The old craftsman was taking notes with a charcoal pencil. He was an experienced iron smelter and could tell the degree of smelting by the color and purity of the molten iron at a glance.
When the impurities are removed, it can be forged, but now the color of the molten iron is obviously more...pure than before.
He frowned slightly, unable to figure it out for a moment.
Seeing his frown, the blacksmith asked cautiously, "Master, what's the problem? That black ball doesn't burn as well as firewood."
"If it doesn't work, you should tell me, Master. You can't joke with molten iron. I've worked so hard to smelt it, and if it doesn't work, you'd better use firewood..."
The old craftsman rolled his eyes at him and said unhappily, "I've been teaching you for so long, and you're still a fool. Who told you there was something wrong with the molten iron? I was just surprised."
"When the iron is formed into a block, you will hammer it and record the process of removing impurities. I want to verify a hypothesis."
"If it's true, we might be able to forge pure iron in the future. Its sharpness far exceeds that of ordinary iron, and it would also greatly reduce the number of hammering times."
The blacksmith fell silent, his eyes looking somewhat confused.
Seeing him like this, the old craftsman raised his foot and kicked him, saying angrily: "What are you looking at? What can you understand with your brain? Hurry up and get to work."
"When you're hammering, remember the number of times you do it and compare it to the previous times. I need to know the exact number so I can report it to you, young master."
"Oh, okay, Master got it."
*
Bang bang bang, the sound of the hammer hitting the iron block made people's ears buzz. After the blacksmiths took the iron block, they hammered it as usual.
By observing the color of the iron block and removing impurities, I soon found something wrong. It used to take thousands of hammers to get the color right, but now it takes a thousand hammers to get the color right.
What does this mean? It means that there are fewer impurities in the molten iron.
They hammered the forging pieces one by one and recorded the number of times they struck them. After they were forged, they went to tell the old craftsman one by one.
After reading it, the old craftsman nodded secretly with a smile on his face: "Not bad, not bad, it's just as I guessed. The iron content of the iron ore is about the same, and the impurities are getting less."
The only change is... honeycomb briquettes!
Thinking of this, the old craftsman couldn't help but smile. Fine iron, he would definitely be able to forge fine iron.
He raised his hand and patted their strong muscles, laughing: "Work hard, if we can forge fine iron, we will have made a great contribution."
The blacksmith was stunned for a moment and said in disbelief, "Fine iron, that's very difficult to forge. The purity requirement is too high. Can we really forge it?"
The old craftsman couldn't help but roll his eyes when he heard this: "Nonsense, I've been doing this for over 30 years and have eaten more salt than you have walked."
"If there really is no hope at all, I can tell you that I never lie."
"Okay, get to work. I'll go find the Third Young Master and tell him the good news."
The old man walked away briskly.
Jiang Sheng was hammering away in the open space when a voice came from behind him: "Third Young Master, I have something to ask you."
"Well, what do you want from me, Master?"
"That's great. Please take a look at these two records, and I'll explain it to you in detail."
The old craftsman couldn't hide the smile on his face, with a hint of pride on his face. It was obvious that he was in a good mood.
Jiang Sheng smiled and nodded: "Okay, I'll take a look first."
Comparing the two records, he raised an eyebrow. "Hmm? It seems the number of hammerings has decreased a lot. And what's with that color? Is it the color of the molten iron?"
"Yes, Third Young Master. Generally, when forging weapons, the first step is to break the iron blocks and burn them into molten iron. However, the molten iron at this time has many impurities, so it needs to be hammered again."
"Re-melt, re-hammer, and repeat this process. The best scenario is to burn as many impurities as possible during the first combustion. This way, fewer impurities will be produced, making it easier to produce fine iron when hammering again."
Jiang Sheng looked at him in surprise: "Fine iron? It's a very tough fine iron, sharper and tougher than ordinary iron."
The old craftsman nodded, his face full of joy.
"Yes, that's the thing. Currently, only Donglin has made it. Rumor has it that it's the king of weapons, its sharpness and toughness far surpassing any other weapon."
"I've done some research and found that forging fine iron is neither difficult nor easy. It requires an extremely high melting point."
"Donglin is taking a risk by using the molten iron's temperature. Although it can produce fine iron, the risk is also very high. If you are not careful, the molten iron will be destroyed, or the death rate will be very high."
Jiang Sheng understood what he said. Donglin had the strongest military force and also had the deterrent power of fine iron weapons, but those things were very difficult to produce.
The old craftsman became excited as he spoke: "Third Young Master, we don't use molten iron here, so it's much safer. If this can be done, you can imagine how much refined iron we can produce."
"I've compared them carefully and found that the only differences are in the honeycomb coal, the molten lava, and the heat of the burning wood. Does that mean that as long as we can control the temperature, we can produce a large amount of refined iron?"
"It wasn't possible in the past because the burning temperature of the firewood was low and there were too many impurities in the first round, which made the iron too brittle and lacking toughness in the later rounds."
Jiang Sheng wiped the sweat from his forehead. The temperature of the honeycomb coal was indeed high, but it was still inferior to the molten lava. However, even if it could not be made into fine iron,
Weapons with less impurities are always better than before. It can be considered a disguised improvement of weapons and is more advantageous on the battlefield.
"Well, I understand. Master Chef, go ahead and do it. If you can really make fine iron, you will be a great contributor to the Jiang family. Just tell me what you want."
The old craftsman's eyes lit up, and he said cautiously, "Third Young Master, I want a snow lotus. Alas, my son and daughter-in-law died early, leaving only a frail granddaughter..."
When Jiang Sheng heard this, he thought of the snow lotus in the space that was about to flood the area, and the corners of his mouth couldn't help but twitch.
He readily agreed: "No problem, as long as you can make the refined iron, I will give you three snow lotus flowers a year until your granddaughter is healthy."
"Third Young Master, are you serious?"
"Of course, I always keep my word. Fine iron is a weapon of great deterrence to any country. If we can research it, you can have whatever you want."
The old craftsman said excitedly, "Okay, okay, I will definitely get the fine iron out. I won't bother the Third Young Master anymore. I will go back and continue to watch over him."
He turned around, feeling much lighter, and trotted away.
Jiang Sheng couldn't help but smile when he saw this, but then he remembered something and said seriously, "Yang Er, arrange for someone to guard the road leading into the inner mountain iron smelting area. Don't let anyone get close."
"Neishan's secret cannot be exposed. If it is revealed one day, the only option is to... silence it."
Yang Er whispered, "Yes, sir. Don't worry. We have patrols around the iron smelting area. Even if any villagers stray in, they will be sent away. No one will be allowed to get close to this place."
"Well, it's always better to be more careful."
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