Zhang Chong and the guards ran out of millet, and then got on their horses and ran towards Mount Tai in the east, where there was a small iron official office set up by Zhang Chong.

Qingzhou has the benefit of salt and iron since ancient times, when Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty set up 48 iron officials in the world, among them, Qingyan has seven, and Jinan accounts for two, respectively, Dongping Mausoleum and Licheng.

Therefore, there are a lot of ironworkers in Jinan, so Zhang Chong asked his grandson to help recruit some ironworkers to enter the mountains. In fact, Taiping Dao has long developed its influence in Jinan's major railway officials.

After all, these iron officials and slaves are the most oppressed by the Han court, working day and night, and eating rancid water, and even if they are injured in their work, they will be abandoned by the officials and left to fend for themselves. Therefore, most of these people believe in the Taiping Dao, and without him, they can huddle together for warmth.

Taiping Dao also attaches great importance to iron official slaves. Because you rebelled, in addition to grain and grass, it is armor, and the craftsman slave who can forge iron blades is naturally the object of Taipingdao's attention. In addition, because the iron officials and slaves work together, they are particularly hard-working and organized, and they are a strong soldier with a little training.

It is precisely because the iron official slave or ironworker is so important, so Jinan does not want to send it, and later it is still a sacrifice to the grandson, saying that the great cause of Huangtian is important, so he sent twenty ironworkers, most of whom are smelting and making agricultural tools and molds, as well as three swordsmiths and a carpenter.

This armor craftsman is a real master, and it is also a heavy gift from the sacrificial grandson to Zhang Chong.

The Han court is very strict in supervising this special kind of craftsmen, and all armor makers must be registered, and no supernumerary existence is allowed. And this armor craftsman was introduced to Taiping Dao after sacrificing his grandson to avenge his blood revenge and helping him fake his death to escape.

At this moment, Zhang Chong was going to the iron official office, which he had set up for these more than 20 ironworkers, and he also sent more than 200 sons of Shanliao who could endure hardships and strength in it, so that these ironworkers could teach them.

When Zhang Chong was about to arrive at the iron official office built in the valley, the iron officials were already waiting outside the office, led by a powerful man with scars on his arms. He is the only armor craftsman in the institute, Deng Zhi.

As soon as Zhang Chong got off the horse, he complained about Deng Zhi and said:

"Old Deng, don't come to me with these false courtesies in the future. With this kind of kung fu, it will be a great gift to me to teach our Shanliao apprentices more to strike iron."

Deng Zhi is also a story, and this person should have a future in Dongpingling Iron Official. once offered a collar of fine armor to the iron officer, but who knew that this caused him to be killed.

The iron official naturally didn't want to keep this fine armor, and he didn't need this, so why did he keep it. Therefore, he dedicated this armor to Cao Gaozong of Dongpingling.

Gao Zong liked this armor very much, and then he thought about receiving the craftsman who made this armor to Wubao to be a craftsman slave. You must know that making nails is a felony, so Gao Zong can only be sneaky.

But this matter was actually known by Liu Xuan, the patrol county at that time, and in order to extinguish the mouth, Gao Zong could only send someone to kill Deng Zhi's family. Deng Zhi was later rescued by the priest grandson who was preaching nearby, and the priest helped him kill the killer who destroyed his sect. But the real culprit Gao Zong, the sacrificial grandson couldn't help Deng Zhi, and later when he pushed Deng Zhi into the mountain, he said:

"You follow Tai Shan Qu, maybe he can avenge you in the future." ….

is full of victims, Deng Zhi naturally has a deep hatred like the sea, but in the end, he is a man, his face is not bitter, only his hoarse voice can express how much he hates.

So this will, Deng Zhi used his usual hoarse voice to reply to Zhang Chong:

"Qu, if you don't say it, I will also teach those people with my heart, all for the great cause of Huang Tian. But this ritual must not be abolished, otherwise there is no humility, and it will not be a mess?"

Zhang Chong is very honored with this kind of technical talent, although he does not agree with Deng Zhi's words, but he does not entangle, and directly takes the craftsmen into the iron official office.

On the way, Zhang Chong asked about the current progress of the whole institute, Deng Zhi was the most skilled ironworker in the institute, and was naturally promoted by Zhang Chong to the iron chief.

Deng Zhi nodded, and began to count Zhang Chong from memory:

"So far, we have made a total of 400 iron hoes, 200 iron fans, 40 ring head knives, and a collar. And there are three hundred pounds of iron ingots left."

Zhang Chong nodded, then looked at the Shanliao apprentices who were still striking iron, and asked Deng Zhi:

"How many of these 200 Shanliao disciples can come out of the school now?"

I saw Deng Zhi shaking his head:

"Not one."

Probably worried that Zhang Chong felt that they were hiding secrets, he explained to Zhang Chong:

"Qu, that's right. We who are ironworkers will devote ourselves to art education, and it will take three years to get ahead. If some ruthless ironworkers take their apprentices, it may take ten years to touch a crucible."

Zhang Chong knew that he actually had a way to speed up this learning process, which was nothing more than to process the environment of ironworking smelting, forging, quenching, etc., and then divide labor and then specialize.

But Zhang Chong can't do this now, because he is now going to raise 200 seeds that can lead people, instead of fishing for the sake of bursting that production capacity now. So, Zhang Chong nodded, and then began to continue walking.

At this moment, Zhang Chong had already walked to the only large crucible iron-making furnace in the whole institute.

This thing looks about four meters high, less than two meters wide, and about one meter deep underground, but this is the pinnacle technology of iron training in this world, and later generations are probably about the Republic of China, and they are still using this crucible to make iron furnaces. So don't look at it like a mound of dirt, it's actually advanced.

At that time, in order to build this iron furnace, Zhang Chong specially bribed an iron official and sent a furnace maker to the mountains for three months before building this furnace, and then the people went back. But it doesn't matter, this kind of technical talent is recorded in Zhang Chong's small book, as long as there is a chance, he must dig the wall root of Hanting.

When this furnace was built at that time, Zhang Chong was there all the way in order to steal the school. The craftsman didn't hide it, so he started making the furnace in front of Zhang Chong. People may be laughing in their hearts, but they can learn just by looking at it, and what else do they want him to do.

But in fact, this craftsman really underestimated Zhang Chong, he really could learn it just by looking at it, because he knew physics and chemistry.

The craftsman began by digging a rectangular pit in the ground, leaving it for the furnace door, and then began to apply a thin layer of mud around the walls of the pit.

After that, he began to make refractory bricks, and when the fire bricks were burned, he began to build the roof of the furnace. After that, another layer of refractory mud is applied to the inside. This mud is exquisite, it has to be volcanic mud. After finishing the inner wall, it is necessary to apply a layer of grass plaster to the outer wall.

After that, it is to make the furnace door, the furnace pool, the kiln chamber, and the chimney. ….

The furnace door is mainly for ventilation, and the furnace pool is inside the door and is used as a wind nest when burning. After that, there is the hearth, which is also to be plastered with grass plaster, and this place is where the rows of crucibles and charcoal and other fuels are placed. At the end of the furnace, there are three chimneys, which are easy to understand, and they are used for smoke exhaust.

In this way, an iron-making furnace is made.

After that, Deng Zhi began to smelt the first furnace of iron. First, a clay-style crucible is placed in the hearth, and then crushed iron ore and charcoal are placed in it. There's a trick in this, if you don't tell this, those who steal from the teacher will be refining all the scum.

Before Deng put iron ore and charcoal into the crucible, he had already laid a layer of brick fragments on the bottom of the crucible. These were put by Deng Zhi himself, and he did not tell outsiders that the function of these brick fragments was to ventilate the bottom of the furnace.

And if it is an outsider, they only see Deng Zhi directly putting iron ore and charcoal, if they want to steal the teacher, they can only smelt scrap iron in the end.

So when he told Zhang Chong about this ingenuity, Zhang Chong suddenly realized that the ancient craftsmen really had a strong sense of anti-theft!

Then Deng Zhi began to continue to put charcoal, then put a crucible, and then follow the step-by-step process, after filling the iron ore, spread another layer of charcoal, and then put the crucible, and finally fill the furnace.

So a furnace of iron is actually built with three crucibles. After that, it is ignited and blown until the ore in the pot melts into pig iron.

When Zhang Chong saw this standard Han Dynasty ironmaking process, he had already figured out how to improve it.

One is combustibles, and now craftsmen generally use charcoal, so Zhang Chong will replace it with coal, which is easier to smelt.

There is also a ventilation, which is now used for exhaust is a kind of cowhide sac. This thing was very labor-intensive, and at that time, in order to refine this furnace of iron, it took a lot of effort from those Shanliao apprentices. Therefore, Zhang Chong thought that he could use water power to drain the bag, but at present, this design is still under construction and has not yet been finalized.

So I can do it right away

, that is, to find coal to improve charcoal, and Zhang Chong did the same later.

In later generations, Shandong was a major coal mining province, especially Jinan, where he was located. Zhang Chong searched hard, and found him an open-pit coal mine, and then he hurriedly transported a batch of coal to the Tieguan Office. One of the purposes of his visit was to see the effects of coal.

But just now Deng Zhi told him that the effect is good and bad. The good thing is that the temperature rises quickly, but the disadvantage is that the iron smelted is too raw.

Too raw?

Zhang Chong suddenly said that the iron smelted had a high carbon content and was brittle. Later, Zhang Chong thought about it carefully, probably because coal was more likely to get on the iron ore, resulting in too many impurities in the smelted iron.

When Zhang Chong felt that his improvement was going to end in failure, Deng Zhi said again:

"But coal is better than charcoal!"

Zhang Chongqi is wonderful, why is this.

Then Deng Zhi explained that this charcoal is not resistant to burning, so it is necessary to constantly put charcoal in the furnace when smelting, which is not only time-consuming but also particularly dangerous. And now with this coal, a furnace of charcoal can completely burn the iron, which is very convenient. Although the cast iron is a little more brittle, they can use it the same way if they forge it more.

Hearing this, Zhang Chong was happy, okay, as long as it can be useful.

Then Zhang Chong came to the armor-making area, which was the most important place for this iron official.

Deng Zhi also took ten apprentices here and made the first collar armor.

At this moment, the armor was hung on a wooden frame and covered with a layer of lacquer. This nail is a collar typical of two crotch armor, that is, two pieces of armor on the front chest and back, and then the two pieces of armor are tied together with two belts. When the time comes, you have to wear this armor with two crotch shirts, otherwise this iron is still quite ugly.

Zhang Chong equipped his army with this kind of armor, which was simple to make and had good protection. As long as the production of iron sheets is increased, it can be installed in the ranks on a large scale.

But now the difficulty is how to increase the production of iron sheets on a large scale. Zhang Chong asked how long it took to make this collar armor now. Deng Zhi said that it would take two months at the earliest.

In this way, he Zhang Chong can only get six collar armor in a year, so what is the use? Zhang Chong also estimated that the most time-consuming thing in this was the two-sided armor.

So how do you quickly create these two nail pieces? .

Please call me Mr. Chen