Handan's workshop was in full swing, from King Zhao to ordinary craftsmen, all of whom gathered around a blast furnace that was more than two people high, staring intently at the blast furnace.

The flames burned in the furnace chamber, and the tongues of fire poked out, reflecting the faces of the people red. More than a dozen workers filled the charcoal, pulled the bellows, and threw the ore, and did not dare to stop for a moment.

The cinders stained the sweat black and carved crooked marks on the cheeks. The workers were engrossed in the slightest sloppiness, this was the first time that the iron-making blast furnace of Zhao State was officially opened, and even King Zhao and Xiangguo were alarmed, and they rushed to the workshop outside the city to watch in person, and there was no room for any mistakes.

Over time, the iron ore is gradually melted by high temperatures, and due to the density, the molten iron precipitates to the bottom of the blast furnace, and impurities float on it.

Soon, a small, intermittent golden liquid slowly flowed out of the outlet at the bottom and into the cooling unit, where it condensed into a lump of pig iron.

"It worked!" Xu Da shouted excitedly, almost jumping off the ground. There was indescribable excitement on everyone's faces - they had worked hard for four whole years and finally succeeded!

scatter

"Keep adding iron ore." Zhao Kuo's hands were clenched into fists, his face was red, half of it was reflected in flames, half of it was excited.

Needless to say, the importance of the blast furnace to ironmaking is to the soldiers, the herbs to the doctors, and the needle and thread to the tailors.

Although iron can be made without a blast furnace, the output is severely restricted, and only with a blast furnace can the span from bronze to iron be truly completed.

"Your Majesty, it's already full." Xu Da rubbed his calloused hands and said a little overwhelmed.

"Fill up?" Zhao Kuo looked at the extremely fine golden molten iron, and suddenly frowned.

"How much iron can be produced per day at this rate?"

"Your lord, about two hundred catties." Xu Da said.

"......" Zhao Kuo was a little disappointed in his heart, two hundred catties of iron, an almost negligible weight for a country.

Unable to disperse, Zhao Kuo squeezed out a smile on his face,

"There are already a lot, and this is just a blast furnace, and when dozens or hundreds of blast furnaces are built, and larger blast furnaces are built, the output will increase."

"It was beyond Chen's expectations to be able to build an iron-making blast furnace so quickly, and the output was secondary. As the technology matures, the yield will naturally become higher and higher. Lin Xiangru said with a smile.

Zhao State's iron-making technology is very developed, as early as the Jin period, it can cast large iron tripods, and cast criminal texts on it, but because the mainstream has always been bronze, plus the pig iron is too brittle, easy to break, not suitable for making weapons, so it is basically used for agricultural tools.

In order to change the performance of pig iron and make it more suitable for making weapons and agricultural tools, the Central Plains countries have softened it to make it steel on the surface and high-carbon pig iron in the middle, which solves the problem of poor toughness and easy breakage of pig iron.

This technology predates the rest of the world by more than 2,000 years. As for steel, in fact, two or three hundred years ago, the state of Chu made carburizing steel, although the system of Chu is backward, but science and technology have always been at the forefront.

However, after losing Wancheng, an iron-smelting powerhouse, everything in Chu fell into the hands of Qin...... Compared with the peak period, the current state of Chu is weaker than at its peak.

Nowadays, the countries of the Central Plains have long mastered the technology of carburized steel, but due to the problem of production, iron weapons have not been able to be popularized, and at most they are equipped with generals and major elite corps.

It's not the same with an iron-making blast furnace, which, in addition to a constant supply of iron, also means a lot of steel, and even an improvement in steelmaking technology.

Although Zhao Kuo can be said to know nothing about steelmaking, he still knows the difference between steel and iron only in terms of carbon content, and if he wants to turn pig iron into steel, he only needs to find a way to reduce the carbon content in it.

As for how to do it, then he doesn't know. He is only responsible for providing the theoretical basis, or a simplified version, and how to realize it is naturally up to Xu Da and other craftsmen to be responsible.

"Xiangguo is right, you can't become a fat person by eating in one bite, and now it's a very big progress." Zhao Kuo nodded.

"During this time, everyone worked hard, and all the workers who participated in the construction of the blast furnace were rewarded with three months' wages each. Workers who have made outstanding contributions to technological breakthroughs will be rewarded in accordance with national regulations. In addition, the chief engineer of Xu was promoted to the thirteenth rank of the left division. "Scattered

"The minister doesn't dare to accept it, in fact, the blast furnace can be improved successfully, and the biggest contributor is not his subordinates." Xu Da lowered his head and arched his hand.

"Not Qing? Who is that? Zhao Kuo asked in surprise, Xu Da is already the top craftsman in Zhao Kingdom, is there anyone more powerful than him?

"The king is the son of the minister, and without the help of the son of the minister, the minister will definitely not be able to improve the blast furnace." Xu Da said.

"Your son? Where is it? Bring it to the widow to see. Zhao Kuo said in surprise. With Xu Da's age, his son is at most one or twenty years old, could it be that Zhao Guo is going to produce an iron-smelting genius!

There is no shortage of military and internal talents in Zhao State, the old and the strong and the young have everything, but the technical talents are very scarce, although Xun Zi has a good eye and has selected some talents for Zhao State, but it is still far from enough.

Since ancient times, the official position made Zhao Guo not pay attention to technical talents before, and it did not change until Zhao Kuo became the king of Zhao, but in just a few years, how could it be possible to cultivate a large number of talents?

It's nice to be like this. scatter

"Your lord, this is the son of the minister, who is sixteen years old this year." Xu Da pointed to a particularly conspicuous person among the craftsmen and said,

"I haven't come to see the king yet."

"Mrs. Xu greets the king." A tall black briquette squeezed out of the crowd, walked up to Zhao Kuo, and bowed down.

He is Xu Da's son, Mrs. Xu. It's not a woman, it's a man, it's just that the name is Madame. Mrs. Xu has been following her father to make iron since she was a child, and she is a famous prodigy in the blacksmith industry in Handan.

"Sixteen years old...... Zhao Kuo looked at Mrs. Xu, who was nearly nine feet tall, with extremely thick limbs, dark skin, and a scruffy beard, and then looked at Xu Da, who was in normal shape, but her skin was a little darker.

If you're not familiar with it, I'm afraid it's hard to tell which is the son and which is the father. scatter

"Not bad." Zhao Kuo wanted to pat Mrs. Xu's shoulder as a sign of encouragement, but his hand was stretched out, and after seeing Mrs. Xu's size, he put his hand down with some embarrassment.

"My Zhao country will be punished if you have done it, and you will be rewarded for meritorious service, regardless of age or origin. But you can't just listen to your father's side of the matter, the widow still has a few questions for you. ”

"Excuse me, my lord." Mrs. Xu said neither humbly nor arrogantly.

"Your father said it was because of your help that the blast furnace was successfully improved, isn't that true?" Zhao Kuo asked.