Immediately afterwards, Liu Wei called Guo Luo, and together they brought two large baskets of raw coal to the blacksmith shop.
One hundred blacksmiths and one hundred carpenters worked together, busily engaged in their tasks.
Carpenters make wooden handles, blacksmiths make ironware.
As soon as one batch was finished, it was snatched away by the workers who were digging holes.
More than 50,000 kilograms of pig iron, along with countless damaged weapons and armor, were piled up like mountains.
On the very first day that the blacksmith shop opened, Liu Du, the prefect of Wuyuan County, received an order to requisition the horses raised by his clansmen on the Urad Grassland and transport the iron from Yunzhong to the fertile fields.
Unfortunately, the charcoal used by these blacksmiths did not generate enough heat, resulting in low efficiency in forging tools.
"Guo Luo, break this coal into pieces and sprinkle it with water!"
Liu Wei led Guo Luo to a stove.
The two blacksmiths who were swinging their sledgehammers stopped and looked at Guo Luo with great surprise.
"My lord, why do we still need to sprinkle water?"
Guo Luo was also puzzled.
"Just do as I say!"
Liu Wei was too lazy to explain, "Just throw all these coal pieces into the furnace."
Guo Luo immediately did as instructed.
"Oh, my lord, what are you doing! I finally managed to get the fire going, and you'll extinguish it!"
"Don't worry, I'll make sure your stove burns even brighter!"
Liu Wei waved his hand and said to one of the blacksmiths, "Go and operate the bellows!"
The blacksmith then started working the bellows, and flames shot out from the furnace.
Liu Wei picked up the fire tongs and poked at the coal, covering the original embers completely.
Soon after, wisps of white smoke rose from the dark coal.
Then it gradually turned red, and flames of blue and light red rose up.
"this..."
Another blacksmith stared in disbelief. "My lord, what is this thing? It can actually burn?"
As a blacksmith with green quality in the system, he has at least ten years of experience in blacksmithing.
At a glance, you can tell that the flames produced by this dark thing are definitely hotter than those produced by charcoal.
He quickly picked up a broken knife and put it in; it soon turned bright red, and a layer of slag appeared on the surface.
"My lord, this fire in the furnace is burning brightly!"
The blacksmith shouted excitedly.
Immediately, blacksmiths from the surrounding blacksmith shops came over to watch, marveling at the sight!
For a blacksmith, skill is only one aspect; the high temperature of the furnace is the key to forging iron.
If the fire is strong enough, the iron ore can be carbonized at high temperatures to remove more impurities, and even produce a substance with higher purity, such as steel!
However, with the current furnace, it is definitely not possible to melt iron ore into molten iron.
But now that we have coal as fuel, and with the addition of smelting, the purity of iron can be made very high.
"Guo Luo, arrange for someone to deliver coal to these blacksmith shops. From now on, they will use coal to fuel their furnaces."
"I will first go to the camp to draw some blueprints."
Now that we have coal to burn in the furnaces and forge iron, with the skills of these blacksmiths, making pickaxes and shovels should not be a problem.
There are also molds for making honeycomb briquettes, and stoves for burning honeycomb briquettes!
Liu Wei wished he could get all of these things out at once.
At that time, every household in the three counties of Yunzhong will have a honeycomb briquette stove, and they will not suffer from the cold this winter!
He immediately returned to his tent and began to draw.
Before long, he finished drawing several things and rushed over!
"Make it to my specifications immediately, according to the drawing, the sooner the better!"
The two blacksmiths were somewhat confused when they saw the blueprints.
After Liu Wei patiently explained, they finally understood.
Once the two blacksmiths understood what Liu Wei intended to forge in his blueprints, they began throwing large blocks of iron into the furnace.
"Guo Luo, go and work the bellows!"
Huff, huff!
Guo Luo was pulling very hard; it was obvious he had experience with this before.
"Before I joined the army, my family were blacksmiths!"
"I see," Liu Wei smiled.
Before long, the iron ingots in the furnace were heated to a bright red, hissing and emitting hot steam.
The blacksmith used tongs to pull it out with one hand and tapped it a few times with a small hammer in the other, signaling another blacksmith to help swing the sledgehammer!
"Let me, the Marquis, give you a few swings!"
After a morning of meditation and breathing exercises, I felt like I had no way to release all the energy I had.
Seeing this opportunity to lift weights, Liu Wei immediately got itchy fingers.
He snatched the sledgehammer from another blacksmith's hand and weighed it in his hand!
Huh!
It looks like a pretty big hammer, weighing at least twenty pounds.
But when you hold it in your hand, you don't feel anything at all!
Liu Wei was puzzled.
"My lord, you are of noble birth, how can you do this? This hammer looks incredibly heavy!"
Guo Luo, seeing this, realized it was serious and immediately came over to snatch Liu Wei's hammer.
In his memory, Liu Wei had delicate skin and a frail physique.
But the hammer is so heavy, what if the Marquis hurts his back? Wouldn't Diao Chan blame Guo Luo for not protecting the Marquis?
Ding ding ding!
But Liu Wei had already started waving, and Guo Luo could only step aside, extremely worried.
The sledgehammer was wielded with remarkable dexterity by Liu Wei.
But each hammer blow carries the force of a thousand pounds.
Sparks flew everywhere as the iron was struck, and the iron block was twisted into a pretzel shape in no time!
"Hiss, I never expected the Marquis to have such strength. I am ashamed of my own inferiority!"
The blacksmith whose hammer had been stolen looked increasingly shocked.
He was a burly man with broad shoulders and a strong build; you could tell at a glance that he was very powerful.
But swinging that sledgehammer was quite strenuous for him.
"The Marquis has already swung the sword eighty-one times, and he doesn't even blush or skip a beat. Impressive!"
"Every time the Marquis strikes with his hammer, it is with tremendous force; he is truly a divine man."
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