Not to mention a high-powered official like the head of a thousand households, even if it is the head of the tun, the head of a hundred households, even if it is the chief, or the head of the army, it is not something they dare to hope for in the past? In the Dawu Empire, no matter how high or low the official rank is, it is extremely difficult to obtain, and without military merits, wanting to be an official is tantamount to a pipe dream.

How big an official are the commanders, the commanders, and the centurions, and they are all characters who are high up and need to look up to themselves, and now they are the same as them? I'm an official too? The ancestor appeared and came to the county to serve Lord Su, all this is really worth it.

Seeing Ma Deheng's expression, Su Jun knew his feelings, in this era, because of the imperfection of the system, except for the upper fourth class, if the middle and third class and the lower third class want to be fed, clothed, and worried, it will take great hardship.

Putting away his excitement, Ma Deheng still asked with some trepidation: "The general came to the craftsman's camp today, is it because there is a problem with the chariots sent by the last batch?" ”

Su Jun shook his head and said with a little nod:

"No, there is no problem with the chariot, you are not only very well designed, but also very well-made, of course, there are still areas that need to be improved, you can slowly explore in the future, such as making this cart more effortless to push, running faster, the body is stronger, the load of more personnel and equipment, how to repair it in the shortest possible time after encountering damage, etc!"

Ma Deheng had heard that there was no problem, and he had put his heart down, but then Su Jun's words made his face a little pale, there are still many problems, he doesn't know a single word, building weapons, developing equipment, all relying on his own ingenuity, at this time, he can't write down these problems one by one, he can only keep them firmly in his heart, and prepare to ponder with other team leaders in the future.

"Let's go, don't stick around here, take us in and visit your artisan camp!"

Seeing Ma Deheng's pale face, obviously extremely nervous in his heart, Su Jun diverted the topic, some things cannot be made overnight, you can only take your time step by step, after all, the current start is good, even a year ago, not to mention such a thing as a chariot, every army is not fully equipped with weapons.

"The villain, this will lead the way for the general!"

The weather was slightly cool, but Ma Deheng's face began to flow with sweat, and he hurriedly wiped the sweat with the sleeves of his robe and said.

"In the future, you should no longer call yourself a villain, you should say that you are lowly or subordinate!"

Su Jun corrected him with a straight look.

"Yes, yes, that's what the adults say!"

Ma Deheng wiped his sweat again and quickly corrected:

"The villain forgot, oh, no, no, no, no, it's the lowly duty that he forgot, and the lowly position is now an official!"

Ma Deheng's words caused bursts of good-natured laughter from others present.

"General, this is a smelting team, specializing in improving the quality of pig iron, General, we do not produce iron ore in Bei'an County, we can only buy pig iron from other places, but the quality of the pig iron bought is uneven, and it must be re-refined to be used to make sharp weapons, otherwise the weapons are very easy to be damaged."

Ma Deheng introduced to everyone as he walked.

Several military marquis who came with them knew the importance of weapons to the soldiers, and on the battlefield, the soldiers could rely on the weapons in their hands in addition to the robes around them, so the blade was like the second life of the soldiers.

No one wants to slash someone by himself, and at the same time that his knife is set up, when there is a bang, other people's weapons are not good, but their own knives are broken first, so they can only wait to be slaughtered?

Several military marquis are now wide-eyed, refusing to let go of any of these details, trying to pick out all the faults, so that these craftsmen can be more attentive when building blades, and create sharper and more durable weapons, so that they can use the built weapons to kill the enemy, and no one is ambiguous about the top one, but if they want to supervise the creation of weapons, it is all December taro, laymen.

Su Jun looked at the molten iron boiling in the furnace and asked loudly:

"And what about the quality of the iron you're refining? Has it been greatly improved? ”

"It all depends on the quality of the pig iron, we can only do our best, and it doesn't make much difference."

Ma Deheng glanced at Su Jun and replied cautiously.

"Now the blades we make are slightly better than the weapons equipped by An Ning, but compared to the weapons used by the five major vassal states, there are still some gaps, whether it is sharpness or durability, they are not at the same level at all, but as long as I can buy high-quality pig iron, I am confident that the performance of the blades will be improved by a few points."

Su Jun pondered for a moment and said:

"Deacon Ma is also an expert in this area, have you ever heard of steel?"

Ma Deheng was stunned for a moment, thought carefully for a moment, showed an apologetic look, and shook his head helplessly.

Su Jun couldn't help but be a little disappointed, and asked unwillingly:

"Steel is harder than the iron we use now, more flexible than iron, and less prone to corrosion and rust, and is an iron-carbon alloy ......"

Su Jun thought about what kind of words to use to describe in his mind.

"My lord, what is an alloy?"

Deacon Ma had never heard of the word alloy, so he couldn't help but ask.

"Alloy is the product obtained by mixing and melting one metal with another or several metals or non-metals, and is a more powerful material than iron."

Su Jun explained.

"What your lord is describing is fine iron?"

The captain behind Ma Deheng interjected impatiently.

"Iron? That's right, it should be fine iron! ”

Su Jun's eyes lit up, and he asked excitedly:

"What's your name? Do you know what iron is? ”

Ma Deheng hurriedly introduced:

"General, he is the captain of this iron-making team, Li Yongchang. Yongchang, you come to the front and tell General Su about Jingtie. ”

Li Yongchang was in his early thirties, looking like an honest farmer, and said with some nervousness at this time:

"My lord, when I was in the village, I heard an old blacksmith master talk about fine iron, and the characteristics of fine iron in his mouth were not much different from the characteristics of steel that the general just said."

"Then tell me how that master made fine iron?"

Su Jun asked with interest.

"The villain was only twelve or thirteen years old at the time, and he was still a little playful, and he didn't hear it very clearly, but he vaguely remembered that it seemed to be adding charcoal powder to the furnace, how much to add, and what to do, the villain didn't know."

Su Jun nodded with satisfaction, because in his memory, the original steel was indeed smelted in this way, but the method of burning impurities with charcoal powder could not make extremely high-quality steel.

"Oh, why don't you try this method?"

Su Jun was quite satisfied with this Li Yongchang, and asked again.

Li Yongchang sighed and said helplessly: "It's just that we haven't completely mastered this method, and it is very easy to fail when operating, and often make some good pig iron become scrap, and the pig iron that can be used now is already nervous, so we don't dare to try rashly." ”