Businessmen, from ancient times to the present and the future, have always been the most sensitive sense of smell, for them, as long as there is a profit, they dare to take any risk.

Especially in this day and age, the risk of merchants transporting goods is actually very high.

Aside from all kinds of natural disasters, the trade routes are not as safe as imagined, bandits, robbers, bandits, these things can destroy a caravan.

Of course, for the merchants of this era, they are not without their ability to cope.

Powerful traders, with their own guards, will find out how to buy some standard weapons from the army or simply make their own weapons.

Vendors who don't have the strength can either anchor to the side of the big caravan and ask them to protect them, or several caravans will be combined to hire some dart masters from the dart bureau to protect them.

However, either way, the cost is greater than you think.

But since there is a caravan, it means that the caravan is naturally rich in money, after all, there are people who do the killing business, and no one does it at a loss.

Those short-distance caravans that traveled between the three countries often traded goods related to people's livelihood, such as salt, copper and iron, tea, and so on.

The caravans of long-distance merchants traveled through the three major countries, the Northern Regions, Western Xinjiang, and even farther away in Tianzhu, Central Asia and West Asia. Basically, they will find some valuable or novel goods to sell back and forth to earn high profits, such as jade jewelry, spices, silk and so on.

Xu Chuan believes that with a businessman's sense of smell, as long as he sees a cigarette and tries a cigarette, he will never give up.

.......

Leaving the cigarette factory, Xu Chuan came to the steel factory.

Four or five days later, the steel plant was fully operational, and the two blast furnaces were producing molten iron and pouring it into molds to turn into a weapon.

There were knives, spears, and bows and arrows.

In the room of the ironworks, it was hot, and Old Man Xu mobilized all the blacksmiths in the three areas to work overtime to produce all kinds of weapons.

Seeing Xu Chuan coming, someone shouted: "Xu Chuan is here." ”

Hearing the shout, many blacksmiths who were sharpening their knives in wrought iron put down their work and ran over.

"Nephew Chuan, are you alright?"

"Why don't you rest for two more days, your body is important."

"Old Xu, Old Xu, your grandson is here!"

"This is Ruyi, the granddaughter of Dr. Jing's family, right? The two children are really a good match, and I must go to Lao Jing's house to talk about a matchmaker when I go back. ”

Everyone surrounded Xu Chuan and Jing Ruyi, and asked nonsense, some had something to do with his body, some shouted at Old Man Xu, and some watched the two of them talking about the matchmaker, and Jing Ruyi on the side made a big red face.

"Thank you uncles for your concern, I'm fine, it's not a job to come here today, just to see, just to see."

After chatting with these enthusiastic blacksmiths for a while, Xu Chuan broke free and came to the backyard of the ironworks, where he saw Old Man Xu squatting in front of a small blast furnace.

"Chuan'er, are you okay?"

Seeing Xu Chuan coming, the old man turned his head to take a look, and after asking, his eyes fell to the furnace again.

The old man naturally heard the shouts outside, but the furnace of molten iron in front of him had reached the critical time of refining, and he had to seize the opportunity.

"Well, it's alright, it's okay, grandpa." Xu Chuan nodded, looked at the small blast furnace in front of him curiously, and asked, "Is this an experiment?" ”

Old Man Xu nodded, and after grasping the opportunity, he asked people to pull out the molten steel.

Holding a slender iron scoop, the old man scooped a little molten steel from the molten steel, and quickly splashed it on a stone wall around him, and brilliant iron flowers splashed in all directions, like fireworks blooming.

After observing the state of the molten iron and iron flowers, the wrinkles on his face also blossomed, and he arranged for someone to pour this furnace of molten steel into the mold.

"This is a good steel, and it can withstand at least thirty refinements."

Don't look at it, it's just that it has improved the ten refinements, but the forged knife can be improved by at least two layers in terms of quality.

If it collides with the first batch of forged swords, if it can have a millet grain gap in itself, it can cut the former out of a gap like the smallest corn kernel, which shows that the gap is not small.

"As long as there is a breakthrough, take your time, don't rush." Xu Chuan smiled, and then asked, "By the way, grandpa, how many sword weapons have been built now?" Is there enough to equip 3,000 town guards? ”

"How can it be so fast, although the molten iron filling mold saves a lot of forging time, but it takes time to adjust and sharpen the knife, and these geniuses have only made four or five hundred knives." The old man shook his head and said.

"It's too slow." Xu Chuan frowned, he thought that with the blast furnace for iron smelting, he would soon be able to equip the twenty refining iron knives with all the town guards and even sell the surplus knives.

"Stinky boy, you don't need time to adjust forging and sharpening knives."

The old man glared at Xu Chuan, if he hadn't seen Jing Ruyi still on the side, he would have cursed a long time ago.

These four or five hundred knives, but the iron sword outside was busy for five or six hours a day, and many men were about to die of exhaustion.

Xu Chuan shook his head and asked, "I didn't mean that, I was thinking, can the work of sharpening the knife be handed over to the town guard?" ”

"Although the town guards are training, it shouldn't be a problem for one person to sharpen his own knife, so your work can be lightened a lot."

Hearing this, the old man was stunned for a moment, grinded his chin and thought for a while, and said, "But it's okay, but the sharpness of the knives sharpened by those town guards is probably lower than that sharpened by those blacksmiths." ”

Xu Chuan smiled: "It's okay, if it's lower, it's lower, anyway, it's not for your own people." ”

Hearing this, the old man paused again and asked, "Don't give it to the guards of the town?" ”

Xu Chuan nodded and said, "I want to make two batches of knives, one batch is forged with this thirty-refining molten steel that you just refined, grandpa, this is for the town guards, and the previous batch of twenty-tempered, I will sell it." ”

"Sell? Why sell? The twenty-tempered sword is already very good. The old man looked at Xu Chuan in confusion, a little puzzled.

Xu Chuan smiled and said, "Aren't those large-scale caravans coming soon?" These knives, as well as some bows and arrows and other weapons, were sold to them. ”

"Aren't all bandits going to rob caravans, I want to make the weapons in the caravan better than the bandits, I don't believe it, when the weapons in the hands are better than the bandits, those caravans can hold back and not kill those bandits."

"As long as the caravan fights with the bandits, how can it reduce the pressure on some of the town guards, and even if some of the knives fall into the hands of the bandits, then don't worry, isn't the thirty refined knives in the hands of our town guards better than the twenty ones?"

"Sandpiper and clam compete for fisherman's profit, let's just be a good fisherman."

.......