With a skeptical gaze, Li Kui began his career as a mentor in the ironworks.

However, as with reopening the map, his ability was not recognized by the most skilled craftsmen of the Great Song Dynasty. Even because the identity gap is too big, there are huge doubts.

It's just that no one dares to say it.

Even the iron supervisor rushed to slap Li Kui, how could other craftsmen have the right to speak?

Although the status of the craftsmen of the Great Song Dynasty is okay, at least they will not feel inferior and be looked down upon. Although it is said that the occupations of the people are divided into three, six, nine and so on, in fact, in any dynasty, the most miserable should be the farmer. It's just that most of the farmers don't know about it. The same is true in the Great Song Dynasty, where most of the ordinary people who live best in the cities are craftsmen with a skill.

In order to make his words convincing, Li Kui opened his mouth and said a powerful secret: "Everyone, you may not know, I am the son of a blacksmith!" ”

That's right, according to Li's mother's words, Li Kui's father Li Jiang is the best blacksmith within a radius of dozens of miles from Mengshan Town. As for why it's not Baizhang Village, how can Baizhang Village accommodate such a skilled blacksmith?

"This one is really open-minded!" Zheng Qi thought about this in his heart, and he didn't dare to show any disdain on his face. Instead, he was extremely surprised and said: "Brother Renjie, you are a family student!" ”

Li Kui was embarrassed to talk.

His father, Li Jiang, is indeed the only blacksmith in Baizhang Village, but he died long ago before Li Kui was reborn. After that, not to mention Li Kui's family, even Baizhang Village has no blacksmith for a long time. As for the origin of family studies, it is even more nonsense. Before he could use the hammer, Li Jiang died, and his family's craftsmanship had long been cut off.

But Li Kui also fought hard for the sake of persuasion.

He closed his eyes slightly, as if recalling, and said: "Speaking of which, I have a method of refining charcoal, which can remove the impurities of the charcoal and make the charcoal more pure, so that after ignition, it will exert a higher temperature when burning. ”

Don't believe it or not, anyway, you can see the real chapter when you really do it.

Of course, Li Kui is not in a hurry, the craftsmen of the Great Song Dynasty are very creative. Li Kui only needs to say the general idea and wait for the craftsmen to solve the problems one by one, and finally there is a good hope to get the results he expects.

"When it comes to refining charcoal with fire, the key step is to control the heat and retain its original fire power when its impurities are forced out. It is divided into three steps, the first step is to separate the burning coal and the coking coal with an earthen wall, ignite the burning coal, and set it on fire; In the second step, in the process of overheating and forcing out impurities from the coal, part of the gas will be burned, thereby igniting the coal waiting for coking; In the third step, experience is required, through the observation holes, it is found that the charcoal has begun to coke, water is injected to speed up the quenching of impurities, the kiln is closed, and after waiting for cooling, the coke is removed. ”

"After taking out the charcoal, it has become a hollow, light-weight coke. This is the best material for ironmaking. With the small blast furnace of Heli, it can even achieve the level of steelmaking. ”

"Steelmaking?"

Li Kui said the word steelmaking so rashly, which immediately made Master Lu, who was silent on the side, angry, he gasped, rushed to Li Kui, and said loudly: "Master Li, you are a scholar, you can't talk nonsense!" ”

Is he talking nonsense?

Li Kui touched his nose and thought about it, then smiled: "You don't believe it? ”

"I was able to make kerosene from black oil in Yan'an Mansion, and no one believed it at the time; When I was fourteen years old, I used twenty wen a pound of sea salt to refine snowflake salt, and no one believed it. But this is not your fault, it's just that you are too shallow and ignorant of the power of science. ”

Iron supervisor Zheng Qi looked at Li Kui with a confused expression, at this moment, it seemed that Li Kui was like Zhang Dian possessed, full of contempt and dissatisfaction with the surroundings.

But Zhang Dian may only have contempt and arrogance, but Li Kui will not do that. He likes to convince people with virtue and speak with facts.

Li Kui was not displeased with Master Lu's offense, but pointed to a group of craftsmen and said: "The ancients: A journey of a thousand miles lies in the step. No accumulation of steps, no thousands of miles! If I talk about steelmaking now, you will definitely be suspicious, and even think that I am not good here......" As he spoke, Li Kui pointed to his skull, as if there was really something wrong with his brain, and rolled his eyes.

In the end, he said seriously: "But it doesn't matter, although I put forward ideas and partial solutions, you are the ones who will put it into practice in the end." If getting closer to the target again and again does not convince you completely, it is easy for us to succeed all the way until we accomplish this feat. ”

Master Lu was entangled, Li Kui had cooperated with him. At the beginning, Su Song and Li Kui presided over the research and development of the Great Song Clock, and finally succeeded. Among them, the head of the craftsmen of the ironware workshop is Master Lu.

At that time, Master Lu was still in the Ministry of Industry, and he only came to the Iron Supervisor last year.

Recalling the beginning, what Li Kui seemed to have said could be completed. This is a man who promises a lot of money and counts his words.

He is not going to fool them by lying for the sake of so-called fame.

Master Lu was a little relieved, bowed his head and said, "Please show me!" ”

Li Kui said with satisfaction: "Okay." ”

"Let's take it step by step, and first complete the coking of the charcoal. The first step is to wash the coal, Master Zheng, do you know where the coal in the ironware workshop comes from and what are the specifications? ”

Li Kui turned around and asked Zheng Qi.

This is simple, and the carboniferous of the Great Song Dynasty is produced in all parts of the north. For example, the coal on Hedong Road is mainly sold to local cities such as Bingzhou. And the coal of Tokyo Bianliang is also transported from Kaifeng Prefecture and Tokyo West Road.

Zheng Qi said without thinking: "Renjie, our coal mainly comes from Yuzhou. The soot in Yuzhou is small, and it is black and bright, and the price is almost 150 wen a stone. We don't have to pay taxes on our coal. It's almost the same as the 200 cents of coal on the market. ”

The commercial tax of the Great Song Dynasty was very low, and most goods only needed to pay thirty taxes to enter the city.

However, the tax on coal has always been very high, and it is paid in kind. Generally, it is one out of ten, or even one out of five. That is, 100 catties of charcoal, and 10 to 20 catties of taxes.

Li Kui didn't ask any more, but picked up the charcoal as a sample and began to say: "Washing coal is easy to say, wash off the small cinders, rinse them with water, and screen them." ”

"In addition, there is the problem of refractory bricks. Coke burns enough firepower, you need to consider replacing the original refractory bricks with better ones. ”

With Li Kui's command, the craftsmen in the workshop did not doubt, but did what Li Kui commanded. Kilns were built for coking, and the sorted coal was piled together. After waiting for the kiln to dry, the first step of the firing process begins.

Everything seems to be going well.

The first batch of carbon-based coking was also completed in less than half a month.

During this period, the craftsmen also experimented with the production of many refractory bricks. The original refractory bricks were made of clay. After pondering, the craftsmen chose several other recipes. Probably the best results are refractory bricks with pulverized coal. All of this alone is in the test protocol, some go well, some fail.

But more or less, they can get some progressive isolation, so that the craftsmen gradually return to the skeptical mentality.

"My lord, it's hot today, and the villain wants the adult to preside over it."

Finally, on the day when the fire was lit to make coke, Li Kui was invited to the workshop.

A row kiln, located in the workshop.

This was originally the largest workshop of the Great Song Dynasty Iron Prison, covering a large area, so there was no need to worry about the lack of space.

Li Kui stuffed the lit torch into the mouth of the kiln, and then thick smoke gradually came out of the mouth of the kiln, and after a while, red flames also came out of the mouth of the kiln.

Smoke followed the pipe, into the chimney, and then billowed into the sky.

Li Kui looked at the black smoke chimney and frowned slightly. It seems that the destructive power of this earthen kiln is a bit large, but this is the Great Song Dynasty, and the issue of environmental protection is not something Li Kui needs to consider.

He instructed Master Lu for a while: "You must assign craftsmen and observe the burning of the earthen kiln." At the same time, it is necessary to arrange people to record all the operation processes, continuously improve and better methods, and do a good job in the processing process of charcoal coking. ”

"Don't worry, my lord, we will do what you tell us to do."

Li Kui expressed his appropriate satisfaction, but he was not ready to stare at the edge of the kiln, but checked the iron supervisor's workshop for a while, and then left with an excuse. He won't come until the coke is out.

Recently, Zheng Qi has been going back and forth to the Imperial City's capital hall almost every day to inform Zhang Dian of the progress of the workshop.

It's a little unjust to think about it, his dignified four-grade iron supervisor turned out to be an errand boy. But what Zhang Xiang was staring at, he didn't dare to fool.

"Xiangye, this is the official record of Li Beizhi in the iron prison in the past few days. Please take a look at it. ”

As a temporary prime minister's spy, Zheng Qi did not do a good job. For example, he does not record the change in the attitude of the craftsmen towards Li Kui, nor does he record that Li Kui had the iron supervisor give him two rewards, but it was mainly the craftsmen who made suggestions that inspired Li Kui. Thus the clay kiln was improved.

Of course, Zheng Qi was born as a scholar, and although he was an iron supervisor, he had to have more contact with craftsmen.

But in essence, it is still not very good to see the craftsmen. In particular, the craftsmen of the ironwork workshop were covered in stinky sweat and ash all day long, which made the Iron Warden feel very undignified.

After reading it, he asked, "What else?" ”

"Xiangye, Xia Guan is just confused. Li has never made ironware, why is he so familiar with ironsmithing? In particular, the skills he brought out were even more than I did in the ironsmith workshop. Could it be that Li Beizhi gave away the secret skills of the family? "Zheng Qi has been troubled by Li Kui's 'blacksmith's son' for the past few days, and he really thinks that Li Kui has taken out the family's skills.

According to the system of the Great Song Dynasty, if you contribute skills, you can get monetary compensation, and if it is of great benefit to the empire, it will be awarded to unimportant loose officials.

This is not that Zheng Qi deliberately wants to buy the Taishi Mansion, but Li Kui's calmness and calmness, coupled with the commanding bearing, make him feel suspicious.

Is it really a family secret?

Zhang Dian snorted coldly: "Joke, Li Kui is the identity of Jinshi Jidi, and the old man remembered that he seemed to be a hunter before." When did you have a relationship with a blacksmith? Besides, he made snowflake salt before, could it be that his family used to be a smuggler of salt? And he also refined kerosene in Yan'an Mansion, so his family is still an oil dealer, right? ”

However, Zhang Dian is also curious, Li Kui's hidden ability is not small, is it possible that there is really a hidden secret?

When Zheng Qi left, he asked the cronies of the Prime Minister's Mansion to inquire about Li Kui's family tradition.

The so-called family heirloom is the craft of the family.

In the evening, the inquiring slave returned to the Xiangfu and brought a piece of news that made Zhang Dian stunned: "Xiangye, the villain has inquired clearly, Li Kui's ancestor was hiding in the mountains and forests of Yizhou because he was hiding from the war. It's just that later, the clansmen left the mountains one after another, and when Li Kui's grandfather's generation arrived, life in the mountains became more and more difficult, so more people went hunting. As for Li Kui's family, his father is really a blacksmith. ”

"Blacksmith?"

Zhang Dian was a little confused, it was really a family heirloom.

But a blacksmith is a blacksmith, the craft of striking iron, when did a blacksmith know how to smelt iron?

It may seem like one trade, but it's definitely two very different trades.

Zhang Dian picked up a few pieces of coke brought by Zhang Qi, and it was really as Li Kui said at the beginning, it was full of holes. And it is very light to start, which should be more than half as light as charcoal. And when you start it, it won't be too dirty, but it will have an over-the-top sound of gold and stone when you hit it.

This made Zhang Dian even more curious, could it be that what Li Kui said was true?

Can large-scale production of the steel that the Great Song Dynasty urgently needs?

Not to mention steel, even if it is fine iron, Li Kui will also make a great contribution.

Because of the problem of materials, the domestic ironware has always been very brittle and of poor quality. For ordinary people, it doesn't matter, but for the army, it's fatal.

The army should be equipped with a lot of weapons, and it has to be extremely heavy with weapons. It was even heavier than the weapons of the Tang Dynasty, but the quality dropped a lot.

Of course, the only advantage is that the price is cheap, and the weapons of the Great Song Dynasty can be loaded with a million troops at will. This is the reason why Da Song Ming knew that the current way of smelting iron was not good, but he still continued to use such methods.

If there is a better alternative, the weapons and military strength of the Great Song will increase rapidly.

Especially the cost of some armor, the cost will plummet.

For example, the scale armor is larger than the nail cover, and if such an iron piece is as brittle as the iron used for the Pu knife, it is easy to break. So what else does armor talk about about protection?

Moreover, the armor cannot increase the thickness indefinitely, after all, there is a limit to the weight of people.

Nowadays, the cost of fish scale armor is hundreds of pieces, which makes the number of heavy infantry, the most elite infantry in the Great Song Forbidden Army, also popular.

Once this problem is solved, the combat power of the forbidden army of the Great Song Dynasty will increase a lot.

In order not to cause unnecessary panic, he decided to set out to see the effect of the ironwork workshop after the furnace was opened.

On this day, Zhang Dian did not bring people to hug him, but took Yu Hou in the house, dressed up as an ordinary merchant, and went to the ironsmith workshop.

When he came to the workshop, he sent someone to call Zheng Qi, who hurried over, and was about to salute, but was stopped by Zhang Dian and said: "The old man is a micro-service, just come and see." ”

"Old ...... Mr. please. ”

"What about Li Kuiren?"

"Li Zhizhi came later, and he is still on the way."

"How's it going?"

"This ......"

Coking has been successful, but steelmaking is too high-end, and Zheng Qi can't say why.

Zhang Duan didn't care, and went straight towards the small blast furnace. It's approaching, but I feel the heat wave rolling in, and my cheeks seem to be stinging, numb and crispy, and I can't stand it for a long time. Zhang Dian looked at the head craftsman on the side, quite prestigious, like a person in charge. So he walked over and asked, "Old man, do you think the iron of this furnace can be made?" ”

"Yes, surely?"

It was Master Lu, the most authoritative person in the workshop, who spoke.

His categorical answer aroused Zhang Dun's curiosity: "What is the basis?" ”

Master Lu glanced at Zhang Dun, and found that it was a businessman dressed up, and suddenly said angrily: "Are you stupid, look at this flame, blue and white, you can see the high temperature?" When you come to buy iron, don't you know the meaning of it, and you can even do business as well, what else can you accomplish? ”

As he spoke, Master Lu put his hand under his eyebrow bone, so as to block part of the scorching heat that came to his face, and stared at the flames that erupted from a small hole in the fire mouth with excitement, this flame made him so obsessed that he didn't find it at all, and he used one sentence to let the prime minister of the dynasty remember him.