"Master Zhao, what brings you here? Look at this place, it's such a mess, I'm afraid it's a nuisance to you."
Lu Zhizi turned his head and saw that the people coming were Zhao Muyun and Wang Tiezhu. Their bronze skin showed a bright and honest smile.
Lu Zhizi has witnessed Zhao Muyun's sudden rise.
When Zhao Muyun captured three Tartar heads, it caused a sensation in Shuozhou Prefecture. Then he came to Jingbian Military Town to report his position and receive his reward. By the way, he went to Lu Zhizi's blacksmith shop to forge ten weapons.
These ten weapons designed by Zhao Muyun himself aroused great interest in the knowledgeable Lu Zhizi.
It is really puzzling that someone so young could come up with such a cost-effective and lethal weapon.
Afterwards, the Tartars invaded and Zhao Muyun no longer came to Jingbian Military Town. Lu Zhizi retreated to Shuozhou City to avoid the war.
When the two met again, Zhao Muyun had been promoted to the position of a prefectural commander, which made Lu Zhizi extremely amazed.
Zhao Muyun warmly invited Lu Zhizi to join him, and readily gave him money and things as long as Lu Zhizi forged weapons for him.
Although he already has 200 recurve compound bows that he modified himself, their durability is far from satisfactory.
The standard equipment of ordinary soldiers in Dayin is: long spear, ring-handled sword, cloth armor, and double-breasted battle robe with mandarin duck pattern. Those professional archers are equipped with iron-framed longbows.
Taking combat needs into consideration, there are also weapons such as arm crossbows, halberds, and broadswords.
However, within a hundred years, the nobles of Dayin put their weapons into storage and their horses into the mountains. They only wanted to maintain the status quo of military equipment and were unwilling to invest more manpower and material resources in innovation.
This resulted in the Dayin army's weapons and equipment being very backward.
The Northern Di Tartars were willing to spend huge sums of money to smuggle ironware for use in modifying weapons, while Dayin used the iron forging and smelting technology to provide entertainment for the nobles' luxurious life.
In order to fight against the increasingly powerful Northern Di Tatars, in addition to building more powerful cavalry, the improvement of weapons technology is naturally not to be ignored.
Zhao Muyun asked Lu Zhizi to come to upgrade weapons technology.
The key is to upgrade weapons technology and obtain steel with better strength and toughness.
But to get good steel, it needs to be quenched at a higher temperature to further remove impurities in the iron.
The first thing Zhao Muyun thought of was coal.
Xiazhou, Qingzhou, Yanzhou, Danzhou and other places on the road from Shuozhou to the west are extremely similar to the Shaanxi-Gansu Plateau in Daxia where Zhao Muyun lived in his previous life. It is an area with very shallow coal seams.
He had originally planned to have Tang Yanhai and Wang Tiezhu focus on the coal production situation after returning from the Gobi Desert.
As luck would have it, Wang Tiezhu was the first to discover where the coal was.
"Master Lu, the conditions are tough right now, and I'm sorry I've wronged you. In the future, I will definitely build a workshop for you specifically for producing and forging ironware."
Hearing Lu Zhizi's humble words, Zhao Muyun didn't bother to argue with him any further. "These coals burn much more fiercely than charcoal and are also very hot! Using them to forge these iron ingots is a piece of cake."
"Coal? This... this can be used to make fire and forge iron?"
Lu Zhizi picked up a lump of coal, sniffed it, twisted it with his hands, and then stroked his beard, looking thoughtful. "I'm over fifty years old, and this is the first time I've heard of such a thing in the world."
"Then I'll show you!" Zhao Muyun smiled slightly, "Zhu Zi, smash all these coal lumps into powder."
Wang Tiezhu had long wanted to see how this thing was burned, so he immediately did it.
Lu Zhizi, his son Lu Da, and other blacksmiths who were working all gathered around to see what was happening and offered to help break the coal.
In a short while, the whole wooden basin was filled with coal dust.
Wang Tiezhu had no idea that these coal blocks would be so useful. Out of sheer curiosity, he only brought back a small bag.
"Pour a ladle of water and stir until it becomes thick." Zhao Muyun gave another order.
"Brother Zhao, did I hear correctly? Can this burn after adding water?"
Wang Tiezhu couldn't believe his ears, and the others couldn't believe that something that had been wetted with water could burn.
"Just listen to me and do as I say!" Zhao Muyun's tone did not allow anyone to refute.
Wang Tiezhu stuck out his tongue, immediately fetched some water and stirred it, and soon a basin of black stuff appeared in front of everyone.
Zhao Muyun took a look at the viscosity of the coal inside and found it was similar to the coal used to make honeycomb coal in his previous life. So he gave the order with confidence:
"All right, pillars, pile them on the red-hot charcoal in the stove and cover them all with paste."
Sizzle!
As soon as Wang Tiezhu put the wet coal ash in as Zhao Muyun instructed, he heard a sound from the stove and saw a puff of thick blue-white smoke coming out.
There was a pungent smell in the thick smoke, and people around covered their noses and avoided it.
Wang Tiezhu was the first to be hit and even broke out into a violent coughing fit.
This is caused by the production of irritating gases such as sulfur dioxide when coal is burned.
After Wang Tiezhu coughed, he held his breath and poured all the coal on it.
"Quickly pull the bellows!" Zhao Muyun gave another light order.
Lu Da immediately puffed and pulled the bellows.
As a large amount of white smoke and pungent gas came out of the furnace, the blue flame danced in the furnace like a jumping poisonous snake with the pumping of the bellows.
There was a mixture of shock and surprise on Lu Zhizi's bronze face.
This kind of flame is obviously different from the flame produced by burning charcoal before.
"Master Lu, why not use it while the fire is hot? We only have this little bit this time, so use it all!"
Zhao Muyun reminded Lu Zhizi, who was staring at the fire like a child.
“Yes, yes, yes!”
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