Seeing that the attitude of the soldiers was a little rude, the general in charge of casting just wanted to stop it, but was stopped by Zu Zhao from behind, and he asked the general not to stop it, wanting to hear what the man had to say.

One of the soldiers was very unconvinced and said to the man: "This is the water transported from the Shu River, why do you deny that it is not the water of the Shu River?" We've worked so hard to carry water, don't you just have to say a word when we come back here? You just sit here every day, do you know that we are very hard. ”

The man smiled coldly and said, "You can't just find some river water to deceive me, this is the water of our Ma'anshan, not the water of the Shu River." You all have to deceive me about this little thing, let me ask, what else can you do? One by one, they keep saying that they want to follow General Zu to do great things, just like you, what big things can you do? ”

A soldier also snorted coldly: "You said that if it's not Shujiang water, it's not Shujiang water?" Hundreds of our brothers went to carry water, tossed back and forth for so long, and traveled all the way, but after coming back, they couldn't get a good word, but they were actually exchanged for a rude scolding from you. I can't figure it out, casting swords and broadswords, playing with the kung fu under the hands, how can it be related to water quenching. ”

The man said coldly: "You don't understand, I'll teach you today." This general water is soft water, which is used to quench the knife, which greatly affects the quality of the knife. And the water of the Shu River is hard water, use it to quench the knife, this is the best, have you heard of cutting iron like mud, using ordinary water to quench the knife, it is impossible to cast such a sharp knife. ”

The soldier said, "Don't think that you know the art of casting, there are many people here who don't know a little, and many of them are blacksmiths." Forging swords and making knives is about tempering, but what do you say has something to do with water, I think you can't make a good knife, and you just want to make excuses for yourself. ”

The man said: "You can think so, but the batch of long swords that General Zu gave over, if they are not built according to what I said, it is impossible to achieve that effect." When the time comes, General Zu will come, and you will explain to him yourself. ”

"I'm afraid that if General Zu comes, you won't dare to say that." The soldier said.

The man said coldly: "It's General Zu here, I also said so, without the water of the Shu River, I just won't build that batch of weapons, and when the time comes, it's delayed, hum, let's see if the general will punish you or me at that time, unless the general himself is a person who doesn't understand forging technology, so I have nothing to say." ”

"Bold, you actually dare to say this about General Zu, how many heads do you have that you can drop?" The general who had been with Zu Zhao couldn't listen to it anymore, so he couldn't help but step forward and scolded loudly, with a look of anger, but he still didn't say that Zu Zhao was here.

The man saw that the general in charge was coming, raised his eyes and glanced at it, then got up leisurely, clasped his fists and said, "My lord, I am telling the truth. This batch of long swords is a model designed by the general himself, I also think that this shape and good, beautiful, back to the sheath and out of the sheath are very neat, the most important thing is to use it easily, stab it into it quickly, pull it out cool. However, there is no good water to quench the knife, and no matter how good the steel is, it will only waste this design, so I insist on using the water of the Shu River. But my lord, the person you sent to the Shujiang River to fetch water actually used the water of Ma'anshan to deceive me. ”

The general scooped up a scoop of water suspiciously, looked at it, and said, "What evidence do you have to prove that this is the water of Ma'anshan and not the water of the Shu River?" What's the difference between the two? ”

The man didn't say much, but picked up a red-hot wrought iron, scratched it in the bucket, and said: "My lord, this bucket of water is indeed the water of the Shu River, but it is mixed with eight liters of river water from Ma'anshan. ”

Before the man spoke, the soldiers who had been confronting him vigorously before were immediately stunned, and the other soldiers also looked at each other in disbelief. The general was also surprised, looked at the man, then looked back at Zu Zhao, and then asked the soldier who was carrying the water: "What he said is true?" ”

Several water-carrying soldiers were stunned for a moment, then knelt down in a hurry, and then told the surprising truth. It turned out that the man in charge of casting the sword said that he needed to use the water of the Shu River to quench it, and let people take eight hundred barrels, so that he could cast a few swords in the early stage. At his repeated requests, the person in charge dispatched more than 400 people and more than 400 horses to the Shujiang River to carry water.

When the soldiers arrived at the Shu River, they took 800 buckets of water and rushed back, but when they returned to a river in Ma'anshan, one of the horses fell down because the horses stumbled, and a bucket on their backs rolled down, spilling nearly eight liters of water. Since the man had stipulated that he had to take 800 buckets back, and now that the water had been spilled, they had no choice, so after thinking about it, they counted it with the river water there, and filled it with eight liters, and it was expected that the man would not see it.

But who knew that after they returned, the man chose this bucket of water to check, and at a glance, he said that it was not the water of the Shu River. The soldiers were surprised and suspected that he was talking nonsense, so they argued with him while being weak-hearted, and they couldn't imagine that now he took a knife and just slashed like this, and said that there were eight liters of water in it that were not Shujiang water, which was really surprising.

"My lord, we have to do this, please forgive us." The soldiers knelt on the ground and said.

The general looked at Zu Zhao and saw that Zu Zhao still didn't want to move, which made him embarrassed, what should he do, whether to punish the soldiers to show that he was very strict in management or not to blame the soldiers for showing that he loved the soldiers.

After thinking about it for a while, he decided to let the soldiers stand back. The soldier was very grateful when he was pardoned, and hurriedly said that he would not dare to do such a deceit next time, and only then did he retreat and stand aside in horror.

Zu Zhao stepped forward at this time, walked up to the man's side, and asked, "You said that this water has a soft and hard wind, what is the difference?" Can you give us substantial insight. Just now, we all admired your ability to recognize water, but we just don't know what the connection between this water and quenching is. “

The man looked at Zu Zhao, and there were some doubts in his heart, a person wearing a soldier's uniform, speaking without arrogance, impatience, humility or arrogance, seemed to completely ignore the generals on the side, he could not be an ordinary person. However, he didn't expect that it was Zu Zhao in front of him, he just thought that some other person in charge had come here to inspect, and said, "Of course you can." The water of the Shu River is hard water, the water condensed by the spirit of the weapon, and it is naturally the best to quench it, which can give the soul of the weapon. ”

With that, the man swooped out a short dagger from his waist. His move frightened Zu Zhao's guards, Feng Luoxue immediately drew his sword and flashed in front of Zu Zhao, looking at the man coldly, while the other soldiers also drew their swords to surround the man.

The man was not surprised, with a hint of a smile on the corner of his mouth, and said: "You are not an ordinary soldier, and this is not a man, but a daughter, am I right?" ”

Zu Zhao suddenly laughed out loud and said with great appreciation: "You are right, she is indeed a daughter. You can easily tell where the water is, and it's not too difficult to tell that she's not a man. ”

The man smiled and said, "The adult has won the award, so what is the identity of the adult, why is he dressed like such a soldier?" ”

Zu Zhao said: "I'll talk about this later, you can just see me as a soldier now, I want to know what is the substantive difference between your quenching theory and what you have created." ”

The man nodded and said, "The one who frightened the adults just now, the little ones are here to make amends to the adults first." Your Excellency, please give me a guard's sword. ”

Zu Zhao was a little puzzled by what he was going to do, but he still said to his guards on the side, "Give him your saber." The guard nodded and handed the sword to the man. The man took the sword, holding the long sword in his left hand and his dagger in his right hand, raising the dagger high, the muscles in his hand bulging, only to see his qi surging from the dantian to his arm, suddenly he roared, waved the dagger and cut it down, and then there was a sound of bells, and the long sword in his left hand had been broken in two, and the dagger in his hand did not even have a gap.

Everyone was stunned that a small dagger had cut off the guard's sword, and it had no notch at all, what a sharpness, what a fine quality. Zu Zhao was also surprised, is this the legendary sharpening of iron like clay? It's amazing.

"Wonderful, so wonderful. What a dagger that sharpens iron like clay. Zu Zhao couldn't help but praise.

Unexpectedly, the man shook his head faintly and said, "My lord, this is not like sharpening iron like clay. Please take a closer look, in fact, it itself has suffered a lot. ”

Zu Zhao and the others leaned closer to take a closer look, and indeed, there was still a gap in the small dagger, and it was not as unscathed as it was seen from a distance. At that moment, the man pulled out something wrapped in cloth from behind his back, and he pulled it open little by little, revealing a short sword with a delicate scabbard. The moment he drew out his short sword, everyone was taken aback, this sword body was crystal clear, shining, and unusual.