As soon as the sky was dark, five or six fast horses appeared on the streets of Luoyang City.

On the streets, there are only a few early vendors who are busy setting up their stalls on the roadside, and when it comes to the street market, which is quite lively during the day, it is still a little cold at this time.

Fast horses like the wind, horses' hooves stepped on the bluestone road, with a chaotic "of" sound, soon passed through the market, straight to the west of the city.

As the fast horses passed through the streets, the vendors, who were busy setting up their stalls, straightened up and looked at their backs.

"Early in the morning, where is the King of Luoyang going?" Several fast horses disappeared from the hawkers' field of vision, and a vendor selling jujube stalls asked the vendor who had come out not far from him with many baskets to sell.

The basket seller pursed his lips and did not answer the date seller's question, but lowered his head and set up his basket again intently.

With the Wang sisters and two palace guards, it was Liu Wei who galloped on the street.

After the wedding, all the heroes seemed to be very calm, except for the Qingzhou area, Liu Beizheng took advantage of his promise to step up the annexation of Qingzhou, and the entire Central Plains seemed to have entered a relatively peaceful stage.

Liu Wei knew very well that this rare peace was an opportunity for him.

In the future, there will still be wars, and perhaps as soon as the war starts, it will be fought for decades.

Perennial war, must be supported by a strong economy, whether it is steel, grain, cloth, the territory he manages, must be self-sufficient, so as not to be economically choked by other heroes.

The streets west of the city are very different from the streets in the city.

The streets of the city are crisscrossed with shops, while the streets in the west of the city are only a few shops, and more shops are closed doors, and there is a "clanging" sound from some shops.

When he arrived in the west of the city, Liu Wei grabbed the reins, slowed down the speed of his march, and while moving forward slowly, he said to Wang Liu and Wang Zhen, who were following him: "It is still early, and the blacksmiths get up early, which is also quite hard. ”

"The army spends a lot of iron!" Following behind Liu Wei, Wang Liu responded: "If it's just that the army consumes iron weapons, the soldiers selected by the two of us are now equipped with excellent long swords, and it is really not very easy for the blacksmith to make one." ”

Slowly marching to the door of a shop, hearing the sound of striking iron in this shop louder than any other house, Liu Wei turned over and jumped off the horse, and said to Wang Liu and Wang Zhen: "I'll wait and go into this house to have a look." ”

The two guards who followed Liu Wei and the others saw Liu Wei get off the horse, and hurriedly jumped off the horse and ran to the door of the shop, and one of them banged on the door vigorously.

"The door hasn't opened yet, what are you knocking?" The guard tapped the door a few times, and a man's rough voice came from inside the room.

Before the man in the house could speak, the door panel of the shop was removed from the inside, and a person's head poked out of it.

The man who poked his head out was a man about forty years old, this man was born with a slightly dark face, very stout, and at a glance he knew that Lu Dao was a person who had been engaged in manual labor all year round.

As soon as he stretched out his head and glanced outside, the man's body shook suddenly, and he hurriedly ran out of the house, knelt on the ground, and said tremblingly: "Xiaomin doesn't know that His Highness has arrived, how abrupt, and I hope His Highness will forgive his sins!" ”

"Get up!" Raising his hand towards the man, Liu Wei took this smile on the corner of his mouth, strode into the shop, and while walking towards the depths of the shop, he also said: "This king just came to see how the blades you have built for the army are doing." ”

It wasn't until Wang Liu, Wang Zhen and the two accompanying guards walked by that the man who was kneeling on the ground stood up and followed behind Liu Wei and the others, and walked towards the back of the shop with great trepidation.

Behind the shop was a small courtyard, full of iron stacks.

These pieces of iron ranged from chunks of pig iron, broken blades and farm implements, and in front of the courtyard were a row of houses with only three walls.

Since the houses facing him only have three walls, as soon as he entered the courtyard, Liu Wei could see that in that row of houses, there were many men who were shirtless and wielding hammers to beat iron.

It is a hot day now, although it is still early in the morning, and the sun is not strong, but in the iron room, the temperature is not low, and every man who is wielding a hammer is covered with sweat.

Maybe it's because the heat makes people a little unbearable, and in the blacksmithing room, there are even a few small workers who work back and forth bare-chested.

These little workers helped to hand iron pieces and bars back and forth, but they were not much cooler than those men wielding hammers.

"Your Highness is here!" followed Liu Wei and the others into the small courtyard, and the man who opened the door shouted at the men who were busy.

Hearing the man shouting "His Royal Highness is down", all the men who were busy stopped what they were doing, and looked up at the small courtyard with disbelief on their faces.

When they saw a young man wearing armor and a golden crown on his bun standing in the small courtyard, they hurriedly threw down the work they were busy with, and under the leadership of an old blacksmith, ran out of the blacksmith room, and knelt in front of Liu Wei in rows.

The blacksmiths kneeling in front of them, about twenty people, including the old blacksmith, each of them had strong muscles, which must have been caused by wielding a hammer for many years.

As soon as the blacksmiths knelt down, Liu Wei stepped forward, walked in front of the old blacksmith, stretched out his hands, supported the old blacksmith's armpits, and said to the old blacksmith in a very gentle tone: "Hurry up, old man, this king is just here to come and see." ”

"I don't know if His Highness has arrived, and the small people have not come far to greet him, it is really a capital crime!" was helped up by Liu Bian, and the old blacksmith confessed to Liu Bian in fear.

"Let's all get up!" With a smile on the corner of his mouth, Liu Wei raised his hand to the more than twenty blacksmiths kneeling behind him, and said to them: "You wait and be busy, don't pay attention to this king." ”

As soon as Liu Wei said this, the blacksmiths stood up one after another, confessed to him, and returned to the original position where the iron was struck.

The clanging sound sounded again as the blacksmiths returned to their posts to strike iron, and Liu Wei led Wang Liu and Wang Zhen into the blacksmith's house with the old blacksmith, and the two accompanying guards turned their backs to the blacksmith room, pressed the hilt of their swords, and stood guard outside the house.

As soon as he entered the iron-striking room, a wave of heat rushed towards Liu Wei.

Just the oncoming heat wave made Liu Wei almost a little overwhelmed, and when he got used to the heat in the house, he turned his head to look at the men who were busy striking iron around him, and said to the old blacksmith: "Such a heat wave hits people, if you stand like this for a day, how can you parry it?" ”

"Get used to it!" Hearing the full care from Liu Bian's tone, the old blacksmith couldn't help but be moved in his heart, his throat moved, and said to Liu Bian: "I don't have any other thoughts, I just hope that this can be a good blade for the army, so that the army can go into battle to kill the enemy." ”

"Good work!" Smiling slightly, he nodded to the old blacksmith, and Liu Wei said to him: "In addition to the blades, the farm tools must also be used, and the army and the people must have a full stomach." ”

"What His Highness commanded!" Lowering his head and bowing, the old blacksmith hurriedly answered.

"It's so hot in the house!" Raising his hand and rubbing the wind beside his cheek, Liu Wei strode to the inside of the room, raised his hand and pointed to the other wall of the house, and said to the old blacksmith: "The house has only three walls, I think it is to ventilate, but the back wall is sealed, and the wind can't get in, so it's still very hot." ”

"Open a window on this wall!" Standing in front of the inner wall, Liu Wei said to the old blacksmith: "Don't open too much, if you open too much, it will affect the flow of the wind, and you can't take away the heat wave, just open a big window!" ”

"Xiaomin will tell people to do it!" Hearing Liu Wei's words, the old blacksmith hurriedly turned his head and shouted to a bare-chested little worker not far away: "Go and find a craftsman, and open a window on this back wall today." ”

The little worker hurriedly answered, and quickly jumped out of the house, and when he arrived at the lodging, he put on his clothes and ran out of the door.

Accompanied by the old blacksmith, Liu Wei walked to an iron-striking platform again.

On the edge of the iron platform, a blacksmith was holding a hammer and hammering the iron bar on the table.

Under the blow of the hammer, the burnt red iron bar kept changing shape, and when the iron bar was beaten to the right shape, the blacksmith clamped the iron bar with iron tongs and stuffed it into the cold water beside it.

"It's quenching, right?" Watching the blacksmith's movements, Liu Wei asked the old blacksmith who was accompanying him very casually.

"Your Highness is really an expert!" As soon as Liu Wei's words fell, the old blacksmith hurriedly answered and said to him: "This is quenching, whether the sword is hard or not, it is all in this process. ”

"If you wrap it in clay and bury it in the ground, and set up a fire on top of it to make ......" When the old blacksmith said that it was quenching, Liu Wei suddenly remembered a craft for making a sword, and asked the old blacksmith, "Can this make the sword sharper?" ”

Hearing Liu Wei's words, the old blacksmith's eyes lit up first, and then his eyes suddenly dimmed again, his brows furrowed slightly, and he said with some loss: "What His Highness said, you should give it a try." However, if the clay sword is not forged properly, the originally straight long sword will be twisted like a snake. ”

The old blacksmith's words made Liu Wei nod involuntarily when he listened.

At present, there is no process of calcination of long swords wrapped in clay, and the old blacksmith can tell that if calcined with clay, if it is not fired properly, it will distort the blade of the sword, which shows that he already knows great about iron.

"If only the iron was a little better, it would be fine!" As he spoke, the old blacksmith turned his head to look at the blacksmith platform on the side, a touch of loss appeared on his face, and he said to Liu Wei: "Don't hide it from Your Highness, we are waiting for the forging of blades, but we use the best Chu iron in the Central Plains, but Chu Tie is still much more brittle than Wusha Iron in the Western Regions. ”