The charcoal came out of the kiln and began to smelt iron, and Ou Xuzi devoted himself wholeheartedly.

The "iron iron" that Bala Toast bought from the governor's office at a great price is only the raw material for casting weapons, and the two-meter-high steamed bread-type round furnace can smelt a thousand catties of iron at a time, heated with charcoal, under the dual action of wind and charcoal fire, the temperature quickly reaches more than 1,000 degrees, and the iron begins to melt. Unable to leave, he wondered what Ou Xuzi had added to the molten iron so that the fused steel would become the material for making the blade. This is also the thing that Bala Toast is most concerned about.

Ou Xuzi can not know, want to steal the craft, there is no door, Ou Xuzi took a grinding method, the temperature in front of the stove is high, the people who are roasted by the fire are sweating, that kind of suffering is not something that normal people can bear, a few days later, the housekeeper of the Chi Na complained bitterly, asked Ou Xuzi when he could officially produce molten iron, Ou Xuzi replied: "Sincerity is spirit, what we refine is not ordinary molten iron, you know if you are refining steel, wait." ”

Knowing that Ou Xuzi was guarding him, he was helpless, and finally one day he couldn't bear it anymore and fainted in front of the furnace, and was carried down by the soldiers, Ou Xuzi took the opportunity to add special materials to the furnace, and put in wood charcoal, silica shards, green leaves, etc., when these substances and substances were fused together at high temperatures to become steel ingots, the steel of higher quality than Damascus steel was completed.

Ou Xuzi told Sù Renci: "The things I added had a very subtle change with the molten iron during the dissolution. The first is the melting of silica, which forms a slag that prevents the oxidation of the ingot. The leaves of the tree accelerate the carbonization of iron and increase the carbon content of iron again. This kind of steel is of better quality than the steel used to make Zuò scimitars, and it is truly like clay. ”

Renji nodded in admiration.

When the housekeeper awoke to find that the molten iron had been baked and poured into a strangely shaped crucible, it was red and hot. He stood helplessly to the side, watching Ou Xuzi busy next to the crucible, mixing several materials together, making a rectangular steel ingot, and then putting it on top of the big anvil with iron tongs, several strong men holding iron hammers, bare-chested, began to forge under Ou Xuzi's order, you hammer and I hammer, sparks of smashing are everywhere, and the smoke of gunpowder is filled.

If the Zhanlu knife was cast in bronze, after the Warring States period, with the continuous progress of iron-smelting technology, the development of iron weapons was promoted. These new technologies are concentrated in two aspects, one is to improve the hardness and toughness of iron weapons, using the technology of carburizing iron for a long time and repeatedly forging it into carburizing steel, which is sharper and tougher than iron swords. Second, it is first forged with low-carbon steel, and then carburized and quenched on the surface. For example, in the Han Dynasty, a kind of "100 steelmaking" technology was popular, which produced high-quality steel with high carbon content, less impurities, uniform structure and good corrosion resistance. The steel knives made by repeated forging, annealing, surface carburizing and other processes are extremely sharp.

However, at the end of the Tang Dynasty, the "Anshi Rebellion", the society was in turmoil, and the technology of "100 steelmaking" was gradually lost.

During the Northern Song Dynasty, Shen Kuo, a great scientist at that time, once said in the book "Mengxi Writings" that he visited the Cizhou Forge and watched the iron-making, and only then did he know the so-called "real steel". He also recounted a sword of that time, in which ten large nails were driven into the pillars, and when the sword was swung and sharpened, all the nails were cut off, but the blade was not damaged at all, and the sword was bent so hard that the body of the sword was like a hook, and when it was released, it was as loud as an arrow's string.

Ou Xuzi has mastered the iron-smelting technology, and the heat treatment technology of steel has reached a very high level, and he used the "hundred steel-making" method during the Han Dynasty.

"Only the craftsmen heat and forge the fine iron and forge it repeatedly, beating it more than a hundred times, remember, one forging and one weighing and one light, until the catties of the refined iron are no longer reduced, that is, hundreds of steel, used to make swords can be sharpened like clay. "That's what the master said to Ou Xuzi.

Where does the master come from, what kind of person Ou Xuzi doesn't know, this old man who is more than sixty years old is ragged, crazy, and addicted to alcohol, drunk all day long, and Ou Xuzi nonsense, there is nothing he doesn't know, but his brain is sometimes very confused, and the affairs of the Tang Dynasty are detained to the Song Dynasty, talking about the political corruption of the Tang Dynasty, the military emptiness and the "Anshi Rebellion" in which Shi Siming launched a rebellion, he said indignantly: " An Lushan is a bastard, the Song Dynasty is not thin on him, but he rebelled, and proclaimed himself Emperor Dayan, with the year name Shengwu, plotting rebellion and usurping power, and people and gods were angry. ”

Ou Xuzi hurriedly said: "The master has already arrived, the 'Anshi Rebellion' happened in the Tang Dynasty. ”

He poured a sip of wine and shouted with his hands dancing: "Boy, what about the Tang Dynasty, what about the Song Dynasty? There is no way, the sword is abandoned, and the country is ruined. The faint king is in charge, the national fortune is not good, the war is everywhere, the people are in trouble, even if you have the Zhan Lu Bao knife, what if you look good, you just deceive yourself. ”