first and pay later if necessary.

At that time, Chen Jian could implement the currency of Xia Cheng: first loan metal currency to those cities, stipulate that all Xia Cheng handicraft products can only be purchased in currency, and Xia Cheng will also buy in the form of currency, binding currency to industrial products and forcibly promoting.

…………

On the third day of the year, the messenger returned to Summer City with various gifts.

Half a month later, in the council hall of Xia Cheng, Yu Qian'er looked at those gifts curiously and said in surprise: "Now that Yucheng has developed into this?" ”

"Yes, the waterways are crisscrossed, and the boats come and go. Every day there was a fog with black smoke, and the whistle sounded from morning to night. ”

Yu Qian'er squinted her eyes and imagined such a scene, with a sweet smile on the corner of her mouth.

"What else did my brother say?"

"It is said that all the children in the school this year will go to Yucheng, half of all the officials above the Lisi in Xia City will be left, the other half will also go to Yucheng, half of the members of the council will also go, and the number of new troops will also be expanded, Ji Xia said that if he can afford it now, then there will be two hundred more. All those who have a fief should explain the matter of the fiefdom and also go to Yucheng in March. ”

When Yu Qian'er heard this, she snorted and said, "Did he say that I should stay and wait until they come back?" said that I could go to Yucheng in the spring, why did you lie to me? ”

The messenger smiled helplessly, suddenly thought of something, patted his head and said, "Oh yes! Your brother asked me to bring you something. ”

The messenger carefully took out a small, good-looking clay pot from his pocket, small and small, with a thin layer of skin on it, and when it was opened, it smelled sweet.

"Food?"

Yu Qian'er played with the small jar, quite curious, it looked a bit like the kind of fat from the grassland after stirring goat's milk.

"No, it's hard to come by. Ji Xia put the butter in boiling water, added something I didn't know and stirred it for a day before I got a little. Mixed with some sweet water and messy things left over from soap. said that it was wiped on the face, Xia Cheng was windy, and he, who was an elder brother, ran in such a warm place in Yucheng, so that you couldn't get over it here, and it was not easy to wipe this thing's face. ”

Yu Qian'er pursed her lips and said in her heart, you must have guessed that I was going to be angry, otherwise you wouldn't have spent a day stirring butter.

I was angry, but I still picked a little bit with my little thumb and rubbed it on my face, and those milky white things quickly seeped into the skin. It was like a white snowflake falling on the skin and disappearing into invisibility, leaving only watery skin.

"Well, since you gave me this, it told me that I would go to another city when it was cold and windy, which is really thoughtful, hum. Pack up, bring your gifts, and I'll go to Echeng. ”

She carefully stored the snowflake-like box in her own wooden box, which contained a bronze mirror, and under the lower layer were leather gloves, peas, nettle vines, hostas, pebbles, flower ropes, small windmills, and a blackened hawthorn fruit that had been dried - a sugar gourd a long, long time ago.

I stared at it for a long time, not knowing what I was thinking, until there was a neighing of horses outside.

"Si Cargo Ji, the climbing plow is ready, can you leave now?"

"Hmm. Walk. ”

He closed the wooden box, stretched his waist, wrapped himself in thick fur and sat on the plow, and when he was about to leave, he remembered something, jumped off the plow and returned to the house, picked up the brush and wrote a line on the wooden tablet.

"Brother, I miss you. You're lying to me again. ”

……………………

Volume 5: Up and Down the Great River (End) (To be continued.) )