On this day, all the people who had free time were concentrated in the famous Ordnance Warden, which was actually nothing more than a dilapidated small workshop. Curiously looking at the birth of perhaps the world's first iron-making furnace, although there may be two question words in this world, Yang Zilu dares to guarantee that this is definitely the first iron-making furnace among the Shanyue people.

The first fire of the iron furnace was naturally lit by Yang Zilu himself, and when the charcoal was basically burned, Gong Ion immediately commanded the three apprentices to pour ore on it, a full thirty catties, Yang Zilu just hoped that it was really like what Gong Ion said, he could give himself three hundred catties of pig iron, even if there were a lot of impurities in it, at least this output could scare people.

After a period of smelting, part of the stone on the iron ore slowly melted into fiery red molten iron, and the eyes of the people nearby were hot. At this time, the people of Shanyue had a love for metal weapons that others could not imagine.

The apprentice puts the mold that has been prepared under the small door, and the molten iron follows the small door and blends into the ceramic mold. When it cools down, it becomes an iron pickaxe. After twenty pickaxes and hoes were made, the rest were replaced with iron brick abrasives.

After a long time, the ironware was cooled, Yang Zilu took it out and weighed it, and the weight was actually sixteen catties, one pound more than Gong Ion expected. Although this is not much increase, what if it is replaced by 10,000 catties of iron ore? According to this ratio, the extra pig iron is different. This made the smile on Yang Zilu's face not disappear after seeing these iron bricks.

Gong Ion ignored Yang Zilu, he waited for the iron brick to cool down, and immediately picked up the iron brick and beat it on the side. What Yang Zilu didn't expect was that the short sword was actually Gong Ion slowly beating an iron brick into a long strip, instead of directly casting it into a long strip, and then slowly bile. However, this process alone took three hours. And in these three hours, Gong Ion's arm has not rested for a minute. The hammer is like a machine, constantly falling on the red-hot patch, and the pliers in the left hand are as strong as if a large stone is bolted to it, firmly controlling the iron sheet in a small swing.

Seeing that the apprentices and Yang Zilu were dumbfounded. Yang Zilu looked at his arm, and then at Gong Ion. He now understands why he asked Gong Ion to bring out three apprentices in a year, Gong Ion's face is difficult, and he still doesn't let go of his own threat, just saying that he understands after watching him build a sword.

Looking at this arm strength and endurance, as well as the orientation of the hammer falling, these are not things that can be solved in a year. This made Yang Zilu more and more determined to develop wrought iron, with which he could make steel on a large scale, without the need to compress the pig iron and discharge impurities and air through constant beating.

With the fall of the last hammer, Gong Ion breathed a long sigh of relief for the first time, and with a trembling arm, he put the red short sword into the bucket on the side, and immediately let out a "Zi!" Multiply! Voice.

Yang Zilu hurriedly walked over and saw that a gray-white three-foot (sixty centimeter) long short sword with some rough surface had been made. However, the dagger has not yet opened its edge and put on the hilt. Yang Zilu's fingers flicked a few times on the sword, listened to the trembling sound, threw it to the apprentice on the side, and said, "Take it immediately and open the front!" ”

The apprentice nodded, picked up his dagger and quickly ran to the side to mount the hilt and blade.

"How?" Gong Ion picked up the towel hanging around his neck, wiped the beads of sweat on his forehead, and asked with a slightly tired expression.

"Good sword, I guess it's not much worse than my bronze short sword. How much can you make per day? Yang Zilu asked excitedly.

Gong Ion raised his somewhat swollen arm and said, "You can see it by looking at my arm, making one a day is already the limit." ”

"Why can't someone else replace you? Three hours divided into three people to beat, maybe no one person did it, so even if the quality may be reduced, but you can build weapons for twelve hours a day and night non-stop. The drop in quality is acceptable! Yang Zilu groaned for a while and asked,

"That's a good idea!" Hearing this, Gong Ion's eyes lit up, but he immediately shook his head and said, "But who will replace me?" ”

When Yang Zilu heard this, she was quite depressed, in the final analysis, her foundation was too thin. However, Yang Zilu thought of a way again in a blink of an eye, "Those disciples of yours can't last an hour, so half an hour is always okay, right?" In your bones, you divide the hammer method you just made into six parts, each person teaches one point, and six people do it! Get started now! ”

Gong Ion's eyes widened, and he said in his heart: This is okay? Hurriedly persuaded: "Chief, this is a waste of a lot of iron bricks, let alone ten" Six swords will be returned to the furnace!

Yang Zilu gritted his teeth and said, "Return to the furnace!" ”

"But I'm afraid there won't be a supply of iron ore anywhere!" Gong Ion said worriedly.

"Then open an extra mine!" Yang Zilu did what he said, after testing the sharpness of the iron sword to pierce ordinary leather armor. Immediately summoned all the idle Jiukui tribesmen, opened another hole near the iron ore cave, and dug in the direction of the original iron ore cave, after three days of excavation, Yang Zilu really dug the iron ore vein, and greatly expanded the production at once. The number of miners has also increased to fifty, and two thousand catties of iron ore can be mined every day.

The number of ordnance supervisors increased from ten to seventy at once, and the iron-making furnace also increased to five, which could provide Yang Zilu with twenty short swords, twenty spearheads, fifty axes, one hundred arrowheads, ten heart guards, two iron pots, twenty kitchen knives, and two hundred catties of iron bricks as a strategic reserve to put in the warehouse. The 800 slaves were miserable, and every day they had to cut wood, burn charcoal, and transport ore under the supervision of the soldiers of the Nine Kui Division. Especially the dozen or so slaves who pull the bellows, Yang Zilu has to rotate every day, and he has to improve the quality of the food, otherwise I am afraid that dozens of people will be tired to death in the work of pulling bellows.

Eventually, as the apprentice's proficiency increased, the production output increased. It also led to a shortage of manpower for the transportation of iron ore, and in the end, Yang Zilu thought of a way to make a long rope kneaded with bark. A large log was erected in the cave and at the bottom of the mountain, tied with ropes. The miners scrape an iron hook on the bamboo basket, and the bamboo basket slides down the rope to the bottom of the mountain, and the people below the mountain send the ore back to Jiukui. Although Yang Zilu's method of reducing the distance is not long, and there is no distance of one mile, it is to save the most difficult mountain road, so that the human resources of the Jiukui Department have been reduced a lot, and only when the bamboo basket reaches a certain level, send people to the outside of the mountain, and the usual transport workers do not have to work hard to climb the mountain.

Under the command of Yang Zilu, this winter made Yang Zilu feel as if he had entered the great steelmaking era of the fifties, which was estimated to be similar to the Jiukuibu at this time. Everywhere there was smoke from iron smelting, and the sound of striking iron was denser than the cold wind into the people's second middle school, and the woods near the Jiukui Department were all damaged. It also allowed Yang Zilu to think about how to open up a vacant land for planting grains next year, saving a lot of thought.

Time passes slowly, and before you know it, a new page has been turned in history, and winter ends with the melting of snow. The earth enters spring, and the dead branches in the woods quietly reveal a little bud. Jiukui Creek has also become a boiling river because of the melting snow.

The enthusiasm for large-scale steelmaking has also fallen, after all, behind the high output, it is the entry of the whole people of the Jiukui Department. A total of more than 1,400 people were invested, just to make steel, and in order to allow apprentices to practice, Yang Zilu directly lost the cost of at least 100 short swords. But now the Jiukui Department also needs to develop other light industries, such as farming, fish farming, and hunting.

However, it seems that God saw that Yang Zilu had been going too well recently, so he gave Yang Zilu a little eye medicine. The snow had just melted, and Dong Kuanggong, who was in charge of warehouse management, came over with a depressed face and said, "Chief, there is not much food now, and there are only two days left!" ”

"What!" When Yang Zilu heard this, her eyes widened, and she thought, how is it possible? Stimulated by Yang Zilu's private ownership, his enthusiasm for hunting was high, and he had one or two more food than in previous years. In addition, Yang Zilu got a lot of food by sabotaging the looting plans of the Chanli tribe and the Haiyan tribe. After all, many of these tribes were killed by the Chanli tribe and the Haiyan tribe, and often Yang Zilu saved eight people, and got food for eleven or twelve people to spend the winter, and the combined forces of the two tribes also captured some some, although it was not much, but it was enough for 1,500 people to eat for three days.

Dong Kuanggong smiled bitterly: "Chief, it's not that you let those slaves go to logging and mining, it's all hard work, and a person can only consume two catties of meat and half a catty of mushrooms and wild vegetables every day!" Otherwise, there is no strength to work, even so, chief, you go to Dongcheng to see, those slaves are twenty or thirty pounds thinner than before. ”

Yang Zilu darkened his face and gritted his teeth: "Completely stop all iron-making work, and halve the rations of all slaves." Where our people are, there should still be a lot of food. You go and borrow grain in my name, and you will also tell me about it, and now I cannot afford to pay this money, and I will deduct it from the game tax in the future, and you must remember this account clearly! ”

"Chief, this is a troublesome matter! I can't do it alone! When Dong Kuanggong heard this, almost both of his eyes glared out, and he vomited bitterness at Yang Zilu.

Yang Zilu also knew Dong Kuanggong's difficulties, thought about it and said to Dong Kuanggong: "If you go to the Imperial Palace to send a few children to record this matter, they should all be able to calculate simply!" ”

When Dong Kuanggong heard this, his eyes widened, and he smacked his tongue and said, "These little babies can also be?" ”

"Almost!" Yang Zilu was vague, and after saying this, he immediately made a decision, not letting Dong Kuanggong have a chance to turn over at all. "That's it! That's all there is to it! Go down if there's nothing else to do! ”

Dong Kuanggong left helplessly, he couldn't imagine that the chief had such a 'sinister' side.

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