The craftsmen who had been eating and drinking at the celebration banquet gradually stopped making noise and became silent, and the flankers listened to the conversation between Lotte and Old Man Wang.

"There is some truth in what Master Wang said, but the iron outside the sky that fell with the meteor is certainly tough, but I have made countless famous swords in China throughout the ages, including Long Yuan, Tai'a, Gongbu, Ganjiang, Mo Ye, Yitian, Qinghong, all of which were cast before the introduction of iron in the Western Regions, and they are not inferior!" Lotte smiled, looked at Old Man Wang, paused and said, "Master Wang thinks of Le Mouzhi like this? ”

Old man Wang said: "Have you ever heard of the idea of sacrificing the sword with your body? ”

"Sacrifice the sword with your body, Ben Hou has also heard of it" Lotte nodded, and said slowly: "Before I took the fame in the past, I read the idle book "Wu Yue Chunqiu", which once contained: When the cadre will make a sword, 'pick the iron essence of the five mountains, the golden ying of the Liuhe', wait for the heavens and serve the earth, choose the auspicious day, open the furnace forging, and the hundred gods will come to watch." However, after smelting for a long time, the gold and iron collected cannot be melted and cannot be forged into sharp swords.

Later, Mo Xie cut off his hair and nails and threw them into the stove, and asked three hundred boys and girls to blow up the wind and fill it with charcoal. When the charcoal fire was at its most intense, Mo Xie threw himself into the furnace. In an instant, the gold and iron melted, and the commander forged two swords from the molten iron that had turned into liquid. The first cast is yang, named 'Ganjiang', and the later cast is yin, named 'Mo Xie'. The cadres hid the Yang Sword and only dedicated the Yin Sword 'Mo Evil' to King Wu. King Wu got the sword, and tried it on the stone with his hand, and opened it in his hand, which is the 'test sword stone' of Tiger Hill today. ”

"Hou Ye is erudite!" Old man Wang arched his hand and said: "As the Hou Ye said, Xiao Lao'er has also heard that after the king of Wu got the 'Mo Evil' sword, he used a lot of money to recruit people to cast a golden hook for him. There is a master who forges hooks, and he is bent on making a good pair of hooks.

When he was forging in the furnace, he also encountered a problem like a cadre. It was the good iron that he had carefully selected, which could not be refined and could not be cast. In the end, he killed his two sons and threw them into the fire. Let his son's blood be fused with gold and iron, and then cast a pair of peerless golden hooks and present them to King Wu. ”

"It turns out that the casting of good swords is all to sacrifice the furnace with life!"

"The spirit of human beings exists in blood, and only by building a sword can the sword be aura, and it is said that the blood of relatives can be used to create the most spiritual sword!"

……

Hearing this, all the blacksmiths were amazed.

"Have you ever heard of the follow-up to this matter?" Lotte asked with a smile.

Old man Wang shook his head: "Little Lao'er is just a grass craftsman who makes a living from a rough business, and everything he hears is passed on by word of mouth from his ancestors, and there is not much else!" ”

Hearing Lotte say this, the eyes of the craftsmen were immediately filled with expectant eyes, wanting to hear what was going on.

In the eyes of the expectant people, Lotte said: "The hook master with his son 'Wu Hong', 'Hu Ji' for the name of the double hook, after the hook to ask the king of Wu for a reward, and the general and the general general, the king of Wu is puzzled, the hook master said: 'I kill the second son to become a hook, is it no one else?'" King Wu didn't believe it, so he ordered to take hooks from the left and right to see. The people on the right and left were ordered to go, and they returned empty, saying: 'Mixed with the hooks, it is impossible to argue!' ’

King Wu ordered all the hooks to be viewed, and they were all the same. He said, 'Thou hast sought it!' The hook master couldn't recognize it, so he hurriedly shouted: 'Wu Hong' and 'Hu Ji' are coming to your father! The cry was not stopped, and the two golden hooks suddenly rose and stuck in front of the hook master, and King Wu was shocked and rewarded with a hundred gold. ”

Just as the crowd was sighing in surprise when they heard this, Lotte's eyes swept over the craftsmen and asked, "Do you know why the cadres can't melt the 'iron essence of the five mountains and the golden ying of the six combinations', and their wife Mo Xie throws it into the furnace to melt?" ”

The legend of the cadre Mo Xie has naturally been heard by a group of blacksmiths, but the root cause of it is still not understood, and they looked at each other for a while and waited for Lotte to continue.

Seeing that a group of people were attracted by their own topics, Lotte talked about sex better: "In the pre-Qin period, iron was called evil gold, which means that it is difficult to melt and tough when it encounters fire. Since before the Qin Dynasty, I Huaxia Bi to easy to melt and cast bronze casting, and iron bronze is difficult to melt, when the smelting of gold is mostly charcoal, rather than the current use of coke, Ou Zhizi, the cadre Mo Xie was born in the Qin Dynasty before the Dasheng bronze, with the fire of melting bronze to melt iron essence is obviously impossible.

When the furnace fire is at its hottest, the human sacrifice furnace is because the human body contains a lot of fat, and the oil is burned in the furnace to make the furnace temperature blazing and the iron essence melts, and the bones are burned out in the flame and carbon is immersed in the molten iron, so that the molten iron becomes steel, so the toughness of the iron is much higher than that of ordinary iron. ”

The truth of adding fuel to the fire, all the blacksmiths understand, so they still recognize Lotte's previous words, but there are great doubts about what Lotte said later, after all, there is no concept of high-carbon steel, carbon steel, and low-carbon steel in this era, how to make the best and hardest steel, each family just acts according to the craftsmanship handed down from their ancestors, and is also at a level where they know what they do not know.

But a group of craftsmen still admire Lotte, this Le Hou Ye can govern the country and Anbang, can guide his own people to make artillery, and make a steam engine that can drive steam without manpower, only need to burn coal, so for the five bodies that Le Hou Ye admires, although Lotte said something that he doesn't understand, but he is still convinced.

While everyone was worried, Lotte then asked: "Fang Cai Benhou said that the hook master couldn't recognize the hook he made and shouted in a hurry: 'Wu Hong' and 'Hu Ji' are coming to your father!" Then two golden hooks were put up in front of the hooker, do you remember? ”

"I'll remember!" Old man Wang said busily.

"Zi Bu said that the strange power is chaotic, Ben Hou is a disciple of a saint, and he doesn't believe in the way of ghosts and gods!" Lotte said, to analyze: "The people of the pre-Qin Dynasty cast hooks, mostly made of bronze, this hook master is also like a cadre, with fine iron to create a double hook, naturally different, think that the hook master also knows the magnet to attract iron, if the magnet attracts, the double hook naturally flies, there are many fantasy words in ancient records, if you analyze it carefully, it is not difficult to understand!" ”

Hearing Lotte say this, a group of blacksmiths are more careful and convinced of what Lotte said.

Lotte asked, "Master Wang once said that the iron taken from the meteorite meteorite is far harder than ordinary steel?" ”

"Exactly!" Old man Wang hurriedly replied.

Lotte said: "Meteorites come from outside the sky, and they not only contain iron, but also many other unknown metals outside the sky. ”

When the blacksmiths heard this, they couldn't help but nod their heads in agreement. Things outside the sky are the most mysterious, and with the theory of ghosts and gods, Lotte's statement is obviously very tenable. In fact, because of the lack of metal substances contained in meteorite iron, its complexity is not far behind that of later generations of special steel.

Old man Wang gave a salute to Lotte: "Hou Ye, don't be surprised, the little old man just heard Hou Ye say that the human bones are burned out and turned into ashes, and the carbon of the ashes is soaked in molten iron, so the cadres and Mo Evil swords are far tougher than others, is this true?" ”

Not only did Old Man Wang pay attention to this statement, but the rest of the blacksmiths also cared about it, if this statement was true, it would have to do with his future forging skills.

In this era, there is no chemistry, no physics, and no effective analysis can be done, and when it comes to specific science, Lotte really can't come up with strong evidence. However, the evidence is insufficient, and the scientific certainty that I learned in my previous life is the result of repeated experiments and demonstrations by many scientists over an unknown number of years.

In this regard, Lotte can only push it to the ancient sage: "Le once read an ancient book, during which because of the difference in carbon content, iron is divided into wrought iron, low-carbon steel, carbon steel, high-carbon steel and pig iron; During the period, the carbon content is less than 2 parts per thousand, called wrought iron or pure iron, the carbon content between 2 parts per thousand and 17 parts per thousand is called steel, and the carbon content before 17 parts per thousand is called pig iron or cast iron. ”

A group of blacksmiths do not understand the definition of high-carbon steel, carbon steel and low-carbon steel, but they still understand how to distinguish between pig iron and wrought iron.

Lotte continued: "Pig iron can be repeatedly calcined and hammered to remove impurities, which can add toughness; Wrought iron can be repeatedly calcined and hammered into a hard, tough and tough steel, the reason for this is the change in carbon content, and if you want to refine the most solid utensils, you can only control the carbon content between 2 and 17 thousandths! ”

Listening to Lotte's discussion, the craftsmen didn't know whether it was true or false, but they couldn't justify the truth in the meantime, and they fell into silence and thought.

"Little old man has been taught!" Old man Wang gave a salute to Lotte. Then he said: "Hou Ye, the little old man wants to ask Hou Ye for help, how to control the iron and carbon content?" ”

Hearing what Old Man Wang said, all the blacksmiths widened their eyes, this is the key to making good steel.

"As the saying goes, Taoism has a specialty, and Ben Hou doesn't know how to control the content of iron and carbon!" Lotte shook his head and continued: "You all know the truth that is easier said than done, today Ben Hou said it, I only hope that you will slowly improve the quality of iron, and when the technology is mature, the cannon will no longer use copper coins to turn water, and directly use molten iron to cast!" ”

Hearing this, the blacksmiths' eyes immediately became disappointed, and it turned out that this Le Hou Ye didn't know how to adjust the content of carbon in iron. But everyone knows a truth, the craftsmanship between craftsmen is passed down from generation to generation or taught by master and apprentice, and they are kept secret from each other, and it is very amazing to have such a harvest today.

In fact, the steam engine was made before, because the iron produced by the Great Song Dynasty was still not up to the requirements, and the parts in the period were all forged by hand, but Lotte used a forging hammer driven by a waterwheel, which saved a lot of manpower and time, but it still needed a little manual calcination to make the shape that was needed.

It can be said that there is still a long way to go before the mass production of the steam engine, which also means that the production process of the Great Song Dynasty is still quite far from the real industrialization.

At this time, Lotte suddenly remembered in his previous life that the iron ore of the Great Song Dynasty was still some distance from the quality of foreign iron ore, and perhaps the symptoms that affected the steelmaking process of the Great Song Dynasty were here. I don't know if this conclusion is correct, but I have to try to find out if it is correct.

Thinking of this, Lotte made up his mind and said: "What Master Wang said before is very true, the quality of my Dasong iron ore is not good, and Benhou will send people to the sea to find better iron ore in the future!" ”

……

Although there is no way to control the carbon content of steel, Lotte is tantamount to opening the door for these blacksmiths to find a new way, so that the blacksmiths feel that they have benefited a lot.

sanjiangge